Unusual Cupcakes

The Hummingbird Bakery very kindly provided me with my next baking experiment. This time I decided to attempt something called "S'moreanne Cupcakes". These intriguing little cakes are topped with meringue, which only added another level of tricksy-ness to the recipe. In the past, I have had little-to-no-success with meringue, for some reason they always failed miserably. I think I tended to mess up adding the sugar to the egg whites. This time things would be different.

The cakes themselves were simple enough to make; a nice milk and cocoa-based sponge, with biscuit and chocolate embellishments prior to adding the meringue. The bake turned out ok, which was a relief, but then came the meringue stage. Doing my research, I'd found out that the method suggested by the Hummingbird Bakery was for Italian meringues, where boiling sugar is added to the egg whites. These are apparently a more stable meringue form, so I was mildly optimistic as well as slightly terrified.

Having no sugar thermometer, I had to go by timing and look when it came to boiling the water and sugar mixture. Luckily for me, I got it right this time. The meringue held it's form very well, and because the method means that boiling sugar is mixed into the egg whites, it results in the sugar actually cooking the egg immediately, meaning it can be eaten straight away, if you really want to. Instead, though, I topped the cakes with the meringue, and lightly toasted them under the grill in the oven.  The cakes were then topped-off with a piece of dark chocolate.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Next time I'd love to use a blowtorch though, so I may have to invest in one along with a sugar thermometer. 

Beckie.

Glorious Gingerbread

I decided to be fairly ambitious for my next project. I have always had a deep love of gingerbread, and I naturally started by making some simple gingerbread biscuits and then having my housemate and I decorate them. Stars seemed to be the best shape, and went down very well with my friends. I used another BBC Food recipe, and although it is a simpler recipe aimed at children baking, it actually makes a really nice gingerbread.

Pretty gingerbread

Then, I was yet again inspired by the Great British Bake Off, and the episode that featured the amazing gingerbread structures. I knew full well that I was never going to be able to make anything as incredible as James' gingerbread barn, or Danny's gingerbread Big Ben. However, I couldn't resist the idea of making my own gingerbread structure. So I had a chat with L, and she agreed to help me out with the design (being the crazy-smart physicist that she is, she's very good with planning and designing things). Being an Egyptology student, we agreed that there was only one way to go with this. We designed and made a gingerbread pyramid. Using the same recipe as before, but adding in 2 tablespoons of black treacle to give it a bit of a kick, I cut the dough around a 10 inch square-based pyramid template that L had made for me. Using the scraps of dough, I made a (as it turns out hugely out-of-proportion) palm tree to go alongside the pyramid.

Once the triangles had baked and cooled (and been cut up a little after they had morphed a bit out of shape during the bake), I mixed up a batch of yellow icing sugar, and L and I girded ourselves for the task ahead - constructing the pyramid. This took a lot of work, and I was definitely grateful that L was helping me with it. We set the base of each pyramid wall in a line of liquid icing sugar, before icing each edge and slotting in another wall. The whole thing was built around a peanut butter jar, as it was the only way to keep the walls up. Once the icing had set, any gaps or cracks in the pyramid were filled with even more icing and the walls were decorated and then left to set. The palm tree was glued on with more icing sugar, and then digestive biscuits were crumbled up as desert sand at the base of the pyramid.

A Gingerbread Pyramid of Awesomeness

I must admit, one of the most fun parts of the whole process was smashing the pyramid with a hammer in order to actually eat the damn thing.

After the epic pyramid, I next decided that had I had to attempt to be even more ambitious with the next project. I decided to celebrate L's love of (obsession with) Minecraft, so we built a Minecraft castle. This was even trickier than the pyramid, with the slightly more intricate crenellations, but luckily L had made another amazing template, and the cut-outs made it through the bake in one piece. Again, icing sugar was used as the glue, and it worked well enough until we foolishly tried to move the castle, and it promptly collapsed in a heap. I think I might try using caramel as the glue next time...

Minecraft eat your heart out

Beckie.

The Dreaded Chocolate Fondant

After a mere nine months of baking, I finally decided to give making Chocolate Fondant a go. Having watched Masterchef enough times to be aware of the perils of this, I was understandably apprehensive. 

I used a recipe from BBC Food again, concentrating on one from Masterchef: The Professionals.  The entire recipe was a tad complicated, so I stuck to just the section on the fondant.  So how did the recipe turn out?

It actually worked!

 
Well, I was very pleasantly surprised.  This was my first attempt at a fondant, and as far as I can tell it worked out pretty well.  It certainly went down well with L and her fella.  I am one of those people who is really neurotic about my cooking, and I can never judge how good it is or not, so I have to rely on the judgement of other people.  Luckily, they have been very kind so far, which keeps me happy.

Beckie.

American Pies

As you may be able to tell, I developed a slight obsession with the Hummingbird Bakery recipes. Next on the agenda were two of the American pies, which I had been tempted by for a very long time. First up was something called the Grasshopper Pie. This is a delicious combination of chocolate, marshmallow and peppermint, with a healthy dose of whipped cream. I must admit it took me forever to separate and crumble up all the Bourbon biscuits I had bought for this recipe. I didn't even get to find a use for the cream from the Bourbons, which was quite annoying actually, but I haven't yet found a recipe for which I can use it. Still, no matter, because the end result made all the hard work worthwhile.

