Brown butter cherry chocolate blondies

We managed to beat the birds this year in collecting a lot of our cheeries, and this was the first recipe we tried (original recipe here) although we didn't follow it faithfully it was totally a favourite for the summer of lockdown!

Ingredients

Blondies

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1tbl flax seed in 3tbl of water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 cup ripe cherries, pitted and quartered
• 100g chocolate, chopped into small pieces, approx 0.5mm

Topping

• 1/4 cup ripe cherries, pitted and quartered
• 30g semisweet chocolate, chopped

Method

• Make Brown Butter: Cook butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it foams, turns clear, and then turns a deep brown, apparently this should take about 6mins but it took longer. The butter separates and leaves grainy pieces in the bottom. I filter out the grainy bits. Pour brown butter into a medium bowl and let cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 180c and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper
• Add brown sugar, flax seed egg replacement, extract, and salt to bowl and whisk until smooth. 
• Fold in flour just until incorporated, then fold cherries and chocolate into batter. 
• Scrape batter into prepared pan and use a piece of parchment paper coated with nonstick spray to press batter evenly into pan. 
• Top with remaining cherries and chocolate, pressing gently into the batter; tap pan sharply to remove air bubbles.
• Bake for approx 35 minutes, until golden and set in the middle, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. 
• Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.  Carefully lift parchment to remove bars from pan and place on a cutting board; cut into squares with a sharp knife.

Banana, Peanut Butter and Choc Chip Muffins

After an unsuccessful cookie baking exercise last week I decided it was time to try another baking session with the kids. We had a glut of ripe bananas in our house, and whilst wondering what to do with them I came across two bread recipes from AllRecipes and from 12Tomatoes which looked quite interesting. We also had a party the following day so I decided to give turning the recipes into muffins a go. The first batch was quite small - giving around 10 large muffins, so for the second I  played with the recipe a bit. This recipe will create around 12 large muffins, or 20 smaller ones (good for kids). They went down a treat at the party and stayed nice for a couple of days afterwards in an air tight container.  I reduced the amount of peanut butter purely as I only had so much left - you can add more, I just liked the hint of peanut I got from this recipe so I would hold off on doing more than 1/2 cup although the original stated up to 3/4 cup.

Ingredients

Dry

• 2.5 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar

Wet

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3 tbl crunchy peanut butter 
• 1 tbl flax seed
• 3 tbl warm water
• 1/4 cup of margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Additional

• 1 cup of dairy free choc chips
• splash of almond milk

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180C
• Line a muffin or cupcake tin - depending on size of muffins you want.
• Take a medium bowl and mash down the bananas
• Take the flax seed into a small bowl and mix with the warm water 
• When the flax seed mix is thick/glutenous mix with the bananas 
• Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and mix together, make sure there are no large lumps in it. You can melt the margarine first but I didn't bother.
• Take a large bowl and mix together the dry ingredients
• Make a well in the dry ingredients and then slowly add in the wet whilst continuously mixing
• Once mixed make sure the consistency is quite firm - if  too firm add a bit of milk. The mix should stick properly to a spoon. At this point add the choc chips and give a further quick stir.
• For large muffins use a large tablespoon to put the mix into the cases, I filled them approx 3/4 of the casing.  
• Cooking time: 12 mins for the small cup cake size, 16 for the larger size

Sorry about lack of photos, will have to make them again and then update this post.

Cupcakes - no aqua faba this time

Well not wanting to open another can of chickpeas I have tried a new cupcake recipe based on a few older cake recipes on this site. This is a proper amalgamation. My daughter asked for pink and blue cakes, so we ended up adding food colouring from my icing sets to get some colour in the mix. This recipe is vegan friendly.

Ingredients

• 200g self raising flour
• 50g Tex butter substitute
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 tbl flax seed in 70ml of water
• 150ml yogurt (I used soya/ almond)
• Dash of almond milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Methodology

• Pre heat oven to 180C
• mix up the flour and sugar
• in second bowl mix up the butter, yogurt, vanilla essence, and flax seed
• add the flour and sugar to the wet ingredients 
• place a tablespoon in each cupcake case - this made 16 cupcakes.

Notes

• This may not be sweet enough for you but the kids loved it - my daughter happily cleaned the bowls for me and sat sucking the paper after eating the cupcake first out of oven (still stuck to paper as they hadn't cooled at that point)
• The cupcakes took a while in the oven - around 20/ 25mins. this did seem a long time but they were still moist and yummy.

Preserving Cherries

So it is that time of the year that the garden starts giving me the challenge of what to do with the fruit it is busily producing. This is the first year we have managed to get anything off the cherry tree. So pleased but struggled to find a way to use them all up. So I decided to try the recipe from Tori Avey. I found the following:

• This recipe was way too sweet for  me
• De-steming before doing this meant the cherries went black at that point very quickly, don't destem until ready to make the preserve (read this to find out how to stop the discolouring happening, this is also useful as cherries go a funny colour as you pit them)
• It takes an age to cut stones out of the cherries
• It takes longer to create the syrup than she states
• Cherries stain your hands when destoning with a knife
• 2lb makes just about two jars of preserved cherries
• This recipe had a lot of left over liquid even after additional reduction process.

