My Cookbook

Now I thought it would be fun to write about my cook book I only own 1 and have only ever used 1 but I think it is a really great book full of fun ideas. It is “The Great British bake off Learn to Bake”, by Linda Collister with a foreword by Mary Berry. I know there are lots of great British Bake off cookbooks but this one is full of mostly simple everyday goodies.

Linda Collister has written lots of cookbooks her most recognisable book though is the Hamlin cookbook which my mum has had and used for about 20 years and I think she really likes it.

I have enjoyed making many things from this book from ghost cupcakes to massive chocolate cake. I find the instructions simple and clear and most things normally turn out really well.

The only recipe I have had problems with is the ‘dads cheesy biscuits’ I think this is partly to do with me being impatient though because half way through it tells you to leave it to chill for an hour and I’m not sure if I left it for long enough.

So overall I really love this book with lovely bright pictures and simple instructions I do think it could  be improved if every recipe told you how many it served but I can live without that. Now I want to do some baking, yum.

Here is a link to the Great British Bake Off books website

http://www.bakeoffbook.co.uk/

Lemon drizzle cake yum!

So I thought I would attempt to carry on this blog in some sort of order. So its baking’s turn now. The most simple but tastiest cake you can make is a lemon drizzle cake with a sweet zingy taste. It is also very cheap and quick to make.

Ingredients

4 eggs

Now weigh these 4 eggs and use the same measurements for:

Flour

Butter

Sugar

Lemon

Caster sugar

Method

remember to grease and line the loaf tin.

Cream the butter and sugar. I would use an electric whisk but you can do it by hand with a little more effort if you wish. It should appear light and creamy .

Next break the four eggs I use a large glass or mug, or any other sort of container sort of thing is fine.

Whisk these into the butter and sugar mixture gradually it may curdle slightly but I don’t find this matters in the end result. Some advice is to add flour in between adding the egg to stop it curdling, but I find this gets complicated and reduces the amount of air in the mixture, forming a less light cake.

Next grate the lemon and add the zest to the mixture

Then sieve and fold in the flour. Folding in is important as it traps more air into the mixture. I fold in by making a cut down the middle then stirring the one side and repeat and mix the other side. I’m sorry this is probably a very bad explanation.

Then pour all this mixture into a loaf tin and put in the oven for 40-45 mins until you can stick a skewer in and it comes out clean.

To make it lemony, squeeze half a lemon into a jug, and add the caster sugar.

Then prick holes through the cake and pour the lemon and sugar mixture over the top of the cake

I did originally get measurements for this BBC good food website.
 ok now i'm hungry, enjoy!

Wreck This Journal 1.

Well I figured I needed to pick a really good book for the start of my blog. So here it is my current favourite book. Even Pippa (our puppy) enjoys it!

This is part of a selection of books by Keri Smith which also contains ‘this is not a book’, ‘mess’ and ‘finish this book’. Basically in each book she instructs you to do some very odd things with the book and create a piece of artwork.

Here are the instruction’s in the book it might explain it better

As you can see I have already defaced them and this is entirely the point. I think it is brilliant, I will show you more as it develops.