Other Cakes Of Note

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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