I've Moved

Hey, so I am not going to be blogging on this website anymore because I have moved to a different site. I will still be blogging and baking just the same.

My new website is: www.bethanybakes.co.uk

This new site will extend my blogging even further, with social media links and an all round better format for me to work with.

Happy Baking xx Beth. 

Honey Cake Bites with Lemon Buttercream and Sculpted Lemons

Hey, so I made these bite sized cakes as a treat for my Dad, and I only just managed to get a picture of them before we ate them. When you drizzle honey over the cake be careful not to drizzle too much because you can make the cake quite soggy, which is the problem I faced.

Ingredients for honey cake:

150g plain flour
150g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp milk
4 tbsp honey + 1 tsp more for drizzling later
2 eggs

Butter cream icing:

150g icing sugar
75g unsalted butter
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp milk

Lemons:

100g cake icing
1 tsp yellow food colouring
10g icing sugar to dust over the surface

 Method:

1. To make the cake, pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line a square 20cm tine with greaseproof paper and set aside.


2. Then cream together the butter and sugar into a large bowl until light and fluffy. Then add in the eggs, vanilla, honey, and milk, and mix until smooth. Fold in the flour and stir until mixture is smooth and silky in consistency, if not add a little more milk.

3. Pour the cake mix into the lined tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cake is golden brown, and when a skewer is put into the middle of the cake, the skewer comes out clean.

4. Now the cake is out of the oven, place on a cooling rack. Skewer several holes into the top of the cake and drizzle 1 tsp of honey into the cake to the honey soaks in while the cake is cooling.

5. While the cake is cooling make the butter cream icing. In a large bowl mix the butter, icing sugar, and milk together until smooth. Add the lemon juice flavouring, you can make it more or less lemony than what I did, if you would prefer to. Put the icing into a smaller bowl in the fridge to chill for the assembly.

6. Take the cooled cake and trim the edges, so the cake is a square. Cut the cake into cubes of about 20.

7. Take two cake squares, and the butter cream. Put a teaspoon of butter cream on the top of one of the squares, then sandwich the other on top to make a tower. Then on the top of the top square take another spoonful of butter cream and smooth it over the top. Do this for all the rest of the cakes until you have around 10 stacked cakes with butter cream on top and in the middle.

8. To make the lemons, sprinkle some icing sugar onto your work surface, take the cake icing and the yellow food colouring, and mix together, kneading the colour in with your fingers until the icing is a lemon yellow colour.

9. Take chunks of the icing, about half the size of a malteser and shape into a ball. Pinch the icing on opposing sides of the circle to make the top and tail of the lemons. Place the 1 or 2 lemons on each cake. Put the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. 

Happy Baking xx Beth

Homemade Blueberry and Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Hey, happy summer! My mum, my sister, and I, decided to have a crack at making some of our own frozen yogurt. We tried blueberry and strawberry yogurts, but if you want to try something else that's fine if you freeze the fruit beforehand.

Ingredients for Strawberry frozen yogurt:

300g Strawberries (frozen)
375ml Natural yogurt (I got fat free)
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp honey

Method for Strawberry frozen yogurt:

1. In a food processor; add the strawberries, yogurt, caster sugar, and honey. Blend until smooth and creamy (yogurt type consistency).

2. Put the yogurt into an airtight container, and freeze until the mixture is solid, which could take around 5-6 hours.

Ingredients for Blueberry frozen yogurt:

150g blueberries (frozen)
375ml Natural yogurt (fat free)
3 tbsp honey

Method for Blueberry frozen yogurt:

1. In a food processor blend; the blueberries, yogurt, and honey together until smooth and creamy. (yogurt type consistency).

2. Put the yogurt into an airtight container, and freeze just like the strawberry yogurt, the blueberry frozen yogurt could be a little stiffer when scooping out when it has frozen compared to the strawberry yogurt.                                                                                                                                                 

Happy baking, Beth xx

2015 What I Grow In The Garden

Hey, summer last year I did a post on what we were currently growing in the garden. A lot has changed since then, the arrival of 5 chickens as a main change! Hopefully we get a good harvest of fruit and veggies this year. Unfortunately not from the cherry tree because the pigeons have got to them!

Tomato plant from a seedling to growing fresh tomatoes ready for summer, already got some growing!

