Ring out the old, bring in the new...

This Christmas marks a huge turning point in my life - I am leaving behind a career that I trained for years to do and have been successful in, but has slowly made me ill. I have decided to take a leap of faith and leave the profession to do something else. I'm nervous, but I'm also excited as my new role will leave me with spare time that I didn't have before to indulge in my passion for baking. 2013 will be a big year for me in lots of ways - particularly as I will be taking on the challenge of making my own wedding cake. I hope you'll keep popping by to share the baking adventures!

As money is tight this Christmas, I have been making lots of presents. I will be creating little videos to show you how to make these items in the new year -  I can't put them on here until the gifts have been given out, but I am looking forward to giving Becky BakesWell a bit of an overhaul over the next few months. Help me make this blog even more exciting, by telling me on the comments page what you would like to see more of! 

I thought I'd leave you with a quick photo of the batch of Christmas cupcakes that I was making in my last post and a link to a Becky BakesWell playlist of funky Christmas soul tunes to help you shake what your mamma gave you as you craft, bake and gift-wrap your way into a very merry Christmas! 

Soul Christmas Playlist

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Becky BakesWell x 

Quick snapshot

A couple of quick pics to show what I've been up to lately... 

Sorry this little post is so short today - I'm in the middle of creating a special batch of Christmas cupcakes - pop back tomorrow for more info!

Happy Baking,

Becky BakesWell x

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.'

The words in the famous quote above are credited as being uttered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and are ones which I would like to live by. However, this can be hard at times as believing that my dreams for Becky BakesWell are achievable can mean Parkour-style leaps of faith and soaking up words of wisdom and constructive feedback with SpongeBob levels absorbency! The BakesWell blog receives lots of visits, but needs more subscribers/followers. For me, baking is about making my home a cosy place to be and extending the hand of friendship to somebody in sweet form. Our first friendships as children were often struck over a shared bag of sweets or playground swaps from lunch boxes. It's with this view in mind that I'd love this blog to become more interactive and for there to be more of a conversation between me and you beautiful people out there!

I'd like to make some changes and improvements to the BakesWell blog, so that I can give you more of what you'd like to see. Would you like to receive a weekly 'love list' of food/baking related goodies? What about cookery book of the month recommendations? Would you like baking hints/tips videos? How about a place to share your ideas? I want this blog to be a place filled with eye candy, ideas and advice, so I need your suggestions and feedback. Please pass on your ideas on the comments section below!

Thanks for your help,

Becky BakesWell

Show Your Support For Hyde Park Community Orchard!

Regular readers of my blog will know I'm lucky enough to be local to this lovely park in Tameside and that the squirrels who call the park home inspired me to bake my gingerbread squirrels. Adjacent to the cafe in Hyde Park is the community orchard, which was created through funding from the Connecting Communities Fund, supported by Councillor Philip Fitzpatrick. 

More recently, Operation Farm, a local food growing project secured funding from Groundwork UK and Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme to improve the orchard as a place for local people to enjoy. The orchard contains 44 fruit trees planted by children from local primary schools and students from Tameside College. Types of fruit grown in the orchard include pear, apple, plum, damson and cherry. Honey is also produced from a nearby beehive in the park. 

The park is a beautiful place to spend an Autumn afternoon, especially with little ones. There's a nature-inspired artwork trail, an intricate mosaic laid by local primary school children and designed by local artist Jacqui Symons, which depicts the fruit varieties grown in the orchard. There's also a wildflower meadow, a children's playground, a cafe run by the Operation Farm team and an impressive sculpture of a squirrel carved from a tree in the park by Preston based artist Thompson Dagnall. 

Photo credit: http://hydedaily.blogspot.co.uk/

However this Sunday -  21st October 2012 is going to be particularly exciting in the park! To celebrate Apple Day, there will be a whole host of exciting activities to mark the occasion and to raise awareness of our precious local resource. Check out the poster for the event above and come along to show your support! 

