Delicious Dozen - Bite Four

Right, I need to get this off my chest as soon as possible folks... this month I had the single biggest baking disaster of the last 15 months of baking and cooking challenges! This went so badly wrong that we suspected there might be permanent damage to our floorboards...

As you know this month's delicious dozen was inspired by my visit to the Middle East last month to see my in-laws. This was not my first trip to the Gulf States though, I was born and spent the first six months of my life in Saudi Arabia so it really was about time I learned a bit more about the food and cuisine culture of the place where it all started for me.

I haven't had the chance to go back to where I was born, it's all a bit tricky with visas and things so this month I wanted to find out about the eating culture rather than just googling recipes like I usually do. So off I popped to Blackwells in search of more than just a cookbook. The choice was limited but I finally settled on the aesthetically pleasing Olives, Lemons & Za'Atar by Rawia Bishara because it had a bit of story about each of the recipes and also it had lots of photos.  I have probably said it before but I really don't like recipe books without photos, how are you supposed to know how it should look? Anyway, full of enthusiasm I cracked the book open as soon as I got home and with the help of my good friend Jen I started this bite of the challenge in a thoroughly successfully way... it went DRAMATICALLY downhill after that.

Hummus

With my new handy-dandy food processor this was a breeze! Just chucked it all in and there we go. I think I whizzed it for a little bit too long because it was a little bit too runny but that could have also been the juice of the 800 lemons you had to squeeze! OK so it wasn't 800, it was about seven or eight but was seriously lemony! I really liked it but it was a bit much for some of my colleagues who tried it at work. Two important things to note about this recipe, firstly you need Tahini paste (sesame paste) to make any kind of Hummus, which living in the leafy Scottish suburbs is tricky to get. I had I had to venture further afield than normal for that but I could probably get it online in future. Also, this recipe makes enough to serve all your guests at a large housewarming party (or a small hummus lovers' convention), it was good but the quantity was a bit ridiculous, it must have been the equivalent of about five of the tubs you get in the supermarket. I have tried freezing a few portions (Jen's advice) so let's see how it turns out when we next have people over for drinks and nibbles.

Recipe

Sooooo many lemons

Arabic bread (attempt 1) (Kmaj in Arabic)

I don't even know what to say... I didn't make bread I made a sloppy, gooey beige monster some of which could be growing into a Pillsbury Doughboy under our lounge radiator as I write this. I followed the instructions and I was excited to use my new hand mixer with its dough hooks but no amount of mixing was going to make this into bread. I had a feeling that the quantity of liquid going into the mixer seemed a bit high but I did what I was told and went ahead with it. I must have had it mixing for 15 minutes and it still looked like a cake batter rather than bread dough. So, in my wisdom (utter stupidity) I thought I would just leave it to prove and see if it might come together/stiffen up over the hour. 

I was WRONG! I stupidly put the very full bowl of dough mixture on the floor by the radiator and forgot about it for an hour. When I came back the dough was oozing out from under the tea towel and creeping all over our lounge floor under the radiator and between the floor boards. Well, needless to say the cleanup operation was extensive, especially because Dave was laughing so much and taking photos of me that he couldn't be of much help!! We had to scoop the monster into a cardboard box and throw it away, I didn't want to try to wash any of it down the sink, goodness knows what would have happened to the pipes!! This was the first recipe I have done through both challenges that has totally defeated me and it felt rubbish. I think my mistake might have been using quick acting yeast rather than normal yeast but I won't be trying it again to find out. 

P.S I am not even going to give you the recipe for this one because it was so terrible.

Mixing the dough A.K.A the monster in waiting!!

Kmaj disaster!

Arabic flat bread (attempt 2)

http://www.sooogood.org/iraqi_food_recipes/arabic_flatbread_recipe.html

It was time to get back on the horse as they say and tackle flat bread again. I decided to go back to my usual tactic of googling the easy version of what I wanted to make and this recipe didn’t disappoint. I also went back to basics and made it by hand instead of using my mixer. The dough was quite sticky so I couldn’t really knead it for very long (only about 3-4 mins instead of the recommended  10)  without having to add more flour so it might have actually been a good idea to use the dough hooks afterall. Anyway, it was a real dough and it baked beautifully and tasted delicious.

