Let’s Bake 13: Pastry

- Susan Barrie Leave a comment
peach-blueberry-pie

As the darker, colder nights are already drawing in, it’s time to step away from the salads and tuck into autumnal comfort food. So our theme for our next Let’s Bake event is… Pastry!

Whether you choose puff, choux or shortcrust (or any other kind of pastry!), go for full-on pie, elegant tart or mini patisserie, is totally up to you. We’re looking forward to trying a mix of sweet and savoury fillings!

Here are all the details – as usual, please email letsbakeinverness@gmail.com to book your place!

Date: Sunday 23rd October 2016, 4pm-5:30pm

Venue: Blend Tea and Coffee Merchants

Theme: Pastry

(Header Image via)

Save

Save

Let’s Bake Inverness does Cakefest Scotland 2016

- Susan Barrie Leave a comment
_dsc0373

Over the last few months, Kara, Kirsty, Mairi and I have all been on a little baking adventure! Back at the beginning of the summer I saw an advert for ‘Cake Fest Scotland‘ which was organised as part of the 2016 Festival of Architecture which has events happening all over Scotland this year.

_DSC0006

Read more

Let’s Bake 12: Olympic Baking

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake 2 Comments

confetti-sunshine-olympic-doughnuts-3Olympic doughnuts {source}

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer, whether you’ve been on holiday or are just enjoying a stay-cation (sorry about the weather!).

The Olympics are due to kick off next month so we thought they would make a fun theme for our next Let’s Bake get together.  The brief is a baked good from a country participating in the Olympics – so that’s pretty much free rein to do what you want! 

Use your imagination with the decorating, or pick a lesser known countries recipe.  With such a vast range of options we can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Here are all the details – as usual, please email letsbakeinverness@gmail.com to book your place!

Date: Thursday 18th August, 7-9pm

Venue: Blend Tea and Coffee Merchants

Theme: Olympics

Save

Let’s Bake 10: Chocolate Round Up

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake Leave a comment
_DSC0102

Thanks to Blend Tea and Coffee Merchants for hosting another Let’s Bake Inverness meeting! We enjoyed an intimate group meeting with 5 bakes being shared around the table.

We also had a break from eating to hear Debbie from The Chocolate Place tell us all about the process from cocoa bean to chocolate bar, and the ins and outs of being a chocolatier. Did you know that Inverness has its own Chocolate Tour? Debbie also organises these too!

On to the bakes and we had a good mix of textures and flavours.

Kirsty made a lovely Jaffa Loaf Cake which as well as having the perfect chocolate drizzle topping, also had a clementine syrup glaze.

_DSC0102

Swenja made these ‘Chocolate Overload Bars’ by cleverly making a white chocolate, marshmallow and rice krispie base, making them just a little bit lighter than anticipated!

_DSC0100

Dawn made these excellent fudgy salted caramel brownies – these were a big hit with everyone!

_DSC0103

I (Susan) made chocolate dipped Banana Biscotti.

_DSC0099

Finally Eileen wowed everyone with her delicious white chocolate and pistachio baked cheesecake!

_DSC0106

Thanks to everyone for coming, details about the next event will be publicised shortly. To join our mailing list/ask questions, please email letsbakeinverness@gmail.com!

Let’s Bake 10: Chocolate

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake Leave a comment

chocbrowniecookies3Photo Credit

Our next Let’s Bake event (our 10th, can you believe?!) will celebrate all things connected to the humble cocoa bean, which was a suggestion of one of our members  (thanks Dorothy!) considering the meeting is shortly before the Easter holidays.

You may have your own favourite chocolate recipe already in mind, but if not, you may like to check out our very own Kirsty’s recipe index for ideas (there’s a whole chocolate section if you scroll halfway down the page).

Anything goes, as long as there’s some form of chocolate featured in the recipe. Milk or dark, a drizzle for decoration or full on chocolate frenzy – you decide! Honarary brownie points will be given to anyone who can incorporate chocolate into a savoury bake!

As an added bonus for this meeting, there will be a short talk all about chocolate from Debbie who runs local business The Chocolate Place, so be prepared to be educated as well as enjoy some lovely bakes!

