Started From The Bottle, Now We're Here - Baking From a Milk Bottle?

Ancient tales tell of messages found in bottles, seaside towns have little boats in bottles (how do they do that?!) But today I bring you a blog post and recipe on a BROWNIE in a bottle! I spotted these in Wilkinsons a few weeks ago, but didn't investigate them further until my friend bought one (which she got purely as a kitchen decoration and something to snapchat) and I thought I would test it out and see if this novel idea actually works. 

Made by "Classic Kitchen" the idea is that encased in a large milk bottle are all the ingredients you need to make your delicious treats. There were many other options, however I chose the Raspberry + White Chocolate Brownies. For just £4, I thought it was a great idea! Or a great decoration according to my pal! (To make this Vegan, you can substitute the white chocolate chips for Humdinger Free From Choc Buttons) 

The bottle in all its satisfyingly layered glory contains the following: - 

 

To go with this baking short cut, I picked up some decorating short cuts as well to show you that you don't have to be professionally skilled or own a cupboard full of equipment and ingredients to produce some yummy baking! I chose some two colour icing in complimentary colours of pink and white to go with the raspberry and white chocolate theme. I also got some glitter spray because...well I just couldn't resist. 

So let's test this out and get on with the recipe! 

Step 1 

Preheat your oven to 170c 

Step 2 

Open the milk bottle and pour the entire contents into a mixing bowl. 

Step 3 

Mix them all up really well. I found the sugar was quite clumpy from being in the bottle, but after a good mix up, it was just right! As goldilocks would say... 

Step 4 

Add in the wet ingredients. The packet calls for 3 eggs, 100g butter + 75ml milk. If you are vegan you can substitute this for a Flax Egg (1 tbsp flaxseed mixed with 3tbsp water for each egg), Vitalife Vegan Butter and Unsweetened Non-Dairy Milk (such as soy which doesn't add any extra flavour). Mix it really well, scraping the bottom to ensure all the powder is incorporated! Once that's done it should look thick, rich and gooey just like this...

Step 5

You can choose whether you want to bake this in a cake tin, a square pan or a cupcake/muffin tray. I chose to make these brownies as cupcakes and they made 12 very generous portions. Line the tray with cupcake cases, mine were quite thin so I doubled up on them which helped a lot! Using an ice cream scoop, or my favourite trick since I was first taught to cook - two spoons, fill all of the cases with the scrummy mixture! 

Step 6 

Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins until they have doubled in size and smell gorgeous! 

Step 7

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Started From The Bottle, Now We're Here... I was surprised at how rich and large these brownies turned out! For such a simple and easy recipe, I think they look like I've spent all day in the kitchen! This would be perfect if you have kiddies who like to help you bake, or if you want to be a speedy baker! Que the close ups...

So that's it for the baking side of things. You can leave them like this, or decorate them to your taste. I wanted to try out my quick and easy ready to go icing and glitter. Both made by the brand "Cake Decor" these cost under £3 and I was hoping they would transform my cakes into something Mary Berry would appreciate. 

Firstly, the icing. The tube itself acts as a piping bag! To use, you simply:

1. Take off the lid, you'll notice there is a star inside! Perhaps it's for the title of Star Baker you may think? No this is the nozzle!

2. Remove the foil on the top. It smells divine of Strawberries + Cream. How long until Wimbledon? 

3. Place the lid straight back on - star tip and all.

4. Pull the lid off, rather than twist, to reveal your star tipped piping bag! 

Use this as you would any other piping bag and pipe away on your cupcake/brownie/bottle inhabitant. I started off with a swirly pattern...

Which I think turned out quite well...you can definitely see the two colours and I'm happy with that effect! It was quick, easy and cheap to achieve. 

To take it further, you could use a knife to smooth out the icing. Mine became a bit messy at this point. So I decided to call them roses and pretend they were meant to look like that! Also slapped on a load of glitter, which was very fun and easy to use with a simple squirty spray bottle. 

I also used the glitter on the plain brownies and they looked quite Galaxy inspired!

  

MY VERDICT 

Brownie in a Bottle - I would say hands down this works and is a genius invention. The packaging looks great and is very appealing. The ingredients are all there for you - weighed out to the gram and ready to go. You only need to add 3 ingredients, which you probably have in your kitchen already and above all they look and taste amazing! 

Icing - I like the idea of how the tube doubles up as an icing bag, which saves a lot of mess and washing up. The icing smells gorgeous and has a lot of flavour to it. One thing I will say it make sure you loosen the icing by massaging the bottle as it was a bit difficult at times to get the product out. In conclusion I think it's a great time saver as long as you've got some elbow grease! 

Glitter - It made my cakes glittery, it's a win from me! 

So there you have it! A bit of a different post today, I just wanted to test these out and see if they were a gimmick product or if they really work. I'm happy with the results and if you want to purchase your own you can find them at Wilkinsons. Let me know how you get on through Twitter - @HayleyShannon8 

Thanks for reading!

Hayley x