Apricot and Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

I don't know if I convinced you regarding bread and butter puddings last time I gave them a try, though I see there was some interest and maybe even some willingness to come round to the idea. I was pretty convinced myself, enough so to try another version that I came across recently.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I visited a friend last week and arrived just as she was finishing off baking. Great timing huh? Her teenaged children had been eating, and raving about, red velvet cupcakes so she decided to make some for the first time. I was fascinated of course, and barged in, stirred the icing, licked the icing, read the recipe and asked a million questions. When it comes to something a little bit different like this, I am always curious to know what makes it different. What IS a red velvet cupcake?

Victoria Sponge

I think I MAY have done it. No doubt you will remember my sponge challenge, and the raging success I had with the Cornflour Sponge. But while I was happy to bask in the glory for a short while, I soon realised that I still hadn't mastered a Victoria Sponge, or, some would say, a real sponge. I still hadn't really nailed it, and I was still feeling a little defeated.

Something happened the other day that made me want to get back in to the kitchen, and back to the sponge challenge. I think it was the fact that I had a few moments of child-free daylight hours - an extremely rare thing of late.

Anzac Biscuits

It's been a while, and I must admit it's a very gentle return, as there's not much here that's new. Though I'm actually not convinced I have made Anzac biscuits before (!!) so it was a little something different for me. Thursday was Anzac Day in New Zealand and Australia, the day when we remember those members of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps who fought and died at Gallipoli in World War 1, and indeed all who have died fighting on behalf of our countries in many wars.

Hot Cross Buns

Reuben hopped in to bed with me the other morning after the Monkey Clock told him he was allowed to get up, and I decided it was time I explained Easter to him. You see, apart from it being probably the most important event to have happened in the history of the world, we have this whole "Easter" "Esther" problem to contend with. It has arisen (ha ha) a couple of times - we saw hot cross buns in the supermarket a while back, and when I said they're for Easter, I admit it did sound a lot like "they're for Esther."

Chocolate Cupcakes

We're not strictly soaking up new knowledge today as there's not a lot here that's new, but I thought I'd like to tell you about my cupcake experimenting. Cupcakes, I have to say, are awfully trendy, which has sort of put me off them a bit. I've never really been a trendy girl, as many of you will know. I started baking brownies only years after everyone else did, I started wearing leggings only when they became mainstream, and the phrase "lol" has never and will never cross my fingertips (that didn't count).

I kept away from cupcakes for a long time because I didn't see a great need for them in my life and, if faced with a choice, I would always go for a slab of cake rather than a cupcake. But I concede, they are quite fun to bake, fun for kids (well, other people's. Mine won't eat them) and, it turns out, fun to have in the freezer.

Baking Top Tips

It occurred to me recently, when visiting a non-baking friend, that there are plenty of us who have never been taught some of the basics when it comes to baking. I really believe that anyone can bake if they just know what to do. You don't have to have the knack, just a few facts! I've put together a few of my top tips for baking but also, more importantly, what are yours?

Cornflour Sponge

It's probably time I told you the truth. I've been trying to achieve a few things soaking-up-culinary-knowledge-wise and they've been miserable failures. I mean really miserable. I suppose there is nothing wrong with posting about failures, but instead I have decided to plug away on these in secret, and reward you when I get a result. And my goodness what a *triumph* I had this week!

Oat, Chocolate and Cinnamon biscuits

Someone kindly delivered me a batch of oaty chocolatey cinnamony biscuits recently. It's amazing how much baking you get when people are thinking of you.

Annabel Langbein's Ultimate Chocolate Cake

I believe that cakes are good for celebrations, but I have also discovered over recent months that baking is good for the soul. So when my soul and I didn't know what to do with ourselves this afternoon, we baked.

Scottish Oatcakes

Kent's Mum likes to cook and bake things she has never done before (perhaps she should write a blog), and we have often been recipients of her experiments. Recently she dropped off a few samples of some Scottish Oatcakes, and I must say they didn't look very appealing. They just looked so plain, but I think I also expected some unpleasant flavour lurking beneath. But I had a try, and they were indeed plain, pleasantly plain, fairly crunchy, and just right for carrying butter/cheese/avocado/cream cheese, or whatever you like on your crackers. 

I have been looking at cracker recipes lately, I'd love to be able to make my own, and just needed to decide on a recipe to begin with and get going. Reuben loved Gran's Scottish version and I was curious, so what better place to start.

