Draliman’s First Bake Extravaganza!
Yes, you heard it correctly. I’ve done some baking! If you discount helping my mum as a toddler or cooking stuff in Home Economics at school, my first baking ever!
I am also tentatively linking this post to Maria and Rosema’s Word-High July for yesterday. The Filipino word was “kilig” meaning “butterflies in one’s stomach”, as I had butterflies in my stomach over the outcome of my baking!
I decided to make a Victoria Sponge, so I found a recipe on the BBC website from none other than Mary Berry.
I toddled off down the shops and got the ingredients, cake tins, mixing bowl, a cooling rack and so on. What I didn’t get was an electric mixer so I used a wooden spoon (old school!) and also I didn’t have any way to actually measure ingredients 😦
So “225g of self-raising flour” turned into “that’s about 1/6 of the bag, so that’s about down to the top of the logo on the packet – bung it in!”
Here is the finished creation. After I ate a huge slice.
It’s very tasty! I gave some to my friends and they were very impressed by how light the sponge was.
So, I am classifying my first ever baking attempt as a success! I will be buying kitchen scales and an electric mixer, though 🙂
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Mmm… Looks delicious.
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It is 🙂
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Bloomin’ ‘eck! That looks pretty good for a first attempt. I’m impressed Ali! I love Victoria sponges…even better with cream on top and sliced strawberries 😀 I hope you had a cup of tea with it.
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I meant to buy some strawberries but forgot. I messed up the whipped cream a bit anyway, I was too busy concentrating on the sponge to check how to do it properly 🙂
No tea for me, just a glass of lemonade!
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What? No tea? and you call yourself an Englishman 😮
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It looks like you used a cooling rack and everything. I am impressed! And a bit jealous since I have no cake at my house. 🙂
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Yes, I remembered to buy a cooling rack 🙂
Bake a cake, bake a cake!
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Looks yummy! I would add an extra spoon of whipped cream on my slice ( if I had one…)
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You’ll have to make do with a virtual slice I’m afraid 🙂
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My imagination does the job 🙂
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🙂
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Bravo. Baking isn’t for the faint of heart. Well done you.
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I’ve been meaning to give it a try for ages. It’s nice to know I can bake my own cakes 🙂
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Nice work. Looks tasty!
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It was 🙂 Still got a little bit left!
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So where did you hide the body of the little old lady who really made that?
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Curses, you’ve seen through my little deception. If you promise to keep my secret you can come over and have a slice of cake on the brand new concrete patio which I just had laid for no particular reason…
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Well since you’ve already done the work I’ll head right over. If you’d asked me to help with the new patio I’d be worried I’d end up in there with her for figuring out your dastardly scheme.
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🙂
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Measuring cups are a must for baking, but it looks like your improvisation worked out well! Enjoy!
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I did enjoy 🙂
I think guessing the first time is okay, but after that every small mistake gets amplified in the next guess as there’s a different amount left in the bag than what I’m assuming…
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Baking is easy if you follow the directions. It’s a bit more precise than plain cooking. I learned to bake just like you, from recipes. Baking is fun, if you don’t mind the clean up 🙂 If you decide to try bread, you really will need those measuring devices. Congratulations on producing something edible on your very first try!
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Cleanup’s never fun, but it’s not as bad as trying to scrape dried pizza base bits off the worktop!
I always guess for pizza bases which I assume are “bread-like”, but 500g is exactly half a bag so that’s not so hard.
I was very pleased with the result!
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Congratulations! U da man! I actually purchased a mixer- Christmas- and just unboxed it yesterday? You are an inspiration… I hope?
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Unboxing is the first step. Time to put it to use!
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It does look tasty! Haha that’s a sumptuous kind of “kilig” you’ve had after baking. Kudos! 😊 And yeah, you should get a whole set of measuring cups and spoons 🎉
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I’ll be buying a mixer and some measuring devices shortly! Guessing only gets you so far, sooner or later it will all go horribly wrong 🙂
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True! But I’d still like to see you make meringues without the electric beater, just the regular one. *evil laugh*
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I’m guessing meringues take a lot of beating :-). Trying to mix everything together properly for the cake with a wooden spoon was enough to put me off the “manual” idea!
