Recipe: Spring Raspberry Cupcakes

An easter spring get together with friends called for some cupcake baking. My friends always read the baking blog posts on HBH and request many things. I hadn't made these cupcakes before but they went down a storm so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all!

Recipe: I'm in Heaven Chocolate Mousse Cake

Sorry it's been a while since you've had a blog post from me (feel like everytime I've posted this year I've started with that - world's worse blogger alert), and it's definitely been a while since you've had a baking post. Being home for Easter weekend I have taken the opportunity to cook up a delicious chocolate cake with a rich chocolate mousse topping. With it being Easter, I topped this one with little mini eggs, but you could something like raspberries or strawberries for that lovely spring summer freshness. I would personally like to thank Mary Berry for the original recipe, that I've tweaked a little, because its a delicious idea - actually just thanks to Mary Berry for existing!

Recipe: Apple and Cinnamon Loaf Cake

 

 

It was a Wednesday Bake Off night and myself and my friends decided to meet up with cake. I was in need of a something quick, with ingredients I had in my baking stash! I turned to this Mary Berry recipe (seemed only fitting considering we were watching the bake off) and having tried it once, it's something I'll keep going back to and keep altering slightly to fit the occasion and what I need.

Recipe: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love a good cookie? I definitely do, and I've adapted a recipe from the lovely Mary Berry to make what I think are some of the most delicious cookies I have ever tried. If you want to see how to make a gooey, chocolate delicious cookie, keep on reading!

 

The College Favourite Malteser Cake Recipe

During our A-Levels myself and my friends became fans of visiting the Starbucks café in college. The malteser cake they sold became a firm favourite. I've since to got a recipe and it gives me something pretty close to the real deal that college sold us. Here is the recipe for the cake that brightened up those stressful days.

My Nan's All Bran Cake Recipe

Today is a day for another recipe. My Nan was famous for her recipe books, her apple pies were particularly delicious, however today I'll be sharing with you what is likely to be the most simple of all her cakes - her All Bran Cake. Yes, cereal in a cake is something that you might be thinking should never have been created, however this is without doubt one of the most delicious cakes I've ever tasted, and possibly the easiest recipe I've shared on my blog.

Cinnamon and Sultana Scones Recipe

 

For the past thirteen Fridays you've had a fitness related post from me - well this week, we're talking baking. Today I'm sharing a recipe for cinnamon and sultana scones. A little treat is OK every now and then! If you'd like to see how I've made these delicious, melt in your mouth scones then keep reading...

My 100 Things | #57 Enter a Competition

 

This is a recently added thing to my list. Infact, it was completely unplanned so I only added it to my list once I was in the process of doing it. But this post will feature cake talk, trophies, and a spontaneous speech from my Mum!

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I spent Easter with my Auntie, Uncle and Cousins. My Auntie made this incredible meringue with lemon curd and it tasted amazing! She gave me her lemon curd recipe and I wanted to try something a bit different so looked for inspiration online and found this recipe. I know the last recipe I did was lemon icing butterfly buns, so there's a definite lemon thing going on right now, however I couldn't not give this one a go. Here's how it went anyway...

Recipe: Lemon Icing Butterfly Buns

 

It's coming up to Easter and I thought this would be the perfect excuse to get the whisk out and start baking. I love chocolate as much as the next guy, but sometimes you want something a bit different so I thought I'd make some little butterfly buns for Easter instead! I thought I'd make them a week in advance so that if you fancy making them for Easter you have time!

 

Recipe: Valentines Cupcakes

 

Who doesn't love a good cupcake? Well, Valentines Day is the perfect excuse to heat the oven up and dust off the old muffin tray. These would make an ideal gift or a little treat for yourself - who says you need to have someone to share them with!

Recipe: Berry Pavlova

I've never made Meringue before so I browsed the internet and my cookery books to find some inspiration. I've tried it out and adapted a couple of Recipes. I took a lot of inspiration from Ruby Tandoh Crumb book, that I reviewed on Tuesday, and adapted it too make it even sweeter for my sweet tooth! Finally, after a couple of experiments, I came up with this Recipe, for a deliciously sweet Pavlova..

