A Cherry Good Cake

I'm almost halfway through my baking challenge, which may seem quite odd to those who've been following my various endeavours and writings on this blog, it certainly doesn't seem like this long has passed already! Yet, as expected it is getting exhausting now, keeping up with the daily pace of baking is really taking its toll on me. It's not in the actual baking or even the eating the foods - that is becoming easier as I find more and more people willing to take cake home with them - but it is actually just my enthusiasm for it. 

Of course I love baking, I always have, but right now I have lost most of my desire to keep up with the challenge; I am falling behind. But that certainly doesn't mean I'm  going to stop, I'm not one to give up.I did a bit of maths earlier and discovered that I am almost a week behind on the challenge. It's not because I've not tried (the last few times I've baked it's been two items at least!) but because I have quite an active social life at the moment, home from university means seeing my old school friends I don't really see in term time. And I have a few groups of them! Also my lovely girlfriend is at home and she definitely doesn't want to be my scullery maid - no matter how many times I've asked her - which also reduces opportunities to bake. 

This weekend I went to Glasgow to see my cousins who I spent a great weekend with sampling scotch and seaweed flavoured beer... There wasn't really time to bake a batch of cookies! So I came back and immediately set to baking myself a cake. A Classic Cherry Cake, which has turned out rather well  (except for a few minor errors); it was a normal cake. A simple bit of sponge mixed with cherries, lemon and almonds. My girlfriend has remarked to me that the recipes in this book of mine are very nut heavy, something I'm not particularly bothered by, I love nuts (make the jokes you wish from that!) which made me think, actually she's right - "You sound so surprised!" I hear her shouting at her laptop - so I decided to look into the book and see how many actually do have nuts in.

It turns out that 40 out of the hundred recipes I am working through have nuts in, surprising I suppose because these days I get the impression that nuts aren't really in many baked goods I buy. I can't remember the last time I bought something with hazelnuts or something in, they're almost entirely absent from many people's diets. Maybe it's because nut allergies are quite coming these days or - stoners, prepare for your mind to be blown - it is the other way round and we are allergic to nuts because they're not as common in things any more... Woah, man.

Anyway, back to that cake after a rambling. The cake went very well, I must admit, but it fell down at the final hurdle because - yet again - I didn't fully commit to this challenge by buying the correct equipment ( or account for the fact I had the wrong equipment in the cooking time). I used a nine inch baking tin rather than an eight inch one, not a problem on its own but the spreading out of e mixture meant that I should have adjusted cooking time suitably, and I didn't. A rather more brown cake came out than I'd hoped, it also is a little less moist than you'd like but then again, with a nice brew it goes down perfectly! 

This evening gone I also decided to make pizzas with my own good hands to knock another number off the list without overloading on sugar. I was surprised at just how simple they were up until the cooking stage. You'd think the hard bit would be the dough right? Wrong. It is simple bread dough ( well, simple to someone who's given that a go before) simply rolled flat once you've finished proving it. But once loaded up with toppings (and by god do I love my toppings!) it is an absolute bogger to slide into the oven! It is recommended to use either a proper pizza stone or an upended baking tray - guess which I used! - but unfortunately you really have to scatter a vast amount of semolina on all surfaces before you put the toppings on. It may be easy to move when dough on its own but you soon start distorting your face and worrying when there is the potential for cheese, tomato sauce, pepperonis, veg and chillies to give your kitchen floor a makeover! Semolina underneath the baking tray you cook it on and the plastic board you use to roll it out and as a surface for putting toppings on simply must be well semolinad up!

Still, it came out looking absolutely brilliant! 

The Results:

Mmmmm a lovely "piece a" cake

A lovely Pizza great!

Awww Jeeez(cake)

Today's gargantuan task was to make a New York Cheesecake and though I must admit that it was certainly not the most simple recipe I've ever made, it all seems to have gone rather well so far. But here's the catch, it isn't finished yet. Before I began the baking process I didn't realise this was a whole night job, it requires extensive cooling (both in the slowly cooling oven and in the fridge) for at least twelve hours. So I had to really hurry to try and make sure I had done something for today's eager baking fanatics too.

Unfortunately though today was just one of those days. I had intended to bake in the afternoon so that I wouldn't spoil my lunch by eating numerous cookies (I could spoil my dinner instead!) so wasted my morning doing other miscellaneous activities

- the sort that makes you think you are making good use of your time whilst doing it but then later look back on the day and realise that actually, you could have done infinitely more useful and exciting things -

when actually I should have been preparing for the epic task which was the afternoon's baking extravaganza. I had already arranged for a friend to join me in this particular endeavour mainly to make sure I wasn't quite as lonely as usual but also to take advantage of his wonderful four wheeled contraption (something I am sadly not qualified to operate). On the way he kindly picked up a Kilo of cream cheese (ironic that Philidelphia is used for a New York Cheesecake!) for the Cheesecake; something I'm sure he relished, after all, who doesn't want to be stared at by a judging till lady for eating such vast quantities of cheese.

But having forced the poor fellow to embarass himself because of my lack of preparation I also realised that I neither had enough eggs nor the correct baking tin for the job. So off we went in his (now I think about it) far from wonderful four wheeled contraption, held together by duct tape and with a wobble when the speed exceeds 50mph! To fetch said baking tin from my rather confused girlfriend and some eggs from our nearby shop.

