Starting the bakery

After a lot of thinking, i’ve decided to branch out into the word of baking from home this hasn’t been an entirely easy decision – its not easy to combine baking with 3 under 5 ‘helper’s!’

Anyhow, i’ve started up cake addict by testing the water with some yummy chocolate and berry swirl easter cupcakes

This isn’t what I really want cake addict to be about though – lets face it, the cupcake is the prawn cocktail for the noughties and won’t be around forever! Instead i’m hoping to move more towards pretty iced biscuits, wedding cakes with delicate sugarpaste flowers and afternoon tea type creations

So, if your not busy, please head over to www.facebook.com/addictedtocake and check it out, also bear in mind I can deliver across the UK!

Also, watch out for my next post, i’m working on a coconut type cake!

Also, I thik this pic is a bit fuzzy – or is it just me!

Bannana and lemon cupcakes

These cupcakes are delicously light with a bannana sponge base and tangy lemon buttercream frosting!

 

Ingrediants: Cake: 175g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 100ml vegetable oil, 175g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 bannanas mashed.

Buttercream: 125g butter, 250g icing sugar – or more dependant on your own taste, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, zest 1 lemon

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 C

2. Beat together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy – I used a balloon whisk for this and it only took a couple of minutes

3. Add the vanilla and oil and whisk in followed by the sieved baking powder and plain flour

4. Fold through the mashed bannana – why is that such a tricky word to spell! and divide between a lined 12 hole muffin tin

5. Bake for 15 ish minutes until risen and golden brown

6. While the cake is baking combine the ingredients for the buttercream, if its a bit stiff add a splash of milk.

7. Decorate the cakes when cool, i sprinkled mine with some yellow sugar from the cake decorating bit in the supermarket!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clementine rainy day cupcakes

 

 

 

 

Today has been a miserable day – you know the type, howling wind and lashing rain, no hope of getting outside. So, with the 2 year old and 5 year old getting on each others nerves, I thought we’d do some baking, nothing glamorous, just a bit of fun with the kids – complete with a retro orange slice on top!

Ingredients: cake:  125g soft butter, 175g caster sugar, zest 2 clementines, juice 1 clementine, 2 eggs, 160g self-raising flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder

icing: 150g icing sugar, juice 1 clementine

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Cream together the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy

2. Add the zest and the eggs one by one beating between each addition.

3. Fold in the flour and baking powder followed by the clementine juice – told you this was quick! – and divide between 8 cupcake cases. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until risen and golden.

4. Make the icing – dribble clementine juice, beating between each addition, into the icing sugar until you get a thick icing. Now, if you weren’t doing these with children, they would be nice with a cream cheese frosting but mine don’t really like it too much, anyway back to the icing, spread the icing over the cakes and decorate with a bit of orange zest or an orange slice – the sweetie kind!

If you can wait long enough, leave the icing to set!

 

 

 

 

Return of the bakery!

Hello readers!!

Happy new year to you all, sorry the posts have been lacking over the festive period but I do have a good excuse or two…honest guv!

Firstly we moved house on the 12th December which was madness, then my son caught chicken pox which, quite frankly, only added to my insanity – a hyperactive 5 year old plus a 2 year old and a 6 month old baby while trying to unpack aaarrrgghhh!- then we discovered that the horrible people who rented our house while we were away had left behind unwanted beasties in the form of fleas…so frantic phone calls to get the house fumigated and for obvious reasons baking was on the back burner!

So the cake tins are now back out and there will be recipes in the next few days…promise

Love lily’s x

cranberry and cinnamon mince pies

This is a recipe which i’ve been making for the last few years, technically their not really mince pies but I find the cranberry mincemeat lighter and zingier than the traditional sort – its also a good alternative for vegetarians as it doesn’t contain any suet. The mincemeat recipe comes from the nigella christmas book and you can find the recipe on www.bbc.co.uk/food or on www.nigella.com – I woud print it here but we’re in the moving house next week and the book is in  a box somewhere!

Ingredients: 200g plain flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon icing sugar,100g butter, 1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C and grease a mini 12 hole tart tin Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and cube the butter. Rub in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs – not that fine in my pic but hey ho!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Add the egg and mix together to form a ball of dough, if its a little dry, add a splash of milk

 

3. Lightly flour your worksurface and roll out to about 2 mm thick, cut out circles with a cutter – a good gauge for this is a cutter thats roughly half a centimetre bigger then the holes in your tin – you should get 20 – 30 circles depending on cutter size

 

4. Pop the circles into your pre-prepared tin – you may notice I’m using a bun tin as I don’t have a tart tin so the pies are not quite pie like! Fill with the mincemeat and top with a pastry shape of your choice, I like to use a star…its pretty!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crisp. When cool sprinkle with snowy icing sugar for that festive look!

 

even the christmas fairy wants one!!

 

 

 

 

Lemon & Vanilla olive oil loaf cake

I know this cake sounds unusual, after all olive oil normally features in savoury food, but I’ve seen a few recipes for olive oil based cakes and being quite curious. My version is based on one of my husbands favourite desserts – a lemon and vanilla puddle pudding.

The olive oil gives the outside a bit of crunch and an almost floral flavour alongside a hint of lemon and vanilla – this would be nice with a hot cup of tea or some lovely custard! I forgot to photo the method but its quite quick and easy so you shouldn’t have any problems.

