Category: Baking

It took me two goes to get these right. The first time the dough was far too stiff, and the yeast didn’t act properly, so they didn’t rise well and were tough and dry. But they smelled so lovely when they were baking, and tasted nice too, so I decided to try again. Success — they rose beautifully and the crumb was soft and light.

The recipe is from my Taste & Create partner’s blog: Fun Foods on a Budget! I liked the title of this blog because one of my favourite standby books when I was an impoverished student was Good Food on a Budget, a fat — and soon food-stained — paperback organised by month in order to make the most of seasonal and hence cheap ingredients.

Like that book, Stephanie’s blog showcases simple, family-friendy recipes which are cheap, filling and generally easy to make. There were quite a few recipes I liked the look of: I hovered over the lemon sugar cookies, the pull-apart loaf, and the parmesan potatoes, but in the end I plumped for these cinnamon rolls because they sounded so good despite Stephanie’s problem with them not rising. It was worth persevering! Once you get the quantities right, they are easy to make.

Update: I stored the left-overs in the freezer, and later used them to make a nice cinnamon-flavoured bread and butter pudding; slice in half or thirds crossways, then cut diagonally in half to make triangles. Then proceed as usual.

My metric conversions follow. The second time, I pre-soaked the yeast in a little warm water to make sure it was actually working, and added only just enough flour to stop the dough being sticky.

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I wouldn’t say I was exactly an expert at cupcakes, but I found I enjoyed making these, so thank you Ivy, my Taste & Create partner this month. Some of Ivy’s cupcake creations are amazing; as a rank beginner in the field, I decided to be relatively unambitious, and went for the carrot cakes with mascarpone frosting — largely because I like carrot cake, and they involved apricot jam — I have lots of that.

I made the candied carrots a couple of days before, and left them on a windowsill by an open window for 24 hours before storing them. They look great and are easy to make.

As usual I battled with the American cup measurements; my cakes came out a bit moist yet again, and I wasn’t sure whether it was bad measuring or the fact that I baked them in muffin tins as I don’t have any cupcake cases. Ivy didn’t mention an oven temperature, so I guessed at 180 and baked them for 25 minutes. Anyway, even if they were a bit soggy in the middle, they tasted fab — I loved the subtle combination of maple syrup and orange, and the mascarpone frosting really is yummy. Read on for my metric version of the recipe.

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One of those things that seem so obvious you hardly need a recipe. But it’s handy to have one for reference. This is from Taste & Create partner Ginny’s blog, and even though I now have some cup measures I’ve converted it to metric weights because, well, how do you measure a cup of butter?

Scones aren’t as easy as you might think. The key is to mix/handle the dough as little as possible. Don’t roll it out; as soon as it holds together, tip it onto a floured work surface and pat it out with your hands. Not too thin; it should be about 2 cm thick. Then cut into triangles or squares with a sharp knife. They might not look as elegant as round ones made with a cutter, but they will be lighter. Sprinkle a little flour on top before putting in the oven. If you have any buttermilk or even milk that’s gone sour in the fridge, your scones will be even lighter. I sometimes substitute yoghurt for part of the milk.

You have to eat them the day they are made, preferably when they are still just warm. Ginny likes hers with honey, but being British I consider that you can only eat them spread with home-made strawberry jam, with a generous dollop of clotted cream on top. Or crème fraîche if you can’t get clotted cream. And a cup of tea of course!

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