Week 18: Chai and Chocolate Cookies

As many of you will know, we are a flat that LOVE tea, and my personal favourite tea is chai tea, so we were all looking forward to these chai and chocolate cookies with bated breath!! Let alone how much we all love chocolate ;) Let's just say, these are winners in our eyes :D 

Table laden with cooking essentials :) We made these vegan, so that is why we have vegan chocolate and butter on the counter ;)

I am only 4 grams over the limit, I am sure it won't make much of a difference ;) 

Mixing the wet ingredients 

Mixing the dry ingredients

Adding both wet and dry, along with the chocolate, and into the fridge for 30 minutes <3  It tasted AMAZING!!! Especially with the banana instead of egg, since Caroline told us that it is bad for you to eat cookie dough with raw eggs ;) 

Watching the cookies expand and become all fat and full! Rather like Santa Claus ;) hehe

Eating the cookies right out of the oven <3 You can see how the chocolate was oozing out!! :D If your mouth isn't watering by now, I don't think you understand how amazing these cookies were!!

We then made this recipe once more after this time, since they went so quickly ;), and we decided to add cinnamon and more chai powder (which was stated in the recipe, but I forgot to put into the first cookies). hehe. We also decided to use eggs, instead of banana, since the banana was very over-powering. Not a bad thing though. 

It is safe to say that this is an awesome, simple and mouth-watering recipe :D

Till next time,

The Baking Students 

xoxo

Week 17: Gin and Tonic Cake

Sophie is very pleased with this weeks cake :) 

Now, I was very much opposed to this cake because of its associated with alcohol,  and therefore I took it off our list of recipes we would be baking for this cookbook (which would have been the only recipe we would not have baked), but that would have meant that we were telling a lie when we said that we were going to make all the recipes in the cookbook. And anyway, Jennifer was not opposed to it, so we collectively decided to make it.

It was going to hard to bake with something we had never tasted ;) [we takes gin after we baked the cake]

Nevertheless, we strive forward for a great cake!!

Jennifer whisking the wet ingredients into the dry 

Grating the lime

Mixing the grated lime into the batter

The batter (that had lime zest in it) tasted so good!! 

The lime juice with gin and tonic. There was only 25 ml of gin, so apparently you couldn't taste it, and definitely not get tipsy ;) 

In the oven. This time around, since it was a TWIST from the pink grapefruit loaf cake, it took much longer in the oven. We then came to the conclusion, after several attempts at baking, and the cooking time had been pushed past its time, that our new oven was not new anymore. I think, perhaps we over used it ;) hehe

Drizzling the lime, gin and tonic sugar concoction over the FINALLY BAKED loaf cake (It ended up taking 30 minutes longer in the oven). 

After much deliberation over what we should do with the rest of the gin, and my suggestion we should throw it down the toilet, I thought it would be a good idea in the end to taste a teeny bit of the drink. You know, just to say that we had. 

And so here is the video: 

Till next time,

The Baking Students xx

Tearfund update: Yemen humanitarian crisis

Why are we baking so much food, you might ask. Good question!!

We are challenging ourselves to bake so many cakes because not only because is it great to challenge ourselves, but mainly because we want to raise awareness for a charity called Tearfund that provides nutritious meals for those who are in poverty.

Imagine starving? Imagine not having enough food to eat for a whole day? I mean, as students that is pretty normal ;) hehe. But imagine not eating for a week, a month. Eventually you would die. Pretty grim, right? 

The charity Tearfund step in and give those people who are starving nutritious meals so that they won't die. Simple process, big results. They have saved countless lives. Lives that are too precious to waste away. 

There is a humanitarian crisis in Yemen today:

Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today – 18.8 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance.Conflict has devastated the nation leaving thousands of innocent civilians dead and three-quarters of Yemenis without access to safe water, food, healthcare or sanitation.A situation of deadly airstrikes, destroyed infrastructure and a desperate lack of food and water has been worsened by flooding and landslides since July, with many people losing their homes.Despite a very difficult operating environment, Tearfund's partners in Yemen are working to reach those suffering from the conflict. They have distributed food and hygiene kits to reduce the risk of deadly disease and prevent its spread, and are planning to help bring medicines and water.Tearfund has launched an immediate response and we’re also part of the national DEC appeal, an initiative that brings together 13 leading UK charities in times of crisis.

