I was put off making carrot cake after failing in epic style to make one for my daughter's 1st birthday. To this day I'll never know what exactly it was I did wrong, but after nearly 5 hours in the oven all I had managed to make was a cinnamony carroty swampy mess that ended up in the bin!!
Needless to say I thought this was the one kind of cake I was destined not to bake.
Then I decided to try again. I looked around for a simple recipe, tweaked it a little for my own preferences and...voilà! Soft, fluffy, carrot cake muffins!
Ingredients:~
The muffins...
4-6 medium carrots (approx. 300g / 10½oz)
4 dl / 250g / 9oz flour
3 dl / 250g / 9oz sugar
2 tspn baking powder
1½ tspn powdered cinnamon
¾ dl / 100g / 3½oz chopped almonds
100g baking margarine
3 eggs
The frosting...
200g / 7oz cream cheese
1 dl / 50g / 2oz icing sugar
1 tspn vanilla sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice (depending on taste!)
To decorate...
Chopped almonds or lemon rind
Method:~
1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
2. Peel and grate your carrots into a large bowl.
3. Melt the margarine and leave to cool while you put all of your dry ingredients into another bowl.
4. Add the cooled melted margarine and the eggs to your carrot.
5. Add in your dry ingredients and mix until combined.
6. Fill 12-18 muffin cases with the mixture. (You need to fill the muffin cases quite full so don't worry if it looks like you have far too much mix left over!)
7. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the tops feel springy to the touch.
8. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.
9. To make the frosting, combine all of the ingredients and mix well - adding lemon juice to taste. (If you prefer your frosting to be stiffer, add more icing sugar and less lemon juice)
10. Add a generous amount of frosting to the top of each muffin and decorate by sprinkling over some chopped almonds or adding some lemon rind to the top.
11. ENJOY!
I can't believe how easy this recipe was to follow and how good the results were! I made some for my work colleagues and my daughter's teachers...they all disappeared rather quickly so I guess that says it all!
Would love to know how you get on if you try out this or any of my recipes!
Happy baking!
Until today I had never made a marble cake, so with the sun shining on the snow outside and the kitchen all to myself I figured today was as good a day as any to try! (Plus I wanted to try out one of the new cake tins I treated myself to yesterday!)
Ingredients:~
(makes one 18cm/7in cake)
175g/6oz soft margarine
115g/4oz sugar
4 tbsp Golden/Light syrup
175g/6oz self raising flour (or if not, use plain and add a little baking powder!), sifted
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
3-4 tbsp dessicated coconut
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tspn salt
Method:~
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease or line your chosen tin.
2. First cream the margarine, sugar and syrup together. (This is usually a 'one stage' cake recipe where you throw everything in the bowl together at the same time, beat it and shove it in the oven. However, because I know I wanted to split and flavour the batter, I used the traditional stages. If you double the cocoa powder and leave out the coconut it makes an awesome, and quick, chocolate cake!)
3. Beat in the eggs.
4. Split your mixture evenly between two bowls.
5. Add half of the flour, salt and the cocoa powder to one bowl. Add the other half of the flour and salt along with the dessicated coconut to the other.
6. Fold the flour into your two batters. (If they become too thick, add a teaspoon or two of milk)
7. Alternate between the two mixes and add spoonfuls to your tin.
8. Using a skewer or a knife, gently swirl the two cake batters around. (Remember you are trying to make a marbled effect, you're not trying to mix the two together!)
9. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes. Leave the cake in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.
10. Dredge with icing sugar to serve.
11. ENJOY!
As with all cakes, this recipe is only limited by your imagination. You could try a coffee and chocolate cake, an orange and lemon cake. Would love to hear how you get on if you give my recipe a try!
Happy Baking!
Everyone loves flapjacks, and best of all, there are a million different variations on what is a ridiculously simple recipe. I'm going to share my twist on the classic recipe for delicious, chewy flapjacks.
Ingredients :~
(makes enough to fill a swiss roll tin and depending on how you slice it, gives around 12 flapjacks)
200g/7 oz butter
6 tbsp Golden Syrup/Corn Syrup
330g/12 oz rolled oats
(An alternative if you can't find syrup is to use equal quantities of brown sugar, runny honey, butter and oats - I would suggest, 200g/7 oz of each.)
To this you can add just about anything you like! For my recipe I added the following...
3 tspn dessicated coconut
3 tspn chopped almonds
Handful of raisins
Handful of dried papaya
Handful of dried pineapple
Method :~
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Put butter and syrup into a pan and heat on a low heat until the butter has melted completely. (It's important to try to get all of the syrup into the mixture so if you find you're leaving half of your measurement still on the spoon, add an extra measure or two. Always better to have more than less!)
3. Put all your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour over your butter mixture and stir well.
5. Press the mixture into your baking tray and level it out.
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. The flapjack should still be slightly soft when you take it out but it will harden up as it cools. Take out of the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack.
7. When cooled and while still in the tray, cut your flapjack into squares or fingers. Leave to cool completely in the tray.
