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?

Raspberry White Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chocolate....

I've not blogged for over 2 weeks....really was starting to get bloggers guilt! But after the fiasco of a few weeks ago my heart really hasn't been in baking mode. Luckily I enjoyed the cupcakes I made yesterday SO MUCH that I've definitely got the bug back. :)

Also I joined the wonderful Baking Mad a few weeks ago and it turns out when I registered I entered a competition and won a copy of Home Bake by Eric Lanlard. I haven't made anything from it yet but the recipes look absolutely delicious!! I'd heartily recommend both the book and Baking Mad - their site is fantastic and has a great community of bakers.

Anyways onto the actual baking I made this week...

It was my aunt and uncles 50th birthday party last night and since I've got myself a bit of a reputation for making cupcakes for special events, I offered to make them cupcakes for their guests. I couldn't decide for a loooong time what kind I was going to make because I was given open choice to do whatever I liked (often a bad thing!) but ultimately settled on a batch of chocolate and peanut butter and a batch of raspberry jam and white chocolate.

The chocolate peanut butter was a mixture of the chocolate base recipe from Hummingbird's new Cake Days book and the peanut butter frosting was from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I was a little wary of the latter to be honest - there seemed to be a fair amount of cream in it and I was worried it wouldn't taste 'sticky' enough. Luckily I was wrong.

The chocolate bases from Cake Days were extremely easy to make. Brought together the butter, sugar, flour and cocoa powder to resemble breadcrumbs, then add the milk and egg which you've already whisked together. Easy peasy!

Like I said, I was a touch nervous with the frosting but I didn't need to be. Peanut butter, cream cheese, cream and icing sugar mixed together to create a frosting that tasted strongly of peanut butter (with that slightly salty taste) but not too 'lip smacking'!!

I was worried it was essentially going to taste as though they were smeared with peanut butter but luckily they worked really well.

Initially was going to top them with a slice of Snickers bar but in the end went for a peice of chocolate covered popcorn. It went really well with the flavours.

Next up was the raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes. The base and frosting was taken from the Primrose Bakery book which I always know I can have confidence in.

The bases were a straight vanilla base with goobers of raspberry jam swirled through. All extremely easy. Then once they were baked and cooled, I cored out the centre and added a dollop (official baking term) of raspberry jam inside and topped with white chocolate frosting. Their frosting recipe is normal vanilla with 100g of melted while chocolate added. The recipe also calls for 3tbsp of cream but I left it out, quite happy with the taste and consistency after adding just the chocolate.

After adding the jam I topped it with the frosting and a red fondant crown. Initially was going to put little 50s on them made from Candy Melts but decided to save that particular experiment for another day.

Took them to the party and they were really well received. In the early stages I was tempted to make Pina Colada cupcakes but then thought I'd end up just drinking the rest of the bottle and thought better of it!!

Would definitely use all the recipes again (particularly the peanut butter frosting) as they were all so easy to make.

Rose and Earl Grey Cupcakes

My friend make a request for some cupcakes - rose and earl grey. The base is a normal earl grey cupcake and the frosting has a light rose water scenting.

Unlike last weeks disasters, these turned out really well. Its absolutely the easiest kind of cupcake to make - boil some milk, pop in 4 teabags and let them simmer. Cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then add flour and milky tea. Viola! Recipe comes from the Primrose Bakery book which I really love. Ironically I was a little disappointed with the actual bakery when I went down to London, but the cupcakes that come from the book are fab. Its where I got my 'staple' recipes for lemon, rose and these. And those are three of my favourites.

Nearly ran out of frosting (it's meant to be spread on, not piped) but JUST got enough out the end of it. Phew! Its always a bit of a worry when you make coloured frosting because there's no way you'd ever get the colour to exactly match with another batch!!

Chocolate and Coffee Loaf

Its been yet another weekend full of baking.


Yesterday I spent the day making applesauce spice cupcakes for my aunts birthday today and then tonight I've made the Chocolate and Coffee Loaf from Hummingbird's Cake Days book. I remembered late this evening that I'd promised to make some 'thank you' cookies for a friend's dad tomorrow but because of the solid two weekends of baking, I didn't have any plain flour left so it became the gift of cake!

It was actually really simple to make (and thank goodness for that because I was shattered...). SR flour, brown sugar, cocoa, eggs, butter, a tablespoon of coffee and milk. Lined a loaf tin and that was it!!

Just waiting for it to cool now so I can slice it and pop it into a box for him. Lets hope it's all nice and consistent all the way through!!