A long overdue update

Hello dear readers, I'm back now that my laptop is fixed and I have a whole host of updates to share with you. I've kept up with my baking, especially since the Great British Bake Off series 2 has finished and I'm trying for the 3rd series now. I have decided that I need to practise making puff pastry, choux buns and croissant dough.

Baking
My most recent bakes include two dishes that I took to a halloween party at the weekend. I made a Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Outside Tart baking book,

Sadly the middle wasn't cooked as much as the edges and this was due to it being too full when I put it into the oven. The recipe made SO much filling for a 9inch pan (the recommended pan size). It tasted amazing though and to be honest, for a halloween party it was great; I called it a blood cheesecake.

I also made come carrot cake whoopie pies, from Outsider Tart, but I didn't put frosting on them and served them as carrot cake cookies really.

Recipe

When I was in London town recently I went to Mitsukoshi, which is a Japanese department store. In its basement is a Japanese book shop and I decided to buy a Japanese baking book. he great thing about Japanese cook books is that they use photo's for step by step instructions. Using my rudimentary Japanese reading skills I was able to pretty much get the recipe for a basic vanilla pound cake.

Here's the book, 

The first set of photos showed me how to perfectly line a baking tin.

First take some greaseproof that wraps up both sides and along the base.

Fold it up the sides and crease.

Fold it up the ends and crease too.

You should have basically a grid like this and then you can cut it as shown below.

Fold the sides up and the end so there are three flaps overlapping at the ends. Then slot it into the tin and bingo you have a perfectly lined loaf tin!

Pound Cake
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
100g plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder

One thing that I added, for flavour was some vanilla extract too. The interesting thing about the recipe was the meticulous detail that the writer went to with every step. Even showing how they smooshed the egg through a fine sieve to remove the lumps.

It does make for a smoother egg which mixes easier into the batter. 

Method.

Sieve the flour and baking powder onto a piece of greaseproof paper. Whisk the butter until smooth and pale, about 2 minutes with an electric hand whisk. Then add the sugar and beat for a further 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to ensure it all is incorporated. Next add the egg 1tbsp at a time, use a balloon whisk to mix it 20 times after each tbsp of egg.  Mix in the flour and baking powder using a wooden spoon, being careful to mix all of the flour in thoroughly, though not over mixing (the book recommends 30 stirs). 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bash it against the work top to level the mixture out.  Pop it into the oven which is set at 180C. After just 10 minutes open the oven door and using a very sharp nice cut along the length of the cake then put it back into the oven to continue cooking for a further 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. What the cutting does is allow the cake to rise up through the middle, giving it that traditional pound cake look.

 Now I'm not a fan of basic sponge cake, but this was a great recipe and made a delicious vanilla pound cake!

Alchemaic Baking

This book goes on to suggest different things to do with the cake. Being Japanese it suggests mixing green tea powder into it, anko bean paste and cocoa powder. There are some other interesting combinations too though, like slicing a pear on to the top of it, making a marble cake with half of the batter being one flavour and the other half being vanilla. 

Once you have a basic batter, you can really add anything to it! hmm ginger might be nice, with a gingery glaze on top too....