tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59341658016752337082024-03-05T04:26:37.502+00:00The Pursuit of Domestic Goddess-nessAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-85055249718082362032012-06-25T08:28:00.001+01:002013-02-26T07:40:02.314+00:00Marble Loaf Cake - The Weekly Bake OffLast weeks bake was Mary's marble loaf cake. I haven't taken part in the weekly bake off for a while mainly due to moving and losing my baking mojo. <br />
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However when the football came on the TV on Sunday I decided to spend my time baking instead. <br />
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Anyway back to the cake. A fairly easy one to make the mixture is one of those where you just slap bang all the ingredients in the bowl together and whisk it up. Mary Berry's cake in the picture is very elegant and has a particular pattern to it, however she doesn't seem to want to share how to make this pattern. <br />
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Once in the oven you're told it will take 50-60 mins and mine pushed the top end of that. My cake tin I fear was a little too small as it rose quite a lot (I had to move a shelf half way through baking) and struggled to get it out when it was finished. <br />
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I didn't heat my butter in a pan to melt it as it had been sat in a hot kitchen all day and was very soft so I just gave it a bit of a whisk with a fork and blended the cocoa icing sugar and milk with the fork still in the bowl. <br />
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I popped my cake in the fridge for a while and then melted some white chocolate. I used more than recommended as 25g seemed a little stingy and I went for pretty much most of the large bar. <br />
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So here is my bake! <br />
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<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXu-9fAZXit5Z-o_v9BT0ecBjh8sj3dtHIype_dUsbgmsY7j4T3wSxFI8P1DMvfN92d2kF93azDAFwTjd6fB95ECjxPCWBG9X50cKvrmFVcPMbQvmnrtlSbwouOM2KtalridK7SbIeKi4r/s640/blogger-image--1331550415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXu-9fAZXit5Z-o_v9BT0ecBjh8sj3dtHIype_dUsbgmsY7j4T3wSxFI8P1DMvfN92d2kF93azDAFwTjd6fB95ECjxPCWBG9X50cKvrmFVcPMbQvmnrtlSbwouOM2KtalridK7SbIeKi4r/s640/blogger-image--1331550415.jpg" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-22618451101583927202012-05-27T12:07:00.002+01:002013-02-26T07:41:29.258+00:00Bakewell SlicesI was surprised at how easy this is to make. And subsequently I made them again a week later.<br />
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Here are my Bakewells...<br />
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They are so good that I have even been eating them for breakfast. I took them to work along with some lemon drizzle cake and chocolate brownies for my last day, and a bit of thank you, and they didn't last until 12pm. It was really nice to take my baking in to work for people to try out as lots of people gave me so many compliments! Real boost of confidence. One person suggested that I stuff the new job and become a professional baker... I don't think I'm quite there yet!<br />
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You can find this recipe in Mary Berrys 100 cakes and bakes.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-35376265167728708972012-04-29T09:57:00.001+01:002012-04-29T10:17:42.389+01:00Happy Birthday MumIt's my mums birthday today and one of her requests for her special birthday was a cake. She doesn't ask for much my mum, so I thought this would be a really good opportunity to spoil her.<br />
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I had seen this cake on another bloggers page, <a href="http://josblueaga.blogspot.co.uk/">Jo Wheatley</a>, she is also the winner of the Great British Bake Off so you know it's going to be a good cake. This cake grabs you as soon as you set your eyes on it, and as soon as I saw it I knew that was the cake I was going to make for my mum.<br />
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There were a few alterations to my own cake mainly in regards to the decoration. My collar was slightly taller, but in the end I preferred this as it looked a little more Art Nouveau and the '50' on Jo's cake was replaced by a '60' for my mums cake.<br />
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You can find the original post and recipe <a href="http://josblueaga.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/chocolate-collar-cake-take-2.html">here.</a><br />
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Looks impressive right? Looks incredibly hard and complicated to make yes? Well maybe.. but if I can do so can anyone! It just takes a lot of patience and good timing.<br />
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So here's how my construction of this epic cake went.<br />
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This cake requires four 7 inch sponge layers. I only have two 7 inch sandwich tins, so patience comes in to play already whilst I wait for the first pair to bake and then put the second pair in to the oven. (Lots of tea was consumed in the making of this cake).<br />
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I measured out the strawberries on one of the cakes to make sure I had enough to fit around the top before I diced the rest of them for the strawberry cream and strawberry layers.<br />
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Then once the cakes were cooled I made the cream and sandwiched them altogether.<br />
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Cream-a-licious!<br />
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I thought that the cake might actually collapse as I transported it to the fridge but it was, despite it's weight, rather sturdy.<br />
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So whilst the cake was chilling in the fridge I set out to make that chocolate collar, the bit I was dreading the most. I melted the chocolate in a pan (for some reason I can't do the chocolate over a pan of boiling water so I just stick it in a pan over a low heat and let it melt, it always works out okay) then attempted to put it in my icing tube... melted chocolate is a lot thinner than icing and so it started squirting out all over the place, managing eventually to get it under control, and covering myself in chocolate I started to drip it over my pre-placed baking parchment. Because of the weight in the bottom of the tubing if you hold it at the top and gently rock it, it moves in a pendulum fashion.<br />
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I arranged 4 pieces of parchment on my table, the centre piece of parchment which would hold my collar, and pieces at the bottom and the ends so I could peel these away later and get an absolutely straight edge for the bottom of my cake.<br />
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Here timing is essential, you have to judge it just right. Too early and the chocolate will just run down the paper when you lift it, too late and the chocolate wont stick to the cake and the chocolate might crack too.<br />
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I had to rearrange the whole of my fridge and take two shelves out to put it in there and let the chocolate cool.<br />
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Once cold hard and set I took it out of the fridge and peeled away the paper.<br />
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and....<br />
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Ta Da!<br />
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Here are some more pictures of this very special cake.<br />
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-3710057298326904952012-04-06T20:07:00.001+01:002012-04-06T20:07:01.058+01:00Mini Creme Egg Brownies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I wanted to make an Easter treat that I could take in to work for my co-workers (sorry for spoiling the surprise if you're reading this before I spring them on you!) and I thought about making mini egg brownies but then one of my co-workers said how much she loved creme eggs...<br />
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So I decided to make mini creme egg brownies!<br />
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They actually turned out incredibly well! I was a little nervous that they would just explode in the brownie mixture and all the goo would seep out of the bottom. I let them cool down for about an hour after I had baked them in the hope that the eggs would harden a little before I cut in to the brownie square.<br />
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The eggs made the brownie even more gooey and chewy than they normally are. They are incredibly chocolaty! Definitely one for the chocoholics out there. Some of the eggs which I stirred in to the mixture burst and sunk to the bottom, but I also popped some on top of the mixture right before putting them in to the oven and these ones managed to contain their goo.<br />
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I used a simple brownie recipe and substituted the broken chocolate for the same amount of mini creme eggs, with a few extra dotted in the top.<br />
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Ingredients<br />
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150g of unsalted butter<br />
300g light brown muscovado sugar<br />
75g cocoa powder<br />
1tsp of bicarbonate of soda<br />
150g plain flour<br />
pinch of salt<br />
4 eggs<br />
1tsp of vanilla extract<br />
2 packets of mini creme eggs<br />
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Method<br />
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1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted).<br />
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2. Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan that need to big enough to fill with brownie mixture. Once the butter has melted stir in the sugar until completely bonded and a little glossy.<br />
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3. Sift in the cocoa powder, bicarb, pinch of salt and flour in to the pan keeping it on the heat and mix it all together.<br />
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4. Whisk your eggs and vanilla extract together until a little fluffy. Take the pan off the heat and fold in to your eggs until completely absorbed and starting to look like a brownie mixture.<br />
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5. Then add 150g of the creme eggs to the mixture quickly stir them in, trying not to let them melt and then tip into the tin. Then dot the remaining eggs in to the mixture.<br />
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6. Put your brownies in the oven for 25 minutes, when you poke a stick/skewer in to the mixture it should still be gooey in the middle.<br />
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7. Let your brownies cool for about an hour on a cooling rack before dividing them up.<br />
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Then enjoy! After about an hour mine were still fairly warm in the middle, which added to the gooey chocolateness was absolute heaven.<br />
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*Chicks are optional.<br />
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This little guy looks a bit sad...</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-15867754306795545692012-04-06T16:20:00.001+01:002013-02-26T08:11:17.203+00:00Pineapple Upside Down Cake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHj8xJWu-q7sHcVq9BK3LbMkjSNJPgAA9ApE-cUzUEB2dzhS2TDVmNvdmtVpKRDVULxeJnY0xZX5Nyk_8k4uE0Iw_1sD1CrqGf_E35AR__CQiqjh10EMDQfxGNl0C7cnDwhyphenhyphenhqydgjeYf7/s1600/pineapple+marvellous+cheese+and+onion+bread+1244.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHj8xJWu-q7sHcVq9BK3LbMkjSNJPgAA9ApE-cUzUEB2dzhS2TDVmNvdmtVpKRDVULxeJnY0xZX5Nyk_8k4uE0Iw_1sD1CrqGf_E35AR__CQiqjh10EMDQfxGNl0C7cnDwhyphenhyphenhqydgjeYf7/s640/pineapple+marvellous+cheese+and+onion+bread+1244.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
