♬ 'Annie Mac Presents 2012'
An album to invest in.
I have no excuse. I haven't even been on holiday or left you with a random video to let you know what's been going on in the MixitCookit world. Truth is - life in London can be a bitch. Finally I am in a new flat and this means a fresh start, so for all you budding fans out there I cannot express how sorry I am if you have been refreshing this page and nothing had changed since the start of the month. That's the thing with blogs, they represent the person typing. In this month's case - temperamental.
Meanwhile I exhausted the cupcake phase to the point of exasperation, so I am creating my own range of cake bars. Who for? I'm not sure! All that needs to be typed is something new and creative has to be piped and whisked. Cupcakes are every where and yes mine are amazing and super fun looking but I'm done with them for a while. In a strange way they seemed an easy option to blog about. The first cake bar I created is the one that is booming in your face saying "eat me now or just email Mita and she will make me!". Let me give you a quick reminder that banoffee pie is a super classic indulgent pudding which has bananas, toffee sauce or dulce de leche, cream and looks incredibly mouth watering. By brainstorming and incorporating some of the features of the pie in a cake bar I had to dig out the candy thermometer. This is my new partner in crime, bye bye cupcake tin! I'm going to try my hand at all things screaming confectionery.
This banoffee cake bar is made with a banana cake sponge, dulce de leche (made from condensed milk) and covered in dark chocolate topped with a walnut. Monitoring and tempering both the dulce de leche and chocolate was a challenge I enjoyed. First the oven was used to create dulce de leche, that was a disaster. Finally after a few hours of dancing around the hob to Annie Mac's compilation I finally achieved the desired consistency.
Right I better get back to planning brand spanking new products for you lovely lot to set your eyes on.
Let me clear a few things up...
Dulce de leche is a sauce by slowly heating condensed milk until it is browned and caramelised. A popular sauce used in banoffee pie.
Butterscotch is made with brown sugar and butter and boiled to the soft crack stage, 270°F, 132°C.
Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked to the hard crack stage, the maximum temperature being 310°F, 154 °C.
Caramel is basically heating sugars to a temperature around 170°C, 340°F.
Lovely jubbly.
Favourite Songs:
ê 'Higher Ground' by TNight
'The Don' by Nas
