Gingerbread Biscoff Cake

As it's probably clear from all of my baking posts: I'm really scared of taking risks in the kitchen. I know what I'm good at - and what I'm comfortable making - and generally stick to it. Yes, I'll branch out on the odd occasion (Technical Thursdays are definitely the exception and not the rule!), but on the whole I have a very narrow repertoire.

I don't quite know why I did it, but when my turn came to provide a cake for Cake Club at work, I decided to take a chance on a recipe I'd stumbled across on the BBC Good Food website instead of sticking to something I was confident with. It ended up being one of the best cakes I've ever made, sparked a bizarre debate on the score (Cake Club is very serious, and there was a lot of discussion as to whether it was a 9.8 or a 10, but I'd have been delighted with either!) and I knew I had to make it again the following week so my family would have the opportunity to try it.

Behold, the Gingerbread Biscoff Cake: a three layered monster of light gingerbread sponge and decadent caramel biscuit cream cheese icing. It. Is. Amazing.

Halloween Rocky Roooooad

Halloween has crept up fast this year, and as I've been pretty busy this week any attempts at difficult, impressive or bonkers themed bakes has unfortunately had to go out of the window. However, I wasn't willing to let the day pass unnoticed, so I had a rummage around in my hampers of ingredients and came up with this deliciously simple and insanely quick to make variation of a family favourite, Rocky Road.

These chocolatey-marshmallowy bites are significantly more treat than trick, and are the perfect homemade addition to any Halloween celebrations (particularly if you're strapped for time tomorrow!).

Technical Thursday: Paul's Raspberry Millefeuille

How quickly have these 10 weeks gone?!

I can't believe that the Great British Bake Off is actually over, and by extension that I've survived 10 Technical Challenges (I'm counting the pitta breads in that as even though I didn't blog about them I did make them, promise!). I'm beyond thrilled that Nadiya stormed to victory in the tent - even though I'm a little bit in love with Tamal - and I loved that the final challenge tested the bakers on a skill they'd all struggled with previously: pastry.

Under normal circumstances I'm not too bad at making pastry, but this challenge had me wrapped in knots... For some reason it all fell apart slightly and I had to make my rough puff twice, plus it all went a little wrong in the oven (melted butter everywhere: such a disaster!). Somehow I managed to pull it back with the presentation, and when the time came for people to try them all previous panic was forgotten as they tasted incredible. I'm not entirely sure how I managed to pull this off, but these Raspberry Millefeuille were pretty spectacular indeed!

Technical Thursday: Mary's Hot Chocolate Soufflé

Well last night was a little exciting, wasn't it?! I've been routing for Nadiya for weeks so was predictably thrilled with the results (although not overwhelmed with excitement about having to attempt pesky raspberry millefeuille at the weekend...).

In a stark contrast to the up-coming Technical, last week's chocolate challenge was largely stress-free, fuss-free and unobtainable-fancy-ingredients-free. Aside from a slight faff finding the right dish, Mary's Hot Chocolate Soufflé was a definite success. In true semi-final style it was a recipe none of the bakers had attempted before - me included - but after carefully reading the instructions and working through them slowly and methodically it all came together pretty smoothly indeed. There was no panicking, no swearing in vain at my KitchenAid, and no frantic restarts of the whole process from the beginning. It all sort of slotted into place, and while the end result isn't half as neat as I would have liked, I'm pretty proud of my first ever soufflé!

Technical Thursday: Mary's Mokatines

These were awful: so truly awful that I will happily never make a Mokatine ever again.

I hate to blame the recipe, but there were more holes in it than a sieve. The official recipe from the BBC Food website - where I download them every week - had dodgy quantities, vague instructions and the method was so full of grammatical errors that it seemed apparent that no-one had thought to proof read it before publishing. I think it's meant to be a variation of the Mokatines in Mary Berry's Baking Bible, but I couldn't make much sense of either one. It could just be me, but it was a nightmare!

