Last week was a busy week for me, so my apologies for being late on the blog, I did bake, just not 2 things. But what I did manage to find time to bake was vanilla cupcakes, that can be found on page 85 in the first book.

Cupcakes are always something to look forward to, who can resist them? I mean, fluffy, colorful and you can do so many things with them, given that you can make them well. And everyone with the first book from Babycakes are in good hands with several different recipes.

With the vanilla cupcakes I decided to do my glaze/icing, in two variations, vanilla and chocolate and had a lovely topping to decorate with.

When whipping the things together, make sure you add a little water at a time to get rid with any lumps in it, it makes the cupcakes bake better. And don’t make them two small either.

Changes and substations

I used normal gluten-free flour, same amount. I don’t know what flour it is in the American version of the book as I have the British, so don’t know if it was a change or not. I substituted the agave nectar with normal white syrup at the same amount, it’s just much cheaper.

Other than that I didn’t change anything.

Recipe for alternative glace/icing

So it’s not a glace nor an icing, it’s something in the between and can be used as either depending on how much liquid is put into it. The recipe will only be in proportions, not any measurement to keep it simple, and only see it as a guide, go with your gut. 

1 coconut oil
0.8 hot water
5 powdered sugar
0.5 vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

As I said, nothing set in stone, add more liquid or powdered sugar to get the consistence you want. Just remember to have more coconut oil than water.

Conclusion

As I said in the intro, you cannot, not love cupcakes. They are just lovely and I don’t see me stopping making them, what more can I say? Decorate them, eat them, love them.

And I will try to catch up with the baking this week and write about it, we will see what happens.

First week since I started this project I don’t bake a muffin this week. Instead it was spelt biscuits on the wall for this week. I’m not a big fan of things that are just white flour, but never had something named biscuits before that I know off.

They are at least easy and quick to make, just mix the things together, put it on the a table, cut out the biscuits and put them into the oven. You can find the recipe on page 37 in the first book.

Changes and substitutions

Since it was spelt flour in the recipe I changed it for gluten-free flour, added 1 teaspoon xanthan gum and about 1 tablespoon of arrowroot. Other than that there wasn’t much to change out.

Conclusion

This was not something I liked this round. But I have baked these before and got a wonderful result, difference? Last time they were fluffy, warm and yummy, this time they were flat and compact. I used another sort of flour last time so that could make for the difference. Or I had more or less arrowroot or xanthan gum. In any case, yesterday I was disappointed and ended up throwing everything out in the trash.

I will probably give it another try when I need them for some cooking and hoping they will turn out better.

What can you expect when a cookie is named sugar cookies, especially when you look at the ingredients and it doesn’t contain only sugar and flour, on second thought, scratch that, there is a lot of sugar in this, and then adding the decorations… But I got to admit, the thought of putting gummi bears on the thing is tempting. You can find the recipe in

Although it is one of the recipes graded to be a little harder the mixing part is as easy as always. The harder part comes when you have to put out the dough onto a table and start using the rolling pin to make it the right thickness. It was a sticky dough, much more like a normal gluten-free dough than I’ve gotten use to in the books, but hey, I’ve had a lot of training at it, just be careful and use all the flour you need. I didn’t have any cookie cutters laying around and hadn’t thought of grabbing a pair from my mum so I had to do without, using a round glass to make round cookies. But it worked. My tip would be to be quick, the warmer the dough get’s the messier it gets, the last time I rolled it out it was really sticky.

After some time in the oven out came golden brown cookies, after letting them cool a bit I tasted on just to understand what it was, and at first I thought the cookie was really blend. On them I put something like vanilla sugar glaze from my own recipe. It’s pretty much like the one in the book, with one important difference, I substitute half of the water for coconut oil to get it a bit more firm. And on top of that I had different kinds of sprinkles. I must agree with the book, I find it hard to believe that any child wouldn’t find it fun to decorate the cookies and then eat them, even I had a fun time.

Changes and substitutions

So, normal sugar was used, to no one’s surprise. Other then that I followed the recipe to the letter. Not to say much else about it. Just a note that I made half a batch and got a result 36 cookies, with a diameter of about 5 cm, a preferred size according to me.

Conclusion

As I wrote before, at first I found the cookie blend and wondered if I would ever eat them all. But after decorating them with all this extra sugar they had a sweet taste and a nice texture. I made a mistake of leaving my container out and I just couldn’t stop eating them, today, three days after the baking I barely have any left. They may not be as tasty as a donut or something but more like a guilty pleasure when you don’t have anything else to snack on.

It have been a good snack but it won’t be anything I go and dream about like some other things I’ve baked during the last few weeks. But if I ever need and activity with children (or grown-ups think about it, coming to a gathering getting to decorate your cookies) I will put in the 40 minutes it took and bake these for a fun time.

Here I was, looking forward to get a donut fix since I ran out of donuts I think last week (no I’m not addicted at all). And to be honest, how bad can chocolate cake donuts be when you love donuts and chocolate? You can find the recipe at page 126 in Covers the Classics.

