Pecan Pie

As well as the cheesecake, I decided to make this pecan pie for the church lunch. I had heard that it was good, so thought I would give it a try. It should be noted that the ingredients for this are not cheap. I had not realised how expensive maple syrup is. I only bought one bottle as I presumed that would be enough. It turned out to be 20ml short, (you need 200ml, my bottle only had 180ml)  but I was quite glad that I did not know this at the time as buying two bottles would have made it extremely expensive!
I made the pastry and left it to chill. I rolled it out on my flexible mat, so was able to flip it into the flan dish. It did need a bit of patching, but turned out ok. Once I had baked the case blind I noticed that there were a couple of cracks in the side. As the mixture that goes in is quite runny, I thought I had better patch the gaps up. Thankfully I had some bits of uncooked pastry left over, so I used that.
As I type this, the pie is in the oven baking....
.....Unfortunately I didn't patch it well enough and the mixture leaked through the bottom of my loose bottomed flan dish ! Arghhhhhh. As it cooled it stuck fast to the tin and I then had a struggle to get it off, as you can see. As I do not have time, or frankly the inclination to bake something else now, this will have to do for the church lunch tomorrow. Sorry everyone! At least it's meant that I have been able to test it first! It tastes great, but presentation leaves much to be desired.

Austrian Curd cheesecake

I made this for a church lunch tomorrow. I have to admit that I chose it because I thought that it was a recipe that would not be appreciated in our house, but that others might enjoy!
It was easy to make, although it did require 3 packs of ricotta cheese, the last of which I only used 50g of, so I am not sure what to do with the remaining amount. I have never bought it before!
The recipe was straightforward, although I didn't read that it needed to cool in the oven for an hour after cooking! There was me all ready with my pecan pie case, and it had to wait! So much for lessons learned about reading right through the recipe. Anyway, as I write it is cooling in the tin, but now out of the oven. Having spent an hour cooling inside the oven, it needs to cool completely in the tin before removing. I must be patient!

 ...Well, here it is. it looks fairly like the picture. The test will come tomorrow when it is tasted. Score to follow.

Viennese Fingers

 These proved rather a challenge! The recipe was easy enough, and even the piping of the fingers was fine. What Mary does not mention is that they are incredibly fragile.
The first challenge was to get them off the tray in one piece. Although they were not stuck to the baking tray, several of them broke as the slice moved them!
The next challenge was to dip them in chocolate. After a few unsuccessful attempts to dip ( and several more breakages), I decided  to spoon the chocolate over.

As you can see from the carnage below, there were lots of viennese casualties. In fact the 7 in the top picture were the only surviving complete ones. The irony was however, that I put them in the fridge to set the chocolate, and the chocolate then stuck to the plate, so most of them broke anyway as they were removed from the plate! On a positive note, they were delicious and melted in the mouth. They scored 8.75, but be warned, to say that they are "short" is an understatement! Handle with care!

Treacle Spice Traybake

I decided to make a couple of traybakes for the coffee morning. I had not made this treacle spice one before, so I thought I would have a go. I decided to half the recipe as I didn't want that much of one particular cake. Also I wanted to make some lemon drizzle cake as I knew that would be popular. I decided to use my multi way baking tray and bake both traybakes at the same time - see picture.  They both needed the same cooking time, and it worked really well.
The recipe for the treacle spice one does not mention icing, just icing sugar, but I thought it would benefit from it. As I am no longer a slave to the book - well not entirely anyway, I thought I would take the risk!
It was delicious, but rather similar to other recipes in the book. We gave it 8.0

Sachertorte

Every good coffee morning needs a chocolate cake, and as I have run out of plain chocolate cake recipes to make, I decided to push the boat out and make this.
The result was fairly impressive, although I still can't get used to baking a cake in a 9inch tin and it not rising very much. I think its just the way that its mean't to be, but it always seems a bit disappointing not to get a great rise!
I did get quite an impressive shine on my icing though which I was quite proud of, and I successfully pipe the word "sacher" on top, which is a requirement for this cake - apparently. Ad did ask me why that was the case, which at the time I could not answer. However, now as I look at the book, I realise that it was invented by a Franz Sacher from Vienna in 1832. It's a good job Mary doesn't feel the need to sign her name on all her cakes!
Anyway, it was very rich, as expected, but it was delicious. We gave it 9.0. Definitely one for a special occasion.

