Easy Peasy Milk Tart

On a day like today (cold, wet, horrible and generally dreich!) I tend to look for nice, easy warming baking recipes when I feel the need to go into the kitchen.

I got the recipe from my absolute favourite baking site Baking Mad which has always been ridiculously helpful when I just fancy throwing something together but don't want to look through the MANY cook books I own... Since the recipe was essentially 'mix all ingredients together and put in a pie dish' it won me over for easiness.

150g self raising flour
150g golden caster sugar
500ml of whole milk (I used skimmed because it was all I had and it turned out okay,,,)
2 eggs
25g melted butter
teaspoon of vanilla extract

The recipe also called to put slice apples and dried cranberries on the top which I very nearly did. But when I saw the almonds on the baking shelf in the pantry I thought it would go better with the custardyness of the pie. I also put a sprinkling of cinnamon on the top (something I generally reserve for winter recipes but it definitely felt like winter today!!).

The recipe genuinely was 'put all ingredients into a mixer, mix, pour into a buttered pie dish, put in oven at 170degrees for 45 minutes'. Sorted. It was all chucked into the mixer and poured as described.

When it came out it was fairly gooey looking in the middle still, but because there was a crust on top I took it out and trusted the recipe as it said it would firm up and be sliceable when cold. And they weren't wrong. It was absolutely delicious. I tried it both hot and cold and while I prefered it cold and more like a set custard, it could easily be eaten both ways.

Absolutely gorgeous and something I could throw together in 5 minutes.

Propoints: 8 (for a sixth of the finished product so could be less if you're unlike me and very careful with the portions ;))

Cake Pops!

The other new recipe this week was cake pops. Didn't buy a book (yep, shock horror!) so just looked at the general gist on the internet and made it up as I went along...

My friend and I were talking about cake pops a while ago and I thought I'd make him some and send them down to Liverpool. Hopefully they'll make it.

First, I made a chocolate cake. I used the cupcakes recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery book which made a single (quite slim) layer of chocolate cake. I got 12 quite large pops out of it but could have got 18 smaller, or if I'd used the full recipe for a double layer cake I'd have got about 24-30.

Anyway, I made a cake. Tasted good.

Then I broke it all up and put it in the mixer. Nearly broke my heart to just make it then destroy it!!

Afterwards I mixed in a good dollop of frosting. I should probably mention at this point that when buying the ingredients for this weekend I seriously toyed with buying premade frosting in a can. I know, I know... But I stood in the baking aisle of Tesco and desperately tried to reason to myself that it was an ingredient and wouldn't be tasted by itself so wouldn't it just be easier to buy it? Needless to say it wasn't my morals that put me off, but the £3.50 price tag that Mrs Fields charges. Bandit. Moving on.

When it was all combined I used an ice cream scoop to put little balls (about 2 inches?) onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. I poked the lollypop sticks into the balls to create little holes then I melted a little bowl of blue Candy Melts and dipped the end of one stick into the melted chocolate, then placed it into the hole to create a cake lollypop.

At this point they went into the freezer for an hour to make sure the chocolate holding the stick in was solid. I ended up taking the whole top drawer out of the freezer just to make them fit (well I wasn't bloomin going to all this trouble then falling over THIS particular hurdle!).

After the hour was up I brought them out, melted the rest of the bag of Candy Melt and dipped the chocolate cake into the frosting.

The problem of where to put them while the chocolate hardens is given different solutions depending on what blog you're on. I'd decided to get some polystyrine and put them in there but when looking in the cake decorating aisle in Hobbycraft I noticed they actually had a Wilton's Cake Pop Stand. I literally cannot stress enough how AWFUL this product was. Its two circles of cardboard held together in the middle by folding other bits of cardboard. I put one cake pop in and the whole thing collapsed, taking my carefully sculpted cake pop with it. Damn Wiltons...I can't actually find it anywhere online so it could be they've realised how dire it is and discontinued it. So anyway, after being really careful I had to make stands out of random things I found in the kitchen by poking holes in boxes - not bloomin easy!

After dipping the cakes in chocolate I rolled some in sprinkles, sugar etc and dusted blue glitter over a couple.

Again, for a first attempt I'm fairly pleased with how they've turned out. Definitely some things to take on board next time but overall not too shabby.

PS - always remember to put your dishcloth over the mixer when making frosting.....or else.....

Macarons

Because I've not baked in a while I decided to give myself a little challenge and try some things I haven't done before.

I bought a book about macarons a few months ago called Mad About Macarons. I was swayed by the fact the author claimed the recipe was the easiest way to make macarons. No slamming of trays and no fancy equipment needed. Always a good thing. So I thought this weekend would be the best time to give it a go.

The recipe was
150g of egg whites (which turned out to be 3 medium eggs, plus some from another egg)
180g of ground almonds
100g of caster sugar
270g of icing sugar

I measured out the egg whites VERY carefully

I whisked them in the mixer and gradually added the caster sugar as I did. Soon they were in little white peaks. I popped in some purple food gel at this stage since they were looking a fairly beige colour...

Next up I measured out the ground almonds and the icing sugar and sifted them together.

Egg whites were added and mixed together with the spatula. Afterwards I used a plastic scraper to push the mixture back and forth to get rid of the oxygen from the whites.

I filled the piping bag and let it sit for a moment while I put a sheet of parchment on the baking tray and drew circles to use as a guide. Needless to say when I did my first try I realised the circles were far too close together and made some changes for the second tray...

They had to sit for 30 minutes to let them set. You know when they're ready because they feel tacky but not wet to the touch. Popped them into the oven for 10 minutes at 160 degrees and checked on them. They were still a little wiggly so I returned them in for another 3 minutes. When they came out they looked pretty good!!

Let them cool and sandwiched them together with chocolate frosting in some and apricol jam in the others. Sadly out of the 30 I put in the oven, only about 8 were good enough to do anything with. But considering how 'hard' they are to make I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt. I'd definitely recommend the book and am looking forward to making more macarons and actually attempting different flavours.

The happy day when new baking books arrive...

Just a quick short one before bed but I needed to say.....my new baking books are here!

I ordered the Primrose one a few days ago after really loving the first book and when I was in Costco earlier and saw the Great British Bake Off book there was no way I was going to just leave it there...

There are lots of recipes I've seen on GBBO that are included that I want to try including Mary's Tart Au Citron, the croissants and the Twelfth Night King Cake (pastry and chocolate....go on then!) and the Primrose book has whole sections on other bakes, unlike the first which focused mainly on cupcakes!

Probably won't get a chance to try any this weekend though as I'm making cake pops to send down to a friend and I'm trying my hand at macaroons. I'm planning on documenting both as they're firsts for me. The difference being one has a reputation for being pretty easy while the other one is a bit of a 'baking ball breaker'....

I'm sure it can't go that badly, right?