Great Bookish Bake off – Cornflake Tart

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them. 

Oh it feels like forever since I’ve done one of these posts, it feels even longer since I last ate this creation! In fact, I haven’t had it since I left school at eighteen! Actually, I’ve never seen this served anywhere else other than at school!

Cornflake tart, just like the school dinner ladies used to make!

A post shared by leah-marie smith (@leeeeeeeeah) on Apr 9, 2017 at 1:28pm PDT

Did anyone else have cornflake tart at school or was it just a west country thing?
For those who didn’t get to experience this, you are in for a treat cos I’m about to tell you exactly how to make it! First though, what on Earth is it?
It is a biscuity/pastry base covered in jam and then topped in cornflakes and golden syrup.
Yes. I know. It’s an odd concept, but bare with me. I used to love this stuff during school dinners and the other day, my brother posted a photo of himself frying cornflakes on Facebook, which naturally was questioned and it turns out, he had acquired a recipe for the very thing we had at school, so I gave it a go whilst reading Unconventional, which, if you are a fan of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, I think you might enjoy.
So, let’s a go.

You will need:
A mixing bowl
A cake tin
A frying pan
100g flour
50g butter (I used dairy free, but that’s really up to you)
a shot glass of water
a healthy dollop of golden syrup
10g sugar
Some cornflakes
A knob of butter.

Firstly, put the butter and flour into a mixing bowl and with your hands rub together to form breadcrumbs – see what I mean about being a bit like pastry? Anyway, once you get breadcrumbs, pour in your water shot and with a spoon, mix until you form a ball of dough, kneed the ball of dough until you’re happy with the consistency and then pat into the cake tin, making sure it is flat.

Pop it into the oven for 20 minutes, during which time you can start reading – like I said, I had Unconventional on the go, which is a story about the daughter of a man who runs conventions, you know, like comic con and well she has a meet cute with a guy who ends up being a convention guest and well, its a cute nerd love kind of story and there frankly aren’t enough of those in my life.

Once your base is cooked, set it aside to cool and get your frying pan ready. Drop a knob of butter and let it melt. Then add in the sugar and the golden syrup, stirring until combined, pour in the cornflakes and stir until coated. Leave on the heat while you spread jam over the biscuity base making sure it is completely coated. Spoon the cornflake mixture on top and pop back into the oven for five minutes, which probably doesn’t give you much reading time, but you can at least get the washing up done.

Leave the – what should we call this? Cornflake tart? Whatever, leave the cornflake cake biscuit, pie thing to cool for a few minutes before taking out of the cake tin and then settle down with a slice and the beverage of your choice to finish off another chapter of your book.

Let me know if you had this at school or if you’re trying it, I want to know if this is a national thing or just a my school thing!

Great Bookish Bakeoff – Ginger apple cake

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them.

Is anyone else devastated that we’ve now had the last ever bake off as we know it? Whatever happens with the future of baking on TV, these posts will continue because I bloody love cake.

So, here’s the story, I was perusing Facebook, as you do, and I saw a post from someone who had made a cake using a box mix and a can of sprite, so naturally, I had to give that a go too, behold my dairy free ginger apple cake!

You will need:
A mixing bowl
Two round cake tins
A sauce pan
A box of Betty Crocker ginger cake mix
Some icing sugar
Cold water
Three apples
Cinnamon
Brown sugar
A can of sprite

First, pour the box of cake mix into a mixing bowl and gradually add the sprite, stirring as you do until you get what resembles cake mix. Split this into two and put them into your cake tins (either line them with baking paper or grease them, whatever!) pop them in the oven on 180 for 25 minutes.
While that’s baking, chop and skin your apples, put them in a sauce pan with cold water, sugar and cinnamon, pop a lid on the pan and leave to boil for 20 minutes or so, which should give you enough time to read something!
I was reading an ARC sent to me called Saying Goodbye to London, honestly, I was finding excuses to not read it, I don’t know if it is the writing style or if it is how unlikable the characters are, but I was struggling. So, I figured I’d reward myself with cake if I got through a couple of chapters.

Once your cake is done (take a moment to be amazed that it worked because I totally did), leave it to cool and see to your apples, what you should have is stewed apples and these are what you are going to stick the cake together with. Create your cake/apple tower and leave it to completely cool before making standard icing, gradually adding water to icing sugar until you end up with smooth icing, drizzle over the top and voila! You have a dairy free cake that tastes like cake and no need to go out finding eggs or oil! Next time you fancy cake but don’t have any of the key ingredients, don’t fret as long as you have something fizzy and a packet mix, you are good to go!

Great Bookish Bake Off – Dairy free chocolate brownies!

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them

Firstly, I can’t make this post and not mention the absolute travesty that is the bake off controversy. I haven’t been this upset since Brexit. That aside, this series has been great, Selasi is my fave, he reminds me of someone I know and its just too much!
Anyway, partly inspired by bake off, partly inspired by a recipe I saw on the internet and partly because I was approaching my day of birth and cake… Well… I decided to give these a try and then tell you about them – so here we go – dairy free brownies that can also be made peanut butter flavoured and gluten free. LETS GO. Though it became a bit of a monster as you can see. It did taste pretty good  though.

