New Make/Bake 38 - Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I have never made a carrot cake. I feel better now I have I have confessed this fact as it appears to be something which should be in every keen home bakers repertoire. I love carrot cake so it does seem odd that I have never attempted one.

I had been showing my boss some pictures of my cakes in the office and he asked if I was bringing cakes to the next team meeting. I guessed that he was hinting and asked if he had any requests. After some though he requested carrot cake, specifically with cream cheese frosting!

After much thought I decided to go for cupcakes, I wasn't sure if a cake would be enough for all of us and I found a lovely looking recipe on BBC Good Food for Carrot and Cream Cheese Cupcakes.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 175g brown muscovado sugar
• 100g wholemeal self-raising flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• zest 1 orange
• 2 eggs
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 200g carrots , grated
• orange coloured sprinkles , to decorate - I used Little Jelly Orange Slices

For the Icing

• 100g butter , softened
• 300g soft cheese
• 100g icing sugar , sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flours, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice and orange zest. Whisk together the eggs and oil, then stir into the dry ingredients with the grated carrot. Divide the mixture between cases and bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing.
2. For the icing, beat the butter until really soft, then beat in the soft cheese, icing sugar and vanilla. Use a palette or cutlery knife to swirl the icing on top of the cakes, then sprinkle with decorations. I piped my icing on using a large open nozzle which looked quite effective!

 Taken from BBC Good Food

I thought that for my very first attempt at Carrot cake, they were yummy - M wasn't impressed, apparently he thinks that carrot shouldn't go in cake - hmmm!

My work colleagues however felt otherwise thankfully and all 12 cupcakes went that morning, with some of them being taken home for partners to sample. I have even had a repeat order from my manager for a cake for his wedding anniversary - blog post coming soon :)

New Make/Bake 37 - Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes, Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies and Black and White Brownies

A few weekends ago it was M's birthday. It's traditional that you bring cakes into the office for your birthday and apparently the supermarket cakes just wouldn't cut it. Initially he just requested cupcakes, then he decided cookies as well would be nice, and then finally a few brownies, just for good measure! This along with his request for a Victoria Sponge cake meant I would be spending a good few hours in the kitchen to fulfil this order!

After I'd finished the sponge cake I started with the cupcakes. I had Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (from the amazing Hummingbird Bakery)  made these before so not a true new make bake but for the first time I piped the cream cheese frosting, rather just scooping it on top. They taste amazing, so simple and effective, I think this is why the request came in for a repeat make/bake!

The next recipe I attempted was from Nigella's "How to be a Domestic Goddess". As I had purchased quite a bit of cream cheese (it was on offer, it would be rude to say no) I thought I'd try her "Black and White" brownies. It's basically a normal brownie mix (melted chocolate and butter) with flour and sugar,but you dollop in bits of cream cheese, it must be the full fat version, with brownies there is no point holding back!

These were my favourite - I'm a sucker for brownies and these were divine. So tasty and cream and very indulgent. One to be saved for special occasions!

The last thing I made was the Cookies. The was a recipe from "Cox, Cookies & Cakes" by Eric Lanlard and Patrick Cox. It was a basic cookie dough mix with cocoa and dark chocolate chunks. It was supposed to include toffee, however I had some fudge pieces which needed using so I swapped those instead. I look making cookies as they are so flexible and you can mix and match different ingredients according to what you have in the cupboard.

These were quite tasty! The fudge did melt a bit so they were crunchy in places but the added texture was quite nice.


 Feedback was very positive, I'm glad the workers enjoyed them so it was a very successful, if not slightly exhausting, day spent baking!

New Make/Bake 36 - Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

M loves comfort food, anything stodgy is always a winner for him. However he has been reluctant to try one of my personal favourite comfort foods, eggy bread, otherwise known as french toast. One of the best foods when served piping hot, and covered with cinnamon sugar and jam - yummy! Apparently he thinks it's weird and that egg shouldn't go with sweet things. To try and tempt him into trying it I decided to try and make a savoury eggy bread!

I found this recipe in one of the BBC Good Food mag and it looked very tasty - as always I had to give it a tweak!

Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 x 400g cans haricot bean , drained and rinsed- I only had 2 so I added a tin of Cannellin beans
• 500g passata
• ½ tbsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 200g bacon lardons
• 5 eggs
• 125ml milk
• 10 slices white bread , crusts removed and halved to make triangles 
• 100g grated cheddar cheese ( comfort food is always better with cheese!)

 Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the beans into a large baking dish with the passata, paprika, vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Season and mix well. Scatter the lardons over the top, cover with foil and bake for 30 mins.
2. Remove the beans from the oven, take off the foil and stir well. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 10 mins to crisp up the bacon. You can now cool and chill the beans for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Just defrost and warm through before continuing.
3. Whisk the eggs and milk with some seasoning. Dip the bread triangles into the egg mix, then layer them over the surface of the beans. Pour the rest of the egg over the bread, sprinkle with cheese and cook for 20 mins, or until the bread is puffed and the cheese is golden. 

M thought it was lovely, the beans perhaps needed a bit longer to soften as they had quite a bite to them. I also might play a bit more with the flavours as it wasn't a strong enough BBQ flavour which I think would have been lovely. I think eggy bread with jam is the next step :)

New Make/Bake 35 - Full English frittata

Apologies for a long delay of posts. I have been new make/baking but haven't had the time to blog - it's been a busy few weeks! Hopefully I'll catch up!

