CamCupCakes

Christmas Cookies

2009-01-05T16:49:00.004Z

I love making cut-out cookies. And I always think I'll love decorating them. These days, though, it always seems to be harder and more time-consuming than it was when I was little. And rarely do sugar cookies have the depth or interest in flavours that drop cookies do.

But Christmas is a time for decorating, and I've always liked playing around with new recipies, so I was willing to try the chocolate biscuit recipe provided in this month's cookie carnival.

Let me say, firstly, that my brothers - the main baked-goods eaters in this house - loved the chocolate cookies. And I liked them very much myself too. The cinnamon brought them alive, I think.

However, my dough was quite moist, and difficult to work with unless very cold. Still, I persevered, and even tried to get fancy with the decorating. My (slightly disapointing) results are here;

This last one is not following any of the recipes provided. Instead, it's a gingerbread recipe, one I use every year to make our gingerbread house. The dough's easy to work with, and i decided to experiment with 'glass windows'. They didn't unfortunately work quite as well as I hoped (not as clear as they have been in the past - but neither were the sweets I used). But I'm quite pleased with this landscape one.

Christmas Carrot Cake

2008-12-20T21:42:00.002Z

Wow...long time no blog. I've had a busy term, and that, combined with a lack of oven, has kept me from any creative cooking or baking. But I'm back home now, and the countdown to Christmas is well and truly on, so I've been catching up. Just a quick post to start off with though.

This term I've developed a love of carrot cake. Odd really, as it's not something I ever would have eaten before, but Sainsbury's do an absolutely amazing version...which you can't get here in Geneva of course. So I decided to make one myself.

Okay, this isn't really a proper carrot cake. There's plenty of carrot and spice in it, but other than that it's just a plain sponge cake. And the cream cheese frosting was a bit more liquid than I would have liked. But it was still yummy. I may have to experiment more once Christmas is over.

Swiss Roll 1

2008-09-26T08:41:00.002+01:00

I've wanted to try making a swiss roll for ages. It seems appropriate, given that I live in Switzerland. But I've always been kind of intimidated by the idea. I finally got around to searching for recipes a while back, and realised that they didn't sound that complicated. And as I have so much time on my hand.

The cake part of the swiss roll is fairly amazing - just egg, sugar and flour, it's ridiculously light. Unfortunately, I made a normal sized amount, then realised that my swiss roll tin is about twice the normal size. This led to a little experimentation, ending with an upside down loaf tin blocking part of the tray. I also didn't spread the mixture properly, so the cake came out slightly lumpy...

So aesthetically it wasn't perfect, but the combination of chocolate sponge and vanilla buttercream went down well with my brothers. I'm planning to try again before going back to college, and maybe experimenting a bit more with flavours. Particularly as I now have a new swiss roll tin...

Cornish Pasties

2008-09-22T08:29:00.004+01:00

Cornish pasties are one of those things. I rarely eat them, but when I do, I absolutely love them. And I've never made them before, even though i love working with pastry in any form. So when my brother, after a week at a rugby training camp, came home and asked if I could try, I readily accepted the challenge.

They turned out to be ridiculously simple and very tasty, though possibly a little bit on the dry side - which could be fixed by remembering to put the butter in before cooking...

The recipe I used made 5, which meant three were set aside for a later date. Well, there's only one left now. So it's a reasonable guess that my brother liked them too.

Steak and Mushroom Pie

2008-09-13T21:57:00.003+01:00

My family have always had a thing about Australia and New Zealand. Maybe because my cousins live in Australia. Maybe because we had two wonderful whirl-wind trips to New Zealand when we were little. Regardless, we all talk often of going back. But it's a long way and its expensive, so we're not sure it'll ever happen.

But in the mean time, we've developed a soft spot for a traditional Australian favourite. Steak and mushroom pie. It's a recipe I dug out of an old Australian cook book of my mum's a couple of years ago, and it's one that my brothers request regularly. It's good, hearty, comforting food, ridiculously simple to make and exceptionally tasty.

Serves 6
plain flour for dusting
nutmeg
salt and pepper
1.25kg chuck steak, cut into dice.
250g button mushroom, quartered
2tbsp mixed chopped herbs
1tbsp ketchup
1tbsp brown sauce
500-600ml beef stock
1 sheet puff pastry (200g)
1 egg yolk

Set oven to 200°C
Mix the flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper together in a shallow bowl. Dust the steak pieces with flour so that each is completely coated and place in a pie dish.
Sprinkle over the chopped herbs, then put in the mushrooms.
Pour in the beef stock until it just covers the meat and mushrooms, then stir in the ketchup and brown sauce.
Cover with puff pastry, and brush this with the egg yolk.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden. Remove and cover with aluminium foil, then put back into the oven at 185°C for two hours.
Serve straight from the dish.

Fresh Pasta

2008-09-11T08:41:00.003+01:00

My first attempt at fresh pasta...

It's something I've been wanting to try for ages now, and I finally decided to give it a proper go. I was really happy with the results too. I made ravioli with a crab stuffing, and for a start, the crab was really tasty. It was just crabmeat, cream cheese and onion, but it's a mix I'd be tempted to make again on its own.

