Puffed Up Love Pie.

This pie is perfect for a home cooked valentines dinner.

It is a steak and leek pie stuffed with onions, it takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes start to finish if you are not making your own pastry.

Here is the recipe serves 3 (large portions)

Ingredients:
450g stewing steak cut into strips
1 large onion
handful of thyme chopped finely
handful of parsley chopped finely
as many leeks as you fancy
1 tablespoon flour
2 beef stock cubes (dissolved in 260ml boiling water)
salt and pepper
1 packet puff pastry
1 egg

Step 1.
Lightly dust the steak in flour that has been seasoned with a little salt and pepper. Then heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Step 2.
Stir the steak strips frequently until it has browned both sides, then add the chopped onion, parsley, thyme, leeks and beef stock and bring to the boil.

Step 3.
Then turn it down to simmer for 45 minutes, and then transfer it to your casserole dish.

Step 4.
Roll out your puff pastry and cover your dish with the pastry. Slice a pattern with a sharp knife across the pastry and trim the edges. With the trimmed edges roll it out again and with a heart shaped cutter cut out 2 hearts and place them on top of the pastry.

Step 5.
Brush your pastry with the beaten egg and place in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown.

Good To Know Recipes

Since I've been back at Uni I just haven't been baking, it's not that I haven't wanted to but student houses are not the nicest places to cook! Mainly because it is always dirty and the oven doesn't seem to work properly ever! But I did end up cooking quite a bit over Christmas. I've just been trying to get my choux pastry to be really good, haven't perfected it quite yet but I think it is definitely getting better. I really want to tackle pastry, but I'm a bit stuck on a good puff pastry recipe. I'm going to try one from the Great British Bake Off book because those recipes are normally amazing, we will just have to see how it goes!

I didn't go for tidiness for the cream puffs!

Even though I made them about 4 months ago my valentines cookie lollies and red velvet cupcakes have made it into Good To Know Recipes in their February Issue (on sale now, pg11). I was so excited when I found out but not only did I have 2 articles I ended up getting an inset on the cover, thanks to my dad's photography! I would love to be able to get into some more magazines, might try an attempt with Good Food even if it is a long shot!

Seeing the articles in the magazine has made me want to get back cooking again, so the house are having a clean up and trying to introduce baking days. This will probably be an absolute disaster considering one of the boys has never made a cake! Can't wait to get them all into it, even if the only reason they're doing it is for a large slice of cake at the end.

I'll be posting photos of our house baking along with their recipes. So keep checking back, I will be posting more frequently from now on, I promise!

Cookie Lollies

I made these a few days ago to try out some Valentine's ideas, they aren't too hard to make and would make a great present!

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar
170g plain flour
1/2tsp vanilla extract
300g royal icing - can buy ready-to-mix version from most supermarkets.

Equipment:
mixing bowls
heart shaped cookie cutter
lolly sticks
baking sheets
piping bags (or sandwich bags with a small cut at the bottom)

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees celsius and grease 2 baking sheets. Then measure out all your ingredients.

Step 2:
Cream the butter and caster sugar together until fluffy, then mix in the flour until it comes together in a soft ball. Cover the mixing bowl with a tea towel and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 3:
Roll out the dough on a floured surface and using the cutter cut out the heart shapes from the dough. At the bottom of each heart carefully push the lolly stick into the dough until the stick nearly reaches the top of the cookie. Place on the baking sheets with a space in-between each cookie and bake for 10-15 minutes or until they are just golden brown.

Step 4:
Once baked leave the cookies on the baking sheet to cool for about 10 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the decoration.

Step 1:
Follow the instructions on the royal icing to transform it into soft-peak icing - runny icing that holds it shape slightly, and add the food colouring you wish to use. Then spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe a heart onto each cookie. Leave it to harden. Turn your soft-peak icing into runny icing using the instructions on the pack and flood the inside of the heart with the runny icing being careful to not fill the heart with too much as it will run over the outlined heart.

Impressive Pastry Puddings!

Choux pastry is notoriously tricky, because when baked too much it goes soggy and flops but baked too much and it becomes crunchy and tasteless. However I've been trying to try things other than cakes, and with profiteroles as my favorite pudding I decided why not give it a go! I used the recipe from The Great British Bake Off book for Series 2, but changed it a little. Giving the profiteroles an extra 4 minutes to cook at 180 degrees and used 150g of milk chocolate and 50g dark chocolate in the sauce instead of 150g dark chocolate, I think it made the sauce thick and rich but not too overpowering for people who aren't massive fans of dark chocolate. They were pretty simple to make and only took about 1 hour in total including baking and cooling time. Profiteroles are definitely an impressive pudding!
These are the ones I made last night.

