Orange and sultana traybake and melting moments

Earlier this week I made an orange and sultana traybake (surprise surprise Mary Berry) as there were oranges needing used and a pack of sultanas which were going out of date. I don't like seeing food going to waste, especially if it can be transformed into cake.

This is such an old fashioned traybake, there's no other way to describe it. It's the type of traybake you'd expect to find in an old Granny's cake tin. The orange icing glaze is definitely the finishing touch. I think this traybake tasted even better the next day.

Ooh don't you love a good icing dribbling down the edges photo? I certainly do.

I've made quite a few Mary Berry traybakes now but I think the lemon drizzle is still my favourite. I won't bother typing out this recipe as it follows much the same method as the lemon drizzle.

I also made some of Mary Berry's melting moments this week as I had egg yolks to use up from the cooked frosting on mum's birthday cake. They were so quick and easy to make and very moreish to eat. There has been a lot of people around the house recently and everybody enjoyed them.

It's funny how I've gone from baking practically no biscuits last year to baking so many this year (and we're only in February!) I'm planning to make some custard creams soon. I used to make them quite a lot but for some reason didn't bake them at all last year. I'm turning into a one woman biscuit factory. Has anyone else being going through baking phases lately?

Mum's birthday cake

When I received Edd Kimber's new book for Christmas I immediately knew that the first thing I would bake from it would be one of the layer cakes as they all look fantastic. Since Mum requested raspberries and white chocolate as her birthday flavour combination I attempted the Raspberry Ripple cake.

Boy did this cake involve a lot of work. By nature I am not a complicated baker, I like fairly simple recipes and tend to shy away from scary things such as macarons or even meringues, so this was quite a challenge for me.

Mum and her candle-blowing grandsons.

Although everything appeared to have turned out the way it should have, I just wasn't very sure about the overall cake. Similar to Hummingbird Bakery cupcake mixtures, the sponges came out of the oven beautifully risen and fluffy looking, and then after 5 minutes sank flat. Although the sponges had a nice flavour they were quite rich and dense (I suppose there were 6 eggs!) so it didn't take much eating to become full!

The only big problem I encountered was the icing. I was surprised everything went according to plan, it didn't even curdle with me, BUT I realised that I had added salted instead of unsalted butter and the resulting flavour was like licking oily, salty, chocolate meringue (there's a lot of butter in the icing). I rescued it by adding raspberry jam and some icing sugar to sweeten it up and piled fresh raspberries on top which added a clean flavour to cut through the icing.

Although I am pleased I actually managed to create this cake, I still feel slightly miffed that it took loads of time, effort (and butter and eggs!) to make when I probably would have been just as happy with a quick victoria sponge and fresh fruit. I wasn't entirely sold on the italian meringue icing either as the butter gave it such an oily texture, although perhaps it would have worked out better if I had used the specified unsalted butter. It's something I'd quite like to try again. I also think this type of recipe would be a lot easier if I owned a stand mixer as my poor arms and hand held mixer found it hard to multi task with the cooked icing.

Despite all my gripes, it did look super impressive and everybody thought the cake and icing tasted much better the next day. And they couldn't have been lying as there was no cake left for me after work! You'd think a three layer cake would last longer wouldn't you!

Biscuits and bowls

I found four dainty Grindley Peach Petalware bowls in a charity shop for £3 recently. To say I was excited was an understatement. As much as I love all my green, blue and yellow utility china I don't have much pink. The only reason I didn't blog about them sooner was because I couldn't decide how to display them. After all, I'm not particularly sure what their function is. Mini dessert bowl perhaps? It was only when I had a sudden craving for biscuits on Thursday that I decided they should be biscuits bowls.

I made chocolate chip cookies/biscuits and more oaty biscuits. The latter went so hard this time that they could chip teeth! Despite this they were finished first. Perhaps people enjoyed the challenge of eating them?

I really enjoyed making biscuits for a change and not too many got stuck together, hurray!

The chocolate chip cookie recipe is from my Mary Berry Baking Bible (again!) but I'm starting to feel guilty about the amount of recipes I'm sharing from her book so I'm going to urge you all to buy it if you don't already own it. I cannot recommend it enough.

