Mini Party Cottage Pies

Hi there!

Merry Chrimmy to all! Apologies to everyone for the really orange picture up ahead, it's the only picture we managed to get of the puppies before all 36 were nommed.

The story goes that the cousins gather after christmas (this being boxing day) to have a big old christmas party with lots of drink and food, and to make fairs fair, we all bring a dish or a little something to contribute, made or not.

I decided to make something... And not only that, I wanted to make something DAIRY FREE!
Why? You ask?
One of my cousins is lactose intolerant and I always feel bad that she can't quite punch down as much food as everyone else, so I took advantage of her disadvantage and accepted the challenge. I've also never ever made anything dairy free before.

The mini cottage pies had a dairy free shortcrust pastry shell, filled with all your cottagey goodness of mince, gravy, carrots and peas, and then piped with mash on top (dairy free also!) sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked in the oven. *drrooooooollll*

These went down an effing STORM!

Ho yes, baby. No one could tell that there wasn't ANY butter in it, infact, it made the whole thing slightly lighter, which meant you could swallow as many as you liked... because it's christmas.

So I'll give you the recipe, but just so you know, the measurements aren't all going to be there as I did most of this by eye...

e.g.
Me: "Does this look like enough potatoes for 36 mini cottage pies?"
Sister: "No."
Me: "Oh."

See? So I suggest you do the same.

And the same with the filling, I basically made a enough for a standard 4 serving cottage pie, and again, I make my cottage pie filling different from, I'm sure, a lot of people. This is just my take on how to make my party cottage pies, extra RAVIN'. I also made it the night before so it was cold enough and had thickened up for filling.

The dairy free pastry recipe I got is from allrecipes.co.uk doubled, it was the only one i could find that was near enough to shortcrust pastry and in metric measures... which helps ya'know?

Mini Cottage Pies
makes approx. 36

You will need: 3 x 12 hole fairy cake pan (or bun pan if you're Northern)

Pastry
- 520g plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 170g margarine (chilled)
- 150g vegetable shortening
- 120ml cold water
- 2 eggs

Filling
- tbsp olive oil
- 500g lean beef mince
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 1 x onion (chopped)
- 2 x medium carrots (chopped)
- handful of frozen peas
- beef stock cube
- tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp of basil & oregano each
- 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- dash of cayenne pepper
- salt & pepper

Mashed Tatties
- About 6 or 7 big floury potatoes (maris piper?) (chopped into eighths?)
- soya milk
- margarine
- salt & pepper
- small handful of breadcrumbs

Here We Go!

1) So make your filling the night before: Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions for about 5 mins until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another minute.

2) Add mince. When it's browned and crumbly, add the tomato puree, dried herbs and crumble in the stock cube. Stir. Add the flour and stir again until thick. Pour over some water until it's all just covered and leave to simmer for about 15 mins. Stir occasionally and add more water if it looks like it needs it. You're aiming for a thick gravy sauce, not runny.

3) Add cayenne pepper, worcestershire sauce, carrots and peas and simmer for a further 5 mins. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mix into a bowl and leave to cool at room temperature and when cold, put in the fridge until tomorrow.

4) Make the pastry: In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut in the margarine and vegetable shortening until it reaches a breadcrumb-like texture (or rub it together if you're sure you've got very cold hands).

5) Slowly and gradually add the cold water, mixing in until it forms a smooth ball of dough.

6) Form the pastry into a baton shape and wrap tightly in cling film. Put in the fridge for minimum 20 mins.

7) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C and boil water for the potatoes. Once it's boiled, add some salt and add the potatoes to boil for about 15 mins. Once tender and soft, drain and leave to steam dry for a few mins.

8) Put potatoes back in the pan and add some soya milk (maybe about tbsp?) margarine and salt and pepper to taste. Just do everything by eye. If it looks dry, add more milk, if it tastes like it needs more butteriness. add more marg. Leave to cool.

