29 | Mar | 2015 | Lewis & Kim

Week 116 and strangely enough I find myself blogging about this bake on the same day that I actually tackled it! Wonders will never cease! I delved into Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible and found these two recipes- her English cherry cake and Mississippi Mud pie.

I began with the Mississippi mud pie. It began with crushing digestive biscuits, combining with melted butter to create the base. I always find Mary is a bit stingy in this part so I doubled the amount of biscuits and butter and I felt it was just about enough. I pressed it into the tin and got on with the next step of the recipe.

Mary asks you to put the chocolate, butter and water into a pan and melt gently. In another bowl, whisk six eggs (!) with the single cream and dark sugar and add the chocolate mix when melted and cooled slightly. Whisk all together, pour onto the base and cook. One word of warning, if you fancy tackling this bake, if you are using a loose bottomed tin, then stand it on a baking tray as it may leak slightly. Once baked, Mary tells you to leave it in the tin until cool. It will recede from the edges and sink/settle slightly. Once cool, add some whipped cream to the top and serve.

The second recipe was Mary Berry’s English cherry cake. One of the first things Mary tells you is to quarter the cherries, wash and dry thoroughly. I did all of this and covered the cherries in a fine layer of flour.

Put all the other ingredients in a bowl andmix thoroughly, then fold in the cherries so hopefully they don’t all go to the bottom. Put the mix into a lined cake tin, I chose a square one rather than Mary’s recommendation of a circular one. Bake for the recommended time.

The cake came out well but I was disappointed to see that my cherries occupied the lower half of the cake rather than being distributed evenly- must try harder!

The Easter weekend is coming up but I am going to be a little busy so the bake and the blog may be a little later than the usual weekend.

The countdown has now reached the heady heights of…

Week 115 and as is becoming usual, i am blogging about this bake a week behind, but I will also be blogging about this week’s bake after this so I will be all caught up if you get my meaning ..or ahead of myself even! I delved into Mary Berry‘s ever shrinking baking bible to find some recipes and found her Battenburg cake and the glazed fruit tartlets.

I began with the battenburg cake, I think I had put off doing this recipe for so long because it’s one of the few cakes that I really don’t like but luckily my hubby and the chief tasters do. Mary asks you to do one of her all in once recipes for the cake mix- with a bit of a twist. Once the cake mix is done, put half of the cake mix into one half of the tin, then add red food dye to the rest of the mix, blend in and put the pink mix on the other side of the cake tin. I thought this would be really tricky but actually it wasn’t too bad but I was worried about how it would look when I cut into it.

Mary gives you two options for the marzipan, either make your own or buy a ready made pack and I must confess that that’s exactly what i did, ready made is fine with me- I really don’t like marzipan anyway! Once the sponge was cooked and cool, Mary asks you to cut the cake into sections and put together in a checker board style, held together with warmed apricot jam. Then cover the cake with the jam and wrap in marzipan. Finally score the marzipan and hey presto- one battenburg cake. I was pleased with the way it looked but can’t tell you what it tasted like!

The second recipe was for Mary’s glazed fruit tartlets. Mary asks you to make the pastry, put it in the fridge for half an hour then line four tartlet tins and blind bake until golden brown.

When the tartlet cases are cool, put some whipped cream in the bottom, fill with fruit- I chose strawberries and tried to make them look pretty. Finally glaze with warmed jam – now these were quite yummy!