American Apple and Apricot Cake

This cake did end up at our Macmillan coffee morning yesterday! I am not sure that many people had any - there were lots of cakes to choose from, but it was popular with us, and one that I would bake again. Mary says that it is best eaten warm, but we have managed to eat it cold without too much problem!
I do tend to get the comments from our kids - not more flaked almonds, but apart from that it was a hit! Personally I love flaked almonds.
I now only have one recipe left to do from the first chapter of the book - Old-fashioned seed cake, which Mary says "you either love or loathe". I think I know what the verdict will be in our house! I may keep putting that one off for a little while longer!
This cake scored 8.5

Orange Wholemeal Victoria Loaf

I made this at the beginning of the week, and thought that I might use it towards the coffee morning. However,as it looked very unimpressive, (especially without the icing)  we felt the need to taste it first! It turns out that it wasn't that bad, although it does have that healthy feel to it that wholemeal flour provides!
The recipe is basic, and although it only produces a shallow cake for a 2lb tin, this is probably about right for this type of cake. You need a decent ratio of icing to cake.
We gave this a score of 7.0. It was fairly tasty, but nothing special. Not one I would bake again in a hurry.

Tarte Tatin

 I made this for Sunday lunch. Thankfully we didn't have any visitors, as I was not particularly proud of the presentation! I even had the comment that it looked like I had poured gravy on top!Having said that, it tasted very nice, and we gave it a score of 8.5.
I probably would not make this recipe again, or, if I did, I would use bought puff pastry. Somewhere I have a recipe that uses nectarines instead of apples, involves a lot less preparation, and is equally delicious.
Still, it's one more recipe done. I have less than 75 to make now, and with the coffee morning on Friday, and a church lunch on Sunday, I should be able to tick off a few more!

Double Orange Cake

On Saturday, we went to Chatham Dockyard. They were having a special day, celebrating the 40's. It was a great day, and had I known how much people were going to enter into it, I would have packed my spam sandwiches. As it was, I made a quick cake for the packed lunch before we went.
Unfortunately, this cake, though simple to make did not go down at all well with the family. I didn't think it was too bad, but it is not one that I would make again. We gave it a disappointing 6.0

Date & Walnut Traybake

Last Friday at school, we hosted a coffee morning for new year 3 parents. 20 people came along, which was great. Hopefully the thought of home made cakes made the prospect more appealing.
I did relent, and made the chocolate fudge cake that I have made previously, but I also made this date and walnut traybake.
It seemed to go down well, and as there was plenty of it, I have put some in the freezer for our Macmillan coffee morning, which is this Friday.
What was left from the school coffee morning went in the staff room, so hopefully they all enjoyed it!
The recipe was straight forward, but its worth noting that the mixture needs to be spread smooth in the tin as it leaves quite an uneven top. I ended up turning it over to ice it, hence the lovely smooth icing above! If you like date and walnuts, you would like this cake. We gave it 8.5

Iced Gingerbread with stem ginger

I made these last week, as we had a church meeting at our house. I thought they would go down well, and they did, in fact they all went!
I had a bit of a problem when I made it, in that I did not have the oven on the right temperature.Half way through cooking it, the recipe asks you to turn the oven down. When I went to do this, I realised that my oven was only on 80! No idea why I had only put it on so low - probably trying to do too much! I should have realised sooner when there was no smell of baking! Anyway, I managed to alter the temperature and just took it out when I thought it looked baked! It tasted fine, and everyone said that they thought it deserved a high score. We gave it 9.0.

Yorkshire Gingernuts

I made these last week for the kids. They were very easy to make, and made a lot of biscuits - 50 in total, so we still have a few left!
The recipe is straight forward, and the only thing I would add is that the balls need to be pushed down onto the tray as the biscuits hardly spread at all.They were tasty, but nothing amazing. We gave them 7.5

Orange Drop Scones

Apologies that there is no picture of these. However, if you want to see what they looked like, see the picture of "Drop Scones" from a few days ago! They looked exactly the same, apart from a few tiny pieces of orange in them.
After the success of the drop scones in the week, I made these for tea last night. The kids loved them, and said they were even nicer than the plain ones. I confess I had nutella on mine, which gave a lovely chocolate orange flavour - yum! I guess if they were better than the last ones, they score 9.25, although that may be a little generous!

