Obsession

Merry Christmas all.... it's 10pm and I'd LIKE not to be the sad case that blogs, but check the awesomeness of this - I managed to book my holiday tix to Japan today on sale!! £100 cheaper than when I previously looked so uber happy, ESPECIALLY as I got it done before the VAT increase. Anyhow, see pics attached. Above is a maderia cake covered in marzipan and ready roll fondant. The cake I made in a pan smaller than it should have been because I wanted it to be taller - epic fail because when I tested it, it came out clean, but I knew it felt uncooked, so I prodded a few more holes until I found the damp bit... and naturally the middle collapsed. Never fear!! I halved, then patched the hole with left overs from the crusty top. YUM. FYI DO NOT BUY SILVERSPOON PRE-ROLL. Comment for myself maybe, but as I unrolled it (it came on a very good plastic roll and sheet which I am reusing) it cracked in several places. Not good for ready roll, plus it didn't patch together too well

Time for some eating out pics - the desserts naturally. From Yautcha - The Mandarin with mandarin sorbet and rice cracker (Yum, but the coconut was better.) Here is the Coconut Charlotte - coconut mousse, raspberry sorbet, mango jelly, mint and basil sponge (Yum.) From Michael Caine's Cafe Bar and Grill in Exeter , Dark Chocolate tart with malt ice cream (too rich, too dark, too heavy, too boring - I actually left some) Go for the Ginger pannacotta... when they have it, it's lovely although not heavy enough on the ginger and a little bit white all over the plate. You'll see. FYI if you're there the mains and starters are pretty yummy but they tend not to cut the meat into sizes where you can get away with just using a fork. Try the Boutique for takeaway lunches. The chicken salad was gorgeous, fresh, with tons of chicken, just a shame they can't ripen an avocado to save their lives. Tea at Kensington hotel That's a sort of softset version of a trifle, carrot c

I haven't posted for ages, but then again, I've not really baked for ages. I had a yen earlier in the year to buy a madeline tin - not that I particularly liked the factory monstrosities that my mum occasionally got from Icelands/poundshops, but the shell is pretty so I did it. I waited till work took me to a town with a Lakeland and bought me a tin! You'd be surprised how hard it was to find tbh. John Lewis sells silicon ones, and the rules are that silicon doesn't make the nice colouring in the grooves. Anyway, Lakeland has the cheapest at around £8. In the wretched way of most recipes, the recipe made 14 madelines... when my tin has 12 pockets. So I made an extra mini pan as well. The recipe I use was from Roux brothers for Honey Madelines. Claire Clark repeats it in her book Indulgence. It's easy as and makes a liquid mix so I'm not entirely sure where all the concern for more air to make it light came from, but there you go. Other little bakes include Pinea

Rightly or wrongly, I am a little bit chuffed at this one. Not because it tasted the best, but because after many failed attempts, this is the first time choux pastry worked for me! The recipe is from James Martin's "Desserts" and the first thing you might notice is that his instructions conflict between the top step by step "immediately add the eggs" and the bottom highlighted section "allow to cool before adding the eggs". On the grounds I didn't want scrambled eggs, I asked my sister to have a look at our good ol' Good Housekeeping book which said to cool slightly :P So that's a choux pastry base and puffs. Mr Martin appears to omit the crucial stage of choux which is to pierce and return to the oven to dry out. Fortunately, online he appears to have amended this faux pas! What else do you need to know? The cream is whipped double cream folded with custard and orange flower water since I didn't have any suitable liqueur. I have two

So I had a look at my stats today. I never realised they were there before but I had a click. Oddly enough the Rachel Allan pie had the largest number of hits and I went to click on the link to the recipe to see if it still works. To my surprise I saw MY picture on the Goodfood website above the recipe. Submitted by someone called UKTVSTAR. I don't mind mind as such, but it's left me quietly fuming that no one asked. I don't want to be one of those sadf*cks who need to copyright everything - I take pictures with my mobile phone and that's like 2mpx? Grr. Grr. and more Grr. Like do people REALLY need a pic of shop bought puff pastry covering meat? Ai.