Second time's the charm!

Baba Ghanouj

I would say I am an aubergine fan  but I don’t usually think about cooking it so this recipe looked like a winner. Unfortunately, this was another first for my 15 months of challenges, I REALLY didn’t like it, so much so I only had a little taste and then gave up. It also had Tahini in it which made the texture and taste a bit like peanut butter and I just didn’t like the feeling of it sticking to the roof of your mouth... urgh! On the plus side Dave loved it so he got stuck in.

Recipe

Chicken Kebabs

Very lemony but seriously tasty. When I make these again I will probably add some veggies onto the skewers for a bit of variety but the combination of spices was flavoursome and felt very authentically Middle Eastern. 

Recipe

Tomato salad (Salatet Bandoora in Arabic)

Apparently this salad is usually found on dinner tables every day during the summer in many Gulf states. Fresh and minty sums this one up for me. I really liked having it with the kebabs but the red onion was a little overwhelming, apologies to my work colleagues who had the smell of it wafting through the office!

Recipe

The feast!

Falafel

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5605/falafel-burgers

For my final weekend of this month's challenge I have been down in Yorkshire catching up with one of my besties, Louise. We were having a quiet night in so I thought we could do some adventurous cooking while we were at it. According to my cook book falafel is to the Middle East what the hamburger is to America. This BBC recipe was quick, easy and actually quite good for you because they are shallow fried rather than the usual deep frying technique. They took a bit longer to cook than expected but once they were stuffed into pita breads with salad, halloumi and hummus they were sooooo good. I will be making these again for definite. 

Lovely Lou in charge of the falafels

Quite the spread....can you see the traditional Arabic Doritos on the right?

Halloumi

We ate loads of halloumi when we were in Doha and I have pretty much just  added it to all the recipes I’ve done because it is just so darn tasty. I have just grilled it and served on the side of everything. Delicious!

My culinary tour of the Middle East hasn’t been plain sailing but I am glad I gave it a go. The spices from the region are definitely to my taste, lemony, flavoursome and spicy without being hot like some of the Indian spices I used last month.  

So, onwards and upwards, from where I was born to where I call home, Britain. April is dedicated to British Classics.

As of next month I am going to try to blog as I go instead of saving it all up to the end of the month so we will get to chat a bit more often!

Happy eating xx Linds xx

P.S I did a bit of baking too, I know you are shocked! Sticky toffee cake A.MA.ZING.

Delicious Dozen – Bite Three

Hello there, how are you? Long time no see!!! February really is a very quick month isn’t it? It has just flown by, and with being on holiday for a week of it I only managed to make five Indian things. As expected it wasn’t all easy or 100% successful but I think I have still managed to get a little bit of an insight into Indian cuisine.

I must tell you though, I really searched and searched when I was looking for recipes. I was given a small Indian cookbook a few years ago which was my first port of call for things to try but to be honest nothing was very appealing! The main reason was that all the recipes (even the relatively simple ones) had about twenty five different ingredients and spices, many of which I had never heard of and had no idea where to buy them.  This was a bit of a setback at the start but in order to start my adventure into the world of cumin and garam masala I did what we all do now and googled!! Yep I just did what I did so often in my baking challenge last year and googled an easy version of the recipe I was looking for!

So, let's dig into the tasty Indian treats I tackled...

Creamy Masala Chicken

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1884/creamy-masala-chicken

This masala chicken from the ever-reliable James Martin and BBC Good Food was a good way to ease myself into Indian cooking. It was relatively straightforward and didn’t take too long, despite me being especially careful while chopping the chilli to avoid touching my eyes or accidentally eating the seeds. I am not great with really hot, spicy things so I was overly cautious and wore plastic gloves to chop them up... haha!! I’m sure all you real chefs out there are laughing at that but you never can be too careful. The end result was a creamy, zesty, aromatic curry, not hot and spicy at all just really flavoursome. I think the lime made it taste almost Thai curry-esque but nevertheless it was delicious and there were clean plates all round!

