Berlin Briefing Weekend

I have to do lots of things other than baking to get my Queen’s Guide Award. One of these things is attending a residential event where I don’t know anyone, and another is to go away with Guiding and take on a new responsibility. So I am combining both of these with a trip to Berlin in July. I am going with a group of Senior Sectioners from North West Lancs to join in with the North West Region’s “Adventure in Berlin”. This weekend we are all meeting for the first time to get to know each other and plan the cool things we are going to do when we get there. 

Of course, any great weekend with Guiding needs some great baking and this weekend is no different. Before I left home I quickly made some chocolate buns with white chocolate icing. It was great to know that I can make something yummy in less than 30 mins. Although in my rush I did forget the baking powder. No biggy though, they all worked out fine. Also I used some really cool cases that I got for my Birthday. They have animals on them! 

For tea on Saturday we did DIY pizzas. The dough was made from scratch and everyone rolled it out and added toppings. There were some pretty amazing combinations, representations of faces and even some stuffed crusts. Then for afters was sticky toffee pudding. It was a quick recipe from Nigella that involved pouring a lot of boiling water over the top of what looked like a perfectly good sponge mix. I was pretty scared, it looked really bad. But after 45 mins in the oven it came out as this amazing sponge with lots of yummy sauce. I was so impressed (and surprised!) It was so good that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it before it had been eaten up. 

I am looking forward to more cake and more fun in Berlin!

Berry and Apple Crumble

 

My last bake of my “Rodina visiting weekend extravaganza” was a crumble for pudding. This was an opportunity to further try to get the whole pastry thing sorted. The day before I had spotted (and bought) something that hopefully would make the whole process a little easier – a compact food processor.

Method

I used this recipe from a blog called “Jam & Clotted Cream”. However, I used frozen mixed berries that contained raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants instead of fresh raspberries.

My new food processor worked well with mixing the butter and flour; perhaps a little too well to be honest. When the “crumble” mix came out it was nearly pastry itself and so had a kind of rustic lumpy feel. But once it was mixed with the oats and spread over the fruit it looked pretty good. I made one large crumble and two smaller that I froze to bake at a later date.

Results

The crumble came out of the oven with the filling bubbling. The colour was an amazing red-purple. I liked the topping but next time I think I will add fewer oats. The filling was tart but in a good way, although the berries definitely overpowered the apple. I am interested to see how the frozen ones turn out.

Score: 7/10

Soundtrack: Various songs from the Glee soundtrack (Rodina’s choice)