Hot lemon pudding

November 14, 2012, 8:27 am

There was a time when I didn't like lemon. It's hard to believe considering it's now one of my favourite cake flavours. This is the pudding which changed my mind and I've never looked back.

One of my flatmates in my first year of university made this pudding as part of our "Communal Meals Saturday" and although I had grown up thinking I wasn't that fussed with lemon I thought I'd give it a go.

I loved this pudding. A soft spongey crust with a warm, zesty lemon curd oozing underneath. What's not to like? (A flatmate's drunk friend "visiting" later on that night and dipping her fingers through our pudding. We weren't best pleased.) It's comforting yet fresh and light so you can have seconds without feeling stodgy later on. Always a good thing.

If you're a fellow lemon lover then I would recommend adding this to your baking repertoire. Rachel Allen's recipe can be found here. I'll definitely be making it again now that I have been reunited with the recipe. It also gives me an excuse to use my polka dot heart shaped dish.

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5 good things

November 21, 2012, 10:12 am

≫ Next: Banana and chocolate cupcakes

≪ Previous: Hot lemon pudding

Last week was a very bad week so I thought it would be good to join in with the "5 good things" posts I've seen on Helen and Victoria's blogs.

1. My new polka dot bedding. I love the pattern, I love that it's reversible, I love the shade of dusky pink, but mostly I love that it's brushed cotton. It's really soft and cosy and looks so inviting with my bedspread.

2. I've started my Christmas crochet projects. There's something therapeutic about crocheting. It has been a nice activity for my brain to zone out to when I'm struggling to sleep. Want to know who watches Big Bang Theory re-runs on E4 at 1am? That's me and my crochet hook.

3. I was alone in the house for a couple of hours on Saturday so I played the piano for the first time in ages. Even though I am incredibly out of practice I really enjoyed it. It's a great brain cleanser. I concentrate so hard on what I'm playing that it blots out everything else, leaving me strangely refreshed yet exhausted.

4. The ultimate comfort: a cup of tea and a pair of cosy slippers. One can never wear too many Fair Isle patterns.

5. Last week I discovered the online fabric shop, Frumble. There are so many exciting patterns! Even though I'm trying to only spend money on Christmas gifts, I think I may need to purchase some fabric.

What are your 5 good things at the moment?

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Banana and chocolate cupcakes

November 28, 2012, 11:58 am

≫ Next: Banana loaf with chocolate fudgy icing

≪ Previous: 5 good things

I went on a banana baking rampage last week as there were a few browning bananas in the fruit bowl. Either nobody felt like eating bananas or they were leaving them in hope that I would eventually bake with them, which I did!

I decided on these banana and chocolate cupcakes from the first Hummingbird Bakery cookbook (first blogged here). I've also decided that I don't care if it's November; my photographs are going to be bright and summery.

Pretty star sprinkles! I may have got over excited about the new display of cake sprinkles in the baking aisle of a supermarket last week. Naturally I had to stock up.

I've used this recipe a few times but find it can be frustrating. The cupcakes either turn out deliciously moist and light or stodgy and wrinkly. The recipe worked fine this time (hurray!) but I wish I knew how to make it more consistent. Does the ripeness of the bananas affect it? I've considered reducing the amount of baking powder as the recipe calls for one tablespoonful, which seems like a lot, and I often find that the cupcakes deflate slightly either towards the end of baking or within 5 minutes of taking them out the oven, despite being fully cooked. The cupcakes don't taste like there's too much baking powder, but I wonder whether this may be the problem. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I've got another banana bake to write up over the next couple of days so I hope you all like bananas!

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Banana loaf with chocolate fudgy icing

November 30, 2012, 1:26 pm

≫ Next: Recent utility china finds

≪ Previous: Banana and chocolate cupcakes

Banana and chocolate bake number two! I hadn't tried Mary Berry's banana loaf from her Baking Bible so I gave it a go. It's another chuck-everything-in-the-bowl-and-mix recipe which always gets a massive thumbs up from me.

