Baking | Selling cakes to angry people

One of the most ridiculous things to happen when serving people cake has been the time we got shouted at quite aggressively that the gooey, decadent chocolate brownie we had been selling at a fete, was not the world's best brownie.

We advertised on a chalk board that we were selling the worlds best brownie and you could have it cold or warmed with fresh whipped Isle of Wight cream. It's an incredible brownie. It is my standby birthday present if I forget and people request I make it. 

It's the recipe that won an award so we were not lying or exaggerating. We told people to make conversation that they could find the recipe online and it's really quite simple, it was fun! 

We also had to explain what "mocha" was quite a few times (what is moo-ch-cha cake?) and we were asked if our tea urn was a doughnut fryer... err no. It's a tea urn. It heats water like a kettle.

Anyway. I was making someone a cup of tea with the tea urn, standing on the slightly damp grass in our marquee when I heard someone shout "I demand to see who is in charge of this... of this organisation" she sounded really angry and my heart sank, what had I done? Maybe she had tripped on the marquee's guide ropes? Was she from environmental health and I was doing something illegal and dangerous? 

I turned around quickly and gave the drinks I was making to my customer who smirked at me and walked away. I walked over the the lady at the counter and said I am running the cake stall if that's what you mean?

She was really angry. 

She was agitated and hopping from foot to foot. She had her handbag clutched to her side and was holding a brownie on a paper plate with a wooden fork stabbed into it, standing up in protest but wobbling due to the gooey brownie, the paper plate and the fact the lady was hopping mad.

She thrust the plate at me, almost throwing it, I grabbed it so it didn't fall to the floor and said I'm terribly sorry, how can I help? 

She shouted, actually SHOUTED at me:

"THIS IS NOT THE WORLDS BEST BROWNIE" 

Not quite understanding and taking a while to process this statement I said oh, umm sorry is it not? I said "the recipe won an award for the worlds best brownie last year. I will happily give you a refund if you're not happy."

She said in a clipped sentence IT. IS. NOT. COOKED. and snatched the plate back from me and then started using the fork to repeatedly smear the uneaten brownie onto the plate with the fork in order to prove that it wasn't cooked. Nice.

I glanced at my friends who were helping serve drinks and cake, the were staring in disbelief. 

Well I of course said that this brownie is similar to a chocolate fondant, it is cooked for 40 minutes but is meant to be left slightly soft in the middle as traditionally brownies are slightly gooey with firm, chewy edges. 

Now this lady wasn't just complaining to get her money back, she was enraged.

I don't understand why she was so very angry and had taken the brownie as a personal insult. 

Maybe she was having a bad day or something, you don't know what people are going though for them to suddenly snap at something that seems random to you.

She shouted again, obviously feeling like we weren't understanding.

I AM TELLING YOU I AM A RETIRED HOME ECONOMICS TEACHER AND THIS IS COMPLETELY RAW. I said quietly, well it's not completely raw, it has been cooked in the oven, you can see it's been cooked, it's just how it's meant to be. It's an American brownie, not a sponge cake. Like a melt-in -the-middle chocolate pudding?

She didn't even respond. She just looked at us silently still fuming and bright red in the face and stormed off clutching her £3.

Please bear in mind we were a marquee in a field at a fete. We weren't a business trying to con anyone, we were raising money for charity and providing people with hot drinks and cakes so they could sit down, feed babies and be under shelter of the marquee. 

Taiwan | Sugar and Spice Pineapple Pastry

Images from the website:

We got given these treats at work this week, either bought in Taiwan or maybe bought from an airport shop en route over to the UK from that direction. I love trying new foods from different countries, these were delicious and unusual! 

The Sugar & Spice website is cute, it took me about 10 minutes to find the English translation button so I could find out more, then eventually I found the product page for this cake. 

The ingredients say: Pineapple, Butter, Eggs, Flour, Sugar so not much that explains the interesting filling. 

The filling is almost like candied pineapple, a bit like a mince pie consistency with an outer which is close to a British sweet suet pastry. 

Baking | Mocha tray bake... again

MOCHA (CHOCOLATE & COFFEE) TRAY BAKE

6 oz recipe

4 oz Self raising flour 

3 oz cocoa (extra 1 oz for richness & lighter sponge)

6 oz Butter

6 oz Eggs (3 large free range)

1 Teaspoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon coffee chicory essence

3 Tablespoons cold, strong coffee (just mix 2-3 teaspoons of instant coffee with boiling water and use enough to create a paste, then dilute with 3 tablespoons-ish cold water)

1 Teaspoon vanilla essence

Made in a brownie pan

Line with grease proof paper & butter
Baked for 20 minutes, middle shelf, gas mark 4.

Taken out the oven, lifted straight onto a wire rack to cool.

When 100% cold, spread with mocha icing.

MOCHA ICING

1 Tablespoon Salted Butter
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
1 Tablespoon Coffee Chicory Essence
2-3 Tablespoons Cold Strong Coffee
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
8 oz Icing Sugar

Whizz until smooth, add more coffee / cocoa / icing sugar to taste.

Baking | Coconut lime drizzle tray bake

I have already made this and posted it before but this is slightly different.

This time I made a 6 oz tray bake with a lime drizzle top, vs previously I made cupcakes with an 8 oz recipe and a lime coconut frosting / icing.

INGREDIENTS:

6oz Self Raising Flour

6oz Butter

6oz Eggs 

(Which was 3 Large Free Range British)

4oz Desiccated Coconut

Juice and Zest of 2 Limes

1 tsp Baking Powder

The icing topping was lime, and 3oz unrefined golden caster sugar which is spooned over the cake when still in the baking tray and still warm.

