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Posts by The Pink Whisk:
How to Make Pineapple Flowers
May 3rd, 2012
How beautiful do these look? They taste great too!
I won’t lie they’re a bit of a faff – okay quite a lot of a faff but they certainly have the wow factor and if you fancy spending an afternoon messing with a pineapple then these are just up your street!
Here’s how to make your own pineapple flowers. Read the rest of this entry “
Chocolate Chip Cookies
April 19th, 2012
Another of our family favourites to share with you – the recipe that is, unfortunately there’s only crumbs left in the tin here!
These chocolate chip cookies are chewy, oaty and soft in the middle. I can promise you one is never enough.
Makes 24.
Ingredients:
110g butter, softened
110g caster sugar
85g light soft brown sugar
1 egg, large
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
180g rolled oats
200g chocolate – chips, chunks, white, milk, dark – whichever you and your lot prefer!
Preheat the oven to 190c (fan)/200c/Gas Mark 5.
Line a couple of baking trays with non-stick baking paper or grease well.
Cream together the butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar. Because there’s more sugars than butter it forms a thick paste type consistency.
Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
Now mix in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Tip in the oats and mix again. If you’re making by hand you’ll need a wooden spoon and a strong arm as the dough gets more difficult to mix!
Finally add in the chocolate – I tend to use a mix of whatever sort of chocolate is in the cupboard – up to a total of 200g. Chop up bars of chocolate into chunks, use chocolate chips, steal children’s Easter eggs and use those – did I really say that? It’s okay, my boys don’t read the blog!
Milk, dark, white chocolate, fudge chunks, raisins they all work. You can replace some of the chocolate with nuts, pecans are delicious in these lovelies.
Cranberry and white chocolate cookies? 100g of each will do the trick.
You get the gist – you can make these cookies whatever flavour you like, raid the cupboard and chuck it in.
Okay so mix in whatever you’re mixing in!
Now roll the dough into balls using your hands – 1½” in diameter and then set onto the baking trays well spaced apart. You don’t need to flatten them they’ll do it themselves in the oven!
Bake in the oven for 8 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.
Remove from the oven but leave them to cool on the tray for ten minutes, they’ll be super soft and will fall apart if you try and move them now.
Once cooled a little you can then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
I suggest you ration the children/husband/wife/colleagues with these otherwise your tin will be empty and you’ll be back in the kitchen making up another batch before the washing up is done!
Choc Chip Cookies
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
The Busy Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating
April 11th, 2012
Well, it’s just a fortnight until my book hits the shops.
‘EEEEEEEEEEK!!’
So it’s definitely time to fill you in on all the ins and outs of where you can nab a copy, or get me to sign it for you…..
If you’d like a sneaky peek then head to Amazon where you can do the whole ‘look inside’ thingy….
Whilst the cheapest place to buy The Busy Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating is looking like Amazon I have had several requests from Pink Whiskers for signed copies.
You can order your own signed copy directly from me – all the details are here and if you order it now I should be able to get it to you before it hits the shops (perks of being a Pink Whisker!)
I’ll be in the Authors’ Area (another EEEEEEK of terror!) at Cake International – The Cake Decorating and Baking Show at ExCeL London 27-29 April 2012 – you’ll find me in a cloud of icing sugar where I’ll be signing copies and chatting so if you’re at the show please stop and say hello (and treat yourself to a signed copy too of course!)
Not only that, I’ve got five pairs of tickets to the show to giveaway, valid for any one day. So if you fancy winning yourself a pair of tickets just leave me a comment on this post. Giveaway closes at 1pm Thursday 19th April 2012, five lucky winners will be chosen at random from all the comments received and will be contacted directly shortly after closing.
COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED
Winners of the tickets are:
Debbie – Leigh on Sea
Tori – Essex
Joanne – East Yorkshire
Linda – Oxfordshire
Jocelyn – Newton
Each of the winners has been contacted directly.
See you soon – I’ll be peeking at you from the shelves of your local bookshop!
Ruth x
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
Chocolate Orange Cake
March 27th, 2012
This is a really unassuming cake, looks like nothing but tastes amazing.
