Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies, not to be mistaken with the previous Double Chocolate Cookies.
These ones were made with egg, whereas the others were made with condensed milk.
Again, these were simple to make, although the recipe did require the egg to be mixed in slowly to the butter and sugar. My experience of this is that it usually curdles, but not today!
The cookies only took 10 mins to cook, and were slightly chewy.  As you can see, some of the cookies were more well done than others, but I hid those ones underneath! Isn't that what they do on the British Bake Off?! Also, Mary said it made about 20, but we only made 16. So far, I find Mary to be quite optimistic about portions - or maybe we are just greedy!
Score 8.0

Chocolate Victoria Sandwich

Well, I did bake, and not just one, but two recipes!
It was rather a case of which ingredients I had in the cupboard.
This chocolate victoria sandwich cake was fairly straight forward.
It had a nice texture, and was quite light, but we felt it lacked enough chocolaty flavour. As a result of this, it only scored 7.5 in our house.
Thankfully, there were others close at hand (naming no names) who thought it was delicious, so we were able to share generously!

Sponge Christening Cake

 This week, it was my lovely Nan's 96th Birthday, and I had the privilege of baking her a cake.
I had a good look through the book and decided to bake this sponge cake with lemon curd and cream filling.
This recipe was probably the most complicated one that I have done so far, but thanks to Mary's clear instructions, I got there.
The recipe required me to  whisk the eggs and sugar over a bowl of hot water until creamy and thick. This took a lot longer than I had expected. Probably about 10 minutes - my arm ached by the end!
It was worth the extra effort, as the sponge was light and delicious. My Nan loved it, which was the most important thing. It received a score of 9.5, my highest yet!
I have not done any baking since Tuesday - my longest break so far, so I am beginning to wonder whether I've got time to bake something for Sunday tea. Watch this space.....
p.s Apologies to my regular testers, but the cake was demolished by family!

Double Chocolate Cookies

I made these last Monday, but have only just got round to posting them.
As you may remember, we had a lot of snow last Sunday, so on Monday morning, the kids lined up to hear whether their schools were going to be open. It was bad news for all the boys - they would have to trudge through the snow, but good news for Ellie.
We decided, that as it was cold outside, we would bake!!
These cookies were very simple to make, and didn't take long. You have to leave the mixture to chill before making the biscuits, but it didn't take long - probably about 15 mins.
In Mary's book it says not to overcook the cookies. Unfortunately I was rather distracted at the time, and so what did we do? Thats right, we overcooked them! Still, they were not burned, just well done, and more crunchy than they should have been.
They received a score of 8.0, and were obviously popular with the kids, because they did not last long - nor did Ellies time off school. Much to the relief of her brothers, she was back on Tuesday!

Lemon Drizzle Traybake

Yum!
As the battenburg didn't seem to last long, and as we have friends coming round, I thought it would be a good idea to bake this lemon drizzle traybake.
As is becoming quite common, I didn't have the right tray. Apparently you need a 12 x 9 inch  traybake. Actually, I think I need to buy one of these as there are several recipes that need one this size.
I had something smaller which was quite shallow, and meant that the mixture ballooned a bit over the sides. However, it did not matter - I just cut the extra bits off. They were good for doing a taste test on.
The taste test gave it 8.5
This recipe is easy and tastes lovely. It cuts into quite a lot of pieces, so hopefully this will last longer than the battenburg!

Battenburg

First of all, don't laugh. My husband took this photo of my battenburg alongside Mary's one in the book. He thought it would be good to compare them!
No, I didn't use green food colouring, it was red, and no, it wasn't past its sell by date, I bought it this morning!
Having made the sponge mixture, I divided it into two parts, and added red food colouring to one part. Mary said to use a few drops. This did not seem to do much, so I added some more. The colour still didn't look that great, but more lilac than green! I was worried that if I put more colouring in, it would change the consistency of the sponge, so I left it at that. I reassured myself that the colour would become more vibrant on cooking - Wrong!!
What a disappointment!
Having said that, I was told by my family, that as long as you eat it with your eyes closed, it gets 8.0.
It certainly can't be that bad, because its all gone!

