Twas the Week Before Christmas...

when Amie was baking,
scroll down the page
to see what she's been making.

I am exhausted. As if the run up to Christmas day isn't hectic enough, this year, I decided to bake, bake, bake. I have baked, moulded and decorated for a few hours each night after work and I'm still not ready for Christmas! So far, I've made Pistachio and Orange Chocolates, Rum & Raisin Chocolate Puddings and Clementine Cakes but the final Christmas treat, Gingerbread Men, are still waiting in the wings.

So, seeing as all my energy has gone into the baking this week, I have none left for a blog post, so all I have to say is this:

1. royal icing is much trickier to deal with than I ever imagined - do not use it when your in a bad mood because it's guaranteed to make your mood worse... not that I experienced this...
2. the chocolate puddings were surprisingly easy to make and some light relief from dealing with the royal icing
3. they taste great & I should bloody hope so after all the work I've put into them!

click here for my Rum & Raisin Chocolate Puddings recipe or click here for the Clementine Cakes recipe

Merry Christmas to all & to all a Good Night.
May Santa bring you all you wished for.

The perfect stocking filler

I've got a whole list of Christmas baking & sweet goodies I want to do before the big day (6 days & counting!) so I thought I'd start off with something easy.
Christmas Chocolates!

These are a picture of my first attempts - not so bad! Though I did have a mishap with the angel mould...

I made dark and milk chocolate both plain & some with chopped pistachios in them. I'm planning to make white chocolate (maybe with cranberry?) milk chocolate, dark with pistachio and some orange chocolate ones for Christmas day as some little extra stocking fillers. Hopefully they'll turn out just as good!

Literally, just buy whatever chocolate you prefer, melt it down in a glass bowl until glossy & smooth over boiling water & place in the mould with a teaspoon. Add whatever extras you like & place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. So quick & easy, everyone's happy.

You could also wrap them in pretty cellophane & hang them off the tree! The options are endless...
Merry Christmas!

Let It Snow...

Christmas is only 2 weeks away - let the festivities begin!

Today, I made 40 lemon biscuits with a Christmas twist - meet my Lemon Snowflake Biscuits.

The weather outside might be frightful but these scrummy, tangy morsels are simply delightful. They were dead easy (though beware, your hand might start to ache by snowflake 20-something...) and could be made 2-5 days in advance if needs be.

Enjoy - and Merry Christmas!! Keep your fingers crossed for a white one...

click here for my Lemon Snowflake Biscuits recipe

Whoopieee!

Following on with the autumnal theme...

A few weeks ago, I made Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Quite frankly, what's not to love?

Fresh pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger cakey biscuit things with marshmallow filling in between... these delicious morsels need no introduction. And let's face it, the name just makes me so happy! Whoopieee!

This was my first time ever making whoopie pies and they were a bit bigger than I expected... but the folk at work didn't seem to mind!

Smashing with a cup of tea - what? Every American classic needs a British twist!

Click here for the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies recipe

Autumnal Aphrodisiacs

I was off work for two weeks during October following a rather dramatic car accident. I was fully in one piece though the same couldn't be said for my car! I was confined the house as my knee was very severely bruised and walking was quit difficult for a few weeks.

However, a happy end to the story as that was only real injury, I'm back up & about now, even driving and most importantly of all, it gave me some extra time to do something a bit different in the kitchen - I needed something to pass the time - allbeit, sitting down while I baked!

After Halloween, I was left with a pumpkin I'd never found the time to carve. So, returning once again to my all American roots with Thanksgiving this Thursday, what better a plan than to make fresh pumpkin purée!

I took advice from two 'recipes' I found online to create my own; one from The Pioneer Woman (whose site I would highly recomend) and one from The Daily Green. And I was pretty happy with the outcome: 100%, organic, fresh, homemade pumpkin purée.

Click here for how to make homemade pumpkin purée

But waste not, want not - what about the innards?

Best make some roasted pumpkin seeds as well... Did you know they're meant to be aphrodisiacs? I haven't tested them yet...

Click here for how to make roasted pumpkin seeds

Happy Autumn All!!