As a thank you to people for helping out with my move in to my very own flat, or simply donating me furniture or other essential items I have vowed to make everyone cake. My eldest brother so kindly offered to pick me up in his van from Ikea with a lot of flat pack furniture. To say thank you I asked him to name his cake, he chose pineapple upside down cake. I wasn't sure if he was joking at first... but decided what the hell I've never made it before so he's going to get one joking or not.<br />
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I found a Nigella recipe for Pineapple upside down cake in my copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nigella-Express-Lawson/dp/0701181850/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335082347&sr=8-3">Nigella Express</a>. This recipe is also available <a href="http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/pineapple-upside-down-cake-51">online.</a> My quantities varied from Nigellas, so really it's however many pineapple rings and cherries your tin can hold to make this cake!<br />
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I had to buy another new pan for this recipe.. 23cm cake tin, unfortunately I couldn't find a copper one that Nigella recommended but the one I got was a TKMaxx bargain and is grease proof.<br />
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<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
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<ul><li>Butter to grease your tin</li><li>2 tbsps sugar</li><li>7 pineapple slices from a 425g tin of pineapple </li><li>3 tbsps of the pineapple juice from the tin</li><li>13 Glace cherries</li><li>100g flour</li><li>1 tsp baking powder</li><li>1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda</li><li>100g soft butter</li><li>2 eggs</li></ul><div><u>Method:</u></div><div><u><br />
</u></div><div><ol><li>Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and butter your tin. </li><li>Sprinkle the two tablespoons of sugar over the buttered tin, and then arrange your pineapple slices as shown below. </li></ol></div><br />
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3. Pop a cherry in each pineapple rings hole, and also in between them around the edge.<br />
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4. Mix your flour, baking powder, bicarb, butter, caster sugar and eggs in a bowl with an electric whisk for about 3-4 minutes or how ever long until its nice and smooth. Then pour in your pineapple juice and mix it in to make the batter thinner.<br />
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5. Now you need to get this mixture on top of your pineapple and cherries without ruining it completely. So what I did was tablespoon at a time begin to drop the mixture around the tin. When most of it was out of the bowl and into the tin I carefully spread the mixture with the back of the spoon, and tipped (scraped) any remaining mixture on top or into any gaps. The mixture only just covers it.<br />
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6. Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.<br />
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7. Once done take it out of the oven and carefully run a spatula along the sides. This is where my grease proof tin came in very handy as it had made the cake quite loose in the tin. Leave it to cool a little while as it will be hot to touch.<br />
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8. Once cooled but still warm put a tea towel over the top and flip the cake upside down! Then leave it to cool on a wire rack.<br />
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My cake is on a paper plate so apologies for presentation! However my only mode of transporting this cake was to sandwich it between paper plates and wrap with cling film.<br />
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The final result is very satisfying as it is such a symmetrical and good looking cake. It's so simple and quick to make too!<br />
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I didn't get to try any as I gave it all to my brother for him to take away.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfconDX27lPHzm4L_rKoXKD3VdWixl13AVmty1CIuXZF2m8db2AioeZ5S9EP8sHRnA1mwd5jsBZ9o3v2n23fjrVgET6HEB3FKRVCXOc7PSwZ-ohHk0BWfsm3sK9KQzxVnRhVFWSaq2M9mx/s1600/pineapple+marvellous+cheese+and+onion+bread+1249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfconDX27lPHzm4L_rKoXKD3VdWixl13AVmty1CIuXZF2m8db2AioeZ5S9EP8sHRnA1mwd5jsBZ9o3v2n23fjrVgET6HEB3FKRVCXOc7PSwZ-ohHk0BWfsm3sK9KQzxVnRhVFWSaq2M9mx/s400/pineapple+marvellous+cheese+and+onion+bread+1249.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(Please ignore the naughty cat paw prints on my table! I hadn't notice them until I had taken the pictures!)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-53360480795082858412012-03-18T10:19:00.001+00:002013-02-26T08:13:39.724+00:00Lemon Yoghurt Cake - The Weekly Bake Off<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8gVYQhyGV_SKez7T2_LPDJNk3sxo6Z6Qvn8wkBmv2rSX3tPiScw9xkf7jaCFPY-4Zq0TnjKm4QX-iPhXh9te0vwfnPMD-FYmnnuS-7Bzh7pLDjzKe0gd71rpGI2EUrThldBTx92L1ajH4/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8gVYQhyGV_SKez7T2_LPDJNk3sxo6Z6Qvn8wkBmv2rSX3tPiScw9xkf7jaCFPY-4Zq0TnjKm4QX-iPhXh9te0vwfnPMD-FYmnnuS-7Bzh7pLDjzKe0gd71rpGI2EUrThldBTx92L1ajH4/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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It's been a couple of weeks since I took part in the Weekly Bake Off, I have still been baking but I haven't really fancied the bakes, and know they would probably go to waste in my household also. <br />
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I made the Lemon Yoghurt Cake quite early in the week this time, rather than leaving it until the weekend as I usually do. This is because I'm going away this weekend. <br />
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The only thing I needed to buy to make this cake was Greek yoghurt as I had everything else in. Simple enough and made it relatively cheap to make too! Plus I had a few lemons that really needed using too so that was handy.<br />
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This cake calls for 300g of sugar! That's a lot of sugar best brush my teeth after every piece.<br />
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<span id="goog_1355362652"></span><span id="goog_1355362653"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbbK36i2XvJouLHVgASarBBUmx3jQUxRKkKLR-tgRALWedzVax1vz1wECvb6Ew43zF1AT99mpOnGJkZAxghZnBQRapD7lbL0P4MyuOyvK9bALE7gloG7oQaYUM2n3rm4Xd20EXzuI3vH2/s1600/Baking+and+Eating+in+Glasgow+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbbK36i2XvJouLHVgASarBBUmx3jQUxRKkKLR-tgRALWedzVax1vz1wECvb6Ew43zF1AT99mpOnGJkZAxghZnBQRapD7lbL0P4MyuOyvK9bALE7gloG7oQaYUM2n3rm4Xd20EXzuI3vH2/s320/Baking+and+Eating+in+Glasgow+003.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
This cake takes an hour to bake, I got a little caught up in the TV whilst baking so I forgot to turn it around, and for some reason despite my oven being fairly new and an electric fan heated one it's hotter on one side than the other. So this left me with a bit of a step on my cake. I didn't need to bake it any longer than an hour, the recipe suggests it may take an extra 15 minutes.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is the first attempt at icing the cake. It all just ran off or soaked in to the cake (the cake was cold like recommended). </div><br />
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So I decided to try something different and put the cake back in the tin whipped up some more icing (a little thicker this time) and poured it on to the cake and then put the cake back in the fridge.<br />
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This seemed to work a lot better it still dribbled down the side but that kind of looks good.<br />
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</div>My mum and stepdad, my boss at work and her boyfriend all really like this cake. It was definitely a success. It brought back memories for me of the cake the old ladies used to give me when I was little, they always used to have this cake and marble cake for me to eat (my mum was a residential warden so that meant I grew up around about 100+ old people up to the age of 18).<br />
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We ate this with a cup of tea on the train up to Scotland, with the lowland views out of the window it was just perfect.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-76317935125014600772012-03-16T21:59:00.004+00:002013-02-26T08:17:03.701+00:00Mealspiration - Things I've made this weekA few bloggers do round ups of the food they have eaten over the last week, some bloggers even post every single day what they have eaten.. I don't have enough time to do that and I'm sure it would get quite repetitive and boring if I did. I have my favourites that I eat quite a bit and I also have lazy days too where I buy something simple that can just be shoved in the oven.<br />
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What I do like about these round ups is the inspiration it gives to others. I've had a few good meals this week, rather than write up about all of them individually and publish each recipe I've decided to group them all in just one post. Plus they are all pretty simple meals.<br />
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So what have I eaten this week?<br />
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Those of you who follow me on twitter or instagram may already know but those of you who don't here is the run down of the meals I've eaten this week.<br />
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Sunday...<br />
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Cottage Pie Potatoes.<br />
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Basically you pop your jacket potatoes in the oven get them nice and crispy, cut them in half and scrape out the potato. Make the scraped out potato in to mash and pack the skins with cottage pie mix and top with the potato and cheese too if you like it that way. If you don't already have your favourite cottage pie (or even shepherds pie recipe) just google the recipe they are all pretty similar and easy to do!<br />
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Here's a picture of one chopped in half.<br />
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Monday...<br />
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Chicken kebabs with roast veg pasta.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMduwBHHuIN4k2NTAAGbdXd0z5agWwK3SI_Guz8qLY6SrzMjdmd1VhXXCsxeHbIq-NlzDD-bTsNDpPCJrjcrgNUgsbJZ9wMLSlHGcBydw4Lb7HmiI2yBR-RBLsa6PH9LcDtQLXfMcyGwGk/s1600/IMG_3455.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMduwBHHuIN4k2NTAAGbdXd0z5agWwK3SI_Guz8qLY6SrzMjdmd1VhXXCsxeHbIq-NlzDD-bTsNDpPCJrjcrgNUgsbJZ9wMLSlHGcBydw4Lb7HmiI2yBR-RBLsa6PH9LcDtQLXfMcyGwGk/s400/IMG_3455.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Roast your veg in the oven, we had butternut squash, courgette, and peppers cover in olive oil and pesto. When done mix together with your pasta. Keep it in a pan and put it at the bottom of the oven to keep warm. In the meantime put lemon juice and pesto in a dish and rub it in to your chicken. Put the chicken and tomatoes on skewers and grill. Really cheap and really tasty.<br />
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Tuesday...<br />