Peshwari naan bread

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/peshwarinaan_86757

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Peshwari naan breads and always thought they would be super tricky to make but they really aren’t at all. You do need some serious guns to knead the dough for 10 minutes but it is well worth it in the end because they are soft, lovely and taste just like the ones you get in restaurants. I was a bit worried because my dough didn’t double in size when I left it to rest but that didn’t seem to matter. I would try to roll the dough out a bit thinner next time but I was pleasantly surprised that they cooked so well by just spending a few minutes under a hot grill.

Nicely toasted.

Vegetable Pakora

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/vegetablepakoras_90048

I was keen to try out a side dish or two and vegetable pakoras seemed like a good, straightforward option. Now, having never deep fried anything at home I really wasn’t sure how hot the hot oil needed to be in order to cook the raw veg but I soon learned the hard way! I made two batches which were very burnt on the outside and very raw on the inside...ooopppss. Never mind, I just turned the heat down a bit to a sort of medium high heat and they cooked up really nicely. Surprisingly though the mixture was a little bit bland so we added extra helpings of all the spices which pepped things up nicely.

While these were yummy I‘m not sure I would do them again for two reasons. Firstly I managed to ruin a slotted spoon by leaving it in the hot oil for too long...eekkk...a bit of melted plastic never hurt anyone though right?? Mainly though I was put off making them again because our house smelt like a takeaway/greasy spoon café for DAYS and DAYS!! The unpleasant deep frying smell lingered a little bit too long for my liking so I think I might leave pakoras to the restaurant experts.

P.S if you do want to try this I would maybe suggest halving the quantities, the batch was huge, it made about twenty generous pakoras which I thought was a little bit much for a starter portion for four people - especially since there were only two of us.

A touch burnt...

A bit better... third time's the charm!

Lamb and sweet potato curry

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/647970

As we are just back from a week in the Middle East where we ate lamb almost every day I thought it would be good to try a curry with it. Strangely I never think to order lamb curries when I’m eating out but it really is a super yummy meat. The recipe was easy enough to make but just took AGES to cook which was a bit annoying but the end result was delicious. It definitely had more of a kick to it spice wise than I was anticipating but it was yummy none the less. I think it’s the sort of thing my curry-loving Dad would like so I will have to try it out on him the next time he is up visiting.

Cucumber and mint riata

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cucumberandmintraita_67787

I decided to make riata to serve as a little starter with naan bread and poppadoms to dip in but I am really glad it was also on hand to cool the lamb curry down a touch for my sensitive palette. This literally took 2 minutes to make, especially thanks to my new kitchen gadget, my mini food processor (I have never had a food processor  before and now I’ve used it for a couple of meals I don’t know how I lived without it, it makes food prep soooo quick! Love it!). The nifty Kenwood grated the cucumber in seconds and the dip was perfectly fresh and minty. This will most definitely be done again.

My new best friend!

So, as you can see I didn’t exactly manage to tackle all aspects of Indian cooking...not at all actually but I tried my best in the speedy month of February and I’m glad I did it because it has given me a taste for what I could do in future.

So, onwards and upwards in to March. Inspired by our recent trip to Doha, Qatar I have decided to change one of my Delicious Dozen months to Middle Eastern food. This does mean I will have to ditch one of my other topics but I think it will be worth it, if nothing else I am hoping to try to reuse at least one or two of the many many spices I bought for Indian month!

See you with some Middle Eastern delights soon.

Happy cooking everyone x Linds x  

Delicious Dozen – Bite Two

January drew to a close at the weekend and signalled not only the end of what genuinely feels like the longest, darkest month ever but it also signals the end of my first month of the Delicious Dozen challenge!! Woopwoop!! Slow cooking has been fab and my last couple of recipes were a real triumph (more details later) and they will definitely be used again. 

Even though I have enjoyed the cooking challenge I am finding it sooooo much harder than the baking challenge despite two crucial details which should have made it easier!! 1) I don't have the pressure of cooking something brand new every week which can become relentless and 2) I have to eat 'real' food anyway so it should be easier to squeeze in cooking new things instead of slightly unnecessary sweet treats.

