Baked In Baking Club

I decided to try the Baked in Baking club after trying out one of their recipe kits and being very pleased with the result.The recipes are all approved by Michel Roux so you can be confident that the result will be delicious.

When I tried the Double Chocolate Brownie baking kit, not only was the brownie delicious, and eaten almost as soon as it was served up to a group of new mums at a coffee morning, but I also found it was a really good way to introduce my little girl to baking without making too much mess. All the ingredients come pre-weighed and you even get a skewer and baking paper.

In the box with the chocolate brownies came and offer to join the baking club. For £2.99 for the first month we got a salted caramel millionaires shortbread kit, which I have to admit I made twice  (once from the kit and secondly going out to buy my own ingredients) as it was so good but each time forgot to take pictures! I never though I would be able to make my own caramel from scratch but the recipe was so good that I had to have a second go!

Subsequent months are £7.99 or you can get a discount for paying quarterly or every six months.

Orange and Cardamom Cake

After the success of the Brownies and Caramel Shortbread I eagerly awaited the next delivery.

I was sent an email a couple of days before my Baking Club box arrived which told me the extra ingredients I would need - cream cheese, eggs, an orange and butter.
When my box arrived I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed to find the next recipe was a big (non-chocolatey) cake; as this is not the sort of thing I would usually choose to bake, but I was very wrong to judge so quickly!

All the ingredients were clearly labelled and included the baking paper and a skewer for testing the cakes. The instructions looked clear enough so I waited until I was next hosting a mums & babies coffee morning as i would need some help eating it!

To start I pre-heated my oven to 180 degrees centigrade, cut out the baking paper to line the bottoms of my 20cm round tins. Next I zested the whole orange and squeezed out half the orange juice as instructed (keeping the other half for the icing later).

In a large bowl I then combined Bag 1(190g self raising flour, 1/2tsp baking powder, 1/2tsp baking soda) and Bag 2 (50g polenta, 1/8tsp cardamom) then added Bag 3 (100g caster sugar) and the orange zest and juice.

I was then a little apprehensive about mixing in 225g butter and 4 eggs as I thought it might go lumpy. I did as instructed and really struggled to get the mixture "very smooth and creamy" so had to resort to the electric mixer.

I finally poured the mixture into the baking tins and put in the oven  for 20-25 minutes, I tested the cakes with the skewer at about 20 minutes but they did need the full 25.

I then let the cakes cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a plate to fully cool (I don't have a cooling rack for some reason).

Once fully cooled (I actually did this the next day - wrap the caked in cling film and pop in the fridge) the next job was the icing.

I measured out 190g of cream cheese then emptied Bag 5 (350g icing sugar) into the bowl; the bowl was much too small! so I then transferred it into a bigger bowl and mixed with a wooden spoon before adding 1 tablespoon of the remaining orange juice (from the half I saved earlier) and mixing well again. I then popped the bow in the fridge for 10 minutes. My icing was a little bit runny but tasted amazing.

Finally I removed the baking paper from my cakes and laid them out, putting half the icing on one cake, sandwiched them together and then tipped the rest of the icing on top.

Result

The finished cake was amazing, I would always choose chocolate cake or carrot cake over other flavours... until now!

The sponge was very moist and the icing was rich, sweet and slightly tangy from the orange.

The recipe says 8 servings but i think i ended up cutting it in to 12 pieces!






Definitely worthy of a 5 star rating - but I will probably add slightly more icing sugar next time to make the icing thicker.







 


You Can Join the Baked in club for £1.99 for the first month by clicking this link.

Natural Blender review

I bought a breville blend active a while ago and have been making mainly yoghurt and banana based smoothies with a teaspoon of spirulina to give it a boost. These are great for when I'm busy of if I have to leave the house early. After using an app called Lifesum I realised that my "healthy" smoothie wasn't actually as healthy as I thought!

So how do you try a range of different smoothies without having to invest in all the different "superfoods" and "booster" ingredients I keep hearing about? Where do you start? 

So I decided to give natural blender a go, particularly as I found an offer that took £10 off the first 2 boxes.

As with most subscription services, it was easy to sign up and within 5 minutes I had set up a fortnightly subscription (I didn't want weekly in case I got overloaded with fruit and hadn't made them all!). My box arrived as promised on saturday morning.

I unpacked my box straight away and was pleased to see everything was packaged well and all the recipe cards and instructions were included.

Kale-Idascope -The first smoothie was interesting, in that it contained kale, as well as a plum, blueberries and almond butter.

Thai'd Up - The second smoothie was my favourite as im a fan of fruity flavours. it was made of mango, banana, bok choy, lemongrass and coconut and topped up with coconut milk which made it super creamy. I will definately be making this one again

Blueberry  Burst -  I was looking forward to the third smoothie because I’m a blueberry fan but was a bit disappointed that the addition of nuts made this one a bit gritty. I find this with kiwi seeds as well. maybe i need a more powerful blender but i prefer smooth smoothies.

Morning Sunshine - I had the same issue with the fourth smoothie, I had no problem with the spinach but the Hazelnuts again made the texture less pleasant.

The People vs OJ - The final smoothie was a fruity orange based drink and was very refreshing, again the texture was very bitty but it did have a whole raw carrot in it which i dont think blends very well!

Overall I was happy with the box, as its a great way to try things I would otherwise have never bought; such as lucuma or maca powder. I will wait for the second discounted box before deciding wether to keep subscribing. 

