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Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Chocolate truffle tart

This is nothing fancy. Just something simple, quick, but delicious. If you're struggling to find time to bake, then this may be the perfect recipe for you. On top of the ingredients, you will also require a 9 inch tart tin and baking beans as well. You can make it even faster by buying the shortcrust pastry instead of making it.

Ingredients
  • 150g plain flour
  • 20g icing sugar
  • 70g + 25g unsalted butter
  • Flour, icing sugar and 70g unsalted butter may be omitted if you are using shop bought shortcrust pastry
  • 1 whole egg
  • 2 eggs, yolk and white separated 
  • 180g double cream
  • 120g milk (full fat or semi skim)
  • 220g dark chocolate (70% coco), or if you prefer something sweeter replace 40g of dark chocolate with milk chocolate
  • small pinch of salt
If you are using shop bought pastry, just roll it out until the desired thickness (about 2-4mm normally). If you are making the pastry yourself, then start with the following:

  1. Mix flour, icing sugar together and combine with a metal spoon
  2. Cut 70g butter into small cubes and put them into the flour, icing sugar mixture
  3. Rub the butter into the flour with your finger tip until the butter has been incorporated into the mixture and that the final product resembles breadcrumb in texture
  4. Beat 1 whole egg and add half of the egg into the mixture and combine, if it is not incorporating completely, add a little bit more egg until the pastry is smooth and no longer sticks to your hand (try not to overwork the pastry though). At this stage, if the pastry is very soft and messy, put it into the fridge and chill for 20-30 minutes. If not, continue
  5. Lightly dust work surface with plain flour 
  6. Roll out the pastry to about 2-4mm thick 
  7. Put the pastry into the tart tin, if you accidentally ripped the pastry, don't worry, you can patch it up with leftover pastry
  8. Prick the base of pastry with a fork multiple times to allow air to escape from the pastry when it is baked and prevent it from rising
  9. Chill pastry in tart tin in the fridge for 30 minutes, pre-heat oven now to 200 degrees C (175 fan)
  10. Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the pastry and fill with baking beans
  11. Bake with baking beans on top for 10-15 minutes, or until the base is relatively dry
  12. Take off baking beans and parchment paper
  13. Lightly brush the pastry with bean egg white, you don't need all the egg white, so you will have quite a lot of leftovers
  14. Put pastry back in the oven and bake for another 5-7 minutes, it should turn golden quite quickly
  15. Take tart base out of oven
  16. Reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees C (150 fan)
  17. Break chocolate into small pieces in a large bowl
  18. Prepare filling by heating cream and milk together until it just starts to bubble, take it off the heat and let it cool down for one minute
  19. Pour hot cream onto chocolate and stir until the chocolate has completely melted
  20. Add the egg yolk, butter and pinch of salt to the chocolate and whisk until everything has been incorporated and is smooth
  21. Pour the chocolate into the tart base and return the whole tart to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes (oven dependent)
  22. The side of the filling should be set and middle will wobble a little bit (if the middle doesn't  wobble, then it is over baked and the sides will likely shrink away from the edges of the tart when it is cooled)

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Lime and mint chiffon cake

So it's getting a bit hot in the UK (and I've got quite a few limes filling up the fridge that I had to use up), so I've decided to get put this together.

Ingredients

  • 150g self raising flour
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs, separated
  • 50g mint (stalk and leaves)
  • 80ml vegetable oil
  • 5 limes
  • 50ml water
  • 400ml double cream
  • 80g icing sugar
  • Blueberries and raspberries for decoration
  1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees C (150 fan)
  2. Mix flour and 100g caster sugar together 
  3. Boil mint stalks in 50ml water for 15-20 minutes over low heat
  4. Remove stalks from water and let the water cool down to room temperature
  5. Add vegetable oil, zest and juice from 3 limes, water and 4 egg yolks to the dry ingredients and mix well
  6. Whisk egg white until foamy and gradually add 100g caster sugar to the egg white one tablespoon at a time until all the sugar has been added and the egg white forms stiff peaks
  7. Add 1/3 of egg white to the cake batter and mix it in
  8. Add the remaining egg white to the cake batter and very gently fold it in
  9. Gently pour cake mix to an 18cm round cake tin
  10. Bake for 50-70 minutes, the cake should rise well. Test with skewer and it should come out completely clean if the cake is cooked
  11. Cool the cake upside down for 1 hour
  12. Prepare filling by mixing cream with zest and juice from 1 lime and whisk until the cream is thick
  13. Slice cake horizontally into 3 equal layers
  14. Spread the cream between each layer and on the exterior of the cake
  15. Decorate with the remaining lime, berries and leftover mint leaves



