A Spongy Sponge

I have failed to get through to the semi finals of the Cambridge Bake Off.

 

 

If I had lost marks because the judges had deemed my cake a gloopy mess I might have taken it on the chin... but no... only 4 out of 10 for texture because my sponge cake was too spongy! My dreams of an alternative career have been dashed.

 

But at least I got a cookbook for my efforts.

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post if you would like to win a print

Print Exchange

I have recently been involved in a fun exchange organised by Lesley... of limited edition prints.

Now I am not a printmaker by any stretch of the imagination so this was quite a challenge, but after going through a lot of ideas that were then rejected mostly on the basis of I didn't have a clue how to do them I decided on a collagraph. A couple of years ago I did quite a bit of work on daisies resulting in a some embroideries and so I took this monoprint from my sketchbook at the time as a source of inspiration.

 

 

With the collagraph plate prepared, a couple of Saturdays ago I set aside a day for printing. Frustration struck almost immediately as I tried to get something with a little more colour than this. After several unsuccessful attempts I was getting to the stage where I was starting to think I needed to buy more paper, but then I decided to change from the ink I was using to oil paints.

 

This was better although now the prints were coming out too dark...

 

Eventually I managed to print an edition of nine prints of which I was moderately happy and six of them are now safely arrived with the other members of the print swap .

 

I've only ever attempted collagraphs once before but as then, I almost prefer the plate after printing to the actual prints.

 

As there were a total of seven of us taking part in the exchange that means I have a couple of spare prints left from the edition so I thought I might give one away on here as a thank you to everyone who continues to read and follow my blog... there wouldn't be much point without you! So leave me a comment by Sunday 9th June to let me know if you would like to win a print and I'll pick out a winner.

 

Not all of the other prints have arrived yet as some participants have been away but when I've got the full set I'll show you them all. It's been a lovely exchange (if a little nerve wracking) so thank you Lesley. I've really enjoyed it.

Decisions

1. Butter or margarine? Not really a decision for me as unsalted butter is all I ever use to bake as I don't think you can beat the flavour, although Mary Berry might disagree

 

 

2. Golden or white caster sugar? After some research I've found that white seems to dissolve into the fat better whereas the golden leaves small crystals that appear on the surface of the cake.

 

3. Plain Flour with added baking powder or self raising? I use self raising because the baking powder is evenly distributed throughout the flour... although I added an extra half teaspoon of baking powder just for good measure!

 

4. To add vanilla or not? I do because I like the flavour.

 

5. Weigh the eggs and add equal amounts of the other ingredients or go for standard weights? I tried both ways and found 4 large eggs with 225g of flour, butter and sugar seem to work best and give a softer mix and less dry cake.

 

However, all these decisions fade into insignificance when faced with the prospect of making the perfect Victoria Sponge, in an unfamiliar kitchen, start to finish in just one hour.  That's right... tins prepared, ingredients weighed, everything mixed (by hand, no electric gadgets allowed), cakes baked, cooled, filled and assembled with both jam and whipped cream in sixty minutes flat.

 

I've had a few trial runs just making the cake and have got the mixing and baking down to 40 - 45 minutes but there is no way the cake will ever be cool enough to fill. I had a proper timed go this morning and as I predicted the filling melted into a gloopy mess.

 

It tasted okay (even though I am not a fan of cream in cakes)...  but this doesn't exactly look like a prize winning cake now does it?

 

I've decided I shall bung my cooling cakes in the fridge and if that's not allowed I will refuse to add the cream!

 

Wish me luck for Saturday!

Prism

All thoughts of cake are now cast aside for a few days as today I've been in London as we begin to set up for this exhibition...

 

 

Except that is not entirely true because there has been lots of cake of the knitted variety...

 

and some of you might be surprised to find that you too are also exhibiting with Prism this year!

 

I'll be at the Mall Galleries on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday so please do come and say hello if you are in the vicinity. It looks to be another fantastic show.

Chocolate

After a week and a half of baking and tasting different chocolate layer cakes I finally found the perfect recipe.

 

 

It wasn't the pecan fudge cake of my previous post, nor the amaretti cake... not even the Mary Berry cake with white chocolate icing.

 

After my last post Annie suggested that what I might be looking for was her "best ever chocolate cake"... and she was right. It was wonderful.

 

I wouldn't be so arrogant to say I  improved the recipe because a best ever cake can't really get any better but  I made a couple of small changes and tweaks to enhance the flavour, did a second trial run on Thursday and knew I had my cake.

 

The First Bake Off challenge was this morning and along with 100 other entants I delivered my cake to the Cambridge School of Cookery. There were some amazing looking chocolate cakes and they were all so different. After a tense three hour wait we went back to collect the results...

 

and I've got through to the next round! Not only that, my cake was one of the top three with 9 out of 10 for both taste and texture. I think I'm really excited but I'm too tired to tell. All I have done is think chocolate all week... and when I have managed to get some sleep I've dreamt about it too. I know I don't want to make another chocolate cake for a very long time.

 

I can't show you the inside of my cake because I left it to be donated to a shelter for the homeless (we really have had quite enough cake for one week) but this is one I made earlier! And the recipe... (with many thanks to Annie):

 

Best Ever Chocolate Cake

315 g plain (all-purpose) flour
75 g  cocoa powder
2 level teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (not baking powder)

1 level teaspoon espresso coffee powder
½  teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
150 g  golden caster sugar

150g dark muscovado sugar
180 ml grape seed oil (or similar bland tasting oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
180 ml puréed tomatoes (a large can of tomatoes, run through the blender and then sieved will give you more than you need.)
80 ml butter milk

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, coffee powder and salt.
Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until they form stiff peaks.

Beat together the sugars, oil, vanilla extract, tomato purée, and egg yolks.
Fold in the sifted dry ingredients.
Stir in the butter milk and fold in the egg whites until everything is well combined.

Divide between two greased and lined 20 cm round tins and bake at Gas 4/180C/350F for 35 mins.

Fill and decorate as you please (Mine had a white chocolate buttercream filing and a dark chocolate ganache coating topped with chocolate shards)

 

And I promise you... not one person has guessed about the tomatoes!

Rabbits... and Cake

You may think all I have done for the past week is bake chocolate cakes, but I have been knitting too. For the knitters among you I'm sure it will not have escaped your notice that Julie has written up some patterns for her Little Cotton Rabbits... which are available here. And I just couldn't resist!

 

 

I was feeling quite pleased with this first attempt until Julie came along to join us for knitting and brunch on Friday morning and brought along her little rabbits to meet mine... and believe me mine looks like some monstrous half cousin by comparison! My rabbit's head is about twice the size of Julie's... that is Julie's rabbits' heads not Julie's head you understand.

 

I'm not sure my knitting and finishing will ever be up to the standard of Julie's and I was tempted to make another, hopefully smaller bunny head. But then I thought that my great niece who is only two months old will probably love this bunny anyway!

 

She was fun to knit and the pattern was so clearly written and easy to follow that I'm sure I'll be making more. It was also lovely to have Julie join us for knitting too.

 

Oh... and there has been more chocolate cake of course...

 

This one is a chocolate pecan fudge cake which is the most intensly chocolatey and moist cake so far. I think I might have my entry for next week's bake off sorted with just a bit of tweaking and the decoration to sort out!

Just so you Know...

It's not all baking success around here.

 

 

I would hate you to think I was some sort of domestic goddess...

 

I am pretty good at rescue and recovery though