Lucozade Loaf Cake

Another month, another Clandestine Cake Club (see the official blog here). This time Rodina came with me as a guest and there was no room for car troubles. The venue was a lovely little café kind of in the middle of nowhere next to the Lune Estuary called Café d’Lune. The cycle routes around this area (and as it turned out the simultaneous cycling event that was taking place that evening) meant that the theme was “On Your Bike”. I decided that in order to keep up your energy on your bike ride you would need an energy drink – Lucozade.

Method

I adapted this recipe for chocolate cola cake by removing the coke and cocoa powder and adding extra flour and Lucozade.

First the butter and Lucozade was melted together in a pan, then added to the other ingredients (flour, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder) and mixed well. The mixture was very runny and poured really easily into my greased loaf tin. This was then baked in the oven for about 35 mins.

I used this recipe for the frosting. Basically Lucozade was added to normal butter icing. The finishing touch was some orange sprinkles.

As usual the cake was too big for any of my tins so it was carefully packaged on the plate and Rodina carefully looked after it on the journey to Cake Club.

Results

I think the cake was slightly undercooked. It was very moist (like a fudge cake) but perhaps a little too moist. This was possibly also due to me wrapping it up when it was still warm. I know my oven can cook things unevenly so I also turned the cake around half way through baking. There was some sinking in the middle so next time I will leave it longer until turning.

The flavour was very subtle but I think anything more would have been too much. The icing was really tasty! Overall I liked the idea of the cake and it seemed to go down well. I hope to try the chocolate one soon.

Score: 5.5/10

Soundtrack: Rodina telling me all about and playing Eurovision tunes

Toblerone Chocolate Brownies

Looking at my list of basics I decided it was time to have another go at my baking nemesis – chocolate brownies. I have never been able to make Brownies from scratch that are the right consistency. They are either too cakey or far too gooey. This blog is a mash up of my two attempts this week – one followed where I a basic recipe and the second where I used Toblerone instead of normal chocolate.

Method

First I melted butter, dark chocolate and milk chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Dark and light brown sugar was mixed into this melted mixture. After it had cooled a little I added 3 whisked eggs and then plain flour. After pouring into the tin I scattered chocolate chips or chopped up Toblerone on top. The Brownie was in the oven for about 25 mins.

Results

I still don’t have this recipe down. I think the recipe is good and it’s the cooking time that is my downfall. The second set was a little softer than the first (these were quite dry) but I still think that they needed less time in the oven. I am not very good at remembering the time that I put things in the oven – I have bought a timer from e-bay in an attempt to improve this! I will be baking these Brownies until I get them just right.

I made these Brownies as part of a fathers’ day present and my Dad said they were nice so that’s the main thing :)

Score: 4.5/10

Soundtrack: Various Jessie J

Salt and Pepper Breadsticks

During my epic baking day the other month I also tried baking bread. This was the first time I had made bread in a very long time, and I was apprehensive because bread is so different to the cakes that I usually try out. Lorraine Pascal came to the rescue with a straightforward recipe for white breadsticks with salt and pepper topping.

Method 
Just the basic bread recipe: flour, warm water, salt, and yeast.  Mix and kneed this together. Then leave to rise. Shape the dough into your shapes. Rolling out the soft dough into long and thin sticks proved quite difficult, especially with sticky hands. I didn’t want to flour them too much as I knew that would dry out the dough. Some of the sticks were cut into three strips so they could be plaited. Then they were left to rise again. Finally I brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled over ground black pepper or sea salt before they went in the oven.

Results 
The breadsticks were meant to be quite chunky but mine were perhaps a little on large side. They weren’t that neat either (except for Lewis’ amazing efforts) but I think the rustic look was the one to go for here. Also, I did get fed up at the end and made some simple rolls too.

The bread baked really well and the sticks were nice and light and soft, with a slightly chewy crust; perfect for dipping into salsa and hummus. The flavouring wasn’t too overpowering but added something extra to the plain bread. Overall I was very pleased with the results and I think I will try some more adventurous bread recipes soon.

Score: 9/10

Soundtrack: It’s so long ago I can’t remember! Possibly Parks and Recreation on the TV. (A very good program that I recommend watching. Check it out here.)

Reverse Tie Dye Bags

Here's something crafty to justify the "bauble" section of my blog. This craft is super easy and effective, a little bit different and super fun to do. I first tried this out when I ran a weekend in the Piggery at Guys Farm for Senior Section to get my Senior Section Permit (all part of the QGA). I thought it was so good that the girls I am going to Berlin with this July (also ticking off a QGA section) set up a production line to make 100! We're selling these to raise funds for the Berlin trip. Buy one (or more) on ebay here.

Recipe

Coloured fabric items - bright colours work best

Elastic bands, string, pegs etc etc

Household bleach

Buckets

Rubber gloves and apron

LOTS of water

Method

Tie you fabric up in any way that you fancy. The different patterns come from different ways of tying the fabric and what you use to fasten it. You can make circles, fold the fabric to make stripes, scrunch it up for a random pattern, the options are endless. Just remember that the areas that are exposed will turn lighter and those that are tied up will stay dark. It's best not to be too fussed about exactly what you want it to turn out like because there is still quite a lot of randomness involved. However if you are feeling clever there are all sorts of complicated patterns in the books I got out of the library to try.

After it's all tied up soak your fabric in the bleach. This is a bit trial and error. The stronger the bleach (and the less you dilute it) means the shorter time it will take. Keep the stuff in until you can see it has changed and you are happy with the resulting colour. Remember if you leave it in too long the bleach will eat away at the fabric and reduce its strength. Also remember to wear you rubber gloves and apron for this part. I found it worked best when I occasionally "stirred" and moved the things around in the bleach and gave them a bit of a squeeze to make sure the bleach soaked in all the way.

