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).


Tuesday, 11 February 2014

56. Butterfly Buns

These were an impromptu bake after promising cake to a friend who was visiting with her baby. With a short timescale and small window of opportunity in which to bake something, I at first thought of knocking up a Victoria Sandwich, but really wanted to do something else from the book. Happily I stumbled across these and knew they'd be pretty straightforward.
The first part was easy; following the all-in-one method, they were all mixed and in the oven within half an hour. Once cooled, I set to work on the icing. Husband had stolen one, so I reduced the amount of icing, but even then there seemed like an enormous amount for a dozen small buns! I used 300g of icing sugar (and made a right dusty mess of the kitchen, I can tell you)! The icing needed to be piped onto the buns once their tops had been sliced off and halved to make butterfly wings. 
Husband requested I added some jam to some of the buns, which I thought was a rather splendid idea. I did try to pipe generously, but was still left with lots of buttercream in the piping bag. Nothing for it but to squeeze it into my own cake-hole and worry about what effect the sugar might have on me just before bed! I decided to omit the dusting of icing sugar over the top; aesthetically a lovely idea, but one really can have too much sweetness.
Baker's verdict: easy to make; very tasty. Went down well with everyone who tried them. Especially the ones with jam added.
Husband rating: 7/10 - nice sponge bun cake thing; bit too much buttercream for me but other than that, quite enjoyable.

 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)