Red Velvet Layer Cake

I heart red velvet cakes.

And if you read my blog often, you'd know that i've had several failed attempts. Usually due to the fact that i used an entirely different food colouring (green or orange) so they came out a rather attractive colour suitable for the loo. Mmm..

A very nice grandma of one my housemates (Lizzie), gave me the rest of her Sugarflair red food colouring paste- this was like my holy grail. My passageway into the age of successful red velvet baking.

I couldn't wait to bake this baby.

I used the Red Velvet Layer Cake recipe from Bea's of Bloomsbury's "Tea with Bea" book.

And once again, (i think im making a habit of this) i took many a photo.

This was everything that went into the cake mix. That's homemade buttermilk in the jug on the left there, to be combined with the red wine vinegar and baking powder as the raising agents. And the oil is used for fat instead of butter.

In action... oh you can kinda see me in the handle there- "OH Hi!"

This was when i cut my finger... Ahhhhhhh just kidding. Food colouring paste in :P

As red as my mixer

Slightly out of focus... cake batter in the tin before baking...

AFTER BAKING!! Giant, bouncy and red.

As I've never really made a layer cake before, the prospect of having to divide this rather shallow cake into 3 layers made me break out in a cold sweat... But i was determined to be brave and to be honest i couldn't talk to anyone while i did it... each slice turned out to be 1cm thick.

one slice down, one more to go...

I think i had to have a nap at this stage... So. Much. Stress.

So i was advised to make this particular cream cheese frosting in this recipe. AND MY GOD. Was it the best advice ever.

Normally, i find cream cheese frostings a little too heavy and actually a little sour.. (no my cheese wasn't off). But this alternative frosting had special additions of mascarpone and whipping cream so it was SUPER light and creamy- it was like eating ACTUAL AIR.

I had to stop myself nomming it all right there and then.

You basically just first whipped the cream to a soft peak consistency before blending the cheeses together with icing sugar and vanilla essence. And then you fold in the cream so that it still has a really light and airy texture. 

Beautiful.

I definitely think i'll be using this cream cheese frosting instead of the one i have been previously.

Sandwiching done

This is the first time i've managed to completely cover a cake in frosting comfortably. I also think it's my best looking one! That doesn't say much about my decorating skills!! haa..

Looking pretty plain..

I had some leftover frosting so i thought i'd get fancy with the piping nozzles.. These were just tests.. Still an amateur afterall T_T

Attempting to get creative..

Finished frosting..

A little wonky- but we'll just call it rustic :P

I'm very happy with how this cake turned out. Definitely a far cry from my poo coloured cakes from back in the day (okay so maybe a few months ago)

The cake was really moist and indulgent. The light cream cheese frosting really complimented the denseness of the cake. 

It was just all round a really enjoyable thing to bake- especially around this time of year! Red for valentines day.. Bleurghgh...

The only thing i would probably have changed would have been to fold the flour in, instead of just blending it in like the recipe said. I don't know if red velvet's are always just meant to be dense, but as i'm a lover of light spongey things, i think i might try and incorporate more air into the mixture so it might turn out taller- and then be easier to slice into layers later!

Close-up of the super red cake. Excuse the large air bubble. I suppose i managed to get SOME air in in the end, eh?

Pretty darn proud :)

Chicken Pot Pie

This came about as quite a spontaneous thought for dinner yesterday... i've been meaning to make a pie for a while, I want to learn how to make pastry.
But the only thing holding me back was the lack of...

1) a rolling pin
2) baking beans
3) greaseproof paper
4) an actual pie dish.

"Minor details" I told myself.

Now, i know chicken pot pie is so very American but i loved the sound if it- nice cosy chicken and veg in a creamy sauce all in beautiful shortcrust pastry- oh yes, which i totally made myself!

So i did a bit of a rebellion.

I took this loverly recipe for the filling (adding in mushrooms also, looking back i would have opted for some leek too) and then took the shortcrust pastry recipe from Mary Berry's Great British Bake Off book.

Only later did i reach a slight dilemna..

Oh, and my housemate got a bit snap happy with the old camera- so once again, you'll get a horrifically in-depth view of, well, everything..

FIRST, i made the filling, as according to the pastry recipe, the filling should be cold. So i thought, whilst the filling cools- that's when i'd make the case.

Military operation- ingredient preparation

I'll tell you now that i got a bit confused by the filling recipe and ended up boiling my chicken in actual stock. So it had twice the chickeny flavour- amazing!!

