All that Glisters is not Gold

treacle soda bread (with sesame seeds)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 18:41:00 +0000

This has been a very productive revision session guys(!)

Well it's Friday night so it doesn't really matter, besides I've been desperate to post this all week but couldn't get the photos sorted because the application wasn't working properly, 'twas very annoying indeed.

Just realised just now that this bread recipe is from the same recipe book at the last post! I have loads of baking books with little sticky notes in them with the hope one day I will bake them, I just need to get a move on. This is one of those books where you want to bake everything out of the whole book, possibly at the same time, and taste test all of them, I'm sure humans will evolve to have more arms purely for cooking purposes.

I cannot praise this bread enough though, it was eaten within less than two day (remember there is only three of us in the house), I'm pretty positive I ate over half of it. It's also the second time I'd baked it within two weeks after never trying the recipe before. At first I thought that something had gone wrong with the bread as the texture was so dense (as you can see in the photo above) but after a second baking I determined this is how is was suppose to be which is probably how I ended up eating over half of it.....I've never baked a soda bread before so I hope this is the right texture if anyone would like to advise me?

I couldn't get over how fast it was either, I had mixed and baked it in under an hour and was tapping it persistently to find out when it was cool enough to slice open and try a slice!

I just loved this massive craggy slit that appeared in the side of the bread too (in the photo above), I'm guessing it's because of the super fast reaction with the bicarb.

Having never made a soda bread before I was completely and utterly shocked and kinda surprised at the ingredients it has in it, it doesn't have buttermilk in it which I read is very common in soda bread recipes. This was a good thing for me though because it's sometimes quite hard to get hold of round here and it was only half way through I noticed I needed natural yogurt which luckily is always in our fridge (disaster diverted).

It also has sesame seeds in the actual bread which I'm hoping you might be able to see in the photo above, it was also rolled in them before going in the oven, it gave it a really nice texture both inside and out. Other interesting things in the mix were ground ginger, butter and an egg! But I've now read that this is common in soda bread so it's all okay.

TOP TIP

My tip for baking this is not to take it out of the over too soon like I did the first time!!! So the second time I left it in another 10 minutes from when it sounded hollow to tap and then left it in the oven to cool. If it gets brown too quickly cover it in tin foil and continue baking it because no one likes raw bread!

Treacle soda bread (with sesame seeds)

350 grams wholemeal flour
115 grams of plain flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1 teaspoon of light muscavado sugar
1 teaspoon on ground ginger
25 grams of chilled cubed butter
1 egg
300 ml of natural yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoons of black treacle

preheat the oven to 200oC/ 400oF/ gas mark 6 and put a baking sheet in to heat
mix the flours, bicarb and salt in a bowl before adding 2/3 of the sesame seeds, the sugar and ginger, mix well before rubbing in the butter to make bread crumbs
boil a kettle and while doing this whisk the yogurt and egg in a separate bowl
once the kettle has boiled pour the water into a mug and sit a tablespoon in it for a minute to heat (this makes it 10 times easier to get neat tablespoons of treacle), using the heated spoon put the black treacle in with the yogurt and egg and whisk once more
add the wet ingredient into dry and mix with a spoon until a dough forms (add more yogurt or flour depending on wetness/ dryness), knead once or twice in the bowl until it all comes together
make into a boule shape and roll in the remaining sesame seeds, place on the heated baking sheet carefully, using a sharp knife make the iconic cross shape in the top
place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes (so it gets a nice crust) then cool the oven to 180oC/ 350oF/ gas mark 4 and bake for another 40- 45 minutes (read top tip on timing)
take out and leave to cool or a wire rack before slicing and enjoying warm with butter!

Chocolate and Banana Bread [happy new year!]

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 16:16:00 +0000

Happy New year!

Just finishing blowing off the cobwebs from 2013, I can't believe I've had my blog just over a year now. I remember this time last year thinking to myself 'hmm a blog sounds like a fun idea, this year I'll try do a blog', and here I am one year later still doing it (which is a big achievement for me because I get bored so quickly).

I also remember no having a clue what to write or to have a theme or just my daily life, that's why if you look at my very first posts they're a little vague and... well..... strange! I can't believe I wrote a post on how we failed to make a frangipane for Burns night complete with a picture of the failed pastry case!

Well I like to think my blog has progressed a little from this time last year, thank you to those who follow me or post comments and even if you just happen to be reading this! I hope you had a very nice new year too and best wishes for 2014!

I just thought I'd share this from Innocent smoothies facebook page because it made me smile about the year ahead....

I also need to mention that next month and up until June I will be revising and doing my GCSEs (exams you take in England in year 11) so I may be posting even more infrequently than normal :(

but please bare with! I haven't forgotten my blog (how could I!?) I will just be revising as that should probably be my number one priority.........

ANYWAY I will stop boring you now and commence onto the subject of cake! :D

So last night was a Friday night and I got back from my first week of school after the Christmas break and i just had one of those cravings, one of those craving which will only be satisfied by......... chocolate!

I knew exactly what I wanted to bake, something vaguely healthy but full of chocolate! (yes I did just use healthy and chocolate in the same sentence). So I baked one of the most comforting thing i know, a banana bread but full of gated chocolate.....

and then covered it in more chocolate......

This recipe is from one of our families favourite cookbooks (link next to title below) and a great thing is that this recipe makes 2 loaves, so you can wrap one up and freeze it so on those lazy days you can just get it our to defrost and cut off a huge piece and smother it in nutella! (remember I only said vaguely healthy)

Chocolate and Banana Bread

(makes two 2lb loaves) from cakes and bakes from my mother's kitchen

55 grams of butter
150 grams of light soft brown sugar
2 eggs
100 grams of natural yoghurt
35o grams of very ripe bananas (peeled and mashed)
300 grams of self-raising flour
200 grams of dark or milk chocolate grated (I used the food processor)
nutella or chocolate sauce to finish!

preheat the oven to 180 oC/ 350 oF/ gas mark 4 and line the two tins
beat the butter and sugar until combined and fluffy
whisk in the eggs, then the yoghurt and finally stir in the mashed banana
fold in the flour before adding the grated chocolate and folding once more
pour into the tines and bake for 35-40 minutes until brown, springey and a skewer comes out clean from the centre
leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes before turning out
for fully cooled cut a slice, smother in nutella and/ or chocolate sauce and eat!

christmas craft (pinecone garland, coat hanger tree, wrapping paper)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 18:21:00 +0000

As if the last time I posted was the end of November! What have I been doing all this time? COUNTING DOWN TO CHRISTMAS!

For this post I just thought I'd kinda suggest some christmas crafts since I haven't done any craft in ages because it's quite hard to write out the methods but these are kinda just ideas. I got lots more ideas on my Pinterest, I've kinda gone crazy with the festive pinning lately! And gift wrap too...... Anyhoo here's how to make a pinecone garland!

These pinecones reminded me of Icicles, plus they're covered in Glitter! And who doesn't love glitter!? Apart from the people who clean it up of course, so first of all you're gonna gave to find your pinecones!.......... I made this la'al video to show us finding them but it then escalated to me washing, drying, painting and hanging them! Enjoy :)

Once you've found and washed your pine cones leave them to dry, I was kinda impatient so I put them on newspaper on the back of our aga to dry quickly. I think if you might want to put them on a very low temperature in the oven because leaving them to dry naturally might mean they stay a little damp.

paint your pine cones! I used white acrylic watered down with a little bit of water and did an ombre effect so it looked like the ends were covered in snow.

Once painted individually pick up, cover in PVA and sprinkle with glitter!

Then attach some thread to the end of each one, I used sewing thread because it was so fine. I didn't really have a method for this, I just went in and out of the nooks and crannies then tied in a double know at the end.

Next you need to find something to attach your pine cones to, I used a string of beads which i thought looked really pretty but you could just use string if you wanted or fishing wire might look good too, let me know what you try!

now it's time to hang them up! I hung them over our curtain rail because they were so long but again it's up to you, I think they'd look nice over a fire place if we had one.

And by the way you don't have to make them into a garland, I thought they'd make really nice christmas hangings, plus they're unbreakable if you have crazy dogs like me!

NEXT UP IT'S A COAT HANGER CHRISTMAS TREE!

I totally stole this idea off pinterest by the way so no points for originality but I just thought it was such a clever, easy and, of course, cheap christmas decoration. Cheap and Cheerful!

So all you really need is metal coat hangers,sellotape and fairy lights, I also added tinsel and miniture baubels too.

first you have to get some coat hangers, I ran round the house with wooden coat hangers replacing all the metal hangers in the house with metal ones.

