April showers of a baking kind.

For me, April hasn't showered rain so much as flour and icing sugar.  I've been a busy ol' bee with birthdays and things and when I look at my Instagram feed (I'm jammypudding on there by the way) there is an abundance of bakes.
Back at the beginning of April I turned 39 and had a lovely, lovely day which was made all the lovelier for having this...

 Lemon cake decorated with handmade daisies.  It tasted so so so good.  I'd take lemon cake over all others (maybe?...might have to think about that claim) and it was kind of nice making myself a cake for my birthday.  Eldest Biscuit was outraged by the idea!
My father-in-law's birthday quickly followed mine so I made him his favourite coffee and walnut cake but this time I used my cool tin from Lakeland.  It has straight sides for individual cakes so you can make small versions of large cakes.  I was very pleased with how they turned out and will have to make mini Victoria sponges soon.

 The lead up to the end of the Easter hols meant I had to re stock the freezer with some bakes for my boys' lunch boxes.

Banana bread and

marble cake cut up into ickle pieces.  Sponge freezes really well and even though baking ingredients can be expensive by the time they are cut up small and used up, they work out quite cheap and although not exactly health food, better than processed and I do think cake makes people happy.  In my head my Biscuits are able to get through an afternoon of school with the help of their little cakes of happiness made with love by me.
I also made chocolate cheesecake for a friend as part of his Christmas gift of bakes throughout 2012.  I couldn't encourage a heart bypass so he didn't get a whole cheesecake, a few pieces were leftover for us.

 Oh my this cheesecake from Nigella's 'Feast' book is simply heaven in every mouthful and whenever I have it I feel I am in one of those old Flake adverts, having a special moment in a field of wild flowers. So good!

Last week I made madeleines for the menfolk as an after school and work snack (and of course a few for me too).  If you have never made them or let alone eaten one, please do.  Apart from the specialised tin (Lakeland sell one for under a tenner) they are very very easy wee cakes to make and quick too.  You can pretend, if you have a need to, to be refined and delicate whilst nibbling on one. I find it essential to drink tea from a china cup and saucer whenever I have one. Look at them, *sigh*!

 And finally, Eldest biscuit turned eleven yesterday.  All you parents out there will understand when I say I do not know how that happened so soon after him arriving but eleven he is.  I managed to convince him not to have his usual novelty sugarpaste clad birthday cake ( a 3DS this year) in favour of a chocolate cake made with chocolate from Hotel Chocolat. It's surprisingly cheaper weight for weight than Green & Blacks.  The self sacrificing mother that I am had to go into their shop in Edinburgh, forcing myself to take their free samples whilst shopping for his cake.  The things we do.
I didn't want to use my everyday, all-in-one cake (again from 'Feast') so opted for a luxury buttermilk one from 'Tea with Bea'.  This book is really lovely with seriously decadent bakes. It isn't a book for beginners I think but if you are a confident baker it's worth a looksee.  Here's how it turned out...

 I layered it with vanilla buttercream (which to be fair didn't compliment the sponge I feel, you live and learn) and covered it with chocolate buttercream.  I sprinkled over fudge pieces, Minstrels, smarties and gemstone drops from Hotel Chocolat.  I also made the bunting to decorate and little flags for these...

...mini vanilla cupcakes.  Eldest Biscuit likes to share his cake with family and friends so these were for those not so keen on a rich chocolate cake.  Too cute!
And of course there were the obligatory and traditional number biscuits.

For Christmas 2000, whilst pregnant with EB, I got Nigella's Domestic Goddess book from Mr Biscuit (he wrote inside "who's to say you're not already" sweet or what?) and knew when I saw these biscuits that I wanted to make them [for our cooking baby + any more] every year for birthdays and so far I have.  We joke that as grown men, my boys will still expect them. I followed the 'Biscuiteers' way for the icing and am getting to grips with icing bags and plastic bottles.
Here's a photo of my boy making a wish.

