Fifteen Bakes

This year I've still managed to fit in a baking session in amongst my studies; it's often just what I need to forget about the everyday and still quench my need to be creative and make something- even better that you can eat it! As well as sticking the recipe, I love to tweak things a bit, and there's been the baked creations from family and friends too. So this year:

1.   Apple cake

2.   Scones   by my Dad

3.   Apricot and yoghurt loaf cake   from Waitrose

4.   Victoria sponge

5.   Chocolate jumbles   adapted from Nigel Slater

6.   Lemon and lime drizzle cake   adapted from Mary Berry

7.   Apricot, honey and pistachio   from Twigg Studio

8.   Hazelnut and chocolate banana bread   adapted from Nigella

9.   Eton mess

10. Orange blossom flapjack   from Honey & Co - The Baking Book

11. Gluten-free chocolate cake   from Doves Farm

12. Vanilla biscuits   from BBC Good Food

13. Birthday Bake Off creations   by my colleagues

14. Cinnamon, cardamon and orange bundt   adapted from Honey & Co - The Baking Book

15. Winter berry pavlova

Wedding Biscuits

Last weekend we celebrated the marriage of my oldest friend Alana to her man Liam in our village church and at a beautiful venue after. Being at this time of year, the manor house was decked with gorgeous decorations, and the occasion for celebration really got us into the Christmas spirit.

For the wedding I made a collection of bride and groom heart shaped cookies that Alana had spotted on Pinterest earlier on in the year. For the biscuit base I made a basic dough and added vanilla essence for the brides and orange zest and cinnamon for the grooms, a more Christmassy flavour.

I had never done any icing like this before so YouTube videos and blogs were really useful in learning techniques. Sweet Ambs creates absolutely beautiful biscuits and has fantastic pages on royal icing consistencies and decorating techniques. I have invested in a narrow piping head so making patterns like on the free-hand swirls on the dress and the pearl necklace were much simpler (squeeze-stop-swipe). For the "flooding" of the base colour I just snipped off the end of the piping bag. It's important to use royal icing as it contains dried egg whites which means the icing will dry solid.

These biscuits were really fun to make and with the baking equipment that I'm collecting up, I'm hoping to decorate more in the future. They're great for making gifts - I've have made some snowflakes for Christmas - and with the biscuit dough, the flavours are endless.

Apple & Beetroot

The obsession with vegetable cakes continues... recently we had some gorgeous golden beetroot and Local Greens recommended trying these apple and beetroot muffins. The golden veg has a delicious sweet flavour and, alongside the apple, goes incredibly well with the spices. As with the courgette and parsnip cakes, the beetroot keeps the cake moist. The recipe is very simple so whether you can a golden beet or the more conventional red one, give it a go!

Ginger Biscuits

When we were little, Mum would give us chocolates to hang on the tree, and if we were peckish after school, Al and I would sneak into the lounge and nibble away at one. Every tree needs something edible and so I made some gingerbread decorations over the weekend. I used this recipe with some adaption, adding more golden syrup instead of black treacle and replaced the separate cinnamon and cloves for ground mixed spice. The finished cookies have a lovely ginger flavour and aren't too spicy. I tried out cooking batches for different lengths of time; the longer the better (though don't let them burn) as they biscuits crisp up nicely and don't go soggy and fall off the tree... I've got some dough left over in the fridge so I'll make another batch later on in the week.

Chocolate & Beetroot

I had an urge to bake last week and so I went back to a recipe I have been tempted by for a long while. I like to try more unusual flavour combinations, like the courgette cake, and this time it was Nigel Slater’s chocolate beetroot cake. The beetroot flavour is there but very subtle and the cake itself is rich and moist. The recipe is very easy to follow but make sure you have an electric whisk to hand – soft peaks takes a long time with a hand whisk! Mum and Dad popped over on Sunday and enjoyed their slice, and Dan won’t let me take the rest to work… so it must be good!

Lemon and Poppies

A birthday is a great excuse for me to get baking (although simply bringing in baked goods for my colleagues seems to be too at the moment!) For Louise and Mike's birthday I decided to bake a lemon and poppy seed cake, adapted from this Mary Berry recipe. I simply added the poppy seeds and a squeeze of lemon juice. The decoration was inspired by the Lovecrumbs Bakery in Edinburgh which I came across this week. Their flavour combinations sound magical and visually the cakes are beautiful. If ever I'm up in Edinburgh I'll be sure to go.

Back to the birthday cake, it went down a treat so I think this is a recipe to be replicated again and again!