Review: Crumb by Ruby Tandoh

 

Ruby Tandoh started making waves in the baking world when she became a Great British Bake Off Finalist in 2013. Since then she has gone on to become a writer for The Guardian and Elle Magazine, and write her own book, Crumb, in 2014. I got this book for Christmas (signed as well! Ahh), and here is what I think of it...

 

Blogmas Day 22 | DIY: Homemade Christmas Gift

I love adding a personal touch to presents. There are a couple of friends, and a couple of people I work with I wanted to give presents to, but just couldn't think what to get them - but they all love food, so I thought that was a good place to start.

This is what my gift ended up looking like:

To do this I used (per present):

Homemade Chocolate Truffles
Homemade Peppermint Creams
2 Sweet Bags
A Jar
Ribbon
Gift Tag
Small piece of material

Apart from the chocolates I bought everything from The Range

What I did:

1) Add a handful of truffles to one sweet bag and a handful of peppermint creams to another

2) Layer these into the jar.

3) Cut out a piece of festive slightly larger than the lid of your jar.

4) Tie this around the lid with a piece of ribbon (a festive ribbon at Christmas of course!)

5) Add a little label saying who it's for, who it's from, and what's in the jar!

*TIP* Do this in a cold room, or by the fridge so you can take the chocolates directly out of the fridge and place them in the bags. I didn't do this, and under my hot kitchen lights they began to melt and some of the chocolate has squashed - sorry to whoever gets that jar! It's still made with love and thought though!

Hope you like this little gift idea. It'd be great if you were making the chocolates for yourself, and needed a last minute present idea, or if you have some friends who love food - like mine!

Merry Christmas. See you tomorrow for more blogmas.

Love, Hannah x

Blogmas Day 21 | Recipe: Chocolate Truffles

A few year ago my I made some Chocolate Truffles for Christmas and they tasted AMAZING! But I haven't made any since. So this year I thought I would make some more. I took to the internet and found a James Martin Recipe on BBC Food and thought I would have a go.

The first attempt went in the bin (I'll explain why later on), but this is what the second attempt turned out like:

A very messy, but delicious looking plate

Carry on reading if you would like to see the full recipe:

You will need:

350ml Double Cream
400g Dark Chocolate, at least 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
3-4 tbsp. sifted cocoa powder
A variety of chocolate sprinkles (optional)

What to do:

1) Place the cream in a saucepan and heat on a medium heat. Do not let it come to the boil (I did this the first time I tried and the mixture spilt!)

2) Place the broken chocolate pieces into a bowl. When the cream is hot (slightly steaming) pour the cream over the chocolate

3) Mix well until the mixture is smooth and has the appearance of creamy melted chocolate

4) Set aside until the mixture has cooled

5) Place in the fridge for two hours until the mixture becomes firm

6) Sift the cocoa powder onto a plate. Using a teaspoon, curl balls of the chocolate and drop them into the cocoa powder and roll them about to cover them completely.

*TIP* You may need to place the chocolate back in the fridge halfway through creating the truffle balls, because a hot kitchen can cause them to go soft, and then it can get very messy!

7) Place them onto a plate to serve. (Or if you are preparing them in advance of when you need them, place into a sealed container and back in the fridge)

I think this is the perfect sweet treat to go with a cup of coffee after you've indulged in Christmas Dinner or an ideal Christmas Gift. Depending on the size you'd like your truffles it can make quite a lot, so would be a lovely gift for friends.

Enjoy...

Love, Hannah x

Blogmas Day 19 | Recipe: Christmas Cake

I started making my Christmas Cake about a month ago because it was when I got chance and they last for so long it doesn't matter.

I thought I'd share with you a recipe that my Mum has used to make our Christmas Cake every year. It was originally a Delia Smith (a cooking queen) recipe and we haven't changed anything. It's tried and tested and is absolutely lovely so why change a recipe for success?