I think part of the problem is that - as I expected - when you cook properly you need a lot of different ingredients, many of which I haven't used before or for a very long time. This not only fills up the cupboards in our relatively small kitchen but it also makes me a bit nervous! I really feel like I don't know what I'm doing when I'm using things I've never used before and I can't wing it yet with quantities or flavour combo's. As you know the aim of my challenges is not to increase my anxiety levels but reduce it, my worry levels are high enough already thank you!! I know I've only been doing it a month so the winging it skills will take time to master (and then the anxiety will hopefully reduce) but the herbs and spices storage space in our house isn't going to get any bigger so I might need to be a bit more selective with the recipe choices in future.

As an antidote to my fretting about oils and vinegars I did bake a couple of times as well, once in the slow cooker so that was a double whammy!

Anyway, lets get down to the yummy bit. I made another four slow cooker recipes in the second half of January, two of them were even from my recipe book!

Easy Chinese Chicken

Ingredients

• 2tsp grated fresh ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 star anise (I am not a fan of these so just left them out)
• 150ml Chinese rice wine or medium dry sherry
• 2tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1tsp sesame oil
• 5tbsp water
• 4 skinless chicken thighs or drumsticks (there were 6 things in a packet so I just chucked them all in)
• Spring onions to garnish
• Serve with rice (we prefer noodles so went for them instead)

Method

1. Add all the ingredients (apart from the chicken) to a bowl and mix. Place the chicken in a saucepan, add the spice mix to the pan and bring to the boil.
2. Transfer to the slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
3. Remove the star anise (if using). Transfer chicken to a warmed serving plate, garnish with shredded spring onions and serve immediately.

As you know as part of the slow cooker challenge I was trying to find recipes you can just chuck in and leave all day while you are out at work. I thought this recipe would be perfect for that until It was 6.45am and I got everything out of the fridge when I realised that the ingredients needed to go into a pan first and that it only needed 4 hours when I am usually out of the house for at least ten...oooppps! It turned out that it didn’t matter though, it still tasted delicious. The chicken was really dark in colour, it almost looked like duck but it was really yummy and it just dropped off the bone so you got every lat piece of yumminess.  

Pulled pork

Ingredients

• 2 onions sliced
• 1.5kg boned and rolled pork sholder
• 2tbsp demerera sugar
• 2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1tbsp American mustard
• 2tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1tbsp cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Hamburger buns to serve

Method 

Handy dandy meat thermometer 

1. Put the onions in the slow cooker and place the pork on top. Mix the usgar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, ketchup and vinegar together and spread all over the surface of the pork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 8 hours on low.
2. Remove the pork from the slow cooker and use two forks to pull it apart into shreds.
3. Skim any excess from the juices and stir a little juice into the pork. Serve in hamburger buns with extra juice on top.

Our friend Kat enjoying the pulled pork we delivered to her house!

The pork just fell apart and didn’t need much shredding, it did however need more seasoning! Gggrrrhhhh I still can’t get the seasoning to be strong enough! Anyway, we decided to cheat a bit and add some BBQ sauce to the pork to liven it up a bit. I think it might actually be worth making two batches of the seasoning paste from the recipe so you could use one for cooking and one for mixing into the pork once it has been shredded. I will give that a go next time and let you know what happens.

Baked potatoes

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-bake-a-potato-in-the-slow-cooker-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-189271

I never really think to make baked potatoes, I think they take a disproportionately long time to cook for how much enjoyment you get out of them but I thought I would give them a go in the slow cooker to see if I could change my mind about them. I made them for us for a Saturday lunch and they were nice, they were super easy but sadly nothing special. They would be good for a summer BBQ though if you were in a hot country and didn’t want to have the oven on for hours and hours, no need to worry about that in sunny Scotland though....BUT on the plus side I did read on a blog post last week that cooking in a slow cooker for 8 hours takes the same amount of electricity as using an oven for 30 minutes. Not sure if that’s true but it sounds convincing and as they say every little helps when it comes to saving! 

