Roll Up, Roll Up - It's Swiss Roll Time :-)

Swiss Rolls were on my baking bucket list. They've been there for a considerable amount of time. Many other things get added.... and scored off... but swiss rolls remained.

Ok - I can bake. Like anyone, I have the occasional kitchen disaster - but few things are inedible even if they don't look that pretty. I don't know what held me back so much from attempting swiss rolls. The fear of cracking it I suppose. A crack should not be the end of the world though. That bit is simply cosmetic.

Those that really know me however will know that I don't take failure lightly. I LIKE good results and I like visions to be realised. I guess lack of time to make the same thing 20 times and get that result was what was holding me back.

Recently, Ann Low of Anncoo Journal has made some terrific looking swiss rolls and it really inspired me to have a go.

I've adapted Ann's recipe to fit our new Tray Bake / Swiss Roll Silicone bakeware mould. we've had this  mould in for a month or so, but I had not got round to using it. Ann uses a bigger square tray. I tried everywhere, to get a big square tin tray like Ann's - but failed miserably. They don't seem to exist in the UK. I wanted to make my swiss rolls look like Ann's....

Anyway. This roll is a really good size. I start at the narrow end and roll down the length. This mould is just under 11 x 9" inside and a more common size for tray bakes or swiss rolls in the UK.

RECIPE

note - digital scales required !

55g plain flour

15g icing sugar

25ml oil (vegetable or sunflower are fine)

25ml water

3 egg yolks

1tsp of vanilla or almond extract

3 egg whites

40g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 160deg C

Line the base of the silicone mould with some baking paper and oil the surface of the paper. You need this to lift it easily out of the mould for rolling.

Mix the first set of ingredients together.

Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl to soft peaks. Add the 40g of sifted icing sugar and continue to whisk to stiff peaks.

If you want to make a pretty pattern like Ann's Swiss rolls, take a couple of teaspoons of each mix. Put them in a cup and mix together with some food colouring. 

This can be put in a piping bag and piped directly on to the baking paper lined tray.

Ann's blog tells you to PUT THIS IN THE OVEN for a minute or two to set it. Stupid me didn't read that bit and smudged it up when I made my stripey roll... The second roll I made, Oliver helped. Instead of nicely spaced spots we ended up with pink splats. Hey - it tasted just great anyway !

Fold the rest of the egg white mix and egg yolk mix together

Carefully put the plain mix on top of your design...

Bake in 160deg C oven for approx 15 minutes

Remove from oven. Allow to cool.

Remove from mould and invert on to a plastic sheet on top of a towel. I skipped that and used a silicone baking tray liner. Carefully peel away baking paper. Turn back over and trim the edges off the short ends at a 45 deg angle, then spread the cake with a layer of good quality jam (I used cherry).

Start to roll up the cake from one of the short ends.

I rolled mine up and then kept going to roll the mat right round the outside of the rolled cake. This photo shows my roll inside my silicone baking tray liner.

Put in the fridge for an hour or so. This helps it hold and not unroll like a spring when you unwrap it !

As you can see, my first attempt looked like an edible paint roller ! So maybe diagonal stripes isn't the best choice of pattern. lol

The lines were a little out of true though as I didn't read to bake for a minute or two to set the stripes before adding the rest of the mix. I thought my second attempt would turn out really pretty - but it turned into splat markings with a little help from Oliver !

We've been out most of the day today. It was Emma's 4th birthday party. Emma is Oliver's best buddy and her mummy is a very very good friend of mine :-)

Victoria has been busy baking too this week - making loads of cupcakes with Emma for the party and also the kitkat cake I posted a week or two ago. Happy Birthday Emma !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com 

Rose Macarons - Straight from the Heart !

So pretty. So yummy. So dainty. So pink !

I love macarons. That meringuey shell with the chewy almond middle and soft buttercream. What's not to love ?

Macarons are know for being notoriously difficult to make and achieve a good "foot" on the base.

Actually, it's REALLY not that hard..... with the right recipe.

