Eat, Craft, Love.

Sometimes in London you can occasionally get too frantic to function. I had a week of deadlines, meetings, work and teaching that left me wrecked, and by 7pm on Friday night I fell asleep and dreamed of marking.

There was a beautiful free space in my diary- carefully cultivated and avoided months in advance. This weekend was my weekend, with nothing planned, and no obligations; so I made it all about me. And it was glorious.

On Saturday I walked to Crouch End, a town Stephen King once wrote a horror story about, but which in reality is everything a crafty, 25 year old loves. It was packed with little cafes and charity shops with genuine finds. I trekked up and down the streets looking at teapots and cute stationary untilmy hunger induced dizziness forced me into a cafe called the Sable D’or. They had a bizarre menu, all of it gorgeous and handmade- and as this was MY weekend, I had french toast and berries at 6pm.

By this point the rain was obnoxiously pouring down and it was pitch black outside. I stepped out, unfortunately wearing my ‘exploring’ clothes- which are largely made of wool and linen, and ran up and down the street in search of a bus- which didn’t exist. So I walked home and climbed into a bath.

This morning I went to Dalston, because although people make fun of hipsters, they have excellent car boot sales- and this one was truly cool…like second hand Irregular Choice shoes cool.

And so there you have it- how to take a free weekend in London and make the most of it- without exhaustion. I am not cuddled up with several excellent throw pillows, a Maggie Gyllenhaal film (girl crush) and my latest craft project, a crochet blanket. This is in the oven:

Livi’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

200g Butter

200g Unrefined Caster Sugar

teaspoon of Vanilla

4 eggs

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder

200g Flour

Honey

large tin of Pineapple

Method

Pour about 6 tablespoons of honey into a circular cake tin and put in a preheated oven, about 200c degrees for about 5 minutes, then take it out.

Arrange the pineapple in the heated honey in the base of the tin until the base is well covered- don’t worry about cracks or gaps.

Whilst the honey is warming, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla, and then add the eggs one by one.

Add in the flour and baking powder.

When everything is combined, pour it over the pineapple base.

Bake until a skewer  comes out clean- then flip it CAREFULLY!! HOT SYRUP!! onto a plate.

It is illegal to eat it without custard.

Stay Unchained<3

 

Cupboard broke jumble cake

Hello!

 

I have thoroughly neglected this blog recently- not that I haven’t been baking, but I have been writing other, more studious things. I am, however, back with a serious bang, with a cake I call Livi’s storecupboard broke jumble sparkle cake. YEAH, YOU HEARD.

So this Sunday has been sponsored by laziness, the kind of laziness where you talk to yourself to keep yourself awake. By 4pm however, I rallied, and for the last two hours I have been typing and arranging primary sources for my thesis, and needed to inject some sparkle into my Sunday.

So here is a bloody easy cake, very delicious, and will feed 5000 if they all share politely.

All the love Unchained Bakers ❤

Livi’s Storecupboard Broke Jumble Sparkle Cake

This was a recipe born out of need for a cake, with no money and no real ingredients. I had some cake sparkles, a tombola Crunchie, an old flake and some abandoned gummies. Party cake ready!

Chocolate 

150g Butter

150g Sugar

150g Flour

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder

3 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder

Put the butter and sugar in a food processor, until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.

Put in a large roasting tray and bake at 180c until a knife comes out clean.

Vanilla

Same process, but leave out the cocoa, and put in a tablespoon of vanilla extract, the seedier the better.

Icing

Butter

Icing sugar

Cocoa Powder/ vanilla extract

Tablespoon of Greek Yoghurt

I have trouble in exact measurements for icing because everyone is different, but I start with about 125g grams of soft butter, and basically add to taste.

For the vanilla,  add the yoghurt and vanilla to the butter first, then the icing sugar until you have spreadable consistency- taste it!

For the chocolate, do the same, but add equal parts cocoa and icing sugar. 🙂

Its a glorious messeveryone, like my life!

 

❤ Stay Unchained

 

 

 

Sour Cream and Chocolate Crunchie Cake against Humanity.

Well, apparently today is the today most people cave on their new year’s resolutions. Mine included blogging more, making the most of excellent deals and buying flattering clothes. The new H & M cords I got for £3 yesterday, and this blog post, reveal, I think, that I am going strong a whole ten days into this, so perhaps 2014 is going to be the year of sticking things out and getting stuff done. So I am writing this in London, with just a touch of the post-Christmas blues. January is a tough month, even when your life is going as exactly as you planned. So this recipe combines two things that never fail to lift my spirits, Nigella and selection boxes.

