February baking creations

Mam's birthday tart

"Happy Bakewell Birthday!" My mother is strange in that she's not a great cake fan, so for her birthday she requested a Bakewell Tart. I hadn't made one before but found a recipe in my Avoca cookbook and it worked lovely, just a shame I burnt the edges of the pastry. The lemon in the pastry nearly overwhelmed the almond flavour so I may reduce it by half the next time I make it.

Have only just noticed, about a week later, that I forgot to put the flaked almonds on top. Fairly important thing to miss out, I'm so stupid. Oh well, I'll just have to bake it again...

Black-bottomed cupcakes/buns 

This was my second venture into the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I found the bun a bit too heavy on the stomach although it was tasty warmed up. The recipe was a bit strange to follow and at one point I thought my mixer had died because it made a pretty nasty smell after attempting to mix the super thick chocolate batter. I also had problems with the vegetable oil because I couldn't find small enough liquid measures. On the whole I just wasn't 100% sold on the recipe which was disappointing as I thought it would be great.

Hummingbird Bakery brownies

This was the first recipe I tried from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. As promised, the brownies turned out "chewy and chocolatey", however they were very difficult to remove from the greaseproof paper. It certainly didn't stop me eating them though.

I also decided to rival the Hummingbird Bakery for photgraphy. It is such a beautiful book. I think this is the best baking picture I have taken so far and shows off my new Cath Kidston cup.