Cinnamon Churro's

Another bitesize treat, similar taste and texture to doughnuts, although one is never enough :)

6oz Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Castor Sugar
4 fluid oz water
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the flour, salt and sugar in bowl.
Place water in pan and bring to boil.
Remove from heat, add the flour and beat well until forms smooth ball.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Put mix into large pastry bag with large plain nozzle.

Pipe 4" tubes into hot oil, snipping off with scissors, and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. ( do a few at a time).

Remove and drain onto kitchen paper, and sprinkle with castor sugar and a little cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Lamingtons

Lovely sweet bitesize tea time treat.

For Cakes:

4oz Margarine

4oz Castor Sugar

4oz SR Flour

2 Eggs beaten with 2tbsp of milk

For Coating:

3oz Icing Sugar

1oz Cocoa Powder

Desiccated Coconut

Make cake by beating sugar and margarine till light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs and milk, then fold in flour.

Put cake mix in greased and lined square cake tin, and bake till risen and golden brown, leave to cool completely.

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into bowl, make well in middle and add 1-2 tbsp boiling water and mix till smooth, but not too runny.

Cut cake into small squares, and using 2 forks to dip each square into the chocolate mix, then dip into coconut.

Leave to set on parchment paper.

Enjoy!

My Carrot Cake

Haven't done a large carrot cake in a while, so thought it was time, beautiful and moist, with a cream cheese frosting.

For the cake:

10oz Castor Sugar
10oz Margarine
10oz SR Flour
5 Eggs
2 Medium Carrots (grated)
4oz Chopped Walnuts
4 tsp Mixed Spice
1 tsp Cinnamon 

For Frosting:
1 Tub of Double Cream
1 Tub Philadelphia Cheese
1tsp Lemon Flavouring
1 tbsp Icing Sugar

Make cake, by creaming margarine and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add beaten eggs a little at a time, continually beating with a little of the flour (to prevent mix from curdling).
Add the rest of the ingredients and gently fold in.
Grease and line an 8 or 10" round cake tin, put mix in cake tin and bake Gas 5 till risen and golden brown. Allow to cool.

Make frosting by whipping double cream till thick, add 1 tbsp icing sugar and cream cheese and whisk till forms peaks,

Put 3tbsp of frosting in a small bowl, and 1tbsp into another small bowl, add green food colouring to smallest bowl, and orange colouring to other bowl.

Slice cake horizontally and spread some plain frosting in middle, and cover cake with rest of frosting. Sprinkle with a little of the chopped walnuts and grated carrots.
Put orange frosting into piping bag with plain nozzle and pipe carrots around edge, and use green to pipe leaves.

Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

Oh, the smell of these when they come out of the oven, is like walking past the baking section in the supermarket, and they taste as good any shop bought!

Ingredients:

250ml Milk

60g Butter

500g Strong White Flour

1tsp Salt

4tsp Mixed Spice

1tsp Nutmeg

1x7g Sachet Instant Yeast

50g Light Brown Sugar

150g Mixed Dried Fruit

1 Medium Egg (beaten)

For the Cross:

3tbsp Strong Flour

2tbsp Cold Water

For the Glaze:

Apricot Jam

To Make:

Warm the milk with the butter till just melted.

Put flour into mixing bowl with dough hook attached.

Add salt, mixed spice, nutmeg, yeast, sugar and dried fruit and mix together making sure there are no clumps.

Make a well in middle and add egg and buttery milk and mix till all combined.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, cover with bowl and leave to rest for 5 mins.

Knead again for another 5 mins till dough feels elastic.

Cover with cling film and leave in warm place for about an hour, till double in size.

Turn out and knead again for a minute, then divide into 12 equal portions.

Round each ball and place on greased tray, cover with cling film, and leave to rise again for another hour,

For crosses, mix flour with a little of the water at a time, until you have a smooth thick paste, place into piping bag, snip off end, and pipe a cross over each bun.

Bake in oven Gas 6, until golden brown.

Heat apricot jam then put through sieve, and brush buns with apricot glaze as soon as they come out of oven.

