A Retrospective of Baking...

So, I have been baking in my own little kitchen for just over a year. Here is a collection of what I have attempted so far...


16th March 2010
My first proper attempt at cupcakes in our new flat - chocolate with my first attempt at piped icing.

For our 'housewarming' which turned into a bad movie night... which then became a tradition, hence the movie postcard of the film we watched!

10th July 2010
Vanilla cupcakes with strawberry piped icing and decorations.

Made for our engagement picnic at Kenwood House. I also baked some lovely fruit scones.

28th August 2010
My first attempt at a fruit cake for my Dad's birthday - also my first attempt at making regal icing.
I was pretty proud of making the icing from scratch despite it being a little thin!



21st September 2010
Really getting into the swing of things now - used my new Primrose Bakery cookbook to make perfect vanilla cupcakes.

The kitchen was also starting to take shape, building up a collection of lovely pink ceramic bowls, pastel silicone cupcake moulds, and a vintage inspired ceramic jug.




17th October 2010
I decided to make some chocolate brownies from an old recipe which I had made many times before.
I also tried out making dusky pink icing for cupcakes, as we had decided on a dusky pink theme for our wedding next year! Served on my lovely decorative glass plate!
This was my first attempt at a 'freehand' swirly icing, which didn't turn out fantastic as the icing was rather runny!







22nd & 23rd January 2011

A mammoth weekend of baking, inspired by Lorraine Pascale's 'Baking Made Easy'.

Chocolate palmiers - adapted from Lorraine's savory recipe, I was very surprised they worked.

Strawberry & Cream cupcakes with a hidden jam centre, and strawberry flavour icing in pink and white, plus fresh strawberries.
Unfortunately again the icing was a bit runny, and the juice from the strawberries made a sugary syrup which dripped off the cupcakes - still tasted fantastic!

Lastly, my first attempt at biscuits, vanilla, using a butterfly cutter that I bought many months before when visiting a friend. Also my first time using pre-rolled regal icing, which worked fantastically.
I decorated them by hand with little tubes of glittering icing in pretty pastel colours from Sainsburys.



10th February 2011

Getting complicated now! I made a three tier red velvet birthday cake for my fiance.
Using the Hummingbird bakery recipe, and serving it on a beautiful glass cake stand (surprisingly a post christmas bargain from Homebase).

My first attempt at covering a cake with icing (cream cheese icing to be exact, my fiance's favourite) came off pretty well. My fiance and his family were impressed :)



23rd February 2011

Next a three tiered carrot cake with cream cheese icing (another yummy Primrose Bakery recipe).
And 4 little cupcakes from the left over mixture, sprinkled with cinnamon.
Unfortunately, it was to 'celebrate' all the hard work at my work place before closing due to government cuts, but everyone seemed cheered by the cake.



26th February 2011

I was feeling brave and for my 23rd birthday party I decided to attempt macaroons.
Three flavours of rose, lemon and strawberry.

They were unbelievably delicious, but the first batch (rose) came out best, with some of the others being very soft and sticking to the baking paper. The sugar syrup was a pain to work with (Lorraine Pascale's recipe) but I have since found another recipe without this and can't wait to try them again!



 28th February 2011

Not made by me but deserves a special mention - a three tiered personalised surprise birthday chocolate cake from The Hummingbird Bakery, and me enjoying it at their shop in Soho after a lovely day shopping for my birthday!


19th March 2011

A two tiered coffee and walnut cake for my Mum's birthday with coffee icing and a strong coffee syrup which soaks up in the sponge (another Primrose Bakery recipe!)


27th March 2011

If you've read this far you are dedicated! Lastly, my first attempt at some yummy red velvet whoopie pies with a cream cheese and marshmallow filling (with marshmallow 'fluff' specially ordered from amazon.co.uk as it's only sold in America!).
Made for someone's leaving party at my newly started job as an Assistant Psychologist - went down a hit!

Wow, what a lot of baking! I hope I haven't bored you all to death! It makes me feel pretty proud to see all I have achieved over the last year or so. There were some bad times along the way (I dropped half the above chocolate brownies all over my kitchen floor) and there were tears when things didn't go right, as I seem to put my heart and soul into what I bake.

I hope you've found it interesting and it inspires you to bake something, practice really does make perfect and I wouldn't have thought a year ago, that now I would be such a confident baker!

Any suggestions of what I should try next?

Jewel x

Comments

Popular Posts