6 - Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmmmhmmm...

Who doesn't love a warm cookie and a glass of cold milk? Even if it is the middle of summer...well, supposedly it's summer over here in the GB...

Anyways,  I enjoyed making these and I enjoyed eating them even more!

Ingredients:

90g butter or margarine
90g light soft brown sugar
90g dark soft brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium egg (beaten)
25g cocoa powder
155g self raising flour
50g chocolate chips or chocolate bar (cut into small chunks)
50g white chocolate bar (cut into small chunks)

Method:

Remember to pre-heat your over, this time to gas mark 4 or 180C. Grease or line a medium sized baking tray and leave to the side for later.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla extract until the mixture is light and fluffy. Gradually add your already beaten egg, gently folding as you go. Add the cocoa and flour next, continually mixing, before adding in the chocolate chunks. You have either bought these pre-prepared, or you have cut your chocolate bar into small chunks or shards.

Spoon the mixture out onto the pre-lined tray. You can use a teaspoon and make more, or like me use a tablespoon and make around six. These larger ones are gooey and more like those you'd buy in a bakery.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 12 minutes, turning the tray half way through so both the back and front cookies cook the same.

Once cooked, leave them for around ten minutes to cool before transferring them to a wire rack.

If they aren't all eaten within 20 minutes, make sure to keep them in an airtight container so they remain fresh!

Enjoy!!

5 - Raspberry and Lemon Cheesecake

I LOVE CHEESECAKE.

What more is there to say really? If there's cheesecake on the menu in a restaurant I will rarely even give the rest a glance. Any and all, they just have to be tasted!

So here we are, never made a cheesecake but always been told how easy and simple they are. And oh so satisfying in the end of course!

Before you start, line a shallow cake tin or pie tin and place in the freezer to cool.

Ingredients:

50g butter
50g blanched hazelnuts
8 gingernut biscuits
1 lemon
4 heaped teaspoons of good quality lemon curd
1 punnet of raspberries, approx. 100g
250g light or low-fat cream cheese, mascarpone cheese or crème fraíche
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Splash of milk
1 tablespoon of icing sugar
Good quality dark chocolate for grating

Method:

Put the butter into a medium frying pan on a medium heat. Keep your eye on it as you don't want burnt butter!

Wrap the hazelnuts and biscuits in a clean tea-towel or clingfilm and quickly bash with a rolling pin until resembles crumbs. Turn the heat off under your now melted butter, tip in the bashed nuts and biscuits and stir until mixture is coated. Finely grate in the lemon zest and mix well.

Collect tin from freezer and press mixture into the bottom until firm before placing in the fridge for up to 30 minutes to set.

Remove from fridge and teaspoon your lemon curd on top of the biscuit base. Using the back of the teaspoon, coat the biscuit base with the lemon curd, making sure mixture isn't too thick, or it will be too overpowering in the end. With your thin layer of lemon curd in place, tip in your raspberries - whole - lightly pressing them down into the sticky curd. Use as many or as little raspberries as you see appropriate.

Spoon the cream cheese, mascarpone or crème fraiche into a bowl and add the vanilla extract. Stir, adding the icing sugar gradually and a small splash of milk to help bind the mixture. Mix well until silky smooth and looks soft.

Pour mixture gently over raspberries, once again using the back of the spoon to smooth over. Gently shake the tin back and forth until mixture sets evenly into place.

You can now grate or shave your dark chocolate onto the top of the cheesecake and leave in the fridge until set. Don't forget to take it out before dinner is served so it is at optimum temperature when you come to eat dessert!

Enjoy!

Cake 4 - Macaroons

Okay, so technically these don't come under "cake" but they're sweet biscuits so it's close enough!

As a massive fan of tennis, I decided to commemorate French Open Final Day by making some macaroons and cracking open a cheap bottle of bubbly while we watched.

Now, some may say these aren't macaroons, but to me they simply come in many shapes and forms! Some are oreo-like, some are rough little heaps, and some are like mine! As long as they're crispy on the outside and have a soft centre!

I chose to make these ones as they are incredibly easy and quick to make.

Ingredients -

2 medium egg whites
225g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
25 blanched almonds

Method -

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (gas mark 4) and place baking parchment on two baking trays.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Gradually and very gently fold in the sugar, then gently stir in the almonds and almond extract to make a firm paste.

Spoon teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to your lined baking trays, spacing them slightly apart to give them space to spread whilst cooking. Press an almond into the centre of each one and bake for 12-15 minutes until just golden and firm to the touch.

Leave on the trays for approximately 10 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely. Don't forget, if you don't manage to munch them all, store in airtight containers! They don't tend to last more than 1 week, so try and finish them off!

Cake 3 - Lemon Drizzle Loaf

The loaf tin is coming out again for this one, but instead of chocolate we've gone to the other end of the spectrum and chosen a few lemons for a bit of zesty-ness.

This lemon cake is a favourite of my mum's so I hope I do it justice.

So before we begin, grease and line your loaf tin - my one is a 900g - and preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius or gas mark 3.

Ingredients -

• 150g of soft salted butter - plus extra for greasing
• 150g caster sugar
• Zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
• 3 large eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 2 tablespoons full-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Icing sugar for dusting.