Ingredients

• 2lb cherries - before stoning and steming
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 cups of water

Methodology

• Put the water and sugar mix on the stove to boil
• Whilst mix is boiling pit the cherries
• When the mix is like a thin syrup - thicker than water, but not quite like honey - add cherries
• Bring back to a boil
• Simmer for 30 mins, in an open pan
• Check the liquid - it should have reduced to around 2 cup by this point. You may not use all the liquid in the jars.
• Allow to cool in the pan
• Add to sterilised jars - cover fruit with the syrup, leaving 1/2 inch at the top
• Keep in the fridge

Butter Icing - vegan style

This was using black bean aqua faba for meringues. that I successfully made some vegan butter icing for a recent birthday cake, I used it to stick it together (with some lush jam) and also as the base of the cake to put the royal icing on top (normally I use marzipan but my brother was over and he hates it). I used an old Kenwood Chef.

I kinda followed this recipe with a few tweaks as it looked like it would make too much for me to use. I did have some left over icing my cake as it was. https://geekycakes.com/2015/05/08/egg-free-dairy-free-vegan-italian-meringue-buttercream/

Ingredients

• 1.25 cup cold water
• 1.33 cups granulated sugar
• 0.75 cup aqua faba (straight from the tin)
• 1.5 cups of Trex butter
• 1.5 cups of margarine (dairy free)
• 0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. reduce the aqua faba down to half a cup 
2. pour aqua faba into mixer bowl (mixer fixed with whisk attachment)
3. place sugar and water into saucepan and hand whisk over a medium heat until dissolved
4. add a candy thermometer to the mix and then heat up to  234ºF - at this point start whisking the aqua faba on a medium high speed.
5. Ensure that the aqua faba is at the stiff peak stage when the sugar syrup is at 248ºF
6. Set mixer to high and very slowly add the sugar syrup to the aqua faba
7. Once all the mix is added the aqua faba should have increased in size and look almost marshmellowy. 
8. Allow to cool, and change the whisk to a paddle or, as in my case, a K-beater.
9. Once cool (this is important, don't be impatient ;-)) slowly add the butter/margarine/shortening
   Note: You will notice some deflation at this point. I also noticed a point where it seemed to curdle, don't panic continue adding the fat and mixing and it should come back again (the original instructions say to place everything in the fridge if it doesn't - I didn't get to that point)
10. Turn mixer to low and add the vanilla extract

This can be stored in the fridge or freezer but might need re-whipping before use. 

This was using black bean aqua faba for the meringue, using left over butter icingand strawberries

Brownies (aqua faba)

Tried a new Brownie recipe today - using Black Bean aqua faba, This was based on the recipe from https://eclecticerica.com/ooey-gooey-fudgy-vegan-brownies-using-aquafaba/ These were quite crumbly - not sure if they are supposed to be or whether adding a bit of banana might be worth it next time.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of Trex Dairy Free butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
• 6 tbl of aqua faba (this is equal to two eggs)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup of (dairy free) chocolate - either drops or broken up pieces
• 1/3 cup of nuts
• 1 cup self raising flour
• pinch of salt

Method

• Use a loaf tin, line with greaseproof paper
• Pre heat oven to 175C
• whisk together melted "butter", aqua faba, sugar, salt and cocoa powder
• add in the flour slowly whisking
• use a metal spoon and fold in the choc chips &/or the nuts
• spoon into the loaf tin
• cook for approx 35 mins.

These were cooked at 180C for 40mins and were quite crispy on the outside and crumbly. I think dropping temp and time would help resolve this one.

Brownies (aqua faba)

Tried a new Brownie recipe today - using Black Bean aqua faba, This was based on the recipe from https://eclecticerica.com/ooey-gooey-fudgy-vegan-brownies-using-aquafaba/ These were quite crumbly - not sure if they are supposed to be or whether adding a bit of banana might be worth it next time.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of Trex Dairy Free butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
• 6 tbl of aqua faba (this is equal to two eggs)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup of (dairy free) chocolate - either drops or broken up pieces
• 1/3 cup of nuts
• 1 cup self raising flour
• pinch of salt

Method

• Use a loaf tin, line with greaseproof paper
• Pre heat oven to 175C
• whisk together melted "butter", aqua faba, sugar, salt and cocoa powder
• add in the flour slowly whisking
• use a metal spoon and fold in the choc chips &/or the nuts
• spoon into the loaf tin
• cook for approx 35 mins.