I only had 6 altogether but in the photo there's 13 so it doesn't really matter, I bent them into rhombus shapes and sellotaped them together

Next I wrapped fairy lights around to outline it's tree shape...

and then I just covered it in shiny things and hung it up!

simples.

FINALY IT'S CHRISTMAS WRAPPING

I would love to do more posts on wrapping but I don't think I'll have the time, One of my favourite parts of christmas is creative wrapping and putting bows and tags on presents! I love it when you come down and see loads of different shaped presents all with different wrapping paper and decorations, it's all really unique...... especially if the wrapping is home made!

for this all you need is brown paper, paints (I used acrylic again because it's really bright), a sponge, a brush and either stamps or cookie cutters.

I wasn't sure if the cookie cutters would work but you've just got to get a lot of paint on them, I used the brush for the cookie cutters and the sponge for the stamp so the paint was even

You really can't go wrong with this it looks good whatever you put on it really, as long as it looks homemade! I also added in Happy Christmas in sharpie all over

I hope you've got some more christmas craft ideas, if you want more take a look at my craft or christmas pinterest board.

Happy Christmas!

honey, ginger and tea cake with poppyseed icing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:43:00 +0000

I just kinda made this recipe up on the spot last night, it was absolutely delicious though so I thought I'd share it! Plus I want to cram in as many Christmas recipes as I can before it's over! I was pretty surprised that the photos came out at all because I was taking them at 4:30 and the sun had gone down and dark was setting in very quickly, twas very annoying indeed, anyhoo it is delicious.

So I was kinda thinking about gingerbread men to back but I couldn't be bothered with the fun yet pro-longed hastle of icing them all. I then thought about making tea bread and then though of mixing the two up and adding in some honey which hakes it sweeter but still not too sweet, it's also surprisingly light and the poppy seed icing has a really nice texture and just takes great with the ginger.

ADAPTATION
while making the cake I was thinking about putting in some dried fruit to make it more like tea bread, raisins, currents and dried cranberries would be SO delicious in it. But we had none.
Secondly afterwards I thought it might be nice to substitute some of the honey for 2 tablespoons of molasses or black treacle to make it more like gingerbready and heavier.

honey, ginger and tea cake with poppyseed icing(makes one 2lb loaf

cake-

225g unsalted butter (room temp)
100g dark muscovado sugar
50g clear honey
2 large eggs, beaten
300g self-raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 - 1 teaspoon on mixed spice
150 ml strong tea
(see adaptations for extra ingredients)

icing-

125 grams of butter (room temp)
225 grams of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
50 grams of poppyseed

preheat the oven to 160 oC/ 140 fan/ gas mark 3, grease and line a 2 lb loaf tin
beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy before beating in the honey and eggs, add a few tablespoons of flour to stop it curdling
fold in the flour, ginger and mixed spice, followed by the tea and pour into the tin
put in the oven for 1 hour - 1hour 15 minutes depending on your oven
leaf to cool while making the icing
beat the butter and sugar together, add in the vanilla essence, beat again and finally the poppy seeds
once the cake is cool spread on the icing
grab a slice and store in an airtight container for 3-4 days

citrus, cinnamon and chocolate popcorn (crimbo approaching!)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:38:00 +0000

I've had this post ready for about 2 months but never posted it cos I've needed the time! Plus there were a lot of photos to pick from and edit......

Today we got told the school has an OFSTED inspection (a test to see if our school is okay and is getting good results and stuff), you only get 24 hours warning so the school is in panic mode! Because of all this my french speaking exam has been cancelled which I was gonna spend the whole evening revising for........ so blogging is now the priority!

BACK TO THIS AWESOME FESTIVE POPCORN!!!!!!!!!

I got this cute Victorian sweet jar glass from a pound shop the other day.... I thought it was adorable

I think this popcorn was delicious because it made me feel all festive (even in September when I made it) and the orange reminds me of the Christingle where everyone has a orange with a red ribbon and a candle to represent the world, blood and Jesus. PLUS IT HAS CHOCOLATE IN IT. I also added in some cayenne pepper so it tasted kinda warming by spice and is the perfect pick-me-up snack as it lasts for at least 3 days in an air tight container and is tasty but light! (just what you need in the Christmas run up)

After I made the popcorn I decided to melt some dark chocolate before pouring it into a cake tin and sprinkling on chocolate and EDIBLE STARS!! The best decoration ever. I thought it would make a real homemade present for someone if you wrapped it up in cellophane.

citrus, cinnamon and chocolate popcorn(serves 6)

ingredients-

oil
50 grams of popping corn
5 tablespoons of finely grated dark chocolate
2 teaspoons of orange zest
zest of one orange
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons of butter
100 grams of dark chocolate (optional)

pour some oil into a wide but shallow pan, you want enough to cover the bottom so no popcorn sticks, let it heat
once hot add the popping corn and put the lid on straight way! Leave on for 5 - 10 minutes shaking every so often before you only hear a pop once every 10 seconds, be careful when checking on the pop corn as it will be very hot and could fly out and hit your face
take off the heat and add in all the other ingredients except the optional dark chocolate
shake the pan very quickly so all the ingredients get distributed and melt over all the freshly popped corn making Christmas in a pan
either eat straight away with your friends or turn into a edible present for someone
bring a pan of water to a boil before simmering, in a heatproof bowl break the chocolate into pieces and set over the simmering water
stir occasionally and once melted take from the heat
line a square cake tin with grease proof paper (mine was about 8inch x 8inch) pour in the melted chocolate and scatter with popcorn
leave to cool

apple, honey and custard pie! (and a new arrival)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 17:11:00 +0000

*blows cobwebs off keyboard*

Hulloooo! Firstly I like you guys to meet the newest member to our home, this is Ruby the Sprollie!

She's a springer spaniel crossed with a border collie and I haven't posted anything since we got her because she is a hyper active mess machine (as you can probably imagine, two hyperactive breeds crossed together, what were we thinking!?). So I finally got round to taken some pictures while she had quietened done in the evening, hence all the dramatical lighting, IT WAS PITCH BLACK! So this is no ordinary pie, this is a dramatical super duper apple pie!

Our rough collie Jacob seems to be getting used to her now, though he just tends to stay out of the way, and our cocker Bex seems to have found herself a play mate!

excuse me while I spam my own blog post with pictures of dogs.....

Back to pie now!

So with this dramatic apple pie....... the day I made this pie I had been fully apple out! We have around 5 apple trees in our garden all with different kinds of apples (we don't know what sort because the labels came off!) so we took them all to be pressed and made into juice and cider, So we know have 3 gallons of cider fermenting in our house and litres and upon litres of juice and tonnes and tonnes of apples still on the trees!

So if you guys have any great apple recipes you wouldn't mind sharing I'd love to hear! (:

I don't know about anybody else but to me apple pie is just the mother of all pies, and we always have it with custard, but this recipe from 'The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook by Sarah Mayor' (it's an amazing cookbook) combine the two together to create thin layers of heaven upon heaven, thin slices of apple with custard in between the cracks, it is gorgeous!

That is some dramatic apple peeling! It reminds me of my favourite pie quote, which just so happens to be about apple pie! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae50P_ajLxA , you've gotta love chicken run!

apple, honey and custard pie (serves 10)

ingredients

pastry-

350 grams of plain flour
50 grams of self-raising flour
50 grams of cornflour
275 grams of chilled butter, cubed
100 grams of caster sugar
3 egg yolks mixed with 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 2 table spoons of cold water

filling-

1.25 kilo grams of cooking apples
2 egg yolks
100 grams of honey
1 tablespoon of self-raising flour
250 millilitres of double cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

extra-

beaten egg
demerera sugar

grease a loose bottomed flan tin (we used 21 cm one)
mix the pastry flour together, put into a food processor and add the butter, blitz until it looks like bread crumbs. Add in the caster sugar and egg yolk mix, blitz again until it forms a ball
once the dough is formed knead the dough until everything is fully mixed, cut off a 1/3 and wrap before putting in the fridge (for the topping)
place the bottom of the flan tin on the worktop, place the remaining dough onto the centre and begin rolling it out evenly in all directions until it is as thick as a pound coin, lift the pastry and tin bottom up and drop into the tin, leave an overhang and chill for 15 mins
preheat the oven to 170 oC / 150oC fan / gas mark 3
peel and slice the apples into thin slices so you get layers of apple with custard in between
whisk together the yolks, honey and flour before adding the cream and vanilla, spread the apple into the chilled pie before covering with the custard
knead and role out the remaining 1/3 of dough and any scraps to form the pie top, roll into a circle the same thickness as the pie before brushing the top and pie edges with some beaten egg
place the top on the pie, press on and cut off any over hangings, brush all over with egg, sprinkle with sugar and cut a cross in the middle or a small hole bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours until the top is golden
leave to cool slightly before turning out and enjoying, with extra custard of course!

