7 June 2014

Peanut butter & ice cream sandwiches

So I said I'd be back to share what I did with all that yummy homemade ice cream from my last post.

I give you peanut butter & ice cream sandwiches!


It seems ice cream sandwiches are a big trend for this summer, it's essentially a scoop of ice cream sandwiched between two cookies, what could possibly be better than that?  Peanut butter is one of my all time favourite things, so I baked a batch of peanut butter cookies as the perfect compliment to my homemade vanilla ice cream.

For the cookies you'll need...

50g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
50g soft brown sugar
50g peanut butter (Peanut Butter & Co is my favourite as it uses no added oil)
1 egg
100g self raising flour

1. Cream together the butter, sugars & peanut butter until smooth & fluffy, then beat in the egg.

2. Stir in the flour until you have a soft cookie dough

3. Roll into balls about 2cm wide, flatten slightly, then place on a lined baking sheet.

4. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM4 for around 12-15 minutes.  Keep an eye on them so they don't over brown.

5.  Leave to cool thoroughly & crisp up before constructing your sandwich

When you're ready to use, simply sandwich a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two cookies & serve immediately.  You can also add extra ingredients, what ever you fancy really?


I rolled the edge of one of the sandwiches in grated milk chocolate for an added indulgence!  I also added some strawberry jam at the request of hubby (he does have a good food idea every now & then!)  Just spread some jam on the insides of the cookies before sandwiching together.  I have to say that was my favourite combination, but then I'm a sucker for anything with peanut butter & jam.  I can definitely recommend my peanut butter & jam cupcakes if you haven't tried them?

You do get in a bit of a mess eating these, but then I guess that's half the fun!  Till next time, Rebecca x

1 June 2014

Having a go at homemade ice cream

A few months back I joined the marketing team for an ice cream brand, lucky girl I know!  It's been quite an education learning about what's in the tub & what real ice cream actually is?  What I've discovered is that it should be pretty pure & simple, just milk or cream, eggs & sugar.

But the reality is in fact quite different & there have been a few things that have genuinely surprised me about the ice cream industry.  Here are my top facts I've been boring everyone with!

  • Many ice CREAMS don't actually contain any real CREAM, some use vegetable fats, reconstituted skimmed milk & even water
  • The official regulation states ice cream must contain 5% dairy ingredients to be called dairy ice cream. So in a 100g tub, that's only 5g of dairy, makes you wonder what the other 95g are?
  • Soft scoop products are created by whipping in a huge amount of air, which last time I checked was a free ingredient!

So with all this in mind & fuelled by my usual curiosity, I thought I'd have a go at making my own. I chose Mary Berry's no churn recipe as it seemed straight forward & didn't need an ice cream maker.  You can find the original recipe here.  It was incredibly simple to follow, whisk egg whites, whisk cream, fold together, freeze!


The result was delicious & simple,  it had a lovely creamy taste & soft texture that melted slowly.  But I have to be honest it's not going to make me stop buying ice cream (especially when my brand tastes so good!) What it has done is demonstrated to me what ice cream should be & as many of us are now more mindful of what we eat, I encourage you all to take a look at your tub & consider the ingredients.  The choice is ours, but lets at least know what we're eating!

Next time find out what I did with my tub of homemade ice cream, trust me it's going to be delicious! Rebecca x



25 May 2014

Top 10 kitchen gadgets

Over the years I have been suckered in by many a kitchen gadget that I thought I just couldn't live without, I think it's a symptom of being taken to the Ideal Home Show from a young age!  The pineapple corer that would have struggled to cut through butter (it did come from Poundland), the thingy that was meant to create twirly ribbons out of carrots & the strawberry huller.  All completely useless! However I've come to realise that there are a number of gadgets & utensils that I genuinely couldn't do without now, so here's my top 10.

