christmas concoctions part two: white chocolate and cranberry cakies

so this post may be a little out of season, but we'll roll with it!

life has been a little crazy recently: the post christmas/new year period is always a bit of a blur and then on monday i started my new job. it's going really well so far and the people in the office are really nice and welcoming! but it does mean i have been coming home, having dinner, working out and crashing!! hopefully i'll get back in to the swing of things soon - three weeks off means i am a little rusty!

so this week's post is a hangover from the festive season, but these will taste good all year round - especially now when it's still dark and cold. however, as the title might suggest, these did not go 100% to plan! i'll reveal all as we go along but i have definitely created a new bake!

this was a hummingbird recipe, i think i have made them before (with greater success!). i made them for my christmas party (which went really well).

ingredients ready to go

 the recipe is nice and simple, building up a cookie dough in stages

 

at this point there was a very narrowly avoided disaster! our spices have big letters on the top of the jars and i had (stupidly) reached in and grabbed the first 'C' that i could find.

thankfully i was waiting on my mum to get back from the shop with the flour so i put the 'cinnamon' in a separate bowl ready to mix in, at which point i thought, this looks rather dark! double checking the jar confirmed that i had picked up coriander rather than cinnamon!! i was so close to making, what would probably have been, some of the worst cookies ever!

 a very close call! 

 coriander free dough coming together

 love, love the contrast of the cranberries!

 

pretty hard to resist eating it at this stage!

 so we get to this stage with my cookies all ready to go. the dough felt right, it's normally stiffer and stickier than a cake mix and then it spreads out as it cooks to form the round, flat cookie shape. however, as you can see from the oven picture below, this process did not happen! i'm not entirely sure why this happened, a little googling suggests something to do with the flour or raising agent.

the resulting bake was a new creation (or at least so i am claiming), ladies and gentlemen i present to you: the cakie

 a strange bake the exists somewhere between the realms of cake and cookie - probably most closely related to a rock cake!

of course the important thing (as always) is taste over appearance and these still tasted scrummy - i mean white chocolate and cranberries! obviously the texture was not the gooey, chewy cookie goodness i was hoping for, but it was novel! and they still went down well, so no complaints!

next time i'll give you an option for what to do with the post-christmas selection boxes you probably have lying around!

until then, have a good week!

love,

nen

x

white chocolate and raspberry cake

i made this cake two weeks ago now, but unfortunately i was struck down with flu last weekend which meant there has been an absence of activity (aside from battling through feverish delirium to try and get some sleep, flu is not the one). but it does mean that i get the chance to remember this cake all over again - because it was really delicious. raspberries have to be up there with my favourite fruits and they are just so good in bakes.

the recipe is also really simple, which is always good. you start with a basic sponge mix. i've been mixing my bakes by hand recently - something i used to avoid at all costs but i now find it quite satisfying (it also means i don't have to faff around getting the whisk out, laziness always wins out).

the recipe i used is from the clandestine cake club book - another book that i bought a while ago and had yet to use (beyond drooling over the pictures, naturally).

such a beautiful cover - i love the blue

 

  a moment's appreciation for how glossy this mixture is!

 at this point you deviate from a normal sponge by stirring in the raspberries. as the recipe states, it's important to be gentle when folding them in - otherwise they will break up and you won't get a full burst of raspberry goodness.

 look at the incredible colour contrast

 

now comes the exciting part - covering the cake in chocolate!

i deviated fractionally from the recipe here, by using the full 150g bar of chocolate rather than the 125g the recipe called from (because, chocolate). however i do not think there is any way they used anywhere near that much, because the picture in the book had a tiny dribble of chocolate! but more chocolate is always better.

i learnt an important lesson in decorating this cake: allow chocolate to cool before piping it! i put the chocolate straight from the bain marie into the piping bag and picked it up. SUCH a mistake. my hand was throbbing for hours afterwards! and it also meant my piping was sloppier than usual as i was struggling to hold it. so there's an important lesson for us all there.

another baking tip: put your piping bag in a glass so it is supported while you fill it - especially useful when both hands are needed to hold a pyrex dish full of hot chocolate!