What you will need:
A mixing bowl
A wooden spoon
A baking tray (I did not have a deep enough baking tray and instead made this in a loaf tin. ROOKIE ERROR)
320g flour (I used self raising, but feel free to use gluten free stuff if you like!)
240g brown sugar
240g caster sugar
225ml cold water
225ml vegetable oil
2 tea spoon vanilla extract
80g dark chocolate
optional – 1 table spoon of peanut butter/ biscoff spread. Whichever you prefer, I put biscoff in mine because caramel.
Your other option is a book to read while baking cos this does take a while. I was reading Emmaline Pankhurst’s autobiography, My Own Story, which is so interesting. I might have to make a post all about it when I’ve finished.

Firstly, get your mixing bowl and wooden spoon ready, then add all the dry ingredients first. Mix the flour, sugars and cocoa powder together. Once that’s all mixed in add the optional spread if you want to use it, oil, vanilla, chocolate and mix it again. Once you’re happy with the constistency, pour into your baking tray. Cos you’d have been clever enough to find out if you had one of those before you started making this right? Stick it into the for 45 minutes on 170 degrees and get reading.

Like I said, I just started reading Emmaline Pankhurst’s autobiography and it is so interesting! I’m a bit history nerd anyway and I’ve been wanting to read more about women’s suffrage and gender politics, so I was pretty happy to find this in my library. Its super interesting so far and I’ve learned so much more about the movement and how it came about. Also, its made me rethink Gladstone’s place on my list of favourite prime ministers. Yes. I have a list of favourite prime ministers. Gladstone was on it. Now I’m not so sure.

Anyway, would be interested to see if any of you guys give this recipe a go and if you actually manage to cook it in a tray…

The Great Bookish Bake Off – Eggless Meringue?!

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them. 

Yes, you did read that right, this is meringue, as in crispy on the outside, marshmallowy on the inside meringue and not an egg in sight!
Do you ever get the urge for baked goods and then realise you have no ingredients and your nearest super market closed ten minutes ago? Its something I get a lot, its why I should really stop watching Come Dine with Me marathons. They always leave me wanting desert and its always a really inconvenient time of day in which to go get desert. If you’re a seasoned vegan, this recipe won’t be new to you, but if like me, your someone that is fairly new to vegan baking and is also someone who doesn’t tend to have things like egg in the house while watching cooking shows where suddenly pavlova is on offer, this might interest you!

What you will need:
A can of chickpeas,
A mixing bowl,
Caster sugar,
An electric whisk,
A baking tray
Also a book, if you like for when they’re cooking.

I know, I know, you’re hung up on the chickpea thing right? Well, hold up and I’ll splain you a thing.
Open that tin of chickpeas, and drain the contents into the mixing bowl, now, do what you will with those chickpeas, but put them somewhere safe for now because all you really need is the juice. Yes, you read that right. It might sound weird af, but you’re going to need the weird bean water that your chickpeas were living in.
So now you have your bean juice in your mixing bowl, plug in the electric whisk and whisk that bean juice for ten minutes, after a while it starts to look exactly like egg whites! At this point, you should start slowly pouring in the caster sugar while continuing to whisk. You’ll need the same measurement of sugar as you had bean juice, so judge this on the size of your tin. Ya’ll know how meringues work, but basically you need to whisk together until you get the stiff peaks you would with normal meringue. When you’re satisfied, dollop your mixture onto a lined baking tray and cook on 180 degrees for 40-50 minutes, depending on how hot your oven gets, you may want to adjust the time. Mine were ready in 45 minutes!

However long they take, you will have time to do a spot of reading! I was finishing off Me Before You by JoJo Moyes – I’ve heard mixed reviews about the movie, anyone seen it? I had mixed feelings about the book, so I’m not sure whether to see it or not… Thoughts?

Anyway, once these are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool down before enjoying them – they are exactly as you’d imagine meringues to be! So next time you get that Come Dine with Me induced desert feeling and have no eggs (or you’re vegan and you fancy meringues) then give this a go!

Great Bookish Bakeoff – Vegan mug cake?

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them. 

Do you ever just think while reading, man, some cake would go great with this, well, wonder no more because I have the perfect recipe for you and you don’t even need to worry about having eggs in your house or time in which to bake something, this is eggless, can be made dairy free and can be cooked in a microwave, I present you with my first ever mug cake.

You will need:
A microwaveable mug/dish etc
4 table spoons of self raising flour
1/4 tea spoon of baking powder
3 tablespoons of the milk of your choice (I went for soya)
2 and 1/2 table spoons of sugar
1 table spoon of oil
A jiff lemon.
And a book. If you happened to be reading when the urge for cake hit.