9) Grease your fairy cake pans. Get the pastry out. Dust surface with flour and roll the pastry out to about 3-5mm thick. Now, I used a cup that was just a bit bigger than the hole in my pan, and used it as a cutter. Cut as many as you can out, and as you go along, press the pastry circles gently into the fairy cake pan. (You can use the offcuts, roll them into a ball and press it into the corners and edges to make sure you don't stab anything with your fingernails!) Prick the bases with a fork.

10) Fill each pastry shell level with cold filling. With a piping bag fitted with a large closed star nozzle, pipe the mashed potatoes on a swirl or in rosettes on top (get creative!) and finish with sprinkled breadcrumbs.

11) Put into the oven for about 50 mins, half way through, turn and switch the trays round so they all bake kind of evenly (keep your eye on them to make sure they don't catch. If they look a little brown, cover the tops with baking paper)

12) If you're brave, tip one pie out and make sure the bottom isn't soggy, if it is, put back in the oven for maybe 5 mins more. Put back in the tin and leave them to cool in the tins.

13) If you get impatient and try and ram them into your mouth when they're hot, there is a large risk you'll burn your tongue. Like i did. Careful yeah?!

Enjoy you party people!

Ju-bi-lu-beeee

Sorry for not being around.
It was a nightmare for this blog- not because my computer broke or a rabid monkeys stole my keyboard.
No it was worse.

My oven broke.

I know, I know, It was tragic. We were ovenless for a whole 3 weeks. But now we have a BOOOOOTTTIFFUULLL shiny new one :) shame, i've only got another month in this house, I wish i could run away to my new house with this new oven. But anyway.

We recently had a garden party to prematurely celebrate the Queen's Jubilee as well as a kind of celebratory graduate party... So i thought it would be a perfect time to bake some patriotic cakes. However, as I was just putting the finishing touches to my project for uni as well as setting up an exhibition, I had minimal time to be creative and serve up an original recipe, so I baked recipes o ut of a book to save time- however, they were things that I haven't made before :) so it was still very exciting.

I decided to make:

Raspberry Trifle Cupcakes (Cake Days- Hummingbird Bakery Book)
and
Melting Moments (The Great British Bake Off Book- Mary Berry)

I will let you know now that I was so strapped for time and energy that I didn't actually get to buttercream and fill my melting moments, so they were a bit of a challenge to eat (imagine eating a jacob's cracker with no water) but nevertheless, they were definitely melty! But err, yeah next time I should really cream them up. Lazy me.

Oh and kudos to my lovely big sister buying me these union jack cupcake cases :)
They were probably the only things that had me itching to be patriotic (for once) teehee.

Here's some happy pictures documenting the experience:

filling the cupcakes- jam, then raspberry, then CUSTARDDDD, then cake, then MORE CUSTARRRD! (then another raspberry)

photos started to get a bit rubbish now as it started to rain. Typical.

Sad cupcake looks onwards at our wet bunting.

Salted Caramel Shortbread

We're all coming up to that dreaded yet desirable stage of  HAND-IN DAY at uni. Soon our degrees will be over and we'll all be galavanting off and making a mockery of ourselves in the grown- up world of grey skies and office ties.

But until then, I thought I'd rustle up a bit of a pick-me-up, just something to make the journey a little bit more bearable for my lovable housemates (aww, ain't I nice?)

No, no I apparently am not, as i seem to want to attack their thighs and bums with these decadent treats so that I may look skinnier than them all!! Mwuahahaa!!!

Ahem.

Moving on, caramel shortbread or millionaire's shortbread has always been a favourite in the house, but I've started a new resolution. Everything I now bake, recipe or no recipe, has to have a twist of my own in it. Whether or not it's original, I must have thought of it organically from my head. This way, I can offer you some really easy recipes to follow, or you can just stare at the (not so) pretty pictures :)

So yesterday, Caramel Shortbread was on my list. And what goes AH-MAY-ZINGLY with caramel?
Chocolate.

And what goes well with chocolate??
Shortbread.

And what is the soulmate of all these ingredients????!!!!
Well, I'm still trying to work this out. But here's me having a guess.

