Tuesday 14 May 2013

Cakey cakey cake cake - BEDM Day 14

Today's BEDM topic is Food Glorious Food so I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a bit of an update on my Not Really Resolutions, one of which was to bake once a month.

It's safe to say the first quarter of the year hasn't been a massive success and there's no way that Mary, Delia or Nigella need to be quaking in their boots just yet. In fact, a small child armed only with a fork could probably have had more spectacular results...

Gingerbread cookies


Some of you are going to go mental when I tell you how I made these. I made these from a ready-made dough that you can pick up from Tesco.

Hahahahaha. Guess what? I don't care.

I had to roll out the dough and cut the shapes and put it in the oven and bake them. Therefore it counts as baking.

And do you know what? They tasted really really good. I can't lie. There was the perfect amount of ginger in them, they cooked well and were the right side of chewy and best of all, there was no bloody mess making them. No 12 million bowls used. No spoons all over the shop. No light coating of flour over everything in the kitchen. Marvellous.

I'm not even sorry. I'd do it again.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes


We don't really need to talk about this again do we? Read this post and don't make me re-live the hell again.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies


Aah I had such high hopes for these cookies from the Hummingbird Baking recipe book. But it just wasn't successful. People who write recipe books must assume that the people who are reading them are like me - basically an idiot. So you need to tell me everything. And that includes giving me just a tiny cue as to how much dough I'm supposed to be splatting on my baking sheet. Just a hint would be lovely.

Which is why I ended up with gigantanormous cookies because I was putting way too much dough on the sheet.

This would have been fine if I hadn't made my second mistake which was to be afraid that they were too squishy and leave them in a few minutes too long. So I basically had really massive and really hard to eat cookies. Well done me.

The dark chocolate in them was horrible too. You can take your 80% cocoa and go whistle down the wind - I should have just used el cheapo milk chocolate and I'd have probably been a happier bunnier. Although still at risk of losing a tooth.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake


Technically this should have been April's bake. But it wasn't. I made it in May instead. Now the keen eyed among you may go "But hang on a minute, she said she would bake once a month, what a weaselly cheat!" and to those people I say, "Shut up". I'll bake twice in May to make up for it alright?!

God. Some people.

This cake has turned out the best out of all the bakes so far, although that doesn't seem difficult given what it's up against. I got to use my sister's fancy Kitchen Aid which I couldn't work and which sent flour flying all over the room - I'm yet to fall under the Kitchen Aid spell.

The mixture is very thick. You put half the mixture in the tin, then add the raspberries and then it says to "dollop the remaining cake mixture on top and roughly spread - you might find this easier to do with your fingers."

They are not kidding. It is not a pouring cake and I had to splat the mixture on and then smear it around. Sounds gross but it turned out ok, apart from the fact that it burned around the edges a little. I'd probably chuck in a bit of almond essence for good measure if I made it again - I couldn't have done with more of a kick of almond.

Recipe here

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So I think we can say that it hasn't gone well. But that's cool, you know I only do these things so badly to make you feel better, right? That's what it is.

8 comments:

  1. Best blog post title ever :) That almondy cake looks lovely! My grandma gave me a recipe for almond cake the other week - I'm all inspired to try it now!

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  2. This made me laugh SO much. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who has kitchen disasters - it's so much more fun to read about than the acres of blogs with perfect photographs.

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  3. Yeah, I made cookies with 80% chocolate so that they would be really chocolatey and they didn't really work out either. Next time I'll go for a big block of Bournville. Try these http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/apr/25/how-to-cook-perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies They worked for me especially eaten while they were warm and the chocolate was still melted...!

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  4. Whenever I overcook cookies...which I do often, I throw a piece of white bread in with the baked cookies, in a sealed container. Within a day, your bread will be stale, and the cookies will be soft! Love reading your posts every day! Renee

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  5. That is so true about cookies. Why don't they evil tell you how much to put on the sheet? I made some once and ended up with a bloody tray bake. *sigh*

    I've never made a bakewell tart so might give that a go. I certainly like to eat them.

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  6. I had the same problem spreading the mixture for that bakewell cake. Produced a tasty cake though.

    Don't feel too disheartened by the hummingbird bakery cookies. I don't fully trust their recipes. They either work beautifully or spectacularly badly. Never somewhere inbetween. By the way I've been really enjoying your BEDM posts, even though this is the first I've commented.

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  7. If you want to bake cookies, my favourite recipe is Lucy's one for choc chip cookies. Just deeelish and really easy. http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2009/02/chocolate-chip-cookies.html I challenge you!

    Now, as for the Kitchen Aid: you need to start the mixer going before you add the flour, and then spoon it in one spoonful at a time so that it doesn't throw it back out at you.
    x

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  8. CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE! I made the Peanut Butter Caramel bars that Sarah brought with her to Norbury this weekend, I have been super popular in the office this week, and useless features who is usually all 'I don't like peanut butter, it's horrid' is all. over. them.

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