When is a cake not a cake?

It’s been far too hot recently to want to spend much time in the kitchen, and thankfully I don’t do the cooking in our household anymore. But I would hate to be a professional baker or chef when its hot outside.

I love baking cakes when I get the time and of course, I love eating them too. But during the summer months my favourite kind of cake often does not require any baking at all. I do love a cheesecake. I could eat cheesecake every day. Its another type of cake I don’t get to make very often.

C and I sort of follow a Slimming World diet in as much as we use either their recipes, or Pinch of Nom or similar. I try to count calories, but I like food too much and often see that I have exceeded my recommended daily amount. Small wonder I’m not actually loosing much weight, just the odd pound here and there.

This past week we have been using the recipes from the July Slimming World magazine and I was happy to see that one of the recipes was for a vanilla and chocolate cheesecake. We don’t often have homemade desserts, generally don’t have the time to make them but not one to miss out on the opportunity of cheesecake, I decided that I would make our dessert for Sunday lunch.

I made the cheesecake on Saturday afternoon, so it had plenty of time to set. It was a chilled one rather than a baked one, so no slaving over a hot oven. There’s always that moment of apprehension when you loosen the springform pan sides and hold your breath hoping that it won’t slip and slide all over the place. Fortunately, it had set very well. And I’d remembered to put a sheet of baking paper under the biscuit crumb to avoid it getting stuck to the bottom of the tin, meaning I could slide it easily on to a plate. Just to make sure though, I didn’t take it out of the tin until Sunday morning.

Perfect.

As there’s only the two of us at home, the next question is how many servings we should cut it in to. The recipe says eight, even if we were generous, we’d only make it six. But given that there’s only the two of us, we have a whopping quarter of it each. Somewhat negates the Slimming World part, right? What’s the point of dragging it out over several days, it won’t keep that long, will it? That’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it.

This particular cheesecake tasted very nice but the consistency was a bit strange. It was more of a panna cotta style wobbly rather than a light, fluffy filling. Maybe that was the combination of cream cheese, yoghurt and quark, with the gelatine.

Anyway, it satisfied by cheesecake craving for now.

Where do you get your baking inspiration from?

I realise that this blog is called Bells, Bakes and Bettering Myself and that most of what I write about is predominantly #bellringing or something to do with learning a new technique, learning more about myself and the world I’m in, and there is very little to do with baking. Occasionally I’ll mention the latest BakedIn green box that has landed on the doormat. I did say a while back that I was going to get in the habit of baking something from series of magazines that I’d invested in and I did make a start but didn’t get very far. The trouble was some #bellringing activities took over which meant most of the time that I could put aside to bake was taken up with meetings. This is now starting to lessen so regular baking can resume.

I do have a few things in the cupboards that need using up such as flavours icing sugars that make great buttercream icing or you can use them in the cake batter to flavour it. I have a cinnamon bun kit in the cupboard that needs using up, and quite possible a brownie kit too. Then I need to get some inspiration and start getting creative again. I have all these tools and things at my disposal but I just don’t get to use them often enough. I need to get some practice in, and I do still have a voucher for a session with my friend Sarah, of The Cupcake Oven. But I need some inspiration.

I follow several cake decorators on Instagram and Facebook. Many of them are way too advanced for me, or I look at what they’ve created and think that I could actually do that if I had the time. I’m not very imaginative so I need a plan to follow or use something someone else has done for inspiration. I used to follow Paul Bradfield and I have used some of his tutorials in creating versions of Star Trek Enterprise, or standing up Santas. They are really good step by step guides.

In fact it was through following Paul that I met Sarah. I had been to a different cake making class and one of the other students in the class mentioned Paul. I googled him and found that he was due to give a demonstration at my local Sugarcraft Guild (never knew they existed). In order to get a place on the workshop, I joined the Guild for a while. Sarah was a member, and may have been on the committee at the time too, before she moved further away. I stopped going to the Guild as I found that a) I was by far the youngest in the room b) they all sat in cliques and c) when one of the committee members came up to me and said “Welcome, is this your first meeting”? to which I replied “No, I’ve been coming here for over a year”, I realised that this wasn’t the group for me. And to be honest, I wasn’t really learning much. The people they had in to do demonstrations where far beyond what I could do, or indeed I had already mastered several techniques and didn’t learn anything new.

