CAKE! :drool:

[whitetiger1518]

Baking again last night

Butter biscuits:

150g/4oz butter or margerine, at room temperature, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
90g/4½oz sugar + extra for topping the biscuits
250g/8oz flour, plus extra for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
2. In a bowl, rub together the butter, sugar, and flour, using your fingertips.
3. Bring the mixture together to form a dough, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until the dough is smooth. Roll into a ball, then wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
4. When the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a lightly floured work surface until it is about 6mm thick.
5. Cut 7.5cm/3in discs from the dough using a cookie cutter or upturned mug.
6. Lightly grease a baking tray and place all of the discs onto it. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until crisp and pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack. Set aside to cool.

[Whitebeard]

Baking again last night

Butter biscuits:

150g/4oz butter or margerine, at room temperature, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
90g/4½oz sugar + extra for topping the biscuits
250g/8oz flour, plus extra for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
2. In a bowl, rub together the butter, sugar, and flour, using your fingertips.
3. Bring the mixture together to form a dough, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until the dough is smooth. Roll into a ball, then wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
4. When the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a lightly floured work surface until it is about 6mm thick.
5. Cut 7.5cm/3in discs from the dough using a cookie cutter or upturned mug.
6. Lightly grease a baking tray and place all of the discs onto it. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until crisp and pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack. Set aside to cool.

Eat whilst still warm !!

[whitetiger1518]

Baking again last night

Butter biscuits:

150g/4oz butter or margerine, at room temperature, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
90g/4½oz sugar + extra for topping the biscuits
250g/8oz flour, plus extra for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
2. In a bowl, rub together the butter, sugar, and flour, using your fingertips.
3. Bring the mixture together to form a dough, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until the dough is smooth. Roll into a ball, then wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
4. When the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a lightly floured work surface until it is about 6mm thick.
5. Cut 7.5cm/3in discs from the dough using a cookie cutter or upturned mug.
6. Lightly grease a baking tray and place all of the discs onto it. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until crisp and pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack. Set aside to cool.

Eat whilst still warm !!

I know they are best eaten warm - that is why I have had to box up the remainder so that I didn't eat them all in one go - I have no wish to look like this: but my sweet tooth needs sating every now and again!

WT

[Double Trouble]

I need some advice folks.

I've been watching the cooking programs on BBC1 on Saturday morning and recently one of the chefs made his pastry in a food mixer. It was great, he just shoved the butter and flour into the mixer, blended it in to crumble, added the wet ingredients and it turned into a perfect ball of pastry in seconds. No messy fingers, nothing.

I tried it at home and it all went exactly the same. The pastry looked perfect.

I made a batch of mince pies with it on Sunday and I'm not exaggerating, the pastry was so hard, you could barely bite into it. Trying to eat one with a spoon was actually turning out to be a messy disaster as bits of pie and cream were getting splattered all over the place.

I don't want to give up trying to make pastry in the mixer as it's so much easier that the conventional way. Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?

[Barry Shnikov]

Hard pastry sounds like the result of insufficient air in the mixture.

You should, for one thing, sift the flour to incorporate as much air as possible at that stage.

You should also have the proper attachment for the mixer - one which simply slices through the mixture will cut the air OUT rather than beat more in.

Also, don't forget that in cookery programmes, they have to compress the timings - for example "Here's one I cooked earlier..." and maybe the pastry that was tasted in the studio was not the pastry you saw being done on screen.

You can probably get extra air in by kneading the pastry, but not too much kneading and put it in the fridge for half an hour before rolling it out.

Finally, don't beat pastry in a mixer too long - it will tear all the long-chain molecules (starch, etc) and that can also make the pastry unpleasant.

[batnurse]

And keep everything freezing cold... I even put the flour into the fridge the night before!

[bubblyblondenutter]

hot choclate fudge cake with cream. total cheat go to m&s lol

[whitetiger1518]

Apologies for delay on this Little Black Dress.


Chocolate Daisies

175g / 6oz margerine
40g / 1.5oz icing sugar
175g / 6oz plain flour
25r / 1oz cocoa powder
40g / 1.5oz cornflour
a little water (if dough is dry)

Preheat oven to 180'C / 350'C / Gas 4. Grease / line 2 baking sheets. Cream the marg and icing sugar together until very pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour and cornflour together over the marg mixture, and mix together until smooth. Add water as necessary if required - enough to bring the dough together.

Roll out and cut biscuits out, or put through a cookie press.

Put the biscuits on the trays, well spaced out. Bake for 12 minutes or until they are just beginning to change colour. Leave the biscuits for a few minutes to firm up slightly before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cheers WT

[whitetiger1518]

Ginger biscuits:

115g / 4oz soft brown sugar
115g / 4oz soft margerine
pinch of salt
few drops of vanilla essence
175g / 6oz self raising flour
15ml / 1tbsp cocoa powder
10ml / 2tsps ground ginger

Preheat Oven to 190'C / Gas 5 and lightly grease baking sheets.

Cream together the sugar, margerine, salt and vanilla until very soft and light. Work in the flour, cocoa, and ginger, adding water, if necessary, to bind the mixture.

Knead lightly on a floured surface until smooth. Roll out to 5mm / 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes to place on the baking tray.

Bake for 10 - 15 mins until just firm. Transfer to a baking tray until completely firm and cool.