Then - the pasta. It worked surprisingly well. I used proper pasta flour, but was quite worried in the begining because the dough was very crumbly and dry. 10 minutes of kneading produced a lovely smooth shiny dough, so the effort was worth it. The only major problem I had with the pasta was rolling it out thin enough, but I think that's something that will come with practice. Besides, I don't have a pasta machine, so all the rolling was done by hand.

I was very happy whilst cooking it, because none of the filling came out of any of the ravioli. And served with parmesan and tomato sauce...it was gorgeous. A bit time consuming, and definitely not an everyday dish, but something I'd make again on a special occasion. Maybe with a different filling (because my fussy brothers don't like crabmeat). But would definitely try again.

Fried Colcannon

2008-09-10T07:46:00.004+01:00

Colcannon is an Irish dish made from mashed potato, cabbage, salt, pepper and whatever other bits you fancy throwing in. It's absolutely delicious, and a great way to use up excess mashed potato (although I made some from scratch). I like to stir some mustard into the mash and serve it with fried bacon. It made my mum and me a very happy lunch yesterday - and if you've got everything left over, it's pretty quick too.

Ingredients
Mashed potato
mustard
boiled cabbage
salt and pepper
olive oil
bacon rashers.

1. mix the mustard and boiled cabbage into the mashed potato and season with salt and pepper.
2. fry the bacon in a dry pan and set aside.
3. add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and fry the mash for about 5 minutes, mixing occasionaly, until it starts to brown.
4. serve with the bacon.

Tarte Tatin

2008-09-09T09:33:00.003+01:00

I love working with pastry. I like making it from scratch, but puff pastry is a bother to make that way, so I buy the full butter stuff if I can. And you can get perfectly decent ready made pastry these days anyway.

I also like cooked apples. Paticularly ones cooked with sugar and butter. So when the house is full of apples and I've managed to find good puff pastry, what other choice is there - tarte tatin.

It's a very popular recipe too, one I've made before and will make again. Unfortunately it was in the oven a little too long today (it really needs to be made just before eating, but I put it in with the oven on timer when we sat down for dinner), which meant that it was a little drier than usual - meaning that there was less sugar syrup than usual. Still, with a scoop of Fior de Latte ice cream - or even better, cinnamon ice cream if you can find it - it's an amazing desert. And this recipe is nice and light too.

Apples, sliced - enough to cover the base of a small pan.
Ready-made puff pastry
2tbsp butter
2tbsp caster sugar
1tbsp brown sugar
ground cinnamon.

1. Put the butter and sugar in a pan and heat until the butter is melted and slightly golden.
2. Add the apples and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. cover the apples with a round of pastry to just fill the pan.
4. put in an oven at 190°C for 8-10 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
5. Turn out onto a plate and sprinkle with cinnamon.
6. Serve with ice cream or double cream.

Morocco (2)

2008-09-02T15:46:00.004+01:00

So I can't put up more than five pictures at a time. And I'm still lazy. But here are a few more.

A nougat stall in Fes Medina - very yummy nougat too.

A dried fruit and nut stall. My introduction to the joy that is dried figs.

Homemade pastilla. This is a traditional meal made of very thin pastry, stuffed with a mixture of chicken, egg, onion and sugar, and sprinkled with icing sugar and cinnamon. It works suprisingly well. The picture below is the inside layer - don't let the colour put you off!

Finally, me in the kitchen and our homebase, trying my hand at making moroccon breakfast pancakes (or mwnm. In all honesty, that is their actuall name. Now try pronouncing it). And I was vaguelly successful. At any rate, it tasted nice.

Morocco (1)

2008-08-31T13:38:00.003+01:00

So I've been away for ages, and I only got back last night, so I'm a bit too tired to write a long post. But I have lots of yummy food pictures, so I'll post those instead.

Broujettas in Cafe Maure, Casablanca - pastry filled with minced meat (kefta), minced chicken and minced seafood. My favourite meal there!

Pastilla au Lait - the pudding version of the famous main course. Layers of thin, flaky pastry, sandwiched with cream and grilled almonds.

A spice stall in Salé.

Tomato and potato salad in Fes.

Moroccan bread. A real treat, and made and sold absolutely everywhere, by everyone.

Bye Bye (for a bit)

2008-07-24T10:15:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm off on my Hols - two weeks in Brittany then three in Morocco - so won't be posting for a while. Hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to catching up with all the yummy blogs out there once I get back.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

2008-07-15T22:51:00.005+01:00

I bought some blueberries last week, and the remains of the box have been sitting in the fridge screaming at me to do something with them. So I did. I made blueberry muffins, which are one of my mum's favourite things, and one of my favourite morning snacks.

The problem I've always had with muffins in general is getting enough flavour into the cakey part of the muffin. I usually find them quite bland and disappointing, so this time I decided to hunt around for an intriguing recipe to try my hand at.

And boy, did I find it. This uses vegetable oil instead of butter, which gives the cakes an amazingly moist finish. The streusel topping is a fantastic finish, bringing out the fruitiness and tang of the blueberries.

I didn't have enough blueberries to make 8 muffins (and I ended up with 15, because mine are always on the small side), so I bought a bar of swiss milk chocolate (caillers - one of the best commercial brands) and mixed that into the others for my brothers to enjoy. Given the number vanished already, I think they worked well too.