These were cooked at 180C for 40mins and were quite crispy on the outside and crumbly. I think dropping temp and time would help resolve this one.

Vanilla Cupcakes - aqua faba style

These have been my best success for cupcakes, I am now hoping to us this recipe for a birthday cake in the next couple of weeks so will let you know how that goes. This makes 15 cup cakes (20mins) or one 8" cake (25-35mins), using the middle shelf in the oven.

Ingredients

Dry

• 2 & 1/4 cups of self raising flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• Pinch salt

Wet

• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 1 & 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbsp aqua faba (chickpea straight from can)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180C
• Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl (big)
• Mix together the wet ingredients in a second bowl (small) - lightly whisk
• Slowly add wet to dry ingredients, mixing with a fork as you go
• Once combined do not over mix but put into the cupcakes or tin straight away

cupcakes before going in oven

Rising in oven

 The final product

Additional Note [03/05/2016] 

I used this recipe for a 8" tin birthday cake, it worked well but took nearly 40mins to cook all the way through and even then it seemed dense in the middle, and was a bit crumbly. I did, however, stick it together with some vegan butter icing - which was brilliant and easier to make than the instructions suggested. I will post the recipe soon.

Fish Fingers

I enjoyed doing this one with the kids - and they ate them (the youngest doesn't like bought frozen fish fingers).

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of bread (I used the crusts)
• rind of a small lemon (zest and juice)
• 1/2 tablespoon of paprika
• 3 tablespoons of plain flour
• pinch salt and pepper
• 250g Frozen or Fresh Fish
• 3 tablespoons of aqua faba (I used straight from tin chickpea water)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Whiz up the breadcrumbs and put on a plate
• Zest lemon then juice. I forgot to do it that way round - made zesting interesting.
• Mix the flour, paprika, salt, pepper and lemon zest in one bowl
• Whisk aqua faba for 30 seconds in another bowl
• Cut fish into 2cm strips (mine didn't stay as strips but close enough)
• Spray some oil on a baking tray
• Dip fish in the flour mix, then the aqua faba, and finally the breadcrumbs.
• Place fish on the baking tray and spray a bit of oil on them again.
• Cook for approx 15 - 18mins

I served these with some crinkled chips and peas, with my peas I mashed lightly with a fork, added some chopped mint and a bit of lemon juice. Yum. 

I love Aqua Faba - Meringues and Coconut Macaroons

Over the last few weeks I have discovered Aqua faba, the magic ingredient that has popped out of the woodwork allowing sufferers of egg allergies to enjoy things with egg as the key ingredient, like meringues.

At first I was sceptical, I was horrified, to use chickpea water wasn't something I had tried.

Sorry, anyway having joined a Vegan Meringue ~Facebook group  I did my research and thought, why not me too? Now we haven't eaten chickpeas much in our house, as quiet frankly I hate the taste. This taste somehow leaves the water once it is whipped up. Both these recipes use water straight from the tin. I have also made a boat load of houmous (thanks Jamie), the one chickpea thing I can cope with.

Meringues

Ingredients

¾ cup aquafaba (what comes out of one tin)
1 cup sugar,
½ tbsp vanilla essence

Method

• Preheat Oven to 100C
• Use a machine to whisk aqua faba until it has peaks (use an electric mixer, on maximum, it takes a while)
• Slowly add sugar and vanilla essence whilst the whisk is still moving
• I used a spoon to scoop it onto the tray - it can be piped though
• Cook for approx 1.5 hours. Then open door, leave meringue to cool in oven

To store these keep them in an airtight container and leave in a cupboard. I managed to keep them for a round 4 days. On top I used whipped coconut cream with icing sugar in it and strawberries.

Out of the oven

Coconut Macaroons

This is a variation (very small ones, just no salt and cup measurement of aqua faba) to this: http://theblenderist.com/coconut-macaroons-vegan-and-gluten-free/. I also didn't bother with the chocolate drizzle either, but that's because that is always a mess when I try and the wee girl is dairy intolerant. These can be made by hand rather than using a machine.

Ingredients

¼ cup of aqua faba
2 and ¼ cups of shredded coconut
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 160C (approx 325F)
• Whisk aqua faba  and the vanilla extract for 30 secs so it is frothy
• Add the coconut and sugar, make sure the coconut is all covered in the aqua faba
• At this point it doesn't really look like it should stick together. Don't panic (I did I was going to add extra aqua faba)

After mixing all together

• I used two spoons to make little "balls" of the mix which I then put on a baking tray. I did have to squish some back together once on the tray
• Put in the oven for approx 20 mins - I would suggest using the bottom level of the oven, as they didn't stick to the bottom of the tray and could come out whilst still a little white (see photo below)
• I found if they stuck to the bottom of the tray (as the ones in the middle of the oven did for me) they needed to go back in again. Mine ended up brown all over. Nice and crunchy on outside and still soft in the middle. I think if you used greaseproof paper you could take them out earlier as they wouldn't stick to that.
• At this point let them cool and eat - or drizzle some melted chocolate on top

top four were from the bottom tray in oven and could come out at 18 mins and unstuck without going brown all over. The others all had to go back in.