Chocolate orange cupcakes

I had been eyeing up this recipe in the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book for a while and I finally got round to making them a few days ago.

The icing is absolutely delicous, although I didn't pipe it particularly well. I would quite happily and greedily eat an entire bucket of this icing. It's like a Terry's Chocolate Orange in liquid form. Can't get much better really.

However I wasn't bowled over by the cupcake itself. They came out the oven beautifully risen but when I came back to them a few minutes later they had sunk. Not in an undercooked way, they were definitely cooked, but they went flat and quite dense. The icing outshone the sponge which I found just a bit too heavy in texture although the flavour was good. This has happened to me before with Hummingbird cupcake recipes. Am I alone with this? Are Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes maybe denser and milkier in texture (more like a muffin) or have I baked them incorrectly? Despite my concerns my Dad absolutely loved them. In fact he thought they were the best cupcakes ever so it's probably just personal preference.

Chocolate orange cupcakes

Recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookbook

For the sponge:
70g (2 1/2oz) unsalted butter

210g (7 1/2oz) caster sugar

105g (3 1/2oz) soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence (I used extract)

1 tbsp finely grated orange zest

255g (9oz) plain flour

50g (1 3/4oz) cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

240ml (8 1/2 fl oz) whole milk

For the icing/frosting:

600g (1lb 5oz) icing sugar

100g (3 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened

250g (9oz) full fat cream cheese

60g (2oz) cocoa powder

3 tsp finely grated orange zest

Candied orange peel, thinly sliced to decorate (I used edible glitter and hearts instead)

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and fill a muffin tin with muffin cases. Cream together the butter and both types of sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time on a medium speed, followed by the vanilla essence and orange zest. Sift together the remaining ingredients, then add to the creamed mixture in three batches with the milk, alternating between each and mixing on a low speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition, and once everything has been incorporated, raise the speed to medium and continue beating until the batter is well mixed and smooth. Divide the mixture between the paper cases, filling each up to two-thirds full. Place in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the sponges spring back when gently pressed. Allow to cool for a short while in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

To make the frosting, whisk the icing sugar with the butter on a low speed (or by hand otherwise it's seriously messy!) until crumbly in texture and no large lumps of butter remain. Add the cream cheese and cocoa powder and continue to mix on a medium speed until the frosting is smooth and light. Add the orange zest and stir in by hand. Smooth the icing on by palette knife or pipe with a star nozzle.

Apple and cinnamon cake

I've been trying my best to put my Mary Berry book down, but we had loads of apples at the weekend and this recipe looked perfect.

This cake was good, REALLY good. Mary Berry is such a genius. The juicy layer of cinnamonny apples which runs through the middle of the cake is delicious. Although the sugary crusty top is pretty great too. I was a bit worried about what the texture of the cake would turn out like as it was a really stiff batter but it turned out lovely. Don't doubt Mary Berry.

Although the flavours apple and cinnamon tend to fall under the autumn/winter bracket I fancied photographing it with softer colours. I quite like the contrast of rustic warm flavours with a fresh backdrop.

My internet has been down since Saturday which was annoying as I had a couple of posts lined up. Thankfully it came back this afternoon so I can catch up on blogging. Hello to all the new followers! I will try my best to visit and reply to everyone soon.

Apple and Cinnamon cake

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

225g (8oz) softened butter

225g (8oz) light muscovado sugar

3 large eggs

100g (4oz) chopped walnuts

100g (4oz) sultanas

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

400g (14oz) cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated (although I used eating apples which was fine)

1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

To finish:

light muscovado sugar, for sprinkling

extra chopped walnuts, for sprinkling

icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. Grease a 23cm (9in) deep round cake tin then line the base with baking parchment. Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, chopped walnuts, sultanas,flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until thoroughly blended. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin then spread the grated apple and ground cinnamon in an even layer on top. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top, level the surface then sprinkle generously with light muscovado sugar and walnuts (I stupidly almost forgot this last step!) Bake in the oven for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours or until the cake is well risen and golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Note: I am in no ways sponsored by Mary Berry and her people. I just have a rather unhealthy obsession with her cake recipes.

