Week ending 8th February 2014

I've had a fairly productive week this week, starting with fairy cakes made with my grandson at their house, then a lovely granary loaf, vanilla sponge cake, attempted squashed fly biscuits (garibaldi type), oat and raisin cookies, strawberry milkshake cupcakes and coconut cupcakes. I also made a lovely trifle for dessert yesterday (not classed as baking but I did use the odd bits of cake left over (frozen and then defrosted) from the giant cupcakes I have made previously)

Max helped with these - the making and the eating of...

Then the sponge cake filled with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam

Granary loaf

Coconut cupcakes topped with a piece of Bounty

Garibaldi type - not very successful in looks although they did taste like Garibaldi, I had to keep checking them you understand just to be sure ;-). They didn't really brown enough in the centre and the edges were a little over done, but as they had a weighted tin on top in the oven it was difficult to see how they were progressing, and I also think I didn't have an even spread of the mixture across the tray - better luck next time maybe

Oat and raisin cookies - these are always successful and popular too

Strawberry milkshake cupcakes - before and after adding a piece of strawberry - I thought they just needed a little something on top ;-)

and finally the trifle using up the strawberries too

That's it for this week folks :-)

Fortnight ending 1st February 2014

As it was my grandsons 3rd birthday party last weekend I didn't get round to much baking or updating my blog so here we go with two weeks worth - the first week ending 25th January (the weekend of the party) I made a white loaf, two batches of the oat and raisin cookies (one batch for the adults at the birthday party) some gingerbread & syrup muffins and some vanilla cupcakes with a real chocolate buttercream topped with a malteser.

First the cupcakes

Closely followed by the gingerbread & syrup muffins - they look plain but have a lovely kick of stem ginger in there - yummy

then a white loaf, I tried glazing the top with egg wash this time but it seemed to stop the rising a little, maybe I was a little heavy handed applying the egg wash

Then two batches of oat and raisin cookies

During the week my grandson Max and I made some Mars bar krispy cakes

Then this weekend I made a granary loaf, a small white loaf plus 3 mini loaves from the same batch of dough, a lemon balm cake (tried a square tin this time instead of circular) some sugar nib fairy cakes, and some red velvet cupcakes

First the granary loaf

The white loaf plus mini rolls

Lemon balm cake

fairy cakes with sultanas and topped with sugar nibs - am told they tasted like Mr Kipling farmhouse slices :-)

And finally for this week the red velvet cupcakes

Any questions, notes, comments all welcome.

Week ending 19th January 2014

A slightly shorter week for me this week so not too much baking, I managed a white loaf, some white chocolate and cranberry cupcakes, some banana, honey and cinnamon muffins, a lovely apple and cinnamon cake, and a batch of stem gingernut biscuits - ginger is a favourite of mine and I have to say I am very pleased with the result of these.

Now the photos and first up are the white chocolate and cranberry cupcakes decorated with plain buttercream and topped with white chocolate buttons - lovely and chocolatey - one for those of us with a sweet tooth

Swiftly followed by the banana, cinnamon and honey muffins, these were very light and fluffy - good recipe 

Next came the apple and cinnamon loaf, it also contains sultanas and chopped walnuts, and is lovely, soft and light with a nice apple layer in the middle

Bread next, another successful loaf courtesy of Jo Wheatley's book again, A Passion for Baking http://www.josblueaga.com/

And finally this morning I made a batch of stem gingernuts 

Week ending 12th January 2014

A few more cakes, bread and biscuits this week.

I have managed a crusty white loaf, some oat and raisin cookies, some coffee cupcakes, some lemon cupcakes and my first attempt at pop cakes. I have to say the first stage of mixing and baking was easy enough, but I think maybe I need a better quality chocolate for the coating as the white in particular was very runny, or maybe leave it to cool down a lot more before attempting to coat the pops, although the milk chocolate was better in this respect and also the same brand so maybe I just need some more experimentation.......  I will put up a picture although the end result could be better :(

First the lemon cupcakes - they have lemon curd in the cake, a lemon butter-cream icing and some gold glimmer sugar to decorate

Next the coffee cupcakes decorated with coffee bitter-cream and topped with a malteser 

Next a nice crusty white loaf

Another batch of oat and raisin cookies

And finally the cake pops, first picture as they came out of the tin then the decorated ones - not as good as I would have liked, but as I said I will need to practice ;-)

January 4th 2014

First blog of the New Year :-)

I started with another giant cupcake, made 3 loaves of bread - 2 white and 1 granary, a batch of oat and raisin cookies, used my mini muffin pan to make 24 mini coconut cupcakes, and also made some normal size carrot cupcakes. My next project will be pop cakes as my daughter gave me all the kit for Christmas - so watch this space next week 

First of all the bread, not all baked on the same day I would hasten to add

Giant cupcake 

Mini coconut cupcakes

Oat and raisin cookies (now all gone!!)

And finally the carrot cupcakes - these have a cream cheese flavoured topping and sugar nibs to finish

Christmas Eve

This has been a busy week running up to Christmas. 

I'll post the photos with explanations rather than list everything this time.

First, to start the week off, I made 24 mini Victoria sponges for Jo's work place last Thursday for Friday morning delivery as it was her birthday at the weekend - I made 18 jam and butter-cream ones and 6 lemon curd and lemon butter-cream ones.

Then on Friday I made a dozen blueberry muffins and also a dozen chocolate cupcakes and covered them in a white chocolate butter-cream and topped with some gold sugar crystals

Then it was down to the Christmas items

I managed to ice and decorate the mini Christmas cakes and the Christmas loaf cake on Friday morning - keeping it simple this year and using my new tree and holly leaf cutters

The loaf cake should be covered in a gold shimmer, it doesn't show up very well and I think the gold must have sunk to the bottom of the spray can, I will have another shake and spray later I think

Then on Monday next on the list were the Baileys mince pies - very yummy pastry with Baileys in the pastry :-) There were, in fact, 14 but two had to be tested for quality control you understand ;-)

I also made the Mary Berry mincemeat streusel from her programme on the television this week. This has now been cut into 16 pieces and is ready to transport

Finally, for this side of Christmas anyway, the Christmas Ham

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all who read my blog - thanks for looking xxx

Week ending 14th December

A little more baking this week, Christmas cakes due to be iced next week but I did manage to get the marzipan on this week, and have also managed a white loaf, another giant cupcake, some mini ginger cakes with an orange butter-cream filling and topping, some plain cupcakes with a festive green swirly topping and festive sprinkles, plus a raspberry hazelnut meringue roulade from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.  

First of all I started the week on Sunday with a large white loaf

Then I made another giant cupcake - third one I've done now, getting a bit better at the icing hopefully, need an excuse to make another one now please ;-)

Then I decided it was time to marzipan the Christmas cakes so the marzipan had time to dry out before the icing went on next week

Then mini ginger cakes with a nice little topper of mini gingerbread men, (good old sainsburys) and an orange butter-cream filling

and next the plain cupcakes with a festive topping in green - the topping is actually darker than it looks in this photo

Finally, for this week anyway, I had a go at a raspberry meringue roulade, which I have to say is very moreish - not good for the diet but hey ho its Christmas !!

Come back next week to see what I decide to do about the tops of the Christmas cakes (still undecided at the moment)