Roll me up Scotty!

It's hard not to resist any of the delicacies from Peyton and Byrne in London or their take home goods, as I am a sucker for good packaging. So it was pretty exciting when they released their book Peyton and Byrne British Baking from which we chose to bake Chocolate Swiss Roll. This is one of the many recipes that we have tried from this book.  So far so good -we can recommend the spiced ginger bread and the marshmallow tea cakes.

A basic chocolate sponge, filled with cream and raspberry jam before being rolled. Topped with a layer of piped chocolate ganache.

Verdict: The ganache icing was delicious, I would say that the sponge was a little on the dry side, but I think that is my baking not the recipe. 
Would we make this again?: This weekend perhaps. There is no better time to perfect the swiss roll other than the Queen's Jubilee.

Muffins with just as much sugar as flour - I think you're a cupcake!

Rhubarb and Ginger Muffins (cupcakes) from 500 Muffins and Cupcakes by Fergal Connoll.

Wow, 500 muffins and cupcakes. This was a Christmas present from my mum, Caroline has 500 cupcakes - so there are still more of these bite sized morsels on the way.

Following the recipe vs not reading the recipe properly, the latter is my general downfall.  In this case, you were meant to add cooked rhubarb in a hole made in the cooked muffin.  Our version had raw rhubarb in the mix which surprise surprise also cooked in the 20 minutes it took to cook the muffins.  Let it be known.. there are always more ways than one to make something.

How do you make muffins look good when they come out of the oven? Add a dog to the mix.










Verdict?: These were taken around to a friends BBQ.  The barbie was a smorgasbord of salads with a healthy side of meat, so the muffins were well received.  The verdict from everyone was delicious.  The frosting was sweet, and the 'muffins' were really light and fluffy.
Would we make this again?: With 500 recipes in the book, wouldn't you want to make something different?