 

Ingredients: 150ml olive oil, 150g granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, zest 3 lemons, juice of 2 lemons, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 175g plain flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Beat together the oil and the sugar until combined, then beat in the eggs one by one, followed by the vanilla and lemon zest

3. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold in followed by the lemon juice, if the mixture is a bit stiff – mine was – add a tablespoon of milk

4. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too quickly on cooking cover with a layer of tin foil

5. Wait until cool, then dust with icing sugar

This cake tastes better cold – I tried it hot, not as good as when its cold – and I burnt my mouth!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blueberry blondies

Over the summer holidays, my cousin gave me a recipe for a low fat chocolate brownie made with mayonnaise – I know, sounds disgusting but hear me out! They are one of the best brownies i’ve ever had, crispy on top and squidgy in the middle, so I thought i’d have a go at making a blondie version. The only problem – as you’ll see in the pics – is I baked mine when cooking the children’s tea so it was forgotten and came out as more of a cakie than a brownie but, nevermind, it still tastes good!

 

Ingrediants: 100g white chocolate, 100g plain flour, 125 g soft brown sugar, 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons buttermilk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 100g mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon warm water, 125g blueberries

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 c and line a brownie tin with baking paper – if your lucky enough to have one, I just use a square baking dish!  Melt 50g of the chocolate in a bowl balanced over a pan of hot water and chop the remaining chocolate into chunks. Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a different bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. When the chocolate is melted, beat in the sugar

 and vanilla extract followed by the egg, buttermilk and finally the tablespoon of water – not pretty I know!

 

3. Pour this mixture over the flour and fold in until just combined. Fold in the chopped chocolate and blueberries and pour into the pre-prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes – when a skewer is inserted, it should come out with crumbs clinging to it

 

4. leave in the tin to cool and when cold, cut into 12 bars

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice served warm with a blob of ice cream but these are going to be put cold into my sons lunch box for school – though obviously not all at once!!

Bacon and leek quiche

Quiche is never going to win the most beautiful bake prizes, but there’s something about that lovely, warm cheesy filling you just can’t bit on a chilly Autumn day, so – this is what I made for lunch to go with some roasted butternut squash and garlic soup, delish!!

Ingrediants:

Shortcrust pastry: 200g plain flour, 100g butter, cold water

Filling: 6 rashers unsmoked bacon, 1 large leek, 4 eggs, 250 mls double cream, 100g grated cheddar cheese – the strong type not the rubbery mild one!

1. First, preheat the oven to 200 C, then begin the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour – sorry there’s no picture at this point, I completely forgot I was going to publish this until i’d made the pastry, doh! – continue rubbing the butter into the flour until it looks like little golden breadcrumbs!

2. Add the water a dribble at a time and mix together – I always use a blunt knife for this bit – until it sticks into large clumps then bring into a ball with your hands. Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for half an hour to let the pastry relax – this is a good time for a cup of tea!                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

3. Roll out the pastry to 2 mm thick and place into a 23cm fluted tart tin. Place a sheet of baking paper on top of the pastry and cover with baking beans – if you don’t have these, use rice or lentils. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes until the pastry is golden brown

 

4. Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, and when searing hot fry the rashers of bacon until crispy – you might need to do this in batches – then drain it in a bowl lined with kitchen paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Quarter and finely slice the leek then saute in the bacony pan, add a spot of butter if there’s not much fat in the pan. When softened drain the leeks onto kitchen paper. Snip the bacon into pieces – I find the best way to do this is with a pair of kitchen scissors!

 

6. Beat together the cream and eggs with a good grinding of black pepper. Sprinkle the bacon, leeks and cheese of the base of the pie case and pour in the cream and eggs mix.

 

7. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until golden brown, risen and puffy, serve warm and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And another thing!

Also made these pretty biscuits but forgot to photo the method so look out for it as i’ll make them again in the next few weeks!

Raspberry Vanilla party cake – part 2!

So, here we go, part 2!

Now your cake is cold, run a sharp knife round the edges of the tin and tip the cakes out and peel off the baking parchament.

You could decorate it in a few different ways, a lovely chocolate ganache with fresh raspberries in the middle and on top would be delicous or filled with chantilly cream and fresh raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar would be lovely, sadly my (nearly) 2 year old has yet to come round to the wonders of a good big dollop of whipped cream so I went for a vanilla butter cream and jam topped with fondant icing (see below)

 1. Spread one cake with warmed jam – this makes it easier to spread – I used a summer fruits jam, hence the lumps, but you could sieve them if you wanted

 

 

 

 

2. Cream together 150g softened butter and 150g icing sugar with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Add more icing sugar if necessary – there’s nothing worse than a cake with butter cream that tastes of butter! If its quite stiff, beat in a tsp of milk

 

 It will look something like this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Spread half the butter cream over the middle of the other cake – not like I did in the picture and spread it over the jammy cake, it did give it a pretty pink swirl though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Sandwich the cakes together and smother the whole cake in the remaining butter cream, make sure and smooth the top over with a pallete knife (unlike the picture!)

 5. Roll out a 250g block of fondant icing to 2mm thick and drape over the cake pressing down lightly so it sticks to the buttercream

                                                

 

 

 

 

 

6. Use a sharp knife to trim off the excess an decorate as you wish