Almond Tuiles

As you can see, there are only 3 almond tuiles in the picture. This is not for artistic effect, but because only 3 of my tuiles turned out as they should. This was entirely my fault, and partly because I did not give myself enough time to make them, and did not follow the instructions properly.
To make these biscuits sucessfully, they need to be baked 4 at a time, and then left  to cool over a rolling pin. If I were making them again - and I might - I would borrow another rolling pin. This would save more time.
I was in rather a rush, as my plans had changed, and I baked them all at once, probably made them too large, and only had one rolling pin! The first ones I did turned out ok, the others either stuck to the baking tray while I was waiting to take them off, or, when I tried to lay them over the rolling pin, they fell apart. Still, they did not go to waste. The broken bits were put in a box, and were soon polished off! We gave them 8.0. Note, they are not a biscuit to make in a hurry!

Apricot and Almond Meringue Gateau

Having done so much baking, I found I had 4 egg whites left over, so I made this meringue gateau for a special tea on Friday as we had guests.
I made the meringue the day before, which was a good job because it took a bit of time to make the filling and the sauce. I used dried apricots as the recipe suggested, but I think I would have been better with fresh ones. I cooked them for 30 mins - 10 mins longer than suggested, but I couldn't get them smooth in the food processor so I had to sieve them.
The sauce was a nice touch, and this gateau went down very well. We gave it 9.0
I do wonder if you could use tinned apricots? Might try this if I make it again.

Bishops Fingers

 I confess that I made these Bishops Fingers on Wednesday, in between baking Tom's cake. I wanted to make them for a friend's birthday. Thankfully, they were very straight forward and turned out to be really delicious. We gave them a score of 9.5, and I would definitely make them again. I think they are nicer than the "Best Shortbread".

Gateau Saint Honore

 As you may well have read, today is our eldest son, Tom's 17th birthday. I can't believe where that time has gone!
For his cake, he has set me the challenge of making a 3 page recipe - one that I confess I have been putting off as it involves so many tricky parts. Having watched the Bake Off last night and seen the disastrous egg custard tarts, I felt even more nervous at the thought of two types of pastry and creme patissiere!
In preparation, I decided to be super organised, and weighed out many of the ingredients yesterday so that I didn't have to mess about with scales today.  I have also given myself a clear day in order to make this. I have discovered that there is nothing worse than baking under pressure.
As I type, I am about half way through the instructions, and I think that the worst is over - although caramel, and spun sugar could hold hidden terrors!
The first thing to do was make a sweet pastry disc 7 in in diameter. Sweet pastry is usually a bit of a nightmare to work with, but I saw an interesting technique on the Bake off last night and decided to use it - thanks Kimberley! She sandwiched her pastry between two layers of greaseproof paper before rolling. I did this, having already drawn a 7in circle on the underside of the paper - clever, I hear you cry! I then cut round the circle, and transferred the pastry onto the baking tray, and baked it for about 15 mins. Step one done!
Next I had to make a choux pastry ring 7in in diameter and use the rest of the pastry to make little walnut sized balls. The recipe tells you to pipe a ring using a 1cm nozzle. My nozzle was a little bit smaller and so I ended up going around the ring several times to try and build it up. If I were making this again - highly unlikely unless its super delicious, I would use a bigger nozzle for the ring. Also the recipe did not say how many balls to pipe. I ended up with 14, which will be too many to fit onto the top of the ring, so I would have been better to make the ring slightly thicker. Step two completed.
Next job was to make the creme patissiere. This was fairly straight forward and involved heating milk with a vanilla pod. I have never used a vanilla pod before, and was quite excited to go out and buy some. The excitement soon disappeared when I had to pay £2.98 for two pods! I can't even find another recipe in the book to use the remaining pod on!! I didn't even have to scrape the pod out, just leave it in for 10 mins and then throw away! Still, it does smell, and taste nice.
Having mixed the milk with some other ingredients, and heated it to thicken, I am now waiting for it to cool before adding cream to it. So far so good.....
.....Several hours later. Do you remember the hidden terrors that I mentioned? Well they were found in making caramel - see saucepan with encrusted sugar! To cut a very long story short, I discovered through watching u-tube that you don't stir the sugar after it has dissolved, you just leave it to boil. Also instead of taking it off the heat, plunging the pan into cold water then hot, you just remove it from the heat. It was at this stage that I had a problem with my sugar crystalizing, but it probably was not helped by the fact that I had stirred it while it was boiling. If only I had watched u-tube first! As it was,my first lot of caramel was an epic fail, the second lot was better - I managed to make some little caramel discs before it all went solid, but it left me none to stick the choux buns on with. Then I had an idea. In my cupboard I had a tin of  condensed milk caramel. I did not want the cake to be a disaster, so I opened this, and used it to stick the ring onto the pastry, and the buns onto the ring. For good measure I then put a spoon of caramel on the top of each bun, and stuck the caramel disc on top!
I forgot to add that the creme patissiere was rather runny, and I should have thickened it more. I had presumed  that it would thicken up more on cooling. Still, with all the buns in place, I poured the creme into the middle, and thankfully none of it leaked out!
The piece de resistance was the spun sugar, of which I am very proud. I was feeling quite low about my caramel and nearly didn't bother with this, but having watched a couple of u-tube clips I set to work, ignoring the book! I got a bowl and flicked the caramel back and forth over it until I had a good web of sugar. I was then able to pick it up and form it into a ball. I felt really quite professional!! Finally, about 6 hours later, it was finished!
I think Tom and his friends were fairly impressed with the gateau. They were all very polite and had a slice each. The taste verdict on it was 7.75. It was nice but a little sickly. I almost certainly would not make this recipe again, it is just too much effort, however  I do have a sense of achievement, and I have learned some useful lessons today - it's just been a very long day!

