In The Mix - Mix it up!

In The Mix – mix it up!

Those who have been keeping up with my posts recently will have noted my new series ‘In The Mix’, the first of which (Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Brownies) which you can find here: http://time-for-tea-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/in-mix-betty-crocker-chocolate-brownie.html was posted November 6th and I have since done more mix pack reviews. It all began when my brother, who is a student and wanted to learn how to make cakes but in the quickest, easiest way possible bought the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix box packet. As an avid baker I saw this as an opportunity both to bond with my favourite (and only) brother AND making and eating cake!

Since my first one, I have fallen in love with these mix kits, they make baking easy and assessable to everyone no matter what age or status. I would full recommend some of the Greens and Wrights kits to lone bakers or bakers making party food, the Betty Crocker and themed kits to families and parents wanting to give their children an easy way in to baking, there are themes such as  Minions, Star Wars, Frozen, Pepper Pig and Shaun the Sheep. Even if you are feeling a little extravagant and preparing for that posh dinner party, the Thorntons chocolate baking kits are for you. So I thought I would have a look at the top supermarket websites and see where you can get your kits. I did all of my research online and though I know a lot of the kits I found are available in stores, not all of them will be.

Iceland – 3

I have to say, sad as it is, I was really excited when my local (rather small) Iceland made space for a baking section because it’s the closest supermarket to my house and what’s better than all the baking supplies you need, on demand, just a couple of minutes away?! However when I looked on their website I was disappointed by what I found. They do have some baking kits, including two amazing looking Thorntons chocolate packs but apart from that there was just one Victoria Bakery pack makes three which, while they all look delicious, isn’t the list of options I had hoped for. Iceland is also the only supermarket I looked at that doesn’t stock Betty Crocker kits, well, not according to their website anyway.

Sainsbury’s – 21

Sainsbury’s was a little better, I have seen a larger collection in store and even bought the Despicable Me Minions cupcake kit I made in there. So I was quite happy to discover all the other kits they do as well including some lovely plain traditional kits from their Sainsbury’s Own range and Wrights some tasty different options from Helens and Greens and the ever popular Betty Crocker, who I absolutely love because its perfect for anyone, no matter what age or what reason they have chosen to bake, party or fun… or just hunger!

Waitrose – 25

Although there isn’t a Waitrose close enough to me to use as a weekly supermarket (plus it’s a little expensive) I have used them in the past and fully appreciate the great choice they offer, their website told me the same with great options from Greens, and not one, not two but three types of Waitrose own, Waitrose Love Life, Waitrose Essentials and Waitrose Gluten Free. These icude some lovely Christmas packs including one that comes in a sweet little glass seal-top jar. They also sell the Betty Crocker cake and cookie sets.

Morrisons – 42

I have seen the huge baking section in my, rather large, local store and was impressed with all the Betty Crocker and kids themed baking its they have. I thought Waitrose’s 25 different cake and biscuit packs was impressive but it only gets better with Morrisons 42 include themed kits like (deep breath) Frozen, Spiderman, Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Despicable Me, Disney Princesses, Pepper Pig, Shaun the Sheep and Hello Kitty. They also sell branded kits from Maltesers for a lovely chocolate cake and M&M’s for choclate (or M&M) chip cookies. I really love the look of the Dr Oetker mug cake mixes as I have never made a mug cake before but have always wanted to try! (I sense another blog post or three!). Of course Morrisons also sell the Betty Crocker kits that seem to be the staple for supermarket cake kits.

Tesco – 44

It just keeps getting better, with Tescos incredible 44 cake and biscuit mix kits they too have thir own kits from the Tesco’s Own line, all simple traditional recipes, the ever present Betty Crocker mix packs, some themed ones from Symingtons such as the Minions pack I have used and a few by Victoria Foods and Greens that look so good.

Ocado – 70

Ocado seem to have snuck in in recent years and taken internet shopping by storm and looking at their website its not hard to see why, they sell EVERYTHING. As well as the fantastic choice they have for everything (and I mean everything) else they had 70, yes SEVENTY (I counted) cake and biscuit mix packs available on their website. If nothing else there are some fantastic company names in there, such as Devilishly Delicious and Hale and Hearty. Wrights, who seem to be not far behind on the popularity run and Betty Crocker (the obvious fore-runner) are in there too but it was this last one that surprised me. If you read the Waitrose section above you will see they do three different types of packs; essential, gluten free and Love life, Ocado stocks all of these.

