RANDOM JOTTINGS

A blog about music, sports, theatre and rants

Long time blogger just moved to wordpress. Love music, theatre, movies, sport (tennis and cricket) and cooking. Two great daughters, two great granddaughters.

Random discovers her Inner Baker

I used to bake a great deal but over the years this has slowly decreased and I have even found myself, shock horror, purchasing cakes from the supermarkets.  The rocky road to perdition and what has finally stopped me is The Great British Bake Off on BBC2.  Mary Berry is a wonderful cook and I used to have many of her books on my shelves and, along with the Blessed Delia, she became one of my inspirations when it came to cooking.   I am totally addicted to this programme though I freely admit that a great deal of this has to do with the Divine Paul Hollywood who really is rather dishy, if formidable.  The look of apprehension and terror on the contestant's faces as they await his verdict shows just how much it means to them and a 'good bake' sends them sky high with joy.

I have started over the last few months to bake again and have rediscovered my Inner Baker and remember how much I used to enjoy it.  I have been chatting on Facebook about my baking and have shared pics and photos and when I mentioned in passing that I was thinking of spending the winter trying out new and old recipes and getting my baking mojo back I was inundated with requests to write about my efforts.  I have therefore decided to set up another blog (I must be mad…) which I have called Random and the Great Colchester Bake Off (nothing like setting the bar high thinks I). You can find the blog at:

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_and_the_great_colc/

and there is also a link on the top left hand column of Random Jottings.  I would love it if you would drop by and let me know what you think my disasters and, hopefully, triumphs.

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6 responses to “Random discovers her Inner Baker”

  1. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    Yes I am planning a big cook up this Christmas and will make a cake for the first time in years. I also fancy trying a stollen

    Reply
  2. Susan Abraham Avatar
    Susan Abraham

    Christmas will prove the most marvellous excuse for all the baking to come. :-)

    Reply
  3. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    I buy filo pastry as well but do have a recipe for puff pastry a la Delia – a bit of a shortcut one which I use all the time. Will do it one day and post

    Reply
  4. Liz F Avatar
    Liz F

    Ooh a baking blog sounds good! I do like baking myself but I have to say that while my efforts generally taste good, their appearance very rarely attains the levels of perfection on Bake Off! I am still in awe of the cake within a cake efforts from the first episode of this series – I have no idea how some of those were achieved!
    I do make a mean shortcrust pastry though which my granny (who made WI award winning pastry) said was down to having cold hands – there has to be some advantage to them!
    PS I buy puff and filo pastry though – life’s too short for all that fiddling around!

    Reply
  5. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    I agree about the waste Margaret, I always wince when something is consigned to the dustbin. If I have adisaster I ususally find a way to do something with it. But, yes it is a contest.
    I gave up on the opera and music blog as I simply don’t go to the opera any more. I simply cannot afford it and so watch my DVDs and Sky Arts instead who do show a lot of music stuff, though a bit too much Andre Rieu for my taste.

    Reply
  6. Margaret Powling Avatar
    Margaret Powling

    Well done on a Baking Blog. You started, way back, an Opera blog … did you decide against continuing this or have I missed it elsewhere?
    While I will watch Bake Off if there is nothing else to watch, I am not a total enthusiast as I would like to see people cooking ‘proper’ meals, or being taught to cook ‘proper’ meals. First, I would make sure they understood the basics of kitchen hygiene such as not putting implements on the floor and keeping a clean and tidy work station and washing their hands and pinning floppy hair back! And I hate to see food being thrown into bins if it’s not total perfection. We complain about the supermarkets who just seem to want uniformly shaped fruit and veg, and yet not a word is mentioned about blatant waste on this programme, sending out the wrong message to people, which still surely should be ‘Waste not, want not’. I also think Paul H is a bit of a poseur … boy, he knows he’s god’s gift (to some.) Not for me, I’m afraid. But I agree La Berry is lovely. I remember her afternoon cookery programmes – wasn’t she on with Mary, Michael Parkinson’s wife? Or am I muddling the two programmes?
    However, I do realize that this isn’t as much about cooking as about contest, and as a contest it’s thoroughly entertaining.

    Reply

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