Muesli Cookies

Last week, as you may have read, my Mum in law came to stay with us for the week. We haven't seen her for ages as she lives on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. We had a really lovely time, and I think she appreciated my baking efforts!
What has this to do with muesli cookies, well, I remembered that Ann likes muesli, so I had bought some in especially. After she had gone, there was still quite a bit left, so I thought I'd use it up on these cookies!
I always think that one of the tests of how good something is, is the length of time it lasts, or does not last in our house.  Put it like this. I made them on Saturday, and there are still 5 left in the container. Tom is slowly working his way through them, but everyone else has steered clear!!!  They were nearly as bad as the pretzels I made in week one!
Mary does say that the flavour and texture will vary depending on the muesli that you use. I used an Asda's own brand, but its quite a good quality one. The result was a rather tasteless cookie.
Scoring is difficult for these because depending who you speak to in our house, you get a different response. It probably averages out at a disappointing 5.0. Still, we haven't had a disappointment for a long time, and maybe it was the type of muesli. I won't be rushing to bake them again.
Still, now that I have got up to date with my blogging, I can start on the hot cross buns - watch this space!

Fairy Cakes

I also made these fairy cakes for the school Spring fair. It felt a bit like cheating as last week I made the iced fairy cakes. These are exactly the same recipe as the iced ones, but it is still a separate recipe so it all counts. I guess its called "filling out the book"!
I don't know who would eat a fairy cake without any icing on it, so having dutifully taken a picture of my "fairy cakes", I then proceeded to decorate them with chocolate icing and tiny eggs.
I got the cake cases and toppers in the discount store. 24 for £1, what a bargain!

Chocolate Crispies

Having watched Mary & Paul's Easter bake off last night, I feel quite inspired. However, I am behind with my blogging, so before I can start baking hot cross buns and Simnel cake, I need to get up to date.
I made these chocolate crispies last Friday for our school Spring Fair. There is not much to say about them really. They are dead easy!
The cake stall at the fair raised £160, which was brilliant, seeing as everything was donated.
We gave them a score of 8.0

Just in case you are interested, this is my 40th recipe! Not exactly a challenging one, in fact probably the easiest in the book!

Divine Chocolate Birthday Cake

No, it was not another birthday in our house, but with our Sunday guests including two little boys, I thought a chocolate (fudge) cake would be in order.
This recipe does not use flour, but ground almonds instead. It also uses 6 eggs!
It was fairly straight forward, although it did not rise as much as I had hoped for. I am not sure if I whisked the eggs for long enough - what does stiff but not dry look like anyway?!
When it had finished baking, the top of the cake had a rather large crack, and it was quite flaky, rather like a very large brownie!
I was not feeling very hopeful, but need not have worried. Once covered with apricot jam, and chocolate icing, it looked much better. I didn't feel it needed any decoration, as it was not for a birthday, so I just grated some white chocolate on it.
This cake went down very well with some cream. Again it scored 9.0, and was a great hit with our little guests - we've got the marks on the walls to prove it!! (only joking Jen, it all came off, so no lasting damage!!)

Easy lemon Cheesecake

On Sunday we had friends to lunch, so with Ad's mum, that made 11 of us! Another baking opportunity.
This cheesecake was, as the title suggests, easy. Unlike the cheesecakes that I normally make, this one used a flan dish, and said to push the biscuit mixture up the sides as well. I was a bit skeptical as there was not loads of base mix, however, it was just right. I should add here, that my flan dish has a loose bottom, which turned out to be very useful for getting the cheesecake out.
The filling involved cream, condensed milk, low fat soft cheese, and 3 lemons - juice and rind (my zester proved handy once again!) I actually used the juice of 3 and the rind of only 2 as I had already taken rind off one lemon for my madeira cake. The flavour was just right.
It scored an excellent 9.0 from the guests, and by Sunday night had completely gone!
Oh, I should add that Mary says to decorate with whipped cream as well as strawberries, but to be honest, I couldn't be bothered, and it tasted just fine without - sorry Mary!
By the way, is anyone else seeing Paul Hollywood everywhere?!  I enjoyed his bread programme this week, but I must not get distracted by different recipes, its Mary or nothing - sorry Paul!

p.s for those of you who are following this blog regularly, I managed to take a picture of the returned comic relief fairy cakes, for your amusement!