Having a crack at some chili peppers this year, should get a decent harvest.

 Potting up some herbs, rocket, and lettuce, to be moved out of the green house into the section the chickens have dug up for us!

Speaking of the chickens... Look how big Little has got! Her brother unfortunately had to leave us, because he was a little vicious and we had to give him away, but he's gone to live on a very happy farm with three hens that he can grow old with.

All the chickens are doing well, Dave jumped in front of the camera to get a closer look at what I was holding, she soon got bored after this picture though.

These grapes have been growing for years, this year we have started to get a decent crop out of them probably going to use them to make wine out of. With the elderberries further up the garden, they should make a decent wine (for my parents at least!)

The cherry tree, with no cherries on it because we couldn't keep the birds off! Even though there are hanging CD's; where the light can reflect off them and ward the birds off the branches. We do also have a few mini potted plants such as mint, and basil. We also have a mystery plant that we don't know what it is until it starts to grow flowers/fruit and vegetables. 
We are making an effort to grow some figs this year next to the cherry tree, they'll be done soon, once they're at the right colour and start to droop a little.

So that's what we grow in our garden. What do you grow in your garden?

Happy Baking, Beth xx

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups

Hi again, I did something like this with the Chocolate Caramel Cups, but this time we are filling and decorating them a little prettier this time. Something Sweet was used as a guidance for this recipe. Happy Baking xx

Ingredients:

175g dark chocolate (70% cocoa is best)
25g peanuts toasted and chopped
75g crunchy peanut butter

Method:

1. Place 2/3 of the dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl over some simmering water. Melt and heat to 48-49 degrees. Then take off the heat and wrap the base of the bowl in a tea towel  to keep in some of the heat, cool the chocolate to a working temperature of about 30 degrees.

2. With a teaspoon spoon a little of the chocolate into the moulds used in the Caramel Cups recipe from Something Sweet. With a small flat paintbrush, paint the chocolate up the sides of the mould evenly coating all around paying particular attention to the top of each. Touch up any sides of the mould that look a little thin. Set for 5-10 minutes in the fridge.

3. Once the base layer has set, reheat the chocolate to about 30 degrees ( a working temperature), brush another layer of chocolate over the top and set in the fridge.

4. In a bowl mix a few of the chopped peanuts with the peanut butter and evenly blend. Take the set chocolate cups and fill the cup with peanut mixture leaving enough space for chocolate to go on the top to finish off.

5. Bring the chocolate back up to temperature and spoon a little on the top of each chocolate cup, smoothing over with a small spatula or the end of a spoon. Decorate with left over peanuts for presentation, set in the fridge until the chocolate has gone hard.

6. Pop the cups out of the moulds, and serve in a small box as a nice gift or just enjoy them.

Happy Baking xx Beth

Nutella and Orange Brownies

I wanted to try something new with the average brownie. So after two attempts and a lot of Nutella- here's the outcome. This is the original recipe I changed up to fit what I was doing. Original :). Happy Baking x

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter
200g Nutella
80g cocoa powder (or drinking chocolate mix) sifted
Zest and juice of 1 orange
65g plain flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
360g caster sugar
4 eggs

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C, grease a 24cm cake tin. In a small sauce pan melt the butter. When the butter has melted leave to cool for about 5 minutes, stir occasionally. Meanwhile in a medium sized bowl add Nutella and orange zest and juice. Once the butter has cooled a bit add to the chocolate orange mix mix well until smooth.

2. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sugar. Once that has been thoroughly mixed. Add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well.

3. Beat in the eggs until a silky smooth consistency is achieved. Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes. The brownie should still be a little gooey on the inside.

4. Cool on a cooling rack then transfer to a chopping board and cut into chunky pieces.

Happy Baking, Beth x

Homemade Garlic Mayo

Under the illusion that making homemade mayonnaise is difficult? This will set the record straight. Just a few simple ingredients and less than 10 minutes of your time, and you will have a smooth creamy mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

1  medium egg
1 small clove of garlic chopped finely
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard
175ml vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a food processor or blender, blend until smooth the egg, chopped garlic, lemon juice and mustard.

2. Blend on a low speed and slowly pour in the vegetable oil and the mixture will thicken and turn a subtle yellow colour.

This was super easy and so much nicer than shop brought mayonnaise- great on steak sandwiches!

