Great British Bake Off cake

So the new series of the Great British Bake Off is starting tonight and there was only one way to prepare for this event... Do some baking! The next question, what should I bake? After a look through the official GBBO recipe book I found a delicious devil's food cake:

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 175ml boiling water
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g dark chocolate
• 125g butter
• 350g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 150g plain flour
• 150g self raising flour
• 125ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Then mix the cocoa and boiling water together in a small bowl until smooth, stir in the bicarbonate of soda and then leave to cool.  Now heat the dark chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water (or in the microwave if you want to be quicker!) and then, once melted, leave to cool as well.

Now in a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric whisk. Then beat in the sugar, a small bit at a time, until all combined, after which the beaten eggs and vanilla should also be mixed in.

Sift and fold the flour and milk alternately into the cake mixture. At this point I changed the recipe slightly as I was supposed to use 300g plain flour and 125ml soured cream. I decided to use half self raising flour as I was worried that the cake would be too flat. My choice to use milk instead of soured cream was purely as I didn't have any in the house! It's up to you whether you stick to the original recipe or use my alterations.

Finally stir together the melted chocolate and cocoa liquid and then mix into the cake mixture until it is all thoroughly combined. Now divide the mixture between 2 greased cake tins and bake in the oven for about 30 mins or until a knife  comes out clean after being inserted in the middle. Once cooked take out of the oven and leave to cool.

For the filling I just melted 50g of milk chocolate and spread it in the over the top of one of the cakes before sandwiching the other on top. Then for the topping I made some chocolate buttercream, which I added another 50g of melted milk chocolate to so that its extra chocolatey, and covered the cake with it. To finish I melted some white chocolate and piped GBBO on top.

Now I'm ready to cut myself and my friends as slice and enjoy whilst I watch the new series begin. On your marks, get set, bake!

Mars Bar Crispie

This is a favourite with friends and family at any party... And is always the first to go from the buffet! It's really easy to make, tastes amazing and requires no baking in the oven

Ingredients

• 3 mars bars
• 120g butter
• 3 cups rice crispies
• 200g chocolate

Chop the mars bars and 90g butter into small squares and then melt in a large saucepan. Constantly stir so that the chocolate doesn't burn and the melted nougat thoroughly combines with the chocolate and butter. Now stir in the rice crispies (one cup at a time) and make sure that all of the crispies are covered in chocolate. 

Now spread the chocolate covered crispies into a baking tin (approximately 20cm x 30cm) and smooth out with a metal spoon. To make the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate and remaining 30g butter (in small chunks) in the microwave. Make sure to do this in small blasts of 30 seconds, stirring in between. Now spread this on top of the crispies in the baking tin until it is all evenly covered.

All that's left now is to put it in the fridge for a few hours or until set. Then leave it out of the fridge just long enough for it to slightly soften enough so that you can cut it into biteable pieces (I'll leave the sizing up to you!). Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it up and then bask in the baking glory!

Milk and White Chocolate Cheesecake

The perfect treat to enjoy during those few days of sunshine the UK's had this week. But I'm sure this would taste great whatever the weather. It should come with a warning though... this is a calorific recipe so if you are trying to lose weight I would recommend you steer clear of this one! I tried to use low fat versions of the ingredients wherever possible but I don't think this helped much! This is another recipe taken from one of my favourite baking books: Outsider Tart's Baked in America.


Ingredients

Biscuit base

• 160g plain flour
• 4 tbsp cocoa
• 6 tbsp granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 115g unsalted butter
• 2 egg yolks

Cheesecake batter

• 900g cream cheese
• 280g granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp corn flour
• 5 eggs
• 225g sour cream
• 240ml double cream
• 225g milk chocolate
• 225g white chocolate

Before you start baking, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and get all ingredients and equipment out in front of you. You will need at least 3 large bowls and a springform cake tin. Butter your tin and wrap the bottom with tin flour to help avoid spillages.

For the cheesecake base, measure out the flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder into a bowl. Melt the butter slightly in the microwave and then stir into the mixture. At this point you could take the easy option of an electric whisk or use some elbow grease by mixing it with a wooden spoon! Now stir in the egg yolks until it is all thoroughly combined and resembles biscuit dough. Now press into the bottom of your springform tin, making sure that it comes slightly up the sides. Pierce with a fork a few times and then bake in the oven for about 15 mins. Take it out and leave to cool whilst you prepare the filling. 

