Macmillan Coffee Morning

I have been meaning to write this post since we held our Macmillan Coffee morning at the end of September, so sorry it's late!

On Friday 28th September 2012 my Mum, sister and I took part in the World's Biggest Coffee Morning to raise money for the Macmillan nurses. This is the first year we have taken part and what a great time we had! We have witnessed the wonderful work the Macmillan nurses do and felt that hosting this coffee morning was our way of saying thank you x

This was our first experience of holding a proper bake sale, but we were determined that everything (and I mean everything) would be home made! I must admit, when I was still baking at 2am the morning of the bake sale I thought I was completely mad. My dog was looking at me as if to say, "You crazy lady, go to bed!" But it was so satisfying to be able to say everything on the table was home made. As this was our first time we had no idea how much cake we should make. Our worst nightmare was that we would run out of cake, so in the end we agreed...you can never have too much cake! ;-) Turns out we did have too much cake as we were sending people home with big boxes of the stuff, and our staple food the rest of the week was indeed, cake. But it was worth it! Of course, we couldn't have done it without the help of our beautiful, fantastic, wonderful friends who kindly made some treats for us to sell as well. In the end we had quite a selection!

Strawberry and vanilla cake;
Big old carrot cake with orange cream cheese frosting;
Assorted cupcakes (chocolate, vanilla, chocolate orange and lemon);
Coffee and walnut cake;
Home made fruit scones with clotted cream and jam;
Flapjacks;
Banana bread;
Chocolate caramel slice;
Rocky road squares;
Fruit loaf;
Raspberry and almond shortbread;
Cookies with white and milk chocolate chunks;
Bread pudding;
Rock Cakes



And what a delicious spread it was! Here are a few of the Becca Bakes creations...

Assorted cupcakes: vanilla, chocolate, lemon and chocolate orange

Home made fruit scones. First time I have ever made scones...and I think they turned out pretty well!

Luxurious rocky road with Maltesers, Mars bar, marshmallows and biscuit...see my blog called Chocolate Malteser Slice with a touch of Mars Bar! 

Strawberry and vanilla sponge cake

A whopper of a carrot cake finished with lots of orange cream cheese frosting

Soft and gooey chocolate chunk cookies

The coffee morning kicked off at 11am and went on until the evening. We decorated the house with bunting and balloons (provided by the organisers of the coffee morning) and set up our donation box in the middle of the table. We had invited all our friends, neighbours and family (who weren't at work!) and had a great turn out. Everyone was amazingly generous as well and we raised a total of...are you ready for this?....

£400!!!

We were all so chuffed and I want to say thank you again to everyone who came and supported us. We are planning to do it all again in 2013 so watch this space and let's see if we can make it even bigger than this year!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you to the Macmillan nurses; the work you do is unforgettable and so valued xxx

I hope this inspires some of you to host a cake sale/coffee morning for yourselves. You don't even have to wait until next year. Get baking and raise some money for charity...there are lots of worthy charities out there who always need our help :-)

Happy Baking,

Love Becca <3

Me with my happy cake face on :-)

Baking Challenge 3: Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

I seem to have a bit of an obsession with caramel apple concoctions at the moment but I found this recipe on Disney's Family Fun website and couldn't wait to try it. It's the perfect Autumnal treat and brings together a pie and a crumble in one ;-)

The original recipe (which can be found here) is all in US measurements, so I converted it to my preferred method of grams. The only problem I had was with the crumble topping; I probably made a mistake when converting the measurements, but it was really dough-like and gooey...not crumbly at all! It was easily fixed by adding more flour. I also changed a few bits of the original recipe, for example I added more cinnamon and sugar to the apple mixture.

The recipe also asks for a pre-made pastry base, but I chose to make my own using Jamie Oliver's sweet pastry recipe (which can be found here). I halved the recipe as I didn't need a lid on this pie! 

I also chose to serve the pie up with a spoonful of caramel sauce instead of pouring it on top of the whole pie, which is what the recipe suggests. Each to their own, you decide what you want to do. 

It was a really yummy pie and I will definitely be making it again. 

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

• 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50g icing sugar
• 125g cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 large egg
• splash of milk

1. To make the pastry, sieve the flour onto a clean work surface and sieve the icing sugar on top. Add the butter and work it into the flour and icing sugar using your fingertips, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. PASTRY WORKS BEST WHEN YOU HAVE COLD HANDS! :)
2. Crack in the egg and add the milk if needed to bring it all together. Work it as little as possible.
3. If it's a bit sticky, roll in a little more flour, then wrap in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Roll the pastry out on a floured work surface and place it in the bottom of a well greased pie tin. 

Apple Filling

• 50g caster sugar
• 20g brown sugar
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 6 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Mix together the sugars, flour, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl then stir in the apples so they are coated in the sugar mix.
2. Pour into your pastry case.

Crumble topping

• 110g brown sugar
• 150g flour
• 50g oats
• 110g butter

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until crumbly.
2. Pour on top of the apple filling.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 20-25 minutes. Then cover with foil so the crumble topping doesn't burn and bake for another 20 minutes.

When the pie is cooked, scatter with pecans and serve with caramel sauce (I used Carnation tinned caramel).

Happy Baking!

Love Becca x

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

I love Autumn, it's my favourite time of year. Particularly the lead up to Halloween, just as the leaves turn golden brown and you can spend your evenings snuggled up under a blanket with a cup of tea and a piece of cake! I love autumnal woodland walks with the dog, too. But probably the main reason I love Autumn is it really gets me in the mood for baking lots of home comfort treats. Hot puddings and custard, rich cakes, sweet pies. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! The Americans are big on Halloween and fall baking (pecan pie, pumpkin pie, toffee apples...) and after living in both the US and Canada this tradition has definitely rubbed off on me.

So to kick off the Autumn season I decided to take the traditional caramel apple and turn it into cupcake form.

A deliciously moist apple and cinnamon sponge with a big dollop of caramel buttercream, fudge chunks and a lollipop stick (for authenticity!). I also melted down some chewy toffees and spooned them into the centre of the cupcakes. This made for a sweet, chewy candy surprise in the middle. You could also use fudge or something softer to make a gooier centre. Or nothing at all (I personally think the cupcakes will be just as yummy without it!)

I spent a while searching the net for a good recipe for these cupcakes, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. So I decided to experiment a bit and bought together a few different recipes. I was more than happy with the result!

My Caramel Apple Cupcake Recipe (makes approx 12 large cupcakes)

For the apple cinnamon cupcakes

• 200g soft light brown sugar
• 150ml vegetable oil
• 1.5 tbsp ground cinnamon (I LOVE cinnamon!)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 200g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced

For the caramel buttercream topping

• 150g butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 120g tinned caramel

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin sized cases
2. Beat together the sugar, oil, cinnamon and vanilla
3. Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar mixture
4. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt then gradually fold it into the sugar and egg mixture
5. Stir in the apples
6. Pour into the cases and bake for approx 22mins
7. For the frosting, beat together the ingredients until smooth and creamy then spread/pipe on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with lots of fudge chunks, or nuts or sweets if you wish!
8. If you decide to make a toffee filling, just melt a handful of toffees in the microwave. BE CAREFUL- THIS GETS VERY HOT!!!! Cut a hole in the centre of each cupcake and fill.

Why not decorate your caramel apple cupcake with sweets or nuts instead of fudge? Be as creative as you like...!


Watch this space now as I really get into the full swing of Autumn baking! I have already found a recipe for a delicious looking crunchy caramel apple pie, so I'm thinking that will be my next experiment...

Happy Baking!!!

Love Becca xxx