I made macarons for the first time about a year ago. However, I think the basic recipe Astral uses is much better. This involves boiling sugar syrup and pouring into whipped egg whites - much like making marshmallows. 

RECIPE

180g icing sugar

160g ground almonds

4 large egg whites, separated into two equal batches -

160g caster sugar

80ml water

1 tsp rosewater

2 tsp pink food colouring

Sift the almonds and icing sugar together. Add the rose water and food colouring to two egg whites and put this on top of the icing sugar / ground almond mix.

Heat caster sugar and water together until they reach 110deg C. Whip 2 egg whites to stiff peaks and then slowly drizzle and whip in the hot syrup to these until it becomes shiny and stiff. Avoid getting any syrup directly on the beaters if possible !

Fold the whipped egg white / syrup mix gently into the other bowl of mix. I started by adding a spoonful and mixing that through to loosen it up and then folded the rest in.

Transfer this into a piping bag. Pipe into small rounds on grease proof paper or silicone baking sheets.

I did both to see the difference. Both the silicone baking sheets and the greaseproof paper gave the same results.

You need to stand the macaron mix like this on the sheets for about an hour so the surface drys out BEFORE you bake it. Otherwise, your shells are likely to crack and the finished result really isn't the same (been there - done that !) Put on some sprinkles (if using) now. I used some pink hearts with pink edible glitter

Pop into a 145 > 150deg C oven for approx 15 minutes. Remove and immediately slide silicone sheet or greaseproof paper off the tray onto the work surface. 

Leave to TOTALLY cool before removing. If even slightly warm, the insides of the macaron will leave themselves stuck to the paper or silicone sheet.

For the filling, I made a simple buttercream with icing sugar and butter and added some rosehip syrup. Sorry - I forgot to weigh ingredients for this.... Simply mixed the three together until right consistency was achieved and sandwiched between the shells

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did ! 

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com, August 2011

How to Make Bombs - Bath Bombs (Fizzers)

Already it's August. Just where did the time go ? Thankfully there is still a bit of summer left. 

The best bit too - with all the super late summer fruits like plums, cherries, new season apples and blackberries.

However, before you know it, we'll be plunging into winter and we'll all be tapping each other for ideas for Christmas hampers and making gutsy, rich winter stews.

Home made bath bombs are so easy that even the kids can help. You would really never guess that they could be so simple and the ingredients are things most of us food bloggers tend to keep in the cupboard. (.....some stocking up may be required). I actually made these about 3 weeks ago and sent them to nursery with Oliver for their raffle at Sports Day

Bath bombs make a lovely gift at any time of year and will keep for rather a long time. As long as you keep them dry that is ! They look lovely simply wrapped in some tissue paper with ribbon

Recipe (makes approx 6 largish bombs)

1 cup of citric acid

2 cups of bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp of olive oil

2.5ml tea rose fragrance oil (or another fragrance of your choice)

1ml colouring

water to spritz (spray bottle required)

No special equipment is required to make bath bombs apart from a simple plastic spray bottle. These are easily and cheaply obtained from pound / dollar stores or similar. It really does not need to be anything fancy.

You will also need something to mould your bath bombs. You could use a metal or silicone muffin tray. If metal, I suggest you line it with papers to make it easy to get the finished bath bombs out. Bath bombs will release very easily from even very intricate silicone moulds after they have been left to harden for a while. Silicone bakeware moulds mean you can make some really pretty designs.

 For these, I used our new 6 cell mixed flower mould that you can see below

Large volumes of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda are easy to buy online via ebay. Make sure the fragrance oils are cosmetic grade and not just suitable for candles / oil burners only. Some fragrance oil brands are much stronger than others, so you may need to vary how much you use.

Sift the citric acid and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.

Add the fragrance oil, olive oil and colour. Mix well to combine.

Using the spray bottle, spray on a little water a little at a time. You really don't need much at all. Work quickly. Add only JUST enough so that when you squeeze the mixture hard in your hands it forms clumps. It will be very sandy in appearance and texture. 

If you add too much water, the bicarbonate of soda will start to fizz ..... and we really don't want that to happen yet !