I suppose it didn't help that I was on a time limit this weekend so really could have done with it going a lot smoother than it did. For the first time it felt almost like a real Technical Challenge and I hated it! Obviously I had a lot longer on the clock than the bakers to account for photographing/tidying up etc. but it was still ridiculously stressful!

Technical Thursday: Mary's Tennis Cake

It seemed rather fitting this week to be making Mary Berry's Tennis Cake while Andy Murray stormed into the final of the Davis Cup at the weekend. The amount of time I spent waiting for the sponge to cool allowed for plenty of time to watch the tennis, and it really helped to calm my annoyance at how stupidly long this cake took to make.

I felt it was a bizarre bake given how largely uncomplicated and boring it was at this stage of the competition, but at least it fell at a topical time! Plus, it looks pretty and tastes divine, so I can't really complain...

Technical Thursday: Paul's Flaounes

Another episode of Bake Off, another opportunity to make a recipe I've never heard of and have absolutely no clue how to pronounce... Pastry week saw the bakers tackle Paul Hollywood's Flaounes - Cypriot cheese-filled pastries flavoured with a mix of decidedly difficult to find Greek spices.

This week really confirmed for me that I'm going to have to become creative with these Technical Challenges in order to actually make the best version of them I possibly can. The previous episode called for Gluten Free-Pitta, but even after searching in multiple health-food shops and enormous supermarkets several crucial ingredients either eluded me (Nigella seeds were a mystery despite now being readily available in both my local Tesco and Waitrose) or were way too expensive (Psyllium powder in Holland & Barrett cost around £15 and I only needed to use a tenth of the pouch). As a result I decided not to make them, instead going for normal pitta. A work trip meant that I didn't have time to blog my results last Thursday but needless to say they were a success. However, they weren't exactly within the specific remits of the challenge.

Thus from now on I've decided to definitely alter the recipes so that I can feasibly complete them and simultaneously not use up all my savings in the process. This will mean finding alternative ingredients when others are too expensive/impossible to locate and essentially making do. Hopefully this will work out well!

Technical Thursday: Mary's Spanische Windtorte

I've made meringue a couple of times before, and each time I've ended up with a brown, dry mess that I've had to jazz up with sprinkles or crush into a pudding to disguise the fact that it's a total disaster. Therefore, when this Technical Challenge was revealed it's probably understandable that I panicked slightly! It had the potential to go extremely wrong, but luckily for me it did the exact opposite! (If it's not already obvious, I am beyond thrilled about this!)

I'm not sure if it's my new oven or if I've finally mastered meringue, but either way this ended up being one of the prettiest challenges to date, and one that's really surprised me. Mary's delicate layers of French and Swiss meringue filled with a strawberry/raspberry/cream centre were basically heaven on a cake stand. *insert heart-eyed emoji here*

Technical Thursday: Paul's Baguettes

If I was on The Great British Bake Off, last week would undoubtedly have been my last in the tent. Bread really is my nemesis, and Paul Hollywood's Baguettes almost defeated me this week. After two days in the kitchen I emerged downtrodden, baffled and quite frankly bored with the whole process.

And, to add insult to injury I was left with 8 loaves of ciabatta that looked nothing like the intended baguettes. What a disaster.

Technical Thursday: Paul's Arlettes

Last week was biscuit week on The Great British Bake Off, and the weekend in the tent was bookended by variations of biscotti in the Signature Bake and intricate biscuit boxes in the Showstopper. In the middle though, was the humble Technical Challenge where the bakers were tasked with creating 8 of Paul Hollywood's Arlettes - "classic" French wafer-thin cinnamon biscuits.

I thought this would be particularly tricky as I really don't have the patience for waiting for dough to chill in the fridge repeatedly, but it ended up being reminiscent of last year's Schichttorte - lots of relatively easy steps that lead to a striking yet simple bake.

Technical Thursday: Mary's Frosted Walnut Cake

Guess what's back...

Technical Thursday, woop woop!

