Homemade Vanilla Extract

Quick post today to show you how easy it is to make your own vanilla extract. I made mine back in August but not had a chance to blog about it yet. I've been using it in my cakes and it's delicious! It's definitely worth making this at home if you bake a lot as a small bottle of vanilla extract costs quite a fair bit. The best thing about this is that it lasts for years and once you've made the first bottle, you can continue topping it up and you'll have an everlasting supply of vanilla extract! 

Disclaimer: This is NOT an advertisement for the brand of vodka shown here. I initially bought a beautiful Kilner bottle but in the process of sterilising it by putting it in the oven, the cap melted off so I was unable to use it. Besides it's cheaper and simpler to use the bottle that your alcohol comes in! 

 1 x 350ml bottle of clear alcohol (vodka in this case) and 10 vanilla pods which I ordered online 

 Pour out a small glass of vodka and place the vanilla pods inside. I also scraped out the vanilla seeds into the bottle so that the flavour develops quicker. 

 This is what it looks like to start with 

 after 1 week.. a bit of colour developing 

 after 4 weeks, its ready to use

Tips : 

Store in a dark, cool cupboard.

Shake the bottle every so often. 

Continue topping up with vodka as you use up the vanilla extract.

If you have any spare vanilla pods that you've used in baking, wash and dry them and then pop them in the bottle. 

Pour them into little presentation jars and tie with a ribbon for a Christmas or birthday gift for bakers.

Banana Loaf and GBBO Learn to Bake book review

In addition to being a bakingaddict and blog challenge addict, I am also a cookbook addict. I was really excited when I was asked if I wanted to review the new Great British Bake Off book as I love the series and have all the other books in my collection.

Learn to Bake 80 easy recipes for all the family is due out on 25th October 2012. RRP is £18.99 but I see it's now selling for £8.54 on amazon. If you fancy winning one for free then read on!

Here's a sample of some of the cakes in the book....

The book has 223 pages and has a lovely colourful layout. One of my bug bears about cookbooks is that they don't have enough pictures so I was pleased to see a lot of photos in this book (more than the previous book - GBBO How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers) There are step by step photos, photos of the actual bake and photos of kids playing. 

The book is divided into 6 chapters. It starts with a foreward by Mary Berry, then a helpful section on baking ingredients, equipment, tips and conversion tables. The chapters are

Cakes

Cupcakes & Little Bakes

Biscuits

Bread

Pastry

Puddings

My verdict - I really like the style of writing for this book. The recipes are clearly set out with tips and techniques throughout. The font is a good size and I love the splashes of colour in the book.  Perfect for the amateur baker but would also appeal to the more experienced baker. As mentioned I love the amount of photos in the book - it's not 1 per recipe but it's close. My personal favourite of the Great British Bake Off books so far.

The publishers have very kindly offered a book to one of my lucky readers so read on or scroll to the bottom to enter the giveaway. Open to UK residents only. Closing date is 8th November 2012. Winner will be picked at random by rafflecopter.

I decided to try out the banana loaf which was a marbled banana chocolate loaf. It was moist and delicious and everyone loved the marbled look. I'll have to make them into mini loaves next time! 

 alternate colours

 swirl to get the marbled effect 

Recipe reproduced with permission from the publisher

100g unsalted butter
250g self raising flour
150g light brown muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
250g peeled ripe bananas (2-3)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons hot water from the kettle
icing sugar and cocoa powder, for dusting

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Put the butter in the saucepan and melt gently over low heat; cool.
• Put the flour and sugar into one of the mixing bowls and stir with the wooden spoon to break up any lumps of sugar. 
• Add the sugar to the pan of cool but still melted butter and mix well with the fork. 
• Use the fork to mash the bananas on a plate - there should still be some small lumps. 
• Add the egg mixture and the bananas to the flour mixture and mix well with the wooden spoon. 
• Spoon half of the mixture into the other mixing bowl. 
• Put the cocoa into the heatproof bowl and carefully stir in the hot water to form a smooth paste. 
• Stir the cocoa paste into one portion of the banana mixture. 
• (2 options are given in the book - mini loaves or a large loaf. Obviously I made a large one)
• Using 2 small or large spoons for each mixture (one for scooping the mix and the other for scraping it off the spoon), add alternate spoonfuls of the banana mix and cocoa mix into the loaf tin.
• You can leave them looking like dark and light spots or swirl the 2 colours together by drawing a chopstick or spoon handle through them.
• Bake for about 45 minss (large loaf); 20-25 minutes (mini loaves).
• Test using the skewer test (it should come out clean)
• Allow to cool on a wire rack. 
• Before serving, sprinkle lightly with sifted icing sugar and then with cocoa powder.  

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of the book to review free of charge. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. The first three pictures are supplied by the publisher and reproduced with permission. 

And now for the giveaway....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spiced Apple, Honey and Beer Cake

I'm sure you can tell by now that I love experimenting in the kitchen and creating new recipes when I can. This month's Baking with Spirit hosted by Janine from Cake of the Week has the theme of beer. I have a bottle of apple beer in my fridge from my last trip to Belgium so I got to thinking about making a cake with it and came up with this recipe. It's a vegan recipe with lots of spices, apple, honey and of course beer. The cake itself was quite moist and sticky and you can definitely smell and taste the beer! I'm not overly keen on this cake but I'm glad I tried it and I'm sure if I experimented with the recipe a bit more, I could come up with something much tastier! 

