Cakes For The Scout Jumble Sale

So last weekend was our annual Scout jumble sale. It gets a little mad (although less mad than it has been in previous years as the numbers got too much), but it does all our fundraising for the year. 

My girls are young bakers who are really getting the hours in these days. I feel their practicing is really important and I hope this skill will last them a lifetime. 

They both baked for the sale. And helped all afternoon in the tea and cake area, apparently they were super helpful which is always nice to hear. 

 I was really pleased with their efforts, but only got to try one cake! 

They keep asking me for new cakes to try and bake - any suggestions?

Her First Commission

 Middlest is always saying she wants to be a baker. Well this weekend she got her first taste of it. She had a commission to make a birthday cake for a friend of hers. 

they requested a chocolate cake with chocolate butter icing on top. Butter icing in the middle and homemade jam. 

Fair play to her as she baked it after spending the day with me at the craft fair and decorated it that evening. She was super pleased to be asked to make it though and you could tell she was proud as she dropped it off on Sunday morning (where they were having a D&D party with a professional dungeon master! 

Rye Sourdough Bread

 It's fair to say I bake a lot of bread these days. We don't buy any. I do love baking though. 

One I bake occasionally is rye sourdough, only me and my middle daughter eat it, but it's just so wholesome and filling, it's also dead easy to make. 

I use 100g of active sourdough starter, mixed the night before. The next morning I add 200g rye flour (light or dark, I'm not fussy), a teaspoon of salt, 15g of black treacle, a tablespoon of caraway seeds (both my daughter and I love caraway seeds in our bread), plus 150g of water. 

It's so simple, mix this together in a bowl, I use a silicone spatula as this is a very sticky dough. Then when well combined together put in a 1/2lb loaf tin, I normally line mine with greased baking parchment as it's not the best tin in the world. Dust the top with a little more rye flour, because as the loaf rises in the oven this cracks and makes it very photogenic! 

Leave this on the side for 3 to 5 hours to prove. Fire up the oven to 200 degrees, then pop it in with steam (boiling water on a shallow tray in the oven). Cook for about 40 minutes, take it out and check the bottom is cooked, if not turn the loaf over and cook for another 10 minutes. 

This bread is one of those rare exceptions where it's better eaten the next day, so try to leave it before you cut it. I tend to slice up the whole loaf and pop it in the freezer. My daughter will often come home from school and have this as a snack, she'll get two slices from the freezer, toast them and have it with a big lump of goats butter on top. Perfect. 

Who else loves a rye loaf?

Alviti Bake Off

 The other day all the children had a friend round to play. 

the girls decided to partner up and do their own version of the popular TV show Bake Off. 

But the baking began before their friends even arrived. 

Always Baking...

 The children only need the slightest nudge to do some baking.

Tuesday night was the perfect example of this. I had a urge to eat an apple pie, and not being too short of apples decided to see if one of the children would be up for making me one. 

The Middlest leapt at the opportunity and set to work making some pastry. 

The Eldest came in then and looked a little disappointed that she hadn't got in on the act, so I suggested she make some bread from scratch. 

Rainy Sunday

I was thinking this morning that we get lots of lovely comments from people about what our children get up to.

The vast majority cost us so little, just time (something I know not everyone has). 

Today was the perfect example of that...

Making A Cake Stand For My Daughter

 Now if you read this blog I don't have to tell you how much my children love baking. They're obsessed. 

And one thing that has helped fuel that fire in all of us is bake off. We watch it every year as a family, I don't watch huge amounts of TV but always enjoy things we can watch and enjoy together (Lego Masters Australia, Pottery Throwdown, ghosts and taskmaster are the others).

For Christmas this year my Middlest asked for a cake stand to display her cakes on. I thought this was a great idea and also something I could make. 

I also thought it would make a great magazine article and video. So that's what I did. 