Sunday, 6 April 2014

Lemon and passion fruit chiffon cake

Ingredients (cake, mousse line, 

  • 3 lemons
  • 180g self raising flour
  • 1/2 tbsp baking powder
  • 250g + 90g+50g caster sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 100ml vegetable oil
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 300ml milk
  • 400ml double cream
  • 40g icing sugar
  • 2 passion fruits
  • 50g corn flour
  • 70g + 80g unsalted butter
Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees (150 fan)
  2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt together in a large mixing bowl
  3. Add vegetable oil, vanilla extract, juice and zest from 2 lemons and 5 egg yolks into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined (should be dropping consistency, if not, add 10-20ml of water and mix again)
  4. Beat 6 egg white with electric whisk until foamy and add 1 tbsp of caster sugar at a time to the egg white until 250g has been added, whisk until stiff peak
  5. Add 1/3 of egg white to the rest of the cake batter and very gently fold it in. Repeat until all egg white has been added 
  6. Pour cake mix into a 23cm round bundt cake tin (without greasing or baking paper), or if you don't have a bundt tin, use a normal 23cm round tin and roll up a piece of foil to place in the middle of the tin, so the cake mixture can cling to it and climb up and also reduces the middle from dropping when taken out of the oven. 
  7. Baking time of this cake is very variable. Bake for 45-70 minutes and keep a very close eye on the cake. Test with skewer after 35 minutes and use your own judgement from there. The cake should rise and increase in volume 
  8. Cool the cake upside down over wired rack to prevent it from collapsing (hence no greasing or baking paper, or the whole cake will fall out). If cake has risen higher than cake tin, place 2 glass cups on either side of the cake tin and let the glasses hold the cake tin from the side
  9. Let the cake cool for at least 1 hour
Mousseline
  1. Beat 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg together with 90g of caster sugar
  2. Beat in 50g corn flour and zest from 1 lemon 
  3. Heat 300ml of milk in saucepan until warm and add to the egg/sugar/cornflour mixture and whisk continuously 
  4. Return the entire mixture to the saucepan over low-medium heat
  5. Whisk mixture continuously until it thickens 
  6. Remove from heat and stir in 70g butter until it has completed melted and incorporated into the mousseline
  7. Let it cool completely 
Lemon and passionfruit curd
  1. Beat 1 whole egg with 50g caster sugar 
  2. Whisk in lemon juice from half a lemon
  3. Put mixture over medium heat and stirring continously with wooden spoon
  4. Reduce the volume down slightly and add 80g unsalted butter
  5. Mix until melted and let it cool for 30 minutes
  6. Add the passion fruit to the curd and mix well and cool in the fridge 
Assemble the cake
  1. Cut cake horizontally in half
  2. Place mousse line into the middle of the 2 halves
  3. Whisk double cream with icing sugar until it forms stiff peak
  4. Pipe or spread cream over the cake
  5. Place the lemon and passion fruit curd over the top of the cake 

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Pain au chocolat

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo to share this time. But I swear I'll upload one as soon as I make this again. Essentially, this is very similar to my pain au raisins recipe, but I'm uploading this separately due to popular requests.