I have a really strong urge to add cinnamon to everything at the moment but I resisted with this recipe. I'm actually glad I did because it left the banana flavour to shine. However I did cave in to my urge to cover the cake in chocolate. I went for my Granny's cooked chocolate icing as I wanted a slightly fudgy flavour. My icing could have been a bit thicker, but it still tasted good. I fully recommend banana and fudgy chocolate as a flavour combination. My only complaint is that my cake didn't rise very much but perhaps that was just down to my mixing.

I was struggling to find something to photograph my loaf on as I am fed up with always using a boring choppingboard (honestly, check "loaf cake" in the archives) when Mum reminded me about my big oval plates. The Johnson Brothers Cloud plate was perfect so I decided to be matchy-matchy and use the coordinating cup, saucer and cake plate.

I also halved the loaf recipe to make a tray of buns/fairy cakes and iced them with a fudgy frosting from my Primrose Bakery book. Unfortunately I forgot to take photographs of these but they were cute and tasty and involved more star and butterfly cake sprinkles.

Banana loaf

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

100g (4oz)softened butter
175g (6oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Grease a 900g/2lbs loaf tin and line with baking parchment. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl for about 2 minutes and spoon the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1 hour until well risen, golden and firm to touch (a skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean). Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Granny's chocolate topping
Heat two tablespoons of milk, 1.5oz (about 40g) of margarine and 1 tablespoon of cocoa, nearly to boiling and then add 4oz (about 100g) icing sugar and beat together until shiny and thick. Use a whisk if you can't get the lumps of icing sugar to disappear. Add to the top of the cold cake and then decorate in a childish fashion with butterfly sprinkles.

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Recent utility china finds

December 5, 2012, 5:35 am

≫ Next: 5 festive bakes

≪ Previous: Banana loaf with chocolate fudgy icing

When my sister-in-law texted me asking if I wanted some utility china the only natural response to give was "YES!" She found a stash of Johnson Brothers Greydawn and Grindley Peach Petalware at a charity shop for about a fiver and since she's very nice she decided to split it with me.

I am now the proud owner of tureens, cereal bowls and a gravy boat. I've also got more large (soup?) bowls and those odd but useful in between sized plates.

I actually found the yellow Grindley tureen separately a few weeks ago but decided to lump it in with this post. I'm not sure if the lid goes with the bowl as it doesn't fit very well and I'm convinced it's a different shade of yellow, but it only cost about £1.50 with another tureen bowl so I'm not complaining.

The Johnson Brothers Greydawn tureen might just be the cutest tureen in the world. I love the handle on the lid.

Is it sad that I feel so refined now that I own a gravy boat?

I think I have finally ticked off most things I want in terms having a fully functioning, mismatced utility china dinner service. I'd like to find a few more dinner plates, preferably Woodsware, as I'm very fond of my Jasmine Woodsware dinner plate. Not sure where I'm storing my new pieces though as my box of utility china delights is full, but I'm happy admiring them at the moment.

Has anybody else found any nice china recently? If you fancy seeing more utility china I'd recommend visiting Vintage Sheet Addict and The Vintage Knitter as they have found some lovely pieces.

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5 festive bakes

December 16, 2012, 8:07 am

≫ Next: Festive bakes: round 2

≪ Previous: Recent utility china finds

Not long till Christmas now! I've been busy making Christmas presents for the past month but it really feels like Christmas now that I've started my festive baking. I debated splitting all my festive bakes into separate posts, but decided to make one massive Christmas post instead. Hope you enjoy it!

First up are the funky gingerbread biscuits I baked yesterday to give to my cousins. They're quite crunchy, definitely more of a biscuit than a gingerbread, so they're good for dunking in your tea or coffee.

My mum helped with the decorating. We definitely have more of a childlike than professional quality. But who wouldn't want a stripey or splodgy dinosaur biscuit?! I don't know why I don't make biscuits more often as I love all my cutters, the dinosaurs in particular.

You know it's officially Christmas when you make mincemeat pies. I know many will be disappointed that I used bought mincemeat but I had jars left over from last year and I don't like to waste food. I made my own sweet shortcrust pastry though. It has ground almonds in it which gives the pastry a lovely crumbly texture.

It's also officially Christmas in my household when my Mum makes tablet (fudge/candy). I think we made 5 batches(!) to package up prettily as gifts. Don't even ask how much sugar is involved. It is not healthy!

