Valentine's Day Cookies

There's nothing original in this baking session lol I totally copied this other woman's ideas http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2012/02/simple-heart-valentines-cookies.html but they were so cute and she made it looks so easy so I had to give it a go!

Here's how mine turned out

Printable Cupcake Wrappers!

OK, so this is something of a great find! cupcake wrappers are usually tres expensive and you only get about 6 in a pack.  This site has customizable templates where you can add text then download the templates as a pdf file and print as many as you like for free! (unless you become a member and subscribe, where you get unlimited access to all designs).


The cupcake wrappers site http://www.makecupcakewrappers.com/

Template once printed

Wrappers cut out

Here's one with text

What they look like on the cupcake

FANTASTIC!!

Chocolate & Courgette Cupcakes

I'm now entering the realms of the strange and weird cupcake recipes! I thought it sounded intriguing so had to give it a try... recipe from here 


I just omitted the walnuts from the actual cake mixture and just decorated some with them when I was finished.


Here you can see the mixture before adding the grated courgette!

This is what the mixture looked like once the courgette was added:

yep you are correct it doesn't look that appetising does it? lol bear with it!


I forgot to take a photo of them once they came out of the oven, but this is the finished product after frosting and decorating with the chopped walnuts on the top:

I took a batch in to work with me the following day and after a few strange looks the guys tried them and were all pleasantly surprised - one of them even had 3 in one day! Tasted great!! Try them for yourselves xxx

Rainbow Cupcakes

I wanted something fun to bake that my little girl would enjoy helping with (she is just over 16 months old). Well she is definitely a baking convert! she had so much fun. From pressing the zero button on the weighing scales as I was trying to weigh out the ingredients, to sifting flour, and mixing everything together. Then mixing the different food colouring in - she was very impressed!


The recipe I used is here  

1. Throw in all the ingredients and mix (with a little more finesse than that but you get the picture)
2. Separate the mixture into 7 bowls (I used disposable plastic cups)
3. Add food colouring to the bowls (I recommend the gel food colours rather than the liquid ones, for some reason when the liquid ones cook they lose all colour but the gel ones don't) 

These are my 6 colours

4. Next layer each cupcake with the purple mix, then the blue, then the green, then the yellow, then the orange and finally the red layer.

They should look something like this whilst layering:

Purple layer

Blue layer added to the purple layer

Green layer added to the previous 2 layers

Yellow Layer

Orange layer

Red and top layer

5. Put into the oven to bake at 190 for 15-20 mins (or until springy and a skewer comes out clear)

6. Let cool on cooling rack

straight out of the oven

Decorate as you want

The finished article, this is how mine looked

I also downloaded a cupcake wrapper template from the Internet, customised it, printed it and used it to decorate the cupcakes. This is the website it is fab http://www.makecupcakewrappers.com/

Feeding Herman....

No I'm not totally bonkers, Herman is a Sour dough German Friendship cake.  My neighbour gave me the mixture and an instruction sheet to follow for 10 days before finally baking it. The idea is is its like a chain letter but with cake mix! You feed it for 10 days then split the mixture. You bake 1, save 1 and then give two away so that others can follow suit.

this is the instruction sheet:

"Hello, my name is Herman.

I am a sourdough cake. I'm supposed to sit on your worktop for 10 days without a lid on. During which time you should feed me!

You CANNOT put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling, I am dead.

Day 1  You get Herman and put him in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.

Day 2. Stir well

Day 3. Stir well

Day 4. Herman is hungry. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir well.

Day 5. Stir well

Day 6. Stir well

Day 7. Stir well

Day 8. Stir well

Day 9. Hungry again. Add the same as day 4 and stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and give away to friends with a copy of these instructions. Keep the 4th one for your next cake and follow the instructions to grow me again.

Day 10. Herman is very hungry. Stir well and add the following:

·         1 cup sugar (200g)

·         half tsp (teaspoon) salt

·         2 cups plain flour (240g)

·         2/3 (two thirds) cup of cooking oil (160ml)l

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla essence

·         2 cooking apples cut into chunks

·         1 cup raisins

·         2 heaped tsp cinnamon

·         2 heaped tsp baking powder

You may add optional extras likr cherries, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut.

Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with a quarter of a cup of brown sugar and a quarter of a cup of melted butter. Bake for 45 minutes at 170-180C. When cold cut into finger pieces. Cake freezes well and is also delicious warm with cream or ice-cream."

I followed the recipe with mine, though I did have a mishap with the baking tin - First off I thought I'd put it in a big-ish tin. Then I thought, oh no that won't be enough mix for that tin. So I put it in a smaller tin and yep you've guessed it that was too small! So I had to faff on with trying to get the mixture out of the tin (had like tripled lined it with baking paper too so it was reeeallly messy!!) eventually got it into the right size pan.  It took a bit longer to bake than the instructions as well so watch out for that. Then I ended up burning it slightly! Note to self - must do better next time!

It tasted really yummy!! and lasted for ages you only need a small piece as it's so stodgy!

If you haven't been given a portion of the mix but want to start one from scratch to give to your friends here is the recipe for that:

Combine the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast

Next, stir in 2 cups of warm water until you get a smooth paste starting to form. When this happens, cover the mixture in a bowl with a clean cloth or tea towel. Let it sit in a warm place to bubble away for two to three days. Stir your mixture twice every day.

This is the starter mix for a German friendship cake that likes to be called ‘Herman’. It should then be kept in some kind of container or dish and partially covered allowing any gases to escape. When you are all set to use the mix, keep two cups and give one away to someone who will want to give this a try. Don’t forget to copy the instructions to go with your new Herman.

Grandad in-law's birthday cake

It's my Hubby's Grandfather's birthday on New Years Eve, so I made him a cake!


I used the same recipe as the earlier giant cupcake but used jam filling in the centre instead of the Oreo cookie frosting. Then I used sugar paste to decorate as I'm quite frankly rubbish at piping icing!!

I treated myself..

To a Kenwood kmix stand mixer for Christmas and it is AMAZING. Who would have thought you could get so excited about a food mixer lol sad but true!
this is the beautiful beast :

The finished Christmas Hampers.

After so long of preparation and planning the time was upon me to get them packed up and wrapped in pretty Christmas cellophane (eBay). 


The gift hamper comprised:


2x Chutneys - Apple & Cranberry and Plum chutney
1x Bottle of Limoncello
1x Hot Chocolate cone
1x Bag of Christmas Gingerbread Cookies 
1x Bag of Cranberry & White Chocolate Cookies
1x Pentone
and a couple candy canes to decorate.


Before cellophane wrapping the hampers look like this:

Once wrapped and tied with some Merry Christmas ribbon (Tesco) they looked like this:

They were very well received and I really enjoyed making them. I have a while to think about what to put in next year.

Eggnog Cupcakes

Having never tried eggnog and not really knowing what it was, I saw this recipe on-line and though ah they sound nice!! Recipe from here


They turned out great and were very christmassy!! Christmas cupcake cases were from Barnitts in York, but are made by Wilton so you'll get them from any cake decoration stockist.