Baking for Babies

A couple of months ago two fellow bloggers, Dolly Bakes ( www.dollybakes.co.uk )and Mummy's Little Peeps ( www.mummyslittlepeeps.co.uk ) announced a call to arms. The idea was a rather fabulous one, they decided to hold a pop up bakery in a local venue in order to raise funds for the local neonatal unit. The announcement came for bakers young and old to join forces and bake goods to be sold at a summer fayre, which the public could come along and buy whilst also enjoying an array of stalls, including face painting, vintage clothing, sweets and even a vintage photo booth! Brilliant!
I jumped at the chance to help support such a worthy cause and began to decide on what to bake. After an initial obsessive patch of brainstorming, I had a million and one ideas on what I wanted to make for the big day. However, fast forward two months to this Thursday just gone and I still had not made my mind up.

My initial plans and preparations had all gone to pot, what with Si being away on a vintage car rally for the week and my crazy need to paint and decorate part of downstairs in 2 days, whilst simultaneously dealing with builders, visiting family and a marauding 2yr old. Why do I do these crazy things, I ask?

On the last minute, I decide to make some unusual cupcakes which involved arts and crafts to make them quite unusual. It called for a trip to hobby craft, which was endured with a screaming toddler who would only be appeased by a human sized bag of chocolate buttons they were selling off and letting him be in sole control charge of a drag along basket, which kept taking out rather large displays every 5 minutes! Not a great start! On returning home, I also realised that the idea, whilst being a good one, was not a very practical one, so the plans had to be changed again. I settled on a plain cupcake and baked 48 of the lovelies and decorated them with edible glitter and some sprinkles. I then stupidly left them to one side whilst I tended to J's bedtime routine.

Mistake number one was letting J see then in the kitchen, mistake number two was to have left them on the dining table. Mistake number three was not taking any photos. Mistake number four was leaving J alone whilst I ran to get pj's etc. All I can say is that it was pure carnage, that required a thirty minute scrub in the bath and an hours cleaning once I had managed to get downstairs!!!

On top of that I had also used up most of my ingredients on the original batch of cupcakes. After scrabbling around in the cupboards for some additional ingredients, I settled on Almond and Raspberry Cupcakes (recipe below) with a Vanilla and home made Raspberry Coulis icing and some Vanilla Fork Biscuits.

When we rocked up on the morning of the big day, I was staggered by just how many people had baked and brought cakes and bakes to be sold. There was such an array of beautifully iced and decorated cakes, it took all of my will power not to launch myself head first into what can only be described as cake heaven!!!

The whole day was fantastic and the ladies had done a magnificent job of organising the event, helped by many amazing people. Going forward the only other thing I can say now is that I really hope they make this an annual event!!

Almond and Raspberry Cupcakes:

145g caster sugar
145g self raising flour
225g unsalted butter
115g light brown sugar
110ml double cream
55ml milk
4 eggs
75g ground almonds
Best quality raspberry jam
1tsp almond extract
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas4/350f and prep a muffin tray with muffin cases.
Beat butter in a bowl until fluffy and add the sugars. Cream together, then add the eggs one at a time. Beat for about 5 mins.
Stir in the almond extract and gradually add the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Add milk and cream and mix.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases to about half full.
Place in the centre of the oven for about 15-20 mins.
Remove and cool.
Once cool, using a sharp knife, remove a small circle from the top of each of the muffins and spoon in a tsp of Raspberry jam into each cake.
(don't add the jam whilst baking, as I learnt, as the jam will sink to the bottom of the cakes)
Replace the cake lids you cut off and top with vanilla icing and drops of raspberry coulis.

All in all I was rather pleased with them, considering I only had 1 hr to make them and get them down to the fayre. Though definitely next time, I will put the jam in at the end of cooking and cooling, as above.

Happy Baking!!

Strawberry Jelly Cake

Yet another cake club has come around and today's theme is "Sweets for my sweet". Cue memories from my youth ( yes I can remember that far back!!!) of Cherrylips, Cola Bottles, Fruit Salads and Blackjacks, along with going to the corner shop with 10p, that my sister and I had managed to alleviate from our dad, for ten penny sweets. Fantastic!

Originally, I toyed with the idea of doing a Cola Cube Cake and even purchased the cola crystals from the local sweet shop, but at the last minute bottled it in favour of a Strawberry Jelly Cake. And I am do glad that I did!

The idea came about from yet another tried and failed attempt to get J to try something new. I bought a couple of packets of jelly and attempted to get him to try and eat some. Needless to say no amount of Si and I trying to eat it and make mmmm noises would even get him to take even a bite.

So here I was left with a whole pile of jelly and no idea what to do with it. I HATE waste and needed to come up with something to do with it. So an idea formed. Would it work in a cake? The answer is a massive resounding yes!!!