The Liebster Award

The lovely Roz over at The More Than Occasional Baker gave me a Liebster Blog Award this week. I then remembered that Alex from Culinary Conquests also nominated me for one last month and I completely forgot to do my duty of passing it along. Thank you ladies! I shall do my good deed and hand over the baton (or rolling pin in our case?) I'll try not to let the fame go to my head, although it shall be hard not to shout "I've got awards you know!" to whoever eats my future bakes.

"The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note."

The rules:

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
• Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
• Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
• Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
• Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Now I know you're only meant to nominate five people, but I like to be a little bit controversial so I've nominated six. What a rebel! It was just too hard to only pick five.

1. Cakes from Kim - I always enjoy visiting Kim's blog. I especially enjoyed her post about her Grandma's parkin last month.

2. Cat's Cupcakes - Cat always has the most beautifully presented cupcakes and her oreo brownies from this week look delicious.

3. Fancy Vintage - Everybody knows I love crockery as much as cake. Imagine my delight of finding Becca's blog which is full of lovely china and fun photography!

4. Just a Girl and her Kitchenaid - I have a feeling Rachael was one of the first blogs I started following and I still love visiting. Plus her Kitchenaid is called Kevin. Need I say more?

5. Teen Baker - I love the variety of bakes Lucy has on her blog. Check out her recent brownie post - wow!

6. What Kate Baked - Kate's post never fail to make me laugh, she is incredibly witty. An excellent combination of cake and comedy.

Raspberry and white chocolate blondies Take 2 and oaty biscuits

Determined to find the "perfect" blondie, I surfed the web for another recipe. This recipe from BBC Good Food popped up and although the reviews were quite hit and miss I gave it a go.

They may not be as photogenic as the last blondies, but flavour-wise I definitely preferred these. I loved the golden, crumbly crust and the melt-in-the-mouth almost fudgy inside with gooey chocolate chunks and juicy raspberries. I've talked you into making these haven't I? The only thing to note is that I didn't have the correct size tin so I had to use a slightly smaller one. I still put it in at the same temperature but covered the top of the tray with baking parchment for the last 10 minutes. I also had enough left over batter to fill 4 little bun cases.

I think browning the butter helped with the fudgy flavour, although it did cause me to have a near freak out as I thought I had burnt rather than browned it as there were loads of funny bits in it. I ended up melting more butter, which I didn't need in the end, so I decided to make oaty biscuits with it.

I had forgotten how tasty these syrupy oat biscuits were. We used to make these a lot with Mum when we were little as the recipe is very easy. It's the perfect type of homemade biscuit to have in the tin for when visitors come past. Unfortunately by the time I had finished making these it was late and I had lost all energy to take a good photograph. No attempt to hide the biscuits with the slightly burnt edges or remove the crumb in the foreground!

Oat Shortie Biscuits
Recipe from Mum's little baking book

50g (2oz) lard
50g (2oz) marg
100g (4oz) sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp boiling water
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) porrage oats

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Since I already had roughly 4oz of melted butter I didn't bother with the lard. I then added the sugar and stirred in the syrup, soda and boiling water. Do not bring to the boil. Add the oats and flour and mix well. Pack together in in teaspoonfuls (or bigger if you want larger biscuits) and place on the tray. I think I had around 8 on a tray, and made roughly 20 biscuits in total. I also added more syrup to the mixture as it wasn't sticking together very well. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Raspberry and white chocolate blondies Take 1

After tasting an amazing raspberry and white chocolate blondie at a cafe last weekend I was determined this week to make my own. I used the same recipe as the last time I made blondies which is from Baking Mad. Instead of caster sugar I used soft light brown sugar and I added the raspberries instead of macadamia nuts (last time I used ground almonds which tasted great.)

Although these looked really pretty I didn't think they tasted as good as the last time I made them. They certainly weren't bad but just didn't quite hit the spot. Therefore I had to make more blondies the next day using a different recipe to compare! I really liked how these blondies photographed though.