The recipe for these is here

Ginger and Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-07-09T22:00:00.002+01:00

I bought some ginger essence a while back and have been trying to find a reason to use it for a while. Today, I decided I’d just go for it.

So I through these together. They’re a basic cupcake recipe with ginger essence, ground ginger and chocolate chips mixed in, and the icing is chocolate buttercream. The little koalas are an last minute whim – I think they look cute, and they’re some of my favourite biscuits so…

The cupcakes are a little on the dry side – I really need to start experimenting with cake recipes as well as just flavourings! But the icing is really nice.

Strawberry Cake

2008-07-08T19:47:00.003+01:00

It's summer, and it's hot, which means picking desserts for Sunday dinner is a question of finding something cool and light. And with strawberries in season, a simple sponge cake, whipped cream and strawberries was all we felt like last weekend, so that's what I went for. No picture yet, but I'll add it as soon as I've uploaded it.

The week before that was the Euro 2008 final, and we had a party at a friend's which required another cake. This was my experiment cake - I actually made a half football! The base of the cake was a plain vanilla sponge with buttercream, and the football was chocolate sponge, covered in marzipan and baked in - believe it or not - a soup bowl! I had fun with this one, and definitely want to try making some more exciting cakes or cupcakes soon!

The Foodie BlogRoll

2008-07-03T13:41:00.002+01:00

I've been a bit lax on posting recently, though I have been baking. But various personal problems mean that anything I have written has been a little too sensitive to post.

Instead, I've been trawling the web and reading other people's blogs (and looking at the pictures, and drooling over the recipes...). And The Left Over Queen has provided the perfect means of doing so - so I need to say a huge thank you to her! The Foodie BlogRoll is brilliant - loads of great blogs to visit and explore.

I'll post again soon - I have pictures waiting after all...

Chocolate Banana Cake

2008-06-26T21:19:00.004+01:00

Because I’m now home from college, I have very little to do during the day besides bake and go on my dad’s brand new treadmill (which is probably quite a good combination!). Not everything I bake is worthy of display, but this one is, I think.

I love banana cake. Most of my family do. And it’s the perfect way to use up the over-ripe bananas that so frequently appear in our fruit bowl (because my dad and brothers only eat them slightly green and my mum and I don’t usually eat them as fruit).

I don’t usually follow a particular recipe, and this time, although I did browse the net a bit, was no real difference. I sort of followed this recipe from the BBC Good Food website, but made many modifications. I added cinnamon to the mixture instead of cocoa (not the same amount of course!) and put the chocolate in as chips instead of melted.

I didn’t grease the pan quite enough, so was left with a lot of cake sticking to the bottom, which required patching back on, so I felt I had to put something over the top. Chocolate frosting would have been too much, and any other flavour icing didn’t seem quite right. I finally decided on a very liquid chocolate ganache. It worked very well, and the cake is a huge success. Will definitely be making it again!

Cookie Carnival June - Snickerdoodles

2008-06-24T20:33:00.002+01:00

I must admit, I had no idea what to expect when we got the recipe for this month’s cookies. I’d never heard of a snickerdoodle before. But I love cinnamon, so I was perfectly willing to try.

They didn’t quite work the way they were supposed to, and I’m not entirely sure why. They turned out almost more cakey than biscuity, and didn’t really crack on the surface at all. But they were still scrumcious.

My dad, mum and gran all pronounced them the perfect cookies to go with coffee. And I agree. Shall definitely be experimenting with them again in the future!

Makes 4 dozen.

* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening
* 1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
* 2 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, with one rack in top third and
one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with Silpat
baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt;
set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle
attachment, combine butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on
medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down
sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and
beat to combine.
3. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground
cinnamon. Use a small (1 1/4-ounce) ice-cream scoop to form balls of
the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on
the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center
and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating
the baking sheets after 5 minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack
to cool about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack.
Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Mont Diavolo (sort of)

2008-06-23T19:32:00.003+01:00

My brother graduated from high school on Friday, and today is the first meal he’s had at home since then, so I offered to make him whatever dessert he wanted. His main requirement was that there be lots of chocolate, and both chocolate cake and chocolate mousse were mentioned. A little bit of searching unearthed this is an old Sainsbury’s chocolate book.

The original recipe was a three-layered affair, with a chocolate cream-mousse, chocolate sponge cake and chocolate icing. The very first change I made was to make a simple chocolate mousse instead of the complicated one in the recipe, which called for a litre of cream and gelatine powder. The second change I decided upon during the construction of the dessert, and that was to omit the icing. It was already rich enough!

This is a slightly more complex recipe than I’m used to attempting anyway, but it was fun to make, and looked quite impressive! The cake part is a Genoese sponge, made by beating the sugar and eggs over heat until they double in size and become stiff. The cake this makes is quite dry and very rich.

The chocolate mousse recipe I used didn’t quite work perfectly, and I really should find a new one – I’ve had trouble with this recipe before. It always ends up denser than I want it to. In this instance, that probably wasn’t a bad thing, because it would help hold up the sponge layer!

The cake went down very well (except for my Gran’s slightly-more-numerous-than-necessary comments about her cholesterol levels). It was very rich and needed the strawberries and cream to lighten it a little (vanilla ice cream may have worked better). Whilst not personally my favourite – I’m more likely to go for a fruity dessert than a chocolate one – I am anticipating repeat requests!