Red Velvet Cupcakes.

My aim was to try and make something that could go in a magazine for Valentine's Day as magazine work about 4 months in advance I needed to get them done quickly. I have a habit of making things harder than I need, so my plan was to make red velvet cupcakes (which I'd never made before) in a heart shape with covered with a red sugarpaste heart sprayed with red lustre spray.
I did a trial run trying to work out what was the best way to shape the foil case into a heart; I tried shaping them in my hand, shaping them round a cutter and using foil in the muffin tin to keep its shape while cooking. The cupcakes did turn out in a heart shape however they looked really messy. And the foil cases and using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar in the recipes made the cupcakes erupt, so it was back to the drawing board.
My next plan was red velvet cupcakes in paper cases and without the vinegar and less bicarbonate of soda, with a swirl of cream cheese icing (which is actually really nice!) about half a centimeter in from the edge. After trying this, they turned out really well and tasted delicious. If you're looking for a valentines idea or just want to give red velvet cupcakes a go try the recipe below.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

140g plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
120ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g unsalted butter
170g caster sugar
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
pinch of salt

For the icing:

110g unsalted butter
110g cream cheese (I used full fat Philadelphia)
450g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and fill your muffin tins with about 12 cupcakes cases. And mix the flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the buttermilk, vanilla and red food colouring together until fully blended.

Step 2:
Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer, then add the eggs until fully mixed. Then alternately add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture until all mixtures are well mixed together.

Step 3:
Then fill the paper cases evenly with the batter and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, to check they're done pierce with a kebab skewer and it should come out clean. Then leave to cool completely.

Step 4:
For the icing, mix the butter and cream cheese together, then slowly pour in the icing sugar and vanilla until completely blended. Then spoon into an piping bag with a Wilton 2110 nozzle and top the cupcake with a swirl. Then decorate as you wish, I used red edible glitter and a heart sprinkle.

Here is the photo of the ones I made.

Cookie Girl's Pop Up Tea Party

Since stumbling across Cookie Girl's book 'Eat Me!' on Amazon and immediately purchasing it I can't help but love everything about the way she bakes! With Cookie Girl (aka Xanthe Milton) you get the feeling it is not about each cupcake turning out perfect every time, it is more about the fun of baking and everyone having their own take on an idea. She has amazing recipes which I find work every time. What I like most about her is her humble beginning to baking, going to offices around London selling her freshly baked cookies, then setting up a stall at Portobello Market. All the hard work paid off when she started selling her cupcakes in Selfridges and writing a column for The Grove magazine.

Last week in aid of National Cupcake Week Cookie Girl hosted a Pop Up Tea Party at 'The Shop' in London running over 4 days. A ticket was £15 each, which included 4 cupcakes that you were able to decorate, with tips from Cookie Girl, and take home after, a glass of bubbly and a cup of tea. Seeing Cookie Girl decorate cupcakes and being able to get hints and have a natter with her made the £15 ticket look even better value!

I have a bad habit of putting my cupcakes in the fridge, which I know makes them a little dry however Cookie Girl stressed the importance of not putting them in the fridge and after tasting her cupcakes mine are never going in the fridge again! Another helpful tip was not opening the oven door within the first 10 minutes of baking as it stops them rising correctly. She was also having a lot of trouble with her cupcake cases as they kept peeling apart from the cupcake and not holding their shape, these were a new type she'd been using which are Sainsbury's own brand which she doesn't tend to use. So I'd beware of these cases if you do not want any hassle!

We were shown how to fill the piping bags properly and how to ice cupcakes in a swirl, with the rose technique and with her 'iced gem' effect. If you want to learn how to do this yourself click here, I found the video really useful.

Cookie Girl does a variety of classes: cupcake decorating, half-day baking lessons, corporate events, hen parties and private baking lessons (which I am dying to go on!). She mentioned that she is soon starting a class which teaches you how to pipe a rose cupcake, the difficult one which involves piping each petal individually. I'd really suggest going on one of her courses, she is a really good teacher and anyone would learn a lot, let alone have amazing fun doing it!

Click here to view Cookie Girl's website.

National Cupcake Week 2011

Usually September is the worst month of the year, where all people can think about is how summer is over, kids are back at school and dreading the winter weather. But not anymore thanks to British Baker magazine who 3 years ago introduced us to probably the best week of the year - National Cupcake Week (12-18th September 2011). This gives cupcake lovers like me a really good excuse to bake cupcakes in the masses!