I actually made this as a birthday cake, and it went down very well during a spontaneous birthday party last night. At this party we also tried out Cards Against Humanity, possibly the most offensive and wonderful game I have been part of, and I thought Walking Dead monopoly had that trophy. So after a few drinks, and a few rounds of a seriously questionable cardplay, we lit the candles on this;

Sour Cream and Chocolate Crunchie Cake 

The cake recipe itself is from http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

I used a chocolate ganache to ice it.

Put 200g of broken dark chocolate in a bowl and add enough cream to cover the broken squares. Melt over a pan of boiling water, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool, then beat until glossy.

For some reason the Crunchie is always left in my selection box. I think its because it takes me about 6 days to eat one, like a Mars bar, they just don’t feel right in one go…but sliced asymmetrically on this cake, they work perfectly. Now, back to my other resolution- doing some actual work! I love you all, and if you packed in the exercise/stamp collecting/ curling/ smoothie making this morning- meh, there’s always next year. Yeh…..2015 is your year!

Stay Unchained<3

I wish I was a plumber

Happy New Year!!

I am wary of making New Year’s Resolutions because occasionally I break them….all the time. My lists from when I was younger are cringy- ‘be more me’, ‘ask him out’ and the very ambiguous… ‘be cooler’. This year I have steered clear of any concrete goals, but have written in my 2014 diary that it would be a good idea to try out more of my own recipes.

So this week I have been obsessing over a very particular type of biscuit. In my days as an MA student, I would frequently stock up on biscuits to see me through that 3 am slump in the library. The 3am slump traditionally happened when I would realise that I had simply written ‘add footnote’ during the early stages of the essay. Being unable to recall where this came from, when I found or, or who I should attribute it too, it was traditional for me to shut my eyes, reach for the biscuits and just gently remind myself why I was doing a Masters anyway. Largely this would be because it was too bloody expensive to jack it in and become a plumber (genuinely respect and envy plumbers, and and I am dangerously under-qualified for this to be my dream), so I would continue, thinking about my other, brilliant life of fixing drain blockages and having loads of cash.

Anyway- this is not a blog about my life decisions, luckily, so more about the biscuits. They are pear and dark chocolate, gluten-free, which I usually find a bit weird, but these are glorious . The library sold them in small packets of two…wickedly expensive, but gorgeous, and since I can’t find a box of them anywhere, I thought I would try to make them. 

But being completely unsure of the recipe, and not knowing where to start tried three ideas out, with varying results. So, in the style of an Arctic explorers journal, only much less impressive, I have documented my attempts here.

All three start with this recipe for Viennese Fingers, from Woman and Home online.

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 25g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 100g plain flour
• 1tsp cornflour
• 1/4tsp baking powder
• 100g milk chocolate, chopped

You will also need:

• A baking tray lined with baking parchment and a piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3
2. Tip the butter and sugar into the bowl of a freestanding mixer and beat until pale and light. Add the vanilla extract and mix again. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into the bowl and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined
3. Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle and pipe 10cm-long fingers onto the prepared baking tray. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 10–15 minutes until pale golden
4. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack until completely cold.

So once you are here, you have three options.

Option One

This was my favourite. Cool the biscuits. Mix a tub of pear puree with enough icing sugar to give it a glace icing consistency. Pipe this down the centre of each biscuit. Put in fridge until firm, then cover the icing completely with dark chocolate. My camera broke during this….as you can see.

Result: Crunchy, Sort of pearish, delicious

Option Two

After baking, pipe a line of icing down the middle, and sandwich two together. Refrigerate. Dip half in chocolate.

Result: Much more peary, less crunchy, still delicious.

Option Three

Add an extra 50 grammes of flour to the mix and 1 1/2 tubs of the pear puree. Bake as normal. Dip the base in chocolate.

Result: Soft, peary- but a bit weird…..sort of grows on you.

Tried this one with Gluten-Free flour as well, not sure what the effects were, but they are still, you know…..biscuits.

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and have an amazing new year xxx

Stay Unchained<3

 

Apricots

This pudding allows me to indulge two loves of mine; the first is Wholefoods, and the second is almond flavoured alcohols.

Once, in a particularly grim pub, my friend and I drank Disaronno on Christmas Eve. I was giddy with the high of being 18, having my friends back from uni over the holiday, and obviously- the drink itself. My friend bet me that I wouldn’t ask for the drink at the bar in the ridiculously seductive and glamourous manner of the Disaronno advert. I did, and a ungainly, pissed 18 year old got a free drink. Thus began my love affair with fairly sickly, smooth and expensive almond liquer.

Gliding through Wholefoods the other day, I noticed, on their market style towers of fruit, some gorgeous apricots. With no thought to my financial situation or dinner plans, I grabbed half a dozen. At home, I looked at my options, and decided on this- an almond and apricot tart with a generous smash of Disaronno.

It was pretty glorious.