Mont Diavolo

Genoese cake
100g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
150g vanilla sugar (or 150g sugar and ½ tsp vanilla powder)
40g unsalted butter

1. Heat the over to 180°C/350°F
2. break the eggs into a heatproof bowl placed over a pan of hot (not boiling) water and beat in the sugar for 6-8 minutes until the mixture doubles in volume and thickens to stand in soft peaks.
3. Sift all the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and fold them in gently.
4. melt the butter then fold it in gently.
5. pour into a 30x36 cm baking tray, pre-lined with baking parchment, and bake for 12 minutes until just springy.
6. cool a little, then turn out onto a piece of sugared baking parchment.

Chocolate mousse
3 eggs
6oz dark chocolate

1. melt the chocolate in a bowl over bowling water then allow to cool until tepid.
2. Separate the eggs.
3. mix the yolks into the tepid chocolate.
4. Beak the egg whites until they form stiff peaks then fold into the chocolate mixture.

Assembly
1. Line a pudding basin or small (around 2 litre) glass bowl with aluminium foil. Sugar the foil.
2. Cut out the cake so that it lines the basin.
3. Pour the mousse into the cake.
4. Chill for at least 8 hours.
5. Turn out onto a plate and serve with strawberries and cream (or ice cream).

Nearly done for the year

2008-06-03T22:23:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow, at 9AM, I have my last second year exam. Which really means that I should be studying, or possibly sleeping, but instead I'm watching Greek and eating my way through an M&S swiss roll.

The past week or so has been pretty awful. My ceiling has sprung a huge leak . there a crack running across it and every time it rains - which its been doing a lot more than usual this week - the rain gets inside my room too. Which has woken me up three times this week.

Look:

That aside, I've had two days when I've woken up with bad cramps, one so bad that I had to down so many painkillers I was hazy by the time I got to my exam, and couldn't get out of my room until just an hour before even then.

The exams themselves have been both ok and hellish (depending on which one). And the thing is, I usually use baking to destress, but I actually haven't had time. Until Sunday morning, when I finally had a break of more than 24 hours between two exams. So I mucked around in the kitchen and pulled together some ingredients from my cupboards and made chocolate-almond cake-biscuits.

They were originally supposed to be cupcakes. Then I relocated the ground almond and figured I'd toss some of that in. And then I made them little. And they turned out lovely and moist and intensley chocolately, and with a little bit of chocolate buttercream, and a sprinkle of icing sugar, they were lovely.

The picture's not great - the lighting in our kitchen is a bit off. But don't let it fool you.

Ingredients
2oz butter
2oz brown sugar
1oz flour
1/2 oz ground almond
1/2 oz cocoa powder
1 egg
1/2tsp baking powder

Mix the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.
Beat in the egg.
Fold in the flour, ground almond baking powder and cocoa powder.
Spoon into cupcake pans and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C.
Ice with chocolate buttercream and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Lemon and Coconut

2008-05-18T14:38:00.004+01:00

I have less than a week until my exams start. It's stressing me out, but less so than I expected. One thing it has done, is reduced the amount of time I spend doing anything other than work.

Still, I've baked a little - I made some yummy cupcakes last weekend, and I'm planning to make some apple ones today. Also, the bf is coming over for dinner, and I'm planning a hodgepodge of crab, pasta and various veg...not sure how it'll turn out, but we'll see.

Anyway, here are last week's cupcakes. They weren't quite as successful as I'd hoped, but still nice. The cupcake itself is lemon and white chocolate chip. The lemon didn't come through quite as strongly as I'd hoped - it never does (any tips welcome!). The frosting is coconut and cream cheese, and was absolutely lovely.

No recipie I'm afraid. I can't be bothered to remember it, and I need to get back to work anyway.

Lemon and White Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Frosting

Alimentum

2008-05-06T22:09:00.002+01:00

I'm feeling better today than I have done in a long time - possibly at least partly a result of slightly more wine than I'm used to. But also due to an amazing meal out I've just come back from and have to rave about.

My dad was in London for work, and came up to Cambridge to take me out to dinner. It was lovely - we went to a fine dining restaurant called Alimentum, and the food was absolutely amazing. A wasabi and smoked salmon terrine, a mushroom feullite and a rhubarb crumble with champagne and rhubarb sorbet. Best meal I've had in ages. And the portions were perfectly sized too.

It's so nice to go out and relax for a bit, and it was so good to see my dad.

Plus, I now have a box of the most amazing macarons waiting downstairs for me to eat tomorrow...yummy!

Still alive

2008-05-04T10:39:00.005+01:00

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really been feeling up to it. I've been through a bit of a bad patch, associated with homesickness and exam stress. Things are begining to perk up, but I still don't feel up to writting anything particularly long. I will post a picture of my latest kitchen creation though;

White Rocky Road

It's really simple;
200g White chocolate
50g Macadamias
75g marshmallows (I used lemon flavoured ones, but plain would do too)
1 1/2 tbsp coconut flakes.

Melt the white chocolate following the packet instructions.
Stirr in the macadamias, marshmallows and coconut.
Put into a lined dish or tray and pop in the fridge until solid.