Cool on wire rack,

Enjoy!

Cupcakes

Just thought I'd share 
some pictures of cupcakes I've made recently, most of them you can see the recipes on the blog....

Whats your favourite? 

Chocolate Orio 

                                       Caramel Frosting

  

Toffee with M&Ms

Chocolate Orange

Carrot Cake

 

Raspberry

Lemon

Blackberry and Vanilla

Chocolate and Tiramisu  

Chicken and Mushroom Pies

Bit of a change today, something savoury, I do have a sweet tooth though, as you can tell lol.

Make pastry from this link: shortcrust pastry 

Grease and line 4 pie dishes with pastry.

To make filling:

Saute some halved button mushrooms, then add cooked diced chicken, stir in a little chicken stock, and simmer for a couple minutes.

Add 1 dessert spoon of plain flour, stir in till cooked through.
Then add a little milk at a time, stirring continuously until thickens to a sauce, cook for one minute, if it gets too thick, stir in a little more of the chicken stock.

Divide mixture between the 4 pastry cases, then roll out pastry and cut tops for pies, seal edges and brush with beaten egg.

Bake in oven Gas 6, until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Souffle's

Always wanted to make these, but never tried thinking they would be difficult, they're not! :)

Ingredients:

For Sauce:

140ml Single Cream
25g Sugar
100g Dark Chocolate
25 g Butter

For Souffle's:

50g Sugar
175g Dark Chocolate
2tbsp Double Cream
4 Egg Yolks
5 Egg Whites


Make the sauce by heating the cream and sugar until it boils, remove from heat, then stir in the chocolate and butter till melted, keep warm.

For the souffle's, brush 6 ramekins with melted butter and dust with sugar.
Melt the chocolate and cream, remove from heat.
Mix in the egg yolks.
In separate bowl, whisk egg whites till peak forms, add the sugar a little at a time, and whisk again.
Add 1 tbsp of egg whites to chocolate mix and mix till combined.
Then fold in rest of egg whites.

Divide mixture between the ramekins, place on baking tray, and bake in oven Gas 6 till risen and starting to brown. (do not open oven door)
Remove from oven, dust with a little icing sugar, and serve immediately with chocolate sauce, and/or ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi all, hope all you mums out there had a lovely mothers day, I was spoilt as usual, chocolate, flowers, wine (hic!) oh and a ticket to go and see Harry Potter World near London for later in the year! yay! big HP fan, even at my age.

Been a quiet couple of days here, wasn't raining yesterday, so took my 2 little Chihuahuas out for a walk, needless to say, being so close to the ground, they got their bellies full of mud in the woods.

This Winky and Molly, worn out after their walk!




Today, the cars in for its MOT, so thought I'd make some cupcakes for the home round the corner.



For cakes:

6oz Castor Sugar
6oz Margarine
8oz SR Flour
3 Eggs (beaten)
1 Medium Carrot (grated)
2tsp Mixed Spice
2tbsp Chopped Nuts


For Frosting:

300ml Double Cream
2tbsp Cream Cheese
1tbsp Icing Sugar
1tsp Lemon Flavouring
chopped nuts and grated carrot to decorate

Make cakes by beating sugar and margarine together till light and fluffy, add beaten eggs a little at a time, with a spoonful of the flour mix.
Fold in flour, mixed spice, grated carrot and nuts.
I used an icecream scoop to measure and placed one scoop in each cupcake paper case, (made 18).

Bake Gas 6 until risen and light golden brown.
Place on wire rack to cool.

For frosting: Whisk double cream and cream cheese till thickens a little, add icing sugar and flavouring and beat till thickens.


When cakes cooled, pipe frosting on cakes, then sprinkle with chopped nuts and a little of the grated carrot.

Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie

Another 1st for me! This is absolutely delicious, not over sweet and light.

Ingredients:

250g Digestives (crushed)

85g Butter

300ml Double Cream

Small Can of Condensed Milk

Juice and zest of 5 Limes

Melt butter in large pan gently, remove from heat and mix in crushed digestives well.

