Spiderweb cheesecake

Page 189 - Spiderweb cheesecake

 
This was a fairly simple cheesecake recipe but the spiderweb design made it look quite fancy. It was the first time I've used gelatine and it was really simple to make - I love the fact this didn't need to go in the oven!

Chocolate and lime cheesecake

Page 216 - Chocolate and lime cheesecake

Yay another cheesecake! And with a double chocolate cookie base :-)

Very tasty although the lime was perhaps not as sharp as I would like. Quite refreshing though, we had it as ANOTHER of our Christmas Day desserts!

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

Page 215 - Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

Another tasty sounding recipe! They were nice although I prefer my cookies chewy rather than crunchy and these were crunchy - but with a cup of tea they were nice. Cranberry and white chcolate is always a winning combination, and I'd make them again to perfect the consistency.

I guess you need to bake on a lower temperature for longer to get them chewy?!

Chocolate, Caramel and Hazelnut Cheesecake

Page 207 - Chocolate, Caramel and Hazelnut Cheesecake

I was beyond excited about making this cheesecake as it sounded like heaven on a plate. It was tasty, although I think I was a bit disppointed at the same time. We had it as one of our Christmas Day desserts and mum quite rightly said that there was too much going on with it. You didn't really need the chocolate layer as the caramel was enough with the hazelnuts. 

One criticism - I doubled the amount of caramel in the cheesecake and you couldn't really taste it very much.


Christmas Cupcakes

Page 204 - Christmas Cupcakes

I made these for Christmas Day and typically there was so much food that these were barely touched but I liked them.

A change from the usual light, fluffy Hummingbird cupcake these were more dense and had lots of soaked fruit in. As a fan of marzipan/almond flavours I love the icing as it contained almond essence (I may have gone a bit nuts with the amount I used!), although dad wasn't keen! Perhaps these would be nice with no icing or with basic buttercream icing for those that don't like marzipan. I enjoyed decorating them in a Christmas fashion for a change too.

Pumpkin cheesecake

Page 199 - Pumpkin cheesecake

Another Halloween recipe that I forgot to share...

The cheesecakes in the Hummingbird book are generally amazing and this was no exception. However, it didn't taste like pumpkin, perhaps as the pumpkin is so tastless on it's own!!!

Apple and currant bars

Page 190 - Apple and currant bars

Yum! I'm not sure if it's my love of cinammon, my love of cooked apple, my love of currants or my love of flapjack that made me love these most! But they're all of my favourite things in one recipe!

So easy to make and so tasty, would definitely make these again! My only issue was that I used too much of the biscuit recipe on the bottom and didn't leave myself enough to fully cover the top but theyy tasted AMAZING nevertheless :-)

Pumpkin whoopie pies

Page 189 - Pumpkin whoopie pies

Oh my I have some serious blog catching up to do - I made these for a party just after Halloween and haven't actually told anyone yet!!

I didn't think they were especially memorable, although perhaps slightly more moist than other whoopie pie recipes due to the pumpkin puree. However people at the party seemed to enjoy them. I wasn't sure if I used the correct pumpkin - I used "Libby's solid 100% pumpkin" from Waitrose as this was the closest I could find. However it didn't taste of much straight from the tin so no wonder the cakes didn't taste any different!

Sticky toffee cupcakes



Page 185 - Sticky toffee cupcakes

These were tasty but I don't know if I'd call them sticky toffee flavoured...

The frosting was lovely although was more of a caramel than toffee flavour. The sponge was lovely and moist, which was surprising as it is a different recipe to the usual Hummingbird cupcakes. The dates were supposed to give them the toffee texture and flavour, it kind of worked but they didn't melt as much as I thought they might?

Still - they were tasty :-)

Butterscotch marshmallow bars

Page 182 - Butterscotch marshmallow bars

I should have learnt to use real butter in caramel type recipes as opposed to Stork which I usually use to save pennies... The caramel filling tasted good but oozed out of the sides and didn't set when at room temperature but real butter should fix that.

These were way too sweet - sugar, golden syrup, peanut butter and marshmallows are all sweet on their own - let alone all in one recipe!The best bit about this recipe was the pastry really, definitely wouldn't make them again.