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Spanish Chicken Bake<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKrOyJ6Q70Xn0MT5AS8N9BTuXbv7PqJY9XY2NIjWi9Dtp9YfZ_VyE2cMR9n2He0Rrj8Mcs2ieZkbRqerGgHLJg2yy-mfVI_MYKOmiSNmON4cksPnkEmUn6biCOODDtBcGiNBJyb5tra6K/s1600/IMG_3459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKrOyJ6Q70Xn0MT5AS8N9BTuXbv7PqJY9XY2NIjWi9Dtp9YfZ_VyE2cMR9n2He0Rrj8Mcs2ieZkbRqerGgHLJg2yy-mfVI_MYKOmiSNmON4cksPnkEmUn6biCOODDtBcGiNBJyb5tra6K/s400/IMG_3459.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>All you have here is chicken thighs, chorizo, baby potatoes cut in half, red onion. Drizzle olive oil on the chicken and potatoes grate orange zest over the top and sprinkle on some oregano. Then bake in the oven for an hour. Amazingly tasty a bit of a treat.<br />
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For the rest of the week I have indulged. Wednesday I went out for a curry and the rest of the weekend is being spent with family where they will be treating me to all sorts of waist band stretching delights.<br />
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Hope this gave some people inspiration for their future meals!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-43318031002268915742012-03-15T12:00:00.000+00:002012-03-16T20:17:36.889+00:00Swiss Roll - Roly Poly Cake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Swiss Roll otherwise known in my household as Roly Poly Cake is a baking basic. This was one of the first things I was taught how to bake at high school (not ever I began baking way before the age of 11). It is also one of the things I haven't baked since school, I love Swiss roll so I'm not 100% sure why I haven't baked it for so long. Perhaps it's the temptation of buying it pre-rolled from the supermarket as it is the cheapest cake you can buy from the supermarket, and as a skint student I admit I bought that 12p chocolate Swiss roll from Tesco. <br />
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Most Swiss roll recipes are similar, as I hadn't baked it for such a long time I decided to use the recipe in Mary Berry's 100 cakes and bakes, this book is proving great in grasping the basics. Most other books I find want to show you new cakes and bakes or improved cakes and bakes or simply their take on traditional cakes and bakes, this is great but sometimes you just need to go back to basics. Anyway... I'm going off on a tangent. <br />
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I did a bit 'research' before I attempted this bake and looked at <u>how </u>other recipes deviate, and also watched some videos of people rolling their cake in order to get the best possible result. <br />
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The sponge is really simple to make and takes no time to bake. I tipped it on to a baking sheet cover in caster sugar and let it cool a bit. It was lovely and 'spongey' when it came out and I trimmed it down to make a neat rectangle. I then rolled the cake whilst it was still fairly warm using the baking paper as an aid and left it to cool further. Once cooled I carefully unrolled the cake and spread on the jam, once the jam was spread evenly I quickly rolled it back up again and left it for an hour before taking of the baking paper. <br />
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Once ready I placed it on my cake plate and sprinkled with more caster sugar. <br />
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Et Voila!<br />
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The cake was really tasteful with a good bite to it. The raspberry jam I used was a good choice, Marks and Spencers special. The other half wants me to make a chocolate and cream roly poly next. <br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-29805670080721731142012-03-14T21:57:00.000+00:002012-03-14T21:57:34.346+00:00Not so pink BattenburgI will start this post by saying that me and marzipan do not get on as well as I hoped we would. <br />
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I love battenburg, it's a lovely little treat with a cup of tea on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I have always bought Mr Kipplings Battenburg, often buying the mini ones too. I had high expectations for this bake as both me and the other half love it so much. <br />
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I used Mary Berry's recipe from 100 cakes and bakes and also looked to The Great British Bake Off book for handy tips too (something Mary Berry's book often lacks). <br />
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I went out and purposely bought some baking parchment so I could utilise it's stiffness in creating a divide in my tin. I bought the roll out Marzipan and some red food dye...<br />
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All was going well, I had measured out my mixture using a set of scales to ensure that exactly half was in each side, and started to drop in the red food dye to one half. This is when it first started to go wrong. It didn't seem to be going very red, it definitely said 'red food colouring' on the side of my morrisons own pot, but it just seemed to be going brown fearing that the mixture was becoming too wet I left it and thought maybe the colour will come out once it's baked... <br />
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I waited with baited breath and when the timer went I lifted it out of the oven and let it cool. <br />
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When it came to tipping it out of the tin I could tell that no way in hell was this going to be pink. Never mind I thought, it doesn't have to pink I shall just continue. <br />
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I trimmed down my cake and cut it in to four pieces... not as easy as it sounds, my cake began to break a little here and there as I handled it, the spreading of the jam was not helping either. <br />
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Then came the worst part. The marzipan. I have worked very little with marzipan so forgive my ameteurness. I sprinkled some flour down on my surface and started to roll it out. It started to stick to my rolling pin, so I sprinkled some flour on there too. I continued to roll. It began to stretch out and just break still sticking to my rolling pin despite copious amounts of flour been added. I got annoyed, why wont you just roll!?! I smacked it around a bit (later finding out that you need to give it a bit of knead before you start playing with it) and it seemed to get the message, I meant business. After a few tantrums it began to do what I wanted it to. <br />
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Now came the tricky part, wrapping it around the cake. This wasn't so bad, but would have been better if my cake sticks weren't breaking in half. I wrapped it up trimmed up the edges a bit and dusted the top. <br />
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For some reason after a little rest the cake pieces decided they no longer wanted to sit in a neat little square and started to stray from each other. <br />
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Here is my not so pink battenburg, and not so neat either. <br />
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I did have a piece or two but found that the mixture was quite bitty and not as Mr Kipling like as I had hoped. It may be a while until I try to make battenburg again, due to my trauma with the marzipan, but when I do I won't be using that food colouring again and I think I may have to source another recipe (Sorry Mary Berry!). <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-69659460171199171892012-03-05T21:40:00.000+00:002012-03-05T21:40:53.287+00:00Fruit Scones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Scones, a staple for any cream tea. I first made scones when I was at school when I was 11 or 12 years old. After learning the basics we were then taught how to make healthy scones... years later and I still make scones but not in the same way as I was taught at school. I no longer use cream of tartar or bicarbonate of soda as I think the scones can some times taste, well, like soda? So now I use self raising flour and baking powder making a much more cakey scone.<br />
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When I make scones I tend to make them by eye, what I mean by this is I know exactly how the consistencies should be so I add flour, butter etc until I get that consistency. You don't need any fancy equipment to make scones I tend to use my hands for most of it.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
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230g self raising flour (plus a little more for dusting)<br />
1tsp baking powder<br />
60g butter<br />
50g caster sugar<br />
25g glacé cherries (about 4)<br />
25g sultanas<br />
1 large egg<br />
75ml of milk (approx)<br />
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- Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees if fan assisted, check your manuals (or google) for other conversions.<br />
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- Sieve your flour and baking powder in to a bowl, add softened butter (if not soft enough cut in to small pieces and add that) and rub the butter in to the flour until all the butter has been rubbed in and the mixture is like fine breadcrumbs. (It's always good to add less flour and then top it up if needed be later).<br />
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- Then mix in your sugar, my hands have already been in the bowl so I do this with my hands too ensuring its evenly spread through the mixture.<br />
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-Then add in your cherries and sultanas, or just sultanas if you prefer, I like to chop up my cherries too.<br />
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- Whisk your egg in a measuring cup until little bubbles start to form on the top, then top up your egg to 150ml with the milk and whisk a little more (just use a manual hand whisk).<br />
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- Then add your eggy milk to your dry mixture and start to knead in to a ball. Try not to handle the mixture too much, if it's a bit sticky add some more flour but you don't want it to get too dry.<br />
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- Dust down a surface with flour and knead out your dough with your hands. Take a large cutter and begin to cut out your scones. Depending how big you like your scones depends how thickly you should cut. Mine were about 1-1.5cm thick and I got 8 scones from the mixture.<br />
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*Tip when your running out of dough stick the off bits in to the cutter and shape in to the cutter to make another scone.<br />
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- Put your scones on a greased baking sheet making sure there is at least 2cm between each scone. Then brush some milk on the tops of them.<br />
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- Place your scones in the centre of the oven for 10-15 minutes until slightly browning,<br />
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- To keep your scones moisture wrap them up in cloth, I used a tea towel. I left them for about 5 minutes before I had one, they were lovely and warm and the butter simply melted in to them. Great with raspberry jam!<br />
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Putting the scones to bed. </div>
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/scones">Print This Recipe</a></div>
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Shortly after making my scones I started to notice that quite a lot of other people were making scones too! I know why some of them were now too... due to Tea Time Treats! So even though it was unintended I am going to submit my efforts to this blogger challenge too. </div>