Chocolate fudge pudding

http://blogs.qvcuk.com/kathy_tayler/2012/02/simons-slow-cooker-chocolate-fudge-pudding.html

So, the worry about ‘proper’ cooking drove me to try to find a happy medium of baking in the slow cooker. This sponge pudding definitely isn’t a looker (it looks a bit like a lava flow, it is black rather than chocolate brown!!!) but the fudge sauce underneath is yummy and it is quite a clever way to bake. We did like it but I can’t say I would rush to slow cooker bake again, I think you can get better results from normal baking which takes a fraction of the time but I’m glad I tried.

I will definitely be using the slow cooker again during these long dark months, the feeling of getting home, opening the door to the delicious smell of a fully prepared meal really does brighten up a dreary evening.

But onwards and upwards to my next bite of the delicious dozen....February is Indian month!! Having struggled with getting enough flavour into my slow cooker foods I thought it would be a good time to take things to the other end of the spectrum with some serious spice! I really don't know how this will go, I have NEVER cooked real Indian food before but it's a short month so if I'm terrible at it then it will be over quickly and my poor husband won't have to suffer for too long!

Have a yummy couple of weeks, see you soon!

x Linds x

Delicious Dozen – Bite One!

Well folks I am halfway through my first month of the Delicious Dozen challenge so I thought it was about time that I updated you on my progress so far. Also, I heard on the radio that this weekend in January is when most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions and I wanted to let you know that I am definitely not giving up!

As you know the first month of my challenge has been to learn to cook slow cooker recipes and it is definitely more of a learning curve than the baking challenge was. To kick start the challenge I bought a nice looking slow cooker recipe book at the start of the month but to be honest I haven’t cooked a single thing from it yet! Reason being I have discovered that a lot of slow cooker recipes are quite fiddly, they tell you to brown the meat, boil the liquid, cook the veg or just soak things like beans on the hob before putting them in the cooker. This just seems to defeat the purpose to me, I thought you could just throw things in and leave it!! If you have to cook things on the hob first why don’t you just cook them on the hob all together and save hours of waiting! Anyway, I have had to do quite a bit of searching online to find ‘throw and go’ recipes but thankfully the wonderful world of Pinterest has come up trumps and directed me to a lots of interesting recipes. I have now tried five different recipes (with a few tweaks) and with mixed success...

I thought I would just attach the links instead of writing out all the details or this post will be ridiculously long and boring to read!!

• Steak Pie

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/5306/slow-cooker-steak-and-ale-pie.aspx?o_is=LV

In Scotland it is traditional to have steak pie on New Year’s day so I thought it would be a great opportunity to use the slow cooker and start the year as we mean to go on. Now I LOVE steak pie, well in particular my mum’s steak pie (I sometimes think mums have secret mum spices which go into their cooking to make things so delicious) so I was excited to try this recipe. It was...OK... maybe good but it was just a bit bland. To be fair I didn’t have any garlic powder but I think I should have just been a bit more liberal with all the herbs and spices. I am also not sure about potatoes in a steak pie? Anyway, I think the idea was good but it might not be the best recipe but there are plenty more out there for me to try.

Getting started....

Looks good but it was just a bit average.

• Maple glazed ham

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8254/easy-slow-cooker-ham.aspx

So, as I have told you before I have a bit of trouble with tsp and tbsp’s and that happened yet again with this recipe (I put in two tbsp’s of ginger instead of 2tsps... ooops) but thankfully it didn’t seem to matter. I read some of the comments on the recipe and took some other cooks’ advice by reducing the amount of cloves I put in. I also took the orange peel out after a few hours because the smell wasn’t very pleasant (I think it smelled a bit like sick... yuck!) Anyway, after all of that the end result was AMAZING!! I could hardly lift the ham out of the slow cooker because it was just falling apart, in fact the first time I tried to I dropped the ham back into the slow cooker, splattering liquid all over the kitchen!! Haha.

