Home Sweet Home Bakealong (63, 64 and 65 /100)

I have a confession to make. I completely forgot to take a picture of the grasshopper cupcakes! I had the opposite icing problem to Gill - I under whipped my cream and when I added it to the custard, it was all a bit soft and flowy, making for some very interesting eating at home group. So admire Gill's and pretend mine were as pretty.

The marshmallows, however, were very pleasing - I flavoured mine with peppermint and they were like candy cane goodness in cloud form. Once again I remembered how unpleasant hot gelatine smells (no illusions left about its origins!)

I think I slightly underbaked my sponge for the roulade - it ended up rather slumped rather than spiral, but ooh, wasn't it tasty.

Not on the bakealong, I also made some jaffa cakes. These were disconcertingly like "real" jaffa cakes... Only bigger!

Next up: Chocolate and peanut butter cookies

Home Sweet Home Bake Along (55-60!)

How was it February since I last posted? Dear me, how time seems to run away. I have been baking, quietly, in the background, although I think I'm rather off kilter with Gill!

I have baked:

A very ugly Flourless Chocolate Cake cake. Like Gill I suffered a spring-form tin water ingress issues, despite wrapping the tin in foil. Soggy edges, but a rather pleasant middle.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Shortcakes - I changed the shape on these to a wedge (for ease) and added white chocolate chips for added excitement. These made a rather excellent Sunday night supper for The Fair Physiologist, The Pure Mathematician in Exile and me.

Chocolate Pie - this one is in fact not 57, but I accidentally made 57 here: Chess Pie when I skipped over Chocolate pie believing I had already made it (I think I had, but not during the bake through) - this is fab - chocolate biscuit crust, chocolate pastry cream/custard/pudding, whipped cream. Everything the doctor ordered.

Vanilla fudge - another somewhat dubious fudge attempt on my part - not sure if it is the sugar thermometer or me, but these needed reboiling. Jolly yummy once finished though! My squares were rather thin because I never seem to have the tins demanded by Home Sweet Home.

Cinder Toffee (Honeycomb) cupcakes. Yum. That is all.

Lemon cake. Stupidly tried to make cream cheese icing on the hottest day of the year so far. Very slide-y layers. Jam oozing. It was like the Princesstarta all over again... Still, a few butterfly sprinkles and all was well with the world again. It was well received, despite its ugliness.

Oh. Yes. I also made some espadrilles. The Kindred Spirit wonderfully bought me all the required items for production two birthdays ago. She visited this week, and I suddenly remembered that amid other projects I had forgotten to make them; so I did. And they were fun, and easy, and I have new summer shoes! Yay!

HTML code to insert Home Sweet Home badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

Home Sweet Home Bake Along (48-52/100)

Sorry it has been so long! Life rather got in the way of blogging, although baking did still go ahead. Therefore this post is a bit of a round up of the last 5 bakes from the Home Sweet Home book. These five bakes have taken us past the halfway mark, which is a nice place to be. I have a great deal of sympathy for and growing amazement with Julie Powell (of "Julie and Julia" fame) - 524 recipes in 365 days sounds an absolute nightmare and rather bonkers to be honest. Hey-ho. On with the baking:

First up were: Chocolate Praline Cupcakes. Still got the leftover praline somewhere. Delicious but far too much of it.

Then came: Mississippi Mud Cake; three layers of far too much chocolatey goodness.

Third were Toffee Pecan Thumbprint cookies: Weird cream cheese dough. Not sure I'd bother again, but they were all eaten, so no complaints on that front.

Next up was Peach Pie: Mine was rather more cooked on top than on the bottom, which is the trouble with a non-fan oven, it turns out. Maybe if I put a pound in a pot for every dish the oven messed up I'd quickly save for a fan one. Hmmm, there's a thought. (Also turns out chocolate pie was next, not peach pie, my addled brain went a bit mad there apparently; hey-ho, will make chocolate pie when Gill is making peach pie!)

Then finally came Cinnamon buns: Always amazing, always fun, always eaten. Yum.

Next up: Grasshopper Slices...

Coconut Marshmallows - Home Sweet Home Bake Along 47/100

I'm getting rather behind in my blogging at the moment. Life seems to have suddenly sped up and five minutes to sit down and blog seems to be a fantasy. Still, that's the way it goes sometimes.

This is the second time I've made marshmallows, and these were rather nice. The coconut stopped them sticking together without making the harsh crispy edges that a cornflour-icing sugar mixture does.

They disappeared pretty sharpish too, when presented at work. They are rather good for topping hot chocolate, the coconut and the chocolate go well together.

Ingredients:
250g desiccated coconut
sunflower oil, for greasing
30g powdered gelatine
300g caster sugar
125g golden syrup
2 large egg whites
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare, hosted this week by Kirsty at Hijacked By Twins

<div align="center">
<br><a href="http://www.hijackedbytwins.com/p/cookblogshare.html" rel="nofollow" title="CookBlogShare"><img src="http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab170/kirstyphillipsonlowe/89a4db0a-41ce-42a9-bc64-4bdffaf66b5f_zpsf6754mec.jpg" alt="CookBlogShare" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
<br>

HTML code to insert Home Sweet Home badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

Next up: Chocolate Praline Cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge - Home Sweet Home Bake Along - 40/100

These were not my finest bake. Indeed they nearly ended up as a total disaster.

The first time, I didn't fully dissolve the sugar, and thus ended up with a bizarre granular substance.

I then added 1/2 a cup of water, fully dissolved everything, and brought it up to temperature. However, there was then too much liquid, so the mixture wouldn't thicken properly.

The third boil, however, got everything to where it should be, and finally I had fudge - however, it turned out my tin was a wee bit too big, so I had very thin fudge.

Still, it tastes very good, and is has a beautiful smooth texture, such as I have never previously managed when making fudge.

Ingredients:
400g caster sugar
60g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
2 tbsp golden syrup
120ml double cream
30g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanila extract

Next up: Savoury Cheesecake (I think it's a sort of quiche)

HTML code to insert Home Sweet Home badge (copy and paste): 

 <a href="http://beckie-a.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://twitchyneedles.com/homesweethome.png" border="0" height="170" width="170" alt="#HomeSweetHomeBakeAlong" /></a>  

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.hijackedbytwins.com/p/cookblogshare.html" rel="nofollow" title="CookBlogShare"><img src="http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab170/kirstyphillipsonlowe/89a4db0a-41ce-42a9-bc64-4bdffaf66b5f_zpsf6754mec.jpg" alt="CookBlogShare" style="border:none;" /></a></div>