This recipe is for a heavy, dense, fruit cake, that serves 8 to 10 people.
The preparation time is 30 minutes, plus an overnight soaking, and the cooking time is 5 hours.

If you would like to make something that looks a bit like this, carry on reading for the full recipe:

You will need:

For the Cake:
450g currants
175g sultanas
175g raisins
50g glace cherries (rinsed, dried and finely chopped)
50g mixed peel (finely chopped)
250ml (approx.) sherry alcohol
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
225g unsalted butter
225g soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 dessertspoon black treacle
zest 1 lemon
zest 1 orange

To Decorate:
500g Natural Almond Marzipan
500g White Fondant Icing
Decorations (i.e. ribbons) of your choice


What to do:

Begin this cake 24 hours before you wish to bake it...

1) Add the dried fruit and mixed peel to a large mixing bowl and stir in the sherry as thoroughly as possible.

2) Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the bowl to one side to absorb the alcohol for 24 hours.

Next day...

3) Preheat the oven to gas mark 1 / 275f / 140c.

4) Sift the flour, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl (raise the flour high to give it an airing)

5) In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until it is light, pale and fluffy

6) Now, beat the eggs in a seperate bowl and then add them to the creamed sugar/butter mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; keep the whisk running until the egg is fully incorporated. (If the eggs are added like this they shouldn't curdle, but if they do, don't worry, all problems will be solved at a later date)

 

7) When all the egg is added fold in the flour and spices. Don't beat the mixture as this will remove any air.

 

 

8) Now fold in the fruit, peel, treacle and grated orange and lemon zests.

 

Now grease an 8in/20cm round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper. (Because the baking time is a long one - tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin for extra protection)

9) Transfer the cake mixture to the cake tin and level out with the back of a spoon

 

10) Cover the cake with a double square of greaseproof paper with a 50p size whole in the top (it looks really messy but this is again for extra protection during the long slow cooking time)

11) Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4 1/2 - 4 3/4 hours. It may take up to 1/2 hour longer than this but do not check the cake, or even open the oven till 4 hours have passed.

Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin, then remove it and place it on a wire rack

 


If you wish you can leave it looking like this or you can ice it in a traditional Christmas Cake style.

To decorate:

1) Roll out the marzipan. Place the marzipan across the cake evenly. (Don't worry if it breaks no one will see this bit you can patch it up with any excess you have)

2) Roll out the icing and place evenly over the cake - be careful not to break this! Push the icing to the bottom of the cake and cut it off around the base of the cake.

3)Decorate the cake with anything you would like such as ribbons or specific cake decorations. You can get these from craft and cookery stores.

And that is it.....your cake may look a little bit like this, or it may not depending on how you've decided to decorate it.

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed reading this recipe! Merry Christmas!

 

See you tomorrow for more blogmas....

 

Love, Hannah x

Blogmas Day 8 | Recipe: Cinder Toffee/Honeycomb

It's time for another baking recipe! My last couple, Peppermint Creams and Baked Apple, were really popular so I hope you enjoy this one as much!

I've been trying for months to get this recipe right. I practiced with one recipe, and it was just too complicated and I ended up burning the sugar each time! My mum and Dad, and my friends have been very patient with this one as they have had to try some terrible things!

But I finally have found a recipe that works, and that is super easy to do! I modified the original recipe that I took from BBC Food slightly and I've ended up with something super delicious! It's really simple, requires very few ingredients and can be done very quickly.

If you want to make something that looks a little bit like this, keep reading for the Recipe:

 

 

You Will Need:

 

200g Caster Sugar

40ml Runny Honey

1 tbsp. Liquid Glucose

3/4 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda

50ml Water

 

 

What to do:

 

1) Line a Baking Tray with baking parchment.

 

2) Into a large pan add the sugar, honey, Liquid Glucose and Water

 

*TIP* when measuring out the honey and liquid glucose warm the measuring spoon with boiling water and the honey and glucose will stick to it less!

