Bailey's truffles

I owed this post to the baking world. Sorry baking world.

Going to my mouth...

You can offer them to your gests in
this way (see previous post)

I made this truffles a looooong time ago, to take to the school I was working in. They were a hit amongst the staff- well, just some of them, as they didn't last that long. The flavour was quite strong-I love chocolate, but I wouldn't eat five or ten of those in one go.


Now that I think about it, I don't feel that bad about posting this so late- it is a great idea to make them as a gift for friends and family.


I got the recipe from www.realepicurean.com, a really neat and full of fresh recipies website.  I followed it step by step. Some of the people who comment on the recipe say they didn't succeed in making them. My only advice is that you have to be patient, but once you realize the texture is the right one to start making the truffles, the rest is really straightforward. Then you can roll them on cocoa powder or icing sugar. Or on chopped hazelnuts. Or maybe even dip them in white chocolate...


So, click here to get the recipe. Enjoy!!!!

3 new things in my kitchen

Here are the three new things I have now in my kitchen: a fruit bowl that could have belonged to my grandmother, a square cake tin and some mini cupcake cases in lovely sumery colours.

Fruit bowl

Well, the label said "fruit basket" but at home is for fruit. I bought it from Clas Ohlsen for £1.99 and they also have it in fucsia and yellow. I like this retro/kitsch design, and also the fact that it looks like something my grandma would have had in her kitchen.

Cake tin and cupcake cases

The tin is from IKEA- just a square one. I hope to repeat the victoria sponge cake from the previous post in it, as I want to serve it in squares rather than cake slices. The "petit fours" cases are from Sainsbury's, and I think they are less than £1 for 100 cases. I got them to present some truffles I made, and which I´ll post the recipie soon.

Superspongy One-stage Victoria Sandwich

Yesterday I made a Victoria sponge cake, just to finish a jar of raspberry preserve we had. I made it with clotted cream, as a traditional English cake deserves to be made with the authentic products of the country. The recipe is from the book "Afternoon Teas...". It is a very good book to get into the sweet side of English gastronomy. All the recipies are very authentic and easy to do, so ideal for anyone who wants to replicate their Grandma's puddings or for us foreigners, to whip up a taste of Britain whenever we feel like it.


Ingredients:
175grs self-raising flour
175grs softened butter
175grs sugar
3 eggs
a pinch of salt
caster sugar to decorate

For the filling:
raspberry jam
clotted cream (or whipped double cream or buttercream)

Baking:
Pre-heat oven at 180 C.
The recipe calls for throwing all the ingredients together. However, I just did it the way I normally bake cakes: cream butter and sugar together, then mix the eggs in and after that incorporate the flour, and then the sugar. Beat very well at each stage, because that is what it makes the cake superspongy.

For a sandwich cake like this, there are always two options: you either make it in two "thin" tins, or in a highish tin. With option one, once the cake is made and cold, you just have to spread the clotted cream and raspberry on and put the other half on. With option two, you just have to cut the cake in half once it's cold as well, and spread the filling. Don't forget to use cooking parchment or to butter the tin before putting the batter in.

Bake for 20 minutes if using the sandwich tins, 30-35 for the high one I guess- I would check after the first 20 minutes, or go by the rule of "if smit smells, we might have to take a peek at it".
To decorate, just sprinkle some icing sugar- I used a strainer to do so.

What a loooooooooong post. Sorry!!:P Enjoy!!

Banana and blueberry muffins

Blueberries were half price some weeks ago, so I bought some and inspired by Bakerella's post on the paper pans, I changed the ingredients' amount into the metric system, and made some! So here is the recipie the way I did it.

Ingredients:
256grs of flour
2tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
200grs of granulated sugar
76grs of butter
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
lots of blueberries

Baking:

Preheat oven to 180 and line tray with muffin cup papers.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together with a wire whisk.Add butter -needs to be very soft-, eggs, bananas and vanilla.Mix it all.

Put the blueberries in the mixture- make sure they are not wet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Makes aprox. 15 muffins.

I made them twice in a week (with half the amount of ingredients)and they were a success! The first time I didn't remember to half the amount of butter, and I have to admit that they had a very French aftertaste- which it was not a problem at all. The picture is from the second batch. I gave some to one of my friends :D

Enjoy!!

Paper pans

A while ago I bought these paper pans from Lakeland. I saw them on the internet but had to wait a bit to get them as they didn't have them in my local one. I have already used them and they are very good for any type of cake or muffin and as you can imagine, they are ideal to give as presents. Just add ribbon or if you do it with children, they can decorate it with their favourite stickers once they are out of the oven and have cooled down.

The idea of getting them, as all things I have done recently, has been from Bakerella and her post on breakfasts- I have to say she had a much bigger and better selection.