I turned the project a few times to really get into it (so if you want to buy a cake stand click here), and it's got a great mix of turning on the chuck, with a bit of spindle turning. Using a wood like ash means you can bring out it's natural beauty as well. 

My daughter was really pleased with it and it has displayed a few cakes (and tarts) already this year!

If you watch the video let me know what you think! 

Do you have a cake stand for displaying cakes or ever had one in the past?

Kitchen Carnage!

I often get comments about how much baking happens in our house - I don't even share all of it, probably about a quarter! 

Some nights it's absolute carnage in the kitchen. All of us cooking, every surface full of food! 

It seems to be if they're at all bored then the kitchen is often their first stop! And they love recipe books and finding new things to try! 

It's always a bit mad and messy in our house but it's great fun. 

Baking Before School

Sometimes I get silly ideas in my head - like making bread before school! 

To  be fair it was only the dough that they were making. An enriched one to make apple buns for a bake sale at school.

Apple Cinnamon Buns

Last weekend we went to a food festival in Oxford. The whole day was really great, and a particular highlight was one of the talks I managed to sneak off to without the children. 

 It was with a man who has a company called "Bake with Jack", apparently he's on the TV but I've never seen him (not that I watch huge amounts these days so that's nothing to go by). 

He did a demo where he made some apple cinnamon buns, he was a great speaker, really engaging and funny. I also picked up quite a few tips with baking. 

A Baking Lesson Learnt!

Baking night again on Wednesday.

I tend to leave the children to it, popping in &out doing other jobs, there to help them if they need it but to encourage them to be as independent as possible with their baking and they always try to get a few bakes on the go at once!

They all learnt important lessons that night though - always read the instructions!

Turns out a (heaped) tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda is a lot more than teaspoon! The lovely looking cookie bake nearly made us all puke as we spat it out, running to the bin! I think this bake will go down in family history! Good job we had meringues to take the taste away!

What's the worst baking mistake you've made?

Young Baker

I'm obviously  proud of my kids, like every parent. But one thing I'm particularly proud of is their love of food. Inherited from both my wife and from me - we're both seriously into our food and love cooking and feeding other people.

The children have taken this as normal. They love helping us cook and having people round for food. They really like it when they can cook something with little or no help, something that has been happening more and more.

Our eldest managed to cook a peach and chickpea curry from scratch (a meal that has become a staple in our house) a few weeks back. sorting out all the ingredients, and cooking them herself, the only thing I had to do was turn on our technical induction hob, something I feel like I need help with at times!

Then last night our middle child decided she wanted to do some baking. I told her that she could but would need to write out the recipe into our family cook books first. She chose pineapple upside down cake, a family favourite, she did everything herself, the only thing I did was put it into the oven and take it out again. She even tested the cake to see if it was done by putting a knife in and seeing if it came out clean.

She was so proud when they had a friend round tonight and she could offer him a piece of cake that she had made herself! The other lovely part was that while she did this we were all in the kitchen doing other things and preparing a huge tea for when my wife came back from work, extra large as my parents were coming over as well!

They're finally starting to earn their keep!

Just wondering what I should get her to make me next...

What was the first cake you made by yourself?

Children Playing Bake Off

As a family there is a few programmes we watch together, one of these is The Great British Bake Off. The kids just love it and are always inspired by it. 

All of this year they've been playing "Play-dough Bake Off" at every opportunity. They get their play dough out, we set them a theme and then they get to it. My youngest will run round shouting "3 minutes left!" and the girls will panic to finish at the end - just like the program.

Banana & Chocolate Fairy Cakes

Each week we buy a lot of bananas and normally the kids fire through them like they're the last ones on earth. 

But sometimes they get pushed to the back of the bowl and forgotten or I buy too many (the children are as unpredictable as me!) 

So when that happens we turn to baking!

Raspberry Slice

So many raspberries at the moment it's almost becoming hard to know what to do with them!

But I'm loving my latest recipe I've been messing around with - Raspberry slice! 