Cupcakes

 A good friend of mine asked me to make some cupcakes for her daughter's birthday so on Friday I made these cakes from Mary Berry's book.
I have to say that although I used the recipe, I used more mixture than Mary suggested in the cupcakes in order to make large ones - she says it makes 12, but I would say it only makes 8 large ones. It would be fine if you had the smaller cases. Also I had to double the quantity of icing in order to have enough to ice them like this. I did put some Asda edible glitter on them, but was rather disappointed as it didn't show up much.
We of course, still did a taste test, and they recieved 9.0 from our family, however what was most important was that the birthday girl liked them, which I hear she did!

Banana & Honey Teabread

Banana & Honey Teabread
This week at Asda I bought a bargain bag of bananas, and guess what, we have not been able to eat them all before they have over ripened. However, this is not a problem, as Mary has another banana loaf for me to try. I felt  excited at the prospect of another banana loaf, as the last one was so nice. Unfortunately this one did not turn out so well!
Everything was going smoothly - I had cooked it for 1hour, 10mins and done the skewer test. I took it out of the oven, and left it to cool. While I was not looking, it went from nicely risen, to sunk in the middle!!
I am not sure why this has happened, but I have taken comfort from the fact that, on the other blog that I have found called "rising to the berry", the lady also had exactly the same problem! Don't worry, if you do look at her blog, I am not planning to write a book! I'm not sure if I put too much honey in it. Having said that, it doesn't have a soggy bottom, and we all know how important that is in a cake!
It is very moist, bananary and honeyee (not a word, I know), but not my favourite so far.
Our next door neighbour has just popped round to pick up a parcel, so I have given him a slice as he was happy to try some. I know he will let me have his honest opinion!!!
I am only giving it 6.5. Not sure what the kids will think.
I might put a picture of the loaf when I next upload my photos, but to be honest, its not pretty!
What to do with the two remaining over ripe bananas - smoothie anyone?!



Well, here is the picture - as you can see, it was not my finest hour!

Hot Lemon Souffle Pudding

I now know why there are not pictures of all of the recipes in the book! Some of the things are just not that pretty - like this lemon souffle! As you can see, I tried to make it look better with some icing sugar. It covers a multitude of sins!

As my mum and dad were coming for Sunday lunch, I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to try one of Mary's puddings.
This was fairly easy to make and received 8.0
The flavour was good although it could have been a bit more lemony, but not everyone liked the texture. The top is a spongy mousse and underneath is a lemon sauce. The top got a little bit burnt, but I just scraped it off. It didnt' affect the taste too much!
All in all, I have had a very busy baking week. I am not planning much this week, although I have been asked to make some birthday cupcakes, so that should be fun.
6 down only 213 to go!

Chocolate Rum Cake - Yo ho ho
As it was the weekend, I thought I would try something a bit different yesterday.
I managed to require some rum, which apparently had belonged to my Grandpa.These things improve with age don't they?!
My first problem, which I think is going to be a re-occurring problem was that I did not have the right size deep cake tin. Having looked through the book I think Lakeland is going to become my favourite shop this year! I ending up solving the problem by using a loose bottomed tin, which seemed to work ok.
 The making of the cake was slightly more complicated than the other recipes that I've done, but nothing too challenging.  Ellie was on hand to help, which was great. She stays around for the washing up as well unlike others I could name.... When I took it out the oven, 10 mins early, it looked rather dry and unappealing. However, having read someone elses attempt at this cake, I was reassured that it would be moist inside. It was, and it smelled delicious.
The icing required yet more chocolate and butter - great for the diet, but hopefully it was worth it.
This was tested by the wider family this weekend, and received 8.0. I have also given out several portions to friends in order to share the love/calories around.
Someone did ask if Mary did a vodka cake, but I'm not sure that recipe is in the book!!!!! I hope you all enjoyed it. Now at least our neighbour has something to compare the victoria sponge cake with!
5 made only 214 to go!

