Obsession

How do you follow the farm cake and the Ninky-Nonk? With a Carcrash cake that's what! My nephew's latest obsession is Traffic lights. In fact he ran off with the two spare ones and then complained loudly every time we removed them so he could, you know, eat dinner, get a bath that kind of thing. A bit of a low effort one from me, but I'm studying at the moment. The cake was baked before midday and iced quite quickly in the afternoon. Mum (aka grandma) was disappointed I wasn't going to be making a carved number but personally - study and the prospect of needing a chiropractor after I'd made it... figured I'd wait till he was older. I'm sure car cakes will make an appearance again. Traffic lights made of those sweets called Drumsticks (Poundland!!) dipped in water and wrapped in black fondant with jelly tots dabbed with water and then pressed in. Now that was impressive - I thought they'd fall off pretty quick but they lasted all the running aroun...

This is getting worse than my ACTUAL journal!! When was my last post? Err... best not to ask. Forgive me - I have an excuse. I have many excuses *slaps self*. I moved into my own place. Ergo tiny kitchen, lack of equipment.... who am I kidding? I've baked quite a bit here, but nothing too interesting. The first bake was a rhubarb eve's pudding of sorts, then there was a brownie at my housewarming, lemon curd bread and butter pudding for my neighbour, key lime pie... for my neighbour and my colleague... the list goes on. It's just that there wasn't anything particularly inspiring  as such. Until this. A lemon drizzle. Which I've probably baked a million times before. But this time, I used the Guardian's "perfect" recipe. Which, apart from using normal granulated sugar instead of demerara on top (this is what happens when you leave your purchase on the till in M&S - picking it up tomorrow!) I actually followed the recipe. It was yum. The best to...

I'll post the On recipe (french) at some point but my current go to will be the following from Bravetart . Read her post first. What I actually absorb from it is as below. I think at this point I'm going to say it's all technique and less about the recipe. On my oven (and my oven alone) I have it on the middle shelf at Gas Mark 4. Bravetart lists it as 300 degrees F I use a normal metal baking tray of a reasonable thickness. It's old and probably slightly warped. There's nothing special and I don't put two trays down. When I cook using the new, thicker and flatter brownie tin to cook some of them on, that works as well. I cook on baking parchment because that's what I use. I have a sil-pat which I would use but I still haven't cut it to the right size. Good luck! 4 ounces (115g) ground almonds 8 ounces (230g) icing sugar 5 ounces egg whites (144g) (I used fresh in the picture, I've used aged and microwaved before) 2 1/2 ounce (72g) ca...

So I admit it, I've been a little bit loony tunes on the whole macaron front recently because, well finally if I get this right, I don't have to keep paying Herme and Laduree for theirs, albeit the once in a blue moon foie gras number isn't too bad (seriously, in a macaron. Not bad.) If you go back enough, I've had a go a few times over the years, but not tried consistently starting from the very beginning with the Roux brothers recipe. Anyway I went to a Groupon course taught by On Bakery . We took the basic and advanced class which goes through the french meringue method and the swiss meringue method (I also took the choux class which is another story).  The first thing you should probably know is that the teacher Loretta Liu is a bit loony tunes. Not an insult by any means. Normality is overrated. She is Singaporean and those traits are really, really present. Her english is fine, there is no "la"s at the end of sentences like in university and a...

Meet Peppa Pig! I think this might be the one for me. Not perfect, but for a chocolate birthday cake, I think this is the one. The recipe is the "best" chocolate cake recipe which I tried before and didn't like, but tried it again in preparation for this and I thought... "Wow. Okay, this works." I made it in a victoria sandwich tin which at about 6.75 inches? (I don't know... it was in my cupboard!) and takes 45minutes. It tastes like a damp chocolate brownie, complete with the papery top. The only tiny dampener on this is that because it is a brownie essentially, it  doesn't slice so neatly. It does rather crumble a lot. Which is just as well we have that much milk chocolate ganache on it. Peppa is the second "commission" from my sister-in-law's friends. I say "commission" as in they pay me for my materials so I can afford to play with fondant for fun. With 4 large bars of Galaxy and about 100g of dark going into the ga...

Second attempt at using the pro fondant mat. I LOVE the   fondant mat . It is soooo irritation that it is so much more expensive in the UK than it is in the US. However, I have to say, worth every penny. I bought the super huge version (as why not) and I kind of regret it as you only need about a 14 inch circle for a cake of two layers. Still. You never know, I might make a huge wedding cake one day. This thing lets you apply fondant beautifully. I'm sure I might have learnt to do it normally but I don't do it enough. Oh. And I learnt. I'm actually willing to eat Tesco's own brand fondant! The above cake is the cocoa-buttermilk cake from Dorie  Greenspan's book. The third time I've baked it and I hate to say it. It is dry. I give up. Each time. I've rescued it before for applying four layers of ganache inside but I'm not willing to do it this time. I have a Peppa Pig cake for someone soon and I WILL get a good chocolate cake if it kill...

I gave it a go. After following the Great British Bake Off for weeks (and irritating the people at work by reminding them I had to get home to watch it!) I finally made one of the numbers. I've actually made a full list of the bakes and will work through them at some stage but for now, here's the Fraisier . I kept relatively true to the recipe - minus the marzipan because no one likes it. The key things you should know about this cake though is that the sponge becomes very lemony as you add the juice of a lemon to each layer effectively. The other aspect is that the creme patisserie... tastes like wallpaper paste. That is to say, it has a distinct lack of flavour despite me adding a touch of vanilla extract once I realised the pod hadn't made an impact and I just had a feeling it should be more... french? That is Mary Berry I guess. It felt... austere. I crave something silky and French. Like a deep custard tart. Like creme brulee the double cream edition. I was proud of...