It’s not often my boys ask me to make something in particular but the other half will beg for this cake. I see some bribery tactics up my sleeve….
Ingredients:
200g caster sugar
125g butter, softened
2 eggs, large
1 whole orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 180ml water.
200g dark chocolate
Makes 1 x 8″ cake
Hot Cross Buns
March 22nd, 2012with a Pink Whisk Twist of course
Three ways to use this dough – as a loaf, whirls or the traditional buns – who could resist?
Ingredients:
Dough
315g strong plain white flour
1/2 tsp mixed cake spice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried fast action yeast (or 1 sachet)
25g caster sugar
205ml milk
1 egg, large
zest of 1/2 and orange
100g currants
Filling
60g dark brown sugar
1 1/2tsp cinnamon
A little water icing to glaze (optional)
Makes 1 x 1lb loaf, 10 whirls or 8 buns
Place the flour, mixed spice, salt, caster sugar, orange zest, yeast, egg and currants in a large bowl.
Gently warm the milk until it is lukewarm.
Pour into the bowl and bring the dough together. I’m letting the mixer do it for me but it can also be done easily (if you have some muscles) by hand. Read the rest of this entry “
How to Make an Easter Chick
March 16th, 2012
How cute is this little chickie?
He’s made from a creme egg! When I saw these made by Helen at Casa Costello I knew I had to have a menace about and see what I could come up with!
(Do bob over and see more of Helen’s fab creations)
It’s also my first ever foray into video tutorials if you need a bit more than just the photos!
(There’s a few glitches, like cutting my own head off at times etc, I have lots more grey hairs and frazzled brain cells then when I started – thank goodness for 13 year old boys is all I can say – thank you Ash x)
You will need: Read the rest of this entry “
Grasshopper Cake
March 9th, 2012
With Mother’s Day on the horizon I thought it was time for a big old celebration cake.
When my Save the Children trip was being arranged I was told that in Rwanda they eat grasshoppers as a snack. I went fully prepared to munch on a grasshopper (all in the name of research you understand). Whilst I was there did a see a grasshopper, be it alive or snack crispy fried version, no I did not. Disappointed? Yes a little but in hindsight it was probably a good thing!
Anyway I’m waffling….if you say to me Grasshopper I instantly think Grasshopper Cake (that’s the daft way my brain works) – the fab combination of chocolate and mint. When I was young Mum taught me to melt a Fry’s Peppermint Cream Bar onto the top of chocolate cake under the grill. This cake is just a posh version of that – perfect for Mother’s Day.
And of course there are no real grasshoppers involved!
Makes 1 x 8″ Cake Read the rest of this entry “
Tiger Bread or should that be Giraffe Bread?
March 2nd, 2012
Tiger bread is delicious, there’s no doubt about it. Lovely soft white bread with a crispy crunchy crust.
But did you know that it’s really easy to make it at home too?
Here’s how
Ingredients:
1 x Quantity of Basic White Bread Dough (recipe here)
Tiger Paste
35ml warm water
1/2 tsp dried fast action yeast
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp vegetable or sunflower oil
15g rice flour (rice flour also makes really great crunchy shortbread if you were wondering what else you could use it for!)
Make the bread dough as per the instructions here and allow to rise in a bowl until doubled in size. Read the rest of this entry “
How to Bake a Basic White Loaf
February 28th, 2012
Taking it back to basics, baking is a simple as loaf of bread. But it’s only simple if you have a recipe that works. You know I’m not keen on the whole bread making thingy and that’s down to multiple failures – dough that finally springs into action after being in the bin for a day and a half! So here is my always works white loaf recipe x
From simple ingredients comes the magic of freshly baked homemade bread…
Makes 1 x 2lb loaf or 8 rolls. Read the rest of this entry “
Sweet Potato Pie
February 18th, 2012
Okay it’s not a pie, it’s a tart…. but I think sweet potato pie sounds better!
A thoroughly different use for Sweet Potato and a tough one to describe, think of the filling as a cross between cheesecake and a custard tart. However you’d describe it, it’s blooming lovely!
Makes 1 x deep 8″ Tart Read the rest of this entry “