Lego birthday party - off topic

Yes my son is Lego crazy and as such I became Mum - Project Manager and planned a Lego theme for his birthday. He also requested a Spiderman cake so that was on the agenda too. I scoured the internet for ideas, saved links from different sites and then went stir crazy! This took a fair bit of planning ahead as I work as well - thankfully the crayons could be done bit by bit. I did the sweets a week before the party.

My main guide for planning was this wonderful blog http://cleof.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/lego-birthday-party.html 

First things first was getting the Invites right, I used the idea of VIP invites as the link above suggests, then I followed this guide on creating Lego font (although it wasn't 100% as I had to create bigger borders in slightly different ways but it worked out in the end - sorry I didn't note the steps at the time). I will update this post as no doubt will  be doing it again ;-) I got the lanyards off Amazon. Everything was printed on card and just used a hole punch for the corner. I think laminating it would have been a nice touch if you have one.

Then it was to plan the Party Bags (this doesn't show the sweets as they were in process of being made at this point). The clear bags used for holding both the sweets and crayons, were from Amazon, as were the moulds for them.

• Creating the Colouring Book - again I started with the one shared from the blog mentioned above but modified it, so that it had some more female characters, and the layout worked better. See the cover and inside pages here (these were originally Word documents, and I would suggest downloading and re-saving as Word as the white out image I used to cover a grey line (rather than modify original image) on the cover is grey in the GoogleDoc). I just cut the A4 pages in half and stapled them together through the centre pages, making them close to book like as I could.
• Stickers were actually pretty disappointing from eBay - they were mostly small square and pretty boring. I put them in little plastic bags and labelled them with a pen. 
• Transfers - always popular with the kids, a better selection and larger than the stickers thank goodness - again from eBay and again I put them in little plastic bags so the stickers and transfers didn't get mixed up.
• Crayons - I got a load of basic crayons from the local pound shop, some were better than others (some created a white film over the crayon but I just left those out - I think it had something to do with the melting process rather than the quality of crayon). As each Lego brick was approx 7 crayons worth, and I had 20 kids with three bricks each that was ALOT of crayons to buy. I melted these in the microwave in a separate container and then poured into the moulds to set over night. This way the moulds didn't discolour or smell of crayon afterwards. To reduce having to clean the container each time I started with the white crayons, then yellow, then orange, then pink then red etc. I used the big bags, folded over, with Spiderman labels and then stapled. This worked for the sweets too. 
• Sweets - these were great to make I put three little guys in each bag and one big one. I used a Lego Spiderman sweet label for bags. I followed the video in the article How to Make Edible Stackable Lego Sweets to make the sweets. I did end up playing with the recipe to make my second of set of gummy men slightly squishier. With those I had to freeze to get out of the moulds whole but they were much squishier, so it is up to you which texture you prefer. I ended up using:
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 and a half pk Gelatine 
• 1/4 cup corn syrup (Tesco)
• 1 packet of jelly (I used pineapple flavour)

March of the sweet man

• Bags - I went for the traditional red paper bag, I was going to put the big circles on but quite frankly by the time I got to this I had lost the will to live. I got matching red lunch boxes for the kids food too.

Finally it was time to sort out the cake, I used the Amazon moulds again, in the moulds I just pushed in the relevant red and blue bits of icing, and let set overnight before pushing out. I then cut out the middle bit of the legs to make them look a bit better. I kinda wish I had used real Lego figures around the side of the cake but that could of led to arguments as to who got them, but it certainly would have saved my back! The web was created using rolled out icing and then cut into strips. I used one of the left over invites to model the hand cut out name plate and age plates that went around the side of the cake. The cake was the now traditional egg and dairy free chocolate cake recipe.

Strawberry, raspberry and redcurrant tart

I can't believe I totally forgot to add this to the blog! This got lots of positive comments when eating it. It looked pretty too. I made this mainly on my own but the little ones did help with the pastry and jelly mixing, and adding the redcurrants. I will say be patient to get the jelly right before pouring it - otherwise it leaks into the pastry. This used mixed fruit from the garden

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry

225g (8oz) plain flour
50g (2oz) butter, diced
50g (2oz) lard, diced
3-4 tablespoons chilled water
Pinch of salt (optional)

Custard

2 tablespoons Custard powder (I used Birds)
50ml whole milk
250ml

Topping

70g strawberry jelly (unmade up, I used half a pack of Hartley)
120ml cold water
120ml boiling water
1 tablespoon caster sugar
300g strawberries (hulled and halved)

