Pinwheel cookies: Take two... or 3 if you like.

I can be a perfectionist sometimes. I don't like to leave things unfinished and I was not happy about posting my last blog post without having the pictures to show for it. I had an afternoon off so I thought I'd revisit the pin wheel cookies to show you how good they looked. This time, however, I thought I'd stick to the more traditional vanilla and chocolate design.

After looking through a few recipes I found one (in metric!) that was quite simple. This recipe calls for cocoa powder rather than melted chocolate which is far easier and involves less washing up. Very efficient!
These hypnotising biscuits make you look like a whizz in the kitchen, they look more complicated than they really are and the contrasting design is really fun without having to decorate them. They can also be stored for weeks in the freezer as dough, just cut off a few slices when you have visitors or fancy a quick chocolate hit.
The only thing I'd say about these is slice them a little thinner or cook them a little longer for a better crunch to your biscuit and then serve with the obligatory glass of milk. I'll definitely be checking out some more biscuit recipes soon, biscuits are underrated!

Disaster averted.

I narrowly averted disaster today in an attempt to make Pinwheel biscuits. I'd seen them on Pintrest and was looking for a reason to make them. Not the chocolate and vanilla ones, these were pink and white and cute as a button. The concept was simple without looking at a recipe, 2 layers laid flat then rolled into a 'sausage' and then sliced before baking but I wasn't sure what biscuit recipe to use.
As much as I love biscuit I haven't made them since I was a kid, using cutters to make cute animal biscuits that would then suffer decapitation or have their limbs devoured one by one. I'm not a masochist, honest! I always remembered these biscuits being a little bland so I decided to use a richer, tastier recipe loved my millions: shortbread. What I didn't realise until I began to roll the 2 layers together was that shortbread is not flexible...at all! It crumbled (as shortbread should) and I had to attempt to separate the pink crumbs from the plain with despair.
To fix the problem I compared the shortbread recipe to a Christmas cookie cutter biscuit recipe and realised a bit more sugar and an egg would make the dough sticky enough to roll. So half an egg to the pink dough and the other half added to the plain worked brilliantly and the extra sugar made it sweeter than the animal biscuits of my childhood. Epic recovery!
I actually don't have any pictures of the pinwheels, I took them to work almost as soon as they were out of the oven as we were saying fair well to a colleague. Which leads me on to the main subject of the picture below. It's the same girl from my previous post. She starts her 9 months 'Maternity' leave so we did a whip round and I offered to make a baby clothes bouquet.
You will begin to tell from this blog that I am very creative and love crafts as well as baking. I don't like the term crafty as it makes me sound sly. Not only do I enjoy the skill of making things but I thoroughly believe that a hand made gift shows so much more thought and effort than a store bought gift. I had made fabric roses before and thought it would be a similar concept (which it was). You can find all sorts of tutorials on the internet but here are a couple of random ones to get you going.
Baby Clothes Bouquet
How to make fabric flowers roses


If you have all the materials ready you can create this in around 2-3 hours. A word of advise though when purchasing the clothes- anything long and thin will create a better flower shape and socks make the best cute little roses!

Just another note on the picture above. Of course after learning how incredibly simple shortbread is to make I couldn't not knock up a batch for myself! Buttery goodness!

It's not a celebration without cake!

There is no better reason to eat cake than in celebration. It's an integral guest at any birthday, Christmas, baby shower, wedding, engagement, retirement, anniversary etc. etc. celebration and if you haven't got cake at your party then you're not doing it right!


Todays special occasion is very special and a little unusual. A friend at work was in court yesterday to find out if she could (finally) adopt a little girl and she has been accepted! There is such a buzz of excitement in the air around the my team so cake was obviously needed, but what to bake?!


I thought I'd go for a baby shower type them as the girl she is adopting is only a few month old, so lots of pink. I wanted to do a gradient caked covered in a buttercream piped rose design (I've not tried these before but I think they're so pretty). I decided against it because it's rather difficult to serve without a kitchen, cupcakes however are perfect to pick up and eat on the go. Pintrest is full of inspiration and I took a few ideas from some of the cupcakes on there, including the piped buttercream roses.


I also took this opportunity to practice my sugar craft skills. I've made a good amount of occasion cakes using roll out icing and crafting various shapes, particularly flowers for my brothers wedding cakes (note the plural- all 8 of them). I'm no expert but I think I'm pretty decent for an amateur and I will use any opportunity to practice and improve these skills, however I'm far too messy a worker for them to ever be perfect and I will forever live in awe of those who can perfect the skill.

The perfect flapjack.

I had my next post planned, I prepared the fruit, made the mixture and put it into the oven and then I had to abandon it part way through its bake. When I put it back in the oven the next day it took forever for the centre to cook through and resulted in the edges being rather tough. Not what you want in a cake. I'll have to readdress that post at a later date but I'll keep the subject a mystery until then so as to not spoil the surprise!

I was craving something sweet today but didn't fancy venturing out into the cold. When I want something sweet, warm and quick my go-to recipe is flapjack. I haven't met a person yet who doesn't like flapjacks. My sisters partner loves them so much he doesn't win brownie points, they're converted into flapjack points! 

There are a bajillion different recipes for these oaty goodies. Forget about the fillings or toppings and there are still a million ranging from the crispy and light to the dense, gooey, sticky variety. My bestest makes hers with condensed milk or there are (much) healthier versions. It all comes down to personal taste. My own taste is sweet and buttery, sticky in the middle and crispy and golden on the edges and my favourite recipe so far is good old Lyles Golden Syrup for its classic simplicity. 

I've used it many times for a quick craving cure, sometimes with a little less abandon: not measuring the ingredients or leaving it in the oven a little too long. Today I weighed the ingredients carefully, timed the baking to the minute and the golden wonder came out perfectly! A crispy golden edge, crumbly yet sticky and moist in the middle, spot on. Flapjacks are one of the easiest things to make and can be done in 30mins with minimal washing up. They can go wrong very easily so take the time to measure properly and you'll have instant success! Be patient and wait for them to cool (if you can resist) otherwise they'll just fall apart.