For this recipe, I added sea salt which gave the treat a real moreish taste and it really enhanced the true flavour of the caramel, and not just for the sweetness, which caramel is obviously renowned for.

I'm a real biscuit fiend, so i made sure the base of shortbread was pretty substantial! I feel that with the other toppings being so sweet, it really helps to have that buttery (biscuit) base to even out the sticky sweet feeling you get when you're teeth are melting.

Either way, you feel way smarter and sophis(ticated) eating these, because of course, THESE ones have salt in!!

Salted Caramel Shortbread


Shortbread

• 350g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 220g butter

Caramel

• 175ml condensed milk
• 110g butter
• 110g brown sugar
• 2 level tbsps golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp of crushed sea salt

Chocolate

• 200g plain chocolate (or you can go for milk if you find plain too dark)

You'll need:

• 8 x 8 x 1 inch baking tin

Here's what to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/ gas 4.
2. Grease your tin and line it with a strip of baking paper so that it hangs over 2 of the edges.
3. Sift the flour and sugar together into a bowl, add the butter and rub it in, til it forms a fine breadcrumb texture.
4. (This is where I'm obviously very lazy and have no really method to doing this, but do it this way and it'll still work :P) Pull the dough into a ball. Tear off parts and press into the base of the tin firmly, until the whole base is covered with no cracks or holes. Make sure to get it right to the edges.
5. Bake for about 15-20 mins or until it start's turning a light golden brown, but still has a very slight softness (it'll harden up as it cools). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
6. Once it's cool, start to make the caramel. Put all ingredients for the caramel (APART FROM THE VANILLA) into a thick-bottomed pan. Stir over a low heat until it starts to boil. Cook for about 6-7 mins, stirring to prevent it from burning. If it looks like a golden brown, thick, gooey mix of awesomeness, Bob's your uncle.
7. Stir in the vanilla and pour over the shortbread base and leave to cool.
8. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Pour and spread this over the caramel layer. Sprinkle over some sea salt for luck and leave to cool.
9. YOU MUST WAIT UNTIL IT'S COOL. Otherwise, you won't have any left for later.
10. Loosen up the edges of the tray bake with a palette knife. Lift it out using the two over-hanging sides of baking paper. Cut up into bars and scoff until the cows come home.

OMMER NOM NOM!!!

Mini Raspberry & Lemon Bakewell Tarts

Still on my quest to finding the perfect pensioners party treat, I found a super cute looking tart recipe in "The Great British Bake Off- How To Bake" book. This one being for a mini blueberry bakewell tart recipe. 

They looked perfect! and just enough pretty and not too pretentious. The only problem is that i'm not a huge fan of blueberries, I don't think they really have much taste... Maybe it's just a problem I have :/..

Also, the weather recently has definitely not been optimum for celebratory occasions. So i thought i'd do my own filling, and bring a little sunshine to a very grey and miserable Matlock. (that's where the party was).

I'm all about the raspberries at the moment, and teaming it with lemon really sings out summer and sweetness to me. The result was brilliant, the raspberries were sweet and slightly tart which cut through the sweet almond of the frangipane. And lemon gave the pastry case a zingy, fruity hint.

Even people that were self- proclaimed bakewell tart haters ate more than one! And it was a big hit with the kiddies- so that's gotta be good :)

I'm a bit of a skimper when it comes to decorating, as i usually just wanna stuff them all into my mouth as soon as they come out of the oven... So i'm sure anyone else that follows this recipe can be way more creative!

