Ginger biscuits

Up earlier today as i need to bake some ginger biscuits for the horticultural show ready to submit for 8 am. These are being entered into a competition but i don't expect any wins as the ladies round here are all hardcore bakers that can whip up a cake batter before you can say icing.

Ingredients 

225g self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
4tsp heaped ground ginger
1tsp cinnamon
125g butter
100g light brown muscovado sugar
100g golden syrup
100g stem ginger cut up into fine cubes

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, butter and rub to make a crumbly mixture
• Add the syrup and cut ginger and bring together to make a dough 
• I measured out 40g per biscuit rolled to a ball and slightly flatten and then chilled in the fridge over night (you could chill for 30 mins, i was just up early the next morning to bake them)
• Cook for 13-15 till they are golden brown 
• Place on a cooling rack for 10 mins where they will harden up but stay nice and chewy in the middle 

Hey guess what look i came 3rd not bad for my first try, apparently touch more ginger was to the judges tastes so if you like really gingery ginger nuts maybe add 5-6 tps of ground ginger !! now that is very gingery.

Lemon and thyme cakes

I love the fresh and zinginess of lemon cake, and thyme is a great herb that works really well with the lemon, adding a fragrant edge and interest to the sponge as you bite your way through it. The sponge in this cake has a little more to it by adding ground almond the sponge has more depth, moistness and a bit firmer than your normal poofy fairy cake. Also the use of golden sugar lends itself nicely to the colouring of the sponge and fitting perfectly with the lemon theme.

200g butter

200g golden caster sugar

100g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 zested lemon

3 tsp thyme leaves

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Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add the whisked egg a little at a time with a spoonful of flour

Stir in the rest of the flour, baking powder add the almonds, zest and thyme

cook at 160 for 15 to 20 mins until you get a clean pull from the skewer test.

The topping is a cream cheese frosting laced with lemon curd... rude not to really.

125g cream cheese

300g icing sugar

50g butter 

be careful not to over whisk as this can easy collapse and go runny, in one side of a piping bag place lemon curd and the other the icing and pipe away on top of the cakes.

Stir it up Sunday Christmas cake

Stir it up Sunday this 23rd of November and we are making Christmas cake together with my little head chef in the kitchen we are busy mixing up a storm of fruits and spices.  As is tradition we all got to stir and make wishes, and i think i might have a budding littlest chef coming up as she was thrilled to be giving the spoon and allowed a stir.

Our Christmas cake recipe 

heat the oven to 150c cooking time 3 hours and use a 18cm 7 inch tin

200g dark sugar
200g of butter
2tbsp black treacle
3tbsp course cut marmalade
1tsp of vanilla bean paste
225g of plain flour
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 nutmeg
1kg boozy fruit
100g chopped almonds
200g chopped pecans

mix the butter and sugar together until paler and fluffy this can take a good five to eight mins add the treacle, vanilla and marmalade, i used my home made course cut whisky marmalade and combine.

whisk the eggs separately and sieve the flour and add a spoonful of flour to the mix and a little egg and stir/ fold in by hand repeat the process of egg and flour so the mix does not curdle.

Add the spices, boozy fruit ,almonds and pecans and fold in

prepare your tin with grease proof paper making the sides high to protect the cake from drying and browning to much on top.  Add the mix to the tin and cook for 3 hours
cook in the oven for

Breadsticks

School run and at pick up time Sophie is always hungry as she comes out and always asks, "Do you have anything for me mummy" not wanting to be armed all the time with sweets and biscuits i decided to try a homemade breadstick.  A snack not just handy for school kicking out time but anytime and can be made to any flavour you fancy.

I made some sweet and some savoury and used a basic breadstick base then flavoured afterwards


Recipe 

125g strong white flour
125g plain white flour
3g dried yeast
5g salt
160ml warm water
drizzle of oil

knead all of the above apart from the oil till you get a sticky dough then add a drizzle of oil and work this in until the dough is smooth.

place in a bowl drizzle with a little more oil and cover leave to rise until doubled.

turn out onto a well floured surface add some flour on top so you dont get your rolling pin stuck and roll to a 5mm thickness.  Cut into stripes about 1cm.

To Flavour

for the savoury i brushed the breadsticks in olive oil and then made 4 different flavours

garlic, rosemary and sea salt
smoked paprika
Parmesan cheese
poppy seed and sesame seed

for the sweet i made 1 flavour and pushed small chunks of white chocolate and raisins into the bread dough

now leave your breadsticks to prove for 30 mins

To Cook

Pop in a preheat oven at 200c for 20 mins till golden brown.

Pineapple upside down cake

I do love a slice of pineapple cake and this one has a twist of chilli and lime syrup poured over the top which soaks into the cake giving it another depth in flavour.

Here is Ella my budding little baker learning from the expert Sophie.

