Sweet bakes – Love. Eat. Sleep. Food

Crisps, chocolate and peanut tart

April 27, 2019 No Comments

You know when you have one of those day, when all you want to do is chill out. It’s not that often for me, I prefer to get out and about at the weekends compared to staying at home. However, this happened to be one of them days. I was at my parent’s house and my mum and I were watching the TV and Nadiya from the bake off was on with her cookery program. She was going to make this chocolate tart made that used salted crisps as the base….I know strange, right? but as I’m strange I loved this idea!. I was so excited as I love a bit of salty and sweet, I’ve used this combination in X and X and it’s such a flavour explosion! I watched that episode such a while ago and have been meaning for such a long time to make it and things have just got in the way. Just to make you aware you do have to set the tart in the fridge, so it has to be made in advance.

The tart was really simple to make, just a bit of melted, crushing and combing, really easy to do!. It didn’t take long to bake and as she advised be careful not to overbake as well.

I did found that there was a lot of oil that seeped through, I think there was probably a lot of fat that came from the oil of the crisp and the melted butter that bind the tart together.

I wouldn’t say I could taste the saltiness of the crisp, and also I found it really rich, I could only have a small piece which is unlike me!

Cakes, Recipes, Sweet bakes

Pistachio Cake

September 30, 2018 No Comments

Not only do I love the taste of pistachios, I love the vibrant green colour as well. They really are such a unique nut, which other nut has a green colour? 🤔.

This cake was pretty simple and easy to make the only thing that took long was to un shell the pistachios! I was hoping this cake would be really fluffy and nutty but I didn’t find it that moist. Although the taste of pistachio did come through and sometimes you don’t get that.

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Cakes, Recipes, Sweet bakes

Blood Orange Cake

March 24, 2018 No Comments

When I think of oranges I don’t think of them being red, just orange so blood orange are unusual to me. I don’t remember trying blood orange well not that I know of, apparently they are known to be much sweeter then normal oranges but what I’m most fascinates me about them is the beautiful, vibrant red colour it’s captivating. I was hoping this vivid colour would carry through to the cake.

I was so excited to see that red colour once I cut the orange open, however I was a hugely disappointed as the colour was a mix of orange and red and not fully red 🤔 I didn’t understand, why? 😔 I wanted that lovely pink for the icing but mine turned out a very dull pink, however this cake was amazing it had a lovely taste of orange and was really soft I enjoyed it and would make it again, hopefully with more of red coloured oranges.

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Recipes, Sweet bakes

Choux Doughnuts

March 4, 2018 No Comments

A long time ago I made profiteroles and I fancied making them again but this time as a big ring. I remember when I made the profiteroles rolls and they didn’t work the first time but had another go and they worked, I couldn’t remember which recipe I used. With any baking that is a bit more technical I always feel scared yet I feel it’s a challenging, I always give things a go and if they don’t work out, it can be quite upsetting BUT it’s not the end of the world, no one died, so I need to chill out and either have another go and bake something else. It’s all about trying and experimenting in life otherwise everyone would just live a boring life, right?

I do think they are a tricky thing to get right but once you’ve sussed it then it’s actually easy. I think the first thing to get right is the pastry dough, if this is too runny (by adding too much egg) then the choux pastry doesn’t work well, I think it becomes more cakey instead of crisp and no one wants a soggy cakey choux pastry right?

Well, yet again my choux pastry didn’t work the first time. I initially wanted to make a giant choux ring so everyone could have a slice, apparently I didn’t know it’s actually called a Paris Brest’s (how fancy and I think I would have to put on my best French accent to say it better, but I bet it still won’t sound right!) It went wrong as the last beaten egg had slipped out and went into the dough mixture. Arggggghhhhh then the dough was too slack and even when I was piping it I knew it was wrong. But I just baked it hoping for the best, and I had enough dough left and created smaller doughnut rings. The giant choux doughtnut didn’t work well, it was stoggy and thick and not crisp at all! What a disaster. However the good news was the doughnut ones did, so I gave it another go with less egg this time and yes!!! It worked, thank god, happy bunny!

So don’t make the mistake I did and add too much egg! check the consistency, it should be a smooth, thick texture that will falls from the beater like a thick ribbon.

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Cakes, Desserts, No Bake, Recipes, Snacks, Sweet bakes

Tiramisu truffle balls

January 6, 2018 No Comments

Oh hey, bye bye 👋 2017 and bring on 2018 🎉, let’s hope it brings happiness for everyone.

So as my first post of 2018, this year I still want to carry on with my baking and cooking adventure. I want to experience different taste and experiences as I do every year and yet I still am greatly in love with food and I don’t think that will ever stop!

Over the holidays I did some baking (of course) it was very Christmasy based. I made some gingerbread men finally after having my cutter for 2 years! yes I know, how bad is that?! unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to photograph them. I also made Lebkuchen these are spiced German biscuits and are AMAZING they bring the most amazing smells of Christmas waft through the house, I just love them and their intense spiced flavour.

