When I saw this recipe for white chocolate rocky road, I knew that I’d have to bake it with Little One on one of our Wednesdays together. She was so excited to come to the shops with me (it has been a while because of Covid 19), and was intrigued by baking without using the oven! We had such a lovely day together this week, and this was definitely her highlight. The party rings work so well here, and I was surprised by how well they kept their crunch. It’s worth buying the mini version for the top, as they fit nicely in the baking tray.

White chocolate rocky road: ingredients

600g white chocolate

30g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

50g pistachios, roughly chopped (we ended up using blanched almonds, as our local supermarket didn’t have pistachios)

125g pack Party Rings, bashed into pieces

100g pink and white mini marshmallows

110g pack Party Rings Minis, to decorate

Method

1.Grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tray.

2. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, then add the butter and stir until smooth. Reserve ⅓ of the mixture.

3. Carefully take the bowl off the pan and set aside to cool for 10 mins.

4. Stir the cooled chocolate mixture to loosen; mix in the pistachios, biscuit pieces and mini mallows.

5. Tip the mixture into the tin and smooth down the top. Pour over the reserved chocolate mixture. Arrange the Party Ring Minis on the topping to decorate, gently pressing them down.

6. Chill the rocky road in the fridge for at least 2 hrs or preferably overnight, until set. Then cut into pieces to serve (the original recipe says 30 pieces, but we cut bigger ones!).

Find the original recipe online here. If you like this recipe, you may also enjoy making blonde mini egg rocky road, smiley jammy dodgers, or these chocolate and salted caramel squares. Yum!

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Little One loves to bake so much, so when Littlest One is at nursery we always make sure that we bake something. A few weeks ago, we made these cherry and almond cupcakes. The day we baked them also happened to be her first day not being at nursery anymore, so we wanted to make something extra yummy. It’s lovely spending time baking together, and it’s a lovely thing to do when her little brother is at nursery! She always wants to know what we’ll be making, and I think it will be a lovely tradition. She chose how we would decorate them, and was very pleased that they look “a bit like space, Mummy!”. This recipe is actually originally for a cake, but it worked really well for cupcakes too. We used a muffin tray to make them.

Ingredients

200g glacé cherries

200g self-raising white flour

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs (medium)

50g ground almonds 

1 tsp almond extract

2 tbsp flaked almonds – only use these if you’re making a cake version

For the frosting

250g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml semi skimmed milk

A few drops of almond extract

Food colouring (optional)

A few sprinkles (we used white chocolate stars)

Method

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C, (fan 150°C, gas mark 3). Cut the cherries in half and rinse in hot water to remove all the syrup. Pat dry with kitchen paper.

2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, then gradually beat in the eggs a little at a time until well mixed, adding a little of the flour if the mixture curdles.

3. Fold in the flour, salt, cherries, ground almonds and almond extract until evenly mixed.

4. Spread the mixture into a 7 inch cake tin, top with flaked almonds and bake for 60-75 minutes, until firm to the touch and the cake has just begun to shrink from the side of the tin. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then remove from the tin and cool completely.

I’m definitely going to make this as a celebration cake at some point. In my new book, Colourful Fun Embroidery, I have created a super sweet bunting cake topper that I think would look fab on top of this! If you’d like to order a copy, you can do that here.

The original recipe for cherry and almond cupcakes can be found here.

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This delicious lemon curd ice cream recipe is based on a previously blogged recipe for the ultimate vanilla ice cream.  It’s the best recipe we’ve found, and I love to experiment with new flavour combinations because it’s THAT good. It’s creamy and fruity and just so good! I said in the original post that we bought a small ice cream maker as our third wedding anniversary present, and it is still going strong. In a few days time we will have been married for 7 years! So that little machine is doing well (and so are we!). We have an Andrew James machine that doesn’t seem to be available, but this is a very similar one (affiliate link).