The recipe is super easy, yet yields a huge reward. You need to make a plain vanilla sponge (my favourite recipe is below) and bake in a round cake tin. Allow it to cool completely and then turn the cake upside down.
Grab a skewer and stab holes all over the base of the cake, taking care to not go all the way through the cake. You probably want to only go about two thirds of the way through the cake. Make up two packets of full fat jelly with 100ml of cold water and microwave for about 1 min / 1min 30, until it is liquid and mix to make sure all of the jelly has melted.
Si then came up with the genius idea of syringeing the jelly into each of the holes until all of the liquid had been soaked into the bottom of the cake, taking care not to let any of the jelly roll down the sides of the cake, as this would lead to the cake sticking to the plate it was on, and trust me it is near impossible to get off again without leaving half of the cake behind!
Transfer the cake, covered to the fridge and let it set overnight. Serve by itself, or even with vanilla ice cream!!
Also we store ours in the fridge to keep the jelly set.

Vanilla Sponge Recipe
200g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
200g caster sugar
200g unsalted butter at room temp
4 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

Preheat the oven to 180C fan/350F /gas 4 and grease and line a baking tin
Mix all the dry ingredients together and add the wet ingredients. Then mix in a stand alone mixer or with an electric hand mixer for about 2 mins.
Place ingredients into the tin and bake for about 20-30mins until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Waist not want not!

I dont know if everyone else is the same, but in our house, the question that is asked on a daily basis is: "What's for pudding?". As a family, we menu plan every week, but the main focus is always on what baked goodies are going to accompany our meals. Even J asks "what's for pudding?" before he will even entertain eating his lunch or dinner, working out whether or not the usual show down of "If you don't eat your dinner, there will be no pudding" will be worth his time and effort!
So picture the joint look of confusion and, dare I say, anguish when Si and J trundled to the cake cupboard (yes people it is that much of an obsession in our house we do actually have an entire cupboard to house just cake) after dinner to find it bare. It was heart breaking. They both had to share a KitKat and some melon. Needless to say I was made to feel a right villain! Si muttering that he did not understand why there was nothing there and J asking confusedly "No cake? But why?".
The reason is simple, the onslaught of my fab new bakey life is taking its toll on the old waist line!!! Not great! As a result evasive action is needing to be taken, so I am putting the family on a diet for a couple of weeks. Not so much J but definitely me, and if I have to go through it, Si too! There is no reason why I should have to suffer on my own now is there?
So I have done some research and have come up with a couple of bakes that I have amended in order to make them a little more waist friendly, but still delicious. As I have explained we are dedicated followers of cake, so a fortnight of no puddings or cake would be too much like torture.
The first cake that I have amended is a carrot cake (my personal favourite).

275g self raising flour (if you want to be über healthy you could use 225g wholemeal flour and 50g self raising flour which is just as delicious. The only reason I don't use it here is that a lot of wholemeal in a diet is not great for J and he gets enough elsewhere)
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
140g soft light brown sugar
50g walnut pieces
1 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
225g carrot coarsley grated
425g crushed pineapple pieces, drained
3tbsp sunflower oil
3 medium eggs

I generally omit the walnuts and replace these with raisins or sultanas due to J and personal taste.

If you MUST have cream cheese frosting, I have come across a slightly healthier alternative from an old magazine I got from my mum.

200g extra light cream cheese
70g icing sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line a 20cm square tin.
Sift the flour and bicarb in a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well to break up any lumps.
Add the walnuts/raisins, cinnamon, pineapple, and grated carrot.
In another bowl mix the oil and eggs together and add to the flour mixture.
Stir until blended.
Pour into the cake tin and place in the oven for around half an hour/40mind. Test with a skewer to see if cooked.
Leave to cool for 5 mins and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you are having the cream cheese frosting, beat the frosting until it is smooth and soft and add the icing sugar and zest. Mix. Be careful not to over mix it. If it appears to be runny, pop it in the fridge to help to thicken it up.

Leave the cake to cool completely and spread the frosting over the top.

A great tip for people who bake a lot of cake and always seem to be trying to "eat up" before the cake goes stale, is to cut the cake into the recommended serving suggestion, so with this cake it would be 12, and keep a couple of slices to one side. Wrap the remaining un-frosted cake in individual portions in cling and foil and label. Pop it in the freezer for up to 3 months and whenever you have a craving for something a little bit cakey, remove from the freezer and allow to defrost. That way you will only ever have cake portioned up ready to go and will also not be tempted to finish the entire cake so "it doesn't go off"!

One thing that I did manage to do was to make some cupcakes with the excess batter. I managed to get a total of 13 cupcakes, a true bakers dozen, out of the excess. It is always a bonus to get extra cake!!

Hopefully Swiss family Bakey will not notice too much of a change in taste and fabulosity in our love of all things puddingy! If this cake is anything to go by, I might actually enjoy this dieting malarkey!

Royal Red Velvet Jub-Olympicness!

Of course everyone in the whole country is now starting to get into the swing of the Jubilee and the progression of the Olympic torch. You could say a certain "Jub-Olympicness" has swept the nation. So not to be outdone here is my patriotic offering. Union Jack Red and Blue Velvet Cake.

The recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery and I doubled the original ingredients to make a round 8" cake.

