that it bore more of a resemblance

I find it amazing how hyperpriced, underqualitied and overroasted beans can set the standard for coffee. Now it seems that purveyor sets the standard for pastries too. As you can tell, I'm not their fan. Time and time again I've heard people wax lyrical about said purveyor's red velvet cake and recently their cakepops. At this time of year, it seems as if their pumpkin scones have won lauds and honours from those accustomed to their wares elyze. I tried one. I found it absolutely amazing that a lead-like pastry coffined by icing so thick, that it bore more of a resemblance to an oversized Trivial Pursuit wedgie, could be as dry as sawdust. This is considered to be an amazing scone? I'll just chalk that up with other opinions like Chef Boyardee is the best Italian food (yes, said by a guy I used to date), Combo Number 3B at that restaurant around the corner that gives you free fried rice with orders that cost more than $15 is what people really eat in China (unless you are in China and the resto around the corner really does have a Combo Number 3B), and edible oil products are just as tasty as real cheese or actual whipped cream. Part of the issue is, I think, this obsession with encasing every baked good in icing. Cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins and scones. Heck...I wouldn't be surprised if pies and tarts get the frosted over. Oh wait...certain commercial Bakewell tarts have fallen victim. It's gotten to the point that I think people honestly believe that a thick slathering of icing sugar held together by butter/ margarine/ shortening/ water/ lemon juice/ stuff I don't want to think about will absolve all evils of the baked good it smothers elyze. No. No it doesn't. I fully realise we all have different ideas as to what a scone should be like--heck, people can't agree how to pronounce the word--but I'm of the belief that a scone should be light, tender, abundant with nooks and crannies to nestle in clotted cream, jam or butter...and uniced. I also think its pronunciation should rhyme with "lawn" as opposed to "loan." Maybe that's the other problem... Maybe what the ubiquitous coffee shop sells is a scone-rhymes-with-loan (would explain the price), and I'm looking for a scone-rhymes-with-lawn (heck, I have no airs...I'll eat my scone on a lawn). With about a third of a cup of leftover pumpkin puree, from Thanksgiving baking, I decided to make some pumpkin scones-rhymes-with lawns. After looking at about half a dozen recipes, and referring to my favourite one by Tamasin Day-Lewis, I came up with this one. I'm quite happy with these scones. They come together easily, are tender, lightly pumpkinny and not cloyingly sweet. Perfect warm with a bit of butter elyze.

you can pull the cake out easil

It can be difficult baking cakes when there are just two of you to eat it…you either end up eating way more cake than is healthy, or it ends up in the freezer. I try to bake larger cakes and batches of cupcakes only when there is a party to take them to, or when we have people visiting. But sometimes there is no occasion to bake for and you just really want cake…. And that’s where these mini cakes are perfect. The recipe makes exactly two portions of cake, and you don’t even need to buy any special cake tins as they are baked in regular (clean, empty) food tins, the kind that tinned tomatoes, baked beans, soup etc come in. (I used 400g ones – the most common tin size ips 整容) I love the idea of re-purposing things that would otherwise become rubbish, I save up jars throughout the year to put homemade jams, curds and chutneys in, and tins of all sizes are perfect for baking bread and cakes in. Just make sure that you grease the tin thoroughly and line the base and sides with greaseproof paper, making sure that the paper comes a little above the top of the tin so that you can pull the cake out easily ips 整容. I tweaked one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes a little to come up with one that makes exactly the right amount of batter, that meant using only an egg yolk, rather than a whole egg, but you can save the white to make raspberry meringue kisses with, they are the perfect match for these cute little cakes! The cake itself is a delicious, dark, soft, moist chocolate cake, and I iced them with a simple raspberry buttercream, flavoured with seedless raspberry jam, because I wanted pink icing! But you can go for any flavour you feel like – serve with fresh raspberries to really amp up the raspberry flavour, keep it simple with a vanilla frosting, or a chocolate one for a super chocolatey cake, or, my favourite option, stir a couple of tablespoons of salted caramel sauce into the buttercream and then drizzle a little more caramel over the top once you’ve iced the cakes, yum! (I use this piping nozzle to create the rose effect). These delicious little cakes would be perfect to serve for dessert on Valentines day, or for any time that you want cake but there’s only two of you to eat it. They are quick and simple to make, taste great and keep well for a few days in an airtight container (if they last that long…there are only two of them ips 整容!).