59. Mississippi Mud Pie

This bake is on my current list; another one which required some kind of occasion, on the basis that me and Joe couldn't possibly get through this unaided, nor could I really take the leftovers into work. So, some visiting friends were treated to this heart attack on a plate, and very nice it was too. I'd never had 'proper' Mississippi Mud Pie before, so was curious to see what it would be like. I'm seldom disappointed by anything chocolate-related, so was fairly sure it'd be a winner. It started well, with a digestive biscuit base, and certainly did turn out to be a bit cheescakey, without the cheese. The filling was basically oodles of dark chocolate, butter, cream and 5 whole eggs. There will have been more, but that's sufficient to demonstrate how rich and calorific this bake is! It was really easy to make; a surprise ingredient of some instant coffee made the flavour quite interesting and not to everyone's taste, I'd imagine. I found it diminished after the first mouthful.
The pie really slumped once removed from the oven, and actually looked quite a deflated, sorry mess until I put the cream on top. I over-whipped the cream, so it still didn't look aesthetically appealing until I chucked some chocolate flakes at it. Only then did it really look passable as an appetising dessert. I kept it chilled in the fridge until serving, and it was very easy to slice and lovely and firm. It would probably be tastier if it was out of the fridge for a spell though.
Baker's verdict: easy to make and very tasty. I'd try it without the coffee next time, though.
Husband rating: 8/10 - first mouthful was a bit too coffee-ish, but then as it went on you didn't really notice the coffee, and it was a lovely, indulgent, rich chocolatey thing.
 

Elizabeth's First Birthday Cake

Just had to post this as it was my first attempt at doing a 'proper' iced birthday cake. I wanted to be a brilliant mummy and make my daughter's cake myself, even though I have very little experience of decorating cakes (that's my next project once this one's completed!). I used Mary's Victoria Sandwich recipe, filling the cake with buttercream and lemon curd, and then wrestled with the ready-made fondant icing. I'd bought the stuff you needed to mix with water, and spent ages with my Mum trying to roll it out without it sticking to the surface. After failing miserably at this, we resorted to using the ready-to-roll stuff, which looked like it was going to go the same sticky way. However, with a bit of help from husband wielding a spatula, I managed to get it onto the cake. I'd also bought some coloured icing and a cutter kit, so got all polka dot-tastic and made a lovely spotty cake for the special little lady. She was a bit bemused by the whole thing, and didn't eat much of it, but the rest of us enjoyed it, ultra sugary, ultra sweet icing and all (which husband duly peeled off). I now need to buy one of those smoothing things to get a less bobbly finish...

58. Pecan Pie

I can't recall why I decided to make this: it wasn't next on my list in the pie section. I do know I wanted to bake something which we could share with the family when we visited though, and I'd never made, or even eaten, one of these before. It looked as though it would present moderate challenge, and I was looking forward to tasting it.
To begin, I made a sweet pastry, which included an egg yolk and icing sugar. Once made, it needed to be refrigerated for about half an hour, so I got on and made the filling while I waited for the pastry to chill. The key ingredient, aside from the pecans, is maple syrup. I had no idea how expensive this stuff is! It took me ages to even find it in the supermarket, and when I did, I was faced with the choice of buying the expensive 'good' stuff, or a cheaper version, which wasn't actually pure maple syrup. I had to opt for the proper stuff, of course, and I'm sure it makes all the difference. Don't think I'll be making too many of these though!
The filling was pretty easy to make, and very runny. Once the pastry had been baked blind, I poured the mixture in on top of the pecan nuts which I had fairly carefully arranged on the pastry. I put a baking tray underneath the flan case, as I felt sure some of the mixture would leak out, and I was right. It only needed to be baked for just over half an hour, and certainly smelt good when I removed it from the oven.
The pie was tasty, but because we'd never had it before, we didn't really know what to expect from the texture. We sampled a piece warm from the oven and found it very 'eggy' and soft. It reminded me of a custard tart, texture-wise. I'm not a fan of those. I was worried I'd not cooked it for long enough, but a bit of research reassured my that it was meant to be like that. It was lovely with vanilla ice cream, and also went down well with the family, who had it cold.
Baker's verdict: fairly straightforward to make; tasty apart from the slightly eggy flavour. The texture of the filling was a bit off-putting.
Husband rating: 7.5/10 - a bit eggy, but lovely taste of maple syrup and the pecans were very nice in it.
 

57. Cupcakes

These were baked for my A Level students and were meant to be Valentines' Day chocolate cupcakes, complete with fondant love hearts. Unfortunately my cutters didn't arrive on time, and when I started baking, I realised I didn't have enough cocoa powder to make them chocolatey! So they turned into vanilla cupcakes with chocolate butter icing instead.
They were very simple to make, following the all-in-one method again. They got a reasonable rise, but these are a bit denser than fairy cakes, although not quite as dense as muffins. I need to get myself an ice cream scoop for even portions, as invariably I end up with buns which are all different sizes. It was harder to divide the mixture because I'd made double the quantity as well, but they didn't turn out too bad really.
Icing the cakes was very time-consuming. I was trying to go for a decent finish, but cake decorating isn't my forte so it took ages. I also found that despite plenty of mixing, there were still lumps of icing sugar flecking the mixture. Schoolboy error: I forgot to sift it first! You couldn't really tell once I'd smoothed the icing, but it was annoying all the same.
Baker's verdict: easy to make, classic tasty cupcakes. The students enjoyed them!
Husband rating: can't remember what they were like; it was too long ago!