Chocolate orange cake

A while a go I made some yummy chocolate orange cupcakes. I liked the recipe so much I thought I would adapt it into a cake.
So the first step I made was doubling the original recipe.

Ingredients

230g (8oz) butter 

230g (8oz) caster sugar

230g (8oz) self raising flour

2 medium eggs

Zest of 1 orange 
2 tablespoons orange juice

The method is the same (see here) as the cupcakes however, this time I split the mix in a 8" sandwich tin.
While it was baking I made some orange butter cream so the cake wasn't overpowered by chocolate. I have got into a habit of just winging butter icing. I start by using two cups of soft butter then adding twice as much icing sugar. A little bit of orange juice and some zest of orange. Using an electric mixer on full power for 5 minutes adding icing sugar until I couldn't taste the butter anymore.

Once the cake was cool I added the butter icing.

Now for the topping. I had ready made chocolate icing already open so I used that and then I added canned mandarin orange to make it pretty. I chose canned as the segments looked nicer than cut up orange.

I took it to a BBQ and I'm pleased to say that it didn't last long. The photo below was after just 5 minutes.

Have you every adapted a cupcake recipe into a cake? Or if you have ever wanted that chocolate orange taste in a cake why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Chocolate orange cupcake

My friends and I have started hosting a 'pub quiz' style night in each others houses and with all the fun, snacks and cloudy lemonade I thought it would be the perfect excuse to bake. I love to bake (if you haven't all ready figured that out) but what I like most is sharing my bakes with friends and family.

There have only been two 'quiz nights' so far but for the first one I make some cookies and used my cookie stamper, you can fine the post about it here.

This time I make chocolate orange cupcakes. I wanted to make these as the host for that night is a chocolate orange fan and I found a yummy recipe online which you can find here.

If you are new at baking there are lots of recipes online with different difficulty ratings and if you are a bit more confident you can adapt the recipes you find by adding your own touch. 

When I first make the cake mix it looked a bit runny but they turned out good. I baked them in my silicone cupcake cases which are a good investment if you bake a lot for your friends. 

This wasn't part of the recipe but I was tight for time so I used ready made chocolate icing then cup up some of the orange I used for the sponge mix and topped off the cupcakes.

 

I made sure I saved some for work the next day and they went down a treat! 

For a different look I sprinkled some green...sprinkles on top :D  

This was a very easy recipe and it was easy to adapt. I may try it again this weekend but make it as a layer cake! Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Father's day cake

Just a short post today. If you didn't know all ready it's Father's in the UK. Daddy B has seen me make many cakes in his kitchen and take them away without a morsel left for him to try. He has also seen me make cupcakes and cookies which he has been top taste tester! 

As he has been working today we went for a meal last Wednesday and I made him a cake which some of you might have seen on my Twitter and Facebook accounts :) 

For those of you that didn't here it is...

My Dad is a chocolate monster so I made him this double chocolate cake with fresh strawberrys on top and some sprinkles for a spot of colour.

If you would like to have a go making this cake just follow the recipe from my 'The basic chocolate sponge' post. I cheated with the icing as I was tight for time so used Sainsbury's Chocolate Buttercream Icing which is more rich than my butter icing. However, if you want to make your own check out my 'Basic chocolate butter icing'. post. 

Daddy B has been a star so it was the least I could do. 

Why not try baking this for someone special to you?

Happy Father's day and happy baking,

Ms B

xx

  

Chocolate and beetroot cake

*WARNING*

 This cake is easier to make if you own an electric hand mixer and food processor! 

I know what you are thinking...beetroot?! Really?! Well, yes. For a while now I have wanted to attempt baking a chocolate and beetroot cake and the other strange thing about this cake is that it is not made with flour. I do like beetroot but for those of you that don't I have to say that you can't taste the beetroot, the chocolate over powers the beetroot and the texture is similar to a carrot cake.

I scanned the internet and found a few recipes however, I noticed the majority included espresso but as I'm not a fan of espresso. I found one that missed out this ingredient, it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. A staff meeting was coming up so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try it out.

Ingredients:

Olive oil - try find a J.O recipe without this ingredient :) 

Plain flour for dusting

300g good- quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) I found some on offer

250g raw beetroot

4 large eggs (free-range if you can)

150g golden caster sugar

120g ground almonds 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 tablespoon of good-quality cocoa powder (not hot chocolate!)

Natural yogurt, to serve - (I didn't include this part)

Method:

I tried to measure out my ingredients however I came in to some difficulty with the beetroot and the fact that I had different size bowls for different ingredients. I would suggest having 2 large mixing bowls and a medium bowl ready, and if you don't have a food processor (like I didn't) I would suggest grating the beetroot first before doing anything else.

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 /350 F / gas 4

• Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springfrom tin with olive oil (I normally do this with butter but thought I'd give oil a go. It works just the same so I guess it depends what you have and what you prefer to do.)

• Cut out a circle of grease-proof paper. I used the base of the tin to cut round.

