Pokeball Cookies #BEDM

We recently had a manga event at work, which had a Pokemon theme. To mark the occasion I decided to make some pokeball cookies! Now, I had made some before years ago for a friend when I was in university. But I couldn’t remember how I did it or where I got the inspiration from. I just remember it took forever to make the icing black. So this time round, when I decided I was going to do this, I had plain vanilla sugar cookies in mind, with red, white and black royal icing (thinking I’d make the black icing chocolate to get it as dark as possible before adding black food dye). However, then I came across this video from Nerdy Nummies, which made the cookie dough and split it in half and coloured one half red. Then the dough was chilled, cut in half and the two different halves glued together with egg wash. It was soooo much simpler to do it this way (mine was a bit of a disaster as it didn’t glue properly and kept coming apart when I cut but luckily once the cookie is cut off the cylinder, a cookie cutter is used to make it perfectly round). In the end I used a premade black icing from Lakeland for minimum stress and used mini marshmallows as the white dots in the centre. They were a hit on the night and tasty yummy, if I do say so myself!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Banana Bread #BEDM

I love banana bread and the fact you can easily mix it up and make it something different. I was looking at some recipes on Pinterest and decided to mix two together to make a cinnamon chocolate chip banana bread. Sounds like there’s a lot going on, but trust me it all works! I snapped a picture of it for my Day in the Life post a week or so ago.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ingredients

2 large or 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed up

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

1stp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 – 1 cup chocolate chips (depending on how many you want)

2tbsp sugar and pinch of cinnamon, mixed together

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F

2. Butter and flour (or line) a loaf pan, I used an average sized one, not too small but not too big. Probably 9 x 5

3. Mix together the melted butter, mashed bananas, caster sugar, egg and vanilla extract.

4. Sift the baking soda and flour into the mixed ingredients and add salt. Then gently fold in dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix. Then add in the chocolate chips and stir gently.

5. Add 1/2 the mixture to the pan. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp of the sugar and cinnamon mix evenly over the batter. Add the remaining batter on top and then sprinkle with the rest of the sugar and cinnamon mix.

6. Bake for 50-60 mins. Keep an eye on it, if using a different sized pan it might take more or less time so adjusting accordingly.

7. Leave to cool on a wire rack before cutting in. I usually always try when it’s still a bit warm though!

A Day in the Life #BEDM

This is my first time doing a BEDM scheduled topic the same time as everyone else! I’m not sure if everyone is actually documenting today and putting it up at the end of the day, but I took my photos yesterday so I’d have it all ready today! Beware, I do not lead an exciting life.

1. Yesterday did not start off well. After a very bad night’s sleep and not feeling great, I was woken up by neighbours downstairs playing crappy dance music. I decided to cut my losses and get up. I browsed the internet for a bit, checking my emails and social media. I decided to go have some cereal for breakfast when lo and behold, the milk was finished! Of course it was. So I had some yoghurt instead in this pretty macron bowl.

2. After spending some time applying for jobs and ringing an agency (which did not go well, talk about awkward conversation), I decided to get ready and go out and about. I was looking to possibly apply for any jobs I saw in town and go to Jobs Centre so I decided to do my makeup to a) make me feel more confident and b) make a good first impression.

3. The weather was lovely yesterday, a bit cloudy but nice and warm. I saw these flowers growing out of a wall and just thought it looked so pretty, the contrast of the flowers and the brick wall.

4. While walking around and being very unsuccessful at finding any job leads, I spot this sign. This sign always makes me giggle whenever I see it, I don’t know why!

5. I did a spot of shopping, feeling very fed up and sorry for myself. Once I got home, cooled down and changed into a dress, I made myself some crumpets (Warbutons = the best!) and a Muller Corner yoghurt. And water, LOTS of water!

6. Tempted as I am to nap at this time, I decide to finish off the book I was reading, Cress by Marissa Meyer. With only 50 pages left, I finish it pretty quick and have a small nap (about 15 mins).

7. I decide that since it’s cooled down a bit and I want to cheer myself up (after the crappy day and feeling homesick), I decide to do some baking. I make myself a chocolate chip cinnamon banana bread. While it’s baking, I occupy myself by cleaning up the kitchen.

