kitchen

My Sunday Photo – 5th February 2017

February 5, 2017 by Anne Sweet 15 Comments

Boo has been pestering me for her to make a cake for a couple of weeks now. She wanted to make it all by herself with no help. Then I was sent a bunch of cake decorations and there was just no holding back Boo. So 9 am yesterday morning she got baking!

Apart from reaching a few things from the cupboard for her and leveling off the cake (Which involves a large knife) I did nothing, she did it all herself and we have the video to prove it!

So here it is, in pride of place for my Sunday photo this week. A gorgeous moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and lots of romantic decorations. All Boo’s work, what a clever girl!

Boo proudly showing off the cake she made by herself

I guess I’d better get her application in for Junior Bake Off!

Toe Nail Dusted Sweet Cakes recipe

November 14, 2016 by Anne Sweet 2 Comments

You asked – I made them…enjoy!

This is a recipe from the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook which I am giving away three copies of in my prize draw which ends on 29th November..see widget below for entry.

I asked what my readers would like to me to make from the book and had an overwhelming response for Toe Nail Dusted Sweet Cakes, so here they are.

First though, make sure you have a jar of Truly Disgusting Toe Nail Crumbs in a jar on your kitchen shelf like I do.

Toenail-Dusted Sweet Cakes

“In the past, nose-to-tail -end hunters would source and dismember whole humans – and Toenail Cakes were a great way to use up every last scrap. A full set of fungus-infested toenails was considered a real treat and the original recipe introduced them to the dessert menu. Most tribes now buy pre-packaged joints and cuts, so this updated recipe is for those who don’t have easy access to truly disgusting toenails.”

Ingredients:

125g unsalted soft butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250g self-raising flour, sifted
pinch of salt
4 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

coating

400g icing sugar
100g cocoa powder
150-175 ml boiling water
200g desiccated coconut

Method:

Grease an 18 x 25cm cake tin and line with nonstick baking paper

Beat together the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy

Gradually incorporate the eggs, adding a little flour to prevent the mixture from curdling

Add the flour and salt and fold in with the milk and vanilla extract.

Turn into prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake in a preheated over for 25-30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out to cool further

Sift the icing sugar and the cocoa powder into a bowl.

Make a well in the centre and beat in enough fo the boiling water to form a smooth icing with pouring consistancy.

Dip the top of each cake into the icing and then coat with the coconut.

Leave to set.

The question can be found in the Rafflecopter Gadget and you can answer in the comments. If you answer in the comments you do not have to fill in the gadget but it will give you more entries into the competion.

Rules:

UK only, sorry

Please make sure you leave me your e-mail for contacting the winners

Winners will be chosen at random

The rafflecopter gadget will appear on other posts but you only need to fill it in once

No prize alternative will be offered

Prizes will be sent out by Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

Raisiebay will not be responsible for unreceived prizes

Prizes must be claimed within 28 days after the close of the competition.

Competition will close on November 29th 2016

All entries will be checked

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Night Terror Torte and Competition

November 10, 2016 by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

I’m currently running a competition where you could win one of three copies of the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook. fill in you details in the Rafflecopter widget below for your chance of winning.

Here is my first recipe from the book, Night Terror Torte.

hoxton street monster supplies recipe book

The instructions say..”Be sure to think truly appalling thoughts as you make this torte – you will find that the screams of your victims will have an extra edge of misery if you do.”

Well, I didn’t really have appalling thoughts but I did make it while in a lot of pain, so hopefully some of my victims felt the benefit…*insert evil cackle*

Actually, as you can see from this recipe, the torte is incredibly delicious and I would definitely make it again.

Night Terror Torte

Ingredients, serves 8 monsters:

200g caster sugar

4 tbs water

2 oranges, thinly sliced

475g sweet shortcrust pastry

100g butter, soft

100g ground almonds

2 eggs, lightly beaten

100g of dark chocolate

Method:

Put half the sugar and the measured water in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
Add the orange slices and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes until the oranges are tender and most of the syrup has evaporated. let cool.
Roll out the pasty on a lightly floured surface until a little larger than a greased 9 1/2 inch fluted loose-bottomed tart tin.
line the tin with the pasty and chill for 15 minutes
Line the tart with nonstick baking paper, add baking beans and place on a baking sheet.
bake in a preheated oven, 190C gas mark 5 for 10 minutes
Remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes until golden and crisp.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180C, gas mark 4
Beat together the butter and the remaining sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
Add the ground almonds, then gradually beat in the eggs until smooth. Set Aside
Reserve 10 of the best orange slices, then drain and chop the rest.
Stir the chocolate into the almond mixture, then mix in the chopped oranges.
Spread into the tart case, arrange the reserved orange slices on top and bake for 30 minutes.
Let cool for 30 minutes before removing from the tin.

Slice and Enjoy!

The Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook comes from the Hoxten Street Shop found in East London (unsurprisingly on Hoxton Street) and is the purveyor off all kinds of everyday items for the living, dead and undead. Due to a curse all profits got to The Ministry of Stories, a creative writing and mentoring charity for young humans. At the shop you will such goodies as Earwax Cubes, Salt Made From Tears of Anger or Banshee Balls as well as the fabulous cookbook.

So if you are looking to treat that monster in your life, you now know where to go.

So let’s get on with the competition.

Rules:

UK only, sorry

Please make sure you leave me your e-mail for contacting the winners

Winners will be chosen at random

The rafflecopter gadget will appear on other posts but you only need to fill it in once

No prize alternative will be offered

Prizes will be sent out by Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

Raisiebay will not be responsible for unreceived prizes

Prizes must be claimed within 28 days after the close of the competition.