Ingredients

  • 160g + 30g plain flour
  • 170 bread flour
  • 45g + 100g caster sugar
  • 2g salt
  • 4 whole eggs + 4 egg yolks
  • 60g water (more accurate than 120ml, as 1ml=1g of water)
  • 14g instant dry yeast (about 2 sachets)
  • 150g unsalted  butter (important!!! room temperature and very soft)
  • 300ml milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)
  • 100g dark chocolate
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Combine 160g plain flour, 170g bread flour and 45g caster sugar together and mix 
  2. Add salt to one side of the dry ingredients and yeast to the other side of the flour. Do not mix them, as it will kill the yeast
  3. Make a well in the middle of the mixing bowl, add water and 3 whole eggs into the mix and mix with dough hook on your mixer for 2-3 minutes on low speed until ingredients have combined
  4. Cut butter into 10-15 small cubes and add 1 cube at a time to the mix. Continue the mixer on low-medium speed
  5. Once all the butter has been incorporated, keep mixer on medium for another 15 minutes, the dough should become sticky and shiny
  6. Turn mixer speed up to medium high for another 2 minutes. You should hear the dough slapping against the side of the mixer at this stage. If the dough looks loose and wet, add 1 tbsp of plain flour and beat for another two minutes
  7. Seal mixing bowl with cling film and let it rise either at room temperature for 2-3 hours or in the fridge overnight. The dough should double to triple in size 
  8. Whilst the dough is rising, make the pastry cream (creme patissiere). Beat the egg yolks, 100g sugar together really well
  9. Add plain flour and mix again until it thickens
  10. Heat milk to simmering point and pour into the egg yolk mix, whisking continuously!!! 
  11. Pour all the contents back into the saucepan and keep it on medium heat and whisk continuously until it thickens (it's NOT going to go REALLY thick)
  12. Add vanilla extract to that pastry cream once it is thick 
  13. Let it cool to room temperature (will take about an hour)
  14. Place a layer of cling film on table surface and lightly dust with plain flour
  15. Roll out the dough to a rectangle on cling film (approximately 50cm x 25cm)
  16. Spread the pastry cream evenly on the dough
  17. Break up the chocolate and sprinkle evenly over the dough and pastry cream
  18. Use the cling film to help roll up the dough, so the pastry cream and chocolate are inside
  19. Tuck in the sides, so the pastry cream and chocolate are not going to spill out
  20. Place a piece of baking paper on baking tray and layer your bread on it
  21. Seal the baking tray with cling film and let it rise again for another 90 minutes and it should increase in volume again
  22. After about 60-70 minutes of rising, pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C (170 fan) and place a small tray of water on the bottom of the oven (about 300ml), to reduce the bread from forming a hard crust surface as it bakes 
  23. Remove cling film and beat 1 whole egg and brush egg wash on the dough
  24. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, but water carefully, depending on your oven, it may take as little as 25 minutes
  25. Take out of the oven and let it cool for a couple of hours and slice into 10-12 pieces to serve 

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Double chocolate and strawberry cheesecake

This is NOT a baked cheesecake, but it is vegetarian (but NOT vegan) friendly. Low fat cream cheese  and cream may be used to substitute the full fat if you want (honestly, I can't tell the difference between full and low fat when it's chocolate flavoured). 

Ingredients
  • 150g digestive biscuits
  • 60g butter melted
  • 2x200g cream cheese 
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 100g dark chocolate (50-70%)
  • 100g white chocolate
  • 280ml double cream 
  • 250g strawberries
  1. Crush biscuits and stir in the melted butter
  2. Press biscuit firmly into the bottom of a 20cm round baking tin (preferably spring form, so you can take it out easier)
  3. Melt dark chocolate in microwave (careful with power setting as it will burn if heated at high power) and leave it to cool
  4. Meanwhile, beat the double cream until it forms stiff peaks
  5. Beat icing sugar into 200g cream cheese 
  6. Mix in dark chocolate and half of the whisked cream
  7. Layer the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuits and chill for 30-60 minutes in the fridge
  8. Wash, drain and slice strawberries in halves and layer on the dark chocolate cheese filling
  9. Melt white chocolate in microwave (again, be careful with microwave power setting) and let it cool for 5 minutes
  10. Mix in white chocolate and the remaining cream into 200g of cream cheese and put it on the dark chocolate layer and chill for at least an hour before serving 

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Christmas cupcakes


Hi all! It has been a long time since I had time to write a post (I still don't really, but I have 20 minute incubation time in the lab this morning). So seeing christmas is fast approaching and where would we be without a couple of festive recipes. Today, I will be sharing my cupcake recipes, the black forest cupcake and the good old chocolate orange cupcake. Tip number one, use colourful cupcake cases and not the regular plain ones (they simply ruin the festive season). Each recipe make 6 cupcakes, but just double the recipe if you want to make 12. 