There's a long running feud of macarons, which apparently is between Laduree and Hermes. Since Hermes recently crashlanded in Selfridges, I finally got round to trying them. In a nutshell, don't do it!! Haa... Opinions do differ though and I have a friend who believes Hermes has the crown, but to me? They are overstuffed nuggets. The name of the flavour is more interesting than the taste, and the ultimate test - the salted caramel for me, just doesn't live up to Laduree's delicate and pleasing nibble. Packaging wise, the bag was a bit trashy (unpictured because I was that offended :P ) a white bag with leaf cut outs. Too primary school for me compared to Laduree's "Marie Antoinette shops here" style bag. The box, well I had to ask specifically for a box than a plastic bag, was nicer than the Laduree one because it was good and solid, but I can probably find the solid ones at Laduree too. And so, the little overstuffed little suckers sit. Costing well over

This is from the Crabapple Bakery cupcake cookbook. I've loved this cake for ages, looking at the picture for some time, but finally I made it. Decoration wise I don't have any flowers to put on top so I put the little chocolate mushrooms I bought from the Japan centre on top. This cake I'd definitely remake, but without the sponge fingers which are decoration only and don't add anything. They stay stiff and unyielding against the cream which is almost a disappointment when you're eating it. Ingredients: 1/3 self raising flour 1/3 cup cornflour 3 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp cocoa 5 eggs, separated 3/4 cup caster sugar 1 tbsp golden syrup - Apple sauce - Whipped cream - Sponge fingers (250g pack works fine) Method: 1. Mix all the dry ingredients (bar sugar) together 2. Beat egg whites to peaks, add sugar and keep whisking, then add yolks and golden syrup 3. Fold dry into the egg mix 4. Bake in two greased pans (18-20cm round sandwich tins) for 15 mi

Today was a day for nuts. I don't know how it ended up that way, but that's just the way it is. Since I did nothing yesterday I guess I was trying to kill it with some over-productive bakeathon. Since I've stopped buying cookbooks for my new year's resolution (it's July now and I'm holding strong!) I've been hitting the library. A few wonders in there, and an opportunity to try out some books that I refuse to buy. The above are Peanut Butter Biscuits from Baking - Delia Collection. It has the simplest recipe ever. My substitution was a poor one I think, not that it tasted bad - we ran out of bicarb and so we used baking powder. It didn't come out as a dry dough like the recipe suggested, but was quite greasy. When they were baked the edges weren't as cookie cute as the picture in the book, but they were definitely yummy. On my list for make again favourites :) Peanut Butter Biscuits Makes "20" according to the book, 12 plus 4 small ones by

As cakes go, this one is a-may-zing! In imitation of one Joey Tribbiani "What's not to like? Cream good, strawberries good, cake good, meringue goooooooooooooood" :D This has parental popularity which is rare, but is enjoyable all the same. This recipe cake from the Good Housekeeping Simple and Stunning Cakes (by Greg an Max). Very, very minor tweaks on my part - I used unsalted butter rather than margarine (you can tell the age of the book!!) and added a little vanilla (like 1/4 tsp) to a pot of light double cream. Note that I didn't chose to use light double cream (Elmea no less :S) just that someone bought it and we had to use it up. Something you need to watch out for is the flipping of the cake on top of the other one when you finally plate up. Very delicate and very breakable!! Ingredients: Cake: 50g unsalted butter 100g caster sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla 4 egg yolks 100g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp milk Meringue: 4 egg whites 225g caster sugar 50g flaked a

