Carrot cake to end them all…

Last month, I visited Blenheim Palace with my family. We had it all planned out to get there for shortly after the grounds opened and just in time for the palace to open. We figured it wouldn’t be too busy at this time of day and we would be able to start making tracks for home shortly after lunch. But one thing led to another at home and we were an hour later leaving home than our planned departure time.

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace

No matter because shortly after we arrived, we found a nice little shaded spot under a tree, over looking the lake, and cracked open the picnic. Admittedly, it wasn’t the best picnic I had ever packed but the main thing was that the kids seemed to have enjoyed it. It was rather pleasant sat on the grass, even if the contents of our picnic basket was inspected by the odd duck or two.

We had a quick skirt around the palace (restless kids) and had a long stroll around the gardens. Now, please don’t quiz me too much on which gardens we had strolled around as I could not tell you! We were definitely in one of the formal ornamental gardens but precisely which one? I haven’t a clue!

Inspection by the locals

As the day progressed and the strolling continued, we were all starting to flag a bit and decided to seek some sustenance in the form of a hot drink for the adults and an ice cream for the kids. Good plan until I walked through the coffee shop and spied another customer’s cake on their table.

Carrot cake.

The carrot cake to end them all

Now, whenever I’m out at a big fancy house, and I decide to have a piece of cake, then I always plump for a good old faithful Victoria sponge. However, I recently have opted to sample the carrot cake on offer at places I have visited and let me tell you, I was not disappointed with the carrot cake at Blenheim Palace. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it was the carrot cake to end them all. Fact, McFact. It was so light and fluffy and moist. It was just the best slice I’ve enjoyed in a long while.

So naturally, when I returned home, I decided to attempt to recreate it as best as I could, knowing that I would never get up to that standard. Let me pause here to tell you a secret *whispers* I’ve never made a carrot cake before. I know, I know. Terrible baker. It’s just that it’s never been a first choice in cake to eat when out and about but let me tell you that that has all changed!

Carrots have featured heavily on our list of veg with have in abundance from the allotment but sadly, this particular week that I decided to bake, we were running low and I am ashamed to say that I actually had to buy some! I know, terrible but there we are!

Now, if you have been hanging around reading this blog since I first launched it many, many years ago (for which I thank you) you will know that most of the recipes I use in my baking are often taken from online sources and this experiment was no different. Although, I felt the pressure was on a bit as it was one of old Blue Eye’s recipes and I have linked it here https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/paul-hollywoods-ultimate-carrot-cake/

As I’ve been baking for a few years and know my way around a mixer pretty well, it wasn’t a difficult recipe to follow at all and what’s more, I was able to bake whilst the kids were running around. So, win, win. The only thing I did find with the cake was that I had to extend the cooking time slightly. And I’m sorry to say Mr Hollywood, but I didn’t follow your recipe to the T and instead of decorating with orange zest strips, I opted for walnuts, cranberries and pumpkin seeds like the folk at Blenheim Palace had used.

My attempt

Enjoying a slice in the garden on a summer’s evening

After Sunday lunch was done and dusted, The Hubs and I settled down with a piece of cake and it was rather nice. It wasn’t as good as the one at Blenheim but it was pretty darn tasty, even if I do say so myself. I’m sure Ol’ Blue Eyes would have approved, too!

Frozen Fever

I may have been away from this blog for a little while but I have still been baking on and off.

A few months ago, my daughter celebrated her birthday. For a good three or four months before her birthday, she was obsessed with the Disney film Moana. And we only picked up that film as part of a 2 for £12 offer on Disney DVDs in our local HMV. We had visited looking for Monster’s Inc. and had emerged from the store with characters Mike and Sully and Moana and Maui in our midst.

As with most kids, I thought that the Moana phase was simply just that: a phase. However, Christmas rolled around and Moana was still a firm favourite with my daughter to the point where she was singing songs from the film and pretending to be Moana (if you’re interested, I was cast as the role of Moana’s grandma; Moana’s mother; and even Hei Hei the chicken!). We entered the new year and Moana was still going strong and that’s when I set up a board on Pinterest for potential ideas for a Moana themed birthday cake.

 

I was SO excited to make this cake for her and knew that she would be uncontrollably excited for it. The sand of the beach was going to be made from crushed up biscuit; the sea was going to be ombre blue and turquoise colours piped like waves on the side of the cake; and I was even going to attempt a green swirl in the sponge for the Heart of Te Fiti. Her mind was going to be BLOWN.

And then came along two sisters in the form of Princesses Anna and Elsa.

And Moana was given the cold shoulder and had taken a back seat and it was literally back to the drawing board for me and ideas for the cake.