Grasshopper Pie

The only other issue I came across with this was trying to get the first slice of the pie out of the dish. I'm going to warn you now, don't even attempt to get a perfect first slice, because it won't happen; there will only be destruction on a massive scale. Still this certainly doesn't detract from the very sweet, but delicious flavours.

The second American pie I attempted was the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie, which had the same Bourbon biscuit base as the Grasshopper Pie. This recipe uses a lot of peanut butter, which made me very happy. I love peanut butter, so any excuse to use it in a recipe is a plus in my mind.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie

This is an extremely decadent recipe, and as a result I only make it occasionally, and usually for parties or other gatherings. It always goes down very well, along with the Grasshopper Pie. I did come across some issues when making this pie, namely that you really do have to whisk the cornflour, sugar, egg and milk mix constantly when it's on the hob in order for it to thicken enough. This recipe takes several hours to complete, but it's definitely worth it.

A nice cross-section

Beckie.

Whoopie Pies

My next attempt from the Hummingbird Bakery book was the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie recipe. This was one of my not-so-successful baking stories. The actual bake itself was fine, it was more the taste and flavour that was the problem here. This was down to a combination of things: the buttermilk and the amount of red food colouring. Buttermilk is not that readily available in the U.K. (or at least not where I live), so I had to create a buttermilk substitute (a mixture of milk and lemon juice), which will not have been as good as the actual thing. I also feel that 30ml of food colouring is far too much for the amount of cake mixture produced. 30ml does not even create the depth of red shown in the recipe photographs, and even makes the Whoopie Pies taste a bit strange, in my opinion anyway. The filling, however, was very nice indeed. It was extremely sweet (being full of Marshmallow Fluff, which is now easily available in supermarkets over here), but in small amounts makes for a perfect filling.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Undaunted by the problems I came across, I attempted the recipe for a second time, with less food colouring. The results, however, were the same, but with less depth of red colouring. As with the Red Velvet cake, it may be worth trying powdered food colouring instead, and trying to hunt down some real buttermilk. Any ideas on where to get hold of some?

Beckie.

The Hummingbird Bakery

Back in August, one of my dearest friends came to visit me, and brought with her a slightly late birthday present (by about 9 months) for me. This wonderful present was the Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" recipe book, which is full of glorious Hummingbird Bakery recipes, ranging from cakes to American pies.

A few days after I received the book, I was bored one evening, and so I decided to have a root around in the cupboards to see if I had the ingredients to make one of the simpler recipes. I found one that was perfect: the Coffee and Chocolate Loaf. A fairly simple recipe, it was nevertheless a very successful one. It had a short prep and baking time, and was relatively easy to make. As L, my housemate, was away, I was the only one who could actually eat/judge the cake. What a shame! I must say, I did rather enjoy it.

Coffee and Chocolate Loaf

Beckie.

Treacle Tart Mark Two

So here it was, the time for me to attempt making pastry from scratch for the very first time. I decided to make another treacle tart, as the filling seemed to be nicely stable during the bake. I also made some changes to The Crazy Kitchen's recipe: I left out the lemon curd, and added black treacle instead, attempting to gain a rich treacle-y flavour. This was my first time blind-baking as well, and I was very nervous about it.

What can I say? The pastry turned out incredibly well; I was pleasantly surprised at how well, in fact. As you can see from the photo, before I took it out from the tart case there was a lot of pastry overhang. I should have cut the overhang off after the initial blind-bake, but I didn't think to at the time, so had to resort to breaking-off the overhang once the tart had cooled. Luckily for me, this didn't result in the entire pastry case splitting (as has happened with subsequent bakes when I've forgotten to cut off the overhang after the blind-bake).
 

My very first short-crust pastry from scratch - I was so proud of this!

As you can see, it wasn't the neatest pastry ever, but one of the beautiful things about pastry is that you can patch up any cracks before the bake. The main thing of course is if it tastes good, which luckily for me was the case here. The black treacle was an addition that worked very well, and made for a very treacle-y, yummy tart.

Beckie.

Treacle Tart Mark One

My absolute favourite dessert is treacle tart, so after a few months of baking, I decided to finally have a go. I'm going to be completely honest here and admit that for my very first attempt, I used a shop-bought pastry case. Please try not to judge me too hard, I promise it was only the once I did that   :-)

So I browsed around online and came across this tantalising-sounding recipe from The Crazy Kitchen, a Lemon and Ginger Treacle Tart. This sounded amazing, and I knew I had to give it a go. I love treacle tart, lemon curd and ginger, so what's not to love about this recipe? The recipe included instructions on how to make the pastry, but for now I concentrated on the filling alone.

Ok, so I cheated with the pastry, but it still looks good :-)

The result was a wonderful-tasting and perfectly balanced tart filling. The ginger and the lemon curd combined perfectly, and I immediately knew that this was going to become a firm favourite. And having made this, I was determined to attempt my own shortcrust pastry next time.

Beckie.

