Butterfly Cakes

Yesterday,having excelled myself at lunch time, I realized that there was no cake for Sunday tea! This is rather a crime in our house these days, so I knocked up some butterfly cakes! Also, one of our guests had shown an interest in seeing my mixer, so what better than to put it to work.
These were so quick to make, and were lovely and light. Unfortunately our friends didn't get to taste them as they had to leave  while they were cooling, but I can assure them, they were very tasty!
My only comment on the recipe is that there is far too much icing for one batch of cakes. I would probably use half as much. Also, Ellie and I just spooned the mixture in rather than piping it, since it was only for family. We gave them 8.5

Austrian Apricot Tart

 My second dessert for Sunday lunch was this Austrian Apricot and Almond Tart. It was really delicious and a hit with our guests. It received a 9.5!
I was able to prepare the tart on Saturday and leave it in the fridge overnight, which was really handy.
The pastry was of the sweet, temperamental variety, however I have now come up with an excellent way of getting it into the flan dish, thanks to my mum.
Last time I made this sort of pastry, I rolled it out on a flexible  chopping mat, and then slid it into the flan dish. This time it was more tricky to do this, so mum suggested  flipping the mat over instead. The pastry went in perfectly, and I hardly had to do any patching up! I did the same with the lid.
The filling was simply grated marzipan - much easier to grate than you imagine - and tinned apricots.
I should also add that I made this in a 9inch loose bottomed flan tin. The recipe suggests a 10inch one, but I have learned to make do. My baking cupboard is already quite full, and enough crashing of tins goes on, without adding another flan tin to it!
The great thing about making  it in a smaller tin was that there was pastry left over for a couple of jam tarts, and also 4 mini apricot tarts, which we enjoyed on Saturday night.

Strawberry Pavlova

Yesterday we had some friends for lunch. Now, I am not sure that I should say this, but I only actually have two official followers of my blog - not that I am disheartened, as I have had over 1600 page views, so far - one of my followers is my sister in law - thanks Wendy, hope you are enjoying it,  and the other is a friend, who came for lunch yesterday.
I really felt that I ought to give her the Berry treatment, so baked two desserts.
Now, I really like meringues, but I can't seem to get them right. I followed Mary's instructions, and should have turned out a meringue that was "pale beige" in colour. This one was rather browner than I had hoped, and definitely more cracked, as you can see. The good news is that it still tasted delicious and was enjoyed by our guests. Next time I bake one though, I shall reduce the temperature on my oven. My feeling is that it was too hot.
It was given a 9.0!

Lemon Drizzle Traybake

Back in January, I said on my blog that I had made a lemon drizzle traybake. What I had actually made was an iced lemon traybake. Notice the difference in topping! That is all that is different.
I was going to a pta meeting last Tuesday, and thought that a bit of cake would help!
Personally I prefer the iced version, but this was very tasty as well. 8.5

Fast Flapjacks

I made these flapjacks quickly yesterday afternoon - why I hear you ask, when there was already chocolate cake, fruit cake and left over ginger cake on the table?!
Well, some of our Sikh friends do not eat egg, so I wanted to offer them an alternative. There are not many recipes in the book without eggs, so I am always glad to come across one.
I do already have a great flapjack recipe which contains condensed milk, and is delicious, so I was not sure these were going to be as good. I need not have worried, they were delicious, and even better after I had used the left over chocolate icing to dip them in!! Sorry - no photo, and I would go and take a picture of them, except that they are all gone. The last four went in the kids lunch boxes this morning. Actually all the cake from Adam's birthday has been eaten or distributed, which I consider a success!
Just a word about the flapjack, I needed to cook them for the full 35mins. Often I cook things for less than Mary says, but these needed the full time. Also, although she didn't suggest it, I used baking parchment as I wanted to be able to remove them easily. This was not a good idea as they were really quite greasy underneath, and I ended up blotting them all on some kitchen roll.
These scored 9.5, and were great, but beware, one is never enough!