Lemon curd ice cream

At first glance it seems like this recipe is going to be a massive effort over 2 days, but in reality it is much easier. If you have room to keep the bowl in the freezer all the time so it’s ready to go when you need it, that will really speed things up! You’ll need lots of ice cubes ready too. It really is delicious, so well worth the wait overnight! If you don’t have an ice cream maker, the method to make it by hand is also given below.

Ingredients

284ml carton double cream

300ml full fat milk

115g golden caster sugar

1 vanilla pod (we used a cap of good quality vanilla extract this time and it works just fine for this lemon curd version)

3 large free-range egg yolks

Have lots of ice cubes at the ready

A jar of lemon curd – make your own with this recipe, and it tastes even better!

Method

1. Put the canister from the machine into the freezer a day before you want to make the ice cream.

2. When you’re ready to begin, pour the cream and milk into a medium heavy-based pan, and add half of the sugar. Slit the vanilla pod down its length with a small sharp knife and scoop out as many of the tiny black seeds as you can into the cream mixture. Cut the pod into three and drop it into the pan. Alternatively, add 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or a cap of vanilla extract.

3. Heat the cream and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils. It’s ready when you can see a few bubbles at the edge. Take off the heat and set aside for 30 minutes so the vanilla can infuse. Just let it cool a bit if you’re using vanilla bean paste.

4. Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened. It should be paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about 125ml/4fl oz of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Reheat the cream until it just comes to the boil, take off the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture.

5. Return the pan to a low heat and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. The custard needs to be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Watch that it doesn’t boil – it should be ready as soon as you see any bubbles about to burst to the surface. At this point, take the pan off the heat so the mixture doesn’t curdle.

6. Pour the custard into a heatproof bowl, then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. Put the bowl of custard in the fridge for 3-4 hours, preferably overnight, so it gets really cold.

7. Get the ice cream machine running (scooping out the vanilla pod pieces if you used pods), then stir in a tablespoon of lemon curd. Slowly pour in the cold custard into the machine. Leave it to churn for 10-30 minutes (depending on your machine). When it stops, it is probably too soft to eat, so spoon into a plastic container and stir in a few tablespoons of lemon curd. Mix it around, but leave some of it unmixed so that you can see it in the churned ice cream.

8. Cover with cling film, then a lid (we only used a lid), and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours. (It will keep in the freezer for 3 months but don’t take it out, then refreeze.) Remove from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving.

To make it by hand

In step 1, heat the milk, vanilla, and half the sugar without the cream (the custard will be slightly thicker). At the start of step 6, whip the cream so it’s light and floppy, not too stiff, and fold it into the cold custard. Freeze for 3-4 hours, stirring once an hour until almost frozen, then freeze as above.

This recipe is original from the BBC Good Food website.

Serve in a cone and enjoy!

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These Primrose Bakery ginger sparkle cookies are so delicious and are really sparkly! Although I’m sharing this in December, they would make a wonderful treat all year round for a special occasion. Easy to make, they are a perfect bake to make with children too! They are a great festive treat to enjoy as you wrap up your presents – something that I shall be doing a bit last-minute this year!

This recipe is taken from Primrose Bakery Christmas, which makes a brilliant gift (affiliate link).

Ingredients (makes 15-20 cookies)

280g plain flour

2 1/2 tsp ground ginger

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

180g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225g golden caster sugar

60g molasses sugar or dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tbsp water

80g coarse or granulated sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan) / gas mark 4. Lightly grease a couple of baking trays and line with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flours, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

4. On a low speed, add all the sifted dry ingredients and mix until the dough just comes together. Add the water and mix to combine. Wrap the dough in cling film and form into a long sausage shape, before leaving to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Put the course or granulated sugar into a bowl. Cute the dough into 15-20 evenly sized pieces the roll each one into a ball. Roll each dough ball in the bowl of sugar, then place them evenly spaced out on the trays (allow at least 3cm to allow the cookies to spread when baking).

