New Flat!

Sorry for how quiet it's been here the past week! I've just moved into a new flat and am still acquring odds and ends for it. Still have a little more sorting to do but I'm all unpacked. 

I did have a chance to try out the new oven and (thank goodness) it is far better than the one at my previous flat. I succeeded at making brownies for my friends this past week, but afraid I forgot to take any sort of photos, so you'll just have to imagine. The last time I had attempted to do so in my previous flat, the brownies were cooked on top but had remained in a liquid state beneath. Reguardless, we ate them and they were deemed 'Melties'. Though, I doubt we will be eating them again in the near future.

I received a dinosaur cookie cutter as a late birthday present so I shall try and make those at some point in the next week and will post the results up here. It shall also probably be my first attempt at icing thin lines with royal icing, which should be quite interesting.

 See you then!

Scones!

It was my turn to choose the recipe for this month's TSR's baking club and after wanting to make scones for quite a while, I decided it was time! I chose this recipe due to the fact that it only produced 8 scones rather than 20 and it also had a video to keep me right!

Ingredients

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

75g unsalted butter (at cool room temperature)

50g caster sugar (or 100g for a sweeter scone)

1 egg

120ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

milk, for glazing

Most of the ingredients I already had in my cupboard so only had to pick up the double cream! I'm afraid I don't have many photos this time due to the fact that the majority of the time my hands were covered in dough that I didn't want to get on my camera!

Here they are just before going into the oven. I didn't have a cutter so used one of my measuring cups to get the basic circle shape. I think it worked out okay in the end!

 And here they are just out of the oven! They smelled absolutely delicious due to the vanilla extract.

You should definately serve these warm and with jam and cream if that's your preference. I only had jam on hand but it was absolutely lovely!

Chocolate Orange Cake

For my brother's birthday he asked for a Chocolate Orange Cake which, obviously, I made. I'd first spotted the recipe for such a cake in Melissa Gray's "All Cakes Considered" but due to some confusion over exactly what cake flour is and other ingredients I decided to shelve that recipe for the meantime. I was linked to a more 'British' recipe by Debbie at Dulwich Munchies. I believe the recipe is from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" and it can be found here.

Obligatory photo of all the ingredients for the cake!
Melted chocolate and butter. I like how you can see the cloudy blue sky in its reflection.

Chocolate orange sponge mixture ready to be put in tins and into the oven.
I forgot to take any more photos between putting in the oven and when it had been iced and decorated. The sponge needed something to hold it together. The american recipe called for chocolate ganache but I thought that would be far too rich (for my family atleast!) and settled on an old favourite, vanilla frosting. I decorated with some chocolate orange pieces.

Chocolate Chip & Pretzel Cookie Bars.

July's recipe for TSR's baking club was chosen by The White Cat Baker and you can find the recipe for the Chocoate Chip & Pretzel Cookie Bars here!

I'm not the biggest fan of Pretzels but I did go to the supermarket in hope of finding some small ones but no luck! I decided to substitute the pretzels with pecans - and as the recipe provides 32 bars (depending on how you cut it I'd imagine) I thought that pecans would go down better with the family.





(As you can see, my attempts of drizzling chocolate were a bit rubbish - I just threw some chocolate curls on top in frustration ha!)


They were more like a cake than a cookie in my opinion. I think the recipe would need a bit more flour to become a cookie as the dough wasn't as firm as cookie dough is. Taste definately improves after a couple of days and it becomes more of an inbetween of cookie and cake. Definately worth a try at least!

Links to the other blogs : The White Cat Baker, Dulwich Munchies, Internet Gems, Sarah Cooks and Peachy Tarts