Place in deep loose bottomed cake tin, press down and smooth up the sides slightly.

Chill base in fridge while making filling.

Whisk together double cream and condensed milk, then add juice and zest of limes (keep a little of the zest to one side). Whisk till it thickens.

Pour mix onto base and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours.

When ready to serve, pipe some whipped cream on top, and sprinkle with remainder of lime zest.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Viennese Fingers

These are same recipe as my Viennese Biscuits on a previous page as below:

viennese recipe :- 

Put mixture into large piping bag with large open star nozzle, and pipe fingers onto greased baking tray, leaving space for spreading.

Bake until ridges are starting to brown, remove from oven and allow to cool still on tray for a while, before using palette knife to remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Melt chocolate in glass or steel bowl over pan of simmering water.

Dip half of fingers into chocolate gently ( they are delicate), then shake a few sprinkles on if desired.
Place on baking parchment and leave till chocolate set.
Store in air tight tin, between layers of parchment paper to kitchen roll.

Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Pots

Something I've never made made before, but always wanted to try...
This was my 2nd attempt, all I did, was reduce the cooking time by 3 minutes.

Makes 2

60g Good Dark Chocolate
60g Butter
50g Castor Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g Plain Flour
Cocoa powder

Grease the 2 individual basins with butter and dust with the cocoa powder.
Heat the butter and chocolate in pan gently till melted, then remove from heat,
Stir in the sugar with wooden spoon till smooth.
Whisk in 1 egg and yolk of the other with essence.
Add the flour and beat in with wooden spoon till smooth.

Place in moulds on baking tray, and bake in centre of oven, Gas 6 for exactly 12 minutes.

Remove from oven, then slide knife around inside of mould and turn into bowl.
Serve immediately with a scoop of ice-cream or cream.

Yummy!!!

Enjoy!

Raspberry Cupcakes

I used 10 of the cupcakes I made yesterday, and decorated them with cream cheese raspberry frosting.

Frosting:

4oz Double Cream
2oz Mascarpone 
1tbsp Icing Sugar
Pink food colouring
Raspberry Flavouring
Fresh Raspberries

Whip double cream until becoming thick and creamy, add icing sugar, cream cheese and flavouring, and whip until it form peaks.

Put 1/3 of frosting into separate bowl, and add a little pink colouring and mix.

For piping, I used a 3 bag  coupler and a Russian ball piping tube.
I put white frosting in 2 bags, and pink in 3rd bag.
Then piped rosettes on each cupcake, added a raspberry on top, and sprinkled with a little icing sugar.

If anyone would like a demonstration of these piping techniques, add a comment here, and I will do my best :)

Enjoy!

Breakfast Egg Muffins

This is an easy to do recipe, ideal for breakfast or as a snack.
Can be done ahead and frozen.

Ingredients:   Yields 12    

6 Eggs
1/4 Pint Milk
1 Chopped Onion
Chopped Pancetta or Bacon
Grated Cheese

Grease a 12 piece cupcake tray.
Brown off pancetta and onion together, and place on kitchen paper to drain fat off.

Divide bacon mix into the 12 cupcake tins.
Add a little grated cheese on top.
Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug, with seasoning, then pour on top of bacon mix.
Bake in oven Gas 5, till risen and starting to brown.

When done, use a tablespoon to scoop out muffins and place on plate, eat straightaway, or leave to cool before freezing.

Enjoy!

Comparing Cupcake Methods

Thought I would try 2 different methods of making a cupcake mixture, one the creaming method, and the other a rubbing method, to see what difference there is?

Creaming:  Yielded- 12

4oz Margarine                        

4oz Castor Sugar
4oz SR Flour
2 Eggs (beaten)+ 1tbsp milk

Beat sugar and marg until light and fluffy, add beaten eggs a little at a time, with a little flour, fold in flour.
Put 1 tbsp of mix in each of 12 cupcake papers.
Bake Gas 6 till risen and golden brown.