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Tea Time Treats is a baking challenge hosted by two lovely bloggers <a href="http://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2012/03/the-new-tea-time-treats-challenge-for-march-scones-savoury-and-sweet.html">Lavender and Lovage</a> and <a href="http://whatkatebaked.blogspot.com/">What Katie Baked</a> This month the host is Lavender and Lovage. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-17323616295898623112012-02-26T21:03:00.002+00:002013-02-26T08:26:42.746+00:00Cupcakes - The Weekly Bake Off<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW243IXXtSLUZKQ6j7gMW7S1lHq2SBYW2R2G7QASjQTfBVfBeA1-YSGgjbyaLzIY6MI3REpT1Njzz-dpQ9dIFdOPQ-mhMJurOAdbGEKK8mzty3wuDdZxFzJpyuV1Eyl3ICYf0NNsaJt4Y9/s1600/Cupcakes+and+Manchester+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW243IXXtSLUZKQ6j7gMW7S1lHq2SBYW2R2G7QASjQTfBVfBeA1-YSGgjbyaLzIY6MI3REpT1Njzz-dpQ9dIFdOPQ-mhMJurOAdbGEKK8mzty3wuDdZxFzJpyuV1Eyl3ICYf0NNsaJt4Y9/s640/Cupcakes+and+Manchester+012.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
This weeks bake off is Cupcakes (pg 52 Mary Berry's 100 cakes and bakes). There are so many amazing cupcakes out there and I am truly impressed with the things people can do with buttercream. I think this is only my second attempt at buttercream. My first being when making Nigella's red velvet cupcakes and the buttercream didn't go so well at all.<br />
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One of my friends runs her own cupcake business and hers (as you can imagine seen as she does it every day) are works of art. So I was quite disheartened the first time I tried to manipulate buttercream in to something pretty.<br />
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I wasn't at home this weekend I was at a friends (house of man) for their birthday so making cupcakes seemed like an acceptable thing to bake this weekend at his house.... apart from there are no electric whisks, or piping tubes, or cake spatulas. Not a great start.<br />
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I have some piping nozzles at home that would have been perfect for cupcakes... But I forgot to take them with me. <br />
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I had the cupcakes in the oven easy enough, I did try to hand whisk the batter with the flimsiest whisk ever, but this was proving too hard and I found a hand blender in the cupboard so I thought I would give that a try.<br />
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The recipe calls for a deep muffin tin to be used for the mixture which is supposed to make 12 cupcakes. As you can see it does make 12 cupcakes but they are very small cupcakes not the ones we have become accustomed to and what these cases are tailored for.<br />
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I bought some butter from Aldi in Manchester city centre thinking I could keep costs low... I have now learnt never to buy cheap butter. It just didn't seem to want to soften! I made the first lot of buttercream by hand... and this took me quite a while, with the never melting butter.<br />
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I had a few practice runs but despite making twice as much buttercream as recommended I still couldn't cover all 12 cakes.<br />
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Here are the first batch....<br />
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Ice cream cupcakes...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jewelled cupcakes... </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Group shot... </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My friends cupcake- he used the new piping bag I bought on the way, very narrow nozzles that are perhaps better for cake decorating. </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lonely ice cream cupcake...</div><br />
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I already had a second batch of cupcakes baking in the oven so I decided to make some more buttercream, using Mary's suggestion of adding some cocoa powder to make chocolate buttercream... this did not go so well. By this point I had rummaged around in the cupboards a bit more and found a food processor... so I put all the ingredients in there are began whizzing away... The food processor became quite warm and my butter melted quite a bit and went all greasy and sat in the top. I tried adding more icing sugar.. this didn't work... I tried adding more cocoa... this didn't work. So I snapped a picture and put it on twitter. The responses from twitter was to put milk in it... this didn't work. Put it in the fridge? This just made the grease on top solidify. I added more icing sugar... desperately tried to scrape it on a cupcake...<br />
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I don't think anyone is going to eat that cupcake.<br />
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Thinking that it was already pretty much destroyed.. I added some more cocoa and icing sugar. What I ended up with in the end is some strange sort of chocolate fondant icing.. I thought what the hell and put it on some of the cakes.<br />
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They sort of look like brown bakewell tarts...<br />
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The cupcakes have gone down very well in 'house of man'. They were quite fascinated to see a woman baking in their house, and kept asking me questions about why I was doing this and why I was doing that and when could they actually have a cupcake!<br />
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Not sure I would use Mary Berry's buttercream recipe again but the cake was nice enough. I will also be glad to get my own baking equipment back when I try this again!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-24705369147792148822012-02-26T12:00:00.000+00:002012-02-26T12:00:08.766+00:00Bill's Basics - A Book Review<br />
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A few months ago whilst in Waterstone's I flicked through this book whilst browsing in the cookery section. A few recipes caught my eye and it was straight on my Amazon Wish List. Lucky me I got a few things from my Amazon Wish List for Christmas this year and Bill's Basics was one of them. <br />
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I have made 5 recipes from the book so far and there are still some I am eager to try out.<br />
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The book is really good for after work meals as they are relatively simple and require few ingredients. Also you don't need to be a master chef in order to make any of the recipes, the steps are easy to follow and require no special gadgets.<br />
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These are 'Bill's' basics so don't expect to find a Delia bible of basics in here but basics with slight adaptations. For those of you unfamiliar with this chef, Bill is Australian so there is a lot of Australian influenced foods and Malaysian/East Asian influenced food, things I would never have thought about making until I saw it here in this book.<br />
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I haven't remembered to take a picture of everything that I have made... but here are the ones I have.<br />
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This is Chicken Parmigiana, chicken cooked in tomato sauce topped with mozzarella. Tasted lovely.<br />
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This is my attempt at Chickpea Burgers..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjR123Gp20D7AZ_fIAyjD6LQ4Sv9IOD5pqQNcxOD58saPHAKVlQbI-8F_JFqDo2W2ZevxiREHaqh-gEGUN2tGY2Ye8Jt7Cd5mGMDj6llOu0osn9V7kj6-5E5wD7W_D1He5X11lKtw1MM/s1600/IMG_2972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjR123Gp20D7AZ_fIAyjD6LQ4Sv9IOD5pqQNcxOD58saPHAKVlQbI-8F_JFqDo2W2ZevxiREHaqh-gEGUN2tGY2Ye8Jt7Cd5mGMDj6llOu0osn9V7kj6-5E5wD7W_D1He5X11lKtw1MM/s320/IMG_2972.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Be careful when making the above as you are required to shallow fry the burgers... and oil splashed out of the pan when I turned them...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ldH3wdNeGNCy8hvc3NkF6OxLZYBpLNosT49lMZK6FHwBNQ0OfVRgyWY_LdkA1MQ2LHREex6PNy9RaDMyYB31oY6cl_cdG51d-8_rdZD4TKxac3WshHdgDdGcG_G09LQyt4a4gNvYC4Q/s1600/IMG_2973.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ldH3wdNeGNCy8hvc3NkF6OxLZYBpLNosT49lMZK6FHwBNQ0OfVRgyWY_LdkA1MQ2LHREex6PNy9RaDMyYB31oY6cl_cdG51d-8_rdZD4TKxac3WshHdgDdGcG_G09LQyt4a4gNvYC4Q/s320/IMG_2973.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Ouch!!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8Vsss_AYJYDyQbW9PmgY6za-ojrOWHG4lgrLtBug3YycX3Jzmi-gNrFN9BA7JCLQJ6pt5icL1J9ZfkonQYEp1vp98_yUnNKw-UgVJGTNIfXB1N6dCl4sp5IcRfrCvU5rCXimhtFX15Y/s1600/IMG_2978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8Vsss_AYJYDyQbW9PmgY6za-ojrOWHG4lgrLtBug3YycX3Jzmi-gNrFN9BA7JCLQJ6pt5icL1J9ZfkonQYEp1vp98_yUnNKw-UgVJGTNIfXB1N6dCl4sp5IcRfrCvU5rCXimhtFX15Y/s320/IMG_2978.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
Scared for life with a little man on my hand...<br />
<br />
There was so much mixture left over as the recipe is for 6 people and there are only two of us... so I bagged it up popped it in the freezer and used it again... this time adapting the recipe a little. I made a few little balls and shallow fried them so we could have them in wraps instead. I still have a ball of it left ready to make another couple of burgers or wraps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZIBnMfZzTVH0R-4UWdWRuS_MAaixI00g_ydsHYFF0fvPsUdE_XGjPGAnTDuQHJ51aTmCjpYrKw5SVRtZIGGsc2UMUESSC5-NMhfhTyEALUpZ4jj3sK6ihfRAE0gKxzpl2go1zj_Npn8/s1600/Shipley+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZIBnMfZzTVH0R-4UWdWRuS_MAaixI00g_ydsHYFF0fvPsUdE_XGjPGAnTDuQHJ51aTmCjpYrKw5SVRtZIGGsc2UMUESSC5-NMhfhTyEALUpZ4jj3sK6ihfRAE0gKxzpl2go1zj_Npn8/s320/Shipley+001.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />(Accidentally burnt one)</div>
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This is a picture taken from the book... Cake for a crowd. I baked this cake for New Years Eve as I was going to a friends house for a dinner party. The cake went down very well, and I'm sure if I hadn't of been so tipsy by the end of the night I would have taken the left overs home with me! I had some raspberries stored away in the freezer and whilst they looked great on the cake when I first put them on.. because they had started to defrost they went really juicy and the red juice ran all over my crisp white icing. I pointed this out to my friend and apologised who in turn said if I hadn't of mentioned it he would have thought it was supposed to look like that...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwf0GRg_4HXc86kRCB8LyUokTkAHtFIXwxfOn5Cfc_odWxp0DyEJb-oN_OMbWpPMazbx420tPEsTT-GR2bM0Xvp7KNJfyVP-MN9ge-D7zAU3mUZ8B9adiOYNfr182bqpNN9XqF2dzyls/s1600/IMG_3010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwf0GRg_4HXc86kRCB8LyUokTkAHtFIXwxfOn5Cfc_odWxp0DyEJb-oN_OMbWpPMazbx420tPEsTT-GR2bM0Xvp7KNJfyVP-MN9ge-D7zAU3mUZ8B9adiOYNfr182bqpNN9XqF2dzyls/s320/IMG_3010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
I have also made 'Fried' Chicken (twice) a great Friday night food and so easy to do. The chicken is baked not fried but still tastes amazing and reassuringly more healthy than those buckets of chicken you can buy from fast food outlets of the freezer isle in most supermarkets.<br />
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I tried out Bill's meat free lasagne which uses ricotta as a filing instead. It was nice but I think I prefer it to have meat in there!<br />
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Recipes I still want to make include:<br />
<ul>
<li>Shakshouka</li>
<li>Singapore fried noodles</li>
<li>Nasi Goreng (although I'm finding it difficult to find kecap manis?)</li>
<li>Polenta Bolognese Gratin</li>
<li>Bucatini all'Amatriciana</li>
<li>Roast Chicken with Chestnut Torn-Bread Stuffing</li>
<li>Bill's Coq Au Vin</li>
<li>Chicken Burritos with coriander and green chili</li>
<li>Chicken Satay</li>
<li>Crisp Pork Belly with Apple Sauce</li>
<li>Lamb Curry with yogurt and tomatoes</li>
<li>Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil and Spice Pasties with yogurt dressing</li>