After that it was merely a simple task of slowly adding everything into a food processor in the right order. Sounds easy right? Well not to someone as simple and unfocused as me! Somehow I managed to miss the flour out of the recipe (something I only noticed following 30 minutes of baking!) how could I be so stupid to miss out the flour from a cake!? I can't believe it!

Though whilst I make out that this is such a failure, in reality it may prove less so. There are only two tablespoons of flour in the whole recipe, so I'm hoping that the lack of it will barely make a difference. Only time will tell, tomorrow's blog post will hold the answer...

Because I couldn't disappoint my readers with such a cliffhanger I decided to make some Coconut and Cranberry Cookies as well. And they turned out rather well indeed! Smiles all around!

The Result:

Mmmm Not a cheesecake if you're wondering what went wrong!

Apricot-astrophic Squares

Today was the most surprising baking day I've had in a long time. Why? Well everything went tits up of course! Perhaps I'd become cocky, over-confident or just a little too slap dash but somehow somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong. The challenge in question - Apricot and White Chocolate Squares - is hardly the most difficult I've ever encountered, it certainly isn't anywhere near as complicated as some of the things I'll have to be attempting in the not too distant future. Yet, the attempt landed quite severely on its face. 

Essentially all these creations are is a simple cake made with white chocolate, butter, flour and sugar all mixed together to then be cut into small bite sized morsels. I think that my main problem was deciding to halve the recipe - using four eggs just didn't seem justified for one day's worth of baking! - and therefore limiting myself to having to use a smaller (and incorrect) tin. 

Up until the cooking stage everything was going well... I say "well" in the loosest of terms because the first task I had to do was melt chocolate and butter in a pyrex bowl over a pan of simmering water. I chose my smallest pyrex bowl and my smallest pan and assumed that the bowl would be bigger... The bowl fell into this pan of simmering water, sloshing it EVERYWHERE, clearly I had misjudged my calculations in water displacement, not so much Eureka as oops-leaker, but it can't be too big of a deal right?

Then I noticed a puddle of water sitting inside my bowl of butter and chocolate! Noooooo! Well no matter, I poured what I could of the water out and carried on mixing. The mixture melted perfectly and I assumed that everything was back on track.

I had settled on using a bread tin as my desired cooking container - perhaps my downfall - mainly because it had a square bottom at about half the size the recipe asked for; perfect for my reduced quantities. Though clearly it didn't work out...

The Result:

Mmmm Salvaged...

The picture is not doing this catastrophe any justice at all I can assure you, though you may be able to see the slightly blackened edges of some of the squares... This is because of the attempts to rescue what was clearly a doomed attempt at baking. The main issue (which is really not obvious once the end result has been cut into servings) was that the cake had sunk in the middle during cooking, as if some tiny, fat, dastardly borrowers had decided to tan themselves on the middle of my slowly cooking cake. Despite being left in for the desired time at the desired heat something just didn't go right for some reason. The end result had a small cylinder of soft, gooey, yet tasty mixture in the middle of the cake. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't how it was meant to be so I tried desperately to rescue it. I cooled it down (as the recipe suggested it might have a soft centre until cooled) in the fridge to no avail. I reheated it gentyl in the cooling oven to no avail. I even put it in the oven at full temperature for an extra 15 minutes; lengthy considering the actual cooking time was only 25-30 minutes in the first place! yet still I was left with a sticky consistency. Finally I cut the middle out and was left with a fair amount fewer, slightly burnt on the edge, but at least solid squares. Though at least it's the dog who is going to be gaining the weight after him gaining on gooey goodies! 

There's no brioche, we have plenty of time!

Yesterday I realised that I was quite behind on baking. As regulars may have noticed, there have been the odd absentee days scattered throughout the last few weeks. And understandably so I'd say, fitting baking around uni, work, farewell events, birthdays, greeting old friends and every other daily surprise is fairly difficult.

But that is, of course, no excuse for being late or unable to finish the challenge. So I'm making sure that from now on I remain on top of my challenge, I certainly don't want to leave a dozen recipes to do on the final day! Having said that, doing the same to catch up now would be equally ridiculous and back breaking (not mentioning wallet breaking and coma inducing).

I have to admit the main issue with the challenge now is the small matter of eating it all. I can't eat it all fast enough!

Anyway, the actual challenges today were Brioche and Chocolate Chip Cookies. And both went extraordinarily well, by now you will know that I am certainly my own best critic so this is by no means me simply tooting my own horn! I couldn't have asked for better if I'd tried. My only quibble was that I literally have no idea what to do with a brioche.

Call me uncultured if you wish but I simply had no idea what to do with it! Do I butter it? Put jam on it? Make sandwiches or dip it in soup? I literally haven't the foggiest! In the end I ate a couple of slices plain out of the oven which were lovely but I do wonder whether I should treat it as cake or bread... A mystery! I resolved to decide another day and popped it in the freezer!

