baking – Page 2 – CraftyGuider

The Great Girlguiding Anglia Bake Off

I am a fan of the Great British Bake Off. I love baking and come from a long line of bakers. When I heard that Girlguiding Anglia, the Guiding Region I belong to, was doing a Bake Off badge, I knew I had to look into it.

As well as the badge, Girlguiding Anglia is running a baking competition for Guides (aged 10-14), Senior Section (Rangers and Young Leaders aged 14-25), and adult leaders (aged 18+). The idea was to have units find their own star bakers, send them up to the next level to find their local area (District) champion, and then to their wider area (Division), County and finally the Anglia Region final.Our unit competition resulted in 4 cakes coming in from the Guides. They were asked to bake a Victoria sponge at home, and the leader team had the task of tasting them. Sometimes, being a leader is tough. We selected 2 Guides to go through to the next round.For the District round, I was asked to help organise a bake sale to run alongside the bake off to raise money for local Guiding. Our local tea room hosted us one evening and all the Guides, Senior Section members and adults were invited to bake something to sell to parents and friends.

The Guide winners from the two local units had their Victoria sponges judged by 2 members of the WI, the owner of the tea room and Henry the Mercury Newshound from the local paper (the reason why there is a 6ft dog in the background of the photo!). Senior Section and leaders were also invited to enter scones for the Senior Section and a ‘light fruit cake’ for the leaders. I did my duty and several fruit cakes later in a quest to find a qualifying recipe, produced probably the worst thing I have baked in a while for the competition. As the only adult entrant, I progressed to the next round.At the Division bake off round, I was up against 2 other leaders to try and make amends for my earlier failure. One of the leaders was unable to finish, so my new recipe cake was up against this lovely, bunting festooned fruit loaf.Somehow I managed to win by 1 point and fruit cake number 8 (yes, I took this competition seriously!) got me to the County semi finals.At the Hertfordshire County semi finals, I needed to bake Religieuses. For those who are up on their Great British Bake Off trivia, they were Mary Berry’s technical challenge in pastry week of series 4. Do you remember the ugly nuns?

I practised a couple of times as choux pastry is something I’ve only ever baked once before. I asked for hints and tips and managed to get my little practice choux buns to rise into something resembling the cakes they make on the Bake Off (yes, I did watch the episode on YouTube!).Three Guides, Senior Section members and adult leaders competed with apple pies (Guides), chocolate fruit tarts (Senior Section) and Religieuses (adult leaders) following the same recipe.

When the County team gave out comments after judging and included the word ‘dainty’, I knew I hadn’t won. My effort to get a choux bun to rise as much as possible worked against me, and I think they were a bit soft once filled. I also had a few nuns who were a bit wayward so choosing my best ones for judging was tricky.I took the remaining cakes home with me to be enjoyed by the gluten eating side of the family. This cake was my lunch and I really enjoyed it. The Craftyguidelets have said lovely things about my cakes, and they are the only judges I want to impress (well, apart from my Master Baker dad who I have impressed about 4 times in my lifetime with my bakes).

I will now go back to baking for fun and baking lots of gluten free cakes so husband can share in the calorie intake.

The Bake Off is only one of the many varied activities open to girls, young women and adults in Guiding. Come and get involved in the largest youth organisation for girls in the UK today during Volunteer’s week.

Review – How to Bake by Paul Hollywood

I’ve had Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book since it came out in 2012 and I have used it for simple bread recipes. The problem is that it is a gluten fest and anything I bake from it can’t be eaten by gluten intolerant Mr CG. This means extras for the Craftyguidelets and myself, but that means an expanding waistline for me!To try something different, I used Paul’s recipe for Hot Cross Buns rather than my normal cut-from-a-magazine-and-stashed-in-my-recipe-file one which I’ve used before. I say “used the recipe”, but I follow my Master Baker Dad’s advice and bung in much more dried fruit and spices than normal recipes state.The recipe was easy to follow, and some of the techniques such as piping the crosses on brought back memories of when my brothers and sister and I “helped” in the bakehouse when we were young.It took several hours to keep proving the dough at each stage before I could bake them, but having been brought up in a family bakery with my Dad’s fruity, spicy hot cross buns, I can’t buy the sorry excuses that supermarkets sell these days.They turned out really well and were probably a bit knobbly because I’d crammed in so much fruit, but they were delicious.Warm from the oven and spread with butter. Definitely not Slimming World friendly, but Easter only happens once a year. Unless you count Orthodox Easter of course!

Disclaimer: I own this book and I haven’t been asked to review it, or been paid to review it. All opinions are my own, and I have added some links to the normal Amazon site where I bought my copy. They are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.

