I will not lie. I have been neglecting the baking part of my day so badly that it just isn’t funny anymore.

From the moment I open my eyes in the morning, the temperature is already 20 degrees at lunch time, the temperature is pushing 25 degrees, when I get home in the even the temperature is even higher something its 26 degrees at 7 o’clock in the evening.

Now please tell me, who in their right might would still want to have the oven on and the oven door constantly been opened and closed??? Not me.

I am substituting my cakes with Marcel’s frozen yoghurt. It is available via the MR D food app, so I don’t even have to leave the house, I just lift a finger and press a button and within 30 minutes I am relaxing under the fan eating cotton candy frozen yoghurt.

That method lasted a week. This morning on probably one of the most hottest and the most busiest days of the month so far, both my parents tackled me over breakfast.

When I was going to bake? They wanted scones with freshly whipped cream and dollops of jam. In this heat they wanted fresh cream, not even imitation cream, fresh cream.

I wasn’t going to make the scones, I could already picture in my head how tired I would be when I got home, but after the online meetings and HSSE talks and doing 5 things at once. Strange hey, people assume because the meeting is virtual I can still 5 other things and be at the meeting. Till I make a mistake and then everyone will tell me I am not focusing… hmmmm… strange, I wonder why I am distracted.

But anyway, after have split my brain waves into thinking different things at the same time, I finally got home and there sitting ever so quietly and all by itself was a tub of fresh cream that someone had left on the counter as a subtle reminder that I promised that there would be scones for teatime.

I didn’t really want to make the same boring sprite scones that I normally make, I wanted to try something different and that is when I came across this recipe on Aniseeds Instagram page and for once I had all the ingredients in the pantry, from the peppermint crisp chocolate to the self raising flour. I opted to substitute the cream with caramel whipped cream, like one would use when making pepper crisp tart.

The verdict, it was super easy to make and although at first I thought that the chocolate pieces would burn to a crisp before the scone itself was fully baked, this did not happen. The original recipe asked for a single egg, I substituted it with a vegan it. It also stated that the scones should have an egg wash before baking. I just left this step out and it came out perfect. My parents were ecstatic. My mother ate them for every meal the following day and for once my dad didn’t complain that it was too sweet for his liking, however he did grumble when he saw the chocolate bits and pieces in the scones.

Ingredients:

• 350g x self-raising flour, sifted.
• ¼ x tsp salt.
• 1 x tsp baking powder.
• 3 x tbsp. castor sugar.
• 85g x butter, cubed.
• ¾ x cup buttermilk.
• 1 x vegan egg
• 1 x tsp peppermint essence.
• 1 x peppermint crisp slab, roughly chopped.

Method:

• In a bowl, mix together the self-raising flour, salt and baking powder.
• Add in the butter and using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture.
• Add in the sugar and using a butter knife, mix in the sugar.
• In a jug, whisk together the buttermilk, egg and peppermint essence.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and using the knife, mix till everything comes together.
• Gentle mix in the chopped chocolate pieces.
• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times till there are no large lumps, but do not knead for too long as the dough must not be smooth.
• Using a circular cookie cutter, cut out rounds.
• Place on a greased baking tray.
• Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until the scones and lightly golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and place on a baking tray and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before filling with caramel cream
• To make the caramel cream, whisk 250ml of fresh cream till you soft peaks are formed. Carefully fold in a few tablespoons of caramel.