Macaroons

I have wanted to make macaroons for a while, and at the local school's Christmas bazaar on Saturday I  bought one - however it turned out to be a plain biscuit! I was ever-so disappointed so I went home and made some.

I used a standard recipe and they took hardly any time to prepare. Separate 2 eggs, set aside the yolks and whisk the whites into stiff peaks. Add 100g caster sugar a spoonful at a time until smooth and glossy. Mix in 125g ground almonds, and add a drop of almond essence. And that's it!

You can pipe the mixture onto baking trays, but spooning dollops on works fine. They should be the size of an apricot. To finish off put half a blanched almond on top of each - I used flaked as I didn't have any blanched. Cook in the oven at gas mark 4 for 15-20 minutes until just firm.
Delicious! I think next time I will spread the mixture out a bit more and make thinner, flatter ones, to see if that makes them 'lighter than air'.

I have displayed them on a cake stand, which I know isn't intended for macaroons! However, it was a leaving present from work and so pretty that I wanted to use it straight away.

Apple and almond crumble slice

Described on the BBC website as ‘moderately easy’, I’m not sure I agree. This cake requires 3 separate bakes in the oven with different components added each time. If it tasted amazing at the end it would be worth it, but I’m not sure it did. I think, however, it would be quite a lot easier if you own a food processor. The recipe uses plums, however I used cooking apples, which work just as well.

If you tend to find long recipes boring skip the next two paragraphs…

Chocolate brownie cupcakes

Continuing on the cupcake theme (the boyfriend gave me a cupcake recipe book for my birthday), yesterday I made chocolate brownie cupcakes. They are actually for his birthday so it is quite apt.

The idea is to make lots of mini cupcakes and put a candle in each. I didn't have mini cupcake cases, or a mini cupcake baking tray, so I made regular cupcakes...woo. I made double the recipe as I wasn't sure how many regular-sized cupcakes it would make, and it worked fine.

First melt 150g of butter and 100g of dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. (I didn't have dark chocolate, so I used milk and added a dessertspoonful of cocoa powder to give some added chocolate).
Allow to cool slightly, and then mix with 150g of sugar and beat in 2 eggs. Stir in 50g of flour (this didn't seem quite enough so I added a little more), and finally 100g of chopped nuts, I used brazil nuts and cashews, but I think any would be fine. You can either coarsely chopped the nuts for a thicker texture or finely chop if that's your thing.

Line a baking tray with cupcake cases, I used a heart-shaped cupcake tray for added love...
Bake them in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes or until they are cracking on the top, don't overbake as you want that nice moist centre.

Eat warm with a nice glass of milk, or cooled with a lovely cup of tea.

Chocolate and pear cake

I bought The Fairtrade Cookbook last week. The first recipe that caught my eye was a 'cookie pizza' complete with chocolate spread, peanut butter, marshmallows, and chocolate eggs. A chocoholics feast, however I decided to go for the slightly more modest 'Chocolate and pear cake'.

All set to make the cake, I'd creamed my butter and sugar, added the eggs, chopped up the pears, weighed the flour, and took the baking powder out of the cupboard... Empty. Not even a little bit left. It was wet and cold outside so I dash to the shops wasn't very appealing. I took the easier option and knocked on our (elderly) neighbour's door. After a quick explanation I was presented with a tub of baking powder, and sent on my way. The parting words being 'it's quite old'. Quite old it was. All I know is that it cost 23p - (it's about 75p nowadays).

With certain trepidation I put it in the oven anyway. The resulting cake was very chocolatly, and nice and moist, the pears levelled the chocolate and made sure it wasn't too rich. However, it was decidedly flat, I fear the baking powder wasn't quite what it used to be.

Sorry about the picture it was quite hard to get a good shot of it!

Bonfire Cake

Continuing the themed cakes, I decided to celebrate bonfire night with some 'Firework cupcakes'. However, when I looked at the recipe it had no eggs or butter, and white wine vinegar and sunflower oil instead. Didn't sounds all that appetizing. Besides which I couldn't find any mini sparklers to put in each cupcake.

So I opted for Plan B (otherwise known as the wise words of my mother), and made a big cake, hence 'Bonfire cake'. What on earth - I hear you ask - is a 'Bonfire cake'? Well, it is a big round stack of yummy chocolate cake, with melted chocolate poured on top, decorated with silver balls and a sparkler.

I used my own easy-peasy recipe for the cake, 6oz butter and 6oz sugar creamed together, add 6oz plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp cocoa, and 3 eggs. Mix it all together put it in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Simples...

I then melted a bar of Green & Black's milk chocolate, poured it over the cake and covered the top with silver balls. Finally I added a sparkler, turned out all the lights, lit the end and watch in awe. The cake didn't last much past bonfire night so it must have been tasty!

Halloween Cupcakes

I spent weeks trying to track down Halloween-themed cupcake cases but found none, so plain paper cases it was. I hope the spider web icing makes up for it!
These cupcakes use pumpkin or butternut squash, sunflower oil, and cinnamon, giving a sweet, spicy flavour. The mixture looked very runny, and my mum was convinced they wouldn't cook properly, so I hastily added a bit more flour. For once I was the one to say 'I told you so'...as they cooked well, and were a nice golden-brown.

However, when it came to icing them the cakes were quite moist and the icing didn't stick too well, so I iced some vanilla cupcakes that I had made instead. The spider-web icing is definitly the trickiest part. First make some white icing (or you can use melted white chocolate), make sure it is quite thick, and cover each cupcake. Once you have iced all of the cakes, melt 25-50g of milk or dark chocolate. Spoon the chocolate into an icing bag. Pipe a dot of chocolate in the centre of each cake, and draw 2 or 3 concentric circles around the outside. Next take a cocktail stick or skewer and draw a line from the central dot to the outside edge of the cake, and repeat about 8 times around the cake to create the spider-web effect.

And for a bit of Halloween fear have a look at my scary pumpkins...