1. Silicon pastry brush
Image: trendycookshop.co.uk

2. Citrus zester
Image: inthehaus.co.uk

3. Nespresso magnetic pod holder
Image: tavolaswiss.ch

4. Dualit sandwich cage
Image: dualit.com

5. Non stick baking liners
Image: lakeland.co.uk

6. Silicon spatula
Image: lecruset.co.uk

7. Retro kitchen timer
Image: poshrosh.co.uk

8. Garlic press
Image: johnlewis.com

9. Sodastream
Image: sodastream.co.uk

10.  Kitchen aid stand mixer
Image: kitchenaid.com

What would your top 10 look like, what's the thing you couldn't do without in your kitchen.  Would love to hear what I'm missing!  Till next time, Rebecca x 


9 March 2014

Adventures in cheese making...

Since I started Rebecca Bakes Cakes I have always been up for a culinary challenge, in fact the blog was created to chart my progress to create 52 cakes in 52 weeks!  I've tried making my own crumpets, which was a complete disaster.  I've roasted my own coffee beans in a frying pan, thankfully without burning down my friends kitchen.  I've tried to overcome being sponge challenged, but still cannot for the life of me get a Victoria Sponge to rise properly...it is my cakey nemesis!  I've also tried to make my own sushi, which although a relative success, YO! Sushi need not issue a profit warning anytime soon.

Always willing to have a go at making something myself, I was chuffed to receive this fab pressie...


Now I'm not entirely new to cheese making, I did used to work for a dairy company & spent a very fun week at agricultural college in the North West, learning how to make cheese.  But that was a good few years ago & if I'm honest I seem to remember an awful lot of stainless steel kit involved.  


The kit included citric acid, organic sea salt, rennet tablets, a thermometer, muslin square & an instruction booklet.  This was going to be a far more artisan experience!  To make ricotta you start with some whole milk, add some citric acid dissolved in water & some salt.  No rennet needed for this recipe, that's for the other recipe in this kit, mozzarella.

Pan of milk (I know not that interesting!)

I heated the milk slowly & stirred occasionally to avoid scorching until it reached 185F.  By this point you can see that the curds & the whey have separated.  I took it off the heat, popped on a lid & left it to stand for 20 minutes.

Next step was to strain the whey from the curds.  I lined a colander with the muslin cloth & tipped the whole lot in.  I did this in the sink so the whey could just drain away, but I guess you could collect it & use the whey for something else?  I have no idea what mind you :-)


I gathered up the muslin into a bag, then looked for somewhere to hang it to drain!  I left it like this for around 30 minutes.  


Cautiously I opened up the muslin bag to judge my cheese making effort & felt quite chuffed to find this.  Looked pretty ricotta-ish to me!


So what to do with a kilo of ricotta?  I turned it into Jamie Oliver's Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni, ta dah! 

 
The verdict...it was really very tasty.  It was quite rich as I used full fat milk for the cheese as per the recipe, I would be tempted to use semi-skimmed next time for a lighter flavour, but I guess you need the fat in the milk for it to do it's thing & become cheese.  It was so straight forward to make, just needed a little time & patience.  Can't wait to try the mozzarella recipe next, there's a suggestion to add chili flakes to make a spicy version, sounds good to me.  I think I may have been a mouse in a previous life...squeak!  Till next time, Rebecca x 







3 February 2014

Zoom to the moon....it's a rocket cake!

I am not that good at decorating cakes.  Baking them?  Yes.  Eating them?  Most definitely!  But when it comes to decorating them I have always found myself a little lacking.  I even wrote a manifesto for cake a while back that celebrated the fact that my cakes, although very tasty, were no supermodels.  My low cake esteem has never been helped by the beautiful food photography that graces the pages of the food magazines...how do they get them to look like that!?

So I hadn't really given this much thought when I offered to make a cake for a very special two year olds birthday party.  'Rockets & space, that's what she really loves at the minute, do you think you could make a rocket cake?' says her Mum.  'Uhhh sure, I'll have a go' says me!

So here it is...


I wimped out a bit & didn't make an actual rocket shaped cake!  But I did make a rocket cake topper from ready to roll coloured icing & made the cake a star shape.  I just printed off a colouring in template & used that to cut out the rocket shape, then hand (yes hand!) cut a number 2 to finish it off. I added a scattering of stars cut with a mini cookie cutter I have & finally a couple of candles.