Death by Chocolate Cake

 On Sunday afternoon, to celebrate Ad's birthday, we had some of the neighbours round for cake, and a few games. Adam loves playing board games, and is always keen to inflict/share them with others!! We had a great time, and I think they all enjoyed it.
As you see, this was Adam's second birthday cake. Some of our friends do not like fruit cake, and any excuse to make a chocolate cake!
I actually made the sponge earlier in the week and froze it. I defrosted it yesterday morning and iced it after lunch.
Having made the icing, I know why it is called death by chocolate. The icing contains nearly a whole block of butter and over two bars of chocolate. We are not planning death by cake on our neighbours, but having seen the cholesterol content on the table, they had better watch out!
The cake was very nice, and actually much lighter than it looks. Mary does say that she has allowed a generous amount of icing as it should be complete indulgence, but I did not use all of it. I kept what was left for my next bake!
The cake went down well, and scored 9.0

Victorian Christmas Fruit Cake

I gave Adam the choice of a birthday cake, and this was what he picked. It turned out to be a great choice, and one I would definitely recommend. It contains lots of cherries, pineapple, apricots and sultanans, and as Mary says it is a "light yet succulent cake".

It involved quite a lot of preparation, in cutting up the fruit, and I was glad of my food mixer as there was a lot to mix, however, it was straight forward. My only complaint is that at the end, it says to glaze the cake with icing sugar and  water. I thought it sounded strange, and was quite doubtful, but as that is what the recipe suggested, I thought I had better obey!

As I started to spread the sugar over, I knew that my initial thoughts had been right, however, having started, I needed continue, but I just did a very thin layer. If you put on what the recipe says, which is 100g of icing sugar mixed with water, you would not have a glaze, but an iced cake, which would cover over all the fruit and nuts on the top. My thought are that it should be a caster sugar and water glaze. If you are making it, I would say don't bother with a glaze at all, it doesn't need it.

It scored a brilliant 9.75 from the birthday boy, and was a great success with our visitors.

Gingerbread Traybake

I had the pleasure of baking this alongside my Mum today. She and Dad were over helping us with our garden.
I am going to a "Pampered Chef " evening tonight - actually in about 20 mins, so must be quick as I am still in my gardening clothes!! I had offered to bring some cake with me, so I made this gingerbread traybake.
I used the tin that I normally use for such bakes. It is smaller than the suggested 12 x 9in tin, but it usually works out fine. This time it made a very deep cake, and consequently took longer to bake.
It is fairly tasty, and will hopefully go down well, however, when it comes to ginger cakes, so far the sticky ginger and orange cake is the winner!
Am off now. Tomorrow is Ad's birthday, so watch this space. He is getting two cakes!

Banana and Chocolate Chip Bars

I made this yesterday afternoon with Ben after he had come home for school. It had been rather a hectic day, and I'm not sure what possessed me to bake again, but sometimes that happens. I always remember a teacher of mine saying "if you want something done, ask a busy person". When I was 16, I didn't really understand what she mean't- I do now!
Anyway, these were really easy, and quite fun to make. It is rather like flapjack, with a layer of banana in the middle. Mary describes them as a "really healthy snack". I'm not sure I would really agree, although I did use ordinary self raising flour rather than the suggested wholemeal, which I did not have in my vast store cupboard! Mary says to use a 7in square cake tin. I do not own one of these so used my 8in round sandwich tin. This seemed to work fine. If I were making it again, I think I would double the mixture and make it in a bigger tin. There is none left today, so that's always a good sign. We would give them 8.5
By the way, for those of you worried about the health of our family, we operate on the basis of "it is better to give than to recieve", so we hardly ever end up eating  all of what I bake - good job too!

Cheese and Celery Crown Loaf

Last week, Ad kindly did the supermarket shopping for me, as I had been particularly busy. One of the things he bought was celery - not a great favourite amongst our kids, but he bought it to go in a stir fry.
This week, having only used a couple of sticks, the rest of it was starting to wilt.
Thankfully Mary came to the rescue, and I quickly knocked up this loaf. It has no yeast in it, so does not need to prove.
It was easy to make, although getting the mixture to form a soft dough was tricky. I used my hands rather than the machine.
The finished loaf was nice, but more like savoury scones than bread. It was tasty, but very filling. We had it with some soup - not homemade!! They scored 8.0

Sticky Apricot Pudding

 I made this as a quick Sunday lunch dessert. It tasted much nicer than it looks! It looked even more of a mess once I had dished it up, but it did score 8.0. Probably best suited as a family dessert, rather than for guests!
It was very easy, but it is not for those watching their weight. Although it may contain one of your 5 a day, the topping consists of 50g of melted butter and 175g of demerara sugar!
Mary says that you can use whatever fruit you have to hand, including rhubarb - I think this would be really nice. You could even include a bit of cinnamon in the sponge mix, as it goes so well with rhubarb.

