Tag Archives: kims cake challenge

Week Fifty – Mary Berry’s French Apple Tart & Devonshire Apple Cake

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Week fifty -woo hoo I have nearly completed one year of this challenge and I have decided where I can to double up on Mary Berry‘s recipes from her Baking Bible otherwise it would take me two and a half years just to finish her book!
Mary Berry's French Apple Tart

As you may have noticed from last week, I have an apple tree in my garden and due to the exceptional weather this year, I have an abundance of apples and despite giving loads away, I still have loads. The first recipe was Mary’s French apple tart which I started on the Friday when I made the pastry and the apple puree for the sauce and put together on Saturday.

I got to use my little ceramic blind baking beads for the first time in the challenge to bake the base of the tart before the filling went in. Next went in the apple puree that had taken ages to make because you have to cook the apples and then push it all through a sieve..zzzzz. such an exciting time! Finally I peeled, cored and sliced the top apple and arranged it like Mary’s tart and in it went for it’s final bake. I was pleased with the results.

Kim's French Apple Tart

the second recipe was Mary’s Devonshire apple cake which used up some more of my apples! Mary asks you to make a sponge mix and cut your apples into small pieces. I used a traybake tray from Lakeland ( my favourite shop) and poured half the sponge mix in, then added the apples and topped it with the rest of the sponge mix. Mary says that this cake doesn’t look particularly attractive but tastes nice warm with cream.

Mary Berry's Devonshire Apple Cake

I topped it with some sprinkled almonds as per the recipe and set the timer. This was a long bake and I set to  a little more baking ( not Mary’s recipes) while I waited. I set the bread machine off with a white crusty loaf, made some mini apple pies and some honeycomb.

The final result of the Devonshire cake was better than I expected. I thought it looked nice. I cut it in half, put half on the freezer and sent some slices of this and a slice of the tart to hubby’s parents who are also chief tasters!

Kim's Devonshire Apple Cake

I can’t wait for the Great British Bake Off this week, I am so enjoying this series and still support Frances in her creativity, although I think Ruby is shining through now too.

Week Forty Nine – Mary Berry’s Focaccia Bread with Onion & Balsamic Topping

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Week forty nine and I think this has been the most technical of my bakes to date and the one that has taken most of the day as it’s bread and needed rising time. Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible has the nicest photo of hers and all through my bake, I just hoped that it turned out at least resembling hers!

Mary Berry's Focaccia Bread with Onion & Balsamic Topping

The beginning of the recipe asks you to add every ingredient for the dough into a bowl and mix either by hand or with a mixer with dough hooks. I had never used my dough hooks before and looked forward to playing with them. They made short work of the ingredients and no sooner had I started, than I had a dough bowl ready to start working on. I tipped it out onto my floured surface and set to work, it’s very therapeutic to work dough! Although my method is probably more old school as I was taught in my Home Economics lessons rather than the Paul Hollywood swing the dough around and whack it down method! Once kneaded, I put it in a clean oiled bowl and covered it with clingfilm. I left it for an hour and while it was “proving” I set about making the onion and balsamic topping. Mary asks you to add a teaspoon of olive oil to a pan, cut 2 onions and fry them for several minutes, then add thr lid and turn down the heat and leave for 20 minutes. The next step was to add some balsamic vinegar and sugar and thyme , fry again briskly and then season and allow to cool. Mary asks you to return to your dough and “knock it back” for about five minutes, roll it out and pop it on a baking sheet with the topping on it, place it in a bag and allow to proof again for half an hour…zzzzzz. Finally I could put it in the oven for about 25 minutes.

The final result, no soggy bottom! But the onion is lightly singed around the edges, but on the whole I am happy with it. The only problem is that it is HUGE!! Hubby and I can’t eat it all so we are going to cut it in half and take some to the parents!

Kim's Focaccia Bread with Onion & Balsamic Topping

I loved watching the Great British Bake Off this week with breads and maybe that’s what inspired me to do the Focaccia Bread. I must say, I was impressed with Frances’ matchbox and her bread sticks.

Week Forty Eight – Mary Berry’s Cherry Loaf Cake

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Here at last is week forty eight’s posting, we came back from holiday mid week and suddenly I had a pile of washing and ironing the size of Ben Nevis and all thoughts of updating my blog went out of the window! The apple and cinnamon cake from last week had just been polished off and we were feeling a bit “caked out” so I chose Mary Berry’s cherry loaf cake because I love cherries– hubby is not so keen, and I could freeze it to enjoy later.