Rub In:  Yielded 8

Use the same ingredients above:   

Put flour and sugar in bowl and mix together.
Put softened marg in and rub in till resembles breadcrumbs.
Beat in egg and milk mix till smooth.
Put 1 tbsp of mix into 8 paper cases, and bake as above.



The obvious difference is that you get more cupcakes with the creaming method, as the eggs are beaten more.
I also found the creaming method cakes are a lighter cake, and rise better.

If you particularly want a flat cupcake, depending what decoration you are going, then use the rubbing in method.

Its up to you, I found they both tasted the same, I will continue to use the creaming method, as I believe it is more evenly mixed.

Have a try....

Enjoy!

Coconut Tartlets

This is another of Mums recipes that brings back memories.
I had some pastry left from the almond tarts, so made these.

Grease and line a 12 cupcake tray with the pastry using a round cutter.

For Filling:

4oz Margarine
4oz Castor Sugar
2 Eggs (beaten)
4oz Desiccated Coconut
Strawberry Jam

Beat together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
Bet in eggs and coconut.

Add 1/2 tsp jam in bottom of pastry tarts, then add 1 dessert spoon of cake mix in each, spreading and sealing the edges.

Bake Gas 6, until risen and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Almond Tarts

Thought I would go back to basics for my pastry and make some almond tarts at the same time, the pastry uses half butter, half lard.
Lard wasn't used so much these days as thought to be unhealthy, but watching a recent foodie program, it actually has less mono saturates than butter, it makes a lovely buttery crispy pastry.

Pastry:

8oz SR Flour
2oz Butter
2oz Lard
cold water

For Filling:

4oz Castor Sugar
4oz Margarine
3oz SR Flour
2oz Ground Almonds
2 Eggs (beaten)
1 tsp Almond Essence
Flaked Almonds
Strawberry Jam

Make pastry by rubbing in butter and lard into flour, until resembles breadcrumbs.
Add a little cold water at a time until pastry comes together, do not over mix.
Wrap in cling film and put in fridge for 30 minutes ( or can make day before).

Roll out pastry and line tartlet tins, add 1tsp of jam in bottom.

Make filling by creaming margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs ( and almond essence) a little at a time, adding a little of the flour at same time to prevent curdling.
Fold in rest of flour and ground almonds.
Fill each tart with cake mix, then sprinkle some flaked almonds on top.
Bake Gas 5, until risen and golden brown. 
Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy!

Delicious Caramel Filled Profiteroles

I was inspired watching Masterchef USA the other day, and decided I would try making profiteroles, something I've never got round to making before, OMG I'm so glad I did!
These were easier than I thought.
They are filled with caramel cheese cream, and topped with caramel.
This recipe made about 4 trays, I filled half of them, and the spare shells were frozen.

For the pastry:

6oz Butter
7 1/2oz P Flour
6 Eggs (beaten)
3/4 pint of water (400mls)

For Filling:

large tub of mascarpone 
1 dessert spoon of milk
1tbsp icing sugar

1 sml tin of Nestles caramel

Draw 1" circles onto parchment paper, the turn over and place on baking tray, dampen slightly with water.

Cut the butter into small pieces and put in large pan with the water.
Heat gently until butter melted, then bring to boil quickly, remove from heat immediately.
Beat in sifted flour until the mixture is smooth and leaves the side of the pan.

Allow to cool...

Then beat in eggs a little at a time, keeping the mixture stiff.

Put in large piping bag with large plain nozzle, and pipe onto marked parchment.
Press down any peaks gently with damp small brush.

Bake in oven Gas 6 until risen, golden brown and has a crispy shell.

Don't take then out the oven too soon, as they will deflate.

For the filling, beat together mascarpone, milk and icing sugar, (add 1tsp caramel flavouring if you wish).

As soon as profiteroles are cool, poke small hole in bottom, and pipe filling in, making sure they are filled.
Dip top in caramel.

Spare shells, allow to cool, the freeze, also the finished profiteroles can be frozen, place flat on tray with parchment, and place in freezer, once frozen, you can put then in bags or boxes, and back in the freezer.

Enjoy!