Happy Baking, Beth xx

Homemade Sausage Rolls

Hi guys, I decided to try a nice savoury recipe that everyone loves; sausage rolls, these are much better hand made! Happy baking xx

Ingredients:
12 pork sausages
2 rolls of puff pastry (750g approximately)
Salt and Pepper to your taste
5g mixed herbs
1 egg

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180' fan and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Skin the sausages into a bowl, so there is just sausage meat. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Add in the herbs and mix everything in with your hands. Chill the sausage mixture until ready to use.

3. Take out the puff pastry and roll a little to stretch it out as it comes pre-rolled. Cut into 2-3 equal pieces and make a line of sausage meat down each part of pastry. Beat the egg into a cup and take a pastry brush and run some beaten egg down 1 side of each bit of pastry.

4. Fold the side of the pastry that doesn't have the egg strip, over the sausage meat and stick it down to the egged pastry side, crimp so the sausage meat is sealed inside a pastry case. Do this repeatedly for the other sausage rolls. Cut the rolls into 3-4 pieces depending on the size you want them. Place on a baking tray and egg wash the top of each individual sausage roll, then make 2 small incisions onto the top of each one.

5. Bake in the pre heated oven until the pastry is golden brown so about 15 minutes. Repeat for the other sausage rolls.

Happy Baking Beth xx

Death By Chocolate Giant Cupcake

It was my Dad's birthday last Tuesday and he specifically wanted me to make him a giant chocolate cupcake. Thanks to my wonderful Great Nan who brought me a great mould to use. Hope you enjoy this. Happy Baking xx

Ingredients:

For bottom half of giant cupcake:
250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsp cocoa powder
220g caster sugar
220ml vegetable oil
220ml milk
3 eggs
3 tbsp golden syrup
For the butter cream:
160g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar sifted
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp milk
3tbsp cocoa powder
For the top half of the giant cupcake:
125g self raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
110g caster sugar
110ml vegetable oil
110ml milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp golden syrup
Ganache:
150g milk chocolate
150ml cream
To decorate:
Maltezer treat pack ( or a choice of chocolates)

Method: 
1. Pre-heat your oven to 160C and grease the top and bottom parts of your giant cupcake mould, with a few drops of vegetable oil.

2. In a mixing bowl sift together all the dry ingredients for the bottom half of the cupcake except the caster sugar. Mix that in hen all the other dry ingredients have been combined. (flour, bicarb, cocoa powder). Mix together all the wet ingredients for the bottom half and make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients. Blend with a hand mixer until you have a smooth consistency. Fill the bottom half of the cupcake mould with the mixture, bake for about 45 minutes. Do this same step with the top half ingredients but bake for 20-25 minutes instead. Cool on a wire rack. You should now have two cakes one top and a bottom.

3. For the butter cream. Cream together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and cocoa power until evenly combined. Add the milk in a little at a time until you have a smooth consistency.

4. Chop the chocolate into small chunks and put in a bowl. In a small saucepan bring the cream to the boil before whisking onto the chocolate. Continue whisking until all the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth silky ganache. Trim the bottom side of the top half so it will sit well on the bottom half. Put a blob of ganache on the cake board and place the bottom half of the giant cupcake to it so it sticks to the cake board.

5. Cool the ganache to a spreading consistency, I left it over night. Once the ganache has cooled to a spreading consistency, spread it onto the bottom half of the cupcake using a palette knife. Spread a large layer of ganache onto the top of the bottom half. Accompanied by a handful of Maltezers. Now spread a layer of butter cream onto that. Place the top half of the cake on top of the decorated bottom half. Decorate with as many maltezers as you want!

6. With the remaining butter cream, pipe around the join of the two cakes, spread the rest of the butter cream evenly all over the rest of the top half. Put in the fridge for 5 minutes. Place the bottom of the ganache bowl in hot water, and whisk until a thick pouring consistency is achieved. Take the cake out of the fridge and drizzle the ganache over the peak of the cake.

Happy Baking, Beth xx 

Double Chocolate Citrus Segments

I wanted to try something else from my Something Sweet magazine, but more chocolate-y because I haven't done something like that I feel since 'My Chocolate Workshop Experience' so I put some of that experience into these chocolate segments. I have used a mould that I received from Something Sweet, you could use other moulds, but use the same method. Hope you enjoy! Happy Baking!

