Thoughts on Baking

I've been doing a lot of baking just recently, pretty much on a daily basis. Aside from the obvious joy of having a constant supply of scrummy sweet-things to nibble on with morning coffee/afternoon tea, it's been the actual activity of baking which I've felt the need for of late.

Could be down to the weather (ie the need to feel warm and cosy in the kitchen when the weather outside is so rotten), could be hormonal (ie a form of Nesting Instinct), could possibly be Procrastination (ie baking when I should be doing other forms of more dirty, mundane housework), or it could be the Desire to Provide (ie complaints from family members when the cake tins are Empty, shock horror).

Whatever the reason, baking for family and friends (ok, and myself too) gives me a great deal of pleasure. And as a stay-at-home Mum, I guess it kind of comes with the job description :: baking is so very utterly Domestic and Homely that it would seem odd to me not to do it as a part of my daily/weekly at-home routine.

I love to include a little home-baked something in with the Little People's lunch boxes, just as my own Mum always did for me. As a child, my lunch box was often full of crumbling, homemade fruit cake or sticky little jam tarts, and shamefully I often longed for the pre-packed shop-bought chocolate biscuits that my friends always had. Its only now that I'm providing for my own children in the exact same way that my Mum did for me, that I recognise how wonderful and thoughtful those home-baked offerings of my childhood were.

I wouldn't say I'm a particularly skilled baker. I don't seem to have the bakers equivalent of gardeners green-fingers (hmmmm what colour would a bakers fingers be I wonder??). I quite often have disasters. But over the years that I've been making cakes and biscuits, cookies and buns, I've built up a small but satisfying little pile of fail-safe recipes, many of which I've shared with you here in the Attic. If you look at the Categories over in my sidebar there, you should see one called "Baking" :: click onto it and you'll have access to all my archive posts which contain bakey goodness, many with recipes included.

Occasionally I do like to try new things, get inspired by recipes I come across. The above picture is from the pages of Prima magazine (Novemer issue, the one that contained the free calendar). I was WOWed by the picture of those cookies in the vintage tin, by the title that said "Easy Bakes" and by the ingredients which included white chocolate, pecan nuts and cranberries.

But the recipe to my mind was overly complicated (included ingredients I didn't have, and involved chilling the cookie dough).

So what I did was to use my fail-safe recipe for cookies that always works out for me (my Chocolate Chip cookie recipe, which you can find here), substituting the 100g choc chips for 100g chopped white chocolate. And as the magazine recipe instructed, I mixed half of the white choc in with the cookie dough, and sprinkled the other half on top of the cookies, then studded the top of each one with some dried cranberries and half a pecan nut.

They turned out beautifully, and I'll be making these again for sure.

I find that I choose to bake cookies, buns and tray-bakes far more often than big, full-on cakey-cakes. Something about embarking on a grown-up Big Cake that scares me slightly :: I've had many, many disasters in this area, many hissy fits over undercooked cake middles and flat things that have refused to rise and look properly cake-like.

A few weeks ago, I tried out a new recipe called "Moist Orange Cake" from the Be-ro book, and it was not good. The resulting cake was tasty, and moist yes, but it failed to rise. It was flat, flat, flat and looked soooo sad! But not to be put off, I decided to give it another go last week, this time using my old recipe for Lemon Drizzle cake (which you can find here). This is an amazing recipe and has never failed me :: it always rises beautifully and the sponge is moist and light. So I kept the basic recipe the same, changing the lemon zest for orange zest, the milk for orange juice, then topped the finished cake with an orange glace icing instead of a sticky lemon-sugar drizzle......

....and oh it was good! I was so proud to have made a proper grown-up cake which could be put proudly on my cake stand!

 

Yes it really was good.

Scrumptious and scoffable.

And so we come to today's baking, today's morning activity of choice.
Clean the floors? Tidy the piles? Nah....let me bake chocolate cake!!!!

Another recipe from the Prima magazine, a Nestle Carnation promotion I think. you can find the actual recipe for this Chocolate Fudge Cake on the Carnation website here.

This was a very adventurous cake for me, involving two round tins and some fierce praying for Good Rising. And hey-ho, it did indeed rise, like a proper, grown-up full-cake should! I was sooo happy!!

I found the cooking time given (20-25mins) was wildly inaccurate though, it ended up needing more like 35mins, and even then I don't think one of the halves was completely properly cooked. But no matter, the amaaaaaaaaaazing chocolate-fudge icing covered up that little sticky sunken undercooked middle bit, and helped to produce a cake to be proud of.

 

Wow....does that look good or what????

I've yet to taste it as I'm waiting to present it to my family with a flourish at the dinner table tonight, and it won't quite look the same with a great big slice cut out the side of it. I have high hopes though, and think I might even be brave enough to make this cake for a school fundraiser event in a few weeks time.

Gosh, has this seemed like a long post to you?? I feel like I've been sat here chatting to you for ages!! Thanks for being here with me and allowing me to blather on, i do appreicate your company.....right, time for me to go and have my afternoon cup of tea with a little bit of something sweet from the cake tin.

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Ps meant to say that the very top picture is of my new cake tin, given to me for my Birthday by a lovely friend...isn't that old Ladybird illustration fab???!!

Edited to add :: Oh. My. Golly-goodness. That cake! That c-a-k-e!!! It's quite honestly stupendous. The sponge :: light and moist, the chocolate fudge icing :: incredible. The Little People were beside themselves with excitement and joy over being allowed this cake for pudding and it was given a score of 100/10. J was very complimentary too. And as for me...well, yes, can you see my Domestic Goddess Halo shining brightly?