Asda – 84

Whilst Ocado’s score of 70 mix packs is really impressive there is one place that takes the cake (pun intended) Asda, a magical name in easy baking for everyone. The spectacular 84 (I counted each and every one) their range naturally starts with their own brand ‘Chosen by you’ with some classic and some gorgeous Christmas specials (its nice to know that if this brand lives up to its name there are plenty of bakers and wannabe bakers out there, who shop at Asda anyway.) there is, you guessed it Betty Crocker packs in there and some Greens mixes, as seen in Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s as well as those gorgeous looking Mug Cake kits from Dr Oetker and the chocolatey Thorntons kits. A round of applause is truly in order for the amazing Asda and their inadvertent aiding of the amateur baking world.

So there really is no excuse not to give baking a go because nowadays its even easier to just give it a go with these super simple kits that are almost everywhere! Enjoy your baking and please feel free to send me pictures and comments at my Twitter: @TimeForTeaBlog1

In The Mix - Disney Star Wars Cupcakes

Name: Disney Star Wars Cup Cake Kit

Company: Fiddes Payne

Bought in: Tesco

Preparation:  All you need to prepare for this is an egg, a teaspoon of butter and some water. Don’t forget to pre-heat your oven!

Star Wars has always been a very popular franchise but with the fast-approaching release date of the new Star Wars film in December, it is everywhere. There are adverts on television, toys and costumes coming out in stores all over and even Star wars foods popping up everywhere. I couldn’t resist when I saw this awesome cupcake kit in the supermarket.

Part 1) Mix the mix and extra ingredients – simple as that, mix your mix and egg, butter and water in a bowl until smooth. Make sure all the ingredients are well combined and there are no lumps, lumpy mix makes bitty cakes! The mix is still quite runny but have no fear, it still makes amazing cupcakes.

Part 2) Separate the mix – separate the batter out into the cupcake cases provided and make sure its even. Pop them into the (pre-heated) oven. The pack says 12-15 minutes in the oven, I set it for 13 and they were still a little moist inside so 15 was perfect, golden and spongey.

Part 3) mix the icing – put the icing mix in a bowl and add water half a table spoon at a time till the icing is well mixed and sticky. Then all you have to do is wait for the cakes to cool and cover them in the icing. The pack also comes with rice paper  stand up figures of famous Star Wars characters that you can stick in the top of your cakes!

Notes: these cakes are perfect for Star Wars fans young and old and really good for birthdays parties or premier parties!

In The Mix - Symington's Despicable Me Minion Cupcakes

Name: Despicable Me Minion Cupcakes

Company: Symingtons

Bought in: Sainsbury’s

The minions say: if you are under 13, make sure an adult helps you with the baking.

                                                  

Preparation:  Not much preparation for this at all, you just need to have a mixing bowl, spoon, cupcake tray and pre-heat your oven!

My brother, Adam, and I are more than a little obsessed with Despicable Me’s minions, small yellow monsters in dungarees and goggles who help villains and seem to have taken the world by storm with their own movie and merchandise in almost every shop you go into nowadays. So when I spotted this mix in a supermarket, we had to have it! This cupcake mix is as simple as any, all in requires is an egg and less than a cup of water (75ml to be exact).

Part 1) Prepare mix – Mix the cake mix, water and egg in a bowl till “lovely and fluffy”, which really means ‘mix till more fluffy than watery if you don’t want your arm to fall off’ don’t worry too much about making it fluffy, as long as all the mixture is fully combined. Slop it into the cupcake cases (decorated to look like the minions dungarees) and pop them into the oven.

The cakes came out much lighter than I expected, so don’t worry if this happens to you, they are still perfectly baked and really tasty!

Part 2) Mix the icing powder – mix the icing powder and water in a bowl and as if by magic a little bag of white icing sugar-like powder becomes a fair amount of yellow icing. Make sure you don’t mix too quickly otherwise the powder will go everywhere and that just means less icing! Pop the icing on top off all of the cupcakes once they have cooled.

And finally…

Part 3) Add the face decorations – pop out the rice paper pieces, in the shape of hair, eyes and mouths and (making sure the front of the dungarees is at the bottom, its marked with a ‘G’ for Gru the villain of ‘Despicable Me’ and the minions’ boss) put them on to the cakes. Have fun with it and make the silliest faces you can or look the minions up and copy their faces.

Notes: This is by far the most fun I have ever had baking and they look and taste fantastic when done. The icing mix does create a lot of icing, don’t feel like you need to use it all or your cupcakes will be far too sweet and sticky (if there is such a thing). This kit is fantastic for everyone, kids, friends, parents and families. I know a father who said he had great fun making this with his son only a week before me and my brother enjoyed making them so much. Just make sure you face the little ‘G’ forwads to it doesn’t look like your minions are wearing their uniforms backwards!