Livi’s Apricot, Almond and Disaronno Tart

For the Pastry:

200g Plain Flour

100g Butter

Two tablespoons of icing sugar

For the filling:

175g Ground Almonds

3 Eggs

150g Caster Sugar

75g Butter

1 shot Disaronno

2 tablespoons of Almond Extract

8 apricots

Instructions

Blend together the pastry ingredients, until they form a dough around the blade. Add a few tablespoons of water if you need to.

Press into a fluted tart tin, but make sure to handle the pastry as little as possible- this keeps it short and crumbly.

 Cover the case with greaseproof paper and fill with rice, and bake blind for 15 minutes.

Then remove the rice, prick case with a fork all over, and bake for another ten minutes until golden.

Next, combine the sugar and butter in a separate bowl, adding the eggs one at time.

Add the ground almonds.

Mix in the Disaronno and the almond extract.

Spoon this mix into the pastry case, spreading it to the edges.

Slice the apricots in half.

Heat a tablespoon of sugar and a (generous) shot of Disaronno in a frying pan.

Add the apricots and cook until soft- about 7 minutes.

Push the apricots into the frangipan- LET THEM COOL FIRST, don’t get a Livi sugar burn- hurts like a bastard.

Bake the tart until the frangipane is cooked through and brown. If a knife comes out clean, you’re good to go.

Pictures now!

Stay Unchained<3

Bread. Again.

Yesterday I had a day off, with no cleaning, no tutoring and no university obligations. At around 2pm I started to feel twitchy, and I took my new book for a test drive. All three recipes come from Paul Hollywood’s ‘How to Bake’, and they are bloody tricky. However, having nothing but time, I threw caution to the wind, and tried a white cob loaf, crumpets, and an 24 hour brioche.  Here are some photos of the results, maybe don’t look if you are hungry- or go and make them!

White Cob 

Probably the most satisfying loaf ever; rough and broken and cracked and light, and wonderful. Slash the top before baking, and dust with flour.

Crumpets

So, I know what your thinking- why make crumpets when they cost about nothing pence, and taste lush?

To be honest, yesterday’s crumpet marathon was more about sheer defiance and a desire to prove that I bloody well could. The result is yeasty and chewy and gorgeous covered in strawberry jam.

Brioche

Ahhh- my magnum opus, my grand work. I have pushed this bread into the face of each of my family members demanding that they acknowledge me as their lord and ruler. This 24 hour creation is blissful, it needs nothing- but feel free to cover it in jam, butter, or like my preserves troubled dad- marmite. The shape was made by creating 9 equal balls, and arranging 8 of them around 1. Although I milk it, don’t be put off by the time, about 20 hours of that was fridge time and I forgot all about it.

So, I’m off for a nibble- remember- never trust people who willfully avoid bread.

Stay Unchained ❤

Ode to Citrus 2/3 : Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

This recipe is adapted from the holy grail of cupcake recipes, the Hummingbird Bakery chocolate cupcake. I wanted to use up some gigantic oranges we have lying around, so I added the zest of half of one.  I also use my own buttercream recipe, with the rest of the zest, and the juice of half the orange.

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1½tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter, at room temperature

120ml whole milk

1 egg

¼tsp vanilla extract

1 naval orange, zest and juice

For the icing:

200g butter

Cocoa 

Icing Sugar

Set the oven to gas 3/170c

Mix all the dry ingredients, butter and the half the zest.

In a separate bowl, mix the milk, vanilla, and egg, and add to the dry ingredients.

Divide between 12 cupcakes cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

When cool, mix 200g of butter with equal amounts icing sugar and cocoa powder. (No specifics here, just add slowly, and mix until the consistency of buttercream :))

Add the half the juice and the half the remaining zest (using the sugar/ cocoa to stiffen the mix if it appears too liquid)

To decorate: using a vegetable peeler, ‘shave’ some chocolate curls, and sprinkle this and the rest of the zest over the top.

Eat with an seriously cold glass of milk.

Stay Unchained<3

Ode to Citrus 3/3: Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars

This is a kind of shortbread lemon curd biscuit cake. Truly outstanding. Unfortunately, all I have is a knackered photocopy of the recipe, and I have no idea of its origins/author/creator…..but, lovely nonetheless.

175g/6oz flour

125g/4oz butter

50g/2oz granulated sugar

200g/7oz caster sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium eggs

juice and rind of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 170c, gas mark 3 and oil/ line a 8 inch cake square cake tin.

Rub together the flour and butter until the mix resembles bread crumbs, and stir in the granulated sugar.

Press into the base of the tin firmly, and bake until golden brown (20 minutes).

Mix the caster sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, lemon juice and rind in a food processor until smooth.

Pour over the base.

Bake for another 30 minutes until set but a lil’ wobbly. Cool in the tin.

Cut into squares.

They won’t last long……I promise.

Stay Unchained<3