Shredding the life out of this chicken breast

veg cooked (lovely steamy sweaty pic)

sauce made by rue method and adding the super chickeny chicken stock, rosemary, thyme and plenty of pepper.

So the pastry begins..

rubbing in the butter- trying to be careful not to warm it up too much..

Wait, are those, breadcrumbs?!!

Err... Yep! ^_^.. Super crumbly and short.

Rolling out the pastry after chilling... Student Stylie

Super proud that it managed to fit and look half-decent. 

Okay, so this is where it got a bit confusing.

Let me try to explain:

So this afternoon i was saying to Lizzie (the housemate) "I can't make a pie because you need to blind bake the base first, I think. And for this, i need greaseproof paper, which i've run out of, and baking beans which i don't have"

What i later found out, is that for Mary Berry's recipe for shortcrust pastry- it doesn't require blind baking at all!! Hooray!!

BUT.

The filling they used in the book looks super thick and hardly liquidy at all- and mine looks quite saucy.

Hence, if i don't do a blind bake, I was scared the pastry wouldn't cook/be horrifically soggy.

And noone, especially Mary Berry, likes a soggy bottom.

So, i came to the decision that i needed to do a blind bake... but with what?!!

..To cut a long story short, i used foil and rice. Hmm..

Damn student lyfff... 

I'll tell you now, that it did kind of work.

With a little help from Lizzie, We had to lay down the foil on the table, before tipping rice on it and then popping it (carefully) ontop of the pastry, to try and minimise foil stabbage.

Luckily, the pastry was safe and it survived a pretty impressive blind bake, just the bottom looked a little sweaty but besides that, pretty happy.

The only problem was that after my blind bake, I then put the filling in.

And then i put the pie top on.

OH! But what's this?!! The pie dish is hot! O_O

And my pastry pie top is err... melting...

Melting so fast that i couldn't make my pie pretty and crimp it :'((( And that was meant to be the fun part!

I also couldn't take a picture- i had to just shove it in the oven and hope for the soggy best.

To be honest i don't think this looks too bad for my first pie. The edges look black and burnt but i can reassure you it wasn't. Damn lying camera. I swear!

So the pastry shrunk, but the pastry all round was flakey, short and crumbly :)

The base I think, was definitely worth the blind bake, it was stable and crispy. It wasn't as crumbly though, but nonetheless it was edible :)

And that's always a plus.

I had my pie with rosemary and sage mash :) Omernomnom..

And if you're my boyfriend, you mash it all within an inch of its life. My poor poor pastry T_T

I think next time, I'll just do a pastry top and not a pastry case. The filling to pastry ratio was slightly lacking. But overall, a very tasty endeavor.

Raspberry & White Chocolate Cookies

These are so far, my favourite cookies to make. So very quick, and easy, requires no chilling, and best of all, it's an eggless dough which means i can have a cheeky mid-mix nibble ^_^

the secret? Nestle Carnation Condensed Milk. I use the recipe that they have on their website which can be found here.

EVERYTIME.
Everytime, the cookies come out amazing, a super gooey soft middle and a bit of crunch on the outside. And i love how the raspberries flatten and seep into the rest of the cookie so it kind of looks like it has a red line of jam in the centre of the cookie (i really should have taken a picture...)

These take no time at all and they always come out cookie shaped :) (which is a hard thing for me to achieve... Cookies by Chrissi like to spread EVERYWHERE).

I actually made these 2 days in a row because i had extra raspberries and condensed milk leftover... and also in the first batch i had 20 and then i checked the next morning and i had 4 left.

The housemates demand cookies and who am i to deny them?
Especially if i get to whip out the old (actually new) Kmix.

a few of them cooling

Obviously it isn't really the season for raspberries so they were a bit pricier but i'm a summer girl and i needed something to perk me up during this horribly cold and windy weather..

So anyway, if any of you have any time, some random raspberries and condensed milk lying around, i URGE YOU to make these!! Bloody amaze.

Blueberry Muffins

So, i woke up this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, nice and early. And the sun was shining?!!
A question mark. That's right.
Because it's England, crappy England where noone knows what sunshine looks like and all the girls happen to get glorious orange skin from the rain water.
So anyway, with this brightening up my mood SIGNIFICANTLY, i grabbed the nearest unfortunate housemate and trotted off the supermarket to buy some blueberries.
Because who doesn't like waking up the smell of freshly baked blueberry muffins for breakfast??

