The Boy Who Bakes- Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Cookies

For Christmas, I received The Boy Who Bakes by Edd Kimber and what an amazing book it is! As an avid Great British Bake Off fan, I loved Edd and was excited to start baking some of his mouthwatering recipes.

The book is jam packed with impressive cakes and bakes and, even without a tempting picture, my brother and I were keen to try his Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Cookies.

The pictures aren't great but they were eaten so quickly, we didn't really get any photos! As you can see, the cookies are a wonderful size. Although the recipe said it made twenty two, we got nearly forty five out of the dough and they were all what I would class as 'large' cookies. This made me very happy!

All in all, a wonderful cookie! They were chewy but crunchy, sweet but salty and totally moreish, I thoroughly recommend you to make these! I won't post a 'how to' as I want you to all invest in this book :)

Happy Baking everyone!

Kinder Bueno Cupcakes- Take 2!

Every time I check my blog statistics, the numbers for my original Kinder Bueno cupcakes keep going up and up. This makes me feel like a very poor blogger as they really have nothing to do with the delicious bar besides a chunk on top!

And so along came the huge and continuing urge to redeem myself and create a real Kinder Bueno cupcake! This was easy; chocolate cupcake and hazelnut buttercream. But then came the quest on how to create the 'smooth milky and hazelnut' buttercream. At first I thought I'd use hazelnut flavoured Baileys but was unable to find a miniature version. I also wanted to eliminate alcohol so Frangelico was out of the question! Then, after what seemed like hours trailing around Newcastle, the idea struck- hazelnut syrup...

I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe from The Caked Crusader and also followed her step by step guide for making Swiss Meringue Buttercream which is hugely helpful even after you've made it several times!

The hazelnut syrup works really well with the buttercream, and provided a really subtle flavour, just like a Kinder Bueno! I added around 2 and a half teaspoons of syrup although you could add more for a stronger flavour

I'm really happy with these cupcakes, I feel like I've finally redeemed myself! Happy baking everyone!

Marbled Cupcakes

I can never decide what I like best in a cake, chocolate or vanilla. Luckily, these cupcakes have both! As part of my Christmas present, my boyfriend bought me a book dedicated just to cupcakes, which is where I found this little beauty of a recipe!

The batter looked great as it sat in the cupcakes cases, however I was worried that there wasn't going to be enough of it to make the 12 cupcakes that it claimed to make. Despite having to be a tad economical, there was enough for 12 healthy sized cupcakes in the end!

The marble in these cakes looked great when you bit into them. They also tasted fantastic, next time though, I'll put more vanilla and chocolate in their respective batters.

I also used my Wilton 1M for the first time when decorating these cupcakes and I have no idea where it has been all of my life! As you all suggested, a larger nozzle really has defined my buttercream swirls and I'm looking forward to using my 2D.

Hmmmm!

Rocky Road

I have finally finished Uni for Christmas! I now have five weeks of obsessive baking ahead of me, once we get our oven back!

After a week of excessive studying, all I needed was some form of baking to relieve some stress. As I'm mostly limited to my microwave, Rocky Roads seemed the best option! I get the impression that, as long as they have chocolate and biscuits, Rocky Roads can have anything you like in them. Cue the creativity!

Unfortunately, pictures are limited as I made around 20 and most of them went with my dad to work. As my tray is quite small, the recipe gave me 12 decent size squares and a few in some cupcake cases. So, by the time I got up the next morning, all of the good ones had gone, hence the rubbish photos!

Needless to say, they were delicious. I've only ever had a pre-made, packaged rocky road (deprived childhood?) which are soft but these ones were chocolatey, crunchy and gooey, an all round hit!

We also got around to putting up our Christmas tree, Merry Christmas everyone!

Rocky Roads- recipe adapted from Good To Know

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter

225g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

2tbsp golden syrup

2tbsp cocoa powder

2tbsp caster sugar

100g Maltesers

100g mixed milk and white chocolate chips- I used half choc chips and half fudge chunks

100g mini marshmallows

225g ginger biscuits, broken into pieces- I used digestive biscuits and found this was too many

Icing sugar to dust

Method:

Line a 20cm (8in) square cake tin with baking parchment.

In a small pan, heat the butter, plain chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar, cocoa powder and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once melted together, leave to cool for 10 mins- This worked brilliantly in my microwave in 10 second bursts, painfully slow but worth it!