6. Bake for 15-18 minute, until the edges of the cookies are slightly firm and the centre is still a little soft. Let them cool on the trays for about 5 minutes before removing.

7. These cookies are delicious warm, so enjoy once they have cooled a little more. Keep the rest in an air tight tin. Enjoy!

Are you ready for Christmas?!

I certainly don’t feel like I am! I’m hoping to make another batch of Primrose Bakery ginger sparkle cookies if I have the time… If you need another last-minute idea, how about these wonderful biscuits?

If you’re in the North East of England and you need a last-minute gift idea, how about booking a place on the Craftitude workshop? Hosted by me and the wonderful Sarah from Simple Happy Life on 1st February 2020 at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle upon Tyne. Click here for tickets and more details – we’d love to see you there!

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There’s something about being really heavily pregnant that makes me just want to bake! Maybe it’s a nesting thing, or maybe it’s just because it’s something easy to do with delicious results – who knows?! When I was pregnant with Little One, I made a batch of lemon curd and some flapjacks the day before she was born. It has been lovely to make things with her this time round – although I made these during her nap time so that she wouldn’t eat all of the mini eggs in the process! I found this recipe on the Lakeland blog, and it’s really easy to make this delicious Easter treat.

Ingredients

270g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

170g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

135g light soft brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs, beaten

200g white chocolate chips (or a block of chocolate chopped into small chunks works fine)

1 or 2 90g packets of mini eggs

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/Gas 5. Lightly grease a 12″ x 9″ traybake tin (I used my brownie pan – anything roughly 1″ deep will be fine).

2. Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and mix together. Set aside.

3. Place the butter, sugars and vanilla extract in a large bowl and, using an electric mixer, cream together until combined.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.

5. Add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Be careful not to over mix. Stir in the white chocolate chips and mini eggs until combined.

6. Press the mix into the traybake tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Allow to cool completely before cutting into 12 squares. Enjoy!

These blondies are so yummy, they didn’t really last long! I’ll have to make another batch before Easter I think. Depending on what happens with our new arrival! I’m hoping to get back into blogging more regularly once things have settled down a bit – I know that’s not the first time I have said that here, but I know I’ve been neglecting this little space a lot and I want to get back to it. So fingers crossed, there will be more posts in the not too distant future!

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I have a really sweet tooth, and I think this is perhaps one of the sweetest things I have ever made. I really LOVE it! This blonde mini egg rocky road is really easy to make, so it’s perfect for a last-minute Easter treat. You can basically adapt this recipe to your taste – I made a fruit and nut free version because Tom isn’t a huge fan of either of these things. So we put all the sweet things in it! I have made a couple of batches to see what works best, and we discovered that unlike some recipes for rocky road, this is best made a day or two in advance. It just gets better after waiting a bit (which is hard because it’s so good!). I also experimented with the size of the biscuit pieces, and we preferred the version where I chopped up the custard creams instead of bashing them. You could always bash half and chop the other half if you prefer.

Ingredients

250g white chocolate, broken into pieces

100g unsalted butter, cubed

2 tbsp golden syrup

150g custard cream biscuits

75g mini marshmallows (chop up larger ones if you can’t find these)

200g chocolate mini eggs, plus a few extra for the top

Method

1. Line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with 2 sheets of cling film (in a criss-cross pattern). Put the chocolate and butter in a large bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, and melt until smooth and glossy.

2. Remove from the heat and add the golden syrup. Mix together until fully combined and leave to cool at room temperature for about 5 – 10 mins.

3. Roughly chop the custard creams into medium-sized chunks (this seems to work better than bashing them in a bag!). Stir into the cooled chocolate with the marshmallows and the mini eggs.

4. Pour the mix into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon until even. Scatter over a few extra mini eggs to make it look extra colourful, pressing them in a little. Leave to set in the fridge, preferably overnight.