It would be good to see Sarah again for another class, but I’ve done most of hers now and need to find other excuses for a visit. I need some inspiration for your average hobby baker, who can make a reasonable tasting cake, and can make it look quite good with sugar flowers and bits.

Any suggestions?

Overindulgence just for one day

Why is it over the Christmas period apparently its ok to eat food, snacks, drink tons of alcohol, and generally put on your own body weight in food again? Essentially, its one day. Essentially its just like having a Sunday roast. So why do we obsess over all the additional stuff?

Don’t get me wrong, I do it too. I love all the special foods that they only seem to bring out at Christmas. I could eat a whole plate of pigs in blankets. I can shovel food in my face until the point of feeling physically sick at the thought of another “wafer thin mint” (see Monty Python sketch in The Meaning of Liff).

I don’t tend to eat breakfast so Christmas morning was just a cup of coffee for me. We had to go ringing so wouldn’t have had time for much else anyway. When we got home, we had more coffee and 2 mince pies (seemingly extra large ones from the bakery stall in town) whilst we were on the family Skype. We had a 3 bird roast, enough to fed 4, and all the trimmings for lunch. We had half the meat for Christmas day and will have the other half for Sunday lunch. That was washed down with a bottle of Moet & Chandon that we’ve had for a while. Then followed by an epic chocolate orange cheesecake that I’d made. The recipe said that it made 12 servings. We’ve cut it into 6!

We have hampers of food that family members have been generous to send, and chocolates etc that people have given as gifts. I couldn’t even look at it. After such a lunch, I couldn’t eat again. I stuck to water for the rest of the day, and only at about 9pm did I have another mince pie (they need to be eaten before they go stale). Couldn’t possibly eat another thing.

I weigh myself every day. I know you’re not supposed to so that, but it helps keep me focused from day to day. On Christmas morning I had already put on 4lb in the week due to additional snacking and the Christmas Eve curry we’d eaten the night before. On Boxing Day the scales of doom said that I’d actually lost 1lb since Christmas morning.

I’m not going to obsess about going on a diet just yet as there’s too much food in the house to consume yet. But once the overindulgence is done it’ll be time to refocus, and be more considerate about those who were unable to have a hot Christmas day meal.

Have your cake and eat it

Today there was much talk of cake, of all different sorts.

A family conversation recently discussed the merits of an After Eight Mint cake that one sibling had seen on social media, and the challenge to bake one was issued. I had actually made After Eight mint cupcakes a few years back, so shared the photo (above).

We were due to socially distance visit some friends this weekend but our area has been placed in Tier 3 so that’s now not happening. Before the deadline arrived, our friends popped round to deliver Christmas cards instead and, from the safety of staying in their car, also delivered some yummy cupcakes.

Then, the anticipation of delivery of the monthly BakedIn box. Mine hadn’t arrived yet, but the video had been released so I had a sneak peek. OMG, sounds delicious. My box did arrive later that same morning, so not really a spoiler. I will save that one up for Christmas week.

Then sibling tagged me in a post for a no bake Terry’s chocolate orange cheesecake. I LOVE cheesecake. I printed the recipe off and C picked it up off the printer and declared that I’m making it for Christmas Day dessert. OK then.

And I’ve been formulating an idea for a cake for a special delivery next week. Got an idea in my mind. 🤫

As Marie Antoinette apparently said “let them eat cake”. I shall do my best.

A different way of preparing for Christmas

We are enjoying a long overdue weekend away, staying in a hotel for a couple of nights. We chose to book breakfast and evening meals at the hotel as we were unsure what was around and if you had to book.

Our first meal was Friday evening. I chose the ham hock bruschetta for starter, chicken with chicken leg croquette and veg for main, followed by toffee cheesecake with homemade ice cream and popcorn for dessert. With accompanying glasses of prosecco and a Baileys to finish. Absolutely delicious.

After dinner there was not much to do, and current covid rules says that you’re not allowed to hang around in the bar if you’re not eating, so we went back up to our room and watched TV, until the feeling of a good meal, alcohol and a warm room lead to sleep.

Only a few hours later and it was time for breakfast. Due to a pared down menu the options were cereal, porridge, croissant and other pastries or a full English, bacon sandwich or toast. I ticked the full English but then C ticked the toast and pain au chocolate options as well. A massive array of breakfast arrived with tea and coffee. Took some doing but we got through it all.

