Baking Disasters Continued...

It's that time again. Yes, the time when I talk about my baking disasters and oh how numerous they've been!

If you follow me on twitter or have sat with me for at least 30 seconds, then you'll know that I got a K-Mixer for Christmas... Isn't it pretty?

I love my K-Mixer, I really do, but I must admit that it's been something of a bad omen... perhaps I got too cocky, but ever since receiving it, everything I've made has gone wrong!

Let me explain...
On New Year's Eve I decided to make bread. Now I'm no dough expert, but I generally like to think, that I have skills enough to weigh my ingredients correctly. So this I did and everything was fine - so into the mixer it went to blend and kneed. So far, so good. As everything was going so marvelously well, I decided to carry on to the next stage, leaving it under a tea towel to rise for an hour.
Sixty minutes later, I came back and was faced with disaster one - The dough hadn't risen. Now I'm not exactly sure what the science behind bread making is, but I'm pretty certain that that's not meant to happen.

Upon discovering this, I was a little concerned, but nevertheless undetered, so continued to put it in the oven to bake. And you know what? it baked. It actually baked and for one brief moment, I allowed myself to believe that it would all be okay.

It wasn't...

I took the bread out, sliced a piece and spread it with butter... 'mmm warm bread, yum'.

However not all was well and as I bit into my wonderful slice of home made bread, I discovered it's fatal flaw. It tasted of nothing but salt.

I honestly don't have a clue how this happened, because like I said, I'm very good at measuring things correctly, all I know is that it went wrong. And so began the curse of the K-Mixer

Disaster two. Lemon Drizzle Cake, which tasted of nothing but egg (See above)

Okay this was my own fault, I shouldn't have missed out the ground almonds... or maybe it's the curse of the mixer? You think?

Disaster three - Not strictly a disaster because the cake was fine, but the icing was terribly runny and wouldn't solidify no matter how much icing sugar I put into the mixture. Coincidence? I think not!

Okay so maybe it's not the mixer, maybe it's just me, perhaps I'm just losing my touch. Whatever it is, I really hope it ends soon and things start turning out right again - Wish me luck!

Happy Baking!

X

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This probably wasn't the most ambitious of recipes, but it did make delicious cakes and gave me the perfect opportuntity to use my piping bags!
Before I started, I had been pretty worried that the icing was gonna be a disaster and that it would all go wrong, but as it turns out, I didn't have too much to worry about, and after a few practice runs I was icing like an almost-pro, or at least, icing a lot better than I'd expected.



The recipe which I like to use when making carrot cake, is one by Mary Cadogan, which I've stolen from the BBC Good Food Website and taylored to my own needs (Check out the original here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3229/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake)
I generally prefer to leave out the cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins which are usually found in Carrot Cakes, as I feel that they overpower the cake a little. But if you decide to make these by all means include the spices - some people find that they improve the cake!

Ingredients for Cake

• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 175ml sunflower oil
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)
• grated zest of 1 large orange
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder

To make twelve Cakes

*Pre-heat oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C *

1. Pour the Sugar, Oil and eggs into a large bowl and mix together until fully combined.

2. To this mixture add the grated carrots and orange zest, and stir until the carrot is evenly spread throughout the mixture.

3. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir again until completely integrated.

4. Pour the mixture into cupcake cases until about 80% full, because these cakes don't rise too much, and put into the oven for 40-45 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for several hours until completely cool. (You can use a fridge if you want to speed this process up)




So this is how mine looked after they came out of the oven, and if you can see they've not risen too high, which allows plenty of space for icing!

For the Icing

You'll need a piping bag and a large(ish) nozzle either spikey or smooth - for want of a technical name! - and a hell of a lot of icing sugar, and a few dessert spoons of margarine.

With icing I always find that it's something which you've just got to keep mixing until you get it right, trial and error. Although the key rule is that you need a LOT more icing sugar than margarine. If you follow this then it should be fine, and you just keep adding icing sugar until the mixture becomes fairly stiff. (sorry I can't be more specific)


Here are my finished cakes - not bad eh? - I must admit I'm quite pleased with my little carrot cake cupcakes - escecially the mini cattots which I think look adorable.

