bakingbeautiful*

Clandestine Cake Club- Inspired by the Silver Screen

2012-02-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's taken me so long to get round to writing this up that I think i'll mainly just let the pictures do the talking:

January's Cake club was in the Knit Studio, in the Blackfriar's area of Newcastle. The great thing about this venue was that we had a great big table for all the cakes to be deposited on, which meant we could all stand around and mingle and have a good old natter while eating a whole load of cake.

I didn't get pics of everyone's cakes unfortunately but you can also read all about it in a few other places also:

-Lisa's blog- The Wonderful World of @loopygirl
-Kate's blog- Cakepoppins

These guy's blogs are always interesting, so get yourself over there and get following them!

Hayley xxx

The Great February Muffin Feud

2012-02-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

The next installment of the Matt and Hayley Bake-off took place today.

This time, the challenge was to make 12 muffins, involving chocolate in some way, shape or form.

I'm really interested in the idea of chilli and chocolate, so I thought i'd make some sort of chilli chocolate combination. A search through my cook books found a recipe for Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes from the Cox Cookies and Cake book. This book was bought for me by a friend ages ago and I hadn't had a chance to make anything from it, so i was really keen to go ahead and have a go at one of the recipes. It's a really stylish book with a sense of humour and a lot of glitter!

I used 1 and a half quantities to adjust for muffins... And the result was, well, pretty spectacular to be honest:

The taste of these muffins is truly amazing... They are definitely the best muffins I have ever made. The muffin mixture contains cinnamon and nutmeg, and the chocolate buttercream contains cayenne pepper.

The independent judge this time was Lisa, Newcastle's Clandestine Cake Club organiser. Who better to ask to judge a muffin contest? So, we took the pictures, and we sent them to her, and she (very slowly and dramatically) reached her decision. Would it be muffin 1 (which I knew to be Matt's effort) or my muffin 2 (I must admit to feeling confident, but what if Lisa wasn't a fan of chilli?!)

Before I tell you who won, here are some more pictures of my effort:

Lovely rich, squidgy moist inside

And here are some pictures of Matt's muffins, which were chocolate muffins with a chocolate topping:

Note the slightly dry texture... explanation to follow

Lovely precise decoration.

It turns out that somehow, Matt managed to forget to put any butter into his cake mixture, hence the rather dry-looking texture.

And so, the results came in and it turned out that my muffins won, so I am the muffin queen. I am slowly but surely starting to claw back my self respect following the cheesecake debacle and loser pie episode.

Blue Velvet Cake

2012-01-31T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

So as you know, My cake for the January Clandestine Cake Club meeting was a Blue Velvet cake.

I was quite worried, given the disastrous attempt at blue velvet cupcakes, about how this cake would turn out. But it turned out to be very fun to make (although not quite as fun to clean up the kitchen afterwards)

Mixing the blue and violet colouring with the cocoa

the mixture in the tins waiting to go in the oven... The colour is really quite disconcerting.

I cut each cake into half to make 4 layers

And some little sugarpaste robins to decorate the top of the cake.

And a piped quotation from the film...

And the finished article is complete:

In case you haven't seen Blue Velvet, and you're wondering "why robins after Christmas?" it's because of a famous key moment in the film, where Laura Dern says to Kyle Machlan

I had a dream. In fact, it was on the night I met you. In the dream, there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren't any robins and the robins represented love. And for the longest time, there was this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love. And it seemed that love would make any difference, and it did. So, I guess it means that there is trouble until the robins come

At the end of the film, of course the robins do appear.

Moe cake clubs pics to follow...

Black Forest Bake-Off

2012-01-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will know that, on weekends when we're not together, boyf and I will often have baking competitions, which are then judged by picture alone by independent judges.

We couldn't decide what to bake, but the lovely Lisa suggested black forest gateau. Neither of us have ever made black forest gateau so it seemed like a good challenge.

I chose a recipe out of one of my reliable old cookbooks and away we went to produce our masterpieces. Mine ended up looking like this:

I learnt 2 main things in the process: 1. applying chocolate sprinkles to the outside of a cake is hard and 2. Kirsch is very tasty.

And here is boyf's effort, a very worthy affair with some expert piping. And particularly worthy considering he later admitted to never even having seen or tasted a black forest gateau.

The independent judges (my mum and dad and grandma, and boyf's mum and dad) agreed that mine was more "black forest gateau"-like and mine was therefore pronounced the winner :D

Hooray!

Curry Night In

2012-01-31T05:35:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Expect a glut of posts today... I'm feeling a bit under the weather so am firmly planted on the sofa with a blanket, and catching up with blog posts seems like a nice thing to do to cheer me up on a poorly day.

I tend to binge cook. So, on a night when i'm not doing anything, i'll usually make some large batches of stew or a curry, then portion it off and freeze it all then have it for my lunch at work or as a quick and easy tea when i get in from work.

This is one of my favourite curry recipes that i wanted to share with you. It's actually quite healthy (adapted from a Slimming World Recipe) and whilst it's probably not quite as delicious as a takeaway curry it's very satisfying and best of all, it will make your kitchen smell absolutely wonderful as it's cooking. Because I'm lazy, I love to use Very Lazy products and I always have a stock of their red chilli, garlic, and ginger to hand.

Ingredients:
Fry- Light
1 onion, peeled and chopped as chunky or as small as you like
4 cloves
6 cardamom pods
2 tsp Very Lazy red chilli
1 tsp Very Lazy ginger
2 tsp Very Lazy garlic
2 dried Chipotle chillies
1 tbsp hot curry powder (ideally Madras powder, but normal curry powder will do)
900g beef fillet, cut into chunks, with any fatty bits removed.
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
250ml beef stock

1. Spray a wok liberally with Fry light over a medium heat. Add onion, cloves, and cardamom and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the Very lazy chillies, garlic, and ginger, and the dried chipotle chilli and stir fry for a further couple of minutes.

3. Add the curry powder and beef. Stir fry for 6 minutes or so until the beef is browned and sealed nicely. Add the coriander, cumin, and stock and bring to the boil, Then simmer gently over a low heat for 1-1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

Perfect served with pilau rice and chappatis.

Tonight is Cake Club!

2012-01-25T06:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight's the night folks,

It seems like ages since the last Clandestine Cake Club. But now, the cake is baked, the venue is known, and in a few hours I shall be in a gluttonous sugar- induced coma of cakey joy.

I have many blog posts to catch up on, as per usual. A Black Forest Gateau Bake off is not least of these... They will *hopefully* not take me too long to get uploaded.

Speak soon,

Hayley xxx

Greige Velvet Cakes

2012-01-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

So this month's Clandestine Cake Club's theme is "inspired by the silver screen"

So, a while ago I got to thinking about cake inspired by film. It seemed to me that you either had to do something clever including cake in a film name, or find a film in which a cake is prominent and attempt to copy said cake. As a self-professed film snob, I also had to make sure that it was something that the Good Dr Mark Kermode would be proud of.

