Monday Bake - Butterscotch Apple Pudding

It's that time of year again, when I have lots of apples and I'm scouring my cookbooks for apple recipes, like here and here.  Yesterday I made Rachel Allens Butterscotch Apple Pudding.  This is one of those magic puddings where you layer the fruit pour the sponge batter on top and then pour over the liquid which when cooking will transform into a yummy sauce.   This is a great pudding to have with vanilla icecream -  Hubby gave it the thumbs up and I will add to my list of apple recipes.

Last week was a Rachel Allen recipe week and this week was too as I also made her Thai butternut squash soup.   After peeling and chopping our home grown   butternut squash my palms turned bright orange, the skin was very tight, cracked and started to peel away.  Hubby googled it and seemingly this is quite common - there is an enzyme that can cause this reaction.  After washing my hands and moisturing them well, they were fine - just felt a bit odd for the rest of the day.  I have prepared butternut squash lots of times before but I think next time I will wear my rubber gloves!   The soup was delicious with a large slice of granary bread. 

I've also made a start to this year's Innocent Smoothie hats for The Big Knit.  I am going to use up leftovers of other projects in my wool stash.  I love this variegated wool.

Thanks for visiting,
Bakebakegirl

Today's top three Spotify songs:

1. The Chamber - Lenny Kravitz
2. American Woman - Lenny Kravitz
3. It Ain't Over Till It's Over - Lenny Kravitz

Monday Bake - Yorkshire Puddings and No Knead Bread

This week was another busy week which included lots of baking.

On the Bakeforhappykids blog, Zoe had made popovers.  I had often wondered what popovers were and I discovered that they are the american version of Yorkshire puddings.  I love Yorkshire puddings and I think I have mastered making them.   I use Rachel Allen's Yorkshire pudding recipe from her Home Cooking book.  You can find the batter recipe here.   We usually have toad "out of the" hole for tea - I cook my sausages separately as I find if I add anything to my yorkshire puddings they don't rise as well.

My top tips for making them are:

1. The batter needs to be cold - make the batter at least 1 hour in advance and store it in the fridge.

2. The oil and tin need to be really hot - put a dash of oil in each cup of your muffin tin and place in the oven to heat up for at 10 minutes before filling with your batter. The fat should really sizzle when you add the batter.

3. While your Yorkshires are baking do not open the oven door!

All 12 were all quite uniform this time - sometimes there are some that are funny shapes!

I also made the Attic24 No Knead bread this week - this is perfect to make mid-week.  I made the dough on Wednesday night, left it overnight and then baked it on Thursday teatime.  The smell when I took the lid off the casserole dish was amazing!  We ate it with Bacon, sausage and bean stew from Rachel Allen's Food for Living book.   Its been a Rachel week!

Thanks for visiting,

Bakebakegirl

This weekend's American Hustle songs:

1. A Horse with No Name - America 

2. Delilah - Tom Jones

3. Live and Let Die - Wings

Monday Bake - Raspberry Ripple Cake

I started on my new team at work last April and what a lovely bunch of people they are. And do you know what?  Like me, they like and eat cake! 

They decided to set me an initiation test!  They gave me a list of the 7 team members and 5 cake choices for me to match up!  Sticky toffee pudding, carrot cake, ginger cake, victoria sponge and cheesecake.  Considering I didn't know everyone I did not too badly - I got two wrong which meant I was tasked with making Sticky Toffee Pudding and a Victoria Sponge.

For the sticky toffee pudding I made this with the cream cheese icing.  For the Victoria Sponge I made The Pink Whisks Raspberry Ripple Cake. 

This is the second time of making this cake - I didn't think the inside of the cake was very ripply the first time so I added more puree.  It still isn't that ripply inside but the top is very pretty so I didn't cover it up with icing sugar like the recipe said.  

The filling is amazing - I could eat the whole bowl of that on its own.  I think I will made individual puddings with digestive biscuit bases and the cheesecake filling on top for pudding on a Sunday :o)

Thanks for visiting,
Bakebakegirl

Today's top three radio songs:

1. Kiss and Not Tell - La Roux
2. Nature's Call - Shaun Escoffey
3. The 'In' Crowd - Gregory Porter

Monday Bake - Date, Banana and Rum Loaf

What a busy week!   Minibakebakegirl went back to school on Wednesday - I can't believe the summer holidays are over already - good news is the sun in shining today so I am holding on to the fact it is still summer - late summer.  Autumn can start on the 1 October!

I packed a lot of baking in this week. It was Hubby's birthday on Saturday.   I made a salted caramel layer cake which we shared with family on Saturday afternoon.  Layered birthday cakes seem to be my thing at the moment.

I made a cake for my team on Tuesday - raspberry ripple cake (will do a separate blog post about this next week).  It was my turn for cakeclub this week so on Thursday I made a date, banana and rum loaf. This is a really easy gluten free recipe - with the spices it is quite christmassy so I think I will made it again in December.   I omitted the nuts and added some dried cranberries and only sprinkled the top with brown sugar.  One of my cakeclub friends said it reminded her of bread pudding (which was a good thing she said!) - quite a dense consistency - very fruity.

Hubby then asked me to make 24 cupcakes for him to take into work - 12 chocolate and 12 vanilla - perfect Sunday afternoon - baking in the kitchen listening to my music.

And to end a great week - Strictly is back on - really looking forward to this year's, thought the pairings that were revealed last night were good.

Hope to see you next week,

Bakebakegirl

Today's top three Spotify songs:

1. Angel In Blue Jeans - Train

2. Born to Be Alive - Patrick Hernandez

3. Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil

Monday Bake - Viennese Fingers

My first biscuit making biscuit was a recipe from my Mum and Dad's Readers Digest cookery book - Viennese fingers.   I didn't pipe them in those days - I think I just splodged them onto the baking tray! These light biscuits with their ends dipped in dark chocolate are scrummy and don't last long!!

I don't think I have made these since I left home - FriendS gave me a retro cookbook for Christmas and I used the recipe in there - you can find a similar one here.  These biscuits are very delicate - I broke several while dipping them in the chocolate...just had to eat those ones straight away!

Delicious with a cup of tea or coffee.  I had a couple earlier while I was making a start on some Easter chicks - before you think I have gone mad, yes I know it's September!  My friend volunteers for a hospice that sell the little knitted chicks with Cream Eggs inside.  They ask people to knit the bodies all year round and hand them in - then another group of people sew them up and decorate them - with wee faces and hats!  So I have made a start and hope to have a good pile of bodies for the next time I see her :o)

Feels funny to be knitting again as I have been addicted to my granny squares - my box is getting full!!

Hope to see you next week,
Bakebakegirl

Today's top three Spotify songs:

1. Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat
2. Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3. Fantastic Day - Haircut 100