Here at the Baking Students we believe in doing what is right, not just for ourselves and those immediately around us, but the for the world. And right now, what is right is to help where the help is needed in the Yemen crisis. If you can spare even just a little money to support Yemen in this urgent need, please do donate. 

We can help Tearfund not only through donating, but also through pray and/or mission trips. Please check out their website for details: http://www.tearfund.org/en/about_you/

Week 16: Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

Homemade peanut butter, here we come!! I was so looking forward to this :D Unfortunately two people in our flat couldn't have this recipe, being Sophie and Pamela, because of either a nut allergy, or being 90% vegan. Nevertheless, it was in the cook book. And I was secretly very happyL More for me!! ;)

Jennifer checking the recipe before we started going. TIP GUYS: THE RECIPE IS THERE TO HELP!!!! Hint, Hint ... Pamela ;) 

Setting out the ingredients ready to get mixing 

The next step was my job: blitzing the peanuts till it was butter. Apparently not that difficult...

Background story: Jennifer and I had just been to TESCO to get the ingredients right before we made this, but we met with difficulty. Because I bought cashew nuts, instead of peanuts ;) 

Note to everyone: Laura is not good in TESCO. Her eyes get dry, and all she wants to do is get out of the shop. So don't rely on her ;) 

So ... that meant that we had to go to the COOPERATIVE on the way home to uni, and when we were there it started snowing/hailing. And the kids went crazy ;) haha

So, to blitz the peanuts I put them all in the smoothie maker. I then turned it on until it made a weird sound, supposedly meaning that it had blitzed everything and there was nothing left to blitz. I then unscrewed the smoothie maker, and the peanuts were all mushed up in a ball, not like peanut butter was supposed to be... 

So I looked at the recipe :))) The recipe said that if it didn't come together as a butter, you should add some oil. There is usually naturally oils that come out of the peanuts, but since we had gotten roasted peanuts there was no natural oil. So I added extra oil, and it looked like peanut butter. YAY!! 

Mixing all the ingredients together

It was looking so yummy :D 

The final product!! Sophie was so annoyed that she couldn't taste it!!

Sophie had friends over the night we made the cookies. They must have really like them, because in the morning there was only half of the cookies left ;) 

Till next time,

The Baking Students xx

Week 16: Piñata Malt Cake

Hello (Hallo) this is Sophie, taster of baking, taker of photographs and the moral support. (Laura is captioning the photos).

So this was a BIG BIG week of baking because it was Jennifer's, Caroline's and Allan's birthdays, and as they didn't ask or want a party, and I'm British, the only thing to do was to throw a triple surprise party, which meant lots and lots of CAKE.

This started as just a party for Jennifer so that's why Caroline helped make the cake.

So the of baking was "stressy": not only did we have 3 cakes to bake, but we had to do it without Jen realising what it was for. It was fine to start with, as we knew that Jen was out, but we didn't know when she was coming back. We all got fidgety every time the kitchen door creaked opened. We had decided on the malted piñata cake as the birthday cake, chocolate cupcakes and vegan banana bread (which I'm eating just now).

Laura made a plan of attack which started with the malt cakes as it was our main cake and the most complex to create. Also everything else we were baking we had done before and had a crack team to bake, even I did some actual helping. *shock*

Pamela the one that cannot follow a recipe, Morven the sleepy head and Sophie the poser 

Laura the planner

Caroline the co-baker and encourager

The malt cake was two layers so Laura made the first but in a pan that was too big, and under careful instruction Caroline made the other in a pan that was too small, and as a result they took longer to bake than expected ... but we were still on track for time. Despite the watchful eye of Laura, Caroline forgot to mix the sugar and the butter for her cake before the liquid, this lead to a weird bubbly bit on top but it was going to be covered by icing so it was all good.