5. Remove from the tin and cut into bars to serve. Will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container – if you can make them last that long! 

If you want to see the original recipe that this blonde mini egg rocky road is adapted from, you can find the recipe here. You might also want some more Easter inspiration, and my Easter Pinterest board is a great place to start!

Post updated 12th February 2020.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

460g chicken breasts, cut into strips

1½ tbsp olive oil

350g penne pasta

1 red onion, sliced

1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced

2 tbsp tomato puree

230g tomato salsa (or a tin of chopped tomatoes works well)

150g low-fat sour cream

50g reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1. Mix together the smoked paprika, chilli, cumin, cayenne and garlic powder. Rub half into the chicken pieces. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large deep frying pan and cook the chicken for 5-6 minutes until golden all over and almost cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Drain well and set aside, reserving a little of the cooking water.

3. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and cook the onion along with the remaining spice mix for 3-4 minutes until tender. Season, then add the peppers and cook for another 3-4 minutes until just soft.

4. Add the chicken back to the pan along with the tomato puree. Cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the cooked pasta, salsa and sour cream. Heat through, and if the sauce needs loosening, add a little of the reserved pasta water until you reach a desired consistency. Sprinkle over the cheese to serve.

I had some of this pasta for lunch the next day too and it was really good! We’ll definitely be having this more often. The original recipe is from the Sainsbury’s website. If you want more delicious recipes, try this chicken fettuccine or Jamie Oliver’s chicken pie, which is always a winner!

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Ingredients

A knob of butter

1 onion, finely diced

5 parsnips, peeled and diced

salt and pepper

500ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp clear honey

2 bay leaves

2 – 3 tsp turmeric

310g natural yoghurt

Cayenne pepper and ground cumin to taste

Method

1.Melt the butter in a medium sized pan, add the onion and cook gently until soft and transparent – do not allow to brown.

2. Add the parsnips with a little salt and pepper, stir together and cook gently for 4-5 minutes.

3. Add the stock, honey, bay leaves and turmeric and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 25 minutes until the parsnips are soft.

4. Discard the bay leaves, place the cooked parsnips and yoghurt into a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Return the soup to the pan, add the cayenne pepper and cumin to taste and stir well. Adjust the seasoning if necessary and serve.

Ta-dah! The perfect soup for a cold day – enjoy with some delicious sourdough or crusty bread. Yum!

My beautiful tea towel from Love Fibre

Our lovely friend Fiona made us the most wonderful tea towel for Christmas (it’s obviously going to be making an appearance in lots of my food photos from now on!). Isn’t it amazing? The fabric is hand woven and it’s so gorgeous! You can see more of Fiona’s work on her website – everything is handmade on the Isle of Tiree (click here to see photos we took when we went to stay a few years back!). Thank you, Fiona!

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Ingredients

400g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

25g cocoa powder

250g golden caster sugar

250g butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

1 tbsp ground ginger

140g ground almonds

6 large eggs, separated

For the icing

100g butter, chopped

50g dark chocolate, broken into chunks

200g icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp ground ginger

A few chunks of crystallised ginger, cut into small chunks

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 20 x 30cm cake tin, and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate, cocoa, sugar and butter together in a saucepan over a very low heat. Once the chocolate and butter have melted and sugar dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the ginger and almonds, followed by the egg yolks, one at a time

2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, stir a couple of spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen before very gently folding in the rest.

3. Gently scrape into the tin. Bake for 30-35 mins until the top looks set and the centre doesn’t wobble too much. Sit the cake tin on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

4. Once cool, make the icing. Put the butter, chocolate, cocoa, icing sugar, ground ginger and 4 tbsp water in a pan. Gently heat, stirring, until you have a smooth icing. Pour over the cake (still in its tin), leave for 1-2 mins to cool slightly, then scatter over the ginger. Cool completely (you can also store in the fridge if you bring out to room temperature about 20 mins before serving) before cutting into bars.