The Result:

Both treats ended up being perfect. The cookies in particular are absolutely perfect, better than store bought cookies because they have that rustic homemade taste to them but importantly they still have the doughy texture you get from the shop bought treats. Perfect. And the brioche... Well it tastes good and looks brilliant, though I'm still flummoxed as to what I should be comparing to!

The Rocky Horror Brownie Show

My neighbours are on holiday for a week - my parents have backed this information up so I'm fairly sure it's accurate - not usually a topic of interest but it became an interesting fact following my first seriously spooky encounter in my life so far...

Yesterday's summer heat came rolling through the open window, I'd been out in it all day cycling and generally making sure my English pallor of skin retained some sort of "healthy" appearance in the small window of opportunity our British summers allow. As darkness settled over the sleepy and peaceful cul-de-sac my parents live on the heat hardly changed. Windows were thrown open down the street yet there was barely a sound other than infrequent screeching owl. Come midnight - the time I finally began to settle in my bed - there was a deadly silence.

Then I heard it.

A faint but definite sound drifting along on the faint breeze. Notes being played on a piano, four or five notes, in a row played over and over. They weren't easy to hear at first, but once you heard it it was impossible to ignore. A haunting collection of notes drifting through the dark night's air.

It was obvious which side it was coming from, it was definitely my immediate neighbour, they are the only people in the area with a piano plus, their house is certainly the only one I could hear from my bedroom window. But my obvious question was, "Who is playing that piano?"

At this time of night it would be inconsiderate of anyone to be playing any sort of musical instrument on a Sunday night, let alone on a quiet summer's evening when windows are sure to be open. Also, the neighbours with the piano happen to have two young children, why would they wake said children up with the piano? They sound demonic when they're screaming at playtime, who knows what they'd be like if suddenly woken up at just after the witching hour.

Of course, I didn't know that the neighbours were away. Had I known I might never have gotten to sleep, but for half an hour - at the very least - I strained my ears to hear this basic tune. It wasn't any kind of tune I recognised, though it sounded as if it could easily have been the music to a long forgotten nursery rhyme, and it was played over and over. The notes weren't clear or sharp in any way which surprised me considering the neighbour is a piano teacher. In fact I'd say they were catching other keys as well as the intended one, as if it was played by someone - or something - with large hulking fingers...

Of course I have no idea what to make of any of this, it doesn't make any sense at all whichever way I look at it. And to top things off, just before lunchtime today, my wonderful girlfriend and lovely mother looked into the garden after hearing a strange humming noise. There was a dark black cloud of Wasps buzzing over the neighbour in question's garden, making a sound so vicious it could be heard ten metres away. The swarm covered their garden and yet there was no one there to disturb it in anyway, not even a solitary cat. Spooky...

Anyway, enough of my odd goings-ons, this baking blog won't write itself! Today's challenge was to bake Rocky Road Brownies, including nuts, cherries and tiny marshmallows for the top. Really it was very simple, other than a little of chopping this that and the other there's nothing very complicated to see here or even to recommend in terms of tips. Though I have one minor quibble, having divided the recipe in half again to save on ingredients I realised I should have made sure I had a tin which could comfortably bake a half size brownie mixture... but at the same thickness. I had to settle with a cake tin in the end but I wasn't happy with it still. Also halving the recipe is a bit of a danger because of cooking time. It certainly doesn't halve the cooking time and so you're left with the dubious mission of checking it frequently and ensuring it is fully done, really I'd always recommend going for the full recipe unless you're very familiar with how the end result should be, it's a bit of a risk ending up with a half-done or overcooked treat.

The Result:

Mmmm, Marshmallow-ey

In the end, the brownies were always going to come out good, they just have an excellent mix of ingredients. Glace cherries work perfectly with chocolate and marshmallows add such a lovely texture to the top. Though unfortunately the consistency of the brownie was closer to that of a chocolate cake (so didn't have the lovely crunchy top and then gooey middle) it's hardly a big issue when the end product is so tasty! I think having the  full recipe is important for brownies; though it is easy to to split, I think the thickness of the end product is so essential to making them good brownies so that quantity is very important!

 

I'll have polenty more of that...

Today's task of baking a polenta and almond cake began with a debate. My dad kept insisting resolutely that polenta is some form of dish he has had in a foreign country, he claims it is cheese based. HE IS WRONG!
But you know what dads are like, he kept asking my mum: "What was that thing we had in Croatia called?" No answer.
"Wait, was it Croatia? Or was it in Prague?" At this point his entire argument collapsed, not only was he unsure of how right he was but he also had zero grounding for his argument. It may come across as a son being typically teenager-esque by trying to prove a point but in all honesty no matter how intelligent my dad may be, he has an awful memory for anything which has happened in the past 5 years - he's getting old bless him...
Also, I just happen to be a relatively knowledgeable person when it comes to flour and baking ingredients (well most of them!); I have worked in a windmill for five years so I believe I have an upperhand on many people! Polenta is just another name for cornmeal/maize meal/ground corn. Though they often vary in "grade" ( how finely ground they are) they are all from maize (corn on the cob plants for the urbanites amongst you!).
Anyway, the task was underway, polenta thoroughly defined and weighed up I got started with the recipe.
Although the recipe asked for a small orange, I honestly have no idea how big a "small" orange is! For me, I settled on ignoring the Orange and went for a satsuma. Although harder to grate the rind it was juicier and whizzing the peel in the whizzer did an excellent job anyway!
I must say that I'm growing rather fond of ground almonds, they really do add to the texture of a cake, it makes it feel far more substantial and of course adds a lovely taste; handy! The end result was wonderful, ideally served warm and with ice cream almond and polenta cake has become one of the best recipes I've done yet!