Firstly, get your bowl/mug/ whatever. Into this you will need to add your dry ingredients and mix and then add your wet ingredients, depending on how lemony you want this depends on how much of your jiff lemon you choose to squirt in there, I went for a tablespoon. I really like lemons though I should point out.
Mix all of that together until it vaguely resembles cake mix and pop it in the microwave for 90 seconds, during which time you can prepare any sides you want to go with it – I added some fresh mango and a dollop of Swedish Glace ice cream to the top of mine. Your microwave will alert you to finished cake and as long as the top is firm, you are good to go! And you don’t even need to stop reading for all that long!

Great Bookish Bakeoff: What the Fox biscuits

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them. 

Guys, I’ll be honest, this isn’t a new recipe, but I did kind of want to A) show off how my decorating skills have improved and B) end the debate once and for all, do these look like foxes or do they look like puppies? You decide!

What you will need:
A mixing bowl
A rolling pin
A piping bag
A fox shaped cookie cutter.
For the biscuits:
175g flour (use self raising if you want larger fluffier biscuits or plain if you want more biscuity biscuits)
100g of butter/marg (I used the lactose free stuff being all lactose intolerant and that)
50g caster sugar
2 table spoons of water.
You could add some vanilla essence in there if you’re feeling crazy, but I flavoured the icing so I didn’t bother)
For the icing:
100g butter
200g icing sugar
food colouring (I only had pink to hand)
1 cap full of vanilla essence
and some black writing icing for the faces.
Also the book of your choice. I was reading How Many Letters Are in Goodbye. Which was a bit heavy going, which is why I turned to baking. You can see the review here.

Firstly, weigh out the butter and the sugar, cut the butter into manageable chunks and put it in the mixing bowl, add the sugar and stir until its one big slightly yellowy, sugary paste. Basically, when your arm starts hurting, keep going, you’re probably no where near done. Or, if you’re sensible, you could use a mixer. I have one of those. It is still at my parent’s house. I don’t live there anymore.
Once the butter and sugar is successfully combined, weight out and sieve in the flour, get this all mixed in and then drop in your water and stir until it combines to make a dough. Get your hands in and kneed it about a bit, if its sticky, add more flour and if its dry and crumbly, add more water. Eventually, you should end up with a ball of dough which you will need to chill in the fridge for about an hour.
Which of course is ample reading time!
When you’re hour is up, roll out the dough using your rolling pin on a floured surface to your desired thickness and the cut out using the foxy cookie cutters. You can then arrange these very carefully on a baking tray lined with foil. Bake in a pre heated oven on 180 degrees for 15-20 mins or until they start to look golden and brown. I never understood that kind of instruction until I moved somewhere with a see through oven door. I can watch my food cook now. It’s amazing!

You could wash up during the baking time, or like me, you could return to your book for another fifteen minutes. Either way, you’ll be briefly interrupted by the things being done, but can return to whichever task you prefer while waiting for them to cool. Which could take up to two chapters, I’m just talking from my experience. When you’re done with the two chapters/the cooling, whichever comes first, you will need to prepare your icing. Again, much easier if you have a mixer. I should get on that. When you’re all mixed up, split the icing into two bowls, you’ll need more in one than the other as this is going to be the main body of the foxes and to this one you’ll need to add the food colouring. Of course, you guys will have been clever and bought orange or red colouring, right? Yeah. Thought so.
When the icing is the appropriate colour, add it to a piping bag and dab onto the biscuits to create the impression of fur. Or do what I did. Either way, it’s all good. When you’re foxy bodies are coated, clean out the piping bag, or use a new one if you’re that way inclined and finish off with the non coloured icing and then, add your face details and DONE. You have created foxy biscuits. Or puppy biscuits…

Great Bookish Bake Off – Vegan Pancakes

The cakes I bake and the books I read while baking them. 

Are you vegan or have a dairy allergy? Realised right at the last moment that it’s pancake day but you don’t have any eggs? Do you hate bananas? Well, then, stay tuned because I have just perfected a completely dairy free pancake recipe and there isn’t a banana in sight! One of the things that put me off being a vegan for so long was the incessant use of bananas. I bloody hate bananas, I can’t subscribe to anything that uses a mashed banana in a cake of any description. It’s an abomination.

 You will need:
A frying pan
A whisk
Something to mix everything in
Flour – plain, self raising or gluten free, whatever you prefer
Dairy free milk of your choice (I went with unsweetend soya milk)
Oil – vegetable or olive, up to you

Your choice of toppings and then, a book. If you like! I went with Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Mews.

First things first, decide how many pancakes you want. This will help you determine how much flour to pour into your bowl/jug/cup. The pour in your dairy free milk and add a splash of oil. Whisk together until smooth and creamy and then leave it for five minutes. During which time you can prepare your frying pan, or you can do a bit more reading. Up to you. Either way, at some point, your frying pan will need to be coated in more oil, or for the health conscious amongst you, Fry Lite or something similar.
When the pan is nice and hot, pour in your first lot of batter and watch as pancakes happen!
Once you have all your pancakes you can go crazy with your toppings and return to your book! This is my second attempt at Agatha Christie, usually I love detective novels, but the first try with a Poirot book didn’t grab me, which is strange considering how much I love the TV adaptations.

So far I am enjoying this second attempt more than I did the first one!
Also, these pancakes are great by the way and not a single banana in sight!