The Frozen phase was (and still is) going strong so I gave in and decided to make a Frozen cake for her birthday.

Now, if you have been a follower for sometime or have had a browse through previous posts, you would have stumbled across the Frozen cupcakes I baked for my niece many moons ago. Atop of the cupcakes were faces made from fondant of the loveable snowman, Olaf. I would have loved to have made the fondant figures to go on top of the cake and I think it would have been absolutely doable however, long gone are the days where I can sit at a table for hours just listening to music and playing with icing. I have two small children to look after now and time is precious and valuable and so, where possible, I have to perhaps cut corners or do things that are convenient to me. So I have no shame in announcing that when I decided to make a Frozen themed birthday cake for my daughter, that I bought a Frozen figure playset from the Disney Store and used them as cake toppers. Plus, they doubled up as an extra birthday present, huzzah!

Again, a board was set up on Pinterest and I set to researching ideas for the cake. In the end, I had decided to make a snow scene for the cake decoration. I borrowed some snowflake cutters from my Mom’s baking arsenal (and wondered why I don’t have any of my own?!) and cut out a variety of snowflakes in different shapes and sizes.

I first covered the cake in a light blue fondant and then draped white fondant over this, with a snow fall effect on the edges. To do this, I cut out a rough circle of white fondant and then went round the edges in waves with a pizza wheel (who knew a pizza wheel could be used for something other than pizza?). Once the cake had been covered in fondant, I then placed the snowflakes on top et voila, the cake was decorated. Once I was happy with the positioning of the snowflakes, I ‘glued’ them down using a little brush of water on the back of each snowflake. Once everything had settled on top of the cake, I then placed the figures on top.

Frozen Fever

It was a really easy cake to decorate and, as it was my first cake that I have decorated in a very long while, I don’t think it turned out too bad. It’s perhaps not my best but it certainly isn’t my worst!

My daughter loved it and had fun picking off the little snowballs from around the cake. If I’m honest, she was probably about 65% sugar for the week after her birthday as she tends to eat the icing or fondant or ganache off of a cake and then leaves the actual sponge. And enter Mommy to finish off the cake because, you know, we can’t waste food, especially cake! ;p

Happy baking!

Ps If you’re wondering, the answer is yes. I do have the Maui rap nailed!

Drip, drip, drop little April showers… Where?

My oh my. What a glorious few weeks of sunshine we have enjoyed here in the UK! It’s a little hard to believe that I actually caught a bit of sunshine on this, the Easter bank holiday weekend that I’m actually feeling a little warm from the sun burn!

“What? No rain? On a bank holiday weekend?” I hear you cry. 

Not a drop.

And that’s starting to make me twitch a little. 

You see, I’m all for the lovely weather and all the simple activities that comes with it: picnics, walks, playing on the park but, I guess I am desperate for a bit of rain just now. 

My husband took on an allotment plot towards the end of the season last year. He has been working so incredibly hard on it since January. From planning the outlay of the plot, to planting seeds and plug plants, and now finally starting to make the first transfers of those small plants into the ground, polytunnel and cages alike. When I first visited the plot with him, it was just a patch of land that needed a lot of weeding and a little TLC. I like things to be instant or to see a result of something pretty quickly. So when I visited the plot with my husband and our little family, I have to say that I had nothing but admiration for him. He has worked incredibly hard to get the plot looking as good as it does now. 

I’m in awe.

The vision of taking on an allotment plot is to be self-sufficient. Think Tom and Barbara from the Goodlife (will insert pic here, just in case you have no idea who I’m talking about. And if  you still have no idea, have a little search on YouTube).

We want to be able to grow our own produce to cut down on both the cost and wastage of food we currently buy. We want to teach our children of where their food comes from and we want them to be involved in the growing and harvesting of the fruits of our (mostly my husband’s) labour. Most importantly, we want them to be aware of their environment and to do their bit to take care of this precious resource.

And after my husband has done the hard work of growing the crops, I want to use the produce in as many ways as I can in my baking, both sweet and savoury (Miranda Hart comes to mind when I type this! If you know, you know). 

 

Now, I know it is far too early to have a harvest of any of the crops we are growing but, on the neighbouring plot to my husband’s, there are chickens. The chap of who the plot belongs to has very kindly given us some eggs over the last few weeks in exchange for some onion, broad bean and beetroot plants (is this reminiscent of medieval trading? Can we all do this instead of using that filthy thing called money to get by in life?). As we have had more eggs than we usually consume, I have been given the perfect opportunity to do some baking with the kids (by this, I mean, they’re enthusiastic to start with but once the flour, sugar and butter have been weighed out, they’ve lost interest and headed back to the play doh until it’s time to lick the bowl clean). So far in the last week, I have made a lemon drizzle cake, banana bread loaf and some Easter bunny biscuits. I think a firm favourite was the lemon cake, something which I seldom make but it went nicely with a cup of tea. I will leave a link to the recipes I used and post a few pictures but, even though I am a huge baking enthusiast, a biscuit baker I am not. I think I’ll stick to baking cakes, bread and basically, anything that isn’t a biscuit!