<li>Peach and Blueberry Pudding</li>
<li>Chocolate Mousse Cake</li>
</ul>
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Think that should keep me busy for a while! </div>
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A great starter book for those who are just starting out on the cooking scene (Christmas/Birthday present for a student perhaps?) or like me if you want some alternative ideas for basics or some easy recipes for those nights after work when you're not quite up to making a recipe which lists 25 plus ingredients and about 5 pans. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-35360336749870844952012-02-25T21:40:00.003+00:002012-03-14T12:46:35.583+00:00Lemon Drizzle Traybake<br />
I happened to stumble across another baking blogger challenge this week and it happened to tie in to exactly what I wanted to bake. Handy. The challenge is held by two different bloggers each month this month's blog host is <a href="http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/alphabakes-feb-2012-l.html">The more than occasional blogger. </a><br />
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This month's letter is 'L' and my chosen bake last weekend was a Lemon Drizzle Traybake.<br />
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This is the first time I have ever made a lemon drizzle sponge. It was really easy. I used the recipe from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes, my tray is a little larger than the one recommended in the recipe... but I do seem to struggle to find some of the tins suggested in the book.<br />
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You can also find the recipe here... <a href="http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/534232">http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/534232</a><br />
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Even before the cake was baked I was lapping it up from the bowl, one of the most delicious cake mixes I've ever tasted.<br />
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The 'drizzle' made a little bit of a mess and you need to drizzle it over whilst the cake is still warm, it is incredibly running and sticky! Table cloth needed washing afterwards!<br />
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The tasters (family, friends and co-workers) said it was amazing and went down great with a cup of tea or Mocha in one person's case! It was a quick bake and big pleaser so great for events or parties when you need something quick and tasty!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-62810982531420987602012-02-25T12:00:00.000+00:002012-02-25T12:00:09.152+00:00Homemade Guacamole<em>Originally Posted on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers</a> 22/11/2011</em><br />
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Guacamole brought to us by the Aztecs, translating to quite simply avocado sauce.<br />
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I love Guacamole, whether it be in a fajita, burrito, or simply dolloped on top of some nachos. It seems to be more expensive than other Tex Mex dips, and that combined with a thought pattern of 'how hard can it be?' inspired me to start making my own. <br />
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It is actually really simple and I don't know why I have never done so before!<br />
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/homemade-guacamole">Print This Recipe</a></div>
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This recipe makes about two ramekins worth of guacamole, you can eat it straight after making it - or if you prefer chill and save for later.<br />
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<b><u>Ingredients:</u></b><br />
<br />
Half a red onion <br />
2 Green chillies<br />
3 Ripe avocados (they need to feel slightly soft when you press them, but not overly so that they have gone past ripe and gone off, and not too firm that they are too hard to crush). <br />
1 Lime <br />
Tbsp of fresh coriander- finely chopped<br />
2 Tsps of salt <br />
Touch of black pepper<br />
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<b><u>Method:</u></b><br />
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- Finely chop your onion (the finer the better) and de-seed and finely chop your chilli. With a pestle and mortar grind these up with your salt until it is a paste. This takes the most effort as you will need to give it some welly to make it into a paste. <br />
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- In a bowl add your avocado (removing the stones) and crush up with a fork until it starts to become smoother and 'dip like'. Then add in your onion and chilli paste along with juice from the lime and the coriander. Merge this altogether and add the pepper to taste plus a little more salt if you prefer. <br />
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- Give it a bit of a taste, dependent on the size of your lime you may need to add another one here but don't add too much as I have made that mistake before now and all I could taste was lime, or add some coriander. The best thing about making your own guacamole is that you can adapt it to your own taste. <br />
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<b><u>Other ideas for guacamole:</u></b><br />
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Add some garlic crushing it with the chilli and onion. (I prefer to add garlic but it's not to everyone's taste- you can cheat by adding garlic paste)<br />
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Add some garlic and tomato, again crushing the garlic with the chilli and onion and then add a de-seeded ripe tomato at the very end. <br />
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Add spring onions instead of red onion - about 2 will do<br />
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Spice it up by adding cayenne pepper and cumin to the chilli onion and garlic paste.<br />
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You can also use soured cream to make it bit smoother or cool it down if you've over done it with the spice.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-52323869099708270162012-02-24T12:30:00.000+00:002012-02-24T12:30:05.462+00:00Appeltaart - Dutch Apple Pie - Recipe<em>Previously Published on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers</a> 13/11/2011</em><br />
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After tasting the most amazing apple pie ever in <a href="http://breadsticklers.blogspot.com/2011/11/food-travels-bruges-de-hobbit.html">Bruges</a> I had to try my hand at making one just as good. I did a bit of research and found that there is a difference between English apple pie and Dutch apple pie.. for one thing they call it Appeltaart. It's a lot sweeter than English apple pie and it is absolutely amazing. There is no need to sweeten it up with custard, just a side of ice cream to give it that lovely hot cold contrast.<br />
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<b><u>Recipe:</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
For the pastry:<br />
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250g plain flour<br />
175g softened butter<br />
80g caster sugar<br />
2 Eggs<br />
1 Tsp of ground cinnamon<br />
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For the filing:<br />
<br />
Kilo of Bramley apples<br />
60g caster sugar<br />
70g sultanas<br />
3 Tsps of ground cinnamon<br />
Juice of half a lemon<br />
25g ground almonds<br />
Flaked almonds<br />
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<b><u>Method:</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><br />
-Grab a bowl and add the flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon and 1 and a half of the eggs. Stick your hands in and mix the ingredients together needing it in to a dough adding a little more flour as and when you need to.<br />
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- Once you have a nicely even and smooth dough take a quarter of it away and set aside. Flour your (clean) surface and start rolling out your dough. My tin is a spring form 22.5cm tin but I think this mixture will fit up to 24cm.. this seems to be a more popular size of tin? If you haven't got a spring form tin butter the sides so the pie will slide out a little easier.<br />
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- Preheat your oven to 170 degrees (150 if fan assisted) and start prepping your filing.<br />
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- Peel, core and slice your apples. In a bowl add the sugar, sultanas, cinnamon, lemon juice, and ground almonds and mix together. Then add in your apples and cover your apple slices in the mixture I prefer to do this with my hands so I don't break up all my thinly slices apple pieces trying to do it with a spoon. <br />
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- Layer your apples and sultanas in the tin. You might have a bit of liquid left over drizzle this over your filing but don't add too much as you don't want your pie to be soggy. Then sprinkle over some more sugar (optional) cinnamon, and your almond flakes.<br />
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- Grab your left over dough and cut it in to thin strips. This is the first time I had ever done a lattice and I think it will need a lot of practice to make it look perfect but I think for a first attempt mine came out rather well. I started doing all the strips going across first and then once I had made sure they fit I peeled them back and started threading through the other side. I made a pathetic attempt to search youtube for the perfect way to do this but found it no help.<br />
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- Once you are satisfied with your lattice... whisk the remaining half an egg and brush it on the top of your pie, use it to stick and fold down the edges to seal your pie.<br />
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- Pop it in the oven for about an hour, you may need to turn it to make it even all over, once it's golden brown all over on the top take it out and leave it to cool.<br />
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- Once those agonising 30minutes are up slice up you pie and serve with creamy ice cream. Dust with lots of icing sugar to give it that extra Dutch touch.<br />
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDPtq6EnsUq5O7IrgMm0yl-0YR9siAa7k8tzuF6TXkmu3NDEBtRSuuXtgGPkzVcVEFsfDNkt8HcKXzBuEabnCQX4M4TxIS4KHzdpDWxmpcSY09Ey96YJ2aJtI1bOgqyk6rG9USFv5Sjc/s1600/Appeltaart+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDPtq6EnsUq5O7IrgMm0yl-0YR9siAa7k8tzuF6TXkmu3NDEBtRSuuXtgGPkzVcVEFsfDNkt8HcKXzBuEabnCQX4M4TxIS4KHzdpDWxmpcSY09Ey96YJ2aJtI1bOgqyk6rG9USFv5Sjc/s640/Appeltaart+009.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/appeltaart">Print This Recipe</a></div>
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The result was perfect, better than I could of hoped for. Absolute heaven in my mouth. The sweetness of the dough combined with the tart apples, moist on the inside crunchy on the outside, warm apple pie with cold ice cream- my ideal dessert. I can't wait to eat some more of it!<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-61067415115429916262012-02-23T13:00:00.000+00:002012-03-14T12:47:05.115+00:00The Magic Faraway Tree Toffee Shock Cake<em>Originally posted on 22/10/2010 on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers.</a></em><br />
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Last month I discovered a new blog.. <a href="http://awannabefoodie.wordpress.com/">awannabefoodie.wordpress.com</a> and I loved what I found.<br />
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This is the Magic Faraway Tree Toffee Shock Cake....<br />
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I decided after reading <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/wannabefoodie76">@wannabefoodie76</a>'s blog that I NEEDED to make this cake.<br />
