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).


Sunday, 9 September 2018

107. Old-fashioned Seed Cake

Ok, so this was a weird one. Mary says in her introduction to the recipe that 'You either love or loathe seed cake', and I have to say that I didn't love it, but actually I didn't hate it either. The same can't be said for husband though, who definitely had a 'marmite' experience!
I'd never heard of seed cake before, so was fascinated to see what it would be like. As it turns out, it's just a basic sponge cake, but with candied peel and caraway seeds included. One of the issues we had with the caraway seeds is that we're used to using them to flavour very savoury dishes like stews and shepherd's pie, so it's a bit difficult to adjust the mind to accept them as an inclusion in a cake. More so for husband, who also prefers cinnamon in savoury food. Anyway, it was an easy cake to make, but I did over-bake it and it was pretty dry by the next day. I didn't mind the flavour, but I didn't manage to convince the rest of the family to help me eat it, so some of it ended up in the bin, regrettably.
Baker's verdict: interesting, but not one I'm bothered about making again.
Husband rating: he didn't like it at all!
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