8. ENJOY!
Would love to hear what variations you make to the recipe!
Dried cranberries and cherries are always delicious additions, and if you wanted to add a touch of decadence, include some chocolate chips but add them as late as possible before putting the mixture into your tray so that they don't just melt completely and combine with your syrup but instead leave you little pockets of chocolate in your finished flapjacks.
Happy baking!!
Last minute visitors means last minute baking and shortbread is perfect, especially when your baking supplies are starting to run low.
Classic and simple, everybody loves shortbread and with a recipe this simple, anybody can make it!
Ingredients:~
(makes approx. 20-24 shortbread)
125g / 4 oz butter
55g / 2 oz caster sugar
180g / 6 oz plain flour
Method:~
1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until smooth.
3. Stir in flour to get a smooth paste. (If you want to add anything like chocolate chips, cherries or raisins, do it now!)
4. Turn out onto work surface and roll out until about 1cm /½ inch thick.
5. Cut into fingers (To get the 'holes' just prick gently with a fork) or rounds and place onto a lined baking tray. Sprinkle with icing sugar and put into the fridge to cool for about 20 minutes.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they start to turn pale golden brown. Sprinkle over caster sugar and then cool on a wire rack.
7. ENJOY!
Only 3 ingredients and you get all that delicious buttery taste. Couldn't be simpler!
Or add a fourth ingredient like I did here and include some dark chocolate pieces.
Do let me know if you try it out!
These are sooo quick and easy to make it's untrue and just as well given how quickly they vanish once you've made them!
Ingredients:~
(Makes approx. 36 cookies)
2 cups peanut butter
2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
A few drops vanilla essence
Chocolate chips, chopped nuts or whatever you fancy adding!
Method:~
1. Preheat your oven to 175C/325F/Gas Mark 3
2. Cream the peanut butter and sugar together in a large bowl.
3. Add the eggs one at a time followed by the baking powder and vanilla essence.
4. If adding, mix in your chocolate chips or chopped nuts now.
5. Lay a sheet of baking paper onto a baking sheet.
6. Roll teaspoon sized amounts of the mixture into balls between your hands and put on the sheet, remembering to leave space between as they will spread out when cooking. (I usually end up with between 9 and 12 cookies per sheet but it would depend on the size of your baking sheet.)
7. Using a fork, press down each ball making a criss-cross pattern on the top.
8. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes and allow to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. (If you want chewy cookies, bake for closer to 8 minutes. If you like yours crunchier, leave them a minute or two longer!)
The hard part is leaving them to cool long enough before you start nibbling them!
ENJOY!!
As always, leave me a note if you try any of my recipes to let me know how you got on...and if you have any suggestions or alternative methods of your own! Happy Baking!
A tasty variation on the traditional pink-and-white Battenburg cake using two of my favourite flavours ~ chocolate and orange. Use good quality marzipan for the best flavour!
Ingredients:~
(Makes one 18cm long rectangular cake)
115g/1 cup soft margarine
115g/1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
a few drops of vanilla extract
13g/1 tbsp ground almonds
115g/1 cup self raising flour (sifted)
rind and juice of 1/2 orange
15g/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted)
30-45ml/2-3 tbsp milk
1 jar chocolate and nut spread
225g marzipan (colour is up to you but yellow or white looks good with this recipe)
Method:~
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 18cm square tin with baking paper. Put a double piece of foil down the centre of the tin to divide it into two equal oblongs. (I used two bread tins as my square tin was too large for this recipe. I ended up with enough cake to make two small battenburgs but more on that later!)
2. Cream the margarine and sugar. Beat in the eggs, vanilla extract and almonds. Divide the mixture evenly into two bowls.
3. Fold half of the flour into one half, with the orange rind and enough juice to give a soft dropping consistency. Fold the rest of the flour and cocoa powder into the other half, with enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency. Fill the tin with the two mixes and level the top.
4. Bake for 15 mins then reduce the temperature a little (if you can) to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 and cook for 20-30 mins, or until the top is just firm. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes. Turn out onto a board, cut each cake into two strips and trim evenly. Leave to cool. (I cut each of my cake into 4 small strips at this point)
5. Using the chocolate and nut spread, sandwich the pieces together 'Battenburg' style.
6. Roll out the marzipan on a board, dusted with either icing sugar or corn flour, to make a rectangle big enough to wrap around your cake. Cover your cake with some more spread and apply the marzipan, making sure the join is at the bottom. (I split the marzipan between the two cakes and had more than enough. Make sure you roll the marzipan thin enough so that the taste won't over power the taste of the sponge inside!)
7. ENJOY!
More recipes coming soon!
Do let me know how you got on!
Make that, I love baking!
Always have, always will. (As my hips will attest!)
Cakes, buns, biscuits, cookies, pies...any excuse to turn on the oven and break out the flour. There's rarely a weekend that I don't bake something!
So, I thought I would share some of my recipes and experiments, mainly sweet but sometimes savoury. (Sometimes as far removed from 'baking' as it's possible to go but, hopefully, yummy!)