When you like the colour left take your fabric out of the bleach and rinse, rinse, rinse. We rinsed thoroughly once while it was still tied up and then again when we untied. Finally, they went through a cold wash in the washing machine to get all of the last of bleach out.

Results

I was so pleased with the bags we produced both times. The bright colours (turquoise and pink) worked best and went nice pastel shades in the bleach. The darker bags (purple and navy) just went a kind of brown.

I noticed that the different colours also bleached at different rates. The pink went very quickly while the turquoise took a lot more time.

Although this method uses nasty bleach I think it is a lot easier than normal tie dye. You don't have to mess around with dyes and we used the super cheap basics bleach that was only 29p for for 2l. Also you can lots of different colours all at the same time because the colour comes from the fabric not the dye.

Be warned - tie dying leads to crinkly fabric and I spent a VERY long time ironing all 100 of our bags!

I hope the rest of world thinks they're great and we raise lots of money for our trip to Berlin (hint, hint).

Coconut and Lime Cake

A month has gone by and it’s time for Clandestine Cake Club again. The theme was “Here we go baking cakes in May” and I very loosely translated this to mean I should make a cake on an emerald/green theme. Delia provided a flash of inspiration with her lime and coconut cake. This also covered an experiment that Rodina had suggested – using an exotic ingredient. I couldn’t find any coconut milk powder in my local Tesco, and so I ordered it from ebay!

Method

The recipe can be found here. A basic sponge is made with the addition of lime zest, coconut milk powder and desiccated coconut soaked in lime juice. The mixture was put into two round sandwich tins and into the oven (ensuring that the tins are in the middle). The icing was made using lime juice and the lime flesh. I used a very sharp knife to peel and then take out the segments of the limes. I was surprised how easy it was. Then the icing sugar was added and gently stirred in; making sure not to break up the segments. This icing went into the middle and on top of the cake. A final touch was some extra lime zest sprinkled over the top.

Results

The dodgy oven struck again and the colour on the outside of the cake was a little uneven but inside it was fine. The presentation was a bit messy but then Delia’s picture was “rustic” too and I think it added rather than detracted from the overall look. The recipe said to soak the desiccated coconut in the juice for at least an hour. However, as I was in a rush it was more like 15mins. This didn’t harm the flavour, which was excellent, but did make the texture a little harsher than perhaps it should have been. The icing was brilliant. I really like the way the flesh added texture and thickened icing. This cake tasted really good and the flavours worked well together – very summery.

The cake may have been as success but my transport definitely was not. Driving off in my car resulted in a horrible noise and me quickly parking up again. No Cake Club :( but plenty of cake for Lewis and me :)

Score: 8/10

Soundtrack: Various David Guetta tunes

Peach and Plum Clafoutis

I chose a recipe from Lorraine Pascal’s Baking Made Easy book for dessert when my parents came round for Sunday lunch. It seemed like quite an easy dish and used the extra egg yolks from the Amaretti biscuits. Also, I really love the combination of fruit and custardy flavours. Lorraine suggested peaches only in her recipe but I thought the addition of plums would be nice.

Method

First the fruit was halved and stoned and spread over the bottom of the dish.

Then, eggs, egg yolks, caster sugar and vanilla extract were whisked together until it was a frothy consistency. I then added a small amount of flour, double cream and crème fresh. The final touch was a dash of Amaretto.

The whole thing took some time to bake until it was firm.

Results

This dessert worked out well. The baking took a little longer than I expected and near the end I added some foil to the top to make sure it didn’t go too brown. I think if I did it again I would like the fruit to be in slightly smaller pieces; maybe quarters. Although then it might cook too quickly. Lorraine suggested that this dessert goes well with vanilla icecream and I had bought some posh stuff especially. However, it had frozen rock solid in my freezer so we had to make do with the left over cream from the recipe.

Score: 8/10

Soundtrack: Hearing about my parents’ recent holiday to Barcelona

Italian Amaretti Biscuits

Time for another dip into my baking books for inspiration. My parents came for lunch this Sunday so I wanted to find a biscuit to go with their cup of tea. The Hairy Bikers provided something simple but with new techniques and more piping – Amaretti Biscuits. 

Method 

First I lightly whisked egg whites till they were foamy and then gradually added caster sugar. This made a fairly stiff and sticky mixture. A couple of drops of vanilla essence were added and whisked in. After all the whisking it was time for the ground almonds that were folded in with my new big metal spoon. I was worried about keeping the air in the mix but it got very thick with all the almonds.

Then the piping! The mixture was piped out onto a lined baking tray. The recipe said it made 24 biscuits but I managed maybe twice that. My biscuits were probably too small! I attempted to stick bits of crushed sugar cube to the top but my amarettis were having none of it.

Then it was into the oven till they are “crisp and lightly browned”.

Results 

My crazy oven yet again managed to turn things for the worse. Because I ended up with three trays of biscuits I had to put them on the top and bottom shelves – huge mistake. The ones on the bottom were very burnt underneath and the ones on the top cooked too quickly so were still soft in the middle. The tray in the middle turned out pretty ok. They had a crunch but were softer than I expected and more dense. However my Dad said he liked them better than the ones in the shop! 

Point to remember: Keep baking to middle shelf and move things around if needed. 

Score: 5/10 

Soundtrack: 18 Months by Calvin Harris (10 number ones!)