 

dav

nfd

dav

dav

nfd

We are also growing a small selection of fruits, vegetables and herbs in our small garden. And this evening, as I was bringing in the toys and putting the gravel back on the patio, I noticed the acers and a few other plants looking limp, drooping in the evening sun. I asked my husband if this was normal or if they had come to the end of their flowering season and he shook his head.

Whilst we are enjoying the sunshine and hearing the children play in the garden, we also need some rain now. The water butt is half full in the garden and no doubt, the natural resources down at the allotments will start to dwindle too and it will be a real struggle for everyone on the allotments to get a good harvest this year.

I will probably try to write a weekly update on the allotment plot if time and priorities allow and will try to share some pictures. Right now, I’m quite enjoying heading to the plot with the family to give it a water in the evenings and taking pictures in the setting sun. Everyone loves a bit of natural lens flare, right?

Happy Easter!

Oh and if you started singing Aqua at the start of reading this post, then you are awesome!

 

Baking Break Up

Ok, so I guess that when I penned that last post, way back in 2016, I had told a big fat lie that I would share photos of recent baking experiences. To be honest, I can’t even remember what I was going to post up here! Probably a birthday cake? Maybe a tray of brownies? Who knows? *shrugs shoulders*
One thing I do know? I guess I had fallen out of love with baking for a little bit. There was no reason other than simply life got in the way. Family. Friends. Work. My priorities had shifted. And my enthusiasm for baking had waned a bit. Sadly, that meant baking had fallen to the bottom of my ever increasing to do list.
And so did writing.
This blog was a form of escapism for myself from that real world, from the hectic lifestyle I led and still do lead. However, I have found that recently when I have a few spare minutes to myself, I’m not actually doing anything for myself. I always seem to fill those few precious moments of peace by saying to myself, ‘I’ll just sort that load of laundry out,’ or ‘I’ll just give that bathroom a spruce,’ or ‘I’ll just go and sort the kids’ room out.’
So, I guess what I’m trying to say in a long convoluted way is that I am going to try to start writing again and to start documenting my baking experiments, along with my cooking adventures. I do like to be in the kitchen, especially on a Sunday afternoon, listening to BBC Radio 4, whilst cooking a roast dinner.
Pull up a chair and grab a drink and let’s see where the next few posts will take us.
Happy baking!

 

 

It’s Been Two Years Too Long…

I have, by some miracle, remembered my login details for my baking blog. \o/

A lot has happened in the last two years since I last wrote for my blog and there has been a lot of baking, too.

In my next few posts, I will be taking you on a whistle stop tour of some of my favourite bakes and, where possible, provide the recipes and methods used to create my bakes.

So, hold on to your hats as I prepare posts of cupcakes, a wedding cake and graduation celebrations.

See you on the other side!

 

 

Happy Anniversary!

Apparently, today is the two year anniversary of my blog, according to WordPress.

*throws confetti*

So, here are a few pictures of my baking adventures at the weekend:

Cheesecake

Cheesecake Shortbreads

Cheesecake Shortbreads

Over the weekend, I met up with family for lunch and had been asked to bring a pudding. My mum asked me to make a cheesecake and she took charge of making a death by chocolate cake. I always use a recipe from Good Food when making a strawberry cheesecake – it’s so easy to follow and gives great results every time. Fool proof! The only drawback with the recipe is that I always have too much cheese-y topping mix left over. I usually put the left over mix in the fridge with good intentions to use it at a later time, only for it to end up being thrown away.

But then I had a light bulb moment. I decided to make some little shortbread rounds and pipe the cheesecake mix on top of them.

Et voila! Strawberry cheesecake shortbreads are created!

Perfectly sized to fit in a lunchbox for work or for a cheeky after dinner treat ^_^

Happy two year anniversary pottersbakery.wordpress.com!

*throws more confetti*

🙂

In Pictures: Brownies

From ingredients to the finished product I give you: The Brownie.

Chocolate.

Eggs.

Sugar.

Chocolate chips.

Ta da! Brownies!

NB: the ‘best’ ones had been chomped before this photo was taken….

 

#GYO

Nearly eight years ago, I bought three shrub plants from a familiar discount store here in the UK. Costing only £1 each and coupled with my lack of gardening knowledge, I didn’t expect anything much from them. In fact, I expected them to wither and die.

