Happy Birthday to…. me :)

Well, a slight while ago now, but on the 4th June it was my 14th birthday! And what better way to celebrate than with …

a cupcake tier!

Two layers of delicious lemon cupcakes and lemon buttercream, decorated with sugar flowers and edible pink glitter, in pretty polka dot liners…

What more could sixteen hungry 14year olds  (and one hungry Daddy) want?

Needless to say, they were a huge hit. I cannot take any credit for their delicious taste – thank you VERY much to my Mummy for making them all for us!

ENJOY :)

“Ooh Mama!”

Is what I said to my Mummy when she rang to ask how my muffins had turned out. And its true, they really are that good!

The plan to make these muffins came from two main factors:

1) an abundance of lemons.
2) a craving for icing!

Oooh icing cravings. Bad things to suffer from as icing always has to follow shortly! But what better way for it to come then drizzled lovingly on top of a fluffy lemon+poppyseed muffin, the icing itself also tangy and lemony. It makes me hungry writing about it too-many days later!

The recipe for the muffins came from the fabulous Baking: From My Home To Yours, by the equally fabulous Dorie Greenspan. The book is so popular with many bloggers the weekly Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) event was set up to celebrate the book by baking a recipe from it every week until everything is baked! Interestingly, these lemon muffins haven’t been chosen yet –travesty! I love reading the posts by all the TWD-ers, but haven’t joined myself for fear of not being able to bake the recipe every single week! To see all the great work done by TWD-ers, head here. And if you haven’t yet got the book itself – I urge you to. Even if, as an British person, it means getting your head round American cups and sticks – still get it! The book is choc-a-block full of great recipes and stunning photos. And American measures aren’t thaat confusing, especially with a pretty cup measuring set like mine (although I do still have to convert “sticks” of butter to ounces). And it is all the more worth it, if it gives you the chance to make these muffins!

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

[Quick Note: In the book, Dorie says the muffins are best on the day they are made. Sometimes you can stretch these bakes out for a few days or keep safe in a tin and they taste just as great 3 days later. With these though, it really is first day best day. The next day they become heavier and stodgier – so try hard to eat all 12 first day! Trust me, it won’t be hard ;) ]

For the muffins:

· 2/3 cup sugar

· zest and juice of 2 small lemons

· 2 cups all purpose flour

· 2 teaspoons baking powder

· 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 3/4 cup non sour cream

· 2 large eggs

· 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

· 1/2 cup canola oil (optional, I didn’t use)

· 2 tablespoons poppyseeds

For the glaze:

· 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

· 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 400F. Prepare your muffin pan or whatever muffin cooking apparatus you will be using, and place on a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is moist and you can smell the lemon.

3. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.

5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula gently and quickly stir to blend. Do not over-mix. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin cups.

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove them from the tin and let cool to room temperature.

7. To make the glaze, whisk together the icing sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add more lemon juice as needed to get it to the consistency so you can drizzle the glaze over the muffins (I recommend putting a big sheet of cling-film under the muffins at this point to catch all the soft icing drips :D).

French Fancies

Something I always enjoy in baking is taking things which nowadays we seem to think are only possible if bought in a shiny packet from the supermarket. Its what inspired the Biscuit Mission, because I wanted to prove that homemade versions are just as good, sometimes better, than shop bought varieties. And of course there is always the plus side that by making homemade you know exactly what’s in everything you are eating. Big name brands which are constantly seen everywhere have sort of lulled us into thinking that certain foodstuffs do have to be made in a big factory somewhere. The brand I was focusing on recently, was Mr Kipling.

I will admit that I have eaten a fair share of Mr. Kipling products in the past – not just the French Fancies, but Cherry Bakewells, Battenberg and cake slices. And I’m not too ashamed to say I have enjoyed them – they are so popular some call them a national favourite. But my likeness of them fades slightly when I see this…

That many ingredients for a Fondant Fancy? And so the quest began to find a way to make them at home. There aren’t many recipes out there, and the ones that are just didn’t seem close enough to the Mr Kipling variety. Most are also under the name “fondant fancy” although not technically using fondant. Eventually, this little gem from BBC Good Food was found, made, eaten, and enjoyed.

First whizz up the chocolate cake base in the mixer.. Cook, cool in the tin, and then cut it into even squares.

Place half a truffle, cut side down, on every cake square.

Smother each cake in dark chocolate icing, and drizzle with extra milk chocolate icing. Find the whole recipe here.

Rather a layering job as you can see, these are a slight kerfuffle! However, according to my taste testing family, they turned out very good! Not for the fainthearted, due to the four different types of chocolate involved, but soft and crunchy and sweet all at the same time! Sadly, not quite the same as Kipling. If anyone knows how to make the icing more fondant-like without being completely hard, and the little mound soft and buttercreamy – please tell me! Until then, enjoy these.

An Award

I was flattered recently to receive the Premios Dardo Award from George at Culinary Travels Of A Kitchen Goddess. It is a great blog run by a Kitchen Goddess indeed: recent kitchen activities include making quiche, delicious ”black bottom” cupcakes, a fabulous Daring Bakers Challenge and home made bread and homemade butter!! If you haven’t yet, head over right now and look – and then come back to this post!

George says:

“I have managed to find that Premios Dardo translates from Spanish to mean Dart Award in English and that it can really mean one of two things when given to a blogger:T

1. This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day. 
2. The Premios Dardo is designed to recognize unique voices and visions on the Web as well as to promote fraternization amongst bloggers of all sorts.”