For the red velvet cake

120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
2 eggs
20g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring and 20ml blue food colouring (though I ended up using a LOT more than this trying to get the right colour)
1tsp vanilla extract
240ml buttermilk
300g plain flour
1tsp salt
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
3tsp white wine vinegar
For the cream cheese frosting:

300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold

You'll also need:

2 x 8" round cake tins

The method is quite a long one, but the details can be found below. The only thing I did change was I divided the mixture into two and added the blue food colouring mix to one half along with half of the cocoa powder and the red food colouring to the other half with the other half of the cocoa powder. The original recipe calls for the mixture to be divided into three tins, but I only used 2 and the cakes turned out perfectly.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/475341/Red-velvet-cupcakes

The only thing I would say is that when the cakes come out of the oven, the blue cake may look a little grey, but once you cut into it, I promise it will look blue. When you are mixing the colour into the cake mix, feel free to add as much colour as you like to get the shade desired.

Happy Jub-Olympics!!!!

Pimms O' Clock contd

So I have made it back from today's amazing cake club well fed and truly amazed by all of the fabulous cakes everyone has made and brought with them. There was everything from a Lavender Victoria Sponge to a beautiful raspberry and white chocolate cake decorated with icing bunting. Gorgeous!
There was even a gorgeous lemon cake with meringue icing called a meringue-atan cake!! I have asked for the recipe ( it was devine!) and will share it as soon as I get it!

The thing that astounds me everytime is that there never seems to be the same cake made twice at each event. People's perceptions and interpretations of the themes are always so different and you always learn something new, whether that be a way of decorating a cake or combinations of flavours, like the beet root and chocolate cake (who knew it would be so delicious?) simply decorated with icing and red edible glitter. Stunning!

I get so much pleasure from this club and cannot explain to you how fabulous it really is. You should all find a local group, or start one and go. You won't be disappointed.

Pimms o'clock darling!

As I type this, I am getting ready to attend another cake club and the theme is "Great British Fete". We have to be there in an hour, but I am app excited about my cake that I had to do this before I left!!

The whole idea about cake club for me is that is allows me to push myself, both in skill and imagination. Not for
one minute is the club competitive, or does anyone actually judge anyone else. It is just like minded people meeting up for a slice (or ten!) of cake and a chat about all things cakey. Heaven!

However, I like to push myself and think that there are so many different things you can do with baking, that it would be a waste of my brain to just keep baking the same few cakes that my family know and love. So I relish the challenge of trying to come up with something a bit different when we get the themes through from our club organiser.

This time I went through all sorts of ideas but finally came upon 2 that I have not made before and sounded a bit different. A Lancashire honey cake and a Pimms Cake. I tried both and the Pimms cake won.

The recipe was just a basic sponge mix with the addition of Pimms and lemon juice in place of the milk.

Pimms Cake with Strawberry, Blueberry and Pimms Cream Cheese Frosting.

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
60 ml Pimms
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Pre heat the oven to 180C and grease and line a cake tin - I used a round 9" cake tin
Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one and beat for about 5 mins.
Add the sieved flour and baking powder and lemon zest and mix.
Add the Pimms and lemon juice and mix.
Place into the cake tin and bake in the oven for about 30mins.
This makes 1 x 9" cake.

Frosting
190g cream cheese
40g butter
3 - 4 tbsp icing sugar
3 cap fulls Pimms
Handful blueberries and strawberries blended.

Beat the cheese and butter together.
Add the Pimms and mix.
Add the icing sugar and mix.
Add some of the blended fruit and mix for a min of 5mins until light and fluffy.

I made two layers and spread some of the frosting between layers and topped with some chopped strawberries. Then I laid the top layer on top and piled the top of the cake with some more of the frosting and decorated with a couple
of strawberries.

To me this is heaven on a plate. Light and fluffy with a refreshing frosting. Delicious!!

I have to go now as cake club awaits. I'll fill you in later as to how it went and what people thought of the cake.

I can't believe I have just made butter!!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working on a little project, ready for June, so any additional baking has been put onto a bit of a back burner. As a result, there have been a few ingredients quietly losing their best in the old fridge. Included in this was a large quantity of double cream. Now there are many different ways to cook with cream, but as I have not had much time to cook at all, I needed something that would help to preserve it. My first thoughts were freezing it, but there is no room in the freezer due to the amount of cake and bread that is currently residing there! So after chatting with a friend, I decided to try and make my own butter.

The end result was very tasty (if I do say so myself!) and was incredibly easy to make. It is really one of those things that sounds like a complete faff to make and people always seem to be incredibly impressed when you tell them that you have made it, but trust me, it is really worth doing!

First of all you put the cream into a bowl and mix it in a mixer or with a whisk until it starts to turn into a thick creamy mxture. It will go from being cream to an almost curdled, butter like substance, after a few minutes of whisking. Drain off the buttermilk and place the mixture into a muslin cloth inside of a dish.                                                                                                                                                     

Then squeeze the mixture out by wringing the mixture out inside the muslin as tightly as you can, until you have managed to squeeze out as much of the buttermilk as possible. Then decant into a butter dish or into a container and enjoy!! (If you want salted butter, add the salt into the cream mixture before you start whisking, in whatever quantity you like). Super easy and super tasty. You have to try it!