In The Mix - Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Name: Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Company: Betty Crocker

Bought in: Tesco

The Betty Crocker website rates this recipe a level 1 (of 4) difficulty.

Preparation:  Not much preparation for this at all, make sure you have a mixing bowl, spoon  and baking tray ready and have fun!

My brother and I really enjoyed making Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Brownies (the review can be found here: http://time-for-tea-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/in-mix-betty-crocker-chocolate-brownie.html) and we enjoyed eating them even more, so we decided to try another of their packs. The cookie mix was the obvious choice, who doesn’t love cookies?! Whether its plain chocolate chip, double chocolate or triple chocolate and orange peel (to name a few). Cookies are a staple for any age group and perfect for a snack and a nice addition to any gathering. This recipe is lovely because it is so simple, this means you can create almost any time of cookie you like, just by adding in extra ingredients.

Part 1) Mix the cookie mix and water – that’s it, water, simple as that. The easiest of easy recipes that creates a really wonderful thick dough and comes with plenty of chocolate chips. Though feel free to add more if you like, maybe even some different types of chocolate, white, dark or orange, go nuts and add some nuts, make your cookies appealing by adding orange peel or even spice things up and add a touch of cinnamon.

Part 2) Separate the mix and place it on a baking tray. – make sure that the chocolate chips are evenly distributed; you don’t want a cookie with no chocolate in it! Separate the mix into balls and squash them into rounds, bigger and thicker if you want more chunky cookies or smaller if you want regular ones maybe even mini ones (remember that they will expand in the oven.). Place them on a baking tray with quite a bit of space between them and pop it in the oven.

Part 3) 12 minute cooking time - They smell amazing in the oven but by the 12 minute recommended cooking time they just  don’t look done to me. I must be really bad at judging this because by the time they do look done they are, of course, bone dry and taste burned… oh dear.

Notes: This is the easiest mix in the world, using just the mix and 2 table spoons (yes two table spoons) of water you can create perfect cookies if just you trust the recipe, it says 12 minutes for a reason, take them out at 12 minutes like the recipe says and try it! This recipe, like a lot of the Betty Crocker mix packs is available in the US in gluten free.

In the Mix - Betty Crocker Chocolate Brownie Mix

Name: Chocolate Brownie Mix

Company: Betty Crocker

Bought in: Tesco

The Betty Crocker website rates this a level 1 (of 4) difficulty.

Preparation: make sure you have the correct size tin and grease-proof paper and pre heat your oven!

Though I love tea every good cuppa deserves a lovely sweet to go with it, so when my brother (who is too lazy even to ask me to make him brownies, let alone make his own) brought me a Betty Crocker Brownie Mix, my new series ‘In The Mix’ was created!

My brother and I LOVE our cakes and sweets especially those with chocolate involved (and as the packet says, these brownies are ‘total chocolate heaven’) and though I love to bake he is a little lazy so these ‘make your own’ baking kits seem a lovely middle ground for us and something fun we can do together. I’d recommend these kits to anyone, from the hungry student, couples and parents to families looking for an easy weekend activity as they are relatively quick and very easy plus a little messy! Because I love to bake from scratch and have control over the whole recipe I was a little wary of these kits with most of the ingredients already measured out and bunged into one bag, (how can you tell what’s in there?!) but I put these worries aside for the love of brownies and we gave it a go.

Part 1) Measure out the remaining ingredients then mix it all together – though most of the ingredients come with the pack, you do have to add three more ingredients (the perishables they can’t put in the packet) to complete the recipe but don’t worry, they are everyday things that you will probably have in your kitchen (I did): a small amount of Oil and water and an egg. It is surprising that so little of all the ingredients serves 16! The instructions say that the mix will be lumpy, it will, but just keep going and you can wear those lumps down a little bit. Don’t worry about them too much it just makes the cake a little denser in those parts.

Part 2) Pour the mix into a lined tin – first you need to make sure the tin isn’t too big (like the first one I tried was) otherwise you will end up with wafer thin brownie crisps (which doesn’t actually sound that terrible, its just not what we’re going for). Tin hopping aside, my new tin was deep enough to create lovely thick chewy brownies so I reached for my grease-proof paper… only to discover I didn’t have any! I cant stress enough the importance of preparation when doing ANY baking (or cooking for that matter) ALWAYS make sure you read the recipe early enough before you bake (or cook) to be able to grab all the ingredients and any extras you will need before its too late! So, make sure the tin IS lined with grease proof paper (an easy but a vital step if you actually want to be able to get the brownies out of the tin!) and that the mix is level in the tin for perfect brownies! However with the mix already prepared I popped the mix in the tin and hoped for the best.