• Dust the sides of the tin with flour, then tap the tin to get rid of any excess. I have never done this before as my tins are non-stick.

• Break up 200g of the chocolate (save the rest for later) and add to a heat proof bowl.

Now I have talked about melting chocolate in the microwave in my previous post. In this post the chocolate is melted over a pan.

• Place your heat proof bowl on top of a small pan of simmering water on a medium heat. (Only put a small amount of water to cover the bottom of the pan twice over). Make sure the bottom of bowl isn't touching the water. Stir now and again.

When your chocolate is melted take the bowl off the pan, tune the heat off first and take the bowl off with a tea towel or over gloves.

As I said before if you don't own a food processor I would do this step before any other. 

• I used a Y-shaped peeler to peel the beetroot but I'm sure you can use any. I kept the tops on while peeling so I could hold on to something while doing this and I also wore rubber gloves as I didn't want red hands for weeks! 

• The recipe then says to quarter them and push through the coarse grater attachment on the food processor, then tip into a large mixing bowl.

If you are like me and don't own a food processor then use the coarse side of your cheese grater. (This part is the most labor intensive).  

• Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a large mixing bowl. I separate my eggs like this, passing it to one half of the shell to the other.

• Add the yolks tot he beetroot, look at those colours! 

• Stir the sugar, almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate into the beetroot and mix together well. This is where I realised I planned my bowls wrong.

• Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.

• Take your spatula and fold a quarter of the egg whites into the beetroot mixture to loosen, once combined, fold int he rest but try not to over mix!!

Looks disgusting smells divine

• Place your mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 50 minuets. Mine took about 45 as I have a fan oven. You can check if your cake is ready by waiting until it has risen and piercing it with a skewer or tooth pick, if it comes out clean it's ready!

Once your cake is cool melt the remaining chocolate as above and drizzle over. I ended up pouring it all over then adding edible glitter :)

It states in the recipe to serve with nature yogurt. I didn't as the cake was for a staff meeting but I would recommend following this step. The cake tastes nice, it didn't turn out dry as I expected it too. I love dark chocolate but if you are not a fan the yogurt will take the slight bitter edge off. 

I had a positive response from the staff and I even got to bring some back home! It states that it serves 16 which I think is about right as you don't need a big slice. 

This recipe was fun to do as it had an unusual ingredient and no flour. One thing it has taught me is that I need to start saving for a food processor!

Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

  

Cookie Stamp Review

Cookie stamps have been on my list of things to try for a while now and I found a pack in ALDI which included six rubber stamps and a wooden stamper.

The messages included; Home Made, I <3 cookies, Eat Me, Made With Love and two seasonal stamps; Happy Easter, Merry Christmas. i thought this was a bargain at £3.99 but the real test was if they worked.   

There are lots of recipes out there, I found this one on The English Kitchen Blog  and it's egg free!

Ingredients:

124g (4 1/2 oz) butter, at room temperature (a generous half cup)110g  (1/2 cup) caster sugar1/2 tsp vanilla paste (I didn't have this so used vanilla extract)60ml (1/4 cup) milk150g (1 cup) plain flour
110g (3/4 cup) self raising flour

Method:

As always I measure out all my ingredients first.

Pre-heat the oven to 180*. The English Kitchen then says to line your baking tray with parchment paper however, I don't own one yet so I turned over a roasting tin and lined that.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light in colour.

   

Add the milk and dry ingredients a bit at a time and mix until incorporated. 

I thought it looked it looked a bit wet but trust me it is meant to be like that.

Take a table spoon and scoop out the mix. I think I was a bit too erogenous with this as they came out as mega cookies!  

Use your hands to roll into a ball (of course, make sure they are clean) 

Choose your rubber stamp 

Push the stamp down on the dough ball and then lift.

As you can see it didn't turn out that well so I tried doing it again but before I pushed the stamp down I dipped it in flour and I also put the dough in the fridge for 15-20 mins.

I did this with all the stamps and as you can see they turned out much better.

Bake int he oven for 15 -18 minuets or until they turn golden brown.

Here were the results. 

As I didn't have a baking tray I turned over a glass oven dish, however the second batch slipped off (luckily on the parchment) so I squished the dough together, popped it in the fridge for 10 minuets and tried again. As you can see they turned out with a more rustic look but tasted just as yummy! 

I took these into work and also round to a friends, they all said they tasted good, even if they were being polite I thought they were yummy too.

Over all these were a good investment. There are lots of rubber cookie stamps online so why not give them a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Vegetarian Lasagna

Yes, today's post is a savory bake, my first savory bake. I've always felt more comfortable following a recipe when cooking, for many reasons such as fear of things not turning out right after spending time preparing/cooking and fear of wasting food because it hasn't turned right.However, I thought it was about time I attempted to make something of my own. So I took a deep breath and went for it.   

