Keeks Bakes - Chocolate Almond Fudge Cake

It's been far, far too long since I baked properly; blame it on the full-time job and lack of motivation to get in the kitchen at the weekend. However, I was determined to bake last Sunday, it was rather dreary and so I thought I'd perk the day up with some chocolate cake. I used this recipe and then adapted it a smidge. I wanted to experiment by adding French almond extract into the batter mix to break up the chocolate-y-ness (what a brilliant word). 

I also decided to buy Betty Crocker ready-made icing. There is no other reason beside the fact that I wanted it and it tastes amazing. Next time I'd definitely pop a little bit of almond extract into the icing too for that added kick. 

I sprinkled on some flaked almonds and grated on some dark chocolate...

Et voila!

Love Keeks xo 

Keeks Bakes - Lemon Tart.

Hi Lovelies!

So I've gone and done a bit of baking! (shock) but this time a went for something a bit out of my forte. You see I'm more of a cakey baker... I'm not very 'tartey'. In all honesty I try and stay away from tarts (don't we all?), but when my older sister commissioned me to make a lemon tart I couldn't say no.

I found a great recipe on BBC GoodFood where you make your own pastry. I made a large tart with my own pastry and a few mini owns with shop bought shortcrust pastry and I honestly preferred the taste of the tart using the pastry made from the recipe. It was sweeter and gave a good contrast to the tangy-ness of the filling. 

Another note is that in the comments of the recipe page people kept saying that the recipe is great but they added more lemon juice so I used the juice of five lemons but only used 1 tbsp of lemon zest. 

Anywho here is the unchanged ingredients list from BBC Good Food...

  

For the pastry (makes double)

500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

140g icing sugar

250g unsalted butter, cube

4 egg yolks

For the filling

 5 eggs

140g caster sugar

150ml double cream

juice 2-3 lemon (about 100ml/3½ fl oz) and 2 tbsp lemon zest

Click here for the recipe!

Happy Baking!

Love Keeks xo

Keeks Bakes: Vanilla Sponge.

Hey Girlies!

So apparently today was 'Blue Monday' - aka the saddest day of the year! So I couldn't think of a better excuse to post about cake. Ermmm... because everyone likes cake, right?

Today was pretty lazy for me, I was supposed to go and help my friend plan something but got to the station to find all the trains delayed or cancelled so instead I bought some Haribo Strawbs (they're the best sweets aren't they?) and stayed in all day. 

I baked this cake the other day with my very helpful little niece. We used the Hummingbird Bakery vanilla cupcakes recipe, just making a cake instead. It was super simple to make and I think it turned out pretty well, judging by the amount the boy scoffed.

Love Keeks xo 

Keeks Bakes - Vanilla Cinnamon Cupcakes

Usually when someone finds me in the kitchen baking, it’s more than likely that I’m baking these!

They are the simplest and most tasty treats to bake and fun to ice and decorate.

For the recipe, I use my Hummingbird bakery cookbook or this BBC recipe for Vanilla cupcakes. I add an extra ½ teaspoon of Vanilla and ½ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to make them more to give them a bit of a twist. You can add more or less to taste, but I wouldn’t add more a teaspoon of each as you don’t want the cupcakes to be sickly sweet or to damage the batter.

I like to make different coloured buttercream icing, by simply separating the icing mixture into different bowls and adding a few drops of colouring and stirring in.

Add sprinkles to decorate.

Love Keeks xo