100g raspberries
50g redcurrants

Method

Pastry

• Add salt to flour
• Rub in the fat using your fingers, until the mix looks like breadcrumbs 
• Sprinkle the water over the surface 
• Stir in using a round-bladed knife until it sticks in large lumps
• With one hand collect the mix to format a ball
• Knead lightly for a few seconds, don't over handle
• Roll out, flour work surface and rolling pin. Roll in one direction, turning the pastry occasionally. It should be about 3mm thick. 
• Place in the tin, trim and then let it rest in the fridge (covered by foil/ greaseproof paper) for 30mins.
• Preheat oven to 200C
• Place a circle of greaseproof paper in centre and weigh down with dried lentils/beans/ceramic pastry balls
• Cook for 10min 
• Take out greaseproof paper and weights. Press down any raised areas of pastry and return to the oven for a further 5-10mins, until lightly browned.
• Leave to cool.

Topping

• Make up the strawberry jelly by adding it to the boiling water and the caster sugar. Stir until dissolved
• Add the cold water
• Allow to cool until almost set, might want to keep stirring to ensure lumps don't occur. 
• I put mine to set in the fridge, but might be best to just set outside while doing the Custard (I did mine after the custard which was the wrong order for me!) Then put in fridge.

Custard

• Heat the custard powder and milk in a pan on a medium heat, whisk out any lumps.
• Slowly add the cream, sugar and vanilla.
• Keep stirring until it thickens
• Remove the custard from the heat and allow to cool

Finishing the Topping

• When the pastry and custard have cooled, pour the custard in to the pastry case and put in the fridge, for approx 20min. 
• Lay the strawberry halves and raspberries onto the custard, fill the gaps with the redcurrants.
• Pour the nearly set jelly over the strawberry halves/ redcurrants 
• Top with more fruit 
• Put in fridge to set for at least 2 hours.

Chocolate Cake with raspberry layer

Well it has been a while! I have been baking but not recording it, sorry. Life has been busy but getting some down time thanks to the oldest off with chicken pox, so balancing working at home with making sure he is entertained. Yesterday this was done by doing some baking. We modified two recipes into one, the first was http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/i-can-cook/makes/i-can-cook-stickychocolatecake/ which we saw being made on Cbeebies the day before, the second http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13485/eggless-chocolate-cake was a bigger version, for a full family cake. This made one loaf tin and three cup cakes as little guy can never wait for big cakes to be finished!! Each worked well, but the cupcakes did get wet thanks to the raspberries in the bottom.

Ingredients

(I didn't go diary free, just egg free)

• 160ml Milk
• 1/2 tbsp. Vanilla Essence
• 85g Butter
• 2 tbsp. Golden Syrup
• 300g Self Raising Flour
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda
• 35g Cocoa Powder
• 125g Caster Sugar
• Handful of raspberries

If you don't go down the raspberry route, and want a plain chocolate cake in a round 9 inch tin...

• 1 small tub of cherry yoghurt (I used a soya yoghurt which was lush)
• 1 large beetroot (the cooked, vacuum packed version)

Add both these to the milk and liquidise (then add the bicarb of soda). Mix in as much liquid as you need.

Method

• Grease the tin with some butter, I would recommend that you use some greaseproof paper in the bottom too (I didn't and the cake/raspberries did stick a little to the bottom, so I had to scrap it out and spread it back over the base of the cake)
• Pre heat oven to 190C/ 170C (fan assisted)
• Mix together the milk and the bicarbonate of soda in a cup
• Mix together the flour and cocoa powder in a "dry bowl"
• Cream together the  butter, sugar, syrup and vanilla essence "wet bowl" (big bowl)
• Slowly add some of the milk mixture and dry bowl mixture into the wet bowl, continuously mixing. (Little chap helped add these, I would then stir, he would add more etc)
• Once you have a smooth, but slightly stiff mixture you are ready to put in the tin
• Take a handful of raspberries and layer them at the bottom of the tin, then add mixture on top. Smooth the mixture out as otherwise the cake will be "lumpy" on top as it rises. 

Notes

• I would  be tempted to try the raspberries on the top of the cake next time, or even all through the mixture. The raspberries helped with the moisture of the cake.
• This was very nice with ice cream and extra raspberries.
• The cupcakes took around 15 mins
• The cake took around 45 mins
• The raspberry free round (9inch) cake took around 40 mins. Just keep checking it!

 

Double Chocolate Chip Cup Cakes

I found this recipe on the Annabel Karmel website and decided to try it to keep little man entertained while we emptied the house ready for our move! Plus little man has been invited to a birthday party and they are not providing egg free cakes. Unfortunately I have lent out the cake pop maker so will be trying this as a cupcake recipe. This makes 12 cupcakes.

They didn't sink! Yeah. 

