Gibby Bakes

Baking bread was something I used to avoid as I believed it would be incredibly difficult and time consuming. However, what I wasn't expecting was the feeling of intense pride (and also relief!) when a loaf of bread goes well!  Late last year I came across a couple of books by Paul Hollywood for sale on Vinted, "Bread" and "100 Great Breads". The second of these books was published almost 20 years ago, so the recipes needed a slight bit of tweaking where oven temperatures and baking times were concerned, however the flavour combinations in some of these breads were incredible! Halloumi and mint bread, basil and brie bread, sour cherry and chocolate loaves, and Guinness and treacle bread are just a few of the flavour combinations that I've tried from this book so far, and they've all tasted fantastic (if I do say so myself!).  Onion and Rosemary Potato Focaccia - made with mashed potato!  My photography skills really let me down with this, a Halloumi and ...

No, I'm not announcing my sudden engagement before anyone gets their hopes up. This will probably be a shorter post than my previous ones, to people's relief I'm sure, but I couldn't not show off these White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes! After getting engaged, my sister naturally needed to ask her chosen friends to be her bridesmaids. She decided she wanted to use cakes with personalised toppers to ask the question. White chocolate and raspberry is a knock-out combination, and I'm so glad it's the flavour my sister chose, and I'm also glad that she came to me! I had a lot of fun making these cakes. The recipe came from Jane's Patisserie, obviously, whilst the toppers were ordered by my sister from a seller on Etsy.  The sponge itself was very easy to make. You simply beat together equal quantities of unsalted butter and sugar until lovely and creamy, then gently whisk in the same quantity of self-raising flour and eggs. To finish, you fold in fresh r...

These first few posts are certainly following a then vs now trend, but I'm finding it interesting to reflect on my previous bakes and see where I'm at now (even if no one else is!). So I thought I'd do the same here, and take the time to show off some of my vegan bakes! I've really struggled with vegan baking in the past, but my latest attempts were very tasty (if I do say so myself)! My Latest Vegan Bake: My latest attempts at vegan baking, and probably my most successful, are these Lemon and Elderflower Cupcakes.   Decorated with lemon peel and chrysanthemums! Decorated with white roses and chrysanthemums! A combination of roses, lemon peel, gypsophila  and chrysanthemums! Personally, I think these cupcakes are rather pretty. My initial idea was to use union flag cupcake cases with little cocktail stick flagpoles to better relate these cupcakes to the platinum jubilee. The recipe I was following for these cakes wasn't vegan, but I had the audacity to believe that ...