Doughnuts

 Mary says these doughnuts are "excellent for hungry teenagers", so I thought I would make some hungry teenagers some, as well as the younger, and not so young members of the family! Also, Tom has gone to a friend's house this afternoon and is getting together for a band practice later, so they really will get eaten by hungry teenagers! By the way,(for those of you who know him) Tom is singing, not playing. They are performing in a few weeks time, so we look forward to that! Michael Buble watch out!!
Anyway, back to the doughnuts. This was a perfect opportunity for me to use my new mixer, and it certainly saved time on the kneading front.
Tom helped me make them, and particularly enjoyed putting the jam in the middle. He learned the lesson that too much jam, and the jam escapes from the doughnut - i did try to tell him, but he said you can never have too much jam in a doughnut!
The tricky part to get right, once we had mastered the right amount of jam, was deep frying them. I do not own a deep fat fryer, as we only have oven chips (we are very cultured!), so we used a saucepan, and a whole bottle of vegetable oil.
For our first few doughnuts, the oil was too hot - see doughnuts that look like jacket potatoes! Actually, they tasted ok, but did not have the required look, I think you will agree.
Once we got down to the final 8, we had mastered the frying, and  I think you will agree, they look like the real deal - these were the ones that Tom took for his friends.
The kids loved them, and gave them 9.0
My verdict on the doughnuts  would be that although they were very tasty, they did require quite a lot of effort, and Morrison's doughnuts which are 10 for £1, are just as good, if not better! Also, it has left the house smelling like a fairground! A bit of fun, but probably not one to be repeated in a hurry!

Carrot & Orange Loaf

I have been busy baking today! I had some carrots that were past their best, so decided to make this carrot and orange loaf.
It was very straight forward, and for those who don't like dried fruit, there is none in this.
As yet, we have not tried any, but my Mum made this a few weeks ago, and it was delicious, so hopefully mine will be too. Because it is moist, it keeps well in the fridge, so ours is awaiting a verdict.
The orange on the top is a bit of a nuisance, especially when you come to turn it out of the tin. Some of the pieces fell off!
Although I haven't tasted mine yet, I have a feeling that were I making it again, I would put an orange juice and sugar glaze on the top instead of the sliced orange. Still, like this, it should count as 2 of my 5 a day - shouldn't it?!!

Special Shortbread Biscuits

We had a fairly quiet day at home today, having gone to Chessington World of Adventures yesterday - we had a great time!
Anyway, this afternoon, one of our friends little boys came over to play. I thought he might like to bake something with me, so we made these shortbread biscuits, as they are one of the few recipes in the book that do not contain egg.  He enjoyed helping Nathan and I, and we were pleased with the finished results.
They were quick and easy to make, although I should say that I did add a small amount of milk in order to bring the dough together. They scored 8.0
I have just realised that these are my 50th bake! Not bad for just over 3 months of baking! I had planned to do something a bit more exciting for number 50, but then I have told the kids that we would have a go at doughnuts this holiday, so maybe 51 will be special!

Bakewell slices

I also made these last Saturday, and they were delicious!
Nanny makes cherry bakewells, which the kids all love, so I knew I had a lot to live up to! Mary didn't let me down.
The good thing about this recipe is that you don't have to cook the pastry base first, but do it all in one go. The only comment that I would make is that I didn't seem to have enough pastry to line the tin. I covered the bottom fine, but not right up the sides. Having said that, I had decided that I would cut the side bits of pastry off anyway. They were easy to trim away, without cutting off any of the sponge.
These slices scored 9.0, and Tom particularly enjoyed them! We think they were even as good as Nanny's - sorry Mum!
Oh, I should also mention at this point that I have bought a food mixer. I have been saving up for a while, and decided to splash out. I used it for this recipe, and it worked well, although it wasn't too challenging. I am looking forward to using it for kneading bread, although I don't want to put Nathan out of a job!!