Noone.
That's who.

Everyone knows i'm not the tidiest baker. I get a bit over-excited and i make a mess with my hands shaking with spoonfuls of batter in anticipation whilst i watch through the oven door.
(which by the way, i don't know why i do, since our oven door is totally a mirror. and therefore useless to see how any of your food is cooking. But at least you can check out your hair and see how much of a twat you look like still holding 2 battered spoons and muffin mix on your face.)

everyone likes a diagonal cake photo don't they? well i do. you must all know that by now.

in fact, i like it so much, that i took two!

I love when i'm able to bake in the morning because it's sunny. It means i can take rather attractive photos and i don't need that garish horrible flash. 

Having said that, i don't in the slightest have any eye for photography.

So i apologise for my amateur "look how AHMAYZING my cakes are" photos.

Besides that, my muffins were lurrvly especially when warm. Had a nice crisp top and a gooey centre... this may have been because of a generous blueberry overload (see last picture). 

I also thought they were a little on the small side, maybe that's because i'm greedy.. so i thought with the second batch, i would fill them a little more... maybe just a smidge...

errrr... no. Well the others to be fair, don't look THAT bad... it's just those siamese ones reaching out to all the others... So this is what happens when i get greedy and over-excited. You get explosion cake.

OMG- it looks like something died in my cake!

This was after i took a bite out, it was sooo soft and gooey. I'm sorry about the flash making the cake look anaemic, i was nomming it down, i couldn't be bothered to get a plate and take a lovely picture, so i used the dreaded flash.

As you can see, it was a massive blueberry mess inside. I guess you can say i didn't skimp one bit on the blueberriness of my blueberry muffins... but still..

they should probably be called Blueberry Bombs. I mean, look at them.

What a deliciously gooey purple mess.

Two Chocolate Zebras

These super fancy looking shortbreads were the least stressful things to bake. Honestly. And i think they are the best biscuits i've EVER made, they're not overbaked or hard in the slightest, and has all the richness of white and dark chocolate. Beautiful with a a cuppa.

raw and ready for the oven

Unfortunately it didn't make as many as Mary Berry said it would. 40. It probably would have made 40 if i had a ruler and epic rolling out skills, but there's only so much a student can do with a smirnoff bottle. But it kinda turned out as a blessing in disguise as my housemate got creative and used the off-cuts to make cute little animals, letters and a rather unflattering portrait of what she thought my face looks like. I let her look after these, so her's were left in for a little too long and a bit overdone. But nonetheless, a lot more fun that mine :)

fresh out of the oven

close-up of my babies coolin'

Lizzie's (the housemate)... yep, that burnt face in the top left is meant to be me.. Cheers Lizzie.

looking pretty glam in the tin :)... minus a few *nom nom* :x

Lemon Drizzle Loaf

After Christmas and the lovely event of a fresh new year with a shiny student loan, i decided to splurge my money on two things (well maybe 4...5.. maybe 8):

It took a lot for me to fork out for this kMix but i love it lots!... as a student i can't yet afford a KitchenAid but this beautiful thing will do in the mean time :), a long with the books i also invested in some other bits and pieces, new cake tins, a flan tin... yeah.

Anyway, to test out the books, i thought i'd make something slightly different to what i've done before, something that i've always wanted to make, and that is super damn tasty.

I decided to try out the Lemon Drizzle Loaf recipe from tea with Bea. Unfortunately, i hadn't yet received my kMix so it was still made with the trusty hand mixer.

With the new information and tips i've gathered from these new books, i now had different things to remember to do before i bake i.e. making sure the butter and eggs are room temp., mixing eggs and sugar as soon as they mix etc... So with this recipe, as long as i remembered to zest my lemons and juice them before hand, line my loaf tin, it was pretty simple to follow recipe, as an easy "bung all together and expect beautiful results."

The only thing that went wrong with this for me, was that the loaf tin wasn't quite big enough, so the cake took nearly twice as long to cook, it was a little caught on the outside too. However, the inside of the cake was SOOO MOIST, spongey and lemony. And the extremely sweet drizzle coating helped to lift the slight bitterness of any little burnt bits.

the colour isn't right at all on this picture, apologies. but the cake was really light! ^_^

But besides that, this loaf was perfect with a cup of tea and gone in 2 days! Next time, if someone arrives out of the blue for a cup of tea, i will definitely be whipping this baby out again!