Mary Berry's Cherry Loaf Cake

Mary’s recipe was straight forward, add all the ingredients in a bowl, except for the cherries and mix well. Fold in the cherries which I had to wash, dry and then quarter. Mary asks you to line a loaf tin, but on one of my shopping trips, the 99p store has loaf tin liners which I purchased and I used one of these. In to the oven it went for what seemed like forever- but was actually about an hour and a quarter. When taken out, it smelled lovely and was a golden brown colour. I let it cool and then popped it in the freezer for later enjoyment.

Kim's Cherry Laof Cake

I am loving Tuesday nights when The Great British Bake Off is on. As I said before, my skills are not up to the show’s expected levels but I love watching what they create or tackle the new challenges. I am particularly loving the artistic and creative talent of Frances, but it is early days yet!

 

Week Forty Seven – Mary Berry’s Apple & Cinnamon Cake

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Week Forty Seven and I chose Mary Berry‘s Apple & Cinnamon cake as the apples on my apple tree in the garden were ready and this is a perfect recipe for them.

Mary’s recipe asks you to add all the ingredients except the apple into a bowl and mix well for two minutes. Then add half the mixture into a cake tin, this is where my spring form cake tin came in handy, then spread the grated apple over the mixture, sprinkle with cinnamon and top with the other half of the cake mix. Decorate with some walnuts and sprinkle with some brown sugar. Into the oven it went for about an hour and a quarter.Mary Berry's Apple & Cinnamon Cake

 

The smell of apple and cinnamon was mouth watering and the cake smelt lovely when it came out but doesn’t look overly attractive. Hubby has had a slice already and says it’s lovely which is high praise from him!

Kim's Apple & Cinnamon Cake

I tuned into some of The Great British Bake Off tonight, managed to watch some of it and from what I saw, I know what I will be doing every Tuesday at 8pm for a while!

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 Forty Five – Mary Berry’s Yorkshire Gingernuts

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After the gluttony of the last few weeks, I needed a bake recipe that didn’t involve sponge cake or chocolate. Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible never fails to offer an answer and Mary’s Yorkshire Gingernuts fitted the bill nicely.

I had been considering missing a week this week, I think I had hit my “wall” as you hear runners say when they reach a certain distance. I had been feeling a little despondent and had even considered giving up the challenge but after giving myself a swift kick and talking to, the challenge goes on!

Mary Berry's Yorkshire Gingernuts recipes

Mary’s recipe asks you to melt the butter and the golden syrup in a pan and then add this to all the dry ingredients. I must admit I had checked my store cupboard for all the ingredients ahead of my bake but thought I had more ginger than I actually had. Mary’s recipe asked for a tablespoon of ginger…and when I opened my pot, I had at the most a teaspoon’s worth. I found myself, at 4:45pm on a Sunday afternoon wondering where I could get some ginger. Luckily for me, I found my local Co-Op was still open and had just what I needed! The bake was still on! I added the wet mix to the dry and brought it together into a dough. Mary says to roll little balls about the size of a walnut and that the mix will make about 50 biscuits…well my version of a walnut must be different to Mary’s but I still must have made about 35 biscuits or so.

Into the oven they went and I set the timer and sat and waited. Once the time was up, I had a look and they smelt lovely and gingery. They were a lovely golden colour too. I took them out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack and put the next batch in.

Kim's Yorkshire Gingernuts

Once they were cool enough, hubby and I shared one between us and put the rest in a tin. I have taken some to work and hubby will give some to his parents soon. I must say that after a day, they had that lovely “snap” on the outside when you bite into them and a softer middle. For a “filler” recipe, I must admit that I would happily make these again!

Week Forty Four – Mary Berry’s Drop Scones

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Week forty four and it was also my birthday this week. I was going to make one of Mary Berry‘s cakes from her Baking Bible but there was “secret squirrel” stuff going on and I had the most amazing surprise of a birthday cake appearing at the restaurant on my birthday courtesy of my hubby and my other mum and dad.

Kim's Birthday Cake

So, with a massive birthday cake to eat , what could I choose to make this week that meant I kept  to my challenge? Drop Scones were the answer and that’s what we had for this evening’s tea as neither of us were overly hungry.

Mary Berry's Drop Scones

The mix was very straight forward, all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until the consistency was like cream. I didn’t have a griddle but I had my trusty frying pan and set to work. The pancakes were very tasty , an easy challenge week and a scrummy supper.

Kim's Drop Scones

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 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