Almond and Orange cake

Yesterday I had an urge to make a dessert rather than a cake. On Friday evening to celebrate the start of half term for the children we splashed out and took them for a pizza. Well true to form D had spaghetti Bolognese rather than pizza, a true pizza snob he only likes homemade pizza baked at home! however when it came to desserts both children opted for the profiteroles filled with icecream and topped with hot chocolate sauce. The problem with children growing up is that they now eat adult meals, long gone are the childrens meal deals incorporating a dessert and a pud! So when it came to dessert I felt the need to refrain from the special of the day and convinced myself that I would be able to do a better job of it.
And so yesterday I made an almond and orange cake, (so moist it was almost dripping!) served warm with icecream. We ate it for dessert after a delicious cauliflower, chicken, bacon and mushroom pasta bake.
I used 250g of ground almonds with 50 g of plain flour with orange zest, butter and sugar, and when baked pour over an orange juice syrup and leave to cool slightly before serving. I recommend this for after a dinner party. And for the money I saved on dessert on Friday we all had a dessert on Sunday with left overs on Monday warmed slightly in the microwave for 15 seconds.

The buns went down well at work. Kids took some to their friends as well. Thankfully lots of people to help me eat them.

Mmmm...

Look what I've made tonight. Sticky buns. Yum

More eclairs

Ok, so we didn't practice our tart tartin this week, which to be honest was a bit disappointing as I had got my pears in readiness for the challenge. I will just have to have a practice myself this weekend, although despite saying I was going to get myself a tin I never got round to it so I need to purchase one first.
However we had a quick masterclass on choux pastry from Claire Clark via the wonders of the internet and then off we went to have a go ourselves. This week I decided on a chocolate crème diplomat filling, which went very well (so nice I licked the spoon), we made more choux pastry and I made about 16 eclairs and some chouquettes with what was left in the piping bag.
Size wise I probably could have managed to find 4 éclairs of the same shape and size, I had a few wonky looking ones as well though. but overall I was happy with the size and shape of them. The chocolate fondant icing was trickier but still a huge improvement on last week when the chocolate ran out! Quite a light chocolate colour and it stayed glossy, but was just a tiny bit too thick. However decorating them went well, making 'run outs' with the children's names on them and placing them on top of the éclairs, so breakfast this morning was this little token of chocolatey love to my kiddies. New skill of tempering chocolate must be learnt before my assessment as the run outs did soften quickly and bend over top top of the éclair and a more rigid chap would have looked a bit more professional I think.
Overall another great night, and we finished a little earlier than usual so I stopped at mums to deliver a couple of my treats (there is only so many éclairs one family can eat!).
Today I have made a reminder of my childhood, rock cakes. Mum often made these and I think it was probably one of the first cakes I ever made so when I spotted a recipe for them in an old copy of good food magazine I couldn't resist giving them a go.
And so tonight we will sit down and watch the final of the Great British bakeoff, and have a little cake feast, my own bakeoff challenge will continue meanwhile although I feel I have a long way to go before I could call myself a master patissiere!!!

At last !!

Great news, got back my laptop today after having it repaired so am able to blog a little more comfortably. the extent of my baking this week has been a lemon drizzle cake, not very adventurous I know but comforting, zesty and moist. Delicious.
So at college this week we will be working on our tart tartins. I have got myself some pears which are just ripening and I am planning on spicing them with a little cinnamon, before covering with the pastry. My plan is to make my pastry circle a little bigger this week so that I can tuck it around the pears a little more and kind of tuck them in, with the hope of containing the caramel a little more than last week. Also all the recipes I have researched this week has popped a couple of holes in the pastry lid to allow the steam to escape during baking (makes sense really, not sure why I didn't last week). I will not be using quite so much of the caramel either this week, although I might slightly cook the pears in some caramel before assembling the tart.
And I've remembered to put my phone on charge so I can get my photos!
Fingers crossed for a better result this week.

An idea

Haven't done any baking since Tuesday at college and am starting to have withdrawl symptoms. Been thinking about how to improve on my tart tatin and thinking of trying pear out. Got to get myself the right kind of dish first tho. So whilst at the supermarket later I will have a look.

Tart tatin and choux pastry

Last night at college we made our own puff pastry. We used 250g of butter in it and turned and turned it 6 times. I thought I would find it tedious but I found it quite enjoyable being methodical and gentle with the pastry. Next we made caramel (which was exciting but scary) for the tart tatin. I have a bucket list of recipes to cook and master before I die and tart tatin is on it! Didnt go quite to plan as need to use more apples and less caramel, however I think I know where I went wrong so next time hopefully it will be even better because although it was not the most attractive thing I have ever made it still tasted delicious! Choux pastry went well and eveyone thought my piccie of the swan was great. And work was pleased as I took eclairs in. So all in all a good night both the caramel and the lemon diplomat went extremely well and I feel like the tart tatin is a work in progress! Really enjoye myself again but knackered tonight.

Swans for breakfast

The kids ate choux pastry swans filled with lemon creme diplomat and raspberries for breakfast!! What a fantastic start to the day

Getting excited

Getting excited about tomorrow at college. We are making puff pastry and choux pastry. I have a plan for a lemon creme pat. Need to get some fresh raspberries as well. I will need to leave early to pop to the shops before college tomorrow. Going to miss D's first school rugby match tho so feeling a bit guilty.

