Tag Archives: Baking Bible

Week Forty Three – Mary Berry’s American Cheesecake

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I thought this recipe was going to quick and easy for week forty three but between all the steps needed to make it and the chilling time, we are suddenly in Thursday and the blog won’t write itself! Mary Berry’s American Cheesecake sounded lovely and the base was easy enough, Mary tells you to melt the butter and add crushed digestive biscuits and press into the tin and chill.

Mary Berry's American Cheesecake

The middle section- the cheese of the cheesecake was next. As usual Mary wants full fat soft cheese and full fat greek yoghurt and double cream. Well by now, you know that I will be looking to try and make it slightly healthier so I shopped for low fat soft cheese, fat free greek yoghurt and the usual Elmlea double lite. These all had to be added together and then the juice of one and half lemons had to be added gradually. Pour this mix onto the biscuit base and chill at least overnight.

The final part was to add raspberries to the top of the cheesecake and some redcurrant jelly. Then- you guessed it, allow it to chill and set. I had initially used my trusty flan/quiche tin to make this but quickly realised when I added the cheese layer that the tin wasn’t going to be deep enough for the fruit topping. So I re-read the Mary Berry Baking Bible and she recommends using a spring form tin. Well, the hardship was going to do some retail therapy and buy a tin. Luckily it was only slightly bigger than the quiche tin so it transferred well. All I had to do was press the cheese layer to the edge of the tin so that the fruit topping and jelly didn’t go down the sides.

Kim's American cheesecake

The final cheesecake looked okay, I was pleased with it. I added the ingredients to the app on my phone which works out how many calories per slice…. the cheesecake serves eight, and one slice was THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX calories! God knows what the calorie count would have been if I had used Mary’s full fat ingredients..

American Cheesecake

Week Forty Two – Mary Berry’s Apple Strudel

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Week Forty Two and boy, has it been a hot weekend. I wanted something this week to make that didn’t involve slaving over a hot stove or bending too many times down to check cakes in an oven. Mary Berry’s Baking Bible didn’t fail me, the apple strudel fitted the bill perfectly.

Mary Berry's Apple Strudel

Best of all, Mary clearly states she buys her filo pastry so I did exactly that. Mary asks you to core, peel and roughly cut the apple, add the juice of half a lemon, Demerara sugar, sultanas and cinnamon. Mix it all together and spread it between the filo pastry sheets, brushing the sheets with melted butter and folding. I managed to make 6.

The dogs loved the off cuts of the cooking apple but remember, do not give them the core as apple pips are not good for dogs ( neither is any dried fruit) The finished strudels were brushed with the remaining butter and put in the pre heated oven for about 20 minutes. When they were done, Mary asks you to glaze them with some caster sugar melted in some water and then dust with icing sugar when they are cold.

Kim's Apple Strudel

After a long hot day, with the hairy hoolies in the garden with some water and a paddling pool, the strudels, still slightly warm went down very well indeed!

The Hairy Hoolies enjoying water fun in the garden

 

Week Forty One – Mary Berry’s Hazelnut Meringue

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So many recipes done , yet so many more to go! I thought it would get easier to make a choice on what to make but it hasn’t yet! This week needed to be a pudding to follow a b-b-q with my mum, hubby, my other mum and dad and the hairy hoolies!

Mary Berry's Hazelnut Meringue

I made the meringue as Mary Berry’s Baking Bible described, and folded in some ground hazelnuts at the end. Then I had to pour the mix between 2 lined sandwich tins which would help the meringue hold it’s shape. Then into the oven they went and I set the timer. When the pinger went, I took the tins out, allowed them to cool slightly and then tipped them out and put them on the cooling rack. I left them to cool totally and put them in an airtight container overnight.

The next morning, I added some weightwatchers thick cream and raspberries to the middle and top and put the whole thing in the fridge. Mary recommends you do this at least 3 hours before you want to eat it so that it will slice easily.

Kim's Hazelnut Meringue

Well, Mary was right, it did slice beautifully and made a nice light pudding to finish off the b-b-q  on a lovely summers day.

a slice of hazelnut meringue

Week Thirty Nine – Mary Berry’s Easy Lemon Cheesecake

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This week , a pudding was needed for after dinner with my other mum and dad so I happily sat and browsed through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found this easy yet delicious sounding cheesecake. The base of the cheesecake was crushed digestive biscuits with melted butter, pressed into a flan tin and left to set. No problem there.

Mary Berry's Easy Lemon Cheesecake

The filling was the grated rind and juice of three lemons, not an issue but you soon know if you have a cut on your finger- or like me, manage to grate your finger with the rind!, to this, Mary asks for some single cream and condensed milk, well as Mary is very fond of the full fat varieties, I substituted the single cream for Elmlea lighter single cream and the condensed milk for the lighter condensed milk, it just cuts down on the amount of calories a little. You put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until slightly thickened and then pour it onto the base and allow to set for at least four hours or overnight if possible.