Ingredients (black forest cupcake)

  • 65g unsalted butter (at room temperature and VERY soft, you may need to put it on the window sill directly above the radiator for a little bit if you room is very cold
  • 90g caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 100g self raising flour
  • 1 tbsp coco powder
  • 50ml milk (full fat or semi skimmed)
  • 100g dark chocolate (at least 50% coco solid, melted and cooled) + extra for shavings

  • 120g morello cherries with kirsch 
  • 150ml double cream (whipped until soft peaks)
  • 20g icing sugar
  1. Bring butter to room temperature and make sure it is soft. This can take a very very long time, especially in the winter. If you want to speed up the process, follow Mary Berry's method and cut butter into cubes and add in luke warm water to the butter and let it soften for 2-3 minutes and drain off the water
  2. Melt 100g dark chocolate, set aside to cool and use 50g to pipe into the shape of christmas trees (makes about 6 trees)
  3. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C (150 fan)
  4. Line 12 well muffin tin with cupcake cases
  5. Cream butter and caster sugar together and soft and creamy
  6. Add egg, flour, coco powder and milk into the mixture and combine them all together
  7. Fold in the melted chocolate into the cake batter
  8. Divide the cake mix into the cupcake cases
  9. Quarter 6 cherries and put 4x quarters into each cupcake cake
  10. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until risen. Test with clean skewer and it should come out clean
  11. Take it out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature
  12. Whip the cream until soft peaks and fold in the icing sugar
  13. Pipe cream on the cupcakes and decorate with the remaining cherries, piped chocolate tree
  14. Use a fine grater to grate a block of chocolate directly above the cupcakes to decorate with shavings 
Ingredients (chocolate orange cupcakes)
  • 65g unsalted butter (very soft and room temperature)
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 100g self raising flour
  • 30ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
  • Orange zest from 1 whole orange
  • 30ml milk (full fat or semi skimmed)
  • 120g dark chocolate (45-60% coco solid), broken into small pieces
  • 70ml double cream 
  • 1 tsp of orange extract
  1. Make the chocolate orange ganache first by boiling the double cream with 25g caster sugar
  2. Once the cream is boiled and sugar completely dissolved, take it off the heat and swirl it in the saucepan for a minute and add to the chocolate
  3. Stir chocolate until it has melted and stir in 1 tsp of orange extract and about 1/3 of the orange zest
  4. Leave the ganache in the fridge to firm up a little until piping consistency
  5. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C (150 fan)
  6. Cream the soft butter and 75g caster sugar together
  7. Add eggs, flour orange juice to the mixture and mix slightly
  8. Gradually add in the milk until everything the batter has been incorporated
  9. Divide the cake batter into the cupcake cases
  10. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until well risen and the skewer comes out clean when tested
  11. Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool down to room temperature
  12. Pipe the chocolate orange ganache over the cupcake

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Rhubarb crumble muffins

Crumbles are often considered a fail safe homemade dessert. But I've never actually made it, NOT ONCE! So, I thought despite never made a crumble OR a muffin EVER, I've decided to combine the two and make my life difficult by combining the two!

Ingredients (makes 12)

  • 250g rhubarb (diced)
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsps vegetable oil
  • 120ml milk (full fat/semi-skimmed)
  • 2 tsps vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 200g self raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 75g unsalted butter
  • 75g muscovado sugar 
  • 75g plain flour
  • 35g porridge oat
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  1. Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C/200 fan
  2. Place muffin case into the 12 hole muffin tin
  3. Mix muscovado sugar, plain flour cinnamon and porridge oat together
  4. Rub in sugar into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumb, set it aside and start preparing the filling
  5. Cut rhubarb along the length and cut it into 1.5-2cm cubes
  6. Add caster sugar to rhubarb and mix
  7. Add vegetable oil, milk, vanilla extract and egg together and mix well
  8. Sift and add self raising flour and baking powder to wet ingredients and mix well
  9. Divid batter into the 12 muffin cases, fill 3/4 of the way
  10. Place crumble on the muffin batter
  11. Bake for 15-20 minutes, make sure to rotate the muffin tin if one side of the oven bakes hotter than the other side 

