Catch Up!

Hello! So, many apologies for our absence - Rosaline's been living the crazy life of a Bristol fresher (which you can read about here) and I've been living in the depths of hell that is A Levels. Lets just pretend I don't still have one tomorrow which I should really be revising for instead of blogging...

 Although I've been living in A Level induced misery for the past few months, I have managed to do quite a lot of baking as it turns out baking complicated and interesting things is excellent procrastination. I also made some form of brownie on an almost weekly basis to 'get me through my revision' which definitely improved my days at the library, although not necessarily my 'get fit for summer' plan...

So yes, here is a brief picture summary of the last 7 months in my kitchen:

Christmas Baking

Today is Christmas Adam, or Christmas Eve Eve if you're boring. Which for me is a very exciting day as you get all the excitement for christmas without the wrapping/cooking/last minute panic shopping (happens to the best of us) stress of Christmas Eve. And every year we have drinks/dinner/some kind of celebration with our various neighbours (one of whom came up with the genius name of Christmas Adam) and usually watch Love Actually and it's just all very christmassy and lovely :)

Anyway, obviously Christmas is a key time for baking and although I rather disappointingly didn't get round to making a gingerbread house I have done rather a lot of Christmas baking. 

I made gluten free christmas cupcakes for my school bazaar using this recipe and just piped melted white chocolate into shapes, left them to solidify on greaseproof paper and put them on top:

We do secret santa at my school and I got my friend Molly, who is one of those people that is extraordinarily tricky to buy for - especially with a £5 budget. I therefore decided my best option was to make gingerbread men and wrap them in a nice box, and they went down very well :)

I used this recipe and then used mixed icing sugar and water into a reasonably thick paste, divided it into bowls and using liquid food colouring dyed each amount a different colour. I piped it onto my biscuits using a small plastic bag with the corner snipped off, although you could also use a piping bag with a small nozzle.

I was asked to make pudding for my friends christmas dinner, and as no one actually likes christmas pudding I thought a yule log was a pretty good plan. However I've since been told that what I made is actually a roulade, not a yule log as it doesn't have icing or branches so, here's the recipe for my very easy christmas roulade:

Birthday Season

Apologies for the lack of posting recently, but it's been birthday season. If you aren't familiar with this phenomenon, let me fill you in. Between September and December, almost every single one of my friends (albeit this isn't a huge figure) gets a year older. Therefore this usually means a large amount of baking. This year however, late in August when my mum realised what was approaching we mutually decided that I would only bake for people I actually liked (in previous years I have got slightly carried away I'll admit) and that whatever I baked had to be preplanned and the amount of time it will take has to be seriously considered (I once spent 12 hours baking... my kitchen/my mums nerves have never fully recovered).

With these rules and regulations in mind, I set to baking. I made chocolate cake with surprise smarties in the middle, various forms of sponge cake and a rather large quantity of Slutty Brownies. However, in all my birthday excitement I didn't take any pictures of these creations... I know I'm a terrible blogger. 

So many many apologies. I will post soon but until then you can still read about the amazing time Rosaline is having at university here (she got 59% in her first essay as well - proud!)

- Ellie x

Armed with cake and wine, she left me...

Saying goodbye to Rosaline was the most ridiculously emotional event that has occurred in my life in a while. Ridiculous because she's only gone to Bristol and I'm going to see her in a few weeks time. Emotional because SHE'S ALL GROWN UP AND MOVING ON WITH HER LIFE AND SHE'S GOING TO MAKE NEW COOLER FRIENDS AND THEN WHO WILL I EAT FROYO AND TALK ABOUT DIFFERENT ICING STYLES WITH?!

Ahem. Sorry. 

Yes, so Rosaline left for Bristol a few weeks ago (apologies for the lateness of this blogging, UCAS ruins lives) and the day before she left happened to be her 19th birthday. Which was a convenient excuse to have a classy get together and weep. In honour of her birthday and her leaving, I made her possibly the best cake I have ever made in my life. Which is not an understatement. Due to our shared love for the infamous chocolate peanut butter combo I scoured the internet for a suitably amazing cake. One recipe kept coming up again and again, however I was reluctant to use it because it contained 'white vinegar'. I know, vinegar in cake... weird. Especially 'white vinegar' which, after much googling, I could only take to mean white wine vinegar... even weirder. But after reading rave review after rave review and about two hours of dithering over the vinegar situation - tears followed by my mum telling me to pull myself together did occur many a time - I decided to take the plunge and bake it.