The. Best. Cake. Ever. White chocolate and maple syrup cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 15:53:00 +0000

So I finally give to you the best recipe for cake I have ever tried after ranting about it since my birthday post in May!! I also had a guest post on Mess Makes food here for grapefruit meringue pies which were so much fun to photograph because of their bright pink colour and they tasted beautiful (almost as good as this cake!).

meringue pie sampler from 'Mess makes food'

Soooooo..... back to this beautiful cake! ..........

I honestly don't know where the recipe for this cake came from, it's been printed on a sheet of paper and in the family cooking file for I don't know how long. It is one of the rare recipes though which is made for an aga!

But that doesn't mean that it can only be made in an aga! An aga is just a huge piece of piece of cast iron and is just a big oven which is on constantly, it's great for cooking stuff for a long time (like pulled pork!) and keeping the house warm in winter.

This cake just combines two magical things, the white chocolate in the cake makes it really creamy and just makes it taste so good, combined with the maple syrup which adds some sweetness but also it's classic taste. It's finished off with a maple syrup and mascarpone frosting which is the best frosting I've ever come across, so good I even used it in my spiced parsnip and hazelnut cake.

I will take this moment to thank Lucy Young for creating this beautiful recipe

So many strawberries! If you don't have strawberries don't worry, they're not part of the original recipe but they do go so well with the creamy flavour of the white chocolate.

I have one final question, is maple syrup ridiculously expensive in other places or is my family being ripped off!? This maple syrup (although it is delicious with a lovely bottle and label) was over £6! That seems a little bit too expensive for me, though this cake is a treat!

White Chocolate and Maple Syrup Cake (aka the best cake ever)

from Lucy Young

Cake

100 g quality white chocolate
175 g butter, softened
100 g caster sugar
3 eggs
300 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175 g maple syrup
150 ml milk

Frosting

250 g of mascarpone
3 tbsp of maple syrup
1 tbsp of icing sugar
deco, strawberries (optional)

preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and grease and line a 20cm cake tin
break the chocolate into a heat proof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water until melted, DON'T boil the water as white chocolate has a lower melting point than other chocolate so seizes very easily, it's better to do it very slowly
beat the butter and sugar in a separate bowl till pale and fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time
beat in the flour, baking powder and syrup until combined before finally gradually adding the milk and stiring until combined
pour into the tin and bake for 30-35 mins until golden and a knife comes out clean
while cooling put all the frosting ingredients into a bowl and beat until combined, frost the cake once cooled and decorate with strawberries (optional)
feast!

Healthy Zucchini, Feta, Hummus and Tomato Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:52:00 +0000

So the main reason I blog, bake and photograph is too escape school and do something I actually like to do, also to escape homework and pathogenesis's theorem......

But in the holidays I didn't have to do much escaping from that so all was good. I have a few photos and posts lined up which I'll have get round to editing and writing at some point, so don't be confuzzled if I'm still posting summery recipes into autumn!

This pizza reminds me of Italy: 1. because it's pizza and 2. Because it's green, white and red! Anyhoo I have a story to tell........ Meet Paul my baby courgette, he was massive!

He weighed 4 pounds 5 ounces and had my eyes (:

He was used in pizza, cake and ratatouille!

Just thought I'd bombard you with pictures back there sorry, this is one of those posts where I had quite a few pictures but not very much to say. The reason I've finally got round to posting is because today was my first day back at school, and I already want to escape back to my world of 'all that glisters'. How I have missed it through August!

NOTES

So this pizza. It's not your average pizza (like I say in a lot of my post I know, sorry!) because it uses hummus instead of tomato sauce and feta instead of mozzarella. However that does not mean it is not as good to eat, it's also, in fact, more healthy and counts for well over your 5 a day!

I like to make my own pizza base because I like it thin in the middle and thicker round the edge but you can use shop bought and the recipe makes enough for a deep pizza too.

The amounts are guide line too, it really depends on what you like most of on your pizza!

Healthy Zucchini, Feta, Hummus and Tomato Pizza

pizza base-

225 grams of strong white flour or wholemeal flour
7 gram sachet of dried yeast
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2250 ml of warm water
semolina to dust

Pizza-

100 grams of hummus
75 grams of feta
1/2 a zucchini
cherry tomatoes
olive oil and balsamic vinegar to finish
mint leaves

for the pizza dough mix the flour and yeast in a bowl and create a well in the centre, add in the olive oil and slowly pour in the water while mixing until you have a wettish dough (you probably won't need all the water)
knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes until it becomes very stretchy and can be rolled out thin, place in an oiled bowl and cover, leave in a warm place for 1 hour
preheat the oven to 240C/475F/Gas 9
place the dough on a floured surface once more, roll out into a circle and place on grease proof paper onto a baking sheet, brush with oil and dust with semolina to make it crisp
cover with hummus peel the zucchini into ribbons using a potato peeler and scatter on, crumble over the feta and scatter the tomatoes and add some salt and pepper
place in the oven for 10-15 minutes, while cooking you may want to add on some more zucchini and feta and it wilts
once out drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and oil before adding the mint
eat!

p.s I'm doing a guest post on Miss Messy's mess makes food tomorrow so be sure to take a look! I posted a sneak peak on my instagram

zucchini and gruyere quesadillas with watercress guacamole (I grew something else!)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Okay so in this post I talked about how everything I try to grow fails and is eaten by slugs or I just never see a single leaf pop up...... well I grew something else...... ZUCCHINIS! (or courgettes since I'm British).

I have grown 3 so far and used one of them in this recipe, however I have had one growing for almost 3 weeks and it is marrow size. It is the biggest courgette I have ever seen and weighs about as much as a baby elephant (okay maybe a bit of exaggeration but it is HUGE!). It is so Incredibly big that I just can't think of something big enough to use the whole thing in so I'm gonna have to plan 'courgette day' in the near future before it grows any bigger!
I thought of zucchini cake, baked zucchini in tomato sauce, ratatouille and zucchini ribbons, humous and feta pizza might just about use up the whole courgette. I can't wait for this day to arrive.

There are SO many foods I want to make and put on my blog but I just can nae seem to find the time to do it, stuff like cherry pie or clafoutis, apricot and strawberry crumble or danish pastries. And on one post (I couldn't find it), I promised when strawberries came into season where I live I would bake and tell you the BEST ever cake I have ever been so lucky to try. Please stick around for that because your life will change for the better.

Both of these recipes are from from 'Jamie' magazine and serve 4.

Watercress Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
juice of a lime
50 grams of fresh and washed watercress
1 red chili
1 diced tomato
1/2 table spoon of paprika

cut the avocados in half, remove the stone and scrape the flesh out with a spoon into a bowl, squeeze over the lime juice, mash
de-seed and dice the chili and dice the tomato, roughly chop the watercress and add to the avocado mash
sprinkle with the paprika and serve with zucchini and Gruyere quesadillas!

Zucchini and Gruyere Quesadillas

1 tablespoon of oil
1 red onion
1 garlic clove
fresh thyme leaves finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
one zucchini sliced into thin discs
50 grams of Gruyere
4 tortillas

heat the oil in a pan, dice the red onion and fry until soft,
crush and thinly slice the garlic and add to the pan with the thyme and lemon juice, cook for a further minute
add the courgette discs and cook until just cooked
divide the mix between two discs and sprinkle with Gruyere over the top, place another tortilla on the top of each and fry individually in a dry pan for a few minutes on each side until they're golden and cheese is oozing from the edges (I did this on the BBQ)
dig in with your guacamole!

Summer Rocky Road (white chocolate, apricot, sour cherry, salted pistachio and marigold)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 19:05:00 +0000

Week 2 of no oven in the Dickson house....things are taking their toll....NO BAKING!

I was prepared this morning to bake a cake, I found a recipe to adapt, was just about to line a tin and preheat the oven when, wait, what oven?
You might have seen my post on instagram about the new oven arrival and how there shall now be no more BBQs and cakes galore! And it doesn't fit.
.....But it's ~~terrible, I can not survive another day without cake!~~ Fine, soon it'll be fixed, hopefully in time for my Mum's Birthday next month (7th) !