In a large bowl, place the Maltesers, milk and white chocolate chip, mini marshmallows, ginger biscuits and bind together with the melted chocolate sauce.
Pour into the lined tin and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hrs.
Remove from cake tin and slice into 16 snack-sized rocky road bars- depends on how generous you are!
Dust the rocky road with icing sugar to serve.

Enjoy!

Another Office Bake

Blog posts at the minute are few and far in between, I currently do not have an oven!! This is proving most difficult, especially as I have a long list of christmas bakes up my sleeve. Luckily, I managed to fit in some baking for my brother before the oven was removed and, as a thank you, received some wonderful flowers!

As always, apologies for the useless photos! Anyway, I made a chocolate victoria sponge not too long ago and it went down really well, better than any cake I normally make! So, when my brother asked me to make some cakes for work, I decided to make another sponge.

This time, I put vanilla buttercream in the middle and chocolate around the edges. I was a bit worried that the two buttercreams wouldn't work together as the vanilla one was quite strong so I had a taste (a big spoonful of the two, I can't lie) and they were lovely! I don't think it looked as good as the first time I made it, but apparently it went down really well :)

I also made some chocolate fudge cupcakes with chocolate fudge buttercream. Overkill, maybe, but they were really lovely and the fudge melted into the cake. I used my favourite cupcake recipe and substituted the white chocolate for fudge pieces.

I put them in festively coloured cupcake cases, and topped them with Betty Crocker chocolate fudge buttercream. I know this is cheating, but its just sooo tasty!!

I'm still struggling with my icing, if i do it from the middle outwards, it doesn't cover the whole cake. If I do it from the outside, I don't get a good peak, see what I mean?

They went down a storm, which is all I can ask for, I'll just keep practising!

Chocolate Victoria Sponge- adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

Ingredients

For the sponge:

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons boiling water

225g softened butter

225g caster sugar

4 large eggs

225g self raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

For the filling and topping: I found this wasn't enough and made separate batches for the filling and topping

50g softened butter

175g sifted icing sugar

1 tablespoon milk

-Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4

-Grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line the base of each with baking parchment

-Mix the cocoa and water in a mixing bowl then leave to cool slightly

-Measure the remaining ingredients into the bowl and beat until thoroughly blended- I've previously found that this method doesn't create a good rise so used the creaming method which worked brilliantly.

-Divide the mixture between the tins and level them out. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until well risen. The tops of the cakes should be springy when touched

-Leave to cool in the tins for a while then turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

-For the buttercream, beat the butter, icing sugar and milk until smooth- I found more milk and cocoa powder was necessary!

-Once the cake is cool, sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream and spread the rest on top- or cover the sides like I did

Enjoy!

Halloween: Pumpkin Cupcakes and Dracula Biscuits

I hold fond memories of Halloween from when I was younger. Each year, my parents would take my brother and I to our respective scout and brownie parties, bob apples, carve pumpkins, the lot! I always dressed as a witch with an obligatory eyebrow pencil mole on my cheek and my mum's lipstick.

This year, I decided to do some Halloween cakes. I had them planned for weeks, I was to have chocolate cupcakes with a wickedly orange coloured swirl of icing. Unfortunately, I decided at the last minute to turn them into pumpkins, which didn't turn out brilliantly. My chocolate icing solidified, causing me to have to use white icing to paint the unconvincingly scary faces on.

As sad as it seems, the failure of these cupcakes played on my mind all week. Eventually, I forced myself to start my Halloween bakes from scratch. I got the idea of Dracula cupcakes from the Wilton website and used my regular Vanilla Cookie recipe.

I am really proud of myself with these, they taste and look great. They could even be a bit spooky!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Birthday Pa!

Today is my daddy's birthday :) I love my dad, he is beyond amazing and he deserves nice cake! Although he's a dedicated dieter these days, I asked him if I could make him a birthday cake and he said 'no thanks, but I'd like some for the office please', (an example of how generous he is!) and stated it needed to be chocolate fudge cake. Lovely, I thought, I'll make my famous Death By Chocolate cake. Stupidly, I forgot to add the butter to this cake and the results aren't even worth documenting!

Note to self: never bake when ill!

After getting a tad too annoyed, I frantically hopped on the computer and paid a visit to The Caked Crusader who, in true superhero style, saved me from a very sticky situation.

I chose this recipe for a few reasons; it used all of the ingredients I had without needing to go to the shops, it was easily doubled and they looked delicious!

As you can see, the batter for these cupcakes was deliciously smooth, even though it used cocoa powder as opposed to chocolate.