INGREDIENTS

200g canned pineapple rings

110g caster sugar

110g butter

2 eggs

110g self raising flour 

1tsp baking powder 

1 fresh red chilli 

4 tbsp pineapple juice

4 tbsp of honey

zest and juice of a lime 

pre heat the oven to 180c

• Grease your tin or if like me use a fab tin that doesn't need greasing  
• Place 4 pineapple rings in the base of your tin
• Cream the butter and sugar, fold in the flour and whisked eggs and baking powder 
• cut up the rest of the pineapple and add to the cake mix
• Spoon the cake mix over the pineapple rings and cook for 25 mins or until if you put a knife in and it comes out clear.

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Making the syrup is easy add the pineapple juice, honey, chili and lime to a pan and simmer for 5 mins once the cake is out of the oven and tin and on the serving plate pour over the syrup.

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Easter Simnel Cake

I made a Easter cake from a female celebrity chef which turned out more like alcoholic bread pudding than Easter cake, and last years Simnel cake from a BBC food site was so dry it was almost hard to swallow. So i vowed that i need to crack the fruit cake recipe ignoring celebrity chefs and spending time comparing recipes, and come up with my own at Christmas i made a really great fruit cake rich and moist so i think i am heading in the right direction/  

Now Easter is almost here and i wanted to have another crack at the Simnel cake to try and redeem myself so looked over my Christmas recipe and tweeked it alot to fit a light Easter fruit cake, i put a lot of thought into the cake and even up'd the amount of marzipan in the centre as Ali is a marzipan monster and he said i was stingy last year.  I even added my very last jar of Boozy fruit from Christmas which is now very well matured.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 After the long wait of 2 hours 30 mins in the oven and waiting for it to cool long enough for it to come out of the pan, i was so nervous i had bombed again as the thick wedge of marzipan i had put in made the cake seem as if it was still raw even though the cake appeared perfect and i almost destined it for the bin... Lucky Ali was with me as the sense of reason to my hysteria of failings (note to self be more confident) and i wrapped it up and left it till morning to pass judgement hence the tasting slice taken out of the cake.  By morning everything had cooled down and the marzipan set and the cake was a thumbs up from all of us. So i got cracking to decorate it and when i asked Ali what he thought he made me laugh and said it looks like something from an Alien movie with all the eggs.  

Well if your looking for a recipe to try, here is my very own.  Although i might have done a duff job at selling it to you to try with all my previous failings but this is i can assure a scrummy cake.

Ingredients

cook at 150 for 2 hours then 30 min oven off

225g plane flour

200g golden caster sugar

200g butter

4 eggs beaten

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

100g dark 70% chocolate broken into small pieces

1 pot full of boozy fruit

2 packs of natural marzipan

eggs to decorate

Method 

Cream the sugar and butter together

add 1tbsp of flour and a bit of egg and then a bit more flour and then egg untill both are all gone

add all the salt and spices, chocolate and fruit mix in by hand.

grease and paper line your pan and then add a layer of cake mix as my little chef is demonstrating (Sophie aged 3)

Open a pack of marzipan and roll out to a circle that will fit your pan, i used a whole pack this year and it gave a lovely wedge in the cake last year i used 1/2 a pack and everyone moaned that it wasn't enough be warned this might make you think the cake isn't cooked when you do the prick test so look closely at the skewer to see if its cake mix or marzipan. Cover the top of the cake mix with grease proof paper and and put in the oven at 150 for 2 hours, after this i turned to oven off and left the cake in there for 30 - 45 mins i skewer tested and the popped it out of the pan and wrapped in cling film to retain the moisture and left overnight to cool completely.  I then used a second pack of marzipan to cover the cake using apricot jam to stick it on and decorated with eggs.  

Here is a picture of Sophie age 2 scoffing down a bit of Simnel cake gosh time has flew by SOB!

Valentine cookies

Valentines is round the corner giving us another excuse to get into the kitchen and make some treats so we thought we would make these sweet love heart iced cookies

We made a chocolate cookies base  this recipe makes 24 cookies

275g plane flour

100g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

120g caster sugar

120g butter

120g golden syrup

1 egg

• Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together
• add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 
• roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting
• once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

to make the icing mix 

90ml water

500 kg icing sugar

15g egg white powder 

i use this for the line icing and then water it down a bit to make the flood icing, i use wilton gel colours to colour my icing as it is a lot more vibrant.  To create the dots i flooded with one colour first then went back a few mins later i went back to insert the dots with flooded icing too.

Valentine Cookies

Valentines is round the corner giving us another excuse to get into the kitchen and make some treats so we thought we would make these sweet love heart iced cookies

We made a chocolate cookies base  this recipe makes 24 cookies

275g plane flour

100g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

120g caster sugar

120g butter

120g golden syrup

1 egg

• Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together
• add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 
• roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting
• once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

to make the icing mix 

90ml water

500 kg icing sugar

15g egg white powder 

i use this for the line icing and then water it down a bit to make the flood icing, i use wilton gel colours to colour my icing as it is a lot more vibrant.  To create the dots i flooded with one colour first then went back a few mins later i went back to insert the dots with flooded icing too.