 

 

 who doesn't enjoy a good piping action shot? 

 here is the finished cake in all of it's smothered in chocolate glory; but of course the best bit is cutting it to reveal the raspberries...

this cake was really fun to make and another hit in the office (although very crumbly so the carpet was a bit worse off!). what are your favourite recipes featuring raspberries? i'd love to know!

as i'm writing this, i have a golden syrup cake in the oven - so look out for that making an appearance soon!

love,
nen
x

workplace treats - rhubard and white chocolate tray bake

working in an office all day, answering the same queries can be a bit draining. therefore baked goods are a perfect way to keep morale up. last week i presented the chocolate and lime tart; this week the chocolate and fruit theme continues with a rhubarb and white chocolate tray bake. once again a john whaite recipe!

tray bakes are just fantastic, so simple to make and put together, great for transport and guaranteed to feed many.

the reaction in the office has been very appreciative - they said the sponge is light and moist (just how i like it). they've all promised they'll be queuing at the door when i open my bakery!

here are photos from the making of the cake:

chopping up the rhubarb

 

 creaming together the butter, sugar and thyme

 mixing up the batter - i did find that when i added the eggs to the butter/sugar mix, it did split a bit, however all was fine once the dry ingredients were added

adding the rhubard and chocolate chips (with a few accidentally falling in my mouth...)

 a lovely gooey, chunky batter ready for the oven

 

 fresh from the oven

this is a really moreish cake - it's so hard not to gobble three slices in one go! i love cake with fruit in, it adds a lovely contrast to the sponge and a fantastic burst of flavour. i'm not convinced of the impact of the thyme, we certainly couldn't pick it out in the office - but i'm sure it's one of those instances where you would notice a difference if it wasn't there! so overall a very successful bake, and definitely one i'll be making again.

coming up next time: another john whaite recipe (i'll branch out soon, promise... maybe...) - this time bread!

love,

nen

x

christmas chocolate cupcakes and cranberry cookies.

phew, with that extensive example of alliteration out of the way let me begin this last post of 2012 by wishing you all a happy new year. i hope it is your best yet! this year has certainly had its ups and downs for me, but starting this blog and the enthusiastic response i've had has really carried me through so thank you all so much. especially now that the views have surpassed 1000 - thank you, thank you, thank you!

this last post reflects back on the christmas binge we're just emerging through (after one last night before the detoxing and dieting begins - for some at least!). i went to my ever trusted hummingbird Cake Days for the festive season, they have a whole section dedicated to christmas and it was almost impossible for me to decide what to bake!

back to making a mess in the kitchen - i'm sure my mum has missed me really!

my first choice was a cookie classic - white chocolate and cranberry. popular all year around, this flavour combination is a particular hit at christmas when we go crazed for cranberries! the recipe was simple to follow and resulted in some seriously scrummy cookies! when transferring them to the cooling rack one broke up which meant i just had to eat it while it was still hot and gooey - shame!

cranberries and white chocolate weighed out and ready to go

scrummy cookie dough coming together

folding in the cranberries and chocolate before baking

the finished result!





the second choice was guided by one of the popular gifts at christmas - the chocolate orange. these are ridiculously tasty - to get myself through my horrific project last term i scoffed a selection box! so when i saw the chocolate orange cupcake recipe i just had to give it a go. these made the house smell sooooooooo good and with a christmas cd on in the background helped me to get into the festive spirit. a small warning though - they are very rich so i have taken to serving them with a drizzle of cream (hey, tis the season of indulgence!) although as often happens the hummingbird frosting recipe makes a crazy amount so there is now a sizable bowl of chocolate orange frosting sat in my fridge - any takers?!

the mix that actually made it into the cakes ready to go

it looked like i was having a heston style dry ice moment when the icing sugar cloud erupted

my mum was in charge of icing these festive treats

so that's it from me in 2012. i hope you all have a fantastic night and a fabulous new year full of many baked treats!

love,
nen
x