As part of a health kick I've been trying to eat tasty but lower calorie things - it's not going terribly well but now the sun appears to be here, I'm hoping salads and BBQ will be more common - hooray!

Here is one of the new recipes I tried - adapted from by favourite site

Full English frittata

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 low-fat sausages , sliced
• 4 rashers smoked bacon medallions, chopped
• 150g pack button mushrooms , halved, or larger ones quartered
• 8 egg whites - I'm not a fan of whites so I used whole 6 eggs instead
• 3 tbsp milk
• 140g cherry tomatoes , halved
• small bunch chives , snipped 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a roasting tin about the size of A4 paper with enough baking parchment to cover the base and sides. Fry the sausages and bacon in a non-stick pan until golden, stirring them often to stop them sticking. Scoop into the tin.
2. Place the pan back on the heat and fry the mushrooms for about 5 mins until golden, then add these to the tray, too. Whisk the egg with the milk and lots of seasoning. Pour into the tin, then dot the tomatoes on top.
3. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, until set. Scatter the frittata with the chives and serve with salad (or the recipe suggested smoky beans which is a tin of baked beans and 1.5 tsp smoked paprika)

Make/Bake 34 - Beef Chow Mein and Sweet and Sticky Stir Fry Chicken

M won't eat Chinese food. It's not that he doesn't like it but apparently after every time he's tried it, he's felt really ill, which is quite off putting I can imagine. We have no idea what causes it and unsurprisingly he's not willing to try it much to test it out!

This problem  does cause a few grumbles as Chinese is probably one of my favourite foods so I only ever get to eat it on very rare occasions - booo. To compensate for this Ma greed to let me try a few home-made versions of dishes to see if they had the same effect and I'm very pleased to say that they don't - hooray!!!

I started off with simple stir-fries and found he liked Hoisin and Chow Mein sauce and also noodles and stir-fried veggies. I think made my own stir-fry sauces which were a big success. No pictures at the moment but my favourite is as follows:

Sweet and Sticky Stir Fry Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts cut into chunks
4 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp oil - I use rapeseed but any flavourless oil would do
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 packet of stir fry vegetables
 noodles or rice to serve

Method
1. Coat the chicken with the cornflour. Mix the Soy Sauce, Vinegar and Honey and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wok and then fry the chicken until it's golden brown.
3. Add the vegetables and cook for 3-4 minutes
4. Add the Soy mixture and cook for another 2-3 minutes until thickened and sticky.

 
To follow on from this success I decided to try another recipe from one of my favourite books - The Takeaway Secret. I've blogged about this book a few times, it's brilliant! The recipes are so spot on to some the the popular foods but better as they can be much healthier.

I decided to give the Beef Chow Mein a go as M likes beef and noodles. Personally I tend to prefer Chicken but after this I could be converted! Very tasty indeed and very simple and quick.

You marinade the beef in soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger powder and vegetable oil for five minutes then mix in cornflour and leave for 10 minutes. Whilst the meat rests you make the chow mein sauce by combining oyster sauce, soy sauce, chicken stock and cornflour.

Meanwhile cook egg noodles according to the packet (usually boil in water for 3-5 minutes) and then drain, rinse and toss with toasted sesame oil.

The meat is then lightly fried, until just brown and then set aside whilst you fry some garlic, ginger, sliced onion and bean sprouts for 2-3 minutes. You then add the noodles and beef and prepared sauce for another 2-3 minutes and then season with pepper and serve.

Yummy. M liked it so much he's requested it another night - success!

New Make/Bake 33 - Sausage Roll Ups

In an effort to cut down on my pointless spending at lunch times I've decided to try and make more lunches during the week. Some days I work from home which means I have full access to a kitchen when making lunch. However if I'm in the office then I only have access to a kettle, fridge and microwave and if I'm out and about at meetings then I just have my car which isn't much help beyond driving me to a supermarket for a sandwich! This means that I am in need of a few quick, easy and tasty lunches which need little to no preparation.

A few weeks ago whilst reading through one of my BBC Good Food Magazines I spotted a recipe for Sausage Roll-ups which I though looked rather tasty. Sausage rolls are one of my favourite lunch time snacks, I know they aren't very healthy but there is something about a lovely meaty sausage encased in hot, flaky pastry that I just can't resist!

Sausage Roll-Ups

Ingredients

• 6 chipolata sausages
• 1 pack of croissant dough- found in the chiller section (usually near the butter)
• 2 tbsp Caramelised Onion Chutney
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
•  1/2tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 egg , beaten
•  Sprinkle of sesame seeds 

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Sit the chipolata's in a roasting tin and cook for 15 mins until lightly golden brown and then allow to cool until they are handleable. 
2. Open the croissant packs and unroll the dough and separate into triangles. Mix the onion chutney, tomato purée and mustard, and spread a few spoonfuls over each  triangle. Line a baking sheet with parchment or grease-proof paper. To make the Roll-Ups, lay a sausage along the wide end of the dough and roll it up around the sausage. Repeat until the sausages are all encased with the croissant dough. Arrange them on the baking tray, brush lightly with beaten egg and scatter with sesame seeds. Bake for 10-15 mins until golden.  