One summer evening, I headed down to the bottom of the garden (how many of you are now singing the Poddington Peas theme?!), dug three holes near the fence and planted my three shrubs: raspberry, blackcurrant and redcurrant. I watered them and then returned to the house, only to forget about them completely.

A few years had passed and I had been in the garden with my parents when I suddenly remembered that I had planted something.

Upon my inspection of my gardening attempt, I had found that sadly, the raspberry shrub had died.

Sad face —> 😦

Blackcurrants and Redcurrants

But the blackcurrant and redcurrant shrub, now bush, had thrived under the watchful care of Mother Nature. I had written about the beast that is now the blackcurrant bush in a previous post but today, I would just like to introduce to you my new seedlings: Burt and Ernie.

Burt and Ernie

Burt and Ernie were bought last year as a grow your own kit from a local garden centre and had been put away in a cupboard and surprisingly, forgotten about.

I have recently been on annual leave from work and had stumbled across them as I was sorting some clutter out and I decided to plant them.
Growing something from seed is something that I haven’t done for a very long while (since primary school!) and if truth be told, I wasn’t completely sure if anything would happen.

But with careful attention and remembering to water them frequently, seedlings have appeared! Yay! And, they had reached a stage where they are old enough to transfer to a bigger pot.

Hopefully, I have enough faith and trust in myself to help them grow into beautiful adults, bearing enough produce to use in a tasty dish in the summer.

Burt and Ernie

Burt and Ernie are Cayenne Pepper seedlings and they are neighbours of Glinda and Elphaba, the Lavender Ladies, on my windowsill.

Who knows, if all goes well, I might create a little herb garden out on my balcony!

Another Who Challenge

Ok, so I guess I shot myself in the foot two years ago when I made a Tardis cake for my niece.

Yes, she loved it.

Yes, it was Doctor Who themed and yes it was perfect for her being a big Doctor Who fan.

So what’s my problem?

SHE HAS A BIRTHDAY EVERY YEAR!

Last year, I made her those DW themed chocolate cupcakes and when I was asked this year to make her another DW themed cake, I was kinda stumped.

I do not yet have a Dalek cake pan in my baking arsenal nor do I have a Cyberman shaped tin. I do have a series of Who themed cookie cutters, but this was no cookie occasion. Oh no. This had to be cake and it had to be an epic one at that.

Admittedly, I turned to my ol’ friend Google and searched for inspiration. The many hits returned a myriad of Tardi (plural for Tardis??), Daleks and space scapes, with cleverly designed cupcakes to boot. And then, in the midst of the photographs and fan drawings, I stumbled across a bow tie cake.

*light bulb*

I’m almost certain that her favourite doctor is Matt Smith’s eleventh doctor (personally, I think David Tennant’s tenth doctor is the best but that’s another discussion for later!) and seeing as though I have already made a fez cake for another family birthday, I thought it would be a challenge to make a bow tie out of cake and fondant.

And that’s just what I did.

I took inspiration from shirt and tie cakes floating around and fashioned the cake on similar attire Smith wears for his regeneration of The Doctor.

I dyed a large piece of fondant light pink to use for a shirt; and a smaller piece red to use for the bow tie and braces.

I adapted a red velvet recipe and baked two blue velvet cakes (blue for the Tardis. See what I did there? Blue for a blue box? Huh? Huh?!). The smell of chocolate in my kitchen was AMAZING and the colour of the sponge after I had levelled the cake off was a fantastic bright blue. I didn’t want to use a cream cheese frosting to sandwich the two cakes together and opted for marshmallow fluff and chocolate fudge icing instead. This seemed like a good idea, but in my warm kitchen, as I prepared dinner, the cake had other ideas; the filling started to melt! I tidied the edges up and moved the cake to a cooler room until I needed it. Crisis adverted. Phew.

*wipes brow*

A few hours had passed and my kitchen became cool enough to work in. I took out my shiny new turntable (thanks to my lovely friend for the birthday gift!) and set to work.
First, I rolled out the pink fondant and covered the cake with it. I then took some white fondant and fashioned a shirt collar and placed it atop of the cake. Next, I rolled out two thin strips of red fondant and cut them to size for the braces and finally, I made the bow tie.

I had originally made white chocolate buttons (with a snazzy chocolate button mould I had picked up from a cook shop) but when I handled them in my now cool kitchen, they began to melt. So I decided to not take a risk with chocolate and made some buttons from fondant. I assembled the shirt and bow tie on the cake before adding finishing touches with royal icing.

Birthdays and Bowties are Cool

The birthday girl had no idea that she was going to get yet another Doctor Who cake and I think it’s safe to say that she was utterly surprised and enjoyed it very much

🙂

Bow Ties are Cool