Coffee Cake vs Essay Writing

I have a deadline coming up soon. Two in fact, in quick succession. 

So of course I baked a cake this evening, whilst watching the iron lady. 

It's a strange kind of coffee cake. Again a little made up, but surprisingly sucessful:

200g butter

200g sugar

3 eggs

Coffee (made super strong coffee in cafetiere, then boiled this on the hob until it was super concentrated) 

about 200g self raising flour - enough to make it cake batter looking

Then there's a cheeky hollow in the middle with coffee buttercream in - but you can't really see it in the photos... then coffee glace icing on the top. 

New point system:

Housemate envy + 5/10 (it's kind of safe, but everyone loves coffee cake it seems) 

Presentation points + 1/10 (big fat mess - top layer may or may not have broken in two when removed from tin...)

Yummy points + 8/10  (light sponge, but not enough coffee taste)

Total points today : 14/30

Beetroot cup cakes

To celebrate being back home in plymouth, I baked beetroot cupcakes yesterday - made up the recipe and everything!

Make like a normal sponge:

175g butter

180g sugar

175g s.f. raising flour

3 eggs

1 cooked beetroot cut into small bits. 

Icing is normal buttercream icing coloured with beetroot juice.

They kind of spilled over the cup cake cases, so they are pretty big! I think next time, I will puree the beetroot in the cake mix rather than chop. 

Yum yum yum! 

Goodbye to Sussex!

I leave in the morning to go back to uni - but just a tree pic before I do...

With my 5ft10 brother for scale

Cup cake experiments

Today I experimented with icing - I made 12 lemon infused cup cakes (Ruddy good sponge if I say so myself!), then played with icings. There was a chocolate and brandy ganache, a lemon glacé icing, a lemony cream cheese icing, and then a few were made into lemon drizzles. They don't look like much, but they were pretty perfect, I'm proud.

Christmas tree cutting

So, today we cut our Christmas tree. Cameron climbed up and took the top out of what was once a Christmas tree itself, which has grown to be about a 40 footer! Cam took the top 15 feet off the top, and I stood as supervision. It is so rainy and gross outside. POO.

Some Jammy dodgers I made a few days ago

Tree before...

....Now with a hefty gap.

Our poor neglected play set. 

New Years Resolution

I know it's a tad early, but I've made my resolution; Bake once a week.
Back in 2011, my resolution was similar but more vague; Bake More. I loved this, and so did my lucky friends. A few examples....

So now, for 2013, I've made a list of 52 recipes. I've tried to challenge myself with things and techniques I've never done before. I hope that this will allow me to establish some good recipes to play around with and adapt.

The list includes Chocolate and Raspberry brûlée, Lemon Meringue Pie, Ginger Florentines... beautiful things. I'm just going to have to run more!

And all this is in aid of..... My future career. Yes, I am training to be an architect right now, but I have been thinking about a little bakery for a LONG time. I would love nothing more than to live doing something I love. So I've half made the decision to set up a bakery after I finish my degree, instead of pursuing architecture forever.

I am encouraged by my friend Lilly, who set up a brilliant launderette with her sisters. They seemed to have fun doing it too!

Stockholm Photos

I got my film back from the processors!!! YES!!! I think I used a 400??  B&W film. Never been so nervous to pick up a developed film!

Took photos of the prints on another camera - I apologise for this; the prints are better in real life! Also - sorry for the bad White Balance on a few!