Hearty Jammie dodgers

 Love being in the kitchen with my girls it is such a pleasure to have some girly time chatting and baking, how could i not love being in the kitchen when both my girls are just so lovely i want to gobble them both up, even with Sophie wearing her scary Grufflo suit.  Well Valentines is fast approaching and we wanted to make an after school treat of some home made jammie dodgers but with a difference of being  heart shaped and completely over the top with glitter i have to say i think i need to improve my photo skills for the love of trying i could not get the glitter to twinkle as it did in real life.  I even went outside at one point to try and get shots with more sparkle but alas these will have to do

 Sophie is getting so good in the kitchen that she is sharing what she knows to her little sister Ella and even lets her have a go to although i can already see there will be fights over who gets the whisk

 our cookie dough recipe

350g plain flour
100g self raising
120g caster sugar
120g butter
120g golden syrup
1 egg

Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together

add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 

roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting

once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

we made a plum and cranberry jam if you want to find out about making your own plum jam find my recipe here

once the cookies are cool and the jam warm just add a blob in between two cookies and gently push together when the jam cools these will set the cookies together.  we also made a icing glaze and brushed this on top of the cookies and then went to town with the red glitter and we added some firmer icing dots and squiggles for decoration

Strawberry Cheese cake cupcakes

Having friends over is a great excuse to cook up a little storm, and these little cupcakes from the Humming bird are wonderfully indulgent and fresh.  I have to say i wasn't disappointed at all they look and taste just like cheese cake cupcakes should do and were delicious.

Recipe This make 9 cakes

120g plane flour
140g Caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
40g butter
120ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 egg
12 large strawberries
100g-200g digestive biscuits

Pre heat the over to 170c

Cream cheese frosting
300g icing sugar
50g unsalted butter
125g cream cheese

Beat the sugar and butter together till well mixed, and the cream cheese and well mix again on a high speed for 5 mins.  do not over beat as this can become runny.

• Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter slowly until combined.
• Pour in the milk and vanilla still mixing then add the egg
• Cut and divide the strawberries between the cases and spoon the cake mix on top till 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 25 mins
• Blend up the digestives till crumbed
• Once the cakes are cooled spoon the frosting onto the cakes and press on the digestives to finish.

Candy window cookies

Sophie and i are finally in the kitchen after a long time so excuse the raggle taggle look as she has been a bit poorly and this is my attempt to cheer her up and get her back on track again.  We decided to make some Christmas cookies but a little different as i have always wanted to try melting boiled sweets in cookies to give the stain glass window effect.  Sophie made a basic cookie recipe bringing the cookie dough together in a bowl then rolling it out in between two bits of cling film, then we rested the dough in the fridge.

While the dough was chilling and relaxing we had a smashing good time with a rolling pin, some different coloured boiled sweets and a ziplock making sugary bits from the sweets.  Once the dough was chilled Sophie choose the star cutter as it is Christmasy and then we cut a smaller star inside before we sprinkled the centers with the boiled sugary bits we smashed up then popped them in the oven for 10 mins.  After the cookies have come out and cooled the sugar centers set hard and add a lovely flavour to the cookies, we decorated the edges of the cookies with icing sugar covered in lots of edible glitter to make them sparkle

Sophie offered to help clean up after but i will think twice next time 

Frangipane mince pies

Completely bored by the traditional mince pie, here is a sweet change to the traditional.

I used ready rolled sweet pastry, some of my no suet mincemeat that i made and then topped with the frangipane mix.  i dusted mine with icing sugar.  These are really so good that they have now become our adopted mince pie for the Christmas season.

Frangipane recipe
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g ground almonds
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp almond extract

mix the butter and sugar together to cream
add 2 beaten eggs slowly, the mix may look like it will curdle but this is ok
add the ground almonds, flour and extract and mix briefly

add to the top of your mince pies and cook for 15 mins on 180c

Green olive bread sticks

I love making bread and i hope to make more as Ella gives me more of a chance to do so,  but today i had a go at making Paul Hollywoods Green olive bread sticks, i have his book and i watched how he did it on the master class before i attempted it.

here is the recipe 

500g strong white flour

10g salt

10g yeast

400ml of water

2 tbsp olive oil 

500g of olives but i only had 300g 

use a dough hook in your mixer and mix the flour salt yeast and water together for 5 mins add the olive oil and mix for 2 more mins then add the olives and mix

leave to rise till tripled in size and once risen tip out into a heavy floured top and gently stretch out into a rectangle and cut up into 20-25cm long but 1 olive width strips.  Place on a tray and cover and leave for 30 mins before putting in the oven at 240c for 15 mins 

I have to say i was a little upset on this bake as the all important snap was not there and i think was down to the 30 min rise at the end and the olive impeding the width of the sticks.  But they look identical to the picture and i followed step by step with the book and the tv show as i made them.

 next time i do this recipe i will chop up the olives and make thinner one, but as a bread type they were delicious with a deep dense flavour to them which came from the olives and  the slow prove, and are great as a lunch snack or over a glass of wine.  I did save half of the recipe and made a focaccia which was really scrummy.