Week 2.1: Cherry Scones

The Evaluation

5/5 stars: Taste. They're amazing.
5/5 stars: Ease of recipe. Very easy!
4.5/5 stars: Presentation. They look pretty appetising :)
4/5 stars: Doesn't take all that long to be honest.
5/5 stars: Overall success.

Original Recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1162675/cherry-scones


Tweaked Recipe:  

Ing.

450g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter
2 tbsp caster sugar
284ml butter milk (or get whole milk and add a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, then wait five mins for it to thicken a little. It's a perfect substitute and what I used ^^)
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
100g glace cherries, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
Jam and cream to serve or butter is good too
 
Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Put flour, salt, butter and bicarbonate soda in a bowl. Rub between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Mix in sugar.
4. Mix in the milk, vanilla and cherries. Add the buttermilk more gradually until it forms a soft dough. Don't use it all if it looks to be too much.
5. Press dough onto floured surface. Now there's several ways of making these. If you don't have cutters, just roll them into little balls. They will rise but not an awful lot so make them slightly smaller than the size you want. If you have cutters, take a 4/5cm cutter and you have two choices. Either roll your dough to 1cm thickness and make an even number because half will be tops and half bottoms. Or roll to 3cm then you'll be cutting your scones in half.
6. Transfer to lightly floured baking sheet on baking tray. Brush the top of the scones with milk and bake for about 12 mins.

_________________
These were basically perfect. There aren't many left to be honest so I might make another batch at the end of the week. They're quick, easy to make and pretty fun. You can also substitute the cherries for raisings or blueberrys etc. Try them! :)

Week 2: Morello Cherry Pie

The Evaluation

3/5 stars: Taste.
4/5 stars: Ease of recipe. Pretty easy and a good choice for a first pie.
3.5/5 stars: Presentation. Not too bad but a little messy.
3/5 stars: Time to make. This is another lengthy one, especially if you're making the pastry yourself.
3.5/5 stars: Overall success.

Suggested Modifications

1. Pie crust was a little thin so I'd suggest making slightly more dough mixture for the base. Just the base though, the top was fine.
2. Add corn flour with the cherries as the filling was a little runny. Or if using fresh fruit, boil with sugar first to create a syrup.

Original Recipes: 
Just for the pastry mix: http://notecook.com/desserts/pies/morello-cherry-pie/
For the pie: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/cherry-pie-with-lattice-top-recipe2/index.html

Tweaked Recipe

Pastry Ing. (You need two lots of this, one for the bottom and one for the top.)


140g plain flour
30g Icing Sugar
120g butter
3 tbsp chilled water

Pie Ing.

1 tbsp cherry liqueur
800/ 900g morello cherries
pie crust
flour for dusting
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp caster sugar
cream/ ice cream to serve

Pastry Method

1. Sift flour and icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Add butter and rub between fingertips. This should resemble bread crumbs by the end.
3. Add water gradually and stir into a dough with a knife.
4. Flour a surface and roll the dough gently into a ball.
5. Roll out dough onto a sheet of baking paper. Cut out a circle slightly bigger than the top of your pie dish.
6. Cover in cling film and refrigerate for twenty minutes. Repeat this process for the top.

Pie Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees.
2. Combine the cherries and liqueur in a bowl.
3. Gently lower the bottom crust over the pie dish. Pour the filling in.
4. Cut the top pie crust into strips about 2cm wide. Take every alternate strip and place them horizontally across the top of the pie. Now take the others one at a time. You want to place these vertically over the pie but weave them in and out of the horizontal strips to form the lattice effect.
5. Use a fork to tidy the edge of the pie.
6. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and sprinkle the sugar over the top.
7. Bake for 20 mins or until the surface is golden brown. Then cover with foil. You should bake for 40 mins total so if the surface is brown after 20 mins, another 20. If it's after 30 mins, just another 10.

__________________
This is pretty good pie, especially when eaten with ice cream but there were a few stumbling blocks along the way! Not bad for a first one though :)

Week 1: Black Forest Gateau

Original Recipe: http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/black_forest_gateau.html

Tweaked Recipe: (Please note I am listing the icing sugar but I did forget to put it in)

Cake Ing.

175g butter
175g caster sugar
 6 eggs, seperated
125g self raising flour
75g cocoa powder
1 tsp coffee

Decoration Ing.