Now mix the cream cheese in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth, then gradually stir in the sugar and cornflour. Now add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly before the next one is added. Then add the sour cream and double cream. At this point I realised that I needed to be using a larger bowl to avoid it spilling over the top, so I'd strongly recommend using the largest bowl possible for this bit. Once the mixture is completely combined, you need to divide it into two bowls to create separate milk and white chocolate cheesecake batters.

Break up one type of the chocolate, melt and then mix into one of the separated batters. Now do the same with the other type of chocolate and add to the other batter. It's now time to assemble your cheesecake. Pour half of the milk chocolate mixture onto the biscuit base, then hold the white chocolate batter 30cm above before pouring into the centre. This should force the previous milk chocolate batter towards the sides. Now alternate with the remaining batters in the same way to create rings of milk and white chocolate cheesecake. As you can see, mine didn't quite have the desired effect and seemed to blend to create one light brown cheesecake so I think I still need a bit more practice at this technique!

Once you have assembled your cheesecake, it needs to bake for approximately 1 hour. Don't worry if it cracks at the edges, this is normal. After 1 hour, I checked on my cheesecake and was surprised to see the centre was still quite liquidy so I baked it for a further 15 mins. When I checked it again it still jiggled more than I would expect it to but took it out as the recipe states that this is ok because 'it will set as it cools'! Leave on the worksurface to cool overnight before refrigerating. I let mine cool slightly before covering with clingfilm as I didn't want it to melt to the pan but was also uncomfortable with leaving my cheesecake uncovered in the kitchen overnight!

After refrigerating it for the rest of the next day, I then served it as an evening treat. However, I was unsure of its success as the centre resembled more of an unbaked cheesecake and not what was shown in the recipe picture. Despite this, everyone agreed that it still tasted great! Have a go yourself and let me know if you get your entire cheesecake to set or have any tips of your own!

Cupcake decorating

As a treat for my upcoming birthday, my mum and I went to a cupcake decorating class in Birmingham. I've always struggled with the decorating part of my baking and so was excited to find how to do certain things, particularly the swirly icing on top of cupcakes! There were about 8 of us in the class, the perfect amount I thought so that you could share the fun of decorating cakes and learning whilst also being able to hear the instructions clearly. 

During the class, we were shown a number of decorating tools (and I'm already planning to get some of my own to use on future bakes) and taught the technique for icing cupcakes. The best part was when we got to try the tools and icing bags for ourselves. We then got to take the cupcakes home with us at the end to show off to our friends and families. And they tasted great too which was a bonus!

I would really recommend going to a cupcake class, either for yourself or with children, friends or another family member. We had a great time and I'm looking forward to going to another one soon so that I can learn even more tricks of the trade!

Lemon Flower Cupcakes

I've been a bit quiet on here for a few weeks because I've been busy completing my final year at university. But after handing my last ever assignment in today, I am now free and able to continue blogging about my bakes again! First up are these gorgeous lemon cupcakes I made a couple of weeks ago. At Christmas I was given these adorable wafer daisies as a secret santa present, so this was a great excuse to use them! I've also continued using sugar substitute to make healthier bakes, but if you'd prefer to use normal sugar all you have to do is times the quantity by 10.

Ingredients

• 110g butter
• 11g sugar substitute
• 2 eggs
• 110g self raising flour
• 1 lemon
• icing sugar
• cupcake cases
• Wafer Daisies

Before you begin, as usual, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Now mix together the butter and sugar substitute into a large bowl. Don't be alarmed if it fizzes slightly, that is just the sugar substitute reacting to the butter! Now lightly beat the two eggs before adding to the mixture. Then grate the zest of the whole lemon into the bowl, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the mixture too. You may want to squeeze the juice through a sieve so that no pips accidentally fall in. Stir until the mixture is thoroughly combined and then sieve in your flour before folding it in. Once all of the ingredients have been mixed together, you can begin to spoon the mixture into your cases. First lay out your cupcake cases onto baking trays, leaving space between each one. Now fill 3/4 of each case with the cake mixture and then bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Check your cakes after about 10 minutes incase they've cooked quickly. Check by putting a cake tester or knife in the middle of a cake and seeing if it comes out clean.

