Poached Eggs in Clingfilm!

I am so so excited about this! I feel like I have made it to poached egg heaven!

You wouldn't believe that these were cooked in clingfilm, would you? Having tried my poaching pod tonnes of times and ended up with eggs that literally make me want to vom, I again turned to the internet and came across the guide to end all guides in terms of poached eggs. Someone had written a blog on all of the different ways to poach an egg, one of which was in clingfilm. I absolutely had to give it a go! Basically, get some microwave safe cling film and line a cup with it, put in a little oil and crack your egg into it. Then, pick up all sides and tie into a knot so you have an egg in a bag! Now you cook, for as long as you like! Absolutely divine......

Here's the website should you wish to read- http://www.b3ta.com/features/howtopoachanegg/

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

A Multitude of Cakes

Cherry Cake

How awesome is that?!! I would just like to point out here that I have NEVER made cherry cake before, this was my first ever attempt!

Again, I used my British Book of Baking. As with all their recipes, this seemed a tad faffy but, having read all the horror stories of the cherries sinking etc., I followed it word by word and look at how beautiful it is! As I say, it was very faffy, having to sift the flour onto baking parchment (never good when you're back door is open!) and then cleaning the cherries (three times!) and chopping them.

The ground almonds help hugely here, as they provide enough texture to stop the cherries sinking however this won't work unless the cherries are thoroughly rinsed!

I chose to use a loaf tin rather than a cake tin, which didn't really affect it at all however it did reduce the cooking time which I couldn't argue with!

Unfortunately I didn't get to taste this, but my Yaya raved about it!!

Vanilla Sprinkle Sponge

A few weeks ago I had a real craving for the sort of cake I used to get in first school, a moist vanilla sponge with thick icing and lots of sprinkles and custard.

I struggled to find a really good vanilla recipe, and found that this one wasn't really up to scratch as it failed to rise and it burnt very easily (after the first 10 mins!) but it worked. I also ran out of icing sugar so this kind of just failed from the start!

This recipe was from AllRecipes.co.uk but I'm still struggling to find a really good sponge recipe, I wonder if a regular sponge recipe would work? Please help my cake disasters!

Cherry Cake- adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

Ingredients:

200g best quality glace cherries- natural colour if possible

200g self raising flour

a pinch of salt

175g unsalted butter, soft but not runny

175g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, room temp, beaten

50g ground almonds

a 20cm round deep cake tin, greased with butter and lined with greaseproof paper

Method:

-Preheat your oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3- I have a fan oven so usually knock off 20 degrees. Grease and line your tin of choice, I like to use a loaf tin for this cake

-Cut the cherries in half and rinse them under a hot tap (this removes the sticky syrup), leave to dry

-On a piece of greaseproof paper, sift the flour and salt together. Set this aside and continue by beating the sugar and butter until light and creamy

-Add the eggs slowly and beat after each addition to stop the mixture from curdling. Gently fold in the ground almonds

-In a bowl, toss the cherries with a tablespoon of the flour. Sift the remaining flour into the mixture and fold, then add the cherries and mix until combined. You need to add the flour from the cherries in here too

-Spoon the batter into your prepared tin and level evenly. According to the recipe, making a slight hollow in the centre of the cake allows it to rise evenly, this works brilliantly

-Bake for around an hour or until golden and firm to the touch. Once cooked, allow to cool on a wire rack

Enjoy!

Vanilla Sprinkle Sponge- adapted from AllRecipes.co.uk

Upon reviewing this recipe, I feel it may work best as cupcakes but I'll leave this down to you!

Ingredients:

200g sugar

115g butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

200g flour

1 and 3/4 tsp baking powder

120ml milk

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4- again, reduce by 20 degrees for a fan oven

-Grease and flour a tray bake tin or, if making cupcakes, line a bun tin with cupcake cases
-Cream your butter and sugar until creamy, add the eggs one at a time and beat with the vanilla until combined
-Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold well. Add in the milk and continue to beat until smooth
-Spoon the mixture into your tin or cupcake cases
-Bake for 30-40 minutes or for 20 to 25 for cupcakes

Enjoy!



Lemon Drizzle Cake and Cupcakes

Today, I made cakes! Lemon Drizzle cake and cupcakes, nomnom! So, seeing as I've just come back from Zumba, I am writing about my cakes instead of eating them which sucks but hey ho...

Yes, I know it seems like I always make Lemon Drizzle Cake, but this time I tried a new recipe. I've followed the recipe in the Great British Book of Baking a few times now and, although the cake is amazing, I'm still hugely unhappy with the baking time and how it mainly comes out burnt.

But, then came along 'Baked and Delicious', a baking magazine -which is very expensive- with free silicon bakeware and this week happened to have a Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe in it. So I rang my Nana and Grandfather, as I do every week and asked them if they'd like to try it.

The recipe was relatively easy and it was pretty much the same as the old recipe but I hoped that the silicon loaf tin would stop it burning or at least stop it burning so much. I was wrong, almost, it still took an hour to bake and it still had browned edges despite the fact I had covered it in tin foil half way through- see above photograph! I still stand by the fact that every tin should be lined with baking paper, maybe I should take my own advice next time!

I was also really disappointed with how small it was! I felt they weren't going to provide sufficient slices but apparently it was brilliant, I must just be greedy!

