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).


Saturday, 22 February 2025

116. Ginger and Treacle Spiced Traybake


*Apologies for the aesthetically displeasing layout of this post: the insertion of photos isn't working in the same way that it used to!*

The half-term holiday arrived and so did a renewed determination to actually crack on and get something baked. Apart from some very late-in-the-day mince pies and a Victoria Sandwich, nothing else had been baked in the new oven in the new kitchen, following 3 loooong months without any oven at all. So, I thought it was high time I got back to Mary Berry and attempted something new.

I didn't want to try anything too ambitious, as I've got a bit rusty and have lost some confidence as a baker, so this traybake seemed a good way to jump back in. It was so nice to get all my gear out again, and have the time to do it. It felt like it was going to be all lovely and stress-free until...my electronic scales switched themselves off. I'd weighed the butter and the sugar and was mid-treacle measuring when they just turned off! I had no idea how much treacle I'd put in, and then did the ridiculous thing of weighing the whole lot and doing maths to try and calculate how much treacle was in there, not accounting for the weight of the actual bowl itself. So I was taking treacle out and thinking 'that can't be right' and binning it, before realising what I'd done. Oh dear.

Anyway, eventually the lightbulb moment arrived, and I got myself back on track. It was a really easy 'all-in-one' method, even mixing by hand (electric hand mixer died), and the ginger sponge baked well. I left it to cool for ages before icing it, thinking as I did it that it was a mighty big cake for us to just be eating at home, and perhaps I should've frozen some of it. Mary suggests it freezes well.

We had it as our Sunday Dinner dessert, and although it was lovely, we all said it would be really nice without the icing, and eaten warm with custard or ice-cream. So next time, I'll bake the sponge, cut it in half, freeze the other half, and eat it as a warm pud. It really was very tasty, and the addition of the stem ginger chunks was lovely - adding a little bit of texture. Youngest daughter at least tried it, and didn't like it; eldest wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole, claiming she didn't like ginger. Husband and parents liked it very much. I will definitely bake it again.







Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)