Citizen Cake? Then, along came some inspiration... Blue Velvet.

That's right people. I am going to recreate the 1986 David Lynch neo-noir film about sexual violence in cake form. Obviously, by producing a blue velvet cake with some sugarpaste robins and possibly a sugarpaste human ear.

As I've never made any form of velvet cake, I thought I'd better have a bit of a practice. So, as it was my friend Hesther's birthday party, I thought we could have a go at making some blue velvet cupcakes to have a try at some different colour combinations.

However, disaster struck as the paste food colourings I'd ordered (as recommended by every recipe i'd looked at) hadn't arrived. So I had to make do with liquid food colouring, which i don't really like using.

Still, two bottles should do it, right?

WRONG!

Not even a turquoise appeared. Instead, the mixture just because a mushroomy colour which I can only describe as "greige". Not the most appetizing of tints, I must admit.

I don't even have a picture of them at the moment. I think i'm too embarrassed to show you. We did pull it back however with a clever covering of bright blue buttercream. With cupcakes, copious buttercream covers a multitude of sins.

We now just have to hope and pray that the actual cake turns out rather better.

Steak and Mushroom Pie

2012-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

At the moment, my life appears to revolve around one thing.

Pie.

Pie has become the epicentre of my very being. You can read all about the exciting goings on in team Private Pie here.

Meanwhile, Boyf and I are attempting to plough through the Hairy Biker's Perfect Pies book to get some serious pastry-based experience in.

So, last weekend we made a hearty steak and mushroom pie from their book. Bear in mind that I was rather hung over after drinking an awful lot of wine the night before, and the recipe entails using a fair amount of red wine. Luckily, Boyf was willing to stand in at that point to take over and to limit the amount of alcoholic fumes i inhaled.

Now, if you ask me, an ideal pie has some sort of decoration which reflects what's inside it. It turns out that all of my bento-ing experience seems to be coming in handy for this purpose. For the pastry mushroom, I used an idea from Cute Yummy Time, with a punched- out nori happy face. Meanwhile, Boyf had responsibility for producing the cow.

Of course, a little bit of basic maths never goes amiss either when considering pie decoration. And who could argue that steak + mushroom = yum?

NOM!

Quick catch up

2012-01-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Just to say a quick "I haven't forgotten about you, I promise".

I have a few things that I need to post about at some point. I shall hopefully get round to it tomorrow night, so hang on in there, as I know you are all simply dying to know more about what is going on in HayleyVille :)

Speak (type) soon,

Hayley xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chicken Pie Is a Drug

2012-01-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

I got a lot of pie-related goodies for Christmas, what with being a co-founder of Private Pie and all. Santa seems to approve of this new venture of mine, as I got a new pie dish, a pastry server, a blackbird funnel, and both the Pieminster Cookbook and the Hairy Bikers' Perfect Pies book.

The latter was a present from Boyf, so we decided to make a pie together on New Year's Day. We went for the first recipe, a creamy chicken, ham, and leek double-crusted pie.

The recipe was really simple to make, and my goodness, it smelt wonderful when it was baking. We probably spent longer decorating the pie that we did actually preparing it!

Chicken! Cos it's got chicken in the pie, you see!

One beautifully baked narcotic pie

Pig! because of the ham content!

Plate of Pie Joy. The warm, creamy filling doesn't make for perfect presentation

We each had a slice and it was really scrumptious. So we each had another slice. And we instantly felt pleasantly happy and sleepy. Much napping on the sofa ensued... This pie appears to have opiate-like effects on the central nervous system. I suspect it may also be as addicted as morphine.

Hayley xxx

UPDATE: Today I woke up with a really sore, stiff neck. I can confirm that, having consumed a slice of this pie, my pain rating has decreased. Big Pharma should be investigating this. I would be a willing participant in any clinical trials.

Cooled pie makes for much more presentable slices.

What to do on Boxing Day?

2012-01-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

My boxing day last year was really rather rubbish, so this year i wanted to do something fun... And so i did a bit of research, only to discover that there is a grand total of three options for Boxing Day Fun in Newcastle:

1. Get up at 4am, then stand in a queue for 2 hours waiting for the Next sale to open. Then get black eyes and numerous other injuries whilst buying clothes you don't need in the wrong size.

2. Buy a half price sofa.

3. Do the Boxing Day Dip.

Of these options, I decided that number 3 would be the most symbolic and impressive activity. I roped in 2 other friends, but we missed the deadline to register for the official dip, so we decided we would just do our own instead.

We wanted to all wear matching outfits, (and were all very frightened of freezing sea-skin contact) so we attempted to buy some christmassy onesies, but there were none to be had anywhere in Newcastle two days before christmas. So instead, we thought we would just go with a pyjama theme. Off we went to the wilds of Northumberland, where we expected there to be no-one about to witness our pyjama-ed hypothermic frolics. However, it turns out that many people want to go walking along the coast on a blustery boxing day... all warmly wrapped in their sensible layers and hiking boots....

Cue three pyjama-clad, hip flask swigging girls appearing on the horizon!

Anyway, we all did a dip, and to be honest it was an amazing feeling. We were dead proud of ourselves, and i think we amused a number of passers-by, who gave us some shouts of encouragement... I think we may have even inspired someone else to get dipping!

Unfortunately though, this is the only picture which shows me entirely submerged... A pesky wave got in the way.

Of course there is only one antidote to the freezing cold North Sea, and that is copious amounts of cheese. I had a lovely Ploughman's lunch at Barter Books in Alnwick, while my friends had soup and a very delicious looking Northumbrian rarebit.

Same time next year, methinks.

Hayley xxx

Finally, the Christmas pie recipe you've all been waiting for!

2012-01-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hi there my lovelies,

Finally, I'm getting round to catching up on some blogging. Not sure how useful this here Christmas pie recipe will be to you, now that the festive season is over and done with for another year, but here it is in all it's glory, ready for you to print out and frame to put above your mantel piece :)

It's a surprisingly easy recipe, but really well-loved by all who try it. It makes for a perfect Christmas Eve tea. You can just use frozen shortcrust pastry if you're short of time, but the basic recipe i use is so easy to make it seems daft not to whip up a batch of your own delicious pastry. This recipe is based on one from BBC Good Food magazine from years ago, but over the years i've made a few tweaks which i think improve it quite a bit. The other great thing about this pie is that it can be made well in advanced and frozen- i usually make a couple at a time- one for work, one for christmas, and this year, one for pie club!

For the pastry, I use the BBC Good Food basic shortcrust recipe... So easy, but it's best to double up the quantities to make sure you've enough for this substantial pie. I also add a tablespoon or so of paprika, which makes the recipe my own and means the pastry has a lovely deep colour when it's baked.

Ingredients:

-2 tbsp olive oil
- knob of butter
- 1 finely chopped onion
-500g sausagemeat
- dash of lemon juice
-100g fresh white breadcrumbs
-85g dried apricots
-60g canned or tinned chestnuts, chopped
-2 tsp fresh thyme. dried will do if you can't get fresh, but the smell of fresh thyme is so delicious it's a shame to miss out!
-100g dried cranberries
-500g turkey breast, diced into bite sizes pieces
-beaten egg to glaze

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees (170 degrees for a fan oven)

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a frying pan or wok and gently fry the onions and turkey until nicely browned and cooked through. Leave to cool down for a bit

2. In a large bowl, combine the sausagemeat, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, apricots, chestnuts, thyme, and cranberries. Add the onion and turkey pieces and mix using your hands.

3. Roll out 3/4 of the pastry and cover the bottom of the pie dish. Now, squidge all of the christmassy goodness filling into the case. Brush the edges with beaten egg.

4. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the filling. Either pinch the edge or use a fork to seal the edge.

5. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg to glaze. Use the off-cuts to decorate in any way you wish... christmas cookie cutters are always a good option. I quite like to glaze the top of the pie, but not the decoration, which gives a nice contrast.

6. Bung your lovely pie in the oven. Bake for between 40-60 mins depending on your oven, until it has turned a lovely brown colour.

Enjoy. Delicious served warm or cold!

Peanut Butter Withdrawal

2011-12-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Oh, here's something to report.

I have decided to give up peanut butter. My beloved, delicious, happiness-giving peanut butter.

I just love it too much. I have far too much of it, and moderation is unlikely to be an option.

In the manner of the 12 steps, I have admitted i have a problem, have thought of those I have hurt due to the problem (Namely my colleague, who's peanut butter i stole to eat with a spoon surreptitiously in the kitchen at work once) and will make amends (buy him some peanut butter). I don't believe in God, so my higher power is Maru, the box loving gorgeously round cat.

So far, it's been ok. The first day i found myself google imaging pictures of peanut butter. The secind day i got the shakes. But so far, I haven't given in.

Hayley xxx

Severe Reprimands are required

2011-12-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

I know, I know dear blog friends, I have been seriously neglecting you and am outrightly flouting the code of Blog Pact.

You know how it is over Christmas.

In the meantime, let me direct you to the Private Pie blog, which has a write-up of our first ever meeting.

Eventually, I'll get round to posting the recipe for my much-loved christmas pie.

I think my New Year's Resolution is obvious- BLOG MORE!

Thanks for being patient

Hayley xxx

Winter Wonderland Cake Club

2011-11-29T14:26:00.001-08:00

What a great Clandestine Cake Club the November one was.

Detail from Lisa's snowball cake

First off, my friend Frankie and her mum were there. Frankie is awesome, and her mum is just fabulous. She's so funny and lovely. They brought along a very lovely egg nogg cake.

Secondly, having my cake photographed again for Appetite magazine. for all I whinge about not having a chance to do my hair beforehand, it really is flattering and exciting to have my cake chosen again to appear in the press.

Thirdly was having the chance to tell everyone about Private Pie Club. Everyone was so positive and excited about the idea, and we signed a few people up. There were also lots of people who were busy on the day, but who said they really wanted to go to future meetings.

Fourthly, was the lovely selection of cakes there were. this event had proved really popular and there were some new bakers there who it was lovely to meet.

Fifthly, and most definitely not last, was the presence of Lynne Hill, the founder of Clandestine Cake Club. I felt like I was meeting cake royalty! It was lovely to meet her, and to see how proud she was that her idea was bringing so many people together.

Anyway, I shall now shut up, and let the pictures of cake do the talking. Apologies to anyone who's cake doesn't get a picture here. The cameras in my battery gave up half way through :(

Kate's cranberry and dark chocolate panettone

Alison's sugar plum fairy cake

Julia's Pear and mincemeat crumble cake- my favourite cake of the night.

Lisa's Snowball cake (which Frankie's mum adored, bordering on the obsessive)

Sarah's chocolate and mulled wine cake

Julie's Spiced orange cake

Frankie's eggnog cake

That Old Chestnut

2011-11-29T13:47:00.001-08:00

It's nearly CHHHHHRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSTTTTMMMMAAAAASSSSSSSS!!!!!

No, I don't think it's too early to be getting in the festive mood. No, I don't get sick of christmas songs in a loop. Yes, I did have my first mince pie in September and no, it didn't feel wrong.

In a nutshell: I BLUMMIN' LOVE CHRISTMAS!

So of course I was excited for November's Clandestine Cake Club, which had a "Winter Wonderland" theme.

I decided to make a chestnut cake, from an old cake recipe book that i have. The way the cake was decorated in the book, however, left a lot to be desired. It was all very 80's, with swirly bits of cream everywhere. So I decided to go with a snowy wintry scene that i had seen in another cake decorating book, which was actually supposed to be a wedding cake.

Making the cake mixture was almost the same technique as making sachertorte, but with chestnut puree instead of chocolate. I had to separate 9 eggs and whisk up the whites, then fold the eggs whites carefully into the mixture. Then came the exciting bit...

The cake was filled with a (very delicious) chestnut and rum cream. This tasted... potent, and rather pleasant if i may say so myself (yes, I admit that i did eat quite a bit off a spoon once the cake was finished). I am starting to worry that the CCC may end up organising an AA intervention at some point for me, as i seem to be building a reputation for bringing alcoholic cakes!

The cake is loaded with rum cream :)

Then it was time for decorating. I used royal icing, and placed pine cones, bay leaves, and rosemary on top to make a bit of a wintry woodland floor type scene. Then added a few tea lights to bring a nice warm wintry glow to the cake when lit. Then a sprinkling of sugar lumps to look like little lumps of snow, and some generous handfuls of icing sugar and caster sugar to make it look super snowy, and ta-da! a wintry, snowy chestnut cake:

I had a minor panic just before the CCC. I had to go there straight from work so the cake had to sit in the fridge at work for the day, which is a danger in itself with the gannets that i work with. Then I realised that most of the "snow" icing sugar had melted, so i had to detour for some extra icing sugar on the way to the meeting. Once the candles were lit though, it did look pretty impressive, and it caught the eye of a photographer and journalist who were there for appetite magazine, so I ended up having to have another post-work, messy hair and rubbish make-up photo-shoot :-S

The inside of the cake was strange, kind of pinky and pate-ish in colour. The cake itself didn't taste of a huge amount, but the chestnut and rum cream was lovely.

Stir Up Saturday and Sunday

2011-11-29T11:14:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

I'm so behind on blogging, I really do apologise. So now it is time to do some serious catching up!

A few weekends ago I decided I would have my own little Stir-Up Sunday, although it was actually Saturday, and it spilled over into the sunday anyway.

I made christmas puddings, to Nigella's recipe. I am very pleased with myself for managing to avoid the disaster which occurred last year, which led to the destruction of one christmas pudding, one steaming pot, and one rather pricey Jamie Oliver pan. This time I kept a keen eye on them while they were steaming and made sure no melting happened.