I've been trying to do macarons for awhile, (okay I've tried like twice?) and I think this actually worked. Funnily enough though, the should-have-been-a-failure ended up better than the ones that were text-booked. The recipe I followed was as follows here . It's the one in the comments which I reproduce here. 110g icing sugar 60g ground almonds (sift these together after whizzing down to a fine powder in a food processor) Then beat up 60g egg whites (usually 2 eggs' worth) with 40g caster sugar and a LITTLE bit of food colouring (a tiny dot of the gel stuff is much better and more intense than the liquid stuff), untill you have a firm, shiny meringue. Fold this gently, a third at a time, into the almond mixture. DON'T overmix; when it's just incorporated part the mixture with your spoon - it should slowly flow back together like 'molten lava' might. (If you can picture such a thing) Then pipe circles by holding your piping bag still and squeezing it a

So it was the tenth anniversary of this web forum I belong to - see right for link, and we were asked if we would consider making some cakes to mark the occasion. Much stress!! There were two practice cakes where I tried to make a chocolate gateau, but finally decided that the chocolate mousse filling would make it incredibly difficult to eat on serviettes. But, here it is finally. Despite dropping my ipod on the "y" in "Anniversary when I put on my coat on the train (it landed on the clingfilm which I think saved it from being squished completely!). Despite the pouring rain and Piccadilly Circus closing most of it's exits because of the flooding. Despite me wrangling for my umbrella and mobile with cake boxes in each hand. It made it through the storm!!! The cake itself is a Vanilla Buttermilk Cake from Sky High Cakes. I've made it before but for cupcakes (the lemon jam centre ones). This time I did try to emulate cake flour to an extent by replacing two tablesp

So I got me an Ebelskiver pan :) For those of you as blank as I was, basically I was perusing the Williams-Sonoma website since I WAS going to be going to NY but never made it. But my friend was lovely enough to buy one and bring it back for me. Google it. Youtube it. Ebelskivers are basically pancakes (with a touch more egg white) which you can fill with things like nutella or jam. I used the recipe that came with the pan but observe. First go, they look pretty cute although a lot easier to get round rather than pancake shaped if you don't fill them. Lots of tips online on how to turn - I used wooden chopsticks. Easy peasy. Although if you do fill them, the jam can go a bit weird and turn it purple :)

So I have a week off work and this is what I do with it. The great big cake experiment. There's this anniversary thing for the forums I frequent and so needed to try. The above is a chocolate mousse cake from "Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life" with some large amendments. Below is the amended versions with some notations. The main aspect would be that it requires a lot more chocolate to make the band but they didn't give that much in the line of instructions for that. Chocolate cake Ingredients: 2 cups sugar 1 3/4 cup plain flour 3/4 cup cocoa 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 tsp vanilla essence 1 cup boiling water Method: 1. Gas Mark 4 2. Grease an 8 inch cake tin with a removable base. 3. Mix all the dry ingredients together. 4. Add the wet ingredients aside from the boiling water 5. Mix and then stir in the boiling water till blended. It will be ridiculously wet. 6. Pour into the pan and bake

I made custard creams from Nigella Lawson's Feast today. A few tiny adjustments because we didn't have (and I don't like) shortening - we used butter as a replacement, and I don't own a processor so I rubbed in the fat and the egg. It was ridiculously flaky but not as delicate as her recipe suggests. The biscuits themselves could have been rolled a lot flatter than 5mm and would have been a lot nicer - note that for once it wasn't me being lax!! I did make 29 cut outs in total, the recommended is 28-30! Maybe next time I'll try the shortening. Or maybe I'll just buy a packet of custard creams... Happy Valentines (and Happy Chinese New Year!)

http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=3 There was a 25% off deal in January and so we went as a family (well sis-in-law (in pic), bro, my sis and me...) It is located nicely behind Selfridges and is just past the lobby. Unfortunately, in a way, it IS the lobby since the lifts are just there without much separation from where we were sitting. On the plus side, it was very family friendly as there were several little kids around. Also a nice place to waste the afternoon since there is a gorgeous little sofa and fire area which one couple had commandeered. Maybe with some foresight it could be booked, but I wasn't there for the romance ;) To the tea! Firstly, choice of tea was pretty good. Included the greens, rosebud, but also hot chocolate which my sis-in-law chose. Me, I went for the Assam. The closest thing to PG Tips is basically what I chose to go with afternoon tea. Anything else just feels wrong. Bonus points, it came in