I have also baked a couple of ginger bundt cakes to give to some aunties and uncles. They look impressive without taking up much of your time and they're perfect for sharing. I think my aunties and uncles will like that it's Granny's sticky ginger cake recipe too.

And lastly, a rarity on my sweet toothed blog, a savoury creation! I found this recipe for caramelised red onion chutney through the Cake Hunter (she's got a fantastic Christmas Countdown Gifts series at the moment which is worth checking out).

Chopping so many onions was a tearful task and certainly left a strong aroma in the house, but it was definitely worth it. This recipe made 3 and a half Bonne Maman jars worth of chutney. I'm glad there's a half jar so I can keep one for myself to eat with cheese. If I'm not eating cake, I'm definitely eating cheese.

How are your festive plans coming along? What are you all baking for Christmas? The amount of sugar and syrup I have gone through this weekend is insane!

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Festive bakes: round 2

December 24, 2012, 10:37 am

≫ Next: Merry Christmas!

≪ Previous: 5 festive bakes

I think I may have finally met my match in terms of baking. I have baked so much in the last week or so that the thought of eating anything sweet almost makes me feel ill! As I am a disorganised blogger I thought I'd cram everything together in another big, festive food post. (My first festive post can be found here.)

First up are these cranberry and white chocolate cookies. I've made these cookies/biscuits before and had forgotten how good they are!

They're crunchy round the edges and slightly chewy in the middle. I love the contrast of tart cranberry and sweet white chocolate. It was difficult stopping everybody from eating these when I was trying to pack them up as gifts.

After the cookies I baked these snickerdoodles, also from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book.

Unfortunately I was really disappointed with these so didn't give them away. I liked the idea of them, sweet and cinnamony, but they came out far too doughy/floury. They were baked as little balls and were meant to flatten during baking but mine stayed fairly ball shaped. Not sure what went wrong there.

After the disappointment of the snickerdoodles I made date and cinnamon shortbread, although I would say it's more of a bar than a shortbread.

I liked the technique of the rubbing together the flour and butter, stirring in the dates and sugar and then dumping the mixture into the tray and pressing it in! This bake scores highly in the no faff ratings. I also sprinkled some of the left over cinnamon sugar from the snickerdoodles on top when it was fresh from the oven which added a lovely touch. My mum and brother really liked these.

I was determined to bake some festive cupcakes this year as I've been dying to use my cute snowman cases. I made some chocolate orange cupcakes, which I have made before, but I decided to use the Hummingbird Bakery's basic chocolate cupcake batter instead with the addition of some grated orange zest.

I love the icing for these cupcakes. I could eat it all day (that could be why I've been feeling ill...) and they look extra pretty with terry's chocolate orange wedges.

I have also baked some basic vanilla cupcakes for the ~~weirdos~~ people who don't like chocolate orange, the sponges for the Christmas trifle and the date traybake for sticky toffee pudding! (We have two puddings for Christmas. Partly out of greediness but mostly because we can't agree on one dessert.)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hope Santa is good to everybody tomorrow x

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Merry Christmas!

December 26, 2012, 8:34 am

≫ Next: The forgotten cakes of 2012

≪ Previous: Festive bakes: round 2

Hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday! Santa gave me a new macro lens and I had way too much fun playing about with bokeh all evening.

The only thing I've eaten today is Terry's Chocolate Orange and I plan to eat trifle next. Gotta love Christmas eating habits :)

Happy holidays everybody!

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The forgotten cakes of 2012

January 4, 2013, 2:51 pm

≫ Next: Things I've made

≪ Previous: Merry Christmas!

It's not often that bakes slip through the net as I like my blog to run relatively on time. I know it's not life threatening if I post something late and it slides into another month, but for some reason it irks me.

My first forgotten bake is a chocolate cake I made as a test run for my sister-in-law's birthday cake.

As it was a tester I halved the recipe and baked the mixture in two 18cm round tins. I think I also used two medium eggs instead of 1.5 large eggs. If you like the Primrose Bakery recipe but don't fancy such a massive cake then this worked really well.

Also almost forgotten is a lemon and blueberry drizzle cake which I took to my brother's. Shoddy picture quality courtesy of my mobile phone.

I can't remember which recipe I used, but I remember feeling disappointed that all the blueberries sank to the bottom.