I left mine overnight and then looked at what Mary suggests to finish the cheesecake- double cream whipped, and strawberries…….well I made a Kim executive decision and took out the double cream. I then decided that strawberries were not the best company for a lemon cheesecake so I simply decorated mine with some clementine segments.

Kim's Easy Lemon Cheesecake

We all seemed to enjoy the cheesecake after dinner, and as usual, dad had a second helping. There was about a third of the cheesecake left and we divided that in half so that each household had a little more for supper….or so we thought….our half slipped off the plate…and as you can see, the dogs had a cheesecake feast!

The Hairy Hoolies Cheesecake Feast

Week Thirty Eight – Mary Berry’s Pound Cake

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Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible still has an awful lot of recipes that I have yet the pleasure of covering and this week I chose her Pound Cake. I love fruit cakes– my Nan’s speciality and my dad always had a slice or two so what better tribute for Father’s Day than a cake to celebrate his memory.

Mary Berry's Pound Cake

The recipe was one of Mary’s throw it all in a bowl and mix together so no fussing or faffing to do. I lined the cake tin and poured the mixture in. The recipe states to bake the cake for 2 1/4 hours but to cover the top of the cake with baking parchment after an hour. I needed to go food shopping so hubby was instructed after an hour to place the circle of parchment on top of the cake and set the timer for another 1 1/4 hours.

When I came back from food shopping, he had happily completed his task and soon enough the timer was pinging. I checked the middle of the cake with a skewer and it came out clean so the cake was done. I left it to cool in the cake tin for half an hour as Mary suggests before tipping it onto the cooling rack and removing the parchment from it. It smelt lovely and brought back a host of memories of Nan’s kitchen when I was a little girl.

After it had cooled, I sliced into it- have to quality control the taste testing and it was lovely , light and moist. Dad, you would have loved it, Nan you would be proud.

Kim's Pound Cake

My other dad got half the cake today for Father’s Day and within minutes, he was on the phone saying how lovely it was. Happy Father’s Day to both of you.

My Dad

Week Thirty Seven – Mary Berry’s Strawberry Pavlova

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I faced the usual dilemma this week, what to choose from the still numerous recipes from Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible that I haven’t yet covered. My decision was made when my other mum and dad invited us to Sunday lunch so I said I would provide the pudding. I had plans to do a lot of gardening on Saturday so I needed something that would be fairly quick as usual and could be put together in parts- the strawberry pavlova fitted the bill nicely.

Mary Berry's Strawberry Pavlova

Mary’s recipe wasn’t too daunting, whip the eggs whites until stiff, add the caster sugar, a little at a time and continue to mix well. The final part of the recipe had me a bit stumped, Mary asks for you to mix a little white wine vinegar and corn flour and whisk in to the meringue– if you have any idea why this is necessary, I would love to hear from you. I then drew a circle on some greaseproof paper and spread the meringue mix until it roughly filled the circle. I added the last of the mix to a disposable icing bag and swirled it around the sides to build them up. It was now ready to go into the pre-heated oven.

Kim's meringue base ready to bake

An hour later, the timer pinged and I simply turned the oven off and allowed the meringue to cool down inside the oven. Mary recommends this in her recipe to give the meringue a softer middle. The next morning, I retrieved the meringue, chose some Emlea Double Light cream to whisk – I try to cut a few calories where I can! I then sliced some strawberries and added both to the meringue and took it with us for a delicious dinner.

Kim's finished Strawberry Pavlova

The meringue went down well, especially with my other dad, he politely had his given slice, and then sat there with big puppy dog eyes, waiting to be asked if he would like some more!

Kim's Strawberry PavlovaPlease can I have some more?

Week Thirty Six – Mary Berry’s White Cottage Loaf

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It’s been an interesting week and this weekend, in particular. I hadn’t got a lot of time this week for my bake, my dog Bailey has not been too well and seemed to get worse over the weekend so , as I have made plenty of white bread before, I am not ashamed to say that I used my bread maker to cut the physical amount of time I needed to spend in the kitchen.

Mary Berry's White Cottage Loaf

I added all the ingredients that Mary Berry uses in her recipe and set the machine off to do the mixing and rising that was needed, it even baked it too! I must say that I get the bread machine out from time to time and we love the smell of freshly baked bread in the house, it’s heavenly!

The loaf came out well, the machine did it’s usual sterling job, and don’t fear, there are plenty of other bread recipes in Mary Berry’s Baking Bible that I will go on to make, and hopefully some of them by hand!