There are other ways to get involved and show your support for the orchard though - you could become a Friend of Hyde Park Orchard by joining the Facebook community group page here. 

http://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfHydeParkOrchardTameside

You could also subscribe to the Hyde Park Community Orchard newsletter, find out how to help the orchard grow into the future and more about the friendly Operation Farm gang at their blog here!

http://operationfarm.wordpress.com/

The orchard has been created for everyone to visit, learn from and cherish and I can't wait to pick my own fruit to make Becky BakesWell goodies with! Pack a picnic and celebrate with us! 

Becky BakesWell  x

Autumn Days

Autumn always seems to be associated with nostalgia for me - in particular, memories of being at primary school. Maybe it's because life can be simple and comforting when you are seven and the only problems I faced were a lost pump from my PE kit or that my handwriting was never going to be as neat as Pippa A's.

Something in the drizzly dampness of yesterday's weather reminded me of my primary school days. A world organised by labelled drawers and coat hooks and rooms which smelled of powder paint and pencil sharpenings. I loved cosy afternoons curled up on the carpet for story time and morning assemblies spent singing hymns in the hall with its parquet floor. I spent a few years inadvertently singing some of the hymns with the wrong words. Did anyone else think it was 'Handstand where ever you may be' or was that just me..?

A lot of my memories of baking around this age stem from time I spent with my Nan. We would go for a walk around Stalybridge and as a treat I would either get to spend some time and some pocket money in the little cake decorating shop on a side street off the Market Hall or we would go to Mellors bakers and my Nan would buy me a gingerbread man.

I loved the spicy, hard biscuit man with his chocolate dipped legs. I would always eat his feet first and leave his head until last - I don't know what that says about me... My love of gingerbread started there, but I wanted to create seasonal gingerbread biscuits that would seem a little out of the ordinary. I live near a park so squirrels tend to hop in and out of the gardens from time to time. The idea of a gingerbread squirrel was born and the rest they say, is history...

Bramcakes

Brambles feature heavily in my childhood memories as I used to go brambling with my mum and in school holidays with my Nan. We used to walk along the tow paths filling up a motley crew of jars, Tupperware boxes and plastic bags with the inky berries to take home for my Mum's crumbles or my Nan's blackberry wine. I'm going through a bramble phase at the moment as they are more tasty than the blackberries in the supermarket, they're in season, fun to pick and free - always useful in a recession! Today I decided I wanted them to go with pancakes as an Autumn alternative to summery blueberry pancakes. Dan named them Bramcakes and the name has stuck. Why not go for a wander and pick some this weekend and give them a try?


1) I rinsed and drained the brambles then drizzled a teaspoonful of maple syrup over them and swirled the berries around the bowl to cover them in the amber liquid.

2) I lightly bruised the berries a little to encourage them to give up their beautiful claret juices.

3) Once the pancake batter had been ladled into the pan, I waited for 'pinprick' dots to appear on the top side and then used a teaspoon to drop some of the berries and their juices on to the uncooked side.

4) The pancakes were then flipped over to get burnished and golden on the other side. The brambles bleed their juices into the pancakes and lend a lovely jammy taste to their fluffy interiors. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream and a shake of cinnamon if you like. 

If I'm brutally honest, these pancakes are not as pretty as imagined they would look but this could be rectified by making a simple cooked sauce out of the brambles. You could just tumble the brambles into a small, heavy bottomed saucepan, drizzle over a glossy slick of maple syrup and swirl the two around over a low heat until the berries burst and create a syrupy Vimto hued sauce. Mmmmmmmm....

Becky Bakeswell ® is now a Registered Trademark!

Wow!!!!!!!! After months of waiting, and various people telling me to get it done, exciting times are ahead for 'Becky Bakeswell' as my much loved business name is now a Registered Trademark! Best get on with some celebratory baking! 

Neighbourhood Batch

Just wanted to give a shout out and some friendly publicity for a great new business idea - Neighbourhood Batch! Neighbourhood Batch is a gem of a small business that's recently opened as a service operating in the London area where people can order from a variety of cakes/cookies/sweet treats and small, independent bakers can sell their goods through the site for an agreed price (taking into account the small fee that the Batch team charge to cover delivery costs). The Neighbourhood Batch team pick up the goodies from the sellers and deliver them to the happy people who have placed their orders! 