I wouldn't say this is entirely my recipe as I just adapted my fillings and frills into Mary Berry's recipe. So here it is:

Mini Raspberry & Lemon Bakewell Tarts (makes 12)


Jam

• 125g raspberries
• 1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar (add an extra tbsp if you have more of a sweet tooth)
• A squeeze of lemon juice

Pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 100g unsalted butter, chilled
• 40g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 large egg, beaten
• Zest of 1 lemon

Frangipane

• 55g unsalted butter, softened
• 55g caster sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 40g ground almonds
• 15g plain flour
• Zest of 1 lemon

To Decorate

• 50g icing sugar
• Dribble of water
• Drop of pink food colouring

You'll need

• 1 x 5cm round cutter (I used a cup to cut with, approx. the same size as the base of the holes in the tray)
• 12 hole muffin tray

Here's what to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / gas 3.
2. Gently heat the ingredients for the jam in a small saucepan. Stir occasionally until the berries lose their watery appearance and the jam becomes thick. Press the jam through a sieve to remove the seeds and leave to cool completely.
3. Sift the flour into a medium bowl and rub in the chilled butter until it forms a fine breadcrumb texture. (Make sure your hands are never too warm when dealing with pastry, as it will result in a tougher pastry, and it won't be as crumbly). Stir in the sugar, and then using a palette knife, cut in the beaten egg. Press the dough into a ball and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for at least 30 mins.
4. Roll out the pastry between a sheet of greaseproof paper and the clingfilm until about 3mm thick. Use the cutter or a cup (like i did) to cut out 12 discs and line the bases of the muffin tray. Cut 12  strips of pastry about 1cm wide and 20cm long, and use these to line the sides of the muffin holes, carefully pressing together with the bases so they seam. Chill again for 15 mins.
5. Beat all the ingredients for the frangipane in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and well combined.
6. Prick the bases of the pastry cases with a fork. Divide the cooled jam among them and top with frangipane. Bake for about 25 mins, or until the frangipane is risen and golden. Cool in the tray for a few minutes, transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
7. Mix up the icing sugar ingredients until it forms a firm yet runny paste, capable of drizzling, and drizzle over the tarts.

Rhubarb & Strawberry Crumb Bars

In two weeks time, I've been invited to meet my boyfriend's grandma for the first time at her 90th birthday party...

I'm crapping myself a little bit, since I haven't yet had a chance to meet the extended family! So a good impression is needed, and impressions means gifts- because I can't very well turn up empty handed, can I?

I was going to buy some flowers as a nice gesture, but for some reason the boyfriend is less than partial to the idea...

So the only other thing I can think of is to bake something. Which stresses me out even more, since I'm pretty sure a large majority of all the ladies at this event have done their fair share of baking, and I don't fancy embarrassing myself, trying to impress with the skills that are less than comparable to theirs :(

So, after getting over the initial shock of what I was about to throw myself into, deciding what to bake was the next challenge.

Cake?
A bit too cliche for a birthday party... And i'm pretty sure there'll be cake there.

Biscuits?
They're a bit boring, I don't want to look like a plain jane.

Cookies?
There will be old people, and I'm pretty sure cookies are a little overrated for them.

A traybake.
This is what I've settled on. It's just a matter of finding out which one will last the journey, presentation-wise and texture-wise (since I'll probably want to make it the day before).

So starts the beginning of my short experiment til the event, to find out which effing traybake to make!!!

...Trying to dance this confusion around my final major project for uni is an absolute nightmare.

I opted for a rather attractive looking Rhubarb & Strawberry Crumb Bar tray bake. I found the recipe off of foodgawker. The original recipe is found here. Her's definitely look a lot more palatable than mine, and i forgot to dust mine off with icing sugar -_-' D'oh!!

I think going down the fruit route is better than say, choosing a millionaires shortbread- it's more summery and I think people can eat more of it if it's not too rich.

Anyway, the recipe was pretty standard to follow, the only thing i was unfamiliar with was:
1) cooking with rhubarb, and
2) putting icing sugar into a cake mix

I was actually quite skeptical about using icing sugar in the cake batter, worrying it would be too sweet, but surprisingly, it turned into a very light and bouncy sponge cake! My housemates compared it to the weirdly bouncy sponge cakes you get in the shops that you don't usually get at home. So that's gotta be a plus.