Kim's White Cottage Loaf

As for Bailey, he got to visit the vet, be sedated, have blood tests and x-rays and get discharged back to his very worried owners with various medications. He is extremely dopey and flopping around  but we are all glad that he is ok and home with us where he belongs.

poor dopey Bailey

Week Thirty – Mary Berry’s Large All-In-One Victoria Sandwich Cake

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Welcome to week thirty. It seems a bit of a milestone and it still only seems like yesterday that I began this challenge, inspired by Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, The Great British Bake Off and the lady who undertook this challenge before me and wrote her blog “Rising to the Berry“. I read about her in the newspaper and often look at her blog when I choose a recipe to see what she thought about it.

Mary Berry's large all in one victoria sandwich cakee

After last week’s cake that took up quite a lot of time, I wanted a recipe that was quick and fairly easy as I didn’t have the time to give to much else this weekend. This recipe, Mary tells you to put everything in a bowl, mix together and spread between two tins, what could be easier?

I weighed out all the ingredients into a bowl and used my electric hand mixer to make short work of it all. Then I lined both my sandwich tins and divided the mix between the two and levelled each one as carefully as I could. Then they went into the oven and I set the timer.

After the allocated time, I checked the cakes and gave them a little longer as they weren’t quite so set in the middle. Then finally they were done, I removed them from the oven, allowed them to cool slightly, took them out of their tins and put them on the wire rack. when they were cool, Mary suggests filling them with Jam but I was a little indulgent and put some double whipped cream in with it too! A small dusting of icing sugar on the top and I was done for this weeks challenge.

Kim's large all in one victoria sanwich cake

Week Twenty Five – Mary Berry’s Butterfly Cakes

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This weekend I had loads to do so I needed a quick and easy recipe that would fit in with what I needed to do so I got out Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found the Butterfly Cakes. As it was also Mother’s Day, it reminded me of when I was small and my mum made these quite regularly and when I spoke to her, it reminded her of when her mother, my nan used to make them.

Mary Berry's Butterfly Cakes

The basic cake recipe was fairly easy to mix together and divide between the 12 cake cases, they baked evenly and I left them to cool. Then the fun came with cutting the top off the cakes to pipe the butter icing on, then cut the offcut in two and artistically place like a butterfly on the butter icing!

Kim's creative efforts

Then when I had piped and swirled and cut and artistically made butterfly shapes, I then finished them with a dusting of icing sugar. I was pleased with the way they looked.

Kim's Butterfly Cakes

Happy Mother’s day mum, hope these bring back the lovely memories of Nan that you gave to me.

Kim, her Nan & Mum

Happy Mother’s day too to my other mum, hope you enjoyed your fresh off the press cake!

Kim & her other mum

Next week I may begin to tackle some of Mary’s Easter recipes…watch this space….

Week Twenty Three – Mary Berry’s Traditional Parkin

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Parkin?? Until today, I had only vaguely heard of it and didn’t really know what it was or it’s origins. According to Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, it is ” a favourite from the North of England“……this got me curious so I tried to dig a little further into the history of this gingerbread type of cake.

I found a few variations of it’s “history” but little seems to be known about where it started other than- “Parkin is a traditional gingerbread eaten in Autumn, in Yorkshire. It is a sweet and sticky cake that is perfect for long winter evenings. Often associated with NorthYorkshire, particularly the Leeds and York regions, the origins of parkin are not known. It is also baked in other Northern regions such as Lancashire. Parkin is a moist and sticky cake which is traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night, but can be eaten all year round. Guy Fawkes was born in Yorkshire, and this tasty gingerbread, which originated in that area, is traditionally baked in November to celebrate the foiling of his plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament!The principal ingredients of parkin are white flour, oats, black treacle or molasses, butter and ginger. All these ingredients were important constituents of Northern, working-class diet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, so it is likely that parkin evolved in that period. It is a cheap and filling cake that is distinguishable for its dark colour and lovely rich consistency.”

So , with Mary’s recipe in mind, I melted the butter with the black treacle and dark sugar. I had put the dry ingredients of flour, spices and porridge oats in a bowl and in a jug had the milk, egg and bicarbonate of soda. Once the butter and treacle had dissolved the sugar, I let it cool and then mixed all the ingredients together. Into the prepared tin it went and into the oven for an hour.

Mary Berry's Traditional Parkin

My dogs were hanging around drooling, like they always do when I am baking but they were out of luck , no drips, no bowl to lick as they have both put weight on and need to watch their waist lines!!

PING went the timer after an hour and I took the parkin out, it was dark and firm (!) and I left it in it’s tin for Mary’s recommended 10 minutes, then put it on the cooling rack. When it was cool, I cut it into squares and have put it away for a week as apparently it will be much nicer…..according to Mary!

Kim's parkin

Although it’s not November, as is traditional, it’s bloomin’ cold outside, we have coal in our fuel burner and the dogs are laying on their bed in front of it- I think that qualifies!