Press the mix into the cells of your silicone mould and leave to harden for a couple of hours or so. That's all there is to it. 

Oliver loves to drop these in the bath and watch them fizzzzzz.

Here are some photos from last month's Nursery Sports Day...

READY...... STEADY..... GO !

Ooops. No motion shots - but here is Oliver getting his race completion sticker from Ladybird class teacher Miss Willimott.

Some of the yellow team being led off "train style" ready for the next race.

Here's race #2 !

Mini Honey Friands.... and some chicken photos - #4 Foodbuzz 1/8/11

It's quite some time since I last made friands..... that's no mistake. Friands are very rich teacakes with copious amounts of butter and ground almonds which makes them luxurious, moist and ever so morish.

Ah - yes. That's why I haven't made them in so long. They taste SO good. One is never enough. Last time, I gave all but one of my raspberry and lemon friands away as I swear I would have eaten the lot otherwise.

This time was no different. Using a mini friand mould instead of the normal standard size 8 friand mould,  I made approx 32 mini friands from this recipe versus what would have been 10 standard size.

Lightly butter the mini friand moulds and dust with flour. Tap out any excess over the sink.

Place the moulds on top of a baking tray before filling.

Recipe

175g melted butter (I use salted)

110g icing sugar

100g of runny honey

60 g plain flour

120g ground almonds

5 egg whites

.

20 large, juicy raspberries

Sift icing sugar and flour. Add almonds and stir. Whip egg whites to break up until they start to foam, but well before they reach peaking. Add the eggs and mix. Quickly mix in warm / hot melted butter and honey.

Pour into greased and floured Friand mould.  Each cell should be approx 3/4 full. This mix is enough to make 10 standard friands or approx 32 mini friands.

Bake at 190deg C fan oven (210deg normal) for approx 12 > 15mins for mini friands and 20 > 25 mins for large until springy to the touch.

Allow to cool for a while and release from the moulds when still warm.

Well - I must admit, I would NEVER have guessed you were all so interested in chickens ! After all the responses to the chicken run photos, I thought you might like a few more....so I'll introduce a couple of the girls....whilst they are having some free ranging time.

This is FANCY PANTS. Fancy is a blue laced wyandotte. Pretty little hen. She likes looking pretty, but unfortunately she doesn't lay and never has !

This is HENRIETTA. Henrietta is a partridge cochin. Lovely hen with big fluffy bum and legs. She looks massive, but is really just a huge bundle of feathers !

Henrietta and Terminator. TERMINATOR is a blue orpington. When we first got her almost 3 years ago, she was a man eater. Would have a good go at you unprovoked ! Took her a good year to settle down. Thankfully, she has really mellowed and become a really soppy thing.

Here is Oliver helping  break collect the eggs through the pot hole in the Omlet Cube (chicken house). He loves helping collect the eggs and feed the chickens. Those eggs you can see are blue ones laid by the cream legbars (Korma, Dansak and Tikka)

Here is Oliver breaking another egg. This one was an accident. He's got a lot better over the last 2 weeks since I took this photo.... no more broken eggs. The one in the photo got "dropped" into the bowl. Oh well - at least he wanted scrambled eggs for tea !

The rest went into a fresh bowl...

erm - yes... that's another broken egg on the floor to the right of his feet from the day before. He'd decided to collect the eggs unsupervised. A couple got smashed in the garden and a couple slipped out his hands onto the kitchen floor. Thankfully, he now respects that egg collecting must be supervised and he knows he needs a bowl !

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - large selection of silicone bakeware moulds. 

Anzac Biscuit Fingers - Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Because some things just need to be done !

Anzac biscuits sound rather boring. But, when you get round to trying them you will find a delight is in store. They are full of oaty goodness and rather like a chewier version of a  thin flapjack... or bake them longer so they become harder and crispier.

"It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation." - source - Wikipedia

I can honestly say that I like them both ways.

