Brownies – second attempt!

Couldn’t resist having another go at chocolate brownies, and with the long weekend ahead, it seemed like a perfect time for a second attempt!

I reduced the quantities to make a three egg mixture instead of five, but this time I cooked them at 165ish (difficult to tell on the dial on our cooker, but basically about a third of the way between 150 and the dot for 175), and used the fan oven setting.  I checked them after 25 minutes and didn’t realise they would still be so soft underneath the crust, and shoved my finger right in it.  But, it was still too light so back in for another five minutes.  Checked them again, and now the top was cracking, and it had a nice colour, so out of the oven they came.

Rested them in the tin for about 15 minutes, then on a rack for another 15 minutes, and then we tested them.  Still a bit warm, but a lovely crusty top, a gorgeous squidgy middle, and they taste fantastic – result.  I now feel a little bit closer the MasterChef Australia – thanks Gary for the inspiration!

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Sunday brownies

Inspired by Gary’s Chocolate Gluttony in the Masterclass on Masterchef Australia (my new favourite television programme!), I’ve been hankering after trying some brownies, something I’ve never baked before and have always felt disappointed with when I’ve had them in a cafe or shop, so wanted to try making my own to see if I could do any better.

So I’ve had a go this afternoon. I made sure I got everything measured and ready before I started, then used my lovely Kenwood to make the mixture. The batter tasted absolutely gorgeous and the recipe said 165 for 40 minutes, so I checked them after 35, but they were already a bit over done …

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I’ve let them rest for about 45 minutes, and after cutting them into slices, they aren’t as gooey in the middle as I was hoping, but the taste is lovely. I will definitely try them again, but check them at about 30 minutes and see how they’re doing.

Sunday baking

I had intended to bake some cakes yesterday, but other things got in the way, so it had to wait until this afternoon. This time I decided to have a go at Apple and Walnut Cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookbook. I misread the recipe to start with, as it tells you to mix together most of the ingredients initially, but lists the butter first, whereas I always weigh my dry ingredients first, so that I can use the same bowl for measuring throughout, so I got the weights and ingredients mixed up, and had to start again. Then, when I’d read the recipe yesterday before I went shopping, I read the wrong amount of cream cheese, so bought some small pots, only to find I was about 200g short, and had to dash to the supermarket before they shut to get some more for the icing. The icing was a bit too thick to pipe easily, so I ended up just spooning over the cakes – not very smoothly, but it tastes lovely so I guess it doesn’t matter too much!

Anyway, it all seems to have turned out well in the end and here’s the finished results:

The novice baker

Although I remember baking cakes with my mum when I was little, I’ve only baked a few cakes over the last few years, and mostly just stuck to the same one – an apple and almond cake. This years Great British Bake Off inspired me to think about having a go again, so a couple of months ago I baked a batch of vanilla cupcakes and a batch of chocolate cupcakes, followed by something new, some Welsh cakes. All were lovely, but my cheap mixer burnt out and with Christmas preparations looming, I hadn’t done any for a while.

Luckily, Father Christmas bought me a lovely freestanding mixer, and I treated myself to a new handheld mixer as well. I also got a couple of new cake cookbooks as presents, so I decided to try something new!

Here’s my first attempt – Gingerbread cupcakes from Christmas Cupcakes by Annie Rigg. They are a spicy cupcake with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and all spice, with a cinnamon flavoured meringue buttercream. I used a golden caster sugar instead of ordinary in the buttercream, which gave it a golden colour instead of bright white, but I think it went well with the cake flavour. It was quite a brave type of frosting for me, as it needed the sugar and egg whites to be whisked over a pan of simmering water and heated to a specific temperature – something I’ve never done before. The end result was lovely, a nice light sponge, with a smooth frosting, and not too sweet.