 

3)Bring ingredients to the boil in a pan

If you have a sugar thermometer heat until the mixture is 160C, if you don't (like I didn't) heat for about 4 minutes until the mixtures bubbles are almost clear (you'll know what I mean when you see it)

 

4) At this point take the pan off the heat and allow to cool for approximately 30 seconds

 

5)Whisk in the Bicarbonate of Soda really quickly. The mixture will more than double in size and turn from a cloudy colour to an orange ''honeycomb'' colour. Be careful that the mixture doesn't touch your hand as it might be hot.

 

6) Pour the mixture into the lined baking tray. It might continue to increase in size but will shrink down eventually.

 

7) Leave the honeycomb to cool for 30 minutes 

 

Here is what mine looked like a couple of minutes into it's cooling time

 




8) Break into shards and serve

  

 

This would make the ideal sweet snack, sweet treat gift or small pieces could be used as a cake topping!

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this and you have a go yourself!

 

Enjoy!

 

Love, Hannah x

 





Recipe | Baked Apple

I make this so much when I have apples that need eating. It's great for a pudding, or snack, or a really light quick meal maybe.

If you fancy making something that looks a bit like this, keep reading:

You will need (per serving):

One Apple
A handful of sultanas
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon


What to do:

1) Preheat your oven to 190⁰C/ Gas Mark 5

2) De-core the apple. I used an apple corer but if you don't have one just use a very sharp knife

3) Place the apple on the baking tray. Fill the apple centre with Sultanas. (You could also used other mixed fruit like cherries or apricots)

4) Slowly pour the honey into the centre of the apple allowing it to soak down through the fruit.

5) If there is any excess honey rub it on the outside of the apple

6) Sprinkle with cinnamon

 



7) Bake for 12 - 15 minutes in the middle of the oven.

8) Once you've taken your apple out the oven, place it on a plate and drizzle with a little more honey.

So that's it. Hope you like the look of this. It's super simple, and only needs a couple of ingredients, and things you'll probably have in the cupboard!

Post again soon

Hannah x

Recipe | Peppermint Creams

I've been doing a lot of baking recently and find it so relaxing. Since I had the stroke, I've struggled with movement, co-ordination and grip in my left arm and hand. Cooking and baking is really good to wake it up a bit.

The other day, I went to the shops and picked up saw some peppermint extract (very exotic!). I had no idea what I'd do with it but decided to get it anyway.

I had no recipe so turned to the internet and found one for Peppermint Creams.

If you fancy making some that look a bit like these, continue reading....

You will need:

1 egg white
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 and 1/2 tsp of peppermint flavouring
400g Icing sugar
50g dark chocolate to decorate


What to do:

1) Whisk the egg white in a large mixing bowl until stiff peaks form as you lift the whisk out of the bowl.

2) Add the lemon juice and peppermint flavouring and whisk slowly.

3) Add icing sugar and whisk until a thick paste forms (I added it 50g at a time so that I didn't get covered when I turned the whisk on).
I found the paste to be quite hard to mix after I'd added about 300g of icing sugar so stirred it in first then finished it off with the whisk from that point.

4) Roll the paste out thinly onto a surface covered in icing sugar.

5)Cut out shapes with a cutter of your choice up to 5cm in size.

                                        

6) Chill in the fridge for 1 - 2 hours until they set.

Later.....

1) Melt the chocolate in bowl over a saucepan of boiling water - don't let the dish touch the water!

2) Decorate the peppermint creams with chocolate and put back in the fridge to set.
I drizzled chocolate over some and half dipped some - you could fully cover them if you have more chocolate!

And taa-dah.....you final peppermint creams may look a little bit like this....

 
The original recipe says it makes between 15 and 20! I got a lot more than that but I think these are the perfect size....the more the better!
They are sooo yummy and very moreish...I think I'll have one everytime I pass the fridge!

Hope you like them :)

Hannah x

To make mine I tweaked this recipe:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/peppermint_creams_00124
I'll definitely go back to BBC Food for more recipes, there was such a great variety and it was really easy to find what I was looking for.