Vanilla Cupcakes

Everyone loves cupcakes, right!? I for one certainly do and today I thought I would share a simple cupcake recipe with you all. This is a super easy recipe that I rely on all the time (recipe book source) when it comes to baking these cute sweet treats. I then added some sweet tasting vanilla frosting on top with a sprinkle of even more sweetness. Its a quick and simple to follow recipe that everyone needs to know, so without a further a do…

Ingredients 

150g margarine

150g caster sugar

150g self-raising flour

3 eggs

2.5ml (half teaspoon) vanilla extract

First things first, you need to preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180C/350F. Then fill a baking tray with paper cupcake cases. Then to begin all you do is simply add in all the ingredients together in one bowl and whisk until smooth and of a dropping consistency. Then divide the mixture between the cases (the number the recipe will make depends on the size of cases) and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Then after allowing the cakes to cool, you can make the vanilla frosting. I never really stick to an exact recipe when making butter-cream frosting but I suggest following a recipe like this and then you can simply adjust how much you need. Then I used a piping bag to pipe the icing on and then sprinkled over some sprinkles or edible cake decorations and thats it. Was that super simple or was that super simple!?

Are you a fan of Vanilla Cupcakes?

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White Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

If there is something I could eat for the rest of my life it would probably be white chocolate cookies (preferably Millie’s!). Yet despite my love for a bit of baking, one thing I have always struggled to make was a good batch of cookies. That may seem a bit daft since they are probably one of the easiest things to make but yeah I may have struggled. I found a recipe from BBC Good Food and thought I would give cookie baking another go… luckily it wasn’t as bad as I expected!

Ingredients

125g butter/margarine

100g light brown soft sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g self-raising flour

½ tsp salt

200g white chocolate chips

Firstly, preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Then cream the margarine and sugars together. Then, add the the egg and vanilla extract. Then add in the flour, salt and white chocolate chips.

Then roll the doughy like mixture into ball shapes (like above). Then place in the oven until the edges go golden or as suggested for Millie’s style cookies 7 minutes. Then when ready, take out the oven and leave for a few minutes before putting them onto a cooling tray to cool. Then enjoy, p.s. they taste incredible when just out the oven! A quick and simple recipe which tastes pretty damn good! Now looks like I am off to make more cookies!

Are you a cookie lover like myself?

Mini Meringues

So its been a while since I last did a baking post, with uni taking over pretty much my whole life I haven’t really had time to stick in head in a recipe book lately. I was lucky enough to have a day off this week and thought I would do a little baking. When it comes to baking, I try to experiment a little and try new things. I used to always stick to cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes but it is quite exciting baking something a little different. Now I am no stranger to meringues, I do enjoy whipping up a good Pavlova but I have never made smaller individual ones so now was my time. Mini meringues sandwiched together with cream, whats not to love!?

Ingredients

3 egg whites

180g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

Food colouring (optional)

150ml cream (approx)

Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 1/  . Firstly, beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff (you can try the put the bowl over your head trick, the egg whites should be stuck to the bowl and not fall out!). Then stir in a spoonful of sugar *sings Mary Poppins*, one at a time until all the sugar is mixed in and the mixture appears glossy. Also add the vanilla extract.

Then if desired you can add food colouring if you wish to colour your meringues. Then deposit the mixture into a piping bag and pipe small swirls onto baking paper ready for the oven. Place in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes – 2 hours until the meringues are crispy on the outside but soft in the inside.

When they are ready, allow to cool. Then whip up some cream and spread on the flat side of a meringue and sandwich with another. Fini!

Are you a fan of meringues?

Gingerbread Men

As the countdown to Christmas has begun I have a nice little festive recipe for you all today 🙂 I have never made Gingerbread cookies before and I really wanted to be all christmassy and try them out. These are the perfect treats for making with children, hanging on your tree, as gifts or just for eating! I picked this recipe up from the BBC here and its fab, my kitchen filled with the festive scent of gingerbread, so worth it!

Ingredients

350g (12oz) plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

125g (4 ½ oz) margarine

175g (6oz) light soft brown sugar

1 egg

4tbsp golden syrup

The first step is to make the dough. Using a food processor mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and the butter and blend until it forms into breadcrumbs. Then Stir in the sugar. Then beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the mixture. Then take the dough out and wrap in cling-film and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Then roll out the dough and cut out the gingerbread men shapes using a cookie cutter.

Then place on a lined baking tray in place in a pre-heated oven at Gas mark 4/180C/350F. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Then place them on a cooling rack for 10 minutes until they have cooled.

Then its time to be all creative and add some decorations. I went a little crazy and dripped icing and chocolate everywhere buy why not! I melted chocolate, made glacé icing and added sprinkles, but you can do whatever you fancy!