 Recipe from BBC Good Food
 

I had two for my lunch straight from the oven - wow they were scrummy. The pastry was great and the chutney made them really sweet but with a slight mustard bite. It took lots of strength to only have two. When M came home he had to test them - to make sure they weren't poisonous or so he said! Apparently  one wasn't sufficient enough for him to fully test them so he of course had to have a second. He then proclaimed that he would take the last two left for his lunch the next day - so much for saving me time and money making my lunch!!

New Make Bake 31 - Mr Happy Birthday Cake

Ages ago I was asked my make mine and M's nephew's 2nd Birthday cake and last week the text came asking if I still was ok to make something. The request came in as Mr Happy themed so after a quick Google looking for inspiration, I send them a choice of possible cakes which I thought were within my limits.

The choice they picked was this one. Possibly the most ambitious of the selection but also the most forgiving if anything went wrong!

I started by making a 9" Madeira Sponge cake. I wrapped the cake in parchment paper and a carrier bag to keep the cake lovely moist and left to cool. I then sliced it into three and filled it with strawberry jam in one layer and buttercream in next . I then crumb coated the cake - this is when you cover a cake with a thin layer of buttercream to provide sugarpaste a base to stick too. For my buttercream I decided to try slightly salted butter as I had read online that it meant the buttercream was less sickly. M LOVES buttercream and I'll admit that I am rather partial to it but I do find it quite sweet and it can give me a headache if I eat too much. I didn't tell M that I had made a change and allowed him to sample some of the left overs which he pronounced as "yummy". Personally I preferred it with the salted butter, it wasn't quite so overpoweringly sweet and I couldn't taste the salt at all.

Whilst the crumb coat dried, I covered my cake board. It's something which I've only started doing recently but I think it makes such a difference and makes cakes look so much more professional. The cake was then covered with chocolate brown (and chocolate flavoured!) sugarpaste and left to dry for 24 hrs to ensure it was a bit more sturdy when I came to adding the details.

To make the Mr Happy model I couldn't use sugarpaste for modelling as it just isn't sturdy or strong enough to hold it's shape on it's on and Mr Happy would not have been very happy for long! You can add powders to sugarpaste (like CMC or gum tragacanth) but as I was on a short time scale I cheated and mixed my yellow sugar paste with Mexican modelling paste as that would enable it to dry hard and quickly. He took me three attempts (the black sugapaste I used left black marks on the yellow - grrr) so I had to learn to handle it quickly and carefully!

The rest of the cake was covered with various sized circles of sugarpaste in green, blue and yellow. This was great as it enabled me to hide any cracks (still haven't perfected that part yet) and made it look lovely and colourful.

The final part was a star-burst of sugarpaste balloons. Typically I didn't plan this bit properly and I bought the wrong thickness of florist wire (I wrongly assumed that the higher the number, the thicker the wire - it's not!) so I had to change my plan quickly. I made small circles and thin 2's in green, blue and yellow sugarpaste (also mixed with Mexican paste so they were keep their shape) to match the cake. I then carefully threaded the wire through the middle and then left them to dry for 24hrs. I wish I'd started them before as the weren't quite set when I picked them up, so quite a few broke which meant I didn't have as many as I planned.

Even with my lesson's learnt, I was actually very pleased with the result and even better was the fact that the birthday boy was just as happy as his cake!

New Make Bake 30 - High-speed Hamburger with Fast Fries

It's been a while since I last blogged. Not because I've not been making or baking new things (I have a backlog to get through!) but because I've been Birthday Cake making - blog to come soon.

M is very partial to burgers (well any meat shaped pattie really) and I wanted to make him a treat as he's working very hard at work at the moment. Usually when I make burgers I just mix mince with seasoning and shape into patties and fry (occasionally I'll chuck in some chopped onion, grated cheese, herbs etc) but seeing as my mum bought me a burger press for Christmas I thought I ought to try it with something slightly fancier for it's first outing. When I opened the burger press I wasn't really sure if I'd use it as I thought it was a bit gimmicky. I can however report that it was great and made quite a different to my burgers - they really held their shape and the results looked quite professional!

For my burger recipe I decided to give one of Nigella's recipes a go "High-speed Hamburger", as the ingredients sounded lovely and a bit different. The burgers are made of lean minced beef mixed with some caramelised onions (from a jar), buttermilk (you could use plain yoghurt if you can't get hold of buttermilk - I got mine in the supermarket near the cream), soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and seasoned well with black pepper. It's quite a messy mixture so not one for people who don't like to get their hands mucky. Once they were mixed, I divided my meat into two and pressed it into the press.   Once formed I griddled my burgers until they were done to our liking (M has to have his well done, I prefer mine to be medium well).

As the burgers were so quick I served them with Nigella's Fast Fries. The fast fries are made from new potatoes which are crushed by putting them in a sandwich bad and bashing them with a rolling pin.This is very therapeutic after a long day at work! Once crushed, the potatoes are sautéed in vegetable oil until crispy. Mine got a little too crispy as someone (M) was late back from work so I had to keep them warm in the oven!

I served my burger in a toasted muffin, slice of cheese and some salad.

The burger was delicious and full of flavour. The onions and buttermilk gave it a lovely texture and taste to the usual burger which I've found can sometimes be quite dry (usually because M likes his cremated) but these were so moist and juicy.Delicious and quick!