Okay so that's it - Challenge One complete - see you next week for soft centred chocolate bites!

Happy Baking!

X

Baking Boxes, Partial Lists and Apologies

My Baking Box

As it turns out, I'm a horrible liar and if you read this blog then I'd like to apologize(!)... about a month or so ago I promised that a list of order would be published imminently, but as it stands I've barely given it a second thought. I have my excuses, but they're not good enough... so shame on me... anyway, I don't have a list of order, but I'm gonna use the 'P' word one last time and promise that something will go up in the next few days (if anyone's interested?)

But until then I'd like to make a list of a few things which I'm thinking of including, so (as Kel would say) 'Here goes...'

1. Carrot Cake Cupcakes - These I'm hoping to make early on in the process, coz while I was away in the Lake District I went to the massive Lakeland shop, they have in Windermere and bought some mini carrots that I'm super keen to use!

2. Souffle - Just because it's really hard to make and I promised that it'd be the final thing I'd make in the summer challenge as a way of finishing the whole thing off with a bang, or a mini kitchen explosion.

3. Glee Cupcakes - Yes you heard me, I said glee cupcakes. I'm a MASSIVE gleek and proud of it, so I'm gonna make these to celebrate the airing of the Season 2 Finale in the UK - But how can you make the cup cakes Glee Cupcakes? well watch this space, coz I'm massively excited to show you!

4. Apple Pie - an old classic which just has to be done.

5. Flutterby Butterfly cakes - again these are already designed and will be cool - they have strawberry centres :)

6. Death by Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Spears - again a modern classic with a bit of a twist.

Okay so that's it for now guys, but by Wednesday I WILL have posted the rest so please check back soon! :)

Happy Baking

X

Inspired: Carrot Cake

Thought I'd just share with you a picture of the AMAZING carrot cake, I had yesterday at The Swan with Two Nicks in Cheshire - it was absolutely delicious and even came with it's own minature jug of pouring cream! Yummy (I also love the little carrot that came on the top and even bought some of my own over the weekend!)
Seriously, go there if you're ever in the area - The food is brilliant!
I'm now thinking that I might just add carrot cake to the list of To Do's, and try a different recipe to last time!

Hopefully I'll get round to posting the completed Baking Challenge list in the next couple of weeks, but in the mean time I have a few idea's up my sleeve which I'm going to try out, as a way of preparation and also as a little bit of indulgence over the Easter break!
(Probably time to root out the Cornflakes!)

Happy Baking!

X

2010's Baking

Since I'm going to start my Baking Challenge in just over a month I thought it might be cool to post up some of my previous attempts, so that you can get a sense of what sort of level I'm at at the moment and also so that, I, myself can look back in coming weeks to compare and contrast, and see if any real improvement has been made!
So yeah, here's something I made earlier...

Buns

My first attempt at icing - shocking I know! I had visions of Humming Bird Bakery - esque iced cupcakes but instead I ended up with... well... as you can see it probably wasn't the best idea to use a tube of shop bought icing on fresh out of the oven cupcakes!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These actually turned out really well, some merged a little in the oven, but otherwise they were pretty good - even if I do say so myself! haha :)

Lemon Drizzle Cake

My last baking attempt. Again, at the risk of appearing big headded, this was also fairly good. It was however in dire need of some icing on top to give it an added crunch!

Iced Sponge Cake

I made this last year. After a friend told be that she was going to be making an iced cake, I thought that I'd have a go at making one myself - It was a lot more difficult than I expected, and needless to say, mine was no where near as good as hers! But for a first attempt I suppose it could have been a lot worse. I think the worst thing about it was that the icing started to split as I was placing it on the cake, so I had to desparately try and salvage the situation by hiding the cracks with the polka dots, but shhh I don't think anyone really noticed!

Carrot Cake

This was pretty yummy - a little burnt around the edges but not too noticeable. Yeah on the whole it was A-OK :) and if you want to know the icing on top is orange flavoured!

So that's pretty much everything I made last year... I'd say that on the whole, I was fairly successful (If you ignore some of the horrible icing and eversoslightly charred carrot/cupcakes!)
So my aim this year? - to become Gizzi Erskine or you know, someone who can cook with perfection! Watch this space...

Happy Baking! :)

X