Banana Loaf
I made the banana loaf on Thursday as I had a couple of over ripe bananas.
I confess that I have made this recipe previously (having borrowed it from my mum), so I knew that it was a good one.
It scored 9.5!
I don't really have a bad word to say about this recipe. It is very quick and easy as you just throw all the ingredients in together and mix for a couple of minutes. It said to bake it for an hour, but mine only took 50 mins.
It comes highly recommended, especially to those of you who don't usually bake - you can't really go wrong!
As its the weekend, I plan to make a lemon souffle, and a chocolate rum cake - watch this space!

Sugared Pretzels
I don't plan on baking everyday, but our two eldest kids had gone back to school, leaving Ben & Nathan at home. Getting into the baking spirit, they asked if we could make something. I gave them the choice, and Ben chose Pretzels.
Now I have to say that our experience of pretzels is limited to the delicious "Mr Pretzel" stall at Bluewater - they offer free samples, which our kids always try! I had a feeling that we were going to be disappointed by the home made ones, and I was right!
We started off by making the "pastry". It seemed very sticky to me, and I had to use quite a lot of flour in order to knead the mixture. It then had to be chilled. By this time, the boys had realized that these pretzels were not going to be as big as the Mr Pretzel ones and began to lose interest! By the time the mixture had finished chilling in the fridge the boys were both otherwise engaged and I was left to tie the knots - no I can't even blame the boys for my attempts -its harder than it looks!
The finished result made 10 pretzels rather than the 16 that Mary said. Her ones must be really small, but  there is no picture to compare them with. We dipped them in icing sugar mixed with cinnamon (Mary suggests just icing sugar), and this did redeem them slightly!
The taste test gave the pretzels an average of 5.5
Part of me feels like I could do with trying them again to check that I didn't make a mistake, but as I still have 216 other recipes to do, they might have to wait!

Rock Cakes
I always associate rock cakes with Sunday afternoons. When I was small we used to visit my great aunt and she always had a supply of rock cakes for us. Now my mum makes them with the grandchildren and they are a particular favourite with our boys. Mum's ones have a very good reputation in our house, so Mary had a lot to live up to!
As it was Sunday afternoon, and I actually had the ingredients in the cupboard, I thought they were worth a try.
Unfortunately the verdict was "not as good as Nanny's"! Mary's rock cakes only scored 6.

They looked nice, and were a sensible size (although some people thought they were too small - 

Nanny's are bigger!) but they seemed to lack flavour. We all agreed that the recipe needs Mixed spice.

2 Recipes made only 217 to go!

First Bake - Large All-in-one Victoria Sandwich

This is not the first cake in the book - its the second. Having decided to set out on this project, I realized that I didn't have any lemons or ground almonds to make the madeira cake, which is the first recipe!  Having looked through the book, I have decided not to bake everything in order - the chapter on chocolate might be too much of a challenge, even for us!

Ellie (my 13year old daughter) and I made the Victoria Sandwich Cake together this afternoon. It was very quick and easy, and we were very pleased with the finished result. Mary said to cook it for 25 mins, but ours could have done with a few minutes less, as it looked browner than the one in her book.

The family gave it average score of 8.5, which I was pretty pleased with. Adam said it would have received more points if it had cream in, but I assured him that I would be sticking to Mary's recipes, and she did not say to fill it with cream! He does however have a point, and it would be nice with cream in!

Our neighbour, to whom we gave a piece to try said that he thinks the project is an excellent idea, but would not be able to rate the cake until he had something to compare it with - like a chocolate cake!!!

So far so good. One down, only 218 to go. The book says over 250 recipes, but I have just counted them, and I only made it 219. I guess they included all the little variations, which would make the number greater. I don't intend to do all those as well.  

What have I done?!

"Taste and see that the Lord is good" Psalm 34 v 8 (NIV Bible)