New make bake 28 and 29 - Rice Krispie Chicken and Chicken with Katsu Sauce

A few weeks ago I snapped up a bargain in the Supermarket, Lisa Faulkner's new book - Recipes from my Mother for my Daughter. I'd heard lots of positive things about the book from the blogging world and so I settled down to have a read. Wow, so many lovely things which I wanted to try, I didn't know where to start!

From a quick look online it seemed that there were rave reviews about the Rice Krispie Chicken so it seemed to be a sensible place to start. M wasn't too convinced when I started getting the cereal out of the cupboard so it needed to be good to persuade him to give it a go. The recipe is very simple, you dip Chicken Goujons in mayonnaise and then dip them in crushed and seasoned Rice Krispies. I then baked them in the oven until they were golden and crispy.

I served mine with Baked skinny fries and ranch salad (from the supermarket). The fries were lovely, nice and tasty and yet healthy!

They didn't look as pretty as the ones in the book, some of the coating fell off (I think I used too much mayonnaise) but they were gorgeous. M took one mouthful and declared them as one of his favourite thins I'd ever made - high praise indeed. Very simple but very tasty and so easy to make.

A few days later I wanted to see if my success could be replicated so I decided to give the Chicken with Katsu sauce a whirl. It's Chicken strips coated in breadcrumbs (I used Panko breadcrumbs for the authentic Japanese taste) served with a sweet and slightly curry flavoured sauce. I'm quite scared of spicy foods with a lot of heat so I like the idea of controlling how much "burn" there is. The sauce called for curry powder and tomato ketchup which reminded me of the rice I made back in January and as I had really enjoyed the flavour so I figured this would be a tasty dish. I served mine with some stir-fried rice and beansprouts.

I didn't look the most "Yummy" of dishes due to the sauce but wow, it was divine. So tasty and such a lovely combination of flavours. I only made half of the recipe so it served two, next time I'd make enough and freeze the extra sauce for another time.

I think I'm really going to like this book :D

New Make/Bake 27 - Lamb Casserole with Feta Dumplings

Alas "Something for the Weekend" is no more, boooo. But good news, it has been resurrected in a new format called "Sunday Brunch" over on Channel 4. I've been watching it for a few weeks  before I wanted to share my views and after 2 weeks, I think I'm getting to like it. There are a few features missing which I enjoyed from SFTW (Gadget Roulette and Wayne and his amazing cocktails) but the banter and lovely food are the same which was always my favourite part of the show.

On the very first show Simon Rimmer made a really lovely sounding dish which received great reviews from the guests, Lamb casserole with feta dumplings. As a huge fan of Lamb I thought it would be a great recipe to try.

Lamb Casserole with Feta Dumplings

Recipe by Simon Rimmer, Sunday Brunch

Ingredients

For the Lamb Casserole

• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 450g good-quality lamb mince
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• Few sprigs rosemary
• 200ml Madeira
• 200ml strong beef or game stock

I added two tablespoons of Tomato Ketchup and 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce it give it some extra sweetness and depth.

For the topping

• 225g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g unsalted butter, cubed
• 175ml sour cream
• 150g feta cheese

(I halved the ingredients so that it served two)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6. For the filling, heat some oil in a deep heavy-bottomed saucepan and brown the mince. Remove the mince from the pan and set aside.
   
2. To the same pan add the onion, carrot and garlic and fry gently to soften but not colour.
   
3. Add the lamb mince back to the pan, add the cinnamon and tomato purée and cook out for 4-5 minutes.
   
4. Add the rosemary, Madeira, stock and some seasoning, and bring to the boil. (This is where I added the tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce) Then allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.
   
5. For the topping, in a blender pulse together the flour, baking powder, salt and butter. When it looks like breadcrumbs add the sour cream and do the same again. The dough will be very sticky.
   
6. Spoon the filling into individual pie dishes, then spoon dollops of the batter on top. Sprinkle over the feta and bake for 25 minutes until crisp and golden.
   
    
   
   
   
   
   
   I served mine with a baby leaf salad and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
   
   
   It was delicious, quite sweet and rich (especially the Feta Dumplings) and very yummy. Initially when I was making the Casserole I thought that it wouldn't be enough for two but with the dumpling it was very filling. Next time I'd be tempted to make all of the filling and freeze half for another time.

New Make/Bake 26 - Banoffee Mess

Last week was M's mums birthday, so to celebrate M's brother cooked us dinner (Fajitas - yummy) and I was  asked if I'd make dessert. It was a week night and I was in the office all day so I needed something I could put together quite quickly and could be easily transported. M's mum's favourite thing I make is Banoffee Pie but I knew I wouldn't have enough time so I decided to make a Banoffee Mess - like Eaton Mess (Cream, Meringue and strawberries) but with Banana and Biscuits.

A typical Banoffee Pie has a crumbly biscuit base - lots of debate about which biscuits are best, my mum always uses digestives but personally I prefer Hob Nobs! You then bake the biscuit base mixed with some melted butter until its lightly golden (about 10-15mins). Once cooled you then top it with caramel sauce - you can either boil a tin of condensed milk covered with water (it must stay covered with important otherwise it will explode!) or you can cheat and use the ready-made caramel sauce! The final stages are topping with sliced banana and some whipped double cream and a sprinkling of chocolate - delicious!

For my Banoffee mess I started by whipping up some double cream (a large tub) and two tablespoons of icing sugar. I think added a drizzle of ready-made caramel sauce and folded in some crumbled up meringue pieces (I used 6 meringue nests) and 3 sliced bananas. 

