May 23rd, 2013 § 1
Last week I made a chocolate orange marble cake and decorated with orange buttercream petals. I loved this cake so much that I decided to do a tutorial on how to create this simple but beautiful technique.
I also have included a video tutorial on how to pipe the petals. It’s so much easier than trying to explain it using words and photos! Let me know what you think of the Baking Medic’s youtube debut. :)
May 17th, 2013 § 0
I’m the type of person that thinks “Hmmm. I haven’t made a cake in three weeks…” and decides that that is way too long a time to go without baking a cake. Yes, I know I’m an odd one, but people tend to benefit from my eccentricity so I haven’t had any complaints yet. :)
I decided to make this cake because I wanted to deviate away from my trusty favourites of Dories Perfect Party Cake, the Cake of Death, and Canada’s Best Carrot Cake. These three recipes are my absolute favourite but this blog would get quite boring if every post were just about one of these three recipes.
May 7th, 2013 § 0
Wow. Just wow. As a co-founder and former president of a chocolate society, it’s no secret that I am a chocoholic. I have eaten so much chocolate on occasions that I swear I will never touch the stuff ever again. Yet at coffee time the next morning, you’ll find me looking longingly at the tray bakes and brownies in a coffee shop. I am an incurable chocoholic and I am okay with that. So, I feel rather qualified to say that these cookies will satisfy any chocoholic’s cravings.
These double chocolate cookies are made of a deliciously rich chocolate base that has a generous amount of cocoa in it and also a shameless amount of chocolate chunks. They smelled heavenly whilst in the oven and as soon as the first batch was ready, I couldn’t wait to try them before they had cooled. They were so delicious and gooey! I restrained myself and managed to save half the cookie until it was a bit cooler. It had the perfect cookie texture, having slightly crispy edges and a chewy, fudgey centre. The next day they were still soft and chewy. This is certainly my new favourite chocolate cookie recipe!
May 2nd, 2013 § 0
These bars were a bit of an experiment. I wanted something with that chewy cookie texture but without the bother of having to hover by the oven, waiting for each tray to be done. That is why I love bar cookies! This recipe is a modified version of a popular oatmeal cookie bar that I found on the Food Network website. It was originally made with strawberry jam, but I like raspberry better and I also added some white chocolate chunks. I halved the recipe and converted all the cups to grams (for all those in the UK who are still confused by our strange units of measurement!).
April 25th, 2013 § 1
I think I’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t like these cookies. Everyone likes oreos and these cookies are even better than the original (imho)! The soft chewy texture of the cookies combined with the chocolate biscuit and cream cheese icing is a combination that’s hard to beat. Best of all, these cookies are ridiculously easy to make – no electric mixer or fancy pants equipment required.
April 20th, 2013 § 3
When people hear ‘Neopolitan’, they often associate it with the chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream of their childhood — I know I certainly do (I also used to think it was ‘Napoleon’ ice cream). This is a cake version of that popular flavour combination, with a layer of chocolate cake, strawberry cake, and vanilla cake. The strawberry cake has strawberry puree in it, although I also put some strawberry jam between the layers to give it a stronger flavour.
The inspiration for the icing once again came from Martha Stewart. I was browsing through the wedding cake section and came across this wonderful cake. I knew I couldn’t attempt something as ambitious as that three tiered beauty, but I desperately wanted to try out the piping technique. It looked so elegant and sophisticated. Also, I already had a petal tip (the same one I used for my ruffles cake), and I knew this cake would be a chance to practice piping flowers.
April 12th, 2013 § 1
Recently I made a cake that was covered in white chocolate ganache and topped with golden white chocolate leaves. As I mentioned in that post, I got the idea from Martha Stewart’s website. These leaves are actually quite easy but produce stunning results.
They can be made using white, milk, or dark chocolate. I chose white chocolate simply because I thought it would go better with my cake, however if I’m making a chocolate mousse cake or something in the future, I definitely want to try out this technique using milk or dark chocolate.
April 7th, 2013 § 2
This mocha cake makes a perfect weekend afternoon treat, however in this instance, I made it to reward our volunteer “patients”. As I’ve got exams coming up, I need to practise my clinical examinations on people who don’t know the routines off by heart. It’s hard to make sure you’re being clear enough in your instructions when your patient is already sticking their tongue out before you’ve even finished asking your them your question. O well. Luckily, cake is a strong enough incentive to get some fellow students to give up a bit of their time to be poked and prodded by us baby doctors.
Normally my go to recipe for a chocolate cake is what one of my best friends dubbed “the Cake of Death“. Named so because it’s so rich that the first time she had it, I accidentally gave her an behemoth piece which she claims was almost the death of her. However, this is a food blog dedicated to trying out and sharing new recipes, so I decided to go a little bit out of my comfort zone and try a new chocolate cake recipe.
April 2nd, 2013 § 6
I’ve had the idea for this cake in my head for a while. If you know me at all, you’ve probably heard me talk wistfully about some cake or other baked good that I’ve been thinking about making. My inspiration usually comes from something I’ve seen on a food blog, or whilst wasting time on Foodgawker or something. But sooner or later an idea lodges itself in my brain and usually refuses to budge until I’ve made it. I’m not kidding when I say sometimes I’m so preoccupied by dreaming up my next cake I can have trouble falling asleep. Once I was kept away well past midnight contemplating a chocolate mousse that I was going to make for a baking class.
The idea for this cake was born after watching a Youtube tutorial on how to ganache a cake (yes, I browse Youtube for cake making tutorials…). I loved how crisp the edges of the cake were and it was covered in freaking white chocolate! The last few cakes I’ve made have been iced with a cream cheese buttercream, and although it is delicious, it’s not freaking white chocolate. All over a cake. It had to be done.
March 29th, 2013 § 4
The view of the town from West Sands.
My travels back north to Scotland have come to an end. St Andrews is one of my favourite places in the world. Although it is not the town where I “grew up”, it is certainly the town where I learned what being a “grown up” was all about (still learning!). I haven’t been back since Graduation last June. However, as the bus approached St Andrews last Saturday I felt the overwhelming rush of emotion that told me I was coming home.
In some ways it was strange to be back. Sure, there was a new coffee shop on Bell Street, or another shop on South Street was closing down, but for the most part it was unchanged. I felt like if I blinked I could almost pretend these last few months were a dream, that I had never left this little bubble of existence.
The Baking Medic
