Chocolate and Chilli Bread / Pão com Chocolate e Malagueta.

This month Ana asked us to bake bread with chocolate for "Our Great Bake Off".

As soon as I read the theme, I knew straightaway the bread I was going to bake and it's this one that I'm leaving you today!

I was dying to try this Lakeland Magazine chocolate and chilli bread since the day I got the magazine but, for one reason or the other, it never happened so, this time was the time! I had no doubts whatsoever, that this would be the bread to bake this month.

I had to adapt the recipe because the original one is for a bread maker machine. Although I have a bread maker which I use sometimes for more hard work kneading processes, I don't like to make bread in the bread maker so, the method I writing down is the one I used. Saying that, if you want to use a bread maker, go ahead and just follow the machine manufacturer's instructions.

Here it is, for Ana and for this monthly challenge that I truly adore, a Chocolate and Chilli Bread!

Viennese whirls.

Viennese Whirls are a British confection consisting of soft butter biscuits piped into a whirl shape, said to be inspired by Austrian pastries, though entirely unrelated.

The most common UK version was popularized by Mr Kipling, consisting of a two biscuits sandwiched with buttercream and jam. In this sense they resemble the older Empire biscuit (this information was found here).

For May and "Our Great Bake Off". Ana asked us to make Viennese Whirls.

When it comes to biscuits, I always recur to my little but very trustable Annie Rigg book, the "Great British Bake Off - Bake it Better (nº 2): Biscuits".

I have to say that I wanted to try this recipe for ages but, like many others, I never did it so, this was the opportunity to make them and they turned out absolutely delicious and not badly shaped, I suppose...

Lemon Butter Cookies / Cookies de Limão e Manteiga.

This month and for Our Great Bake Off, Ana challenged us to make decorated biscuits. 

As I wrote here, I'm veryyyyyy bad decorating biscuits but, of course, I had to give it another try and I think these are acceptable. The decoration might not be great or hugely sophisticated but the flavour is delicious though!! 

Although I don't like to mix challenges, these biscuits are so good that I also invite Marta to take and present them at her March table and her "ingredient of the month", which is, the lemon. 

The recipe is from Annie Rigg "The Great British Bake Off - Bake it Better - Biscuits" book. 

Hope both of you, Ana and Marta, like them!

Note: The suggested decoration is the original and the one described in the recipe.
For obvious reasons (meaning, lack of artistic skills), I didn't follow it and went, let's say...,"free style"!

Chocolate Mirror Glaze cake with Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse / Bolo Espelho de Chocolate com Mousse de Chocolate e Framboesas.

For January and Our Great Bake Off, Ana challenged us to make a mirror glaze cake.

After checking many recipes, I decided to make this one, from Kirsten Tibballs and her gorgeous Chocolate book.

A perfect cake, full of textures and flavours, that put big smiles on the faces of the ones that tried it!

Of course my decoration is a simplified version of Kirsten's fabulous honeycomb decoration but that was my decision to decorate it with fruit, instead of the very sophisticated decoration presented in the book.

The photos are not perfect either as the light was very erratic that day... You know... When you want things to be perfect and "nature" is against you... :(...

I have to confess that I have never made a mirror glazed cake before and I was a bit scared but actually, apart from a few hiccups (my fault), it went pretty well.

It's not perfect and perfectly smooth, because I made a mistake with the glaze.

I cooled the glaze to much and it set very quickly before I could cover the cake completely so, I had to scrap it off (which created rough surface over and around the cake) and I had to remake the glaze once again.

Gingerbread and Chocolate Bird House / Casa dos passarinhos em Gengibre e Chocolate.

For December and "Our Great Bake Off", Ana wants us to make gingerbread cookies or "Pepparkakor" like they are called in Sweden.

Apparently today is "Gingerbread Decorating Day" and no better day to publish this gorgeous gingerbread bird's house that I made with my daughter and that was devoured yesterday by her and her classroom mates at school.

The recipe, of course, is from my favourite gingerbread book which is Mima Sinclair "Gingerbread Wonderland" and from which I made, last year, the fabulous suggestions that you can check here, here and here.

Orange Jaffa Cakes / Jaffa Cakes de Laranja.

For November and "Our Great Bake Off", Ana challenged us to make Jaffa Cakes.

Here at home, my husband and kids are totally nuts about Jaffa Cakes and there is no time that my husband goes shopping that he doesn't bring a big box of Jaffa Cakes with him.

I confess, I have never made Jaffa Cakes at home before and so, this was a great opportunity to try this Kate Doran recipe that happens to be the cover of her fabulous Homemade Memories book.

The experience went very well and the photos doesn't pay justice to the fabulous flavour of these Jaffa Cakes as my PC broke and I don't have my Photoshop to edit the photos and I'm working and trying to post on a total strange environment which is my husband laptop...

Well, problems apart, here they are, my first ever homemade Jaffa Cakes.

Note: I made my recipe using financier molds and so they are rectangular but I'm leaving you the original recipe, which means, round cakes made in a muffin tin.

Lemon Drizzle Cake / Bolo drizzle de limão.

There's only two, high quality, cooking shows on TV to which I am totally addicted to:

Masterchef Australia and the Great British Bake Off and since their first season that I don't miss one single episode of both of them.

Great British Bake Off is on its 7th season and not just I never missed one single episode of the 7 seasons but I also have all the Bake Off books available.

Ana had this great idea of challenging us to recreate the Bake Off technical challenges at home.

Being myself a big Bake Off addicted, I couldn't resist the opportunity to take part in this fabulous challenge.

Like Ana (great minds think alike, right?), I always thought of challenging myself at home and try to recreate the technical challenges myself and now is the time to do it.

Ana calls this challenge "Our Great Bake Off" and for October, she challenged us to bake a drizzle cake.

As you all know, I'm a big citrus lover and lemons are on top of my citrus preferences. With that in mind, I couldn't make any other drizzle cake but the only and delicious lemon drizzle cake.

This Raymond Blanc recipe was marked to be baked for years but was forgotten and this is the one I baked for Ana and for "Our Great Bake Off"!

Perfect to eat alongside a cup of tea or coffee, according to Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, a perfect drizzle cake should have a dome and a crack on top and mine has both of them so, I think I baked a perfect drizzle cake...