Frances Bakes

My Birthday cake

Posted on March 1, 2015 by francesray28

To celebrate my birthday some of my friends were coming round for tea, cake & prosecco so I wanted to make a special cake to celebrate.

I chose the Hummingbird Bakery’s ‘Sweet and salty chocolate cake’ and luckily had some help from my sister in making it!

The recipe is in their ‘Cake Days’ book or iPhone app, but I also found it online. I would say this serves approx 20 rather than the recommended 6-8!!

http://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/hummingbird-bakery-chocolate-cake

You make 3 layers of chocolate cake and then sandwich them together with layers of salted caramel and a chocolate ganache frosting, with more frosting on top.

Here’s the making of the chocolate ganache:

And the assembly:

And the finished result…

Posted in Cakes | Tagged birthday cake, chocolate, hummingbird | Leave a comment

Ferrero Rocher and Nutella cupcakes

Posted on February 22, 2015 by francesray28

As it’s my birthday this week I decided to make some special cupcakes.
These chocolate cakes have a ferrero rocher chocolate baked in their centre and are then topped with a Nutella buttercream – delicious!!

Here’s the link to the recipe if you’d like to try them yourself:
http://cookiescupcakesandcardio.com/?p=4742

The finished article:

Posted in Cupcakes | Tagged cupcakes, ferrero rocher, nutella | 2 Comments

Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies

Posted on February 15, 2015 by francesray28

On special request here are some delicious, chewy, moreish chocolate chip cookies with a hint of peanut butter!

I made them with crunchy peanut butter and found out that it was better to cook them on a lower heat for 10 minutes, as they baked pretty fast.
I added some extra peanut butter to the last batch as I thought the first batch didn’t taste very ‘peanutty’!

This recipe made 42:

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/18618/peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies.aspx

Posted in Biscuits | Tagged chocolate chip, cookies, peanut butter | 1 Comment

Brownie Hearts

Posted on February 8, 2015 by francesray28

I thought I would do some valentine-themed baking and found this recipe which sounded delicious!

http://www.bakingmad.com/brownie-hearts-with-rolos-recipe/

However having searched the 5 nearest supermarkets and locating absolutely zero Rolos (do they not make them anymore?!) I decided to substitute with Cadburys caramel nibbles.

Here’s the finished article:

Posted in Slices | Tagged brownie, heart, valentine | 1 Comment

Everyone’s favourite

Posted on January 25, 2015 by francesray28

These millionaire shortbreads are most of my friends’ favourite!

I’m still perfecting the caramel so it sets better but managed to make them look a lot better by using a warm knife to cut the slices so the chocolate doesn’t crack.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it out yourself:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/millionaires_shortbread_76712

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Lemon-glazed ginger cake

Posted on January 18, 2015 by francesray28

Whilst reading though the Christmas food magazines at my parents over the holidays I found the perfect recipe to use up the black treacle & glacé ginger I had left over from making my Christmas cake!

Let’s hope it tastes as good as it looks 🙂

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Mince pies!

Posted on December 21, 2014 by francesray28

So here is the latest of the Christmas baking.

I used a different one to the usual which has ground almonds I the pastry and used this pastry recipe and the mincemeat that my Dad had made:
http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2014/12/16/hate-mince-pies-try-baking-little-beauties/

I topped some with pastry bells- using the gift from my Christmas dinner cracker! These ones have a disc of marzipan underneath the mincemeat.

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The Christmas Cake

Posted on December 21, 2014 by francesray28

So here is the Christmas cake I made a few weeks ago.
I followed this recipe that seemed work pretty well:
http://www.bakingmad.com/foolproof-christmas-cake-recipe/

I’ve been feeding it with Cointreau which had given it a nice orangey-taste!

It’s finished off with a layer of marzipan and then royal icing to look like snow and decorated with figures from my Grandad’s bakery: