Garlic And Herb Focaccia

 

I love bread. I love making it, baking it, eating it. I honestly can't tell you how much I eat but lets just say its A LOT! I am a sandwich fiend, more often than not i will have a sandwich while waiting for my dinner. Bread really is my downfall when I'm trying to knock off a few pounds. It is the carby love of my life!

If you too are a bread obsessive then you MUST try this recipe. This bread is amazingly good. It has an amazing crust, its not crunchy but has that great chew factor. Its is not like sourdough, where your jaw aches in fantastical delicious way, it is just somewhere in between. The bread itself is light and airy with little pockets of oily garlic goodness. It is the perfect bread for placing on the table to tear off chunks and share.

Recipe for Garlic And Herb Focaccia

 

Makes 1 Loaf

 

Ingredients

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 sachet (7g) dried yeast
• 210ml luke warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 350g strong plain white flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp of chopped herbs

Instructions

1. Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes until it looks frothy and bubbly. This is the yeast being activated.
2. Stir in salt and add flour, stirring to form a soft dough.
3. Knead dough until soft and elastic. This usually takes about 5 minutes in a mixer.
4. Place dough in large bowl coated with olive oil, cover with cling film and let rise for 45 mins  in a warm place.
5. Meanwhile heat your oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 5 mins or until fragrant.Remove from heat and remove garlic slices.
6. Place dough on a baking sheet coated with oil and pat into a 12x8' rectangle. Brush your garlic oil over dough and sprinkle with herbs, I went for thyme. Cover and again allow to rise for 25 mins in a warm area.
7. Preheat oven to 180°C. Use your fingertips to create small indentation on focaccia. Bake for 14 mins or until lightly browned. Leave cool on wire rack.

I have made this on numerous occasions and it has always been fantastic.

Hope you enjoy!

Shirley x

Raspberry Victoria Sponge

You can never go wrong with a classic Victoria sponge and with the beautiful fresh berries and fruit around at the mo,they're always a fab combo! This is a moist,light cake with layers of raspberry jam and fresh cream. I have mentioned my dislike of fresh cream before but as of late I'm loving it, it must be all the juicy berry goodness around at the moment.

 

Recipe for Raspberry Victoria sponge cake

 

Ingredients

 

• 175g butter, room temp
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs,beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional, but a must in my books)
• 175g self-raising flour, sifted
• Raspberry jam or jam of your preference
• Raspberry's or again berries of your preference

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line your tins. I used two 8" round tins.
2. Beat your butter for a minute or two until soft. Add your sugar and cream the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
3. Add your vanilla extract, if using, to your eggs. Slowly add this to the mixture while continuing to beat or if your doing it by hand beat well after each addition. If you add the eggs too quickly, the mixture will curdle, making the cake much heavier. If it does curdle don't panic try adding a spoonful of flour to bring it back. It won't affect the taste as much as the texture.
4. Fold in your sifted flour quickly and pour the mixture into your prepared tins.
5. Bake in the oven for15-20mins until the cake is risen and spongy to touch.Leave to cool on wire rack.
6. Once cake has cooled, layer your jam and cream on one cake and sandwich together. I topped mine with some icing sugar (for that extra sweetness), cream and fresh whole raspberries.

Happy Monday!

Shirley x

Some Sort Of Rugby Ball Cake

This may not look like a complicated cake but due to our glorious weather recently, it really tested my patience. The apparent rugby ball did in fact look like a rugby ball when first moulded but due to the heat it literally melted and drooped. No amount of icing sugar and tylose powder was going to save me!

The cake was the ever so popular chocolate biscuit cake and chocolate buttercream.

Short and sweet (and seriously frustrating!!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Shirley x

Vanilla Cupcakes With Vanilla Swizz Meringue Buttercream

I had to make this buttercream THREE times, not once, not twice but threeeeee times. I will admit I was pretty knackered when  it came to making it and my baking brain wasn't at full speed. I had invited all the family for high tea and had been baking for literally the whole day so I'm not sure if it was tiredness or this buttercream is just a pain to get right. I have seen it made numerous occasions, Anna Olson and Ina seem to do it at their ease, so I'm putting the first two failed attempts down to tiredness.

In the end, when I was finally happy with the results it turned out to be a pretty nice buttercream. Is it going to knock cream cheese frosting as my No.1? No but its fluffy and satiny and a great buttercream to decorate with. I will definitely be giving it a go again........hopefully I'll get it on my first attempt this time! I used my favourite Vanilla Bean Cupcake recipe and topped them with mini eggs which I loooove,far too easy to eat!

 

Recipe for Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

 

Ingredients

• 225g caster sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 300g unsalted butter,room temp
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract

Instructions

 

1. Using a large heat proof bowl, place the sugar, salt and egg whites and place over a pan of simmering water making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar, you’ll know when the sugar has dissolved as the mixture won’t be gritty.It will be smooth and runny.
2. When the mixture is smooth, using a hand held electric mixer, whisk on high speed until you have a thick meringue. Remove the bowl from the pan of water and continue to whisk on low speed until the meringue has cooled to room temperature,you can check this by feeling the outside of the bowl.
3. Add your butter in chunks one at a time and continue whisking. Don't worry if it looks scrambled, it will eventually become smooth. Add your vanilla extract and food colouring if you wish.Whisk until you have a smooth and silky buttercream.

For some reason I could never get to the meringue stage on my first two attempts, maybe it was the bowl or my sugar wasn't dissolved properly but hopefully ill be back with better news on my next attempt. I'm thinking some pureed strawberries would be amazeballs in this.

Hope you have better luck than me and get it bang on first go!

Shirley x