Tag Archives: Great British Bake-Off

Week Forty Six – Mary Berry’s Coffee & Walnut Tray Bake

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Week forty six and I seem to have found my “oomph” again and enjoyed sitting with a coffee and looking through Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible and ticking off what I had done already and realised there are so many more yet to do! I chose the coffee and walnut tray bake and made sure I had everything in this week so there were no mad dashes to find an ingredient late on a Sunday afternoon!

Mary Berry's Coffee & Walnut Tray Bake

As usual , Mary’s recipe encourages you to put every thing in a bowl and mix it together well. No fussing or various stages to this recipe! Then I put it in a foil tray for tray bakes from Lakeland ( one of my favourite shops!) and into the oven for the allotted time.

Forty minutes later, the timer pinged and I returned to find a lovely raised, browned sponge tray bake with a lovely coffee aroma. I set it to one side and left it to cool for a while.

Kim's Coffee & Walnut Sponge

The second step of this bake was to mix some coffee flavoured buttercream, spread it over the sponge and then put some walnuts on the top. In Mary’s photo she put the walnuts on “haphazardly”. I decided on a more methodical approach so when I cut the sponge, hopefully every slice has a walnut on it!

Kim's Coffee & Walnut Tray Bake

I have seen the adverts and now I am really excited to see that The Great British Bake Off is back on TV next week, I am so looking forward to it!  People ask if the show is something I would apply for. Definitely not! I am strictly an amateur baker, who can follow a recipe but take away the recipe instructions and I am lost! I enjoy baking and the art of putting it together and hopefully making it look pretty and edible…..

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 Nineteen – Mary Berry’s Iced Fairy Cakes

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Have you missed me? I am “back in the saddle” as they say and while still recovering from my surgery on New Year’s Eve, I wanted to get back to some kind of normality so decided I would spend a little time in the kitchen and Mary Berry‘s bible has 2 recipes– her fairy cakes and then on the next page, iced fairy cakes so rather than do this twice, I combined it, made the fairy cakes and iced them!

Mary Berry's Iced Fairy Cake

I made 2 batches of fairy cakes, one plain as per Mary Berry’s recipe and one to which I added cocoa so they were chocolate fairy cakes and the icing had cocoa in it to make it chocolatey too. A simple recipe and probably really easy to do but making them was the longest I had stood in the kitchen for a while.

Kim's fairy cakes

 

The results were good, I was pleased with the cakes and as they are very moorish , I gave my hubby’s mum and dad some to save our waistlines.

Kim's finished fairy cakes

I didn’t put many details on about my recent ill health and surgery, but I had an amount of time where I thought I might have a serious illness and was “off my game” for a while. Luckily, I had a lovely GP who sent me to the hospital and I found myself on a Fast Track to surgery rollercoaster. I had never had surgery before and was a little anxious to say the least. I have come out of it the other side, recovering well and the results show that my fears can be laid to rest. To give you a flavour of what I went through, you can read further here:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Hysteroscopy/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Laparoscopy/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oophorectomy

On a lighter note, I hope you have managed to watch The Great Comic Relief Bake Off http://www.rednoseday.com/whats-going-on/whats-on-tv/bake-off, it certainly helped my recovery and gave me the motivation to get back to my baking challenge. I will also be making a donation to this very worthwhile cause and ask that if you can , you do so too.

Finally, and yes this is one of my longer blogs, I would like to thank my hubby, my mum and my other mum and dad for all the love, help and support over the last month or two, without you guys, it would have been so much tougher. Much love to you all. x

Tis the Season to be Jolly !!!!

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So where do we start about the last 12 months?

It’s certainly been an interesting time.  Lewis had every intention of posting far more blogs about photography, but since completing his photography qualification he hasn’t actually taken that many photographs.  This MUST change for 2013!!!

Kim sat and watched The Great British Bake Off, oh god what a mistake that was!!!  After watching a few episodes, Kim thought it would be an excellent idea to buy Mary Berry’s baking bible and then choose one recipie a week.  Well what’s the point in setting yourself a challenge if nobody knows about it? This is where Lewis came up with the idea that Kim should blog about her baking experiences and share it with those who were interested and wished to read or follow the blog.  Hence Kim’s account on WordPress was created…….

Has it been a success?  Well we certainly think so and we would both like to thank our new followers, not forgetting our existing ones, this year and hope that this blog has bought some interesting reading as well as enjoyment.

