Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my kitchen - October

 

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. This month it feels like there has been quite a bit of baking with only one big result for the whole month. Let me explain.

Early in the month I decided to participate in a group bake to make a layered celebration cake. The idea was that over the course of a week you would do something each day and then by the end of a week, you would have a cake. The first two days were shopping and preparation, then on each subsequent day make meringue kisses and compote, then make the swiss meringue buttercream, then the cake and then on the final day put it all together. Well that was the plan at least. I fell at the first baking hurdle.

I started making the meringue kisses on a Wednesday night, which was probably a bit late in the day anyway, but I made the syrup then whisked it all up but I was absolutely convinced that the meringue hadn't worked properly so I threw it out.  I did make the raspberry compote and knew that would last a few days in the fridge. I therefore waited until I had some more time before I tried again to make meringue again. It looked exactly the same as the first time I made them so I thought I would try baking them and see what happened. It turns out that when you mix up the temperatures for fan ovens and non-fan ovens, they don't quite turn out. I mean they were a bit overcooked so not usable for the cake but they were delicious with berries and cream. Oh, and the first mix would have been fine.

So by the time I made the third batch of meringues, I needed to remake the compote. This time I had to use a mixture of frozen raspberries and mixed frozen berries as I didn't have enough raspberries left. I made the cakes, but I had to go out so I asked my son to take the cakes out of the oven. Unfortunately two of the cakes were taken out but the third was still in there 2 hours later as he didn't realise that there were three in the oven, so that was inedible. I've put those two layers in the freezer and will use it to make trifle at some point.

Finally, the meringue kisses were ready, the compote was ready, the cakes were remade and the swiss meringue buttercream was ready (although I did use salted butter by accident), so it was time to put it all together. So here is my White Chocolate and Coconut Celebration Cake.

So was it worth it? It is delicious, especially that swiss meringue buttercream! That is so smooth and delicious!

Hopefully I will find some things to make this month! I have a couple of ideas and, in theory, I have a lot of time as I am not working at the moment.

I did get a couple of new cookbooks this month. First was the new Nagi Maehashi cookbook, Tonight. We've tried a couple of recipes so far, but I haven't studied it thoroughly yet. Once we have tried a few more recipes I'll review it. My first impressions are that it is really good though!

The other cookbook that I bought was Sift by Nicola Lamb.  I love the cover on this one! It's a very interesting cookbook. The first third is just information about different ingredients, techniques etc and then the recipes start. Again, I need to spend some time going through it to find some recipes!

We went to see the new movie called Widow Cliquot about the widow Cliquot who gives her name to the Veuve Cliquot champagne house. I will probably review this next week.

We also went out for a fancy dinner for our wedding anniversary. Everything was so good!

Photo credit - Daniel Halksworth

My final, random share for this month is about a guy called Daniel Halksworth. He is an artist who I stumbled across on Instagram this month. They fry eggs and then Daniel paints them and sells them! He started doing this for fun during the pandemic but now he is continuing to do this. The paintings are really cool!

New Recipes

We have tried a few new recipes in the last month. 

Sausage and Pasta (Nagi Maehashi)

Murg Makhani (Butter Chicken) (Romy Gill)

Sticky Chicken with Mash (Nagi Maehashi)

One Pot Chicken Tomato Pasta (Nagi Maehashi)

Aloo Gobi (Romy Gill)

White Chocolate and Coconut Layer Cake (Anneka Manning)

Normandy Pork Chops (Nagi Maehashi)

Weekend Cooking posts over the last month

Afternoon Tea Diaries: Mackintosh at the Willows

Cookbooks I Want to Buy 

What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci

Weekly meals

Saturday -Out for dinner
Sunday - Steak and salads
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Aloo Gobi 
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday -Normandy Pork Chops
Friday - Anniversary Dinner

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page