Raspberry Macaroons!

Inspired from a recent work trip in Paris, I decided to attempt macaroons again this weekend. The Husband was unsurprisingly skeptical as macaroons are well-known to be difficult to make them taste well. 

This raspberry macaroon is baked out of egg whites, caster sugar, a few drops of natural red food colouring, ground almonds, icing sugar and raspberry puree. The raspberry filling is melted white chocolate, single cream, a few drops of natural red food colouring and a tablespoon of raspberry conserve.

The most difficult thing about macaroons is piping them onto the baking sheets as it took ages!

The Husband has declared them 'not bad.'

Apricot & Walnut Loaf!

On the fruity theme, apricots is the choice this weekend.

This loaf recipe is from Leith's Baking Bible, one of my favourite baking books. This loaf is baked out of 225g dried apricots, 85g chopped walnuts, plain flour, baking powder, butter, caster sugar and eggs.

I thought it was pretty good but the Husband said 'it's ok, nothing special.'

Mango & Banana Cake with Lemon Icing!

Another fruity treat for last weekend!

The family is a fan of dried mango so to find another cake recipe that uses dried mango is impossible to not want to bake it.

This cake is baked out of plain flour, baking powder, dried mango, butter, eggs, sugar and bananas.

The cake called for passion fruit icing but I didn't want to mess about with sieving the seeds, so I made up an alternative lemon icing which luckily seemed to work as well.

The Husband said 'it was ok.'

Apricot & White Chocolate Blondies!

Since it was Father's Day last Sunday, I decided to bake something that my father-in-law might like. Don't worry - I didn't forget about my own Daddy in Singapore to whom I sent a fruity hamper.

My father-in-law is a fan of apricots so I thought this bake might be ideal. Blondies are basically 'white' brownies rather than the usual chocolate brownies.

Comments from my parents-in-law, "It was very professional and a class above the baking you gave us last week."

Hooray!

Raspberry Fancies!

I bought a tub of raspberry icing on sale sometime ago and decided this weekend was ideal as I am in the mood for a pink bake.

The sponge cake is simply made out of caster sugar, self-raising flour, eggs and butter. The icing is heated up in the microwave to make it spreadable and spread on top of each individually cut piece. I then top each piece with a sweet.

The Husband said 'it's ok.' I think he would have preferred a chocolate topping rather a fancy raspberry one!

Albert Squares!

I have no idea where this traybake is called 'Albert Squares' and the only clue I can provide is that it is from an Australian recipe book. Even the internet this time has failed to turn up any explanations, so if anyone finds out, please let me know!

This traybake is really simple - 150g caster sugar, 1 tbspn golden syrup, 1 tspn vanilla extract and 125g butter beaten together, beat 2 eggs in, sift 110g of plain and self-raising flour and mix 125ml milk and 160g raisins in. Bake at 170 for 25 minutes. Mix 160g icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a paste, spread over the hot traybake and sprinkle on 40g of desiccated coconut. Done!

The Husband said 'Not bad!'

Jubilee Lemon & Raisin Cupcakes!

In honour of the Queen's Jubilee this weekend, the baking colour theme was white, blue and red.

First baking was these fabulous lemon and raisin Jubilee cupcakes!

This is an old recipe of lemon and raisin cupcakes baked out of self-raising flour, baking powder, raisins, lemon zest, butter, eggs and golden caster sugar. I topped them off with lemon icing sugar, blueberries and a strawberry!

The Husband had two for dessert and twelves cupcakes were finished in a day at the Office!

Jubilee Strawberry & Blueberry Squares!

Continuing my Jubilee theme, the second baking of the weekend was this lovely strawberry and blueberry squares.

This recipe was originally meant to be baked with dried cranberries and raisins but I used fresh strawberries and blueberries instead which was be a mistake as the cake has turned out too moist. Refrigerating has helped a little bit but on hindsight, maybe I should have kept at least one dry fruit ingredient.

The Husband has said 'It's not bad.'

I got 20 squares and I am hopeful they would be finished in two days at the Office!

Double Chocolate Cranberry Loaf!

Last weekend, I found some chocolate that needed to be used up and I have also bought a couple of bags of dried cranberries that were on sale.

Browsing through my favourite baking websites, I found the perfect recipe that has both chocolate and cranberries. This loaf is baked out of butter, cocoa powder, sugar, plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, milk, chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

The kitchen smelt fabulous as the loaf was cooking in the oven.

The Husband has said this baking was one of my best yet! 

The loaf was finished in a day in the Office.