This time of year

Happy New Year friends! I'm having real trouble getting started today. They say you should never start a post saying sorry that you haven't posted for a while, so I won't do that, but perhaps you could just read in between the lines? It's been a tough few weeks. In my upside down life the best times become the worst times, and getting through Christmas was a challenge. You will be proud of me though, we put up the Christmas tree and I bought presents for all. I even finished making those Christmas stockings that bring back memories of this time last year. And yes, I made some food for Christmas Day...

Caramelised Onion and Blue Cheese Focaccia

Shall we just get down to the nitty gritty? I made my upgraded focaccia a week ago and seem to have been struggling to get it on the table (metaphorically speaking of course, believe me, it's been eaten). As I mentioned, we went out for dinner recently with the KR family and had this amazing bread that inspired me to try making focaccia, in the hopes that I could replicate it.

Focaccia

I have been thinking of tackling bread for a long time. It's on my list of things to try and has kept coming to mind lately. Today I had some semi-quiet time at home, as in, Reuben was out and Esther was at home. Despite the great opportunity, I frankly didn't feel like doing anything. I do get stuck like this as times. I tried to settle in to making christmas stockings for the kids, a job I was in the middle of at this time last year, when my whole world fell down around my ears and I haven't looked at them since. It didn't go very well. So I abandoned it and escaped to the kitchen, and, once again, getting out the flour and the mixing bowls and turning on the oven brought the life back to my bones.

Glucose as a sugar alternative, and vanilla biscuits.

Well for goodness sake. It is so simple really. What does sugar contain? Fructose and glucose. What is bad for us? Fructose? What is good for us? Glucose. What should we not be eating? Fructose. What should we be eating? Glucose. What should we be baking with? GLUCOSE.

Vanilla biscuit with glucose by Reuben

Party Food and Finding Colour

 I was a little unsure about whether to have a birthday celebration for Esther and me, and was nervous even after deciding to do it (if you're unsure why, have a read here and here for more than enough explanation). But I quickly realised two things. There are many people out there who love to celebrate our children, and I want to give them the opportunity to do so. And my children are missing out on so much already, I don't want to add to the loss. And actually there was a third thing - I want to celebrate Esther too! So we had a party. Mostly for Esther, and a little bit for me.

Raspberry, Cherry and Coconut Slice

I try to be good and blog about cooking that is challenging, or requires a bit of technique or something I haven't done before. And I wasn't sure if this was really going to be different enough to qualify. Just sending a few different ingredients round the mixer isn't really what The Cook's Sponge is all about. But actually, this was really different. The ingredients were unusual for me (I mean who buys glace cherries except maybe at Christmas?). I have, believe it or not, never made a three-different-layers slice before, and if you want challenging and nifty techniques, just you try cutting this baby. Oh and also, never in all my life have I ever put a tablespoon of vanilla extract in to anything. That alone is worth blogging about.

  

Biscotti

I have a gorgeous friend who comes to see me regularly. We get all of our children in to bed and she races across town feeling youthful (I think) and child-free (definitely) and we have a quiet evening of real conversation, something mothers of toddlers never get between the hours of 7am and 7pm. The truth is I do most of the talking and she does most of the listening and there is such a heaviness in my heart and in my house that I wonder how she enjoys herself so much. So last time she was here I decided that her next visit would have to include some real fun.

Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ok. After the hard work of my last post I have some results for you. I have a chocolate chip biscuit recipe that uses white sugar and condensed milk, so the obvious thing to do was substitute agave nectar for condensed milk, and either xylitol or coconut sugar for the white sugar. So I tried both. I made two batches, and did agave nectar both times, and either xylitol or coconut sugar. The results are pretty simple to report back on.

The dark coloured biscuits are the coconut sugar biscuits, and the light ones are xylitol. The flavour of the coconut sugar is as noticeable as the colour. They taste dark and syrupy and a little bitter. The xylitol biscuits had no discernable taste difference to the usual biscuits that use white sugar and condensed milk. So this means that not only does the xylitol make little difference to the end flavour result, but neither does the agave. I didn't enjoy the strong flavour of the coconut sugar biscuits very much, and I possibly only persevered with eating them because they were filled with chocolate chunks.

Chocolate Banana Cake

I've made a few challenging things over recent months on this blog, but today was one of the hardest of all. This afternoon we made a birthday cake for our beloved husband and daddy who died 8 months ago.

Reuben and I had a conversation a while ago which made me decide I wanted to make a chocolate and banana cake. A friend of mine recently made a fantastic one and kindly passed on the recipe. I must say this one came out very differently - I seem to have a problem with particularly flat cakes at the moment, and the banana was much more chunky and noticeable in this one, but I *loved* it. It was even more moist than last time I tried it, and I added a little more cocoa. It's really, really good!