Another thing i was worried about was the size of the rhubarb the recipe said to cut it to (half an inch). I understand that if you undercook rhubarb, it's very stringy and pretty inedible, and putting it raw into the cake.... ughh i dunno.. So attempting to avoid disaster at all costs, I chopped it all into quarters of inches, just to make sure. I don't know whether that was a better idea or not but either way, the rhubarb cooked all the way through and was soft and sweet, and the strawberries gave it a satisfying mush :)

The crumble topping is pretty self-explanatory, except, to the EXTREME. There was a lot of it, and when you pick up a slice, it just falls apart everywhere- it was bloody delicious though, even more so if i'd sprinkled some sugar on top before i baked it, I reckon. But because of the crumble value, I don't think it would make the cut for Grandma's birthday. I have a feeling I'll get there, take off the lid and there's just a apocalypse of crumble and giant red mush.

It was a pretty successful bake otherwise, very tasty, and I reckon it'll be even nicer cold.
It's just a shame it didn't look as nice as the original recipes. How did they get their's so red?!! :( Boo...
Oh, and next time, I'd put the mix into a bigger tin, these slices were pretty tall and mighty.

not the most attractive picture, but just so you can have a look at the squidginess (sp?!)

I'll need to look for something just as fruity, more robust but still as light as these..

The search continues..

Dark Chocolate Tart

So i've been working "really hard" for my final year at uni. And today, me and Lizzie just weren't feeling it.

No work for us today, thanks.

I had an amazing work-free day. Not quite relaxing, but more fulfilling, productive and decadent.

Decadent? I hear you say? Well yes let me explain.

As a thank you for the birthday cupcakes I made for Lizzie's mum, I was taken to Nisbets and treated to some equipment. "SQWEEEEE!!" said I. And i bought a rather attractive palette knife and some baking beans, perfect for the dark chocolate tart I had decided to make later.

After this little trip, we went to a small town nearby called Moseley, and lost ourselves in an extremely cute Delicatessen and were "Ooooooh!"ing and "Ahhh..."ing at all the diverse ingredients. And then we saw these beautiful little Italian pastries in the window. I'm still not quite sure what they were, they were very crispy pastry, filled with different flavours. I chose a lemon and custard and Lizzie opted for a safe chocolate.

They were bloody tasty morsels, I could have had 10 in my mouth if i had the chance.

With our mouths covered in flaky pastry, we glanced across the road to see a cafe bakery, selling fresh bread and even had a garden area. Unfortunately, we were running short on time but promised to go another day :( boohoo..

So we got home, and i got my head down and started following a recipe I'd been meaning to do for a while. Dark chocolate tart from the Primrose Bakery book. And whilst I baked, Lizzie was turning the kitchen upside down for a thorough spring clean. So apologies if you can see some clutter.

I've never made sweet pastry before, so i was trying to be super careful and gentle and make sure my hands were cool at all times.

And i think it's fair to say, it turned out pretty spot on! For a first time, I was pretty thrilled :)

sweet pastry pre-chilling

When I rolled out/ pushed the pastry out, i was quite nervous about the whole thing cracking and disintegrating. I followed the technique advised and just pushed the rolling pin into the pastry to form ridges, turned it round and continued, til it was about the width of a 50p coin.

Getting into the tin was the hardest part, this pastry was seriously prone to cracking. I managed to slide the tin under just in time. But i did have to do some surgical patching up work.

And as i have nails, i pushed the pastry into the sides using a balled up spare bit of pastry. 

Look! you can see my new palette knife! I also brought my rolling pin back from home. No more smirnoff bottles for me!

Using my classy new baking beans ^_^ simple pleasures for simple student

I then patiently waited until my pastry case was all blind-baked. It needed maybe 5 more mins than stated in the recipe, but that's because my oven is very temperamental.

my first sweet pastry blind-baked! i'm quite happy :) minimal shrinkage.

a fuzzy close-up of the edge

Next, was to make the filling. Using copious amounts of Green & Blacks, double cream and butter. O_O"

I only faced one problem when making the filling. After heating the cream, you're meant to add it to the cut up butter and chocolate and stir to melt it.

I hadn't cut up the chocolate properly in preparation (as the book didn't state! but then again i should have known -_-)

So it didn't melt properly so i had to heat it over the steam of some simmering water.