This year's puds seem to have a much better colour than when i've made them in the past. Last time I used cointreau and they were quite er, potent shall we say. This year, I invested in some sherry, so they should be a bit more gentle on the taste buds.

Then I also made stollen. A long time ago i was a pre-reg pharmacist working in a hospital, and there was a German pharmacist working there. She brought some stollen in, and I loved it, so demanded the recipe. I remember her telling us the recipe off the top of her head, then she said "You'll never be able to make it properly without being actually German" (I do think she was kidding).

Anyway, I've made stollen every year since to that recipe and it's pretty much always a triumph/ What that you say? You want the recipe? Well only if you are very, very good.

I always make huge quantities of the stollen mixture, then get a bit scared by the fact that it appears to attempt to take over the whole kitchen after proving.

And here they are in all their Fresh-Out-The-Oven glory. This time I made one big one and two little ones. One will probably be accompanying me to work at some point, as i've been getting requests for stollen already from my colleagues.

Hayley xxx

POST- CHRISTMAS UPDATE:

The Christmas puddings were an absolute triumph. My family really enjoyed one on Christmas day, and even my Grandma, who is very vocal about not liking Christmas pudding, tried some and declared it yummy. The boyf and I had our own little Christmas Dinner also when he came up after Christmas, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his generous portion with ice cream!

Quick Catch-up

2011-11-22T13:58:00.001-08:00

Hi my lovelies,

Just a quick post to say that i promise i will be doing a decent post soon. I've been fairly busy lately, ironically mainly baking, to get down to writing any proper posts.

It's the Winter themed Clandestine Cake Club tomorrow though, and it's going to be a busy one! There are so many really exciting cakes on the list, and i'm quite pleased with how mine has turned out this time.

You will hear all about it soon, I promise,

Oceans of love,

Hayley xxx

The Long and Rocky Road

2011-11-15T12:21:00.001-08:00

Oh. My. Goodness. How excited am I about telling you about this cake? Very! In pharmacy terms, there is a type of drug interaction where two drugs add together to create an effect which is greater than the sum of each drug alone, which is known as potentiation.

Chocolate cake is good.

Rocky Road is good.

Chocolate cake + Rocky Road = OMG THIS IS HEAVEN AND ITS THE BEST THING EVAR!!!!

A friend at work gave me a baking calendar for next year. I just couldn't wait to make this rocky road chocolate cake so Boyf and I gave it a go this weekend.

First, we melted some Stork, and stirred in the sugar (I'm going to post the recipe onto the recipes page so check that out if you're wanting to give this cake a go. And frankly, I don't see how you could possibly not want to give it a go)

... Then we folded in the flour and cocoa powder, poured the mixture into a tin, and baked for about 30 mins. In the meantime, we made a huge batch of chocolate brownies as well...

...Then when the cake had cooled, Boyf carefully and precisely (as is his way) arranged the marshamallows...

... Then we covered the whole lot in a massive amount of chocolatey- Malteser-y-walnut-ty goop, and popped it in the fridge to set.

The result is a layer of chocolate cake covered in a big thick layer of rocky road. I need say no more. GO MAKE IT! you know you want to!

Muffins!

2011-11-10T13:33:00.001-08:00

Hello all,

Had a lovely holiday, thank you very much. I have returned with quite a serious addiction to olives and feta cheese, however. It was very quiet, as most things were closed in Malia with it being off-season, but we found ways to amuse ourselves, including visiting Knossos to hunt for the minotaur.

Last weekend i was down in London to see The Boyf, so we decided to do a spot of baking. I haven't made muffins for ages, so we thought we would whip up a couple of batches. Everything that Boyf bakes appears to need to contain chocolate, and lots of it, so we settled on double chocolate chunk muffins, and i demanded to make Nigella's divine snickers and peanut butter muffins as well.

We had to go shopping for ingredients and everything. For some reason i was slightly disappointed at the fact that London branches of Tesco are the same as North East ones, as if the south is a whole other country. My style of shopping usually consists of meandering about slowly looking at everything new and being seduced by shiny, brightly coloured packaging. I established that alas, this is not how The Boyf shops at all (go directly to aisle required, select item, that is all)

We used this recipe for the double chocolate chunk muffins. The cinnamon was an odd addition, and initially we feared it was going to be a bit overpowered but the finished article was yummy.

Meanwhile (as The Boyf sloooowly and precisely measured out exact amounts of muffin mixture to go into each muffin cup, bless him), i made a start on the snickers and peanut butter muffins. I made these years ago from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess, and they were amazing, and got rave reviews from those who tried them (including the staff in my local salon, who would regularly tell me how wonderful they were in a subtle hint kind of a way). Anyway, as you will probably know by now, I do have a serious peanut butter addiction, so these muffins are a joy for me.

There will be more baking this weekend, so expect more posts. It will involve more chocolate, yay!

In other news, the arrangements for Private Pie are coming along nicely. Will let you know as things develop further.

Hayley xxx

My Excuse Note

2011-10-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog Pact,

Please may i be excused from the Blog Pact bond for about 2 weeks, on account of me being on holiday and not being able to blog.

I promise that i will make up for my absence and tell you all about my holiday when i return

Many thanks,

Hayley xx

A Very Exciting (and Secret) Development

2011-10-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm quite rubbish at keeping daft but exciting secrets, so I'm going to tell you all about this Top Secret and marvellous thing that is happening at the moment..

Inspired by the lovely Lisa, and the Clandestine Cake Club, my friend Nancy and I have decided to make our very own food-based secret society.

A secret pie club! Similar principles to the CCC, (you only find out about the venue 24 hours before, you can bring a non-baking friend, you have to make a pie that will feed 8-12 people), but with a more savoury option, although sweet pies are still very much welcome.

Our website is under construction at the minute, but i've started off a little blog

Aaaand, we have a twitter account ( @private_pie)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, we have a Facebook page as well

So, once i am back from my holidays, we are going to go and have a look for venues. We have somewhere in mind which i think will be perfect, but fingers crossed that it all works out.

I am really, so excited about this!

Hayley xxx

Baking Battle- Pie Edition

2011-10-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

And so, dear friends, we find ourselves in Bake-Off territory again.

There has been a lot of talk about pie in my life at the minute (more on this later) and so a pie-based bake-off was clearly the way forward. The rules were such:

1. Home made pastry, no shop bought laziness
2. The filling had to be sweet
3. The pie had to be wholly covered in pastry (no American style pie for this here challenge.)

Nancy and I had that day at work been discussing the theory of rhubarb and custard pie. A pie with inherent, built in custard. And i found this recipe, which had our mouths watering. So this was the obvious choice, wasn't it? Yes, I know the crumble topping would breach the rules, but i figured i would just ditch that for pastry, and away we go. So, armed with my shopping list, off I went ingredient shopping.