• Whole Roast Chicken

http://www.thelittlekitchen.net/whole-chicken-in-a-slow-cooker/#.UtpSyNJFDf8

Three words A-MAZ-ING!!! Seriously delicious, the meat just fell off the bone. I did make a few changes to the recipe, mainly because I didn’t have cayenne pepper, onion powder, thyme and white pepper and I also don’t like celery (who does??) so I just put sweet potatoes and normal potatoes in instead. I prepared the veg the night before and then got the chicken ready in the morning before I went to work (it took about 15-20mins). We turned the slow cooker on low at about 8am and when we look it out at 6.30pm is was perfect. It was sooooo nice to come home to the delicious chicken smell and to be able to sit down to a full roast dinner at 6.45pm on a school night!!

The meat was so tender it just fell off the bone so the chicken didn't look very appealing but it was SOOOO good. 

Good looking roast for a school night huh!

• Stuffed Peppers

     http://www.cozycountryliving.com/slow-cooker-stuffed-peppers/

This was something a bit different for us because I don’t think I have ever made stuffed peppers before but they were really nice. The meat was quite like taco filling and it made six peppers which was enough for two full meals for us. The only thing was (yet again) it could have had more flavour. I am really just starting to learn how to cook properly with herbs and spices so I can’t quite gauge the amount yet but I think in slow cooker terms more is better!

I followed the serving suggestion and had the peppers with salad and fresh crusty bread...yum!

• Porrdge

     http://growingkiwis.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/lazy-porridge-in-slow-cooker.html

It is cold Saturday morning and I thought it would be lovely to wake up to a hearty     breakfast and it was! I put the porridge on last night and woke up to a warm bowl of loveliness this morning. I only used three cups of liquid (two water and one milk) because some comments on other recipes have said slow cooker porridge can be quite thin and watery. I also added dried cranberries which were a nice because they puff up and become sweet. I will definitely be trying this one again, I think I would make it all with milk rather than water to make it creamer. I would also add some sugar at the start of cooking because I like my porridge sweet but this recipe is a good basic porridge that you can add anything to. My husband Dave was loving it as his post-run breakfast.

Cooking the porridge in a bowl with a lid on keeps it moist and stops it burning when you cook it for so long. 

Warm cranberry yumminess!

Lesson from bite one of the delicious dozen – seasoning! I am finding my way around the herbs and spices section of the supermarket and I think if in doubt I need to throw caution to the wind and just risk it by adding more!

For the second half of the month I already have a few recipes in mind, the first being pulled pork which has been a big favourite of mine since I lived in Atlanta five years ago. I also need to get my baking fix so I am going to try some sort of cake or bake in the slow cooker.

Happy seasoning x Linds x

P.S. As you probably expected I have still been baking! I know, I have a problem. I did a great gluten free lemon cake and I tried a different cornbread muffin recipe from the Hummingbird bakery cook book which was seriously yummy.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5870/glutenfree-lemon-drizzle-cake

Cakes, loaves, muffins, tarts and brownies... and not a soggy bottom in sight!

I am two weeks post-baking challenge and I really miss it!! So much so that I actually made a new bake last week and have another one planned for this week... I guess I can’t stop. This got me thinking about why I love baking so much and I thought it was about time I shared my lessons learned and top tips from my 52 weeks in the kitchen so here we go:-

• Wash up as you go – this is SOOOO dull and I sound like mum (and probably your mum) but you usually need to use something more than once during your bake so just wash it up when you are finished with it and it will be ready to use again.
  
  

• You don't need expensive equipment – as much as I would LOVE a beautiful, colourful Kitchen Aid stand mixer (as seen on The Great British Bake Off) on my worktop they are nearly £400 and who has that kind money! I have managed 52 weeks of baking with cheap and cheerful bits of kit bought from supermarkets, Argos and the Pound Shop!! You can buy the basics for easy recipes like Vicky Sponge for about £15 and that will set you up for lots of other bakes too.

Bargain bits!

• Make easy recipes – as you know I am not one for fiddly recipes, I just can’t see the point in slaving over a hot oven for hours on end, why not just make something simple so you can get round to eating it quicker!

• Try to be careful with tsp and tbsp – I have no idea why the baking gods made these really important abbreviations so similar!! They could have written the tablespoons one in bold or capitals or something couldn’t they?? It is always written so small in recipes it is really easy to mix it up and I have mixed it up more than once. I need to work on this one a bit more myself.