Chocolate chunk pecan pie



Page 181 - Chocolate chunk pecan pie

Finally - a recipe I've been looking forward to making that hasn't been a disappointment! And so easy to make :-)

So tasty, lots of yummy pecans and chocolate chips with a toffee type filling. The only downside is the fact that pecans are expensive to buy - otherwise I'd make this all the time!

Red velvet cupcakes

Page 178 - Red velvet cupcakes

I'm glad I made these to see what all the fuss is about as its the Hummingbird signature cake... I had one in London when I visited the Hummingbird Bakery in Soho.

They were nice although I prefer a good old vanilla cupcake. I was surprised when reading the recipe as it contained buttermilk and white wine vinegar which I wouldn't have associated with a dessert. I did have to ask "where to find white wine vinegar in the supermarket" and it was in the vinegar aisle rather than with the wine...

 

The frosting is the amazing cream cheese recipe which is the best in my opinion! I guess the red sponge is what makes these 'red velvet', there was a whole bottle in the batch! My fingers went red when eating the sponge...! But I wouldn't have used so much if I was to adapt the recipe. And I couldn't taste the cocoa especially either...

Chocolate and chestnut biscuit bars

Page 170 - Chocolate and chestnut biscuit bars

After searching high and low for chestnuts, I was hoping these would be amazing! Half of them were tasty but the other half fell apart, perhaps because I didn't break the biscuits up enough although I even used proper butter in these...

They were ok but certainly nothing to write home about!

Butterscotch pecan cheesecake



Page 174 - Butterscotch pecan cheesecake

I love Hummingbird cheesecake recipes! This didn't have an awful lot of pecan flavour, only a hint, but the lovely vanilla cheesecake is always tasty. The glaze was nice, although went a little watery in the fridge and I'm not 100% sure why...
 
I used real butter in the base rather than Stork which I usually use and it was so much better - much more solid and less crumbly so will definitely have to do that for any future cheesecake bases!

Black and white chocolate cheesecake bars



Page 167 - Black and white chocolate cheesecake bars

A relatively simple recipe, although needed a little bit of time for cooling the base in the fridge, baking, cooling and baking plus chilling before cutting... but worth the wait!

I thought the base would be dry or overcooked as it gets baked twice, but it was more like a brownie base which was a good surprise :-) The cheesecake topping definitely balanced the richness of the base too - yum!

Apple Crumble Cupcakes

Page 168 - Apple crumble cupcakes

I think the fact that the recipe was two pages originally put me off of making these - anyone that reads this blog will know that I hate recipes that are a faff! However, as I've previously made the sponge and also the custard I was mentally prepared and it wasn't so hard after all.

I love the cooked apple in these as it's flavoured with cinnamon - yum! Combined with the moist sponge and the yummy custard topping they were fab. The crumble topping was also a nice touch, although I think I should have rubbed the ingredients together more so it was a bit finer before cooking.

Hot chocolate cupcakes

Page 173 - Hot chocolate cupcakes

Another simple but effective recipe...

I thought that you wouldn't be able to taste the hot chocolate powder as it's not as strong flavoured as cocoa, but actually they did taste of chocolate - just not as rich as the usual Hummingbird chocolate cupcake recipe.

Would make these again as an alternative to vanilla or chocolate cupcakes.

Walnut and honey loaf

Page 163 - Walnut and honey loaf

I think what made this cake extra AMAZING was the Britland homemade honey!!

When I read the recipe, I though this might just be a fairly plain loaf with a few nuts and not a lot of flavour. HOWEVER - the sponge was lovely and moist, with a good amount of honey flavour. And the sticky honey syrup on top gave it an extra dimension. I'd definitely again, subject to dad giving me more honey to use of course :-)

Coffee and chocolate loaf

Page 160 - Coffee and chocolate loaf

This was a bit of a let down - I'm not sure if it was the recipe or how I made it - but either way it was quite dry and just not that interesting. It didn't taste of coffee especially, although perhaps it's because my coffee wasn't strong enough?

The recipe says you can throw in some chocolate chips so perhaps that might have helped, but the only way this might get eaten is with some cream or ice cream!!!

Banoffee cupcakes

Page 159 - Banoffee cupcakes

Yum! What's not to like about a banana cupcake with a toffee custard frosting???