For once, all of my cupcakes came out evenly, and a great size, I love this recipe!

I cheated a little and used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge icing but this was because it is truly beautiful and it topped off a great bake in a great way! I still need a bit of work on my icing skills, I would have liked the icing all over the cake!

All in all, a very nice bake, a very happy office and a very happy daddy! Thanks CC!

Recipe from The Caked Crusader, you can find it here in it's original form

Ingredients

These quantities will make 12 cupcake sponges – the mix doubles up easily should you wish to make 24

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoon milk
50g white chocolate chips- I didn't put any in as I had none

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5. Line a cupcake pan with paper cases

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the eggs, flour, cocoa and milk

When the mixture is smooth and well combined, stir in the chocolate chips
Spoon the batter into the paper cases
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Mine took around 17 minutes, which didn't burn them!
Remove from the tin as soon as possible and leave to cool on a wire rack – removing from the tin is important as the heat of the tin will mean that the cupcakes continue to cook
Pipe or spread your chosen icing over the chocolate cupcakes and decorate as you please
Enjoy!

Malteser Fridge Cake :)

Chocolate Fridge Cake used to be my favourite thing to make when I was younger, it was forever a hit among my brownie group! Unfortunately, the recipe was from a book my Dad got me and was lost years ago and as a result, I have forever hunted for a replacement!

I'd like to thank My Dish for helping me rediscover my love for the first thing I ever successfully baked, if you class it as baking...

Warning: these cost next to nothing to make (providing you have the staples in the cupboard like I tend to!) and are mega mega delicious, not a good idea for those attempting a diet!

Malteser Fridge Cake- from My Dish

Ingredients:

100g margarine, softened- I used unsalted butter as it was in the cupboard
6 tablespoons golden syrup
250g cooking chocolate (milk)- I used Sainsbury's 27p choc, doesn't alter the taste as you'd expect!
200g digestive biscuits, roughly crushed- I used Morrison's own
200g Maltesers, cut roughly in half- I used 135g as this bag was cheaper...

Method:

Melt margarine, syrup and chocolate over heat (or in the microwave stirring often)
When it's all melted, take it off the heat and add the crushed biscuits and maltesers, mix well
Spread into a lined greased swiss roll tin
Chill in the fridge then cut up into small squares
Keep refrigerated, can also be frozen!
Enjoy!

A Day at the Beach: Cheesecake Brownies and Choc Chip Cookies

Let me set the scene...

(source)

The above photo is of a row of beach huts in Blyth, a small coastal town in Northumberland. The hut on the far right, fondly known as Lobster, was ours for the day and my full family gathered our deck chairs and picnics and spent the day by the beach. I love an excuse to bake, especially as cake is never fully appreciated in a diet laden household like mine so I jumped at this opportunity.

I've had a Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie mix sitting in my cupboard for ages and knew this was a good time to get rid of it. I did a great job at pretending these were my own recipe and I'm ashamed to say that these went down better than any of my homebakes ever do!

I also chose to make Cheesecake Brownies from The Ultimate Philadelphia Cookbook. Although I like the idea of this book, I feel some of the recipes were put together without any regard as to whether the cream cheese works as an element and it certainly didn't in this recipe.

It's very rare that I don't get to use my mixer when baking but the brownies were made completely in a pan, alike the jumbles I made previously.

The recipe told you to swirl the cheesecake mix on top of the brownie batter but I found that this was inconsistent and some brownies had loads of cheesecake and others none at all. I know it may ruin the idea of the recipe but I feel the cheesecake and the brownie should have been one batter.

Normally, I would never bake two things that have different temperatures and cooking times together at once but, as there were only ten degrees between each and I was short for time, I took the plunge and there were no negative consequences, luckily!

As these were a rushed bake, I had to cut these when they were still warm and they crumbled quite badly as a result. I also found they cooked before the 35-40 minutes and I had burnt edges, so they're definitely a bake to keep your eye on!

The majority of my eatership agreed that, while the brownie was really good, the 'cheesecake' bit was too over powering and was, at times, an unwelcome contrast to the chocolate brownie (my words not theirs!).

In my opinion, Philadelphia has quite a sour flavour and, should I make these again, I'd avoid using it completely. Marscarpone cheese would also work really well as a substitute.

All ready to head off to the beach!

Just to finish, my beautiful cousin Olivia who saw that her brother was on my blog and she wanted to be aswell!