Ingredients

• 145g sifted plain flour 
• 150g caster sugar (or vanilla sugar) 
• 20g nice quality cocoa powder 
• 62g vegetable oil 
• 175ml water 
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 
• small pinch of salt 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
• 100g of choc chips

Method

• pre-heat oven to 180C / gas mark 4. 
• Set out the cupcake cases
• In a bowl, sift the flour, bicarb of soda, salt and cocoa powder. Mix well. 
• Add sugar and mix well 
• Add oil, water, choc chips and vanilla essence and mix well
•  Pour into cupcakes 
• Cook for approx 22 mins

Notes

Original recipe says it serves about 6, so I'm guessing a 8" tin, and says to grease a tin and pour in to the baking tin/ring and bake for 1 hour in the middle of the oven or until a knife inserted in to the centre comes out clean.

These tasted a little funny to us... The taste of bicarbonate of soda seemed to come through. Will be trying again with self raising flour or adding some orange/lemon juice to balance it out. I think even a bit of vinegar would help. 

Leftovers and garden fruit

Well this week the little one didn't get involved in the baking (I really do need to fit some time at the weekend for this so he doesn't miss out) although he did help daddy get the ingredients for the custard ready!

I had half a can of condensed milk left over from making the cakes for the birthdays, and some cooking apples from the garden. I did try and find something that would use my cupboard ingredients and these two items in one recipe, however no luck there so I ended up doing an apple pie and making some fudge.

The Fudge

I found an Ultimate Fudge recipe on the Carnation website which I modified a little bit, as no demerara sugar in the house. I wanted to use up some older sugar I had floating around ready for the house move in the next week or so....

Recipe
200g condensed milk
75ml milk
200g light brown sugar
25g dark brown sugar
57g butter cut into cubes

Method

•  Line a tin with baking paper. I used a 20x10 tin for this recipe
• Stick all the ingredients into a saucepan, I didn't have a non stick pan and it didn't seem to make any difference to the cooking. You need to put it on a low heat (I have induction and I started on 2 and went up to 3 on the heat setting) to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar.  You need to keep stirring. This takes way longer than I expected.
• Once everything has dissolved/melted put the heat up and bring to the boil
• Simmer for 15 mins (making sure you continue to stir) (you can test the fudge by dropping it into a bowl of ice cold water - it should solidify into fudge when ready. The recipes talk about a ball of fudge, mine was more a line but still worked!)
• Remove from heat and then beat with a wooden spoon for around 10 mins, until thick and starting to set. WARNING This is VERY hard work!! Gosh was my arm sore by the end, I definitely earned a taster!
• Tip into the tin, and spread with the back of a spoon, I used a bit of baking paper on top to stop it sticking to the spoon!
• Wait to cool and then cut and enjoy!

Now for a girl's first birthday cake

Design ideas

After looking on the internet for ideas for my little girls first birthday, I had two criteria, one it had to be simple and two it needed to have some items that could be taken off and kept (like my boys train and cubes from his first cake).

This 1st Birthday Party supplies page has some cakes on it, including a baby pulling down a cake but was much too complicated, but perhaps I could include a baby on my cake somehow? It also showed a lovely cake with a girl on the top, and spots over the cake itself. I really like this cake. This two coloured cake of pink and green was lovely, and the bear very cute. 

With these, and my daughters cot toys, in mind I got out my iPad and using a Paper app I started sketching out ideas. These are not shared here as I am a TERRIBLE drawer and they are awful!! However they helped me pull together a couple of thoughts. 

The Plan

So I had a basic design, and I was going to reuse the recipe from my little boys cake. First it was off to the cake shop in Shrewsbury Market Hall (the ladies are so lovely and helpful) to get my supplies, I even managed to save a little by getting some flower paste icing on sale to make the baby skin (and with a little food colouring the dress too!).

Second it was tripling up the recipe and getting all the ingredients, this is because the recipe is for one 6" cake and I wanted to make two 8" cakes to put on top of each other with some butter icing. I had set aside Friday before the party (Sunday) to get the cake cooked and iced, although the other half was off too I was hoping to send him off on the bike or something!

The Reality

In fact I started the characters on Thursday evening, as I was loosing sleep about how to do them. This turned out to be a good thing as they took much longer than expected to make. I'm sure if I had all the tools and some training they would be dead easy to make but each character took approx 2 hours!! The first one made was the bunny, which used toothpicks to hold head to body and ears to head. 

Friday morning I baked the cakes, these are a bit more dense than normal egg cakes but still taste yummy and the cake was polished off at the party which I took to be a good sign. They did take approx 2 more mins to cook than on the recipe, and the first sank a fair bit in the middle. Otherwise I did not modify this at all. After the cakes had cooled it was time to stick them together with a fair bit of butter icing (the two tops together so they didn't look sunken with icing on). I then stuck the cakes in the fridge to let the icing go hard before adding the jam, marzipan and royal icing to the cake. While they were in the fridge, I made the little baby girl/doll.  This was using flower paste icing as it let me go finer in rolling out for the dress and hair. I used toothpicks to hold arms and head to the body.