So how's this summery? Well rocky road reminds me of Christmas and edible homemade biscuits, cookies and fudge wrapped in tissue paper in little boxes eaten within a day, sat around an open fire with family and the smell of a spiced cinnamon in the air..... I CAN'T WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS (149 days to go!)
So for this I replaced dark chocolate with white and added dried apricots and sour cherry, more summery fruits and oaty biscuits for a different texture to digestives. I did want to add amaretti biscuits and Turkish delight but I only got back from Scotland yesterday so the cupboards are bare. My Mum thought that adding turkish delight might make it too sweet as white chocolate is very sweet so I didn't add it and added a few salted pistachio nuts for the salty sweet combo instead.
secondly I also thought that some marigold petals (which are edible don't worry!) because they don't really add a taste but look very pretty, if you're going to add them though make sure you eat the rocky road within two days or they'll wilt.

And thirdly a word of warning.....melting white chocolate is the bane of my life!, it always seems to go gritty when I use a bain marie, this is because white chocolate has a lower melting point than other chocolates so it seizes sooner. Another thing about white chocolate (I know it sounds awkward to cook with but lets be honest it tastes beautiful) is that it can hold it's shape really well so take it from the bain marie just before it looks completely melted and the outside of the chocolate is just a little soft. If the chocolate does go gritty in the end it probably won't affect the taste too much, just the texture so it'll still taste like delicious!

Just realised I haven't told you guys about my holiday! So the week after Paris and the green tea ice-cream I went on my bronze D of E expedition in the lakes, we had to walk with 60 litre rucksacks in about 30 oC heat. It was boiling. I'm not going to say horrible because I enjoyed it, but two members of our team got mild heat exhaustion.

So I got back on Thursday night from that and on Friday I broke up for my summer holidays at 2 O'clock before rushing home, packing and at 3 O'clock driving to Montrose for the Dickson family holiday with all my Aunts and Uncles on my Dad's side. There were 22 of us all together and we stayed in a castle on a remote Scottish estate surrounded by mist on most days! It looked like something from 'the hound of the baskervilles'. This weather didn't dampen our spirits (we are from Scottish descent after all!) and we went swimming in the sea twice, built a tide defence, played capture the flag in pitch black on the estate, did a high wire adventure course, watched monsters university (I can highly recommend it!, and my brilliant aunts kathy and Helen wrote a murder mystery for us to dress up and solve on the last night! I was the cook and luckily not the murderer! It was a great game to play and really well written (probably because Kathy writes books!).

There was looads of cooking too, it was like a military operation to get breakfast, lunch, tea and pudding plus snacks, we all LOVE our food! It was an amazing holiday and I missed them all after less than 24 hours!

Here's a picture of me and all my cousins (excluding one who is in Japan working!)

we usually behave more like this.....

Anyhoooo I better give you guys the recipe, thanks for being patient!

Summer Rocky Road(makes 16 squares)

you will need-

200 grams of white chocolate
150 grams of sour cherries and dried apricots
100 millilitres of orange juice
60 grams of soft butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
100 grams of oaty biscuits (I used choc chip hobnobs)
35 grams of salted and 35 grams of unsalted pistachios

to decorate-

25 grams of white chocolate
2 marigold flowers

don't preheat the oven! line a 8 inch square tin
bring a pan of water water to the boil, break up the white chocolate into a heat- proof bowl (not the decoration chocolate), if you use a bigger pan and a bigger bowl the chocolate will melt at an even rate. bring the water to a simmer and set the bowl on the top.
while the white chocolate is melting (keep an eye on it remember, read above about seizing) put the dried fruit and orange juice into a pan over the heat, boil until most of the juice has been absorbed by the fruit, drain any remaining juice off and set aside to cool
add the butter and syrup to the almost melted chocolate, turn off the heat and stir until everything is melted and combined
roughly chop the nuts, put the biscuits is a bag and smash into chunky chunks with a rolling pin (I LOVE THAT BIT), add to the mixture along with the dried fruit and stir
pour into the tin and put in the fridge for about 2 hours (until solid)
take the petals off the marigold flower heads, wash in water and dab dry with kitchen towel, melt the white chocolate in a bain marie again. scatter over half the petals, then drizzle some chocolate, then scatter the petals again and finally drizzle with chocolate
eat!

Peach and Green Tea Ice Cream (no churning needed!)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 19:15:00 +0000

So I'm back from the 30 degree, sunny and insanely hot place of Paris back to the ~~cold, wet and raining~~ surprisingly sunny and hot land of Cumbria. Cumbria and hot and binary opposites :D

So because it's so hot I desided to make some ice cream. Also because the aga is now turned off it's so hot and the electric oven decided to break at the same time, we only have two gas rings and a BBQ to cook food with!

So while I was in Paris, it was so hot that you constantly needed to be drinking so it was a challenge to find the cheapest coldest drink you could. I managed to find a can of Lipton's iced peach tea, and it was beautifully refreshing and just what I needed! This ice cream tastes just like it and is a no-machine ice cream!

France was brilliant by the way. On Monday we went the the louvre, padlock bridge, a fair and Notre Dame or shopping at UK shops (would you believe some people chose shopping at H&M!?), Tuesday we went to the Musee d'Orsay, the Eiffel tower and a boat trip, and Wednesday we went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Pompidou.

All of my pictures are pretty terrible and mostly ironic selfies of me and my friends! I tried to pick out a few good ones (:

Musee d'Orsay clock

Arc de Triomphe

the view from Notre Dame

Would you believe that on getting half way up the Eiffel tower my camera ran out of battery! Me and my Friends decided to walk up the 669 steps to the second floor, I didn't believe just how big it was until I was stood under it. I wanted to get to the top but it was closed of due to the wind and to get to the third floor you had to queue twice more. The view was beautiful, not as good as the Notre Dame though in my opinion as you couldn't see the Eiffel tower!

I was quite proud of this picture from Notre Dame as it looks like a miniature Paris!

My favourite moment was probably the least expected one. We were walking down a main street to our hotel (we were staying near Overkamph) when we saw a big stage and a huge crowd of people waiting for the next act, we asked who was on and a man said 'Biffy Clyro'.

Biffy Clyro? The Biffy Clyro band from Scotland? like the 'WHEN WE COLLIDE WE COME TOGETHER' Biffy Clyro?

Yes. Yes it was. For free, in the centre of Paris. Twas amaazing. The night before though we'd missed Jake Bug (another one of my favourite artists!) and the next night was going to be bastille. But I still can't get over that. I strongly suggest googling them!

............... anyhoo, back to peaches, tea and ice cream!

Peach and Green Tea Ice Cream

(serves 10)adapted from Mary Berry

5 peaches
3 table spoons of Castor sugar
5 green tea tea bags
4 eggs separated
100 grams of Castor sugar
300 ml of double cream

to poach the fruit cut each peaches in half and put in a pan face up, it's best if there is just one layer of peaches. Add enough water to come half way up the peaches. Add in the 3 tablespoons of sugar, boil and simmer for 15- 20 minutes so they're soft.
drain the poaching juice into a jug and add the tea bags
Once the peaches are cool squish them with your hands so you get some lumps and some pulp. You can cut them into 1cm cubed pieces if ya like to be accurate!
line your container with cling film (I used a loaf tin)
Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, add the 100 grams of sugar a little at a time until fully incorporated and glossy.
whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks before adding the tea and poaching liquid. You may not need all of it, you need the cream to still be a little stiff
fold in the egg white a bit at a time until it's all been added and has no lumps of egg white left.
Spoon into the container and put in a freezer for 3 hours until solid
devour.

Honey, Pear and Pistachio Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 09:47:00 +0000

I go to Paris in 2 hours, so I thought, 'what better time to do a blog post?'

Silly me...... please bare with for all the pictures!

These pears below tastes amaazing, J'adore pears..... just brushing up on my French skills there.

I tried to pick my favourite, but out of 300 it was pretty difficult (mental not, take less pictures), I also didn't have time to edit them really (second mental note, DON'T right blog posts 2 hours before you have to leave for France!)

Speaking of France, I am very super excited indeed, I just wanted to get this post out of the way before I go. The itinerary sounds great, we're going to the Eiffel tower, notre dame, arc de triomphe, pompidou (I love to say that pom-pid-ooo), the louvre and some other places I've never heard of.

What am I looking forward to? THE FOOD OF COURSE!

Picnics everyday for lunch, boulangeries, patisseries, croissants, freshly baked baguettes, croque monsieur (they are not just a cheese toastie!), macaroons! And maybe not steak tartar.... I've never seen the attraction in raw steak. Do you have a favourite French food or meal? I can nae pick one! Or even a place in Paris you could suggest for me?