All the ingredients

Baking the cake: planer and co-baker

Caroline's pouring skills :)

We had to somehow mix in the butter to the liquid... hmm...

We were just going to bake it and see what happened

The first cake came out looking alright

Time for me to do some actual helping - Caroline was making the buttercream for the icing so I helped by adding ingredients slowly, as she whisked before we switched places. Making buttercream needs elbow grease even with the hand mixer. hahaha

Since this was a piñata cake it meant that it had gummy sweets in the middle, briefly Caroline and I forgot about this so we started icing it before we had cut the middle out for the sweets. Oops!

Placing the sweets in the middle of the Piñata cake

This wasn't a problem as it was obvious we had only done this so that when we cut the middle out we had a mini cake that we could try for ourselves hahaha. After we had put the sweets in the middle we had some left over so we used them to decorate the outside of the cake. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that gummy sweets melt and that we didn't let the cake cool properly, so when we came to cut it they had melted into a blob... but oh well it tasted good haha.

While we were busy with that Laura and Morven set about with the Chocolate Cupcakes. This is when I started to get fidgety. This may have been the result of left over coffee from the cupcakes ;) Making these cupcakes was a piece of cake (pun intended) as we have made them before.

The busiest of busy!! 

Morven making the ganache

Me bossing everyone around ;) And they all listened to me!! YES :D haha

Morven ready to put the ganache on the stove

Melting the ganache on the stove top

Cupcakes!!!! So I made the chocolate cupcakes, and placed them in Caroline's silicone cupcake cases

The cupcakes out of the oven. They were such a drag to squeeze out of the cases!

Pamela icing the cupcakes!! 

Queue the arrival of Pamela to start on the vegan banana bread! Making banana bread is not new to Pamela, but the method was as it involved following the recipe under strict instructions from Laura. We did have to alter the recipe slightly as Pamela is 90% vegan so we swapped yogurt for soya yogurt and butter for coconut oil.  

Pamela's point of view:

I just want to say, in my DEFENCE: I DID follow the instructions this time for the vegan banana bread! :D  Okay, maybe just changed butter for coconut oil. And added one more banana instead of egg. And of corse used soya yoghurt. But apart from that, I followed Laura's instructions EXACTLY. And it turned out pretty well! 

Pamela taking instructions from me!! Hence, following the recipe :D

Now she is not :()

During all this ... DISASTER!!!

Jen came in to the kitchen, ahhhh!!!! Quick thinking by Pamela to say we were helping her bake for her bake sale the next day, despite it meaning she would miss quite a lot of class, but we got away with it. 

Jen left to go on a walk with Caroline, which was our devious plan to get rid of both of them so we could set the surprise part of the party up. We got away with it, and shortly after I found myself lying of the floor laughing, because I think the stress had got to me (and the sugar and possibly the caffeine!!!!!!!!)

Sophie helping to ice the cake :)

Icing the cake :) It was a very stressful job as there was not nearly enough icing, but we somehow made it stretch ...

It was an all-in kind of operation in the kitchen

Time for some more helping. Laura, Pamela and I iced the cupcakes. When I say iced, I mean partly stick them back together because some of them crumbled a bit when we took them out of the silicone cupcake cases.

The cake!! We were so proud of the awesome creation

Time to call in the reinforcements to set up. We had some friends waiting down where the party was going to be to help decorate, and some helping bring down the mountain of cake. An hour of frantic decorating and pacing later Caroline returned with Jen and the surprise party was on.

All the baking set up for the surprise party!!

Here are the special birthday people :D HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Caroline and Allan realise here that the birthday surprise is for them as well :D hehe

The Birthday recipients, with cake!! Jennifer, Caroline and Allan

To top all of this week we had entered into a pizza making contest at our halls and we got 2nd place.

The winning pizza: Caroline's tomato sauce, mushrooms, roasted peppers, sweetcorn, sun-dried tomatoes and basil leaves

The winning squad, plus a friend :D

It's been a very EXTREMELY busy week, until next time. We are off to sleep for a week :D 

The Baking Students xx