This week saw the Bake Off tent get all spicy with its first ever Spice Week. 3 Hollywood Handshakes were awarded in the signature ginger cake challenge, the ma’amoul technical was, well, technical and the biscuit chandelier showstopper left some bakers’ fate hanging in the balance. I decided to try my own version of the…
Category: Cakes
Hazelnut and Coffee Traybake
We’re already two weeks into this year’s series of Bake Off and we’ve already had 3 Hollywood handshakes! This week was Cake Week which saw the first time that spinach made an appearance in a cake in the tent in the form of Prue’s Le Gateau Vert technical challenge as well as spectacular chocolate collar…
Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies
This recipe was a true invention on the spot for when me and my flatmates were all craving brownies one night. I just needed something sweet and chocolaty and rich and sticky and brownies were the only solution. In the end, I came up with my Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies. I looked in my recipe…
Giant Chocolate Doughnut Birthday Cake
Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here hasn’t it…?! I promised on my Instagram account that I would post the recipe for this chocolate cake which I made for my friend Shaun’s 21st birthday and here it is! I’ve been very active on Instagram recently and I’ve also put a lot of…
Spiced Christmas Tree Cake
Christmas is most definitely on the way… how can you tell? Well I went into Tesco the other day and they played 8 Christmas songs in a row. It instantly put me in the festive mood so what better time to share my recipe for this Spiced Christmas Tree Cake. I found this Christmas tree…
Chocolate Popcorn Cake
While cakes with lots of sponge and buttercream layers may be amazing to look at, the simplest of cakes consisting of just 1 sponge layer with a glaze or topping are the ones I seem to make the most and this Chocolate Popcorn Cake is no exception! The single chocolate cake layer gets a thin…
Making a Semi-Naked Cake (without measuring any ingredients)
Baking is a science. It’s the process of combining exact quantities of ingredients in a certain way to undergo chemical reactions in the oven. A slight deviation in the quantity of ingredients could drastically alter the outcome of your bake. But is it possible to make a cake without weighing or measuring a single ingredient?…
Salted Caramel White Chocolate and Lemon Savarin
It was Caramel Week on Bake Off and I chose to make a large version of my Salted Caramel, White Chocolate and Lemon Savarins which I made last year when the Bake Off Technical challenge was a savarin. We saw the bakers struggle with making the caramel for the stroopwafel technical with all of their…
Dark Chocolate and Strawberry Mini Rolls
Last night we watched the first episode of The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4 with Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith. Prue set her first Technical Challenge of the series and did she choose a cracker (not literally a cracker, it was Cake Week after all)! She chose the kids party favourite,…
Giant Victoria Sponge Donut Cake
Here’s a great way of reinventing the classic Victoria sponge into a showstopper of a cake, this is my Giant Victoria Sponge Donut Cake. I bought my giant donut mould from Lakeland when it was on offer for £2.50. I don’t often bake with silicon moulds but I enjoyed making this donut cake; greasing the…
Giant Homemade Jaffa Cake
We were all transfixed to The Great British Bake Off when Mary set them the challenge of making 12 Jaffa cakes. Whether it was making sure the cakes weren’t stuck to the tin or putting on the jelly the right way up, there were a lot of hurdles to overcome. But I’m giving it a go,…
Chocolate Brownie Pudding
Sometimes you just really need a pudding on a cold night to make you feel so much better. And in amongst the revision for my first university exam, I managed to find a bit of time to rustle up a Chocolate Brownie Pudding. This pudding is rich and chocolatey and is just so utterly comforting;…
Day 9 of 12: Christmas Present Cake
One of the most exciting parts of Christmas is opening up a present from a friend or a family member and loving what’s inside. And with my Christmas Present Cake, you are sure to love what’s inside this present; 2 layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with a white chocolate buttercream. I used a 26.5cm x…
Day 6 of 12: Melted Snowman Chocolate Cupcakes
Back on Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas, I posted my recipe for Melted Snowman Chocolate Chip Cookies. The story behind those was the idea of seeing your snowman melt away slowly and needing some comfort with some warm chocolate chip cookies. I’ve since seen quite a few melted snowman themed bakes which involved…
Day 1 of 12: Dairy Milk Caramel Cupcakes
This year, I am posting recipes for the 12 Days of Christmas! From edible gifts such as Cranberry White Chocolate Crunch Biscuits to ways to reinvent your leftovers and also reviewing some products that you might want to have in your kitchens this Christmas. To start the series off, I’m sharing my recipe for Dairy…
Andrew in the Kitchen 