procrastobaking

I wrote the following article for my college magazine - one of my favourite pastimes!

The procrastobaker.

While the rest of you spend hours sat at your desks perusing Facebook or catching up on iPlayer’s latest offerings, I’ve discovered a whole new sphere in which to procrastinate: the kitchen.

The beauty of baking is that it not only takes up a considerable amount of time, but also results in an end product: a delicious cake. And if your sweet tooth is anything like mine, the endless opportunities afforded by the production of various cookies, cakes, brownies and other sweet treats makes procrastobaking a wonderfully addictive diversion.

A skilled procrastobaker can easily devote an entire day to this pastime. First of all there’s the decision-making process: considerable time ought to be spent choosing the best possible recipe, involving extensive research on the internet, or, if you’re taking the task seriously, a trip to the library to delve into Mrs. Beeton’s archives for extra tips.

Now that you’ve chosen your recipe, a leisurely cycle to Sainsbury’s is usually necessary in order to pick up ingredients.

Back in college, it’s time to get started on your project. Take your time though; you wouldn’t want spoil all your hard work by missing a crucial stage of the recipe.

Once you’ve put your mixture in the oven you’ve got at least an hour to stay close by, admiring the cake rising magically and taking in the mouth-watering aroma it gives off.

When it’s finished cooking, more ambitious procrastobakers might choose to ice or decorate their cake. Again, this is a painstaking process that rewards dedication and ought not to be rushed.

Now it’s time to share the fruits of your efforts with friends: the afternoon is best spent inviting people over and catching up on their news whilst eating a slice or two.

By now your cake has probably been finished off, so you might as well put your evening to good use and begin deciding what you’ll bake tomorrow to replace today’s offering. Or perhaps you ought to bake a second cake to ensure that your staircase doesn’t feel neglected either...

My proudly procrastobaked peach cake. Heaven.

birthday woop woop

It was my twentieth birthday last week (WHERE did my teenage years go?!) and I celebrated with plenty of cake and fabulous company at home with friends and family. ♥

Cakes were beautifully decorated and presented by...my boyfriend! He is now considering pursuing a career change in the line of baked goods...

eat this at your peril

My sister, her boyfriend and I are quite possibly the world's largest peanut butter fans. Our average weekly consumption of Reese's Cups is probably a rather galling statistic. And so, as a birthday present, I set myself the challenge of making the WORLD'S LARGEST REESE'S CUP.

A 500g roll of digestives, large jar of peanut butter, 7 bars of dark chocolate and copious amounts of butter and icing sugar went into that baby (recipe adapted from here). It was a labour of love...and a heart attack waiting to happen. Still, we managed to struggle through it (just about).

I may need my arteries de-clogging soon.

you're taking the biscuit

I was doing some food shopping in Harrods the other day (as you do) and was particularly taken by some really cute biscuits made by Biscuiteers, that took being good enough to eat to a whole new, super-sweet level.

(The middle and bottom biscuits are based on Mulberry designs.)

Evidently undeterred by my disastrous previous baking effort, I decided to try my hand at making some similar biccies of my own, inspired by the sparkliness of Prada's Spring/Summer 2010 collection and finished with silver balls to add to the bling factor:

I did make a shoe biscuit to complete the set, but I overlooked the fact that shortbread is pretty fragile when you take it out of the oven and so its stiletto heel was tragically dislodged. I think I'll leave it to the professionals next time.

too. much. sugar.

Today I spent a lovely day shopping with my beautiful friend Anna, and afterwards we made the rather adventurous (and, in hindsight, probably mistaken) decision to attempt to build a gingerbread house. I was buzzing with inspiration from an absolutely incredible party spread, courtesy of Bakerella, whose cake pops are quite possibly the cutest edible thing on the planet:

Bakerella’s post on a Christmas Party she attended reminded me of some sort of fairytale Willy Wonka-style confectionery dreamworld. Heaven.

However, our venture wasn’t quite so successful. First of all, we ate too much of the dough, so had to make an extra batch. WHAT a shame. Secondly, we baked the gingerbread in massive slabs without thinking of the house’s dimensions, so we ended up having to cut the pieces to size.

Yes, Anna is holding a knife and a ruler here. We were getting rather desperate by this point.

Unfortunately, neither of us are particularly mathematically-minded, so our geometrical endeavours weren’t quite as precise as we’d have hoped. Despite plentiful remedial work in the form of copious amounts of icing in an effort to cement the walls together, the house came tumbling down before our very eyes.

So near…

…and yet so far.

By this point, Anna’s kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it, we were surrounded by scraps of gingerbread, covered in gluey icing, and left at a loss regarding where to go next. Having bought bags upon bags of sweets to decorate the house, we resolved to cover the gingerbread remnants in icing and cover them in the sweets. Perhaps not the prettiest of houses, and definitely not the sturdiest place to live, but certainly awfully scrummy.

Unfortunately I’m now buzzing on a sugar high and my hands are shaking as I type. Nevertheless, it was jolly well worth it…although some savoury cheese wouldn’t go amiss right now.

Let them eat cake

Whilst working at a wedding this weekend, my long-held suspicions were confirmed: the cupcake proliferation truly is global. The Malaysian bride opted for a mountain of cupcakes instead of a traditional wedding cake, to the rapture of guests.

But why, all of a sudden, have we developed such a fascination with these iced concoctions? Why is it that on practically every street corner I pass yet another bakery about to open shop? What is it that has caused this sudden sugar rush?

I blame the recession. Cupcakes offer a bite of self-indulgent luxury without the sickening price tag. And leftover crumbs are a lot easier to explain to whoever’s paying than a pair of Jimmy Choos.

And at a time of widespread unemployment and public malaise, the magical, alchemic process of turning glorified gloop into a fluffy cake is utterly rewarding. Watching someone take a bite out of the fruits of your efforts means so much more than an impersonal store-bought box of chocolates.

Suffice to say that I’ve got the bug. Any excuse to get in the kitchen (revision procrastination being the current favourite) and I’m in there like a shot, cranking up the mixer or liberally pouring vanilla extract to my heart's content. And even though I delight in testing the finished product (plus the mandatory mouthfuls of mixture, of course), the icing on the cake has to be seeing other people relish the results. So dig in.

Me with the multitude of cakes, cookies and other baked bits and bobs that I made for my Mum's partner's 60th birthday last month.