Except... THERE IS NO RHUBARB! anywhere! I went to numerous places in the market, no rhubarb. I went to a supermarket, hoping to find some GM mutant version from Chile or somewhere... Not a stick to be seen, except for the Encased-In-Tin variety. Tinned rhubarb felt like cheating though for a bake-off, so instead i grabbed the nearest fruit, which happened to be pears. I haven't actually had a pear for years, and could barely remember what they tasted like, so i thought this would be high-risk, but fun. I added some pecans into the mixture too, and a handful of sultanas, just because they were there. I had to blind bake the base, and i'm still not 100% used to the quirks of my oven, so the crust of the pie was a bit overdone.

Alas, no. Despite the fact that the pie tastes divine, it was unanimously voted against in favour of The Boy's Pie. Like me, he had to have a last minute ingredients change as he intended to make an apple and blackberry pie but could find no blackberries. So he opted for an apple and raspberry option. A robust, if a little on the safe side, choice of filling. And yes, lets give him a few extra points for his geeky decoration shall we? And let's kindly ignore the fact that the tail on his pi symbol is the wrong way around ;) (sorry, I am bitter about losing this challenge)

The Boy's pie

Pi Pie... See what he did there?

The judges this time were: Boy's parents, and brother. They were instructed to each come to an independent decision. And they each chose The Boy's pie. Suspicious? Lets hope so. "They said pie number 2 was burnt and they thought it was meat filled" he says. Well, please. Clearly the idea of a pie with integral custard is just too advanced for this world. Pff!

A Very Cool Night Out

2011-10-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Have any of you been to Icebar London? I went there last week and it was FABULOUS! What is it? Well, it's a bar, which is MADE OF ICE! Yay!

It's located just off Regent Street, and it's wonderful. It's very beautiful, with bits of artwork around about, and the ice itself is harvested from Sweden and the bar is kept permanently at around minus 5. When we went, the designs included some nice quotes in the walls. The decorations are changed once yearly.

You get a furry cape to wear when you go in, with gloves attached, because, and here is the best bit, you glass is made of ice!

They serve some nice cocktails (I had a Singapore Sling and a Mojito, whilst The Boy just had whatever was the brightest pink, as is his way with cocktails), and the main problem with the whole experience is that it's only 40 mins long. And a normal pub seems like a bit of a let down after being in there!

Last weekend we also went to a planetarium, which was wonderful, and I was sent off home with a supply of The Boy's very marvelous apple crumble. A lovely weekend all round.

Hayley xxx

National Cakes at the Clandestine Cake Club

2011-10-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

This post is going to focus on some of the other lovely cakes that made appearances at the Clandestine Cake Club. Despite the minor disasters that befell most of us, it's always impressive to see a table chock full of a tasty mismatch of home made cake. I love the differences in textures, colours, heights, and shapes of the cakes themselves but also the different plates, cake stands etc. I know i am amused by small things but there is just something wonderfully welcoming about the whole vista of cake.

It's worth noting that Nancy and I were going to see Nero after Cake Club. Considering i had to lie down for two hours after last time's visit to the club, we had to limit ourselves to a maximum of 4 bits of cake on the evening. Otherwise, the combination of lots of cake, vodka, kahlua, monster energy drink, and dubstep dancing could have made for a very messy evening. We did make sure to pack away quite a lot of cake though, on the basis that it would make for good hangover fodder for the next day.

So here are the cakes individually. First we have Lisa's Double espresso and Brazil nut cake. For Brazil, the country you see. This was consumed after i got in from the dubstep night so to be perfectly honest, I can't quite remember how it tasted =D. I know that's not hugely helpful to my loyal blog readers but hey, honesty is always the best option.

Then there was Catherine's Jamaican Gingerbread cake. This had disintegrated a bit but tasted absolutely wonderful, particularly with the addition of a cream in the middle.

Next up is a lovely looking Bailey's Irish Cream cake by Julia:

A Chocolate Chile cake by Sarah (which took a few mouthfuls to get used to, but it had a really delicious flavour and an extraordinary texture which I was very amenable to):

And this is Hannah's imaginative sushi cake, beautifully decorated and made of a yummy coconut sponge:

Emily's Malteser cake (for Malta, you see... I love what she did there!):

And a really terrible picture of Nancy's Chocolate Guinness cake. This cake recipe is rather famous in our workplace, where is is usually made by our colleague Jane and is regularly requested whenever we have any baking or buffets at work. So Nancy's had a go at the recipe, which i think is based on one of Nigella Lawsons, and lo and behold it was a triumph of dark moist cakey joy:

Liz made this Moroccan Orange and Almond cake, which was lovely dipped in yoghurt, which she was kind enough to provide for us. This cake really did have a lovely flavour.

A Canadian maple syrup and salted walnut cake by Val. Standing True, Strong, and Free:

And, of course, a trusty, British, Victoria sponge, made by Clare:

There was one other cake which my rubbish phone camera just did not do justice to the decoration, so I am going to refer you straight to her blog A spoonful of Sugar instead. This was Bara Brith, made by Kate, which had a beautiful little Welsh Dragon sat proudly on top of it. Bara Brith is a fruit cake/ loaf type affair, and a huge wedge of it made for a truly excellent Morning-After-The-Night-Before Breakfast

Overdosing on cake part two

2011-10-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Much to report to my little corner of bloggyland at the moment so bear with me while i catch up with you all.

First off, is my report from my second time at the Clandestine Cake Club Newcastle. This meeting's theme? A National Cake (as it was National Cake Week last week, and the cake club meet fell on the Wednesday). I was also very excited to find out that this time, Cake Club would be meeting at the Tyneside Cinema, a place which is very dear to my heart and one of my favourite places in this wonderful city.

So, I thought about my cake that I would make. Well, in actual fact, my friend Nancy and I had many very lengthy conversations, panics, and discussions about the cakes we would make. And I settled on a White Russian cake, mainly because the recipe contained a whole load of alcohol (kahlua and vodka) and there isn't much better in life that a combination of alcohol and cake.

The really interesting about this cake club, was the fact that everyone seemed to have a tale of a cake-based disaster to tell. There were cake cracks, cake disintegrations, cakes dipping in the middle, cakes with saggy frosting, and in my case, slightly burnt cakes and curdled cream due to too much alcohol being added. All these disasters made us all feel a bit better and meant that good conversation flowed freely and made us all feel much better about our cake stresses. My way of dealing with my curdled vodka kahlua cream was to remember that well known old proverb "If your cake goes a bit wrong, put s**t loads of gold dust, cherries, and chocolate on top to hide it".

All that glitters tastes rather nice

Well, this seems to have worked, as there was a journalist and a photographer there that night who were wanting to report on the cake club, and the photographer seemed quite taken with my cake. In fact, he seemed quite taken with the whole idea "What, so you meet up every month, and bring cake and eat cake? Wow!". So, before i knew it, i was whisked off into the alleyway outside the cinema for some photographs with my cake. Despite a minor panic attack about the state of my make-up and hair, and demands for extreme air-brushing, I'm actually not as horrified at the results as I thought i would be. Here it is in situ, in the Sunday Sun:

I know what you're thinking! Hotel Rooms for just £10!!