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Comments

[Pauline George]

Thanks for sharing!
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[Marisa]

Lucy the chocolate cookies are a big hit in my home. I have all the ingredients for the white chocolate version, so excited!

[Leah]

They look oh so yummy.Ive been looking for a good lemon cakr recipe. Ta

[Sharon Sunday]

I loved your baking column! Especially the cookies looked awesome. I also loved the old timey illustration. I'm going to try the cookies!

[Pipppa Ibbotson]

Just tried baking your choccie fudge cake, on my wonderful. Two inches on the waistline I am sure and a pudcast from fav chef.

[Charlotte]

Oh my, that chocolate cake instantly made me water at the mouth. I want some NOW!

[Belle]

A baker would have a white finger, instead of a green thumb! White for all the flour, sugar & other white ingredients used for all those delicious baked goods.
Or maybe it would be multi-colored, or the color of the baker's own favorite baking ingredient.

You lemon cake looks scrumptious!

[lulu]

looks so delich, Lucy..

[Magsmcc]

I'll add a few words to the many! How we are all inspired by cakes, and baking them and eating them- and the smell of them is vaguely tangible from this lovely post! I'm yearning for ladybird this week- Primary School anniversary dictates 1939 Dress-Up Day after half-term and I want my old ladybird Book of Fashion. Now long lost... Maybe Ebay??!

[Anna]

This whole post is a big YUM!!! Pictures and words, things in the picures, just yum all of it!

Anna x

[claudia]

lucy, I have tried these, and they are also DELICIOUSSSSS...
http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Blueberry_and_Ricotta_Buns.aspx

[Linda]

Just lovely. Very slimmimg of course

[PinkCat]

Oooh, the cake looks and sounds fabulous!

For my Dad's birthday last week I made him your Chocolate Tiffin recipe and promised to make him a cake a month for the next year...I think the chocolat fudge cake will definitely be heading his way soon!

Thanks for another great baking idea. x

[Suz]

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.
Elsa Schiaparelli

What a wonderful post Lucy...message from someone whose son used to ask...'what have you burn't for tea tonight Mom?...in total admiration of your fabulous cakes and biscuits
I wasn't that bad really|!! lol

[Helen]

Hello lovely lady! Congrats on the baking... I'm 32 weeks preggers and have inlaws and rellies arriving this weekend so I'm having tomorrow as an almighty bakeoff. I'm going for lemon drizzle cake, fig flapjacks and then a chocolate and pear pudding for sunday lunch pudding...
Scrumptious! And I WANT that tin...

On an aside - I have recently learnt how to knit (!) and have made a load of very simple squares. I want to crochet them together using a stitch that adds a bit of a decorative/lacy/open band between the squares but all I can find are basic joining stitches. Any examples or pearls of wisdom you can find?

Loving the blog so much - brings a beautiful burst of cheery colour into my otherwise grey London desk!!

Thanks!

[Teresa]

Hi, my name is Teresa. I'm Catalan. I follow your blog for some time although I never dared to post anything. I love the colours of your works, the great and beautiful photos you show, the cookies recipe (I adore them!!) and every detail of the blog. Congratulations!! It's not easy to put together so many virtues.

[paula]

What can I say about all these beautiful pictures?! Yammy!

[Elena]

Dear Lucy,
I'm italian. My name is Elena. My compliments for the work done. Your blog it's incredible!
thank you.
Elena

[Anna]

Oh, you're making me hungry!! And I've just had dinner! I am VERY keen to try those bikkies - they sound magnificent. Except I might need to use half milk chocolate so my husband will try them! Though actually, if I just use white, I might get them all to myself....

[alisonb2]

Scrummy! Nothing more to say, so I'll say it again! SCRUUUUMMMMMMY!

[louise paemen]

Hi Lucy,
By the sound of it your problem with cake baking could well be due to oven temperature. I suggest for the flat cakes, non-risers and underdone recipes that they would benefit greatly from a rise in oven temperature.Depending on how bad the results were I would turn up the oven by at least 1 temperature mark but it could be 2. give it a go it could make all the difference,
love Louise

[Caroline W]

OMG all those bakes look so delicious,i baked your choc chip and banana buns last week and took them to the playground with the kids,and they devoured the lot.Am going to try the choc fudge cake later today, I love all your recipes, thanks a mill for sharing them.Have a lovely day Caroline X

[frances]

Lucy, I am another one who just loves the entire process of baking ... not just that delicious blending of butter and sugars.

Alas, it's another joy that gets shoved to the side by my work pressures. I so urge you to bake your heart out, and be so glad you've got the opportunity.

With Christmas not too far off, even I will push other schedules away and soon be pre-heating the oven, and mixing up some batter.

Thanks for the inspiration, and for jogging my sweet memories.

xo

[Lisa]

It sounds like your oven may be on the cool side, thus your cakes don't rise properly or cook through in the desired time. An oven thermometer might be a good investment, to make sure you're baking at the correct temperature.
By the way, your site is beautiful! Your sense of color is inspiring.

[Erica K]

Your cookies and cake look wonderfully yummy! Hmm...it's fall. Time for me to make my pumpkin cake. I'd forgot, and yet it's the best. And the kids love the look...

Here's a link to the pan I use. The recipe was on the packaging.
http://www.nordicware.com/store/products/detail/3d-great-pumpkin/2CBECEE4-A2D0-102A-A134-00137233C6B0