Iced Fairy Cakes

On Thursday evening, after a busy day,(for me, not for Ben), Ben came home from school and said that they had been asked to take in cakes to raise money for comic relief.
It was rather last minute, but I thought it would be shameful if after all this baking, I couldn't rustle up a few fairy cakes!
Mary didn't let me down - these were so quick to make, and turned out really nicely. The ones in the book are decorated with dolly mixtures, but I thought the cherries were a good look for Red Nose Day.
I felt very pleased with my little cakes and put them in a box for Ben to take into school. On Friday morning, we carefully put them into a carrier bag, making sure the box was facing the right way.
Now, it should be said that Ben walks to school on his own, and I follow later with Nathan. I don't usually see Ben in the playground, but on Friday morning, I happened to see him chatting to his friends. In his hand was the carrier bag with an upturned box!! My lovely cakes! Oh well, pride comes before a fall.
I wish I had thought to take another picture of the cakes after their visit to school. Ben had the sense to not hand them in, having seen them all stuck to the box, and each other, so he brought them home. They still tasted ok, they just didn't look very pretty!
Oh well, lesson learned - next time I bake for school, take the cakes in myself!
They scored 8.5, and a word to all you busy mums - they are easy peasy to make, and kids love them!

Madeira Cake

My Mum in law came down from the Isle of Lewis on Thursday, so I decided to bake a cake for the occasion. I decided on a Madeira cake - the first recipe in the book.
The recipe was straight forward and turned out ok, although it says to put a slice of citron peel on top - what is that Mary? Is it a slice or lemon, or orange peel? I didn't bother as it seemed to be more for decoration than flavour.
The cake is fairly plain, which I guess is right for Madeira cake. It tasted fine but we gave it 7.5, probably because we like things with a little more flavour.

Crunchy top lemon cake

I made this on Mother's day, with my newly acquired zester, which I had been bought for the occasion. Clearly I am grating so many lemons that my family think I need help!
When I first opened my present, I thought it looked rather like a large version of something you would use to take dry skin off your feet!!
Having wondered whether I really needed this gadget, I thought I would give it a try, so I made a Sunday afternoon cake!
The zester was brilliant, and definitely going to be very useful. The lemon cake on the other hand was ok, but not quite as good as usual, only scoring 7.5
The crunchy top was great, but there was not enough lemon flavour in the sponge. A bit more zest would have done the trick!

Sticky Ginger and Orange Cake

I made this for a coffee morning that I had been invited to. The recipe said that it was best to store the cake for a couple of days before icing, as it allowed the cake to mature and become moist and sticky. I was able to do this, and iced it on the morning.
I have to say that it was rather a nervous moment for me when people started tucking into it, having not been able to try it first, but Mary did not let me down.
It was really delicious, and not unlike Jamaica ginger cake. The only disappointment was that there was only a small piece to bring home! It scored 9.0

Crown Loaf

As well as the apple tart, I made this last Friday to go with the meal we were having - I feel that I have to mention at this point, that Adam cooked the main meal - Aubergine Moussaka! Yes, one of our guests was vegetarian, otherwise, this probably would not have been on the menu. However, it was really very tasty, and although Ad and I enjoy our meat, we really didn't miss it. Not sure the kids would think the same though!
This turned out to be another delicious bread, and very easy to make. I did, however make the mistake of leaving it to prove for too long under clingfilm that had not been oiled - note for next time. When I went to take the clingfilm off, the mixture had all stuck to it, and completely lost its shape. Not wishing to be defeated, I took it out the tin, and "knocked it back" again and set about dividing it into twelve balls for the second time. Thankfully it still rose, and turned out beautifully when cooked.
Another good score of 8.5
I notice that Paul Hollywood is doing a new series on bread making starting next week, so that should be one to watch.

French Apple Tart

I made this dessert last Friday as we had some friends coming round for a meal. The recipe said to make the pastry using  an egg, but as one of our guests does not eat egg, I made the pastry with flour, butter and water instead. It tasted fine.It was quite a lot of work, as it involved making an apple puree to go under the sliced apples, however, it was very tasty, and worth the effort. Next time I would put more sliced apple on top. My apples were rather small, so the slices did not look as impressive as Mary's!
I can't honestly remember what score we gave it, probably about 8.5, but our guests enjoyed it, and that's what counts.