• Baking can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be (chocolate is expensive though!) – baking every week did sometimes add up, but the basic ingredients like flour and eggs are relatively inexpensive so if like me you are trying to watch the pennies just pick things that are cheap and that go a long way. If for example you want to make a large quantity of tasty treats for a bake sale of kid’s birthday then don’t go for options like tray bakes because they use loads of chocolate which is often disproportionately expensive for the end result. I would suggest crowd pleasers like Vicky sponge, it goes a long way and no one is offended by a Vicky sponge!!

• Always check for soggy bottoms – no one likes any kind of soggy bottom so always check the bottom of pies/tarts etc. before turning off the oven. If in doubt just stick it back in the oven  for a wee while longer, you can always cover the top of the bake with tin foil or baking paper to stop it burning while it is in for extra time.

• Baking doesn't make you fat – while I will not be telling you how much I weigh, I can tell you that I do weigh less than this time last year despite all the bakes. I found that making so many cakes and treats all the time, myself and husband Dave could never get through them all so I had the chance to share them with others. My friends, family and colleagues were able to get involved with the challenge and it was really lovely to chat to them about my experiences.

• Take egg sizes seriously – I never believed this made a difference but it really does as my Yule Log (first attempt) showed. So, just use medium if it says medium, large if it says large, simple!

• Ask people to recommend recipes –I think tried and tested is always best and it is often fun to find out the stories connected to people’s fave recipes and to make them new faves of your own! Lots of online recipe websites also have review sections which can be really helpful for tips and modifications so they are also worth a read if you are looking online.

• Don't buy reusable piping bags – I haven’t used piping bags much but the few times I have I used a reusable bag and it was sooooooo hard to clean!! You can get lots of disposable bags and nozzles relatively cheaply so save yourself cleaning time and buy those. Then you can just have a brew and put your feet up instead of cleaning! 

• Ingredients don't have to be at room temperature for the recipe to work - but do always soften your butter, don't worry if you actually melt it in the microwave like I usually do, it normally still works!

Now for my best and worst awards of the challenge

• Best baking purchase of the year - cake wire – hands down the best value for money item bought this year, very useful when making big cakes http://www.lakeland.co.uk/17747/Adjustable-Cake-Wire

• Most unnecessary baking purchase of the year - cake smoother – you can just use your hands to do exactly the same, in fact you could use the same pair of hands you used to carry this item out of the shop and bake the cake! http://www.lakeland.co.uk/11906/Smoother-Polisher

• Top three bakes –
• Earl Grey Cupcakes – AMAZING icing
• All American Chocolate Chunk Cookies – sweet, salty goodness
• Victoria sponge – staple, reliable bake

• Bakes that didn’t quite go to plan –
• Boozy Raspberry Victoria Sponge – adding alcohol ad hoc to a recipe wasn’t the best idea, I should have consulted an expert
• Profiteroles – disaster start to finish... there is nothing else to say
•  Movember biscuits – these were super fun but the chocolate ones were really crumbly and didn’t all hold up to our decorations.

So there we have it, my words of wisdom (sort of) from my year of baking. I really did love my challenge, far more than I expected. I started 2013 just wanting to bake more but I ended the year not only having learnt a skill but more importantly finding an activity that I really, truly find relaxing. This might not seem like a big deal but for those of you who know me, you will know that I am a worrier, I’m so good at it that I could be a professional. You know when you are at school there are sporty types, arty types, cool people well I was an anxious type and I have practised ever since, on every topic... work, home, anything really. I would much rather be sporty or cool but there we are. Well, it seems that this baking thing suits me, I don’t worry about it, I don’t get stressed when I’m baking, I love sharing my treats with friends and I feel so lucky that baking has allowed me to get involved with a wonderful charity (Free Cakes for Kids). I don’t want to say the baking challenge has changed my life, that’s a tad dramatic, but it certainly has a enhanced it and given me worry-free time for which I am very grateful.

Thank you for reading, tasting and baking along with me for the last year. I hope you will stay with me now that I have embarked on my new Delicious Dozen Challenge. The first month is Slow Cooker by the way, I will be back on the blog soon to tell you all about it.