Although it wasn't the most technical creation in the world, it was pretty effective & both mum, toddler & party guests seemed pretty please with it!  Also worth pointing out I used a Madeira Cake recipe rather than a Victoria Sponge.  I prefer the richer taste & texture, but there's also the fact that I seem incapable of baking a Victoria Sponge that doesn't resemble a pancake!  Must master that one day...

Have you created any spectacular birthday cakes?  Would love to hear about them.  I'll be back next time with the results attempting to make my own....wait for it.....cheese!

Till then, Rebecca x




8 January 2014

A new year challenge - 100 happy days!

Happy new year to you!  I can't quite believe it but Rebecca Bakes Cakes is now into it's 4th year of existence.  When I wrote my first post back in January 2010 (it was a recipe for Spiced Apple Muffins if you were wondering?) I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it & although I've been a little lax in writing over the last 12 months, I feel quite proud.  It's really nice to look back over the posts, each one reminds me a little of what I was up to at that point in time!  And a lot has changed over the last few years, I've been through a number of jobs, some out of choice some not, we've bought our first house, re-homed a Battersea cat & last but not least got married!  

So it's a new year & without mentioning the dreaded R word, spurred on by a new challenge I made a promise to myself that I would start writing again.  This new challenge isn't cake related this time thankfully (don't think my waistline could take another year of cake!) but related to a topic I have written about in the past, happiness.  Ask yourself.....



100 Happy Days challenges you to do just that, all you have to do is take a photo every day of something that makes you happy & share it making sure you include #100happydays so people can find it.  I love it as an idea, focus on the little things that make you happy & all the boring negative stuff won't seem as bad!

So here's my first happy day captured...

Day 1 - tap class starts again after the holidays

I'll be posting my daily photo on Instagram, click here to follow me & get your daily dose of happiness.  Or why not sign up yourself?  Be great to hear if you take up the challenge too?

If that's not enough happiness for one post, here's a little more before I go, one of my favorite tracks of the moment not least for the fact there are Minions in the video!


I'll be back next time with cake I promise, I'll be sharing my first attempt at a proper decorated kids birthday cake, yikes!  Till next time, Rebecca x



7 June 2014

Peanut butter & ice cream sandwiches

So I said I'd be back to share what I did with all that yummy homemade ice cream from my last post.

I give you peanut butter & ice cream sandwiches!


It seems ice cream sandwiches are a big trend for this summer, it's essentially a scoop of ice cream sandwiched between two cookies, what could possibly be better than that?  Peanut butter is one of my all time favourite things, so I baked a batch of peanut butter cookies as the perfect compliment to my homemade vanilla ice cream.

For the cookies you'll need...

50g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
50g soft brown sugar
50g peanut butter (Peanut Butter & Co is my favourite as it uses no added oil)
1 egg
100g self raising flour

1. Cream together the butter, sugars & peanut butter until smooth & fluffy, then beat in the egg.

2. Stir in the flour until you have a soft cookie dough

3. Roll into balls about 2cm wide, flatten slightly, then place on a lined baking sheet.

4. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM4 for around 12-15 minutes.  Keep an eye on them so they don't over brown.

5.  Leave to cool thoroughly & crisp up before constructing your sandwich

When you're ready to use, simply sandwich a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two cookies & serve immediately.  You can also add extra ingredients, what ever you fancy really?


I rolled the edge of one of the sandwiches in grated milk chocolate for an added indulgence!  I also added some strawberry jam at the request of hubby (he does have a good food idea every now & then!)  Just spread some jam on the insides of the cookies before sandwiching together.  I have to say that was my favourite combination, but then I'm a sucker for anything with peanut butter & jam.  I can definitely recommend my peanut butter & jam cupcakes if you haven't tried them?

You do get in a bit of a mess eating these, but then I guess that's half the fun!  Till next time, Rebecca x

1 June 2014

Having a go at homemade ice cream

A few months back I joined the marketing team for an ice cream brand, lucky girl I know!  It's been quite an education learning about what's in the tub & what real ice cream actually is?  What I've discovered is that it should be pretty pure & simple, just milk or cream, eggs & sugar.

But the reality is in fact quite different & there have been a few things that have genuinely surprised me about the ice cream industry.  Here are my top facts I've been boring everyone with!