8. One hour later and the bread is ready! I let it cool for a bit, before cutting it and having a delicious slice.

9. I then try and decide what to do with my bare nails. As you can see, I have a lot to choose from! Once I’ve decided and find the polishes I want, I do my nails, which will be in another blog post soon.

10. Due to not having a microwave at the moment, I can’t cook dinner early as it can’t be heated up. So I decide to play some of Yoshi’s New Island on my 3DS while I wait for my boyfriend to come home. I only got the game 2 days before hand so it’s still only new to me.

Realistically, there should be another photo here, as I was talking to my brother on the phone for a bit. But I didn’t want to repeat that David Cameron on the phone meme! I also spend a bit of time talking to my boyfriend once he arrives home from work, talking about my day and my one piece of good news, that I got an email to do an assessment for a job application.

11. I cook a quick dinner of a chicken and veg stir fry with hoisin sauce and egg fried rice. I love hoisin sauce so much! Sometimes if I want to splash out a bit, I’ll batter the chicken pieces first. While I eat it, I watch some YouTube videos.

12. To unwind and start getting ready for bed, I decide to do a face mask for the first time in ages.

13 and 14. I decide to listen to some podcasts once in bed, the new Stuff You Should Know one was released today about How the Paleo Diet Works, I listen to a Freakonomics podcast (forgot the picture) and get half way through Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast on My Little Bronies before I find myself drifting off.

And that’s it! I wish it was a bit more interesting, I was so sleepy that I didn’t have the energy to do much else.

Tiramisu Bundt Cake #BEDM

I have a confession. I made this way back when I hosted a tea party for Pink Ribbon Month. I just never got around to posting it. But it was way too good not to share so I thought I’d take this opportunity to do so now!

Tiramisu Bundt Cake

Adapt from Baking Bites

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup espresso or very strong coffee
1/4 cup Kahlua

Kahlua Mascarpone Frosting
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
4-oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup Kahlua
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F. Grease and flour bundt pan.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.

4. Mix in the flour and milk alternatively into the bowl, ending on the last of the flour. Remove one cup of batter and place into bowl. Remove another cup of batter and place into another bowl.

5. Into one of the small bowls of batter, add the espresso/coffee and mix until combined. Add the Kahlua into the other small bowl and mix until combined.

6. Spread half the plain batter into the bundt tin, smoothing the top so the layer is even. Then add the Kuhlua batter evenly around the tin, adding the espresso layer evenly on top of that, before finishing off with the plain batter on top.

7. Bake for 55-60, until a toothpick/knife comes out clean when placed in the centre.

8. To make the icing, combine all the ingredients together into a bowl and mix on medium speed until even and smooth. Ice the bundt cake.

This cake is so yummy, perfect if you want to shake things up when making a coffee cake. The Kahula and espresso layers give a nice marbled layer going through the cake when cut, I wish I thought to get a picture!

Baltimore Beer Bread #BEDM

I made this a while a go and kept forgetting to put it up here. It’s a delicious beer and cheese pull apart bread baked by my friend Martine over at stuffed grapes. It’s the perfect bread to share with friends at a party but that’s if you can bear sharing it!

I don’t know much about beers to be honest, I don’t drink them. I do enjoy them in bread (I have a Guinness bread here) and in cakes (Guinness Brownies). However, when I saw this beer, I knew I had to use it in this bread as Martine has a ferret! This bread also uses Old Bay, a seasoning that Marylanders are mad about and that Martine very kindly sent to me to try. I love it, I use it on wedges, on corn, I’ve tried it on a few other things as well that hopefully I’ll get around to blogging about!

 

Baltimore Beer Bread

Recipe from stuffed grapes

Ingredients

For the dough

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup and 1/3 cup beer

2 1/2 cups of plain flour, as well as an additional 1/3 cup for dusting

2 tablespoons sugar

1 packet instant dry yeast

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

Filling

3 tablespoons butter

1 heaped teaspoon of Old Bay spice (or you could use paprika or mustard powder)

1 1/2 heaping cups of grated sharp cheddar

Method

1. Make the dough first. Melt the butter over low heat, along with 1/4 cup of beer until butter is barely melted. Add the 1/3 cup of beer, take off heat and leave to cool, you want it warm to the touch.

