Chocolate chip cupcakes!

When ever I am bored at home I always make these cakes!

  Ingredients:

• 75g plain flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 75g caster sugar
• 50g soft butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 50ml whole milk
• 50g chocolate chips

    Method:

    (preheat oven: 160°)

1.  Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in  a bowl.
2.  In a separate bowl mix in the butter and caster sugar until it is fluffy.
3.  In a another bowl mix  the egg until smooth.
4.  Add  the egg little by little in to the butter and sugar and stir in well until the mixture is smooth.
5.  Finally mix the flour mixture in to the butter, sugar and egg and stir and then stir in the chocolate chips.
6.  You can then put the mixture in to cup cases or you can make it on to one big cake.
7.  Leave to bake for about 10-15 minutes
8.  After baked leave the cupcakes to cool down for about 5-10 minutes

And there you go! You have got your self delicious chocolate cupcakes!

A must bye!

At the shops lately I have seen this new easter egg. It is called egg n spoon and it is so tasty! It is basically chocolate mousse covered with a solid layer of milk chocolate. You can get it from any local super market.

Enjoy

xxx

Ice cream

Once you know how to make ice cream then you can make all crazy flavors!

So here is a recipe for vanilla ice cream:

Ingredients:

vanilla 

500ml double cream

70g sugar

3 egg yolks

Method:

1. Whisk the egg yolk in a large bowl

2. Slowly mix the double cream with the egg yolk

3. Then mix the sugar and vanilla with the egg yolk and double cream.

4. Finally pour the mixture through a sieve in to another bowl and leave to freeze for about 2-3 hours

Once you take it out it is done and ready to eat!

It should look a bit like this:

Now you can go a bit creative and make your very own unique flavor! It could be totally anything like:

Mint and chocolate 

Tea

Smoothie 

Honey

Cucumber

Blueberry

Lavender 

Spicy

Ginger

Carrot cake

Cheese

Prune

Ricotta

Green tea

It could be anything!

Well I hope you like my post and all the crazy ideas!

Thank you 🙂

Boozy coffee & walnut cake

 

This is a perfect cake for parties, celebrations or for just for tea…

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line with non-stick baking paper. Toast the walnut halves in the oven for 10 mins. Reserve 10 and chop the rest. Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tbsp of boiling water, cool and add the basic cake mix instead of the milk.
2. For the filling, beat the mascarpone with the light muscovado sugar and Tia Maria until smooth. Sandwich the cooled cakes with a third of the filling and the chopped walnuts.
3. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the filling and decorate the top with the toasted walnut halves.

 

And there, your boozy coffee and walnut cake is done!

Double chocolate shortbreads

You’re only five ingredients away from a double chocolate melt-in-your-mouth delight

1. Mix the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon. Stir in the flour and cocoa, followed by the chocolate chips – you’ll probably need to mix it together with your hands at this stage. Halve the dough and roll each piece into a log about 5cm thick. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hr or for several days. Can be frozen for up to 1 month.
2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Slice logs into 1cm-thick rounds, transfer to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 10-12 mins. Cool on the tray.

Strawberry & vanilla shortcakes

Encapsulate British summertime with these cute little shortcakes, perfect piled high with clotted cream and jam

 

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 and lightly flour a baking sheet. Put the flour, butter, sugar, half of the vanilla seeds and ¼ tsp salt into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse until fine. Tip into a large bowl. Beat the milk, egg and a good squeeze of lemon together, then tip into the bowl and bring together with a knife, using a cutting action, until you have a clumpy dough. Finally bring together with your hands if you need to.
2. Lightly flour the work surface, tip the dough onto it, then quickly shape into a smooth-ish disc. Using a rolling pin, pat out to 2cm thick. Cut out 8 rounds with a smooth 7cm cutter (you’ll need to pinch together the trimmings). Glaze just the tops with beaten egg, transfer to the floured sheet, then bake for 10-12 mins until risen and golden, and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack.
3. Beat the remaining vanilla seeds and icing sugar into the clotted cream. It will get runnier at first, but keep beating and it will thicken again. To serve, slice the very top from each shortcake to give a flat surface, then spoon over about 1 tsp jam. Top with a good dollop of the vanilla clotted cream and finish with the strawberries.

Ice Cream.Ice Dream

This is the type of ice cream I love. Just looking at the picture I start to feel really hungry. Well I am going to have to wait till summer to eat something like this so I will have to wait…

Delicious looking chocolates

 

Rocky Road Ice Cream

Ingredients

Serves: 16

• 1 (405g) tin sweetened condensed milk
• 50g (2 oz) cocoa powder
• 475ml (16 fl oz) double cream
• 225ml (8 fl oz) single cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 50g (2 oz) pecans, chopped
• 50g (2 oz) marshmallows, chopped

 

Preparation method

Prep: 5 mins | Cook: 5 mins | Extra time: 2 hours 50 mins

1.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, cook and stir condensed milk and cocoa until smooth and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir in double cream, single cream and vanilla. Refrigerate until cold.