At the moment, Neighbourhood Batch is only operating in the London area, but if there are any readers out there who live in the London area, you should have a nosy on the site. Friendly Dan at the Neighbourhood Batch told me that he hopes to expand further afield if there's enough interest. 

This seems to be a good service which supports local bakers and helps to deliver cake happiness to all, so support Dan and the Batch team by checking out the site and the twitter page!

http://www.neighbourhoodbatch.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/hoodbatch

Becky Bakeswell x 

Royal Icing Celebration Cakes - Update

It has been a while since I updated the blog about my cake decorating course - I received my result and my certificate in the post last week and I'm happy to say that I received a Merit! The final cake I had to decorate on the course was a square celebration cake, which I chose to decorate as a Christening/Baby Naming Ceremony cake. As my sister-in-law to be was pregnant, I decided to decorate the cake for the baby. A few days before the cake was completed, she had a baby boy named Ellis and this is the finished design, decorated in honour of him. 

One of the cakes that was not an assessed component of the course was a royal iced Christmas cake. As this cake was not being assessed, I gave it its coat of royal icing, but didn't get round to completing it. It has been bugging me, so I decided to finish it off. I decided I wanted the cake to have a homespun, slightly kitsch feel to it, so I used my gingerbread man run-out decoration as the central part of my design. I made tiny holly leaf run-outs and candy canes, which would be the decoration for the sides of the cake.

One of the challenges of the design was to pipe the 'Merry Christmas' greeting in script style handwriting using red icing. I decided to pipe the greeting in white icing first and then over-pipe this in red, to minimize the effects of any mistakes. The 's' scroll and shell borders 'frame' the cake and the green over-piping on the shell border pulls the scheme together, unifying the various red and green aspects of the design. The finishing touch is red grosgrain ribbon with tiny white stitch borders - perfect for the homespun feel I was aiming for. I might use a number 2 tube in future for the 'Merry Christmas' greeting as the tube can get quite easily blocked and ruin the fluency of the script needed for a perfect finish.

Loved decorating the cakes though and I'm looking forward to doing similar designs for celebration cake orders!

Becky Bakeswell

Introducing...the Autumn Collection

Blustery winds and drizzly days have turned my thoughts to the Autumn months ahead and so I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of some of the treats available to order. With Hallowe'en around the corner, I thought I'd make some Pumpkin Cupcakes - pumpkin pie flavoured sponge with a zesty orange frosting. Yum!

I've paired these with Toffee Apple Cupcakes - cinnamon and apple sponge with a sticky toffee glaze. These would also be perfect treats to serve alongside the bangers, jacket potatoes, chilli and treacle toffee for a Bonfire Night party or barbecue. 

Watch out for the Gingerbread Squirrels and Bonfire Cupcakes coming soon! 

Becky Bakeswell x

Keep Calm and Keep Counting...

It might seem very early to be posting about mince pies and indeed it is - even for a Christmas fanatic like me. However, there is method in my madness. I like to test out recipes a few times to perfect them before making them for other people. The twitchy, perfectionist gene makes it difficult to feel at ease with handing over goodies without being perfectly happy with them. Particularly as I feel that when I bake, I put lots of effort and care and attention into what I do, so it can be hard to put it on a plate for it to be judged. Judged it must be though, if it is to be tweaked to perfection.

The other reason why making some Christmas goodies early is because if you choose what you bake wisely, you can bake in a leisurely fashion and freeze things ready for your culinary rainy day. Or, you could order them from me...  ;-)

I can't ever remember making mince pies myself. It has always been a family affair. I used to make them occasionally with my mum, as part of a childhood baking routine which also involved rock buns, butterfly cakes and the occasional strawberry flan. My real memories of baking tend to revolve around my Nan though. My Nan was a good teacher, and if I'm honest, the central most influential figure in my love of baking.