Attack of the Android

I've been interning at O2 for the past 3 months and one of my main projects has been a collaboration with Sony Ericsson and Android for a social media viral. It's all quite exciting because it's due to go live and to launch the campaign next week so to celebrate, I I took an army of droids to work with me today!
Everyone loves the Android character at work so I thought these would go down well... I was right. There was none left by the end of the day.

(We actually have giant green carboard men dotted around the office... along with giant cardboard squirrels... I'm assured there's a reason for the squirrels...)

Just basic vanilla cupcakes underneath with buttercream and fondant eyes and antenna.
I used Sugarflair Christmas Green colouring.

Just a quick post this week, basically just to show off as I was really proud of these cute little cakes. 

National Chocolate Week

Apparently, this week, we actually have an excuse to induldge. Why, it would be rude not to seeing as it is National Chocolate Week!

So, in true Amie style, I am blogging about baking but this week I'm drowning in chocolate.

These are dark chocolate cupcakes which were truely scrumptious, even if I do say so myself. Not much left to say really apart from they're rich & chocolatey! What more introduction do they need!? Make them!!

You even melt actual chunks of chocolate into the batter to make them extra delicious. For kids, men and the weak, you can tone down the richness with a vanilla buttercream icing swirl on top - for the women among you who just can't get enough, why not mix a few melted squares of chocol
ate into the buttercream as well for that extra kick!

click here for the Rich, Dark Chocolate Cupcakes recipe

Something Sweet & Simple

This weekend was another get together for the crew - wine, giggles & nibbles. Naturally, I made cakes.
I decided to keep it simple and go old school with vanilla butterfly cakes. You can't go wrong with this recipe and they make such pretty little cakes that no one can say no to!

I'm especially excited about this week's creation as I used my own homemade lactofree butter to make the buttercream and it worked perfectly. So for all those other lactose intolerants out there, great news, proper buttercream is back in our lives! Herah!

click here for my Buttefly Cakes recipe 

By the way, the recipe for these cakes is the same as I use for a Victoria Sponse Cake.

Happy Guinness Day!

Did you know that September 22nd is Arthur Guinnes day? No, neither did I until someone at work told me. And as ever, it's any excuse to bake!

Who is Arthur Guinnes you ask? Why, the founder of Guinness itself of course!

So on Wednesday night, I stopped off at Tesco's on my way home, picked up a 4 pack of Guinness & set off to bake chocolate and Guiness cupcakes.

I'm not going to lie to you, the first batch was a near disaster. 24 cupcakes in the bin. It was mildly heart breaking.

The second batch, however, redeemed my faith in baking as they turned out not that bad at all. I have Nigella Lawson to thank for this recipe - I didn't quite trust my skills in creating a chocolate and Guinness cake recipe and figured it was best to play it safe and adapted her big cake recipe into cupcakes.

Miss. Lawson did not disappoint; her recipe produced an incredibly moist sponge cupcake with a declious creamy frosting. Andm despite the mildly disasterous first batch which we will forget about because it was an oven issue, not a recipe issue, they were surprisinly easy to make!

They even look like little Guinnesses!

So, Happy Arthur Guinness Day everyone!

click here for the Chocolate and Guinness Cupcake recipe
Just a word to the lactose intolerant's out there, this recipe cannot be adjusted as it contains sour cream. Upsetting, I know. There are alternatives out there that go by the name of Tofu-something-or-other made from tofu, but I wasn't brave enough to try it! Apparently you can exchange sour cream for yoghurt in baking but it risks altering the consistancy, though not the taste. 

The Key is in the Lime...

Last weekend, we had one of the many Christinas of the family to stay. A photo was taken recently of all the living Christinas (including mum) and they totalled five - including the not so living there's another 3 going back three generations and before that... well for before that I'd need to dig out the family tree. And I'm not that committed to producing a post about my family tree. Not to mention I've probably already lost your interest!

The bottom line is, it's safe to say I feel pretty left out being an Amie.

But back to the baking! So in honor of Christina's visit mum cooked a proper meal with a beginning and a middle, but left the end to me - on request of Mother Christina I went back to my roots and made Key Lime Pie, one of her favourites from when we lived in the States.

Key Lime Pie gets its name from Key West in Florida where it was originally made, the home of the limes. Traditionally, a Key Lime Pie would have a graham cracker base but alas I'm in grey and dull Britain and so a digestive base it is. This, plus the can of condensed milk, does sadly mean this tasty morsel isn't lactose free (sob!) but it's worth it. Because to be blunt, it tastes awesome.

