Meet my kitchenaid

Gone are the days of stroking Kitchenaids in John Lewis/kitchenware shops.... this one is mine!

 

I got a beautiful, yellow kitchenaid for my birthday last week. It has been a particularly busy, stressful year so my mum thought I deserved an extra special birthday present. My friend and I decided to name her (definitely a her) Mary Bee. We thought it was only right to honour Ms Berry during the Great British Bake Off season and the name Bee suits a happy, yellow mixer.

A week later I still have an uncontrollable urge to stroke her every time I enter the kitchen. I've also discovered that I can take self portraits in the shiny mixing bowl. Endless hours of fun. They're not just for baking folks.

When I young I liked to play "kitchen" and one of my favourite toys was a tiny cream and brown plastic stand mixer with an orange beater which would whisk when you flicked a switch on the side. I spent a lot of time whisking cake batter water. Now I have a grown up version!

 

Apologies for the lighting in the last two photos. Bee's yellow doesn't agree with night time photography.

White chocolate jazzie birthday cake

It was my birthday last Wednesday and being the white chocolate fiend that I am, requested a white chocolate themed cake. Mum certainly didn't skimp on the white chocolate!

The cake consisted of two plain victoria sponges cut in half and layered with strawberry jam and white chocolate butter icing. Once assembled, it was covered in even more white chocolate butter icing and decorated with super sized Jazzies (Jazzles/Snowies). White chocolate buttons were scattered round the plate, just in case there wasn't enough white chocolate :)

Jazzies are my favourite pick n mix sweet, so to know that I can buy pimped up versions from the baking aisle of Tesco is pretty exciting.

You know you're old when you can't blow out all your candles in one go. Either there were too many candles or I have appalling lung power!

The white chocolate butter icing was insanely sweet but incredibly tasty. If you've just eaten dinner, I would advise cutting thinner slices as even I couldn't finish a whole slice in one sitting! 

 
I'd also like to say a massive thank you to all my readers as I reached 100 followers this week! I was amazed when I reached 10 followers so to reach 100 is really exciting. Thank you for taking the time to read, follow and/or comment on my blog and I hope you keep visiting. :)

ABC...

....it's as easy as 1 2 3*. Apparently not as this post has been lurking around the drafts folder since June.

 

 

Back in June, Gem of Cupcake Crazy Gem nominated me for an ABC (Awesome Blog Content) award and in August Susie of Fold in the Flour nominated me for one as well. Thank you ladies! It's fantastic to know that others enjoy my little blog filled with baking and pretty things, especially coming from blogs I enjoy following. It's a nice feeling :)

I found filling in 26 alphabet related facts surprisingly difficult but here we go!

A is for Acne. I was finally put Accutane for my skin last August for 6 months. It caused all sorts of nasty side effects, but I do have completely clear skin now for the first time since I was 11. The novelty of waking up in the morning with clear skin still hasn't worn off.

B is for Bill Bailey. When I met him earlier this year I asked if he could write "from Manny" (his Black Books character) on the autograph to which he replied "you do know that's not my real name?"

C is for cake stands. I would be very sad without them.

 

D is for dinosaurs. In my final year at uni I dressed up as a stegosaurus for Hallowe'en and my friend, Alice, was a pterodactyl. On our way home a couple gave us £1 as they said we had the best costumes they'd seen that night! My friend Kirsty captured us on polariod.

E is for Edinburgh, where I went to university and lived above a bakery.

F is for flossing. I don't mind flossing my own teeth but the "clicking" sound of someone else flossing their teeth is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. It's horrible.

G is for grumpy. I am not a morning person.

H is for hot chocolate. I may have spent a lot of money in Whittards recently....

I is for impatient. I wish I had more patience (and the camera lenses actually) to take really beautiful cake photographs, but I always want to eat the cake immediately and I can't be bothered to iron the tablecloth.

J is for Jive Talkin'. I won't have any of you bad mouthing this Bee Gees track. It's a fantastic dance number.

K is for kitchen. I cannot wait to have my own! I spend a lot of time dreaming about my future kitchen.

L is for licking the baking bowl clean. I've been doing it since I was a toddler and I'm unlikely to change.

M is for Milkolait. Does anybody remember it? It was basically a white chocolate version of Nutella and tasted absolutely AMAZING. I haven't seen it stocked anywhere since about 1997. Gutted.

N is for nerd. I was one of those sad people at school who loved learning grammar in language classes. I also enjoyed doing music theory which most people seem to hate.