Oh, and another picture because it makes me laugh whenever I see it;

my youngest brother, who won this impressive bar of chocolate at a raffle in school. That was about two weeks ago, and apparently all 5kg have now disappeared...

Baby visit

2008-04-17T12:19:00.002+01:00

It's been a busy week. My boyfriend visited, I had some driving lessons... And I've been lazy about updating. Also, I haven't gained anywhere near enough weight. But I've nearly got all my required Easter holiday revision work done. Which is a good thing, because my aunt, uncle and gran are bringing my new baby cousin over this afternoon to stay for the weekend.

Anyway, don't feel much like writin, but I'll update a picutre of a cake I made last weekend that I'm quite proud of. No real reason, just because I felt like it. It's my first attempt at a fancy decorated cake, and I'm quite pleased with the flower detail.

Snow fall

2008-04-08T13:09:00.005+01:00

I've been a little lazy recently. Well, not lazy so much as tired...or maybe it's the same thing.

It's odd really, because I've been sleeping fine and I haven't been staying up too late or anything like that, but I just reach a stage mid afternoon where I'm exhausted and my head starts hurting and concentration leaves the building. It doesn't seem to matter what I do during the day, it still ends up like that.

Of course, add to that the mild panic that hits me every time I'm on a mid-academic year holiday and its always worse in the Spring holiday because exams are creeping towards us. So I feel guilty everytime I stop working. But I have kept baking, mainly because it's one thing that keeps me sane (and it doesn't take too much time away from revision). I've made two types of cookie recently, and whilst I can't be bothered to write up recipies, here are some pictures;

Chocolate sandwiches

Smarties cookies

And one final thing - it snowed today. Which is really odd, because although when you think Switzerland, you usually think of snow, it doesn't often actually snow here in Geneva. And barely has all of this winter. And yet, today, it was, quite heavily at some points. It settled briefly, but is mostly gone now. Still, it was quite nice to at least see a little bit before winter properly ends.

Easter Candy Baking Challenge Entry

2008-04-03T13:13:00.004+01:00

So I’ve never cooked for a challenge before and I’ve never made cake balls either, but I’ve been reading around and fancied trying both, so here we go. This one is for Masterbaker's Easter challenge

I’m a fan of Easter eggs. I like the thin chocolate, I like how once a year you get to eat very sweet chocolate and not feel like I should be eating something a little better quality. And I like cake and icing, so I thought – why not combine the two. And because the one thing that always made me think twice about making cake balls was the whole dipping part, this seemed like a great solution.

These are really quite simple to make. The hardest part was splitting the chocolate eggs in half without them crumbling all over the place. But I managed to split enough for it to work. And then it’s all quite simple. Bake chocolate cake, make chocolate buttercream, icing, make cake balls, stuff in eggs and drizzle with melted dark chocolate. Yummy.

As far as I’m concerned, they were a success. They were very sweet, and I might try and use dark chocolate eggs next time round. And for aesthetic purposes, maybe drizzle with white chocolate. But they got eaten, and happily.

Cake filled Easter Eggs

Cake
2oz flour
2oz caster sugar
2oz butter
1 egg
1 tbsp cocoa powder
A few drops vanilla essence.

Icing
2oz icing sugar
1oz butter
½ tbsp cocoa powder
Water as needed

Approx 6 hollow Easter eggs (depending on size)
50g dark chocolate.

1. cream together the butter and sugar.
2. beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
3. fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
4. Bake in a small tray for 15-20 minutes at 180°C.
5. for the icing, cream together the sugar, icing and butter, adding water to thin it if needed.
6. Once the cake is cool, crumble it and mix with the icing, then leave in the fridge for at least ½ hour.
7. break the eggs in half and then make balls out of the cake mixture and carefully fill the half egg shells with them.
8. Melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water and drizzle over the cake side of the filled eggs.

A taste of summer

2008-04-01T08:00:00.003+01:00

I've always loved pavlova. It's one of those absolutely classic desserts, that's found its way onto our dinner table year after year after year. And it's so lovely a summery, light meringue, whipped cream and red fruits. But there's an emotional connection too, because it was always my Granddad's favourite pudding.

My Granddad died of a sudden heart attack when I was 11. No one saw it coming. He was always so active, so fit, he ate healthily...it just didn't seem like something that could happen to him. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for my Grandma. She went out for a walk one morning to get the newspaper and when she got back she found him collapsed in the kitchen. I went to stay with her a few months after it happened, on my own, and remember being amazed at how strong she was.

I've always been closer to my mum's parents than my dad's. I visit my Gran when I can, and she's been to visit me at Uni and calls regularly to check how I'm doing. When my Granddad was alive, he was the one I always wanted to impress. If I was playing sports at school and got onto the team, he was the one I wanted to tell. If I got a really good grade in a piece of written work, he was the one I wanted to show. Even after he was gone, I still tried to stay close to him. I support the same football team as him - Everton - and always will. I have a picture of him on my wall at college, and I look at it often and hope that he'd be proud of me if he was here. And whenever I'm feeling a bit down but the weather's starting to clear up, I make pavlova.

Pavlova with Red Fruits

3 egg whites
6oz caster sugar
1tbs corn flour
1tsp vinegar
1/2 pint single cream
strawberries, raspberries or any other fruit.
set the oven to 150°C

1. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
2. Beat in the caster sugar a tablespoon at a time.
3. beat in the corn flour and vinegar.
4. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and place in the oven for around one hour. It should harden and go slightly darker in colour, but don't let it get golden.
5. whip the cream and spread over the pavlova. Top with fruits.

