Hi guys! I am so sorry for my absence over the past month, I would go on about how busy I have been in work and all that jazz, but I am going to skip over all that boring stuff and instead fill you in on my recent baking achievements!
My first bake of the new year was some very stressful butter biscuits. I was attempting to make them into the children's character the Gruffalo, with a cookie cutter which I got from work. I was doing this because I run a pre-school book club in work and the weeks theme was surprise, surprise, the Gruffalo. However, it was so much harder than I had thought. My plan was come home from work, have tea, bake for a bit and then sit down and watch a little bit of t.v., but that didn't happen. Instead I was baking these annoying biscuits until 10.30 at night and ended up very stressed. If you can't tell already this was my first attempt of making butter biscuits and although they turned out ok, I doubt I will be making them again for a very long time. I was a little naive as I didn't really contemplate how wet the mixture would be because of the butter, and I just couldn't use the mixture. I couldn't roll it without it sticking to the rolling pin and I couldn't cut it with the Gruffalo cutter. I kept having to add more and more flour, as well as changing to a simple round pastry cutter. At this point I was very upset, so with a flash of inspiration and perhaps a little desperation I tweeted this years winner of the Great British Bake Off, Joanne Wheatley, with a cry of help and guess what... SHE REPLIED! Within 10 minutes of my tweet, she replied back with two very helpful pieces of advice: first to try chilling the mixture and then rolling it in some parchment paper, and thankfully it worked! I can't put into words how happy I was that she replied and with such great advice! I can fully understand why she won the Great British Bake Off and I would highly recommend you all follow her on twitter and to go on her website, Jo's Blue AGA, and see all the great things shes doing and baking!
I suppose the best way to end this little rant, is that although they weren't Gruffalo shaped, the biscuits went down well, in fact one of the little boys I was reading to had two at the same time and still wanted more!
The second thing I've baked this month is Lemon and Blueberry Muffins! Now I have baked several cupcakes and muffins before so this was a doddle. But what I really loved was the fact I was making this particular type of muffins, because blueberry muffins are my favourite! The recipe I found though was lemon and blueberry and I must admit I was a bit dubious about the combination, but I can very proudly say that I loved them! Especially the lemon glaze that I put on the top!! The only change I would do would be to have a muffin tray instead of a cupcake tray. The best part of making the muffins was that I could use my new two tiered display set, which I got for Christmas from my boyfriend parents! Which you can see from the picture above!
On that note I will say adieu for now, but I promise I will not wait so long to add another baking post! In fact as I'm following everyone else on the January health kick, you might see a few recipes of a healthier kind!