Happy baking, Linds xx

P.S. Here is a list of all the bakes in case you want to look back and try some.

All 52 glorious bakes together at last!

1. Banana bread
2. Mary Berry's chocolate and vanilla marble loaf
3. Lemon drizzle cake
4. Victoria sandwich
5. Berry buttermilk muffins
6. Triple chocolate chunk muffins
7. Buttermilk scones
8. Red velvet cake
9. Naughty chocolate fudge cake
10. Cheese scones
11. Nutella swirl banana muffins
12. All American chocolate chunk cookies
13. Carrot cupcakes
14. Apples loaf
15. Apricot flapjack
16. Double chocolate flapjack
17. Amazing chocolate cupcakes
18. Banana, brown sugar and pecan muffins
19. Raspberry muffins
20. Guinness Cake
21. Profiteroles
22. Nigella Nutella cheesecake
23. Ice cream cupcakes
24. Apple and cinnamon struesel cake
25. Crunchy apple and raspberry crumble
26. Banana peanut butter muffins
27. Best-ever brownies
28. Millionaires shortbread
29.  Lemon curd and blueberry loaf cake
30. Banoffee Pie
31. Beer Bread
32. Baked lemon cheesecake with baked plums and blackberries
33.  Rocky Road
34. Orange and white chocolate cake
35. Boozy raspberry Victoria sponge
36. Princess Castle Cake
37. Mississippi Mud Pie
38. Chocolate bread and butter pudding
39. Teisen Cariad (Love Cake)
40. Malteser and Mint Aero Traybakes
41. Cake Pops!
42. The humble white loaf
43. Rosemary and Sea Salt Focaccia
44. Earl Grey Cupcakes
45. Movember Moustache Biscuits
46. Cornbread Muffins
47. Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie
48. Clootie Dumpling
49. Yule Log
50. Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
51. Apple Tart and Tunis Cake
52. Christmas Chocolate Cake House, Cranberry and Orange Muffins and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Beyond the Cake Tin: The Delicious Dozen Challenge!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a fantastic evening of celebrations to round off 2013. I had a lovely quiet evening with a few close friends celebrating what has been a caketastic, icing covered year. The end of my baking challenge yesterday was a huge milestone for me. I was proud, and slightly relieved to have made it through the 52 weeks and to be able to call myself an amateur baker. In the next few days I will try to think of the things I’ve learnt and the top tips I have picked up along the way so I can share them with you. For now though, seeing as it is the first day of the New Year I, like many others am looking forward to what’s to come...

Over the last few weeks many blog readers have asked me what I was going to do in 2014, was I going to carry on baking, take on a new challenge or just put my feet up for a rest? If I’m honest, my first instinct was to plan to just sit down with a nice brew but as I said in my final baking challenge post I am addicted, not just to the baking but surprisingly to the challenge as well. It has been great having a fun hobby all year that I can share with my family, friends and colleagues. 

So it was time to set a new goal, I’ve considered many options from knitting to letter writing, and reading the classics to exploring new towns in Scotland but in the end I came back to the kitchen. Sadly, over the past 52 weeks I have had to come to the conclusion that a girl cannot live on cake alone!!!!! I know, I know it is devastating.With this in mind I have decided that it is about time that I learnt to cook so I am setting myself The Delicious Dozen Challenge. Over the next year I am going to try to tackle 12 different areas/cuisines (one per month) so I can improve (or in some cases start from scratch) my culinary skills. 

After much debate, the 12 areas/themes I am going to attempt are (in no particular order);

• Slow cooker dishes
• Indian
• Mexican
• British classics
• Legendary chefs
• Chinese
• Deep South USA 
• Dinners on a budget
• Italian 
• BBQ 
• Quick and easy meals
• Brunch 

I have no idea how this is going to go but as with the baking challenge I am going to try to ignore the fear and do it anyway! I will try to make a few dishes each month and post the successes and failures as regularly as I can.

Wish me luck as I leave being the safety of muffins, scones and Vicky sponges....

Linds x

P.S Don’t worry, I am still going to bake, I can’t give it up now, I have icing running through my veins! So I will also try to keep you up-to-date about the bakes too.