Back in March my friends, Lizzie, Kim and Abi and I won a competition on instagram for some Bake Box kits. Yay for winning because I literally never win anything – but maybe this is a sign that I’ll hit the euro-millions jackpot if I ever remember to buy a ticket!
But last week we finally managed it. We found an afternoon we were all free over the bank holiday and set about baking up a storm, aided by a mimosa or two, of course! We had kits for 3 different freakshakes, chonuts and brownies to make, and whilst we didn’t manage to make them all, it was so much fun to spend the time together, making something, with a little help from our sous chef, Lizzie’s eldest son, Jack.
Our afternoon started with some casual lego building, catching up, clothes swapping and gossiping, then evolved into some casual baking!
Jack insisted on making one of the freakshakes first – now I know i shouldn’t berate a small child but he clearly didn’t read the instructions right – that or his helper, Abi, didn’t, because there is 100% not enough milk in the jar – but we’ll let that slide because he had fun making it.It had a rice cripie square topper, with strawberry milk and icecream and smarties and fizzie straws. Just the sort of drink I feel you ought to give to a child!
Next up we set about making the brownies. 100% honesty here, I wasn’t sold on the thought of the kits. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I feel guilty about the variety of baking gear I have at home that I rarely use these days, so this felt like cheating. But I have to say I really liked not having the measure or weigh most things out. I mean you still had to cut up butter and use a jug for water and the likes, but knowing you could just tip the whole bag of something into a bowl and whisk was rather liberating.
Whilst I was making the brownies, Kim was working hard at making the dough for the chonuts. I don’t think I’d have attemped them at home if I just had a recipe as I always assumed choux pastry was hard to make, but Kim aced it and made it look easy! Even if she was convinced her uncooked dough circles looked like poo!
I do wonder if we should feel a little guilt, Lizzie, Abi and I because when I look back it was Kim who did all the complicated bits. We had her making the pastry and then the salted caramel for the brownies! Then filling the chonuts too. But she was doing such a great job of it, I think we all left her to it – basically we drank mimosas whilst she did all the hard work!
She did an awesome job though, that salted caramel *kisses fingers*
