Epic baking weekend

Last weekend, while we were enjoying the heat wave, I once again chose to spend longer than was possibly sensible standing in the vicinity of a hot oven as I made not one, but two slightly challenging cakes. The first was to feed some family that came to see us on Saturday, and given that they included 4 little girls and I'd spotted this recipe a few months back in Good Food magazine, I thought it was time to make a Rainbow Cake. The recipe, as always with Good Food, was really clear and easy to follow, and although it takes a bit of time to bake due to having to make the recipe 3 times over (or 4 if you opt for 7 layers), it was definitely worth it - here are the results...

Yes, it may contain quite a lot of artificial colours but I think that's OK on rare occasions for a treat!

Then on Sunday I faced what seemed to me at least to be a bigger challenge - the Fraisier. My Mum quite liked the look of this when she saw it made on the Great British Bake Off last year, and put in an early order for one for her birthday. I used a recipe from Patisserie at Home by Will Torrent which I also used when I made my Madeleines a couple of months ago - I was slightly daunted by the concept of the Fraisier at first but I worked through the steps and it was actually not too bad! The finished cake wasn't completely perfect, but I'm definitely pleased with it as a first effort, here it is....

Now what projects that are inappropriate for the temperature shall I embark on next?!

Adventures of a chocolate cake

So what did I decide would be a good idea to do this weekend when we were enjoying the hottest weather we've had in ages? Take a massive chocolate cake covered in ganache icing on a very warm coach trip from Bristol to London! I was rather regretting this decision when I was finishing making it late on Friday night and was convinced it would be a molten mess by the time I arrived, but thankfully I was wrong - it stayed completely intact and was delicious, here's the proof..

The recipe was from Jo Wheatley's A Passion For Baking and I'll definitely making it again, although possibly this time not when it's quite as hot and I want to be watching certain important tennis matches!

Brilliant BBQ bread

As England was basking under some long-awaited sun last weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity for some even more long-awaited BBQ action. And, never being one to let a reason to do some baking pass me by, I set about creating some great bread to have as an accompaniment.

I eventually settled on making some Olive and Feta bread from the WI bread book and, as it seemed to have gone well and there were a lot of people to feed, I decided to get a bit adventurous and use a similar method to make some Pesto and Parmesan bread. Here's how they turned out...

Pesto & Parmesan (l) and Olive & Feta (r) bread

And this is how to make my Pesto & Parmesan Bread

350 g strong white bread flour

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp fast action dried yeast

225 ml water

3 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for greasing)

50 g Parmesan, grated

4 tsp pesto

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl, keeping the salt and yeast separate. Make a well in the centre and add 3 tbsp and most of the water. Mix together to form a dough, adding the remaining water if necessary.

2. Turn out onto a work surface lightly greased with olive oil and need for 8-10 mins until smooth. Flatten out and work in half of the Parmesan and pesto, then flatten out again and work in the remaining Parmesan and pesto. Divide the dough into two and place in an oiled polythene bag. Leave to rest for 10 mins.

3. Grease a baking sheet.

4. Take one of the pieces of dough and stretch it into a teardrop shape measuring about 20cm long and 15cm at the widest part. Place on the baking sheet then repeat with the remaining piece of dough. Cover and prove in a warm place until doubled in size.

5. Preheat oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.

6. Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden then cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Madeleines

When I unexpectedly won my WI bake off the other week, in addition to a rather handsome rosette I also won a voucher for the great shop Kitchens in Bristol, and this week I went and spent my winnings. One of the things I bought was a Madeleine pan - I've been wanting one so I could try my hand at Madeleine making for a while, but somehow it always seemed like a slightly frivolous thing and there was always something else I actually needed instead. But having a voucher seemed to be the perfect excuse to get one, so get one I did! And this weekend I put it into action, here are the results...

For a first attempt, I was really pleased with them - they were lovely and moist and were a perfect accompaniment to an afternoon cup of tea. They're Honey and Vanilla Madeleines, I got the recipe from a magazine but it's taken from Patisserie at Home by Will Torrent. If this recipe is anything to go by, the book may have to be added to my ever-growing cookery book wish list!

Prize-winning cake!

This week's major achievement has most definitely been, rather unexpectedly, winning Best in Show at my WI Bake Off. We're not a very traditional WI (last month we were street dancing at our meeting) but some traditions, namely baking, are worth preserving so there was a huge array of cakes, bakes, biscuits and brownies on offer. I was fairy sure my offering would be overlooked because it didn't look particularly glamorous and didn't involve any chocolate, but it seems that being a bit different paid off on this occasion. Here's my winning creation...

It's a courgette and lemon cake from the Good Food website. I'd only made it once before but it went down really well that time and even better this time it seems! The only change I made from the recipe the second time around was that I creamed together the butter and sugar before adding the other ingredients at the start this time as the first time I made the cake it took forever to get the butter all mixed in - creaming the butter and sugar first seemed to work much better as far as I'm concerned.

I think the courgettes keep the cake light but moist, and there's quite a lot of lemon in there so it's almost refreshing compared to lots of cakes. And with all that courgette and lemon it must almost count as one of your five a day. Well, maybe not but never mind, it's still delicious. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Happy Easter!

I have mainly been celebrating a couple of days off over the Easter weekend by baking - it's been a tasty few days! I started off with these....

Roasted vegetable and ricotta rolls from Italian Home Baking by Gino D'Acampo. They were delicious, and would be really good on a picnic as you kind of end up with a whole meal in one roll. I haven't had this book long, but the recipes that I've tried have all been good so I'll probably be doing some more experimenting soon.

Once the rolls had been devoured, I then moved on to pudding for Sunday lunch - a 'Glam trifle slice' courtesy of Good Food magazine. It's essentially the elements of a traditional trifle but set in the form of a terrine so not really baking (apart from the sponge base), but still good fun and with very tasty results. It's an easy recipe, it just takes some time for all the layers to set but it's definitely worth the wait. Here's the final result...

It's meant to be topped with whipped cream, but I decided to be a bit different and use mini meringues...

Quite proud of them! I think they worked well, it was nice to have a bit of a different texture which you wouldn't have had if you used cream.

And the last baking project? Hot cross biscuits....

From 'Biscuit' by Miranda Gore Browne. A nice twist on the classic hot cross bun, and much quicker to make! And just in case anyone is worried that I haven't left the kitchen for the last few days, here are some pretty flowers that I've found on my baking-fuelled travels...

Weekend baking

Today's project: homemade custard creams using some new smiley face cookie cutters. Verdict: a success, in terms of both taste of appearance, and they definitely beat the shop-bought variety...

Open sesame

One of the best things about working from home is having the time to make my own bread. All I need is a few minutes to put everything together, then I leave it to prove and let the the rising magic happen while I'm working away in the morning with the promise of fresh bread to look forward to, to say nothing of the amazing smell that fills my flat. Here's some sesame bread, still warm from the oven just in time for lunch...