It was a warm and sunny Saturday the 24th March yesterday and I embarked on a somewhat mammoth cooking lesson number 4.
This time baking was on the agenda. Not just baking for our own consumption, but for a house warming party. Quite a daunting challenge for a beginner; a lot more pressure to get it right! After a big shopping trip and some smashed eggs on my lap I left at lunch time to begin this baking marathon. We begun at 2pm and finished by 7pm, there were some moments of panic on my part, but luckily I was well supervised!
We made a whole host of dishes including a quiche, mini tarts, chilli con carne, a coffee cake and a lemon drizzle cake.
Mushroom, pepper and courgette quiche.
200g of plain flour
Extra flour for rolling
100g of butter/margarine
Extra butter for greasing
2 tbps of water
5 eggs
2 tbsp of milk
Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of olive oil
200g of mushrooms
1 medium courgette
1 red pepper
Salt
Pepper
1. Preheat the oven at 180 C/gas mark 5.
2. Grease a 26cm round tin.
3. For the pastry, combine the butter and flour with your fingers until it is the consistency of bread crumbs. When it has reached that stage use a little water to combine it together to make a dough.
4. Use a lot of plain flour on your rolling surface and the rolling pin (it must not stick!) and then place the dough on the surface and roll the dough until even and large enough to fit in your greased tin.
5. When it is rolled out use it to line your tin and cut off any excess dough.
6. Chop up the mushrooms, courgette and peppers and gently cook in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil.
7. When the vegetables are cooked place them evenly in the quiche tin on top of the pastry.
8. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese.
9. Pour the egg mix evenly over the vegetables.
10. Place in the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes (or until golden brown and cooked all the way through).
11. Leave to cool for an hour and then serve.
After we had made this delicious quiche we had leftover pastry so we made some jam tarts and some savoury tartlets, which were both very simple, but also very tasty!
Leftover pastry dough
Butter for greasing
200g Jam
1. Grease a cupcake tray and preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5.
2. Roll out the remaining dough.
3. Cut 8cm circles of the dough and place in the cupcake dishes.
4. Place a spoonful of jam in each tart (we used plum jam).
5. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
6. Leave to cool for 30 minutes and enjoy with a good old cup of tea!
Leftover pastry dough
100g of pesto
Cherry tomatoes
Grated parmasan cheese
Butter for greasing
1. Grease a cupcake tray and preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5.
2. Roll out the remaining dough.
3. Cut 8cm circles of the dough and place in the cupcake dishes.
4. Place a spoonful of pesto in each one.
5. Place half a cherry tomato in each one.
6. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the top.
7. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Leave to cool for 30 minutes and voila! A tasty treat that is so simple to make!
While these were all baking we made the chilli con carne, which was exactly like the spaghetti bolognese we made a few weeks ago (see older blog post!) but with chilli added to it! Simple and it tasted brilliant! I certainly had seconds.
So at this stage of the baking marathon we were quite tired but feeling pretty pleased with ourselves and we were enjoying sampling what we had made! Perhaps there was too much sampling on my part...!
Anyway, with this added confidence we began to make the cakes. Now, I have a very, very bad history with cake making. I have just never got it. As my housemate said about last cake I made: 'it was a disgusting sculpture'. I can't deny it, it was! A solid being that was certainly not edible. It was more like play dough that had been left out and gone hard and a bit salty. So I was quite nervous about these cakes, there were some difficult moments when the mix began to curdle, but it was rescued quickly! In the end there was a lot of cake and it was all gone at the end of the night, so I think it went down quite well! If only I hadn't eaten so much during the cooking process, I would have been able to eat more cake later on!
300g caster sugar
300g butter/margarine
5 eggs
400g self raising flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp of hot water (combined with 2 tbsp of instant coffee)
For the icing:
400g icing sugar
200g butter
2 tbsp of hot water (combined with 2 tbsp of instant coffee)
1. Preheat the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
2. Grease 2 26 inch cake tins.
3. Whisk the butter and sugar in a bowl until very fluffy.
4. Whisk the eggs in a mug with a fork and gradually add to the mixture with 1 tbsp of flour each time (it is important to add the egg and flour at the same time otherwise the mixture will curdle!)
5. Add the rest of the flour and the baking powder and fold it in gently.
6. Dissolve the coffee in boiling water and add to the mixture while still folding.
7. Divide into the cake tins and cook for 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, cream the butter, icing sugar and dissolved coffee. Whisk and leave in the fridge until the cake is done.
9. Take the cakes out and let them cool fully. Spread the butter icing on top of each cake and make a sandwich cake. If you like, sprinkle with dark chocolate. Yum!
Lemon Drizzle Sponge Cake
175g butter/margarine
175g Sugar
1 lemon, zest and juice
3 eggs
200g self raising flower
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
For the icing:
100g icing sugar
50g butter
50g yoghurt
1 lemon, zest and juice
1. Preheat the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
2. Grease 1 long 12 inch cake tin.
3. Whisk the butter and sugar in a bowl until very fluffy.
4. Whisk the eggs in a mug with a fork and gradually add to the mixture with 1 tbsp of flour each time (it is important to add the egg and flour at the same time otherwise the mixture will curdle!)
5. Add the rest of the flour and the baking powder and fold it in gently.
6. Add the juice and zest of the lemon to the mixture while still folding.
7. Pour into the cake tin and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked all the way through.
8. Meanwhile, cream the butter, icing sugar and juice of a lemon. Whisk together and add the yoghurt. Leave in the fridge until the cake is ready.
9. Leave the cake to cool. When it is cool drizzle the yoghurt icing over the cake. Sprinkle the whole cake with the lemon zest.
So that just about sums it up for my cooking adventures this week! I will try these out over the Easter holidays in the UK and see how they go down!
turnnoffyourmind
gamechangershow
prguitarman
pixelskylines
izzy806
germansingergirl
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
ellievsbear
