Baking Therapy

I have been a bit quiet here for the last couple of weeks, and this day marks the end of an incredibly long and disastrous week. From locking myself out of my apartment, to smashing my phone screen, and dropping my prized Kitchen Aid, my mood has been a little down. I definitely needed some baking therapy but unfortunately my oven has also broken this week! Luckily the promise of baked goods assists in the donation of an oven to use!

I don't think you can go past a perfectly baked scone, with a light fluffy centre paired with whipped cream and strawberry jam, and it's exactly what I fancied eating.

Firstly, thanks to my Mum for this delicious recipe and also the handy hints!

Traditional Scones and Jame

This is an incredibly simple and quick recipe, and you only need a few ingredients. Apologies these measurements are in imperial but you can change them to metric if needed.

You will need:

1 lb Self-raising Flour
1 tsp Salt
4 oz Butter
2 oz Caster Sugar
1/2 pint Milk
Jam and whipped cream to fill.

Firstly pre-heat your oven to 230oC, these treats are baked quickly but at a high heat. You will also need to prepare a lightly greased baking tray.

1. Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

This may take a little while to get to this stage.

2. Add caster sugar and mix lightly. Then incorporate the milk and mix to a soft dough, it may be slightly sticky so you can add a little extra flour if required.

3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, knead quickly and pat out to approximately 1.5cm thickness.
Note: Do not use a rolling pin, this can cause the dough to become tough and not rise as effectively.

This recipe will make approximately 20 scones

 4. Place scones on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. You can brush the tops with milk/whisked egg but it isn't necessary.

5. Cool on a wire rack, halve and enjoy with whipped cream and jam. I'm also looking forward to trying these with some home made lemon curd.

Top with jam and cream and enjoy!

After a little baking, and some sugar I'm feeling happier and I can look forward to a better week. Let me know if you give these a go. Have a lovely week! x

Red Velvet Dreams

Today mark's a day I am incredibly proud of. A small step closer to making my dreams possible.

I attended a presentation skills training session at work a couple of weeks ago, as a warm up exercise we were asked to select a topic card, and then talk for 2 minutes on that particular subject, with no preparation. The card I selected at random was; your favorite food. Obviously, I passionately rambled on about my love for cupcakes and sweet things in general, and I was told my excitement was infectious! The conversation continued during morning tea and I was asked if I ever made cupcakes to sell, I nervously said that it was something I'd love to do

Roll on to yesterday, I was approached by a co-worker to see if I would be able to bake something, in time for a Mad Hatter themed bridal shower this weekend. I immediately felt anxious, I'd never actually SOLD a cake, I had no idea how to price or charge for my work or time. In my mind I was thinking who would actually pay for something I had made?! The sudden doubt about my capabilities crept in, but I reluctantly accepted the challenge.

With the short time frame, I suggested Red Velvet - with the red/white colouring I thought it could symbolise The Queen of Hearts another Alice in Wonderland character. Plus they're delicious! Luckily I only had to bake 24, nothing too far out of my comfort zone but I needed each one to be perfect. A scary thought, considering I was trialling a brand new recipe, provided to me at my cupcake baking class.

Nothing more inviting than Red Velvet batter

Perfectly risen and baked 

Today, I put all my love into baking 24 perfectly iced Red Velvet cupcakes. I love the colour of the batter, and the excitement of adding the vinegar at the end to watch the explosion of air bubbles incorporating into the mixture! Again, my trusty oven thermometer, allowed my oven to be the correct temperature allowing for perfectly even cakes.

Adding the cream cheese frosting and tiny love heart decorations

I'm so please with how each and every one of the 24 came out, I would be so upset to present a box of ugly cakes - but these are pretty, and I had a sneaky taste and they are yummy too!

My main grumble about cupcake stores is the amount of icing they put on top - I have a sweet tooth but I usually end up scraping a bit off as it gets too sickly! So I consciously took that into account as I piped my cream cheese frosting on.