The week long madness features promotion of cupcakes in bakeries and stores across Britain, special series of programs on the Food Network and special events. However this year National Cupcake Week has exploded, with over 3,000 followers on Twitter and over 2,000 fans on Facebook, everyone is talking about National Cupcake Week this year. Listen out for news about National Cupcake Week on radio stations such as Heart FM and Radio 2.

Even Fortnum and Mason have got involved, they are hosting a series of tastings and demonstrations which are free, Wednesday: Sophie Harrison of Delicious Cupcakes demonstrates flower cupcake piping, Thursday: More demonstrations from our favorite bakers and on Friday: even more tastings! And throughout the week special cupcake teas are being served in the Gallery Restaurant.

But it's not all about the cupcakes, National Cupcake Week is also raising money for CLIC Sargent, which supports children with cancer. Simmons is donating 20p of the sales of 4 types of cupcakes from all 31 bakeries.

This week support National Cupcake Week by baking cupcakes, talking about cupcakes or even stuffing your face with them to support a good cause and get the word out. Even I'm doing my small part, if you 'Follow' me on Twitter today then you might be the lucky winner of a free batch of cupcakes!

Click here to go to the National Cupcake Week website to swap recipe ideas and read Ms Cupcake's blog about setting up your own cupcake business.

Rubbish picture (off my Iphone) but my first batch of cupcakes for National Cupcake Week.

Teatime treats

I've just come back from spending 2 weeks in the Isle of Skye in Scotland, which was a lovely 12 hour drive each way, which definitely is the most driving I've ever done! Isle of Skye is an amazing place that as a child I used to go there for my family holiday ever year, but now I only seem to be able to make the journey every other year. So when I do go I want to make the most of it, spending my time fishing, walking the Scottish moors and trying to avoid the sheep that have a tendency to walk into the road.

Unfortunately with a dodgy, uneven oven I've never thought of doing any baking up there, but this year I couldn't help but bake! I have become obsessed by Great British Bake Off, so when I realised that there was 'The Great British Book of Baking' based on series 1 I had to try and buy it. In most places this would be really easy, just go online and order it off Amazon or pop down to Waterstones, but the Isle of Skye is a little different, the one being the house we have up there has no internet. After a 45 minute drive to the main town, Portree, I walked down the high street which has about 10 shops and most of them being knitwear I was a bit disheartened and thought I would have to wait until I was home to get my hands on a copy. In the very last shop they were selling a few books, they must of had about 50 books in the whole store with 10 of them being cookery books. But I was in luck, they had 1 copy (£20), which I bought immediately!

After flicking through the book which has over 120 recipes, including recipes from the contestants such as Edward's cumin and fennel loaf and Louise's mini macaroons. However it was the cream puffs that took my fancy. And left the house again for a 45 minute back to Portree to get the ingredients, yes I know I should have read it in the car before driving home...

I've never made choux pastry before and in a wonky oven probably wasn't the best idea, but they turned out amazing if I do say so myself. They went down so well I didn't have time to take a photo of them before the rest of my family ate them!

(This makes 8 cream puffs)
Here is the recipe for the choux pastry:

Ingredients:
175ml water
a good pinch of salt
75g unsalted butter (If you've read any of my blog you'll know I love Lurpack for baking)
100g plain flour
3 medium eggs, beaten

Step 1.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees and measure out all the ingredients. Put the water, salt and butter into a pan and heat gently until the butter has melted completely without letting the mixture boil up.

Step 2.
Once the butter has completely melted quickly bring the mixture to the boil and pour in all the flour in one go, and remove the mixture from the heat and beat with a wooden spoon. The mixture should become a smooth, heavy dough.

Step 3.
Put the pan back on low heat and beat the dough for about a minute which slightly cooks the dough and the dough turns into a smooth glossy ball. Tip the dough into a mixing bowl and beat the eggs into the dough this makes the dough really shiny and it should fall from the spoon when shaken slightly.

Step 4.
Spoon (or pipe) the mixture into 8 large mounds on a greased baking sheet, then sprinkle a little water onto the baking sheet but avoiding the pastry. Bake this for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

Step 5.
Then without opening the oven lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for a further 15 minutes until golden and crisp.

Step 6.
Remove from the oven and make a small hole (using a kebab skewer or something similar) in the side of the puff and return the puffs to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the pastry is completely crisp.

For the filling
When ready to serve whip 250ml of whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar until stiff. Then split the puffs in half horizontally and pipe in the cream to each base and put sliced strawberries on top of the cream and put the lids of the puffs back on. Dust the cream puffs with icing sugar.

