This was not a planned bake!! I had just decided that the whole day I was going to spend not doing work, just because I could ;) Jennifer was home in Dumfries, so it was Morven (my friend from church) and I who would be baking today.
Walk in Musselburgh with Morven. It was quite a warm day, so that made it even more worth going for a walk!! Here I am with my Tearfund T-shirt.
Feeding of the swans
We then came back to our flats, and I made the pretzel stick's dough. I was then going to meet Morven to do exercising. That day we were going to be doing a '1000 squat challenge', so I was not sure whether I was sad about doing so many squats, or excited about doing it with Morven ;)
The table laden and ready to make the dough.
The milk and butter preparing to sizzle away
The flour, yeast and salt having a party in the mixing bowl. Ready for the water to turn up that dancing!!
And the water is added!!
After kneading, the dough is looking very prim <3
Letting the dough rise in the oven (the temperature was not on)
Now I went to go and get changed for the '1000 squat challenge'.
Our view while exercising <3 The scenery is so beautiful :D
Doing one of the ten variants of a squat. I was pretending that I was a swan, because I was looking out over the pond, where the swans were elegantly swimming and flying back and forth from the lake.
Our fitness instructor on my laptop is here telling us to keep going when the pain kicks in!! :D
The final exercise before heading in to make the pretzel sticks.
Putting the doughy pretzel sticks into the simmering water and baking soda. This is so that the develop a skin before they go into the oven.
The pretzel sticks before the oven. They look quite weird here, like little worms.
The pretzel sticks in the oven, getting their sun tan on :D
Out of the oven!!
Making the caramel for the caramel and gingerbread dip.
Checking the temperature. It was supposed to get to 165C before taking the pan off the hob, but it was starting to crystallise!! AHH!!
Slowmotion bubbling ;)
The final product with the caramel and gingerbread dip in a mug ;)
The pretzel sticks tasted amazing, but unfortunately the dip kept clumping up, and so we had to keep microwaving it so that it was liquidy.
Tearfund has posted about the difficulties of living in Honduras. On average there are 20 murders a day. Because of Tearfund we can start making a difference to the people who live there simply by donating money and praying for justice. Here is an excerpt from their website:
Angela is from San Pedro Sula, where the slum she calls home is perched precariously along a riverbank running through the centre of the city. Every day is a struggle for families in this community to find the work needed to survive. It is hard to imagine how their children can forge a better future, with schools out of reach and the constant threat of drug trafficking and gang violence (Tearfund 2017).
Thank you guys for reading our blog, and thank you helping us fundraiser for Tearfund through your prayers, donations and just being aware of this charities works to bring justice through the name of Jesus to the world!!
Unfortunately, Sophie couldn't have this cake, but she was fine with that ;) She doesn't particularly like fruity cakes (like this one) in general.
But we were going to be making it anyways!!
Crumbing the flour, sugar and vegan butter
This picture looks almost like Jennifer is clawing the butter, flour and sugar ;)
My turn to make the honey syrup
Sizzling away there on the hob ;) AAAHHH!! Who knows "Sizzler" the restaurant!! My favourite <3
Organising the apricots (canned, not fresh as it said in the recipe to use) hehe > rebellious bakers) into the honey syrup
Pistachios!! They look like flower petals <3
The batter is almost ready!! We added half ground pistachios and half normal flour.
Jennifer giving it the final fold
Pouring into cake tin over apricots, pistachios and honey syrup
Slowly filling up ...
It looks so cool!!!! :D
Out of the oven!!
Turning it upside-down, so that it is right way up ;) If that makes sense!! haha
Looking so delish!!
It was soooo amazing!! I highly recommend this cake :D The almost-vegan queen in our flat said that it is better than any coffee shop cake, and I think everyone who tried it can second that! Please ask me for the recipe, because I want you ALL the try this!!! Seriously, the best combination.
So this week Tearfund uploaded a post called "Standing Together Against the Darkness". It talks about a guy called Leandro Silva who goes into dangerous Brazilian neighbourhoods and helps to empower churches to start making a change for the better in their communities against violence and trafficking. After much amazing success in taking the violence and trafficking away from these notorious neighbourhoods, him and his wife started ALEF mission, with much help from other leaders, to bring this change to many of the poorest parts of Northern Brazil. If you would like to read more about this awesome mission, please click the link above!
I would love if could all please take 2 minutes and pray over these three points:
For Leandro and Adrylle, so they can continue to build and encourage ministers and Christians all over Brazil.
That the churches in Felipe Camarão will continue to overcome the violence and corruption in their district.
For more and more churches and Christians throughout Brazil to catch the vision of working together for social change.
I had told myself that the first time I made macaroons I would make it with my brother. Well, the opportunity just wasn't there, so I did the next best thing. Making macaroons for the first time with my friends :D The photos in this post are taken by Sophie.
Measuring out the sugar
Whisking the egg whites
Measuring the almond meal
Checking the recipe!! The most important part!!!! ;) (directed to Pamela)
Blending the almond meal. I am hoping that it will make it finer, but I don't think it did anything ;) I am just kidding myself :D
At least I tried ;)
Stirring sugar and water to make a sugar syrup
It was so hard to know when to stop stirring and start checking the temperature!! I think this was the most complicated part of the recipe ;) My tip: By calm (unlike my hysterics;))
Jennifer and I showing our anxiety at the sugar syrup (as you can see, I was more anxious than Jennifer ;))
Whisking the egg whites
Adding the sugar syrup to the egg whites, making the Italian meringue
Adding the food colouring ;) A drop at a time
As you can see, the colouring didn't really work. We must have put 20 drops of red food colouring, and it was still pale pink. What do they put in those things? ;)
Mixing up the Italian meringue (syrup mixed with egg) and French meringue (sugar mixed with egg) mixtures to make the macaroon batter.
Folding it all together
Holding my breath hoping that it will all stay together!
Now the piping begins!!! We had printed off some templates, and placed those under the baking paper on baking trays, so we knew where to pipe. Yay!!
Starting to pipe
Jennifer doing an amazing job piping the batter. We realised later that we piped these too big, and so they stick together :(
The first few macaroons looking awesome and perfectly rounded :D
The technique we had come up with was to swirl the piping bag around in circles. I think it worked quite well :)
Sophie even gave the piping a go!!
And the batter kept coming, so we ended up with four trays of macaroons.
Here is Pamela's beautiful piping :)
In the oven. As you can see, the first piping we did we piped too large, and so they were sticking together.
The first batch of macaroons out of the oven!!
This is how Sophie waits for the macaroons :D
The first macaroon I sandwiched together!
We decided to sandwich them together with this awesome bramble and apple jam that a friend made. The jam was kind of bitter, so the sugariness of the macaroon worked well to balance out the sweet/sour ratio.
The delightful macaroons that were our first batch that we made!! I can't believe I am saying that: We ACTUALLY MADE these lovely macaroons!!! :D
I had a request from my brother to make some more when I go to see him in April, so we will be making them again soon :D
As a testimonial of the awesomeness of these cookies, my friend (who works at PatisserieValeri (a cafe with amazing cakes)) said that our macaroons were better than they were at her cafe!! I was almost in tears ;)
Guys, we are challenging ourselves to make these recipes, not because we want to bake ourselves to death, but because we want to raise awareness of the need to give and pray for those children who go without food. Right now there is a food shortage in East Africa, and so it would be so encouraging for us if you could click on the tab above called East Africa Crisis Appeal and donate towards bringing the much needed support in these areas.
Thank you very much for reading this blog post, and stepping up to help those less fortunate than us!!