So what about Lewis?  Well in January he required surgery on his right shoulder and even now it’s still not fully resolved.  It was such a re-assurance when the Consultant said to him “oh it can take up to 18 months for a shoulder to fully heal….”   Oh cheers, thanks for telling me after the surgery!!!! :0)

Due to having a lack of function in his arm, Lewis hasn’t really done much, but hopes to be far more active in 2013.  Lewis hopes without a doubt that not only will he be able to take plenty of beauitful images, but that people may even wish to purchase the images created by Lullingstone Photography, better known as Lewis & Kim….

So what else has happened?  Oh yes, we nearly forgot.  Lewis’ parents decided to downsize from what had been his childhood home and so where do they move to?  Well of course it has to be next door to us!!!!

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “You can’t choose your parents….”,  well guess what, you can’t choose where they live either !!!!   LOL  :0)

Joking apart after a 16 week re-development project, we both hope they have many happy years in their new home, although we’re still waiting for them to actually move in……

Then of course we have the Olympics and Paralympics!!!  WOW is basically all one can say about that.  Whether you like sport or not, no one can deny that we have had the most incredible year of sport.  The achievements of our various sports men and women in their respective disciplines has been absolutely incredible.  The Olympics seemed to be over in a heartbeat which is something we can’t say about the build up to it.  How many years did we have the media bombarding us with Olympic gems?  Far too long would have been the answer.

BUT….. then the Paralympics Opening ceremony began and slowly people were amazed at how a legless man could run, or how someone with one leg could actually ride a bicycle and STILL whip the butts of your average able bodied person!!!  Sure there were plenty of jokes going around; Some were tasteless and some were just down right hilarious…    On that note, we really have to praise the Australian Adam Hills who presented the programme “The Last Leg” which was incredibly funny.  One can only applaud Channel 4 for allowing such a programme that really did break down barriers between disabled and abled body.  We would urge anyone who missed it to try and download it.  It must be on the Internet somewhere :0)

So the whole of the UK were in awe of the competitors and for very good reason.  They were ALL truly inspirational, whether they were winners or losers…  In our eyes, they were ALL WINNERS !!!!

Generally speaking it has actually been a rather quiet year, until we got to December.  Kim had been having some pain and so goes to see the GP. After some investigations, she finds herself with a rapid referral to the hospital and told that surgery is needed…..

So we’re waiting for a date for surgery on the NHS….  Well that’s likely to be a few months then right?  WRONG !!!!

A letter came through from the hospital a few days ago and the date is…….  Yep, it’s New Year’s Eve!!!!  We certainly won’t forget this year in a hurry.

This obviously means that Kim’s baking blog is going to suffer a hiatus for a few weeks whilst she fully recovers.  We both hope that 2013 brings a better year for the both of us in many different ways……

Bailey & Michka - Christmas 2012There are two things that keep us relaxed and relieve any stress and those of course are our two hairy hooligans Bailey and Michka.  It’s wonderful to say that they have both managed to stay in good health.  Without a doubt they will provide Kim with plenty of comfort and love when she comes out of hospital in the New Year…. :0)

We wish you all a very joyous and Happy Christmas and hope that you have a prosperous New Year.  We hope that 2013 is good to you all and is even better than 2012.

Lewis, Kim, Bailey & Michka  :0)

Week six – Mary Berry’s “My Mother’s Bread and Butter Pudding”

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Week six here already, I seem to have settled into this challenge lark and am gaining confidence in my cooking abilities too.

I now look forward to sitting with Mary Berry’s bible to choose the recipe I fancy tackling this week.

 

I had quite a lot of a tiger loaf left over this week that was not fresh enough for sandwiches but I didn’t want to waste it so the bread and butter pudding fitted the bill!

The last time I tasted this pudding was when my own mother made it so it also brought back childhood memories too.

The recipe was very easy to follow, and in no time at all the pudding had been put together, I took a little time to layer the bread and as it was a tiger loaf, the pieces of bread were not a uniform square that was easy to cut into sections. Once made, Mary recommended leaving it for an hour to stand before putting it in the oven for 40 minutes.

I had the time, so sat with a nice cup of tea and reminised with my mum on her memories of making bread and butter pudding. then the pudding went in , timer on and waited.