I crushed up half a packet of Hob Nob biscuits and layered the Banoffee mixture with crushed biscuits and more caramel sauce in a pretty glass (I would have gone for wine glasses or similar but I didn't have enough clean ones!).

The feedback was that it was delicious, lighter than a Banoffee pie but equally as tasty. Easy, quick and yummy - what else could anyone ask for a dessert?!

New Make/Bake 25 - Creamy Chicken and Leek Spuds

After a hectic weekend, including a Saturday spent on a beginners cake decorating course (where I learnt lots of new tips and tricks) I fancied a quick and easy dinner but nothing too fatty.

I'd spotted a recipe on the BBC Good Food site a few weeks ago which I'd bookmarked to try, Creamy Chicken and Leeks.

I do enjoy a jacket potato, typically with beans and cheese, Mince or tuna and sweetcorn or if I'm feeling posh Brie and Bacon.The one thing I don't like is how long they take to cook as I'm not really known for my patience and I don't like microwaved potatoes as they always seem to be soggy. So I make my jacket potatoes the cheats way! I microwave the potatoes until they are soft (usually about 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the potato) and then I stick them with a skewer, drizzle with with a bit of olive oil and then bake them in a hot oven for about 20 minutes (turning once, halfway through). And voila, perfect jacket potatoes, fluffy insides and a lovely crispy outside.

The Recipe was really simple and easy. Typically with me being me, I did add a few extras: a squirt of honey, and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

M's verdict was that it was delicious (lots of meat and leek is always bound to keep him happy to be fair) and has to be made again soon. I thought it was yummy, very creamy and tasted like it was bound to be full of calories but was actually rather healthy (I used half fat cheese and Crème Friache).

New Make/Bake 24 - Lego Birthday Cake

Last week I decided to test my lovely Birthday Present - a new food mixer! Probably not the most exciting birthday present but considering baking is my new hobby I figured it would be something I'd never get bored off and could use for ages.

Previous to this I had a Kenwood Prospero which is the compact and one of the smallest Kenwood mixers. It was working fine, however it was a little on the small side as it only takes mixes with less than 6 eggs. Fine for smaller cakes but seeing as some of the cakes I've made have been 10 egg mixes, I figured an upgrade was required. I was torn between the KitchenAid (Retro glam and much loved by St Nigella) and the Kenwood (Sturdy, strong and Heston's weapon of choice). I wanted a machine that did more than just mixing and whisking and after much debate and research I decided on the Kenwood due to the huge variety or attachments (never ending presents!) and the reliability record - my mum has a Kenwood dating back from the 70s and it still works like it was new.

I picked a few ideas and then asked M to see how much my friends would "donate" so I could get my hearts desire. And to my great surprise, I got the dream machine, a Titanium Major Kenwood Chef.

My new mixer (aka Ken) is on the left and my old mixer on the right. Ken is a whopper, a beast and looks much prettier than I'd expected. He's really heavy so is going to sit on the side so he's always ready and raring to go.

For Ken's maiden voyage I tested him out by making my nephews birthday cake. My nephew is currently obsessed with Lego so my brother asked for a cake with a Lego theme. As I'm not really an expert I thought I'd try and make it simple so I made a cake decorated to look like a Lego brick!

I started with an 8" chocolate and vanilla marble cake.  Once cooled I split the cake and sandwiched and crumb coated it with vanilla buttercream. I also covered the cakeboard with Lego wrapping paper to add to the theme!

I then covered the cake with blue sugarpaste. To make the cake look more "brick-like" I covered some slices of swiss-roll with buttercream and sugarpaste and then stuck them to the top.

I was quite pleased with the final result. I still need to work more on smoothing my sugarpaste - I think I need to leave it quite thick. More practice soon I think....

The final result was a very happy and full-up little boy!

New Make/Bake 23 - Pork and Ricotta Meatballs

After a very hectic weekend celebrating my 29+1 Birthday I wanted an easy and relaxed meal to start the week. After a rummage in the freezer I noticed that I appear to have overstocked myself with pork mince (4 packs - eeek!) so thought I ought to do something to use them up. I also had a pot of ricotta with today's date so rather than follow a recipe, I thought I'd invent my own for once!

Pork and Ricotta Meatballs with a Creamy Tomato Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients

For the Meatballs
250g Pork Mince
Large Handful of the following: Breadcrumbs, Grated Parmesan (I always keep some of both handy in the freezer) and freshly chopped Chives
2 garlic cloves, crushed (we love garlic so use less if you're not such a fan as us)
50g Ricotta Cheese
Seasoning

For the Creamy Tomato Sauce
Oil (I use an Olive Oil Spray)
1x400g tin of Chopped tomatoes
1/2 red onion finely diced
1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Tomato Purée
100g Ricotta Cheese
Seasoning

Method

1. Start by mixing all of the Meatball ingredients in a large bowl until combined and shape into large marble sized balls
2. Fry the red onion in a few sprays of Olive Oil until it softens
3. Add the meatballs and fry until brown (about 5 minutes) 

 
4. Add the tinned tomatoes and some water (I just rinsed the can out with some warm water)
5. Add the Dried Oregano, Tomato Purée and Balsamic Vinegar. Bring to the boil and the simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the tomato mixture had reduced and the meatballs are cooked through.

