BROOKLYN BLACKOUT.

Yesterday I baked a triple layer, double chocolate cake with help from my lovely assistant, Mr Sally! We used the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and somehow managed to make it through the whole thing without any major disasters.

The cake really went down a treat, there's only two slices left in the fridge! Next week I'm going to try a recipe out from my new mystery cookbook, and I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

I was hoping to do something creative this week, like painting something on that canvas I bought, or filling a few pages of my moleskine, but as soon as I sit down to do anything I'm completely uninspired! How do you deal with creative block? I'm thinking I'm just not in the right mood for it, but the problem is, when I am, I'm usually too busy to do anything. It's a vicious circle!

love, Jessica

BITTERSWEET.

So after we went to see Super 8 I bought some ingredients to make a cheesecake! Again, I used the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for guidance, going for the New York style cheesecake with added Crunchie!








It was all going very well, the mixture tasted good, my bases were baked and cooled, and after baking the cheesecake it was looking good! My cake tin was about an inch too small, so I decided to fill a few ramekins and make individual portions with the excess.







..and, it's a good job that I did! I left the cheescake to cool and set overnight in the fridge, and we ate the mini cakes that night (they were really yummy!), and the next day, when I was really looking forward to a slice of cheesecake, and I took it out of the tin and slice it, it collapsed in the middle. Collapsed! It hadn't set at all in the centre and was impossible to slice and so on, so it ended up mostly in the bin.






It was an upsetting time for me! I'd recommend that if you've got the book and you fancy making a cheesecake, get yourself a few ramekins and only make small portions! Good luck!

love, Jessica

OLD JOY.

I'm going to have to do some more baking very soon, because uploading these photos is torture! These white chocolate and pecan cookies were made using the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook that I used for this and this!











I'm heading away for the weekend with my camera in tow to try and snap some blog-worthy scenes! Wish me luck!

love, Jessica

VELVET.

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at baking Red Velvet Cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting! Again, I used the lovely Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, which I used to make this lemon loaf. The whole baking process went really well, although when I got to a certain point, mixing in the cocoa powder and red food colouring, when I realised that these cupcakes weren't exactly going to be 'red' velvet. 

I used regular food colouring, though the recipe did recommend Dr. Oetker's version specifically. Not having it readily available, I went ahead, and unfortunately, ended up with what was essentially brown velvet. My friend, Emma, told me that brown was more vintage anyway, and again, they tasted pretty good, so I was happy enough!

Next week I'll be posting my photos from baking with white chocolate and pecan cookies, which were unusually successful!

love, Jessica