  • Many ice CREAMS don't actually contain any real CREAM, some use vegetable fats, reconstituted skimmed milk & even water
  • The official regulation states ice cream must contain 5% dairy ingredients to be called dairy ice cream. So in a 100g tub, that's only 5g of dairy, makes you wonder what the other 95g are?
  • Soft scoop products are created by whipping in a huge amount of air, which last time I checked was a free ingredient!

So with all this in mind & fuelled by my usual curiosity, I thought I'd have a go at making my own. I chose Mary Berry's no churn recipe as it seemed straight forward & didn't need an ice cream maker.  You can find the original recipe here.  It was incredibly simple to follow, whisk egg whites, whisk cream, fold together, freeze!


The result was delicious & simple,  it had a lovely creamy taste & soft texture that melted slowly.  But I have to be honest it's not going to make me stop buying ice cream (especially when my brand tastes so good!) What it has done is demonstrated to me what ice cream should be & as many of us are now more mindful of what we eat, I encourage you all to take a look at your tub & consider the ingredients.  The choice is ours, but lets at least know what we're eating!

Next time find out what I did with my tub of homemade ice cream, trust me it's going to be delicious! Rebecca x



25 May 2014

Top 10 kitchen gadgets

Over the years I have been suckered in by many a kitchen gadget that I thought I just couldn't live without, I think it's a symptom of being taken to the Ideal Home Show from a young age!  The pineapple corer that would have struggled to cut through butter (it did come from Poundland), the thingy that was meant to create twirly ribbons out of carrots & the strawberry huller.  All completely useless! However I've come to realise that there are a number of gadgets & utensils that I genuinely couldn't do without now, so here's my top 10.

1. Silicon pastry brush
Image: trendycookshop.co.uk

2. Citrus zester
Image: inthehaus.co.uk

3. Nespresso magnetic pod holder
Image: tavolaswiss.ch

4. Dualit sandwich cage
Image: dualit.com

5. Non stick baking liners
Image: lakeland.co.uk

6. Silicon spatula
Image: lecruset.co.uk

7. Retro kitchen timer
Image: poshrosh.co.uk

8. Garlic press
Image: johnlewis.com

9. Sodastream
Image: sodastream.co.uk

10.  Kitchen aid stand mixer
Image: kitchenaid.com

What would your top 10 look like, what's the thing you couldn't do without in your kitchen.  Would love to hear what I'm missing!  Till next time, Rebecca x 


9 March 2014

Adventures in cheese making...

Since I started Rebecca Bakes Cakes I have always been up for a culinary challenge, in fact the blog was created to chart my progress to create 52 cakes in 52 weeks!  I've tried making my own crumpets, which was a complete disaster.  I've roasted my own coffee beans in a frying pan, thankfully without burning down my friends kitchen.  I've tried to overcome being sponge challenged, but still cannot for the life of me get a Victoria Sponge to rise properly...it is my cakey nemesis!  I've also tried to make my own sushi, which although a relative success, YO! Sushi need not issue a profit warning anytime soon.

Always willing to have a go at making something myself, I was chuffed to receive this fab pressie...


Now I'm not entirely new to cheese making, I did used to work for a dairy company & spent a very fun week at agricultural college in the North West, learning how to make cheese.  But that was a good few years ago & if I'm honest I seem to remember an awful lot of stainless steel kit involved.  


The kit included citric acid, organic sea salt, rennet tablets, a thermometer, muslin square & an instruction booklet.  This was going to be a far more artisan experience!  To make ricotta you start with some whole milk, add some citric acid dissolved in water & some salt.  No rennet needed for this recipe, that's for the other recipe in this kit, mozzarella.

Pan of milk (I know not that interesting!)

I heated the milk slowly & stirred occasionally to avoid scorching until it reached 185F.  By this point you can see that the curds & the whey have separated.  I took it off the heat, popped on a lid & left it to stand for 20 minutes.

Next step was to strain the whey from the curds.  I lined a colander with the muslin cloth & tipped the whole lot in.  I did this in the sink so the whey could just drain away, but I guess you could collect it & use the whey for something else?  I have no idea what mind you :-)


I gathered up the muslin into a bag, then looked for somewhere to hang it to drain!  I left it like this for around 30 minutes.  