Our raspberry patch is about 25ft long and 6ft deep so as you can imagine it produces a fair few raspberries each day at this time of year. I can normally pick a couple of large punnets full every couple of days. I've frozen loads, dehydrated them, made jam, cooked crumbles and I wanted to bake with them more, but not just chucking them in a sponge, that's gets old fast.

So I decided to have a look around the internet and then alter a recipe to suit what I have to hand! 

This turned out really good, everyone loved it and it's got so many raspberries in it it almost has to be healthy!

70g of almond flour,
250g self raising flour,
280g of brown sugar,
200g of butterTwo eggs 500g of raspberries (I used fresh but I think it would work with frozen ones as well)

Mix the flour, almond flour, sugar and melted butter together (I melt the butter just to make it easier to mix together). 
Get about 100g of this mixture and keep to one side.
Then mix in the eggs and pour onto a tray.
Lay half the raspberries all over it and sprinkle on the mixture you held back.
Bake for 45 minutes at 180.
Then get out and add the other half of the raspberries and cook for another 15 minutes.

This tastes amazing!

Great cold or with custard whilst it's still warm. I imagine it would work well with other fruit as well.

Let me know if you give it a try.

Anyone else got a good baking recipe using raspberries?

My Week In Pictures

 Sorry I've been rubbish on the blog this week, It's been busy to say the least!

Here's a few pictures of what we've been up to! 

The hot days have meant every meal has been eaten outside on the new patio

Breakfast in pyjamas

Couldn't ask for better company! 

A sneak peak at the new chicken coop I've designed this last week or so! A blog post and video coming up on this next week! I'm really pleased with it!

Child labour podding broad beans for tea

Made up some more veg boxes this week to sell to people I know. I was really pleased with the selection

The sheep have been moved a couple of times this week. The boy loves the stock! 

The two younger ones playing nicely together, here playing mum's and dad's. Considering he's only 18 months old he's really good at playing the games the girls come up with!  

Some baking - Here's some more pesto swirls I made

Some summer crops are ready now - Syrian Cucumber 

Yellow Courgettes ready as well. I don't have a poly tunnel so I was pleased to get these so early.

Some lovely red cabbage ready as well in the garden. 

Trying to stop my biggest garden pest from stealing all my veg! She spends the whole time down there eating! 

Some brought in eggs for hatching - trying to bring in a bit of fresh blood for breeding. Bet the hen won't stay broody now! 

Harvesting potatoes with the girls today! Is there a better job to do with children?

Another compost bin completely filled! Shows the garden is in full swing at the moment! 

Brioche Burger Bun Recipe

Okay so I thought it was about time I posted the recipe I used the other day when I made the brioche burger buns with my daughter, it's certainly BBQ weather at the moment and a homemade burger with some homemade buns goes down pretty well in the sunshine! 

This makes 48 buns so adjust for how many you want!

Thanks to Carl for this recipe.

It's made in two stages:

Stage one - Flying sponge

Water - 750g
Yeast - 38g
Flour - 500g

Mix this first bit up about an hour before you want to get started, this gets the yeast working. Leave it covered somewhere warm.

Stage two - Main Dough

Flour - 2125g
Salt - 50g
Sugar - 338g
Milk - 375g
Egg - 250g
Water - 125g

Stage Three -

Butter - 375g (diced up)

Add all the dry ingredients and mix together in a large bowl (very large bowl if you're doing the whole recipe above), then add in the flying sponge and the other wet ingredients and mix until it starts to pull together but bit form a dough.

At this stage add in the butter  then kneed until a clear dough is formed (it can take some work if you're doing the whole lot!)
.

Then leave it to rest for 45 minutes.

After the rest chop the dough into 90g (ish) bits and roll into round balls. Lay them out on a baking tray leaving a good space between them. 

weigh out the dough into 90g bits before rolling

If you're planning on freezing some dough then this is the point where I popped them into the freezer on a tray, then once frozen I put them into freezer bags and sealed for another day.