Top tip - if you burn sugar onto the bottom of your pan, put some water over it, along with some bicarbonate of soda, and heat. It comes off like a treat. Thanks Google!

Borrowdale Teabread

While having a little sort through of my baking cupboard, which was so organised at the beginning of the year - now things drop out when I open the cupboard - I found some mixed fruit that was best before August of this year.
I had bought it to make Bara Brith, which, before this year was one of my favourite loaves to make, however having been busy only making Mary's recipes, I had not used it. Mary tends to put the raisins, currants and sultanas down as separate weights, rather than using "mixed fruit".
I didn't want the fruit to go to waste, so I decided to make this, and hope that it didn't matter that there was a bit of chopped peel in the mix as well.
I confess that I made a bit of a mistake when I made this. I left the fruit to soak in tea overnight, which was part of the instructions, the only problem was that I put the sugar in with it as well, as that was what I always did when making bara brith. As a result of this, when it said "mix the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy", I was a bit stuck! I decided to just mix it all in together and hope for the best.
As you can see, it turned out ok. I haven't tasted it yet as I am keeping it as an alternative for Tom's cake - just in case the "gateau saint honore" is not up to much!! Will update with a score later.

Drop Scones or Scotch Pancakes

I made these for dessert yesterday. We don't normally have anything fancy during the week, (believe it or not!) but I thought it might make a change from fruit and yoghurt.
The mixture is rather like pancake mix, but it uses self raising flour instead of plain.
They were quick and easy, and really quite satisfying to make. Because they were smaller and thicker than pancakes, they were easy to flip over, and the kids loved them!
They chose an assortment of toppings, including strawberries, lemon and sugar, and nutella!
These would be great for Sunday tea. They got 9.0.

Iced Apricot Fruit Loaf

Well, it's Wednesday, Tom's birthday, and the day of  my personal Bake Off. First, however I need to update my other bakes.
I made this Iced Apricot Fruit Loaf yesterday for a friend who I thought could do with some encouragement. I cannot say much about it apart from that it was straight forward to make, and it should really have a few chopped apricots on top
but I ran out, hence the flaked almonds. Also, I finally bought some cases for my loaf tin to save cutting the baking parchment. I don't know why I haven't done this before as it was very handy.
I cannot it a score, but hopefully it's good.