Cherry Loaf Cake

I made this last Saturday for Tom's return. He came home from skiing on Sunday morning, having had a fantastic time. He was all in one piece, which was a real answer to prayer!
The cherry loaf cake went down well, although it was not one of our favourites. It was rather like the madeira cake, but with cherries. We only scored it 7.5, which is quite respectable, but the standard of Mary's cakes is so high that we are becoming quite fussy!

White Cottage Loaf

I thought it would be nice to bake some bread for lunch today, so I made this loaf with help from Nathan. He became my chief kneader!
Having watched a clip of how to knead on the computer, we were raring to go.
Nathan did an excellent job, and the bread turned out brilliantly. It was my lightest bread so far, so I'm sure it was all down to my little helper!
We demolished the whole loaf between us, and rated it 9.75. It couldn't really have tasted much better, but I can't quite bring myself to give anything a 10!
Tom asked me not to bake anything that he would love while he was on holiday, so "sorry Tom, you would have loved this"!

Nursery Mural

 Yes, I know its not out of the Baking Bible, but I thought you might like to see what I get up to when I am not baking. This week, I painted a mural for our neighbours, who are expecting their first grandchild.
They wanted a giraffe, and a rainbow, the rest they left up to me, so  this is what I came up with.

Apple & Cinnamon Cake

I made this cake on Saturday in preparation for a church lunch on Sunday. We were not able to stay for the lunch, so we asked folks to rate it for us in our absence. Apparently they gave it a 10.0, but I think they were over generous. They kindly saved us some, and we thought it was more like 9.0
I should say, at this point that Tom helped me with some of this ( he wanted a mention on my blog prior to going off on a skiing trip to Italy). We have heard from him, and apparently he is having a great time.
The cake was easy to make, and worked well with pecans instead of walnuts. As you can see, it doesn't look particularly attractive, but it makes up for it in taste!

Easter Simnel Cake

I have never made a simnel cake before - like so many things in Mary's book, but this is one I would make again, it was delicious, and scored 9.5!
I was expecting it to be complicated, but it wasn't really, it just took a long time to cook - 2.5 hours
For those that are interested, this is a traditional Easter cake, and the 11 marzipan balls represent the disciples ( not Judas). I put an easter chick in the middle of mine, but he ended up looking rather sunburnt! - you have to put the cake under the grill to brown the marzipan.

The middle of the cake has a layer of marzipan in it, which makes it lovely and moist.

All in all, I was very pleased with my Easter bakes, and not a hint of chocolate in sight!


"For God so loved the world, that he sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life" John 3 v 16

Easter Biscuits

The smell of these biscuits as they cooked was fantastic. They have cinnamon and mixed spice in - two of my favourites.
They were very simple to make, and I also ended up making a batch without the fruit in, partly for Nathan, and partly as I wanted to give some as Easter gifts to our neighbours, some of whom don't like dried fruit.
When I made the ones without fruit, I didn't add any milk as the dough seemed fine without.
The biscuits were a little softer than I had expected, but I think they would have over browned had I left them in any longer.
I would definitely recommend making these! 9.0

Hot Cross Buns

A belated Happy Easter everyone. Apologies that I am behind again.
Last Thursday, before the kids broke up for the holidays, I had my very own Easter bake off!
In one day, I made Easter biscuits, Simnel cake and hot cross buns - pretty impressive hey!
Out of the three bakes, the hot cross buns were probably the most time consuming. On the day of baking, they did taste great, but the next day, they definitely needed toasting.The texture was rather like a bagel, rather than a soft bun. Not sure my kneading technique is quite right yet. I'm glad I had a go at making them, but I don't think I would be in a hurry to make them again. For me M&S hot cross buns win every time.
The recipe was fairly straight forward, although I should point out that Mary says to make a cross using a knife. Alternatively, she says you can make some shortcrust pastry to make the crosses!
I didn't fancy either of these. A cross with a knife just wouldn't be good enough, and yet I didn't want to go to the effort of making shortcrust pastry. Thankfully, having watched the Easter bake off, I remembered that Paul Hollywood made his crosses using a flour and water mixture which he piped over the top. This is what I did, and they turned out great.
They scored 8.5