For me I found this recipe amazing even with none of my cooking equipment, not in my own kitchen and temperamental oven, so give it a go!
This is just one of the recipes from the book, and I plan on making lots more from it, it seems like a must buy for any keen bakers who want to try new things.
This is a copy off abe books which seems to sell loads of books for really cheap, click here for a cheap copy of The Great British Book of Baking.

Extortion or realism?

People always ask the question 'Why is this so expensive?' especially when related to cakes. Some bakers do charge extortionate prices for cakes and as soon as the word 'wedding' is mentioned prices can seem to double instantly, however I do think most independent bakers do charge fairly.
Being a student I am one to watch the pennies but when it comes to cooking that money saving attitude seems to go out the window and I'm handing out over 50 cupcakes a week for free. So I started to work out how much this was costing me, and now I won't be giving so many away for free! I worked out on average, for a plain cupcake it was costing me about £1 and that is just for ingredients, and when I say 'plain' cupcake, I really do mean plain, a tiny swirl of buttercream and vanilla sponge. For a chocolate cupcake it was getting nearer £1.50.
But who wants a plain cupcake, or simple Victoria sponge cake? Not many!
So this means you need to add on decorations. Sugarpaste which is needed to cover pretty much any cake costs about £4 per kg (it takes about 850g to cover a 20cm cake), and if you're talking flowers on your cake that will require flower modeling paste costing around £7 for 100g. General decoration such as sparkles or ball balls all add up to more than you would think.
After all of this, I haven't even added in the cost of paper cases or traveling to deliver the cakes. But most of all time, for an independent baker time is the biggest factor in cost. To hand make sugar flowers can take an hour to do 6 roses depending on how intricate they are required to be. Working at minimum wage that would be about £5.80 an hour, so if you're wedding cakes need 200 handmade flowers, just think of how much time that would take and multiply that by minimum wage and you'll soon realize your quote is looking a lot better already!
I constantly hear about how supermarkets sell cakes for £7, but you have to remember this is a supermarket you're talking about! Buying anything from a supermarket is generally cheaper because it is selling to a mass market and is a huge business of factory made food. Getting your cake from an independent baker means you are able to get the exact cake you want, hand made and more delicious!
So next time you get a quote for a cake, just think about the costs before you start saying they're extortionate. But also be aware that some people will try and charge to much (my friend was quoted £70 for 20 cupcakes) so be aware, however good cake will cost good money and good cake is worth the cost.

Heavenly Chocolate Cupcakes

I've always found it hard to get a really chocolaty flavor without the sponge or icing tasting a bit soggy, so again I've been trawling the internet looking for a really good recipe to adapt. And now I think I've managed it! I've done two different types of icing; chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream and all done with real chocolate and no coca powder.

The Sponge: (makes 18)

115g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa (it gives a really good quality flavor)
85g unsalted butter, I use Lurpack which has been slightly softened
175g soft brown sugar
2 large eggs, separated into yolk and whites
185g plain flour
3/4tsp baking powder
3/4tsp baking soda
250ml semi-skimmed milk

Step 1.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees, my oven is really hot so be careful! And line the muffin tins with paper cases.

Step 2.
Melt the chocolate (be careful not to burn it if you're melting it in the microwave) and leave to cool slightly. While the chocolate is cooling beat the sugar and butter together in an electric mixer, slowly add the egg yolks (that have been beaten together before adding). Then once the batter is creamy add the chocolate and beat further, until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Step 3.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder together. Slowly pour in the milk to the chocolate batter alternating with the flour mixture.

Step 4.
In a different bowl whisk the egg whites until they form white peaks, then fold this into the batter. Do not use an electric mixer for this because you will take out all the air from the batter.

Step 5.
Then fill the paper cases with the batter until about 2/3rds full and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache.
150g milk chocolate
150ml double cream
1/2 tsp unsalted butter

Step 1.
Heat the double cream and butter in a saucepan over a really low heat (do not let the cream boil up). When the butter is melted remove from the heat and add chunks of the chocolate, stir until all the chocolate has melted. If the chocolate does not completely melt then put it back on the heat for a bit.

Step 2.
Then leave the covered mixture to cool and set slightly, either in the fridge (if short on time) or on the side. Spoon the mixture onto the cupcakes for a really nice finish.

Chocolate Buttercream.
350g dark chocolate, 70% coca
225g unsalted butter (Lurpack and softened)
250g icing sugar

Step 1.
Melt the chocolate and leave to cool slightly.

Step 2.
Mix the icing sugar and butter together until light and creamy in an electric mixer, then pour in the chocolate. Beat until thick and creamy.