Apologies for my delay in typing up my recent baking endeavour!
I thought it time to try a classic and being such a big fan of Afternoon Tea , I decided to attempt home made scones!
Now thinking that following the recipe exactly would only lead to success is unfortunately not always true. Not knowing how things are meant to mix and feel can make it quite difficult to know if you are on the right track. This is the problem I had as I started out confidently mixing the dry ingredients and then started to add the wet, mixing with my wooden spoon. The dough started to come together but when all the ingredients were added it was rather wet and sticky! Now Mary has mentioned it should be a sticky dough but as i plonk it in the floured service I can't help but think it shouldn't be so sticky it doesn't come off the surface!
I would love to say I am calm and collected as things start to appear wrong, but I have an increasing sense of panic, it has not helped that I have invited my Aussie friend and Mum round to try the scones! I have decided to add a touch more flour and the mixture finally begins to look and feel right (by my reckoning)!
So they finally make it into the oven and out onto the cooling rack!
I must say despite my panic call to Mum telling her she must by some scones because mine are rubbish and I very happy with how they have turned out. We have a lovely Afternoon Tea with sstrawberry jam and real clotted cream! Yummy!!!
The scones went down a treat with my guests so i guess I will be making them again soon...well after my next task!
Happy Baking,
Cakey Bakey xxx
Well the last few weeks have been very exciting in the Bake Off!!! I am so glad Jo won, it was well deserved and hopefully she will now have confidence in her baking! Following the empty slot of the Bake Off the BBC has cunningly put on The Great British Bake Off Masterclass! In this show Paul and the wonderful Mary show you tips on how to create some of the shows recipes and I must say I feel more confident about making a Battenberg now!!!
So last week I was meant to be contemplating making a chocolate mousse cake...however after watching the final of The Great British Bake Off, I quickly realised that a mousse cake could quite possibly take me all day and with my limited skills not turn out right!!!
Therefore the Housemate chose Devil's Food Cake, which I haven't made before but thought I'd give it a whirl!
The sponge mix worked really well, although no real chocolate in it just cocoa, which surprised me as I was expecting plenty of chocolate! But the sponge was really light and after baking was a lovely texture and shape.
The tricky part came when making the icing, I should add at this point there were no pictures of this cake in Mary's Bible so I wasn't too sure how it was meant to look! I followed the recipe which required mixing sugar and egg white over hot water until thick. I was dubious of this and although my mixture thicken slightly, I felt it wasn't quite right. After the suggested timings I then iced the cake, with my slightly sloppy icing mix.
The taste test: All who have tried it agreed the icing was not quite right as the sugar granules had reformed slightly and therefore the icing had a crunchy texture...the sponge however was highly praised and was wonderfully light and fluffy!!!
I will have to try the icing again and this time play around with the heat! As for this week, I am going to make scones to Mary's Very Best Scones recipe...fingers crossed!!!
On another note, Housemate and I watched a different cookery show last night, Lorraine Pascale's easy cook show and although some of the recipes looked fab, I can't quite get to grips with the presenter, She appears continually Smug?! Let me know what you think?!
Happy Baking!!!
Cakey Bakey xx