So I mixed all the ingredients according to the recipe (at least that is how I recall it), putting them into the pans, feeling great. Five to ten minutes in I look into the oven and all my enthusiasm disappears, they were bubbling and were way over the edges of the pans. Then I knew that I was domed to have my first failure.

Sure enough, when I finally took them out from the oven I had cake all over except for the pans, where just a little bit was left, hm…

Thoughts and notes

So I didn’t get a result. I ate some of the cake from the pan and the sheet just to taste, there was no point to let it all go to waste, it wasn’t too bad.

As I said I followed the recipe, only used rice flour and no fava bean flour, normal sugar but that was the only two small changes I did. My theory is that I messed up somewhere when I mixed the things together and didn’t measure right.

I will give it another try at some point, hoping I can make them right but for now I will just have to crave and wait for a donut to come around.

What can I actually say about muffins at this point? I mean, this is the 3 posts about muffins already so go and read them if you haven’t. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I like muffins, and I like blueberries so how could this be anything but a hit for me? You can look up the recipe in the first book at page 33.

The one thing that is different in this muffin is that it’s simpler and it gave a nice plain taste. Other than that, it’s a muffin, it’s lovely, fluffy and tasty.

Changes and substations

Since this is a spelt flour recipe I changed that out to gluten-free flour, and added about ¼ of a cup extra. Add to that some xanthan gum, about 1 teaspoon and almost 1 tablespoon. And up the blueberries, I think it was just a bit too little blueberries so I almost doubled the amount.

I used normal milk instead rice milk, and ended up with a wetter mixture than the other muffins, but the result in the end was a fluffier, not so dens muffin.

Conclusion

I’ve almost ended the “muffin era” of this project, just one left, the pumpkin one and I’m on the lookout for the ingredients for that. And I’m going to continue to eat muffins, they are a great snack and I have to say that the blueberry muffin is at the top of the league. Do I need to say any more on the subject? I don’t think so. This coming week I will bake biscuits and try to get the blog updated the same week. Until then, happy baking.

Okay, so I’m no fan off courgette or anything like it. But why would that stop me to bake this? Almost nothing but I didn’t find this as fun as some of the others recipes. This recipe can be found in the first book at page 31.

But I did two things at once because I did these muffins and blueberry muffins at the same time, since I had everything up and about.

This was the first time in this project I needed to convert a spelt recipe to a glutenfree one. I ended up with a much more loose mixture than I had in the other muffins, but didn’t want to add to much flour and end up with last week’s muffins, call it a gamble but it turned out to get fluffy nice fort muffins.

Substitutions and changes

Let’s face it, I did big and small changes to this recipe for the first time. For starters I used normal milk and syrup instead of rice milk and agave nectar. The spelt flour then, I took my glutenfree flour and added just as much as the recipe called for, and then a little less than ½ a cup more. I also added 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum and about 2 tablespoons of arrowroot. This combined gave me a nice mixture, as I said slightly looser than the others but I gave it a go, and won.

Conclusion

I got a nice muffin but, I don’t like the courgette part of it, and that’s all I really can say about that. The muffin out over that is just lovely but I much rather have one of the other ones. So mu substitutions went well and I will keep that going, note that the mixture should be slightly loose and not a firm mixture for the best result (according to me).

In the book Erin writes in the introduction ”they are so charming, so fair – so impossibly French”. And after baking them I can do nothing but agree, these cookies are charming. Read and look at page 61 in “Covers the Classics”.

I bought my madeleines pans at the same time I bought my donut pans since they aren’t over easy to come by in Sweden. But I hadn’t tested them out until last week. I don’t think it gets much easier to bake something than these. It’s just to put all the things in a bowl and mix them together. Put the mixture in the pans and into the oven until they get that beautiful golden color. Take them out, put some powdered sugar on them, eat and enjoy.

I did the mistake of taking one, and another one, and another one. Okay, so I ate 4 of them while they were still warm.

Changes and substations

Other than the fact that I used normal sugar I didn’t change a thing, what more can I say?

Conclusion

I find it hard to believe that anyone could say no to one of these sweeties, they would make it at any cookie table. I’m glad I had the pans though, most likely they make a difference, but if you don’t have them give it a shoot without the pans or use some other kind of pan or paper form, the worst thing that can happen.

With it’s just below 150 calories you can treat yourself with this once in a while without any feelings of guilt.

Okay, so I’m no fan off courgette or anything like it. But why would that stop me to bake this? Almost nothing but I didn’t find this as fun as some of the others recipes. This recipe can be found in the first book at page 31.

But I did two things at once because I did these muffins and blueberry muffins at the same time, since I had everything up and about.

This was the first time in this project I needed to convert a spelt recipe to a glutenfree one. I ended up with a much more loose mixture than I had in the other muffins, but didn’t want to add to much flour and end up with last week’s muffins, call it a gamble but it turned out to get fluffy nice fort muffins.