Back to this post, these tiramisu truffles were made for NYE, I celebrated with my family, the best way for me. I thought these truffles would bring a little bit of sparkle into the new year and I had to add a bit of liquor obviously. I really love tiramisu and when I came across these I was super excited to make them and thought they would fit perfectly for NYE.

These truffles are super easy to make and it does resemble the lovely flavour of tiramisu.

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Eggless, No Bake, Recipes, Sweet bakes

Tiffin

August 19, 2017 No Comments

When I think of tiffins, I just think of these sweet treats in a rusty old biscuit tin all wrapped up in baking paper. It has a very nostalgic feel to them and something that you would have sitting waiting for you at you grans house.

I really like tiffins as they have a bit of everything in them (which is great for a fatty like me!) they have so much different textures which makes your taste buds go crazzzzyyyyyy. The other thing about tiffins which make them great is the that you can adjust it and add what you want to to make the suit your taste. Actually there is more plus points, they are no bake, quick and easy to make too. These could possibly be made vegan as well which is great for the vegans out there.

These are delicious and this recipe worked well everything stayed intact.

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Bars, Recipes, Sweet bakes

Crunchy Peanut Butter Oat Caramel and Nut Crumble Bars

June 16, 2017 No Comments

These bars.

One word. AAAAAAaaaaaaammmmmmmmmazzzzzzing.

Actually, there is more then one word to describe these but I could go on for ages and ages.

I am a huge fan of peanut butter but even more bigger fan of oats, so if your a fan of oats and peanut butter then you’ll love these. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed eating these, they are probably one of the best bars I’ve made (and I think my new favourite, yes I said it!) and I have made plenty. My other favourites have included is the Mincemeat crumble bars, (one of my aunts fav) these are pretty good, they’re eggless and quite similar to shortbread. The other bars I made which were quite popular was Oat and coconut gooey caramel bars, Pecan pie bars, Peanut butter pretzel bars (these are pretty awesome, also eggless and no bake). There are others as well but it just takes to long to type them all!

Back to these beauties, I just don’t think I can comprehend how great they are and I don’t think I have been addicted to a bar just as much I was to this one! They are salty, sweety, caramely, chocolatey, oaty, like what else do you need right? The original recipe called for dulche de leche and used caramel as a replacement but feel free to use it if you have some lying round. I also added my own twist on it, to be more caramely and slightly more chocolately by using rolos. I think even typing this up also made me really want to eat bake them again, which is saying something! They are not the most healthiest of bars so I do need to control. These are quite similar to the mincemeat crumble bars in the way there are two layers and one mix. The bottom layer is pressed down and the top is crumbled on top (the best bit).

I actually made these for my sister in law and cheekily kept some for my blog post but I’m so glad I did. Hopefully she liked them, she’s a peanut butter and oat fan like me. I’m so happy I came across this recipe and will definitely be making these again and again!

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Recipes, Sweet bakes

Vegan Orange, Hazelnut, Chocolate and Cardamon Biscotti

October 22, 2016 No Comments

I can’t believe these biscotti are vegan they’re amazing! The biscotti worked really well without the eggs and the flavours were incredible, I love all these flavours anyway but by putting them together worked even better!

I made these as my second giveaways for Diwali food.

Like with all biscotti they take time to make, but it’s quite simple to make, I enjoy making them as they are an unusual process.

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Recipes, Sweet bakes

Mary Berry Viennese whirls

October 9, 2016 No Comments

I have been meaning to make these bad boys for a while now since they made their appearance on GBBO as one of the technical tasks. I didn’t bother making my own jam, can’t be bothered with that and I have too many jams to use up at home.

Whilst making the biscuit dough was pretty straight forward (please bear in mind to avoid loss of arms by using an electric mixer!). I did find pipping these little monsters was so so difficult. I mean really difficult, I remember everyone struggled on the program but I didn’t realise it was that hard. I managed to some how pull through and pipe all the biscuits, in the end I wouldn’t say my whirls would get a very good score, being the very big critic of my own food I would say in Paul and Mary’s words…’although the biscuits taste nice, I notice there isn’t much definition in your whirls’. So yeh they do taste nice and are ‘short’ but definition is so not there!

I’m in two minds if I would make these again, my parents loved them but it’s just the piping but I just don’t want to feel like I’ve been defeated over some whirls…maybe I should make them again (just for my parents).

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Cakes, Recipes, Sweet bakes

Eggless Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

August 28, 2016 No Comments

Cookies and Cream are a perfect couple.

As well as many others, wine and cheese, bread and butter, gauc and tortilla chips, burger and fries the list can go on and on!

These cupcakes were the best eggless cupcake I’ve made, I was really impressed. They were light, fluffy and moist. I would happily make them again and again and feel happy in the process! They also tasted so yummy, I especially loved the frosting as I tweaked it to be made with cream cheese instead of buttercream.

The other great thing about these cupcakes was how easy they are to make. So this recipe deserves an extra *gold star*. Happy, happy me :).

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