Once the cake had the base icing on it was time to stick on the spots and make the monkey (this was a copy of a toy that my daughter was given at birth by her Nana and Granddad). I ended up doing this on Friday night once the kids had gone to bed, so I was pretty tired at this point so it wasn't brilliant. Anyway the final cake....

...

Daughters first birthday cake

That time of the year - The Third Birthday Minion Cake

13:Well it's that time of the year and it has come around very quickly this year - the dreaded Birthday. Last year I cheated on the cake and managed to buy an egg free cake suitable for turning into a lorry for my chaps birthday. This year I'm going to attempt to make it from scratch - wish me luck! I'm planning a Despicable Me minion cake - I will update this post as I go along.

The Plan

The recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-eggless-sponge-cake-3069

The Design

Rather than putting this in a round cake as the recipe suggests I will be trying this in a rectangle cake tin to make the minion (mine is going to lye down rather than sit up, as per this: http://sprinklesandcrumbs.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/cakes-break-then-more-cakes.html). I want to make two cakes, sticking them together with some butter icing and jam to give it some decent dimensions. I will use marzipan and icing for the decoration.

As I'm a waste not want not kinda girl I'm planning to mix the left over crumb cakes to turn into some mini minions. (A combination of these How to make fondant minions and Crumbled Cake Mini Minions).

The Reality..

11:45am - Oven warming up, I had planned to double this recipe to cook twice in a rectangular cake tin, however double the recipe only filled the tin once, so my minion will now be a bit thinner than I thought. 

12:45pm - after discussions with mum and other half decided to make a second cake after all...without  the sweetened condensed milk I have tried a hybrid recipe using my flaxseed. 

175g self raising flour, sugar and margarine (again running out of butter!), 3 tbl flaxseed & 9 tbl water, 2 tbl orange juice, 1 tsp of baking powder. This is in the oven. Fingers crossed!

1:05pm - umm flatter than the first cake, as other half would say, more biscuit! Plus took out of tin too soon so broken all down in one corner

1:30pm cool enough to build....

• Stuck the two cakes together using jam and butter, rebuilding the brocken corner at same time with the butter icing.
• A thin layer of marzipan added to the cake, suck on with more jam. I think I've used nearly a third of a jar! Then covered the whole cake with some yellow icing I've mixed up. 
• Hair done with liquorice cut in half, stuck with water
• Eye was done by cutting out white icing with a cup, using the outside of the cup to make the googles with grey icing, once the grey icing was dry I coloured over it with a silver writing icing. The brown eye was created by melting chocolate and the black dot just left over icing.
• Hands, roll a tube of black icing and cut with a knife twice to make the three fingers, then stretch out the top to fit over the ends of the arms.

16:00pm Done! Very tired now. Shan't be making the mini minions, haven't had lunch or anything so left over cake & a cuppa now!

Note - buy ready made black icing! I swear it feels half the time has been spent trying to get the icing black! 

Chocolate Oaties

This week we did two lots of baking, on Monday we did the apricot & coconut cake as an actual cake rather than cake pops, which didn't last two days thanks to visitors on Tuesday morning (I've updated the blog post with a photo of the proper cake)! Therefore on Tuesday afternoon when my little one asked about baking we decided to make some cookies. I did think about trying my egg free cheesecake recipe, but I would like to try that unwatched/ unhelped first! As we had some left over oats from a past recipe so I decided to use them for our baking. My little one loved the melted chocolate stage, and everyone was a big fan of the final product.

Ingredients

• 125g soft brown sugar
• 125g butter
• 125g self raising flour
• 125g rolled oats
• 50g raisins (optional)
• 1 tbl spoon golden syrup
• 100g chocolate
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Methodology

Biscuits

• Preheat oven to 165C (fan assisted)
• Measure butter and syrup into a saucepan & stick on a low heat
• Add self raising flour, oats, raisins, bicarbonate of soda & sugar into a big bowl and give to little one to mix while you continue to melt the butter and syrup together.
• Once the wet ingredients are melted and mixed, add to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon.
• Get out two baking trays (I used non stick)
• Roll into balls slightly smaller than golf balls (my mix made 14 cookies)
• Put on tray & lightly press down
• Cook for 15 mins, until golden brown
• Leave in tray for 3 mins to 'set'
• Put on cooling tray to cool.

Chocolate Topping

• Melt the chocolate on a low heat (I've got induction, a 1 or 2 works best, I also used the saucepan from melting the butter & syrup together as butter gives chocolate a nice sheen, this did not work too much but did save on washing up!)
• Once melted I let my toddler lick the spoon while I painted the biscuits
• Using a pastry brush paint half the cookies with chocolate. 
• Put back on the cooling tray. 