Disaster Converted

So, it has often happened that my baking has been completely disastrous, with pastry leaking, treacle exploding in the oven, and bread dough completely failing to rise. However, there have been times when I have been able to convert disaster into something either good, or something at least slightly less disastrous.

One such example was this: I had been making some more red velvet cupcakes, and I was extremely idiotic and (using my novice-status as an excuse) overfilled the cupcake cases with the cake mixture. It meant that when they were finished baking, I did not have 16 perfect little cupcakes, but one large deformed mass of cake that had spread all over the baking tray. Needless to say, I was not impressed, and had one of my wailing fits. Luckily, I decided to pull myself together, and did an Internet search on what I could do with left-over cake.

I came across this recipe for cake-pops, along with other great ideas for what to do with leftover cake. As I had so much red velvet cake on my hands, I made some pink vanilla buttercream and got stuck in. I also did not have an ice-cream scoop to shape the cake-pops perfectly, so I used a teaspoon and my own fair (and meticulously washed) hands. I also used the teaspoon method when covering the cake-pops in chocolate. I used a blend of milk and dark chocolate to cover the cake, and then used to sprinkles I had in to decorate.

Waiting for them to set.

The finished product.

These cake-pops have proven to be very popular with my friends, and I have made variations on this basic recipe, including red velvet and whisky cake-pops (made with Old Pulteney 12 year old whisky). They were completely delicious, and because I limited the whisky to just two teaspoons, it didn't overwhelm the cake. I may have to try using rum or Cointreau another time. What do you reckon?

Beckie.

Baklava

Undeterred by the failures with the macaroons, I chose to attempt another tricky recipe. I have always loved baklava, but it can be very expensive to buy. Therefore I decided to attempt my own, producing something that tasted good, and was in larger quantities than the small boxes of baklava you get in the supermarket.

A I often do, I turned to the BBC Food website, and after a quick search, I came across this brilliant recipe from Roberta and Julia Sawalha. This recipe actually made baklava so easy to create, and I was easily able to adapt it when I struggled to get hold of ground cardamom. A a substitute, I used nutmeg, cinnamon, and mixed spice. I like to think this tasted as good as the cardamom would have done. In fact, the baklava I made were even approved by my housemate's Turkish and Iranian friends, so I must have done something right!

Pre-removal from the tray, one of the trickiest parts!

One day I would love to be able to make my own filo pastry from scratch, but being such a novice (and seeing how difficult it was on a series 3 episode of The Great British Bake-Off) I decided to get some ready-made pastry instead.  Even the great Mary Berry herself uses ready-made filo pastry.  The recipe with all the layers of filo pastry was time-consuming, but well worth it, and not to difficult for me to have a go at. A great recipe for a novice as well as a more experienced baker.

Beckie.

Macaroons

My next attempt, back in February 2012, was somewhat ambitious for someone relatively new to this whole baking thing. As ever with me, I found a recipe that I just couldn't resist, and therefore simply had to try it out (my local Co-Op is used to me turning up on a regular basis to pick up emergency baking supplies). This Salted Caramel Macaroon recipe is well worth a look. As ever, I made my own small changes to the recipe. I used green food colouring, and chose to make a simple pink buttercream for the filling instead of the more complicated salted caramel buttercream the recipe suggests.

My own 'unique' macaroons.

I had mixed success with this recipe, entirely down to me. A I'd never made macaroons before, I completely over-baked them, which meant that the shells rather fell apart, so they had to be photographed from a calculated angle :-) Still, they tasted quite nice, getting the thumbs-up from L, my housemate.

Beckie.

Biscuits

My next baking attempt was biscuits. I am an avid follower of the amazing Total Basset Case, where I saw a recipe for Sugar Cookies.

I made my own changes to the recipe, replacing the bourbon vanilla with vanilla extract and spiced mead (2 teaspoons of spiced mead and a few drops of vanilla extract). This resulted in some rather delicious cookies that went down very well at the Bioshock birthday party we held for my housemate that week.

Spice Mead and Vanilla Sugar Cookies.

Beckie.

An Introduction - Red Velvet Cake

So I've been baking for about a year now, but it's taken me this long to actually get around to creating this blog.  Subsequent posts will detail my foray into the world of baking, looking at both the successes and the disasters.

Back in January 2012, having watched a lot of Ace of Cakes (a great programme documenting the incredible Charm City Cakes), I was intrigued by the idea of the red velvet sponge.  So I started my baking endeavours with a recipe from one of Lorraine Pascale's programmes, the Red Velvet cake. Obviously this recipe is for a three-tier cake, so I usually make the small or medium tier. I made several variations of this, including using the quantities for the small tier in order to make cupcakes:

Halloween Red Velvet Cake

Spring Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet Pyramid Cakes and Cupcakes

I usually make a simple vanilla-flavoured buttercream for these cakes, and buy the sugar-craft decorations, although I hope to start making my own sugar-craft soon. This cake is a fairly simple one to make, but tastes amazing. The only issue I came up against was the red food colouring - I have been using supermarket liquid food colouring, but I may have to think about using powdered food colouring, as I can never quite seem to get the colouring exactly right.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

Beckie.