Once they are done, take your cakes out of the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, make some lemon icing by sieving icing sugar into a bowl and then squeezing in lemon juice to the taste you prefer before stirring.  You can add a small amount of water if needed. Now pour a small amount of the icing onto the top of each cake and use as a glue to stick your wafer flowers on with. 

And there you have it, some really cute and tasty lemon flower cupcakes, perfect for a picnic or garden party in the summer! But if the summer doesn't turn up, they taste just as good when it's raining too. I would suggest in this case that you eat them inside though! 

St George's Day Celebration Cake

St George's Day... a day to be proud to be English. So celebrate through your witty humour, avoiding eye contact on the tube and eating a slice of this delicious cake. I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment so I've used a sugar substitute instead of normal sugar, but if you'd prefer you can use 200g of caster sugar instead.

Ingredients

• 20g sugar substitute
• 200g butter
• 200g self raising flour (sifted)
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 100g glacé cherries (chopped)

Start by preheating the oven to 200 degrees and preparing (greasing and lining) 2 baking tins. I wanted a square cake and as ever I had to improvise so I used a rectangular baking dish instead and then cut my baked cake in half once it had cooled. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and then pour it into your baking tin.

Now bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a light golden brown. Test by putting a knife or cake tester in the middle of the cake, if it comes out without any cake mixture left on it then it's done! Now leave to cool on the side.

Once cool, sandwich the two halves of cake together with a generous helping of strawberry jam. Now make some plain icing and cover the top of the cake. Finally, ice a red cross in the centre by mixing some icing sugar, water and red food colouring.

And that's it. So now you can sit back and think about how great it is to be English, whilst tucking in to this tasty treat!

Hot Cross Buns

Easter... whether you love the religiousness or just the cute chocolate bunnies, two tasty things represent this holiday: Easter eggs and hot cross buns. And whilst pouring melted chocolate into a mould would be very fun, I've chosen to make some hot cross buns!


Ingredients

• 625g white bread flour
• 45g unsalted butter
• 2tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 85g caster sugar
• 1 lemon zest
• 7g yeast
• 1 beaten egg
• 275ml milk
• 125g dried fruit
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp golden syrup

First preheat the oven to 200 degrees, sieve the bread flour, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl, then cut the butter into cubes and add . Now 'rub' in the butter (use your fingertips to breakdown the butter and flour until it's in breadcrumbs). Make a well in the middle and then add the sugar, yeast, the zest of a whole lemon and egg. Now warm some milk in a pan on the hob (don't let it boil though), then leave until lukewarm. Next you need to make the dough so add half of the milk and mix. Add a little more milk until you have a soft dough, don't worry if you don't use it all.

Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface and knead the dried fruit into the dough for 5 minutes. Now prove the dough by putting it in a greased bowl, cover with cling film and leaving it somewhere warm for 1 hour. After an hour turn out the dough, knead slightly then shape into buns. To do this I cut the dough in half (lengthways) and then into equal balls, you should be able to get 10 hot cross buns from this recipe. Put them on a greased baking tray, cover with a tea towel and put back in the warm place for 15 minutes.

Before baking the buns add the crosses (always a mystery to me until now!) by making a flour paste. Mix the plain flour with cold water and then pipe on to the buns using a piping bag or a makeshift one made from a sandwich bag! Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Once out of the oven, immediately glaze with hot golden syrup. They're now ready to be eaten... I'd recommend eating them warm or toasted with a generous spreading of butter! Happy Easter!

Leprechaun Gold Cookies

To celebrate St Patrick's Day this week, a day when you suddenly remember your distant Irish relatives so that you can enjoy a pint of Guinness or two, I've baked some Ireland inspired cookies. These would be perfect for a children's party or to accompany an Irish coffee!


Ingredients

• 225g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 beaten egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 280g plain flour
• 100g white chocolate chips
• Icing sugar
• green food colouring

As you start every recipe, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line your baking trays with greaseproof paper. Start by mixing the butter and sugar together in a bowl and then add the beaten egg yolk and vanilla. Now sift in the flour and mix until all the flour is completely mixed in and then stir in the chocolate chips.