As soon as I could hold a wooden spoon in my hand and stir ingredients in a big baking bowl, I was scooped up on to the counter top and my baking days began. My Nan also had a fetching assortment of 1960s Doris Day styles aprons which I would dress up in and I would write my own 'recipes' in her handwritten recipe book. Although not necessarily in the right order - "eat it, beat it and bake it' was one of my immortal lines!

My Nan would deviate from tradition with her mince pies by making flaky pastry rather than shortcrust pastry. This made the pies lighter than usual. I used to watch her make the pastry by hand, endlessly folding the pastry into thirds and dotting each third with shortening. She would roll the pastry out neither too thick nor thin and it would be my job to use a fluted cutter to stamp out the frilly edged circles and press each one into the cups of the bun trays. Together, we'd drop spoonfuls of mincemeat into each pastry filled cup and press a frilly edged hat on to each one. My Nan would tell me to 'dibble dabble' them an egg-wash glaze and  into the oven they'd go. It's a tradition I'm looking forward to carrying on with little ones one day...

2000 Hits Baking Weekend - Update

Last weekend I decided to bake something sweet to mark the BakesWell blog's 2000 hits. I had a few ideas floating about but decided to make this fruity beauty. If I'm honest, I've been a bit daunted by Ms Meringue as I've heard she can be a tricky dame to tame - impressive and elegant, but brittle and unpredictable if she senses fear. As I had 6 egg whites stashed in the freezer, left over from a previous day's baking, I thought that it was time to don an apron and commence battle with this diva of a dessert.

What is also pleasing about this pavlova, is that it's gluten-free, which means it would be a useful dessert to have at a party.

The marshmallowy meringue base is flavoured with cocoa and swirled though with little nuggets of chocolate, for a cheeky surprise.

2000 Hits Baking Weekend

Today I am proud to announce that this little baking blog has had over 2000 hits! This is a nice moment for me as I only posted back in late April that the blog had reached 1000 views. I fancy baking something this weekend to mark the occasion, but I'd like you to help me choose what to bake.

I'm considering Cherry Bakewell Squares...but then again, what about Chocolate Malteaser Cake?

I've been going through a bit of an apple phase lately - what about Apple Pepper-pot Pudding?

But what about those lonely egg whites hiding in the freezer, waiting quietly for the moment where they are whipped into a glossy meringue to form a Summer Fruit Pavlova..?

Drop me a comment in the box to make a suggestion or vote for one from my list.

Becky Bakeswell x

Have your cake and eat it!

I can't claim that this chocolate cake is a health food, but it is a special cake indeed. All too often, cakes that are trumpeted as being low in fat, are sadly also lacking in taste. But not this one! This chocolate cake is fudgey and very chocolatey, yet it manages to be lower in fat than a usual chocolate cake. 

A small slice of this cake comes in at 10.4g fat compared to a standard 49g bar of Dairy Milk which weighs in at 14g of fat. Now don't sneer at a small slice - as this cake has a fudge-like depth, you wouldn't want a big slab of it. Every little helps... 

Want to know the secret to this tasty, slightly healthier chocolate cake? 

Butternut squash - I kid you not! 

Wanna test it out? Get in touch and order it!  

Cookie Love - Update

A while ago,  I posted about a cookie cutter set I bought in New York and this weekend I managed to play about with some ideas using the cutters. I wanted to use a reliable cookie recipe that would produce a dough that can be rolled out easily and is not too sweet. I'm happy with the results, but still feel there's room to play around with different cookie recipes to suit the mood - sometimes I like a light, crisp cookie, other times I'd like a more 'short' sort of biscuit, like shortbread.

These cookies are very adaptable as I can change the messages to suit the occasion - for my practice cookies, I used the star cutter and the message 'You're a star', the heart cutter with 'I love you' and the scalloped edge rectangle cutter with 'Becky Bakeswell' and 'Keep calm carry on.' However, the messages can be changed easily, so I thought they would come in handy as wedding favours with the names of the couple stamped into them, birthday cookies or maybe baby shower cookies.

Looking forward to using them again!