My Key Lime Pie was gobbled up pretty quick so I assume it tasted as good! It was also surprisingly easy and quick to make so I would reccomend it to anyone, even a novice; it's bound to impress.

Click here for the Key Lime Pie recipe

Untitled

This week mum asked me to make a rather special birthday cake... No, the tractor cake is not for a 5 year old, even a 10 year old but her 41 year old (as of tomorrow) boyfriend, Richard. His hobby is to collect old, diused 'vintage' tractors and refurbish them (I think... that's the gist I got anyway! He's more normal than he sounds, honest!)

So this weekend I got a Wilton Tractor Shape pan (found on amazon.co.uk - not found that easily in the UK) and set to work.

I particulary chosen Wilton as they
a) actually had a tractor shape available making my job a lot easier and
b) are reknowned for making good quality pans that are easy to use even in the most ridiculous of shapes!
I decided on a marble cake base and as they are actually going camping for his birthday (*shudder*) I had to make it on a tray so it was easy to transport to the campsite in the car.

Safe to say that over 4 hours later, I was very happy with the results:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I couldn't quite get the detailing right on the yellow bits (the grate, etc) so decided it was safest to just leave them plain. I used icing tip 1C for the green tractor (in hindsight, poss should have used 3B) and a flat nozzle for the wheels which I then wiggled for the effect.

I was disappointed the colours weren't more vibrant but the buttercream was turning to paint if I added any more colouring - pastel colours that taste nice seemed a better option!

Home Ec Nemesis II

A few months ago (how time flies!) I blogged about how I wasn't exactly top of the class in Home Ec  & decided it was time to right the mishaps of the culinary past.

It was time to take on the Home Ec Nemisi.

Crumble was the first of this series of posts & this weekend, I decided it was time to tackle Apple Pie.
Another of George's favourites, I figured if I could get crumble so right, how much could go wrong?
... hmm...

I grabbed our kitchen Bible - a cook book from 1979 (mum's first cook book from when she left home) thinking old fashioned may know best. There's a story about it being left on a hob before I was born, wrapped in black stripey wrapping paper in an attempt to hide the damage and again about 15 years ago in some of my sticky-back-plastic-text-book-coverings in a desperate attempt to give it a new lease of life after the spine finally snapped off. It's well loved shall we say!

See the full gallery on Posterous

So, my shortcrust pastry actually went really well. I seemed to have made enough for the choice of dish (George didn't have a pie dish so I ended up just using an average heat proof dish but this meant I couldn't do the little rim of pastry to seal it all up... oh dear...)

The fruit filling (apple & blackberries - George's favourite apparently) also went well, I even was sure to remember extra sugar after apparently my crumble was a little tart.

Into the oven it went, 220C for 20mins, then 30mins at 180C........ fan assisted ovens didn't exist in 1979.... major woops.

George luckily thought of this & saved the day after the 20mins so we simply didn't put it back in for another 30mins.

In my opinion, the pastry wasn't really sweet enough and it wasn't really soft enough and it looked more like a meat pie that a fruit pie. But George was adiment it tasted good. I remain unconvinced. But maybe I'm just fussy.

Apple Pie - I'll be back.

click here for this Apple Pie recipe (temperatures and timings altered for fan assisted oven!) 

Mini Rivers' Birthday Cake

In February, George's little sister turned 4 years old. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to have a party for one reason and another so last weekend, 25 four year olds descended upon the garden, complete with a pink princess castle bouncy castle, with a slide! Her mum, Pam had plans for a pretty extravagant cake which I ended up helping with. Izzy loves Sylvanian Families so Pam had bought a bunny with a rowing boat and picnic to fit the 'summery theme' of the party - shame it drizzled most of the day. 

The cake was a yellow cake (Pam's recipe) with buttercream icing, sugar flowers, edible glitter, flags, sugar frog, chocolate dock & dolly sweets edging to the pond. Too much? Never. 

Izzy loved the cake & that's pretty much all there is to this post! No recipe this week, just simply showing off!

Do you mojito?

