Tuesday 27 September 2011

Baking Update


Well after my baking session the other day there is nothing left not even stale crumbs.
I made my little pies which where Chicken, leek, Sweetcorn and Peas and tasted divine and such a nice change for our lunchboxes although Ellie refused to even try them (such a fussy child). I have just realised that I didn't take any pictures of any of this stuff

cut in half so that you can see what its like will remember to do that next time.

I also made a Raspberry Ripple cup cake which was meant to be a proper big cake but I didn't have the right tins or enough time to do so. This recipe was out of my BBC Good Food Magazine and they had taken it from Edd Kimber and his new recipe book The Boy Who Bakes. He won the Great British Bake Off 2010 with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. I liked baking this cake as it was not the normal way I would bake a cake, you had to whisk the butter and sugar together for 5 minutes nothing unusual there but then add the egg yolks and then add the flour and then add the whisked egg whites. The end result of the cake was moist and so light and fluffy just perfect for the frosting which was another thing I hadn't made before. It started with making a syrup of sugar and water and adding it slowly to beaten egg whites then adding a very large amount of butter to the egg whites once they had returned to room temperature and as it was white chocolate and raspberry ripple you mix the chocolate into one half of the mix and add raspberry jam (seedless) into the other half. Unfortunately my icing skills need some work and this didn't come out looking as good
as Edd Kimbers did.
I am not a hundred percent sure I liked the icing as it tasted abit like marge even though it was made out of butter and white chocolate but I think it was the white chocolate that gave it this taste.
Then I went on to bake these little beauties which are Cheese muffins they were lovely. Although half the cheese is grated and half the cheese is cut into cubes i cut my cheese into big
cubes that left huge great big holes in the muffins so late in the week I made some more this time adding ham to the mix as well (I always add double the amount of cheese that the recipe says as I like things to be very cheesy and find that even if I use a strong cheese
it doesn't taste cheesy enough for me). I also cut the cheese into smaller cubes and eliminated the huge holes in the muffins. The children took these to school in their lunchboxes twice last week and have demanded that I make more of them very very soon.
I also made these which are banana and peanut butter muffins. I was in such a rush to make these that I used banana's that weren't over ripe and the peanut butter was meant to be crunchy but I thought the children would notice that so used smooth peanut butter instead. They were a disaster and tasted of nothing although they were quite filling as they had oats in them but you really do need to use over ripe banana's. I don't think it makes much difference to the mix if you use crunch or smooth pb its just a textural thing. I think I will make banana cupcakes next time and put peanut butter icing on them and see what that is like as I really like the idea of banana and peanut butter although I wouldn't eat it in a sandwich. Will have to let you know how it works out the next time I make it which should be soon as I have some bananas turning brown as we speak.

These little nuggets of chocolateness are called Chocolate Kisses and are a childhood favourite of mine and thankfully my children adore them as well. Now I have to be honest here and say I didn't bake these Ellie (10) baked them whilst we were trying to work on her maths so she doubled the recipe and even piped them onto a baking sheet to go into the oven. They have a very short and crumbly texture and simply melt in your mouth. Ellie made 36 of them so we had 18 biscuits in total by Monday morning there were only 4 left which went into the children's Lunchboxes and in their word were very yummy.

That's all for now Thanks for coming by and having a look leave me a comment and I will get back to you.
Love Jo xx

Friday 16 September 2011

Baking Time

After the best summer holidays ever and losing a friend during the summer (stupidly rowed over how we felt about the summer holidays) we have now returned to normality, if you can call it that.  We have had hundreds of letters home already and this is only the second week back, none of them begging for money but it wont be long lol.  We have received letters regarding Ellie (who's 10) moving up to secondary school (sorry it will never be high school to me) which has me scared beyond belief, how can that little baby I brought home wrapped up in a white blanket wearing a Winnie the Pooh fleecy all in one be ready to go to the next stage in her life.
Therefore I have decided to bake my blues away and come up with some interesting cakes, biscuits, pies and lunchbox things this weekend just so that she knows that no matter what home is where mummy loves her the best.  OK I didn't say this was going to be a sloppy post but I am feeling that being a mummy is slowly crawling away and soon I shall just be a mum and I don't like that as I feel they might not need me like they have done for the last 10 years.  I am not a mum who doesn't want her children to grow up but them growing up must mean that I am getting old and old I do not feel or want to be.  Cake is the only answer to this I feel as if  I stay the size I am then the extra weight I carry can pad out those wrinkles.
 So the great bake is on for this weekend I am going to make Banana and Peanut Butter muffins, a Raspberry Ripple Cake, Chicken and Sweetcorn mini pies so that the children can take them to school for lunch and my mums Chocolate kisses which are light and crumbly and resemble something along the lines of Viennese biscuits that are sandwiched together with a vanilla butter cream and are so yummy that they never last very long in our house.
I will bring you pictures of the great bake and any recipes that I think are any good to you next week, but in the mean time what is your favorite way to banish the blues and what is your favorite things to bake.

That's all for now see you all soon
Love Jo xx