The English Mademoiselle Diaries: baking

Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

I have been testing out more recipes from the book I mentioned in last week's baking post, this time was a carrot cake, I changed which spices I used to suit my own tastes, cinnamon is key in this cake.

What You Will Need For The Cake:
- 3 cups of grated carrot
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp cinnamon
- 1/2tsp ginger

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
2. Beat together the eggs and the sugar until thick and pale.
3. Mix in the oil then the grated carrot.
4. Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda until well combined and with no lumps of flour.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for and hour.

XO, Miriam

Besides reading a lot of books that will be shortly reviewed on this little space on the internet I have begun to bake again. Instead of trying something new I went back to a recipe book I was given as a child by my Aunt who just so happens to live in New Zealand (yes I want to go back to NZ), so most of the measurements are in cups. I am yet to find a recipe in this rather small book that doesn't either taste amazing or look amazing. This particular one has been used countless times for Birthday cakes as well as random baking days over the years and will continue to be used.

For the cake you will need:
- 125g of butter
- 2 cups of flour
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp baking powder
- 2tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line and grease a 20cm cake tin.
2. Melt the butter and milk together in a pan, then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in sugar.
4. Whisk essence and eggs into cooled butter mixture, and pout the mixture over the flour mix.
5. Mix the ingredients lightly until well combined and lump free.
6. Transfer the mixture to the tin. Bake for 45 minutes and leave to cool.

I then made some basic chocolate butter icing with butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla essence, and a little bit of milk. I don't know exact measurements.

XO, Miriam

So last week I accidentally took part in The Great Blogger Bake Off by posting this recipe for Molten Chocolate cakes. Now this week I am going to willing take part. The idea is that you bake something on Tuesday ready to post a picture of you eating it while watching The Great British Bake Off on the Wednesday. The only catch is what you bake is determined by what they are baking on the GBBO that week.

This week is biscuit week and I made Strawberry Cookies. Duh.

Ingredients:

//110g of Butter//3/4 of a cup of Sugar//1 and 1/4 cups of Plain Flour//1tsp of Vanilla Extract//
//200g of sliced Strawberries//1 Egg//1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda//

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

2. Using an electric mixer beat together the sugar, butter, and vanilla extract.

3. Now beat in the egg and the flour into the mixture.

4. Pat the sliced strawberries as dry as you can and gently stir them into the mixture.

5. Drop the mixture on to the trays, leave room for spreading.

6. Bake for 10-12minutes and eat warm.

XO, Miriam

P.S. Try not to let your pets eat them...

Baking for me at least is therapeutic, it helps me to calm down and stop worrying about life. If I am stressed I will bake bread as the kneading will release the stress. When I am worried or feeling down I will bake cookies or cakes as they are comfort food. The process of baking is a patient one and one that I will enjoy for years to come.

Ingredients:
55g of softened butter
55g of caster sugar
1 large egg
85g of self raising flour
1tbsp of cocoa powder
8 squares of plain chocolate

How to make them:

Preheat the oven to 190°C, and put 8 paper cases into a tray.
Beat the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg with a tablespoon of flour to prevent curdling.
Mix in the rest of the flour and the cocoa powder until the mixture is smooth.
Spoon half the mixture into the paper cases and put in a square of chocolate. Then put the rest of the mixture on top.
Bake for 20minutes and leave to cool.
I personally added chocolate butter-cream and raspberries but they taste just as good with icing sugar sprinkled on top and eaten warm.

XO, Miriam

I only bought a couple of these Macarons but they were to die for, I just wish I could have had more!

One does not simply watch Paul Hollywood bake with out promptly eating cake, oh and his eyes are as blue as they look on the Great British Bake Off! I also got to watch Kimberly off the last series bake and as it was in Exeter Glen Cosby was milling around!

So this had demonstrations and lots of stalls, I founds some really cute ones who made me want to buy lots and lots of mismatched crockery and decorate the house with too much bunting and eat cake and cake only... Shhh. I know that isn't possible but a girl can dream right?

Now this stall has to be my favourite, the milk bottles, the straws the cute vintage style signs were all so pretty, fortunately I know were to buy some of those straws in time to make 50's milkshakes and wear pastel skirts to match the era!

Never say no to freebies from a bakery. Ever.

I went to The Big Cake Show for Mothers Day, with my mum, sister and nan, it was a great day out and we really enjoyed watching people that we love on the Bake Off in real life!

XO, Miriam

Recently I have discovering new coffee shops in the city that I go to college in, and that I find it a lot easier to concentrate when I have good coffee, and no one I know around to distract me. So me and my boyfriend have decided to create a list of all of the coffee shops in the city, and visit them all before I head off to university in the autumn. It is my version of getting to know a place if they have good coffee shops and book shops I am sold!

The pictures were taken in a small place called the Exploding Bakery, where not only do they do amazing coffee and the photographed hot chocolate, they bake several gluten free goodies including some of the best chocolate brownies I have ever tasted.

XO, Miriam

P.S. What do you judge towns and cities on? and do you prefer independent coffee shops or big brands like Starbucks?