Admittedly, it's not half as original this time around as everybody in Britain seems to be doing exactly the same thing and baking along with the new series of The Great British Bake Off too... I don't mind though: I think it's fantastic that baking has become so popular!

I love the Technical Challenges, and I'm hoping this series has just as many bizarre, fiendishly difficult and beautiful concoctions as the last. I'm definitely a better baker because of my previous attempt at these, so fingers crossed the coming months provide even more of an education into all things bread, pastry, biscuits, cake and everything in between.

So, without further ado: here's my version of the very first Technical Challenge of the series, Mary Berry's Frosted Walnut Cake.

Wimbledon Cake

To mark the return of Wimbledon today I figured a spot of baking was in order, and there's nothing more on theme than a Mary Berry Wimbledon Cake. I've wanted to try making it for ages but refused to let myself even assemble the ingredients before the championships began!

This orange-infused semolina sponge is sandwiched together with whipped cream, sliced strawberries and passion fruit, and is the perfect accompaniment to the tennis over the next fortnight.

Rolo Cupcakes

I impulse-bought a sharing bag of Rolos a few weeks ago with the intention of baking something with them, and today seemed like the perfect time to plug in my KitchenAid, switch on the oven and briefly take over the kitchen for a spot of Bank Holiday baking.

These Rolo Cupcakes were a bit of an experiment, and I'm pleased to say they worked pretty well! Like my Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake I knew exactly what I wanted to do, it just took a bit of research to find the right recipes to combine to make my vision a reality. After a lot of consideration I decided on a fluffy chocolate sponge topped with a sweet caramel frosting and crowned with a Rolo (I couldn't make my mind up with the chocolate/caramel cake/frosting combination!).

This is a ridiculously easy recipe. I'm not kidding: it's virtually impossible to go wrong with and it requires very little baking knowledge at all. So, if you're not the most confident of bakers this is the recipe for you!

Simnel Muffins

I've never made a Simnel Cake.

It's been on my list of things to bake for quite literally years, but I've never actually got round to buying the ingredients and giving it a go. I even have a Mary Berry recipe on stand-by, but at this stage I'd all but given up on trying it out. That's when I found this recipe for Simnel Muffins on the BBC Good Food website, and after a quick read through decided it was too perfect to purely leave bookmarked for the future.

These muffins are positively bursting with flavour - they have all of the best qualities of a traditional Simnel Cake - but are much lighter, and in muffin form they're a lot more fun to make!

Rocky Road Nests

As far as my baking posts go, one of the most popular has always been my recipe for Rocky Road.

With absolutely no baking required, no fancy ingredients and only the most basic of utensils needed it's the perfect choice for everyone, from the novice that burns water to the expert looking for something simple to mix things up. Plus, it's so open to personal preference and adaptation that it's impossible not to love it!

Given the time of year I've had a play around with my traditional recipe and given it an Easter twist, changing to white chocolate, adding mixed dried berries and topping with Smarties mini eggs. The original has been upgraded: say hello to my Rocky Road Nests!

Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake

As much as I love baking, I'm the most unadventurous person in the world.

I don't experiment. At all. Yes, I'll try new recipes and attempt to challenge myself, but when it comes to even slightly straying from the instructions I panic and completely refuse. Technical Thursdays meant I tried recipes for things I'd never heard of and could barely pronounce, but I followed the instructions to the letter. I have lots of ideas for recipes but never have the courage to try them out, but for some reason I'm feeling vaguely brave at the moment, so decided to transform an annotated doodle of a cake on a post-it note into reality.

For full disclaimer: this is a baby step and not nearly as impressive as it sounds! I worked out exactly how I wanted the cake to look, then trawled through the BBC Good Food website to find various recipes that I could mix together to make it happen.

The Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake was born, combining a duck egg sponge with tart raspberry jam, a white chocolate buttercream and enough Mini Eggs to potentially single-handedly keep Cadbury's in business this year. Boom.