Into the freezer

The use an egg wash to cover the dough and sprinkle sesame seeds on top, covert the dough (but not so it's touching it) and leave to double in size (about an hour or so).

Ready for the next prooving then into the oven!

Then pop into a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees C for 12 - 15 minutes until cooked through - be careful though as I find an egg glaze catches easily. Cool on a wire rack.

Finished buns! Worth the effort! 

Then shove in your favourite beef burger dripping with cheese and bacon, giant grilled mushroom stuffed with feta cheese, fried halloumi with courgette, minted lamb burger or anything else that you fancy, make sure it's big enough that you struggle to get your jaws around it and fill your face when no one is watching!

Fill it up as much as you can! 

  Let me know what you think if you try it! 

Piggy Rolls

My daughter was so pleased with her packed lunch today and so were her teachers at nursery, they both asked for a piggy roll as well! 

I got shown how to make this shaped bread on the bread course and I knew straight away that my daughters would love it (the boy is still too young but will happily shove it in his face). They didn't all turn out perfect, some were painfully disfigured uttering the words "eat me..." as they came out the oven but the rest look like a pig so I'll take that as a win! 

What other shaped rolls could I make for my children (and me!). 

Do you mess around with the shape you make your bread?

Peter Cooks Basic Bread Workshop

At Christmas I was completely spoilt by my brother and his wife as they paid for me to go on a bread making workshop.
They know I love making bread, but it was after I came home from the two hour bread demonstration by Peter Cook a few months ago  and I was really impressed by what he did that they decided to get it for me.
I was glad they did!

The selection of bread we came home with
From left to right, clockwise, rye loaf topped with sesame seeds, half a ledbury loaf, basic white loaf, local ale and walnut loaf, a local ale and walnut roll, stoneground wholemeal loaf, soda bread and a few slices of ciabatta 

 The course ran from 10 until about 4.30, it was really well structured and although Peter himself didn't run it Carl, the baker who took the course, really knew his stuff with over 40 years in the trade. He was also assisted by Ruth who was also very knowledgeable on the subject and she also kept everything running smoothly and provided us with drinks and snacks throughout the day. 

There was six of us on the course and it seemed a good number, we could (and did) ask questions at any time. during the day we made five different types of bread, with proving times and mixing times working well to keep us doing something the whole time. 

100% rye bread which was very sticky to mix!

The loaves we made were a basic white loaf (although it didn't seem very basic compared to mine!), 100% rye bread, Stoneground wholemeal, local ale & walnut and a oaty soda bread.

Soda bread read to go in the oven

 What I really enjoyed was the hands on demonstrations then getting to try yourself, I think my kneading technique has improved no end, the way I'll roll my rolls from now on has changed forever! This is the kind of thing you won't get from a book. Also I ask many (many) questions through the day so hopefully my own bread will improve loads now as well! 

Folding in walnuts in a walnut and local ale loaf

Ruth feeding their sour dough starters ready for the week ahead

They put on an amazing lunch for us, the best I've ever had on a course. It's not very often that I'll fill up before the food runs out but by the end we were all stuffed and there was still more to go at! I think there was six or seven loaves for us to try, three massive chunks of cheese, a tray of cured meats and a salad, far more than we could eat and it was all delicious! 

Simply an amazing lunch! 

It was also really interesting being in a traditional commercial bakery and seeing some of the equipment they use and how they were set up, with charts on the wall to record times of when things were started and when the next stage was going to happen. 

I came away from the day with a huge box of bread that I had made (see the top picture) and a recipe book containing the recipes for those loaves, I'm really looking forward to making some of them again.

A brilliant day and one I'd 100% recommend to anyone interested in making bread, his courses can be found here if anyone is interested.

(and I'm in no way affiliated but I am a big fan of his bread and what they're doing)