Beautiful Brownies

2008-03-29T09:43:00.002Z

I've gained a pound! Wonderful! I never thought I'd say that, but anyway. I put it down, in part, to the brownies I made at my brother's request.
I don't make brownies often, because they're so rich and slightly sinful, but they always get gulped down when I do. There's only one recipie I'll use though - Nigel Slater's Very good Brownie's recipie, which you can find here. They're lovely and crunchy on the outside and properly gooey and fudgy in the middle, and the chocolate chips can be replaced by nuts or anything else (I used a combination of dark and milk chocolate chips, as my brother's all much prefer milk chocolate).

Nigel Slater's Very Good Brownies

Nasty shock

2008-03-26T20:04:00.001Z

Weight gain is not going well. It’s barely happening at all, in fact. I left home for a week of eating out and Easter with my family in Brittany, and I managed to gain – wait for it – half a pound. Yep, that’s right, a measly half pound. I can’t quite get my head around how hard this is turning out to be. You would have thought that putting on weight would be easy, but it’s not. I can feel like I’ve eaten loads, and yet obviously that’s not the case, and it’s really beginning to get me down.
The problem is at least partly psychological, of course. If I eat a relatively decent lunch, I feel full and bloated and vaguely nauseated for a good part of the afternoon, even if there’s no real reason to (it’s not due to any particular food type – it happens regardless). And snacking during the day – well, my mum’s convinced I can no longer accurately assess what a decent sized snack is. And she’s probably right.
I’m making a few changes from now on. There’s a dish on nuts in the kitchen, and I’ll eat a few every time I go in. I’m planning on a mug of warm milk with sugar and cinnamon before bed. And I’m going to have two biscuits with my tea instead of one. Fingers crossed it’ll work. I need it to, because I had a nasty shock today. I fainted whilst out shopping. I maintain that it was because of the heat in the shopping centre, and because I’d been standing still for so long, but I suspect mum’s got a point when she says low blood sugar due to not eating enough might have played a part.
Anyway, because I’ve been away, and because we have no scales or baking pans in Brittany, I haven’t actually baked anything in a while (unless you count mini-tarts with goats cheese and tomatoes on ready made puff pastry. Which I don’t). I’m planning on brownies and Simnel cake in the next few days, so I’ll post once I’ve made something new.

Weight gain

2008-03-18T08:34:00.004Z

My mum bought a set of bathroom scales yesterday, so for the first time in ages I actually weighed myself. And got a nasty shock. I knew I'd lost weight over the last term at uni - what with mild depression, lack of exercise and repercussions on my eating habits. What I didn't realise it that I'm now clinically underweight. So the challenge is - gain half a stone over my five week Easter holiday. At least. So I'm going to record what I weight when on here. Today's weight; 7St 13

It feels odd to be trying to gain weight, and I'm worried that I'll find it significantly harder than I should do. I started off with a second bowl of cereal for breakfast today, and the guilt (And slightly-too-full stomach) feeling has set in already. But I'll stick too it. At least it gives me an excuse to bake a lot and to eat all my Easter chocolate.

So here's the first weight-gain recipie (well, not really. I was planning on making these anyway). I love banana, I love walnuts - indeed, my current favourite Ben & Jerry's flavour is Chunky Monkey. I contemplated putting chocolate icing on them, but to be honest I don't think it would have worked all that well, so I went for honey buttercream again. And they went down very well as dessert. Without the icing, they'd make a great breakfast/mid-morning snack too.

Banana and Walnut Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream Icing
(makes 6)
Oven 190°C

1 banana
2oz flour
2oz butter
2oz brown sugar
1 egg
1tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 whole walnuts, cut into chunks

Honey
Butter
Icing sugar
cold water

1. cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. beat in the egg
3. stir in the flour, mixed spice and baking powder
4. mash the banana in a seperate bowl
5. add the banana and walnut chunks to the mixture and mix until evenly distributed.
6. spoon into cupcake papers and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. They will still be quite moist.

For the icing:
1. put the honey, butter and icing sugar into a bowl and mix, adding water when needed. I never measure how much I use, so just keep adding until you have the right consistency. Generally, a little less honey than butter.

Bad leg = bad day(s)

2008-03-14T10:25:00.001Z

These have not been a good few days. I'm overtired, overstressed and quickly reaching the end of my tether. Thank God it's only two days to the holidays, and five weeks of home food and home comfort (even if the revision will still be intense). Of course, my knee isn't making life any easier.

I had a steroid injection on Tuesday, to try and heal a chronic hamstring tendonitis. And whilst I'm glad I've had it done – provided it works – I'd forgotten how frustrating the recovery from any type of invasive procedure is. This might not be a patch on the surgery I had on my kidney a few years ago, but it's still frustrating. I can't walk properly. It doesn't hurt, as such, but it's stiff and it just won't move normally. Which means I inch from place to place, and I'm usually a fast walker. And my leg gets tired so easily it's untrue, and that combined with my base level exhaustion from not sleeping properly has turned me into a grump.

