Thursday 27 January 2011

FlapJacks



I absolutely adore this recipe! These flapjacks always come out lovely but for some reason today, I paid particular attention to the recipe and realised two simple mistakes that have been keeping my flapjacks away from their peak.

Firstly, when the mixture is in the pan, you have to leave it on the boil for 2-3 minutes. This turns the syrup liquid into a deep toffee mixture and makes the finished product totally live up to their 'ooie chewy' name.

Secondly, you dont need to put the full 275g of oats into the buttery syrup mixture. I added them slowly until there was a fudgy mixture, 'slightly damp' as the recipe says and was left with about 20g which I just put back in the packet. Not too sure why you have to line the tin with tin foil and not baking paper or grease but it made no difference. I did find it a struggle to peel the foil off the back of my flapjacks but overall a very successful batch of flapjacks!

To try these wonderful flapjacks, go here!

Monday 17 January 2011

Lemon Drizzle Cake


Having been given The Great British Book of Baking by my brother for Christmas, I have been dreaming about making lemon drizzle cake for days. So, by side stepping revision for a bit, I decided to give the recipe a go. After raiding the cupboards, I only needed to buy some lemons so consequently it was pretty cost efficient but it does use a large amount of all of the ingredients included.

The picture on the page makes the cake look really lemony coloured and looked incredibly moist. However, after baking the cake for 60 minutes (yes, a full 60, that's what the recipe says!) mine came out looking burnt and not exactly as 'moist' as in said picture. The skewer kept coming out with cake mix on it so it continued to burn as it cooked thoroughly. I do believe, however, that had I lined the tin with baking paper, this may have been avoided.


As for the glaze, it's just pure caster sugar and lemon, so the contrast totally blows you away. I only had golden caster sugar though which turned the 'drizzle' slightly brown and not the bog standard frosty white colour that you would expect on a shop bought version. I thought this would spoil the look of the cake but it turned out that you couldn't see the glaze anyway. Despite this, the recipe was by far the easiest I've done in a while, I simply bunged it all into my mixer and away it went. I do suggest, though, that you mix it by hand for a bit first as my mixer sent the flour all over the kitchen, much to my parents annoyance. Or, if you have a Kitchen Aid, use the shield bit!

In the end, the cake tastes amazing, especially as the glaze on top has soaked through but I can't get over the extremely long cooking time which has left a peculiar burnt lemon flavour in my mouth!


Lemon Drizzle Cake- adapted from The Great British Book of Baking
Ingredients
For the Cake:
200g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten and at room temperature
2 medium lemons, unwaxed if possible and finely grated
250g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100ml milk, again at room temp

For the topping:
100g caster sugar
juice of 2 medium unwaxed lemons
finely grated zest of 1 medium unwaxed lemon

Method

-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Line a 20cm springclip tin or deep round cake tin

-Place the butter, sugar, eggs and zest into a bowl and sieve over the flour and baking powder. Add the milk and mix until smooth and completely combined

-Spoon the batter into the tin and level it out. Bake in the oven for around 50 minutes or until golden brown. A clean cocktail stick should come out clean when put into the centre

-To make the topping, combine the sugar and lemon juice until it creates a runny glaze

-Once the cake is cooked, immediately transfer the tin onto a wire rack and prick the cake all over then spoon the glaze all over

-Leave to cool completely in the tin before serving
.
Enjoy!

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