Chocaccino and Banana & Cinnamon Cupcakes

Vanilla frosted chocolate and espresso cupcakes (a couple unfrosted) and banana & cinnamon cupcakes with a banana frosting.

Recipe to follow...

Soft Baked Vanilla Fudge Cookies

Nothing beats a house that smells like freshly baked cookies...except perhaps a house that contains a plate of freshly baked cookies, perhaps with the left over wooden spoon caked in all that glorious cookie dough nearby.

It's getting quite hard to be adventurous with cookie flavourings without being avant-garde, given their rise (no pun intended) in popularity in many supermarkets. I'm aware that toffee cookies are a much loved entity but fudge cookies I've yet to come across. Fudge has a higher melting point than the likes of chocolate so you have to be patient with these allowing them to melt down in the oven and giving them ample time to re-set afterwards.

I'd really recommend this recipe for basic cookie dough which you can jazz up with whatever you taste-buds inspire you with, just substitute the 200g of vanilla fudge for whatever else you fancy: I made a batch of white chocolate (150g) and chopped hazelnut (50g) at the same time as these.

Makes 10-12ish large cookies

Ingredients:

125g Butter

40g Caster Sugar

60g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

1 Medium Egg

125g Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Few drops of Vanilla Essence

200g Vanilla Fudge (or whatever else you fancy)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Line several baking sheets with baking paper or lightly butter them.

Using an electric mixer (or a heavy hand and a wooden spoon) beat the butter with both sugars, in a large bowl, until soft and fluffy.

Beat the egg, then gradually beat this, with the vanilla essence, into the mixture.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and carefully fold into the creamed mixture.

Chop the fudge into small pieces and stir into the cookie dough, be careful not to over mix.

Spoon heaped teaspoons of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, allowing plenty of room for them to stretch their legs and spread out whilst in the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely, transfer them too soon and they'll be so soft they fall through the rack - I'm speaking from experience here.

Caramel and Pecan filled Chocolate Cupcakes

So, this was my first experiment with filling cupcakes; it was so easy that I can't believe it's taken me this long to try it. The sauce could have done with being a bit thicker but for a first attempt it did the job. With a toffee flavoured cupcake, caramel and pecan filling and chocolate fudge frosting sprinkled with coconut these were perhaps my most calorifically indulgent to date - I tried to compensate over the weekend by going for a five-mile bike ride. Truth be told the majority of it was down hill. And I got-off and pushed on the slightest hint of an incline. And I got a lift back. But I tried, right?

Anyway, I digress. Divine with a 4pm cup of tea, these will definitely give you that friday-afternoon-almost-finished-work blissful satisfaction.

Makes 10

Ingredients:

75g unsalted butter

140g dark muscovado sugar

2 large egg whites

140g plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp cinnamon

225ml full fat milk with 1tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Blend the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon - the type of sugar means that it won't go as creamy as usual, so before long add the egg whites.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a separate bowl. Add half to the sugar mixture.

Add half of the milk concoction (this is a substitute for buttermilk as this recipe is adapted from an american one) to the sugar mixture.

Don't forget the vanilla essence!

Now the other half of the flour mix.

And finally the other half of the milk mixture. Blend well. Spoon into a cupcake case lined muffin tray.

Bake for between 15 and 20 minutes.

For the filling and frosting...

Ingredients:

6 pecans (chopped)

2 tbsp dark brown sugar

4 tbsp milk

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp butter

75g icing sugar

100g plain chocolate (broken into pieces)

50g butter

Directions:

On a low heat, suspend a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (making sure that the water doesn't come into contact with the base of the suspended bowl).

Gently heat 1tbsp butter, 1tbsp golden syrup, 2 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp dark brown sugar.

Once all the ingredients have melted, remove from the heat and stir in the chopped pecans.

With a sharp knife cut a cone shaped section out of the middle of each of your, now baked and cooled, cupcakes. Using a teaspoon fill each hole and replace just the top of the cone which you have cut out. And repeat.

As before, suspend a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with a small amount of simmering water. Gently heat 1tbsp butter, the chocolate and 2tbsp of milk. Occasionally stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Be sure to set the saucepan to a low heat - try to avoid the water boiling as chocolate burns easily.

Once melted stir in the icing sugar and spread over the cupcakes whilst the frosting is still warm. And enjoy!

It's been a while...

It's been 5 months since I updated the blog but I'm back...with a vengeance. My third and final year of the degree is approaching and I think bi-weekly baking and blogging sessions will be the perfect antidote to the unrelenting headache (understatement) that is my dissertation.

So apologies for my absence, I have been rather ill, rather busy working and rather besieged with a broken camera. Alas, I did still find time to bake but I have limited photographic evidence due to the aforementioned problem, but what I do have is below...

Celebration Brownies

Almond Macaroons with Chocolate Ganache Filling

Coffee, Fudge and Praline Walnut Cake

Vanilla Biscuit Bites

Double Chocolate Marble Cake

Blueberry and Cinnamon Oatmeal Loaf

Exploding Honeycomb Cookies

These beasts were spawned from my inability to make honeycomb decent enough to enjoy alone - it requires a lot of patience and yes next time I will follow a recipe and use a sugar thermometer! After my third failed attempt I smashed the honeycomb into shards, mixed them with some cookie dough and chocolate chips et voila! Somehow the pieces of honeycomb appear to have jettisoned themselves from an ingredient to something resembling a tumour but nevertheless they are devilishly moorish and give a crucial sugar rush!

Makes about 14 decent-sized cookies

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

40g caster sugar

60g soft dark brown sugar

1 medium egg (beaten)

125g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

splash of vanilla essence

100g chocolate chips

100g honeycomb shards/pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until soft and fluffy. Gradually add the beated egg into the creamed mixture. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and fold into the mixture with the vanilla essence (I like to be generous on the vanilla). Stir in the honeycomb and chocolate chips but don't over-mix.

