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!