Needless to say, we didn’t need lunch. We did have a cream tea at a National Trust property early in the afternoon, but that was enough.

Dinner time again. This time I opted for the ham hock starter again (didn’t much fancy any of the other options) followed by bbq beef short rib with sweet potato fries and slaw, then chocolate orange torte for pud. One glass of prosecco and a bottle of wine between us.

This time I felt that we needed to go for a walk after dinner. I felt like I was going to explode! When we got back to our room, we were thinking of what to do for Sunday lunch on our way home and managed to book a table at Prezzo for 12.30. Quite early for us for Sunday lunch. I’m thinking I should have a smaller breakfast to leave some room. I’m also thinking I do like a cooked breakfast, and I’m on holiday, so sod it.

I have stretchy jeans on, so they’ll expand. I’m preparing my tummy for the onslaught of Christmas food. I’m also mindful that eating too much is not good, so it’ll be back to slimming world soup for lunch next week.

Back in my happy place

Been back in the kitchen, getting my bake on. Haven’t baked anything for a week or two for various reasons, so it was great to be back in my happy place after a particularly difficult week.

Fortunately my BakedIn box arrived, so that avoided any difficulty decisions having to be made.

I’ve never made butterscotch before. It does warn you in the recipe card that it will be hot, but that didn’t stop me sticking my finger in it for a taste 😋

How long do you think is a polite length of time to wait before scoffing some? Quite frankly, I’d happily tuck in now but C is busy putting together my new desk and chair for the study, and we need to go up the tip to get rid of all the stuff we’ve decided to chuck out during the clear up to make space for said desk, and we haven’t had lunch yet. Maybe it’ll have to wait a bit until afternoon tea time.

I had thought at one time, reasonably seriously, about going into a baking business, or having a little tea shop and selling homemade cakes. Trouble with that is, you have to have the space and facilities to meet all the necessary food hygiene and safety requirements, and actually doing it all would take too much of my personal time up, which would impact on my #bellringing time. I do make the odd cake for friends and family, and I have been commissioned in the past to make cakes for a fee, but I do it very much on my terms. If I’m not “feeling” it or I simply don’t want to, I will say no. I make cakes because I want to, not because I have to, in order to make a living. I absolutely applaud those who have turned their hobby into a business and if I wasn’t so consumed by #bellringing, maybe I’d think a bit harder about it. But for now, I’m happy making simple things to enjoy.

I wonder what my grandad would make of it. I used to love watching him mix a cake together without weighing anything, just by feel. He was a master Baker in his day, and didn’t bat an eyelid at making my sister’s wedding cake, including the Royal icing from scratch, in my mum’s kitchen. I sat round the table watching him work.

I wonder whether that was an early influence on me. My first full time job out of school was as a cream finisher in a bakery, putting all the finishing touches to cakes, doughnuts and all sorts of yummies. I’ve always said that if I did set up my own cake business that I would name it after him. Duffell’s Cakery. And the logo would be a side profile of his face in ginger to reflect the colour of his moustache.

We would have had fun in the kitchen together.

In anticipation

A couple of christmasses ago I was given a 3 month subscription to BakedIn, a baking club where they send you dry ingredients and the recipe card for a different bake each month. I was suitably impressed so I extended it.

Every month you get sent an email just before they post the boxes out, telling you what fresh ingredients you’ll need, but they don’t tell you what the recipe is. The anticipation is trying to guess what’s going to be in the box. The social media groups are abuzz with guesses as to what it might be. There is an embargo for a couple of days to stop anyone posting photos or comments to give everyone a chance to recieve their box. Then there’s usually a photo competition for those who get their bakes done quickly and the winner is sent some other BakedIn goodies.

I’ve never actually made a bake in the same month that it was sent. For a while I was considerably far behind, but since I changed my working hours it meant that I could catch up a bit. I now just about get it down by the end of the following month.

There have been a couple of bakes that we’ve not liked so much but that’s not because of the bake itself, more that we don’t like the some of the ingredients. For example the bakewell tart I had all to myself because C doesn’t like almonds, but then he’s had a different one to himself because I didn’t like it. There has only been one that I haven’t made at all because neither of us would like it, so I’m waiting for a time when I can make it for someone else.