Maltesers (Bunny) Cupcakes

I've been following Cupcake Jemma on Instagram for a while, so when she recently opened a bakery - Crumbs & Doilies - in Kingly Court, Soho, I was obviously intrigued. Throw in a detailed cake of Westeros and I was officially a little obsessed. Good heavens, the cakes look outstanding. I'm not joking when I say the Crumbs & Doilies Instagram page is absolute filth - the cupcakes are beautiful, but it's the full-sized cakes that are simply stunning, from expertly blended ombre frosting to dripping chocolate over crisp white buttercream, these cakes were made for social media, no filter required.

No surprises, but it instantly shot to the top of my list of places to visit when I'm next in London (and not dieting...). Having stalked the Instagram page for long enough I headed over to YouTube for a look at the recipe tutorials, and that's where I found these Maltesers Cupcakes.

Determined as I was to try them out, in the spirit of all things Easter it seemed only fitting to swap in an iconic Maltesers Bunny on the top for a suitably themed batch of cupcakes. They definitely did not disappoint...

Hot Cross Scones

I have my baking mojo back! And, in a wonderful turn of events it's nearly Easter, so get ready for an onslaught of Easter themed bakes over the next fortnight...

Hot cross buns are an Easter staple. Whether you're a diehard fan of the traditional fruity ones, or have been tempted off the straight and narrow by the likes of M&S's chocolate and fudge variety, they're always a firm favourite over the Easter period. I was going to try and find a recipe and give them a go this year - oddly I've never attempted them before - but as soon as I came across this corker on the Delicious Magazine website I changed my mind entirely.

Baking hybrids are everywhere at the moment: cronuts, duffins, cruffins... if it's possible to combine products then odds are a bakery somewhere in the world has tried it. Well, why not at Easter too? Everyone loves scones, so what better invention than a Hot Cross Scone?! This recipe combines the fruit and spice found in a hot cross bun with the crumbly texture of a scone, and the result is pretty special indeed.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

I celebrated my 19th birthday a few years ago with a BBQ party at home with all of my best pals, neighbours and family friends. At the time I'd just started to seriously enjoy baking, so used my birthday as the perfect opportunity to make a huge selection of bakes from The Hummingbird Bakery book, Cake Days. I planned out the couple of days before the party with military precision and spent them hiding in the kitchen from dawn till dusk so that for the party there was a table of cakes, cookies, tarts and whoopie pies for everyone to enjoy. Of everything I made, this is the cake that had the most compliments, and the one that I still have people asking me for the recipe literally years later. Well, here it is...

Fans of chocolate, rejoice, as this cake will be utter heaven for you, and in a not entirely coincidental turn of events it contains Guinness, so it's pretty appropriate for St Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Whether you're just in the mood for cake, or if you need/ want to make something themed for St Patrick's Day then you can't go wrong with this Chocolate Guinness Cake topped with a cream cheese frosting. Delicious doesn't even cover it.

Strawberry & White Chocolate Muffins

Baking posts have been rather lacking recently. Since I became stuck in a routine of Technical Thursdays each week and then went a little mad in December and did an insane amount of Christmas baking, I've taken a little break from my favourite hobby. January was a relatively baking-free zone for me.

However, aside from the fact that I just enjoy it, I find baking to be a huge stress-reliever. When everything starts to get a bit much and life verges on becoming totally overwhelming, plugging in my fuchsia KitchenAid, switching on the oven and mixing in a selection of ingredients together to magically create something delicious (or not so: disasters do happen after all…) calms me down like nothing else. Yesterday was one of those drowning-in-my-head sort of days.

The logical step to combat this? Grabbing the first recipe book to hand - the Be-Ro book, obviously - and making a batch of Strawberry & White Chocolate Muffins. I might not be able to eat them, but making them has made the day before feel like a storm in a teacup. And, as they're vaguely Galentine's/Valentine's in theme, it made sense to include the recipe here, today.

Whether you're looking for last-minute Galentine's Day treats for your very best pals or a super easy recipe using the most traditional of Valentine's Day flavours then these muffins are exactly what you're looking for.