I will also try to cost up the ingredients in the this box and the next one to see if its good value.

New services to try out

    

So its been a while since I've updated my blog but I have been busy trying new food services:


Next week I will be recieving a Natural Blender Box for the first time and cant wait to see how it goes!


I have also signed up to the BakedIn Baking club after trying thier double chocolate brownie kit (which was amazing!) and thier range of mug cakes.

Reviews to follow very shortly!

Im also tempet to try out a few others, the number of companies offering good quality food subscription and delivery services have soared in the last year, here are some I'm considering:

Bacon and Sage wrapped Chicken

Last week I was impressed with the menu on the Gousto website so decided to order a box. One of the great things about the Gousto service is that you can choose your meals, order a one off box as and when you want it without being signed up for a subscription. 

My favourite recipe from the box this week has to be the Bacon and Sage wrapped chicken with chestnut mushrooms and herby mash, and it was really really easy to make.

1 large chicken breast, 40g clotted cream, 10g fresh sage, 150g dry-cured streaky bacon, 250g chestnut mushrooms, 1 garlic clove & 400g potatoes

 To start, boil a kettle and turn your grill on to high. Chop up the sage finely except for 4-6 sage leaves which you are going to wrap with your chicken, and tear (yes tear) your mushrooms into bitsize chunks.. Peel and chop the potatoes into managable chunks before popping in a saucepan and covering with boiling water, simmer for 10-20 minutes until tneder enough to mash.

Cover a baking tray with tin foil and lay out your mushrooms, seasoning well with salt and pepper then drizzle with oil.

Next cut your chicken breast in half so that you have 2 thinner pieces (as pictured) this means the chicken will cook quickly and evenly under the grill. Lay a couple of sage leaves on each piece of chicken before wrapping with the bacon.

Place the bacon wrapped breasts on top of your mushrooms and place under the grill for 10-15 minutes until crispy and cooked through. Meanwhile drain your potatoes, add the chopped sage and a genourouse nob of butter to the saucepan and put back on the heat for a minute. add a splash of milk to the potatoes and mash well, season to taste.

Finally remove your chicken and mushrooms from the grill and tip the juices into a small pan, add the clotted cream and heat on the hob until smooth.

Plate up and you're done!





Result: 

This was a very rich and tasty way to cook chicken. By grilling the bacon wrapped chicken on top of the mushrooms you really get the benefits of all the floavours in each different ingredient. I will definately be making this one again.

Second try at Gousto

I tried Gousto a few years ago and liked it but felt there was room for improvement. So last week I got a discount through my email and thought I'd try it again.

My box arrived today and straight away I as impressed with the quality of the ingredients and how well it was all packed. This was an issue when i first tried the service but I can see that they have taken steps to make sure everything arrives in perfect condition.

They also included a starter guide, a free canvas bag and my recipe cards along with a sheet with the expiry dates for each recipe; all were well dated.

Tonight I'm going to try the beef stroganoff!

Get upto £25 off your first box by clicking here

Tesco hand prepared steaks

I signed up to be a member of the Tesco Orchard trial programme a while ago with the intention of posting about some of the products I was invited to try however I just didn't get around to it for the first two trials.

This time around I was invited to try tesco hand prepared steak. 

I'll admit my first thought was, "brilliant, free steak, but it won't be as good as Donald Russell" which is an online butcher with a royal warrant (if it's good enough for the queen...)

After browsing the steak section I noted that fillet steak was £34/kg then went to have a look at the fresh meat counter and found it was £30/kg and looked very fresh and red. So I asked for a freshly cut inch and a half off the piece of fillet. It came to £4.20 which was perfect as my voucher was for £4, so essentially a nice fresh piece of steak for 20p!

So not only was it better value than the pre-packed, you can also choose how much you want.

At home I put a baked potato in the oven  and turned my frying pan up high with a little olive oil. Once the pan was really hot I rubbed the steak with some Donald Russell "THE perfect Seasoning" and placed it in the pan, turned the temperature down a little and cooked it for a few minutes on each side. I then let it rest for a few minutes while I fried and egg, cut up some tomato and served it up with the baked potato.

The resulting steak was rare, how I like it, juicy, and full of flavour. In a blind taste test I'm not sure I would have been able to tell the difference from the royal warrant holder.

I will deffinately be buying steak from the fresh counter in future.

Italian style sausage Stuffed Marrow

Serves 2-4, recipe below is for 2 people so uses half a marrow. To serve 4 just use a whole marrow and double the quantities. I used carrots and a courgette but any similar vegetables you have in the fridge will work.

Half a marrow, half a pack of your favourite sausages, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 1tbsp tomato purée, 1 clove garlic, a couple of salad potatoes or breadcrumbs, a handful of cheese.

Chop the ends of of your marrow and slice in half lengthways. Scoop out the seeds and discard. Scoop out some of the flesh and chop roughly.

Peel and finely dice the carrots and onion. Put the marrow half in a baking dish and allow to bake in an oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.

In a frying pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage skins, into the hot pan. Using a spatula chop the sausage meat into small chunks while it browns. Once cooked set to one side and reheat the pan.

Fry the garlic, onions, carrots and marrow flesh until soft then add back in the sausage meat and the tomato purée.

Remove the marrow from the oven and stuff with the filling. Top with finely sliced potatoes or breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven until crispy on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and pop back into oven until melted and yummy!

Result: