Carrot cake, Salmon and watercress tart AND Hot cross buns

On a sunny September afternoon, with the leaves sun kissed on my quiet suburban road, my fellow bakers and I cuddled in the warmth of my kitchen to bake some culinary wonders. The menu for the day, as the title suggests, was a line of real treats.

I had been dying to bake a carrot cake for a while. I'd been told it was reasonably easy to make but i hadn't actually tried my hands at it. Dragging my fellow bakers kicking and screaming, we set out to bake this recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/carrot-cake-with-maple-cream-cheese-frosting/

We chose to bake the double-decked version rather than the cup cakes and it was absolutely devine!



The choice of canola oil also gave the batter a uniquely orange look that the other bakers thought was quite unusual. We also used half the sugar the recipe recommended - we would have been fast tracking to diabetes otherwise!



As it turns out, it was possibly the easier of the recipes to get together, so we rustled it together and stuck it in the oven to bake. The finished product looked devine and it was delicious! It was a huge piece of cake so we shared it amongst ourselves and i ended up giving most of mine to friends and family who were very complimentary! Score!




The second recipe was the Salmon and water cress tart for which we used:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/salmon_and_watercress_05414

The crust was probably the hardest part but it worked very well and i think i will be using that recipe for my pie bases going forward. The end product did not only look good but it tasted fantastic and went very very fast!!



The final recipe, but by no means the least was [my favourite] hot cross buns, which again, i was totally aiming at baking at some point. It was also a bbc recipe used:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hotcrossbuns_70059

It's a great recipe and we definitely enjoyed making the buns!

Haryo took on the brave kneading task given his strong, masculine wrists!



We then left it to rise...




And rise...



Then we added the trimmings and set it to bake. Doesn't it just look great?



Is your appetite whet yet?



Yusuf had a crack at eating all of it but don't worry we stopped him. Can't have that!



We devoured these creations with relish!




Increasingly we're finding the combination of sweet and savoury baking tasks to work well and broadening our repertoire. Our stomachs are certainly broadening their experience, much to the detriment of our waistlines!

Stay tuned for the next destructive episode :)

Courgette & Harissa Pasta and Cinnamon Sugar Tear-Apart Bread

Seeing how it's winter now,

I thought it's only right to update the summer Bake Club.

And with me moving out of the flat then,

it seemed only natural to have the Bake Club at mine.

Through some magical voting system,

we decided to bake a Cinammon bread.

And how else to have the energy to bake it

other than cooking some pasta with courgette & harissa.

The courgette & harissa pasta was so yummy

that we regretted not making more of it :(

Courgette & Harrisa Pasta

Heat some butter (or olive oil if you want to be healthy) in a pan.

Add some chopped garlic into the pan and fry it until it smells lovely.

Add the chopped courgettes and fry until it's soft

Boil some pasta of your choice in a large pan (we used fusilli)

until it's al dente (springy to the touch)

[Alternatively you can just throw the pasta onto a tiled wall and see if it sticks]

Then strain the pasta and put it back into the large pan.

Add the harissa & courgette mixture and stir on a low heat until evenly mixed.

And voila!

Deliciousness on a plate!

Pardon the tacky placemat :S

A member of Bake Club gobbling up the rest of the pasta!

Cinnamon Sugar Tear-Apart Bread

Can I just say how yummy this bread was?

Well done to whoever found the recipe.

And an even bigger round of applause for Joy The Baker

for creating such a yummy recipe.

See recipe below..

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread

Members of Bake Club discussing the recipe..

(or perhaps the filthy state of the kitchen)

Adding the flour to the egg dough mixture..

Stirring the sticky mixture..

Using a chilled bottled of Pimm's to roll the dough out..

I know..

Every baker should have a rolling pin in their kitchen drawer.

Pouring the melted butter onto the dough..

Sprinkling the sugar & cinnamon mixture onto the dough..

Until it looks like this..

Dividing the dough into 6 equal horizontal strips..

Stacking it on top of each other..

Slicing it again into 6 equal vertical strips..

Stacking it in the loaf pan..

Until it's all completely stacked up..

All squashed up and ready to bake..

We decided to put more sugar mixture on top of it..

Added butter pieces as well..

Diabetes in a pan :P

Fresh from the oven..

Yum.. Yum..

Panettone

*This Bake Club session took place on Dec 27th, so I'm only 5 weeks late...*

What happens after the indulgence of Christmas? Well, you indulge some more, of course! Instead of laying off the baked treats and heading to the gym, the dedicated members of the Bake Club headed to my flat instead for a round of panettone baking. 

Working that dough

We followed the recipe from here - but you shouldn't, it's crap. I'd picked the recipe in a rather frenzied moment, while doing 186390 other things, and didn't realise at that time that the recipe left out some ingredients. Some optional, not-so-important ingredients, such as FLOUR (what kind, how much etc)! *There's a comment at the end now that says you need about 4 cups of flour. Well, too little, too late!*

Anyway, as you can see, we didn't let the little details stop us - we mixed it all up, kneaded the dough and waited for it to rise. And waited. And waited...

Baking bread in winter requires a hell lot of patients, folks. Nana eventually suggested we heat up the oven, switch it off and then place the dough in it to help it rise faster. Clever girl, that one. She then left to get her nails done. Gotta look good when you're eating handmade bread, after all!

Oh yes, we added chocolate to the panettone too. Disregard the scale that the blue bowl is perched one, we didn't actually bother weighing it. Like you can have too much chocolate?

Here you have the finished product - like a gigantic fruit and chocolate studded mushroom. There's a huge airpocket in it, and the crust could have sheltered you in the event of a nuclear fallout, but the insides, sooo good! Sweet, chewy, fruity chocolatey goodness! 

I think I'll make panettone again, even when it's not Christmas. I'll just have to look for a better recipe next time, though.