For the syrup - 100g icing sugar & 2 large unwaxed lemons (use the ones you zested.)

Method:

In a large bowl, cream the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest until soft and light. I use an electric whisk to save my wrists on the vigorous action. Whisk the eggs in a separate small bowl and sift your flour too. Gradually add the eggs and flour to the butter mixture until both are finished. Beat well together until mixture is thick.

Stir in enough milk, along with the vanilla extract, to make the mixture drop easily from your spoon. Spread the mixture evenly into your prepared tin and back in the middle of the oven for 60 minutes.

Check your cake at 50 minutes - depending on your oven and how even your heat is, it could be ready. Check with a clean skewer into the middle of the cake whether it is cooked or not.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand, still in it's tin, preferably on a wire rack to cool.

To make the syrup, gently heat together the icing sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan until a syrup forms. This could take a number of minutes, so be patient, you're not doing it wrong!

Use a fork to prick the top of the warm loaf all over. Gently pour the syrup all over the cake and leave to cool completely.

Turn out the lemon cake onto a serving plate and dust with a little icing sugar. This is not necessary, but helps balance out your lemon syrup.

Enjoy!

Thursday 23rd May - Cake 2 - Chocolate Fudge Cake

 

Chocolate Fudge Loaf Cake:

My second cake of the week, and to help bring in the weekend, had to be chocolate! I'll admit to being pretty anxious about baking with chocolate, it's never gone well in the past, but there's only one way to get good at anything.

This recipe comes from my mother, who got it from her mother - and before that? who knows! My gran owned her own little café for travellers and truckers alike back in the day, and there's many a recipe us grandchildren will need to look after!

So, pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 4 (350F or 180c,) and line yourself a medium loaf tin this time.

Ingredients:

175g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
100 ml milk
50ml water
1 tablespoon golden syrup

Method:

Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix well by hand. Making a well in the centre of the mixture, add the syrup, the eggs (beaten,) oil, milk and water. Beat well with electric whisk until mixture is smooth and light.

Fold mixture into lined loaf tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until mixture has risen and is firm to the touch.

Always check with skewer or thin knife that mixture is cooked all the way through by inserting into the centre of the cake and withdrawing. If blade is clean and hot, the mixture is ready.

Leave cake to cool in the tin before turning out onto wire rack.

Try and not nibble at it, I know it's hard!

Having strawberries and cream left over from Monday night, I served the chocolate cake with one dollop of whipped up cream and a few sliced strawberries to take make desert lighter and easier to digest!

Enjoy the remnants of this cake.  I took more than half of it into work with me at the weekend and shared it out. Yum!

Monday 20th May - Cake 1

SPANISH ALMOND CAKE

So my first attempt was a cake already made in the family, but never by me. Whilst visiting an aunt in January whilst away at University - you know, to get my washing done, have a few home-cooked meals - she made this specific cake for desert after our Sunday roast.

She has been gluten free now for a number of years, so this cake is perfect for you or a family member if that's the case for you too. Not a single crumb of flour goes near this cake, relying solely on eggs and sugar.

I am, of course, talking, in this moment, about the Spanish Almond Cake that I confess to have fallen in love with. It's light, it's easy to make, it's gluten free and it tastes amazing. Perfect for the summer and perfect, too, for those barbecue nights we'll all be partaking in.

Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 4 (160c or 340F) and line an 8" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Of course, a shallower tin can be used if necessary.

Ingredients:

6 medium eggs (size is important as the consistency needs to be right.)
300g/11oz caster sugar
300g ground almonds
Zest of 3 large lemons

Method:

With your sugar in the bowl, mix in the eggs one at a time with an electric whisk. An electric whisk is more efficient, as for this recipe you need as much air in the mixture as you can get. Whisk for at least two minutes, or until the mixture is fluffy, slightly foamy and has risen considerably in the bowl - this will be your indication as to the air inside.
Next, gently fold in the almonds and zest, carefully so as not to lose the air created.

That's it! Easy, all that's left to do is fold the mixture into your pre-lined tin and shove it in the oven.

Bake for around 50 minutes before taking out and leaving to cool on a wire rack and dusting the top with a little icing sugar.

To get that summer feeling - see picture - steep around 200g of fresh strawberries in some sugar before cutting up and serving with the cake.

Enjoy!

May 2013 - Welcome!

Hello to anyone out there!

I've set up a new blog to document a little challenge I've set myself.

Many of us know the changes between term time at university and suddenly finding yourself in summer with months off and nothing to do!

Thankfully, I have myself a full-time job to help me save up for the travelling I want to do when I graduate, but for those nights I have off -  I work in a restaurant in a busy city-centre hotel - I found I wanted something more than just watching TV to do with my time.

I write by day, you'd find it difficult to pull me away from my keyboard and journal where I scribble my hand-written notes, but by night, well, by night I've set myself a wee challenge to bake something new each night. It has to be something different each time and it also has to be something  I've never made before.

Without bringing shame to my mother I have to tell you now that I don't bake often, so the list of things I've done before is not very extensive.

So, at twenty years old, I bring to you my little bake-off blog. Who knows maybe I'll even take requests if this goes anywhere, I do enjoy a challenge!

See you soon!