The Sponge of the Week!

So how do you make a study group sound more interesting?


Introduce a Sponge of the Week the use it as a clever marketing tool to encourage people to come along.


Believe it or not - it seems to work!


Week one was Orange and White Chocolate Sponge.

The sponge is a basic recipe with the grated zest of 4 oranges and juice of 1.  The filling and topping is Creme Fraiche mixed with melted White Chocolate and a bit more Chocolate on top.  

It was very much enjoyed by all who came!

Here's the recipe:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5524/orange-and-white-chocolate-sponge

Takeaway: Delivered.

So there I was, on a normal Thursday morning thinking about how to entertain my 4 year old and her friend who was coming for the afternoon.  The phone rang....Hello, are you baking today?  Can you send some for me with your husband to our meeting tonight?  Thanks. Bye.


Ok, so maybe the conversation was a bit longer than that - but it was with someone I'd never spoken to before and had never heard of!!


So, ever one to rise to the challenge I thought about what I could make without having to go to the shop for ingredients. 


I decided on one of my favourite recipes - Fruited Banana Bread.  It's (another) Mary Berry recipe - can you tell I am a fan?


It's a lovely moist banana bread, with sultanas, glace cherries and walnuts. Extremely easy to make and lovely with some Lurpak. 

However, the story doesn't end there!


I mixed all the ingredients in the Kenwood.  I'd just put the eggs in and glanced at the box and noticed they were 3 weeks past their Best Before Date!  Annoying enough, but I had only purchased them on the previous day!!!!  The shop I bought them from was 13 miles away, so it meant a quick run round to the local Spar to get eggs and more cherries - to think the idea was that I wouldn't have to go to the shop to make this recipe!


My wonderful husband kindly measured the ingredients while I was out and I quickly got a new batch made. Phew. 


Then I phoned the shop, got a refund and a new box of eggs!

A Peppa Pig Party Cake

My daughter loves Peppa Pig, so what could have been better for her party than a homemade Peppa Pig Cake!


It's looks and tasted great - but was really easy to make.


The sponge recipe was from The Mary Berry Baking Bible - a simple Victoria Sponge recipe with a jam filling.  I made a normal size cake, and also a mini cake using a small loose-bottom cake tin.  I stuck the mini sponge to the large sponge using jam and that made a perfect snout shape.


Now the tricky bit - fondant!  For this stage I handed over to my husband as he has more experience at these things!  He mixed shop-bought white fondant with some pink food colouring, rolled it out and painstakingly pulled and tugged the fondant so it covered the cake.

To finish I sliced white marshmallow in half across the middle.  This left a sticky surface so they could be placed straight onto the cake as eyes.  The pupils on the eyes were drawn on with a black icing pen. The nostrils were made from slightly darker fondant.  The ears were also made from fondant and were tricky to get to stay in position but eventually they stuck. 


Our daughter and her friends loved her cake - and now we have parents asking us to make cakes for their children!!

A Big Celebration!

Sorry I've not blogged for a couple of weeks -things have been mega busy!


We celebrated a family occasion, which of course meant that I was very busy in the kitchen!  I'll use the next few blog entries to tell you about some of the yummy dishes I made.

First up..... Malt Chocolate Cheesecake! 


This recipe was from the January 2011 edition of the BBC Good Food Magazine.  I also made it at Christmas, and it was so yummy I just had to make it again.

The bottom layer is crushed malt biscuits mixed with butter.  The middle layer is milk chocolate, caster sugar and Horlicks mixed with a tub of full fat cream cheese,  The top layer is white chocolate mixed with another tub of soft cheese.  A few white chocolate Maltesers finish it off.  Chill for at least 5 hours and scoff it!


The recipe suggests using a loose bottom cake tin to make this dessert, but I have found something much better.  If I could find a link to it I'd post it, but I can't. It's basically an expandable ring designed for desserts. I sellotaped it to the plate I wanted to serve the cheesecake on, then assembled the cheesecake in the ring, chilled it and took the ring off. Hey Presto, we had a perfect cheesecake ready to serve - no need to transfer to another plate.  The ring is from Lakeland. 


Can't wait to make it again!

Piggy Cupcakes

First up, it's the piggy cupcakes that are in the photo at the top of this blog. 


I made them for my daughter's 4th birthday party - she was having a "Peppa Pig and the Dinosaur" Party and we had lots of piggy/dinosaur themed food which I will blog about later.


The cupcakes were made following a recipe from the "Mary Berry Baking Bible" and were really soft, moist and delicious.  I'll post the recipe when I'm nearer recipe books!


The topping is just a pink icing sugar topping, with chocolate icing piped on for the eyes and nostrils.  The nose is a marshmallow sliced across the middle which leaves a sticky surface that sticks it to the cakes. The piggy ears are Strawberry Curls that I got in the Cupcake section at Morrisons.  


They were very popular with adults and children! Yum Yum!

Welcome to The Baking Blogger

Over the past 18 months, I've been sucked into the world that is Home Baking and Cookery.


This has come as a surprise to many, as previously my husband ruled the roost when it came to the kitchen, but now I'm a mum to 2 pre-fives and my husband is too busy to cook I've developed the Baking bug.


I hope to use this blog to post photos, recipes and stories relating to the ups and downs of my adventures and experiments.


The Baking Blogger