World Baking Day!

Today marks World Baking Day!  Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Mary Berry or a James Acaster, World Baking Day is all about rolling up your sleeves, rolling out your mix and having a bit more fun. And what’s fun? Baking with booze! I’ve been scouring the internet for a few recipes to share with you today in case you fancy having a go over the weekend. Unless of course you’re off to Leeds for this weekend’s festival, which is promising to be a gooden. Leeds is a great place and when I’ve visited festivals there before, it’s always been a blast!

A little birdy tells me they’ve got 2500+ attending at the Town Hall. Food from The Street Food Guy and a wonderful array of stalls, including: Brockmans, Rascal, Kuro, Schweppes, Soul, Agnes Arber, Old J, Empress gin, Shelleys, Nelson, Manly and Normindia! Ooderlally! With those, as well as the bars, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Bring it on! 

Now then, back to the baking! Let’s start off with the gin:

Gin Lemon Drizzle Cake

A Ginny Lemon Drizzle Cake is surely the starting point on any gin baking journey. Lemon drizzle cakes are a popular choice and the citrus flavours lend themselves to gin effortlessly. Whether you want to keep it simple with a recipe from the Sainsburys site: https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/alcoholic/gin-and-lemon-drizzle-cake?

Fancy stepping it up a gear? You can with this great recipe for Mediterranean gin and tonic drizzle cake, using oranges and limes rather than the go to lemon. The recipe can be found on the Sharkett Sisters site: http://sharkettsisters.blogspot.com/2017/05/mediterranean-gin-and-tonic-drizzle-cake.html you can create something that’s show stopping and delicious.

Gin Cheesecake

More of a cheesecake person? We’ve got you covered. There are plenty of recipes online for gin lemon cheesecakes. Just to try something different, you can make this lovely sloe gin cheesecake. Being more of a liqueur, you could try this with one of the various gin liqueurs out there so there is huge scope for experimentation! You can find the recipe from Good Housekeeping here: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a574229/sloe-gin-cheesecake/

And if you’re feeling pretty confident in the kitchen, I would suggest this recipe for one of the most beautiful gin cheesecakes I’ve ever seen. It’s a Strawberry and Lavender Gin cheesecake by Liquid Culture at: https://www.liqculture.com/strawberry-lavender-gin-cheesecake/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_smartloop&utm_content=smartloop&utm_term=13409580

Now for the rum fans, there are some very special treats here.

Again, let’s start simple with a Rum Cake. Rum cakes are traditional, holiday season desserts from the Caribbean. Their usually formed as a bundt cake and can contain fruit which has been soaked in rum. However this receipt is incredible simple and uses a packer of cake mix as the base, so if you’re only so skilled in the kitchen, then this is the one for you! You can find the recipe from allrecipes here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17456/golden-rum-cake/?lnkid=pin14514 

And those sweet, spiced rum flavours go great in chocolate, so you could use chocolate in there too. You could do this by adding cocoa powder, or as in this recipe, devils food cake mix. Phoar! Here’s a simple recipe for that from Big Oven: https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/worlds-best-chocolate-rum-cake/169467/amp

Now, something really rather special for you more ambitious bakers out there. This ridiculous and incredible Pecan Caramel Rum Cake from Salted Mint. It looks absolutely divine and would be wonderful with a little coffee, or rum on the side? Maybe stick to coffee. Still, you can find the recipe here: https://www.liqculture.com/strawberry-lavender-gin-cheesecake/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_smartloop&utm_content=smartloop&utm_term=13409580

I hope that’s sparked off a few ideas for you! These are some of my favourites. But, there are so many recipes to be found online! If you fancy sharing any of your creations you can email them to me and I’ll include them on the blog, or for a bit of instant gratification, you can upload photos to your social media including the handle @GinFestival and the #worldbakingday.

And as for you lovely lot heading out to Leeds this weekend, I hope you have a wonderful time! Remember to share your photos and experiences! You can write to me at bernadette@ginandrumfestival.com and tag us on your social media too. Have fun!

Hope you have a great weekend and week people! Over and out!

Bernadette