That reminded me, good job I'm going on a school trip to Paris were the weather forecast is 30oC and sunny because my summer holiday is going to be in Scotland! Don't get me wrong, I love Scotland, it's just I don't think I'll get many chances to wear my play suit and summer dresses.

I also helped out with catering for a wedding yesterday with my Auntie and her friends, I never realised just how much organisation and planning went into it. My Auntie had lists for lists, a list for each individual person, a time line for the day and several time lines and lists leading up to the day. It was fun though!

There was also masses of food left so I took some home,. Three words: smoked mango chicken. That is all. It is beautiful.

So I guess I'll finally get talking about this gorgeous cake! I probably should have done that at the start of the post... ahh well.

This cake batter has a really strange consistency; it is really quite thick. This makes the cake a bit dense but really moist. And as you eat it you find little lumps of gold, otherwise known as pistachio nuts, moist slices of fresh pear and pieces of zingy lemon zest floating around in your mouth. Oooh it's good, so good I had a slice for breakfast.

It's best served warm, straight from the oven with some cream on the top, and should really be eaten pretty soon after baking, 3 days max probably but I really don't see how it could last that long!

Honey, Pear and Pistachio Cake

150 grams of plain flour
100 grams of wholemeal flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
125 grams of diced chilled butter
125 grams of Castor sugar
2 eggs
40 grams of chopped pistachio nuts + extra to top with
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 ripe pears (any will do, so long as they're fresh and taste good!)
honey to drizzle

preheat the oven to 190oC/ 375oF/ gas mark 5, grease and line a 8inch cake tin
mix together the flours and baking powder, rub the butter into the mixture until it looks like breadcrumb (you can do this in a food processor)
add in the eggs and sugar, beat until combined before adding in the lemon zest, juice and pistachio nuts
pour the mix into the cake tin, core and slice the pears and layer over the top of the mix (as shown above)
pop in the oven for 45- 50 minutes, once out drizzle with honey immediately. If your honey is quick thick you can heat it a little in a sauce pan first. and top with chopped pistachio nuts
allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin and eating with cream!

radish, borlotti bean, feta and watercress salad with hazelnut dressing (I grew something!)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 20:22:00 +0000

Something you should know about me -I cannot grow a single thing to save my life.

......But I grew something!

Radishes. I managed to grow six radishes! They may have been small but they were still grown from seedlings and neglected by myself for six weeks and grew into something edible.

I tried to grow pak choi last year, I really don't know what happened because the plants never popped their heads out the soil once. I also grow carrots and I thought I had actually achieved something. Their green bushy leaves were poking out the soil just asking to be plucked from the ground and eaten. I pulled up the carrot and..... carrot fly had got'em all.......

There's so much I want to say this post but it's almost 9 O'clock, I'm tired and sadly I've got school tomorrow and an English controlled assessment (yes, another one!).
Firstly if you looked at the salad ingredients and thought 'whaat? That sounds... um ~~disgusting~~ .... strange'. Think again!

Firstly, aren't raw borlotti beans just beautiful. I means it's like a little fairy wiggled it's way into the pod and held an infant paint class with purple paint..... as I said it's getting too late for me to be writing this! I was really upset when I blanched them though and the beans turned grey, luckily they still taste great.

The beans add some butch-ness to the salad (a butch salad?) well you know a kinda texture contract to the watercress and radishes (home grown, I grew them!) which give a peppery flavour. Then you get the nutty hazelnut taste (which is amazing with them borlotti beans) but suddenly the feta and vinegar walk in and they're like, "woah, the party don't start till I walk in!"

sorry about all the photos in this post (the recipe's at the bottom!).

Also next Sunday I'll be going on a school trip til the following Thursday. I am so excited since my passions are: food, fashion, art and food. Paris sounds like my home. The hotel's 'modest' the teacher said but we'll be in the centre of Paris which will be great and I'll be changing 3 or 4 times a day to make sure I wear all my summer clothes in the three days we're there. My summer holiday is in Scotland so I'm not feeling too positive about my play suit up there.

Also google reader's closing.... TOMORROW! Make sure you remember to follow me on my bloglovin, quickly press the link before it's too late!

radish, borlotti bean, feta and watercress salad with hazelnut dressing(serves 2-3)

6 radishes
200 grams of borlotti beans or 300 grams including pods
1 small bag of watercress
75 grams of feta
30 grams of hazelnuts
1 glove of garlic
3 table spoons of olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used damson flavoured)

depod the beans into a pan, cover in water and simmer for 10 minutes, once done rinse in cold water and leave to the side
wash the radishes, top and tail them, slice them finely and leave them in the bath with the beans
roast the hazelnuts (I did this on a skillet on the hob) And whizz in a food processor until ground with the garlic clove
add oil and vinegar to the ground hazelnuts and garlic
drain the beans and radishes, add to a bowl, toss with the water cress, add the dressing and crumble the feta over the top, Lovely!

Mango, Strawberry and Lime Smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:48:00 +0000

Look at the colour of that, That is a healthy thing of beauty!

Tomorrow is sports day and I prayed for rain but looks like it's not coming, I was also scheduled to be ill. Too ill to go into school and do sport.... I'm allergic to exercise you see...... (well I'm not really and last year I was really sporty but I haven't done sport for like 6 months!

Any hoooo, I was going to be very ill tomorrow but it looks like my friend has got through to the national swimming event and any sports day event could potential cause her to pull a muscle. She is CRAAAAZY! She gets up at 5 am everyday and goes swimming until 8 and every evening too..... what a wierdo...

So now I'm doing her events (even though surely doing exercise would help her fitness!? No?... okay, I'll shut up then....). So instead of high jump alone (requiring little effort, inside and generally just banter) I now have to do 1500 metres, 800 metres, 200 metres, long jump, high jump and relay (IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL). I shall walk them all with pride. And humiliation as I get lapped....
So for sports day I'm gonna need loads of energy.... there fore SUGAR, right? Cake, chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cake, cupcakes, cake.... cake?

Well you don't have to be a genius to realise no is the answer to that. So to give ma self some energy I got some good sugar in the form of fructose! Fruit sugar! Sounds appealing......
WELL THEN I BECAME ENLIGHTENED TO SMOOTHIES!
Quick, delicious, healthy, filling, summery, creamy and just darn beautiful in every single way (especially colour). Also because it's summer here in the Uk we get lots of great tasting fruit like Scottish strawberries (nothing will beat them, and Scottish raspberries (equally good if not better), cherries and loads of other fruity fruits!
Also this literally took less than 3 minutes to make so is a great breakfast alternative if your in a bit of a rush because it's portable. Portable food is great, walking, talking and eating!

mango, strawberry and lime smoothie(serves 1)

1 ripe mango
100 grams of clean and washed strawberries
3 table spoons of creme friache
a squeeze of lime juice (not too much)

peel the mango flesh and cut out the nice juicy parts from around the stone
hull or slice the tops off the strawberries
blitz all the ingredients....
that's it... :D

just a few other things to add (sorry!, I really hope you've been looking at my instagram because I forgot to tell you about my Dad's father's day cake with I put on. It was dark chocolate and fig and wasn't too sweet but you could really taste the figgyness (now that is an awesome word). It was a saved disaster too.

It was suppose to be a loaf cake but I made it in a bundt tin instead (just to be a la'al bit different) but then I couldn't get it out the tin and then made a crack in the top of it when picking it up.....

So I covered it in cream cheese butter cream which was just in harmony with that chocolatey figgyness (we should all know that figs and cheese are just like da best). And covered the top in English cherries and melted dark chocolate!

Also on my instagram which I forgot to tell you about is my new rayban glasses! They are nerd glasses but I feel I can wear them because I am a real and true nerds (not like those people who feel they need to wear a top with it written on to prove it, do you get them in other countries or just England?).

Thirdly (I'm sorry this is also on my instagram and pinterest) is a new sensation me and my friends are sure is gonna get in the urban dictionary. YOHOL. You might have heard YOLO (you only live once) which is a phrase commonly associated with hipsters.

I don't get them they don't want to be mainstream but by being a hipster they are becoming mainstream, I mean come on obvious paradox there guys.

So anyway, YOLO is now too mainstream so the new phrase I invented is YOHOL, you only have one life. It's gonna be big...

FINAAAAALLY! I finished my tea dress too, hers a picture (I'm REALLY not very photogenic)

Sweet Potato and Paprika Chips

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 20:59:00 +0000

Gaaaah!, I will never enjoy Shakespeare ever again. I know he is supposedly the greatest playwright of all time, wrote loads'a plays, hundreds of sonnets and speeches, etc, but after 4 hours of writing on Hamlet I am no longer feeling the love.

