Week 48 - Gingerbread House

Hello my festive friends! Please be nice to me this week, I've come down with a horrible cold & am rapidly losing my voice. I currently sound like Mariella Frostrup, which to be honest would be quite nice if it didn't hurt so much. Sadly it also means most of my tastebuds have gone on strike so I'm not really enjoying my food at the minute which is torture! There's only 10 days to go until Christmas, so I'm hoping for a speedy recovery, Christmas in our house is all about the eating & drinking, it's not going to be much fun if I can't taste it :-(

This week I've finally got round to doing something I've planned for about the last 3 Christmases, I've made a gingerbread house! I'm not sure why I've had this desire, maybe it was being read Hansel & Gretel as a child!? Maybe it's because I used to love building Lego houses & the thought of an edible one was just too tempting? The gingerbread itself is really easy to make, you just need a bit of time & patience to construct & decorate it. It's quite therapeutic really, although I think I probably ended up eating more sweeties than ended up on the house! I used mini marshmallows to create the snow, milky way stars for the roof & a mixture of jelly tots, smarties & tooty frooties for the rest of the decoration. I also had some really cute little sugar snowmen & white sugar sprinkles that looked like ice. You can use whatever you want really, let your imagination run wild! I've also included a house template below, I just cut mine out of baking paper.

100g butter
100g demerara sugar
200g golden syrup
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
500g plain flour
200g icing sugar
Assorted sweets to decorate
Cake board

1. Put the sugar & syrup into a pan & bring it up to boiling point over a gentle heat. Add the bicarb & give it a good stir, it will turn cloudy & froth up a bit so make sure you have room in the pan!

2. Chop the butter into small chunks & put into a large mixing bowl. Add the syrup mixture to the butter & stir until the butter is melted. Beat in the egg, then mix in the flour a little at a time until you end up with quite a stiff dough.

3. Dust a work surface with flour, then roll out the dough to about 5mm thick. Cut out 2 of each of the template shapes & place them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in the oven at 170c/GM3 for 10-15 minutes. I baked mine in 3 batches, leaving them to cool completely on the paper

4. Now comes the tricky bit! Firstly trim the sides of each panel, this makes it fit together a little easier. Next mix the icing sugar with a little water until you have a stiff paste. Take one of the side panels, spread a thin layer of icing on the bottom & stick it to the cake board. Repeat with all the sections using the icing as cement, putting the roof on last. You might need to hold this in place for a couple of minutes to leave it to set. Then go wild with the decorating! Leave to set in a cool place.

I love my gingerbread house, although I don't think I could ever bring myself to destroy it! So with that in mind I have wrapped it up & donated it to our annual Christmas charity raffle at work. Hopefully it will go to a good home & it will be happily broken up & devoured, herein fulfilling it's Christmas Gingerbread destiny! Have a good week, see you next time, Rebecca x

Week 17 - Gingerbread Walkers

Hello cake mates! It's finally here, it's Moonwalk week! I'm so excited, I've finished training, my bra is definitely decorated in the 'Showtime' theme & I just want to get on & do it now! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far, not just with sponsorship, but with encouragement & footcare advice. Thanks also to Mum, Michael & Gemma who have given up a nights sleep to come & volunteer at the event, they'll be on one of the water stations & seeing them on route will definitely spur me on! This weeks recipe has been created as a last minute fundraising effort, on Tuesday I held a cookie sale at work & raised a fantastic £56. Thanks to everyone who bought one!

So my boss has now headed off on maternity leave & last week I mentioned I'd made an alternative cake for her. Well here it is, a nappy cake! I never knew such a thing even existed until I googled baby showers, but I've since found out they were featured in Sex & the City! It was a lot of fun to make, the gifts you can't see that were attached to the back included a rather large bar of chocolate, pro plus & ear plugs! It was quite an eye opener, who would have thought you could find a video tutorial on youtube on how to make a nappy cake. (And people think I have too much time on my hands!) Anyway, it went down a storm, so much so I think it's being kept as a decoration in baby's room.

Right, back to my little gingerbread walking buddies. I love gingerbread but don't make it that often, I'm a bit lazy when it comes to rolling & cutting out dough! It's easy to make the dough, it just needs a bit of muscle when you have to combine the flour. Make sure you keep an eye on them in the oven as they can turn from golden to burnt very quickly!

100g butter
100g demerara sugar
200g golden syrup
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
500g plain flour

1. Put the sugar & syrup into a pan & bring it up to boiling point over a gentle heat. Add the bicarb & give it a good stir, it will turn cloudy & froth up a bit so make sure you have room in the pan!

