DAY 1 - Verdict

I'm feeling a little queasy, and desperately craving something savoury, or crunchy or hot...and it's not even the end of day 1!
Here's a run-down of today's diet...

Breakfast
Breakfast cupcake (fairly healthy, contains apricots, muesli, orange juice and marmalade)
Mid-morning snack
Slice of apple and peanut-butter chip loaf cake (contains apple, but sugaryness of peanut butter discounts that)
Lunch
2 slices of feta and chilli loaf cake (no sugar, tasted a bit crumpty...healthy enough but didn't leave me feeling full)
Slice of ginger Parkin cake (kindly donated to me by a girl at work)
Mid-afternoon snack
2 (big...) slices of raspberry and lemon cake (contains real fruit...but sugar too)
Pre-dinner snack (told you I'd be honest!)
Slice of apple and peanut-butter chip loaf cake
Dinner
1 Welsh cake (They fell apart, and weren't very fulfilling so I won't be recommending that recipe!)

After 1 day I've realised this is going to be a LOT harder than I thought. However, I will rise to the challenge and drink red wine as one of my 5-a-day if I need to...

A Week of Cake - DAY 1 - Breakfast Cupcakes

Yesterday was spent in preparation for my week of cake-eating, in total I baked EIGHT batches of cakes. During the next week I will be sharing those recipes on my blog everyday. I will also keep you updated on my daily diet (admitting to the world how much I eat!), and I’m sure my numerous cravings for fresh fruit and vegetables. I will keep a tally of ingredients used and how many different types of cake I eat each day. I have decided to modify my rules ever so slightly…as a girl should never say no to cake…if anyone happens to offer me homemade cake I will simply have to accept. I have taken my weights and measurements (a girl never tells), and I will reveal whether I have managed to maintain my healthy weight whilst only eating cake…

I’d love to read your comments about my efforts, and feel free to get your friends to head over to my blog too.

Monday morning began with…

 

Breakfast Cupcakes

These cupcakes contain muesli, orange juice and marmalade - all you could ever need from a breakfast!

A Week of Cake

Over a slice of orange and almond cake at the weekend, I confessed “I wish I could eat nothing but cake”.  As I thought about it I wondered if it would be possible. After all there are all sorts of foods, sweet and savoury that could be classed as cake, potato cakes, oatcakes apparently even turnip cake…

Therefore, on Monday 28^th February 2011 I will begin my challenge of eating nothing but cake for one entire week. Not only that, all of the cake will be homemade by myself.

I will spend this Sunday in preparation cooking up such delights as muesli cake, fruit and nut cake and carrot cake. I intend to keep my diet as balanced as possible, and ensure that all the food groups are covered – getting my 5-a-day will be a struggle but I will do my best.

If anyone has any ideas for cakes that they think I should include send me ideas or recipes to roxannebm@hotmail.com.

I will be blogging my daily diet of nothing but cake and include recipes for every meal of the day. Watch this space for A Week of Cake.

Bakewell Tart

After promising to make a Bakewell Tart all week it was today I finally found the time. There was a great recipe in a book called The Great British Book of Baking. I followed the exact recipe (for once), and unusually it worked perfectly!

Suggestions and comments

I'm looking for requests of what to make in the next few weeks to feature on my blog. Let me know what you want to see, and if they are post-able/you live near me I will send/give you a taster!

I enjoy reading all of your comments :)

Mixed Grain Rolls

 I'm not one for using packet mixes, I made some Barbie cupcakes from one once and that was quite enough. However, I fancied making some bread and rather than go through the palava of deciding which flour and which grains, and then finding the yeast I found a handy little bread mix.

I chose a mixed grain wholemeal mix, emptied the packet into a large bowl with 290ml lukewarm water. After mixing, 5 minutes of kneading, and 30 minutes of rising, it was into the oven for 15 minutes. And seconds later I was eating warm freshly baked bread with melted butter...yum.

The Great British/American Bake Off

A good friend of mine is a fellow baking blogger (see Baking-in-Brooklyn), and we have often shared and compared recipes. We decided to cook the same cake and compare, hence the 'bake off'.


After much deliberation we chose lemon drizzle cake - in any form we wanted - and the baking commenced!

I found a recipe for a 'Lemon Drizzle Traybake', and as usual adjusted it to fit my ingredients/equipment. I enlisted the boyfriend to be my official taste tester as he is a particular fan of the lemon drizzle cake.

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread

As a kid whenever I visited my Grandma I would always get 'fed up'. Not bored, you understand, but fed until you were full. As if that wasn't enough, my Grandma would always give out a big box of home-made chocolate caramel shortbread to take home.

Sadly my Grandma passed away last month, and so today, on what would have been her 98th birthday I made my own batch of this treat.

You make it in three stages, first you make a shortbread base, followed by a layer of caramel and then a layer of chocolate.

To make the base:

Measure 125g plain flour (I used rye for a bit of added texture) and 40g caster sugar into a bowl. Add 100g softened butter and rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Bring the mixture together into a ball, and then press it into a greased baking tray, ideally one with straight edges. Prick all over with a fork.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180°C. Take the shortbread out of the oven when it is very lightly browned and firmed.

To make the caramel:

Empty one tin (400g) condensed milk into a pan, add 50g butter and 50g brown sugar. Heat slowly until the sugar and butter have melted. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time, until the mixture has thickened, for about five minutes.

Pour the caramel over the shortbread base and leave to cool.

To finish:

Melt 100g of milk or dark chocolate. Pour over the caramel and put into the fridge to set. 

To serve:
Once it is set cut into squares and lift from the tin.

My verdict:

It was the first time that I have made this, and it wasn't as difficult as I thought. It was nice, the rye flour takes off a little of the sweetness of the caramel which I like. Not a patch on my Grandma's though.