And that's when the whole thing split. The oil was just sat on the top and the bottom was just like curdled chocolate.

I just couldn't come to terms with just loosing 450g of pricey chocolate, so i got out the electric whisk and forced it back together. And thankfully, it worked.

Thank God. Disaster adverted.

Looking pretty shiny- left to set for 2 hours

I then dusted it with cocoa. Forgot to move my sieve to, so i had a massive clump in the middle. WHOOPS!

close-up of the side

Me and 2 of my housemates shared this after dinner. 

IT WAS SOOO GOOOOOD especially served with leftover double cream and strawberries.

But the title doesn't lie, it was extremely dark.

And the pastry was short and crumbly :) no soggy bottoms here, Mary Berry!

I seem to be a fan of my close-ups.

And that was about it for today, besides painting our nails, watching X-men and having a bubble bath :)

Me having a bubble bath by myself that is.

Also, Hollie my housemate tried her hand at some food styling... The lighting is a little off, as by now it was evening. But either way, she did a much better job than I could ever do!

Italian Buttercream

I've been sooooo busy! to the point, that i leave blogging for so long that i forget to even know what to write when i come round to it!!

Well last week, i was commissioned by the same friends as always, to bake her mum some cupcakes for her birthday- all experiences are good ones!

We decided on a super chocolatey sponge (naturally i suggested the buttermilk sponge that worked so well last time.) teamed with an italian buttercream- both recipes found from tea with Bea.

attempting to create less mess

piping my buttermilk poos

My funny little doggy poos

my nakie sponges

Now, i've NEVER made italian buttercream before, and never made anything quite so technically challenging. I even bought a sugar thermometer for the occasion.

Unfortunately,  i wasn't even able to take many pictures of the actual buttercream being made as i was so stressed out on keeping my eye on the thermometer, i totally forgot :(

There were ups, and there were downs. More downs in my view, but then i'm a pessimist :P

So as this blog is more a diary of my successes and failures, let me tell you what happened (what i can remember anyway)...

So it all started well at the beginning, me happily separating out my egg whites and popping them into the mixer with the other ingredients and whizzing it up into a soft peak meringue- all good so far.



After this, i seem to remember making my sugar syrup, adding my precise measurements of golden syrup, egg yolks and caster to a saucepan, then brushing the sides (as advised!) with clean water to dislodge any rogue grains. Check.

Then i popped it on the heat to start boiling. Cue stress.

I wasn't sure whether to stir the sugar or not, as i remember that you're not meant to with some sugar recipes (caramel is it?) i can't remember. Anyway, i did timid little stirs and shakes as i didn't want it to burn.

I'm sure those that are more technically able might be able to see where i'd have gone wrong!!

So as soon as the syrup was boiling, i popped in the thermometer and read the temp. But "Mon Dieu!" the thermometer barely reached the surface of the sugar?!! because it's in a metal casing. So i had to do a little bit of a tilt the saucepan and try and read the temp.

As soon as the temp read 120C- well into soft ball stage, i took it off the heat.

Now, the recipe says to let it cool for a bit before you add it to your whites, but i wasn't sure just how cool it had to be? and by now, it was starting to set and soon i wouldnt be able to get it out of the pan! So i thought i'd put it in.

And soon, my beautiful soft beaked meringue became flat. I don't know if that's normal but it made me a little bit sad, because in the pictures, it still looks pretty airy.

Also, the sugar in the saucepan had strands. And i thought to myself, threading sugar requires less heat than softball... did i not heat it enough or is that normal?!

Obviously, having never made this, or seen anyone make it, i seriously started to doubt myself.

So i whisked up my meringue (until it cooled slightly), but this is again when i had troubles.

Do i seriously just whisk until it's cold?!! Meringue breaks up if you over-whisk it and i didn't want that to happen, so i just whisked it until it was as far as it would probably go and left it to go a bit cooler, before adding the butter.

And of course, with my luck, the butter melted the entire thing.

And i now had scrambled eggs.