Lastly, not a cake, but a pie! If I don't post this lemon meringue pie from New Year's Eve dinner then it may get forgotten.

I love the contrast of sharp lemon and sweet meringue. It's a wonder I haven't made a lemon meringue pie before (probably because I have an inexplicable fear of making meringues!) The only complaint I had with this Delia recipe was that there was a lot of juice sitting in the bottom of the dish which turned the pastry a bit soggy after a while.

So how's 2013 treating everybody so far? To be honest I'm glad to see the back of 2012. I'm not a resolution maker but have decided to set a few projects in motion to make 2013 more interesting. What are your resolutions for this year, if any?

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Things I've made

January 13, 2013, 5:29 am

≫ Next: Wall-e birthday cake

≪ Previous: The forgotten cakes of 2012

I know Christmas has passed and I shouldn't mention it again until at least November this year, but I wanted to share a few of the non baked gifts I made for Christmas last year.

Fleecy hot water bottle covers are cosy and easy gifts to sew and can be jazzed up with a bit of applique, embroidery or fancy trims. For my friend Sarah I went with a bit of simple embroidery. Yay for embroidered dinosaurs!

After all my crocheting I managed to make 5 festive garlands! I'll have to make one for myself this year as I was so pleased with them. Both patterns came from the Royal Sisters blog.

Impressively and pathetically I managed to injure myself due to all my festive crocheting. After 3 weeks of really stiff finger joints and a shooting pain up my arm I went to the doctors to be told I have golfer's arm. Careful children, crocheting is dangerous.

Beware of the crochet Christmas trees.

I also made quilts for my nephews but I don't have any photos. I bought fleece blankets of Peppa Pig and Wall-e and quilted plain fleece blankets on to the back with wadding in between. They worked a treat.

Did anyone else make any Christmas presents last year? I'm not going to ask whether anyone else injured themselves crocheting, I must be the only idiot who managed that!

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Wall-e birthday cake

January 13, 2013, 5:41 am

≫ Next: Lemon, almond and poppy seed bundt

≪ Previous: Things I've made

It was my eldest nephew's 5th birthday last Sunday and his mum and I decided to make a Wall-e cake to celebrate.

Not just any old Wall-e cake...... but one with a massive rainbow inside!

This cake was massive and took some strategic planning. 11 eggs were used in total and over 1kg of fondant icing! It's the largest cake I've ever created.

The cake was a bit wonky and my fondant icing technique leaves a lot to be desired, but Wall-e is meant to look a bit battered so I got away with my rustic approach! It was also late by the time I painted on the decoration (using liquid food colouring) so it could have been a lot neater, but the main thing is that the cake had character and charm. And it tasted GOOD!

Rainbow cake

x2 7" square sandwich tins
x3 Victoria sponge mixtures (equal weight margarine, caster sugar, self-raising flour and eggs) I used 3 large eggs per batch.
6 food gel colours (good quality)
Double batch vanilla buttercream
strawberry jam
1kg fondant icing

Bake one batch of victoria sponge at a time, gently stirring in the gel colouring before pouring the batter into the tins. I would recommend buying good quality gel colours as I bought own brand supermarket ones which weren't vibrant enough and I had to add extra liquid food colouring. Bake each batch for approx. 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 180C/Gas 4.

If making a Wall-e, make an extra single sponge to cut in half and stack for his eyes.

Once all the sponges are baked and cooled, trim each layer level. Sandwich together and stack with a double batch of Hummingbird Bakery vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam. I had just enough buttercream to cover the outside as a crumb coat too.

For the icing, roll out a long strip of fondant icing the depth of the cake to stick round the sides and then cut out a square to stick on top. Annoyingly I had to open an extra block of icing to cover Wall-e's eyes so definitely buy two blocks of fondant if you're making a Wall-e.

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Lemon, almond and poppy seed bundt

January 19, 2013, 1:10 pm

≫ Next: Passionfruit cream biscuits.

≪ Previous: Wall-e birthday cake

After the indulgence of Christmas and New Year, I thought I'd bake my cousin a fresh, citrussy bake for her birthday. It also meant I got to try out the pretty bundt tin and a recipe from the Peggy Porschen book I received for Christmas.

