Apologies..

Really sorry for my lack of updates this month, I have been REALLY busy! Basically, I'm not sure what to write today, so again, it's going to be brief. So, two weeks ago's flapjacks went really well! And I put chocolate chips inside! It was lovely and chewy on the bottom, but crispy on the top - just how flapjack should be!

Last week was bread, a classic, plaited london loaf! Nothing special, just a plain white loaf. For a change, I baked it in a silicone tin, which helped loads when it came to turning it out, but it expanded a bit in the oven and was rather hard to clean! Also, the dough had a rising time of 8-12 hours! I left it over night in the end, but had to get up fairly early to work on it! It's definitely not an every day recipe!

Lastly, this week's is going to be swiss butter cream cakes! They're basically cup cakes, with mixture piped around the top to create a rim. Then, butter icing is swirled in the middle - it looks fantastic!

Pictures of the 3 recipes should hopefully be on this Sunday, but no promises!

Happy Baking!

Simple to say..

This is going to be a very brief post, just to tell you what I am baking. So, flapjacks, nothing special, I guess you know what they look like, you don't need a picture.. So yeah, pictures on tomorrow!

Happy Baking!

This weekend's results..

As you may know, this weekend's bake was a 'chocolate fudge cake'! Just like the cappuccino cake, the sponge was excellent! Plus, I learnt a cool new icing which consists of just chocolate and cream! I was a bit surprised with the actual appearance as well - it didn't look that different to the one in the picture, so I have done myself proud this week!

I somewhat hope that i'm not talking to myself here, that maybe some one other than my friends and family are reading it..  That would kind of be awkward..

Anyway, I guess I should say Happy Baking now. 

Happy Baking!

winter wonderland..

Finally it's snowed! Not much, but still enough to make a four foot snowman! Now you would probably think because of the bitter weather, I would make something warm! But I have already written what I'm baking in my calendar, so I'm all planned ahead! And anyway, I have hot chocolates to warm me up for me! So I'm going to make a chocolate fudge cake! To be honest, I don't actually know why it has the word 'fudge' in the title, as there is no fudge in it..? But, I guess the icing will almost be fudge like.. Almost...
   Anyway, I promise that even though the majority of them have been, not all my recipes will be Mary Berry's. Although, this one is..
   But not all of them!

I'm not actually sure why I chose this picture, as it's not what i'ld usually put, but I kind of thought that this one showed my aim more than anything.. 

Plus it's pretty! ;)

Happy Baking!

Bake number 4..

A chocolatey scone. Thats basically what the cakes tasted/looked like! They weren't as smooth as Mary's, but no ones would be.. No one could get it as good as hers!
As you couldn't see the thin layer of chocolate from the outside, it was a very pleasant surprise biting into them! Plus, the richness of the dark chocolate worked well with the sweetness of the cake! I guess a little egg wash wouldn't have hurt though.. But it's kind of too late!

So this week's bake was a success, let's hope next week's chocolate fudge cake will be just as good!

Happy Baking!

Jammy Jammy Jammy...

This weeks bake is going to be Jammy Cakes. Just, without the jam, and chocolate in it's place! Jam is never to pleasant in cakes to be honest.. As usual, I am following Mary Berry's recipe, and she says to spoon the jam on top before you bake it. I thought, if I enclosed the chocolate in the cake, it would work just as well! So that's what I aim to do.
   Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of my desired result. But, for a brief explanation, they're almost going to be vanilla whoopee pie things, but more on the cake side!
Happy Baking!

Cake pops

The name sounds cool doesn't it? Cake 'pops'? It's fun to say..! AND, fun to make, not to mention easy!
3 ingredients, 3 steps!
Step 1) Bake or buy a cake, and crumble it
Step 2) Mix it with butter icing, so if you squeeze a bit, it forms a ball. then form several balls onto a baking sheet
Step 3) Leave to chill for an hour, then decorate and stick straws in!
They really are worth trying!

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Tart!

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday, I was too busy baking! It took the whole afternoon to bake, but eventually, my tart got finished, and to me, it was perfect! And it tasted so good! I ended up not using the hazelnuts, because the oiliness made the base to wet. So I substituted them for more digestives! The glaze and filling were also perfect, and I had extra filling, so I made little chocolate souffles!

Yumm! And my lucky friends might get to try a bit...

Happy Baking!

Week 3 'o' Project 2012.

This week's bake is Chocolate tart! Homemade chocolate crust, filling, & glaze! Chocolate all the way! Although I will not be baking it until Saturday, I am letting you know you in advance! The recipe I use is created by 'Dulce Delight'. If you haven't heard of her, search her on youtube, and check out her blog; she is FaNtAsTiC! She posts weekly recipes, and she teaches them in such entertaining ways! Sorry this post is going to be so short, I have an important Skype call to get on with, fairly important...

Happy Baking!

The Perfect Pake!

This week's 'Cappuccino Cake' went brilliantly! The sponge was fantastic, not wet, not really dry, but a sort of moist, even sponge! Literally perfect! I mean, the cream may have over-whipped, so it doesn't look exactly like Mary's, but it was still fine!