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Standard mille feuille

The mille feuille literally means thousand leaves. It is also known as a custard slice and the Napoleon. It is made with three puff (rough puff or full puff) pastry pieces, each piece separated by a layer of vanilla flavoured custard cream or mousseline. I have previously covered the recipe for a full puff pastry here

Ingredients (for 5-6 mille feuilles) 

  • Puff pastry (shop bought or homemade)
  • 150ml milk
  • 20g caster sugar + extra full pastry caramelisation 
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 10g corn flour
  • 2 tsps vanilla essence
  1. Cut the pastry into desired size at about 3-4mm thick and put back in the fridge(N.B. you need 3 slices for each piece of mille feuille)
  2. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C 
  3. Sprinkle some caster sugar on the pastry
  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the surface is crisp and golden brown, take it out of oven to cool down
  5. Beat egg yolks with sugar, vanilla essence and corn flour 
  6. Heat milk in a saucepan until it starts to boil
  7. Pour milk gradually into egg mixture whilst whisking it the entire time
  8. Pour the whole mixture back into saucepan over medium heat and whisk the entire time until it thickens
  9. Take mousseline off the heat and let it cool 
  10. Pipe mousseline between the pastry layers 
This goes very well with berry sauces, to make the sauces, simply blend 120-150g berries and add desired amount of sugar (start with 5g and increase if necessary) and 2g corn flour. Put puree over moderate heat until it starts to boil and take it off the heat to cool down. Pour over mille feuille to finish. 

Monday, 13 May 2013

Coffee and walnut cake

It has been a while since I last blogged about a recipe. I made this cake on Sunday for a friend's birthday at her request. Personally, I'm not a big fan of coffee, so have never attempted a coffee flavoured cake until now. But here it is! 

Ingrdients
  • 150g self raising flour
  • 120g+50g caster sugar in separate containers
  • 5 large eggs, separated
  • 80g unsalted butter
  • 5 tsps instant coffee granules
  • 4 tbsps boiling water
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract 
  • 40g finely chopped walnut+extra for decoration
  • 350ml double cream
  • 2 tbsps icing sugar 
  1. Dissolve coffee with boiling water and set aside to cool
  2. Heat butter until melted and set aside to cool for 30-40 minutes
  3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 23cm round cake tin
  4. Mix flour, chopped walnut and 120g sugar
  5. Add melted butter, egg yolks and 2 tbsps of coffee essence to flour and sugar and mix until it is a dropping consistency (you may need to add 10-20ml of water at this stage)
  6. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with electric whisk and add remaining sugar a little at a time until the egg white has formed soft peaks
  7. Mix in 1/4 of egg whites  and fold in the rest into the cake mix
  8. Pour cake mix into tin and bake for 55-65 minutes
  9. Test with a clean skewer and it should come out clean
  10. Let cake cool slightly in tin for 5 minutes and take it out to cool
  11. Whip double cream until thick and add in remaining coffee essence to the cream along with icing sugar, if it is not sweet enough, add another tsp of icing sugar
  12. Slice cake horizontally into two and fill with 1/3 of coffee cream
  13. Spread remaining coffee cream over the rest of the cake and decorate with walnut and chocolate as desired. 

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

The Liebster award...what is this you ask?

For those of you who don't know what a Liebster award is, it is an award for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers and is generally an honour we bloggers share with other friendly fellow bloggers. Apparently, Liebster means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved and welcome in german. I didn't know about this either before I was nominated and looked up what this award is about! 

For those who aren't frequent browsers of my blog, I am a PhD student in the field of tumour research and I bringing my beloved calculations and precise measurements into baking as well! I have a bunch of lovely friends and colleagues who enjoy tasting my bakes and keep me inspired with ideas. If you are a keen baker and would like to get in touch with your inner geek, I would recommend this book to you. Science of Bakery Products by William P Edwards. 