And you can see the article online here: Secret Cake Making Club Cooking up a Frenzy. I'm so pleased to see it doing so well, and would like to say many congratulations and thanks to Lisa for organising such a great event. Check out her blog The Wonderful World of @loopygirl whenever you get a moment.

The Great Sachertorte Skirmish of 2011

2011-10-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

This weekend saw another bake-off between The Boy and I.

The challenge? Inspired by the Great British Bake-Off, we decided to make Sachertorte. I've wanted to make this cake for ages, and having had a taste of some at the Clandestine Cake Club, I wanted to make it even more. So off we went to get ingredients, at Saturday at 4pm saw us lock horns in our little inter-city, pan-regional baking event. This bake-off was very important to me after The Great Cheesecake Debacle. My baking pride was at stake.

The recipe I used (I will get round to posting recipes on here one day, I promise), called for a lot of egg white whisking, which is very hard work, but worth it for the light, fluffy texture of the cake. Then, in a high-risk, high-potential pay-off move, I went for a topping made with a sugar syrup instead of a cream-based ganache. High risk, because i don't own a thermometer and i know how precise you have to be when it comes to sugar, so i just had to guess when it got to 120o. Luckily I remembered to buy a new piping set as my trusty old piping syringe got lost in my move after christmas.

The cake baking started out ok, with a nice sized, nicely risen cake. I then covered it with apricot jam, and attempted to top it with the chocolate topping. This was far too runny though, and lots and lots of coats had to be applied before it would start to stick. Even after being left in the fridge overnight, the topping still hadn't set, but i had enough on there to pipe the decoration on. Sachertorte traditional has the word 'Sacher' (after Franz Sacher, the inventor of the cake) on the top in chocolate. Herein lies an inherent problem i have with baking: Just go ahead and wing it, and hope for the best, or practice, and risk doing it perfectly on your practice then messing it up on the real thing. I decided to have a practice on the basis that The Boy is very precise, so i would have to be too in order to win. The piping turned out ok, although the practice was definitely better than the real thing.

The apricot jam is applied

Runny chocolate coating is ridiculously messy!

Practice went ok!

The real one didn't go quite as ok, but is still acceptable

The cake went back in the fridge, then when I checked on it later, the S had migrated as the cake had been at a bit of an angle in the fridge. This was a total disaster, but all was not lost as i managed to gently nudge the rogue letter back to its rightful place.

Rogue S!

Once he had finished, it was time for judging. As you know, we take great pains to blind our efforts from our 'independent' judge, Nancy. However, she felt she had to bow out of this competition as she thought she had guessed whose was whose from the piping (and obviously, knowing she wouldget cake from me if i won, this would put her independence into jeopardy.

So this time, we had a grand total of 5 judges. 3 of my friends, and 2 of his. And the score? 4-1 to ME!! And, if i do say so myself, my sachertorte was a triumph. It was baked perfectly, tasted wonderful, and looked alright in the end, despite the slightly dodgy topping. It was very quickly snaffled by my friends and colleagues.

note the uniform texture inside. I'm well proud of that, I am!

Part of me wants to make this again, immediately. The rest of me is saying "don't you ever, ever make this ever again. Quit while you're ahead!". I guess we shall see....

Aaaand here they are... The long awaited photos of The Boy's *losing* cake...

Very precise piping, but the lack of swirly bits may have decreased the prettiness factor.

More gooey than mine, which is good, but not as uniformly baked...

I know, I know, I am a terrible winner. And I am also a terrible loser, which doesn't matter in this particular case ;)

Hayley xxx

Other Cakes Of Note

2011-10-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

So, this will be my last post about the Macmillan Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning, and I want to say thank you to all of my wonderful colleagues who baked for the occasion, and also to those who made donations for cake. Have done a cursory total, I think we have made about £115, which is really brilliant for the number of people who work at the centre. I do suspect, however, that the amount says more about our vast cake eating skills than our generosity, but its a good cause and I'm so pleased at how well it went.

Here's a little selection of what people brought in. This pic was fairly early on so much more cake arrived afterwards. They don't have their own picture but I must mention Dacia's Cheese and olive borekas. They were very moreish and delicious. Dacia always makes something a little bit different for our work buffets and I'm always excited to try her cooking.

Hurrah and huzzah for Nancy's long awaited chocolate courgette cake:

Basically, just... NOM!!! The cake also had some hazelnuts in, and was super moist and rich... lovely. The topping was the stuff dreams are made of (i.e. chocolate, and cream). It wasn't overly courgette-y it was just very pleasant, especially for breakfast, which was when i ate the majority of cake that day.

Jane Ingram's Guiness cake:

This was a special request for Jane to make as it is a little bit famous in our workplace. I can sum it up in two words: Blummin' lovely.

Thanks again to my lovely (if rather mad at times) colleagues and to you, my lovely readers.

Hayley xxxx

White Chocolate and Banana Cake

2011-10-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

So the other cake I made for the Macmillan Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning was a white chocolate and banana cake. First I made the banana-ey flavour sponge...

*insert 'ooh what a lovely pair' based pun here.

Then a lovely thick layer of creme fraiche...

...then a layer of sliced banana...

Then put on the top layer of the cake, and slather with white chocolate topping and.... Wahey!!

I apologise for the pretty rubbish photos by the way... I ran out of batteries for my proper camera so was having to rely on my phone camera instead. And yes, I know the paper plate is tres chic, non? it didn't seem to put many people off trying the cake though, and it seemed to be pretty well received.

oooh look, here is a BONUS side-on picture too for your viewing pleasure. I do spoil you sometimes...

Chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes

2011-10-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

I love peanut butter.

I mean I really, really love peanut butter. If i don't have any peanut butter for breakfast i don't feel quite right for the whole day. And the amounts of peanut butter i have on crumpets etc really is disgraceful. And yes, I will quite often be found eating it with a spoon.

I thought that this year it would be nice for my workplace to take part in the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning, so I arranged a bit of a bake sale at work, and it was a resounding success. I'm going to write a couple of posts about this event so bear with me for a few posts.

I haven't made cupcakes in a while, so I thought i'd make a wee batch of peanut butter chocolate cupcakes... yum! So i started out by making the chocolate cupcakes....

Then the peanut butter is all in the delicious frosting, which also contains cream cheese, butter and icing sugar. Then of course the whole cakes are topped off with some chocolate coated peanuts yay!

This picture was taken after the cupcakes' journey to work so they are slightly battered. Nonetheless they disappeared fairly quickly, along with the rest of the wonderful cakes there. Of which more later....

Hayley xxx

The Great Phone Case Conundrum

2011-09-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all of you lovely people.

For the past few days, I would say about 84% of my brain has been devoted to worrying about this big issue in my life.