The cake came out the tin beautifully although I almost spoiled the sculptural shape with my icing which was on the thick side. I'm going to blame the fact I've never melted fondant icing before and wasn't entirely sure about the consistency. However most of it smoothed over with a palette knife dipped in boiled water. While everybody marvelled at the fanciness of the cake's shape I admired my aunty's blue and white china.

The poppy seeds looked really pretty inside the cake and added a bit of texture. I also liked the super sweetness of the fondant glaze against the almondy, lemon flavour of the cake. Something a bit different to the traditional lemon drizzle.

Despite my lumpy icing, this was a relatively straightforward cake to make. The most effort involved was thoroughly greasing and flouring the bundt tin. I googled to see if anyone else had baked this cake to save me typing out the recipe (lazy? Most definitely!) and someone has! Here's the link.

I almost want to cry with envy at the baking, styling and photography in Peggy's book Boutique Baking. It's just so beautifully laid out. Even if I never baked from it, it's a beautiful book to own.

Did anyone else get any good baking books for Christmas? I got four in total and I'm still decided which recipe to try next. Possibly some biscuits....

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Passionfruit cream biscuits.

January 27, 2013, 2:01 pm

≫ Next: Chocolate cupcakes

≪ Previous: Lemon, almond and poppy seed bundt

Last week I found this pressed glass pedestal cake stand in the charity shop. With its fluted edge and yellow rose pattern, it was begging for a fresh, sunshine bake. As it is quite a small cake stand, I decided it had to be biscuits.

Some may be horrified that I've never worked with passionfruit before. I've had drinks and eaten cake containing passionfruit, but I've never physically handled one! Clearly I lead a sheltered existence.

I love how all the flavours come through in the biscuit: zingy lemon zest and passionfruit pulp, sweet golden syrup and rich butter. The passionfruit seeds add a bit of crunch too, which I always enjoy in a biscuit. Then there's the passionfruit buttercream which can only be described as sweet sunshine. I may have eaten four of these in one sitting....

Bake these zingy biscuits if you're feeling miserable or fed up with the cold winter weather. They will make you happy :)

Passionfruit cream biscuits

Recipe from Lakeland Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

75g caster sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

100g plain flour

60ml passionfruit pulp

2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp

90g butter, softened

160g icing sugar

Beat the butter, lemon rind and sugar in a bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup and beat together. Stir in the flours and passionfruit pulp. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cut dough in half; roll each portion between sheets of baking parchment to 5mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Grease oven trays and line with baking parchment. Cut 25 4cm fluted rounds from each portion of dough and place about 2.5cm apart on trays. Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven until light golden (mine took about 15 minutes). Cool on the trays.

For the buttercream, strain the passionfruit pulp through a sieve into a small jug and discard the seeds. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the passionfruit juice. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with 5mm fluted nozzle (I used a wilton 1M). Pipe the cream onto half the biscuits and then place the other biscuits on top.

Note: You will need about 6 passionfruits in total.

I think I made 30 in total as opposed to 25 which meant I didn't quite have enough icing so I made an extra quarter of the icing quantity.

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Chocolate cupcakes

March 12, 2013, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Banana blondie fail

≪ Previous: Passionfruit cream biscuits.

Hello, remember me?

Apologies for my disappearance. I did absolutely no baking last month (I know, I'm as shocked as you). Life and lack of internet connection for 3 weeks (thanks BT) left me feeling too tired to bake or blog.

Does anyone else feel a weird sense of responsibility to their blog in terms of maintaining standards and keeping an "online presence"? I know it's largely self imposed, as we can do whatever we want within our own blogspaces, but I felt really guilty for not updating or replying/commenting on other blogs. I've also been aware for a while that I should make a few little changes here, but the thought of doing anything extra makes me want to stick my head in a bucket full of sand as there are so many other things I need to be getting on with at the moment.

However I am back, with cupcakes (yay!), and have been gradually catching up with everything online over the last week. I had forgotten how good chocolate sponge batter tastes. It's the best! The mixture uses cocoa powder as opposed to real chocolate, but it still produces a cupcake with a satisfying chocolatey punch.