And thank the lord I did. It was a spectacularly moist, chocolatey, peanut buttery mound of deliciousness and went down extremely well. So well that Rosaline, on taking it Bristol, has made loads of lovely friends and is having a brill time (yes I am taking full responsibility - without my cake she would be nowhere). So if you have a rather large amount of time on your hands (there's a lot of chilling/melting involved) and someone especially important to you to make a cake for, you've hit the jackpot with this one. 

It Finally Occurred

We baked together.

Even though we've shared a blog for almost 7 months, and known each other much much longer, this seemingly rather obvious event has never actually occurred.

So, before Rosaline leaves for Bristol (sob) we decided that enough was enough, and finally, after many empty promises and cancelled dates, we did it.

And it was so much fun!

This momentous event occurred in Rosaline's lovely kitchen (interrupted by the arrival of the new toaster which was very exciting) and after much indecision (obviously, it's us) we decided to go with trusty BBC Good Food and make...

 'The Ultimate Chocolate Cake'

Even for the BBC, that's quite a large claim. In fact, considering the variety of chocolate cake we have both consumed in our lives, it's an enormous claim. 

But OMG did it live up to it's name.

We decided we were officially ADDICTED. It was so gooey and moist (ew ew ew) and delicious that once we'd started we just couldn't stop. (True Fact: Chocolate is marginally addictive. So, err, that's our excuse for glutenous behaviour)

We made this for our Say Goodbye To Our-Only-Follower Polly Party which was, as you can imagine very emotional, (she went to Manchester yesterday; we're sad) and so this seemed an appropriate cake to make. As in, one you're unlikely to forget in a hurry.

And Ultimate Chocolate anything is an appropriate send off really.

Polly seemed appropriately blown away by the whole thing. The champagne candles are optional (but really quite a necessity, we would say)

Pre Bristol Baking

I head off to Bristol very soon , so this afternoon Ellie and I are going to bake together!!

 

Eek I'm excited. And frantically clearing up my kitchen. Ellie has the nicest kitchen and mine is, at present, putting me to shame. My mother is thrilled by this development and thinks that Ellie should come over more often for baking (rather than just for parties and froyo dates which is normally the case) if it makes me tidy up this much.

 

We can't decide what to make (my crippling indecision once again) so watch this space...

 

I'm just off to buy some eggs.

Excitement!!

 

xxx

Slutty Brownies (aka heaven in a baked form)

These are, without a doubt, the easiest yet most delicious brownies ever. Yes ever.

I know what you're thinking - 'Oh but what about my grandmas/aunts/neighbours super secret recipe'... no. Nothing compares to these.

They consist of cookie, oreos and brownie. All in one. All made in under an hour. See? Easy yet delicious. Have I persuaded you yet?

Maybe this will:

I discovered this glorious creation whilst browsing (aka stalking)  The Londoners Blog. She's amazingly classy, cool and, from what I can gather, eats for a living. And she's got an amazing figure. So basically I want to be her (in case you hadn't got that yet). Due to their less than healthy state I'd been debating when was an appropriate time to finally bake them, and the fact that I go back to school again in a few days is definitely a good enough excuse. Speaking of going back to school, ROSALINE GOT INTO BRISTOL!! This is amazingly exciting and I'm so proud of her. However this does mean she's leaving me (but not for like a month yay) and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to cope. Probably by making and eating many of these brownies whilst quietly weeping into a mug of tea (I'm being slightly overdramatic I realise, it's only like an hour away and I'm planning on regularly visiting). 

So yes, these brownies are possibly the greatest thing you will ever eat (although I slightly overcooked mine) and I highly recommend making them whenever possible. And obviously you can make them from scratch, but the box versions are just as delicious and much easier!