If this is year 10, I don't wanna even think about year 11! Four hours on 'the ways in which parental relationships are presented in Hamlet and a selection of poems' is possibly the most draining and depressing thing I have done all this year (ONLY 4 WEEKS LEFT HOWEVER. 1.) Hamlet is a sad and depressing tragedy in which everyone except basically two characters die, 2.) It means over thinking EVERY little detail (note how I wrote 'EVERY' in capitals to emphasise it's importance, grab your attention and convey my message in an effective way) and 3.) it requires effort.
But after today there shall be no more Hamlet, HU-ZAR! (just three science ISAs to go...)
To celebrate this most awesome and truly joyous occasion we had chips for tea!

I'm really sorry if you are American and being confuzzled by the fact I am saying 'chips' when you are seeing fries, I just don't see how these could be fries. Fries are the match stick size greasy yellow cardboard things from McDonalds, most certainly NOT these crispy, flavoursome, healthy and oh-so-good chips. Would you call these fries or not? Or are they chunky fries? Please let me know and enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Paprika Chips(serves 4)

1.5 kg of sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons of oil (I like to use rapeseed)
1 big or 2 small garlic gloves
2 teaspoons of paprika
salt and pepper

preheat the oven to 180oC/ 400oF/ gas mark 6
peel the potatoes and chop into chunky chips (or chunky fries!)
crush or very finely chop the garlic, add to the oil and paprika in a bowl, add a very good grind of both salt and pepper
place the chips onto a baking sheet and cover in the mix, spread out evenly
place in the oven for 30 minutes, take out and toss and turn them over to make sure they all cook evenly before leaving for another 20 minutes
ENJOY!

How to felt a no mess pet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:42:00 +0000

Do you have a pet? Well I have 3 dogs ( a rough collie who is extremely handsome, a cocker spaniel who is hyper 24/7 and a scratty black mongrel who I love dearly too), Plato the budgie and one old hardy guinea pig! This is my guinea pig... okay it's not really but I thought it looked quite good.

I got two male guinea pigs when I finished my SATS, the tests you take when you're 11 years old in year 6. I named them Salt and Pepper as the previous two had also had foodie themed named (cracker and biscuit), typical me I suppose! When we got the guinea pigs are next door neighbours asked if we'd be willing to take on a third pig, a female one named Angelina. I was planning to decline until she told us it did have a friend but the dog had begun to work out how to open the hutch and they were pretty sure she was on her last legs. That was four years ago.
Never the less Angelina is still going strong despite the other two guinea pigs dying and being outside 365 days a year through all forms of British weather!

I've got a friend with two guineas too so I thought I'd make her a miniature one for her birthday by felting. Felting (if you haven't given it a go) is great! My Mum described it as 'therapeutic'. All you need is some felting wool and a felting needle which might sound a bit specific but once you've got them the world of felting is endless. All you have to do it stab the felting wool repeatedly with the needle (careful of the needle because it's very sharp)and shape the wool into anything you want.

Making this little pig was really simple, all I did was get lots of felting wool (once it becomes hard it's about half the size) and sprayed it with a little water to get it to stick better. I rolled it into a very thick sausage and started stabbing repeatably. At first it might not look like it's doing much but be patient and soon all the wool fibres will begin to stick to each other and get hard. Once I'd shaped the body and made 2 ears and 4 feet, which you can't really see, by getting a smaller bit of wool and pricking into shape, placing on the head and stabbing the base to stick again. For the eyes and nose you can you wool too but you have to use and tiny, tiny, tiiiny amount so I sewed them on with embroidery thread.

Overall you get a very sweet, very cute and no mess pet! :D

stem ginger and lemon iced biscuits

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 19:38:00 +0000

Am I feeling summery yet?.....

hhhhhm.... I'm not too sure if I am just yet, spring never did come. If you didn't know already here in the UK has been the coldest spring for 50 years! And am I feeling optimistic for summer? No. OF COURSE! So while I wait for it to get going I thought I'd make some delicious biscuits for all the seasons. I used one of my many new cookie cutters I got for my birthday from my amaaazing Scottish cousins, the button cutter! (I do love a button!)

So to make them suitable for both cold mild and hot weather I thought I'd use some lemon because it's zingy and refreshing but also reminds me of lemonade on baking hot summer days (I don't get many). I also found 2 jars of unopened stem ginger in our cupboards, one had the sell by date of 2010 but I didn't see how they could go off when preserved in syrup (well no one who has eaten one has fallen ill yet). Ginger has a fiery bite to it which warm you up in the chillier months of the year, plus it's just tastes so darn good in just about anything and everything!

Stem Ginger and Lemon Button Biscuits(makes 20 biscuits)

biscuits

125 grams of butter
75 grams of sugar
3 balls of stem ginger
zest of 1 and a half lemons
175 grams of self raising flour

cream together the sugar and butter until pale
finely chop the stem ginger and fold into the mix with the lemon zest
fold in the self raising flour and form a ball of dough
wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill fro 1/2 an hour
preheat the oven to 180oC/ 350oF/ gas mark 4
roll the dough out to about 1-2 cm thick and place on lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until slightly gold, it doesn't matter if they're still a little soft because they carry on cooking out of the oven
leave to cool and you can leave them uniced if you're feeling a bit lazy but they taste even better when iced!

Lemon icing

juice of 1/2 a lemon
100 grams of icing sugar

sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon juice
stir the mix until smooth, if you get lumps it might be better to use a whisk
drizzle or cover the cooled biscuits before leaving to set for about 15 minutes
EAAT! These are really nice served with earl grey tea with a slice or two of lemon

Cheesecake Birthday Brownies (I'm now 15!!!!)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 May 2013 13:39:00 +0000

I was going to post something last weekend but I went camping and when I got back I really didn't feel up for anything but...It was my birthday on Monday! So now my banner is truthful as I am now 15! I'll also have tweak my about me...

I had a great birthday and I got some awesome presents, including Gok Wan's cookbook, grow your own gourmet mushrooms, the great British sewing book, a chocolate and zucchini cake and another rubber duck to add to my great collection by the side of my bath (currently 42).
Since my birthday was on a school day (my friend made me walk around with a sash and helium balloon all day, not to mention 5 bags!)I thought I would bake a tray bake for us all to have at dinner time and this is what I made!

These are my second batch because the first one got eaten so quickly! They're super rich but also super good, and I mean suuuuper good. Probably not good for you but I really couldn't care less when they taste like a unicorn's having a gallop inside my mouth. The brownie park is slightly bitter but the topping is sweet making it into a perfect harmony!
The actual recipe was suppose to have walnuts in the place on white chocolate and another layer of 50 grams in between the topping and brownie but since some of my friends aren't too keen on nuts I substituted them, feel free to change it back though!

Cheesecake Birthday Brownies (makes 16-20 pieces) Adapted from the divine cookbook 'most incredibly rich brownies'

Brownie

100 grams of dark chocolate (the more cocoa solids the better)
200 grams of unsalted butter, cubed
2 eggs
400 grams of caster sugar
250 Grams of plain flour
3 table spoons of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Cheesecake layer

100 grams of unsalted butter
200 grams of cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 egg
200 grams of icing sugar
50 grams of chopped white chocolate

preheat the oven to 170oC/ 325oF/ gas mark 3. Break the chocolate into pieces and add to a heat proof boil with the cubed butter. Set over a pan of simmering water until melted, leave to cool while you make the brownie batter.
grease and line a 20 x 25 cm tin. Whisk the eggs until combined, add in the sugar and whisk until pale and thick before sifting the flour cocoa and bicarb. Fold gently, the mixture will be quite dry up to now
Add in the melted butter and chocolate along with the vanilla, mix until combined and pour into the tin
to make the sweet cheesecake topping beat the butter, cheese and vanilla in a bowl until smooth, add in the egg and mix then sift in the icing sugar and mix until creamy
pour the topping over the brownie mixture and add the chopped white chocolate, put in the oven for 50 minutes until the top is golden
leave to cool in the tin before slicing and enjoying!

Ultimate Banoffee Cupcakes and Toffee Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:19:00 +0000

Two little facts about me:

Something I love to eat is mashed green banana on crumpets, I have it for breakfast before school
Something I hate to eat, over ripe bananas, uuurgh, they're just too sweet

But Another thing I love is getting those icky over ripe bananas and baking something even more delicious than bananas on crumpets!