Ingredients:

Lemon Segments:
25g white chocolate
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
75g milk chocolate

Lime Segments:
25g white chocolate
1/2 tsp finely grated lime zest
75g milk chocolate

Method:

1. Melt the white chocolate for the lime segments in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat just before all the chocolate has melted. Continue to stir until all the chocolate has been turned to liquid.

2. Stir in the lime zest into the white chocolate until evenly mixed. With a small flat paintbrush, paint a thin layer of lime flavoured chocolate onto the flesh section of the lime mould (or the bottom of your mould). Place in the fridge for a few minutes until the chocolate has set.

3. Break two thirds of the milk chocolate (for the lime segments) in a heat proof bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat until all has melted, take off the heat and add the rest of the chocolate, like you did with the white chocolate and stir until liquefied, cool until room temperature.

4. Spoon a little of the milk chocolate into the moulds on top of the set white chocolate. Level out the chocolate by tapping the mould on a work surface. Scrape off any excess chocolate with a pallet knife. Set in a cool dry place. (I set mine in the fridge and that was absolutely fine.)

5. Turn out the lime segments once set and place in the fridge until you want to have them. Repeat all the steps, but using lemon zest and the lemon ingredients.

These will keep for a week in the fridge wrapped up with baking parchment or a little box. Happy Baking, Beth xx

Baby Chicks!

We have had some new arrivals into our little family. Two just hatched baby chicks, one of them unfortunately is a rooster and we can't keep him. But we get to keep a tiny, little baby hen who we are naming Chicken Little, nickname Little.


She will grow up as a free- range hen with Dave, Nugget, Margery, and Mrs Clucklesworth. At the moment she is only a few days old, but in the space of 10 minutes she was extremely fluffy, with the cutest little wings ever!

The rooster looked like a drowned rat when it was born, but like Little it soon fluffed up. Rooster is going to a good home, with my Mum's friend who's husband is a farmer. They will take good care of him, and let him grow up free- range and hopefully very happy just like Little.

It's still very much early days but they are growing up and waddling around for food and water- but they spend most of their time in the warmth underneath Margery and Clucks; who are looking after them.

Happy Baking xx Beth

Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake

On Sunday it was my Grannies birthday and we went over to her house to celebrate, I of course made a cake for her- as I had never made a marble cake, so this was the perfect opportunity. Happy Baking xx

Ingredients:

For the cake mixture:
225g unsalted butter
225g self-raising flour
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used seeded)
2 tbsp cocoa powder

For the icing:
270g unsalted butter
450g icing sugar
75g cocoa powder
1 tsp milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract 

Method:

1. Grease a round 20cm cake tin, and put grease-proof paper on the base. Pre- heat the oven to 180C/160 fan/ gas 4.


2. Beat together the sugar and the butter until smooth and creamy. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, fold in the flour, milk ,and vanilla extract. You may want to mix more to get the mixture the correct consistency (fall off the spoon) with an electric hand mixer.

3. Divide out the mixture into two bowls- in one of the bowls add in the cocoa powder and mix well. Then place in the prepared tin alternately with two spoons. Then take a fork and swirl around the tin for effect. Bake for 30-40 minutes. When a skewer has been placed in the centre and pulled out clean the cake is done.

4. To make the icing beat the butter and icing sugar, and vanilla extract, together with an electric hand mixer until smooth, about half way through mixing add the milk to loosen the mixture a little to make it easier .

5. If you want to make alternating colours of icing on the cake just as you did with the marbling in the cake, split the icing into two bowls and mix cocoa powder into one of them, place the vanilla down one side of the piping bag and chocolate the other. This way when you pipe it will come out in two colours side by side. I did this in the centre by squeezing and lifting the bag to make a starry effect using a starry nozzle size 1M so it was quite large to those who don't know.

6. If it's chocolate icing you want add in the cocoa powder without splitting the mixture. I made two cakes and sandwiched them together with piped chocolate/vanilla icing in the centre. Take your butter-cream (I used the chocolate) and spread over the top of the cake with a pallet knife until it's smooth or looks how you want it to look. Dust with a sprinkling of icing sugar to finish.