50g caster sugar
2 tbsp Kirsch (I used a really nice cherry liqueur that I picked up for £5.99 at Lidl. I imagine cherry flavouring would also work if you're struggling)
350ml double cream (Better to go over than under. I used at least 600ml. Also, if you don't have an electric whisk, you may want to get one extra thick and one normal)
1 tbsp icing sugar (clearly not necessary since I forgot it!)
600g cherries (To make it cheaper, only 400g need to be fresh. The other 200g can come from a jar/ tin of morello cherries. Of course, you can have less than this as you don't have to put any around the bottom if you don't want)
2 tbsp black cherry jam (I used plain cherry. Depends on how strong you want the flavouring and what you can find.)
25g dark chocolate

Method

The Cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line 2 sandwich cake tins.
3. Cream butter and sugar until nice and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
4. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and coffee into a seperate bowl.
5. Whisk the egg whites quite a bit, they should start to look a little frothy. Then you want to get your first mixture and carefully fold the other two into it in alternating spoonfulls. Start with some flour and try to end on a little of the egg whites as that mixes in more smoothly.
6. Pour into your tins. Bake for about twenty minutes. Check them after fifteen though and keep a close eye on them as ovens vary, especially crappy student ones. If the cake top is starting to burn but your middle isn't cooked through, cover them over with foil. A friend told me about it and it's a useful trick to know.

 The Decorations:

1. Time to start preparing the decorations. Chop up the 200g of cherries that aren't fresh and then set those aside for a moment while you whisk your cream. If you have a hand whisk like me, you'll want to mix the thick and normal cream together in stages. You want all the thick in there and then like 100ml of your normal cream to start with.Whisk. Then add another 100ml and whisk again and then the last 100ml. If you're all fancy you and your electric whisk should be able to handle this part on your own ;)
2. Add the icing sugar to your cream! Or just forget like I did. That works too.
3. Split your cream into two halves. You want slightly more in one half and to this you're going to add the chopped cherries. Just mix them in and then put that on one side.
4. Pit the fresh cherries. If you haven't done this before, get yourself a paperclip or a small knife. Take the stalk off the cherry and insert your implement and dig the pit out. Try to be neat about it but don't worry if you make quite a big whole as that part will be against the cake, or you can fill it with cream like my friend Jess did with one!
5. Spread your jam on top of the bottom layer of the cake. 

The Syrup:

1.  Don't make the same mistake as me! Wait until your cake is out of the oven and cooling before you start this stage or your syrup will caramalise which is still usable but not quite as good. First you want to heat up your 50g caster sugar with 2 tbsp water. Not for too long. Just until it's starting to look quite syrupy.
2. Take the pan off the heat and add in your cherry liqueur. Let it cool a tiny bit and then drizzle a small spoonfull over the top layer of your cake. If it stays sticky after ten to twenty secs, you're good and you can go ahead and spread the rest over the jam on the bottom layer of cake. If it solidifies, you've caramelised it but no worries. This just means you'll want to drizzle it over the bottom layer instead of spreading. It will be a little crunchy but it will still taste real good and you just want to make sure that you end up with lines or swirls of it instead of a big solid lump. That way your cake won't be impossible to cut.

The Finishing Touches:

1. Go find the cream that has cherries in it! You want to put this over that layer of syrup and use it to sandwich the two cakes together.
2. If you have a piping set, fill it up with cream and decorate the top however you like. If not, do the same but use a knife or spoon. Add the pitted cherries in, grate the dark chocolate over the top and voila! Your cake is done.

The Evaluation

4/5 stars: Taste.
3/5 stars: Ease of recipe. Not one to try if you've never made a cake before but it's easy enough.
5/5 stars: Presentation. It looks pretty awesome.
3/5 stars: Time to make. This is pretty lengthy. Prep is about an hour and then there's baking time and decorating too. Best to make it a day in advance if you need it for an event.
5/5 stars: Overall success.

_______________________
Well hello there readers! So this recipe is a great one. You guys should try making it and if you do, post your photos and feedback here! It's a really tasty dessert and great if you have a few friends around. Many thanks to Jess for the help decorating! We might have had a bit too much fun there lol. I'll leave you with a few more photos. Oh and I forgot to add the chocolate on top before we helped ourselves to a few pieces. I know. I'm just a cooking disaster waiting to happen with all my substituting and forgetting!