I love banana flavour cake, although I do dread the custard frostings as they're a bit of a faff and I don't like waiting for it to cool etc, but it does give the cupcakes a different edge and the tinned Caramel is one of my favourite things in the world so this recipe really works. I did contemplate putting a bit of caramel in to the centre of each cupcake as I love it so much but though I should stick to the recipe as I've promised myself!

Apple and oatmeal cookies

Page 156 - Apple and oatmeal cookies

The prospect of making a cookie recipe was daunting as I've never really made a successful cookie reecipe before, but also exciting as it's nice to bake something a little different to cakes.
The texture of these was really nice, they were more soft than crunchy although I would try to get them more chewy if I made them again. As per the last apple recipe I made, they just didn't really taste of apple - although the oatmeal and cinnamon in itself was lovely.

I would definitely make them again, although perhaps just missing out the apple or adding some other dried fruit instead!

Spiced apple cake with brown sugar frosting

Page 153 - Spiced apple cake with brown sugar icing

I halved this recipe as the Hummingbird layer cakes are notoriously huge and it's a good job I did as this was big enough...

I was a bit scared about making the icing as it's made from whisked egg whites cooked over simmering water, but actually it was time-consuming but simple to do, I just had to set the timer to make sure I whisked it for long enough as I would have given up otherwise!

This cake has the texture of a lovely carrot-type cake, but without as much of the flavour. When I was cooking the apples for the sponge, it smelt amazing and I was looking forward to a warm, spicy flavoured cake although in all honesty I found it a bit dull tasting. If I make it again I would definitely add more apples than the recipe says and perhaps grate them less finely than I did too.

However - mum's on a diet and ate two slices after her lunch so it must have been fairly tasty!

Brandy chocolate mini cupcakes

Page 149 - Brandy chocolate mini cupcakes

This is the last of the alcoholic cocktail cupcakes, and I can't say I'm too sad as I don't like the messing around involved in making tiny little cupcakes that are barely a mouthful each.

That said, I think these were my favourite of the four recipes as they're chocolate orange flavoured which is one of my favourite cupcake flavours. I thought that the icing tasted quite strongly of brandy, but I was assured by the parents that this isn't the case - perhaps they're more hardened to the taste than I am ;-)

They looked beautiful and would be great for a party or celebration, but I won't be rushing to make them again due to the fiddliness!

Mojito mini cupcakes

Page 150 - Mojito mini cupcakes

These were tasty although I'm biased as I love mint and lime and cake so these are my ideal cakes! They were nice and moist, and I was pleased they didn't have any fruit in the bottom this time so you get a good bite of cake! I

 would have liked to have put a sprig of fresh mint on top to garnish, but next time...!

Pina colada mini cupcakes

Page 148 - Pina colada mini cupcakes

Again, these are a lot of effort for some tiny little cupcakes but the sponge was lovely and moist due to the coconut milk replacing the milk and the pineapple at the bottom gives a nice surprise. Again I didn't read the recipe before starting, and therefore didn't save some coconut milk for the icing. But the sprinkle of descicated coconut gave it a tropical flavour nevertheless.

Strawberry daiquiri mini cupcakes

Page 147 - Strawberry daiquiri mini cupcakes

Hmmm.. I'm torn on my thoughts on mini cupcakes. Initially I thought they were just one big faff for not a lot of cake. However, after seeing them laid out on the cake stand they looked lovely and therefore I do think they'd be fab for a special occasion.

These tasted nice although I didn't read the recipe in advance and therefore I should have saved a bit of the rum reduction for the icing. Also the strawberry in the bottom seemed to be all that was left after they were baked, there seemed to be no cake!

However - they had a lovely flavour and if I wasn't trying to finish the blog before the end of the year I'd try making them again!

Maple and pecan layer cake

Page 144 - Maple and pecan layer cake

Generally I try to stick to the Hummingbird recipes 100% regardless, but I decided to half the quantities in this recipe as I've previously found the layer cakes just too huge! This was a tasty one so I could have made more, but I have leftover maple syrup so could make it again in the future!

Very yummy, a nice moist but dense texture to the sponge and the maple syrup in the icing gave it a lovely flavour. Will definitely make it again another day, it went down a treat with the guinea pigs at work :-)

Chocolate and peanut butter whoopie pies

Page 164 - Chocolate and peanut butter whoopie pies

My comments on these are similar to the chocolate chip whoopie pies - the sponge was quite dry, almost biscuit-like, but the icing was lovely!