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A LOT!! I’ve tried to do it manually and my arms almost cursed me for that. XD
Ha! Yeah, that should probably do it.
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Its looking so good and spongy.
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It was. Good and spongy!
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Bravo, Ali. It looks great. You might consider getting a food processor as one of those does everything but talk. By this day age, they probably have one that does that as well.
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I could probably just tell it what to do and then go and watch TV!
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Well, it looks delicious, and a lovely dark yellow. I have a really elaborate food mixer, but still prefer my wooden spoon. Old school, as you say. Congratulations on your success! 🙂
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But the wooden spoon is so much work… 🙂
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Woohoo! Anytime guys bake something that doesn’t result in the hospitalization of anyone who consumes it is a success! If only my oven hadn’t quit working five years ago, I’d whip up another batch of squirrel cookies from scratch in celebration!
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Five years? Five years? But… how do you cook Saturday pizza? Or is that just me?
Of course, you’re a fried chicken squirrel…
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Wow, Ali, what a fabulous job for not having measuring cups/spoons! Looks delicious!
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It wasn’t too bad as the bags of ingredients all started out full. I’ll need to measure properly next time!
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That looks yummy. Good job, Ali, especially for the first time. Can’t say I’ve ever had a Victoria sponge, but I wouldn’t hesitate to try this.
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It was yummy! I didn’t do a great job of the whipped cream, but next time I’m sure it will be perfect 🙂
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Looks tasty, well done!
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Thanks, it was!
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I believe if you can produce a sponge like that without weighing, you might just have the gift. Oh YUM.
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I never do anything properly but it always seems to turn out alright 🙂
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That looks delicious, Ali! I love to bake, though I don’t do so very often these days – mainly because I’d end up eating the whole thing myself. :s. I was taught by my mum so it’s always been a wooden spoon job for me. My brother bought me an electric mixer for Christmas but it’s not even been out of its box yet! A set of scales or some American measuring cups are essential though. 🙂
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I was taught by online recipes 🙂
I’ll be ordering some measuring things and a mixer soon. Just a little hand mixer, I’m thinking. Trying to blend in all the butter with a spoon was no joke, I resorted to fingers in the end. It was room temp and cut into little chunks and still it wasn’t happening!
I didn’t think when I made the cake about who was going to eat it. I gave 1/4 to my friends and still I’ve been eating it for days 🙂 Maybe cupcakes next time…
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Cupcakes are good but you still have the same amount of cake to work your way through! For a large cake we use an all in one mix using soft marg (usually stork) so blending the ingredients is really easy as long as it’s been out of the fridge a little while. It’s also really easy to divide in half so you can just make a small, single tin cake. The full mix is 4oz self raising flour, 4oz caster sugar, 4oz marg and 2 eggs. You bung everything into a bowl and bash it together!
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That’s exactly half the ingredients I used! And when it was done I could still cut it in half and pop jam and cream in and have a half-cake 🙂
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Looks good, I would eat it for sure! I am not a great baker myself, I always get scared. 😉
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I was a bit scared, mainly because if it was a disaster I might not try again. Good job it worked 🙂
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Yay for you! Will you make my birthday cake? 🙂
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Well, I could bake it and then eat it myself. I’m not sure it would survive 3000 miles in a plane 🙂
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Ha! True. Oh well, it gives you a reason to make another cake and eat it in my honor. 🙂
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Yay 🙂
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We’re off to visit..MOL 😀 Looks delicious! Pawkisses 🙂 ❤
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It was very tasty!
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I just made a sweet potato corn bread. It is go good, I’m never make my old recipe again.
I should blog about it. ;0)
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And you did, I just read it!
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Ha! What can I say. You inspire me. ;0)
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🙂
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Looks excellent! Well-done!
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Thanks, it was a fun experiment!
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My pleasure!
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Looks so delicious!
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It was 🙂
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A lovely looking Victoria sponge 🎂😉
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Thanks! It was very tasty too 🙂
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