The Result:

Playing Catchup

Today's efforts on the baking front were, I must say, somewhat half-hearted. It's not through lack of desire to complete the challenge or even through detestation of the idea of baking, I am in fact surprisingly still enjoying it!

But Alas, a weary teenager struggles to really get stuck into making a cake after a terrifically long day out... shopping with the girlfriend. Guys out there will be nodding in agreement and girls will be shaking their head in a disapproving way. Guys simply just don't have the stamina for a full day's shopping without constant encouragement, feeding (includes sugar/caffeine rich drinks), comfort breaks (this can include trips into shops of a non-clothes nature) and of course, the all important victorious end result (when the lovely girlfriend finally tries on a piece of clothing she: A) Was looking for B) Likes & C) Is not too pricey.

So after a tiring day wandering many of the shops in Peterborough (most of which were explored twice at least!) I got home and could barely stand let alone whip butter and sugar into a frenzy! Yet, my mind switched on suddenly and screamed at me: "DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP NOW!!" Yesterday, I had decided to forgo the baking and catch up another day but it was clearly going to be a massive effort to catch up by baking three day's worth of recipes in just one day, so my mind engaged with the task afoot and I began whipping butter and sugar into a frenzy.
Today the task was a Spiced Apple and Currant Cake - I think Apple-Currant Cake sounds better but apparently my book sucks at coming up with recipe Names aaaand recipes (see "Almond Cookies with a Cherry on Top" for more uninspiring recipe names!) - and also a small task to finish off the rest of my Hazelnuts and also complete yesterday's recipe "Hazelnut Bars."

In my last post I teased about a potential "mini-challenge" in built in my other challenge, and today's task of baking two seperate things in one day was a sort of challenge which could help me prepare for that... And I must say that it was rather a lot easier than I expected. Yes, there was an issue finding extra ingredients and weighing up and whatnot but the main area in which I provided useful was on the washing up front. It was so easy to re-use some bowls from one recipe to another, after all butter and sugar won't spoil a recipe involving butter and sugar!

I also successfully practiced the art of mini baking (ie Baking with recipes 1/4 so there is only enough for one or two people.) with the help of my mother's handy 1/8 of a teaspoon measuring spoon I could successfully get super accurate divisions of awkward measurements, woo! And once again, I have had literally no other problems to report, remarkable considering the chances of error were doubled with my quantity of recipes!

The Results:

Mmmm Appley

Mmmm (insert pun about nuts) -ey

As you can see, they look pretty damned good! The apple cake was especially delicious, it was so very moist and juicy yet not soggy (don't ask me how on earth that works!) and although the hazelnut bars were a little underwhelming in comparison, they really did work well. Though I was a little surprised at the result, which resembled a tiny sponge cake in consistency, I fully expected a biscuit like tecture but it was far closer to being lots of square cupcakes. But I am thankful for finishing the last item with hazelnuts as a main ingredient; I have pretty much run out of Nut related puns, towards the end there I was really scraping the bottom of the sack for them...

Bana-noooooo! Loaf

After Yesterday's powdery Shortcakes I decided I wanted to tackle something soft and moist today. Also, because I'm home from Uni now there is a lot more fruit here (I buy bags of lots of clementines or satsumas and literally nothing else) and of a much wider variety. Also, because I really dislike bananas it seems sensible to make Banana Loaf when A) I have people who can eat it other than  me! & B) I don't have to waste bananas buying a whole hand of them.
So I got to work mashing the horrible yellow fruits (don't you dare be nitpicking about herb or fruit!) into baby food, the smell was surprisingly pleasant. I can't say I've had a banana in many years of course, but I thought that the smell was a promising one; perhaps I would actually like this recipe...
It's a relatively simple recipe (I will post it up eventually, I will upload most of the less complicated & the best ones up here before the end!) which was a relief because I really didn't want to be slogging away separating yolks or carefully moulding anything which I knew I probably wouldn't like!

DISASTER STRIKES. Ok, that may be tabloidising it a bit but a frustration or mild annoyance did occur. Looking in the spice cupboard I realised we only had cinnamon sticks, no ground cinnamon... Why!? WHY!!?!

- Sorry to be over egging this disaster a bit, but when you write about baking everyday somehow it becomes rather a lot less eventful, I've got to take advantage a little and try and work in some exciting prose! -

So I got a knife and crushed the end of the stick a bit until it was a bit finer - not exactly an irreversible problem!

However, a less reversible problem crept up on me about 45 minutes later: distractions. The Loaf was meant to be cooking in the oven for an hour exactly. Naturally I wasn't going to sit around staring at it slowly cook in the oven but the problem was that my usual task of washing up took 15 minutes, about the amount of time a lot of the recipes I've cooked take in the oven. Today I got distracted...

