Fudge Cake

Although this isn't technically a 'cake', it's a recipe that Tim (my husband) grew up with & loves. It's his birthday on Wednesday and he has requested the Dann 'fudge cake', instead of an actual birthday cake. (Which is fine by me because it is YUM!)

 Here's a picture story of how you make this family recipe. First of all bash up a lot of digestive biscuits.

Boil up condensed milk, sugar, butter & golden syrup into a caramel.

Pour the caramel into the biscuits and stir. Transfer into a tray.

Melt some milk chocolate and smoother over the top

Leave to set in the fridge. Then cut into squares. 

It really does taste and look like fudge (hence the name). The texture is caramely and crumbly yuminess!

Paprika & Cheese Scones

Cheese scones are one of my all time favourite goodies that Mum used to (and still does) make. I haven't had them for yeeeears so it was about time to bake some. 

I used the BBC Good Food cheese scone recipe which is: (I actually doubled it as I wanted big scones)

225g SR flour, pinch salt, 55g butter, 25g grated cheddar, 150ml milk

I topped them with paprika and parmesan. I came across this idea when hunting the internet for different types of savoury scones and thought it would work with the cheese.

So once you've cut out the scones, instead of brushing the tops with egg I made a mixture of 2tbsp melted butter & 2tsp of paprika slopped it on and sprinkled with parmesan.

They went in the oven on 220 degrees C for about 15ish mins.

Bingo!

Shiny Happy Christmas Biscuits

I was game for home making a few last minute treats this year, but wanted something quite easy. In the past I've made chutneys and jams and they've been quite high maintenance as well as a bit pricey. I decided to make some star ginger bread biscuits. 

The recipe had some yummy ingredients including honey, vanilla pod and orange juice.

Once they were cooked and cooled I used some edible bronze lustre spray. I sprayed the front and back and made them (and the rest of my kitchen) look very shiny and Christmassy.  

Next step was drizzling chocolate! mmm

And then more stars 

Ta daaaa! Then I put them in a bag with some homemade Chocolate Bark but I'll write about that another day.

Pistachio & Milk Chocolate Cake

I've had my eye on this recipe for a while now. I really love the colour of Pistachios and the idea of the sponge being made from them sounded kinda cool. So here's how it turned out...

First you have to crush lots of pistachios and milk chocolate in the food processor - weird ay?

Then you beat them together with all the cakey batter bits

 Then you cook it in the oven and it comes out a lovely greeny/brown speckled sponge like this...

It really does taste like pistachios, it's a strange but really nice taste and it's really moist. The icing is made from melted chocolate and soured cream, it's really sweet but balences out the fairly savoury sponge. 

It's not my new favourite cake ever but I'm glad I tried it!  You can find the recipe here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1161643/pistachio-and-milk-chocolate-squares

Eton Mess Cake

I took one look at this recipe and decided it had to be made. Immediately! I know it's winter and Eton Mess is a summer thing but who cares.

It was an almondy Madeira like sponge with fresh strawberries mixed in. Then, once you had poured the batter into the tin it was topped with more fresh strawberries and broken up pieces of shop bought meringue nests.

I thought the meringue might brown after being in the oven for 40 minutes and taste a bit burnt but it was fine it just went a little golden.

It didn't take very long to cool and it was easy to cut up into nice neat and chunky pieces. It was really yummy - quite a simple/plain tasting cake but nicely complimented with the sweet strawberries and sugary meringue. It definitely needs to be eaten with single cream to give it extra moisture. You can find the recipe here Eton Mess Cake

The only thing I would do differently next time is hide the strawberries from Tim (my husband) as I ended up being about 100g short after he sneakily helped himself!.

Me, The Macaron and I

Me and the Macaron have history, a very rocky and turbulent history. The Macaron is very high maintenance and hard to get on with. You have to persevere and take the time to get to know the Macaron but once you do you'll be best friends forever. 

Here's the photo story of our relationship.

My first attempt, they tasted nice but looked terrible.

Attempt 2 - I was prepared, I'd done research online and even printed out templates!

 I put the almonds and icing sugar into the mixer to make them really fine and sieved them.

 I whisked the egg for 10 minutes with the sugar 

 I added food colouring

 I piped them very neatly

 And then they turn out cracked, discoloured and minging! Sigh.

 Sooo I tried again but this time thought I would stir it for longer and turn the oven down.

Out of 30 Macarons - 1 yes just 1 turned out perfect!!!! 

At this point I was very close to ending it there (my attempts at getting the perfect Macaron not my life)  but I know I was going to need serious help and so typed into google 'Macaron classes in Cheshire' and it led me here http://sentfrommykitchen.com/ so I booked myself  (and two friends) onto this course in Altrincham.

It was great! 

Turns out I wasn't mixing it right, I was being too gentle.

And the oven has to be exactly 160 degrees (I have now purchased an oven thermometer).  And taaa daaa it is possible to make Macarons!!!!

 These were ones the Macaron teacher had prepared earlier, the brown ones are salted caramel and the white ones are white chocolate. Soooo yummy!

So the big test was when I was at work - would they come out like they did on the course? 

 Yes they did!! Woohooo I defeated the Macaron!!

Challenge #8 Bakewell Tart

 My mac has died and so my blog updates are a little behind :-(. I'm having to use my phone camera instead of my SLR because it's easier to upload onto my borrowed PC. Anyway! This week I made bakewell tart mmm. We had dinner at the in laws and I was in charge of puds.  I've just started a new job - as a baker in a lovely coffee & cake shop in Chester and the lady who I bake with made bakewell tarts this week and they looked so good that it was an obvious choice for this occasion.  So step one was make pastry...

I used my friend Jen's kitchen, she had invited some of us round for a girlie film - so I baked whilst Bridget Jones was on in the background. Good times. Next step spread raspberry jam onto the pastry base...

Step three...make almond sponge...

Step four spread batter onto jam and pastry base and sprinkle flaked almonds on top. Then bung in the oven...

180 degrees for 25mins. Jen's oven has a light that actually works - what a novelty.

Ta daaaa

Le Creuset 7-oz. Petite Tart Dish - Cherry - Le Creuset Stoneware (Google Affiliate Ad)