In this section you'll find my attempts at cooking, baking, and barista'ing. Since moving into my own place and having my own kitchen to play in, I occasionally have the urge to throw something together.

I'm not averse to using my microwave for cooking things. For coffee I have my trusty old Russell Hobbs 3335 machine which I think dates back to the 1980s, and for bread I have a Goodmans Cuisine GBM625 Breadmaker.

If you want to get in touch regarding anything in this section then you can do so here:

Malt Loaf: November: A while ago now I discovered in an old-ish book on microwave recipes one for Malt Loaf. Growing up on the stuff and always enjoying a slice or two with a generous spread of margarine on top I was keen to give that recipe a try; curiously the key ingredient was Bran Flakes as this provided the much needed 'Malt', otherwise this would just be a fruit loaf. While I don't seem to have a picture of how that effort turned out, it turned out okay, although I recall it didn't rise so much. The recipe is top right and is from p.153 of the Toshiba Book of Microwave Cooking (1981).

The reason for including this now is that I recently acquired a fresh box of Bran Flakes (the price was reduced so it was ideal). Instead of using the microwave though, I decided to use my bread machine which I didn't have at the time of the previous effort. I sourced a suitable recipe online which you can see to the right.

Here is how it turned out:

Again it didn't rise so much (it was barely above the paddle), perhaps some baking powder would help. The end's crust was somewhat chewy and actually more akin to an actual crust but after cutting further slices the rest of the loaf was better; I'd specified the size to be Small on the machine but left the crust setting at Medium - perhaps lowering the latter would improve the crust. The top of the loaf was, and appeared to be, quite gooey and sticky; perhaps less sugar or a little more flour would help here. The cake was certainly very succulent and juicy though, even though it hadn't really risen; perhaps I'm wrong for expecting it too; it doesn't really need it since it's a fruit loaf and not a sponge. Similar to the Microwave recipe the 'Malt' aspect is perhaps what is lacking slightly compared to an authentic Soreen Malt Loaf, it's definitely a tasty fruit loaf; perhaps Soreen add something to bring out more of the maltiness, or maybe more Bran Flakes are required; measuring the latter recipe in cups meant there was a lot of sugar but not so much Flakes (even though both filled a cup); darker sugar would likely make the cake darker and more like an actual Malt Loaf.

Rhubarb Pie: June: To have a change from making a rhubarb crumble each week (because that's how quickly my rhubarb plant makes rhubarb), I decided to have a go at making a rhubarb pie, mainly due to it using less sugar. I used emmymadeinjapan's recipe as a guide on Youtube.

There are sultanas in there too.

Click here to check out an example crumble.