Coffee in Covent Garden

Peyton and Byrne in Covent Garden is a lovely place for tea and cake and this is what it was like.

Look how much cake they have! But it was first thing in the morning so I decided instead to have one of their blueberry and yogurt muffins. 

Next time you are in the Covent Garden area be sure to check it out. 

Florentines

Last weekend I stayed at my friend Susy's house and we decided to make florentines... we made up the recipe a little. It is one of those things which is basically made up of any kind of dried fruit and in our case cereal that you can find, so that you have a cakey mixture.

So here it is. Enjoy!

Just a quick note that these quantities make  about 4 trays worth of florentines so if that sounds like a lot, I would half the ingredient quantities.

Ingrediants
60g butter
150g golden caster sugar
4 tsp flour
150ml crème fraîche
100g flaked almonds, toasted
2 tbsp candied peel
50g dried berries
2 tbsp crunchie nut cornflakes or cereal of your choosing
4 tbsp raisins
50g glace cherries
300g of chocolate of your choice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Heat the butter, sugar and flour in a pan over a medium heat, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Gradually add the crème fraîche until well combined.
4. Add the dried fruit, nuts and cereal and mix well.
5. Grease a baking tray and place a couple of teaspoons of the florentine mixture on to it for each one. Space them out as they tend to spread!
6. Bake for around 15 mins and then leave to cool
7. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. 
8. Dip the florentines in the chocolate. And then leave to cool so that the chocolate sets. 

These are amazing by the way, they are like flapjacks but better and then dipped in chocolate. What's not to love?!

Marshmallow Krispie Cakes

A quick, easy and delicious after school snack - not that healthy but you can't have everything!

You can buy these for 55p from most corner shops in the UK under the name "Squares" and are made by Kellogg's. And although relatively cheap in comparison to chocolate bars, you can make them for a lot cheaper

Ingredients:

40g butter

200g marshmallows

120g rice krispies or other rice cereal (these can be replaced by nuts, fruit etc)

Melt the butter and marshmallows over a low heat until an incorporated gooey liquid.

Take off the heat and stir in the cereal until completely coated in melted marshmallow.

Grease a baking tray (20x20) and then scoop the mixture in to it. Pat the mixture down so it is as flat as possible.

Leave to set in a cool place for as long as needed- mine only took 30 mins.

Then they are ready to eat. See, super quick and easy!

Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake

It is so difficult to choose if you want chocolate cake or vanilla sponge, I find anyway... 

If this is the same for you, this cake is the answer to all of your problems! The cake is chocolate and vanilla mixed together so you get both in one slice. It is perfect and really really easy. I also bake mine in a bundt tin which I think makes it look a bit nicer too.

Ingredients:

300g butter

300g caster sugar

6 eggs

150ml milk

280g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

60g chocolate chips

25g cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add the eggs bit by bit, followed by the milk. At this stage the mixture may look curdled but it will recover!

Divide the mixture between two bowls. Mix the flour and baking powder together. 

Fold 155g of the flour to one bowl along with the vanilla extract and chocolate chips.

To the other bowl add fold in the remaining 125g of flour and the 25g of cocoa powder. 

Spoon the chocolate mixture in to the base of your greased bundt tin (obviously you can use a different one but I prefer a bundt for looks). Then make a slight trough and pour the vanilla mixture on to the top. 

Bake for about 45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in to the top of the cake. 

Madeleine Madness

As I mentioned in my last post, I have recently acquired a Madeleine tin and since then I have gone a little over board in baking them.

THEY ARE JUST SO EASY! and delicious!

So here are a couple of recipes which I think are fab...

Lemony Madeleines -  this is inspired by Michael Roux Jr's recipe

2 eggs
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour
1 lemon, juice and zest
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 5

Using a pastry brush, cover the molds in melted butter so they cakes come out of the tin all nicely.

Whisk together the eggs and sugar until frothy like shaving cream and then whisk in the remaining ingredients. 

You can leave this to stand for 20 minutes if you wish, but I have found that it is not really necessary. 

Pour the mixture in to the molds so that they are 3/4 full, this gives them space to rise.

Bake for around 10 minutes, or until spongy and a cake tester comes out clean.

Eat quickly!

Honey and Almond Madeleines

2 eggs 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

65g caster sugar

25g runny honey

100g plain flour

50g ground almonds

100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 5

Using a pastry brush, cover the molds in melted butter so they cakes come out of the tin all nicely.

Whisk together the eggs, honey, vanilla extract  and sugar until mousse-like.

Fold in flour and ground almonds.

Drizzle melted butter over the mixture and mix until there are no more buttery streaks.

Pour the mixture in to the molds so that they are 3/4 full, this gives them space to rise. Scatter flaked almonds over the top.

Bake for around 10 minutes, or until spongy and a cake tester comes out clean.

These can be kept for up to 4 days in an air-tight container. 

I personally prefer the first recipe as I love lemon and I think it makes a really nice fresh sponge. But try both!

The Gingerbread House Fail

HAPPY BELATED CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

OK now that's out of the way... 

As Christmas is basically finished, I have reached the point in which proper work is supposed to be done to prepare exams coming up but I am just not feeling it, so I am trying to cling on to any thread of Christmas that I can. If I am still doing festive things it is still Christmas and I don't have to work... shh... It is the truth.

So I decided to build a gingerbread house with my brother... 

I used Mary Berry's Recipe as I have never done this before and the quantities are TOO big to make one of my own... 

And we began and it seemed to be going fine, after a slight hiccup about measurements, the dough was coming together. But then when we tried to roll out the dough it wouldn't stick together. 