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So I did.<br />
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This is how it turned out.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b7kahgNsvDgtSPM3SxFTagGAHydL4R_8TA6X4GAkr5vJ4iyUbeE8BZMHrB09VMaHRNF-aHpMXBXnrX0gBJSKD-vUUN456kVfkINetOlzZqnYzdThj9bCfEtU4th9jq6NrxFc_BiSol4/s1600/The+magic+faraway+tree+toffee+shock+cake+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="582" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b7kahgNsvDgtSPM3SxFTagGAHydL4R_8TA6X4GAkr5vJ4iyUbeE8BZMHrB09VMaHRNF-aHpMXBXnrX0gBJSKD-vUUN456kVfkINetOlzZqnYzdThj9bCfEtU4th9jq6NrxFc_BiSol4/s640/The+magic+faraway+tree+toffee+shock+cake+001.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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I did accidentally put the cakes in the wrong order but I quite like the zebra affect too.<br />
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It's such a big cake I probably put on half a stone from the amount I ate... and I had to give a lot away to some very eager volunteers... and they all loved it too. The sounds coming from people whilst eating it were bordering on pornographic.<br />
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Want to make this cake? You really should! Here's the recipe on @wannabefoodie76's <a href="http://awannabefoodie.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/the-magic-faraway-tree-toffee-shock-cake/">original blog post. </a><br />
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FABULOUS!!!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-63914058320661499532012-02-22T14:28:00.000+00:002013-02-26T13:00:29.717+00:00Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup<em>Previously Published on 17/10/2011 on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers</a></em><br />
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It's not very often that I make soup, but when your poorly and it's cold there is nothing better than a big bowl of piping hot soup and crusty bread. This soup really will clear your sinuses as it's a bit spicy! To tame this down a bit just simply add less spice or more butter milk.<br />
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It's really simple to make too... just five steps!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/spicy-sweet-potato-and-butternut-squash-soup">Print This Recipe </a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><u><b>Ingredients:</b></u><br />
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175g Sweet potato<br />
175g Butternut squash<br />
750ml Chicken Stock (Vegetable stock if you prefer)<br />
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon<br />
1/4 teaspoon of ginger<br />
pinch of pepper<br />
Tablespoon of buttermilk<br />
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The above measurements for the sweet potato are a rough estimate don't go wasting any trying to get the exact measurements!<br />
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<b><u>Method:</u></b><br />
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1. Peel and dice the sweet potato and butternut squash in to cubes(ish).<br />
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2. Put the diced butternut and sweet potato in a saucepan with the hot chicken or vegetable stock along with the spices... just add a little at a time if you're unsure you can always add more later.<br />
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3. Let it get to boiling point and then simmer for 15 minutes, until your vegetables are soft.<br />
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4. If you have a hand blender great. I don't it broke. Blend your soup with your hand blender or big blender... be careful not to let it explode everywhere... Keep blending it until it's soup like.<br />
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5. Pour in to two bowls and swizzle in your buttermilk.<br />
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Easy Peasy!!!<br />
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Too simple? Make your own bread!?<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-62550939671530893952012-02-22T13:53:00.004+00:002012-02-22T13:53:35.168+00:00Fruitful Baking - The Weekly Bake Off & Valentines Bakes<em>Previously Posted 05/02/2012 on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers.</a> </em><br />
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I hate wasting food, but I also like my fruit to be just ripe not overly ripe. I like bananas but they don't seem to last very long before they start to go brown and spotty. To accompany this weeks Weekly Bake off entry I thought I'd follow the theme of fruit in cake and make chocolate and banana heart shaped cakes... Valentines day is not far away after all.<br />
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Firstly though... here is my entry in this <a href="http://weeklybakeoff.blogspot.com/">weeks bake off</a>.<br />
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Farmhouse Orange Victoria Sandwich.<br />
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I think I should have let my cake cool a little longer, or perhaps put the cream on the bottom layer then put it in the fridge to let it harden before I put the top layer on? It seemed a bit sloppy but still tasted awesome. There isn't a massive amount of cream but you really don't need a thick layer of it (in my opinion) as the cream was really rich. I deviated from the recipe a little bit by spreading a layer of the fine cut marmalade on the base before adding any cream.<br />
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The cake has gone down very well in my house, I only made it a few hours ago and there is less than half of it left!<br />
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Here's some more pictures of my cake. I will definitely make this cake in future as it is truly delicious.<br />
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Pre-cut..<br />
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If your interested in trying out the weekly bake off see the website <a href="http://weeklybakeoff.blogspot.com/">here</a>. Mary Berry's 100 Cake and Bakes where this recipe was taken from is available from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Kitchen-Table-Cakes-Bakes/dp/184990149X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1328458927&sr=8-3">Amazon</a> for a bargain price of £4.<br />
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To use up my over ripe bananas I used a Nigella recipe for banana and chocolate muffins, from her book Kitchen. The recipe is also online <a href="http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-banana-muffins-5158">here </a>. The recipe says to add 125ml of vegetable oil to the mixture but instead I substituted this for 125g of butter. Rather than make them in to muffins I put the mixture in to a large baking tray and then cut heart shapes out of the sponge.<br />
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Here's how the turned out! I haven't yet worked out what to do with the cut offs so any suggestions are welcome!<br />
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxcO-SN1gsyOa2PdpqLcJMKocrs9dcHYRjmQvu0bx08WwKzBsDztJ_GOpi3qiFpg0ubNpCzRbfeOqXBbHLK3dTNjbdHCL9_tXVW4DWVTpUoSIH7yVwtlzspZjeAMRHCHq8D5qzvbBBik/s1600/Cake!+057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxcO-SN1gsyOa2PdpqLcJMKocrs9dcHYRjmQvu0bx08WwKzBsDztJ_GOpi3qiFpg0ubNpCzRbfeOqXBbHLK3dTNjbdHCL9_tXVW4DWVTpUoSIH7yVwtlzspZjeAMRHCHq8D5qzvbBBik/s640/Cake!+057.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uMGTwF5aKCdz40iCpNrXbGXeBm9BRWoe2TWlfUwam6H_5qToNCqN50ZFFfKleTFb9hL2lmKX3-YLl-vqT9t4zaJZnymkn9iOpSW17c4hENpqgGzPWHypOH9DsZNHxRF-TKOPvFpUQlk/s1600/Cake!+070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uMGTwF5aKCdz40iCpNrXbGXeBm9BRWoe2TWlfUwam6H_5qToNCqN50ZFFfKleTFb9hL2lmKX3-YLl-vqT9t4zaJZnymkn9iOpSW17c4hENpqgGzPWHypOH9DsZNHxRF-TKOPvFpUQlk/s400/Cake!+070.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmLSa2eIkSggazdJeKhrUTjMnEcEb-qqr71maA-MVXmwlUAQEmqq-F9Qr1uD7fD0xaVORIvOchQ7zJ0cM37huF4_rC7YjdxzqUnt0G_WOn6JzxGErSKWu7aX6oFnoegoIEBN87AKibFs/s1600/Cake!+072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmLSa2eIkSggazdJeKhrUTjMnEcEb-qqr71maA-MVXmwlUAQEmqq-F9Qr1uD7fD0xaVORIvOchQ7zJ0cM37huF4_rC7YjdxzqUnt0G_WOn6JzxGErSKWu7aX6oFnoegoIEBN87AKibFs/s400/Cake!+072.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAeWLfGcxtmXZNnQZVj05_UEkFv0H8WZubsXVGOVJF-VAWXHEEqhoPM2HUxHmGGwM8I5sskN1tBFchV2qYEq0hUX7nrne8FonY19UrXeooGrORoPESJqnqvFDgQ_lmaBYYlwmofebjEX8/s1600/Cake!+073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAeWLfGcxtmXZNnQZVj05_UEkFv0H8WZubsXVGOVJF-VAWXHEEqhoPM2HUxHmGGwM8I5sskN1tBFchV2qYEq0hUX7nrne8FonY19UrXeooGrORoPESJqnqvFDgQ_lmaBYYlwmofebjEX8/s400/Cake!+073.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-NN1SNivLKhqFizjI9nsZ3cr3-kbvpndgGN23xYQLB-bPLZHcaQajDZTjdbcEu2JjU2dqDl5h4MZS8URgRgvKtAbQECJ5LGZ7UviRYPpi2pXSYXJ4x1vr8DrxLvNJg8JJXBU_-F7lHg/s1600/Cake!+080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-NN1SNivLKhqFizjI9nsZ3cr3-kbvpndgGN23xYQLB-bPLZHcaQajDZTjdbcEu2JjU2dqDl5h4MZS8URgRgvKtAbQECJ5LGZ7UviRYPpi2pXSYXJ4x1vr8DrxLvNJg8JJXBU_-F7lHg/s400/Cake!+080.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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To get the pink dusting I mixed some pink rainbow dust with some icing sugar and then dusted it on the top.<br />
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<br />These lovely little hearts are a great valentines gift, giving something home made is always a little bit more special in my eyes. They are so easy to make and are only 15 minutes in the oven.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-23400395473974097232012-02-22T10:04:00.002+00:002012-02-22T10:04:16.284+00:00Happy Birthday to Me.... The Weekly Bake Off<em>Originally Posted on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers </a>29/01/2012</em><br />
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It was my birthday this week, I had just received my copy of Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to join in with <a href="http://weeklybakeoff.blogspot.com/">The Weekly Bake Off.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyA6QSUDQEzX9SzX_9shush-3rCZJibkOilqVrJF0C6HCjF2Tx1pmp1FaY96KDsAMgXi7_4xorP6uI0MosV-fJ-VPV6EmAf2q_i2pHMwZipg5QT8LFGe3_IY17T_ADAvTdAjaQ-Tj7wc/s1600/Birthday+cake+083.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyA6QSUDQEzX9SzX_9shush-3rCZJibkOilqVrJF0C6HCjF2Tx1pmp1FaY96KDsAMgXi7_4xorP6uI0MosV-fJ-VPV6EmAf2q_i2pHMwZipg5QT8LFGe3_IY17T_ADAvTdAjaQ-Tj7wc/s400/Birthday+cake+083.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
I found out about the weekly bake off a couple of weeks ago through another blog I follow. It seemed like a really cute idea, every week there is a new bake from the book (only £4 on Amazon... bargain!) the bake is announced on Monday and everyone has to submit a picture of their bake by Sunday via twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/WeeklyBakeOff">@WeeklyBakeOff</a>. Each bake is judged (sometimes there is a guest judge) and a winner is announced! It's great to see how other people have fared and each person's own interpretation of the bake. <br />
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<br />I let it slip that it was my first time taking part and that whatever the bake was that week was going to ultimately end up being my birthday cake! So the lovely organiser (Amy) of the Weekly Bake Off said she would dedicate this bake off to me *blushes* and the bake for this week would be Divine Chocolate Birthday Cake. <br />
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If you haven't got the book the recipe is posted online <a href="http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/495997/mary-berry-s-chocolate-birthday-cake">here.</a> </div>