2. Add 2 cups of flour along with rest of dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. With mixer on low, slowly add the cooled butter and beer mixture until dry ingredients have just moistened. Add one egg at a time and stir to combine. Add remaining plain flour and stir until just combined.

3. Replace mixer with dough hook and knead for 3-4 minutes, until the dough isn’t as lumpy. It will still be wet and sticky. You can do this by hand if you wish.

4. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and allow to rise for 1 hour, until it doubles is size.

5. While the dough is rising, you can prepare the filling. Grate the cheese with the large holes of a grater. Put into a container, add Old Bay and shake to cover the cheese. Melt your butter and set aside to cool.

6. Once dough is ready, place onto a well floured surface and roll into a rectangle 20”x12”. To prevent the dough from sticking, pull it up off surface and add more flour if needed. Brush the entire dough, edge to edge, with the melted butter. Cut into five 4″x12″ strips (pizza cutter is best for this).

7. Evenly sprinkle the buttered side of one of the strips with cheese. Then place another strip on top, butter side up, and repeat process until all strips are gone. With a serrated knife, slowly cut about 6 or 7 strips about 2″x4″.

8. Now for the tricky part. It’s best of prop your bread pan short side up and start stacking the pieces of dough in. It’s easier than doing it the other way, as the pieces might fall down if stacking them into the pan. Once filled, cover again with cling film and allow to rise again for 30-45 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until nicely brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning it out of pan. Best eaten when warm from the oven, when cheese is still gooey, but it’s still delicious warm!

Baking with Pinterest UK at Loaf, Birmingham

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of opening up my email and seeing I had received one from Pinterest UK! It was an invitation to join them in a bread making event with Loaf in Birmingham. I was so excited to receive this invitation that I replied saying ‘Of course!’. The aim was to learn how to make sourdough bread, a course that Loaf offers as a weekend course but was condensed to a few hours for us. This meant that some of the work was done by Loaf or the morning Pinterest event for us in the afternoon, in order to get it all done on time. We started with the rye sourdough, which we made and then topped with seeds and let them rise in their tins for a few hours. Here was my end result.

 

While we waited for the rye sourdough to rise, we were shown some techniques by Tom and Andy, bakers at Loaf. We were shown 2 ways to knead bread and got to practice them by making a wheat sourdough. Tom then showed us how to shape that dough into different bread shapes, from a simple dinner roll to a baguette. We then got to make a pita bread (very simple and cooks in only a few minutes!) and got to eat our pita with hummus and fresh salad. We also got to make delicious pizzas using the dough too. We had quite the feast!

 

 

Lastly, we had a friendly competition to make a fougasse. We were allowed to pick from a number of herbs and spices to make our own combination. I went with poppy seeds, sesame seeds and cumin. You cut the bread into pretty patterns, add the flavourings and bake. I came second in the competition, I was very proud at how well mine looked! I even managed, somehow, to keep it in tact until I got home so I could show my boyfriend. You have no idea how hard that was as it looked so so good!

At the end of the day, we got to go home with our rye sourdough and some sourdough starter too. I haven’t had the chance to use them yet (as I have barely been at home these past few weeks!) but I think I might bust them out this weekend and make something nice!

Not sure if I’ll be able to get them as nice as these loaves though!

Thank you to Pinterest UK for inviting me and for all at Loaf for their expertise and patience. I had a wonderful time.

Paul Hollywood’s Soda Bread

So I’ve made soda bread before, you can see that if you click right here. But my boyfriend is a massive, MASSIVE fan of soda bread and isn’t the biggest fan of the only kind we can find in the supermarket here in Manchester. So I decided to give it another whirl, this time going with a different recipe just to mix it up. I decided to you Paul Hollywood’s, which I found on the BBC food website, as I have never used any of his recipes before and was curious to try one of them. And comparing to the Rachel Allen recipe I used before, this one uses less ingredients as well, which is perfect if you want to try making breads but are intimidated by it.