I wandered upstairs (having set a timer on the oven) and took to my laptop. I fiddled around on various social medias for about five minutes but then I fatefully decided to check my eBay account. I've recently been selling my broken iPod so I decided to check its progress ( £2.20 at this moment in time!) but of course - as many shopaholics will know - it's not as simple as just checking eBay like that, no, I just had to search for an iPad. In fact, I've caught myself doing right this very second. I checked it to find out that price for you and now I'm already trawling through lists of glorious looking Tablets I'm still not sure I want and definitely not sure I need (Ok that's not true, I definitely want an iPad!)

And now I'm distracted by talking about it! Anyway *baking blog, baking blog, not tech blog*, this untimely distraction meant that the banana loaf was in the oven a bit too long...

The Result:

Mmm, Burny...

So there you have it, one burnt banana flavoured baked good... Possibly the worst thing I could ever imagine eating! Yet, it really wasn't half bad! Thought the outside looks burnt it's more burnt in the same way shop bought loaves of bread are (they always have a black top) the inside was very spongey and , well not very nice for my bananaphobic tastebuds. But others seem to have enjoyed it, so all in all, not a terrible disaster!

Viennese Jam Snore-Cakes

You know when you have a lie down after a long day's work, and it just feels so fantastic? Well that's what happened yesterday, I worked from 10-5 at the Maud Foster Windmill in Boston. I lugged flour about, filled bags with flour and mixed baking powder with - you guessed it - flour to make self-raising flour by the sackload. Although it may not have been the hardest day ever it was following on from a busy weekend out in the sun and travelling hundreds of miles, and that can be tiring.

So my little lie down was so very good... that it turned into a snooze. Then that snooze turned into a fully fledged hour long nap. Suffice to say that this did not leave me with very much time between work and going off to see some of my friends yesterday evening. Hence why I'm posting yesterday's blog today.

On waking up an hour before I was intending on heading out I jumped off my bed with surprising athleticism for someone who's been baking every day for the last three weeks and who'd just had a nap! I rushed downstairs to begin baking the most basic thing I could remember seeing in the book I hadn't already done. Viennese Jam Shortcakes are little cupcake style shortcakes which blur the line between biscuit and cupcake quite cleverly... and in my rush to do them I ended up over cooking them slightly.

Thankfully this was the only error in an otherwise easy recipe. Thanks to a friend of mine (and avid reader) I now know how to use a piping bag a little more efficiently and successfully squeezed mixture into cases without so much as a drop of unbaked goods anywhere on the surfaces (shocking I know!).

The Result: 

So they do look rather nice and dainty as one would hope, perfect for a lovely outside picnic in this lovely summer weather we've been having... Well, the weather we had this weekend anyway - As I read someone say recently "Summer was my favourite day this year..." -

But unfortunately, though they look rather delightful and cute looking, to my increasingly high standards of baked goods I just don't think they cut the mustard. The taste was lovely but I thought they were a little powdery for my liking, perhaps it was down to leaving them a little too long in the oven because of my rushing about or just because the recipe book I'm using is terrible and the recipes crappy. Who knows... 

Later, Banana Loaf, which should be fun considering I dislike Bananas...

Muffincredible

Today I was really on the ball with my baking, and I mean seriously committed! Perhaps it was because I woke up with the taste of yesterday's pecataclysm (I'm running drastically short on puns I can make about pecans!) still stirring in my mouth. Somehow the horrible, rich, sugary taste pervaded through two teeth brushings and my morning coffee. It was definitely time for something pretty much guaranteed to be tasty, so without any extra dithering I got weighing out ingredients. I must admit that baking on a sunday morning is far more relaxing and enjoyable than baking on an average weekday evening (even though weekend radio is terrible so I couldn't do my standard beating eggs dance... such a shame).

The task was double chocolate muffins and thankfully I had all the ingredients, including sour cream. I must say that having sour cream is something I would never actually have if it wasn't for this challenge, and I think that is probably true for most people. So why put it in a supposedly accessible cook book recipe? The top result for Muffin recipes doesn't have it so why should mine be so much more awkward and difficult!?

Apparently, soured cream is perfect because of its consistency, it makes for a much chewier and dense consistency than the average more crumbly texture. And I must say that I have really enjoyed both sour cream recipes I've done so far. Perhaps it's a coincidence but maybe not, there's just something else there in the taste and the texture which just seems to make them pop. The muffins - which i recommend serving before they've fully cooled - were absolutely glorious. They were soft, spongey and full of flavour. The chocolate melts beautifully in the mouth to make for a decadent deliciousness you just don't get in shop bought ones. It was absolutely delightful!

Usually I have a problem of some sort when baking to go on about a little bit but today there is literally nothing to complain about. I would bake them again tomorrow if I didn't have something else planned! Then again, there is still one significant problem...

Today I baked early on but still decided to leave it until now to post the blog (for some reason I write much more succinctly in the evening and night) but the problem was that I've eaten three muffins today despite my heart thumping out "no-more...No-more.. No-More...NO-MORE." I gave my house mates one each, which leaves one muffin uneaten... And I forgot to take a photo in my eagerness to try them! So please take my word for it that I cooked six muffins but they were just so good I couldn't help but eat them before I had a chance to get all instagram on them! Annoyingly, the one left was definitely the runt of the litter too, funny how much aesthetics helps us decide on our food, it'll taste just as good but because the poor thing is wonky it gets left in the fridge all alone over night... Bless.