Cautiously I opened up the muslin bag to judge my cheese making effort & felt quite chuffed to find this.  Looked pretty ricotta-ish to me!


So what to do with a kilo of ricotta?  I turned it into Jamie Oliver's Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni, ta dah! 

 
The verdict...it was really very tasty.  It was quite rich as I used full fat milk for the cheese as per the recipe, I would be tempted to use semi-skimmed next time for a lighter flavour, but I guess you need the fat in the milk for it to do it's thing & become cheese.  It was so straight forward to make, just needed a little time & patience.  Can't wait to try the mozzarella recipe next, there's a suggestion to add chili flakes to make a spicy version, sounds good to me.  I think I may have been a mouse in a previous life...squeak!  Till next time, Rebecca x 







3 February 2014

Zoom to the moon....it's a rocket cake!

I am not that good at decorating cakes.  Baking them?  Yes.  Eating them?  Most definitely!  But when it comes to decorating them I have always found myself a little lacking.  I even wrote a manifesto for cake a while back that celebrated the fact that my cakes, although very tasty, were no supermodels.  My low cake esteem has never been helped by the beautiful food photography that graces the pages of the food magazines...how do they get them to look like that!?

So I hadn't really given this much thought when I offered to make a cake for a very special two year olds birthday party.  'Rockets & space, that's what she really loves at the minute, do you think you could make a rocket cake?' says her Mum.  'Uhhh sure, I'll have a go' says me!

So here it is...


I wimped out a bit & didn't make an actual rocket shaped cake!  But I did make a rocket cake topper from ready to roll coloured icing & made the cake a star shape.  I just printed off a colouring in template & used that to cut out the rocket shape, then hand (yes hand!) cut a number 2 to finish it off. I added a scattering of stars cut with a mini cookie cutter I have & finally a couple of candles.

Although it wasn't the most technical creation in the world, it was pretty effective & both mum, toddler & party guests seemed pretty please with it!  Also worth pointing out I used a Madeira Cake recipe rather than a Victoria Sponge.  I prefer the richer taste & texture, but there's also the fact that I seem incapable of baking a Victoria Sponge that doesn't resemble a pancake!  Must master that one day...

Have you created any spectacular birthday cakes?  Would love to hear about them.  I'll be back next time with the results attempting to make my own....wait for it.....cheese!

Till then, Rebecca x




8 January 2014

A new year challenge - 100 happy days!

Happy new year to you!  I can't quite believe it but Rebecca Bakes Cakes is now into it's 4th year of existence.  When I wrote my first post back in January 2010 (it was a recipe for Spiced Apple Muffins if you were wondering?) I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it & although I've been a little lax in writing over the last 12 months, I feel quite proud.  It's really nice to look back over the posts, each one reminds me a little of what I was up to at that point in time!  And a lot has changed over the last few years, I've been through a number of jobs, some out of choice some not, we've bought our first house, re-homed a Battersea cat & last but not least got married!  

So it's a new year & without mentioning the dreaded R word, spurred on by a new challenge I made a promise to myself that I would start writing again.  This new challenge isn't cake related this time thankfully (don't think my waistline could take another year of cake!) but related to a topic I have written about in the past, happiness.  Ask yourself.....



100 Happy Days challenges you to do just that, all you have to do is take a photo every day of something that makes you happy & share it making sure you include #100happydays so people can find it.  I love it as an idea, focus on the little things that make you happy & all the boring negative stuff won't seem as bad!

So here's my first happy day captured...

Day 1 - tap class starts again after the holidays

I'll be posting my daily photo on Instagram, click here to follow me & get your daily dose of happiness.  Or why not sign up yourself?  Be great to hear if you take up the challenge too?

If that's not enough happiness for one post, here's a little more before I go, one of my favorite tracks of the moment not least for the fact there are Minions in the video!


I'll be back next time with cake I promise, I'll be sharing my first attempt at a proper decorated kids birthday cake, yikes!  Till next time, Rebecca x