The final produce waiting to set

Update 01/07/2016: I've just done this again, added 40g chopped cashew nuts, 40g chopped dry dates and a mashed banana. This meant adding more flour and oats. Did this ad hoc during the mixing stage. 

Apricot and Coconut Cake in Cake Pop Maker

Last week I took the kids to see the grand parents rather than do the usual cooking thing, this was due to them being 'missing' for the last 6 weeks visiting my brother in Australia. This week our cooking experience has occurred on Thursday as I had to work on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

I have tried to be daring again this week, by not even starting with an egg free recipe, rather a lovely cake recipe off the BBC website (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10243/apricot-and-coconut-cake). Very brave after trying my own, adapted, egg free Blueberry (or strawberry) crumb cake in the pop cake maker (tasted ok but were a bit flat)! On starting this recipe I was hoping that the apricot would act as a structure to hold up the pop cakes (as the strawberries did when I modified the Blueberry crumb cake to be strawberry crumb cake!). This turned out to be the case, the cakes were very airy but kept their shape. However this trial was more error to start with! My little boy enjoyed the final product but the in the first batch some cakes tasted kind of fizzy (see the second point under notes for more info).

Ingredients

• 200g fresh apricots chopped small (this worked as 4 stoned apricots, which I then sliced one way & the other)
• 275g self raising flour
• 75g desiccated coconut
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 225g caster sugar
• 125g softened butter
• 100g soft margarine
• 1 & a half bananas (mashed) (substitute for 2 of the 4 eggs required for recipe)
• I used milk, but guessed-emated based on recovering mix (see second point in notes) - I would say get half a cup and slowly add until the consistency seems right (a whole cup is too much - see my notes from 19th August!)

Method

• Measure all dry ingredients into large bowl (dry)
• Mix the margarine and butter, then add the puree (wet)
• Add the dry & wet ingredients together
• Beat well for 2 min
• Add to pop cake maker (or look in notes for how to cook in oven)
• Leave to cool on wire rack

Notes 

• I have modified this recipe in two main ways, first is obvious - I removed the four eggs, the second is I added butter with the margarine as most agree that butter gives a better taste to baking than margarine does. 
• The first time I tried this I substituted 2 of the 4 eggs with a baking powder & vinegar mix that I added last. It made some of the cakes taste almost fizzy (not sure if it was because I mixed them together first & the mix was then absorbed by the apricots, or due to too much baking powder & soda in the mix). To 'repair' the mix for second cooking I picked out all the fresh apricots, added in dry, as I had run out of fresh, added more flour, coconut & some milk. They turned out MUCH nicer! 
• If using the oven preheat to 160C/ 325F (Gas mark 3), pour mix into a 2 litre loaf tin that has been well greased. Bake for 1 & 1/2 hours or until skewer comes out of cake clean. 
• Leave to cool in tin for 10min and turn out 

19/08/13

Below is our third attempt, I added too much milk so added more flour to balance it out. Ended up making a batch of pop cakes on the first day, refrigerating the mix for a couple of days & then cooking in the oven. This took about 1hour 15 mins at 165 C. This was very yummy, more moist than the cake pops, but also more banana tasty. Think if doing it this way need to wizz the banana rather than just mash it. Might try some proper fruit purée next time....

The cake straight out of the oven, it was very yummy!

Chocolate & Marshmallow Cornflake Cakes

Well, this baking weekly effort has been hard to maintain. Mainly as we have to keep eating it & I'm still trying to lose some of that illusive baby weight. So will admit to finding other things to do with our days!

I have been trying some proper home made dinners, they don't really need to go in this blog as they never had egg in the original recipes. Mind you I still might add them as notes on what I did, what worked and what has failed. At the moment the notes are in magazines!

I know this recipe doesn't have egg in it anyway, and I know that there are loads of these recipes out there.. Still, added this one as it is our first step back to baking for a while, and although it is a non egg recipe anyway I wanted something that slowly introduced us back into cooking this week, with a non baking option. Straight to fridge!

Plus this is a tweaked recipe, I've cut out a little of the syrup as seemed too much & added the marshmallows. As far as I can work out from forums etc the syrup is for added sweetness & leaves the cakes slightly sticky, you could miss it out if you want the final cakes to be more 'solid chocolate'.

Ingredients

• 80g Cornflakes
• 50g butter
• 50g mini marshmallows
• 100g milk chocolate
• 2 1/2 tbl spoons Golden Syrup

Methodology

• Melt together the butter, chocolate & syrup (with induction just put ingredients straight into a saucepan and heat on 2 or 3 for around 5 mins)
• Put cornflakes & mini marshmallows in a very large bowl if you've got a little one doing the stirring! I let my little one do a bit of mixing here before adding the chocolate mix
• Add the melted chocolate mix to the dry ingredients
• Stir until everything is covered in the chocolate
• Spoon into approx 12 cupcake cases.
• Put in fridge & let to 'set' (approx 2 hours)