Monday Review - Edinburgh

We arrived in Edinburgh on Friday night, we flew up this time which we haven't done for a while. Minibakebakegirl has already told me she wants to get the train next time - I think she likes to be sitting in her seat on the train with her kindle :-) Where as I like to wander round the shops at the airport while we wait for our flight :-) 

On Saturday Sister, Nieces, Minibakebakegirl and I went to North Berwick, we ate at the Westgate Galleries. They have a lovely shop with pretty jewellery and great framed prints. After lunch we went for a walk along the beach. It was a perfect day, I was thinking we were going to have a bracing walk with the wind in our faces, but there was no wind at all - it was very calm and not at all cold. There was a lot of washed up seaweed and shells, I think there have been some stormy days over the winter. We all enjoyed looking for beach treasure. 

Niece2 and Minibakebakegirl found an old tyre to roll along when we walked back to the car :o) 

On Sunday we went for a walk along the canal, an even better day weatherwise as the sun shone all day. We walked along to the canal basin and had coffee and cake at Loudons.

Minibakebakegirl found the perfect chair for her to sit in! 

The cakes were delicious and the coffee was good.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to the beach, see you next week.

Bakebakegirl

Today's top three radio songs:

1. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
2. Find My Love - Fairground Attraction
3. What Is Love - Howard Jones

Monday Bake - After Dinner Mint Chocolate Cake

It was my birthday on Friday, I have had a lovely birthday weekend (yes I like to eeeek it out for as long as possible!)  I was thoroughly spoilt and got lots of lovely cards and presents including Rachel Allen's book Cake.  

There are so many lovely cakes in this book, but the first cake I wanted to make was the After Dinner Mint Cake.  The recipe is on the Good Food Website.

When I made the icing instead of adding mint leaves I just added about 6 after eights to the mixture and blended it all together.   I will definitely make this again - I also think it is another cake that would be good warm as a pudding without the icing.

Here's a picture of my yummy Thorntons birthday cake from Hubby and Minibakebakegirl - as the top picture says - it's all about the cake!

See you next week, as it's half term we will be in Edinburgh.

Bakebakegirl


Todays top three Ipod songs:

1. The Name Game - Shirley Ellis
2. Kites - Simon Dupree and The Big Sound
3. Please Please Me - The Beatles

Monday Bake - Sticky Toffee Squares

My theatre trips are usually via work - we get a great discount so this means I go to things I wouldn't normally see, plus we get taken into London and back again by coach - so it's great value.  Last week I went to see Viva Forever.  I had heard so many mixed reviews but I went with an open mind and enjoyed it.  It's like Mamma Mia in that it is a story around the Spice Girls songs, not about the Spice Girls.  Not sure it will be a really long running show but it was fun - the story is ok - a few of the songs they sang a bit too slow at times - I prefer the faster Spice Girls songs.  But at the end they had everyone standing up, bopping along to a few songs.  It was also a great chance to catch up with FriendD.  We started work together 16 years ago, our company split and we now work at different places so don't see each other as often as we would like.  However, we are going to see the Bodyguard later this month so will see her again for another good catch up :o)  We usually get into town to have a bit of a wander around London - its so pretty at night.

Trafalgar Square

China Town

At the weekend we finally tuned in our Playstation2 to the new tv (I say new - we have had it for over a year!) and we dug out my games. Minibakebakegirl has been playing Crash Bandicoot and Croc.  Hours of fun in this basket.

I know I have had a sticky toffee pudding post before but it is one of my favourites. This recipe makes one big cake in a brownie tin. You can find the recipe here. This is a great recipe as instead of making the Philadelphia icing you can make a toffee sauce and have it as pudding with ice cream.  Either way is good - you could halve the cake and have it both ways over a couple of days!

This is my toffee sauce recipe:

Ingredients:
60g butter
125g soft light brown sugar
150g golden syrup
125ml double cream

Method:
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and melt over a high heat, stirring until all combined.  Boil for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Thanks for visiting.

Bakebakegirl

Todays top three Spotify Songs:
1. Losing My Religion - R.E.M. 
2. Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. Dreams - The Cranberries

Monday Bake - Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

I got Nigellas new book - Nigellissima for christmas.   On the first flick through I spotted this recipe - Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, which looks amazing.  You can find the recipe here.

This is a perfect cake for Cake Club as you can make it gluten free by using ground almonds instead of flour.  What surprised me is that it only uses cocoa powder and not melted chocolate.  Also I have used flavourless oil instead of butter in carrot cake before, but never olive oil - so I was interested to see how it turned out.  

All Cake Club members gave this cake a big thumbs up - a dense, squidgy, chocolatey cake!  We all work in different departments so I love our weekly meet ups at one of the drinks machines to share out our baking creations.  I will start to take pictures of these cakes for a future blog post :o) 

I will be making this cake again to have as a pudding with ice-cream as Nigella suggests.