Last night I went on a school trip to see the horror production 'The woman in black' in the Lowry at Solford, Manchester, you might have seen the film last year staring Harry Potter of course! And I can safely say it was absolutely brilliantly done and pretty scary too, There were only two actors in the whole thing and 'the woman in black' which might sound boring but it made twice as scary...I should probably get back to the cupcakes....
So while we were on the coaches going to the play I sat next to my extremely, unbelievably weird friend who.....who....... who doesn't like banana! Or nuts..... or sausages..... Why am I friends with her? Only joking Anna (;

I could eat a whole banoffe pie for breakfast everyday, it might not be good for my health (in fact I probably wouldn't make it to my sixteenth birthday) but I could so do it. The banana and toffee combo is just beautiful and I would like to take this moment to thank Ian Dowing the creator of the pie (according to wikipedia anyway). So I hope you enjoy making these cupcakes and the best toffee sauce recipe I've ever found (short, sweet and simple).

p.s. I hope you like banana!

Ultimate Toffee Sauce

Heat 100 grams of dark brown sugar, 60 grams of butter and 250 millilitres of double cream (heavy cream) in a heavy based saucepan until the butter has melted and the sauce begun to boil. Take off the heat and leave to cool while you make the cake batter.

Ultimate Banoffee Cupcakes (makes 12)

cakes

80 grams of butter at room temperature
100 grams of soft brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp of milk
1 ripe mashed banana
1 1/2 tablespoons of ultimate toffee sauce (see above)
150 grams of self raising flour

decoration

1 banana sliced (or banana chips)
200 ml of double cream (heavy cream)
Toffee sauce

Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/gas mark 4 and line a cupcake tin with cases
beat together the sugar and butter until light and smooth before adding in the milk, egg, banana and sauce and beating again
gently fold in the flour and divide the mix between the cases. Bake for 15- 20 minute, they should be golden and spring back when pressed. Leave to cool of a wire rack.
For decoration, whip the cream until it begins to thicken and spread on the top of each of the cooled cakes, add a slice of banana (if you don't intend to eat them soon use banana chops of cover the fresh slices with lemon juice) Drizzle over the toffee sauce and thoroughly indulge yourself in the beauty that is banoffee!

DIY lip scrub (and tin)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:04:00 +0000

Well these past few days it's been positively hot in Cumbria. That's right, I just used 'hot and 'Cumbria in the same sentence. What is going on with the world? Anyway with this hot weather I thought my lips might stop getting chapped. Wrong. My lips can chap really badly so I get through so many Vaseline tins, luckily I came up with an idea to up cycle them and help my chapped lip catastrophe!

up cycled Vaseline tin

a Vaseline tin
paint (I used acrylic because it sticks to the tin better)
felt tip pens
other decoration (eg GLITTER!!!)
nail varnish remover

wash your tin and paint it with your chosen colour, but don't paint the part of the tin under the lid, otherwise it's really hard to get the lid on and off.
once dry write your lip scrub title on and decorate with paint, felt tips and any other decorations
once dry neaten up any edges or the part under the lid with nail varnish remover

DIY lip scrub

Adaptations

I used orange essence for my lip scrub but this can be quite an obscure essence to get hold of so you can use any essence or even use coconut or any nut butter instead. I think it's nice to be creative with the titles too, so if you use vanilla call it creme brulee, rose could be English garden and almond could be frangipane!

With all the warm weather (it got to almost 20oC today, I found it hard not to change into a swim suit!) I thought it would be a great chance to start experimenting with my new DSLR too. Here are just a couple of the photos I took in that garden which I thought looked quite pretty, thanks for reading!

Seeded bagels with smoked salmon

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:17:00 +0000

Firstly, I was going to blog last weekend but on Saturday I made a red tractor cake for my 5 year old cousins birthday (photo on my instagram) which took all day and by the time I'd finished I really wasn't in a baking mood. Even I have to admit that was ~~too much~~ a fair bit of cake!

Secondly, I wanted to blog earlier in this week after I planned to buy a second hand cannon 400D but then decided on a cannon 1100D. I then had to wait for the order as I wasn't prepared to use my digital camera again, it has been driving me insane with automatic zoom! But then on Wednesday night a girl in my year was hit by a mini bus and died later in hospital which really threw everything up. My whole year, even the school, became suddenly aware of just how precious our lives are and how little we have lived in the scheme of things, how lucky we really are. She was a truly beautiful 14 year old girl and (as cheesy as it sounds) I never did see her not smiling or chatting excitedly. The whole school was thrown into mourning and shock as a person was torn out of our community over night, my friend sums it up beautifully in this post. Today there was well over 200 people meeting in the local park to let off Chinese lanterns in her memory and to tell memories they had of her. Thank you for reading my post and blog, I wish you good luck in bagel baking and R.I.P Beth <3

Seeded Bagels

(makes 10)

500 grams of bread flour
7 gram sachet of fast action dried yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
300 ml of luke warm water
1 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoon of oil
1 egg beaten
50 grams of mixed seed (I used poppy and sesame seeds)

mix the flour salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl, make a well in the centre
in a separate bowl mix the water, honey, oil and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms
tip onto a floured work top and knead for 5- 10 mins until in feels smooth. It shouldn't become stretchy because bagel dough is a firm dough, but not dry
once kneaded put into a lightly oiled bowl to rise for an hour (until doubled)
once risen knock the air out and shape into 10 equal balls of dough. roll each ball into a sausage and then seal the ends together with some water and put onto a oiled baking sheet to rise for another half an hour
towards the end of the rise set the oven to preheat 200oC/ 400oF/ gas mark 6 and bring a big pan of water to the boil with the remaining tablespoon of sugar
2 or 3 at a time drop the bagels into the water to poach, 1 minute on each side then remove with a fish slice to help drain the water and place on a baking sheet
add the egg glaze to the top of each bagel before sprinkling with the seeds and baking for 15-20 minutes
put on a colling rack or enjoy hot with cream cheese, smoked salmon and watercress

These bagels are really completely different to the shop bought ones, they're not even comparable! These are really light but still chewy but still with that shiny skin. They'll freeze really well too and make a much lighter breakfast, lunch (or brunch!) than the shop bought ones.

Herby Wholemeal Parmesan Profiteroles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:30:00 +0000

They said it was impossible, they said it couldn't be done, but it has....

..... duh, duh, DUUUH!... Savoury profiteroles?

You mean those things from the 1970s oozing with cream and smothered in chocolate sauce from the prepackaged box which were presented to unsuspecting dinner party guests by a natural 'choux pastry chef'?
Yes, yes I do.

But are the savoury versions? turning a sweet, savoury?

I don't think I've ever come across a bigger sweet fan myself, I have sweet stuff for all 6 meals of the day (breakfast, lunch, mid afternoon snack, tea, pudding and midnight snack of course). And I absolutely love profiteroles, eclairs and sweet choux stuff, but not those cheaters who present a croquembouche from a plastic package! Once you master choux it is honestly easy peasy, I've failed twice in one day before but mastered it on the 3rd attempt, I found it was all about beating the eggs in REALLY well and making sure the dough looks pale, not yellow.
Anyway these savoury profiteroles, turning this sweet savoury has worked and it tastes so right! They're really light, crispy and golden ... plus I think they look a little bit like potatoes... hence the gardening photograph ....

NOTES
They're also really versatile I used oregano to top them, it's my all time favourite herb and reminds me of the pizzas I had when I went to Italy on holiday, but you could use mixed herbs, chili or even smoked paprika. you don't have to use Parmesan either it could be any of your favourite hard cheeses really. I also didn't fill these with anything because I couldn't settle on one thing, they would be great for canapes or dipping into chutney and dips (like a mini ploughman's; cheese, wholemeal bread and chutney!) or fill them ricotta or flavoured cream cheese, there's just so much choice!

Herby Wholemeal Parmesan Profiteroles

(makes 30)

profiteroles-

75g of butter
175ml of water
75g of wholemeal flour
25g of '00' of plain flour
2 eggs
30g of grated Parmesan cheese

topping and filling-

20g of grated Parmesan cheese
1 or 2 teaspoons of dried oregano or any dried herb of your choice
salt and pepper
filling (ricotta, cream cheese, see notes above)

preheat the oven to 190oC/ 375oF/ mark 5, cut a piece of baking parchment to fit your baking tray and prepare a piping bag with a large nozzle
but the butter and water into a pan and heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the butter has melted and the water just boiled
take the pan off the heat and tip in the flour, beat with the wooden spoon as hard as you can until it form a yellow dough and comes away from the side of the pan
at this point I tip the dough into a food processor because I'm not very strong and it needs a lot of beating but if you're strong you can do it by hand. Add an each one at a time beating as hard as you can between adding so it becomes well Incorporated and forms a pale yellow dough, not bright yellow
beat in the grated Parmesan and add some salt and pepper before spooning into a pipe bag and piping into the baking tray
To make the blobs of dough into neat balls get a cup of water, wet you finger and smooth the tops. Mix the grated Parmesan and dried herbs before sprinkling over and adding some salt and pepper
put in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, they should be a little firm and light brown. Take out and piece each one with a knife and turn them over so the slit faces upwards, return to the oven to dry out for 2 minutes
leave to cool before either filling or putting in a cool place in a airtight box, keep for 2- 3 days

Healthy Nutella

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Question- Is here much else in the world better than a jar of Nutella and a spoon?