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I didn't follow the recipe to the letter... instead of adding coffee granules (I don't like coffee) I just mixed some cocoa with a teaspoon of vanilla essence to make it EXTRA chocolatey! Also the recipe recommends you use 39% cocoa solid plain chocolate for the icing... well, I couldn't find 39% in my crappy local supermarket (they don't even sell buttermilk!) so I had to make do with 44%. Every thing was laid out on the work tops ready for me to ice it... a couple of hours later I returned to find that some cheeky unknown person within my household had decided to have a nibble of my chocolate. The only thing I had in the cupboard was some milk chocolate, so my icing has about 10% milk chocolate in it too....</div>
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The edges of my cake weren't the neatest and I tried to neaten them up with the icing but in a cold kitchen it sets very quickly! </div>
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As it was my birthday I decided to add a bit of sparkle with gold and silver balls with matching candles. </div>
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So this is my bake!<br />
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First stage....</div>
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Miss a few...<br />
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Cake in the pan ready for the preheated oven...<br />
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Et Voila! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw37rd_3X0Wgv5493ZltURqi2NnMR0saNqUlk8M3z0T2cU6fxOeDwnAmanEf7Poi835ByKbhCUXqKw42QZ3xnIZIVo9jc2F3oHgd04SBdmArvJhLYjejbuQ44cJTGHdUdlP3nXx6vR8rA/s1600/Birthday+cake+143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw37rd_3X0Wgv5493ZltURqi2NnMR0saNqUlk8M3z0T2cU6fxOeDwnAmanEf7Poi835ByKbhCUXqKw42QZ3xnIZIVo9jc2F3oHgd04SBdmArvJhLYjejbuQ44cJTGHdUdlP3nXx6vR8rA/s400/Birthday+cake+143.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQg8hAHWKxki5FJWJlYjNeaHZc6hyxBP22PIeno5P1rso28UhajrZmUXw1XGiPVpU-F7feF2azK1brz4hR09qN0f8knY1y-MznjMdOv2qfXMVQcmmiSYaZNSvGCdCSLPXD6lI0yZbX4Q/s1600/Birthday+cake+148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQg8hAHWKxki5FJWJlYjNeaHZc6hyxBP22PIeno5P1rso28UhajrZmUXw1XGiPVpU-F7feF2azK1brz4hR09qN0f8knY1y-MznjMdOv2qfXMVQcmmiSYaZNSvGCdCSLPXD6lI0yZbX4Q/s640/Birthday+cake+148.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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For my first flourless cake I think it turned out rather well. The book says the cake should be 'fudgey' in consistency and I feel it is, I probably need to work on my decorating skills however! Tastes yummy... so yummy that I had to have a piece whilst writing this post! <br />
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I'm looking forward to the many more weekly bake offs!<br />
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UPDATED: The results came out 30.01.2012... and I won! Whoooooop!!!</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-8197155475176708992012-02-21T14:25:00.002+00:002013-02-26T12:59:12.774+00:00Del's Delicious Melt In Your Mouth Chocolate Brownies...<em>Previously published 28/08/2011 on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers. </a></em><br />
<br />
<br />
Del has spent many many years looking for and perfecting the perfect chocolate brownie.. and I think she's pretty close.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLRO2M6WvTWw2009w4l6jjJJ5kxdjSWYvw-4hJDjuTtIcH-Hs2yi-WyacUZE1IfRmtIAPepaVrNOxgwuDg_PK1XFDEg_nOV2KEYIK-GsvsVZKbTpU1zWG9hGphBuw3GWhMlKqkJHrjqY/s1600/august+food+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLRO2M6WvTWw2009w4l6jjJJ5kxdjSWYvw-4hJDjuTtIcH-Hs2yi-WyacUZE1IfRmtIAPepaVrNOxgwuDg_PK1XFDEg_nOV2KEYIK-GsvsVZKbTpU1zWG9hGphBuw3GWhMlKqkJHrjqY/s640/august+food+012.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
I have made these brownies too, and I was surprised at how easy they are to make! Served cold or hot with ice cream they are truly sublime.<br />
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Rather than keep the recipe a secret, I think it's always more fun to share the love.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/del-s-delicious-chocolate-brownies">Print This Recipe</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><b><u>Ingredients:</u></b><br />
<b><u><br />
</u></b><br />
250g of unsalted butter (softened and chopped in to small blocks)<br />
200g bar of plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids, broken up in to squares)<br />
65g of plain flour<br />
65g cocoa powder (the good stuff and definitely not drinking chocolate)<br />
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder<br />
300g of golden caster sugar<br />
3 large (happy) eggs and 1 large yolk<br />
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract<br />
50g of chopped walnuts (or another nut of your choice)<br />
50g of plain chocolate chips<br />
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They take about 15-20 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake. I left mine in the fridge over night but if you really can't wait put them in the fridge and wait for at least 1 hour.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Method:</u></b><br />
<b><u><br />
</u></b><br />
1. Pop your oven on first at 180 degrees (a little lower if fan assisted or gas mark 4). Line and grease a tin...my tin is about 10inch by 8 inch but I don't think it matters too much how big your tin is.<br />
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2. Melt the chocolate... some prefer to do this in a heat proof bowl over water... where as I prefer to just do it on a low heat in the pan. Meanwhile sift the flour, a pinch of salt, cocoa powder and baking powder in to a separate bowl (or do this before hand if you're worried about burning your chocolate, or get a handy helper to do this for you... <br />
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3. In another bowl beat the sugar and butter together until creamy, preferably with an electric whisk on slow. Slowly add in the eggs and the yolk.... the mixture should end up light and fluffy.<br />
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4. Gently fold in the melted chocolate and vanilla in to the butter and sugar mix. Then and the flour mixture, walnuts and chocolate chips.<br />
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5. Once all nicely folded together slowly tip (or spoon) the mixture in to your tin. Pop it on the middle shelf of the oven and leave for 30 minutes.<br />
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6. 30 minutes later the brownies should now have a thin crust on top but feel soft and not completely baked through. Cool the tin and then chill. (At least one hour, but I left mine over night in the fridge).<br />
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7. Once nicely chilled turn out the brownies and cut them in to bite sized pieces.<br />
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8. Now you can either eat these nice and cold with a hot cup of coffee or tea... Or you can pop them in the microwave for 1 minute and serve with creamy vanilla ice cream... I found some amazing clotted cream Cornish ice cream that worked really well with them. When the brownies are reheated they are VERY hot be careful I ended up with a very sore tongue trying to dive into these too soon.<br />
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*9. For extra brownie points... use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to scrape curls from any extra chocolate and sprinkle over the brownies.<br />
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<div align="center"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJkH33-UPRCG-vwLK4USPPvhr16SwzV_htPNfJk96phlrdFk9Ad5eBa0LMr4MItN_sXeNET7HYIVaHfK1vILjqrMz5_7DdbJzlg_wiYe9fLSQbu4Pdwq6hr_jN7wifsMtqiBMRwNKrE4/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJkH33-UPRCG-vwLK4USPPvhr16SwzV_htPNfJk96phlrdFk9Ad5eBa0LMr4MItN_sXeNET7HYIVaHfK1vILjqrMz5_7DdbJzlg_wiYe9fLSQbu4Pdwq6hr_jN7wifsMtqiBMRwNKrE4/s400/Untitled.png" width="295" /></a></div><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-31348415852996872472012-02-20T21:59:00.002+00:002013-02-26T13:05:33.159+00:00Apple and Almond Dessert Cake - Weekly Bake Off<i>Previously Published 12/02/2011 on <a href="http://www.breadsticklers.blogspot.com/">Breadsticklers.</a></i><br />
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I have been really excited about this bake all week, as I love apples and almonds in baking. I was so excited I even went out and bought a new tin...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9OpoIhqVD3wXyRJ2F2k878ECvVkFnF-VdNr1y1AwoXi1MGeV6jLQGXckQW7IpXd_bQACwy0GFBMT84gJVO5vKZbaz6MXEGaNfNb6LLBv00Kkcr1mzRRrBd2P_LqJokMGc60nqGReZn4Q/s1600/IMG_3169.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9OpoIhqVD3wXyRJ2F2k878ECvVkFnF-VdNr1y1AwoXi1MGeV6jLQGXckQW7IpXd_bQACwy0GFBMT84gJVO5vKZbaz6MXEGaNfNb6LLBv00Kkcr1mzRRrBd2P_LqJokMGc60nqGReZn4Q/s320/IMG_3169.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I decided to deviate away from the recipe... this started off as a little deviation, like adding cinnamon to the mixture... to deviating a bit more by adding more batter... and then deviating further by not 'sprinkling' the almonds on the top but actively placing them in a very neat way all over the top.<br />
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So... my cake looks very different to the picture in the book... and everyone else's. I'm trying to not be disheartened by this as the cake still tastes absolutely awesome. The deviations mean that the cake tastes that little bit more Dutch, has a crispy top and a lot of sponge.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_P93vYI9Jies99Dm8kv3ldwtIl-Y-CatM4SOXbxnNRiW4ct7VFCmJJmhtmqivtTKE1jCUl-_Or1eThw_GMzXIKqKA9aoQU8DivSXLbY7OxobyMKms9EpxpEyAD2h7gWyFYDuxK7vtRY/s1600/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU_P93vYI9Jies99Dm8kv3ldwtIl-Y-CatM4SOXbxnNRiW4ct7VFCmJJmhtmqivtTKE1jCUl-_Or1eThw_GMzXIKqKA9aoQU8DivSXLbY7OxobyMKms9EpxpEyAD2h7gWyFYDuxK7vtRY/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+001.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I should have made this in a bigger tin if I was going to add more batter but I was just doing this as I went along, it wasn't pre-thought-out. If I had of used a bigger tin then the top may have stayed looking as neat as when it first went in, I'm not so sure whether this had anything to do with my cake being a little wonky too or if this is my oven. The more I bake the more I start to notice that there are certain parts of my oven which are hotter than other parts.<br />
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I joined the weekly bake off to learn more about baking and to bake things I wouldn't normally chose to make. I have accomplished both of these things with this cake!<br />
<br />
If you are interested in making my version of this cake here is how I did it below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients:</u><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
3 Large eggs<br />
325g of caster sugar<br />
325g of self raising flour<br />
2 1/4 tsp baking powder<br />
3/4 tsp almond extract<br />
210g melted butter<br />
1 large bramley apple<br />
a lot of almonds<br />
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Method:</u><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
1. Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees (fan assisted temperature). Peel and core your apple and cut in to chunks.<br />
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2. Melt 140g of your butter in a pan on a low temperature, once melted take it off the heat and let it cool for two minutes.<br />
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3. Put two eggs, 225g of sugar, 225g of flour (sieved first), 1 and half tsp of baking powder, half a tsp of almond extract and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon in to a bowl. Then add in your melted butter and whisk until the mixture is thick.<br />