Maple Syrup Cake

 It was Ben's 11th Birthday yesterday, and here he is with his Maple Syrup Cake.
As you can see it was quite substantial!
It was straight forward to make. My only comment would be that the recipe says "fill and cover ahead of time so that the cake keeps moist". I made it on Friday, and although it was still lovely and moist, the cream covering very quickly cracked, and it didn't look quite so attractive.
The cake received mixed reviews. The general verdict was that it was a nice cake, texture etc, but it was not everyone's choice.
Mum gave it a 9.0, but Ben only gave it 7.0, which was a shame. I think when he chose it, he did not realise that it had pecans in.
Overall score 8.0

Coffee and Banana Vacherin

Having been left with three egg whites from the sweet pastry of the lemon tart, I decided to make a second dessert for Sunday lunch.
This proved to be quick and easy. The meringue uses light muscovado sugar, which is why it looks brown. The filling inside is whipped cream with coffee and chopped bananas.
One thing I have learned this weekend is that when you add liquid to whipped cream, instead of making it runnier as you would imagine, it thickens it up. This also happened with the filling to Ben's birthday cake, when I added maple syrup, so I don't think its a coincidence. The answer is not to over whip the cream. The "vacherin" (posh word for meringue), scored 8.5, and went down well. I should add that, had I piped the meringue carefully, it would have looked rather more attractive. I got into a bit of a mess with a piping bag that was too small and ended up just spreading the meringue mix into circles.
Mary doesn't suggest it, but I put a few pieces of dried banana on the cream for decoration - the fruit and fibre came in very handy!

Glazed Lemon Tart

It was Ben's 11th Birthday yesterday, which led to rather a baking frenzy on my part.
We were having family for Sunday lunch - as well as a joint of beef! - so I let Ben choose a dessert. This was his choice - glazed lemon tart.
As you know, we like lemons, and so it is not unheard of for us to buy a pre-made lemon tart or "tarte au citron" as it is called. I was nervous that this might not live up to the standard!
For a start, I had to make sweet pastry - another first for me. I didn't realise before, but it uses egg 3 yolks (that answered a problem for me in what to do with my yolks when I next made a meringue, but I now felt I needed to make a meringue to use the egg whites left from this!!!!)
The pastry was rather a nightmare to roll out and get into the flan dish. Ben reminded me of what Claudia Winkleman did on the comic relief bake off. She was making lemon meringue pie I think, and she ended up  pressing the pastry in. Mine didn't end up quite as bad as that, as thankfully Ad had the good idea of putting a thin chopping mat underneath the pastry and we were able to slide most of it into place. I just patched up the rest.
I have to say that after the very lemony lemon meringue, I was a little more cautious with my use of lemons in the filling - I shouldn't have been.
The overall verdict was 8.5. It could have done with being a bit more lemony. I should say however, that I did only put one lemon on top to decorate, and Mary says to use two. If you used two on top, and were happy to eat the lemon slices then I think it would be fine. They actually tasted fine with it - maybe because they had been soaked in syrup for 2 hours!

Honey-glazed walnut bread

The time had come to attempt something from the bread chapter! I confess to have been putting this off, but I need not have worried. Mary says "this recipe makes good bread, very quickly!", and she is right.
It was really delicious, and for my first attempt at bread, I was very pleased. I should add at this point, (because he needs the credit - you know how it is?!) that Adam glazed the loaves for me, and put them in the oven, as I was out.
We ate some slices cold, but also, as Mary said it made the best toast ever, we did have a couple of slices toasted with jam - Yum! We gave it 9.0, and I would definitely make this again. Having said that, the kids did not particularly like it, but then that's more for Ad and I!!

Oat Rounds

I haven't been very good at keeping up to date this week. I have done lots of baking, just not lots of blogging!
Last Tuesday evening Tom and I were having a conversation about the lack of digestive biscuits in the house (he is a hungry teenager!), when I remembered that Mary had her own version of digestives in her book.
The recipe only required four ingredients, all of which we had, so no sooner had we had the conversation, the oven was on!
These were very easy to make, and turned out to be very tasty. Tom was a great help, and even managed to get 17 biscuits out of the mixture- Mary suggested 16. They scored 8.5 We would definitely make them again. They were good dunked in tea, but also with nutella spread on them - not my idea, but apparently it took the rating up to 9.0!