I love pasta so thought it was a good place to start. I have attempted making vegetarian lasagna before with quorn mince and it didn't turn out right with under-cooked lasagna sheets and burnt quorn. The recipe below is made up so you can adapt it to what you like.

Ingredients: 

10 -12 Lasagna sheets  I used Morrison's own brand

About 250g or 1 punnet of mushrooms

2 Courgettes

One halloumi cheese 

2 bell peppers I used red and orange

1 packed of grated mature cheddar cheese 

1 jar of tomato lasagna sauce

1 jar of white lasagna sauce 

2 tablespoons of garlic oil (or oil of your choice)

1 tablespoon of mixed dry herbs

Spinach (optional) 

Method:   

If you want to, peel your mushrooms, you can wash them however I find that the mushrooms soak up the water and they lose their flavour.  Once ready slice and place in a bowl for now. 

Slice your peppers and chop the slices in half, again put to one side.

Preheat the oven to 150* 

While the oven is preheating wash your courgettes and slice with a potato peeler. I used a Y shaped peeler. Place on a baking tray add pepper if you desire and place in the oven for 5 minuets.

Heat a pan with a table spoon of oil (I used garlic) and cook the mushrooms on a high heat for 2-3 minuets then turn the heat down add your dry mixed herbs and cook until tender. Place in a bowl and add another tablespoon of oil to the same pan and add in your peppers.Cook on a low heat until tender.

Once everything is ready you can boil the kettle and fill a pan with the water, once boiling place the lasagna sheets in the water. TIP I would out a bit of oil in the pan otherwise they will stick together! They should take 5-7 minuets.

You can use the lasagna sheets as they are but I boiled them as I wanted to make sure they would be cooked through. 

While the sheets are cooking preheat the oven to 200* once the sheets are softened (but not cooked all the way) drain the water out and start assembling your lasagna. 

You can do this in any order really but here's what I did:

Spread some tomato sauce on the bottom of a dish then place 2-3 sheets of lasagna on the bottom and push down on them a bit.

Spread some white sauce over that layer and add the sliced courgettes.

Tomato sauce.

Lasagna sheets.

White sauce.

Halloumi cheese.

Tomato sauce.

Lasagna sheets.

White sauce.

Mushrooms.

Tomato sauce.

Lasagna sheets.

White sauce.

Peppers.

Tomato sauce.

Lasagna sheets.

Spinach.

Grated cheese.

Black pepper.

Place int he oven for 20 minuets or until the cheese is bubbling. 

Eat and enjoy :)

 This was a labor of love but I was very happy with the results. I served with a spinach salad. I would say this would serve 6 people. I didn't ass salt as the halloumi is a bit salty but it's up to you. You can change what's in it to your own taste. I did this as a lot of vegetarian lasagna recipes use obergine which I'm not a fan of. You could also freeze this meal. Next time I will make my own sauces to go with it :) 

Why not have a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Creme egg brownies

I realise this is a late post, but hey better late than never! 
I have wanted to make these brownies for a while and Easter weekend came round so I gave it a go. 
The recipe I used was from The Broke Boy  I'd recommend checking out his blog or follow him on Twitter.

Now lets begin:

Ingredients:

185g unsalted butter 
185g best dark chocolate 
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder 
3 large eggs 
275g golden caster sugar 
6 Cadbury’s Crème eggs cut in half.

Method:

As always I measure out all my ingredients before I begin.

Pre-heat the oven to 160. The first step is to melt your chocolate, I used Morrison's M Signature 72% Cocoa Dark Chocolate 100g  as it was on offer at £1 each. I got two of these which was enough for the recipe and a little bit to snack on. As long as the dark chocolate is &)% cocoa or more it should work.

I have shown you in previous posts the two ways to melt chocolate, I used the hot water in a pan and a bowl placed over method for this one. 

Place a heat proof bowl over a pan with boiling water, add the chocolate and the butter stir now and again until it's all melted. 

Place the sugar and eggs into a bowl. I took Broken Boy's advice to mix it a bit with a spoon before using the eclectic mixer. Mix until the mixer doubles in size (about 5 mins).

Fold the chocolate/butter mix into the egg and sugar mix.

 Add the dry ingredients and fold in.

Now these is were I think it all went wrong. I sadly don't own a brownie tin so instead I used a casserole dish and lined it with parchment paper.

Pop in the oven for 15 mins before tanking out and adding your half cut cream eggs. I managed to fit 9 halves on mine so I got to eat one, it wasn't planned that way honest ;)

This was the result and one of many puddings I had over Easter weekend.

My boy's Mum made home made apple pie (yum) and my favorite, lemon cake. 

I cut the brownies into individual pieces ready for our triple pudding feast.

There were very gooey in the middle, too gooey and I even tried putting them back int he oven for a while. The conclusion I came to was that I need to try these in a real brownie tin or  needed to mix the eggs and sugar for a bit longer. However, everyone still ate them even if they didn't turn out the way I planned. I will be trying out some brownies recipes again. 

Why not have a try and see how yours turn out.

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx