Happy Baking- Trick or Treat Brownies

I think the title of this bake might be slightly misleading- I can assure you there are only treats in these brownies!

This is a brownie like tray bake laced with chocolate chunks and marshmallows...Amazing! (Ignore my last piece about healthy eating, it's all gone wrong with this bake!) It's really gooey and super chocolatey- Everything I love in a brownie.

This is a lovely bake to do for parties as they can be cut to your desired size and piled high on the plate! I also think they're perfect for the coming Halloween, cut them up, dish them out, and watch the smiles...You won't regret it!

Makes 9 + Brownies- Depending on the size of your slice! :)

Ingredients-
150g Dark Chocolate
50g Milk Chocolate
200g Unsalted Butter
175g Caster Sugar
75g Dark Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
80g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
100g White Chocolate- Chopped
100g Marshmallows- Chopped into thirds

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a tin approximately 8inches x 12inches with baking parchment.
2) Place the dark chocolate, milk chocolate and the butter into a pan and heat gently until melted.
3) Poor the melted chocolate and butter over both sugars and mix until the sugars have dissolved.
4) Sieve the flour and baking powder into the chocolate mixture and fold it through
5) Add the eggs and vanilla extract into the above mixture and mix through.
6) Lastly add the chopped white chocolate and marshmallows and mix until everything is incorporated.
7) Tip into the baking tin and smooth the top of the mixture down, then bake in an oven for 40-50 minutes. Or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few crumbs (You want it to stay slightly gooey! :) ) **Because of the marshmallows in this recipe the top will brown quickly, so after 20 minutes loosly cover the top with foil.
8) Let it cool in the tin, then cut and eat!!

Happy Baking- Chocolate Banana Marbled Tray Bake

The later half of last week was filled with tissues, throat sweets, a runny nose, a headache and an afternoon nap...yep I got a cold.

I spent my time feeling very sorry for myself and needing lots of cuddles and sympathy (Sam did an excellent job at this-maybe I should have a cold more often?) 

On Sunday I was feeling a lot better, and after finding some overripe bananas hiding under the apples I thought it was only right I did some baking (All to aid my recovery of course!) so I surfed the Internet for a banana bread recipe...Only problem, I don't have a loaf tin here (And I call myself a baker...terrible) so I made quite a few changes to the recipe and decided to make a yummy marbled Banana tray cake to aid my snotty nose recovery.

This recipe has minimal effort involved, and results in a lovely moist sponge perfect on these colder nights with a cup of tea.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients-
150g Unsalted Butter- Softened
100g Caster Sugar
75g Dark Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
4 Bananas- Very ripe
225g Plain Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
25g Cocoa Powder
Milk

Method- 
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a tin approximately 8inches x 12inches with baking parchment,or grease with butter.
2) Cream the butter and both sugars together until they are light and creamy.
3) Add the eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4) Mash up the bananas until they are smooth and they add this to the above mixture and mix through.
5) Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture and carefully mix it in.
6) Put half of this mixture into into a separate bowl and add the cocoa powder to one of these bowls before mixing it through. 
7) Add a small amount of milk into the chocolate banana mixture and mix it through- keep adding small amounts until the mixture is the same consistency as the plain banana mixture. 
8) Spoon the mixture into the tin, alternating between the plain banana mixture and the chocolate bananas mixture and then swirl the two together using the end of a spoon- make sure that the mixture goes right into the corners of the tin and that it is as flat at possible. 
9) Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the mixture comes away from the side of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
10) Remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before removing and transferring it to a wire rack.

Happy Baking- Apple Tray Bake

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...Well I'm glad it doesn't, other wise I wouldn't of had a chance to bake this beauty!

My housemates girlfriend came to stay last weekend, and bought with her some cooking apples from her dads garden because she thought I would be able to bake something with them! :) (She's too cute!)

I've never actually baked anything with apples in before, that was always left to my Mum (Crumbles and pies were a speciality) so I took to the internet to try and find a recipe that took my fancy. I wanted something cakey, because my motto is that you can never have too much cake. During my searching I stumbled upon a recipe on the BBC Goodfood website for a Dorset Apple Tray Bake (The recipe can be found here) so I thought I would give it a whirl!

I'm really happy with the result, and I really like the sharpness of the apples in lemon juice against the sweet sponge. Yum.

If you fancy it too, then here's what you're going to need to do...

Makes 15 Squares

Ingredients-
450g Cooking Apples
Lemon Juice (Roughly half a lemons worth)
225g Unsalted Butter- Softened
180g Caster Sugar
50g Soft Brown Sugar
50g Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
350g Plain Flour
5 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Caster Sugar, dark brown sugar, and cinnamon to sprinkle on top- Optional! 

Method-

1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray approximately 8 inches x 12 inches with baking parchment.  (I used a deep brownie pan that was this size- The mixture does rise quite a bit when it's baked so try to use a deep tray if you can. If you don't have a deep tray then just leave the baking parchment sticking upwards and it should be fine)

2) Peel and core your apples and then thinly slice them so they are roughly the same thickness. Place them in a bowl and cover with the lemon juice, then put to one side.

3) Put the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, flour and baking powder into a bowl (You'll need a large one) and mix together until it all comes together and there are no lumps. 

4) Take half the mixture and spread it out evenly onto the bottom of your lined tin.

5) Take half the sliced apples and arrange them flat over the cake mixture so as much of the mixture is covered as possible.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 so you have 4 layers- 2 of cake and 2 of apple. 

7) Mix roughly a tablespoon of caster sugar, a tablespoon of dark brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon together in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the top of the cake.

8) Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the top of the cake in a lovely golden brown.- Then let it cool in the tray for 10-15 minutes, remove from the tin and enjoy a slice! (Check on your cake after 30-35 minutes- If the top of the cake is quite dark but the inside isn't cooked properly then loosely cover the top with a piece of foil)

Happy Baking- Strawberry Cake

September has come around all too quickly, and I'm still trying to hold on to the last remains of the summer. To me that means venturing out in a dress even though the weather isn't always calling for it. Trying to prolong what little tan I have and of course continuing the summer baking. That's where this little cake comes in.
Strawberries and cream help sum up the summer for me, and I'm determined that one day I'll make it to Wimbledon to watch the tennis with my strawberries and cream. Until then my strawberries will have to come in cake form...So here it is, my last attempt at preserving the summer with my Strawberry Cake :)

Makes 1 7inch cake. Enough to feed about 6 people

Ingredients-
150g Caster Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter- Softened to room temperature
1 Egg
50g Natural Yoghurt (I use Sainsburys basic low fat natural yoghurt)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
125g Plain Flour
1.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder
75g Strawberries- Cut into quarters *
OPTIONAL- 25g Strawberries cut into quaters to place on top of the cake before baking

*I don't like a lot of fruit in cakes as I think it can sometimes make them a little bit soggy or stodgy. So in this recipe I have only used 75g of strawberries, however if you wanted to add an extra 25g-50g then this is okay :) You can also put some extra strawberries on top of the cake before baking! 


Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and either line a 7 inch baking tin with baking parchment and a little butter.
2) Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream until light and fluffy.
3) Add the egg, natural yoghurt, and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and mix through well.
4) Sieve the plain flour and baking powder over the mixture and carefully mix through.
5) Add the cut up strawberries and mix them through the cake batter.
6) Transfer the mixture to the tin, and smooth out the top so the mixture is level the whole way across. (You can now add the optional extra strawberries on top if you want to- Just scatter them over the smoothed batter and lightly press into the mixture.)
7) Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes- Or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean of crumbs, and the top is a golden brown.
8) Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, before removing the cake from the tin and transferring to a wire rack.
9) Sprinkle with icing sugar, cut yourself a wedge, and enjoy your handiwork and a last taste of summer!

Happy Baking- Malteser Cupcakes

It's been a little while since I've baked any cupcakes and my stomach was telling me it was time to change that! I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to bake so I had a look on the internet for some inspiration and found a lovely little recipe for malteser cupcakes on the bbcgoodfood website. I've changed it around a bit because I thought it needed a few changes and I'm really happy with the result- As was my boyfriend!...These little fellas didn't stay around for long!

**Sorry for the quality and lack of photos!- I took some really nice ones, but the colour on my camera was playing up so they came out really strange :( **

Makes 12-16 Cupcakes, depending on the size of your case.


Ingredients-

For the Cupcakes-
200g Unsalted Butter- Softened
100g Caster Sugar
10g Soft Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
200g Plain Flour
3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
Generous Pinch of Salt
100ml Milk (I use Skimmed but any should be fine :) )
120g Maltesers

For the Icing-
I used my favourite butter icing recipe, which is from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book!
500g Icing Sugar
160g Unsalted Butter- Softened
3 Tablespoons Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Maltesers for decoration

Method-

For the Cupcakes-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a cupcake or muffin tin with cases, then put to one side.
2) Add the softened butter and both sugars to a bowl and cream together until they are lighter in colour, and look a little fluffy.
3) Add both eggs and the vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and carefully mix together.
4) Add all of the dry ingredients to the bowl and carefully stir together- Be careful not to over mix at this stage.
5) Add the milk to the mixture and mix it through the mixture to loosen, before adding the maltesers and giving one last stir.
6) Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until roughly 3/4 full- Trying to make sure an even number of maltesers goes in each one if you can.
7) Put them in the oven and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the top is a light golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8) Once baked, remove the cases from the tins and let the cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack while you make the icing!

Butter Icing-
1) Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add to it the butter, milk and vanilla extract- Start mixing the mixture using a folk.
2) When the mixture has come together with an electric whisk (Or a lot of arm power) for 3-5 minutes- Or until the icing is a really pale colour and nice and fluffy.

Decorating-
The butter icing can either be piped onto your cooled cupcakes or spooned on and smoothed down- Let your imagination run wild! I think it looks lovely to finish the cupcakes off with either a couple of whole maltesers or some chopped maltesers :)...Yum!

Happy Baking- Chocolate Nutella Cookies

These are my new favourite cookies, but be-warned these cookies are a chocolate overload but SO good!

They've got a slightly crisp outside, with a soft pillowy inside, and the centre is lovely and gooey from the Nutella.

Cookies = Good
Nutella = Good
Nutella Cookie = AMAZING!

I've been looking at a lot of different cookie recipes online recently, and I saw quite a few of them included cornflour, so I decided to include it in this recipe, and it really does help give a lovely texture to the cookies!

Makes approximately 9 Large Cookies

Ingredients-
100g Unsalted Butter- Softened
100g Caster Sugar
65g Soft Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
100g Plain Flour
40g Cocoa Powder
2 Teaspoons Cornflour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Nutella


Method-
1) Line a baking tray with baking parchment and put to one side.
2) But the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy.
3) Add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and thoroughly mix together.
4) Add the flour, cocoa powder, cornflour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix together carefully- The mixture will become quite stiff so be careful when you mix it so it doesn't go everywhere!
5) Put the mixture in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.
6) Line another tray with foil and place 9 or 10 teaspoons of Nutella onto it and then transfer to the freezer for about 30 minutes to harden.
7) While the cookie dough and Nutella are chilling preheat your oven to 180C.
8) Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and the Nutella from the freezer and working quite quickly take a heaped tablespoon of the cookie dough, flatten either on the tray or in your hand, place the hardened teaspoon of Nutella into the centre and press the cookie dough around the Nutella so that it is completely covered- If you're doing this in your hands roll the dough around in your palms afterwards so it's a nice round ball. Then place this on the baking tray, spacing them out well as they will spread during baking.- Repeat this until you have used all of your cookie dough and Nutella balls.
9) Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to turn a darker brown.
10) Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for about 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.
11) Enjoy with a cup of tea or a cool glass of milk...Perfect!

Nutella ready for chilling in the freezer

Cookie dough ready to shape around the Nutella

All ready for the oven!

Mmmm

Happy Baking- Strawberry and Chocolate Oaty Tray Bake

Some left over strawberries, and a craving for flapjack bought about these little slices :)

They're a really nice crumbley slice that are so easy to make and take hardly any time to bake...You can have these on the table in half an hour.

These are also really lovely served warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Makes 8 slices

Ingredients-
200g Porridge Oats
100g Unsalted Butter
75g Algave Syrup
50 Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds
150g Strawberries
30g Chocolate Chips

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 200C and line an 8inch x 8inch baking tin with baking parchment.
2) Add the oats, butter, algave syrup, flour and ground almonds to a bowl and using your hands "rub" all of the ingredients together, until all of the butter is incorporated.
3) Mash up the strawberries in a separate bowl- Making sure there are no large chunks of of strawberry.
4) Put 3/4 of the oat mixture into the baking tin, spread it out evenly and push it down into the tin.
5) Add the mashed strawberries to the tin and spread them evenly over the top of the oats.
6) Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over the top.
7) Sprinkle over the chocolate chips.
8) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and loosely cover with foil, and put it bake in the oven for another 5 minutes.- They should be starting to go golden on top, and the chocolate chips melting slightly.
9) Remove from the oven and let them cool in the tin.

Happy Baking- Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes

It's cupcake time! I haven't baked cupcakes in ages, I've been decorating them at work but haven't got around to baking any so I thought it was about time to change that! These little beauties are a chocolate sponge with a swirl of marshmallow fluff running through them...just lovely!

The chocolate sponge is loosely based on the chocolate cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, but it needed to be a firmer mixture so the marshmallow wouldn't sink!

Marshmallow fluff is a soft spreadable marshmallow that originates from America and has luckily made its way over here too. I buy mine fromWaitrose however per supermarkets also sell it and you can buy it online too.

If you can open a jar without mixing it with Nutella and slathering the whole lot on toast then I strongly recommend you give these a go :)

I like to use these cases from lakeland which are slightly bigger than most cupcake cases so I would recommend that this recipe will make about 9 cupcakes using these cases or 9-12 using your normal cupcake cases.

Makes approximately 9 large cupcakes

Ingredients-

Cupcakes-

150g Soft Brown Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
110g Plain Flour
30g Cocoa Powder
1.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
50ml Milk
Marshmallow Fluff

Icing-
200g Icing Sugar
80g Marshmallow Fluff
50g Unsalted Butter
1 Tablespoon Milk

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with 9 paper cases.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy- this can take a few minutes.
3) Add the eggs one at a time- beating the mixture well after each one.
4) Sieve the dry ingredients over the creamed mixture and mix through.
5) Add the milk to the mixture and mix carefully in- This will loosen the mixture.
6) Put a tablespoon of the cake mixture into each paper case.
7) On top of the cake mixture put a heaped teaspoon of the marshmallow fluff, then top with more cake mixture (your case should be about 3/4 full now- if not add a little more of the cake mixture)
8) Take a skewer or something thin and swirl the cake mixture and marshmallow fluff together.
9) Bake in the oven for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean of cake crumbs, and any marshmallow exposed on the top is turning golden. Remove from the tin and let cool on a wire rack.
10) While the cupcakes are cooling you can prepare the icing- place all of the ingredients into a bowl and start mixing together slowly and carefully. When all of the icing sugar is incorporated beat for a few minutes until it looks nice and fluffy- using an electric hand mixer if you have one as it will save your arm!
11) When the cupcakes are fully cooled transfer the icing to a piping bag with a nozzle and pipe a swirl onto the top of the cupcake. Alternatively you can spoon the icing on and smooth it down.

Happy Baking- White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I don't think you need a reason to have a cookie, apart from wanting one! So here's a little recipe for White Chocolate Chunk Cookies to fill that cookie shaped hole in your life!

Makes 12 cookies

Ingredients-
125g Unsalted Butter- Softened to room temperature
100g Soft Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
200g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
130g White Chocolate- Cut into chunks (You could use milk, dark, or a mixture of all if you would rather)
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
2) Cream the Butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
3) Add the oil (And vanilla extract if you're using it) and mix in the creamed mixture.
4) Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix together well- The mixture will start to get quite stiff at this point.
5) Add the chocolate chunks and mix through so they are spread out evenly in the mixture.
6) Table a tablespoon of the cookie dough and shape it into a ball using your hands, place on the baking tray leaving a gap between each one and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.
7) Bake for 12-15 minutes- Until the are just starting to get a bit of colour on the edges.
8) Let them cool on the tray for about 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool properly.

Happy Baking- Shortbread Style Biscuits

These biscuits are a little like shortbread. They're crumbly, but have a nice crisp to them.
They're so easy to make, and take less than 10 minutes to bake, perfect for those unexpected visitors, or when only home made will do!

Go on, stick the kettle on and bake some biscuits!

Makes approximately 24 small ish biscuits. (I used a pretty little flower cookie cutter from Lakeland- Find it here)

Ingredients-
140g Plain Flour
100g Unsalted Butter- Straight from the fridge
50g Icing Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
















Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2) Rub the flour and butter together until it resembles bread crumbs.
3) Stir in the icing sugar.
4) Add the egg yolk and start squeezing the mixture together until it binds into a ball of dough.
5) Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 3-4mm thick and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. (Try to keep the cookies small to allow for a short baking time.)
6) Place the spaces onto the baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes- Or until the edges are turning a light brown at the edges.
7) Let the biscuits cool and harden slightly before transferring to a wire rack.
8) Get a cuppa and dunk away!