The Result:

Mmmm, Lonely

When life gives you lemons make lemon drizzle cake...

The title of today's post is stolen from an old proverb which is about optimism, no matter what life throws at you you have to make do and do your best. Today has been a tough day at University for me because for various reasons I won't go into the day didn't go out as originally planned, which naturally adversely affected me (I'm the sort of person who would win the lottery but then get struck by lightning twice in the same spot...). A part of me wanted to mope and get all huffy about it - and I definitely did for a while - but then I pulled myself together and worked on an alternative which worked out excellently.
It has made me think about the challenge I set myself almost two weeks ago. I originally said the deadline would be the first of the first next year, but really I always knew from the very start that this should be 100 recipes in 100 days. Perhaps I'm too craven to have gone the full hog and really challenged myself straight away but I've decided to amend the challenge, I no longer have many months to do this tough challenge but 100 days to do an even harder one. Wish me luck!
Anyway, today's cake is another one of those simple easy ones I simply have to do just to get it out of the way before advancing onto the hard stuff, it would be silly to do all the exciting stuff right away and then leave myself with the basics towards the end. Nonetheless, nothing ever goes smoothly evenwith a relatively simple cake like a lemon drizzle! As always it went wrong because I didn't follow the recipe properly, the recipe says an eight inch baking tin... I went with a seven inch tin. Why? Because I bought the seven inch one for yesterday's recipe and it cost me £4.25! That's almost two double rum and cokes! So I wasn't going to go and splash out on an extra inch no matter how much I need it (*insert innuendo*).
But of course this resulted in the cake being deeper so the center not cooking as well as it could do before the top started browning (or blackening, in my case) off. Simple solution is FOLLOW THE RECIPE. It's really quite obvious!

The Result:

Ok, so it's not the most beautiful looking cake ever made, and to be honest nor is it the tastiest but then it's really hard to make a judgement on this one. I feel like the actual recipe is lacking in something (probably butter which I'm pretty sure I now have an addiction to!) and the soured cream and oil just doesn't add enough taste to make it really worth going for. I doubt I'll ever make this one again.

Recipe 12: Lemon Drizzle Cake

Ingredients:

Oil 150ml 
caster sugar 200g 
Beaten eggs 4 
Plain Flour 200g 
Soured Cream 150ml 
Grated rind and juice of a lemon 1 

Icing:


Icing Sugar 4tsps 

1: Grease an 8inch cake tin. Preheat oven to 260c/Gas Mark 4
2: Sieve flour and baking powder in a bowl, then mix in sugar.
3: Whisk eggs, soured cream, lemon rind, half of lemon juice and oil.
4: Pour in tin and bake for 45-60 mins. Until golden brown.
5: When almost finished baking, make syrup by heating icing sugar and lemon juice in small pan on a low heat until it begins to bubble and turns syrupy.
6: As soon as cake comes out of the oven prick with a skewer and brush syrup over the top.

To see how I fared at this recipe check out this post!

You take the Lime and the Coconut and mix it all up...

I must admit that I'm not a fan of either coconut or lime. So I guess today's recipe wasn't a great choice, a coconut and lime cake is probably going to be one of my least favourite recipes so far however what is so enjoyable about this whole challenge is that really it's not about baking lots of gorgeous foods or even about conquering one hundred recipes in a hundred days; it's about trying something new (or should I say old?).
I've always been an enormous fan of anything which is vaguely old fashioned, things like pocket watches, black & white films and classical music have always captured my imagination. Anything historical has always engaged me in ways the plethora of modern technology ever has. Baking has somehow become one of those, perhaps it's the fact that big manufacturers can make everything we eat at fractions of the cost than little old me can. Or perhaps the "modern" life of working nine til five and commuting an hour each way means that people just don't want to bake anymore. Even baking has been made modern and quick with "ready to make" mixes of some of the more run of the mill baked goods. Somehow I've been drawn to this almost archaic way of making food, I actually enjoy the whole process of measuring it out, mixing it in special ways and in a specific order and then hoping you did it right. Maybe it won't be perfect every time but as Lord of the Rings fans always say when the eagles are mentioned: "It's not about the end result, it's about the journey."
To summarise a rambling & slightly off topic anecdote... I like trying to bake anything, I'll force someone else to eat it if I don't like it!
So, to the baking itself! Today's was certainly not a difficult one, as you'll see in the recipe, it's quite a straightforward deal. Though having said that, there're always a few anecdotes to be told about my baking! I was so very happy to be the proud owner of a new cake tin (essential for the rest of the book) and somehow the fact this was a shiny brand spanking new tin apparently made me lose any last vestige of common sense I may have already had. When the cake came out the oven (after an hour of baking) I strangely assumed it would cool within a couple of minutes... Smart move. So I'm typing this entire post with tips of three burnt fingers on my left hand, ok they're not major, but it certainly is a boo-boo worth sharing! Especially considering it is the first injury I've sustained ( I'm surprised it took eleven recipes to get there!)
But, today's excitement didn't originate from the actual baking because although I'd never grated a lime and extracted its juice before it's not exactly going to Disneyland. Really it's all about that fateful taste test. To someone who "isn't a fan of either Lime or Coconut," is a coconut and lime cake worth trying?
The Result:

Mmm Drizzly...