6. Check the seasoning (I found mine was a little sharp so I added a pinch of sugar) and then stir in the Ricotta Cheese.
7. Once combined, serve with some fresh basil and cooked pasta of your choice - I had wholemeal spaghetti.

Considering I didn't follow a recipe I was actually quite pleased with it. It tasted lovely, the meatballs were really tender and juicy and the ricotta added depth to the tomato sauce. Yummy!

New Make/Bake 22 - My Birthday Cake

I know it's not really the done thing to make your own birthday cake but after M got a rather large quote (although he did ask a baker with his own show on Channel 4 which may have added a few extra pennies) I thought I'd do it myself!

I made an 11inch round Marble Cake (Chocolate and Vanilla) - a new recipe and I think I've been converted - it was perfect!

I didn't want to cover the cakeboard with sugarpaste to wrapped it in some pink shiny wrapping paper.
I used  Vanilla Buttercream to layer the cake and as a crumb coat layer to stick the sugarpaste on and wrapped the cake with a duck egg blue ribbon. As with my other large cake I struggled to lift the massive piece of sugar paste and ended up with a few cracks and dents. Luckily I was able to cover most of them when I decorated.

I then decorated the cake using four different coloured sugarpastes (Duck Egg, Jade Green, Baby Pink and Lilac) which were cut into flowers of differing sizes using sets of  Blossom and Daisy Cutters. I then sprayed a few flowers with Pearl Luster Dust to give the cake some extra shimmer and used a few pink shimmer balls as centres for some of the smaller flowers and I stuck them to the cake using edible glue. All topped up with a Diamanté tribute to the dreaded 30.

I was really pleased with the final result and it tasted as good as it looked!

Make/Bake 21 - Parsnip and Pancetta Tagilatelle

Due to a very hectic few weeks (Plans for the 29+1 event are in full swing) so I've not had as much time as I'd like for cooking or baking. This isn't a new make/bake but it is one of my favourite meals and is really simple and tasty so it had to be shared.

Pasta is one of my favourite foods. Pasta with pesto, stuffed pasta, baked pasta, cold pasta are all winners in my book. Italian is probably my favourite cuisine   When I spotted this recipe in one of my frequent reads through the various cookbooks on my shelf in Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days with the Naked Chef" I had to give it a try: Parsnip and Pancetta Tagilatelle

It sounds like such an odd combination but the salty Pancetta and the sweet Parsnip compliment each other perfectly. I would never have thought to put Parsnip with pasta before but I've heard of pasta dishes with Squash and Potato so I suppose it makes sense.

Before trying this recipe I was convinced that pasta had to be smothered in a sauce of some sort otherwise it would be too bland and tasteless, however, I think I've been converted. The butter gives the pasta an almost glazed and glossy appearance and I think that anything more would overpower the Parsnip, although a dash of cream might be worth a try for those who really need pasta with sauce!

I tend to use more parsnip than the recipe says and I peel them and then slice them into ribbons using a vegetable peeler which makes lots of translucent slivers which almost seem to melt into the butter and herbs - delicious!

This recipe is responsible for purchase of some lovely new plants (Thyme, Lemon Thyme and Rosemary) so I don't have to keep buying little packets of herbs in the supermarket!

Make/Bake 20 - BBQ beans with mashed potato tops

Seeing as it's my birthday in a few weeks ( my 29th  plus 1 as I refer to it) I want to lose a few pounds to either fit into a lovely new dress or into an old one I've not worn in ages!

As part of this new healthy eating kick I'm going to mostly making lower calorie dinners and lunches and trying to eat less crisps and more fruit and veg. Today's new make/bake was a healthy meal I found on BBC Good Food -  BBQ beans with mashed potato tops

It's difficult to get M to eat some vegetables unless they are very, very well hidden, Celery being one of them! As this recipe had a BBQ flavour I thought it was bound to be onto a good thing as M is a total sucker for anything hickory smoked and it was probably going to help hide the veggies!

I found the recipe easy to follow and was really quick which is always a bonus for a Monday evening. I tasted the sauce as I went and found it tasted of tomato rather than BBQ so I added Smoked Paprika to give it a deeper flavour.

One of the reasons I wanted to try this recipe was the mash. I always seem to end up with lumpy mash but today I follows some of Delia's advice and left my potatoes to steam dry for a few minutes before using my potato ricer and then mixing in milk and cream cheese. Other than the fact I didn't think 300g of potato made enough mash for us, it was lovely. The cream cheese (I used a light version to reduce the calories) was a great addition as it made the mash really smooth and creamy. I also sprinkled on some grated low-fat cheddar before popping it under the grill until the cheese had melted and served it with left-over Ham, Cheese and Chive Bread. 

It was really tasty, although M found it a bit bland. I think it was because there wasn't enough meat for his liking! I think it still is missing something to make it have a decent BBQ flavour so may have to play around a bit. I also think it would better if the beans were cooked slower and longer but not too bad for under 400kcal!

New Make/Bake's 18 & 19 Lorraine Pascale's 21st Century Bread with Ham, Cheese and Chive and Vanilla and Oat Shortbread

Sunday in our house is typically my baking day. Saturday tends to be a day spend doing things like shopping (hooray) or cleaning (boo) or visiting friends and family. Sunday is our lazy day where I rarely get out of pyjamas until I've had a cup of coffee and watched Something for the Weekend.