Now, moving on to the serious stuff. To follow the tradition and rule of the Liebster award, I have answered the questions set by my nominee, the lovely and talented Lucy scott. http://www.lucyscottbakesalot.blogspot.co.uk

  • What is your favourite baking "discipline" and why
I love making tarts, you can make them look absolutely spectacular with decorations of sparkling fruits and the combination is limitless. It is versatile, whether you decide to have a warm or cold filling, sober or alcoholic. Also, I tend to use less flour and sugar in a tart, so it's a "healthier" alternative to cakes!
  • and your least favourite ?
Biscuits, by far, I just find them so delicate and a pain to make! It's so hard to get the right consistency! Many would argue, but let's just say I'm not gifted in the field of biscuits is an understatement to not gifted. 
  • Do you watch The Great British Bake Off .. who is your favourite EVER contestant and why?
Oh, the amazing Great British Bake Off! Who knew a baking program can be so jam packed with drama! My favourite contestant EVER was Holly Bell from series 2. Holly was so persistent in perfecting everything and she has clearly practised a lot for all the things she has made and it is so inspiring! I can relate to her in the sense that I believe practice makes perfect! 
  • What made you decide to take up blogging, what keeps you carrying on?
It started off as a way to keep a copy of tried recipes and to share personal experiences, tricks and advice with others who may want to make the same thing. But eventually, I wanted to infuse a bit of science into it too to interest others in science through our shared passion in baking! It's lovely and nice to see an encouraging comment every now and then about my recipes and also the fact some people have actually read my blog to help them with their own baking. 
  • When you are not whipping up a storm in the kitchen what else ticks your boxes to pass the time? 
When I'm not in the kitchen??? That's hard to imagine! Hunting for good bakeries, go see the odd musicals and plays and I'm also keen on writing. 
  • What has been your biggest baking success .... ?
The first time I managed a successful chocolate chestnut flavoured chiffon cake! You have no idea how hard it was to get the chestnut flavour to shine with the chocolate! But they really do harmonise each other once you get the balance right! (a little bit of dark rum in the chestnut cream helped a lot!)
  •  And disaster .. 
Where do I begin?! The genoise sponge is my arch nemesis! Sometimes it turns out great, sometimes it doesn't, but I can never quite seem to get the hang of it! Frustrating little thing!
  • From which country do you get your biggest baking inspiration, for example rustic italian breads or the good old British Victoria sponge? 
A lot of people would think France, but I'm actually quite big on the Japanese culture. They are not known for their breads, but their combination of flavours for cakes and other desserts are fantastic! Taste, appearance, texture are impeccable. 
  • Who inspired you to take up baking?
I'm what you would call self inspired. No one really baked very much around me, it was the fact I love eating sweets and baked goods that got me baking at the start and what is keeping me baking now!
  • What is the best cake / bake you have eaten and still dream about .. ? 
There was this amazing cotton chocolate cheesecake I tasted in China, but I have never been able to find it again. The pastry chef has apparently moved on. It was so light and fluffy and so rich in flavour. The texture was that of a angel cake, but the flavour was chocolate and slightly cheesy! I really miss it!

I would like to nominate:
  1. Jen at Blue kitchen bakes, I came across Jen the first time when she encouraged me to make breads, which I was rubbish at. She also hosts a monthly classic french challenge, which is a great way to know how other people put their own spin in classic recipes. 
  2. Lauren at A baked thesis, Lauren is talented and extremely encouraging and comes up with many original recipes. Not only that, she was baking her way through her PhD, which is what I'm also doing at the moment. 
  3. Ryan at Baked with Kindness, Ryan is truly passionate about baking, often infusing new flavours and his own spin in classic recipes. He also keeps us updated on many news in the food world, from new recipes, books and even mobile apps!
  4. Zoe at Bake for happy kids, the name says it all, it's so sweet! 
Here are my questions for all of you who got nominated:
  1. What is the best bakery/patisserie (in your opinion) you've been to?
  2. What is your favourite bake and why?
  3. Who is the favourite person in the world you like to share your bake with?
  4. What distracts you the most (e.g. TV? Books? The person in the corner wearing a dinosaur costume?)
  5. If you can live anywhere, where would that be?
  6. If I say "bazinga", what would you think of?
  7. Have you ever helped out with a cake sale for charity? If you have, what was the most selling good?
  8. Would you go to the gym just so you can pig out on all the food you enjoy?
  9. Who inspired you the most in  your life and why?
  10. If you had a dog and a cat, they both fell into the water, which would you save first?