2. Chop the butter into small chunks & put into a large mixing bowl. Add the syrup mixture to the butter & stir until the butter is melted. Beat in the egg, then mix in the flour a little at a time until you end up with quite a stiff dough.

3. Dust a work surface with flour, then roll out the dough to about 2mm thick & cut out whatever shapes you like! I roll it out a little at a time as it makes it easier to handle. Pop them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper leaving a little space in between as they will expand.

4. Bake in the oven at 170c/GM3 for 10-15 minutes. I baked mine in batches, using a fresh bit of baking paper each time. That way it's easier to leave them to cool before decorating. I used a tube of writing icing to decorate mine. But in the past I've also used jelly tots & smarties, attaching them with a little bit of icing.

I never quite know how to eat a gingerbread man, legs first? I feel a bit bad biting his arms off! Never mind, they taste so good I quickly get over it! So that's me done for another week, wish me luck for Saturday, there's still time to sponsor me, just click here. Thanks again to everyone for their support & also for the messages letting me know you're still reading. I had a horrible feeling last week I was talking to myself, lovely to know I'm not! Take care, Rebecca x

Week 14 - Moscow Mule Cheesecake

Hola baking buds! As you read this I am on holiday, hopefully soaking up the sun & sipping a Margarita by the pool. So in the words of Blue Peter, here's one I prepared earlier! Sorry it's a bit short, but between packing & painting my toenails, I just about squeezed in enough time to write this up. Normal service will be resumed next week!

This is the final creation in the series of cocktail inspired recipes & I have to say it is far more successful than the last one! The combination of ginger & lime is delicious, enjoy...

200g ginger nut biscuits
50g butter
1tbsp golden syrup
250g marscapone
200g cream cheese
2 limes

1. Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs, ginger nuts are tough cookies, so it's best to do this in a food processor. Melt the butter, stir in the golden syrup, then add the crushed biccies. Tip the mixture into a loose bottom tin & press down well using the back of a spoon, pop it into the fridge while you prepare the topping.

2. Mix together the marscapone & cream cheese, then add the juice & zest of the limes. Smooth this mixture over the biscuit base & stick it back in the fridge for a couple of hours to set. I like to add a couple of ribbons of lime zest to the top as decoration. To do this, only zest 1 1/2 of the limes & use a veggie peeler to peel ribbons off the remaining half.

This makes a great dinner party desert, really fresh & light, & something you can just magic out of the fridge at the end of the meal! Right better get back to the packing, I think I have a few too many shoes....we are only going for a week. See you next week, Rebecca

Week 8 - Chocolate Ginger Cookies

I'm feeling a little delicate this week, so be nice cake mates. Training was completed as planned, but with hindsight, going out dancing in 4 inch heels the same day as completing a mammoth 11 mile walk was probably not my best decision ever! Now I have been known to abandon my shoes when out dancing, but on Saturday, for the first time ever, I was asked by security to put my shoes back on. Apparently dancing barefoot poses a health & safety risk! I would argue that me, slightly squiffy, dancing on 4 inch heels presents more of a risk than barefoot, but who am I to argue with a security professional? Needless to say my legs are a bit sore, although some treatment from my fab physio, Zdena on Monday means I should get out training again tomorrow. As my Mum would say, those mile won't walk themselves!

So, this weeks recipe is definitely one for chocolate lovers, sorry I realise this really isn't helping those of you who have given it up for Lent! I love Green & Blacks chocolate, so I've decided to create a series of recipes using some of their fab choccie bars. The first one uses the Dark Chocolate with Ginger, which is probably my favourite of the lot. The result is a really intense chocolate cookie that's lovely & chewy in the middle, perfect with a big mug of coffee!

100g butter
140g light brown sugar
1 egg
140g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
100g bar Green & Blacks Dark Chocolate with Ginger

1. Cream together the butter & sugar, then beat in the egg until you get a smooth mixture

2. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb & ginger, then give it a good mix until it is all combined. You'll end up with quite a thick cookie dough

3. Next roughly chop the chocolate so you have small chunks, stir these in the the dough until they are fairly evenly spread

4. Spoon small dollops of the dough onto a baking sheet, they will spread, so give them some room, I got around 20 cookies out of my batch. Bake them in the oven at 180c/GM5 for around 10 minutes until they have lightly risen & the tops just start to crack

5. Leave to rest for a few minutes once out of the oven, then transfer to a wire rack. They might seem a little soft still, but will firm up once completely cooled

I think the next G&B recipe will use my second favourite bar, Milk Chocolate with Butterscotch. After that I'm just not sure, there's too many to choose from! If anyone has any requests, let me know. Next week, get your leg warmers & double denim at the ready, we're going back to the 80's with retro party cakes. Have a good week cookie monsters! Rebecca