This Sunday I decided to bake two things, I had a meeting at work where I'd promised to bake something and I fancied making some easy biscuits. Currently I'm feeling that my collection of Rachel Allen books are being neglected so after a quick browse though Bake I settled on the Vanilla and Oat Shortbread.  I found the recipe really easy to follow although my shortbread dough ended up too wet (even after chilling for an hour instead of 30 mins) this could be because my butter was really soft (I used stork instead of butter which I know won't be as nice but I'm counting calories!). The recipe also says it will make 40 - I managed about 25 - maybe I'm just really greedy?!

The review was very positive they were buttery, rich and crumbly, just like shortbread and the oats gave them a lovely texture. Vanilla is always a winner for me!


I also thought I'd try a recipe from one of my Xmas present books; Home Cooking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale. I had been flicking though it whilst making a cup of tea for M last week when I spotted a recipe which looked like the ideal introduction to the world of bread-making, which was on my list to try this year.I had all the ingredients in stock so I decided to try "21st Century Bread with Ham, Cheese and Chive". It isn't your traditional bread recipe, there is no yeast or proving involved and it's more or less an all-in-one which was really appealing for my first go at making "bread". You mix self-raising flour, grated cheese, mustard powder, paprika, chopped honey roast ham, chopped chives, baking powder, salt and seasoning and then add water until it forms a dough and then sprinkle with some more cheese and bake in the oven until golden brown.

For a beginner, this recipe was ideal, as it was just mixing the ingredients together and then making the dough and baking the bread! For someone who isn't used to the texture or techniques of bread-making I found it quite useful as I didn't have to worry too much about messing up! Hopefully when I try proper bread this practise will help as I've had a go at making dough and the importance of adding water gradually to the dry ingredients.

It was very quick and easy and the smell that drifted out of the oven and throughout the house was divine. Baking with cheese is always a pleasure and savoury food being my weakness I think I managed to have the bread out of the oven about 5 minutes before I had to cut myself a large (very warm) slice to give it a try. Wow, it was delicious! Personally I felt it was more scone-like than bread but very tasty. M liked the chives as it gave in an "oniony" taste but without over powering the other flavours. M had some slices with a large bowl of tomato soup and I enjoyed mine on it's on with lashings of butter - scrummy!

New Make/Bake 17 - Brownie Fudge Pie and a Romantic Cake for Fun!

As we're still doing up our house, and parts of it still resemble a building site, M and I don't often have people round for dinner, well, not as often as I'd like anyway! However he really wanted to invite his Aunt and Uncle over one evening seeing I was enjoying a week off work so I was tasked with planning a two course meal for 4. I wanted to keep the main fairly simple so went for stuffed chicken (I stuffed mine with honey, wholegrain mustard, mozzarella and grated cheese), wrapped in streaky bacon and served it with garlic and rosemary oven baked chips and a side salad.

Seeing as I'm more of a savoury person that sweet, it does seem odd that my preference is for baking and puddings! I've been lusting after a recipe on my favourite site since Christmas and finally I had a chance to give it a whirl... Brownie Fudge Pie

Brownies are one of my all-time favourite things to cook and also eat. If there is one thing to tempt me into having something from a dessert menu, then it's a brownie. This dessert was bound to be a winner from the start. Also it gave me a chance to tick another item off my list making shortcrust pastry (sweet).

As I've never made shortcrust pastry before it was a bit daunting. I followed the recipe for the pastry exactly but I found that it was a bit too pliable and elastic so I think I overworked it too much. I also found that is shrunk quite a bit when I removed the baking beans. I think I may need to practise pastry quite a bit more, but at least it tasted nice!

The Brownie Fudge part however was brilliant and very easy to make. As M can't eat nuts I swapped them for white chocolate chunks which was delicious. The cinnamon in the pastry was really lovely and subtle (I love cinnamon anyway) and the topped was really gooey and fudgy - perfect!

I served the pie warm with either ice cream or good old squirty cream and apparently the leftovers were very much enjoyed by M's colleagues at work!


Seeing as it was also Valentines Day (and also M and I's 4th Anniversary) last week I thought I'd make M his favourite cake - Victoria Sponge Cake. Not terribly exciting and something I've mentioned making lots so I'm not classing it as a new make/bake at all.  I decorated with extra buttercream and some sugarpaste decorations - he was very pleased with the final result and it made for a lovely surprise!

My Valentines/Anniversary present was amazing; a voucher to book myself onto a cake decorating class. I'm very excited!!!

New Make/Bake 16 - Chocolate Marshmallow Brown Sugar Fudge

Whilst M attempted some DIY (aka removing the old water tank from the loft before we put in new loft insulation) I had some time to spare to decided to try a recipe of something on my "Things I want to make/bake in 2012" list!

Having made a Savoury Make/Bake for brunch then I wanted to give something sweet a go and also wanted to make something from one of my Xmas Cookbooks. I selected the lovely "Home Cooking Make Easy" by Lorraine Pascale as it was a book I dropped MASSIVE hints to M about getting me, but as yet I've not used it! There are so many lovely things in this book which are on my must make/bake list. Today I decided to give  Chocolate Marshmallow Brown Sugar Fudge a whirl!

Fudge is one of those things that has slightly scared me, I think it's because it's to do with boiling sugar and being as clumsy as I am, I had a feeling it would end in disaster. Lorraine assured readers that it was very easy and there was no need for sugar thermometers.

