{REVIEW} Deep Fried Oreos!!

Being Scottish, you would be forgiven for thinking I am a fan of deep-fried Mars Bars. But no, deep-fried sweets are a bit of a fallacy – although I do remember a spate in the 80’s where my friends and I would go into the local chippy and see what sweets they were prepared to coat in batter and fry. I think I pushed it too far when I suggested a pack of M&M’s.

But on the recent trip to London, having a look around Camden market, I happened upon this little stall – The Original Crispy Candy Company. 

Normally I wouldn’t look twice at a stall like this – but I suddenly noticed the deep fried Oreos. Now I am a Yankophile, which has been explained before, and if they were good enough for Elvis, they would be good enough for me.

Rather than yucky chip shop batter they were coated in a pancake batter. When fried the batter puffed up and they looked like little beignets. The guy coated them with cinnamon sugar and handed me the plate.

Oh wow! They were amazing – the batter was lovely – not greasy at all and then you bit into the Oreos. They were warm, but not overcooked – they guy explained they were chilled before frying so they didn’t alter too much. If you are ever in Camden Market, find this stall it is amazing!! They do regular chocolate bars too, but the Oreo’s are something else!

When I was younger I did try a deep fried ‘Fry’s Chocolate Cream’ – it was like eating warm toothpaste with it’s fondant mint centre – bleugh!! Cakeyboi actually tried hot toothpaste...

Tomato Soup Muffins

Cakeyboi is back from his travels. But no time yet to share with you bakeries I’ve visited or use ingredients I have bought in London. So I thought I might share with you a recipe I tried before starting my blog.

If you have seen my post about Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies, you might have sussed I like to try the unusual, and when I came across a recipe for muffins that incorporated tomato soup, of course I couldn’t resist trying them.

I used the recipe at Inquisitive Cupcake but decided against making the frosting, using another recipe I had found. To be honest the raw ‘batter’ was not inspiring. I’m a big fan of trying the leftovers in the bowl, but the concoction was not good and I feared the worst. But when the muffins were taken out of the oven and left to cool a little, I couldn’t resist trying one. Lo and behold, they tasted great! The baking process obviously mellowed the flavour of the tomato soup whilst leaving it’s natural sweetness, and brought to the fore the spices used in the recipe, almost giving it a ‘carrot cake like’ nod and a wink.

As for the frosting, I used one, which incorporated flour, so it was like making a roux! The recipe also called for granulated sugar, which left the frosting grainy. I was not impressed and won’t share the link for that one. So I would advocate using the one included in the link. The photograph I took is not the most flattering, but I have since improved my food photography. I like to think of the photo as how not to take a food pic!

If you give the muffins a try yourself, let me know how they turned out.

Cakeyboi didn’t quite get the whole tomato and muffin ‘thang’!

Happy Jubilee from wet London

Well Cakeyboi has had a fantastic week - eaten far too many cakes in the name of research and bought a few new baking supplies. But in the spirit of Jubilee here is a pic of a fantastic crown - made entirely from Jelly Belly beans - it's been a wet but wonderful time!

London Bound!

Cakeyboi is off  to London to see the Queen!
He'll be back soon though, with some new baking ingredients, reviews of some London bakeries and maybe a photo or two of some lovely looking cakes!

Great British Bark

I love making Bark. It is such an adaptable recipe and makes a great gift for someone. It’s not too common this side of the ‘pond’ but it’s basically a sheet of chocolate (milk, plain, white – your choice) with things like fruit and nuts embedded into it. Click here for a ‘proper’ explanation http://www.word-detective.com/2011/07/bark-candy/. Bark seems to come from the likeness to tree bark, as it’s broken into chunks, apparently similar to the tree variety! I first discovered Martha Stewart’s version, which uses rice krispies, white chocolate and crushed candy canes (it’s a Christmas one).

But ever since, I have been pimping it for different seasons. I hope to bring you my different variations over time.

But as we are heading toward a very British summer what with the Jubilee (I’m not a Royalist but it’s good to party!) and the Olympics, plus all the Union Jack adorned items in the supermarkets, I thought why not come up with a Great British Bark?