O is for Orchestra. I play the violin in my local (amateur) orchestra. We only play during the winter months and we're certainly not anything to rave about, but it's good fun.

P is for Princess Bride, my favourite film.

Q is for Quavers, the name of my Primary 6 netball team. Yes, we named ourselves after a packet of crisps, I don't know why. I was Goal Attack.

R is for Royal Winton Grimwades. My favourite brand of fine bone china.

 

S is for socks. Spots, stripes, hippos, ducks, dinosaurs, hedgehogs, elephants, firemen, policemen, piano keys, hearts, teacups, party rings, flowers, campervans. You name it, I have it.

 

T is for toe! I broke my little toe on my right foot during an unfortunate trampolining incident in P.E. at secondary school. It somehow got stuck in the criss-cross weave of the trampoline when I was sitting down and when my friend jumped my body bounced but my toe stayed caught. I hobbled around the rest of the school day in agony and by the time I got home my foot was black down one side. It took about a year to fully heal and to wear footwear other than trainers.

U is for.....you guessed it, Utility China! I can't get enough of those pastel, mix and match colours.When I was little I had a plastic teaset in green, pink and yellow which I loved to mix and match. I'm assuming this is where the obsession began.

V is for Volkswagen Beetle. I love Betty my Nissan Micra, but I've always loved old beetles. My Dad had an orange one in his late teens!

W is for white chocolate. There used to be a place in Edinburgh called Chocolate Soup where you could drink espresso sized shots of molten chocolate. I miss their white chocolate shots :(

X is for X-Men. God I love those films, even X-Men 3 which wasn't great.

Y is for yes please! Always the answer I give if someone offers me a cup of tea. It became a running joke at work last year.

Z is for zip. Is it just me or does anyone else dislike obvious zips on dresses? I hate it when I think I've found a pretty (usually floral) dress but then look at the back and there is a massive, exposed zip. Uggghh.

Phew! Congratulations if you managed to read all of that! I'm passing the ABC award on to the following people:

Emine of MBakes
Gem of Little Gem's Diary
Kim of Cakes From Kim
Louise of Tea at Weasels
Paula of Sweetharts Cakes and Bakes

I thought it would be nice to pass it along to a mix of bakers/china lovers/crafters. Remember to check out Gem and Susie's blogs as well as my nominees as they're lovely bakers (unless you're on a diet, then enter with caution!)

*gotta love a Jackson 5 reference :)

Banana, cinnamon and pecan muffins

What kind of baker are you? Are you a follow-the-recipe person or more of an adventurous I'll-do-my-own-thing sort of baker? I'm a follow-the-recipe girl. Sure, I may occasionally substitute an ingredient or two to suit what I have in the cupboard, but I wouldn't describe myself as experimental in the kitchen.

However..... I created these muffins! I had an idea for banana muffins with a streusel type topping but couldn't find anything to suit what I had in mind. After looking at a few recipes I set out into the unknown and created something myself.

This may not be exciting or adventurous to many, but I was super proud of myself (I may have done a small happy dance). The batter tasted good, the muffins rose (always hopeful!) and smelled amazing in the oven, looked pretty and most importantly, tasted good. Hurray!

I could tweak a few things, but overall I was happy with what I made. You can't go too far wrong combining bananas, cinnamon and pecan :)

This is what I did:

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder (I was too scared to add more in case it destroyed the muffins!)

pinch of salt

175g golden caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

2 sad, brown bananas (mine were quite small)

100ml plain yoghurt

50g pecans, chopped

streusel topping - 25g each of plain flour, light brown soft sugar and chopped pecans. Mix together and rub in 12g of butter. (I didn't use all of it although in hindsight I probably could have used it all)

Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas 7. In a large bowl mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and sugar. Melt the butter in a jug (I did this in the microwave in short bursts) and then once cool add the eggs and yoghurt. Mix together then pour into the flour mixture and combine. Stir in the mashed bananas and chopped pecans. 

Divide the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tray (my mixture filled 10) and add the streusel topping. Pop the tray into the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 180C/Gas 4 (this ensures they rise really high) and bake for roughly 35-40 minutes until firm and golden. Remove from the oven and leave the muffins to cool in the tin for a few minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.

The muffins taste best when still warm. If you don't have the stamina to eat all 10 muffins in one sitting (I know, but some people can't manage it!) then just pop one in the microwave for 20 seconds to warm up.

A collection of jugs

Last month I found a new addition to my utility china collection, a Jasmine Woodsware jug.