Soda Bread

Recipe from Paul Hollywood

Ingredients

250g wholemeal flour

250g plain white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

420ml buttermilk

extra flour for dusting

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200° C/400° F

2. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.

3. Add the buttermilk and mix to a stick dough.

4. Tip out dough out onto a floured surface and gently roll and fold a few times until it comes together. No not knead as it is not necessary.

5. Shape the dough into a ball and gently flatten the top. Score a deep cross into the dough, to divide it into quarters (Irish legend is that this step was originally done to ‘let the devil out’). Dust top lightly with flour.

6. Place onto a pre-lined or non-stick baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

As you can see, I didn’t quite score my bread deep enough, but I’ll know better next time. I think from certain angles it looks like a little bum! I felt this one turned out better though than the last recipe I used, it didn’t seem to fall apart as much when I cut it, the Rachel Allen one was quite crumbly. I really liked the crust that formed on this bread as well.

Perfect, easy recipe to help celebrate the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day!

Cooking and Food Resolutions

Ok, I know I said I wasn’t going to do this, but when I saw this Huffington Post article I was inspired and decided to make a list, at least so I could remember reading this article!

1. Eating more vegetarian meals

I like the idea of incorporating more vegetarian meals into what I regularly cook. I think the whole Meatless Monday idea is a great idea and I want to be inspired to cook more meatless meals.

2. Use my cast iron skillet

Ok, I’m totally robbing this from Huff Po but I have yet to use my cast iron skillet. This is due to the fact that my boyfriend used it once and stuck it in a dishwasher, despite me telling him not to, and it getting rusty. So I need to recondition it first before I use it!

3. Experiment more with slow cooker

Yes, another robbed one but I totally want to use my slow cooker more. They are so handy and I have pinned loads of recipes, so I really have no excuse.

4. Bake more bread

I wanted to do this in 2013 but only managed to try a few new recipes. While I’m pretty confident when it comes to baking cakes, breads scare me a bit and since I’m in the spirit of trying not to be too scared in case I mess things up, I think trying more bread recipes is perfect for that.

5. Make slow cooked pull pork

I’ve been dreaming of making this for so, so long and have never gotten around to it. I really need to stop dreaming and get making!

6. Stop wasting food

I’m just as bad as most people when it comes to food wastage, forgetting what’s in the fridge and having to throw it out. I want to tackle this and cut down on wasting food.

7. Be a bit more adventurous

I grew up a very fussy eater. Luckily I learned to branch out a bit more in college and shock horror, I actually eat vegetables now! Still, I’m hesitant to try some foods, usually foods I’m convinced I don’t like, despite probably never trying them. I also want to retry some foods I know I don’t like, give them another chance. Top of this list is the banana (something about the texture!)

8. Make more sweets and candy

Another thing I’m slightly afraid of, despite owning quite a few books on how to make sweets and candy. I have a sugar thermometer and need to try use it more, master a few classic sweets.

9. Aim for more fruit and veg

Because really, we all need to do this.

10. Pick out a pasta shape I’ve never tried before and cook with it

I often look at different shapes at supermarket but never pick them up. This is me giving myself permission to pick one up!

While I really like the cook book idea (try at least one recipe from each cookbook you own), I won’t have all mine with me in UK. Until I’m reunited with them, I might try cooking recipes from any cookbooks I get out from the library.

Halloween Treats

1st November! I would say I can’t believe it’s already November but this Michael McIntrye video sums up why I don’t want to say it. I didn’t get up to much yesterday for Halloween, I made some treats for my younger siblings, so I thought I’d show some of them here!

Eyeball Monster Cookies

I got the inspiration from this yoyomax12 video but used the recipe in this Todd’s Kitchen video. I made the dough, baked the cookies and once they were out of the oven, I pressed white chocolate buttons into them. Because the cookies are still warm, the white chocolate will melt but if you leave them for a few hours, the chocolate will set as the cookie cools. I used a red food marker to draw on the eyes, except for the one in the second picture, I used a tube of red gel food dye just see how it would turn out. I think using icing would work just as well for the details.