Baking | 80th Birthday Cake

For my Grandad's 80th Birthday I made a large eight-zero cake for 30 people.

I was going to hire an 8 shaped baking tin and a 0 shaped baking tin but in the end I decided that among my 30+ tins I would probably be able to construct my own and save £30 on the hiring fees which seemed pretty steep!

I used a few different shaped tins, carved them into shape using a sharp serrated knife and then to flatten the tops perfectly I used a baking wire which guarantees a perfect level surface.

I made my chocolate cake recipe which is heavy on cocoa powder, the ratio of cocoa to flour is almost half and half which creates a rich, light cake.

I "dirty iced" the bare cake with icing, as well as the the filling which glued everything together, I put the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes which quickly solidified the outer buttercream so when I added the warm (but cooled down) chocolate ganache, it wouldnt melt off the sides.

I tried to make a thick ganache but it didn't seem any thicker than my usual ganache, however as it cooled down it become a firm truffle consistancy. I could have rolled it into balls and used them as chocolate truffles.

I melted some white chocolate to decorate, as well as using ganache to glue raspberries to the edges. The white chocolate was very thin, I wish I had used something thicker or less see-through. 

I added some dark chocolate curls I made from using my sharpest knife to shave chocolate that had been in the fridge for 24 hours.

I added orange roses to the centre of the numbers and then I felt the cake needed some green so I finely grated some lime zest over it too. 

The cake was dry, I think it was because I carved them and the dried out, plus the un-tested baking times of using random measures of cake mixture in a variety of tins, my family said it wasn't actually dry, but it was a dry mix for my usual standards. Especially when my chocolate cakes are light and moist after perfecting the recipe.  With all the gananche and raspberries I suppose the cake wasn't that noticeable! The important thing is that Grandad enjoyed it!

Baking | Tray Bake: Quick lemon drizzle

Pretty much Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle but with slight changes to the bake, different sugar and more lemon for the topping. I like lemon cakes to be really, really lemony and fresh tasting.

Cake:

6oz butter

6oz golden caster sugar

6oz self raising flour

6oz eggs (3 large free range)

1 tsp baking powder

Finely grated rind of 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

Drizzle:

Juice of 2 lemons

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

170g golden caster sugar 

Beat together the butter and the sugar until pale and well creamed. Add the lemon rind. Golden caster sugar is delicious because it creates a more golden sponge and it's unrefined which also, in my opinion, seems to create a richer flavour. 

Lightly beat the eggs and add to the bowl along with the lemon juice.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and then beat the whole mix together, use a spatula to clean down the bowl and give a final mix. Do not over stir. 

Pour/scoop into a greased and lined tray, I use my brownie tin which is about 30cm x 20cm.

Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for 20-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin.

While the cake is cooling, make the drizzle topping. Juice the lemons and simply combine with the sugar in a small bowl. Pour or spoon over the cake evenly when still warm. 

When the cake is completely cold, place in an airtight container. 

The icing / drizzle will firm up and become a crunchy topping while keeping the cake extremely moist.

I can make the batter of this cake in 10/15 minutes, then the cake goes in the oven for 25 minutes and can be iced warm so it is a very quick and simple cake to knock up in a hurry. 

It's also a rather shallow tray bake so very forgiving, if it doesn't quite fit the tin you have to hand you can cook for more or less time. 

The drizzle topping makes the cake moist and keeps it moist, even if you have been heavy handed with mixing or have over cooked it.  

Baking | Dorset Cereals Berries & Cherries Flapjack

I love flapjacks with lots of lovely ingredients but it isn't practical to buy six 250g bags of different types of dried fruit to use a few grams of each. As a lover of the Dorset Cereals Muesli I had a few varieties in my cupboard so I used it to make a flapjack to see what would happen.

This muesli made up of 50% fruit and contains cranberries, blueberries, cherries, blackcurrants, raspberries, sultanas and raisins as well as oat, wheat and barley flakes so I was pretty confident it would work well.

I used a tin which had a loose bottom, I don't recommend this as the melted butter leaks through onto the bottom of your oven and burns, but I wanted to use the long and fluted shaped tin to make the flapjack prettier as it was a present so I slid a tray on the bottom of the oven to catch the goo.

Flapjack. Such an odd word. 

You will see in the recipe, that you can choose to add more or less butter depending on whether you prefer a chewy or crunchy flapjack, more butter equals a chewier finish (Delia's idea not mine so I can't take credit!) I used less butter but it was perfect for my taste; chewy in the middle with slightly crisp, crunchy edges. I turned the oven up at the end for 10 minutes to create this finish.

Baking | Cinnamon Apples

Ingredients
6 Bramley Apples
1/2 Cup Muscavado Sugar
1/4 Cup Water
Squeeze Lemon Juice
2 Tsp Cinnamon

Peel, core and slice the apples
Put them in a bowl with the sugar and cinnamon
Stir the apples until they are evenly coated
Add the water and lemon to a saucepan and simmer, add the apple mixture.
Simmer slowly until softened to your liking.

Make sure you taste, if too sour add more sugar a little at a time.

For crumble filling I cook the apples until soft, for pie filling I halve the cooking time and keep the apples shape.

I cooked these apples as they had been lying around for a week and I thought I would freeze them. I poured them from the saucepan into a plastic freezer bag to cool, I left a gap in the bag to allow steam to escape.

I flattened the bag and lay it flat in the freezer so it would be really quick to defrost when needed.

I will use this when pushed for time, maybe just heated and served with ice cream or with some pastry and made into a pie or crumble.