Baked anything tasty lately?

leahyl

This thread is really giving me the baking bug again! I had stopped for a good while because my brother is getting married next Friday so I would only be tempting myself if I kept it up! I did bake lemon drizzle cake on Sunday - my excuse was that the lemons were about to go off if I didn't use them...:D Bought some into work and my dad devoured some as well

Walter H Price

Banana and Hazelnut bread ... was amazing should have take a pic but it didn't last very long :P

tampopo

I'm having to eat it all myself though. That's the only drawback...

Wellyd

Just made the kinder Bueno fudge from the She Who Bakes blog. It smells so sweet and delicious but I think it's going to be very more-ish so a tiny piece should be enough to keep me satisfied! Waiting patiently til morning for it to set so fingers crossed it will be as tasty as it smells!

bigronnie9

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

No problem

I use a sweet shortcrust pastry for the base:
8 oz of flour
4 oz of butter
2 oz of caster sugar
A large egg

The crumble topping is an Odlums recipe and tastes great. It makes enough for two tarts on dinner plates or a huge crumble in a dish.
6 oz of flour - plain or self raising, I never notice a difference
4 oz of butter
4 oz of soft brown sugar (dark gives a better flavour)
4 oz of porridge oats
I just put it all into a large bowl and rub it all together.

*I stew the rhubarb in the juice of an orange then let it cool, and when I divide it between the two tarts I add the contents of a punnet of strawberries, chopped. I bake them for about 30 minutes at 180C

Got a load of rhubarb from the parents garden (they were trying to get rid of it)... found this recipe, tried it out, success! Went down a treat with everyone, will be calling back up for more rhubarb!


**used shop bought pastry, dont think ive ever baked anything successfully before so wasnt willing to try making some from scratch!

angeldelight

Inspired by this thread I'm having rhubarb crumble this evening!

Dizzyblonde

bigronnie9 wrote: »

Got a load of rhubarb from the parents garden (they were trying to get rid of it)... found this recipe, tried it out, success! Went down a treat with everyone, will be calling back up for more rhubarb!


**used shop bought pastry, dont think ive ever baked anything successfully before so wasnt willing to try making some from scratch!

While there's a glut I usually cut up a load, sprinkle it with sugar and freeze it so we can have a crumble or two in the winter

Malari

bigronnie9 wrote: »

Got a load of rhubarb from the parents garden (they were trying to get rid of it)... found this recipe, tried it out, success! Went down a treat with everyone, will be calling back up for more rhubarb!


**used shop bought pastry, dont think ive ever baked anything successfully before so wasnt willing to try making some from scratch!

My freezer is mainly tubs of rhubarb at the moment for this very reason! I've done crumbles and simple compotes, which I love in porridge.

I might try the tart next time!

SB_Part2

Made some cinnamon buns.

StripedBoxers

SB_Part2 wrote: »

Made some cinnamon buns.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/ocaulfield/IMG_6273%20copy_zpslkhxhu3w.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/ocaulfield/IMG_6277%20copy_zpsqirjacmu.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/ocaulfield/IMG_6282%20copy_zpshuhzi30j.jpg

These look incredible. Any chance you could post up or PM me the recipe for them please?

SB_Part2

StripedBoxers wrote: »

These look incredible. Any chance you could post up or PM me the recipe for them please?

I pretty much just winged it by combining two recipes together. I'll make them again and write down what I'm doing and pm you the recipe.

StripedBoxers

SB_Part2 wrote: »

I pretty much just winged it by combining two recipes together. I'll make them again and write down what I'm doing and pm you the recipe.

Thank you so much, I can't wait to try them

Dizzyblonde

I made a victoria sponge today

Rogueish

I've only just discovered this thread. Can I join!?

Yesterday I made carrot cake muffins - just divided up Rachel Allen's carrot cake recipe from her Bake book. It's the nicest carrot cake I have ever tried and has ruined me for any other. The orange cream cheese icing really sets it off (the book measurements are off though). No pics I'm afraid.

Also a cold tea brack. It is a major hit with my father in-law and was done as a thank you.

Dizzyblonde

Welcome Rogueish

Zelda247

Rogueish wrote: »

I've only just discovered this thread. Can I join!?

Yesterday I made carrot cake muffins - just divided up Rachel Allen's carrot cake recipe from her Bake book. It's the nicest carrot cake I have ever tried and has ruined me for any other. The orange cream cheese icing really sets it off (the book measurements are off though). No pics I'm afraid.

Also a cold tea brack. It is a major hit with my father in-law and was done as a thank you.

I love Cold Tea brack, I use the Odlems recipe.

Rogueish

Zelda247 wrote: »

I love Cold Tea brack, I use the Odlems recipe.

Me too. I find that it is very forgiving if you want to add in extra fruit, reduce sugar or increase overall quantity. Also quite nice if you want to add in a glug of whiskey to the tea when soaking the fruit.