I wanted to cry. So i put it in the fridge for an hour to let the butter go harder.

After that, I changed the attachment on my mixer, and whacked it on high and forced it back together again. Which resulted in a light, but rather yellow looking buttercream. Not at all like the one in the picture. Infact, it just looked like the normal buttercream you make with icing sugar and butter.



D'oh!

I had no choice but to use it. And it tasted just like butter. Like i was eating an actual block of butter.

My friend insisted it was fine and we just smeared it on the cupcakes. And i'll tell you why.



Because when i tried to pipe it on, it separated and slide everywhere.

Shame, because italian buttercream was not made for the smear.

I definitely.

did not.

make it right.

But at least they look okay.

Chocolate Buttermilk Sponge with Cookies & Cream Buttercream (Cookie Apocalypse)

This week, my sister came to stay with me- and since we both love a good bake, we decided to make a cake together (nawwwww)...

We decided on making a rich Chocolate Buttermilk sponge (found from tea with Bea) and pair it with a rich American vanilla buttercream and smashed Maryland cookies into it (mmm, mmmm)

Now we weren't sure what to expect with this buttermilk sponge, since neither of us have really made one, or knew the different between this mix and an average one.

Let me tell you now, that whenever in the future, when i crave to make a chocolate cake, i will FOREVER choose this AMAZING buttermilk sponge recipe. The cake mix looked light, airy and almost mousse-like, and the CRUMB! oh the crumb was INCREDIBLY light and feathery, if you touched the cake it was just the softest!! I can't stop raving about it!

It came out as a beautifully soft and airy sponge, but the taste was rich and fudgey, the sponge melts in your mouth like a brownie... an amazing experience i tell thee!

There was quite a lot of mix for my 8" cake tin, so we managed to make a full batch of cupcakes too! Bonus!! We crumbled up a few and decorated the big cake with a crumb coating- very pretty... shame about the bright red Celebrations box lid i had to put it on -_-'

For the buttercream, it was just a normal american vanilla buttercream (with quite a bit more milk added in as it was supppperrrrrrrrr sweet) and crushed up a packet of cookies and added them in. 

My sister taught me how to put a crumb coating on the cake before properly covering it with the frosting as it was pretty thick and chunky to work with... Something to apply to future layer cake decorations..

Speaking of decorations, we got a bit crazy with another packet of cookies and chucked them all ontop because we wanted to... COOKIE DEVASTATION!!!

Like a beautiful natural cookie disaster.. Nom.

As i said, we had a batch of cupcakes to decorate too so here are some pictures of them

Belgian Blondies

It was a stressful day today... So i thought i'd rustle up something rich, naughty and that would probably give me coronary heart disease in one bite.

I followed the recipe for Belgian Blondies in the "tea with Bea" book.

I've never had these before, but from what i gathered, they're pretty much like white chocolate brownies. But i only like one variety of white chocolate- Green & Blacks. So i had to fork out for this before i could get my hands on them.

Oh, and by the way, i could not BELIEVE how much butter this recipe involved!! Oh well... I guess i can just survive on one slice a week. :(

I think i overdid these on my first try though (forgot to take pictures of the caught sides of the tin)... I got a bit confused, as you set these brownies by leaving them to cool and then shoving in the fridge for 2 hours, so when you take them out of the oven, they're meant to be gooey... so i guess with a little bit of wobble still??

But i got a bit scared as i'm not used to not stabbing everything in sight with a toothpick before i take it out of the oven... Therefore, leaving them in there for a bit too long...

The sides of the batch are still edible though and i conveniently forgot to take pictures of these ones <:D

Anyway, these turned out VERY buttery and VERY rich, and they had a delicious warming from all the vanilla inside the fancy white chocolate- sooooooo tasty but i do feel very guilty after eating a slice...

They kinda reminded me of what shortbread would be like if it was a brownie... (and with more white chocolate)... it had the moreish texture of a soft fudgey brownie and the creaminess of 400 million sticks of butter from 6 billion cows.

All i have to remember for next time is to just trust, and take them out of the goddamn oven earlier!