Answer before discovery- WHAT? Are you serious? no, no no,NOTHING in this world can beat Nutella

Answer after discovery- THIS! it's healthier, faster than going to the shop and... dare I even challenge... tastier!

Okay, 'now you've gone a bit crazy Emily' I hear you say, maybe I have but that's because this week I discovered nut butter. It's just amazing! Who ever was the first person to get a tad carried away with blitzing nuts in heir food processor was a genius. That's all it is! Nut's whizzed up for about 5 minutes to a paste. And it is delicious! Not to mention good for you.

This is another present for my friends along with the homemade oreos so I thought homemade Nutella and homemade oreos would go quite well together. So I looked on the back of a Nutella jar to find the ingredients and (not much to my surprise)I discovered it to be sugar, closely followed by oil, then hazelnuts (only 13%!) and then finally 'reduced-fat cocoa'. I mean if your gonna eat Nutella does it really make a difference that they add 'reduced-fat cocoa' when the highest ingredient is sugar and oil!?

So this Nutella is basically 75% hazelnuts and 25% dark chocolate with a little bit of natural sugar, honey. that's it. It has a heck of a lot more health benefits than shop bought too as, I'm gonna get sciencey, hazelnuts have cardiovascular benefits (making you less likely to get heart disease) because they contain unsaturated fats, meaning they help to lower your blood pressure. The reason they help to lower your blood pressure is because they are antioxidants, as well as containing vitamins and minerals and help to give us a boost of energy. Chocolate also helps act as a antioxidant helping to lower blood pressure and honey is too! Eating some of this for breakfast everyday (in moderation of course) will help you heart! AND IT TASTES GORGEOUS!

Healthy Nutella

(makes just over 200 millilitres)

150 grams of roasted hazelnuts
50 grams of dark chocolate
1 tbsp of honey (more or less depending on the amount of cocoa solid is you chocolate)

break the chocolate into pieces and put into a heatproof bowl before putting over a pan of simmering water to melt
put the hazelnuts into a food processor and whizz until they form a paste (about 5-10 minutes, be patient, it will happen)
add in the melted chocolate, whizz again and taste to see how much honey you think you'll need
spread on toast and enjoy while your heart pumps joyfully for evermore!

Homemade Oreos

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:18:00 +0000

The annoying moment when you go outside to take pictures for your blog post to discover it has started raining for the first time in 3 weeks, take about bad timing! Anyway....
Om nom nom, oreos, who doesn't love an oreo!? I certainly do enjoy the odd ~~packet~~ oreo from time to time. But lets be honest, who would want a tiny weeny pre made packeted oreo when you could make your own massive one?

Well my Easter hols are sadly drawing to a close and next week I have two of my friends' birthdays coming up, one of whom absolutely adores oreos. She has them in her packed lunch every day and if you manage to sit next to her in the dinner hall she might just give you one. She also loves nutella so I'll be making some of that later this week but making it healthy, healthy nutella coming soon!

Have you ever noticed that if your twist an oreo and take out all the cream it tastes really sweet but the biscuits actually don't taste that good by themselves? Quite bitter really. Well during this recipe I had a little bit of a meltdown/ disaster so I'm not going to lie to you, I have a confession.
After making the dough, putting it in the fridge, photographing it, slicing it, preheating the oven and putting the biscuits in I had a little taste of the dough (one of the advantages of being greedy) to discover I'd forgotten an ingredient. The sugar. Luckily I realised moments after putting them in so had to get them back out, put all the biscuits back in the food processor, add some sugar, roll into a sausage, put in the fridge and do the whole process again. But I can now tell you that it was definitely worth it. I know I just said I was making these for my friends birthday but I had to taste test them first of course (to check for poison) and I don't know how but they beat the regular oreos because the biscuits are much nicer. That's right. They beat 'em!

Homemade Oreos

(makes about 30 oreos depending on size)

biscuits

300 grams of plain flour
25 grams of cocoa powder
200 grams of chilled butter (cubed)
125 grams of caster sugar
2 egg yolks

cream

150 grams of butter
200 grams of icing sugar
a few drops of vanilla extract (optional)

put the cocoa and flour into a food processor and whizz until combined before adding the cubed butter and pulsing until you get bread crumbs
2 add the sugar and yolks then whizz again until it starts to form a dough
take out and knead quickly to make sure everything's combined before rolling out into a long sausage, wrapping up and putting in the fridge for 1/2 an hour
preheat the oven to 180oC/ 350oF/ gas 4 and prepare a baking sheet
get the sausage from the from the fridge and cut into discs about 0.5 - 1.0 cm thick before laying out on the baking sheet and cooking for about 20 minutes and cooling on a wire rack (you might have to do it in two batches)

While the biscuits are cooling make the cream by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl, adding the butter and whisking until you get a stiff and pale butter cream
sandwich the cooled biscuits generously with the cream or store in a airtight container to sandwich on a later day

And finally eat them! Twist, lick and dunk of course. Thanks for reading and please let me know how they go if you try them, remember the sugar! Also let me know if you've had any baking disasters recently and if you managed to turn them around. Thank you very much and be sure to look out for the healthy nutella to accompany these which I'll be posting later this week.

spiced parsnip and hazelnut cake with maple frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:37:00 +0000

Wow, I can nae believe that it is the April already and Mr Spring seems to still be in hibernation after that delicious lemon and raspberry battenberg, grrrr.......
Because of this I decided to give it another go with this spiced parsnip and hazelnut cake with maple and mascarpone frosting, it is bliss, or in my Mum's word 'heaven' (but that is a tad bias, you'll only know if you give it ago however). I was going to make a carrot cake with our amazingly moist and TRULY scrumptious recipe from 'cakes and bakes from my mother's kitchen' recipe book but I decided that I was a bit fed up of the famous carrot cake, time to break the mould! (Not literally it was still cake shaped as you can see).

I mean don't get me wrong, I love carrots.... That's a lie, I don't really, they usually make me feel ill but: 1. everything tastes better in a cake and 2. any fruit or veg in a cake counts towards your 5 a day but in cake form, right? I don't like parsnips with my Sunday roast either and the reason for that is because I just find them too sweet to be having in a savoury dish so I thought this would work quite well.
The cake is extremely moist, so moist that when trying to cut it for the photos it collapsed so I brought in a fork to help clean up, I kept in the spices from the carrot cake recipe so it has a nice warmth to it but definitely has a parsnip taste to it. If you choose not to make this cake though you must do one thing for me and that is to make this icing. It's from my all time ultimate, best tasting cake ever (I will have to write the recipe out one day when strawberries are in season because it tastes best with them, it's white choc and maple syrup cake) and is made mainly with mascarpone and maple syrup so is quite liquidy really so best left in the fridge to set a little once iced.

On with the cake!

Spiced Parsnip and Hazelnut cake

with Maple frosting

cake

225 grams of self-raising
1 teaspoon of baking powder (you need extra rising agents because the grated parsnip makes it hard for the cake to rise)
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or freshly grated)
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
150 millilitres of sunflower oil
3 eggs
200 grams of light soft brown sugar
350 grams of grated parsnips (I used about 4 parsnips and grated them using the food processor after peeling because it's quick and I'm lazy!)
zest of one orange
80 grams of roasted hazelnuts roughly chopped

the amazing maple frosting!

250 grams of mascarpone
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of icing sugar

a handful of chopped hazelnuts

preheat the oven to 180oC/ 350oF/ Gas mark 4 and grease and line a cake tin (I used a 22 centimetre one for this)
mixing the flour, baking powder and spices in a large bowl and make a well in the middle
in a separate bowl beat the eggs before adding the sugar and oil and mixing again until combined
add the liquid to the flour and mix well before adding the parsnip, zest and hazelnuts and mixing
pour the mix into the tin and bake for 50- 60 minutes
leave to cool on a wire rack while making the frosting
put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat.... (that's it!)
pour the frosting over the cake (there's enough to cover the sides too if you want... or you could just eat it ~~like I did~~)
sprinkle over the hazelnuts and eat!

This cake is best kept in the fridge and eaten in 3- 4 days