I now have 2 cases for my beloved blackberry, and I am in a constant state of anxiety about which case to use at any given time. You see my dilemma:

One is sparkly. This is good. However it has no reference to cakes on it. The other is pink and has a cupcake on it, but sadly no sparkly bits.

My simple dog brain is overwhelmed.

P.S. I hear you thinking 'this post seems rather rushed, almost as if it is an emergency post because she doesn't have time to right a big post and she is away for the weekend so wont be able to blog, then she would be in contravention of the laws of Blog Pact.' You may or may not be correct about this.

The Baked Cheesecake Challenge

2011-09-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

a.k.a. The Great Cheesecake Disaster.

So The Boyf and i decided to do another baking challenge after the success of the focaccia competition. This time we each had to make a baked cheesecake of some description.

I decided to make an apple crumble cheesecake. I was going to assemble the recipe myself- ie make a plain baked cheesecake, top with a spiced apple compote, then crumble topping, but instead i decided to go with this recipe, and to be honest, it didn't go to plan at all. Nothing in particular went wrong, when i was making it, but i think my springform tin leaked a bit (so i ended up with melted butter all over my oven,which then created an alarming amount of smoke), then the mixture rose more than expected around the outside and burnt a bit, while the middle didn't do much at all.

Anyway, after it has been left in the fridge overnight i was hoping that a miracle may have occurred or a little emergency cheesecake fairy had appeared to make it look prettier, but alas, there it was, looking sad and forlorn and very, very ugly.

i am a very ugly cheesecake. that is all.

I've had a little taste today for my sunday lunch dessert and i'm pleased to report that it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, it's actually quite nice. It looks much better inside than it does on the outside, which is probably a lot like myself (beauty comes from within, right, and in my head i am Lily Cole) I do think that just making a plain cheesecake with an apple crumble topping will work better though, maybe this is something to try sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, he made a double chocolate cheesecake which looks A-mezzing. It really does look lovely:

Last time we took great steps to ensure an independent judge and appropriate blinding. This time I can't bring myself to waste such effort as he is the clear winner. Even my mother, who should be heavily biased towards me, has said that he has won. Her exact words when she saw mine: "oh dear, what on earth is that?"

All of this means, dear people, that i have lost a cheesecake baking competition to someone who had to ring me to clarify what cream cheese is. I hang my head in shame and crawl into a corner to cry gently for many hours.

The score is now 1:1. And this is before proper judging.

UPDATE: Well of course he won. I mean, no contest at all really.

A Sincere Apology To Brussels Sprouts.

2011-09-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Brussels Sprouts

Alas, dismay, and woe is me. for I am writing this post to inform you of sad news.

For today I am missing the Newcastle Clandestine Cake Club, due to travelling to a conference, and there will be no brussels sprout cake.

However, fear not my tiny cabbagey friends. I shall still make a cake of you someday to make people fall in love with your little sprouty selves.

Look out for the post sometime in the future

Kind regards,

Hayley xxx
Disappointingly Poor Brussels Sprout Ambassador

Soda Bread again

2011-09-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hiya,

today i have made two loaves of soda bread. i made one white loaf, and one wholemeal. I think i am perfecting this recipe now. Still used golden syrup, which i think actually does work rather nicely.

Two loaves of soda bread joy

I'm going to have a very nice tea tonight of chicken soup with home made soda bread. Nomnomnom!

There will be more interesting posts next week, I promise.

Hayley xxx

Brownies and Bacon, Bacon and Brownies

2011-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have a number of favourite things in my life.

I would say cheese is quite high on the list. I also like brownies lots. And bacon.

Imagine my joy when i stumbled across a recipe for.... bacon cheesecake brownies!

Bacon, and cheese, all mixed up in brownie dreamy goodness. So this weekend gone, Boyf and I made brownies. Half a batch of walnut and cherry, half a batch of bacon cheesecake.

So I used Nigella's divine brownie recipe, added some crispy bacon goodness, then made some cheesecake mix using cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla, which was then expertly applied to the brownie mix.

Bacony brownie mixture!

The result- to be honest, I'm not hugely sure. I kind of expedted a "Oh my! bacon! and brownie!" kind of taste explosion in my mouth when eating, but instead its more of a pleasant, sedate, "oh, I have encountered a little bit of bacon in my brownie" kind of a feel. I definitely, definitely approve of the added cheesecakey-ness. The saltiness of the bacon combined with rich chocolateyness reminds me a bit of the chocolate salty cake that I tried at the Clandestine Cake Club Newcastle, but i think that had a bit more impact than these brownies. I wonder whether using pancetta might work better- i used unsmoked bacon, but i actually think a nice smoky flavour would work quite nicely with chocolate.

Action pouring shot!

The reception has been mixed. Boyf was left unimpressed, I was a mixture of gently pleased and mildly disappointed. I was sat at mu desk today when two colleagues from another office appeared with excited faces saying "bacon? brownies?!" repeatedly, and they seemed to quite enjoy the concept. There was also some disgust, and some moderate intrigue but wariness from other parties.

The next brownie adventure i want to try will involve chilli, i suspect.

Soda Bread

2011-09-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hi my lovelies,

Why did no one ever tell me how easy soda bread is to make? From now on i will whip up a loaf every.... ah, well maybe not that often, but it's really not much of a faff at all, and is really, rather good to snaffle down with a little bit of butter, or some jam, or some peanut butter. And it makes blummin lovely bacon sandwiches.

Ok, so its really not the prettiest, but it was really very yummy and comforting, and there is a supreme amount of satisfaction and domestic goddess type smugness in eating home-baked bread.

I used Lorraine Pascal's recipe, which can be found here. There were a couple of tweaks, as i made an impromptu decision to make this so had to make do with what i had in the cupboards. So i used warm milk with lemon juice instead of buttermilk, and golden syrup in place of treacle.

Hayley xxx

i will be the brussels sprout ambassador.

2011-09-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Poor brussels sprouts. They aren't very loved in this world, but i'm sure they're not so bad really. They are just ickle behbeh cabbages after all, and usually things in miniature are cute.

Well I believe the only way to make life better for lonely, sad little brussels sprouts is to make them into a cake.

That way, people will love them

The next Clandestine Cake Club theme is 'one of your five-a-day'. So I shall be presenting a cake made from these unappreciated little cabbage creatures for the cakey people to adore.

I must point out, I have never made brussels sprout cake, so hopefully it will turn out yummy.

Watch this space

Bread Baking Battle Verdict

2011-09-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the results are in for the bread making bake off.

AND I WIN!!!!

Ok, so the judge was my friend Nancy, who may have been slightly concerned at the idea of weeks of permanent foul mood induced by my losing my baking crown, but hey, I still won!

And we did everything properly, sending anonymised pictures to her to judge so she didnt know which was which when she made her decision.