I baked these last week as I wanted to try out my new(ish) Lakeland cupcakes cases and show off my new cake stand which matches one of my sets of china. I don't think it's an exact match as the cups and saucers are fine bone china whereas the cake stand plates are quite chunky, but it's close enough to be pretty and only cost a fiver.

I'm very impressed with the cupcake cases. They kept their colour and pattern really well, and that's with a chocolate batter! You know you're a little sad when you're impressed with the standard of cupcake cases, but it's so annoying to find a pretty case only to discover the pattern disappears or the colours go transparent once baked. Anyone else find that disappointing?

Chocolate cupcakes

175g Stork margarine

150g caster sugar

25g soft light brown sugar (I fancied adding a bit of brown sugar, might put more in next time. As long as the overall sugar weight is 175g)

3 eggs (weighing roughly 175g)

150g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line cupcakes tin with cases. Beat margarine and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, lightly beating between each addition, adding a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to prevent the mixture curdling. Mix in the remaining flour, vanilla extract and milk until the mixture is fully combined. Be careful not to overmix though as you don't want to beat all the air out the mixture, just make sure it no longer looks streaky with cocoa powder.

Fill the cupcake cases 2/3 full. The mixture should stretch to roughly 15 cupcakes. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the icing I followed the Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate buttercream and piped as swirls (working from the centre outwards) using a Wilton 1M nozzle.

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Banana blondie fail

March 17, 2013, 8:31 am

≫ Next: Passionfruit white chocolate cake

≪ Previous: Chocolate cupcakes

I was so excited about these blondies which made it all the more devastating that they didn't particularly work.

The first disaster was burning the caramel for the nutty brittle (why do I find this so hard?! It was like the tarte tatin incident all over again) but thankfully the second batch worked. I'm blaming the cooker as I'm convinced it's not level which caused the caramel to cook quicker on one side.

Disaster number two were the eggs. I had already mashed my bananas and cracked the egg on top. BUT...........the egg was off. Eugh! I had only poured it down the side so I rescued as much of the banana as I could which hadn't touched the egg and thankfully I had one extra banana to spare.

The rest of the mixture came together absolutely fine and I whacked it in the oven. The recipe stated that it should be golden and "wobbly-set". I thought it looked too wobbly so I left it in the oven for an extra ten minutes with the top covered with a sheet of baking parchment to stop the surface from burning.

Despite my gut instinct to leave it in longer I took it out in fear of over-baking. Blondies and brownies are deceptively tricky aren't they? They almost need to err on being a little undercooked to have the chewy, squidgy element as they're no use if they're over baked.

Well, mine were practically raw in the middle. After leaving them to cool and rescuing the edges (which tasted lovely, although very sweet) I put the rest back in the oven, hoping I could make it slightly more edible. This may have worked had I not wandered off and completely forgotten about it, resulting in this burnt mess.....

More brownie than blondie wouldn't you agree?

Saying that, it still tasted quite nice (although crunchy) so the recipe may be worth revisiting. I'm glad I persevered with the caramel as it brought a lovely sticky banoffee flavour with the bananas to the blondie. If any of you have caramel "issues" like me, whatever you do, DONOT put the hot pan of caramel in cold water (unless you fancy having shards of caramel in your face although I wouldn't recommend it). Set it aside on the hob for a few minutes before filling it with warm-hot soapy water. After leaving it to soak for a bit it will dissolve and wipe clean no bother.

Come on, make me feel better. Who else has had a baking fail recently?

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Passionfruit white chocolate cake

March 22, 2013, 8:54 am

≫ Next: Technical stuff

≪ Previous: Banana blondie fail

When I bought myself a copy of the new Clandestine Cake Club book a couple of weeks ago I immediately knew I had to make this cake. Not only does it involve my new found love for passionfruit but also my long term love for white chocolate. And I got to make curd!

The cake did not disappoint; it tasted absolutely gorgeous. The sponge was light and juicy, and white chocolate butter icing with passionfruit curd whipped through it might just be my favourite new icing. The zingy-ness of the passionfruit with the sweetness of the chocolate is such a great pairing.

I used duck eggs in my cake and curd and I'm sure it made them extra sunshiney and yellow, although perhaps not as radioactive as my photographs may suggest (damn night time light!) My friend and I baked in the evening and decided to enjoy the cake as late night elevenses, the best kind of elevenses if you ask me!

