A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Monday, 4 February 2013

34. Iced Chocolate Traybake

As being on Maternity Leave gives one the luxury of a bit of time on one's hands, my baking's coming along nicely. The only problem is that I've lost my usual panel of tasters (aka my work colleagues who polish off what Joe and I feel too guilty about stuffing our faces with!) so I have to bake with a different audience in mind. This one was made for my visiting friends, but even my chocolate-loving girls can only manage so much, so the rest was donated to Joe's colleagues. These traybakes are great for serving lots of people - they make 20 pretty big portions, which can be halved for smaller appetites.
They're also very easy to make, following the all-in-one method Mary uses for most of her sponge recipes. I was pleased that, unlike the lemon traybake I made last year, the cake didn't come out of the oven domed in the middle. It was fairly even, which I knew would make icing easier. I baked the sponge the day before I iced it, keeping it covered with tin foil. It needed brushing with warmed apricot jam before applying the icing, and I realised I haven't been passing the jam through a seive as you're meant to. I do feel that maybe life's a bit too short to do such things, especially as it's quite nice to get a little bit of apricot in the midst of a chocolate cake! The icing was very sweet, using lots of icing sugar, but a good consistency to work with. I left it to set before adding the chocolate drops - didn't really think it through - so I had to sort of press them in to get them to stay put. I always find it a challenge to serve cake like this - the cutting into (fairly evenly) sliced pieces was ok, but levering out the first slice is usually a bit of a shambles! It felt quite dry in texture as well, like I'd maybe over-baked it, but actually wasn't too dry in the eating. I think because it's quite a deep tin, you feel like you're getting a big chunk of cake with just a bit of icing on top, which can make it seem a bit on the dry side.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and good for en masse serving. Very light and functional, but not 'mmm' as a chocolate cake should be.
Husband rating: 8/10 - a simple chocolate cake, not as moist as it could be. Tasty, nice and chocolatey with nice icing on top. Just felt like it was missing something, like a bit of cream or something.
The rapidly emptying tin was met with disappointment by the colleagues...
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