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, 20 January 2014

55. Mini Jammy Cakes

So, I asked husband to choose something from my list of impending bakes. He chose badly and then got cross with me for saying so, so I ended up making these! Unfortunately several of the bakes really do require an occasion, or act more as desserts than bakes which are easy to portion up and palm off on colleagues! Anyway, these looked really straightforward and it would be another one ticked off the list, so that was the decision made.
I feel like I've done nothing but rub flour and butter together for the last two months. I've made over 100 mince pies, several batches of cheese straws for the baby and a Homity Pie: I'm becoming a dab-hand at making pastry now! I didn't really expect to be doing it for a cake, but these are 
far-removed from anything resembling a sponge. These required a bit of mixed spice added to self-raising flour before the butter was rubbed in, and then caster sugar added at the end. I've had a bit of a eureka moment this weekend, brought to light by this recipe. Mary suggests a particular amount of liquid but advises that you might not need it all, and it's a measure of my familiarity with textures and pastry dough that I understand how 'wet' a mixture needs to be. I remember when I first made biscuits and couldn't imagine how the bowl of crumbs would ever resemble a ball of dough without any liquid being added. So I have more confidence these days that the mixture will eventually come together, and that's just what happened with this bake. I've also got my new 'dough-hook' hand motion, which I discovered while making my final mince pies of the season and used here too. It's a great way to bring the dough together quickly.
Anyway, once the dough was formed, I had to divide the mixture into 24 pieces and roll each piece into a ball before poking it with the end of a wooden spoon to create a hole. Blackcurrant jam was then dolloped into the hole and they were baked for just 10 minutes. Mary recommends eating warm, so I gobbled two down (well, they are mini) as soon as I'd eaten my sandwich. They were very nice fresh from the oven, but equally tasty cold the next day and they went down very well with my teaching colleagues, who are getting into the habit of sampling my wares of a Monday!
Baker's verdict: very easy to make and very tasty. Just a nice little treat.
Husband rating: 7.5/10 - nice little cakes. Mixed spice isn't to my taste though, however I liked the jam in it and they seemed to be well-baked.
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