I paid £8 for it, which is a lot more than I usually care to spend on one item, but it was so pretty and I've had so many bargains on other pieces that I figured it evens out. On a side note, look, I'm wearing nail varnish! Quite possibly the first time I've painted my nails since secondary school. It felt weird but I like the colour, especially against the yellow jug.
 

After taking the first photo, I wondered how many utility china jugs I owned, so I found them all and took a group photo!

 

Then I wondered how many jugs I owned in general, so I took another photo!

 

I love the variety of shapes and styles I've accumulated (so far...!)

 

Pretty details.

 

 

I didn't know I had so many, and there is still a couple in storage with my kitchen stuff from uni days. I wonder what I'll do with them all? Sit and admire them I assume.

Toblerone cupcakes

I have had this recipe from the Caked Crusader bookmarked for ages. After seeing a few toblerone cupcakes popping up recently on other blogs I knew I had to find an excuse to make them. Then my toblerone loving brother came home for a visit a couple of weeks ago so I finally had the perfect opportunity.

You just know that smooshing (yes, technical term) a 100g bar of toblerone into cupcake batter is going to produce something very tasty. By far superior to standard chocolate chips.

 

My brother ended up packing four cupcakes away in his suitcase to take away with him. He definitely approved of this bake.

 

 

I had so much fun photographing these cupcakes. The toblerone triangles made them incredibly photogenic. Usually I don't like cupcake cases which go all see through when baked but I actually thought it looked really pretty on these. It also meant you could strategically pick the cupcake which had the most chocolate chips!

 

 

Once again, apologies to the almond haters. I appear to have been on an almond kick this summer. However I imagine these would still be perfectly tasty without the almond extract in the batter if you still like the flavour of toblerones.

 

The only think I did differently to the Caked Crusader's recipe was the ganache. I followed the ganache Paula from Sweetharts Cakes and Bakes made for her toblerone cupcakes, using plain chocolate instead of dark, but I found it too bitter. Determined to make it work, I added some icing sugar until I was happy with the flavour. I'm not sure if what I produced can still be called a ganache, but it was rich and super chocolatey.

 

Was the recipe worth the wait? Yes. Thanks Caked Crusader!

Blueberry and almond tart

Oops, apologies for my unintentional blogging absence! I'll try to catch up on everyone's blogs soon. In the meantime, here's a blueberry tart which I baked for my parents' (32 year!) wedding anniversary two weeks ago.

I don't bake tarts often, probably because they require a little extra time faffing about with pastry, but when I do I always feel they're worth the effort. There's something a bit fancy about a tart and I thought an anniversary deserved a fancy bake.

I think it's safe to say that the tart went down very well, it barely lasted 24 hours. Those who managed to snaffle the remaining slices said it tasted even better the second day. I'm sad I missed out!

 

Apologies to the almond haters out there as the tart's filling is bursting with ground almonds! The lack of flour means it packs a rich, almond punch. My family loves almond/bakewell flavours, so we were very happy with it.

Such a pretty slice. I love how blueberries burst with flavour and colour.

I think I may have infuriated my family at this point by going "no, no, just one more photo, one more photo please!" But see, isn't it nice seeing all the slices on their plates? The occupational hazard of a food blogger...

The recipe can be found on BBC Good Food, although I made a different shortcrust pastry. I think I used the following measurements for the pastry:

 

200g plain flour

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of caster sugar

125g fat (I used half unsalted butter, half lard. Both chilled and diced.)

ice cold water

 

Rub the fat into the dry ingredients with your fingertips in a large bowl until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Using the end of a knife,  stir in enough ice cold water to bring the mixture together into a firm dough (if it goes too sticky just add a bit more flour). Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

 

Once chilled, roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large circle big enough to completely cover your tin. Carefully roll half of it up on a rolling pin and slide the removeable base of the tart tin underneath so that it's positioned in the centre. Unroll the pastry, then carefully fold it into the centre, on top of the tin base, then plop the base back into the tart tin and fold back the pastry to cover the sides of the tin. I've found this is the best way to avoid stretching the pastry in the tin. Make sure to press the pastry into all the nooks and crannies, and trim the edges by rolling the rolling pin across the top of the tin. Prick the base of the pastry a few times with a fork then leave to chill again in the fridge for 20 minutes.

 

Once chilled (again!) cover the tart in a layer of greaseproof paper/tin foil weighted with baking beans (to stop the pastry shrinking) and bake in a preheated oven at 190C/Gas 5 for15-20 minutes until lightly golden and just firm. Make your filling while the pastry is baking.