Saturday 20 April 2013

Custard Creams

Back to the family baking session again, although this time not quite as simple as Rice Krispie cakes! My son, as fussy an eater as he is, has a massive thing for Custard Creams. I wish he would ask for normal meals as much as he does for Custard Creams! We have made these a few times before, he just asked me yesterday when we could bake some more, so while he is over for the weekend and we have full urn of the kitchen, I thought why not?!

I was surprised at how simple these are to make. I always though that the custard flavouring was in the cream itself, however it turn out that it goes into the biscuit itself, with the filling a simple buttercream icing. Click here for the recipe (taken from BBC Good Food Website.

The good thing about this recipe, its simple biscuit dough with custard powder added. Easy for the kids to get involved with and get their hands a bit messy!


Across the last couple of years, ive picked up endless amounts of cookie cutters in all shapes, sizes, letters, numbers, etc. so he is a bit spoiled for choice when it comes to the shapes. He wanted a train for definite though, so we had to make a train one (three times the size of the others!) You could use cutters, moulds, or shape them yourself, the only limit is your imagination as the dough is very easy to work with. Below is what we came up with, the only limit is your imagination!

 
And yes, you do see a witch covered in sprinkles on that plate, we didn't have enough dough for two witches to sandwich together, so we spread buttercream over the one piece we had and covered it in sprinkles, bit of a unique twist and still tasted like a Custard Cream (my partner ended up with that one, she sweet-talked the little guy into handing it over!)

Hopefully Ill have another update very soon. My partners just finished baking a sausage and butter-bean bake, which I MAY ask if I can claim as my own for the blog (I did help prepare the ingredients, just was too busy on bedtime duty and updating the blog)

Happy Baking!

Apple and Banana Muffins

Hi all

At my place of work, everyones on a bit of a health drive. Its all part of working towards the Better Health at Work Award. We have been getting employees involved in fitness classes, encouraging staff to walk a mile a day (something I am personally involved in organising, I do them three times a day to get the routes planned!) and putting posters up in toilets every month about a different subject. It's not without it's critics, but it seems to be having a good effect, which can't be a bad thing!

I came across a Change4Life Supermeals book, which contained some really good recipes (one of which we are having for main meal tonight) and thought i'd share a great one with you, but not before trying them out for myself, Apple and Banana Muffins.

Makes 12

Ingredients

  • 150g plain flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 100ml semi-skimmed milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 40g reduced fat spread, melted
  • 1 small apple, peeled, cored and chopped
  • 1 small banana, mashed

What to do

Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan oven 180°C, gas mark 6. Put 12 paper bun cases into a bun tray.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar.
In a jug, beat together the milk, egg, vanilla extract and melted low-fat spread. Add to the dry ingredients with the apple and mashed banana and stir until just combined. Do not over-mix.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and transfer to the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Here are mine (what's left of them anyway, they are very popular) vs the picture in the book. Not perfect, but not 'why doesn't mine look like that?!' bad either. It might be worth noting that I added a teaspoon of cinnamon as well for some extra flavour, however it isn't essential.

 
I'll definitely be making more of these in the future. Not only do they taste really nice, but in keeping line with the healthy theme we have going on, they are quite healthy too, at only 100(ish) calories each and 1.8 grams of fat.
 
Stay tuned for the next update. Happy baking!

Easter Rice Crispie Nests

Not the best recipe to start a baking blog with - something that requires two ingredients, minimal effort and can be done by a three-year old, however there's something about them that's just irresistible. Luckily, I have a three-year old handy who loves helping out with baking, and it means I can get away with making things like these and still looking a dab-hand!



We made these on Good Friday ready for a family gathering on Saturday, and they went down really well. We both had great fun making them and the little one was in his element throughout the decorating process.

Should I even include the recipe/method. Oh go on then! We used about 350g of Rice Krispies (however there are so many varieties out there it doesn't really matter which) with a large bar of Milk Chocolate. Melt the chocolate, mix in the Rice Krispies, then spoon the mixture into cases and decorate. For decoration, we used Mini Eggs and some little Easter character heads. Remember to get these into the cakes before they begin to set, or the eggs will just fall off.



I would end this by wishing you all a happy Easter, but that was weeks ago! Haven't had time to do any blog posts, so this is first of three for today! From now, I'm aiming to do an update at least once a fortnight, lets see how long I can keep that up for!

Happy baking!

Monday 1 April 2013

An Introduction

Hi all

Thought I would start out the blog by saying hi! Whether you found this yourself or stumbled upon it by accident.

Let me start by introducing myself. I live in the North East of England and work my days in an office. Im Currently 27 (at time of writing) and have a lovely partner and a little boy of 3 years (again at time of writing - although he is at that lovely curious age you wish they would stop growing up and stay as they are!). I spend most of my spare time at the cinema or in front of my XBox 360, but do enjoy baking, usually with a theme.

let me explain further - say I get asked to enter a bake sale at work or decide to just blow some dust off a cookery book or scour the net, I always like to theme my baking around occasions, or give them some sort of meaning. I type this after juist baking some individual Hot Cross Bun Treacle Tarts, obviously its easter so it fits pretty well. We've also baked some Creme Egg Cupcakes (my partners doing mainly, although I did have some input) and made some easter egg nest cakes with my little boy. He loves helping me out, even if its with waffle batter on a weekend morning - shame he's not too keen on eating the results afterwards! Ill share these with you probably in my next post.

You'll probably get to know a bit more about me as time/posts go on, so I leave you with a fond thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for more posts to come. As I bake new and (possibly not so) wonderous things, i'll share my results and tips and would welcome any suggestions you have!

Thanks for reading (again)
Steve