Spoon heaps of the mixture onto greased and lined baking trays, leaving ample space between each cookie as they explode and spread like monsters.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes or until golden. As tempting as it is to eat them as soon as they come out of the oven, the roof of your mouth will resent you for subjecting it to molten sugar. After a few minutes on a wire rack they should still be warm and chewy and ready for consumption!

Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake

When your lovely boyfriend treats you to a baking book (one which you've been drooling over in the shop window for weeks) the only decent thing to do is to allow him to pick the first recipe to be made from it!

As with most chocolate recipes this one requires patience in the form of waiting for the suspended chocolate mixture to melt over the hob, but to be honest thats my favourite part - I don't know how successful speeding up the process in the microwave would be, I have my apprehensions and I especially didn't want to spoil this one so I did it by the book.

Incredibly rich but nonetheless delicious (and gluten-free!) half of the cake was gone within 10 minutes of it being out of the oven, the gooey middle was still steaming. Thank you Green and Blacks :-)

Serves 10 (ish)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Ground Almonds

300g Dark Chocolate (Minimum 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces

275g Caster Sugar

165g Butter

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

5 Large Eggs

Ground almonds to dust the tin

Icing Sugar to dust the cake

Directions:

Brush a 8" cake tin with butter and sprinkle some ground almonds, shaking off any excess.

Melt the chocolate, caster sugar, butter and salt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water and that no steam will be able to come into contact with the ingredients. Once melted remove from the heat and set to one side.

Whisk the eggs with the ground almonds and fold into the chocolate mixture. After a few minutes the mixture will thicken and stick to itself, somewhat resembling flubber.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35 - 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.

If you are not using a cake tin with a removable base, loosen the edges of the cake away from the tin and leave to cool slightly for a couple of minutes before turning it out onto a plate. Allow another 5 or so minutes of cooling time before dusting the beauty with icing sugar.

Green Tea Cupcakes

Cupcakes have got to be the best comfort food going, you can't really go wrong with them as you just chuck all of the ingredients in a bowl and succumb to the will of the electric mixer! And the whole process tends to take less than half an hour!

I was about to make some unadventurous cappuccino cupcakes but then I had a moment of caffeine-free inspiration. Furthermore, the amount of detoxifying and beneficial qualities in green tea outweighs the calorific content naturally inherent to cupcakes...probably...possibly.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

150g Unsalted Butter

175g Self-raising Flour

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 tsp Almond Essence

125g Caster Sugar

25g Light Brown Sugar

3 Medium Eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp of Green Tea

For the frosting:

150g Butter

250g Icing Sugar

2 tsp Green Tea

Directions:

Put all of the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat (preferably with a handheld electric mixer) until light and creamy.

Spoon into cupcake cases to about 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes, until just risen and golden on top. Allow to cool before frosting.

To make the green tea frosting, put the ingredients into a bowl and once again mix with an electric mixer, add more icing sugar if the mixture is too runny - you don't want it to slide off of your cakes. You can either fashion a piping bag out of a square of greaseproof paper, or a plastic bag - failing that just use the back of a spoon in a circular motion to smoothly and evenly cover the cakes.

Blondies

I was going to the cinema with a group of friends and thought, mmmm brownies would be good to take in to nibble on when I momentarily get bored of popcorn - but alas, I have no chocolate! (And rarely get bored of popcorn). Blondies it is then. These treats are so deceptive they look and feel very cakey but in fact the texture is rather dense and chewy. Definitely be generous with the cinnamon.

Makes about 16 bars

Ingredients:

350g Plain Flour

150g Butter (softened)

2 Large Eggs

150g Light Brown Sugar

150g White Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Vanilla

2 tbsp Milk

Icing Sugar to dust

Directions:

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars. This is pretty difficult with a spoon so your best bet is to give your hands a good wash and then get stuck in there! Make sure you have some kitchen roll nearby for cleaning your hands off after as it gets rather messy. Add the eggs and vanilla to this mixture and set to one side.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cream of tartar and salt. Sift and fold these dry ingredients into the buttery-sugary concoction. Add milk (more or less) so that the mixture is just pourable, be cautious though as the blondies will taste better the less runny the mixture is - it's safer to fight with a very sticky dough in this instance!

Pour/Scoop the mixture into the greased and lined baking tray and smooth over the surface with a knife or spatula.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes. If in doubt take them out, these taste perfect just slightly undercooked and gooey in the middle. Cut into bars and dust with icing sugar.

Oaty, Almond and Honey Muffins

After spending about an hour trying to decide what flavour muffins would best satisfy my craving, I settled on this sweet yet heavy variety perfect for a cold wintery evening. I completely experimented with the recipe so it's kind of a dense, muffin-cupcake hybrid. Enjoy :-)

Makes 6 Muffins

Ingredients:

40g Caster Sugar

10g Light Brown Muscovado

150g Plain Flour

2 tbsp Ground Almonds

50g Butter (melted)

80ml Milk

2 Large Eggs

80g Oats

3 tbsp Honey

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Almond Essence

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 tsp Cinnamon

Plus some more oats and honey for decoration.

Directions:

Sift the flour into a bowl with both sugars, baking powder, ground almonds, salt and cinnamon (all of the dry ingredients except the oats).

In another bowl combine the melted butter, eggs and milk and then fold in the dry ingredients.

Add almond and vanilla essence and honey and stir well. Finally stir in the oats.

Spoon into muffin cases so that they are just over 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes checking regularly.

When the muffins look like they are almost done (by this point they should be relatively well risen but not yet golden coloured) drizzle some honey on each and sprinkle with a few oats before returning then to the oven for a final few minutes.