. lOvely lemOn viennEse whirls .

isn't it a wonderful thing when the stars align & you know that things are just meant to be . particularly when the thing that's meant to be is a baking lovely, light, buttery biscuits, filled with wonderfully tangy lemon curd and an ever so light & fluffy frosting ? this months baking challenge from Bumpkin Betty was to make one of the recipes baked by someone else . adding your own little twist . there were a few that made a { not so } short list . Betty's white chocolate & blackberry cake . 

Jaclyn's sweet potato brownies . Sophie's greek honey & pistachio cake . & . Jennie's Hong Kong coconut tarts . to name but a few . 

but . then . i took a peek at this week's BakeOff . biscuit week . with a technical challenge that sounded suspiciously like a Viennese Whirl . which i remembered spotting amongst last month's family favourite bakes . Joyce baked Viennese Fingers dipped in dark chocolate with a sprinkling of gold dust . { doesn't a sprinkling of gold make everything so much better ? } . with a lovely write up on her blog Happiness is Handmade . on how these brought back happy memories of afternoon tea . 

what better bake to make than these then . with . my own twist ?

a lovely fresh lemony addition of homemade lemon curd . an absolute favourite of mine . & . a super simple recipe from Nigel Slater . { which you can find here } . & . it pairs wonderfully with a light buttercream . making these viennese whirls a lovely light indulgence . { if light indulgence isn't too much of an oxymoron ! } .

i spy with my little eye the circles i marked out in an attempt to make them consistent in size . { yes, how very Bake Off of me ! } .

spot the odd one out ?  i may have also made a batch of chocolate orange whirls . if you swap around 25g of the flour for cocoa powder you'll have lovely chocolatey biscuits . then make a simple ganache by grating the zest of one orange into 100ml of double cream . heat it to just before boiling point then add 100g of finely chopped dark chocolate . leave to stand to allow the chocolate to melt in the heat of the cream then stir to combine . i added the juice of half an orange too . place in the fridge to harden . then pipe as before . 

very very very lovely . 

and so . along with a cup of tea . i'm ready for biscuit week on the Bake Off .

thank you again to Bumpkin Betty for another lovely baking month . if you'd like to join in the baking head over to her facebook page . & . you can drool over all the other sweet treats the other bakers have been making .

. have a hAppy dAy .