Rotten Egg Cookies

Same cookie dough as above, but instead I used mini Cadbury’s Screme Eggs (Creme Eggs but with a green inside).

Chocolate Orange Hidden Bat Cake

 

So this was a bit hit and miss. I made an orange yoghurt cake in the small bread tin. Once it had cooled, I cut it into slices and used a cookie cooker to cut out bat shapes out of the cake. I then made a second yoghurt cake, this time chocolate with some black food dye added to make it darker. I spoon a small, even layer along the bottom of the same bread tin, placed the bat shaped cake slices on top of the batter and then spooned the remaining batter on top and  baked. For the orange icing, I made a cream cheese frosting with the zest of an orange and the juice of half an orange and dyed it orange. I dripped it over the bake and topped with some chocolate sprinkles. When I cut in, I saw the bat had kinda worked. I think you need something that’s either straight or rounded along the bottom, the fact that it was zigzagged and uneven probably made it harder to balance.

Jelly Brains in Jars

I got the idea for this from this mycupcakeaddiction video. I had the brain ice cube tray from last year (used them for cake pops). I liked how they turned out but my mother wasn’t very impressed!

And that was it for this year! I always lovely trying out new ideas for Halloween. I got a skull cake pan from Aldi and was going try a really colours Sugar Skull cake but never got around to it. Always next year!

Goats’ Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread with Rosemary

My aunt asked me to bake something savoury, as well as some sweet baked goods using goats’ cheese, to bring along to the St. Tola Organic Goats’ Cheese Open Day. I knew I wanted to do a bread so I searched for ideas and came across this bread. It’s a Delia recipe so I knew it would be a goodun’! And it was a big hit, I was surprised at how good it actually tasted. I’m not a big fan of goats’ cheese but even I loved this bread. It sounds a bit ‘busy’, like my Guinness bread I made, but it really does all work together. I doubled Delia’s recipe, planning on making two loaves, but I found that they were quite small so I decided to just make it one big loaf.

Goats’ Cheese, Onion and Potato Bread with Rosemary

Adapted from deliaonline.com

Ingredients

220g St. Tola Fresh Log cheese or St Tola Mature Log

8 scallions, finely chopped

2 medium red potatoes, weighing approx. 350g

2 rounded teaspoons fresh rosemary

350g self raising flour, plus extra for dusting

2 tsp salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper (omit if you wish or cut down by half, it does come through quite strong)

2 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

Method

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F.

2. Cut any rind off cheese and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

3. Sift flour, salt and cayenne pepper into a bowl. Peel potatoes and grate into bowl, using the large, coarse holes.

4. Add the scallions, thyme and 2/3 cheese into the bowl. Using a knife, blend everything together.

5. Beat the egg and milk together in a cup and add to the bowl and using the knife, bring together as a loose, rough dough.

6. Tip dough out of bowl and shape into a round. Dot the remainder of the cheese into the surface of the bread. Dust with a little flour and add some more thyme.

7. Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Remove and allow to cool.

Despicable Me Minion Cake!

No flash

Last month I went to see Despicable Me 2 with some of my siblings and it was then I decided I’d make a Minion cake for my brother’s birthday. Which is today, and I just couldn’t wait to blog about it! I used this Betty Crocker tutorial as a baseline for cake.

This cake broke my heart to make! It’s been ages since I’ve baked in my parents house and I’ve gotten so used to my own equipment. Nothing went right. No batteries left in scales, so I had to use some non digital ones that are very dodgy. Then the electric beaters just didn’t seem to have it in them to cream the butter and sugar. The cake baked fine, until I tried to lift it out of the pan and it cracked down the centre. ‘Not a problem, it’ll be fine once iced’. I left it to cool, when I came back, some of it had stuck to the plate (rookies mistake I know! But there’s no wire cooling wrack). Though because it was going to be on the bottom, it didn’t make much difference. The cake was fine to shape and the 2 layers of yellow icing went on fine. Blue icing was a bit of a pain to get right, bits of yellow kept peaking through. Black icing for piping was a disaster, it just wasn’t intense enough and of course there were no sandwich bags for making a piping bag, so I fashioned one out of grease proof paper (Mary Berry is probably not impressed me with, it was dreadful). Luckily it all came together in the end (despite it cracking again! Just smoothed it out with some more icing!) and it was really worth it as my brother loved it.