Apricot and Walnut sandwich bars

Not being content to make one thing yesterday (yes I know that I am slightly crazy), I decided to make these bars, which I knew did not contain egg!
They involved cooking the apricots and leaving them to cool, then making the oat mixture. The apricots were then sandwiched in between two layers of oats.
Mary says that they make quite substantial, and wholesome bars, and this is true. In fact, if you only cut 8 bars from the mixture (which is what is suggested), they would be very substantial. I ended up cutting 12, but if I made them again, which I might well, I would cut them into 16 squares. The ones in the picture were trimmed to squares as they were too big. We would give them 8.0
This week, it is Tom's birthday. He is going to be 17! We had a chat about what cake he might like, and he has decided to set me the challenge of probably the most complicated recipe in the book - "Gateau Saint Honore". It is three pages long, and Mary says it takes time and skill to make. It involves sweet pastry, choux pastry, creme patissiere, caramel, and spun sugar!!!!!! Help! I only hope it tastes good, but already I have a feeling that it's going to be one of those recipes that has a poor effort to flavour ratio! Still, I don't have anything else to do on Wednesday!!

Date and Cherry Butter Bars

Ad is at a meeting in London today, and it is his turn to provide some refreshments. Last time, he forgot to ask me to bake, and certain people who follow my blog were disappointed that he had not brought anything home made, so I thought I had better send him prepared this time!
Now, during the course of my baking journey, one of the things that I have learned is that that it is important to read the recipe through first before starting. Did I do this? No! As a result, I was half way through making these when I realised that the recipe required an egg. Now normally that is not a problem in our house, but with my manic baking week, I had been left with none! My feeble excuse is that I had thought it was a shortbread base, and normally they don't need egg. Anyway, having knocked on several neighbours doors in search of an egg, I finally managed to acquire one - thanks Elaine!
The mixture had to be pressed into a tin 12 x 9in. This seemed very big for the amount of dough, and I took it upon myself to alter the tin to 12 x 8. I probably should have left it as it was, but if I had, it would not have needed to cook for as long. As it was, the edges were quite crunchy.
The result was a little disappointing - sorry everyone in London - We gave them 7.0. Hopefully they are still better than something shop bought!

Buttermilk and honey cheesecake

I had buttermilk left over from the soda bread that I made last week, so I decided to make this. This is not a cheesecake that I would have ever chosen to make, but it turned out quite nicely.
The base of it is a sponge flan case - yes a bought one! I was surprised, but happy to go with it. The cheesecake itself had soft cheese, buttermilk, honey and various other ingredients. In stark contrast to the previous cake which hardly seemed to cover the bottom of the tin, this one nearly overflowed!
Once it was cooked and cooled, honey was used to glaze the top. The result was quite a light cheesecake, which was a surprise as the cooked ones are usually heavier. The honey flavour was quite delicate, and I served it with strawberries to give it a bit of contrast. Even Ad, who is not a cheesecake fan enjoyed it. We gave it 8.0

Gateau Moka aux Amandes

Mary says that this is one of her favourite coffee cakes, and that it looks spectacular too. It was Mum's birthday on Saturday, so I thought I would surprise her with this. I was a little disappointed with the final result, but it tasted ok, and Mum was pleased.
The recipe involves making a fatless sponge which only has three eggs, 100g sugar, and 75g of SR flour. My problem with this is that you have to make it in a 9in cake tin, and bake until it is well risen. The fact is that it is only going to rise a small amount if there is so little cake mixture in the tin. The result was quite disappointing, looking rather like a large pancake. I have come to the conclusion that I prefer a bit of fat in my sponges!
Once it was cool, I had to slice it and make "creme au beurre moka". For those of you following my blog, you may remember this icing from the mokatine recipe. It invoved dissolving sugar and heating to 107c  before adding to the egg yolks. This time I was well equipped with my new sugar thermometer (Great British Bake off here I come!), so I knew that I had got the sugar just right. This icing still remains a pain to make, and I am not convinced that it is so much better than butter icing. Also, I found that the amount given in the recipe was not enough to fill and cover the cake, as well as pipe rosettes on the top. As you can see there are no rosettes!
The taste was nice, and the adults enjoyed it. We gave it 8.0. It was pleasant enough, but if I was making a coffee cake, I think I would go for a simpler recipe.

Date and chocolate Loaf

I am unable to tell you what this loaf tastes like as it is currently sitting in my freezer for use at a later date!
It was fairly straight forward to make, you just need to soak the dates for 30 mins before using them.
The loaf looks very impressive and rose to quite a height. The proof will be in the tasting. Will let you know!

