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.