Banana Breakfast Ring

A quick little post about a naughty breakfast treat! Sunday mornings are sometimes spent making banana pancakes, but last Sunday, I didn't have quite enough milk to make up the batter, so used this as an opportunity to make this cake from Nigella Lawson's book Feast. I had been meaning to make it for a couple of years, but felt guilty at the idea of eating cake for breakfast - illogical I know considering I don't mind eating pancakes, but I delude myself into thinking they're ok if I eat them with fruit!

This cake is lovely while it's still warm from the oven, with a cup of tea and it's easy to make. It's also useful because it's actually better when it's made with bananas that are past their best and the ingredients are also ones you will likely have lurking in your kitchen - perfect for a Sunday morning when the last thing you want to do is traipse to the supermarket for ingredients!

Ingredients

450g (3 medium) ripe bananas
60ml corn oil or other oil
3 eggs
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
325g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade/ 350 Farenheit/ Gas Mark 4.

1) Grease a 24cm/1.5 litre ring mould ( I tend to use spray oil as I find it gets into the decorative crenelations of the ring mould more easily).

2) Mash the bananas in a roomy mixing bowl, add the oil, eggs, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and sugar.

3) Whisk everything together and then fold in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

4) Pour the cake batter into the oiled ring mould and bake for approx 40 mins. I have a fan assisted oven and found that my cake was done in 35 mins, so check at 30 mins to be on the safe side.

5) Let the cake sit for about 5-10 mins before turning out.

6) Make a cup of tea or coffee, release the cake from its mould and cut a generous slice. Sit back and enjoy your weekend!

Hints and Tips

• I love ground almonds so I replaced 25g of the flour with 25g ground almonds. It gives the cake a lovely subtle almond flavour and a soft, slightly damp texture perfect for a plain cake. 

• My ring mould is a silicon ring mould from Morrisons supermarket. I think the cake ring was about £6.00. You can use a bundt ring cake tin though - they are available from Lakeland  http://www.lakeland.co.uk/13324/My-Kitchen-Cook-and-Bake-Fluted-Cake-Ring or I have seen them from time to time in TK Maxx. You can also buy them on Amazon for a reasonable price if you are reading this and live outside of the UK.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faringdon-Collection-Bakers-Non-Stick-Fluted/dp/B0000BVFHV/ref=pd_cp_kh_1

• If you don't have a cake ring and you want to make this without one, you could try making it in a loaf tin, as long as it's roughly the same capacity - 1.5 litres (I think this is a 2Ib loaf tin if you work in imperial measures). You will need to keep a closer eye on cooking times though - might take slightly longer as the mix will be in a deeper tin.

Ice Cream Dreams...

Dan bought an ice cream maker for us about a month ago and since then, we have been like two crazy ice cream Doc Browns in our kitchen, trying to create the DeLorean of ice creams that takes us back to our childhood. We have made raspberry ripple, banana choc chip (yummy) and a special for my Dad as a Father's Day treat - rum and raisin.

I bought the Ben and Jerry's ice cream recipe book and would definitely recommend it as a bible for ice cream crazies like us!

Last weekend, we made Jerry's ice cream base from the book and decided to experiment with the idea of making a Black Forest Gateau ice cream.

Making Jerry's chocolate ice cream base mixture.

 We both have fond childhood memories of the cake and wanted to see if it would work as an ice cream. We chopped up pieces of choc chip muffin, black cherries and doused them with a generous glug of cherry brandy.

. A few chocolate chunks whirled into the mix too and this is the result...Dreamy!

Introducing... Sparkle and Pop Cupcakes!

These little beauties are still in the development phase, but I wanted to share them with you! I have called these engagement cupcakes 'Sparkle and Pop' cupcakes as they refer to the sparkle of the engagement ring and the pop of the fizz cork - yep these cakes contain the lovely bubbly stuff! Still experimenting with the method of making the edible icing ring and different ways of transferring a champagne flavour, but I'm very happy with the moist texture of the cake due to the drizzle syrup I came up with.

Five Dollar Shake...