Next, I made cupcakes!

These tasted unbelievable. I got the recipe from the UKTV Good Food channel website and, as per, bunged everything in the mixer and let it go. This is what happened when I added the flour, mid conversation with mum and forgot the shield...

When the cupcakes came out, they had all kind of peaked and I figured that the buttercream recipe adjoining the cupcake one that I had made was not going to cover all 12 cakes.

I had followed the recipe down to the letter but it barely covered the bottom of the bowl so definitely suggest doubling it for super iced cakes! Also, don't add too much food colouring, I figured a small drop would get me pale pink icing but it was really really pink...

So, I decided to make butterfly cakes but then thought it might look quite quirky if I just put the lids back on. I actually thought these looked really cool!

Definitely going to adapt these to my Strawberry Yoghurt cupcakes, maybe in my next installment? And, I figured that I could eat these tomorrow and it wouldn't affect my Zumba hot body!


Lemon Drizzle Cake- Take 2!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
225g self raising flour
2 tbsp milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
6 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp golden syrup

For decorating:
1 small lemon, finely sliced (I skipped this out)
50g granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
a little bit of cold water
50g icing sugar, sieved

Method:


-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas4

-If using a silicon loaf pan, dust it with flour once greased

-Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually and then sift in the flour. Fold until combined then add the milk, lemon zest and half of the lemon juice and continue to mix

-Spoon the mixture into the tin and level off

-Bake for around an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean

-Heat the remaining lemon juice and golden syrup in a pan. Once the cake is out of the oven, prick the cake and drizzle the syrup all over it

Enjoy!

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

150g butter, softened
150g sugar
3 eggs, beaten
150g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk

For the frosting: I suggest you double up here where possible

75g butter, at room temp
150g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a selection of food colouring- be creative!

To decorate:

crystallised flower petals, optional
sprinkles, optional
silver balls, optional
hundreds and thousands, optional
sweets, optional

Method:


-Preheat the oven to 180˚C/160˚C fan oven/gas 4

-Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

-Gradually add the beaten egg, adding the flour to stop it from curdling. Add the vanilla and milk and combine

-Place some muffin cases into a muffin tin and divide the cake batter into them

-Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack

-In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth, then sift in the icing sugar. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy

-Once cool, decorate your cupcakes as you please!

Enjoy!

My baby!

Just on another note, here is my gorgeous machine...

Nomnomnomnom, worth every single penny!

Cake, Brownies and a Little Bit of Cheating!

Have you ever had one of those days where you just cannot be bothered? Sunday was the day from hell, all Sundays are when you're a waitress in a pub that does good Sunday dinners. Although I was fed up and on the brink of tears, my mother gingerly asked me if I'd make a Victoria Sponge for my Grandfather. The prospect of spending an evening baking relaxed me somewhat but my regular recipe is a complete faff and I simply could not be bothered. As I was needing to go to the shops to get the cream and jam anyway, I figured I could take the cheat's way out. Yes, I do mean a packet mix! Shock! Horror! I was ashamed, I must admit. Even more so that I ended up buying a brownie mix too.

However, if I thought that the Victoria Sponge recipe was hard, the brownie one I use is just completely worse. Although, admittedly it does turn out the most amazingly mouth watering chocolate goodness! The mixes were easy with a capital E, I bunged them into the mixer (as I do with everything) and watched them take shape. They both went in the oven for 20 minutes or so and look what came out...

And these!!

The Victoria Sponge doesn't look as good as it normally does, the suggested 20 minutes made it a tad burnt and I probably didn't take too much care with the construction but apparently it tasted awesome!

As for the brownies, they were bloomin' gorgeous, gone in about a day. Definately a must for those who also can't be bothered!

However, for those who would like to make a Victoria Sponge from scratch, try my previous recipe. For those who also want to try my Chocolate Brownies, here's the recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food! I usually use chocolate drops instead of pieces to save the faff and I also omit the chocolate drops within the brownie as I find it too runny once cooked. This, of course, is down to your preference!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Sticky Toffee Cheesecake

I am so excited about this!

Not the most attractive from above, I'll admit, but it tastes soooo good.

I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was immediately overwhelmed by the ingredients list. The amount of ingredients was over excessive, if I'm honest, 600g of cream cheese, 300g of white choc, sour cream, eggs and flour among other things. This meant that each slice had a huge 887 calories per slice (according to the recipe anyways) and this put me off somewhat.

Surprisingly, this cheesecake also lasted well in the fridge, despite its delicate dairy ingredients so I'd say it could be made in preparation a day or so before. As I sit here writing this, we have had half the cheesecake sitting in fridge for a week as there was just so much of it. Maybe next time I'll half the mixture and make two cheesecakes, I can't see why this wouldn't work.

To be honest, the amount of calories and the richness has put me off the recipe all together. Despite this, the cheesecake was delicious, especially the biscuit base which was made from a shortbread mixture. This was delicate and was balanced well by other flavours within the cheesecake.

If you do try this recipe, I suggest you put the tin on a baking tray as mine had a liquid leaking out of it throughout cooking and cooling which I think may have come from the cream cheese. 

All in all, a very tasty recipe but definitely a no go for those who like to watch their weight!! To try this recipe, go here :)