GBBO

The Great British Bake Off – Chocolate Molten Puddings

October 2, 2017 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

This week it was pudding week on The Great British Bake Off. We had steamed puddings for signature bakes, molten chocolate puddings for technical and Trifles for show stopper bakes.
Now my miserable family are not keen on puddings unless they are chocolate so I didn’t have much choice but to go for the molten chocolate puddings for my bake.

The next problem was…there are seven of us and most recipes for individual puddings were for 4 or six. So I had to do some adjusting and my recipe makes seven puddings, made in regular ramekins.

If I’m honest, they were not perfect to look at, but they did pass the taste test.

I added a little white chocolate to the kids puddings, both in the middle and on top. For the adults we had to make do with dark chocolate because the white didn’t go very far (or it may have got eaten by a family member when I left it in the fridge!)

As you can see, the white chocolate in the middle was trying it’s best to escape before I took a photo. This was the best of the batch of three, the others had already oozed out. I didn’t manage to make a neat job of spooning the white chocolate on the top either. Trust me, these puddings are alive, they ooze, they collapse they fall apart, all before you get the chance of a good shot….but they tasted yummy. I give them 10 for taste and 1 for presentation!

I’m not sure if you can tell by this photo but the sponge was light and fluffy and the inside gooey. Isn’t that the objective? Okay, I guess looking nice would be good too.

The other puddings fared even worse for presentation…it’s a minus 4 from me! As soon as I took them out of the ramekins they collapsed as the middle bit oozed out. Too much chocolate maybe? I think they might have needed a little more cooking. I was under the impression that they had to be served straight from the oven, which I’m sure contributed to them breaking up.

Here is my recipe (if you want it!)

Ingredients:

200g butter
200g dark chocolate
100g white chocolate (if adding)
5 eggs
100g caster sugar
75gg self raising flour
tbs of cocoa powder.

Method:

Melt the dark chocolate and butter in bowl over a pan of hot water. (or carefully in the microwave) set aside to cool
in a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and light
fold the chocolate into the egg mixture
add the flour and cocoa powder and fold in
grease 7 ramekin moulds
divide the mixture between the moulds place on a baking tray. If adding white chocolate put a chunk into the top of the mixture, no need to push it in as it will sink while baking.
bake in a pre-heated oven 180C/gas mark 4 for 10 – 12 minutes
when baked, loosen the puddings and turn out carefully onto serving plates.

Serve them with cream or melted white chocolate sauce.

#GBBO Star Selasi Launches Share a Meal

September 25, 2017 by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

Do you remember banker Selasi, a contestant on last year’s Great British Bake Off? This year he is supporting World Vision, a children’s charity, with their new ‘Share a Meal’ Campaign. How would you fancy sharing a meal yourself with star baker Selasi?

Win a meal for two with Selasi!

Love Great British Bakeoff, but having Selasi withdrawal symptoms? We can help. The Share A Meal competition gives you the chance to get up close and personal with the coolest baker. (And we’re not biased just because he’s a World Vision UK ambassador!)
If you’re missing seeing Selasi on screen, enter our Share a Meal photo competition for your chance to win a meal for you and a friend cooked by Selasi – and help vulnerable children at the same time.

Post a picture of a Share a Meal event on Instagram and share it using the hashtag #ShareAMeal and tagging @WorldVisionUK to enter.
Terms and conditions are available: www.worldvision.org.uk/shareameal

Star baker, Selasi – who recently visited the desperate children and families living in Uganda in Bidi Bidi, the world’s largest refugee settlement – is asking people to share a meal with friends and family and donate together to support World Vision’s work with the world’s vulnerable children.

Following his visit, Selasi said: “It’s heartbreaking to see pain and hunger etched onto the faces of orphaned children and hear their harrowing stories of rape and violence. It is vital that, as a community, we come together to do what we can to help provide these kids with a better future.”

Hundreds of thousands of children are streaming into Uganda’s refugee settlements from a brutal civil war in neighbouring South Sudan. Many flee after seeing their parents murdered and walk for days or weeks without food or shelter. They hide in the bush during the day, moving at night to avoid being killed by fighting parties. They arrive at the border alone, traumatised and hungry.

World Vision is helping to feed children in the refugee settlements, find them foster families and give them a new start. However, global funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis is nowhere near enough and food supplies are running out. Children survive – just – for months on meagre rations of beans and flour. Far more must be done.

Tim Pilkington, World Vision UK CEO added: “World Vision UK feels strongly that we can’t stand by while children in Uganda go hungry or fail to grow because they don’t have enough good food. We are confident that through Share A Meal, we can help some of the world’s most vulnerable children.”

