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Archive for the ‘Flavours’ Category

macaronsAfter my successful attempt using hazelnuts to make macarons rather than ground almonds the other week, I decided I would try another nut. Next on the list were cashew nuts – mainly because I had a couple of bags in the cupboard. As well as experimenting with the recipe I was also experimenting with my new camera – for my birthday I treated myself to an SLR camera. I was playing around with all the settings to work out how to use it, so I ended up with loads of photos which are all only very slightly different! So over the next weeks some of the photos might be slightly experimental… But hopefully better than the ones which I’ve been taking on my phone until now! Right, back to the macarons….

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hazelnut macarons I remember looking around my house before I bought it and thinking that the oven was probably rubbish – it looked as old as me. However, after four and half years of baking in it, I can honestly say I wouldn’t change it… even if somebody offered me a brand new top of the range oven. After all the hard work it’s done for me over the last four and half years, I decided it was time to give it a really good clean. And by that, I mean going as far as taking the glass out the door and leaving it to soak so I could get every last little mark off it. After about 2 and a half hours it looked almost as good as new – or as close as I could get – so I decided that I would test out the “new” oven and bake some macarons. Click here to keep reading.

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20131210-074258.jpg One of the girls in the office, Simran, loves the Hummingbird Bakery and always goes when she’s in London. Her favourite flavour cupcake/the one she always has is this one: red velvet with a cream cheese frosting. So I promised that I would, at some point, make some red velvet cupcakes to bring into the office. I eventually got round to making them last summer. And it’s taken me just as long to get round to blogging about them. If you can’t wait any longer for a red velvet cupcake click here.

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20131217-214310.jpg I love baking things which look pretty. However, no matter how pretty you make something it still has to taste good – at the end of the day it’s food and you’ve made it to be eaten. It can be easy to decorate something with loads of icing to make it look amazing but all that does is make it taste sweet. If possible, I would much rather decorate a cake or biscuit with something that adds to the flavour rather than masks it with sugar. Do you want to make something that tastes as good as it looks?

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20131209-185226.jpg Just under a year ago my sister got engaged. I was extremely excited – not just because there was going to be a wedding, but also because I was going to get to make the cake! We made a deal a while ago that rather than making our own cake, we would make each other’s. Click here to keep reading.

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20131119-202112.jpg In between making wedding cakes it was Tom’s birthday. He’s been away for the last few years on his birthday so I haven’t been able to make him a birthday cake. Therefore, this year, I wanted to make him a cake which would make up for the last few years. Not much thinking was required – he came back from a recent trip to Universal Studios with a minion water bottle, a minion mug and a set of minion pyjamas for me… so a minion cake it was! Click here if you want to bake a minion too!

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20131014-190504.jpg I’m always looking for new ways to decorate cupcakes, and when I came across a photo of these, I decided they were too cute not to make. I was looking for something autumnal and had done various searches on the internet before I discovered them. Finding the ingredients to make them was the trickiest part – I think I had to empty 12 tubes of Smarties before I found enough red ones to make the toadstools and even then I didn’t have enough to make one to go on each cake as planned but I decided that if I went back to the Co-op to buy a third lot of Smarties they might start to ask questions so I left it! Click here if you want to make a family of hedgehogs.

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20130904-114556.jpgIt’s been a while since I last did a post. It’s not that I haven’t baked anything, it’s more the fact that Tom came home – despite the fact he seems to be working constantly I suddenly have less free time! Anyway, I made this cake last weekend, with my sister. It was for our great Aunt’s 90th birthday – happy birthday Auntie Joan! We didn’t want to do just a plain sponge so the cake was lemon & poppy seed with a raspberry curd filling and a lemon buttercream – it was very light and delicious. Click here to keep reading.

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20130715-215317.jpgFor Father’s Day this year, I decided to bake my dad a present – Amaretto brownies. Since I wasn’t going to see him on the Sunday, I gave them to him, freshly baked, on the Saturday. The plan was that he wouldn’t eat them until Father’s Day, but the temptation was too great and he couldn’t wait. He said he’d just have one, but after he’d eaten it, he decided one just wasn’t enough so had a second… after that my mum decided to ration them!

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photo (90)Time for another installment of the “party biscuit” cupcakes: Jammy Dodger cupcakes. These were just a mix of recipes I’ve made previously – my usual vanilla cupcakes, filled with jam, topped with vanilla buttercream, and my recipe for jammy bodger biscuits made into mini biscuits. Click here to keep reading.

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