Armed with a cup of tea and a lovely sit down on the sofa I tasted my first ever coconut and lime cake and what did I think... Well for one thing you could definitely taste the lime and the coconut! It was actually a really tasty slice of cake, I love that the texture of the coconut adds to the sponge in a way which makes it really enjoyable to eat and the lime icing sugar though pretty sickly looking is absolutely glorious, it really adds an excellent tang to the concoction. Admittedly I am still not convinced that coconut is a very enjoyable taste but I am so very glad I've tried something new! I'm thinking tomorrow's adventure will be on the same lines, but for now I think I may have another slice...

Recipe 11: Coconut & Lime Cake

Ingredients:

Butter 175g 
caster sugar 175g 
Beaten eggs 3 
Self-Raising Flour 150g 
Desiccated coconut 80g 
Grated rind and juice of a lime 1 

Icing: 

Icing Sugar 175g 
Grated rind and juice of a lime 1 
toasted shredded coconut 25g

Method:
1: Grease an 8inch cake tin. Preheat oven to 260c/Gas Mark 3
2: Place the butter & sugar in a large bowl & beat together until pale and smooth. Gradually beat in eggs. Sift in flour and gently fold in. Fold in the coconut and lime rind & juice.
3: Spoon the mixture into tin and level the surface off. Cook for 1 hour 15mins. Leave to cool for 5mins in the tin and then remove to cool on a rack.
4: For the icing, sift icing sugar in a bowl stir in lime rind and juice. Spoon icing on top and allow to drizzle down the edges. Scatter extra coconut on the icing.

These Apple Pie Cupcakes were Golden Delicious...

Today's challenge started out as a bit of an ordeal and waking up about three hours later than I'd hoped wasn't the best of starts. I had intended to get some baking done and blogged about before my lecture started at three in the afternoon but the best laid plans of mice and men... So it was my own fault that I'm having to do this blog at Ten PM after a frantic couple of hours in the kitchen.

It all started going wrong when my driving instructor (who was meant to give me a lesson after my lecture) never turned up. You know how when you're waiting for someone to turn up you can't do anything else at all? Well I did that for about an hour, he never turned up, worse though was that I'd wasted the hour or so I could have been baking on hovering about expecting him to arrive any moment. In the end I settled on making some wholemeal bread because it would only take a bit of kneading and then could be left to rise if he suddenly turned up. I know it's not the most exciting or interesting recipe I've done yet but it needs to be done & earlier rather than later. I had set my hopes on making Warm Spiced Apple Pie Cupcakes but this was the prudent choice. Plus I could pretend I was kneading my driving instructor's face in frustration for him not turning up!

So it was left to prove as I decided that actually I wanted to do the cupcakes as well, I'd had my sights set on them all day and I really wanted to have some tasty cupcakes to have after tea. Alas, I didn't have the ingredients again. A long trek in the rain later I was stocked up with everything I needed. And by gum am I glad I did that. I'll admit I was stressed out trying to cook bread, cupcakes and my dinner simultaneously but with the skill of an Octopus chef I managed to do what no man has ever done before... Multi-Task, and pretty successfully at that!

The dinner was edible, the bread is edible and the cupcakes well, they were pretty close to perfect. I'll be the first to admit I don't make my baked goods look pretty but they tasted heavenly. The crunch on the top, the mild spiced flavour, the bite of the cooking apples and the spongey texture of the cupcake in the middle makes for a delectable treat.

Before baking it looked impossible; the kitchen was a mess, there was washing up to do from yesterday evening (it really piles up when you bake daily!) and the lack of driving lesson had knocked me all out of kilter (as well as putting me on edge). But when I sat down with a cupcake and a cup of tea after a few hours of hectic activity I knew that this challenge was well worth it. I may have taken on more of a challenge than I had ever anticipated but I know for sure now that every single day will be well worth the effort.

The Results:

Mmmm, DELICIOUS

Mmmmm, wholesome...

Recipes are here: Cupcakes & Bread

Recipe 7 - Warm Spiced Apple Cupcakes

 Ingredients for 12:
Plain Flour 150g 
Butter 50g 
Demerara Sugar 70g 
Lightly Beaten Egg 1 
Baking Powder 1.5 Tsps 
Mixed Spice 0.5 Tsps 
Peeled and Cored Cooking apple 1, Medium sized
Orange Juice 1 Tbsp 
Topping: 
Plain Flour 40g 
Butter 25g 
Caster Sugar 40g 
Mixed Spice 0.5 Tsps 

Method: 

1: Topping - Rub butter into mix of flour, mixed spice & sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
2: Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in the egg. Sift in flour, baking powder and mixed spice and fold in. 
3: Chop apple up finely. Fold in Apple and orange juice into the mixture and add to the cases. Add the topping and press down gently to cover the dough. 
4: Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown then leave to cool on a rack.

Check out my attempt at making them here!