Competition will close on November 29th 2016

All entries will be checked

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Great British Bake Off Fondant Fancies

October 24, 2016 by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

I can’t believe that next week is the final of the Great British Bake Off, this year has gone in such a hurry.
This week we saw savoury Palmiers for the signature bake, a Savarin for the technical bake and Fondant Fancies for the Showstopper.

Andrew did really well this week saving himself from final elimination as it was Selasi that was shown the door with just one week to go.

I have made Palmiers before and I don’t have a tin to bake a traditional Savarin, although I do have something similar, I guess I didn’t fancy it.

The kids had already decided for me anyway, they wanted to make Fondant Fancies.

Of course, my kids like their cakes pretty plain so when we were coming up for ideas for their cakes they wanted chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and icing. So, forgive me these are not the most exciting or fancifal Fancies.

Also, I really can’t get on with watering down fondant. I still have nightmares from when I had to do it when I made the Mokatines from last years Bake Off. This time I messed up when the icing was just not runny enough to cover the cakes, so I watered it down a little more and then it was too runny.

Maybe if I’d been decorating them myself I would have been more patient, but it was not good when the kids were all keen to do it but have the patience of a flea. It was really mess too. I think there was more Icing on the greaseproof paper than on the cakes themselves. I tried to scoop it up for a second coating but the kids were pretty quick at scooping it up into their mouths.

messy cakes

The cakes were tasty enough, but I wasn’t happy with the decoration.

Fondant Fancies

Ingredients:

300g self-raising flour

325g soft butter

325g caster sugar

25g cocoa powder

4 eggs

buttercream

100g soft butter

200g icing sugar

10g cocoa powder

Fondant

500g fondant icing

75g water

drops of food colouring of choice.

Method:

preheat oven to 170C/gas mark 4

grease and line two 7″ square tins

cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl

add eggs and beat in one at a time

sift in flour and cocoa powder and fold the mixture together

pour evenly into tins and bake for 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean

cool the cut into equal cubes (9 per tin)

Make the buttercream by creaming together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter

coat four sides of the cakes but not the top and bottom

put the remaining buttercream into a piping bag and pipe a shell on the top of each cake

Chill in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour

Make the fondant by mixing the icing with water and food colouring.

We split our icing into three and made one white, one blue and one orange.

put the cakes on a cooling rack over a sheet of greaseproof paper

pour the fondant over the cakes from the top and allow to drip over the sides.

Another method I’ve heard of is to put a fork into the bottom of each cake and dip them into the fondant icing, covering all sides, then leave them to drip on cooling rack.

Do not do as I did and make the fondant to runny.

Here are our finished Fancies.

As you can see from this next photo, I also could have spent a little more time mixing the fondant with the water and there were some lumps present.
Next week, I’m going to attempt a bake without the help of the kids.

Great British Bake Off Jumbles

October 17, 2016 by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

I missed joining in with the Great British Bake Off last week, I just didn’t have the time.

This week my kids were keen to have a go at the Jumbles so I’ve handed the baking over to them.

First up though, my little run-down on this weeks program, Tudor Week.

Seriously, Tudor Week! Well, it was the time of huge banquets and lots and lots of food, for rich people anyway. Something great from that time though was pies, now you can’t go wrong with a pie.

We love our pies here, I love making pastry so that’s probably a big factor. Whether it’s a shortcrust apple pie or a water crust steak pie we can’t get enough. I really wish I’d taken a photo of the steak and ale pie I made last week, it was delicious and looked so lovely when I took it out of the oven.

The contestants where told to make a signature dish of pies arranged in a Tudor style. It went ok, we had the usual eruptions, too thick pastry, not enough filling problems.

The Technical was Jumble biscuits. Now this sounded easy until you saw how they had to design their biscuits. It looked fun, I think that’s why my kids wanted a go.

The Showstopper was marzipan themed. I am somewhat addicted to marzipan and I only allow it in the house at Easter (Simnel Cake) and Christmas (Christmas Cake) because I tend to eat a lot of it.

No-one could deny that Candice’s Peacock was stunning! And guess what, it tasted good too! Not only did she do an excellent job of her marzipan decoration, she also had a surprise pinata type filling of blueberries and the most amazing rainbow coloured sponges inside her lovely bird. I think she deserved her star baker prize this week. (Haven’t there been winning peacocks on GBBO before? if you want to get ahead, bake a peacock! )
I’ll shut up now and get on with it..Ready, Steady, Bake!

Jumbles Our Way.

Paul Hollywood’s recipe asks for mace, aniseed and caraway seeds. I decided that if I put those things in our biscuits the kids wouldn’t eat them, we left them out, so we have a less spicy biscuit.

Ingredients:

350g plain flour
175g sugar
75g butter
grated rind of half a lemon
grated rind of half an orange
2 egg
50g granulated sugar

Method:

Put the flour and sugar in the bowl
add the lemon and orange rind
rub in the butter
add 1 egg and bring the mixture together
wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1/2 hour.
Preheat oven to 170C
shape into biscuits
brush with the other egg and sprinkle with sugar
bake for 10-15 minutes depending on size of biscuit shapes you make

We split the dough into four pieces and each child and myself made a selection of shapes for the biscuits. I didn’t count how many we had but there was at least 20.

The kids had so much fun with their shapes. I did have a go at the Tudor shape but it was too fiddly.