I spent Tuesday afternoon pre-injection decorating cupcakes for my hillwalking group (it was supposed to be a cake, but I was let of the hook in the end when someone else decided to make one too, so I returned to cupcakes). I was actually very pleased with them – soft, moist ginger and vanilla cake with dark ganache and cadbury's mini eggs to decorate (a must have at Easter – and the number of mini eggs at the lunch was quite spectacular!). The problem arose when, Wednesday morning, I tried to get them to Newnham College.

Usually it would take me twenty minutes from my front door. It took me nearly forty. And whilst lunch was yummy and the cakes went down well, I then had to walk back into town for lectures. And then I had to walk back to Newnham in the evening to attend a formal, by which point my leg was sore and I really wanted to just go back to bed instead. So after an evening that should have been a nice, relaxed meal with friends, but which turned into a slog, with me snapping at people and then feeling guilty for it, bed is where I went.

Thursday was a bit better walking wise, at least during the day. But I think I overdid it a bit, because when my boyfriend and I went out for dinner (to a yummy asian place, where he introduced me to red bean paste balloons – the major highlight of the day), it took me a while to get there, and then even longer to get home. To top it off, we were supposed to go to the lateshow at the local theatre, and I actually couldn't walk there. We got a third of the way in an excrutiatingly long time and then I just couldn't keep moving. I felt terrible, dragging him back home, as I know he really wanted to go, and although he kept saying he didn't mind, I still felt I was letting him down. But I didn't stop there. We tried watching a film instead, I fell asleep halfway through, and once it was finished I just wanted to go to bed and sleep. And he took a long time getting his shoes and coat to leave, and I actually kind of lost it, snapped at him to leave and….gah! Just not nice.

So I'm a little nervous about today. I want to go out with friends tonight, because so many people are leaving tomorrow, but I'm not sure how long I'll stay awake for. And an early night, I think, may well be essential if I'm to be at all pleasant tomorrow. In fact, I might come home and have a nap after my lectures this afternoon…

20th Birthday Biscuits

2008-03-10T20:29:00.004Z

The weather is miserable. Roll-up-in-a-blanket, sit by the fire, cup of cocoa miserable. And due to some fairly impressive insomnia last night, I am not only cold but completely exhausted. And I'm supposed to be baking a cake tonight. It doesn't have to be done tonight, but it would have made life easier. Ah well. I'll squash it in tomorrow.

I have already baked something this week (well, yesterday, so technically last week, I suppose). For the second birthday in under a week I resorted to something easy and quick. Although I wasn't terribly pleased with the outcome tastewise. I just made sugar biscuits with sugar icing, and they were a little bland. They looked quite nice though, I suppose. And I have some dough left in my fridge, so I might foist that off on the hillwalkers on Wednesday too (that's who the cake's for).

I feel I should write more, but I can't quite think straight at the moment. This week seems ridiculously busy for a last week of term...

Cinnamon Apple Cupcakes

2008-03-08T10:37:00.002Z

I was going to enter these in one of the online cupcake competitions...but I didn't get around to making them before the deadline, so it didn't happen. Instead, I made them for my hillwalking club for out weekly lunch. Transport requirements meant that I couldn't ice them before hand, so I took a tub of icing with me so that we could ice them there. It went down remarkably well!

I really like these cupcakes. Using the right apples, they are lovely and moist, with a very definite flavour of the spices. I'm pleased with the frosting too, which was a last minute experiment.

Apple cinamon cupcakes
Ingredients
4oz self raising flour
4oz brown sugar
4oz unsalted butter
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 medium eating apples (I used Russets)
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Oven: 190°C
makes ~15 cupcakes

1. beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. beat in the eggs one at a time
3. Fold in the flour, spices and baking powder.
4. Peel the apples and cut into small chunks, then fold into the mixture.
5. Seperate the mixture into the cupcake pan.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes

Honey Buttercream Frosting
1 dsp honey
25g unsalted butter
icing sugar

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until the desired consistency is reached.

Natacha's Birthday

2008-03-03T23:27:00.000Z

My friend Natacha's birthday is on tuesday, but we had her birthday dinner on Sunday. Now I know she likes biscuits and cakes and so on, and she and her roommate have a jar devoted to them, but I don't actually know what flavours she prefers. So I decided that I would give her a selection.

Because I'm a little lazy, that involved making one batch of cake mix, splitting it into three and mixing in the flavourings. I went for chocolate, mixed spice (because that was what was in the cupboard...) and mocha. The last was spur of the moment, because I discovered that I had a mocha packet in my cupboard that I had no intention of drinking.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with the results. The mixed spice cakes turned out lovely and gooey, as usual. The chocolate ones weren't too dry this time. And the mocha ones I personally quite like. I have a packet left...might try them again sometime.

I made some simple buttercream and chocolate icing, with melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder, which made it a little softer and creamier than usual. And I added a jelly belly on top of each, on the information that they are Natacha's favourite sweets...

Boaties Cakes

2008-02-28T14:10:00.000Z

It's that time of year again - the Lent Bumps. Five days of rowing races that involve starting boats with a length and a half in between and then trying to catch and bump into the one in front. This time last year I was in one of those boats, and we were quite successful. This year, due to a chronic hamstring tendonitis, brought on mostly by my own refusal to rest it properly, I'm not in a boat. But I still wanted to be involved in some way, and decided on two courses of action. Firstly, I went and watched one of the races yesterday, the one my old crew were in. Secondly, I made them cupcakes.