Next clean an area of the work surface and sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto it. Roll your cookie dough in a bit of the flour to make it less sticky. Flour a rolling pin and roll out your dough to approximately 1cm thick. It's now time to cut out your cookies. As I wanted them to look like Leprechaun coins I needed small cookies and so used a shot glass (being a student I had one of these handy!) but you can use any size cookie cutter/glass. Place the cut out cookies on the baking tray and then bake for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Leave the cookies to cool and then decorate them with green icing, or if you've got a steady handy you could try and draw clovers onto them with an icing pen! For an extra nice touch, especially if these are for a children's party, why not display them in a pot at the end of a rainbow!

Chocolatey Banana Bread

Anytime I have some bananas that have gone a bit too ripe, or fancy something delicious that I also want to pretend is healthy, I use this banana bread recipe. This has become a firm favourite with friends and family too, and after you make it you'll realise why!

Ingredients

• 5 medium or 4 large bananas
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 100g chocolate chips
• 100-200g chocolate

This is a really simple, quick recipe, especially when using cup measurements. If you'd prefer not to use cup measurements, you can find a converter on google which will change it into grams.

Ok so first you need to preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Then peel and slice the bananas, transfer into a large bowl and then mash until they are all gooey. They are much easier to mash when over ripe, and it's also the perfect way to use up those bananas you'd forgotten all about! Now melt the butter in the microwave and add into the bowl of mashed bananas, along with the sugar and the egg, beaten first. Mix thoroughly and then stir in your chocolate chips. A fun alternative for chocolate chips is M&Ms, which give your banana bread a surprising splash of colour when you slice into it!

Now gently stir in the flour and then pour the mixture into your bread tin. I use a silicone mould, which is ready to use straight away, but if you are using a traditional bread tin remember to grease and line with baking paper first otherwise your bread will get stuck! Bake in the oven for roughly 45 mins, then check if it is cooked by putting a knife in the middle. You will need to use your own judgement on whether it is cooked or not, as the banana will leave a bit of goo on the knife.

Once cooked, take out of the oven and leave to cool before turning out. Now you get to cover it in chocolate, my favourite bit! Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a glass bowl over boiling water and then just slather it all over your banana bread! This time I chose to do a marble effect with milk and white chocolate. It will run all over the sides of your bread, but this just means each slice has a generous helping of chocolate on it!

And then all that's left is for you to enjoy! I've found that it tastes the best warm, so either tuck in straight away or give it a blast in the microwave first!

Valentine's Day Biscuits

I thought I'd show my love for my housemates today, as it's Valentine's Day, and make them some heart shaped biscuits. Of course, if you're not a fan of all this lovey dovey stuff, you can still make these yummy biscuits but just cut them into different shapes instead!

Ingredients

• 225g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 280g plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• icing sugar
• red or pink food colouring

Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl and then stir in the vanilla extract and egg yolk, beating first in a small bowl. A trick my mum taught me for separating an egg yolk from the egg white is to break the egg in half and then catch the yolk in one half of the egg shell, letting the egg whites fall into a bowl underneath. Now sift the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly until it all comes together (I had to knead my dough on the work surface for a while to get it into a neat ball). Now wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for approx 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and collect your dough from the fridge. Then sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto a clean work surface. You now need to roll the dough out to approx 1cm thickness (it doesn't really matter how thick you have your biscuits, just remember that thinner ones will bake faster than thicker ones so try to make them all the same size). My dough kept sticking to the work surface, rolling pin... well it stuck to almost everything at this point so I had to add more flour until it's got to the right consistency!

Once it's rolled out, it's time to cut out your biscuits. I was slightly unprepared and was without a heart shaped cookie cutter so had to cut them out free hand by using a knife. I wouldn't recommend this because it took ages and I was left with lots of different sized, wonky hearts... but hey love comes in all shapes and sizes, right? Ok let's ignore that ridiculously cheesy line and carry on shall we?

Once you've cut out all of your biscuits, place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. When they start to go golden around the edges, take them out and leave to cool. Now it's time to decorate them...

