Waitrose Cake Mix Bag Review

I know it's been ages since I wrote my last blog post, but the truth is I've been so busy - not with anything terribly exciting - just getting ready for baby to arrive.  It's been over 2 weeks since I left work and went on maternity leave and to be honest, aside from the baking I did for my baby shower - which I'll share with you soon, I haven't done any!  I've been so busy organising the baby room, cleaning, running around doing last minute errands, and spending time with my mom who was visiting from Canada.  I've still got a few things that I want to try and bake before the baby arrives, but as everyone knows babies are unpredictable and they can arrive without notice.  

And now on to some more recent baking!

About a month or so ago the lovely folks over at Waitrose sent me two of their new summer cake mix bags to try. These aren't your typical cake mixes - rather than having 1 bag of dry ingredients to dump into a bowl and mix with oil, water and eggs, these cake mix bags have real ingredients like flour, sugar, and chocolate that are all pre-measured for you.  You'll still need to add in a few things that aren't included with the bagged mix like butter, eggs and a few other small items.  Because these cake mix bags use real ingredients that you'd find in your own pantry, I'd still consider them to be "made from scratch" because you really are still doing all of the hard work yourself.  So no need to worry about cheating and passing a boxed cake mix off as your own - this is as close to the real thing that you're going to get without buying and measuring the ingredients yourself.

Waitrose currently has two flavours of bagged cake mixes available - a Lemon Pistachio & Poppy Seed Loaf, and a Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake.  The range is also set to expand in September.  

First up I made the Lemon Pistachio & Poppy Seed Loaf which I brought into the office to share.  Sure enough, all of the ingredients with the exception of the lemons, eggs and butter came pre-weighed and in little individual bags, so all I had to do was follow the directions on the package.  

Because the cake was essentially baked from scratch (with exception of weighing the ingredients) it took longer to make than I had anticipated - I just assumed it would be super quick like a Betty Crocker Cake Mix.  My initial thoughts about the Lemon Pistachio & Poppy Seed Loaf were:

- The instructions on the bag called for a loaf tin measured by volume - not centimetres, which I found really confusing because I have several loaf tins of various sizes, and I have absolutely no idea what the volume of any of them is.  In fact, I've never heard of a baking pan measured by volume rather than dimensions.

- The instructions state to beat the eggs and sugar until they're light and fluffy.  I think giving a time would have been helpful here, as it did take quite a while to get them light and fluffy even when using an electric mixer.

The collective feedback from myself and the people that ate it was that we liked the texture and moistness of the cake, but we didn't feel that the lemon flavour was strong enough in the cake.  The glaze was delicious, but we would have liked a stronger lemon flavour, so next time I'd add in more lemon zest and juice.  We also thought it would have been better if the pistachios were left out of the cake.  I don't like nuts in my cakes because they go soft, but as I was trying these cake bags for the first time I thought I should follow the directions exactly. Next time I'd leave them out.  That's the nice thing about these cake mix bags - you can add in or leave out a specific ingredient if you don't like it.

The following week I made the Chocolate Hazelnut Cake and brought it to share with the girls in my NCT baby group.  As with the Lemon Loaf, all the ingredients were conveniently weighed out for me with the exception of the eggs, butter and milk.  I took note from the Lemon Pistachio Loaf and omitted the whole hazelnuts from the cake, and only used them on top as a garnish.  My feedback for the chocolate hazelnut cake is below:

- I didn't think there was enough chocolate icing to go in between and on top of the cake, so I ended up doubling it using my own ingredients.

- Included in the mix are some small toffee balls that you need to melt in a small pan in order to coat some of the whole hazelnuts.  Although this wasn't particularly hard, it would have been a lot easier if they came pre-coated in the toffee.

I much preferred this Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake over the Lemon Pistachio and Poppyseed Loaf.  Perhaps it's because I'm a huge chocoholic, but I also thought the flavours were stronger than the lemon loaf. 

I'd suggest that Waitrose remove the weights that are printed on each of individual ingredient bags.  A savvy person only has to write down the weight of each ingredient in order to recreate the recipe, which would remove the need to purchase the cake mix bags.  I'd also suggest that the ingredients be simplified by adding all of the dry ingredients together in one bag to make things faster and easier.  This would also reduce the possibility of people actually weighing each of the ingredient bags to recreate the recipe.

Overall I'd say the Waitrose cake mix bags were pretty good, and they were moister than I had thought they would be.  My main concern with them would be their price - at £5 for the Lemon Loaf and £7 for the Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, they seem rather expensive when you compare them to a) a store bought cake, b) a regular cake mix (which has no where near the quality of ingredients), and c) if you were to use your own ingredients most of which you'd already have in your pantry.  The quality of ingredients is definitely better than any other cake mix I've seen, but don't let the fact that these are cake mix bags fool you, as they still do take a fair bit of time to bake because you're still technically baking them from scratch and not just adding eggs, oil and water to a dry mix.  I would definitely recommend these for someone who needs to bake a cake to bring along to a friends place for dinner, because you do still get that homemade look and taste with less fuss than you would be if you made them entirely from scratch.  

A Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake That's Fit For A Queen - Well, Kinda

Way back in February I received a copy of the book Bake and Decorate by Fiona Cairns.  I'd never heard of Fiona at the time, but quickly learned from the inside cover of her book that she's been baking and decorating cakes for over 25 years.  Fiona started selling cakes from her home, and now supplies them to major stores including Waitrose, Harrods and the iconic Fortnum & Mason.  And get this - she’s recently be given given the prestigious task of making the royal wedding cake for the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  So if you’re like me, and had never heard of Fiona Cairns before, I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about her in the weeks to come.

When I received my copy of Bake and Decorate I did what anyone would do and had a quick flip through to see which recipes caught my eye.  I really liked that fact that each recipe was accompanied by a full color picture of what the finished cake should look like - I can’t stand when recipe books don’t do this!  There were a few, recipes that jumped out at me, but the one that really stood out was the Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake.

I’d always wanted to make a flourless cake.  I’d had them many times in restaurants  and they were always so rich and moist.  For those of you who haven’t tried a flourless cake, they’ve got a much denser consistency than a regular cake, and they’re packed full of chocolate flavour.  

Fiona’s Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake was one of the easiest and most delicious cakes I’d ever made.  Seriously!  Give it a try!

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Ganache

6.5 Tbsp (90g) Butter

2.10oz (60g) Roasted Hazelnuts - skinless

5.3oz (150g) Dark Chocolate - 70% Cocoa

1/3 Cup + 2 Tbsp (90g) Sugar, separated

3 Eggs, separated 

Chocolate Ganache (my own recipe, not Fiona's)

4oz (120ml) Heavy Cream

1/2oz (14g) Sugar

1/2 Tbsp Butter

6oz (170g) Dark Chocolate - 70% Cocoa

Fresh Raspberries to garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and grease a 7.5 inch (20cm) round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment / baking paper.

2.  If your hazelnuts aren’t already toasted, now’s the time to do it.  You’ll need to roast them in the oven on a sheet pan for 5 - 10 minutes watching carefully so they don’t burn.  Set the roasted hazelnuts aside to cool, and then grind them finely using a food processor.

In a double boiler place the chocolate, butter and just under 1/3 cup (70g) of the sugar together and melt together gently.  Remove from the heat and stir in the hazelnuts.  In a smaller bowl, beat the egg yolks together until they change to a pale yellow colour, and then mix them into the cooled chocolate mixture.

3.  In a separate bowl (make sure it’s very clean with no grease!) whisk the egg whites until frothy, slowly add in the remaining sugar and continue whisking until the egg whites form soft peaks.  Take a large spoonful of the egg whites and gently fold them into the chocolate mixture to lighten it up a little.  Now very gently fold in the remaining egg whites until combined into the chocolate mixture.

4.  Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Set aside to cool for 10 - 15 minutes, and then gently run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan.  Once the cake has cooled, flip it onto your serving plate so the base of the cake is now the top.

5.  To make the chocolate ganache, break up or chop chocolate into small pieces and put into a small to medium sized stainless steel bowl.

6.  Pour cream and sugar into a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat until almost boiling. Stir frequently to prevent any burning.

7.  Once the cream and sugar has come close to boiling, pour it over top of the chocolate pieces (the chocolate should be mostly covered by the cream).  Let the cream sit on the chocolate for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, start to stir the chocolate and cream together using a metal spoon.  Start from the inside and stir clockwise working your way to the outer edge of the bowl.  Stir until the chocolate and cream mixture is smooth and combined.  There shouldn't be any lumps of chocolate left.  Leave the chocolate ganache mixture to cool for about 5 - 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.  

8.  Pour the ganache on top of the cake and spread it around using a spatula or knife until it evenly covers the top.  Don’t worry if it flows down some of the edges.  Garnish the top with fresh raspberries and serve. 

So shiny!

There you have it!  A fabulously rich, moist and dense chocolate cake that’s worthy of being on any top restaurant’s menu.  Seriously - give it a try!

And what did I think about the rest of the book aside from the Flourless cake?  Well,  to be honest my initial thoughts were that there was a lot of nice looking recipes in the book, but the decorating techniques weren’t quite what I was expecting. I had expected there to be more decorating techniques in it such as those using fondant etc, but I don’t think this is what Fiona was aiming for in her book.  The decorating techniques are really more decorating ideas.  There’s nothing fussy or intimidating about them.  They’re simple, and perfect for a beginner - things like candied flowers, ribbons tied around cakes, and candy arranged in pretty patterns.  As for the recipes - I found most of them to be fairly traditional English recipes.  Things like Victoria Sponge Cakes, Fruit Cakes, Battenberg Cakes etc.  They’re not covered in sweet icings like most American cakes are, which makes them much lighter tasting than what I’m used to making.  I needed a good book with some traditional English basics.  After all - I’ve only ever had a slice of Victoria Sponge cake once!  For those people outside of the UK, I would say that the Victoria Sponge is probably the most popular cake in the UK, but it’s virtually unknown in North America.  It’s a true classic, and I’ll be baking Fiona’s version of it very soon.

Chocolate, Caramel & Pecans. Yum!

So I've been MIA for quite a while now.  It's actually hard to believe that I haven't made a post in over a month, but my computer's been broken, I've been unbelievably busy and then decided I needed to take a bit of a break from everything. But, never fear!  I'm back, and with loads of baking ideas on my "To Do" list!  And I've actually got quite a few things I made over the holiday period that I never got around to posting that I still MUST share them with you guys.  I promise - they're not too "holiday-ish" so you can still go ahead and make them, no matter what time of year it is.   

My Canadian friends (and maybe even my American ones) will recognize the look of these chocolate blob below.  They're kinda gooey, kinda nutty and they have a catchy little jingle that goes along with them.  Do you know what they are? 
 

Turtles!!

Turtles are available all year round in Canada, but they're synonymous with Christmas.  I guess kind of like Quality Street is here in the UK. There's gotta be a time in every Canadian kids life where there was a box of Turtles underneath the Christmas tree, or when someone brought them over to your place as a hostess gift. 

So what exactly is a Turtle?  They're pecans topped with creamy chewy caramel that have been covered in milk chocolate.   

Turtles were actually invented in the US, but as far as I'm aware, they haven't been sold there in about 20 years.   They had about 5 pecans arranged like a star, and and once they were topped with caramel and chocolate they looked a bit like a turtle.  The mass market Canadian Turtles don't really look like the original version anymore - they have chopped pecans instead of whole ones, and they're a lot smaller than the original version. 
 

Back: My homemade Turtle.  Front:  A Canadian Turtle

Now, I'm not usually one that likes nuts in chocolate, but these are good.  They're really good!  And they're also pretty easy to make!  I've come up with a really simple recipe for Turtles that tastes just as good (if not better) than the original!

   

Turtles

50 Toasted Whole Pecans  

40 - 50 pieces of individually Wrapped Caramels (called Chewy Toffee in the UK - Werthers brand) 

1 - 2 Tbsp whipping cream 

300gr (10.5oz) Chocolate Coating  

Silicone baking mat 

1.  If you didn't buy your pecans already toasted, then toast them now.  You can do this by placing your raw pecans on a baking sheet and toasting them in a 350ºF (175ºC) oven for about 10 min.  Give the pecans a stir once or twice and watch carefully so they don't burn.  Let them cool fully before moving onto step 2. 

2. Place 2 pecans side by side on the silicone baking mat.  Do this with the rest of the pecans, making sure each pair of pecans is spaced about 2 inches from the next pair.
  

3. Peel the caramel/toffee pieces and place them in a glass measuring cup along with 1Tbsp of the cream.  Melt the caramel/toffee pieces and cream in the microwave on medium high power for 30 seconds and stir.  Microwave again for 30 seconds and stir.  Keep an eye on the consistency of the mixture. It should be a little bit thick, but melted enough that it will slowly flow off of a spoon.  If it's still too thick, add another tablespoon of cream to the caramel and microwave again for 30 seconds. 

4. Once your caramel/toffee is at the right constancy take a small spoonful, and drop it directly on top of the pecan pairs.  You might need another spoon to help push the sticky caramel off of the other spoon. Let the caramel cool completely once it's on top of the pecans.  After they're cool and dry to the touch remove them from the silicone baking sheet and put them on a plate or cutting board. 

5.  Melt your chocolate coating in a glass or metal bowl over a double boiler.  I used the Chocolate Cake Covering from Silver Spoon.  It's not real chocolate, but it melts, cools and dries well as it doesn't need tempering like real chocolate.  Wilton Candy Melts will work as well, but you'll need to thin them down with a bit or shortening or vegetable oil once they're melted.
 

Once your chocolate is melted, spoon a small dollop of chocolate onto your silicone mat (it should be slightly smaller than your 2 pecans are in width).  Immediately after spooning your chocolate onto the mat, place one of the pecan and caramel pairs directly onto the melted chocolate.  The chocolate should spread just enough to meet (or slightly extend past) the edges of your pecans.  

Now take a spoon full of the melted chocolate and drop it on top of the caramel covered pecans.  Use the back of your spoon to help spread it around. Make sure you've added enough chocolate to cover all of the pecans and caramel.  The chocolate should flow down the sides of the pecans so it meets the bottom edges of the chocolate base that the pecans are sitting in.
   

 

Repeat these steps until you've made all of your pecans into Turtles! 

* Now I know there's a lot of people who are allergic to nuts, or really don't like them in candy.  If you're one of these people, I've also come up with a nut-less version of the Turtle using pretzels. Pretzels aren't nearly as popular in the UK as they are in the US, but I did manage to find some star shaped ones in Tesco over the Christmas period that worked perfect for these.  I know that square pretzels are available in the US, but regular knot ones will work just fine as well. 
 

All that you need to do to make nut-free Turtles is simply replace the pecans with a pretzel (or 2) if they're small.  Then proceed with the same steps as the regular pecan version. 

I realize that when your first reading this, these Turtles probably sound more complicated than they actually are.  I promise - they really are pretty easy, but I admit that they can be a bit time consuming.  But - they're worth it! Really!