I picked this recipe up in the Metro ages ago because the picture looked very pretty and I've been to Primrose bakery in Covent Garden once before (and unlike Hummingbird, I think the cupcakes are very nice if not particularly remarkable against home baking). I debated the merits of frosting, but decided against in the end. I'll write the recipe here as per the newspaper cutting (in my odd bullet way). Since the frosting was chocolate it wouldn't have achieved what I thought was missing from the cupcakes - a stronger orange taste. Next time I think I might have to find some orange crunchy bits or something. An orange aero crushed up maybe. It was just missing... something. Ingredients: 115g dark chocolate 90g unsalted butter 175g caster sugar 1 orange zest 2 large eggs 185g plain flour 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 tbsp milk 1 orange's juice 1. Melt chocolate and leave to one side for a sec (I use a microwave, you can use a bain-marie... mo

Am extremely happy today. Have discovered Nigel Slater's Real Food on Youtube (under TV, Food and then it streams from 4 on Demand) http://www.youtube.com/shows?p=None&s=sftv&b=23 But, other little things I've been up to. Made a carrot cake today. The originating recipe was from James Martin's Desserts, however I made some fairly dramatic changes to it. None of the decoration, a different frosting, different flour, different flavouring, different sugar, no nuts etc etc. My version therefore is as below: Ingredients: 200g grated carrot (two big-uns..) 175g demerara sugar 2 large eggs 150ml sunflower/veg oil 200g self raising flour (I comboed baking powder and plain) 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tbsp cinnamon 120g sultanas 50g dessicated coconut Frosting: 300g cream cheese 2 huge tbsp icing sugar 1/2 lemon worth of juice Muesli Method: 1. Sugar, eggs and oil. Mix. 2. Add flour, cinnamon and bicarb. Mix. 3. Put in sultanas, coconut and carrot. Mix (Note, I did a quick s

So for the first time ever, I headed out for some "fine dining". Well I say first time, being that usually someone else, e.g. a boss or the company pays. If we're talking company paying, we've been to Quilon (an upmarket, michelin-starred Indian) which was nice, Bank, canapes at the Savoy... the list isn't really that great for someone who works in London and in finance tbh. Hmm. So anyway, my resolutions was to try and break out a little bit. Eat the budget lunches and max out for some nicer meals. Maze was the obvious choice for me because I've been looking at the peanut butter and jelly dessert for AGES and this weekend I went there. http://www.gordonramsay.com/maze/menus/alacarte/ I decline to add any pictures because it was seriously dark in there, albeit there's plenty of pics online by other bloggers. The decor is a bit Japanese teppen-yaki, and a bit hotel lobby - both of which I spend a bit too much time at. Bathrooms are individual and okay. The

Happy new year all! Few wee resolutions firstly... 1. Scary - not to buy any new cookbooks APART from those bought on holiday (NY is earmarked) 2. Moisturise. 3. Be frugal. Most are un-cake related, however frugality links in with non-cake book buying in a way. I bought a shiny little laptop on New Year's Eve and out of guilt feel I must make up for it by making my lunches etc. That is not to say I won't spend, but whilst I am increasing my grown-uppyness by going to places like Maze for dinner (not that expensive based on the a-la-carte) I figure I can compensate elsewhere. So what have I made this frosty new year? Honeycomb as above (oddly hard to get the sugar to 160 degrees C but persevere otherwise it fails miserably) I used James Martin's recipe "Cinder Toffee" but you can get recipes which don't call for thermometers or liquid glucose. This will store for a few days as long as you airtight it with at least two wrappings of plastic/foil and don't giv