Clare’s Birthday cake – Coconut cake with vanilla bean frosting

Posted on February 7, 2016 by francesray28

My friend at work, Clare, was heading back home to New Zealand for her birthday, but requested a very specific cake for her return….

I googled ‘coconut cake with vanilla bean frosting’ and there was literally one recipe that matched!!

It happened to be vegan, but I don’t think anybody guessed it. You need to get some very specific ingredients before you make this, but it turned out great.

I used arrowroot instead of agar flakes in the icing, but you really do need the agar, otherwise it doesn’t  set right and is more of a custard consistency.

Here’s the recipe if you fancy doing a show-stopper cake and have a few hours on your hands:

http://amychaplin.com/2010/07/13/coconut-layer-cake/

The cakes looked a lovely golden colour when they came out of the oven, and rose every well with the spelt flour:

  
Here’s the decorated cake – it didn’t last long!

  

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White chocolate and pecan cookies

Posted on January 25, 2016 by francesray28

these are another recipe from the great Hummingbird bakery recipe book.

Let’s hope they taste as good as they smell!

  

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Jammy dodgers!

Posted on January 17, 2016 by francesray28

I’m always looking for recipes to use whatever leftovers I might have & this week I was wondering what to make with the leftover apricot jam from the Christmas cake.

When I found a recipe for jammy dodgers it was immediately requested by everyone at work.

I wanted to replicate the biscuit you can buy & most recipes just involved baking the biscuits, then adding jam to them, but I found one from the River Cottage that bakes the jam in the biscuits:

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8781564/River-Cottage-Baking-recipes-biscuits.html?image=5

And the finished biscuits:

  

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It’s time to cut the Christmas cake!

Posted on December 20, 2015 by francesray28

My sister and I made the Christmas cake about 6 weeks ago.

I used my foolproof recipe from last year which is exactly what it is – foolproof!

https://www.bakingmad.com/foolproof-christmas-cake-recipe/

Baking it in advance gave me a few weeks to feed it with Cointreau!!

Then this weekend I covered it in marzipan; first brushing a thin layer of boiled, sieved apricot jam over it and as ready rolled marzipan was on offer I cheated and used that! It’s white marzipan so not as visible when the cake is cut. Then today I made royal icing and covered the cake, to look like snow:

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6350/royal-icing.aspx

Then I decorated it with gold shimmer and the decorations from my Grandad’s old bakery business:

  
We cut the cake this afternoon at my Christmas drinks party & it went down very well!

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Let the Christmas baking commence!

Posted on December 1, 2015 by francesray28

Now that it’s time to open advent calendars I figured it’s okay to start baking Christmas treats, so made some German gingerbread style Lebkuchen.

They are pretty quick & easy to make & I decorated mine with chocolate…

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1941/lebkuchen

   
 

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Banana loaf

Posted on November 8, 2015 by francesray28

I had a couple of bananas that were getting old so I thought what better than to make a banana loaf!

Regular readers will know I’m a fan of the Hummingbird Bakery’s recipe book so I followed their recipe and I hope it’s turned out well. As I often get told off at work if I don’t make something with chcolate in, I added dark chocolate chunks to this!

 

   

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Delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Posted on November 1, 2015 by francesray28

I’m always searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that makes tasty, chewy cookies without them seeming underdone. I think this one that I found on another blog comes pretty close!

https://sweetkitchenscience.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/7-minutes-chocolate-chip-cookies/

I made some with smarties in, and some with a mix of white and dark chocolate chips.

I took some to my sister’s to have with a cup of tea; they disappeared pretty quickly!

  

 

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Ginger crunch

Posted on October 25, 2015 by francesray28

This bake was a request from my friend Clare; and doubles as a celebration for the NZ rugby win over the weekend.

Here’s the recipe from her mum’s blog, if you want to give it a go – it tastes delicious!!

http://apronaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/wholemeal-ginger-crunch-from-jo-seagars.html?m=1

  

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Baileys Irish cream brownies

Posted on October 14, 2015 by francesray28

I had a request for Baileys brownies so knocked some up quickly tonight – they smell amazing!!

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/01/baileys-brownies/?m


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Millionaire shortbread – a new recipe

Posted on October 11, 2015 by francesray28

This is one of the things that I bake that gets the most requests!

But I always have issues with the caramel being too soft, so I decided to use a new recipe. This one has a higher butter to sugar recipe & that seems to have done the trick. Though it did have about 50% less chocolate; so I added a lot more!

Here’s the recipe:  

And the finished article:  

Packaged up ready to take to work:

 

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