Mary Berry's banana and chocolate chip loaf

More baking today and I decided to make a banana loaf and found a recipe online for a banana and chocolate chip loaf by Mary Berry for Comic Relief does Great British Bake Off.

It was fairly quick to mix together and fairly easy to do.

The only problem was baking really. The oven is just hot constantly so it cooked the outside but not really the inside. So the boyfriend said to put it back in the tin the other way round so the bottom was on the top and it would cook through without burning, which worked a treat.

When cooled the Mary Berry recipe says to melt chocolate and pipe it over the top of the cake. Instead though my boyfriend put golden syrup over the top which looked delicious.

We had a taste and at first it didn't taste much of banana but it later kicked in. My first try of a loaf and I think I would do it again.

The recipe from BBC Food - 

Ingredients

• 1 ripe banana (peeled weight 100g/4oz)
• 1 tbsp milk
• 50g/2oz soft butter or baking spread
• 75g/3oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz caster sugar
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 free-range egg
• 50g/2oz dark chocolate chips

To decorate

• 50g/2oz dark chocolate

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 450g/1lb loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Use a fork to mash the peeled banana in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining cake ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and beat with an electric hand whisk until combined and smooth.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Level the top.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until well risen, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and golden-brown.
5. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
6. For the decoration, break the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl.
7. Melt the chocolate in the bowl over a pan of simmering water (ensuring that the bowl does not touch the water). Stir regularly, until almost completely melted, then remove from the heat. The heat of the bowl will melt any remaining lumps.
8. Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe zig-zags across the top of the loaf. Set aside for the chocolate to set. Slice and serve.

Chocolate macaroon...FAIL

After my exploits in Paris and tasting my first macaroon I knew I had some recipes and thought I would give it a go.

I chose the mint chocolate ones from my Great British Bake Off book, but as it was my first time I thought I would leave out the mint part and just do the macaroons and the cream filling.

I mixed all the ingredients for the main part and it looked ok, I piped it all out, put them in the oven.

Now the mixture seemed fine but I didn't realise they would get big so they weren't the same as the smaller ones in Paris.

I piped out about thirty or so which would of made 15, however, I know you should never blame your tools but my oven is shocking, it is either boiling hot or off no in between.

I knew I would have to keep an eye on them. When I thought they were done I pulled them out and left them to cool, however, I burnt the bottom of quite a few...and they were a bit larger than I was hoping.

So, rather then joining them I have left them as is, as to be honest I got fed up with making them so gave up. It took forever!

At least I have tried, and maybe I will try again another time. They are delicious though.

So here are my attempt...

Pretty baking with a cherry on top

For Christmas I was given the Great British Bake Off cook book from the series on the BBC, in a hope to help me with my domestic goddess quest.

So first off the bat for me to try was the cherry bakewell cupcakes - using ground almonds, cherries and strawberry jam.

The recipe uses raspberry jam but I bought strawberry. You cut out the middle and fill it with the jam, very yummy.

You couldn't really taste the almonds that much, but the strawberry, sponge and icing made it delicious.

However, I do think I put in too much lemon juice in the icing but I'm still learning. 

Really nice and light cupcakes, also really tasty.

Now I just have to decide what to do next, do I dare move on to pastries and breads?

Blood, sweat and tears...all in the name of competition

As I am fast becoming a bit of a foodie obsessive, watching any food programme I can turn over to, including Great British Bake Off and Masterchef I love the drama of the programme and that 'normal' people can do well.

I know I am not a great cook, I am enthusiastic and do try but I love watching these programmes.

Family members have commented that I should apply for BBC's Great British Bake Off as I have a new found passion for baking. However, I do not think my nerves could take being on a TV competition like that, or any of those cooking competitions. The pressure, the fear and the nerves, I think I would spend most of the time sat in a corner crying.

My job can be pressurised, getting things done on time but in that realm I have a level of understanding that I know what I am doing. But in a Masterchef kitchen being shouted at by a chef would make me either storm off, I don't kindly to being shouted out and strop, or cry,

I can't see how someone shouting at you can make you produce the best, it would make me a bag of nerves and fail!

I can, also, be clumsy, I burnt my hand the other day when I cooked cottage pie. I'm just a touch on the clumsy side especially if nervous, so if I did those competitions it would literally be blood, sweat and tears.


Also as a cook I am a very much a read recipe and follow, so on Bake Off when there are no instructions or just basics ones I would not do so well. My boyfriend on the other hand has a great flavour for recipes he can make something out of nothing and he can taste something and know exactly what to put in it, not me but then I would never enter something like that, just for my sanity really.
 
Finally, I am glad Jo won Bake Off, as out of all the bakers she was the one I related most to.

Birth of a cupcake monster

In my pursuit to be a domestic goddess I feel I am becoming a bit of a cupcake monster.

It all started when my boyfriend bought me a Hummingbird Bakery cupcake and muffin book, it was all very innocent to begin with. I love cupcakes, Swallow Bakery in Chichester is one of my favourite places to have a sugary piece of heaven. And as I have said in a previous post I would love to be a domestic goddess being able to produce heavenly cakes for all to admire. My boyfriend knowing this and being happy to reap any rewards that I might make was very happy to purchase the book to help me on my way.

Next step getting the book and choosing what to do all simple enough. Now this is where the obsession and transformation into the cupcake monster rather than cupcake Queen begins.

I bought all the ingredients for my first ever batch...chocolate and hazelnut cakes. I got the flour, sugar, eggs etc, I got the cupcake cases, the baking tin and Tupperware to put them in when done. Me and my boyfriend spent last weekend making a delicious batch of cakes which were enjoyed by both sets of families.

My boyfriend thought, bless him, that this baking session would be enough to tame the beast. But no, my head was busy planning what my next load of cupcakes would be, maybe Strawberry Cheesecake? Or Marshmallow? Or the Pecan and Maple Muffins?

I then knew I had to buy more equipment: a measuring jug, sieve, silicone cupcake cases and a icing piping thing. I paraded my purchases with a massive grin on my face, much to the bemused looks of my family.

My next purchase would be a hand electric whisk, a Kenwood one was seen on BBC 2's The Great British Bake Off programme. I get a flutter excitement about it in the same way I do about shoes and bags.

It seems that my fixation is never wavering, in a Waitrose I can stand merrily looking at the baking aisle treats, looking at the different sprinkles, food colourings and decorations like a pregnant woman looks at baby clothes. I just don't know what has come over me, I think it is something practical I could potentially be good at.

Out of my sisters I am not the practical, doing one. My youngest sister is a trained hairdresser, I couldn't do that at all. I am very theory based, which is why I think baking appeals to me there is a list of things I need and a step by step guide on how to do it, deviate from this and error rears its ugly head but as one who likes instruction it is my perfection. Something that cannot possibly go wrong if I follow the recipe to the letter.

And so another part of my puzzle has fallen into place, I bought the very stylish Cox Cookies & Cake bake book, filled with cupcakes that are sexy and out-there. Also cookies, brownies and other delights. With decorations including skulls, lips and underwear it is the naughty side but with chocolate and peanut butter offerings I cannot wait to get stuck in.

The sugar eyed beast is looming again, and my boyfriend cannot but stare, wondering what happened to his normal girlfriend who prefers not to cook. She is in here somewhere, behind a apron and a cloud of flour and baking powder.