Apologies for the quietness on the blog this last week, as usual I've been working away, but also have been cooking and baking quite busily - so much so I've run out of time and energy to blog. I've also been a bit lax on the piccy taking front (and almost entirely blame M as he's normally my prompter to take pics but bless him, he's been doing overtime too).
Tonight my aim is to catch up and schedule some posts for the coming week, but those are fatal last words so lets see how I go. Cross your fingers for me!
As you know I run a busy Guide unit, and this term is no exception, my planning co-incided with Vanessa Kimbell of Prepped launching her Random Bakes of Kindness project. This is such a Guide-like project that I immediately thought, fantastic! And a terms worth of inspiration was borne. Each girl has chosen her bake and identified who it's for. We've asked them to think about people they want to say thank you to, people who touch their lives in some way. Their choices have been extraordinary, from Jennifer, our Assistant Leader, to their Librarian, to friends and family. As always, they surprised me with their sensitivity, insight, sense of humour and ability to be utterly candid.
Being Guides however, organising them is a little like herding spaghetti so despite being a month into the term, last night was our first 'bake' (says she, ruthlessly stealing the term from the Great British Bake Off)
Lucy (below) had decided to make double chocolate cupcakes for Jennifer - a true baker in the making, she had adapted her recipe to alter the tricky ganache to a more straightforward buttercream - which I can certify as being very tasty.
125g softened butter (we used Stork as butter is just too expensive for use with 27 Guides!)
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
90g self raising flour
30g cocoa
100g white chocolate drops
175g butter softened (again we used Stork, and added vanilla essence)
60g milk chocolate melted
350g (ish) icing sugar (there was quite a lot in the kitchen!)
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ Gas mark 5
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Add the eggs and then sift in the flour and cocoa
Beat the mixture until smooth
Stir in the chocolate drops
Divide the mixture between paper cases in a bun tin and bake for 15 minutes
Top with chocolate buttercream, and white chocolate buttons - and in our case - give to your lovely Assistant Leader who is definitely deserving of them!
*All Guides pictured have full photographic permissions
2 comments:
What a fabulous post !! & what a lovely idea ! Thank you .. it's brilliant and sounds utterly delicious !!
They're doing really well with them. We have two more organised for next week - rocky road cupcakes and something else. They love it! Thank you for the inspiration.
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