I'm also sending this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make something from scratch. 

 

And to simple and in season as apples are in season. Simple and in season was created by Ren from Fabulicious Food and guest hosted this month by Franglaiskitchen. 

 apple beer from Belgium and fresh Bramley apples 

 adding lots of spices! 

 adding the beer

 note to self - must chop apples into smaller pieces next time

 I decided to make mini loaves as they look so cute...

 ...especially with a ribbon around it! 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

Makes 11 mini loaves as shown. 

400g flour

175g honey

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground all spice

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

330ml apple beer

2 Bramley apples - peeled, cored and chopped

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• In a large jug, mix the beer and honey together.
• Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
• Pour in the beer and honey mixture and mix well.
• Finally stir in the chopped apples - you can also grate the apples if you want a finer texture. 
• Pour into mini loaf cases and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Plum Cupcakes

It's time for yet another Random Recipe challenge set by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. This month the theme is store cupboard finds where we are asked to reach into our cupboards and pull out the first thing you touch then pick a cookbook, turn to the index and find a recipe which has the item in your hand. So with trepidation I opened my overflowing cupboard and reached far into the back and came up with this.... 

 a bottle of homemade plum jam that my colleague gave me quite possibly hoping for a baked item from it. I've now left that job but I did use it in a cake as she probably intended! :) 

I knew that I wanted to make cake with it so I looked at my bookshelf and pulled out my trusted Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I turned to the index and what do you know on page 111 a recipe for plum cupcakes. Score! 

It's a fairly simple recipe with buttermilk and plum jam which creates a very moist cake. It has jam baked in the cake and sandwiched in the middle of the cake. It tasted very much of plums which incidentally is not my favourite fruit. I thought the cakes were a little too sweet and dense but they are definitely worth a try if you have some plum jam to spare. 

I'm also entering this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked and co hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is jams, chutneys, curds and conserves. The plum jam is homemade (although not by me!) and I used the whole jar for the cake and icing so I hope this entry qualifies!

I'm also sending this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior as the ingredients are homemade jam and fresh plums to decorate. No artificial flavours or colours here!

 plum jam, brown sugar, 4 egg yolks and buttermilk 

 fill the cake 1/3 full 

 add a teaspoon or so of jam 

 then top with another 1/3 of batter 

 fresh from the oven 

 decorate with slices of fresh plum

 you can see the jammy layer in between 

Recipe from hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Makes 18 cupcakes

For the cupcakes 

120g butter

340g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

300g light brown sugar (I reduced the amount of sugar as it seemed too much)

180ml buttermilk

270g plum jam 

For the frosting

400g icing sugar (again I reduced the amount)

160g butter

50ml milk

50g plum jam (original states 70g but I didnt have enough)

Fresh plum slices to decorate

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Mix the butter, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles coarse crumbs.
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, buttermilk and 120g of the plum jam until well combined. 
• Add half to the dry ingredients and mix well. 
• Add the remaining half and continue mixing.
• Fill each cupcake case 1/3 full of batter. 
• Place 1 teaspoon of plum jam followed by another 1/3 of batter. 
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Make the frosting by whisking the icing sugar with butter.
• Pour the milk in slowly and continue whisking until light and fluffy. 
• Finally, stir in the plum jam.
• Spread the frosting on top of your cooled cupcakes and decorate with slices of fresh plum. 

National Baking Week 2012

It's the end of National Baking week which ran from Oct 15th - Oct 21st 2012. I remember going to see the giant cake display last year which was at King's Cross station which you can read about here. It was in the shape of the London tube map and the tube stations had cool names related to baking. This year they've created a cake in the shape of a UK map and looks equally impressive. You can see a video of the cake assembly here. Personally, I preferred last year's design but they are both brilliant and I can't wait to see what they come up with next year! Here are some photos I took of the display this year which was at Westfield Stratford City. 

Neiman Marcus Cookies

I have been wanting to make this cookie for a long time ever since I read about the $250 Neiman Marcus cookie recipe. Legend has it that a mother and daughter asked if they could buy the cookie recipe as it was so good and she was told it's "two-fifty." When she got her credit card statement a month later, it was actually $250, not $2.50 as she thought so she decided that she would share the recipe for free with everyone.  You can read the full story here. 

These cookies were really delicious! I can see why someone would ask to buy the recipe. It's a crispy cookie and had the right balance of chopped nuts, chocolate chips and ground oats. A definite winner and I've had so many compliments about these cookies, I'll have to make them again! 

I'm sending this to my own AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month as the is letter N for Neiman Marcus (and nuts).  Remember to check out my co-host Caroline's blog next month for November's letter.

 blitz oats to a fine powder 

  add chocolate chips and ground mixed nuts

 ready to go in the oven 

 yum! 

Makes a lot of cookies! approximately 70-80 cookies
I adapted the recipe slightly by reducing the sugar and chocolate chip amounts which I've shown here.

300g plain flour
210g rolled oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225g butter
200g light brown sugar
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
300g chocolate chips
175g chopped mixed nuts

• Preheat the oven to 180c.
• Blitz the rolled oats in a food processor until it resembles a fine powder. 
• Cream the butter and sugars until smooth.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
• Mix in the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips and mixed nuts. 
• Use an ice cream scoop to place a scoop of cookie dough spaced apart on a lined baking tray. 
• Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown.
• The cookies will still be soft but will harden as it cools.
• Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.