Sift some icing sugar into a small bowl (it depends how you're going to decorate them for how much icing sugar you want to use) and then add a drop of food colouring and small amounts of water until it's a runny consistency. Now with a teaspoon, drizzle the icing back and forth over the biscuits (still on the baking trays to reduce the amount of washing up you have to do!) until they're striped all over! Leave the icing to dry and then hand out to your most loved friends and family members!

Mum's Cherry Chocolate Birthday Cake

 So it was my mum's birthday this week (I won't tell you how old she was) and I wanted to bake her a cake, as you do for birthdays! I thought about what type of cake she likes and decided a cherry and chocolate cake would be perfect. Having not made this cake before I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was surprisingly nice. I'd go as far as saying it was one of the nicest chocolate cakes I've ever eaten! And if you don't like cherries, don't worry! In the end they just helped keep the cake moist, if you didn't know they were in there I don't think you'd be able to tell!

(The ingredients are measured in cups for this recipe, which I just used a small mug for, but you can easily convert the measurements into grams on Google)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 3 cups muscovado sugar
• 2 2/3 cups self raising flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cold coffee
• 200g fresh cherries
• cherry jam
• 100g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and then grease and line two cake tins. Now put the cocoa powder into a bowl, add the hot water and stir until it's completely mixed. Put this to one side, you'll use it later! Now in a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour and baking soda, then add the butter and cocoa liquid and combine using an electric whisk, until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla and coffee with a fork (make sure the coffee is cold, if it's hot it will start to cook the eggs and it might curdle). Now add this to the cake mixture, a little at a time, whisking in between. Using a large chopping board and sharp knife, dice the cherries until they're in small pieces and then add this to the cake mixture.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for about 40 minutes. I checked the cakes after 35 minutes, just in case they were ready early! Leave to cool, then turn the first cake out and spread a thin layer of cherry jam over it. Now place the other cake on top and drizzle some melted white chocolate over it for decoration (you could be more creative with the decoration if you wanted to!)

Now all that's left is to sit back and enjoy this yummy cake!

Warm Chocolate Scones

With all this cold weather we've had in the UK recently I fancied a really nice wintery treat and found this great recipe in my Outsider Tart book. (If you haven't visited the Outsider Tart bakery in Chiswick yet, put it on your to do list! Everything in there is so yummy!)

Anyway back to the winter baking... I chose the chocolate scones as they're a bit different and were the only recipe that didn't remind me of summer. The last thing I wanted to think of was summertime when it was snowing outside! 

Ingredients

• 260g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 70g granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp of baking powder
• 175g butter
• 100g chocolate chips
• 120ml double cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• egg wash (1 egg, splash of water, splash of milk)

First preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease and line your baking trays, you will probably need 2 but it will depend on what size scones you're making. Mix the flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into chunks and then add one at a time to the mixture, using an electric mixer to combine after each. Now stir in the chocolate chips and then make a space or well in the centre. 

In a jug, measure the cream, eggs and vanilla extract together and whisk with a fork until combined. Now pour this into the centre of the flour mixture and blend with a wooden spoon until it's all together in a dough.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on a clean work surface and put the dough in the middle. If you're dough is quite wet and sticky like mine was, roll it around in the flour so that it's easier to handle. Don't add too much flour to it though otherwise your scones will be very crumbly! Flour a rolling pin and roll out the dough until it's 2cm thick. You're now ready to cut out your scones... If you don't have a scone cutter, use a glass which is the size you'd like your scones to be. Cut your scones out and place on your prepared baking trays. Collect any left over dough, roll back out and cut more scones out. Keep doing this until you have no dough left.

Before baking, brush the egg wash over each of the scones. If you don't have a pastry brush, I found using a spoon to be just as effective! Bake for about 20 minutes. As they're chocolate scones, it is hard to see when they're done but check that they are hot all the way through. Don't expect the scones to be hard though, they harden as they cool! If you're not sure, put them back in for a few more minutes.

Let them cool for a few minutes but I'd recommend eating whilst they're still warm! I topped with warm berries and whipped cream, but I think chocolate or caramel sauce would be just as nice!

Enjoy...