For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with diner shakes. Before I had the glory of drinking a diner shake, I was actually in love with the idea of a diner shake. At a formative age, I watched Pulp Fiction and wanted to visit the fictional diner in the film, Jack Rabbit Slim's. I wanted to sit in a hollowed out car-booth and order a five dollar shake, like Uma Thurman...

When Dan and I went to New York at Christmas, we went to The Brooklyn Diner and the first thing I ordered was... a diner shake! I loved that I was handed the canister to top up my shake - it's a generous act.

So, when Dan suggested buying a milkshake maker this weekend, I was pretty excited! Having researched milkshake makers for a while, we found that the general advice is to find an original commercial mixer as they are so sturdy that they make the smoothest and frothiest shakes. 

We then found a vintage milkshake maker listed on ebay at a reasonable price and found it was being sold locally. To cut a long story short, we bought it and found out that it had belonged to the seller's parents who owned a coffee house in Manchester. It was part of the equipment left in the cafe when they had bought the business in 1960, so it was second hand then. I love that our milkshake maker has a history and a lovely one at that - it served the lovely people of Manchester for many years, brightening up their day in a frothy way. 

The milkshake maker is a Gaskell and Chambers Dalex mixer. It is sturdy, beautifully designed and makes the best Goddamn milkshake I've ever tasted! It now sits proudly on our dresser, as it did on the counter-top in the cafe all those years ago... 

Edible Engagement Rings

This little bobby dazzler is one of my works in progress - I'd like to make engagement cupcakes and thought that the only thing I'd like to adorn my swirl of icing is a sparkling edible ring. They are divas to make though - particularly when trying to attach the edible diamond to the band itself without the sugar paste crumbling. Cupcakes to be made this afternoon, so pop back to my blog for an update later today...

Hot and Saucy Chocolate Pudding

The first thing I should say about this cake is that it's easy to make. It is also verrrrry chocolatey! However, it's not a dainty or pretty cake. It's the sort of cake that's like the favourite jumper that you have hiding in the wardrobe that's a bit worn and bobbly in places but is coseeeeey. This cake is like that - it's basically a hug in cake form.

I'm not usually bossy about the way that you should serve cakes, but this cake really does require pouring cream or ice cream to sit alongside it - this cake is a thick chocolate sauce gloop-fest and it really needs something to help it along - mint ice cream is yummy with it, or you could do as I did and serve it with decent vanilla ice cream and some strawberries...

For the cake:
150g self-raising flour
25g good quality cocoa (I use Green and Black's)
200g caster sugar ( a lot I know, but it serves 6)
50g ground hazelnuts or almonds - choice is yours
75g dark chocolate buttons or good quality chocolate roughly chopped
180ml full cream milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
40g butter, melted
1 free range egg.

For the sauce:

180g dark muscavado sugar
120g good quality cocoa
500ml boiling water

Pre-heat oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ Gas Mark 4.

1) Put all the dry ingredients for the cake together in a mixing bowl (flour, sugar, cocoa, ground nuts, chocolate pieces). Mix them together.

2) In a jug or separate bowl, whisk the milk, vanilla extract, melted butter and egg.

3) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

4) Pour the cake batter into a buttered souffle dish or deep sided oven-proof dish (about 20cm in diameter).

5) Mix the muscavado sugar and cocoa together, then sprinkle on top of the pudding.

6) Pour the boiling water on top of the sugar and cocoa coated cake. Resist the temptation to stir the water into the lumps of cocoa and sugar. It really will be fine - I know this is scary, but trust me, it works!

7) Transfer swiftly and carefully to the oven and bake for 35-40 mins. When checking the cake, the watery cocoa and sugar mix should have disappeared into the cake and the top of the cake should be firm and springy. Don't be alarmed by the cratery nature of the cake - that's the sort of cake this is.  A knife or skewer inserted into the cake should come out fairly clean, with no batter clinging to it.

Like I said, this is a thick woollen jumper of a cake, as opposed to a fine cashmere knit.
Whilst  it's not pretty, it tastes gooooood! 

8) Serve at once with chilled pouring cream or ice cream. Berries such as strawberries, raspberries or blackberries can also come to the cake party if you like!