Cake/cake fail
It was like an actual scene from the Bake Off at Battenburg Towers this weekend. Outtakes footage really, as we had a few mishaps, as well as a couple of rip-roaring successes. It was Missy B’s birthday (14 years old – how did that happen?), so obviously cakes had to be made. In what should have been a moment of perfect serendipity, there was a Julia Child recipe in Battenburgbelle’s book of the month, the Great British Bake Off How to Bake book. So it was the right cook book and I am reading the very entertaining My Life in France, by the said Julia Child. I am laughing out loud at her escapades at the Cordon Bleu cookery school and making notes of the recipes I want to try. Thank you Jenny, that was a great birthday present. The bad news was that the Queen of Sheba cake fell firmly into the cake fail category. It should have been light and lovely, but it just didn’t rise. I cut in in half, put some ganache in the middle and whipped cream on top, so it looked as though half had been eaten before Missy B’s guests had even arrived. Tasty, but not a success.
Cake Fail – yikes
Didn’t feel I could claim to be a proficient baker and present that for the party, so I made a classic Victoria sponge, with a twist – lashings of chocolate ganache. That was a lot more successful and went down very well with the kids and the parents who came to collect them 🙂
Birthday cake, second attempt
Missy B also knocked up some delicious “Indulgence Brownies” (really name slutty brownies, but we are way too classy for that) – gorgeous and very popular with her chums. A layer of homemade cooke dough, a layer of Oreos, a layer of chocolate brownie…
Missy B’s indulgence brownies
Mr B decided that a house full of 13 and 14 year olds wasn’t for him, so he buggered off out and Jenny came to keep me company and have a bread making lesson. She wanted to make some of the brioche buns to go with pulled pork. She was a delightful pupil, but I had to tell her off a couple of times for not concentrating. The first batch was frankly a disaster, but we persevered and I gather that Mr R was delighted with Jenny’s Big Buns.
Jenny’s pulled pork with brioche buns
And it turns out that the early teens still love a pass the parcel, even if it s filled with tat. Who knew??