Recipe 6 - Vanilla Frosted Cupcake

Ingredients for 12:
Self-Raising Flour 115g 
Unsalted Butter 115g 
Eggs, Lightly beaten 2 
Golden Caster Sugar 115g 
Milk 1Tbsp 
Frosting: 
Unsalted Butter 175g 
Sifted Icing Sugar 300g 
Vanilla Extract 2 tsps 
Plain Flour 450g 
Milk 2 Tbsp 

Method: 

1: Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl then gradually beat the eggs in. 
 2: Sift in flour and fold in gently using a metal spoon. Fold in milk. 
3: Spoon mixture into paper cases. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20mins until golden brown. Leave to cool on wire rack. 
4: To make frosting: whisk butter, vanilla extract and milk in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and continue until mixture is smooth. 
5: Spoon into piping bag and pipe swirls on the top. Or Spoon mixture on and smooth with a fork.

Check out my attempt at making these!

A piece of cake...

In the last few posts I've been a tad unsuccessful (unless you count setting fire to Naan bread and having biscuits with the consistency of breadcrumbs as successes) so imagine my surprise and delight when today's recipe was actually successful! Granted, today's recipe was the simplest of simple, Vanilla Iced Cupcakes, but when they come out cooked to perfection it is definitely good reason to celebrate, and what better way than to celebrate than eating cupcakes?!

What is my success today mainly due to? Well I can tell you for one that it certainly wasn't attention to detail. Most of the recipe was made with my usual slapdash approach to baking and I even used milk which I later discovered smelt more than a little bit dodgy. I didn't actually measure out the icing ingredients properly, instead I dropped an indeterminate amount of Icing sugar in a bowl and decided to just add butter until it resembled icing (which worked out ok other than it being a little bit less solid than one would hope). Then rather than using a piping tube, a luxury one on Student Loan just can't afford, I just lathered it on and attempted to prettify with a fork...to admittedly varying degrees of success.

I'm glad it went well though, after the first day with a relatively full timetable - well as full as uni timetables ever really are - it was really a welcome relief to try something pretty easy and actually have some success. I really do dread to think what will happen in 20 or so recipes' time when I'm having to make something which I've both no idea how to do and also insufficient skills to do successfully. And actually having to do some form of work or revision on top of that. If I break down and fail I do apologise in advance but lets be fair, I'm sure my anguish filled writings will be far more fun to read than an amateur baker actually having successes!

The Result:

Mmm Successful!

So there you have it, six cupcakes. Nothing was burnt. They tasted good. They look good... I wonder if this will ever happen again in my challenge. I think not, I best make the most of it while I can!

(Recipe here)

A Simple Sponge

After the runaway success of the first baking attempt yesterday I wanted to try something which would yield tastier results but also retain that all important level of difficulty... Not very!

Victoria Sponge Cake - once a favourite of Queen Victoria don't you know - is probably the most simple cake in the book so surely I can manage it? After a day doing some amateur gardening (don't worry I won't be starting a blog on that!), sitting around and listening to the radio it seemed like the perfect time to top it off by doing something sugary and sweet to give me a kick up the backside.

This time I felt like I was really baking. Yesterday it was all mixed together straight away and then a whole load of waiting around nervously, today there were bowls everywhere I was beating this that and the other into submission (I bet proper bakers have killer triceps) and properly mixing things together at the right times... I think! Of course the major thing I noticed about today's recipe was that it had a lot of mixing separate ingredients, and a lot of that means a lot of bowls. Suffice to say that it didn't even cross my mind when starting this that I will be doing an enormous amount of washing up over the next few months, I best stock up on fairy liquid!

Anyway, onto the cake, it seems like a fairly simple recipe I should imagine any bozo (even me) can follow. Other than the potential to beat instead of fold the flour in - two things I scarcely knew the difference of until today - I think it will probably be the easiest recipe I will do. Still, that hasn't stopped me from making a funny looking creation, through no fault of my own I might add. Unfortunately our terrible oven, kindly given to the original tenants twenty years ago by our landlords (probably), is ever so slightly slanted and so I've ended up with two wonky half cakes. of course they taste just as good as they're meant to but it's frustrating considering how well I think I've done.

The Result:

Mmmm Wonky!

To be honest it certainly wasn't the best Victoria Sponge I've ever eaten and I really doubt that is down to my somewhat slapdash approach to baking, I just don't think it was a very good recipe. It came out a lot chewier than I'd hoped and though tasty, it just didn't have that lovely spongey texture you want in a cake!
If you want a better Recipe try this one.

Best Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

6oz Self-Raising White Flour
60z Margarine
60z Sugar
1tsp baking Powder
Tsp Vanilla Essence
2 Large/3 medium Eggs


Steps:
1: PreHeat oven to 200c / Gas Mark 5. Grease two sandwich cake tins.
2: Cream Butter and Sugar using wooden spoon
3: Add beaten Eggs to mixture a little at a time. Beat thoroughly each time. Sift Flour+Salt and fold in.
4: Divide mixture between two tins put in the centre of the oven and bake for 25-30mins
5: Remove and remove cakes onto clean tea towel face down then flip them onto cooling rack.
6: When cool sandwich together with the jam and dust with icing sugar.