In my second year at Uni I was lucky enough to land a student brand ambassador role with Bacardi; I ran events and marketing campaigns in and around campus aimed at students to advertise Bacardi as a brand and in particular, the Bacardi Mojito. Alas, amongst other things, part of the job was learning to make the perfect mojito and so naturally, I had to drink a few - what a pity.

This weekend my school friends had a bit of a reunion as three have just come back from travelling, two of us have recently graduated - the gang is back together again. We all had to bring something, so naturally, I brought baked goodies, but as the first thing I've made for my home friends I wanted to do something special. So what better than the original party drink a mojito in cupcake form to give them a taste in my own special way of what I've been doing at Uni!

And so my Mojito Cupcakes came about.

I actually started off making a friend's mum's recipe, however I wasn't happy with how they turned out and so decided to go back and make up my own recipe using my usual cupcake recipe and knowledge of the perfect mojito recipe. I was really pleased with the outcome and they seemed to go down pretty well - there's only 5 out of 30 left!

I used lime and mint in the actual cupcakes and added rum to the icing and buttercream frosting.

Click here for my Mojito Cupcakes recipe. 

plátanos chocolate estilo ecuatoriano

(Chocolate Bananas Ecuadorian Style) 


On my gap year (now four years ago... how time flies) I spent about 5 months living in and teaching English as a foreign language in Ecuador. As well as Blanchi's (the matriarch of the home stay family I lived with) lemonade which I couldn't get enough of, plátanos chocolate (chocolate bananas) stick in my mind. Effectively, these were chocolate ice lollies made out of bananas, which in my book automatically makes the healthy. Win.

Well, this week, out of no where, the Great British Summer which was no where to be seen last week has arrived. So after only 20 minutes in the sun (with sunscreen of course) this morning I found myself back inside looking for something icy cold to cool me down. Alas, my freezer seemed to be lacking ice lollies...

I saw bananas on the side and that was that, placed them in the freezer in preparation and away we go! A healthy, icy summer snack - perfect.

I've used dark chocolate as I'm lactose intolerant but milk or white chocolate (or flavoured chocolates or chocolate with nuts in, literally whatever you prefer!) would work just as well - use your imagination.

Click here for my Chocolate Banana Ice Lollies recipe 

Do You Like Jam?

Just incase you'd not heard, here in the UK, it's week is National Jam Week. Other countries have National Health Week or Red Cross Awareness Week... the Brits have Jam Week.

Unfortunately, I hate jam. I was an extremely fussy eater as a kid and although I have since tried cow heart, guinea pig and mushrooms, there are still some things that I simply cannot abide. Mushrooms, tomatoes and jam are top of the list. The fact I liked jam as a toddler is neither here nor there.

However, George is a jam fiend so on hearing that this is the week to celebrate the jiggly, slimey goo, I decided to try my hand at actually making some.

I moved back home from Nottingham this week (sob) and so once again live down the road from a Pick Your Own field. Disliking all berries but strawberries (and I only tried these for the first time last year) I have never been to said PYO. Having moved back home last weekend, the eve of Jam Week of all things, this seemed the perfect time to pop my PYO cherry (as it were).

Alas, the Great British Summer had other ideas and it has completely pissed it down all week. So I bought my fruit from Budgens instead. My cherry will have to wait until another day.

I have it on good authority - my mum (who doesn't actually particuarly like strawberry jam) and her boyfriend (who loves strawberry jam) - that my jam tastes pretty good. George will get his jar tomorrow, but I'm hoping he'll approve as well.

It was surprisingly easy and really quick I'm pleased to say and begs the question why any jam lovers don't make their own all the time! But personally, I still don't like jam.

I had planned to make blueberry jam today as well... but after wrecking my mum's pan today (turns out it wasn't a non-stick saucepan... oops) I feel I'll wait until tomorrow once we can actually scrape the stuff off the bottom of it!

Click here for how to make your own jam. 

April Delights (in June)

This has been a very good week. Today I found out I got a 2.1 in my degree and I am now a fully qualified American Studies and English person... whatever that means... Future's bright!

To celebrate (albeit slightly prematurely!) a few months back, I blogged that I had spotted a cupcake decorating class on Groupon* and had decided to treat myself for after exams. Well, it's after exams and yesterday was the big day: I can safely say it was one of the best presents I've ever bought myself.
Adele has been making cakes for approx twenty years (if I remember correctly) and her creations are dotted all around the workshop - they're incredible. The class is allotted 4 hours, though it only takes about 3 and you can buy the tools you use at April Delights after the class if you want to.

