Week 6, Part1: Savoury cakes.

Pesto cake.

Bacon and sundries tomatoes cake.

Bacon and sundries tomatoes cake

This week we had a shared lunch at work. I wanted to bake something, but as it was just me and T boy, I needed something that will do as his dinner as well as being quick to make. I have this recipe from a French magazine and it is really versatile and quick to do, more importantly I could remember the ingredients!

I don't have pictures of the stage of the recipes because I had to do it so quickly while entertaining a toddler that I did not even think about grabbing my camera!

The basic recipe is below, as you will see it is not for the diet conscious but it is really yummy. Once you have the basic mix, you can pretty much add what you want. you might need to do some slight changes depending of your ingredients. For example, I added less oil in the one with the pesto and less salt in the one with the bacon. I will say just have fun and experiment!

Basic recipe

200g of flour

3eggs

10cl single cream

10cl olive oil

1 packet of baking powder (2tsp)

salt and pepper

1- Turn on your oven at 180degrees C or th.6.

2-Put the flour in a mixing bowl, add the baking powder. Make a well and break in 3eggs. Mix with a whisk while incorporating the oil little at a time.

3- Pour in the single cream and mix.

4- Add whatever ingredients you fancy.

5-Season with salt and pepper

6- Prepared a tin with baking parchment or by spreading thin layer of butter followed by a thin layer of flour.

7- Put in the oven for about 40 minutes. If you did in muffin tin, it might not need as much.

8- Let the cake to cool down before taking it out of the tin.

Pesto cakes

Week 5, part 2: Chocolate chunks cookies

 Chocolate Chunks Cookies

 Here it is. Part 2 of week 5, written on the train on the way back home. Finished late and trying to get home for the quarter final of the bake off! Life is getting hectic, full time job, T boy and husband, it seems that the best place to write the post is on this train. I am just hoping that it doesn't get lost in the transfer between phone and computer as the last one... Anyway, let's go back to baking!
So this week, I decided to make cookies! To be honest, I wanted to do it last week for the church mission but didn't have the energy.
They were actually quite straight forward to do and I had most of the ingredients in the cupboard. I added some milk and white chocolate pieces as I have a sweet tooth and not a fan of dark chocolate. I also felt the recipe had some flows... It say to put a teaspoon of dough to bake it but I found it made mini cookies ( and if I want a cookie I want a proper size one!), so I put a good tablespoon instead. I also found the baking time too long, it makes them very crispy and friable.... I like my cookies softer so I don't think that's a recipes I am going to keep....

Week 5, part 1: Cake Lace

Cake Lace

 A bit later than normal but here is the post for this week or rather part 1. I decided to try to do two post a week, one about the bake from the book and one about anything else to do with baking.

this week, I thought I would try or rather re-try cake lace.

The first time I tried it, I tried to rush it and it was not the best result. This time I followed the instruction (always help) and it worked better.

If you want to make cake lace, you will need a mix which consist of a powder and a gel. You can get two different one, one can go in the oven to dry it quicker. You can buy it from baking supply shop or internet.

So second round what I learned is to make sure that you mix it properly. First time was very runny, this time I followed the instruction (that always help!) , and the mix became thicker and easier to spread. When you spread it evenly and fill all holes, especially being careful of bubble of air. I only have a mat normally used to put round a cake, so I used some details for the cupcakes. I tried to used fondant silicone mould but this was a disaster! mix was spread to thickly...But after some careful peeling here is the result, et voilà !

Week 4, part 2 :sticky buns

Here we goes, second part on this weekend bake, sticky buns. Apologies for pictures, difficult to make sticky buns look glamorous but they tasted good!
As I was baking for the church mission's meeting , I decided for a tear and share type bread and went for the sweet choice. Even though it is in the bread section of the book, it is fairly easy to do and does not take too much time. I was able to bake both the cupcakes and those in one evening. It's just needed a bit of planning. Once you have done the mix you need to leave it rest for an hour and then another 45 minutes once the buns are formed.
The mix in the inside is straightforward as it is butter and brown sugar (real healthy stuff..). I had stretch the mix on cling film, it made it extra easy to roll. I guess the only hard work was the kneading. As I am still dreaming of my cake mixer,  I got 15 minutes of free exercise. There is some satisfaction in doing by hand and it's a good stress relief after work!