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4. I did a bit of research before making this cake on how to stop your cake going soggy with the apples. I came up with cooking the apples a little bit first. So with your buttery pan (the contents of which you have just poured in to the mixing bowl) put your apples in and cook on a low temperature. Once they have had 5-10 minuted on a low heat take them off and put to one side to cool.<br />
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5. Pour half of the mixture in to the bottom of your pan (probably best to use a 23cm) then add in your apple chunks trying to keep them in the middle away from the edges (otherwise they will protrude out of your sponge). Then pour the rest of the batter on the top. To keep it to Mary Berry's recipe (almost) stop here. Your batter may not cover all your apples but others seem to have found this and once cooked the apples have been completely covered.<br />
<br />
However... myself thinking I had done something wrong I decided to make more batter.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvcZXIbl1kdrAsLTHMDOjSP-uvg6TtwWyjGEKTMkpQHk_WQbgOzsKmYXY16u4mT8yQARCYH_a5EPiqn4jDI0f4MKiqMRxAmvNb5f02npuDnLjHlxXNPsjq3TUEGKN9G1DRYkvfwgKzq0/s1600/IMG_3191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvcZXIbl1kdrAsLTHMDOjSP-uvg6TtwWyjGEKTMkpQHk_WQbgOzsKmYXY16u4mT8yQARCYH_a5EPiqn4jDI0f4MKiqMRxAmvNb5f02npuDnLjHlxXNPsjq3TUEGKN9G1DRYkvfwgKzq0/s320/IMG_3191.JPG" /></a></div><br />
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 using the other egg, 100g of sugar, 100g of flour, and 3/4 tsp of baking powder, 1/4 tsp of almond extract, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 70g of melted butter. Then pour on top.<br />
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7. You can sprinkle you almonds all over the top almost covering or place them neatly like I did... it took me about 10-15 minutes to do this but I was in a very patient mood.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiZc5oL8oE3owll8NCTvYKxb_LvEnIoKf65Sm89JT__1Pc67v_lnZGG212ZO-fGdRfDJnBhy2uWjSI6PJu0C2KsPFCc8lmYKofvLweKvELwhoA-ufKqAqegXue-cxQFaMyhyphenhyphen_-SAmkVTM/s1600/IMG_3190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiZc5oL8oE3owll8NCTvYKxb_LvEnIoKf65Sm89JT__1Pc67v_lnZGG212ZO-fGdRfDJnBhy2uWjSI6PJu0C2KsPFCc8lmYKofvLweKvELwhoA-ufKqAqegXue-cxQFaMyhyphenhyphen_-SAmkVTM/s320/IMG_3190.JPG" /></a></div><br />
8. Place your cake in the centre of the oven and bake for 90 minutes. Your cake should be light and golden (hopefully not wonky like mine) a skewer should come out clean if you poke it through the centre.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrhWQEBusQQFejezaZZ84niBOxN7qM9KzH0oMLxMzxSP_cifiyc9p3NJFiHQDOxkIiOlJkffW_xyxl6bCjLeI74vHHgfQ9-lDnxYBSpCmi75gSc3gz93J3N2gBfNtfDr-YrJT_mdqOAs/s1600/IMG_3192.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrhWQEBusQQFejezaZZ84niBOxN7qM9KzH0oMLxMzxSP_cifiyc9p3NJFiHQDOxkIiOlJkffW_xyxl6bCjLeI74vHHgfQ9-lDnxYBSpCmi75gSc3gz93J3N2gBfNtfDr-YrJT_mdqOAs/s320/IMG_3192.JPG" /></a></div><br />
9. Take your cake out of the oven and cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/breadsticklers/apple-almond-and-cinnamon-cake">Print This Recipe </a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KU77lCzy2_vX0qg0BhXsVX8GysPF0rW8qPoUY2Lzm-G1WGDy5K1zHc8E2lADq1rJ1gpbYQDr9tvsC5_AopE0sRGJrdvBQRwSkXXu-1lb89p2yHeqDT3e-XhOaG5PJlxSWD3ou54voWg/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+003.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIagtIRBRPOiOnkJHYZuq3Ds0tocGqqiJBarCsdfwevHwU6hnwojKNJ8QM18ZTAvG6NGumFwFQ_OEtRwpCsLn11yztmGp25sAMZYtd93lZnSxhg1DGb3RupKQGs9ejcAc3xT-Px-3q2B4/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+008.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv2FZvr1ibw_5rzHm3pOLpMxNNc5bAChcp4lrz6ncs4Yt8a6sQv4E2RaSgRZZZ8CxIFTVajVv7Q7dx_YDXC-6RiUOyHkJU7Gnee-WYmTQuCOqmT2dSYfXd9QlnQCe6lXIkhE4rOAD16Rw/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+010.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi351QZOsvHPNW9S-sXt_DoDLaRNbWYUUYmZntzxRafYRU9gxVCWAn_sD3ZImj4ElcrBDbvXrhyphenhyphenwFj8o5GKfwWj6jciNfAYc02pg9ia5TnHDrX6LZ9nYdIXphgn4okV5qRzbt6BlnAnDFM/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+019.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVZKdw_ShK1ENCwOtT8EJQV3KMkFLc4oUaL04Ot2OK5EoUfYifoyPKput7vVu_W_YBofryAIGWqmBBkZBTAmmM-L_P1mwWsIqVkbjmflNRrZzIT3bFeM-puAxqY5ZUhLWmVHrggovnYg/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+028.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9ghxQgp-H_KdnJOo2bPp2a1p2LG_WuO5Z0sWqlIVafDGIyh9-alpWK5HO4jxumlA-o8KGP-jSxCfNHMB-FV03a0get63vMABYYnNDBgqvCu1lO9Yq_XNYs9EShBR4jmlegD5-6_eDYg/s400/Apple+and+Almond+Cake+Dessert+036.JPG" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8BqZvbr9hywkGfbxMEoCG27qe-Jk8P7IJ6R7C7HgRyHiMxGUGf7YE2rPbp4BASc8YClyeAo7imaOguxOPdfj34ouTbX4U1K3sG4JaLfpZbhxGtFJZ4RR4sr4ZIl9dilQ8C-g91gL_J4/s1600/Im+in+the+weekly+bake+off.png" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://weeklybakeoff.blogspot.com/">Weekly Bake Off Page</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-78704097364486752952012-02-19T21:13:00.002+00:002012-02-19T21:14:48.746+00:00Profiteroles - My first attempt at Choux Pastry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1R0-cBXSm5iyIxt0lfxTIrv0ErbMl-fxqNFRjTgheq94SU8IdQ1-EVQTwv1FYU5WVsWm_ZPHoQ_g1bWyif75fNk0NaV3OGG9z7DnIAV1TIjcAirBN4oc6nkgTpA8p8oO-T45eghognQA/s1600/Profiteroles+024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1R0-cBXSm5iyIxt0lfxTIrv0ErbMl-fxqNFRjTgheq94SU8IdQ1-EVQTwv1FYU5WVsWm_ZPHoQ_g1bWyif75fNk0NaV3OGG9z7DnIAV1TIjcAirBN4oc6nkgTpA8p8oO-T45eghognQA/s640/Profiteroles+024.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
There what you see above is my first attempt at choux pastry. I've heard that it is hard and watched those poor bakers on The Great British Bake Off be criticised for their attempts. My mum put it to me as ' they're just a bit of a faff' but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be... or maybe I was just incredibly lucky this time!<br />
<br />
Yes I did make them a little on the large size.. the recipe said that the mixture would make 48.. whereas my big dollops only made 14. The larger size had no impact on their taste it just meant you had to cut them in half as you definitely couldn't just pop one in your mouth. No one seemed to have any qualms with massive profiteroles either I may add.<br />
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They came out lovely and light on the inside and crisp on the outside. They took a little longer in the oven as they were so big, and I was getting a little worried at one point that I may accidentally over bake them, but I played it by eye and everything turned out okay.<br />
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I used a recipe from the Great British Bake Off book which I got for Christmas after pining over it for months, and this is the first thing I've actually managed to bake from it!<br />
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I watched a few youtube videos beforehand so I could try and master the technique but it turns out the professional chefs make it look <u>a lot</u> easy than it is! I also noted from watching the clips that some of the recipes deviate a little from the one I was using, some tend to use milk and water for the pastry whilst the recipe in this book just uses water.
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The GBBO book gives you the recipe for choux pastry and how to make this in to éclairs and profiteroles, it also gives you three filling recipes: almond filing, chantilly cream and pastry cream. I made the recommended chantilly cream and chocolate sauce. The cream turned out wonderfully and it was actually a lot easier than I thought to fill the buns. It made me smile to see them inflate ever so slightly with the soft and luxurious cream.<br />
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When it came to serving I sprinkled some icing sugar on top (not mentioned in the recipe) and poured on the chocolate sauce. The sauce was very rich and if I was making again I may use a milkier chocolate to make the sauce but no one else complained so was probably just me being picky!<br />
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I am definitely going to try choux pastry again, I may try my hand at éclairs but I think I would also like to try out my own recipe too. I would one day like to be able to make a croquembouche but I think a few more practise runs will have to take place first, I also need to practise size control!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934165801675233708.post-55433627651621741812012-02-19T16:47:00.000+00:002013-02-26T13:09:10.613+00:00An Introduction...The purpose of this blog is purely selfish. I want to learn how to be a domestic goddess.<br />
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There are many definitions of 'Domestic Goddess', mainly those attributing the domestic goddess to being a homemaker, a woman who effortlessly keeps the house in order whilst being the ultimate entertainer, cook and baker. I did find wikipedia's definitions amusing.. type in domestic goddess to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_Goddess">wikipedia</a> and it comes up with Nigella Lawson, a household deity or an American cooking show.<br />
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Unfortunately I am not attempting to be a household deity:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaeMjV4J2ho8GLMq00gMwuhIyoEIgDv-sKkjfIfraUZQJamnOSZtC4xXq4QWyz8gVBjIiaQtpGa03dexhF0EarOteq8JKz6PBSINvPeGzA3bUZzWYz1K97-BpLIoR6XWdCd_kCeuNAw9ab/s1600/Domovoi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaeMjV4J2ho8GLMq00gMwuhIyoEIgDv-sKkjfIfraUZQJamnOSZtC4xXq4QWyz8gVBjIiaQtpGa03dexhF0EarOteq8JKz6PBSINvPeGzA3bUZzWYz1K97-BpLIoR6XWdCd_kCeuNAw9ab/s320/Domovoi.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_deity">(A household deity/spirit)</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>A spirit who protects the home and key members within, often being invited to attend family meals and shines built in order to please and maintain the 'domestic goddess'.<br />
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I will be more attempting to be the domestic goddess in the Nigella sense of the phrase, by attempting to cook and bake my way to household perfection.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYo39AoG6Bsvwl-eNeprdqinJSLbNAljlHlxHDI93pd6Nu1cznXAM37HZfzD_R9huPS4UEmt9enp7tzFqEiLsPIyAbMcWBoqKXD8Ha-f3jEOaRVtogzL72FiUIimbpqIwCk3YYR_Z2P5s/s1600/how-to-be-a-domestic-goddess-baking-and-the-art-of-comfort-cooking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYo39AoG6Bsvwl-eNeprdqinJSLbNAljlHlxHDI93pd6Nu1cznXAM37HZfzD_R9huPS4UEmt9enp7tzFqEiLsPIyAbMcWBoqKXD8Ha-f3jEOaRVtogzL72FiUIimbpqIwCk3YYR_Z2P5s/s320/how-to-be-a-domestic-goddess-baking-and-the-art-of-comfort-cooking.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(I bought this book in the January sales)</div><br />
I am not a stay at home mum, in fact I don't even have any children, I'm not a housewife, I'm not even married. I work full time, I intend to make a career for myself but I also want to be able to do all that housewives of the past have done too. I want to know how to make the perfect steak pie, cheesecake, cupcake, croquembouche even?<br />
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So join me on my discovery to domestic goddessness occasionally sharing recipes I have created and reviewing those I have followed.<br />
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I am making a promise to you that I will post all my attempts, even those which haven't turned out so well, see my mistakes and how I learn not to make the same ones again. Obviously I will be sharing my successes and triumph's which I hope will lead me on my way to becoming the domestic goddess I wish to be.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623635740431386160noreply@blogger.com0