So I present to you, dear people, the winning foccacia:

And here is The Boy's runner up effort (which I have to say is very impressive, and probably a more worthy winner than mine, but that's not the point)

Note the kitchen paper backgrounds to blind the results for the judge. We took this competition seriously, you know.

The recipe I used was from the very wonderful Lorraine Pascal, and can be found here.

And as an extra special bonus (and to buy me a few more moments of smugness in my success), here are some more photos of the baking process

I have also made some soda bread tonight, but i'm now too full of fresh focaccia to write a post about that right now.

Love and joy to the world, for I am a winner,

Hayley xxxx

A Bread Baking Battle Begins

2011-09-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Who's silly idea was this? Oh, mine.

I am typing this as a way to pass the time whilst nervously waiting for some bread to prove.

I wanted to bake something today, the Boyf also wanted to bake something today. He is in London, I am in Newcastle. So in a moment of confidence, I suggested we both bake the same thing in a bake-off type fashion, and we decided on some focaccia bread because that was on the Great British Bake-Off the other night.

We have independent judges and everything.

Now i'm thinking, a lot is riding on this. My reputation as a baking queen vs he who has never made bread, females vs males, Northerners vs Southerners. Pressure indeed. Its been years since i've bothered making my own bread.

Results, recipes etc to follow.

Eeep!

The Great Blog Pact

2011-08-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

And so it is, dear readers, that I am entered into a binding pact of blogging.

Three of us at my workplace are owners of Neglected Blogs. We have decided to Pull Our Socks Up and stay on top of our blogs, and have entered into a pact to post at least one blog post a week.

The forfeit, if this is not done, remains as yet undecided. I am open to suggestions, provided they are suitably gory and terrible.

Please visit and love my fellow pacters' blogs. And make sure to tell on them if they don't post weekly. mwhahahahaha!

Vince's Allotment Year

Nancy's Life, Love and Kettlebells

Anyone who owns a blog and wants to join in, say hello!

A simple equation

2011-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

That is all.

Life as a Simple Dog

2011-08-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

I was recently introduced to the wonderful Hyperbole and a Half blog.

This blog is the work of utter genius. It is so funny, it makes me laugh out loud (real-life LOLling is always good). She writes so wonderfully about little stories from her life, its really heart-warming. And she draws fabulous little cartoon pictures to go along with them. Can you tell how much I like this blog?!

What I love most of all, is her stories about her dogs. So, she has one dog which she thinks is a bit retarded, called The Simple Dog, and another which looks after the Simple Dog, called The Helper Dog.

I now refer to myself as Simple Dog a lot. I so identify with Simple Dog that I feel pleased that someone else in the world thinks like me, even if it is a mentally retarded dog. The picture below, from this post illustrates the point perfectly.

I have a few Helper Dogs in life too, thank goodness. I am very thankful for them Case in point, as we speak, I am sitting around waiting to go on a bus trip to London. I have had to tweet my friend Nancy, who is probably my primary Helper Dog, to check what I have forgotten to pack, even though she is at work and has no idea what I have already packed.

Anyway, I'm off to sit and fret about what I haven't packed. But at least now you know what I mean if I refer to myself as Simple Dog. But mainly, pleeease go and have a look at Hyperbole and a Half, it is really so, so good.

Gin and Tonic Cake

2011-08-26T04:11:00.000-07:00

So, one of my favourite things about Friday is Gin o'clock.

I haven't been drinking gin for that long, but my friend Nancy introduced me to it after a hard day and work, and now Gin O'Clock is very much embedded in my routine.

So, when I can across this recipe for a gin and tonic cake, I obviously had to have a go. I made this cake for the Clandestine Cake Club meeting:

So, the first thing you may note is that its certainly not the prettiest of cakes in the world. I made three layers of the sponge, but the ganache was very runny so kind of ran and flopped everywhere, despite a long time in the fridge. I resorted to putting some cocktail peacocks into it to deflect from the ugliness of it. I did have a little practice run of making this cake, but that time i broke up the sponge and layered it in glasses, which worked quite nicely. Making a bit cake was a slightly different story.

I'm not totally convinced by the recipe on the link
-1kg of white chocolate?! really?! I used half quantities and that was more than enough to cover one huge cake. And besides, would anything be more pathetic than going to the shop and buying some gin and 1kg of white chocolate? What would the shop assisstant think?!
-The gin and tonic syrup is fine, although not hugely viscous. I used some cheap gin and fever tree tonic. Someone I was talking to at the cake club suggested using Soda Stream syrup, which i think is a great idea which i may try sometime.
-The earl grey steeped ganache is lovely, but rather runny.
-The sponge is really weird. Its very dense, which i guess should make it absorb the gin better, but it's quite difficult to feed, and i think i will try it with normal sponge sometime to see if that is better.
-it had a very subtle gin flavour. Which, for some people may be good, but for me, was rather disappointing.

So, people said they liked the gin and tonic cake, and it is nice, but there is definitely some room for improvement. I shall let you know how any future experiments go, of course.

Overdosing on Cake!

2011-08-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, a few weeks ago I received an invite from a wonderful friend called Umbereen to.. ssssshhhhhh..... a Clandestine Cake Club....

A....Secret....Cake... Club..... a Club, of Cake? hmmmm yes please!!

Actually, it turns out that the Clandestine Cake Club (CCC to those in the know) isn't really that secret, with a website and everything. There are events all over the UK http://clandestinecakeclub.co.uk/ You can also find

So, I took my friend Nancy as my non-baking guest, and off we went to the location. One of my other friends, Frankie, was also there with her lovely (and very technologically advanced) mum.

Well, really. It was like a dream of cake.

There was cake here, cake there, and cake everywhere. And they all looked very beautiful. The theme for the evening was cakes you've always dreamed of... my cake was a gin and tonic cake, as i really don't think i can think of anything better than gin, and cake, together. More on my cake later.

So we ate some cake. A lot of cake, and we had some lovely chats, and then more cake, and also some tea. Then we felt rather nicely sick and went home (taking lots more cake with us).

I would go into the merits of each type of cake, but my attention span is quite rubbish at the moment, so i think i'm going to split this wonderful event into a few different posts.. Also you can find a lovely write-up of the event on Lisa's blog (she set up the Newcastle branch of the CCC) here: http://looopeeelisa.blogspot.com/2011/08/2nd-clandestine-cake-club-meeting.html?showComment=1314303992987#c7051366100792383567

Hello again, beautiful blogosphere!

2011-08-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hi, hi, hi,

So i used to have a bento blog, but since a lot of changes in my life occurred i never really get around to making bento anymore :(. I still love baking though, and i've been doing lots of exciting new stuff in my life, so i think its time to make a return to this here blogosphere, with new, shiny bakingbeautiful*. Tell your friends! shout it to the world! Hayley is back, and I will try to be vaguely interesting, and hopefully un-sporadic!

oceans of love to you all (although at the time of writing this, i actually have no followers, so this is probably a wee bit odd.)

Hayley xxxxxxx