We tried everything, and I mean everything, we added milk, water, butter, but nothing worked... HOW DO YOU FIX THIS?! Seriously I want to know, so any ideas leave in the comments below! 

Instead of throwing about a kilo of mixture away, we salvaged it and made millions of ginger biscuits. We even put crushed boiled sweets in holes in the middle of them, to make them like stained glass, oooooooh. Well fancy, I know.

I don't have a picture of them because they are just not pretty but they look like iced biscuits and they taste lovely. Claps for Mary!

Anyway, I should get back to eating the mountain of biscuits as I don't want to spend the whole of 2014 living off them.

Christmas Countdown: Days 9/10: Easy Victoria Sponge

For those fussy people who don't like christmas cake... There is always one....

So.....

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4.

Cream 225g of butter with 225g of caster sugar until paler and fluffy. Standard.

Add 4 eggs bit by bit alternating with half of 225g of self-raising flour. eggs. bit of flour. eggs. bit of flour. Repeat.

Then stir in 2 tsps of vanilla extract. (to make it more Christmassy, you could use cinnamon instead)

Fold in the rest of the self-raising flour, incorporating as much air as possible.

If the mixture is too stiff add some milk.

Put half the cake mix in one greased tin and the other half in the other greased tin.

Bake for around 30 mins. Or until golden brown.

To test if the cake is cooked, a knife should come out clean when stabbed in the top and bounce back when tapped gently on the top.

Sandwich the cakes together, with cream, jam, or in summer fresh fruit... perhaps not at Christmas...

Then ice festively!

Christmas Countdown: Day 5: Quick note to say...

REMEMBER TO KEEP FEEDING YOU CHRISTMAS CAKE WITH YOUR LIQUOR OF CHOICE!

(Rubbish post I know, but I have nothing else to say!)

Christmas Countdown: Day 4: Apple and Blackberry Streusel

Another autumnal cake thing today, with blackberries and apples again... bit of a running theme apparently... oh well...

This is similar to something that I have made before... which I can't remember the name of...

Anyway, it is like a cake, with a fruity compote and then a crumble layer on top. What I have realized as I write this is that it is basically a crumble with a cake layer. The fruit used can be substituted with any fruit you want really, plum would be nice.

The cake is basically a normal sponge, a recipe to which is here. The fruit is then added on top, you don't have to do anything to it, all you have to do is rest it on top of the sponge. You then sprinkle a normal crumble which is made by mixing butter, sugar and a bit of cinnamon to give it that festive punch.

I don't have much to say about this as it is not my own recipe except that you should definitely try it as it is very warming as a pudding so perfect for this time of year.

John Whaite Bakes

Tomorrow is the Great British Bake Off quarter final, it is getting serious now! *cue screams*

So in celebration of the fact it is nearly the GBBO quarter final and the woes that I can never enter, I did a selection of bakes from last years winner's book, John Whaite Bakes. 

Also apologies in advance about the picture quality, it is appalling and I don't really know why, except camera troubles. 

I started off by baking his "Simple Strawberry Tart" - as, let's face it summer is coming to a close...or is over altogether. 

The tart is a shortcrust pastry base filled with creme patisserie and then covered in strawberries. It was a sweet and delicious tart which I know that when summer returns, if summer returns, I will definitely be baking this again. It also meant I had to make creme pat for the first time, exciting!

I then attempted to create a plaited loaf. Which soon became two plaits of three strands which is slightly less impressive. For some reason, the dough was a complete and utter failure. And although it tasted ok, the strands didn't become one in the oven and the texture was a bit off. I don't like making bread!

In a quest to find a simple thing to bake I turned to his Caramel Shard Cookies which involves making a simple cookie dough and a slab of caramel, which is smashed. They are then combined, to make a rather dangerous cookie dough mixture. 

The odd thing about this recipe is that they are baked as balls, they are not shaped before they go in to the oven, but suprisingly enough they baked perfectly. 

They were fab and I was eating them for a whole week, the vision of health that I am. 

 Doesn't it look beautiful!

 John Whaite, if you are reading this, your book is gold, I love it. Everyone should buy a copy just for the recipes I have mentioned above, if nothing else.

I cannot wait for Bake Off, as sadly enough, along with Downton Abbey, it is the highlight of my television week.

And with that all that remains to be said is, on your marks, get set, bake!

New Zealand Madelines

While I was in New Zealand over the summer holidays I found out that my relatives who live there had a Madeline tray. So it was whipped out and the opportunity was seized by all.

The mixture for madelines is very similar to that of a sponge except it has a lemon in it.

You start by whisking the sugar and eggs.

Demonstrated by my cousin Kiri

 You then add a lemon, in this case from their lemon tree in the garden.

The lemon rind has to be grated off in to the mixture, the rest of the lemon can be discarded.

Then the remaining ingredients are added and whisked to the normal cake mixture. 

You then dollop the mixture into the madeline tray and bake for about 15 minutes. 

They then come out of the tray and due to the lovely shape of the mold they look quite nice even if they are slightly burnt. 

Butterfly Cakes

The butterfly cake is a simple yet delicious variant on the fairy or cup cake. It is the same key recipe with a more interesting topping.

Once the cakes are made and they have cooled. You remove the top of the cake and cut it in half (these halves are the cakes "wings").

You fill the whole created by the top being removed with buttercream. Although I am not a big fan of buttercream, I have found a recipe that creates a very sweet and lump-less cream. I will post this soon. 

The "wings" are dipped in a melted chocolate of your choice (I chose white) and then dipped in hundreds and thousands or sprinkles. They are then stuck in to the buttercream, with luck creating the appearance of a butterfly.