Usually when you make a sponge, you substitute some of the flour for cocoa so the amount of dry ingredients is the same. However in these the cocoa is additonal and I wonder if that's why they're dry... I should test this theory. I also used butter which, again, I can't help wondering if it's made them less fluffy as I never had a problem with the sponge texture before.

On the plus side - Sainsburys now sells Marshmallow Fluff so these aren't such a pain to make any more - no excuse not to keep experimenting I guess!

Chocolate chip whoopie pies

Page 140 - Chocolate chip whoopie pies

I'm not the World's biggest fan of whoopie pies, I prefer a good old cupcake if I'm honest. But - rules are rules and I have to make all recipes in the book - so I was just aiming to improve on my previous attempts.

I usually use Stork for my recipes as I find that a) the results are yummy and b) its a fraction of the cost compared to butter. But I thought I'd use butter this time as my previous whoopie pies have fallen apart as the icing has been too 'sloppy'. The icing was 100% better for using butter so that's definitely noted for next time. However the cakes themselves were a little tough - so I'll stick to Stork for that in the future.

Out of all whoopie pies I've made before, I'd say these were the nicest but I'll keep trying!

Hazelnut praline muffins

Page 136 - Hazelnut praline muffins

These were tasty although I'm not sure if I expected more... The sugar and nuts on top gave them a nice crunchy texture, and the bit of Nutella in the middle is a nice surprise. However I think they might have been nicer with perhaps a chocolate sponge as opposed to a plain sponge with a swirl of Nutella.

Still, they were tasty!










Peanut butter and chocolate pie

Page 135 - Peanut butter and chocolate pie

This recipe was certainly one that I wouldn't have tried if I wasn't doing this blog project - I'm not a massive fan of recipes where you have to do a process, and then wait for 40 mins, and then carry on etc...
Despite the "faffiing" it tasted lovely I think, and the crunchy peanut butter gave it a good bit of texture. However I havent' quite mastered the art of making these desserts look great, and it kind of fell apart once I took it from the tin. I think I needed to pull the biscuit base up the sides more but it wouldn't stay when I tried!

I'd give it 7/10 for taste but 3/10 for presentation - it looked good when it came out of the fridge :-)

Chewy monkey bars

Page 143 - Chewy monkey bars

I love baking, but it was refreshing to read this recipe and realise it didn't actually require any cooking :-)

Lots of ingredients but pretty much just chuck them all together - what's not to like! I used Coco Pops rather than "puffed rice cereal" as per the recipe, and also substituted the honey for golden syrup as that's what I had in the cupboardh. But they worked really well and Leigh's even asked me to make more for him :-)

I liked the simplicity of this recipe, yum!!!!

Sweet and salty chocolate cake



Page 133 - Sweet and salty chocolate cake

I really should learn - I so need to half the recipes for the layer cakes in this recipe book... it was huge!

To be honest it pretty much tasted like a mighty chocolate cake, although there was a hint of caramel in there. The caramel came out quite runny and I couldn't get all of the topping / frosting on to the cake!! But it was tasty nevertheless...

However - for the amount of effort it took to make this I think I might stick to the usual chocolate cake recipe!

Coconut jam sandwich bars



Page 130 - Coconut jam sandwich bars

Yum yum YUM! I knew I'd love these and I wasn't disappointed.

The pastry (I think that's what you'd call it although it's not made like normal pastry) worked so well with the jam and sweet coconut, and the texture is nice and soft. They're very sickly though so you don't need a big chunk - I'm full from just picking at the edges :-)

Would definitely make these again!

Pea, ham and feta cheese muffins

Page 122 - Pea, ham and feta cheese muffins

You win some, you lose some... and I most definitely lost this one! Whilst they aren't as disasterous as the Angel Cake was, when I took them out of the oven they looked ok but they're stodgy inside so I probably won't eat them or pass them on.

I wasn't excited about this recipe - I think if it had proper cheese I would have expected them to be a little like cheese scones but the peas and feta cheese just weren't floating my boat. Perhaps I didn't put enough love in to this one. If I was dedicated I'd perhaps try again to conquer the recipe, but think I'll just move on!

