Week ending 16th August

I didn't think I would be baking this week but lo and behold I did manage one tray of muffins toped with buttercream and mini smarties  I also used a newly purchased gadget which allows me to use two colours in the icing - I left half plain buttercream and added violet to the other half making it a pale mauve colour, I am not sure how clear this will be in the photos hence the explanation. No more this week though although  I do intend to make some mini muffins in my new tin (another new purchase ooops) next weekend with my little grandson Max and will publish the results after next weekend 

First of all nude cakes, then decorated, then a close up of one individual and then all packed for delivery :-)

Week ending 10th August 2013

Well I think I got a bit carried away this week - well Thursday Friday & Saturday to be precise. I have managed a white loaf (although to be fair this was made last Sunday), some small granary loaves, rock cakes, mini black forest gateaux, blueberry muffins, naan breads, and a Bakewell tart - the latter I blame entirely on my sister who went to Bakewell for the day and the talk of Bakewell tarts and puddings made me search for a recipe - Jo Wheatleys wonderful books again - the granary bread rolls and the white loaf were also courtesy of Jo's book A Passion For Baking.


Start of the week was the white loaf

Next were the rock cakes, they were lovely - found this recipe via google and they were lovely and light

Next on the agenda were the mini black forest gateaux, before and after filling with cream and cherry jam

Blueberry muffins were next

quickly followed by the granary mini loaves

naan's to accompany tonight's chicken biriani

a few jam tarts made form the left over pastry from the Bakewell tart, 3 raspberry jam and 3 apricot jam

and finally the bakewell - 1st pic straight from the oven, second one cut and dusted with icing sugar and the third one a slice to show the inside

Still to make another week is the baked cheesecake, and some variations on biscuits. That's all for this month though as I wont be around at home to bake again until September  Thank for looking at my blog, feel free to comment on anything I have done.

Week ending 3rd August

Busy day baking on Friday - this week I made some more cherry bakewell cupcakes, quite a favourite now, plus some butterfly cakes - first attempt at these, just made some plain vanilla ones and used some chocolate butter-cream plus some chocolate buttons to decorate, unfortunately there were more buttons in the packet than I needed so I just had to eat them as I couldn't let them go to waste ;-). I also made some gingerbread men, these are so far undecorated as my 2 year old grandson is here for the weekend and he is hopefully going to help with the decorating of these - maybe pics of the decorated ones later, and finally I made a banana and walnut loaf.

Cherry bakewell cupcakes first - not really very pleased with these this week although I can confirm they taste fine, just a little spready (if there's such a word) ....tried to tidy up the edges hence the crumbly edges

Butterfly cakes (for hubby's work place)

Banana and walnut loaf

and finally the undecorated gingerbread men 

I am going to spend a little while now looking through my book of 1000 cupcake recipes and Jo Wheatley, Mary Berry etc etc to get some inspiration for next weeks baking - might have a go at bread again too, try my hand at some granary rolls maybe, and I have yet to attempt a baked cheesecake..... watch this space

PS  some decorated gingerbread men

Week ending 27th July 2013

Another hot week again here in Devon, and once again I decided to increase the heat in my teeny kitchen with some baking, and although today the weather has been a little rainy - it is not any cooler!!

Four different recipes this week, none of which I have tried before, and I also used my brand new Madeleine tin for the very first time..... first picture before baking, second one taken after baking and is minus two which were sampled ;-). These are cherry almond Madeleines. 

I then made some shortbread, trying a different recipe using part plain flour and part rice flour, the result was beautifully short - this could be the way to go for shortbread I think, for me anyway.

I also made some strawberry rose cupcakes - the strawberry part was 4 ozs of jam incorporated in the cake mix and the rose part was rose water added to the pink butter icing - very nice and fragrant too.

And finally I made some chocolate orange cupcakes - orange zest in the cake mix and dark chocolate and cream for the ganache - it should have been orange flavoured chocolate but I couldn't find any in the supermarket on Thursday so I added a little orange essence to the cream and chocolate mix. It was also a huge quantity of ganache so have frozen the rest to use at a later date.

See you all again next week x

Week ending 20th July

Well what a hot week this has been and I decided to make my teeny kitchen even hotter than ever by baking again - who needs a sauna??!! 

I had a go at Mary Berry's Cherry and Almond tray-bake, some mini Dundee cakes from a recipe by Brendan Lynch (runner up in GBBO)  http://www.brendan-lynch.co.uk/, cherry bakewell cupcakes and some more macaroons - I love this and they are sooo easy.

Photos next:-

First the Cherry and Almond Tray-bake

mini Dundee cakes (I substituted the whiskey with brandy as I 

Cherry Bakewell cupcakes

and finally some macaroons before and after the rice paper had been trimmed

That's all for this week folks, thanks for visiting my page and see you again next week

July 2013

Well I have had another week of a little baking and also some batch cooking of meals, while its SOOO hot I thought it would be  good idea to do a lot at the same time - save time and energy too.

This week I have made a lemon drizzle tray bake, some blueberry muffins and some easy flapjacks. The baking recipes all came from Mary Berry's Baking Bible this week.  I have also bulk cooked lasagna, chilli and cottage pie, the latter three all now divided into portions and stored in my freezer.

So here goes with some pictures

Lemon drizzle cake 

Blueberry muffins next

Easy fast flapjacks

And now for my bulk cooking for freezer meals

Lasagna

Cottage Pie

and finally for this week chilli

Week ending 7th July

Well I am back to my baking and blog now after being away on holiday to the lovely sunny Caribbean island of Cuba, had a brilliant time and will put some pics up on my Facebook page very soon. I am also now back looking after my two small grandchildren in Surrey 3 days a week so could be slightly less baking time - well maybe......

So this week I have not done as much as I have only had four days but have made an apple cake, some oat and raisin cookies and my first attempt at naan breads to accompany our chicken curry yesterday. Time to look out my cook books again, maybe before the Murray match this afternoon, could read them in the garden with a nice cup of tea, or maybe even a Pimms? while its so lovely and sunny.


Here are the pics of my baking this weekend

First the apple cake

 Now the oat and raisin cookies 

and finally, for now anyway, the naans