Oatmeal cookies.

I know! I've been lazy and not posted anything in months! Sorry! Today, however, I was a little sad, because I took our Christmas tree down, and yes, I know it's the end of April, but I like my Christmas tree, kay? So, yes, I was sad and it was time for a pick-me-up in the form of these delicious cookies. You will need:
-150g unsalted butter
-150g plain flour
-½tsp bicarb
-50g ground almonds
-50g porridge oats
-50g dried berries of your choice
-50g brown sugar
-50g caster sugar
-100g chocolate buttons
-2 egg yolks


It's all very simple. Melt the butter and let it cool, then mix the egg yolks into it, if the butter is too hot, they will scramble. Not yummy. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl well, then add the butter and stir everything together well. The "batter" will be rather crumbly, but not to worry, it's supposed to be like that. Form your cookies, an ice cream scoop is perfect for this, pressing them into pretty hard balls and then place them on a baking tray, squashing them slightly. Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Right out of the oven the cookies will be -very- soft and crumbly and if you try to move them that's what you'll end up with, a pile of crumbs. So keep them greedy fingers off! Let them cool for 15-20 minutes and then enjoy!

Blueberry cheesecake cupcakes!

These are easy to make, but take a little time, and they can be made with berries or fruit of your choice, not only blueberries. The most important thing is to get the timings right, so you don't spend unnecessary time waiting for things to cool or set.
This is what you'll need:

- 100g softened unsalted butter
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g self raising flour
- 300g berries or fruit of your choice
- 600g softened philadelphia (NOT light)
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract (NOT essence)
- 6 leaves of sheet gelatine
-2 eggs

The first thing you will want to do is soak the gelatine in cold water. Put the berries or fruit of your choice in a small saucepan with a ¼ cup of icing sugar and a ¼ cup of water. Bring to the boil, then blend up and whisk in 3 of the gelatine leaves. Leave to cool.


Make the cupcake base by creaming the butter with the caster sugar, then mixing in the eggs and vanilla and lastly fold in the flour. Pour this into the paper cupcake moulds. Only put a small teaspoon into each one. Bake these at 180 degrees, they bake up in 5 minutes and look something like this.

Let the cupcakes cool and then pour a tablespoon of the fruit mixture into each one. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons of it for later. Put the cupcakes into the fridge to set for 10 minutes. While they cool, prepare the cheesecake filling. Warm up the reserved fruit filling and melt the remaining sheets of gelatine into it. Stir the cheese with a ¼cup of icing sugar. Mix the two together well.


Fill the cupcake moulds with the cheesecake filling to the top, decorate to your liking and then leave in the fridge to set for a couple of hours. I decorated mine with edible sugar flours, glitter and stars.

Enjoy!

Sticky toffee pudding!

This is a delicious and very easy to make sticky toffee pudding! Nothing complicated at all. This is what you'll need:
225g dates, chopped
250ml black tea (not very strong)
100g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g self-raising flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Put the chopped dates and tea in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook for a few minutes to soften the dates, then remove from the heat and set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar until light in colour and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the vanilla extract. Fold in the date mixture (cooled, or it will melt the butter and though the pudding will still taste delicious it will be very heavy).

Sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold in gently until mixed.

Pour the mixture into a 23cm tin and bake for 45 minutes or until done at 180 degrees. Check with a skewer. Leave it to cool in the tin while you make the toffee sauce. You will need:
110g butter
250g soft light brown sugar
275g golden syrup
225ml cream (single or double doesn't matter)
½ tsp vanilla extract

This one is really easy. Dump everything in one pot, bring it to the boil on a really high heat, reduce the heat and let it bubble for 5-10 minutes. TA-DAH! Toffee sauce!

Serve with ice cream or custard, or whipped cream.

Enjoy!


P.S. Line the bottom of your tin with baking paper, 'cause the cake is very moist and the paper will make taking it out of the tin a 100 times easier!

Chocolate cupcakes.

These are very yummy and easy to make :) Here's what you'll need:
-150g dark chocolate
-100g butter
-2 eggs
-½ cup sugar
-1 cup self raising flour

First thing you want to do is melt the chocolate and the butter together. How you do it is completely up to you, I prefer doing it over a double boiler, but if you rather do it in the microwave, feel free.

While the chocolate is melting whisk the sugar and eggs until light, pale in colour and fluffy.

When the chocolate is melted slowly add it to the egg mixture, while constantly whisking. (If the chocolate is a little too hot, let it cool slightly first, because you don't want scrambled chocolate eggs).

Lastly, sift in the self raising flour and mix well, before scooping out into cupcake forms. (If you want your cupcakes to be even more chocolatey add chocolate chunks or chips into the batter before scooping). Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.
Enjoy!

P.S. And here's a little something to watch while you're eating them! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOVDu7etQlc (recommendation from a friend)

Semolina buns.

Yummy yummy semolina buns!
What you will need:

350ml soured cream
250ml semolina
250ml sugar
3 eggs
1tsp baking powder
250ml flour

Mix the semolina and the soured cream into a paste and leave to stand for one hour. At the end of that time beat eggs and the sugar together until fluffy and pale in colour.

Add the semolina mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. Sift in the flour and the baking powder and mix again.

Pour into the moulds and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Test with a wooden skewer.

I made mine in little individual moulds, but you can make yours as one big cake, in which case lengthen the baking time.

Enjoy!

Chocolate cake.

Today's treat is a chocolate sponge cake.

For the sponge you'll need:
5 eggs
200g caster sugar
200g flour
2tsp baking powder
2tsp cocoa powder, if you want your sponges to be chocolate
(mine weren't)

For the icing you'll need:
200g chocolate of your choice
100ml single cream
50g unsalted butter (softened)

To make the sponge, beat the eggs and the sugar to ribbons, this should take about 5 minutes. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa (if you're using it) into the eggs and gently fold, without losing too much air. Bake in tins of your choice for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown and the skewer comes out clean. I baked mine in small 7" tins, simply because I detest having to slice sponge, it's a dirty messy business. The amount of batter makes for 3 small layers. Do feel free to bake all of yours in one big tin and slice it into layers, if that's what you prefer.

While the cakes cool, make the icing.

Melt together the chocolate and cream in a water bath, cool to room temperature. This is very important, because if the mixture isn't cool, the butter will melt and instead of icing you'll get a split disgusting something. When the chocolate is cool to the touch, whisk in the softened butter.

Assemble the cake, layering the sponge with the icing, decorate to your liking, I used sugar pearls.

Enjoy!

Things I want the most.

There isn't really a limit to the amount of kitchen things that I want, but right now, at the top of the list is a microplane. A proper one like this. With a safety guard, preferably.