Almond and chocolate chip cake

 I baked this cake, and the date and chocolate loaf at the same time.
There is not much to say about this cake except that it is quick, easy and very tasty. I would definitely make it again.
We gave it 9.0. I should add that it is supposed to have flaked almonds on the top, but I forgot! It would add extra crunch, but its tasty enough without. Perhaps it would make it look a little more exciting!

Irish Soda Bread

Yesterday the kids all went back to school, so the house seemed really quiet. Adam and I realised that it had been about 10 weeks since we were on our own, as that was when Tom finished his GCSE's. Now, I love having the kids off school, but it's also nice when they go back, if you know what I mean!
I made some of this soda bread for our lunch. It was really easy as it does not have yeast in it and therefore does not need kneading. The down side of this is that it makes quite a dense bread.
Adam and I had a couple of slices, and were rather full!
I probably would not be in a hurry to bake it again. I think its worth doing some kneading and getting a lighter loaf. We only gave it 6.5. The kids finished it off with their pasta bake at tea time. They didn't really comment about it, but it all went, so they can't of thought it was too bad!
As I type, I have another two cakes in the oven. I have several events coming up, so am trying to make a few cakes to freeze. I am starting to wonder whether it would be possible to complete this baking mission within the year - it sounds mad, but it might just be possible. Watch this space!

Oat and Sunflower Squares

This week Adam and Tom went to see some of our neighbours who are advising Tom on building a computer. It's Tom's 17th birthday next week (no idea what cake I am going to bake), and he has been saving up to buy a custom made desk top PC. This is not my field of expertise, but I thought our neighbours would appreciate these oat and sunflower squares.
They are rather like flapjacks but only have a small amount of butter and syrup, so are more healthy. The sunflower seeds give it a nice crunch, however I think they could do with a little more syrup to bind the mix together. The ones in the picture were the best looking ones, and we did end up with quite a big bowl of unstuck bits - nice for snacking on!
The taste was good and I would probably rate them about 7.5, maybe more if they had extra syrup. Our neighbours, however thought that they were really delicious, and asked for the recipe, so that was great!
Oh, and I should add that I did not use jumbo oats as the recipe suggested, but ordinary ones - maybe they would have held together with larger oats, who knows?!

Gingerbread Men

I made these gingerbread men on Monday as I thought it would be a nice thing to do with the children before they went back to school. However, it didn't quite work out like that, and I ended doing most of the work!
Although we decorated some of the men traditionally, the best fun was had decorating the others with white chocolate and jelly tots. They looked a real mess, but tasted delicious!
The most difficult thing about making them was getting the thickness just right. Too thin and they are too crunchy, too thick and they are too soft. We had a mixture of both.
We gave them a score of 8.0
p.s Make sure you grease the trays well, or they stick, like the man below. We called him Charles 1 - Tom is studying him for history so we let him have that one!

Eccles Cakes

Now I have to confess that I did not make the pastry for these. I do feel slightly guilty about this as I have seen flaky pastry made on the "Bake off", and feel that I should challenge myself to it. Having said that, in the introduction to the recipe, Mary says that you can use ready made puff pastry, so I did have permission!
I already had some pastry in the freezer that needed using up, so this morning I made these.
They were very easy, and the results were good, however a few of the family said that they would be much better with flaky pastry as the puff pastry had a hint of sausage roll to them! They only say that because they are not the ones that would have to make it!!
If there are any more recipes that require flaky pastry, I shall attempt to rise to the challenge!
We gave them 8.5.
On a practical note, the recipe only makes 8 large cakes. This may feel slightly disappointing if you have gone to the effort of making flaky pastry. I think it would be good to make slightly smaller ones, and have a few more.

Chocolate Swiss Roll

 I made this swiss roll for lunch yesterday. I thought that, as Ad and Ben had just come home from camp, they deserved a baking treat. Like the other two swiss roll recipes, this was super quick and easy - having said that, this is partly because I can put the eggs and sugar in my mixer and leave it to whisk up and thicken, which does take about 5 mins. It's great to be able to just leave it while I tidy up the kitchen!
It tasted great for the amount of effort, and we gave it 8.5. There was even a couple of slices left over to share with a friend, who said that it came just when she most needed it!