The photos don’t do these chocolate gingerbread brownies with fudgy icing much justice! Needless to say, they weren’t around for long.

This post is part of my photos for #ColourMyEveryDay – an Instagram photo challenge with @adventuresandteaparties. Find out more about it in my previous post, where I also shared some lovely autumnal recipes. What new recipes have you been making recently?

Post updated 12th February 2020.

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Pumpkin season is well and truly here, and I thought it would be fun to put together a selection of perfect pumpkin recipes for autumn! I’ve been taking part in #ColourMyEveryDay with the lovely Joanna from Adventures and Tea Parties, and today’s prompt is ‘food’. I’ve been a little quiet over on my blog recently, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to write a post and share some of the pumpkin recipes from the archives! I love pumpkin as it’s such a versatile ingredient, working in savoury and sweet dishes. So here’s a selection of a few recipes I’ve enjoyed making.

Pumpkin lemon and poppy seed loaf

This is such a delicious cake – the lemon works so well with the pumpkin! Click here for the recipe.

Squidgy pumpkin and ginger loaf

I love ginger cake, and the pumpkin makes this really moist. Yum! Click here for the recipe.

Pumpkin, carrot and bacon soup

Pumpkin is perfect for soup, which is just what you need on a chilly autumn day! Simply leave out the bacon to make a veggie version – it’s really delicious! Click here for the recipe.

New pumpkin recipes to try

Here are some other yummy-looking recipes using pumpkin – I’ll definitely be giving some of these a go!

Pumpkin houmous from BBC Good Food

Creamy pumpkin and lentil soup from BBC Good Food

Pumpkin, basil, goat’s cheese and fig tart from George Eats

Pumpkin fries from Clean Food Crush

Vegan pumpkin pie from Delicious Magazine

Pumpkin scones from Delicious Magazine

Pumpkin samosas from Asda Good Living

#ColourMyEveryDay

If you’d like to take part in #ColourMyEveryDay there’s still time to get involved! Follow @adventuresandteaparties and make sure you tag Joanna and use the hashtag when you post. The prompts are below!

And in case you have missed it, I was featured on the Adventures and Tea Parties blog recently as part of Joanna’s Blog Gems feature – read more here! So much to do this autumn What are you plans?

The post Perfect pumpkin recipes for autumn appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients

450g fresh blackberries (or frozen ones, defrosted)

2-3 tbsp cold water

284ml carton double cream

300ml full fat milk

115g golden caster sugar

3 large free-range egg yolks

have lots of ice cubes at the ready

Method

1. Put the canister from the machine into the freezer a day before you want to make the ice cream. Make sure that you have some ice in the freezer too.

2. Wash the blackberries and put them into a medium-sized pan, along with 2-3tbsp cold water. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat, allowing to simmer for about 20 minutes or until very soft.

3. Place into a food processor or blender and whizz up very well. Take care here because the fruit is really hot! Once blended, pour through a fine sieve with a bowl underneath, making sure there are no seeds in the bowl. Allow to cool and then transfer to a plastic container, and place in the fridge overnight (or until you’re ready to make the ice cream).

4. When you’re ready to begin, pour the cream and milk into a medium heavy-based pan, and add half of the sugar. Heat the mixture over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils. It’s ready when you can see a few bubbles at the edge. Turn off the heat to allow to cool a little.

5. Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened. It should be paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters.

6. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about 125ml/4fl oz of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Then pour this into the remaining cream mixture and mix well.

7. Return the pan to a low heat and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. The custard needs to be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Watch that it doesn’t boil – it should be ready as soon as you see any bubbles about to burst to the surface. At this point, take the pan off the heat so the mixture doesn’t curdle.

8. Pour the custard into a heatproof bowl, then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). You can just put the pan into a bowl of iced water if it fits. Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. Put the bowl of custard in the fridge for 3-4 hours, preferably overnight, so it gets really cold.