This is of the new chocolate sticks moulds we now have available. They are meant for making chocolate sticks or biscuit fingers for dipping. I can imagine they would look fantastic with some chocolate transfers or decorated with sprinkles and gift wrapped !

I've already had a go at some butter biscuit fingers which worked really well... but I never did get round to blogging those photos. 

I've had another go with this mold making some anzac biscuit fingers and dipping them in chocolate. These looked really rustic. They were really rustic. I think that was part of the appeal. There is something that seduces me to nibbling a chocolate coated biscuit finger. That's how it starts. Before you know it, they are being dunked into a cup of coffee and the chocolate sucked off......

Well - they're only little, so I'll let you have another. If you take these to work, put a padlock on your biscuit tin lid. Remind your colleagues that these were MEANT to last a long time and they do NEED to be rationed. A whole handful of them disappearing at a time wasn't how I intended them to be eaten.

RECIPE

 1 cup self raising flour

1 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of grated coconut (or dessicated)

3/4 cup of caster sugar

125g salted butter

3 tbsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)

Cream butter and sugar, then add in flour. Combine these and then add the other ingredients. Mix to combine.

Roll into small balls about ping pong size and then flatten well with your hand (if you want round cookies / biscuits). These do not spread much at all - so do give them a good squish.

If you want to make fingers like these, squish (love that word !) the mixture into each cell of one of the chocolate sticks silicone bakeware moulds.

cook at 160deg C for 15mins for fingers or approx 15 > 20 mins for cookies depending how chewy / crispy you like them.

This recipe made a whole tray of straight fingers, about 8 cookies and most of a tray of zigzag cookie sticks.

After removing from the oven, allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack. If you have made fingers they will have risen a little above the mould. I found that for best results, I needed to squash them down into the mould whilst still hot. Once cooled down enough to handle, remove from mould. Put them back on a baking sheet into the oven for about another 5 mins or so to harden them up a bit more. I wanted them strong enough to handle as a thin stick biscuit and yet still a bit chewy.

Oliver loved helping dip these into molten chocolate. The only difference was that his never made the rack to cool. They were eaten dipped in molten chocolate. I swear there was more on his face than went in his tummy! These certainly got his seal of approval....

Last weekend was full of excitement. My husband (Steve) has been building Oliver a sit-in racing car for the last few weeks. Oliver has seen it in various stages of being built, but had not got to see it recently until Steve finished painting it.

The big unveiling was on Saturday afternoon......

The car actually needed some adjustment at that point - it didn't drive so well as the drive kept slipping. Still good fun though and I did get some little video clips.

By Sunday, it was sorted and ready to play ! Good grief - Oliver can make that shift now he's got the hang of driving it. He puts the pedal to the metal and Steve has to really run to keep up. Hehe. Just look at the evil grin. He was really moving pretty fast in this photo.

In case you haven't noticed, this car is made up of a load of really strange things. The front is a kitchen SWING BIN. The lid part of the swing bin also forms the boot lid at the rear. The  wheel arches and the front grill are made from a LAUNDRY BASKET and it's powered by an 18v BATTERY POWER DRILL !!!! The steering wheel is for a WII CONSOLE. The windscreen surround is from an old SHOPPING BASKET. I think there is an assortment of other odd bits too...

I can't imagine things get much better for a 2.3/4 yo boy. There were tears streaming down his face he was so happy !

Incase anyone wants to see - here is the first test drive of "THE SWING BIN RACER"

Chicken, Aubergine & Coconut Curry

The original recipe for this comes from the new August 2011 OLIVE magazine. I've adapted it a little to suit the contents of my cupboards and fridge.

Some months ago, I promised myself that unless I made at least ONE thing from every food magazine I buy, I cannot have another. I do hang on to them for rather a long time and more often than not, it was just a case of flicking through pages and looking at pictures - just food porn and nothing else !

I was quite pleased to see a recipe for an aubergine curry, as one of the few things on Thursday in my fridge was a wrinkling aubergine in desperate need of using up.....

The colour of this curry was rather surprising. It was green. VERY green.. not just slightly green. Even my husband commented when he came in from work "What on earth are you cooking ?"

