festive bakes

Merry Christmas Eve folks! As usual all my festive baking seems to happen in a last minute rush so I thought I'd group them together in one post like I've done in previous years. (You'd think I'd learn to be more organised!)

First off we have the annual batches of Christmas tablet! My mum drinks so much Douwe Egberts coffee that we have a substantial number of their jars by the end of the year and they're the perfect size for storing tablet. Just add some pretty tape, twirly ribbon and a handmade label and you've got yourself a lovely Christmas present.

Next up is a sticky, spiced apple and syrup bundt which I baked using this recipe from Dollybakes. The only change I made was using golden syrup instead of maple syrup for the glaze. I was so happy that this turned out the tin perfectly, I squealed with delight! Cake release spray is a glorious invention.

These cranberry and white chocolate biscuit/cookies are fast becoming an annual Christmas bake for me. Not only is white chocolate and cranberry a winning combination but these biscuits are quick to throw together which is perfect if you're in a hurry.

Sadly I haven't managed to bake my annual perverted gingerbread santas and boobie angels however I have baked these festive gingerbread cupcakes using a recipe I came across on Sally's Baking Addiction. Mine turned out a lot darker as I used half golden syrup half treacle in place of molasses. I also decided to top mine off with a cinnamon and golden syrup cream cheese icing and edible wafer snowflakes. As with most gingerbreads the flavour improved with age. They certainly packed a spiced, treacle-y punch.

For the first time ever I've baked shortbread! It's one of those bakes which my Granny was so good at making that I never felt I needed to bother. However this year Mum and I were really missing her shortbread so we followed Granny's recipe and they taste exactly like hers. We both thought it felt like getting a big hug. It officially feels like Christmas now that we have some Granny shortbread in the tin.

And lastly I made these chocolate brownie trees which I've seen on both Ros and Kate's blogs recently and couldn't resist baking. I wish I had more time to decorate these nicely but they were a last minute festive treat to take to my friends' house.

So that's what I've managed to bake in the run up to Christmas this year - a mixture of old and new recipes. Are you a traditional Christmas baker or do you like to switch things up and try new recipes every year?

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hope you have a lovely day tomorrow. x

Celebration brownies!

My friends threw a small house party last weekend so I baked these party-worthy brownies stuffed with Celebration chocolates to take with me. I cut them into party-friendly, bite-size squares with the theory that it's acceptable to eat more than one if they're smaller! I think everybody had fun guessing which chocolate bar flavours they had in each brownie portion.

Another person at the party had baked millionaire's shortbread and chocolate orange cupcakes so there was a lot of chocolate going around. I think it's safe to say that sugar hangovers were as likely as alcohol related ones.

A few of the celebration chunks looked rather impressive fresh from the oven, the Milky Bar pieces in particular as they billowed out like puffy marshmallows! It was almost a shame to watch them deflate as the tray cooled although the finished appearance was still very attractive. I love the shiny, flaky, erupting surface.

For these brownies I used a (slightly adapted) Nigella Lawson recipe, more or less the same as the last brownies I made. My only changes were adding chopped up pieces of Celebration chocolates and 40% cocoa solids milk chocolate for the batter instead of a darker chocolate.

In hindsight I probably would have preferred a slightly darker chocolate, or a mix of milk and dark, just to give a richer flavour. I may have slightly overbaked this batch too as they weren't quite as squidy as previous batches. They were by no means dry though and I still had difficulty peeling them off the parchment paper!

What's your favourite brownie recipe? Can Nigella's recipe be defeated?

squidgy brownies

I tend to bake a lot with fruit, mostly because I love the flavour of fruity bakes and like to pretend it's part of my five-a-day, but every so often I have the urge to bake something unashamedly sweet and down right unhealthy. Enter the brownie.

These are quite possibly the squidgiest, fudgiest brownies I have ever made. They almost had to be peeled off the baking parchment. However they still had that all important crisp, flaky brownie surface. I also chucked some extra chunks of milk chocolate to the batter so there would be little pockets of gooey chocolate with each bite.

For a change I photographed these at the picnic bench in the garden as it was so warm and sunny. Yeah, sunshine happens occasionally, and what's better than enjoying a brownie with a cuppa in the sunshine?

The recipe is ever so slightly adapted from one I bookmarked on Nelly's Cupcakes last year, originally a Nigella Lawson recipe.

Just a reminder to everybody that google reader is shutting down in the next couple of weeks so you'll either need to bookmark your favourite blogs or swap to a new blog reading platform such as Bloglovin', Feedly or Hello Cotton. Personally I use Bloglovin' and I find it easy enough to navigate. My Bloglovin' button can be found on my sidebar if you want to click and follow :)

Here's what I did:

200g unsalted butter

180g Cadburys Bourneville chocolate
20g milk chocolate (40% cocoa solids)

2 duck eggs

260g golden caster sugar

115g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

75g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line a 20 x 30cm baking tray. Melt together the butter and chocolate, either in short bursts in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a small pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile whisk together the eggs and sugar, then add the cooled butter/chocolate mixture. Add sifted flour, salt, vanilla extract and chunks of milk chocolate and mix everything together. Spread the mixture onto the prepared tray (I also had enough to fill 4 cupcake cases) and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the surface is lighter in colour and slightly cracking. Leave to cool completely in the tray (if you can resist!) before cutting into slices.

Beetroot brownies

It seems that these are rather controversial brownies, folk either love them or hate them. I researched a couple of recipes and the one on BBC Good Food website had very mixed reviews. I used a recipe from Helen's blog and I like them. The beetroot makes a super moist brownie and I don't think you really taste it, but my brother didn't like them because of the beetroot flavour, but then again he doesn't particularly like chocolate so he's hardly going to be a brownie lover in the first place.

The only changes I made to the recipe were adding an extra egg (as mine were very small) and using two small tins instead of a large one, hence the slimmer looking brownies.

It's a shame the photos don't show how red the brownies are in real life. I wish I took a photo of the batter, it was a crazy colour!

I must admit that I still can't quite get my head round the recipe. Beetroot in a brownie. Red brownies! Then again, carrot can be put in cake and it tastes brilliant. I think the recipe was a bit faffy for my liking, having to boil, peel and puree the beetroot before even doing the brownie mixture, but then again I'm just impatient. It was certainly a fun recipe to try!

The Hummingbird strikes again!

I just can't leave that book alone. This time, it has delivered the ULTIMATE brownie, and I do mean ultimate. It is the tastiest, piggiest thing known to man or woman, filled with chopped walnuts and ooey-gooey chunks of chocolate (I used Cadbury's Bournville). It has an obscene amount of butter and sugar and uses 5 eggs(!) but I don't care. If you're a brownie lover you must make this! It's the Frosted Brownie recipe, but I loved the brownie so much by itself that I didn't bother with the icing. That's how good it is! (Plus I had run out of butter by this point.) I felt this brownie was so special that it had to be put on a pedestal, as it is most certainly king of the brownies. 

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.