Plus, I got an awful cold this weekend , but being myself, I couldn't just lye in bed all day, It would be too boring! So instead, I decided to make some taffy! Sea-salt taffy! It went alright, tasted alright, just didn't set very well...

Happy Baking!

Caffeine Cake. I mean coffee cake.

Today is my dad's birthday! ♥ So this week's bake has got to be celebratory, and what better than a lovely cake? I was thinking a cappuccino cake, that'll keep him going! It'll have chocolate sponge with coffee filling, so everyone will like it. A perfect cake for the whole family!
   Once agin, I am following a recipe from Mary Berry. She has seemed to be a large part of my week! Everyday at school, I looked forward to coming home, purely for the fact that the 'Great British Bake Off, Sports Relief' was on... This series was amateur celebrities, attempting to bake. It was amusing...
Anyway, Happy Baking!

The picture above is not actually MY cake, this is how I hope mine will look! Tomorrow, I will put a picture on, comparing the two.

Pancakes!

Mmmm! How I love pancakes, and a quick recipe such a drop scones are perfect for making on a quiet Sunday afternoon! I just ate my last one, and I'm no wishing I made more! Plus, they're so small, they're kind of lunchbox size! So, I've decided to give you the recipe!
Dop Scones/Scotch Pancakes:
225g plain flour
3 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 tbsp Baking Powder
A pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
Milk
Butter/Oli for greasing
1) Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder & salt in a large bowl.
2) Add the lightly beaten eggs and enough milk to make the mixture a runny, batter consistency.
2) Pour small circles of batter onto a greased, hot pan, until it starts to bubble. Then, using a fish slice, flip it over and leave it for about a minute. Tip: Have about 3 of them cooking at once!

So, 3 REALLY easy steps, and 30 DELICIOUS pancakes! Such a simple yet scrumptious snack!
Happy Baking!

Swiss roll, apparently.

Okay, so this weekend's bake was a Swiss Roll. I followed the recipe exactly, and it still didn't look anything like the one in the picture! It tasted fine! But, it looked kind of awful. It didn't roll very well.. AT ALL.

  But, I have a couple of ideas of what happened to it. We had a family friend round at the same time I was baking it, a friend who insisted she joined in with my baking. She told me to put all of my mixture in the pan, and I told her "No, because my pan is smaller than the recipe says.". She didn't listen. She put the rest in, therefore, the cake was too large to roll. Thank you very much.

  I would post a picture, but you would be truly horrified. 

  Anyway, next week's bake, should be a cappuccino cake! It's for someone's birthday, so I sort of have to get this right!
  1 recipe down, 51 to go...
Happy Baking!

Project 'Bake The Hell Out Of Our Kitchen'.

So, I was thinking back to that film I said I had watched; Julie&Julia, and the challenge she did sounded quite fun! I mean, impossible, but still fun! I suggested maybe attempting 100 or so this year? Then I thought the cost would be large, so I settled for 50. My mum then told me I might as well do one a week! So every Weekend, I will bake something, preferably that I have never tried before, and blog about how it went. A lot of the recipes will be ones I have tried before, but I would have baked them a while back, and hope to have improved since then. So, this Saturday, we will be having Swiss roll.
   I call this, project 'Bake The Hell Out Of Our Kitchen'...

Oh! And, the bread turned out perfectly! I halved the mixture, so I only had enough for a flower type shape! But I still think it looked good, and it definitely tasted good - my friends thought so too!

Happy Baking!

Bread making attempt....?

Well, another one of my Christmas pieces was my gingerbread house, stained glass/boiled sweet windows and all. After breaking into it, it now looks like an earthquake has struck it. My mum took plenty of pictures though, and I could be uploading a few! And most importantly, it tasted fine, so, result!

   Today, I hope to attempt my 1st/2nd bath of bread. I say that because of my pizza dough I made the day before new years eve, does that count as bread? Anyways, I want to have a go at honeycomb tear and share bread. Not actually honeycomb flavoured, but honeycomb shaped. Something like the picture attached. Well, I hope. . .
    It's for my school pack up, yep, back to school tomorrow:( Anyway, wish me luck in my baking, I'll knead a lot of it...
   How sad was that pun?. . . Very.

Pinch, Punch, 1st of the month...

Well, the party when fine. Everybody liked the roulade, and then my mum had made a pavlova aswell, so bucket loads of cream and eggs were used!
    But, back to the baking, I have a few ideas for 2012 that I might like to try... Like, some sort of tray bake, or maybe have a go at focaccia! I don't know, I hope to have a go at something adventurous!
    I also just finished watching 'Julie&Julia', it's a very good film! It's about a lady who creates a blog, and works her way through more than 500 recipes, in 365 days, blogging about how the recipes went. I thought I could have a go at something like that...? But, maybe not 500, maybe like, 50? Within 6 months? I have a recipe book with 100 cakes in, and I could work from there, half way through! Mind you, I probably couldn't be bothered! :/