Cheesecake Brownies- adapted from The Ultimate Philadelphia Cookbook

Ingredients:

125g butter- it wasn't specified but I used unsalted

125g dark chocolate, chopped

200g dark muscovado sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

50g plain flour, sifted

50g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

200g Philadelphia Light- I used regular which may have affected the taste

50g caster sugar- I suggest more than this!

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease and line a rectangular cake tin or a tray bake pan

-Mix the chocolate, butter and muscovado sugar in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the mixture has melted.

-Remove from the heat and whisk in the eggs after allowing it to cool for a few minutes

-Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until combined.

-Spoon into the prepared tin and level off

-Beat in the Philadelphia and caster sugar until smooth and creamy then spoon randomly over the chocolate mixture and swirl with the tip of a knife

-Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through

-Allow to cool before slicing- otherwise it goes all mushy like mine did!

Enjoy!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Jumbles

I hate to bore but I have quite a lot to say about these biscuits; some good, some bad and some completely my fault...

I originally planned on putting pecans and milk chocolate in these but the prices of pecans in my local supermarket were completely unjustifiable. For some reason, I cannot abide the taste of cranberry juice and was therefore dubious about white chocolate and cranberry jumbles, which were a suggestion by my brother. I had no reason to worry though as the cranberries remained juicy despite being cooked within an inch of their life and tasted nothing like cranberry juice!

I loved this recipe as, after melting the butter, everything was literally 'jumbled' together in the pan and scooped onto baking trays. This also gave me the opportunity to use the beast of a saucepan that my brother brought home from uni, it's pretty impressive! I'm yet to fathom why he spent £40 on a pan with no lid...

I did have an issue with this, however, as the chocolate began to melt before it entered the oven and, whether this is a coincident or not, there were no lumps of chocolate in the biscuits and therefore nothing to prove that they had any chocolate in them at all...

As you can see, half of my jumbles are on a tray and half on a baking sheet. Having bought a silicone baking sheet a few months back, this was the first opportunity I had to use it. Unless I'm missing something and using it wrong, this is a rubbish invention. The whole oven rack had to come out, to lay the tray on, spoon the biscuits on and put the rack back in the oven, which resulted in a loss of heat.

Although the recipe stated that the baking trays must be greased, my silicone mat was 'non stick' and I took the plunge to put them in without greasing. As you can see, those on the left from the mat are not cooked underneath and those on the right which had sufficient greasing are perfectly crisp. This made little difference but I'm not bringing myself to chuck the useless thing out!

Ingredients:

(adapted from The Great British Book of Baking)

125g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

50g light muscovado sugar- I used light demerara

1 medium egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Flavourings: up to 100g of each- I did 55g white chocolate and 45g cranberries

2 baking trays well greased with butter

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5

-In a pan large enough to hold the mixture, melt the butter gently then remove from the heat and stir in both sugars

-Beat the vanilla and egg in a separate bowl and then stir into the butter and sugar

-Sift in the flour and baking powder, once combined, add your choice of flavourings

-Scoop the mixture well apart on greased baking trays- they really spread!

-Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and just firm

-Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes then allow to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Babka Cake

Here's another fantastic recipe I nabbed from The Caked Crusader!

I was so proud of myself for making not only such an appealing cake but also one that tasted so unexpectedly delicious. According to The Caked Crusader (my new go to for recipes), this is a traditional Polish cake with each family taking on their own version. Wikipedia also tells us that it is a sweet yeast cake, but this recipe has no yeast in it.

Although my cake did not have a consistent strip of chocolate through it's middle as I expected from the pictures the CC gives, it did have the most beautiful swirls and each slice concealed it's own little pattern!

I'm curious to see whether I could substitute real chocolate for the cocoa powder, to give a greater depth of both colour and flavour. I'd also like to try this with my Strawberry Yoghurt Cupcake recipe, I don't see why several sponge mixtures can't be layered in this way!

This cake was incredibly successful, I stayed out the night I made it and awoke to a text from my Dad saying half of it had gone with him to work and I now had another order for one! I should charge...