Eat

WT

[Prian]

Chocolate Cake with Whisky or Rum

ICING
150g Icing Sugar, 50g Cocoa, Mix with Whisky or Rum

DRY INGREDIENTS
1½ Cups Flour, 1/3 Cup Cocoa, 1 tsp Baking Soda, ½ tsp Salt, 1 Cup Sugar, Handful Cashews, Handful Chopped Dates

WET INGREDIENTS
½ Cup Vegetable Oil, 1 Cup Cold Water, 2 tsp Vanilla, 2 tsp Vinegar

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl except vinegar
Mix together add vinegar and bake immediately on medium heat for 40mins.
Let cake cool. Mix icing and cover cake. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

[Prian]

White Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter


Ingredients

• 125g (4 ½ oz) plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g (31/2oz) butter, softened
• 150g (5oz) crunchy peanut butter
• 175g (6oz) soft light brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g (3oz) white chocolate, chopped

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325°F), Gas mark 3. Butter the sides of the cake tin (20 x 20cm (8 x 8in) square cake tin) and line the base with greaseproof paper.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until very soft. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour, baking powder and the chopped chocolate and mix to form a dough.
• Place the dough in the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes or until golden brown and almost firm in the centre.
• Allow to cool in the tin, before removing and cutting into squares.

[Double Trouble]

White Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter

Prian, I love peanut butter but not white chocolate...do you think it would taste as good with milk chocolate?

[Prian]

Prian, I love peanut butter but not white chocolate...do you think it would taste as good with milk chocolate?

To be honest i haven't tried it. just saw someone make it on telly. so i reckon you should try it on a trial and error basis. can't hurt.

[Little Black Dress]

Chocolate Cake with Whisky or Rum

ICING
150g Icing Sugar, 50g Cocoa, Mix with Whisky or Rum

DRY INGREDIENTS
1½ Cups Flour, 1/3 Cup Cocoa, 1 tsp Baking Soda, ½ tsp Salt, 1 Cup Sugar, Handful Cashews, Handful Chopped Dates

WET INGREDIENTS
½ Cup Vegetable Oil, 1 Cup Cold Water, 2 tsp Vanilla, 2 tsp Vinegar

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl except vinegar
Mix together add vinegar and bake immediately on medium heat for 40mins.
Let cake cool. Mix icing and cover cake. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Another vegan chocolate cake for me to try! (Without the nuts - I'll just use more dates)

[whitetiger1518]

Just in case LBD loses the recipe I gave her from the vegan society

Other people gave this the thumbs up too at Beach Ballroom:

Spiced Apple Cake

1 lb (450g) cooking apples, peeled and sliced
4 oz (115g) vegan margarine
4 oz (115g) raw cane sugar
6 oz (170g) sultanas
2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp boiling water
8 oz (225g) wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
2. Cook the apples in the minimum of water. When they are soft, mash to a puree and drain very well.
3. Cream together the margarine and sugar, then add the apple puree to make a thick mixture. Stir in the dried fruit. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add this also.
4. Sift together the flour and spices and blend with apple mixture. Pour into a very well greased cake tin, smooth the top and bake at in the pre-heated oven 45 minutes-1 hour.

Cheers WT

[gamebird]

For all those who asked for recipes over the SPLASH weekend - here's where I nicked them from

In order of appearance (apart from the little carrot cakes, they're from a doctored Rose Elliot recipe and it isn't from a website)

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes...ecipe_p_1.html

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2...nd-walnut-cake

I replaced the walnuts with Pecans and didn't bother with the coffee liqueur (cos I didn't have any in the house and couldn't be bothered a) buying a whole bottle or b) going to the pub for a single measure!)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3...ger.offset=140

I'm very glad lots of people enjoyed them or I'd be the size of a house

[whitetiger1518]

Just tried a twist on flapjacks... Melted 400g (minus a square or two ) over the base of my usual brownie / flapjack pan, and tried to get it smooth and then cooled it. Make flapjacks in the ordinary way (recipe somewhere in here) spoon flapjack mixture over the chocolate base and cook as normal... Wasn't sure if the chocolate would melt and stop the flapjacks from setting, but it seemed to go ok. My mum was a tester and was smiling. Now for the difficult test - Scrutiny from the sweet toothed tasters at work. Will report back in the "what made you" threads later if I have time .
WT

[Trouble]

Hey all you experienced cake makers out there. Im new to the world of baking and ive just started doing some very basic stuff.... Bread pudding & my last attempted was apple spiced cake which is a simpler version to the one WT put on here ie: its missing some of the ingredients and it was fine, feedback was good.

Anyway, i would like to try some more adventurous stuff and a lot of the recipies use a mixer. Whats the best mixer to get thats not too expensive that covers all possibilities or do you have to buy one for mixing egg whites, one for pastry, one for cake mix etc etc. Can anybody help?

[Twirly]

Pete has one of these: Kenwood HM320 which makes excellent cakes, shortbread etc. And is a reasonable price. I nick it too on a regular basis... will be baking something tonight to take with me to Camber in fact

We recently took delivery of a KitchenAid food processor, and I really, really want one of these to go with it Food Mixer But at that price (and with a relatively small kitchen) it's going to have to wait a while. Fine excuse for moving house though... "I need a bigger kitchen to accomodate all my kitchen equipment"

[David Bailey]

Pete has one of these: Kenwood HM320 which makes excellent cakes, shortbread etc. And is a reasonable price. I nick it too on a regular basis... will be baking something tonight to take with me to Camber in fact

Well, if you insist.