Royal Iced Biscuits

Two weeks ago I went on a baking course that I brought as a present to myself. I have spent many an hour on Instagram and Pinterest looking at the spectacular biscuit creations that can be made using royal icing. So when I saw there was a course to learn how to do them at the Iced Jems kitchen I decided that was an ideal Christmas present to myself. So off I went, lunch box packed, note pad at the ready, to the day long course which was run by Victoria's Kitchen.

I had such a good day! The course was fantastic, the other students were lovely and the setting was perfect! The Iced Jems shop is a wonderful independent baking supplies shop with a teaching kitchen right in the shop window. I left a very happy bunny with a box of iced biscuits to share with friends that evening and a boot full of biscuit cutters and baking equipment from the shop.

The collage of pictures below are just some of my creations from the day.

The finished results from the course.

I couldn't wait to try the skills I learnt again at home. I was eager to try all the different cutter shapes I had and use lots of different colours.  The icing takes a good few hours so I would highly recommend making your biscuits the day before or a couple of days before you would like to ice them.

Christmas Pud Pinwheels

It's nearly Christmas! Let me start by saying sorry for the lack of blog posts recently - I've been a little busy with a new job, dieting, Christmas shopping and of course Christmas baking. So, in between the strictly comer dancing final as I listen to Michael Bublé I am frantically typing Christmas recipes as there is still plenty time for baking before Santa arrives!

Starting with chocolate and vanilla Christmas pudding pinwheel biscuits. The basic recipe for this was in the November editions of Christmas Heaven magazine, I adapted them slightly to make them Christmas Pud themed.

Vegan Hot Dogs

A few weeks ago I had a lovely weekend in York visiting my bestie - during a little stroll around Bishopthorpe which is a lovely little area of York not far from the centre, we came across a quaint little cookware shop where we both indulged in some new baking bits and bobs. Amongst the things I brought was a hot dog cookie cutter. It wasn't long and I had already decided that I would use this to create 'hot dogs' having been inspired by the puns and play on words that feature so heavily in Frances Quinns 'Quinntessential Baking'.

These biscuits are a dairy free shortbread flavoured with chilli flakes, drizzled with plain chocolate and some extra chills at one end for those who like a bit of a kick! This batch were also made using gluten free flour so that my sister didn't have to miss out! As they were gluten and dairy free the dough is very soft and tricky to handle as it can very easily become misshapen and tear. So, patience is key with this bake. You can of course substitute the dairy free butter for dairy butter and the gluten free flour for standard plain flour if you wish.









Right - lets get baking!

Chocolate Bourbons

This week I've had a number of boring jobs stacking up like going to the bank so, I decided to have a day off work using my stored up toil hours. Fortunately I picked a lovely sunny day so as I type this I am sat in the garden slightly cautious that it doesn't take much sunshine to burn my pasty skin!

As well as doing my boring jobs I decided to do a bit of baking - this was the first baking I have done in a while that was relaxed and wasn't a mad rush late night baking or at a weekend between running here there are everywhere. I really enjoyed taking my time - its reminded me why I use baking as a form of relaxation!

Today's blogging view

Anywhoo less of the chit chat this is a baking blog after all so lets get stuck in. I decided to take part in the secret ingredient challenge hosted by itsabakingthing and today's ingredient was syrup. Rather than going out and spending money I picked a recipe for which I already had everything I needed - chocolate bourbons.  The syrup they include is the ever so sticky, golden syrup. Shop brought chocolate bourbons also happen to be dairy free, so in keeping with this - so are mine.

Jammy Dodgers

So for this last 8 days I have been away from my normal working day and on a training course. At the beginning of the course the usual rules were explained which included an understanding that as busy professionals we may need to answer our mobile phones and that this is ok. However there would be a sanction if it rang out loud during the course. The sanctions were as follows:

1. If it rang once you would have to buy doughnuts for the rest the group
2. If it rang twice you would have to buy cream cakes for the rest of the group
3. If it rang three times you would have to buy a round at the pub at the end of the course

According to the trainers no one had ever made the mistake of letting it happen more than three times but if necessary a further sanction would be created! After 7 days not one phone had rung out so we had to take matters in to our own hands and whilst a phone was left unattended during a break it was quickly switched on to loud, needless to say today lots of doughnuts were eaten!

Anyway, the point of that little tale was that for a two week course tea breaks and treats have proven to be key in keeping us on task and concentrating. So not to disappoint, when my colleagues discovered I enjoy baking I quickly convinced to bring in something for the troops. One of the ladies on the course is dairy and gluten free so I decided to make these little dodgers so that everyone could enjoy a biscuit during our morning tea break. Last week I also made a lemon drizzle cake and some chocolate brownies for my course mates as well.

Right, enough chit chat, lets get baking! 

I used a recipe from 'The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town' and simply substituted standard plain flour for an equal amount of gluten free plain flour. 

Millionaires Shortbread

Along with jam tarts I have also made some millionaires shortbread for the ladies at work this week. I was musing over what I might make and mentioned these when my desk neighbour was very excited I knew that I couldn't let her down.

I love millionaires shortbread. As if normal shortbread isn't tasty enough to add caramel and chocolate is super indulgent. I keep going on about wishing I could eat chocolate so that I can eat some of the things I've been baking - only 75 days to go and I can! Yet another recipe I will be remaking in a couple of months time.

Custard Creams

This week I had every intention of making pork pies as made on last weeks comic relief bake off. However, I decided to delay that bake by a week as my brother in law who is partial to a pork pie is visiting at the weekend so he will be able to sample them and give some constructive feedback as a self proclaimed 'pie expert'. Come back this time next week for the recipe.

Not wanting to go a week without baking something, I thought I'd do something quick and easy (but still tasty!). This is a good recipe to have in your reportire if you fancy a quick bake and a recipe that you'll most likely already have all of the ingredients for.

It's a toss up between custard creams and bourbon creams as to which wins the title of best biscuit in my eyes but as I'm not eating chocolate until July and my Mum has given up chocolate for the month of March for the British Heart Foundation, I opted to make the former.