I had a lot of fun making these. They're just very simple chocolate cupcakes - possibly made with a bit too much cocoa powder, as they did turn a little dry - with vanilla buttercream icing, half coloured blue. I got to experiment with my new piping bag again - and the cakes went down very well!

2008-02-26T18:10:00.000Z

So the new boyfriend is coming over for dinner tonight, before a trip to the late show at the uni theatre. I'm quite excited, because it gives me an excuse to cook fancy food (or fancier food than usual), and a little bit nervous too. As usual, I've put plenty of thought into planning what to make, and I've settled for a venison sausage casserole, suggested by my lovely mother, followed by white chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache.

I've already made the cupcakes, and had a wonderful time too. I made the cake part yesterday evening after my 8 o'clock supervision, and as always the baking was wonderfully calming. Plus, by the time I went to bed, the whole house smelt absolutely delicious. I will admit that I had one of the un-iced cakes before bed, and was very pleased with the results. Moist and sweet.

I decided to go for white chocolate mainly because I've had a bar in my snack draw since last term, and felt I really ought to use it. It was very good quality white chocolate – Villars Swiss chocolate, with a high cocoa content (30% I think). I was torn between making white chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate icing or the opposite, but settled on the former because it seemed slightly more exotic. I found the recipe on Cake on the brain's blog, here, and for once stuck to it fairly closely.

I was a little concerned by the amount it made – I only have one cupcake tray at my disposition, and the mix was quite liquid, so I wasn't sure I'd fit it all in. I managed (mostly) in the end, and the smell once the cakes was in was heavenly.

The ganache I made this morning between lectures (leading to an interesting sugar high in the second one). I was initially going to just use cream and chocolate, but ended up having to add some icing sugar to stiffen it enough to pipe. It still tasted gorgeous, though I've yet to try it in combo with the cakes. I got to give my new piping bag (£3 for Debenhams…) a run too, and it worked fine until the bag split. I'm trying to figure out whether I can patch it up, but I'm not convinced. Never mind, I can find another bag, as long as the nozzles are still ok!

Well, I need to get on with the main now, so here are a few pics to show off my cupcakes…

Edit; Dinner was quite scrummy too - and the cupcakes got ample praise. I was really pleased with the main, actually. For a while, I've been wanting to try venison sausages, because they are supposed to be healthier than the normal pork ones, and because venison is one of the few meats I'd actually choose to eat. My mum suggested making a vension sausage casserole, so a bit of searching online found me a recipe that sounded simple and tasty enough to suit my purposes. It came from sausagelinks.co.uk, and certainley delivered.

I think I should have added a bit more red wine than I did, as the sauce did all but disappear. Other than that, it was quite a success. The sauce was very tasty, the sausages were gorgeous and they even tasted quite healthy - none of the high fat content of normal sausages. Well worth a try for anyone entertaining a man with a hearty appetite and not wanting to eat too much themselves!

Venison Sausage Casserole for Two;

250g venison sausages

100g smoked bacon, chopped

100g chestnut mushrooms

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

175ml (or a bit more) red wine or beef stock

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tb plain flour

1. Brown the sausages in olive oil for 10 minutes then remove.

2. add the onion, garlic and bacon to the pan and cook for 10 minutes or so.

3. return the sausages, then stir in the flour until the juices are absorbed.

4. add the red wine and the herbs.

5. bring to a simmer, then simmer gently with the lid on for 30 minutes.

6. add the mushrooms and cook with the lid off for 20-30 minutes.

7. season and serve with mashed potatoes and green veg of your choice.

Argh!

2008-02-25T13:44:00.000Z

Not a good day. In fact, an absolutely miserable day at the moment. And it was going so well...

I've just missed an important appointment at the hospital needed to fix my chronic hamstring tendonitis. Thing is, I was absolutely positive the appointment was tomorrow. I could have sworn that I was told Tuesday by both my doctor and the receptionist who booked the appointment. I wrote down Tuesday in my diary. I remember sitting there studying tuesday to work out when would be a good time. And this morning I got a missed call telling me I'd missed my appointment...

Cue worried call to the hospital, then a tearful one to my mum. And it sounds like I can't reschedule until two weeks from now, which is only a few days before the Easter holidays and hence before I leave to go home. Thing is, I've been told Tuesday again - as the surgeon only comes in on Tuesdays...and yet I missed an appointment on Monday?!

So yeah, not in a good mood. But that means that the cupcakes I was planning on making this afternoon are even more important. I need something to cheer me up!

Starting Point

2008-02-23T14:15:00.001Z

Well, this is kind of spur of the moment. I've sort of owned a blog in the past, but not for a long time. Part of the reason I've decided to start one now is because I've been trawling through all the cupcake blogs out there and salivating, and partly because I haven't written enough since I started uni and I'm hoping this will let me get back into it.

So yeah - cupcakes. I'm a big fan, but don't bake or eat them all that often. I love cooking in general, to be honest. And this year, I have a kitchen with an oven and I've been trying to make the most of it. But having gone through all my normal recipies, I want to be a bit more adventurous, so here goes...