Banoffee whoopie pies

Page 129 - Banoffee whoopie pies

These were my kind of whoopie pie - caramel icing which I LOVE plus banana sponge!

If I make them again, I would put more banana in the sponge, or chop it up a bit more as I only got the odd whiff of banana in mine. And for some reason the filling was a little soft so didn't set as well as before, perhaps more sugar needed next time?

Nevertheless I have a bowl of filling in the fridge just crying out to be eaten later on - result!

Raspberry trifle cupcakes

Page 116 - Raspberry trifle cupcakes

These were a lot of effort to make... but well worth it :-)

The raspberry and jam in the centre were a nice surprise I think and the custard topping meant that they were not too sweet. I took them to a baby shower and they were perfect for a (chilly!) summers day!

Having made a couple of recipes with custard, I'm wondering if the same principle applies to making ordinary custard to have with desserts - I may need to try it out soon!

Cola cupcakes

Page 139 - Cola cupcakes

Now these do taste like cola! Perhaps it's because cola has a more distinctive flavour than lemonade? It's not too strong, but noticeable enough - random!

Again, I do have a LOT of cola syrup left over... who knows what I can use that for, ice lollies perhaps?!

Lemonade cupcakes

Page 112 - Lemonade cupcakes

I don't know what I was expecting but these really taste like lemon cupcakes as opposed to lemonade... but I guess that's because there's no way you can make a cupcake taste fizzy!

These are super easy to make, and rather tasty - although I'm now left with lots of lemonade syrup that I need to find something to do with!

Strawberries and cream cheesecake

Page 121 - Strawberries and cream cheesecake

I was so excited about making this recipe... and I wasn't disappointed... the cheesecakes in this book are AMAZING!

It was quite easy to make, although I wasn't sure if I'd reduced the strawberries down enough as the cheesecake was much more soft than the vanilla (summer fruits) cheesecake I made a few weeks ago. I also used Hob Nobs in the base which I wouldn't do again as it lost its crunchiness. But the fresh strawberries on top gave it a real "twang" and I loved it!

Can't wait to see if there are more cheesecakes coming up - I'm not going to cheat and look too far ahead in the book :-)

Peach and raspberry tart

Page 115 - Peach and raspberry tart

A lovely summer's dessert which I took to a BBQ with friends last night. I seem to be on a roll with pastry at the moment... or perhaps the recipe is just really simple. But either way this came out of the tin easily and looked lovely with the fresh fruit on top.

Plum cupcakes

Page 111 - Plum cupcakes

Yum yum! I was excited by these lovely cupcakes, partly as they were yummy in themselves but also as I feel like a world of possibility has opened up with the whole "jam in cupcakes" idea!

They were very sweet, but I think that's as the jam was particularly sweet in itself. I was really happy with these and would definitely make them again! The sponge was more dense than the "normal" vanilla combination, almost scone-like. Perhaps it was the buttermilk, and I guess that's why the jam didn't sink while baking...

Earl Grey cupcakes

Page 103 - Earl Grey Cupcakes

I'm not a massive earl grey fan but these were only subtly flavoured so I thought they were nice... Some people said the earl grey flavour was quite strong but others thought they just tasted like vanilla cupcakes.

Would be interesting to try these with fruit tea instead as the recipe book suggests...

Manchester United cupcakes

Manchester United cupcakes

Based on some cakes I found online... LOVED using my new grass nozzle to make these!!!

Cat birthday cake



Cat birthday cake

A birthday cake for a cat lover...

Carp cake



Carp birthday cake

A carp cake for a keen fisherman... Wasn't quite as "carp-like" as I'd hoped but I was happy with it for my first attempt :-)

Blueberry and soured cream loaf

Page 109 - Blueberry and soured cream loaf

Another lovely moist loaf recipe and the tangy blueberries were tasty. However the sponge was fairly plain and perhaps would have been nice with a bit of additional flavour, i.e. some crushed blueberries stirred in perhaps.

Still yummy but wouldn't rush to make another one...

Orange, almond and yogurt loaf

Page 104 - Orange, almond and yogurt loaf

As with all Hummingbird loaves, this was nice and moist, and the orange gave it a nice warm flavour. Its really simply to whip up in a few minutes, and everyone likes a simple recipe!

It wasn't a mind blowing but tasty with a cup of tea nevertheless!