Week 4, part 1: Red velvet cupcakes

Week 4, part 1: Red velvet cupcakes

This week was a busy baking week. I was asked to bake red velvet cupcakes for a get together. Not in the British bake off book so to keep with my weekly bakes I also made some sticky buns. I will publish the sticky buns story later on this week.
The red velvet cupcakes are becoming a bit of a signature bake. A lot of people asked me for it. They are soft and not too sweet, they are great! The recipes is on one of the picture.
If you want to make them as pop cake, you will need to bake the batter as a whole cake. Wait until it cool down then break it in a powder. You can use a mixer or do it by end. You might need to trim the outside to keep only the softer part. Then mix in the icing, one table spoon at a time, until it's moldable but not sticky. If you put too much icing it will be too heavy and fall. Mould in small ball and put in the fridge. You then need some candy chocolate. Put your stick in the melted chocolate then put in the ball. Let it get hard then dip the balls in the chocolate et voilà !

Recipes from the Hummingbird recipe book

Week 3: Almond tuiles

Week 3: Almond tuiles.

After the 3 day of work on croissant last week, I decided to take it easy this week. That’s until I realised that I had to beat eggs white until stiff picks and that my electric whisks is still broken…
Anyway, a good workout later, was quite proud of my egg whites! There is some satisfaction in beating it yourself and also it’s good stress relief.
The tuiles were fairly easy to make although took me three batches to get baking time and consistency right.
They turn out lovely! T-boy, my 2 years old, could not wait and tried to grab some while it was setting!

 

Week 2: Croissants

Week 2: croissants!

So yes technically it’s kind of the same week but still counting as week 2!
This week as we were invited to a brunch/birthday party, I decided to do croissants…. That was hard work!
As I also started back work on Thursday I had to do a lot of planning and taking liberty (yes, dangerous) on the recipe so as to do it in three part over three evening.
The second day, which was making the puff pastry, was a bit catastrophic with not enough space, sticky pastry and butter oozing…. Then I got worried when I saw it had triple volume over night…. But decided to carry on anyway at worst it would have been some strange pastry things!
But baked them this morning and voilà! Not bad: look, taste and feel the part so that’s a result. Croissant, tick!

 

Week 1: Walnut crumbles

First bake on a rainy bank holiday: Walnut Crumbles.

Officially starting the baking challenge!
I had some thinking about how to start this. Should I start by page one and go through the book, go through each categories in different order or randomly pick whatever I fancy doing?
The choice is made for me: it is Monday bank holiday and it’s pouring down rain. No way I am going to the shop so open the cupboard and look for a recipe for which I already had the ingredients, and there it is!
Very easy to do although I forgot to add the muscavado sugar but it turned out great and sweet enough. Does that still count as a recipes done? I say yeah!
So what’s next?

Starting the blog adventure

Starting the blog adventure!

It all started on a bad day… Feeling low, my husband just asked me why I was in such a bad mood so I decided to bake because that what makes me happy. Oh and it has to be while listening, singing and dancing on the classics. Cherie FM Frenchy on, apron on and there it goes I am attempting scones for the first time. They turned out flat but nice! Even my fussy 2 years old ate them, Result!
But that made me think that even though I think I am a pretty good baker mainly for cakes I need to improve my skills, so I gave myself a challenge: I am going to cook all the recipes from my Great British bake off book! Minimum one a week!
So that’s :

• 23 cakes
• 24 biscuits
• 13 Breads
• 13 Pies
• 13 Tarts
• 13 Patisserie
• 14 Puddings
• 11 celebrations cakes

So let’s the baking start!