We made 6 cupcakes: 3 with sugar paste and 3 with buttercream. I'm not gunna lie, I was thrilled to bits with my cupcakes and feel they look pretty damn good:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I think my favourites are the shoe and rose buds. What was so surprising to me was how easy it was (once your fingers got used to the fiddlyness!).

Click here for video 'how to' on working with sugar paste.

I would highly recommend the class. I severely lack any skill in drawing, painting or art of any kind - I struggle with stick men! - but hopefully the photos show that you don't need to consider yourself the next Michelangelo to be good at this, or indeed enjoy it!

April Delights are running other classes as well from Summer 2011 in everything from cupcakes and mini cakes decorating classes to wedding cake toppers and tiered cakes (maybe I should have done that before attempting a tiered cake!?). But if designing the cakes isn't your thing, you could simply order one for a birthday - they truely are incredible amazing!

*Groupon: offers a different deal a day local to your area and region.
www.groupon.com

www.aprildelights.com

April Delights Facebook

Another Birthday, Another Cake

Last week saw another 21st birthday though after my two-day in the making magnum opus only days before, I decided to take things back to a simpler level.

Lucie's birthday had the theme, 'dress as your favourite album cover' and she was going as Britney Spears from the Slave 4 U album - yellow snake, blond wig, the works. So, originally, I had planned to make a normal sized cake (chocolate, naturally, every girl's favourite!) with silvery blue fondant icing and a whole in the middle like a CD. But as we have already learned, plans are made to go awry.

I decided to disband the CD idea and keep things ultra simple with a normal, chocolate sponge covered in fondant icing with a marzipan yellow snake wrapping itself around the cake (in keeping with Lu's Britney costume). I was pretty chuffed with the outcome it has to be said:

Blue icing: fondant   /   Snake: marzipan   /   Writing: simple, store bought icing pens

I've worked with marzipan before, cutting hearts for the top of cupcakes, but fondant icing was a new challenge. It was surprisingly easy and I think it made the cake look a lot more finished off and professional. Lucie seemed happy anyway and I suppose that's the main thing!

Happy 21st Lu!

Click here to see how to work with fondant icing and marzipan.

Mad Hatter's Cake Indeed...

Last week was one of my housemate's 21st birthdays. To celebrate, we had a tea party and BBQ and I thought it would be a good idea to make a surprise tiered cake, similar to that of the cake at the Mad Hatter's in Alice in Wonderland (Hannah actually dressed up as the Mad Hatter back in October for a fancy dress event, so it all tied in rather nicely!)

This is by far the most challenging cake creation I've attempted - it was a trailing two days to say the least...


Thursday Morning: 29 Hours to Tea Party: Baking Commences 

We had planned for a Victoria Sponge base with blue fondant icing, a Caramel Mud Cake Middle with white chocolate icing and a cup cake top tier (Hannah really likes cup cakes) with pink icing.
Aside from having to make extra Victoria Sponge mixture than expected and making twice as much Mud Cake mixture than needed it was all going pretty well.

Thursday Afternoon: 24 Hours to Tea Party: The Cake Begins to Take Shape


In hindsight, three sponges for the bottom tier was probably enough, but we went all out with four, making sure to leave a small indent in the top tier to balance tier number two within it. There were two cakes for the middle tier, which we cut to size using a plastic bowl as a measurer.

All was still going surprisingly well at this point. We used buttercream to stick all the layers together (besides the two jam layers, completing the Victoria Sponge, obviously).
A note to lactose intolerants: I find that sadly soy butter or other substitutes simply don't make as good buttercream, it's just too runny without proper butter. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

By the end of day one, the cake was pretty much assembled. At this point we stopped for dinner and a night out celebrating the end of exams... this is when things begin to unravel...

Friday Morning: 6 Hours to Tea Party: Baker Down!


As Friday morning went on, my hang over got worse and worse and worse (to be polite). Eventually, I was forced to return to my bed under the jurisdiction of my boyfriend George who decided I was being no use to anyone and certainly was in no fit state to finish off a giant cake. He stepped into the void and Helen took the reins - or whisk in this case! - as the clock ticked on towards 4pm when the Tea Party would begin.