9. Get the ice cream machine running, then slowly pour in the cold custard and the blackberry mixture. Leave it to churn for 10-30 minutes (depending on your machine). When it stops, it is probably too soft to eat, so spoon into a plastic container. Cover with cling film, then a lid (we only used a lid), and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours. (It will keep in the freezer for 3 months but don’t take it out, then refreeze.) Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving. Don’t forget to add some sprinkles!

To make it by hand

In step 1, heat the milk and half the sugar without the cream (the custard will be slightly thicker). At the start of step 6, whip the cream so it’s light and floppy, not too stiff, and fold it into the cold custard. Freeze for 3-4 hours, stirring once an hour until almost frozen, then freeze as above.

If you’d like to find out more about our ice cream maker (which was a real bargain!), have a look at my ultimate vanilla ice cream post. Just scroll to the bottom of that to find out more!

How to serve the ultimate blackberry ice cream

This ice cream is delicious served on its own, although we added some white chocolate stars which were yummy! They also look pretty good too against that gorgeous purple. It also goes amazingly with apple crumble! We often make apple and blackberry crumble, but switching the blackberries from the crumble to the ice cream worked so well. Yum!

I said at the start of this post that this is a way of making blackberries last int autumn, but to be honest, this is just too good not to eat! Enjoy!

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The original recipe for this almond and apricot cake can be found here.

Ingredients

230g fresh apricots, chopped (or a drained 411g tin if they aren’t in season)

200g unsalted butter

200g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

75g ground almonds

1 tsp almond extract

200g self raising flour

A handful of flaked almonds to decorate

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 C /140 C fan / Gas 2/3. Line a deep loose bottomed 20cm (8 in) cake tin with baking parchment.

2. Drain the tinned apricots in a colander (see tip) and cut the drained apricots into pieces and keep to one side.

3. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat the eggs into the mix one at a time with an electric whisk. Stir in the ground almonds and the almond extract. Then sift the flour onto the mixture and fold in thoroughly. Gently fold in the reserved apricots.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and smooth the top, pushing down any apricot pieces that appear on the surface. Sprinkle the top with the flaked almonds and press slightly to flatten.

5. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Test with a skewer inserted into the cake to ensure it is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is cooked, otherwise give it a further 5 or 10 minutes until done. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool in the tin.

6. Place on a cooling rack and when completely cool remove the parchment.

This cake is delicious served on its own, or with cream or ice cream. Why not try custard on a chilly day?! Yum!

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Long-time readers of my blog will know that I love picking up recipes here and there, and that I love the Waitrose recipe cards. I only ever really pop in there for the odd thing because it’s near to where I work at the day job, so I always look and see what the recipes are for the month. I knew I’d have to give these ginger spiced crunch biscuits a try! Tom is a huge fan of anything with ginger, but we often find that biscuits are nice but without that real spicy kick. But these are perfect!

These biscuits have a crunchy (but not too crunchy) outside with a chewy centre, which is delicious. If you’re looking for more of a ginger cookie, just leave out the bicarbonate of soda. I did this with my first batch because I thought I had some in the cupboard, but I didn’t! But we actually really loved them with the slightly less crunchy, cookie-like texture. I also had a little play around with the recipe and added some dark chocolate to some of these, and the combination works really well.

Ingredients (makes 24)

75g (roughly 4 balls) stem ginger in syrup, plus 3 tbsp of the syrup

150g soft light brown sugar

150g unsalted butter (or margarine), softened

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp ground ginger

Optional: 100g dark chocolate (I used Green and Black’s 85%)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas mark 3. Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.

2. Chop the stem ginger into very small dice and set aside. Place the brown sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl and, using an electric handheld mixer, beat together until creamy.

3. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, cinnamon and ground ginger into the bowl. Stir in the stem ginger and syrup, until everything comes together to form a dough. Tip onto a work surface and gently knead until smooth.