Substitutions and changes

Let’s face it, I did big and small changes to this recipe for the first time. For starters I used normal milk and syrup instead of rice milk and agave nectar. The spelt flour then, I took my glutenfree flour and added just as much as the recipe called for, and then a little less than ½ a cup more. I also added 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum and about 2 tablespoons of arrowroot. This combined gave me a nice mixture, as I said slightly looser than the others but I gave it a go, and won.

Conclusion

I got a nice muffin but, I don’t like the courgette part of it, and that’s all I really can say about that. The muffin out over that is just lovely but I much rather have one of the other ones. So mu substitutions went well and I will keep that going, note that the mixture should be slightly loose and not a firm mixture for the best result (according to me).

When I flipped through the book after I first got it the picture of the Black-and-White cookie caught my eye since I love vanilla and chocolate. But since I got stuck on the donuts and baked them over and over again I never got around to this little beauty. Look at the picture at page 53 and the recipe at page 52 in Covers the Classics.

What I didn’t realize was how big this thing is, it wasn’t until I started measuring up the flours that I thought about it. The fact that the recipe said it would make 12 cookies, wow.

I mixed all the things together got a nice mixture, but again I had the impression that there were too much oil in the thing. I’m beginning to realize I think that it’s how it’s suppose to be, I just have to plan better so I don’t spoil all my kitchen with oil.

The recipe called for a big chunk of mixture for each cookie, so that was what I took. As the cookies were in the oven I did the vanilla glaze and the chocolate dipping sauce, two things that are really easy to make and taste delicious, I have to admit I had some nice “tastings” while I waited for the cookies to cool off.

Substations and changes

The main thing I will change is to make these cookies smaller, to my taste they are just too big. I would think any health conscious person finds this to be just too many calories to eat in one little indulgence. But maybe that is just me.

As I have in the other recipes I used normal sugar and syrup instead of agave nectar, but I think that were the only two things I actually changed.

In the vanilla glazing I used vanilla sugar, thinking it wouldn’t matter. I was wrong. But first thing first, if you start with measuring up the powdered sugar, then add a little of the hot water at a time, that way you can stop when you think it has the right thickness.

Conclusion

This is the first time I think I have been underwhelmed with one of the cookies from the book, maybe because of the picture? As I said before, I think the cookies were too big, next time I will make them at least half the size. That way I could actually eat one once in a while, since this big almost 500 calories it’s hard to fit into a snack time. 

And the fact that my glazing didn’t taste much of anything except sugar didn’t help.

The cookie itself without topping has a lovely golden brown color but doesn’t taste very much so if you make the toping right, my guess is that this one would be much better.

Will I make them again? Probably, at least just to see if I was right the first time around, if nothing else they look cool, even though my colors kind of mixed up.

Läs på svenska (Read in swedish)

So, first real thing after really kicking off the blog, and man has it kicked off, thank you everyone showing an interest, keep updated on Twitter, Facebook, RSS feed or just come and check in once in a while.

I whipped the rest of the things of and this time I got a mixture that was more of what I expected, but still a lot more like bread than I’m used to when not doing bread. After about 15 minutes in the oven out came my muffins, looking okay. Unfortunately, when I started eating the first one they weren’t as good as last week’s muffins. They were more compact than the last ones, feeling denser and drier in the process. Just as last week I’ve gotten the bottom of the muffins burned. I wonder if that would be a problem less if I had muffin pans? Anyone that can give me a hint about that? Would give me a reason to buy a pair without really being able to afford them right now :)

Changes and substations

As usual, I used another brand of flour, though I want to point out that I did buy real corn flour, no starch that I use when I make sauces and thing like that. I also used normal milk instead of rice milk, did I tell you why? I know many are allergic or intolerant to milk but I have the out most confidence that it works perfect with rice milk as the recipe calls for. But for me I do everything I can to get as much milk into me as I can, why you ask? I was allergic to milk as a child, and these days I don’t like most milk products, butter, “real” yoghurt and ice-cream, that is about it. In cooking and baking I put in as much milk products as I can to get the many healthy things that can be found in among other things milk. Since I’m allergic to so many other base foods it’s hard to find things like calcium for me if I don’t eat milk products.

Back to the topic, I’m off the opinion I did the right thing when I added a lot of peaches, even though I only did half a batch I had almost the full amount of peaches and used most of it. Other than that I followed the recipe, of cause I didn’t have real vanilla extract but vanilla sugar, so I added a little extra, but hey, what can you do?

Conclusion

What I truly love about all the things I’ve done from the Babycakes books are that they have  great taste of whatever the thing is suppose to have, and so does this. But I have to admit that since I have a feeling I failed with the batch, if it was only up to this, I would go for the apple- cinnamon muffins. But I will come back and try these again, when I’m done with things to eat as a normal snack, or when this whole project is completed, I don’t know, but I know I will.

Läs på svenska (Read in swedish)