Friday Afternoon: 1 hour to Tea Party: the Finishing Touches 


I awoke (feeling much more human) to find a cake lathered in white chocolate icing, the cup cake in the oven ready to be placed on top. Helen and I set to work with finishing touches. Coloured and fondant icing had been abandoned for the sake of Helen and George's sanity and for the sake of simply getting the cake done in time. A Mad Hatter's Cake it truely was:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I cannot say thank you enough to George and Helen, without whom, there would have been no cake as - to quote George - I was a shambles of a human on Friday. Thank you both so much.

Truth be told, I can't quite bring myself to give the in's and out's on a tiered cake 'how to' just yet or even a Caramel Mud Cake recipe. I will get round to it... just not yet. So for now, content yourselves with the photos and click here for some tuition on tiered cakes instead.

Home Ec Nemesis

Crumble and I do not have a harmonious relationship. Actually, during the days of Home Ec class, I didn't have a particularly positive experience with anything culinary! There was the soggy apple pie and the disastrous lasagne to name but a few and my apple crumble, like everything else was less than desirable by the time it got home that evening...

Alas, apple crumble is George's favourite. So much so that for the last two years, he's said, and I quote;

"If you can make an apple crumble as good as Grandma's, you'll have my love for forever."

... no pressure then.

Until this week, I haven't dared take on Grandma Rivers in the kitchen. Rumour has it her yorkshires are perfect, her mince pies are heavenly, and her strawberry tarts will make a man week at the knees.

However, this week I finished my University finals and had some spare time on my hands and so I said I would make George anything he wanted to see him through the final week of revision (he finishes a week after me). Of course, he chose crumble.

I rang his Aunt for her crumble recipe in hope that if I at least started with a good, tried and tested recipe, it may minimise the amount that could go wrong.

All in all, it went pretty smoothly! I didn't have a dish small enough so I could have done with a bit more crumble for the size of the dish but other than that, George said I did pretty good! (Phew.)

This seeming success has got me thinking - I've mastered lasagne in recent years, apparently I've mastered crumble... what other of my Home Ec nemesi can I tackle... Whatch this space!

Click here for Auntie Anne's Apple Crumble recipe 

The Gü Cake Experiment

Everyone loves Gü Cakes. Alas, being lactose intolerant, it's been a fair while since I have had had the hot chocolatey joy that is a Gü Cake. (World's smallest violin, I know.)

However, whilst making brownies the other day, I had an idea.

About a quarter of the brownie batter didn't fit in my baking tray and I had originally planned to make two batches. Then my housemate Dan (whilst steeling a sneaky fingertip full of batter from the bowl) commented that the batter tasted like Gü Cake insides.

I decided to put my left over batter to better use and poured it into four ramekins (left over from actual Gü Cakes - clearly this was meant to be). My four cakes actually sat in the fridge for two days (unbaked) as we were too full after dinner for them until last night, but no harm seems to have been done.

After 15 minutes in the oven, they were güey-galore with a thin layer of sponge all the way around. - Perfect even if I do say so myself!

See the Chocolate Brownies recipe for how to make Gü Cake batter. 

Or click here  for how to make Gü Cakes without the help of Sainsbury's.

(J)Amie’s Indulgence – Chocolate Brownies

This week is a very quick post as I'm slap bang in the middle of exam period. But everyone needs a break and everyone certainly needs chocolatey, gooey, life-time-on-the-hips kind of indulgences to keep them going during these long, laborious days of revision...

This week I adapted Jamie Oliver's recipe for Chocolate Brownies. As usual, these bad boys are lactofree, right down to the white chocolate buttons and Vanilla ice cream to serve them with - delish. (I'm going to need to go to the gym after exam period; I'll be fat as a house at this rate!)

(This is obviously cream, not ice cream - the cream wasn't lactofree... this was George's brownie!) 

As a side note, I've always said if the batter is tasty, it's a good sign. My housemates' reaction sums it up really:

Click here for (J)Amie's Chocolate Brownie recipe. 

Rum-Glazed Caribbean Muffins - "Seriously Easy Going"

Forgive me if this week's post is lacking in pazzaz and, quite frankly, any sense at all. I've suffered from a severe bout of sleep deprivation this week - Wednesday morning saw my brain momentarily short circuit as I put body wash in my hair instead of shampoo... I feel this is a low point in my week...