2.

Pour mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Stir in nuts and marshmallows halfway through the freezing process.

 

Berry Ripple Ice Cream

Ice cream to change your life! This is the easiest recipe ever for ice cream – no fuss, no stirring, just delicious.

Ingredients, Serves: 12

• 400g fresh or frozen berries
• Juice 1 lemon
• 55g caster sugar
• 1pt carton whipping cream
• 405g can Carnation Condensed Milk Light
• 1tbsp vanilla extract

1.  Place the berries in a pan with the lemon juice and sugar and cook until reduced by half, thickened and syrupy (about 10 minutes).  Cool then strain through a sieve to remove the seeds.
2. Beat the cream to soft peaks then add the condensed milk and vanilla and beat again to soft peaks. 
3. Pour the ice cream into a freezable container and swirl through the berry sauce.  Freeze until solid (about 3-4 hours or overnight).
4. To serve leave out for 5-10 minutes before serving in ice cream cones!

Tips

You can use any berries for this – try blackcurrants

That is the recipe for Berry Ripple ice cream.

Enjoy! 😀

Best-ever chocolate layer cake

This decadent choc fest lives up to its name

1. Make the icing first (it takes a while to cool and thicken). Put the chocolate into a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan and heat until simmering. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Cool, then chill, until really thick but spreadable.
2. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and base-line 2 x 18cm sandwich tins with baking parchment. Take 3 tbsp flour from the full flour amount and put them back in the flour bag – the cocoa powder will make up the difference.
3. Put all the cake ingredients except the chocolate in a large bowl. Beat them together with an electric whisk (or whizz in a food processor) until you have a creamy mixture, then fold in the melted chocolate. Add a little more milk if the mix is too stiff – it should fall easily from a spoon.
4. Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and level. Bake on the same shelf in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when pressed. Cool for 5 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and cool completely. Cut each in half horizontally so that you have 4 layers altogether.
5. Sandwich the layers together with a little icing, then spread the rest on top thickly.

Fudgy coconut brownies

 

Dense and gooey, these storecupboard treats are made with cocoa rather than bars of chocolate

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line the base of a 21cm square tin with baking parchment. Put the cocoa, butter and sugar in your largest saucepan and gently melt, stirring so the mixture doesn’t catch. When the cocoa mixture is melted and combined, cool slightly, then stir in the eggs, little by little, followed by the flour and coconut.
2. Tip into the tin and bake for 45 mins on a middle shelf – check after 30 mins and cover with another piece of baking parchment if the crust is browning too much. Cool in the tin, then carefully lift out and cut into squares.

Ultimate chocolate cake

Indulge yourself with Angela Nilsen’s heavenly moist and fudgy chocolate cake – perfect for celebrations – birthdays, weddings, christenings – any excuse!

1. Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break 200g good quality dark chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Cut 200g butter into pieces and tip in with the chocolate, then mix 1 tbsp instant coffee granules into 125ml cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted – don’t overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
2. While the chocolate is melting, mix 85g self-raising flour, 85g plain flour, ¼ bicarbonate of soda, 200g light muscovado sugar, 200g golden caster sugar and 25g cocoa powder in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat 3 medium eggs in a bowl and stir in 75ml (5 tbsp) buttermilk.
3. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes – if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don’t worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don’t worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop 200g good quality dark chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour a 284ml carton of double cream into a pan, add 2 tbsp golden caster sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
5. Sandwich the layers together with just a little of the ganache. Pour the rest over the cake letting it fall down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.

Salted caramel choc pots

Combining sweet and salty flavours really works when chocolate and toffee is involved – best served in individual portions

1. Mix the caramel with the salt, divide between 2 small glasses and chill.
2. Melt the chocolates together in a glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Snap the grissini into short lengths, then dip each end into the chocolate to coat a little. Sit on a wire rack for the chocolate to drip and set a little, then dip the chocolate ends into the sugar to coat. Sit in an airtight container lined with baking parchment and chill to set until ready to serve.
3. Stir the double cream and milk into the remaining melted chocolate until smooth, then scrape into a jug. Slowly pour on top of the caramel, around the edges first. Chill the pots for at least 2 hrs, or up to 24 hrs.
4. To serve, scatter a little more sea salt on top of each pot, then add one or two sugar-tipped grissini.