To find out more, visit worldvision.org.uk/shareameal

Great British Bake Off – Cottage Loaf

September 17, 2017 by Anne Sweet 12 Comments

I’m really getting into the Great British Bake Off now, despite the missing Mary, Mel and Sue. It’s all about the baking after all.
This week was bread week and I love baking bread…but I’ve not done so for a long time. The signature task was to bake tea cakes, something I’ve never tried before but I may try one day as I do like a nice toasted tea cake with my cuppa. The technical challenge was a cottage loaf, again I’ve not made one before but I do remember making a mini one many many years ago at school. Finally, the show stopper was a bread sculpture, yes, like I’d have the time, or energy for that!

So, I went for the cottage loaf. I love making bread kneading by hand but with my hands giving me so much trouble lately, it was good to have two little helpers to hand, Star and Boo, who each took turns with the kneading.

The recipe I used was a basic white loaf recipe.

Ingredients

500g bread flour
25g butter
1tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp of salt
1tsp dried yeast
320 ml of warm water

Method:

rub the butter into the flour
add the sugar, salt and yeast,
mix in the water a little at a time until you have a firm dough
knead the dough for 10 mins and leave in a bowl covered with cling film, or a tea towel for about 1 hour
knead the dough again and shape into two rounds, one slightly bigger than the other
Put the smaller mound on top of the larger one and push two fingers all the way through both rounds from the middle of the top round.
leave to prove, covered lightly, for a further 30 mins.
Bake at 180 C for 40 mins, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Biscuits, biscuits and biscuits.

September 9, 2017 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

I’m a big fan of The Great British Bake Off and bake along with it every year. This year it changed channels and I forgot it was on last week! I did manage to catch it on catch-up tv though but it was too late to bake along. This week again I missed it when it was on, it’s just not a good time for me, but I recorded it to watch at leisure. I have to say, I’m enjoying the new show despite no Mary or Mel and Sue. After all, it’s about the baking really. The only thing I would say is that it seems a lot more rushed as they have to fit everything in for the adverts. One good thing about catch-up or recording, you don’t have to watch the adverts 🙂

This week it was biscuit week and for a long time now I’ve wanted to make Bourbons, but I guess I just didn’t feel like it, so I handed the challenge over to the kids.

Star’s Chocolate Creams

Star went for the cream challenge and she made a softer cookie dough for her biscuits and piped them into rounds before I cooked them for her. Then she filled them with chocolate butter cream. I think they turned out pretty good, even though they were not all exactly the same.

Boo’s Iced Biscuits

Boo just wanted to do her own thing so she made a biscuit dough she could roll and cut out shapes from. She wanted to do different sized hearts but I couldn’t find my pack of heart cutters, so she just chose shapes from the box. This is just a small selection of them after she’d piped icing on them.

biscuit shapes decorated with piped icing

The Little Man’s Minecraft Biscuit Creation

When I told the Little Man of the options he said he wanted to make a game. Mmmm a bit adventurous for a seven year old I think! Of course his favourite game at the moment is Mine Craft so he wanted to make Mine Craft biscuits. They had to be square to represent the blocks on Mine Craft. Then he decorated them himself, the middle biscuit is the player and the little ones around it are dirt blocks. I can’t really explain it any clearer.

chocolate square biscuits with piped designs

They had loads of fun with their baking and decorating, it was a great way to while away an afternoon. The biscuits all tasted pretty good too, especially as I just winged the recipe.

Next week it’s bread week and I’ve been meaning to bake some bread for a while now so fingers crossed it will be me baking…although the kids will probably want to make some too!

If you want to see what other bloggers have been baking this week then please check out the GBBO blogger linky over on Mummy Mishaps blog.

Great British Bake Off Halloween Special.

October 31, 2016 by Anne Sweet 3 Comments

Last week we saw the final of the Great British Bake Off 2016.

They made meringue, Victoria Sandwich and a picnic showstopper including a chocolate cake.

I did feel a little disappointed at the skill set needed for the final. Surely it could have been more difficult? The things they made for their picnics I’ve made loads of times for parties, meringues are not difficult so long as you are careful not to break them and my nine year old daughter knows how to make a Victoria Sandwich without instructions.

The winner was Candice and I believe she deserved it as she seemed the only one who really put any effort into making something unique. I still remember her gingerbread pub, and her marzipan peacock was fantastic. Going back to my run down of week one I had Candice and Jane, two of the finalists, as my favourites to do well. I wish I’d put a bet on now!

My girls really wanted to make meringue so I let them make some and they made little meringue ghosts for Halloween. I decided that a chocolate cake would be nice to make so in keeping with the Halloween theme I dressed it up as a trick or treat cake.

We like our meringue crispy so we always bake it in the oven. The eyes were piped on with a little melted chocolate.

little ghost shaped meringues with chocolate eyes

My chocolate cake is a favourite in our house and I make it frequently. I don’t always cover it in chocolate but I decided to do it this time, only I wish I’d left myself a little more time to do it a bit more neatly.