One thing that amazed me was quite how much sugar goes into fudge. Not only was there light brown sugar and marshmallows but also evaporated milk and chocolate... not a dish I think I'd recommend to diabetics!!

As always, I didn't totally stick to the instructions, I grated the dark chocolate but made quite a mess so for the milk chocolate I used 300g of milk chocolate drops which worked perfectly well. I don't think I'd do the same with dark chocolate as the dark chocolate drops don't seem to be as good quality as you'd need (not the minimum 70% cocoa solids) but for milk chocolate I was happy to make the swap!

The smell of the fudge cooking was delicious, a lovely sweet and sugary smell which wafted all through the house. M (who was up in the loft) called down to see how long until he try them! I found they took about 4 hours to set properly, however M only lasted 2 or so before he started begging for me to cut them up so they were still a bit warm and soft when we gave them the taste test. He  then promptly devoured 3 squares, so I have a feeling they were rather tasty!

All in all they were very quick and easy, perfect for newbies to Fudge making. I loved the taste that the brown sugar and marshmallows gave the fudge and I think I'll be making these again, probably as part of my plans to make Xmas hampers for all our friends and family next year. I think I'll go give them another taste now.....

New Make/Bake 15 - Rarebit Crumpets

After a very hectic week at work, I was feeling fairly disappointed with myself as pretty much every meal with a lazy one! However, as from Saturday I have a whole week off work so have time to spare which I aim to put to use in the kitchen!

My make/bake of choice was Rarebit Crumpets

After a lovely lie-in, I decided it was too late for breakfast but I didn't want to wait until lunch to eat, so brunch it was! I had a packet of crumpets in the fridge and had been longing to try this recipe since I was it in the Feb issue of Good Food magazine.

Now I feeling admit, I am a savoury person. Like all girls, I am partial to the odd piece of chocolate but if I'm given the choice to pick between between a bar of chocolate and a bag of crisps then I'll pick the crisps every time. My main food "weakness" is cheese so anything with that as a key ingredient is bound to be a winner in my book and that was definitely the case with Rarebit crumpets! I love Rarebit, I always think of it as a luxury cheese on toast which is one of my all time favourite comfort foods, and seeing a M has never tried Rarebit before (he was worried it was something to do with Rabbit bless him!)  I thought it was a brilliant reason for a Saturday brunch treat!

The recipe calls for beer, however M and I thought it was a teeny bit early to crack open the booze so I switched it for milk.  I also halved the recipe and I found that I had enough to cover 6 crumpets (we were feeling greedy).

Wow, I thought they were delicious. A fair bit more effort than your usual Cheese on Toast but for a special occasion they were worth the effort. The spring onion added a really nice bite. M said it would have been nice with some meat (no surprise there) but said he'd definitely have Rarebit again. Success!

New Make/Bake 14: "Centrefold" Cake for a 21st Birthday

I've been neglecting my blogging this week. Not because I've not been sticking to my challenge, but because I've been too busy! I had a request for a saucy birthday cake for M's cousins 21st Birthday. It took me one night to make the cake itself, one to cover the cakeboard and then two further nights to decorate and I was exhausted by the end of it!

I bought myself a copy of Debbie Brown's book "Seriously Naughty Cakes" and drew up a short list of ones I thought that as a beginner, I could attempt and make a half decent job off! Finalists selected included "21 Bum Salute" and lots of boob related cakes but the winner was "Centrefold" - a large oblong cake, made to look like a bed with some sugarpaste sheets of paper as a magazine, topped with a naughty nude lady draped with bedsheets. As the birthday boy is quite a big Rihanna fan, it was decided the naked lady needed to look like her, but otherwise I more or less stuck to the instructions from the book which I highly recommend.

As this was only my second ever attempt at making a large fondant cake I was quite nervous and I'll be honest, I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as my first attempt (which is yet to be blogged). However, what I did find was that I was actually quite good at was the modelling part of decorating this cake. I really enjoyed it and I personally think that it made the cake go from ok to not too bad! The cake icing itself I think was messy and was a bit cracked in places but I think/hope the decoration detracts from the novice errors.

I started with a large oblong light chocolate Madeira Sponge cake which I split, sandwiched and covered with vanilla buttercream. The part I found hardest was rolling out the Sugarpaste to the correct size (the amount suggested didn't seem to be enough for me so I more or less doubled the quantities)  and then lifting it onto the cake. I really struggled with the cake board covering and pale blue which covered the cake itself as it was quite large and heavy and I had a few cracks and tears which annoyed me lots. Next time I think I may have to ask for M's help for anything larger than a smallish round cake! Lots of practise required for me to improve this skill I think.

The book suggested using Modelling paste to make the lady, sheets and the magazine paper. When I looked at the price differences between ordering sugarpaste and modelling paste I was amazed at how much more expensive it was so I decided to attempt to make my own by adding Gum Tragacanth to white sugarpaste for the paper and bedsheets and buy some modelling paste to make my Rihanna-a-like. I found it easier to work with than the ready made modelling paste so will stick with that in future! I also cheated and used pre-made royal icing for the hair and then promptly added too much water which meant it was too loose to pipe into curls! I let it dry for a while and then ruffled it up with a cocktail stick and I think that I have now learnt that less is more!

So here you go, my 21st Centrefold Birthday Cake!