Sunday, June 16, 2013

Love... the rustic baker & Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you excellent Dads out there. In our house baking is always in order for those celebration days. So Oldest One and I created a ginormous cake of many colours and loads of sugar! It's your basic sponge dyed 2 different colours. Admittedly the top half was meant to be blue but the red came out well. I have since discovered that I should have used a white cake recipe to get the true colours I wanted but hey ho it looks great and the Husband loved it. Just a note for the future don't decorate near Youngest One, she is a food machine and couldn't understand why she couldn't eat the sweets, cake, icing, in fact the whole shebang. 




Friday, June 14, 2013

Love... the rustic baker

So in a week where Oldest One has been in and out of school and we've reached the end of a long week filled with an ear infection, a quick bake was in order this morning. I was reminded late last night by my friend Nikki that I had neglected to make flapjacks recently. This was strongly seconded by her other half Mark. So in between dealing with Oldest One, I was mulling over a few ideas in my head so I could make some in the morning. With Oldest One out of school again I whipped out the baking tray and a whole host of ingredients. 

I used the basic flapjack ingredients of 150g butter or in this case a margarine based spread, 200g sugar and a whole wodge of golden syrup, typically over 60ml. I whacked in a load of ground ginger and slowly melted it down. Then I added Fluff. Not sure if you've heard of this stuff, its like a spreadable marshmallow but vegetarian. I let that melt down then took the pan off the heat and immediately added 350g of porridge oats of different sizes and a wodge of dried cranberries and desiccated coconut. By a wodge I mean bung in as much or as little as you want. Put in a baking paper lined tray and into the oven for approx 10 minutes. 

Nikki and Mark I hope you love them. They tasted delish whilst still in the pan :-)


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Love... the rustic baker

When your kid is off sick from school sometimes the only way to get better is going into the kitchen and baking something that tastes great. Luckily Oldest One just has an ear ache but he is still feeling a little crap.

I found this recipe yesterday and include the link because I loved all the comments with recipe ideas. As usual I ignored most of the recipe and added my own twist. These are a version of Millie's cookies, super soft and super yum. I added chocolate spread as I found an unopened jar under the sink, coconut and choc chips. The dough is absolutely delish. Baking time is variable but I am aiming for squooshyness. They look good enough to have with a big fat mug of tea. Yum

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1580654/?utm_expid=13353178-7


If link doesn't work look up Millie's cookies and it is the bbc good food recipe. Just to report I achieved squooshy-chewiness :-)




Thursday, June 6, 2013

Love... the rustic baker

The Death Star epic cake made earlier this week for Oldest One's birthday was a blast to make. However when the light saber-esq candles were lit and presented through a massive chorus of that old classic, i made the mistake of asking if he knew what it was, I was informed with that look "it's a chocolate cake"! Great. All that effort....

Anyway I decided to kick back and relax with some lemon and lime cake. An adaptation of The Hummingbird Bakery lemon cake. Only think I was disappointed with was the icing glaze that looked more like a weak splat of nothingness.


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Love.....the rustic baker birthday style

To my gorgeous Oldest One a birthday cake supreme. We love Lego and Star Wars here so this year I decided to take the challenge of making a Death Star in cake form. My friend AtNumber29 sent me a link to a youtube guy who had made a similar cake. But as usual I wanted to go one better!

I used a recipe from Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking, yes I am a fan, but added a few twists like popping candy and using  ground almonds and more melted chocolate as I didn't have cocoa powder to hand. A lovely lady who sells cake decorating bits 'n' pieces gave me an excellent tip to make grey icing; use some ready made black icing and knead it into the ready made white icing. Genius. No black hands to explain to my child!

This cake had the works, allergy friendly butter cream courtesy of Betty Crocker, popping candy, chocolate, marzipan and finally icing. Must not forget Darth Vader!


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Family........swallows and amazons

As usual the half term is winding down quickly and we had yet to start the homework That was set. Although the suggested project was an opt in I'm not sure how many parents - sorry kids - will go to school without a completed project. 

I knew that a boat required certain elements such as a floaty bit, a sail and somewhere to sit! Plastic bottles would do the trick as would fruit packaging. We duly collected the items and left them in a box to wait till the last minute. It really is last minute as supper and bedtime all happen in the next couple of hours......

Armed with scissors, brown tape, bendy straws and various bits of plastic and voila a boat that actually floats and carries plastic playmobil people. The sail is a triumph...... Oldest One will go to school with a boat and the rest of the homework we just spent the last hour doing. Hoorah! 

I want to say lots of piratey stuff but can only think of that drunken sailor song. So I'll be toasting this project with a glass of the finest and wiping the brow being thankful we did it. Obviously it was all down to Oldest One and he was essentially project manger whilst I did the grunt work.......typical.