 

Chocolate Pavlova

Hey there, so at the weekend I whipped up one of my favourite desserts ever .. Pavlova. If you aren’t familiar with the beauty of a Pavlova well basically its a huge meringue with cream on top and fruit, its amazinnngg. This was the first time however I decided to make a chocolate one rather than just an ordinary plain meringue and I used a slightly different recipe this time which is actually one of Nigella Lawson’s which you can find here, however I made a few odd changes. While they always appear to look a right mess (or is that just when I make them..) they taste incredible so do try this out if you haven’t made one 🙂

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

300g caster sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder (sieved)

50g dark chocolate (finely chopped)

Preheat over to Gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF. So first of all, beat the egg whites in a bowl until it begins to peak and then add in the sugar one spoonful at a time until its nice and glossy.

Then add in the cocoa powder and the chopped chocolate and mix.

Then place the mixture in a circle on baking paper on a baking tray. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to Gas Mark 2/180°C/350ºF and cook for 1 hour and 15 mins or until crispy round the edges. Then allow to cool. Then whip up some cream (I used a 284ml tub) and place on top of the meringue and add some chopped strawberries (or fruit of your choice) and some sprinkled chocolate.

And Voila!

 

Raspberry Cream Cake

So I was feeling quite peckish over the weekend and having nothing to do I thought I would take on a simple quick recipe. My first thoughts were to make a simple Victoria sponge however I made a few little changes adding a top cream layer and white chocolate/raspberry decoration. This is another easy recipe which involves adding all the ingredients into one bowl. Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients 

175g soft butter

157g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

Into a large bowl, I whisked up all the ingredients above.

Then I divided the mixture between two 8 inch tins and baked in the oven at Gas mark 4/180C/350F for 25-30 mins. Then I left the cakes to cool and prepared the filling. Spread a layer of raspberry jam on one side of one cake and whipped cream ( I whipped around 150ml of double cream up) and spread it on the other cake then sandwich together.

Then I added some cream to the top layer of the cake, grated over some white chocolate and finished with a few raspberries to decorate. Ta Da!

Chocolate Loaf

So my dad is a huge chocolate lover and he practically begged me to bake him this. As a kind daughter I agreed and did so. The recipe was in a magazine he was reading and he pretty much stuffed it in my face. This is actually my first time using a loaf tin for a cake, not incredibly different just a different shaped tin but I like to mix things up a bit.

Ingredients

200g salted butter, soft

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

160g self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

100g dark chocolate

So into a large bowl you whisk up the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add your eggs, one at a time, beating well each time. Finally, add the cocoa and flour and fold it into the mixture gently. It should look like this (picture above).

Then place in a pre-heated oven at 160C/140C fan/ Gas mark 2 for 40-60 minutes until its cooked right through the middle. Also line your loaf tin with either paper loaf liner or just baking paper like I did.

Then break up the 100g of dark chocolate and melt in the microwave for 15 second bursts until its all melted.

Then drizzle the chocolate over the cake and let it harden.

Voila!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I am a huge lover of anything sweet and bitter (I’m weird I know!) especially lemons, I could sit and happily eat on a lemon. So while I began to plan my next bake I realised I had never baked a lemon cake before despite loving them so I did quite that. I found a recipe online which is quite straightforward and uses ordinary ingredients that I already had.

Ingredients
175 g (6oz) self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
175 g (6oz) margarine/butter
175 g (6oz) caster sugar
3 Medium eggs
2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
finely grated rind of 2 lemons

As I said before this is very straightforward so all you do is add all the above ingredients into the one bowl like this (above).
And then whisk it all up!

Then put the mixture into an 8inch cake tin(like mine) or a loaf tin, your choice. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C, 160°C fan, gas mark 4 for 1 hour or until cooked.

Then leave to cool. Then you can prepare the lemon syrup for on top. Place 115g (4oz) of caster sugar and the juice of 2 lemons strained into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.

Then once the syrup is prepared, drizzle it over the cake while its warm so that it soaks into the cake and then finely grate some lemon to decorate and fini!

Carrot Cake

One of my favorite cakes is carrot cake and I (before this post) hadn’t actually ever made it so I thought I would give it a try. I thought it would be a good idea considering I had left over cream cheese icing from my Red Velvet cupcakes that I had to use up which goes perfectly with carrot cake! Again this is a pretty simple recipe as you simply gather all the ingredients in one bowl and then whisk it up and voila!

Ingredients

250ml sunflower oil

4 large eggs

225g demerara or muscovado sugar

200g carrots (peeled and grated)

300g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground mixed spice

1tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

Walnuts (to decorate)

As I say this recipe is incredibly easy, whisk up the above ingredients together then evenly divide amongst two 20cm/8inch greased round sandwich tins and place in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius/ Gas mark 4/ 350 Fahrenheit.

 The cake should be in the oven for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. Then I allowed my cake to cool down. (I should note here that I only used one cake tin simply because I couldn’t find my other one however I suggest using two tins as it will cook better)

I then sandwiched the cakes together with cream cheese icing in the middle and also spread it in a swirly fashion on top. You can find the recipe for the icing I used here in my cupcake post – I would half this recipe as I used left overs from the last time.

Then to finish I decorated my cake with some walnuts on top. Fini!