Rogueish

I made Faiths' Sweet Fruit Scones from the cooking club yesterday. It made 17 good size scones. I had visitors over Saturday evening and we had them with strawberry jam, whipped cream, fresh sliced strawberries and fresh coffee. The kids loved them. They were all gone by yesterday evening.

The kids (especially the 3yo) gave out to me this morning because they were all gone. I'll definitely be baking another batch before the end of the week!

Tree

Coffee and walnut cake to impress the in-law's. Reckon I did a good job

Zelda247

that looks divine!

Dizzyblonde

I would literally kill for a slice of that right now

dee_mc

http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/dee-mc/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-08/20160807_200830_zpsxapojjyd.jpg.html
My first major tiered wedding cake - 14, 12, 10 and 8 inch layers. Bottom tier is a ring of rocky road made with the couple's favourite biscuits and pretzels, with a rich chocolate brownie cake sandwiched and topped with chocolate ganache inside the ring. Next tier is a very moist 3 layer lemon drizzle cake sandwiched with lemon curd. Next is a 3 layer Vic sponge with raspberry jam. Top layer is a pistachio, cardamom and orange cake with pistachio buttercream icing. All covered in a really lovely smooth vanilla buttercream.
I used bubble tea straws instead of dowels for stability and can definitely recommend them - a quick snip of the scissors instead of arsing around sawing dowels to the correct length and sanding off the splinters, no thanks!

Dizzyblonde

It looks amazing dee!

dee_mc

Thanks Dizzy! It was unbelievably stressful but very rewarding and I forgot to add, it tasted amazing!

tickingclock

That looks unbelievable. I've seen professional cakes that don't look as good. Well done!

sdp

fantastic job dee, well done to you

tickingclock

Caramel chocolate shortbread with fudge sprinkled on top. It's setting in the fridge with my husbands friend hovering around the fridge waiting impatiently!!

RentDayBlues

Some rocky road for a girls night in tomorrow, I have 2 babies so a night of freedom and chocolate sounds like heaven!

Wanderer41

I'm a long time lurker of this thread, but I have to stop myself looking too often as I get the urge to bake :P
In the past week I've baked scones, chocolate muffins/cupcakes, a marble cake, and chocolate fondant. I love baking but I usually wouldn't bake as much so close together, had a family gathering so I made the first three for that. And the fondant, well everyone deserves a treat
Dee_mc, your cake looks amazing! I'm going to be attempting a tiered cake for the first time soon. I'm thinking of just doing two tiers as I won't have much time on the actual day it's needed. Just wondering if the bubble straws you mentioned would be good enough for a fruit cake on bottom and victoria sponge on top? Thanks

dee_mc

Hi Wanderer! If it's a rich fruit cake you probably wouldn't even need the straws - it should be dense/robust enough to support the weight of a Vic sponge. If it's a less dense fruit cake the straws would be a great idea. They will support as much weight as wooden dowels will, on the principle that straws are very difficult to bend or break once they are sealed top and bottom (think of holding a straw between two fingers and trying to bend it - practically impossible because it's full of air).
If you're covering the cakes in fondant, ice them first then cut your straws to exactly the height of the cake. If the fruit cake rises unevenly you should trim it so it's level before icing.
If you're using buttercream, consider not icing the middle of the bottom tier - slap the top layer on and them ice the two cakes at the same time.You just need a cake card (rather than a thick board) between the two cakes.

Whispered

I wish I could bake. This thread is brilliant!

The Raptor

Made peanut butter granola bars today. A bit too crumbly but they were lovely. Only had one square and freezed the rest.

florawest

Hi any chance of a recipe for the peanut granola bars, thanks

The Raptor

florawest wrote: »

Hi any chance of a recipe for the peanut granola bars, thanks

I copied this recipe but multipled everything by 1.5 because I had a bigger tray. I found some math thing online to help you figure out how much extra to use if you have a bigger tray.

I also threw in two eggs to help it hold together.

I left the drizzly bit on top out. And I made my own peanut butter chips but they melted into the thing anyway so that was pointless adding them in. I hope to add chocolate chips next time instead of the peanut butter chips and hope it doesn't melt.

http://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/nature-valley-copycat-soft-baked-oatmeal-squares/

StripedBoxers

The Raptor wrote: »

I copied this recipe but multipled everything by 1.5 because I had a bigger tray. I found some math thing online to help you figure out how much extra to use if you have a bigger tray.

Have you a link for the thing to work out the extra ingredients please?

I made brownies recently and they went down a treat with everyone. They were very rich and chocolatey, delicious though. Didn't last long anyway.

A friend gave me the recipe. It was an odlums one that I changed slightly. I'll post it up here if anyone wants it

The Raptor

StripedBoxers wrote: »

Have you a link for the thing to work out the extra ingredients please?