Part 3) Pop the mix in the oven and wait! – simple. The instructions say 20-25 mins, I took mine out at 20 mins and they were still they really do need that extra 5 minutes for the perfect squishy inside, crisp on top treats! The instructions also don’t mention the amazing smell that comes from the oven which is torture if you haven’t eaten since breakfast and its rather late!

And finally…

Part 4) Remove them from the oven, leave to cool (if you have the patience) and enjoy – as you can probably guess, we didn’t have the patience to cut them out of the tin let alone let them cool so we cut it out a slice at a time(with a little bit of difficulty owing to the lack of grease-proof paper and the brownie having a really strong hold on the bottom of the tin) and enjoyed it with a movie. However if you aren’t an animal like us I would suggest waiting for the tin to cool, cutting the brownie into squares, dusting with icing sugar and serving piled up on a plate. Despite losing the bottom of the brownies to the sticky tin they were amazing, sweet and soft, just perfect!

Notes: this is an easy recipe that goes from packet to plate in no time at all but do make sure you have everything you need before starting so you don’t have any mishaps like I did! The box says this kit serves 16 but the two of us finished it off in one sitting (it was really, really good!) Another piece of great news is that if you are in the US you can get this mix gluten free!

The Black Dog Cafe - Tunbridge Wells - ...Again

I know what you’re thinking, I wrote about The Black Dog café back in August last year and though I wouldn’t usually write about a place more than once I feel like this place, since its recent refurbishment, it needs another look as it isn’t the same café it was last year.

The first thing I notice upon entering the café is the back wall, which has been covered in shelves and stuffed with books giving the café a ‘chill-in-a-corner’ feel (if anyone ever picks one up that is, I am sure that if I was sitting closer I would at least scan the titles). I like that these shelves have also been matched to the shelves behind the counter that are covered with teas and coffees. The new look is minimalist grey and black with lovely bare wooden accents such as the shelves and the tables. It gives the whole place a very professional look (though at my chosen table, two from the open door, the grey tile does nothing to help the cold breeze, pleasant for the hard-working staff, I’m sure but more than a little chilly for us static customers. My tea is great, even if it cools a little faster that I’d like (my fault for sitting so close to the door!)

A couple of things I really love about the new look are the three giant chalk boards that take up most of one wall (barely filled with the menus and messages that I written on them) and the half shades over the front windows fashioned from coffee bean sacks and look really good. Along with an impressive looking coffee machine a glass cabinet full of treats sits on the counter and of course I am tempted by crisp croissant (even more when the lovely man behind the counter asks if I want it with jam!)

Even though the new-look Black Dog Café is much more stark and modern it brings a professional feel to the café with personal hints such as the messages on the black boards and the books on the shelves. I am so happy with the friendly staff and lovely tea, I can't wait to return (and sit further away from the door!)

Bookshop Cafe - The Sevenoaks Bookshop - Sevenoaks

I have to admit, this isn’t my first time at the Sevenoaks Bookshop, I love the idea of combining a bookshop and café, one which was taken up by Waterstones and Costa in 2012. However, here in this independent bookshop with homemade café simply named ‘Bookshop Café’ it works so much better. The feeling is very different in here, with the staff not under the strain of a big company name and a three-floor mega-bookstore they have time to chat with customers about books, their tea choice, the gorgeous tiffin on the shelf or anything else. The crockery cabinet to one side is laden with gorgeous home-made treats, towered over by shelves of cafetieres, teapots, milk jugs and take away cups. That’s all this café needs, plus three small table and chair sets, it’s perfect. The one corner of the world and the shop that feels calm and genuine, run by genuinely friendly people who are there because they want to be. It’s a blissful rest from the heat today and a lovely cup of tea in this lovely shop. Here at the front of the shop, the front window is full of books and leaflets about Sevenoaks and Kent, another sign of the homely feeling this shop gives out.

I really love the tea here (however, unfortunately I’m not sure what company it is, the symbol is a tea cup and saucer with steam curving from it) and the elegantly slim sugar packets from ‘Allpress Expresso’, makes you think about just  how much goes into running a café and ordering all the necessary bits in and making all the tasty things. I don’t think I think about what really goes into making a café often enough, just appreciate how lovely that effort makes the places I write about.

All in all a lovely shop, perfect for a cup of delicious tea and home-made cakes, surrounded by the smell of books and some truly great people. Delightful.

Twitter: @7OaksBookshop

Website: Sevenoaksbookshop.co.uk

Address: 147 High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1XJ