The original recipe comes from the creative chocolate fiend Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog which she baked for her first CCC event. If you haven't visited Choclette before then I highly recommend you do. The recipe is more or less a victoria sponge with the addition of two tablespoons of passionfruit curd and a tablespoon of lemon juice so I won't type it out. However I will direct you over to the Chocolate Log Blog for the passionfruit curd recipe. It is the brightest, happiest curd you'll ever set eyes on. I may have made a little extra just to eat from the jar...

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Technical stuff

March 25, 2013, 6:11 am

≫ Next: Easter lemon cupcakes

≪ Previous: Passionfruit white chocolate cake

I don't really understand what's going on regarding google reader/bloglovin. I read blogs from my blogger dashboard, is that google reader? (Don't laugh at me!)

Anyway, you can follow me on bloglovin' here: <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3293181/?claim=j2bss593kba">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

It appears there are two versions of my blog on bloglovin'. How?! The above link is for the .com which has most followers (so I would advise using that one) although the .co.uk version is here: <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4064248/?claim=tp5vdn6m2gd">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Uggghhhh I'm rubbish with technology.

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Easter lemon cupcakes

March 31, 2013, 2:06 pm

≫ Next: Chai latte biscuits

≪ Previous: Technical stuff

Happy Easter everyone! I actually had another post planned but thought it made sense to post my easter bake while it was still easter weekend.

I'm not sure whether lemon cupcakes are actually Easter-y, but they certainly feel fresh and spring like and I've photographed them next to painted eggs so that's good enough for me.

Apologies to the citrus hating followers as I'm aware that half my bakes so far this year have involved lemon or passion fruit. I will try to move into other flavours soon!

If you're a lemon fan like me then these are absolutely perfect: a fluffy, zesty sponge with a sharp lemon curd centre topped with a soft, sweet, lemony butter icing.

By the way do you like my new floral fabric? I found this "scrap" in a charity shop on Friday and couldn't leave it behind. It's such a great retro pattern (and look, Fiona, I ironed it!)

Lemon cupcakes

175g caster sugar

175g margarine

3 duck eggs (weighing 175g, regular hen eggs are fine too)

175g self-raising flour

grated rind of one lemon

1 tbsp milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

jar of lemon curd (I used Tesco brand and it was lovely) or homemade lemon curd

300g icing sugar

100g butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

splash of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating after each addition, and adding a tablespoon of the self-raising flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture curdling. Add the lemon rind, milk, lemon juice and flour and mix until everything is encorporated, taking care to not overbeat the mixture. Fill each cupcake case 2/3 full (I filled 18 cases with this mixture) and pop into the oven for approximately 25 minutes until risen, golden on top and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out on to a cooling rack.

Once cool (carefully) cut a circular hollow from the top of each sponge using a sharp knife, dollop a teaspoonful of lemon curd inside and put the top back on. Mix the icing sugar, butter and lemon juice together until smooth and fluffy. Pipe on a swirl or spread the icing using a palette knife. I didn't quite have enough icing to cover all my cupcakes so you may need to adjust the quantities depending on how much icing you like to put on your cakes.

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Chai latte biscuits

April 7, 2013, 9:51 am

≫ Next: Vanilla chai tea latte cake

≪ Previous: Easter lemon cupcakes

I love chai tea, or "ninja tea" as it's referred to in my family as mum once asked if I was going to order a tai chi latte in a cafe. We like our tea martial arts style.

Sadly I do not own any ninja shaped biscuits cutters, however I do have a cute teapot shaped cutter which I've had for about 3 years but never used. Perfect for tea flavoured biscuits!

I was a bit late jumping on the chai tea band wagon, only discovering it last year, so when Whittards offered me some flavours from their instant chai tea range to bake with I was more than a little bit excited.

For the biscuits I altered a Peggy Porschen biscuit recipe, adding chocolate chai to one half of the dough and the spiced chai to the other. I piped melted chocolate on to the chocolate chai batch to enhance the chocolate flavour which I felt was a nice touch visually and flavour wise. Both batches were subtley spiced and crispy and had a lovely, creamy after taste; surprisingly moreish and perfect for dipping in a milky drink, although I photographed mine with an ordinary chai tea to keep the chai theme going.