See you next week,

Bakebakegirl

This weeks top three Top of The Pops 1978 Songs:

1. Uptown Top Ranking - Althea and Donna
2. Sorry I'm a Lady - Baccara
3. Jammin' - Bob Marley and The Wailers

Monday Bake - Coconut Snow Buns

What a weekend it has been - the snow started again Friday morning and yesterday it snowed pretty much all day.  Minibakebakegirl enjoyed playing in the garden, her and Hubby made a mini snowman.  The above picture has been taken from the same place as last week (hanging out my bedroom window!) but this time you can see people sledging in the field near our house.

On Saturday we had to venture out in the car in the snow as I had an appointment to see an Opthamologist about a lump I have had for several months on my eye lid.   All I will say is that it has been removed and the procedure was not pleasant! 

School was closed today because of the snow, Minibakebakegirl is pleased to have a long weekend and another lie in!  So today Minibakebakegirl made some coconut buns - I supervised with my one good eye ;o)   We have renamed them for our snow day.

Ingredients:
125g margarine
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
125g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g desiccated coconut plus extra for sprinkling
100g white chocolate

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.

In a large bowl cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time - beating well between each one, beat in the vanilla extract.  Fold in the self raising flour, baking powder and desiccated coconut.

Spoon into the cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until done - when an inserted skewer comes out clean - if it doesn't pop the buns back in the oven for another minute - then check again - repeat as necessary.

 Cool in the tin.   

Gently melt the white chocolate in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Spoon onto the top of the buns and sprinkle with the remaining coconut. 

Delicious on a snowy day like today with a hot chocolate.

Bakebakegirl

Todays top three spotify songs:

1. Never Knew Your Name - Madness 
2. Locked Out of Heaven - Bruno Mars
3. Animal - Conor Maynard featuring Wiley

Monday Bake - Orange Marmalade Cake

All weekend the weather forecasts have been warning of snow and today we woke up to some - not much, a slight covering.  I went into town to meet a friend for lunch and while we were in the local deli eating and chatting away - huge flakes started to fall.  By the time I walked up the hill home it was quite heavy.   It is so pretty at first, crunching through in my snow boots.  When it melts and goes all slushy I always want to to go quickly!

This weeks recipe is from the January Waitrose magazine.   An orange marmalade cake - I wanted a recipe to use up the marmalade from making my christmas pudding.   I have made Nigellas marmalade cake before but I liked the look of this sandwich cake. 

Ingredients:

Cake-
125g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
3 large eggs
100ml single cream
250g ground almonds
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp seville orange marmalade

Orange Syrup-
juice of 1 orange
1 tbsp seville orange marmalade

Mascarpone icing-
150g mascarpone
125g greek yoghurt
4 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp seville orange
juice and zest of 1 orange

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4.  Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm cake tins with baking parchment.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 

Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the cream, followed by the almonds. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir in the orange zest and marmalade.

Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 20-25 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.   Cool in the tins on a wire rack.

Make the syrup - put the orange juice and marmalade into a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until dissolved.  Prick the cakes all over with a skewer and pour over the cakes.

When you are ready to assemble the cake, make the frosting.  Beat all the ingredients (apart from the juice and only 1/2 the zest) until combined.  I found this icing only needed a few drops of juice - I think using it all would make it too runny.  So add the orange juice sparingly.

Remove the cakes from the tins - remove the baking parchment.  Put one cake on the serving plate and spread some of the icing over,  sit the other cake on top and spread the over the remaining icing.  Sprinkle the orange zest on top.

This is a really light tangy cake, I am eating a slice as I type!  I think I might try making it another time with just a lemon curd filling and perhaps top with a basic icing made with icing sugar and water.

Bakebakegirl

Todays top three Spotify Songs:

1. Rip It Up - Orange Juice
2. Orange Crush - R.E.M
3. Rule The World - Take That (Jason Orange!)

Minibakebakegirl Monday - Moustache Biscuits

Hello, it’s Minibakebakegirl here.  Happy New Year.   As you may know I have a weird obsession… MOUSTACHES!!! I have moustache socks, a jumper, jewellery, pens and fridge magnets.  But recently I got moustache cookie cutters.  I was really excited to use them.

We made a chocolate biscuit dough from Mum’s Peggy Pourshen Boutique Baking book.   But you could use any biscuit recipe.

Mum had to help get the dough out of the cutters with a knife and then you stamp the top of each one to make the imprints.  They looked really good.

I had some this afternoon with a hot chocolate.

Minibakebakegirl

Top three Ipod songs:

1.  Impossible- James Arthur

2.  Stupid Stupid - Alex Day  

3.  Right Word - Katie Sky