Thanks to The Caked Crusader for once again giving me such an amazing recipe :)


Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
275g caster sugar
4 eggs
275g self raising flour
2-4 dessert spoons single cream (start with 2 and add more if the batter is dry)
3 teaspoons cocoa powder

Method:
Heat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/315°F/Gas mark 2-3.
Line an 18cm loose bottomed tin with baking paper.
Start by beating together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Slowly beat in the eggs and 2 dessertspoons of cream.
Fold in the flour. If the mix feels too dry add 2 more dessertspoons of cream.
Spoon 1/3 of the cake batter into the prepared tin and level the surface. Put to one side.
Spoon half of the remaining cake mix into a dish. Put to one side.
Add the cocoa to the half left in the bowl and stir gently until the batter is a nice even brown.
Spoon the cocoa batter into the tin and level the surface.
Spoon the remaining plain batter into the tin and level the surface.
Bake in the over for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took 1 hour 5 minutes.
Leave to cool completely in the tin, on a wire rack.
Enjoy!

Death by Chocolate

Frankly, I think Death by Chocolate is by far the best way to go, who wouldn't think that?!

As you can see, this cake is not for the faint hearted! As this recipe contains no flour, it takes on the role of one of those wonderful gooey in the middle sort of desserts, probably more suited to being warmed up with custard or cream.

As per usual, the recipe comes from The Great British Book of Baking and is so well written and easy to explain. The recipe also banishes cocoa powder and calls for 'good quality' dark chocolate. I felt it necessary not to rebel against such instructions, how could I insult such a beauty in that way?! As a result, the cake was incredibly rich and I wonder if the icing took it too far over the edge- I can't believe I just typed such an audacious sentence! I guess the occasion could determine such a decision in terms of icing/no icing.

I also felt it necessary to document the whole process step by step. This was for two reasons, the first being that I had never made a cake in this way, and I was amazed. Secondly, I felt the pictures accompanied the instructions perfectly.

These pictures show the mixture before the chocolate is added, puffed up and around 5 times the original volume and also once the chocolate was folded in and it had sunk somewhat.

Despite the cake's promising appearance straight from the oven, my cake sunk much to my disappointment! This was stated in the recipe though so this wasn't too bad. I then, against the instructions, covered the top of the cake in frosting, instead of turning it bottom up which caused the icing to be thicker towards the middle and therefore only possible to eat in minuscule slices!

Unfortunately, this cake wasn't for me but I was sent a doggy bag from my Grandad and it was phenomenal!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
300g good quality dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter, diced
5 medium eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g caster sugar

For the icing:
200g good quality dark chocolate
100ml double cream

A 22cm springclip tin, greased with butter and the base lined with greaseproof paper


Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas4
Break up the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl with the butter. Set over a pan of steaming hot but not boiling water and leave to melt, stirring frequently. Don't let the base of the bowl touch the surface of the water or the chocolate may become to hot and seize up. Once it has melted, remove from the pan and leave to cool
Meanwhile, break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, add the vanilla and whisk for a few seconds just to break the eggs up
Add the sugar and whisk on full power until pale, very thick and mousse like and about 5 times the original volume- this should take about 5 minutes. To test if the mixture is ready, lift out the whisk- if a thick, ribbon like trail of mixture falls back into the bowl and is still visible after 5 seconds you can stop whisking
Pour the chocolate mixture on to the egg mousse and very gently, but thoroughly, fold the two together, using a large metal spoon- take your time, ensuring there are no pockets of chocolate at the bottom of the bowl
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until just firm to the touch- the centre should still be slightly moist under the crust as the cake will continue to cook once out of the oven
Stand the tin on a wire cooling rack and run a round bladed knife around the inside to loosen the sponge. Leave until completely cold before removing the tin. The cake will rise to the top of the tin during baking but will sink on cooling
Invert the cake onto a serving plate- it's easier to ice this part
To make the icing, finely chop the chocolate and put it into a large heatproof bowl with the cream
Set over a pan of steaming hot but not boiling water and make sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Leave for a minute or so until the chocolate is half melted, then remove from the pan and beat the chocolate well until glossy
Pour the topping evenly over the cake and let it trickle down the sides- if worked too much it will lose it's shine. Leave until firm
Enjoy!

Molten Mug Chocolate Cake

I am a great advocate of microwave cake! Well providing the recipe is right...

This recipe was not right, it was all wrong! Every time I've been desperate enough to resort to making microwave cake, I've used a recipe that my friend gave me over the phone and it was hurredly written down. Alas! I lost the recipe! And in a desperate time where I really needed cake, I had to turn to the internet.

The BBC Good Food website, where I found the recipe, claimed to have a 'melt in the middle' microwave cake, pah! I wish.. This cake was rubbery and sooo unsatisfying, a really poor effort, wish I had just made a proper cake!

You should always stick to what you know and love......