I made brownies recently and they went down a treat with everyone. They were very rich and chocolatey, delicious though. Didn't last long anyway.

A friend gave me the recipe. It was an odlums one that I changed slightly. I'll post it up here if anyone wants it

https://food52.com/blog/13239-how-to-make-your-baking-recipe-fit-your-pan-size

Here's the link to work out how to adapt your recipe to fit your tray size.

Please post your brownie recipe.

StripedBoxers

The Raptor wrote: »

https://food52.com/blog/13239-how-to-make-your-baking-recipe-fit-your-pan-size

Here's the link to work out how to adapt your recipe to fit your tray size.

Please post your brownie recipe.

Thanks a million for this.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

225g good quality dark chocolate broken into pieces
2 small bars of milk chocolate
225g butter
3 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespon cocoa powder
75g plain flour
22 x 30cm baking tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (I have a fan oven and found 165°C to be right for my oven). Line the baking tin with parchment paper.
Put the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Don't allow bowl to touch the water. Stir constantly until fully melted and smooth.
With an electric whisk, whisk the sugar and eggs for 2-3 mins until pale and light.
Slowly add the melted chocolate/butter and then add the vanilla extract and continue to whisk until thickened.
Last, add the sifted flour and baking powder and fold in gently.
Put the mixture into a prepared tin and bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes until the brownies have come away from the side of the tin slightly.
Remove from tin, place on wire tray and allow to cool.

I used the Moser Roth chocolate from Aldi. I used the 70% one and three of the small milk chocolate bars. I also added extra cocoa powder, maybe 1.5 tablespoons in total.

It worked out well, it was very thick when putting on the tray and didn't rise much, but they were very tasty. There wasn't one left over.

The Raptor

Can't wait to try your brownie recipe.

StripedBoxers

The Raptor wrote: »

Can't wait to try your brownie recipe.

Let me know how you find them

Wanderer41

dee_mc wrote: »

Hi Wanderer! If it's a rich fruit cake you probably wouldn't even need the straws - it should be dense/robust enough to support the weight of a Vic sponge. If it's a less dense fruit cake the straws would be a great idea. They will support as much weight as wooden dowels will, on the principle that straws are very difficult to bend or break once they are sealed top and bottom (think of holding a straw between two fingers and trying to bend it - practically impossible because it's full of air).
If you're covering the cakes in fondant, ice them first then cut your straws to exactly the height of the cake. If the fruit cake rises unevenly you should trim it so it's level before icing.
If you're using buttercream, consider not icing the middle of the bottom tier - slap the top layer on and them ice the two cakes at the same time.You just need a cake card (rather than a thick board) between the two cakes.

Many thanks! I'm really looking forward to attempting it, at least I'll have two cakes if it goes wrong :pac:

I made a sponge cake today

Rogueish

Just after taking 2 apple pies out if the oven. My mum gave me a bag of windfalls plus some cooking apples I had in the bottom of the fridge that had to be used up. They smell divine. I put ground cinnamon and cloves in. Saying that I hate making pastry so I cheated and used ready made.

I also made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies with the kids Friday evening. It was my first time making cookies and I was pleasantly surprised. I made about 2 dozen if them and looking at the box there is only one left. The plan was to dip them in chocolate but they didn't get that far.

The Raptor

StripedBoxers wrote: »

Let me know how you find them

I'll make them next weekend and i'll let you know.

The Raptor

Today's cooking banana and walnut bread. It smells lovely.

Kat1170

A friends 96yo mother tried some of my Spicy Fruit Soda bread the other day. She reckoned it was 'Quite nice, considering it was baked by a man'. High praise indeed :D:D


Only just found this thread, pics the next time.

Wanderer41

Made a chocolate cake yesterday. It's so so so good.

leahyl

Wanderer41 wrote: »

Made a chocolate cake yesterday. It's so so so good.

Any pics?! Probably gone by now

Wanderer41

leahyl wrote: »

Any pics?! Probably gone by now

I'll see if I can get a pic when I get home unless it's mysteriously eaten by then :pac:

Malari

Blackberry cobbler with the first crop of berries from the garden. Yum with some orange zest through the berries!

earlytobed

Have done Carrot Cake from Lidl's Easter booklet a couple of times lately
Tatally delicious, though it's got 500g of icing sugar in the filling/covering alone

Dizzyblonde

I made the easiest and nicest brown bread ever this morning, it's a yeast recipe but doesn't require kneading. I used stoneground wholemeal flour for the first time and I think that added to the flavour.

It's a Donal Skehan recipe but is almost identical to a Ballymaloe bread: http://www.donalskehan.com/recipes/irish-brown-yeast-bread/

I tried to upload a photo but for some reason Tinypic is giving me the url for a pic of someone's car engine instead, lol.