To make it, I made a few adjustments to the Betty Crocker recipe above. I made the cake and icing from scratch, using my ‘go to’ Madeira cake and buttercream icing recipes (I doubled the amounts for both). I followed the icing guides in the article.

For the eye, I twisted off one side of an Oreo and then built up 2 other insides of Oreos to make the white thicker (not really necessary I don’t). I used a Cadbury Button for centre of the eye (and trouser buttons) and for the ring around it, I just scrunched up tin foil.

For the black straps, I used the ready to roll icing, coloured it black, left it hardened in the fridge, then rolled out and cut. Lastly I ‘piped’ (if you can say I even did that!) the black edging along the blue and yellow icing, added some liquorice for the hair and for the mouth!

The great thing about this is you can definitely change it up, you could do two eyes, you can change to mouth to a big grin or even a different facial expression. I’d love to see if I could make a few mini ones from a large cake, another time maybe!

It’s not as polished as the Betty Crocker one, I definitely need to get a palette knife so I can make my finish more smooth. And it’s not perfect, the above story shows why! But I’m happy with it!

With flash

Lego Cake

Ok, I decided I needed something easy to blog about to easy myself back in. And since I wrote about a cake week in one of my last posts, I thought that would be the best place to start!

I made this cake almost a year ago for my youngest brother, who’s a Lego freak. I bought this Lego ice mould back in 2011, unfortunately just after my brother’s birthday, so I kept it a secret for a whole year so to surprise him with this cake.

To make the chocolate Lego men, melt chocolate (in whatever flavour, I used milk and white), pour into mould and let set. If you want to be properly fancy, you can temper the chocolate but I didn’t. To give the white chocolate a yellow colour, I mixed in some yellow food colouring. I do not recommend this, as it causes the chocolate to seize up and go grainy. If you are serious about colouring the colour, either buy candy melts like the Wilton ones or look for out for powder or oil based colouring.

Chocolate Lego Cake with Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

100g sugar

100g butter, room temperature

125g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

Buttercream Icing

75g butter, room temperature

150g icing sugar

Vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cream butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy

2. Add half the flour and cocoa and half the egg. Mix together.

3. Add remaining egg and vanilla essence, and mix.

4. Fold in remaining flour. If mixture if a bit too dry for you, add a dash of milk. Spoon mixture into 2 sandwich tins

5. Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until a knife stuck into the centre of cake comes out clean.

6. To make buttercream icing, cream icing sugar and butter together until smooth. Add in vanilla essence and mix together

The amount of chocolate you need for the Lego men will depend on how many you want to make! It’s really up to you.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Last week was my brother’s birthday, so I asked him what cake he wanted. ‘Chocolate. Chocolate fudge cake!’. I knew the perfect recipe to use, Lilly Higgins’ recipe from her book Make Bake Love. I had made it almost exactly a year ago but never posted it up here! It’s unusual in the sense that it uses yoghurt, it makes it quite a dense cake but it’s very moist. For me though the star is the buttercream icing, very chocolately and delicious!

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Adapted from Lilly Higgins’ Make Bake Love

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate, chopped

200g Demerara sugar

180g butter, softened

3 eggs

180g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

225ml natural yoghurt (I used vanilla flavoured)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate buttercream

55g butter, softened

230g icing sugar

40g cocoa powder

5 tbsp milk

Half tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180. Butter and flour sandwich tins.

2. Melt the chocolate (either in microwave or over a double boiler) and leave to cool slightly

3. Beat the sugar and butter in a separate bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

4. Sieve the flour and baking powder together. Mix gently. Add the yoghurt, vanilla and melted chocolate. Fold in gently.

5. Divide the batter evenly and make a slight hollow in the centre (this will help the cake raise evenly and make sure there’s no peak in the middle. If there is, once the cake has cooled you can cut the cake with a serrated knife to level it off).