Should you want to try this, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 coffee mug
4  tbsp plain flour
4  tbsp sugar
2  tbsp  cocoa
1 egg
3  tbsp  milk
3  tbsp  oil
Small splash of vanilla
3  tbsp chocolate chips, optional
1  teaspoon peanut butter, optional

Method:

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork.
Add egg, mix throughly.
Pour in milk, oil and vanilla, mix well.
Add chocolate chips if desired. Push a dollop of peanut butter into the center of the batter if desired.
Put mug into microwave and cook for three minutes on 1000 watts. Cake will rise over top of mug. Allow to cool for 2 minutes

Cookies, Tarts and Pies!

Apologies for the lack of blogs! I've been busy baking, whilst watching Daytime TV and failing to do much else so spare time has been non existent...

Bakewell Tart

I found this recipe in Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy and made it for my boyfriend's birthday, mainly to prove that I do listen to his baking requests!

This was the first time I have ever made Bakewell Tart never mind pastry and, having heard many pastry horror stories, I followed the recipes suggestion and bought pre-made pastry. I hear all of your jaws dropping and I am not ashamed (I must repeat this to myself), this honestly saved me a whole lot of time and took a load of stress from the pressure of providing the only birthday 'cake' for the party. I must say at this point, however, that a recipe for Lemon and Almond pastry was also provided, I just took the cheat's way out...

I don't like Bakewell Tart, or more to the point I don't like almonds so this may appear a pointless venture but it's my boyfriend's favourite and it was a big birthday! I decided to make two tarts (the best one going to my Grandfather to fatten him up) and by the time I made the second tart, I felt like a pro.

This of course is all down to Lorraine Pascale and her brilliant 'baking made easy' which allowed me to bung all the ingredients into the mixer and concentrate on my shop bought pastry. It was a bit of a faff mind and took a good 3 hours to make the two tarts, this was not helped by my refusal to taste the tart but I tried and it was very good indeed!


Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie! Or tart? Who knows but who cares! What a beautiful invention! However every time I eat one I always remember why I don't like bananas. Certainly, after eating this I expected to feel like it would work better without the bananas but the recipe I used, again Lorraine Pascale, cooked the bananas in butter and vanilla essence and it added something to the taste of the pie which I actually quite enjoyed.

I used whipping cream for this pie but felt that double cream would have provided a fuller flavour, the unhealthier the better!

I also stupidly didn't make it in a loose bottomed tin and consequently struggled to get it out, much to my taste buds frustration! An easy peasy recipe all around, to be honest, and considering I've ruined 3 pans trying to make Dulce Leche, I went for Carnation's caramel in a tin. I'm such a pathetic cook!!

Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies! I found this recipe on BBC Good Food last year and have never turned back. They are soo easy to make and have proper chocolate in them, not just cocoa powder like some other recipes I've come across. A tad faffy, you have to leave them in the fridge for an hour or two but this can be done for as long as you need, over night too if necessary. This also gives them their fantastic fudgey brownie texture, they are absolute bliss! The recipe says 60g of icing sugar is needed for the coating but I just tend to chuck some in a bowl and drop the dough balls in. A tip though, have COLD hands! Otherwise the dough just melts and it's an absolute mess. One adjustment I think I'll make next time is some chocolate chips, the cookies don't need any more flavour but I fell their texture is missing out somewhat. Go try them, now!

Bakewell Tart- adapted from Baking Made Easy

Ingredients:

500g shop bought shortcrust pastry or Lemon and Almond Pastry (found on Pg.222 in her book)

200g butter

200g caster sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp amaretto (optional, I didn't use)

40g plain flour

200g ground almonds

40g flaked almonds (again, I didn't use these)

180g good strawberry jam (I was told raspberry jam was used traditionally and chose this, which worked beautifully)

23cm flan ring or loose bottomed tart tin, about 4cm deep

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas Mark 4

-Roll out your pastry on a floured surface to the thickness of a £1 coin. Ease this into the flan tin and press into the sides. Place this into the fridge until firm, roughly half an hour

-Once ready, line with baking paper and weigh down with baking beans. Blind bake for 15-20 minutes or until a light golden

-Then, remove the beans and place the pastry back into the oven, allowing it to brown for a further 3-4 minutes

-Once out of the oven, set it aside to cool and make the frangipane. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the eggs and amaretto and beat until combined

-Fold in the sieved flour and the ground almonds. Cover the base of the pastry with the jam and then spoon the frangipane over the top

-Sprinkle over the flaked almonds and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the frangipane has puffed up

-Remove from the oven and allow to cool

Enjoy!