Posted in Chocolate, GBBO Challenges, Nuts, Pastry, Puddings, tagged Chocolate hazelnut and Raspberry vertical tarts, desert, GBBO Technical Challenge, pastry on November 14, 2022| 1 Comment »
I’d love to have more time to try some patisserie stuff, I love watching Bake Off the Professionals and seeing some of the amazing patisserie things they do. It’s all so precise and they have lots of clever equipment too! These deserts were perfectly timed with Rich’s Birthday, so they made a tasty treat for pudding on Saturday night. Click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in GBBO Challenges, Nuts, Puddings, Summer, tagged custard, GBBO Technical Challenge, pistachio ice cream on October 31, 2022| 1 Comment »
Another week down, another technical challenge done! Phew! I really liked the idea of custard week, and we were very excited to see that the technical was ice cream – I make a lot of ice cream, so I was looking forward to this one. Click here to keep reading.
(more…)Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Puddings, Summer, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, lemon meringue pie, pastry on October 17, 2022| 1 Comment »
We were really looking forward to dessert week on the Bake Off, especially having seen the clip the week before showing the very limited instructions for making a lemon meringue pie. I honestly don’t think I have ever made a lemon meringue pie before, but I’ve made plenty of pastry, curd and meringue, so I was hoping it was going to be fairly straightforward. Click here to keep reading.
(more…)Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Nuts, Puddings, Summer, tagged GBBO, GBBO Technical Challenge, patisserie, sable Breton on November 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I can’t believe this is the penultimate technical challenge, we’ve had a lot of fun again this year trying them all out. In particular getting to try things I wouldn’t normally choose to make, the recipes always surprise us. This week was no exception, click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in autumn, GBBO Challenges, Puddings, Winter, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, pudding, sticky toffee pudding on October 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Can’t believe it’s week 4 of the bake off already! As we were away at the weekend, I made these for pudding on Friday night as a treat. I didn’t think there would be time to make them after school on Friday with the girls as it seems to take about twice the amount of time when they help! So I made them in stages throughout the day by myself and then baked time in time for pudding, Click here to see how I got on.
(more…)Posted in Christmas, Puddings, Spices, Winter, tagged christmas baking, Christmas log, Gingerbread Buche de Noel on December 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I couldn’t resist baking one last thing for 2020, despite it just being Rich and I for NYE I really wanted to make a Christmas log. We all love gingerbread in our house so when I saw this recipe in the Christmas Olive magazine I added it to my list of Christmas recipes. Click here to see the recipe.
(more…)Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Pastry, Puddings, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, Sussex Pond Pudding on November 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I am sure plenty of people will agree with me that this weeks technical wasn’t really the most appealing, but I wanted to give it at go and I could see that the flavours should be pretty tasty. Luckily I had some suet in the cupboard as I was planning on making my mincemeat for Christmas this weekend. I ran out of time to bake with the girls, so this was my first solo challenge, click here to see how I got on.
I decided that we really didn’t want to make the whole recipe, Rich really wasn’t keen and I also didn’t have the right sized pudding bowls, so I used a small metal one instead and made just under half of the recipe. The full recipe can be found here. The recipe was easy enough to make. But I was not paying enough attention and forgot to line my tin, I had greased it though, so hoped that would be enough.
I didn’t time it very well as the 2 hours was up on the steamer while Rich was on a work phone call and we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, so I left it another 20 mins before getting it out and having a go and turning it out. Unfortunately it wasn’t very easy to remove from the tin and broke, making a big puddley mess on the plate, just like most of the bakers! I think this is my first proper bake off fail! Amazingly it tasted much better than it looked and the lemon inside was soft and it was a bit like eating a sweet marmalade pudding. Emily and Chloe had a small bit to share and they really enjoyed it. It’s not really something I will be making again though!
Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Puddings, Spices, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, Matcha Mille Crepe on November 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »
We missed last week’s technical challenge as the recipe wasn’t on the website until after the weekend so we didn’t have time. But we will catch up and make them at some point during lockdown. This weeks recipe looked really interesting, but neither Rich or I are keen on matcha so we decided to make a crepe cake half the size in case we didn’t like it! Click here to see how we got on.
I had some matcha powder left over from a wedding cake I made and hadn’t been brave enough to bake anything else with it, so this was the perfect bake to use it up. Prue’s recipe can be found here. Emily and Chloe helped make the pancake mixture, we had to add a bit of Green food colouring as the matcha I had wasn’t a very vibrant green!
I made the ganache meringue filling, it was super smooth and rich. Emily helped me assemble the crepes and did a good job of spreading out the filling and topping with the sliced strawberries. We popped it in the fridge to chill before decorating it, it looked quite pretty especially when you cut into it. Rich and I enjoyed some for pudding with some extra mango and strawberries on the side, it was actually quite yummy – apart from the dusting of matcha powder on top!
Posted in Fruit/Veg, GBBO Challenges, Other Cakes, Puddings, tagged GBBO Technical Challenge, Pineapple Upside Down Cakes on September 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »
It’s been quite a while since either Em or I updated anything on here and the Great British Bake Off being back on has kicked me into action again! It’s not because we haven’t been baking, just that we have both been so busy we have struggled with finding the time. So this week having watched the first episode in this weeks series of GBBO I thought it was about time I wrote something. Emily was super excited to be allowed to watch the bake off when she got back from school last week and even more excited to actually have a go at making the technical challenge. This year Chloe is joining in too as she just wants to do everything her big sister does. It’s going to be a messy few months in our house! Click here to see how we all got on with the first technical.
I think one of the main challenges this year will be making sure we have the right ingredients without having to make loads of extra supermarket trips, something I am keen to avoid. I generally have a well stocked baking cupboard, so hopefully we can get by. The recipe can be found here. The recipe was pretty easy to follow, although I did take my eye off the sugar and burnt the first batch of caramel. Emily loves cracking eggs into the bowl and Chloe is enjoying helping to hold the bags of flour and sugar as we weigh things out and generally causing havoc by pressing the buttons on the scales half way through weighing things out!
Luckily we managed to weigh things out correctly and even made the custard too. Although the timing wasn’t great and I found myself juggling stirring custard, caramel and the girls tea all at the same time! By the time they were cooked and cooled down enough for the girls to try them unfortunately neither of them ate more than a couple of mouthfuls as both were too full up and tired to want any more! Although the following day Emily demolishing a whole one for pudding!
Posted in Christmas, Fruit/Veg, Puddings, tagged Christmas Pavlova, Pavlova, Pear and Cranberry on December 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I love making pavlova and more often than not I end up making one as a dinner party or Sunday lunch pudding especially as it’s gluten free and can be adapted for any season. It’s also quite easy to turn a simple pavlova into a big show stopping desert. I made this for New Year’s Eve last year and it’s full of festive flavours as well as looking very impressive! Click here for the recipe.
Gloverly Cupcakes 