Happy Baking xx Beth

From-Scratch Homemade Pizza

Over the weekend I decided to do something savoury as I haven't done so in a while, this is so simple to make and its delicious too- perfect for if you want a home cooked meal. One thing I have done differently is to activate the yeast previously, this is to make the dough lighter. Happy Baking xx.

Ingredients:

300g strong white bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast
250ml lukewarm water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
100g grated cheese
125g mozzarella cheese
salt & pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
5-6 slices of chorizo ( Optional)
3 slices of cooked ham

Method:

1. For the pizza dough: Take a jug add in 50ml of the lukewarm water, and then add the yeast- set aside for 5 minutes until the mixture is frothy. This begins yeast activation and will eventually lighten the dough. In the meantime, in a large bowl add the flour and the salt and mix well.

2. Once the yeast has properly activated, pour into the dry mixture, and mix. When that has been mixed in add the rest of the 200ml of water and the olive oil. Then with a wooden spoon, mix well so the dough is soft and slightly wet- this is to make sure you have an elastic pizza dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, until springy to the touch. Place in a bowl, and cover with a tea towel, until ready to put toppings on.

3. To make the passata take the chopped tomatoes, place in a jug and blitz with a hand blender. Add in the Worcestershire sauce and the salt and pepper (to taste). Rip or chop the chorizo and the mozzarella. Use your hands and rip up the ham into small chunks.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 220C. Place the dough on a floured, warmed baking sheet. Press out the dough with your fingers ontot the baking tray, then stretch the dough into the corners and shape to fit. Place the passata on the dough and spread evenly with a pallet knife. Then place the mozzarella, chorizo, ham ,and grated cheese onto the base.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, I had mine with garlic bread, it was delicious.

Happy Baking! Enjoy, Beth xx

Honey Buttercream Rose Cupcakes

Hiya,  I had a little experiment with my piping, as I'm not the best at decorating.
I decided to try out this to help me a little. A basic cupcake recipe can be found on my blog elsewhere, such as the Nutella Cupcakes. 

I am subscribed to the Something Sweet magazine and it is amazing with so many tutorials, to help you get better at decorating. I have about 50 copies of this magazine. So throughout this year I will try definately more decorating techniques. This was just a little experiment an I will more than likely do repeats to perfect the technique.

Updates soon! Happy Baking, Beth xx

Nightmare Man Icing Modelling

Hi, I was in a bit of a creative mood while I was waiting for my rose cupcakes too cool, and I had some icing spare and left over so I modelled out a Nightmare man; which turned out to be pretty cool, and really fun to make. So here it is! xx

Tip: When handling icing it makes it much easier if you have cold hands- so the icing is easier to handle.

Ingredients/ Equipment:

A small palm-sized ball of ready roll white icing
A small rectangular shape of light green icing which can fit proportionally onto the head.
6 small pea sized buttons made from royal red icing (flattened and indented)
2 small pea sized balls made from blue icing
Icing pens - Blue and Autumn Gold
2 smaller than pea sized balls, of white icing
A ball tool
A knife/ slicing tool
Edible glue
A paintbrush 

Method:

1.  Take the ball of white icing and the ball tool; with your fingers shape the ball a little more into a point at one end. So it looks like the structure of a face. Next take the ball tool and in the upper section of the face press the ball tool into the face to make eye sockets, repeat for the other eye, an equal distance apart.

2. Now take the blue icing balls and place into the sockets - with the ball tool press the blue flat into the sockets.

3. With the knife/ slicing tool run the blade at the base of the face and tilt it slightly to get the shape of a mouth. With the Autumn Gold icing pen, run the edible ink across the slit- so it looks like he has a golden mouth.

4. Take the two balls of white icing, and paint the back with the paintbrush and a small dab of edible glue. Place the balls glue down onto the now blue eye sockets and make the eye balls, now take the blue icing pen and make a small dot into each to make iris'.

5. For the last bit simply take one end of the rectangle shape, paint the end with edible glue, and stick to the base of the face to make his body. Make a line down the centre of the body to separate the sides in which you are now going to stick the buttons.

6. Take the buttons of red icing and paint the back of each one with the edible icing. Stick three on each side so its equal. ( see the first picture)

7. Finally pinch the middle of the face to a point to create a sharp nose.

Happy Baking xx Beth