Wood Pussies

[VikingVagine]

Carrying on from Chat.

Thanks for the magic dough tips! I'll try it out at the weekend.

I used my blender this week to make smoothies. The second batch was mostly fruit (fresh and frozen) and it wasn't really blending, so I added a bit more liquid (milk, but juice would have worked for a different combo) it got going properly. When I first tried it I had it on quite low, but once it got going I ramped it up a bit and it blended everything really smoothly.

We had HFW flatbreads with refried beans and lemon guacamole last night. Prospero got a great work out doing the magic dough(it really is) and the processor masked up all my stuff.. Was yummy. Could have used a lot more chilli IMO but maybe we just had dodgy chillies.

MIL's birthday today and she's diabetic, so woody whipped up a reduced sugar chocolate cake which was actually edible.

200g dark chocolate
100g butter
5 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
4 dessert spoons of flour

I whisked up the egg whites with the salt and put them aside in a glass bowl. Melted the choc and butter, added the egg yolks then the flour. Folded in the whites and baked at 150°c for 30 minutes.

Needs a sweet custard IMO, but didn't do any in solidarity with MIL!

Sorry minsmum. Not sure why that is. Maybe you could call Kenwood and ask them? Apparently they are very helpful.

Still away so poor Prospero Joe is languishing alone in my kitchen at home. I'm going to a first birthday party here tomorrow though so in his honour I'm going to be making these delicious Nutella self frosting cupcakes. I've made them before and they really are amazing. I am sort of tempted to go all out and make the Nutella frosting mentioned up-thread for on the top but I think that will be going overboard as they're quite decadent just as is. I'll see how I feel when the cupcakes are done and make a decision about the frosting then.

Does anyone know if I can substitute self-raising flour for all purpose though? I don't really know anything about all purpose flour, and I've only got self-raising in.

It's a bit different, SR has less gluten and more raising agents in than all-purpose. If there are raising agents in the recipe and you left them (or some of them) out it would probably work though. I doubt the high gluten levels are important for a cake, they matter more for bread or pasta.

My parents are coming and I'm looking forward to showing them Ken though they probably won't be as impressed as I want them to be!

Lakeland catalogue arrived today! I got a £5 voucher too

Kitchen utensil porn, yesssssss!

Same here. I love a Lakeland catalogue

I just bought a lovely set of digital scales from Amazon to aid my baking.

I was being 'inventive' in the kitchen yesterday. We had some left over croissants and about a zillion apples in the fridge. Here's what i came up with:

Cut up a few apples into little chunks, sprinkled a teaspoon of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup over and put aside.
I lined a baking dish with the croissants (cut in two horizontally).
Whisked up some cream/condensed milk, 2 eggs and a glug of rum (in Woody obviously).
Layered the apple over the croissant, poured over the mixture and baked for 20 minutes.

That sounds nice Viking

Mr Mixer has just helped me make some lovely naan breads, kneading is definitely one of the best things about him, I get bored very quickly doing it by hand.

it does sound lovely, I love the fact that it has condensed milk in - condensed milk is wonderful stuff. I am a little confused about the leftover croissants though - I have never had leftover croissants in my life, let alone enough to make a pudding!

I splashed out on the second Great British Bakeoff book, the one that was recommended to me on here. I bought the first one earlier and the nutty flapjack was v good. Hot cross buns tomorrow.

Local boulangerie does four for three on croissants, being greedy we tend to buy eight for six and end up with left overs!

, & @ 'local boulangerie'.

My town is really good for fresh food - brilliant butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer, 2 delis, health food shop. But no decent bakery.

Same here, two green grocers, two butchers and Greggs.........

Hot Cross Buns - I was wondering if anyone has a good recipe? I've never tried making them before but feeling in the mood for baking this weekend.

Chef was busy yesterday, he whipped up six cakes...2 x Victoria sponge, 2 x lemon drizzle, and 2 x banana loaves...we're both having a day off to recover [bugrin]

Hot cross bun recipe here

Ooh hot cross buns, now there's an idea. Have you tried that recipe Flapjack ?

Thanks Flapjack, I started this one before I saw your post british recipes website. They're just out of the oven and waiting to be sampled. Sounds as though you had a busy day yesterday!

Mr Mixer has also made fair cake mix and buttercream for little easter nest cakes decorated with mini eggs and flakes, guess low carbing is going out of the window this weekend.

Reporting back, the hot cross buns are very tasty indeed.

My hot cross bun dough is rising now in Ken. I know it's a bit late but I had to wait for the chickens to lay the eggs.

You lot can help arbitrate my argument with DH. He makes some sconey things that he calls Fat Rascals. I say they are nothing like Fat Rascals (though they are very nice) because they haven't got faces on and they are nothing like the recipe in my Great British Bake Off book, which includes cream in the dough. He says I am being very normative and recipes evolve. Should he be allowed to call them Fat Rascals?

DD has blinged up my hot cross buns
I left the room for a mo when they were about to go into the oven and came back to find them covered in pink sugar pearls and edible glitter.

[bugrin] Sparkley pink hot cross buns!

I didn't get round to making any in time for Easter, but it's the hols here so I'm still planning on making some. Did the recipe Flapjack linked to give soft pillowy buns or were they heavy (the photos look a little like rock cakes)?

As for Fat Bastards, I'm going to have to google that one!

For future reference DO NOT GOOGLE FAT BASTARDS