Well thanks to my oven breaking last weekend and the closing and re-opening of the webshop I think jinxed myself as I had no orders for today. I don’t really mind though as I have still done some baking today just so I could practice with my new oven really 🙂
I have quite enjoyed not having to bake anything this week and managed to use my spare time very productively. In fact, the decorating is finished ( I finished it yesterday) and the paint has all been put away. It is a lovely feeling knowing that the whole house has been re-decorated but it has taken over a year to get to this point. Now I would like to sit back and enjoy it 🙂 although I am sure I can find plenty of other things to do which I have neglected over the last few weeks. This weekend has been a relaxing one with a Saturday night takeaway followed by a Sunday morning lie in as I think I deserved it. :). When I did get up this morning I could hardly move which is why I am not mowing the garden this afternoon.
The decorating being completed opens up more time for getting creative in the kitchen and I can’t wait to get started. There are so many ideas I want to try that I don’t know where to begin. I need to sit and make plans so I will spend some time tomorrow once I have finished the school run, supermarket trip and visit to the tip to start planning.
My bakes for today for my husband to enjoy were going to be a batch of Empire Biscuits which I was going to decorate in different styles as they are my husband’s favourite biscuit and some Cupcakes with a Father’s Day theme. However, I decided to bake some Chocolate Profiteroles for a change and try out the timer on the new oven along with the “baking” setting. The choux pastry rose and baked really well and using the timer made it easier for me to keep control of the baking so there was one less thing to think about. The ganache was a bit thick and I think I would have achieved a better look if I had used just plain old melted chocolate but I need to work on the pre-baked shape of the profiteroles as they just seemed to rise and rise some more when I baked them. I have never had choux pastry rise so well – very impressive indeed!!
The Cupcakes consisted of a chocolate sponge and were decorated with the help of my children. Some of them had grass and a football theme to them and the rest had sprinkles with “DAD” letters as they were for “Father’s Day”. I allowed the children who wanted to help free reign with their ideas so we have a sugarpaste footballer drying out right now to add to a football cake later. According to my son he will take the 2D football cake to a 3D level ??? We will have to wait and see – maybe I will share the end result later 🙂
Maybe I will bake some Empire Biscuits during the week as I want to practice royal icing writing techniques and such like. Icing biscuits is my new fascination on Youtube right now and I am constantly watching videos and buying kit to practice with. I should have plenty of time this next week to try out a few different ideas 🙂 which I hope to share. Maybe when I am happy with what I can do I will add these products to the webshop as there are so many occasions where hand decorated biscuits are a great treat to share. From birthdays, graduations, weddings, christenings and a whole lot more so watch this space for more details. 🙂