This month, the email said we needed to get a lemon, some butter and eggs. I like lemon flavoured things so I’m sure we’ll like this one. And I still have last months millionaire shortbread to do.

I await my delivery 😋

Comfort Food

The weather has taken quite a turn, its wetter, windy and cooler. I have retrieved some of my autumn/winter clothes from the depths of the wardrobe and vacuum packed some of the summer clothes away for storage.

I do love winter food. I’m not a great salad eater and I don’t like fruit of any kind in any format so summer eating does get a bit tedious. But now we’re heading for warm, comfort eating. Stews, soups and stodge. Sunday lunch provided the first chance to indulge in custard. Slathered all over a hot chocolate pudding 😋

This weeks food menus include hunters chicken, cajun pork, Thai Red beef curry, parmesan crusted chicken with combinations of rice or potatoes or butternut squash and accompanying vegetables.

After this coming week I’ll start making soups to take to work for lunches instead of cold meats and ryvita. The benefits of having a soup maker means you can just shove all the ingredients in and 20 minutes later you have either chunky or smooth soup depending which setting you used. That, together with C’s homemade multigrain bread would be rather lush.

I’m still going to have to be careful about what I eat though. I’ve lost 2lb this week by really sticking to plan (except for the wine) so I don’t want to undo all that effort but so long as I stick to the SW philosophy I won’t go too far wrong.

I love this time of year for food.

Seasonal change

The colour of leaves is changing, the morning’s are noticably darker longer and the night draws in earlier. We are half way through September, when autumn starts.

Its that time of year when you’re never quite sure whether you’ll need a jumper, or to take an umbrella 🌂 and what shoes to wear. Its the symbolic end to summer hedonism, even if there’s still the odd really hot and sunny 🌞 day.

I love autumn above any of the other seasons. I love the colours of leaves as they turn from green to red, orange and brown. The fruits and berries on trees and bushes seem more vibrant and remind me of hot puddings with custard. Once the leaves have fallen I love to kick about in them and hear them crunch underfoot. The morning mists and dew that make spiders webs sparkle. The clear night skies when you can see all the stars clearly. I even love rain showers. I love the fact that it heralds cozy nights in, wrapping up warm and drinking more hot chocolate (with cream and marshmallows obviously) than is good for you.

Some see autumn as the prelude to winter when harsher times may be ahead, but I welcome its warmth, colour and contradictions.

It’s all about the preparation

Bellringing and baking have at least one thing in common. They both require a certain amount of preparation.

For an experienced bell ringer learning new methods requires homework to be done before you get to ring it. Printing the blue line off, writing it out lots of times, practising on a simulator, reciting the work of each bell until it sticks. Then, when you get to ring it, either on tower bells, handbells or virtual platform, doing it over and over again until you “see” the patterns and it starts to stick.

Baking requires a plan of what to bake, when to bake it, what ingredients are needed and equipment. Not to mention the “to share or not to share” debate.

Of the two, I’ve always found baking easier to prep for. I can spend a week or longer deciding if I’m going to bake something, what it might be, what day I’ll bake it and when and who gets it eat it. For example for a week now I’ve been thinking about what to do with some left over mascarpone and homemade raspberry jam. Sunday lunch dessert would be a perfect opportunity. Hmm, what to do though? KISS, keep it simple, stupid. Buy some meringue nests, slather the mascarpone and jam on top et voila. Dessert is served.

This coming week I need to learn two bellringing methods. Ipswich Surprise Minor, which I have rung in the dim and distant past, and Bourne Surprise Minor, something completely new.

Ipswich is needed for Thursday night and Bourne on Friday. When will I start preparing?

My trouble is, if I know I’m only going to ring it on the one occasion is it worth the investment of all that preparation? I have learned new methods for quarter peals before, just enough effort put in to get through the quarter, then instantly forgotten as soon as we’ve stopped ringing.

However, other people I will be ringing with will have put considerable effort into learning the methods. In order to support them I really should too. And it would help my own ability to ring other things more regularly if I made the effort to learn it thoroughly.

The quality of the output is commensurate with the quality of input. You get out what you put in.

Well Sunday lunch dessert looks OK, hope it tastes good too. Will my ringing next week be equally prepared?