Flaked almonds were scattered over the top in the original recipe. I omitted these as neither of us really like flaked almonds. I used extra coconut milk and quite a bit of salt as well as using 3 red chillies instead of 2 green ones. Also added the chicken meat.

Recipe (serves 3 > 4)

1 x onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves of crushed garlic

3 red chillies, chopped

1 stalk of lemongrass

1/2 a small bunch of coriander

1 large aubergine

pack of boneless chicken thighs

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

juice of a lime

1 can coconut milk

Whizz the first 5 ingredients in a mini blender.

Add 2 tbsp of cooking oil to a pan and fry the blended ingredients for a couple of minutes. Brown the meat and then add the coconut milk and lime juice. Simmer gently until tender, then season to taste and serve with basmati rice.

Easy week night meal !

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - July 2011

The Seven Deadly Sins Chocolate Cake

This cake is the essence of all evil. It's BAD very bad. Chocolate covered biscuits, chocolate butter cream (lots of it), brightly coloured candy coated chocolate. Never mind Devils Food Cake. This stuff is demonic. Be warned - it's serious fun and would make a stonking birthday cake - but is a serious chocolate overload.

One good thing is that it is very easy to portion. The sides of the cake are made up of 2 finger bars of Kitkats, held into place with a copious amount of chocolate buttercream. The main part of the cake is a chocolate sponge, split with chocolate buttercream in the middle.

It's actually very simple to make !

Chocolate Cake Recipe

grease and flour or grease and line a two 8" round baking tins - preferably spring form.

• 2 cups white caster sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 
  

I use a cup with 250ml volume

Combine all wet ingredients. Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until combined.

 Bake in an oven at 180deg / Gas mark 4. I used 170deg Fan oven.

When cooked (approx 30 mins), remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe

4 cups icing sugar

115g salted butter (soft)

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g cocoa powder

1/4 cup milk

1 cup dark chocolate chips (melted)

Beat the butter and add icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy. It is best to use a mixer, and beat for at least 5 mins. All melted chocolate and beat in. If the buttercream is too thick at this point, add some extra milk.

Split the cake in half. Spread some buttercream on one half and sandwich the rest together. Use the rest of the buttercream to cover the top and sides of the cake.

You will need 2 packs of 2 finger Kitkats (I think that's 16 bars) plus an extra finger. Alternatively, you could use  our new Chocolate fingers / dipping sticks silicone mould and make your own ! As kids, we were always overjoyed if we got a Kitkat finger which was solid chocolate with no wafer.

Here are some subtitles for the above video. A toddler speaking in a silly voice isn't always the easiest to understand.

"Hello Bloggers. My name is Oliver and I DO like chocolate cake !!"

Stick the chocolate fingers round the outside of the cake and secure in place with a ribbon. Fill the top part (as full as you want) with Smarties or M&M's. We used just one packet of M&M's. They only just covered the top - but that was plenty candy !

I guess you are wondering why seven deadly sins... Well Oliver had been baking with me as you can see. However, just after this little video (whilst I was taking photos) he decided to go to the chicken coop and collect the eggs.

Naughty Oliver purposely broke 5 eggs. He had enjoyed cracking them on the morning to make the cake far too much ! That's got to be 5 sins..... After that, he decided to get his little chair, go down the back of the coop and try to climb up and pull unripe apples off the tree. The chair went over backwards. Oliver landed in the nettles.... He did get a telling off and no chocolate cake - though to be honest, I found it very hard to be angry with him and he needed lots of cuddles due to the nettle stings. The seventh was for tipping out an entire bottle of bubble bath in the bath.... Tired Oliver = naughty Oliver. Mummy should have known better. That witching time of day just before dinner and bed

Penance was that the chocolate cake was not to be cut that evening. Naughty boys don't get chocolate cake. The seventh sin was mine. Oliver got chocolate cake for breakfast the next morning and promised not to break any more eggs (on purpose that is...)

Sarah-Jane Nash (and Oliver age 2.3/4) - July 11