Reluctant blogger

Been having a problem with not being able to use the computer to update my blog as it has gone off to be fixed. Fortunately it is still under a year old so repair will be free but will take 2 weeks!!! So having to use my phone to blog which makes me a reluctant blogger for now. So just a quick update on baking events this week.... Friday evening saw me tackling belgium buns with a cherry on top much to the kids delight. I had just manage to get them finished when they arrived home from a scout hike very wet and soaked through so we had hot chocolate with our sticky belgium buns. I used the powdered type of fondant icing this time which went quite well although I could have taken longer to make the icing neater but as I was hurrying to get them finished they looked quite rustic! Today I have made an apple,cinnamon and sultana pie using the sweet pastry recipe from college last Tuesday. Mum came for dinner as she is recovering well from her sore throat and she enjoyed the pie which I cooked with yet more apples from the garden. Not many left on the trees now. I will try and get the rest of them off the tree this week as they store quite well.

College week 4

Last night we started to look at pastes and the difference between them and how to use them. We talked about shortcrust and sweet pastry, choux, filo and suet discussing the their uses in pies, tarts, flans and cases.
We then moved to the kitchen and began work on a lemon tart, now I have made lemon tart before which uses between 6 and 8 lemons and is a very tart tart! but I have always had an issue with my lemon filling cracking through and looking a little untidy, normally I just hide the gapping crackes with a hefty dusting of icing sugar and maybe some artfully placed berries. It always tastes good but my aim was to try and master the art of lemon tart.
Pastry wise I have had a good teacher my mum was always Queen of Pies. We had pies often as children sweet pies (mostly apple-Dads favourite), and meat pie (always beef and never chicken), and suet puddings for Dad. The trick to good pastry is cold hands apparently, and if this is true I should be able to make the best pastry in the world as my hands are always freezing!!
Lemon tart went well and the filling was a success despite using icing sugar instead of caster sugar by accident. Next we made a fruit slice with puff pastry and créme patisserie. I had never made crème pat before so was excited and nervous. I am not sure why I haven't attempted it before as due to a health concern I do not eat cream unless it is uht cream or normal cream that has been cooked, so crème pat is definitely the answer to my problem with what to fill eclairs.
Everything was delicious and looked amazing, the fruit slice had apricots and a lattice work top to it glazed with apricot jam. And the most amazing feet of the night was that I managed to get everything home in one piece unscathed and with no cracks! Everything has been made light work of and I only have a bit of the lemon tart left now which I will deliver to my mum tomorrow as she is poorly with laryngitis. Lets see what she thinks of my pastry, hopefully she will judge it as good as her own and I will be a happy woman.

College tonight

Where does the week go? I have been so busy since Friday that I didnt manage to get any baking done at all. Have thought about college tonight though and we are making pastry so I have a plan to hopefully make a lemon bakewell tart, although this does inovolve getting to the shops before college to get some nice lemon curd and a fresh lemon. It would be nice to make my own but no time for that! Just thought the flavour combination could be nice. We'll see.

At last

Finally a sour dough loaf that turned out of the proving basket ( well this time a spanish glazed bowl lined with muslin) with ease! Been fidling with the recipe and have reduced the quantity of water and hey presto when I turned it out the dough just flopped gently and like a lovely pillow out onto the baking tray. A couple of slices through the top (admittedly these could have been a bit deeper) and 43 mins later I have a delicious loaf with hardly any effort at all. Its still roasting hot at the moment and is crackling and creaking softly to itself while I take its photo like a proud parent. What do you think?...

Bread underway. Felt sorry for the creature in the fridge so got it out last night and am making sour dough. At 6.30 this morning I was up and busy gently kneading. Will leave it for the day and bake this evening when I get home from work.

Reviews appear promising!

Last nights cakes appear to be going down well today, husband has taken some of the Chelsea buns with him into work and I have also been handing out offerings at work today. Kids have yet to pass judgement as iced fingers were not on the breakfast menu this morning! They will have to wait until they get home from school this afternoon.
Anyway the first assessment went well, however I scored 22 out of 23 on my theory test as I stupidly put panettone down as a bun dough when I suppose it is really a speciality dough. I think I was thinking enriched dough and not bun dough which it is, but quite correctly I have never had a bun panettone, silly me!
Then on to the practical test, Adam our tutor had scaled up the recipe from last week so we get to bake more and only present our 4 best products of each type. But a disaster had occurred in that the proving oven was not working as it had blown something, and so I proved my dough in another type of oven which was very moist, but didn't seem to make the dough rise quite as well as usual. The last few times I have made the iced fingers they have joined together and I thought that they were rather too close together so I positioned them a little further apart this time and they didn't touch at all!- never mind the shapes were even and the size consistent thanks to my electronic scales, sized at 70g each. The icing went like a dream, much to my amazement and I was given the compliment that it was the best icing of the night by my tutor, nice straight edges, and shiny, and glossy.
Who would have thought that I would ever get so delighted over a few simple iced fingers!
Chelsea buns went well and I presented the 4 buns joined together as I thought the individual buns had uncurled slightly from the spiral, hanging around waiting for judgement gave us all time for a chat and arrived back home about 10.15 pm, phew. It's not until you get home that you realise how tired you are.
Next week we are doing sweet pastry, puff pastry and maybe doughnuts Mmmmmm......can't wait.
Kids had an iced finger waiting for them when they came in from school. I've spent the afternoon since getting in from work rushing around like a loony catching up with all the things that didn't get done yesterday. Paella for dinner with a glass of wine as husband has told me he is bring one in with him, and then I plan to sit down and watch last nights bake-off whilst eating yet another Chelsea bun! 

Great news

Bun and dough assessment last night. Finally got the icing right on my iced fingers! And with the addition of amaretto to the chelsea buns I managed to get a distinction. But would you believe it that my phone battery was too low to take a piccie of them and by the time I had transported them home my icing was no longer perfect!! O well. I will post a picture I took when I got home anyway.