You see, Wednesday was my final ever coursework deadline of my final year at Uni.

This means, solitary confinement, late nights/early morning (depending on your perspective) and far too much caffeine.

By 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon, I was feeling "seriously easy going" - or maybe I was just delirious, either was plausible by that stage!

So this week, I took inspiration from the only place in this world that knows how to truly kick back, relax and chill -

Caribbean Muffins it is!

My Rum-Glazed Caribbean Muffins consisted of coconut, mango and pineapple, complete with rum icing giving them that truly Caribbean kick. I'm sorry to admit that this recipe isn't my own but from my Muffins Galore cookbook - but cut me some slack here, it's been a stressful week! Furthermore, a big shout-out to my housemate, Miss. Sophie Ray who chopped fruit for me for a good 20 minutes while I got everything else ready - not sure I wouldn't have fallen asleep face-down in the flour if I hadn't had a trusty sous-chef!

Alas, my freedom was short lived - exams start in a measly 3 days. At least I have a scrummy snack to keep me going!

Click here for the Rum-Glazed Caribbean Muffins recipe

Go Bananas for BBQs!

It would seem that April saw Britain’s allotted hours of sunshine for this year; since May began it’s been pretty dreary. (The seasons seem to be confused – isn’t April supposed to bring the showers?) So yesterday when it was warm for the first time in over a week we pulled the sofa into the garden, set the speakers to loud and cracked out the BBQ.

Everyone always seems to forget about dessert at BBQs; it’s all about the meat. So last night, I used up some of the fruit in my fridge and whipped up a really easy BBQ dessert:

BBQ Bananas and Fruit Skewers

I bring you this dessert in hope that for somebody somewhere it’s sunny and hot because this morning, in Nottingham, we woke up to the sound of rain on the skylights once again… until next April…

Click here to see how to make BBQ Bananas and Fruit Skewers.

Procrastination or the Perfect Break? - White Chocolate and Raspberry Cookies

In the run up to deadlines and exams, every student knows that there is an art to procrastination. Facebook is probably top of the list, You Tube a close second - it's surprising how much time you can waste stalking people and watching videos!

Today, however, I've been surprisingly productive on my essay and so thought I would take a break, get away from my desk (and the sweltering sun trap that is my attic room!) and finally bake my white chocolate and raspberry cookies.

I used the recipe I would usually use for your average cookie and simply added the filling. Despite not remaining entirely in cookie form - in fact, the morphed into a giant square cookie, spreading across the entire baking tray - they tasted pretty good. The dried raspberries gave them an extra tangy taste.

These are actually made with all dairy free ingredients, including the white chocolate but obviously could be made just as easily with dairy products.

Click here for my White Chocolate and Raspberry Cookies

How to: Make Dried Fruit - Third Time's the Charm

Sainsbury's was not my friend this week and supplied every kind of dried fruit there is except raspberries. What did I need? Raspberries, naturally. You see, George has requested white chocolate and raspberry cookies (recipe and details to follow soon). Alas, this week's little project was not to be straight forward...

Take 1
I decided to buy fresh raspberries, assuming I'd figure it out once I was home.  I was a bit wary, however, as I've never made cookies with fresh fruit and was worried they may add too much moisture to the mixture.
(If anyone can correct me here, feel free to comment or message me your recipe, would be interested to know!) 


So after much research, a very helpful gardening website finally supplied a method for drying fruit I was happy with. The instructions said dehydrate the raspberries for 10 hours at 100'F (40'C ish). However, I live in a house with 5 other people, so monopolising the oven all day isn't really plausible. I cranked the heat up to 70'C, thinking they may take a little less time without cooking the raspberries. In the meantime, however, the kitchen was filled with the pleasant aroma of warm raspberries for the day.

Verdict? Fail. Epic fail. The raspberries still took 10 hours and I learned that the final hour is crucial. I had checked the raspberries every hour on the hour all day and at the 9th hour they were looking good, by the 10th they were burnt to a crisp.