I mostly use the staples of white chocolate and rice krispies in my bark and this version was no exception. But I wondered what else I could use. The kind people at M&M’s have brought out a red, white and blue variety, so they would be perfect I thought. But what quintessentially British item would be good to put on top? Custard Creams I realised – so here is how I made it:

200g white chocolate, broken into pieces

500ml of rice krispies (pour up to that level in a measuring jug)

A large bag of Red White and Blue M&M’s

8 Custard Creams, each chopped into 8 pieces

Some Red White and Blue Sprinkles

I melted the chocolate in a bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water. I then added the rice krispies and mixed thoroughly. Taking a large cookie sheet/baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, I poured the melted chocolate/rice krispie mix onto the sheet and with a rubber spatula spread this out as thin as I could, without seeing pieces of the greaseproof paper peeking through. This is where you get to be a bit creative by adding your toppings in any way you like. I first took the M&M’s placing them randomly on top of the choc/rice mix. I then took the custard creams and randomly dotted them around the mix. Lastly I poured over some red, white and blue sprinkles I had. Then taking another sheet of greaseproof paper, I placed this on top and gently pushed all the toppings into the choc/rice mix, sort of smoothing over with my hands. I removed the top sheet of paper and popped the tray into the fridge until the white chocolate was re-set, at least 1 hour. When set, I took it out of the fridge and carefully peeled the slab of chocolate from the greaseproof paper. Then using my hands, broke the slab into random chunks – et voila - Great British Bark!

If you try this at home, let me know how it turns out!

Eurovision Cake

The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a constant in our lives. Like good old Queen Liz (topical) or Coronation Street (not liking it at the moment, stopped watching it) it’s always been there. It’s as camp as Christmas and always good for a laugh at other countries’ eccentricities!

My friend Ewan always throws a Eurovision party and in the past few years I have been baking cakes to take along, with the flag of the host nation on top. I’ve done Norway (never took a photo of that one), Germany and

 this year’s host Azerbaijan (see pic at top). The first year I took along the Union Jack, but that would have been pretty samey each year, and well, it was probably the only time I would get to do our flag as we have zilch chance of winning ever again (shall I be eating my words instead of the cake Hump??).

The party itself is always hilarious – we all put money into a sweepie and draw countries at random. Whoever has the winning country keeps all the dosh. And you have to drink constantly whilst your country is performing. Plus you have to take along food and drink of a participating country – thank goodness for the East European section in Tesco!!

Anyway, it’s always nerve wracking to see what flag I’ll have to be making the following year. Let’s pray Macedonia doesn’t win! Have you seen their flag??

The cake is a yellow cake - same recipe for the Watermelon cake, minus the food colouring and chocolate chunks. And the frosting is cream cheese frosting - same recipe as topping for Sweetza but in greater quantities. And the fun part is sourcing toppings, for Azerbaijan I used a white chocolate star and moon, green sour apple sweets, raspberries and blueberries!

Cakeyboi is a huge Eurovision fan too….

{REVIEW} Poundland's Instant Cupcake

Well, having a (very) quick mooch around my local Poundland - what did I happen upon? Only an Instant Cupcake(?) - 'Just Add Water' it proudly declared. What -  did it grow like the magic beanstalk in the fairy tale?? No, it apparently just grows in an 800w microwave.

So I invested my hard earned £1 and thought - how bad can it be? Read on.


The sealed cup had inside a small sachet of powder - Powdered Sugar, Wheat Flour, Egg Powder, Corn Starch and some other very unpronounceable scientific sounding ingredients to be exact. 'Pour in 30ml water' the directions stated - that's two tablespoons to you and me.

It then said mix together for 3 to 4 minutes. Now I am not an expert by any means, but I was very concerned with over developing the gluten in the wheat flour (yeah right), so my instant cupcake wouldn't be too tough. After 2 minutes it looked mixed, and I was bored, so I shoved it in the microwave 'on full power for 1 minute'.

It pinged, my excitement was peaking, and I opened the door.




Hmmm - it looked like anaemic steaming sponge, had no smell to speak of and was slightly domed. That small puddle of cake batter had certainly risen.

I couldn't wait any longer - I was just too eager to try the  baked nuked item. I took a pastry fork and pulled at the sponge. It had a very weird like rubbery consistency and was very aerated - hence having to mix the thing for so long. I was glad I hadn't stirred for the further 2 minutes - it might have taken over the kitchen like a scene from the 1950's B Movie 'The Blob'. It had no taste what so ever. I had tried sprinkling on some 'chocolate marshmallow' popcorn seasoning, but even that couldn't override the blandness.

I realised it hadn't stuck to the sides and it came out of the paper cup very easily, quivering on the plate like mutant jelly. I couldn't face anymore and fed it to the bin. My recommendation - buy Poundland's pre-baked cupcakes - 6 for £1 - if you really are desperate for inexpensive cupcakes!

The Instant Cupcake gave Cakeyboi the 'boak'....