Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Week 20: Pretzel Sticks, walk through Musselburgh and exercising!!

This was not a planned bake!! I had just decided that the whole day I was going to spend not doing work, just because I could ;) Jennifer was home in Dumfries, so it was Morven (my friend from church) and I who would be baking today. 

Walk in Musselburgh with Morven. It was quite a warm day, so that made it even more worth going for a walk!! Here I am with my Tearfund T-shirt. 
Feeding of the swans
We then came back to our flats, and I made the pretzel stick's dough. I was then going to meet Morven to do exercising. That day we were going to be doing a '1000 squat challenge', so I was not sure whether I was sad about doing so many squats, or excited about doing it with Morven ;)

The table laden and ready to make the dough.  
The milk and butter preparing to sizzle away
The flour, yeast and salt having a party in the mixing bowl. Ready for the water to turn up that dancing!!
And the water is added!! 
After kneading, the dough is looking very prim <3  
Letting the dough rise in the oven (the temperature was not on) 
Now I went to go and get changed for the '1000 squat challenge'.

Our view while exercising <3 The scenery is so beautiful :D
Doing one of the ten variants of a squat. I was pretending that I was a swan, because I was looking out over the pond, where the swans were elegantly swimming and flying back and forth from the lake. 
Our fitness instructor on my laptop is here telling us to keep going when the pain kicks in!! :D 
The final exercise before heading in to make the pretzel sticks. 
Putting the doughy pretzel sticks into the simmering water and baking soda. This is so that the develop a skin before they go into the oven. 
The pretzel sticks before the oven. They look quite weird here, like little worms.
The pretzel sticks in the oven, getting their sun tan on :D
Out of the oven!!
Making the caramel for the caramel and gingerbread dip.
Checking the temperature. It was supposed to get to 165C before taking the pan off the hob, but it was starting to crystallise!! AHH!!
Slowmotion bubbling ;)

The final product with the caramel and gingerbread dip in a mug ;)
The pretzel sticks tasted amazing, but unfortunately the dip kept clumping up, and so we had to keep microwaving it so that it was liquidy.

Tearfund has posted about the difficulties of living in Honduras. On average there are 20 murders a day. Because of Tearfund we can start making a difference to the people who live there simply by donating money and praying for justice. Here is an excerpt from their website:
Angela is from San Pedro Sula, where the slum she calls home is perched precariously along a riverbank running through the centre of the city. Every day is a struggle for families in this community to find the work needed to survive. It is hard to imagine how their children can forge a better future, with schools out of reach and the constant threat of drug trafficking and gang violence (Tearfund 2017). 
This is where Honduras is in the world
Thank you guys for reading our blog, and thank you helping us fundraiser for Tearfund through your prayers, donations and just being aware of this charities works to bring justice through the name of Jesus to the world!!

Till next time,

The Baking Students xx

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Week 20: Apricot, Pistachio and Honey Upside down cake

The vegan cake for the almost-vegan queen!! <3

Unfortunately, Sophie couldn't have this cake, but she was fine with that ;) She doesn't particularly like fruity cakes (like this one) in general. 

But we were going to be making it anyways!! 

Crumbing the flour, sugar and vegan butter
This picture looks almost like Jennifer is clawing the butter, flour and sugar ;)

My turn to make the honey syrup
Sizzling away there on the hob ;) AAAHHH!! Who knows "Sizzler" the restaurant!! My favourite <3

Organising the apricots (canned, not fresh as it said in the recipe to use) hehe > rebellious bakers) into the honey syrup 

Pistachios!! They look like flower petals <3
The batter is almost ready!! We added half ground pistachios and half normal flour. 
Jennifer giving it the final fold
Pouring into cake tin over apricots, pistachios and honey syrup
Slowly filling up ...
It looks so cool!!!! :D
Out of the oven!! 
Turning it upside-down, so that it is right way up ;) If that makes sense!! haha
Looking so delish!!
It was soooo amazing!! I highly recommend this cake :D The almost-vegan queen in our flat said that it is better than any coffee shop cake, and I think everyone who tried it can second that! Please ask me for the recipe, because I want you ALL the try this!!! Seriously, the best combination. 

So this week Tearfund uploaded a post called "Standing Together Against the Darkness". It talks about a guy called Leandro Silva who goes into dangerous Brazilian neighbourhoods and helps to empower churches to start making a change for the better in their communities against violence and trafficking. After much amazing success in taking the violence and trafficking away from these notorious neighbourhoods, him and his wife started ALEF mission, with much help from other leaders, to bring this change to many of the poorest parts of Northern Brazil. If you would like to read more about this awesome mission, please click the link above!

I would love if could all please take 2 minutes and pray over these three points:

  1. For Leandro and Adrylle, so they can continue to build and encourage ministers and Christians all over Brazil.
  2. That the churches in Felipe CamarĂ£o will continue to overcome the violence and corruption in their district. 
  3. For more and more churches and Christians throughout Brazil to catch the vision of working together for social change.  


Thank you guys!!!

Till our next bake,

The Baking Students

xoxo