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?

Lemon Drizzle Muffins

So for Christmas I received a baking calender for 2015 featuring a different recipe for each month and the recipe featured in January was Lemon Drizzle Muffins. I am a huge fan of anything with lemon in it especially cake so I was looking forward to giving this recipe a try. These are quite different to anything I’ve made before, being muffins rather than cupcakes they are more heavier and they had a slight different taste with the use of brown sugar. Nevertheless I can see myself reaching for this recipe again.

Ingredients

350g self-raising flour

1/2 level tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

75g brown sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon

75g melted butter

2 eggs

300ml semi skimmed milk

75g icing sugar

2tsp lemon juice

Method

First of all pre-heat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.

In a bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon rind. Mix

Then add the butter, eggs and milk and stir until combined.

Then divide the cake mixture between 12 paper muffin cases and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and risen.

Then to make the lemon icing, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice and drizzle over the muffins.

To finish you can also add some decoration on top like lemon sprinkles.

 

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!

Red (or Pink) Velvet Cupcakes

As usual I had no plans over the weekend *sad face* so I ended up doing a little baking to pass time. I have never tried to make Red Velvet Cupcakes before and as they say there is no better time than the present so I decided to give them a try. Now as you can tell from the title and the picture above my cupcakes did turn out more pink than red .. oops, but hey every mistake is a future lesson so next time I need to add more food coloring to my cake mix.

Ingredients (Makes 12 – muffin sized)

150g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

150g self-raising flour

3 medium eggs

2.5ml vanilla extract

Red food coloring (enough until mixture is red ..not pink!)

This recipe is my favorite for cupcakes as its incredibly easy as all you need to do is add all the ingredients into the one bowl and whisk it up.

All my ingredients in the bowl (not very appetizing yet)

All whisked up! – Why I thought this was red .. I don’t even know!

Then I evenly distributed the mixture between 12 cake cases ready for the oven. These goes in the oven at Gas mark 4/180 Celsius/350 Fahrenheit for 20 mins.

Finally baked goods!

Then after allowing my cakes to cool down I made a lemon cream cheese frosting for on top. The recipe I used made well over the amount I needed so I would suggest to half this.

Frosting Ingredients

125g cream cheese

60g soft butter

150g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

350g icing sugar

Preparation

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter until combined. Then beat in 150g of icing sugar and the lemon juice.

2.Gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar until icing is of the right consistency. Using piping bag pipe on to cakes.

The end result!

 

Christmas Recipe: Gingerbread Men

We are in our final full week before Christmas and this is when serious planning needs to be considered. We all like a good treat during the holidays and there is nothing better and easier than gingerbread men. They are a perfect treat for all the family and could even be a great gift idea!

Ingredients

350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

125g/4½oz butter

175g/6oz light soft brown sugar

1 free-range egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

writing icing

cake decorations

Instructions (45mins – 1 hour)

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor.

Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together.

Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in cling-film and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface.

Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown.

Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.

Credit to BBC Good Food for recipe.