The finished result looked good to me and Mary says in her book that although it tastes good hot, that it is just as nice cold…..well, we dug into it while it was hot and I enjoyed it very much, I am actually beginning to enjoy my own cooking, something I don’t usually do.

The rest of it? Well hubby had some later in the day and his parents took some away today. The only thing I would do differently? My mum recommended serving it hot with clotted cream ice cream……..naughty but nice….and mum always knows best!

Week Three..came around so quickly! Sultana Malt Loaf

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Welcome to week three, it seems like only yesterday I was having such fun with swiss folds…opps swiss rolls, hot porridge and all!

I decided on a more savoury bake this week and malt loaf is one of my childhood favourites and it is still a comfort food for me.

I settled down with Mary Berry‘s bible and read the recipe carefully, I had most of the ingredients already , the only thing I had to get was malt extract and thought (silly me) that I could get it on my usual supermarket run….oh no, not that simple.

After a detour via Holland and Barrett, I had every thing I needed and set off.

The recipe was easy to follow and I had 2 tins already. I lined one with greaseproof and used a ready made loaf tin liner for the other, just to see which was better. I made the mix, poured it equally into the tins, set the timer and waited. An hour later and they were done. It looked like a malt loaf- so there might be hope for me yet- but not sending in my application for The Great British Bake-Off yet!

It smelt good when it was done and Mary recommended that you store it in an airtight container for two days to enhance the taste and that is today……so I eagerly got the butter knife out…..cut a slice…..buttered it…….ahhhh – the taste of childhood!

Week 2……and a bit…..the lemon swiss roll

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Yes, I know…the plan was to bake a recipe a week and blog about it…..and no excuses but boy what a week it was though…my hubby had a medical emergency that I needed to help him with and when it was sorted, we got home at about three in the morning!

That evening, after very little sleep and a full day at work, I attempted the recipe..and it was a disaster. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have baked while shattered and stressed but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The tin I used was also wrong so the sponge came out a lot thicker than it should. So my swiss roll was more of a swiss fold!

Then further disaster struck…..yeah I know, not my week at all! I was making porridge in the microwave and when it was done, took it out and placed it by the sink in order to get the dates, nuts and berries I wanted to add to it. ( I was trying to be healthy!) The bowl tipped off the work surface and without thinking, I went to grab it and got a hand full of boiling porridge! OUCH! The rest then went on the floor and I must have looked a right sight because I had to get my hand under the water as soon as I could while trying to keep the dogs away from the hot gooey mess on the floor. Then i had to try to clean it up.

When the air hit my hand, it really began to hurt and I realised that I had done some damage to it. So a trip to the local Urgent Care Centre was needed where the lovely staff patched me up.

I spent a day or two feeling sorry for myself and took a retail therapy trip to Lakeland to buy a swiss roll tin. (Such a hardship…)

I rolled up my sleeves today, and tried the recipe for the second time. This time, although it isn’t as perfect as Mary Berry’s roll, I am pleased with it. It might not make the “Great British Bake Off” grade but hey, we all have to start somewhere…..

This is mine……

So , I have a day or two before week three comes around..and I have already decided what this weekend’s challenge is going to be….so watch this space.

Inspired by “The Great British Bake-Off” !

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2191208/Mary-Berry-helped-bake-away-blues.html

One day last week, I was browsing the news online and came across the above article, a young mum who set herself a challenge to bake EVERY recipe in Mary Berry‘s “Baking Bible” cook book. I read it with interest as I have always liked baking but have pretty much stuck to fairly easy stuff such as cupcakes which look great with little skill or effort.

This young mum worked her way through Mary Berry’s book, not front to back, but ensured she covered every recipe – boy was she eager! She baked 2-3 recipes a week even when she was on holiday.

I admired this lady and decided that after watching “The Great British Bake-Off” that I should set myself some culinary challenges and this article inspired me.

So, I went online (ahhh retail therapy…), ordered my copy and waited for it to come through. I then sat and flicked through all the recipes, some I had no worries of completing, others I had fancied making and some looked a real challenge!

I decided that one recipe a week, most likely a weekend challenge is what I would go for and announced on Facebook what I was going to do.

My hubby , work colleagues and in-laws will become the taste panel and hopefully give their verdict and (hopefully not too much) constructive criticism!

Watch this space – week one – decided to start with a fairly simple (hopefully!) coffee victoria sponge cake………

Kim