Oh my what a calorific month!  Just as well it wasn't all for me.  Yet I am dreaming of more.  I got a new book yesterday to sigh over and consider "What to bake?".

Indeed "What to bake?" .

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Sing with me "I'm a Biscuiteer"......no really, I'm singing it.

Hello my friends!
I hope you are all fine and dandy. I am feeling good today after a week of the most awful cold.  It's still there, lingering but compared to earlier in the week I feel great!
I wanted to share with you my Mother's Day baking.  Usually I do a nice dinner for our Mums (remember last years next morning hangover on my birthday?) but this year I felt like a wee change. so I grabbed these and some other ingredients and ventured forth in to the land of the Biscuiteers.
(there should be trumpets at this bit so just pretend okay)

I ordered some flower sugarpaste (which btw dries unbelievably fast even compared to regular sugarpaste!) and a daffodil cutter and added to my wee collection of colour paste (I had to bin a whole load that I'd had for years but I'm slowly rebuilding it). The end result were these little fellows.

With no foam pad to sit them in/on (mental note to obtain one) I resorted to making them comfy in upturned icing nozzles balanced in the holes of my wee metal pot trivet. Did the job though.  I'm glad I went with making the trumpet a slightly darker, more orange yellow (although difficult to see in the above photo). They turned out lovely I think.
Now onto the biscuits.
I've had the Biscuiteer book for a couple of months now.  I have always used a Nigella recipe for biscuits which is great, but, the icing always made the biscuits soften and it is impossible to sit the biscuits atop of one another without a right old mess.  Not to mention disastrous consequences for the icing design, so I was interested in trying the Biscuiteer way of doing it because of the icing being harder and therefore easier to transport etc.  I did that thing I sometimes do though, with the recipe.  I read that the plain biscuits called for granulated sugar and I went ahead adding it in the full knowledge that unrefined golden sugar of any kind does not act in the same way as refined.  You can see in the next photo I was right.  The sugar is still apparent even after baking.  It didn't effect the taste but next time I should trust my baking or sugar knowledge and change to caster (cannae use bleached).

The biscuits were/are very tasty.  Adding golden syrup really made them taste delicious.
Now to the icing.
Again I followed the recipe knowing full well I was making too much but you know I am not a Master Baker so I bow to the idea that other people may know something I don't and therefore I go with them, even, on occasion, when I have and instinct something is not right.  But you know, with baking, you have to be precise.  The fundamentals are not to be tweaked, flavours etc sure, and you never want to end up in that awful situation of 'not enough' so you go with it. Anyhoo, I had way too much icing but let me tell you, Royal icing whisked up in a Kitchenaid for five minutes is a glorious sight. Beautiful and glossy like meringue.
Now this is where I get a bit irritated and I know I shouldn't.  I hate hate hate that I am not better with an icing bag.  It drives me nuts. I get that it takes practice.  I know that but I want to be perfect instantly and no matter how much older and hopefully wiser I get, I still do not learn this lesson. I was not happy with the end result but I will persevere.

I love doing the polka dots with the flood icing though, it's a lot of fun and the daffies look really good, if I do say so myself.

See, look at that line icing....grrrr!

They looked great all packaged up in recycled tubs from the supermarket ( I cannae throw anything away that can be used to package up baking). They tasted really good too, once we got used to the idea of crunchier icing.  I liked that they got put back in the oven on a really low temperature to dry out as this meant I could pile them up in their boxes. 
I have plans to make them for EVERYBODY'S birthdays this year if anything to justify adding to my cookie cutter collection.

I am just a wee bit pleased I can now call myself a 'Biscuiteer' but I cannot help asking.  Where's my sword and I demand Gene Kelly has a well choreographed sword fight in front of me in those 'tight' tights.

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Here's the book, click on the image to go to Amazon.  What can I say, it's where I  get my craft/baking book fix from.

(image from Amazon)

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