Guides do : Chinese Year of the Sheep

On the 22nd February every year, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are encouraged to think about all their fellow Guides and Scouts around the world. The day is named World Thinking Day and was chosen because it was the shared birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting, and his wife Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the first World Chief Guide.Another Guiding tradition is the donation of the Thinking Day Penny. It was suggested that as it was the Founder’s birthday, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts could send gifts in the form of a voluntary contribution. Olave Baden-Powell suggested a penny, and the money has gone to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) ever since to support girls and young women around the world. Even though a penny could have got you much more in those days than now, we still collect pennies to donate to the World Thinking Day Fund. We don’t get the Brasso out and shine them any more like I used to in the 80’s though!For the international element of our meeting, the adult leaders had already chosen China as a theme due to the Chinese new year being next week. We then handed over to the two Young Leaders to choose some extra activities with the Guides, and then I was despatched to Hobbycraft with a list for the following week.As it is going to be the Chinese Year of the Sheep, I’d already decided to contribute this decorated cupcake idea that I’d spotted on Pinterest. See – all that procrastinating does pay off!I’m not sure how many sheep made it home in one piece, so I made sure I emailed pictures to the parents to show them that the Guides had actually done something!Another idea was making lanterns which turned out really well, especially with the battery powered tea lights in the bottom.Not so successful were the fortune cookies. I was a bit dubious when I was asked to provide ingredients, but one Guide told me she’d made them at Brownie Pack Holiday once. If a Brownie can make it, it must be easy. They’d obviously had more experience, or not used the recipe I found online. They tasted nice though and the Guides all swapped fortunes which they’d written inside.Our finale was our Chinese dragon. The Young Leaders asked for boxes and bottles, and I think the Guide parents took the opportunity to lighten their recycling bins this week. Not many were used in construction, but it had a head, body and tail, and every Guide managed to get underneath so a success!

If you think that you would enjoy being surrounded by icing, despairing over cracking fortune cookies and helping to engineer lantern bases, come and join the fun! Click here for more details.

Review – Sweets Made Simple by Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood

Last year I was blown away by the BBC2 series ‘Sweets Made Simple’ with Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood. I loved the variety of sweets and the way the programme was presented. I downloaded the book to my tablet but found that it was neglected. Just before Christmas I treated myself to the hardback copy and was able to appreciate the recipes much better.The first part of the book has some really helpful notes about the alchemy of sweet making: important things to remember when working with hot sugar, what the difference between soft ball and hard crack is, the ins and outs of using chocolate, and how to store your creations when you are done. Who am I kidding? Storing the sweets? They’ll all be gone before they need to be stored!The first recipe I tried was Raspberry Marshmallows. Even from the first stage of making the raspberry coulis (or lovely ruby-red mush as described in the book) I was hooked.You need to devote a good hour or so making it, followed by a couple of hours sitting on your hands, resisting the urge to dig a spoon in and eat your body weight in creamy, sugary loveliness.This marshmallow is GORGEOUS! The raspberry coulis is marbled through the soft creamy marshmallow, and the fresh raspberries are juicy little accents. I think this should be one of your five a day.There are so many recipes I’ll be trying in this book. Next on the list is Penuche which is a type of fudge, and I’ve got enough ingredients in the cupboard to try making Cinder Toffee. Looks like the Slimming World target is slipping further away…

Review – Gluten Free Baking by Michael McCamley

In my quest to use more of my book collection, I had to start somewhere, and cake is a very good place to start.

Mr Craftyguider has a gluten intolerance, so to make sure he can share some of the responsibility of consuming cake calories, I mostly bake with gluten free ingredients. Because of the nature of gluten free ingredients, I usually follow recipes that are specifically gluten free rather than just substituting gluten free flour for wheat flour in standard recipes.

Michael McCamley’s Gluten Free Baking book was recommended by someone on twitter and there is a wide variety of bakes inside. I am after the elusive recipe for decent gluten free bread and pastry I can bake at home.The book starts with an introduction on what gluten is, the different problems people can experience with an allergy or intolerance to gluten, where to look for gluten in foods, and what alternatives are available.I chose the recipe for banana muffins with maple cream frosting from the first chapter as I had all the ingredients to hand, as well as some very spotty bananas to use up. The recipe method isn’t as detailed as some I’ve used in the past, and the mix looked wrong at some stages of the process. However, I trusted the recipe and got to a mix consistency I recognised as cake batter at the end.The resulting cake tasted as good as it looks, and I couldn’t tell that it was a gluten free cake. It was lovely and moist, had loads of banana, and the maple syrup cream cheese frosting was divine. We ate them over 3 days and they kept perfectly well in a tin in the fridge.There is a wide variety of cakes and biscuits in this book and I will definitely be trying more out based on my first success. The book gives recipes for flours to blend at home to make the various mixes (e.g. bread flour, self raising etc.), but I prefer using the Doves Farm branded pre-blended flours available from most supermarkets where I can. I once counted 19 different types of gluten free flours and standard wheat flours in my baking cupboard when I used to do home blends. That was too much to store and keep track of, so I’m currently at about 8.Breads and Savoury Pastries are the gluten free recipes I’ve never mastered. I think that the structure the gluten gives them is more important than in a cake. Perhaps this is the book that will solve these problems.These Phil Vickery books were the first gluten free books I tried that I had success with (and also the reason I had lots of flours to blend in my cupboard!).My go to book for easy baking is the Cake Angels book by Julia Thomas. It uses basic ingredients that are easy to get hold of, the instructions are simple to understand, and there is a wide range of cake recipes. Again, the recipes don’t taste like they are gluten free. She does also make the recipes dairy free, but I sometimes substitute the dairy free ingredients for ones that contain dairy as we don’t have a problem with lactose.

Do you have a favourite gluten free baking book which always gives you good results?

Disclaimer: I own all of these books and I haven’t been asked to review them, or been paid to review them. All opinions are my own, and I have added some links to the normal Amazon site where I bought my copies. They are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.

Craftingspiration – Craft Books

I love craft and cooking books. They give me inspiration, techniques, ideas, instruction, patterns, recipes, hints and tips. Some have been recommended to me. Some are from TV series I’ve enjoyed. Some are gifts. Some are swaps. Some are prizes. Once they are in the house, I won’t let them go.

I’ve found that I either just use the same couple of pages over and over again, or don’t use them at all after the initial look through when they first come to me. Looking at some of these afresh, I am determined to use them, and in doing so, I might clear some of my crafty stash as well.

I’ve decided to start with cake. Ingredients are ordered. Ready, set, bake!

Are any of these on your shelf?

Meal Planning Monday 4.11.13

I’ve been away from meal planning for a few weeks. Time, disorganisation and a weekend away have meant that I’ve been winging it or planning and not blogging. This week needs a bit more careful planning.

Last Monday’s storm knocked out our power and tripped the mains switch. We were away, so when we came back on Tuesday evening, we had to clear two fridges and freezers of food. I rely on my freezer a lot. I am a vegetarian, husband is gluten intolerant (amongst other things), and therefore I cook most meals from scratch. Rather than be a slave to the kitchen, I batch cook and keep my freezer stocked up. Therefore I can cook one type of meal and just defrost the other. I also keep uneaten portions of food, homemade bread, herbs, some fruits and a whole host of other bits in the freezer, and they are now in the bin. It’s such a waste.

No more freezer diving for a while. I even ate a commercial ready meal for the first time in years last week. Not good. I had to bake two loaves of bread last week because the Craftyguidelets were at home. I normally have a jacket potato or something else that suits my Slimming World programme so just pull a couple of slices from a frozen loaf if they are home. I also came unstuck with a lack of gluten free breadcrumbs and other ingredients that I normally just pick from the freezer or fridge.

We do have a glut of chocolate though after a trip to Cadbury World. Or we did have. I seem to have eaten rather a lot…

With a food delivery today, this is what we’ll be eating this week.

Monday Fish pie
Tuesday Toad in the hole
Wednesday Chicken cordon bleu
Thursday Spaghetti bolognese
Friday Vegetable goulash
Saturday Tuna pasta bake
Sunday Roast

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday.

Meal Planning Monday 7.10.13

Last week was a week of in and out and dashing about which meant meal preparation was tricky. A lot of the meals were either pre-prepared or quick to cook so I could just pop them into the oven or bung a few ingredients in the slow cooker.

Sunday was the exception. For the second week in a row we had a roast dinner. I always make sure we have lots of veggies as I don’t eat meat, and this week we even had a home cooked pudding.

The Craftyguidelets made a gluten free apple crumble. It tasted delicious with a big dollop of custard.

This is what we have planned for this week:

Monday Macaroni cheese

Tuesday Ham egg and chips

Wednesday Freezer dive

Thursday Cider braised pork chops

Friday Fish pie

Saturday Take away or freezer dive

Sunday I’m out all day. Do I get Mr CG to cook a roast on his own whilst looking after the Craftyguidelets?

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday link party. What have you got cooking this week?

Meal Planning Monday 23.9.13

Last week’s menu had it’s successes and failures. Last minute changes to my afternoon schedules meant that the ratatouille had to be made in the slow cooker and turned out a bit soggy. However the chicken cordon bleu went down very well with the family and I’ve been asked to add it to the list of regular meals.

I love making vegetable goulash. The smell of smoked paprika is divine, and look at all these lovely colours together.

I’ve also been busy on the baking front. Rather than make a loaf of bread, I chose to make some rolls from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book. I’m so pleased how they came out, although I’m yet to try one and they went straight into the freezer.

I’ve also been baking with the kids. Eldest Craftyguidelet saw a truffle recipe in her Moshi Monsters magazine which contained biscuits. As Mr Craftyguider is gluten intolerant, I chose a truffle recipe from the Eat Yourself Thin book instead, and we coated them with the hundreds and thousands that were in the magazine, with some gluten free sugar strands for Mr CG. I don’t think chocolate and honey mixed with coffee is ever going to make me thin though, so I might leave the family to munch through these.

We also made the Millionaires Shortbread recipe from my favourite gluten free baking book, Cake Angels. The Craftyguidelets rechristened it Minionaires shortbread due to their obsession with all things Despicable Me.

This week is a bit on the busy side so the menu will be fairly simple.

Monday: Ham, egg and chips

Tuesday: Bolognaise

Wednesday: Fish pie

Thursday: Something in the slow cooker

Friday: Vegetable pasta

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Roast something!

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday. Have a look to see what everyone else is cooking up this week.