Profiteroles!

I always thought profiteroles were hard to make... They're sooooo easy! (Thanks, James Martin!)

You don't need me to write the recipe out again, do you?
No...

Butter (I used marg, bad Katy...)

Melt the butter and sugar together in the water.

Add the flour and salt and beat together like billio.

Keep beating!

Transfer to clean bowl, and leave to cool for 15 minutes or so.

Add the beaten eggs one at a time.

Until it starts to resemble a smooth paste.

Beat it!

Smooth!

Prepare a piping bag with a large gauge nozzle.

Yes, I do this in a pint glass. That's not odd.

Pipe into "ball" shapes on lined tray. Ball-ish shapes.

Use a dampened finger to flatten the pointy bits. And don't use a greased tray like I did. That doesn't work.

Bake until golden brown, then poke a hole in the bottoms and allow to crisp back in the oven.

When they've cooled, fill with cream

Drizzle with the chocolate sauce.

Eat the while they're still fresh and crisp!

Oat Cookies

Oat cookies. Oh yes. They deceive you into thinking they're healthy... don't believe a word of it!

My notes on these are a bit random, I'll try and make sense of them - 170g butter, 210g light brown butter... what?
Try again... this is what I actually used

170g softened butter
110g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
105g selfraising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
260g oats
"1 cup" mixed exciting stuff (chocolate chips, dried fruit... etc I haven't put a weight, I just put a handful of each in)

Beat together the sugars and butter.
Add the egg and vanilla and mix together.
Sift in together the flour, salt and cinnamon. Stir until partially combined
Mix in the oats, stir again.
Add the mixed dry ingredients and stir to incorporate.

Using a teaspoon take scoops of the mix, and roll in to a small ball in your hands.
Place on a lined baking sheet, and press the centre of each to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10-15mins in a 190oC oven until golden brown.
Remove from tray and place on wire rack to cool.
Eat.

40th Birthday Party

Pardon my absence - it's been a busy old week!
Made what felt like a hundred cakes...

It was four. It just felt like more. 'Twas Dan's 40th birthday, so I offered to make some cake.
I thought a couple of sheet cakes would be good, but for a birthday surprise I wanted to make some cakes that looked like his cats.

Here they are... cats in boxes.

So this is a bit of a hotch potch of cake making - there's an abundance of new stuff to be used, and icing to prepare!

I used a 5egg cake mix for each pair of cakes (one sheet/one cat in each flavour) and the mix was divided and flavoured before adding to the tins.

First up -Sheet cakes
I made two of them chocolate orange cake with an orange flavoured buttercream frosting, and a vanilla sponge with a chocolate ganache topping.

Here's my first new toy - tray bake foils. Exciting!

How about something a little different? Hemispheric cake tins? Yes indeed!

oooh, that's me in there...

Stackable cooling racks? Is there no gadget I won't buy?

 (I haven't found my photos yet... here are some to keep you going )

Next on the list is the indispensable non-stick-in-a-bottle: 

 

GREASE THEM TINS!!

 

 Annnywaaay... here's what they looked like after they'd been cooked:

rack 'em up...

And this is what the cake tin looked like - non stuck!

 It was the fun bit next - decorating.

I used a dark chocolate ganache for the plain sponge, and an orange flavoured butter cream on the chocolate cake.
Then added chocolate candy beans (a marvelous Home Bargains purchase...) and malteasers.

 

  

 And so to the cats!!

Orange flavoured and coloured icing for Ginge, black chocolate flavoured icing for Stumpy:

Coloured roll out icing make the facial features and ears - 

Hehe - more cats in boxes!

 

Sunday Sweets: Chocolate Mint Cremes

Hmmm... I appear to have mislaid the photos for this one. (which is an excuse for it being a day late... It's not the reason, but it's an excuse)

Anyhoo - mint cremes!

You need:

Fondant Icing (the ready made roll out stuff for ease)
Peppermint Essence
Dark Chocolate

Knead the icing until soft and pliable.
Add several drops of mint essence and continue to knead
Roll the icing into a cylinder, about 1 inch in diameter
Taking a very sharp knife, slice circles about 1/3 inch thick
Leave the icing circles to dry out for an hour or so.
Melt the chocolate over a bowl of hot water.
Dip the icing into the chocolate and coat completely (don't leave it in too long. You don't want to melt the fondant!)
Let the mint cremes set completely on a non stick sheet. 

You could add colouring and other flavours to the icing.

I made some purple strawberry cremes as well, but they were, quite frankly, disgusting.

But in other news, the strawberry jam was absolutely delicious!!

Sunday Sweets: Chocolate Delights!

 

Another variation on a theme? From me...? Surely not!
This one is made using the truffle mix.
And it gives me an opportunity to use my chocolate moulds again!

Chocolate delights!

Makes lots!! (40 ish)

You will need...

• 200g White Chocolate
• 200g Dark Chocolate
• 100g Truffle mix (roughly!)

 -scoop tiny portions of truffle mix (~1/4 tsp sized scoops), roll them into balls and set to one side
 -melt the chocolates separately in bowls over a pan of freshly boiled water

Hmmm... I must've cleaned the oven especially ;-)

 -half fill each of the moulds with melted chocolate; manipulate the bottoms of the moulds with your fingers to ensure there are no gaps. Bang the mould on the counter to remove any bubbles.
 -drop a ball of truffle mix into each mould, and top up with more melted chocolate.
 

-bang the tray on the counter again
 -refrigerate until set and turn out

ooooh, a pretty stripey one!