Date: Monday 21st March

Time: 7-9pm

Venue: Blend Tea and Coffee Merchants, Drummond Street, Inverness

Theme: Chocolate

To sign up: Email letsbakeinverness@gmail.com to book a place (a comment on this post doesn’t guarantee you a spot, we like to keep all the sign ups in one place for the sake of accuracy!) and we’ll remind you nearer the time to let us know what you are bringing so appropriate labels can be made. If you are bringing something that needs slicing at Blend, please bring your bake pre-sliced or bring your own knife/cake slice.  As usual we’ll provide the plates. Blend will have hot and cold drinks available for purchase.

Let’s Bake 9: Cocktail Party Round Up

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake Leave a comment

IMG_4781

This months Let’s Bake meet up was in a new venue (to us) and it was a really fun change.  We met up on a Sunday afternoon in Bar One for a Cocktail Party themed afternoon.  

We were warmly welcomed by the staff and some of our members even managed a cocktail or mocktail!  All of the bakes were delicious as usual, most of them laced with booze in small (or not so small) amounts!  There were also a couple of savoury options to help balance the sweetness.  

Thanks to all who came and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Read more

Let’s Bake 9: Cocktail Party

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake Leave a comment

cocktail2
photo credit

Happy New Year bakers!  I know January is always dominated by healthy eating and cutting back but a wee treat at the end of the month certainly won’t hurt.

This month we have a bit of a change of venue, so to honour our Sunday afternoon at Bar One, the theme will be a Cocktail Party!  We’ve kept it a bit vague to allow you all the most flexibility with the theme so anything from cocktail flavoured cupcakes, to savoury cocktail sized snacks are allowed!

Look forward to seeing old and new faces there.

Date: Sunday 31st January 2016

Time: 3-5pm

Venue: Bar One, 1 Academy Street, Inverness

Theme: Cocktail Party

To sign up: Email letsbakeinverness@gmail.com to book a place (a comment on this post doesn’t guarantee you a spot, we like to keep all the sign ups in one place for the sake of accuracy!) and we’ll remind you nearer the time to let us know what you are bringing so appropriate labels can be made. If you are bringing something that needs slicing at the bar, please bring your bake pre-sliced or bring your own knife/cake slice.  As usual we’ll provide reusable plates. Bar One will have hot and cold drinks (and cocktails!) available for purchase.

cocktail1
photo credit

Let’s Bake 8: Favourite Bakes Round Up

- Kirsty @ Let's Bake Leave a comment

For our final Let’s Bake event of 2015, we had a great time choosing recipes from our favourite books to bake for our gathering at Blend Tea and Coffee Merchants.

DSC_0025

Some of the books may or may not have been added to subsequent Christmas lists!

Grace’s Marmalade Muffins were adapted from Spooning with Rosie.

DSC_0023

Dorothy’s Yoghurt Cake recipe was given to her by a friend (and Dorothy has kindly passed it on so I will add it to the recipes section when I can). Dorothy tried out a marbling technique for her cake, used a lemon yoghurt for flavour, and incorporated a festive element by adding Christmas tree sprinkles!

DSC_0024

I (Susan) had a bit of a nightmare with my first attempt at this Sour Cream Coffee Cake, but my second attempt was much better. I will always remember to use butter and flour or cake release spray when baking in a bundt tin! My book was from the Clandestine Cake Club and the recipe can be found online here. Rather than the cake being coffee flavoured as the name suggests, this american recipe is a nutty cake to be eaten with a cup of coffee.

DSC_0002

Kirsty made some delicious Orange Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Icing from Joy the Baker.

DSC_0021

Swenja bought along a huge batch of Raspberry Blondies from Gordon Ramsey’s Ultimate Cookery Course which were very popular!

DSC_0019

Kara’s bake was adapted from Homemade Memories by Kate Doran. This lemon, pistachio and rose loaf complete with gold glitter was possibly the prettiest bake of the night!

DSC_0007

Mairi brought along possibly the oldest recipe book, which was a scrapbook of handed down recipes, as well as recipes from Jackie magazine! Mairi bought along some delicious shortbread fingers.

DSC_0017

Karen bought along a classic lemon loaf cake from a 90’s recipe book!

DSC_0022

Finally Pauline baked from a Bakewell slice from the Avoca Cafe Cookbook!

DSC_0015

Thanks to all the bakers who came along, and to Blend for staying open for us! Keep your eyes on the Let’s Bake Twitter and Facebook pages for details of the next meet, early next year!