Sounds great! Thank you again! The five deserving blogs I shall pass this award onto are:

1. Ash at Butterflyfood
2. Jessy of apparentlyjessy
3. Aimee at Under The High Chair
4. Steph of Obsessed With Baking
5. Jules at Domestic Goddess In Training

I was also lucky enough to be tagged in a memo, and receive a wonderful gift in the post, and make a delicious tart- all of which will have to wait until next post!

Gingerbread Women

Hmmph. It seems my scheduled posting didn’t happen, so my Easter post did not post itself whilst I was away. Ah well, lets just say I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and I enjoyed seeing everyone else’s Easter bakes. Moving on..
So often we end up baking or even eating things which don’t give us that thrill or make you smile when you pick it up from the plate. You may cook for your family, making their favourite dishes, and not for you. Or work at a restaurant producing so many of the same dish the fun eventually fades from it, or you are cooking multi-component but soul less desserts from the same menu day in, day out. Baking, for me, should ALWAYS be about relaxing and having fun in the kitchen making all our favourite treats. Sure, sometimes a big experiment with fancy new techniques and billions of dishes and ingredients make you feel extremely proud and satisfied at the end, but not always. Sometimes we want something a bit simpler, something just to make us happy or evoke happy memories in your mind! So next time you are in the kitchen why not make a bunch of cookies that smile back at you from the baking sheet…

Or hold hands together….
Or even reach out and wave at you..
Some gorgeous gingerbread women for instance!(Yes, its a feminine bunch: I couldn’t find my man cutter). Ok, so gingerbread is mainly thought of as a Christmas flavour but I was flicking through a cookbook trying to find something quick to bake and these just jumped out at me :) Soft gingery biscuit and the chewy raisins and sultanas make for a blissful munch !
A few years ago, it was a Saturday morning and my parents were trying to persuade me to get the weekend papers for them and I was steadfastly refusing! The shop is only at the top of the road so I’m not too sure why but thats 11year olds for you :) In the end I got them to agree to a compromise: I would go as long as I got an extra 50p for a breakfast treat from the bakery. Deal! And so began my love for the gingerbread women.
The recipe I used comes from the sole cookbook my Daddy is proud to call his own: The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. He probably cooked all his meals from it before he met my Mummy! Its actually very good and I have never cooked from it before these. So, if your kitchen baking needs a smile: here’s the recipe!
Gingerbread Men (/Women) from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book.
Ingredients: 350g (12oz) plain flour
5ml (1 level tsp) bicarbonate of soda
10ml (2 level tsp) ground ginger
100g (4oz) butter
175g (6oz) soft light brown sugar
60ml (4level tbsp) golden syrup
1 egg, beaten
currants, to decorate
1. Grease three baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 190’C (375’F).
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl. Rub the butter into this until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
3. Beat the syrup into the egg and stir into the bowl. Mix to form a dough and knead until smooth.
4. Divide into two and roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 0.5cm (1/4inch) thick. Using a gingerbread man cutter cut out figures and place them gingerly (HA!) on the baking sheet. Decorate with currants.
5. Bake in the oven for 6-12 minutes until golden. Cool slightly then place on a wire rack.

Running With Bourbons

Recently, I have taken up the habit of going for a thirty minute run most days after school and twice at the weekend. I run not to lose weight but to simply get fitter! Also, running along a riverside on a summery day can be quite lovely :) And after a good run, one of my new bake is perfect…

Bourbon biscuits! Yes, we are back to the Biscuit Mission. I just couldn’t stay away when bourbons to me are the staple of the biscuit tin (along with custard creams). The bourbon was created in 1910 by the biscuit company Peek Freans (who also first commercially sold the Garibaldi biscuit) and is named after the House of Bourbon, a Spanish family. There is also a very funny article instructing you on how to eat a bourbon, on the correct terms for bourbon eaters (I am a bourbonette :) ) here. All interesting, but the most important fact is that bourbons are oh-so-good! Two chocolate biscuits sandwiched together with a soft chocolate cream – what’s not to like?

I knew from the beginning of my Biscuit Mission that I needed to make bourbons but it took a bit of searching to find a recipe. I could have just made up a rough chocolate cookie and buttercream filling, but I wanted to get as close to the original texture and taste as possible of the bourbons in the shops. I was fairly pleased with the results, and my family definitely loved them. However I was looking for more of a crunch and neater filling: both of which are found in the Sainsbury's ones and are sadly probably due to a bunch of added nasty stuff. Overall, pretty good, but could be improved :)
Bourbon Biscuits
Ingredients (Biscuits):
1lb plain flour
2oz cocoa powder
2 level tsp baking powder
8oz butter (softened)
8oz sugar
4tbsp golden syrup
Filling: 4oz melted plain chocolate
8oz icing sugar
a few drops vanilla extract
a little water
Method:
1. Set oven to Gas Mark 3/ 160°C/ 325°F.
2. Sift cocoa, flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl cream together butter and sugar. When fluffy add the golden syrup.
3. Add the mixture to the flour, cocoa and baking powder mixture then knead together. It may take a while to become doughy but keep at it and it will come together.
4. Grease some greaseproof paper and line a baking tray with it. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about ¼ inch. Sprinkle a very small amount of flour onto the dough to stop it sticking. When it is spread across the tray sprinkle a little sugar over the top, and roll over the dough once more to set the sugar grains into it.
5. Cut the dough into fingers, then prick with a fork a couple of times. Bake for 15 approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven and go over the cuts. Leave in tray until almost cool, then transfer onto wire rack.