Red Velvet Cupcake

What do you think? Would you pay for one of these...? If you would like the recipe on how to bake these yourself, let me know and I can write another blog post tutorial x

Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes

As well as my passion for all things pinup, I have a huge love for baking. Anyone who knows me, knows my ultimate dream would be to own a little vintage/retro cafe serving amazing breakfasts and sweet treats. Whilst I embark on improving my skills, I thought I'd bring you guys along for the journey of self improvement, and hopefully inspire some kitchen treats along the way.

This week I got home from work, and opened my cupboards looking for inspiration - the only thing staring at my were some brown, sad looking bananas. I'm not particularly a fan of bananas, I buy them because they are good for me, but they often sit there until I decide to turn them into banana bread (usually with chocolate chips!).

At my recent cake baking and decorating class I was taught a simple vanilla cupcake recipe, which provides a great foundation for anything you want to add, so I thought I'd experiment.

Yum! Recipe below.

 BANANA AND CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE

Ingredients all ready to weigh in.

Ingredients (to make 12 cupcakes)
100g Plain flour
120g Cake flour
170g Caster sugar
15g Baking powder
3/4 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder
115g unsalted butter
120g Free range eggs
1/2 cup Full cream milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Mashed brown bananas

These cupcakes are not skinny, you need high fat content unsalted butter and full cream milk! Plus good quality cocoa powder and vanilla extract.

1. Before starting, weigh out all your ingredients and bring everything to room temperature (butter, eggs, and milk).

2. Pre-heat your oven to 163oC (fan-forced) or 173oC (non fan-forced).

Now, I know you're reading that thinking... '163'... yes it's precise. I have recently purchased an oven thermometer and it informed me what I thought was 160oC was actually over 200oC. No wonder my cupcakes were going mental in there!

This is called the one bowl method, for precisely that reason - everything in one bowl.

3. Sift all of your dry ingredients into your mixing bowl - both flours, caster sugar, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.

My prized Kitchen Aid

4. Set your mixer on low speed (you can do this with a hand mixer too, you might just need a buddy to help you out!) - and add the softened butter chunk by chunk, until it's all incorporated and it resembles a sand consistency. Scrape down the bowl.

Sandy consistency of the dry ingredients and softened butter.

5. Add your eggs one at a time - keeping your mixer on slow. After one has just been incorporated add the next. After all have been added scrape the sides of the bowl down.

You may also notice the eggs are in weight - baking is a science. If you find it's about two and a half eggs - whisk the third and add until the correct weight.

Weigh in eggs, precisely!

Mixture after adding eggs.

                                     
















6. Combine your vanilla extract and milk together. Now slowly add a continuous stream of vanilla extract/milk- do not flood your mixture. Slow and steady. Again, stop and scrape your bowl down.

SLOW addition of milk/vanilla extract combo.

7. The final step, add your mashed bananas and mix on medium/high for 20/30 seconds - this allows air to get into the mixture.

Final yummy mixture.

8. Evenly distribute your mixture into a cupcake tray lined with paper cases and bake at 163oC in a fan-forced oven for 17-21 minutes.

DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR BEFORE 15 MINUTES!

9. Check on your cupcakes after 17 minutes, a skewer will come out clean if cooked. If not quite there, put them back in for 2-4 minutes.

10. Once cooked, remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. As they cool, you can prepare the chocolate butter-cream frosting.

CHOCOLATE BUTTER-CREAM

Ingredients

125g Unsalted butter

3-4 cups of soft icing sugar mixture

1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder

1/4 cup Full cream milk

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1. Beat softened butter with your paddles attachment until white and creamy.

2. Sift icing sugar and cocoa powder into a separate bowl.

3. Add 3 cups of icing sugar/cocoa powder to the butter.

4. Add salt, vanilla extract and milk, beat until combined.

5. Continue to add icing sugar until desired consistency is reached. 

6. Beat for approximately 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

This frosting will keep in a air tight container in the fridge for two weeks, yum!

After your cupcakes have cooled, pipe the frosting and add your garnish! I grated some chocolate on top of mine. These will keep in an air tight container at room temperature for 4-7 days.

12 light and fluffy chocolate and banana cupcakes -these are sweet!

Banana and chocolate cupcake with chocolate butter-cream frosting.

Let me know if you try baking them, or if you found any of the tips and tricks helpful x