My only complaint is that a few of the biscuits were a bit tough/chewy as I must have overhandled the dough when rerolling but other than that I was very happy with them.

I think the instant chai worked really well in the biscuits. Now I'm debating whether I should try adding some of my flavoured hot chocolates to my baking.

Stay tuned for some more tea themed bakes! I'm going to have a bit of a tea series and will post my next bake within the next few days.

Chocolate chai and spiced chai latte biscuits

Recipe altered from Peggy Porschen's chocolate teaspoon biscuits in Boutique Baking.

200g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

100g soft light brown sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

175g plain flour and 25g instant chocolate chai

175g plain flour and 25g instant spiced chai

Line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper. Beat together the butter, salt and sugars until smooth. Beat the egg in another bowl and slowly add to the butter mixture until fully incorporated. Divide the mixture between two bowls and add the flour and chocolate chai powder to one half and flour and spiced chai powder to the other. Mix until the doughs just come together, gather into balls and wrap them separately in cling film. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead briefly. Roll the dough 3-4mm thick and cut out shapes using a cutter. (I used different cutters for each batch so I wouldn't get confused between flavours.) Place the biscuits onto the prepared trays and chill again for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 175C/Gas 3.

Bake for 6 minutes or until the biscuits spring back to touch (mine took about 10 minutes). Once baked, leave them on their trays to cool for about 30 minutes. Decorate with piped icing or melted chocolate once fully cool although they work absolutely fine as plain biscuits too.

Disclaimer: I was sent tea products to bake with as Whittards recognised that I'm a cake/biscuit obsessed crazy tea lady. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

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Vanilla chai tea latte cake

April 11, 2013, 4:29 am

≫ Next: Earl grey tea loaf

≪ Previous: Chai latte biscuits

I had a chai-normous amount of fun baking this cake. (HA! See what I did there?)

Awful puns aside, I was really pleased with this cake. I immediately knew what I wanted to bake when I saw instant vanilla chai in my bundle of goodies from Whittards: a fluffy, spiced, brown sugar sponge with a sweet, vanilla cream cheese butter icing. The homemade stencil decoration was a last minute addition to cover up my slightly lumpy icing (perhaps my butter was too cold?) and I think it looks fun although I may have been a tad overzealous with my cinnamon dusting as it caught the back of my throat a little when eating the cake!

I wasn't sure how much the vanilla chai flavour would come through (I baked this while my biscuit dough was in the fridge) but it worked really well. I thought there was a good balance between warm, cinnamony spices and vanilla sweetness.

It actually took a couple of weeks to get round to baking as I was enjoying just drinking the vanilla chai, but I'm glad I eventually did. I'm definitely making this cake again providing I don't drink all the chai first.

For a bit of fun I put a different flavour of instant chai in each cup for myself, my brother and mum to try. Out of the three we all liked the vanilla chai the most. I liked its sweeter edge over the spiced chai (I do have a raging sweet tooth after all) although the spiced chai was more refreshing and, well, spiced (you can tell I'm going to be inundated with product reviews with descriptions like that.) The chocolate chai was lovely too and makes a nice alternative to hot chocolate if you want something comforting but not as sickly sweet.

Hope you're all enjoying my tea series! I'll be back with my final tea themed bake on Sunday.

Vanilla chai tea latte cake
Own recipe

Sponges:
200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
200g (7oz) margarine
3 large (7oz) eggs
170g (6oz) self-raising flour
30g (1oz) instant vanilla chai
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream cheese butter icing:
300g icing sugar
50g softened butter
175g cream cheese
a few drops of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins. Beat together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, and add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to stop the mixture from curdling. Add the flour, chai, milk, cinnamon and vanilla and mix everything together until just fully incorporated. Divide the batter between the two tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 25 minutes until risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for around 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

For the icing just beat everything together for a few minutes until light and fluffy and use to fill and top the cake. For some reason the butter stayed a bit lumpy with me but wasn't too visually horrifying and still tasted fine. Finish with a dusting of cinnamon.

Disclaimer: I was sent tea products to bake with as Whittards recognised that I'm a cake/biscuit obsessed crazy tea lady. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

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