6. Bake 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool on a rack and sandwich together with one half of buttercream. Spread remaining on top.

7. Beat the butter with half the sugar. Add remaining sugar, the cocoa, milk and vanilla and mix.

Hedgehog Cake!

Growing up, my Mum only ever baked one thing: hedgehog cakes. Ok, so there was the Halloween version of it when it became a rat cake but that was it. Every time our school had a bake sale, Mum would make two of these and they would be the first things to sell out. There used to be fights over them! It’s incredibly easy to make. My brother asked me to make one for him to give to someone as a gift so I said I’d give it a whirl.

To make, use this recipe here but instead of using it for cupcakes but it in one round tin. Once it has fully cooled, cut in half vertically. For the icing, use 100g butter, 200g icing sugar and one tablespoon cocoa powder and beat together until smooth and uniform. Sandwich the two halves of the cake together with the chocolate buttercream icing. Coat the entire outside with the rest of the buttercream icing, run a fork along the cake to add an extra texture effect (I forgot to do this) and then add flaked almonds as the spikes. To finish, add Smarties for eyes and a nose. Very simple but impressive! For the Halloween version, Mum used to make the inside buttercream icing red, the outside icing black and added liquorice for a tail.

Dark Chocolate Guinness Brownies

Part 2 in my baking with Guinness adventure! One of the most popular desserts made with Guinness seems to be brownies. And I don’t have a problem with that! My recipes is inspired by the Beer Brownies found at The Kitchy Kitchen. The Guinness really helps to intensify the chocolate flavour, in a way that coffee does.

Dark Chocolate Guinness Brownies

Adapted from The Kitchy Kitchen

Ingredients

100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces

8 tbsp butter

4 eggs

200g (1 cup) granulated sugar

220g (1 packed cup) light brown sugar

30g (1/4 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder

130g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

120ml (1/2 cup) Guinness

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a square pan.

2. Sift together flour and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside. Melt together the butter and chocolate over a low heat.

3. While the butter and chocolate are melting, whisk together the sugars and eggs until thick and shiny. While still beating, add the dry and wet ingredients in alternatively, until it is all evenly mixed. Do not over mix though.

4. Transfer to pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

5. Leave to cool in pan completely before removing.

These are lovely brownies, you definitely get the Guinness coming through but I liked it! Some chopped walnuts would be a nice addition. So I’m now a Guinness fan, as long as it’s in food and I don’t have to drink it!

‘Get these mother f**king snakes off my brownies!’

Cheddar, Ham and Rosemary Guinness Bread

I’m not the biggest Guinness fan. I went to the Guinness Store House last year, tasted Guinness for the first time and this was my impression of it

However, it being almost St. Paddy’s Day, I keep seeing lovely looking recipes (sweet and savoury) which include Guinness as an ingredient. And I must admit I was curious about trying some. So I decided to go with a savoury bread and some chocolate brownies, which I will post later today (sneak peek here).

I got the idea for this recipe from theKitchn, where they posted a Cheddar and Chive Guinness Bread. Not having any chives on hand, I substituted in some rosemary and decided to amp it up a bit by adding in some ham (bacon would do too or you could omit it if you want). This is a very simple bread, easily prepared in 5 minutes!

Cheddar, Ham and Rosemary Guinness Bread

Adapted from theKitchn

Ingredients

370g (2 3/4 cups) plain flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

355ml (12 oz) Guinness

115g (4oz/1 cup) Cheddar cheese, grated

2 slices of ham, torn into pieces

Small handful of fresh rosemary, chopped finely

57g (1/4 cup) butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190° C(375° F). Line loaf pan with parchment paper or grease with butter.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl and mix. Pour Guinness into bowl and mix until evenly distributed. Fold in 3/4 of the cheese, the rosemary and the ham.

3. Transfer into the pan. Pour the melted butter over the top evenly. Bake for 30 mins, then scatter the rest of the cheese on top and bake for a further 10-15 mins, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Also to cool in pan for 5 mins before removing.

Next time I might leave out the rosemary and add in some caramelized onions. Needless to say, I am obsessed with this right now, it’s amazing!

Close up for that melty cheese and ham goodness!