Take 2:
Made a little trip down to Tesco Express to pick up pack number 2 of raspberries. (Actually, that's a fib, my housemate picked them up for me as he was going anyway.) I opened the pack ready to start dehydrating and they were mouldy! Failure rears it's ugly head again...

Most sane bakers would call it quits at this point... But sanity makes life dull... roll on attempt number 3!

Take 3:
Non-mouldy raspberries: check
Oven, 70'C: check
Baking tray & grate to place over: check

Verdict? Success! I now have a container of dried raspberries ready for my cookies - finally! (George will be excited by this news I'm sure!)

The raspberries only took about 6 hours in the end with the oven on 70'C and with space for the air to reach all around the fruit - some of the smaller ones were ready at about 4 hours, the last few large ones took the full 6. They have the texture of raisins. I place my cooling rack on top of a baking tray to create my grate and balanced the raspberries on top - I checked them every hour (every 1/2 hour once they started to dehydrate fully) replacing any that had shrunk and fallen through the gaps.

These are great for baking (but more on that tomorrow!) but also, they're really a tasty snack. Easy for kids' lunches or for all nighters in the library through exam period! Obviously, it's quicker and easier to simply buy pre-dried fruit from the supermarket, but if you find some strawberries in your fridge that are near their sell by date, this is a great way to make sure you don't waste them - or that you can use them out of season.

Tomorrow, I will be making raspberry and white chocolate cookies. I'll actually be making them with dairy free ingredients (including the chocolate) but the recipe will work for dairy free or not.

Click here to find out how to dehydrate fruit

Baking News: Discounted Cupcake Decoration Class (Nottingham)

I am very excited today. I have booked a cake decorating class for after my exams as a treat to myself - I'm hoping I'll deserve one in three weeks when it's all over... perhaps it's premature.... keep your fingers crossed for me!

Based in Nottingham (where I'm at Uni - how convenient!) April Delights is what I suppose you would call 'cake design specialists'. They make cakes of all varieties from wedding cakes to cup cakes and also run workshops on cake decorating. I spotted it a few months ago on Groupon* for £29 down from £99 and decided I couldn't afford it at the time. I have since kicked myself and wished I'd cut back on something else to may for the afternoon of icing fun - when I saw the workshop was on offer again today I decided to grab it while I could! I'll be sure to upload images of what I learn to make and let you know how to do whatever I learn.

This offer for April Delights is only available until midnight tonight (May 4, 2011) so get it while you can! CLICK HERE for your discounted cupcake class (Nottingham only). 

Also, I'll be updating on the raspberries asap as promised at the weekend... there was a minor set back but all shall be revealed in good time! 

*Groupon: a discount website which is local to your area and region. Check it out, you can get some amazing deals on spa weekends, hotel breaks, restaurants, fitness, not to mention cup cake decorating classes! 

www.aprildelights.co.uk

www.groupon.co.uk 

Something to wet the appetite...

I'm drying out raspberries today in preparation for what I'm making tomorrow (Sainsbury's had every dried fruit under the sun apart from raspberries - typical). 

I'll let you know how the drying process goes and give you the lowdown so you can try it at home with other fruit as well as raspberries. So far, it seems relatively easy! But we'll see how that goes...

Come back in the next few days to see what's just popped out of the oven!

The Royal Wedding Cake

Just thought I'd share this baking news tid bit with you all as it really is a site to behold!
Kate and Wills' Wedding Cake, baked by Fiona Cairn and her team, is enormous!

Pictured: Fiona Cairns with her monumentous creation!

A traditional fruit cake with white icing and 900 white icing paste roses and the Royal crest - though the 8 tiers are perhaps a little more than the average weddingnewly weds would commission! Fiona Cairns and her team apparently assembled the cake at Buckingham Palace, working within the Royal hub for a few days before the it finally finished on Thursday, just in time for the big day.

Pictured: the team putting the finishing touches the colossal cake.

Apparently the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are fans of Cairn's fruit cakes (Paul McCartney apparently orders one every Christmas). Fiona Cairns has commented that the cake reflected "some of the architectural details in the room so the garlands on the walls were reproduced loosely on the fourth tier - we've used roses, acorns, ivy leaves, apple blossom and bridal rose". 
Let's hope it tasted as good as it looks!


For a video interview with Fiona Cairns click here
For more information on the cake itself, click here
photos supplied by the Daily Mail website