4. Break up the dough into 24 even-sized pieces and roll into balls. Place 6 on each of the prepared baking sheets, spaced well apart. Flatten each ball a little, then bake for 15 minutes until golden. They will still feel a little soft but will firm up as they cool. Repeat with the remaining dough until you have used up all the mixture.

Adding a little dark chocolate makes these ginger spiced crunch biscuits extra special. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of boiling water. Place the biscuits on a sheet of greaseproof paper on top of a cooling rack to decorate them. If you don’t want loads of chocolate, you could drizzle a little of the melted chocolate over the top like I have done with the ones above. Or, you could dip them in so that half of the biscuit is covered in chocolate. I used a spoon to do this as the chocolate wasn’t that deep in the bowl! Leave to set in the fridge – the greaseproof paper will easily peel off once the chocolate is set.

Freeze the biscuit dough!

According to the recipe card, the uncooked dough freezes well. Roll it into balls, flatten slightly and freeze layered up between baking parchment. To bake, take out the number you want and bake from frozen for 3-4 minutes longer. Excellent! Time to enjoy one of these with a cuppa Hope you have a great weekend!

If you missed out on a recipe card, you can also find the original recipe here.

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Ingredients (showing double what appears in the book)

200g (7oz) self-raising wholemeal flour (or plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder)

1 tsp ground mixed spice

100g (4oz) margarine (or unsalted butter if for weaning little people)

150g (5oz) raisins

400g (14oz) mashed banana (3-4 medium-sized ripe bananas)

100g (4oz) walnuts, ground or finely chopped (we have never included these!)

2 eggs, beaten

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (170 Fan)/350F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease and line a 450g (1lb) loaf tin (I use these tin liners from Lakeland because they’re super quick!).

2. Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the spices. Cut or break the margarine/butter into small cubes and add it to the flour. Using your hand, rub in until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs (you could do this in a food processor if you prefer).

3. Put the raisins into a separate small bowl, along with 1 heaped tbsp of flour (whichever one you are using). Stir to coat the raisins before adding the raisins to the flour mixture in the large bowl. Mix together and make a well in the centre.

4. In a separate bowl, mash the banana, walnuts (if using) and stir in the eggs. Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.

5. Pour into the loaf tin and put it in the oven. Turn the oven down to 160C (150 Fan)/325F/Gas mark 3 and bake for 45-60 minutes. I always keep an eye on it from about 40 minutes as it bakes quickly in our oven – a quick test to see if a skewer comes out clean at about this time usually helps.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake will keep for about a week in an air tight container. Enjoy!

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Easter is so late this year! I’m so ready for a holiday and looking forward to having some family time together. 

But it wouldn’t be Easter without a little treat or two, and this year I found this simple and delicious recipe for Mini Egg rocky road, which really is a treat! You can make it with or without the fruit, depending on your taste. It’s super easy to make so will be perfect if you need a last-minute Easter treat!

This recipe is originally from BBC Good Food online.

Ingredients

225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

100g unsalted butter, cubed

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp golden syrup

100g rich tea biscuits

50g mini marshmallows (chop up larger ones if you can’t find these)

50g dried cranberries

200g chocolate mini eggs

Method

1. Line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with 2 sheets of cling film (in a criss-cross pattern). Put the chocolate and butter in a large bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, and melt until smooth and glossy.

2. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and golden syrup. Mix together until fully combined and leave to cool at room temperature for about 15 mins.

3. Put the biscuits in a freezer bag and use a rolling pin to bash them, leaving some pieces chunkier than others. Stir into the cooled chocolate with the marshmallows, cranberries and 150g of the mini eggs.

4. Pour the mix into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon until even. Scatter over the remaining mini eggs, pressing them in a little, and leave to set in the fridge for 1 hr.

5. Remove from the tin and cut into bars to serve. Will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container – if you can make them last that long!

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Hello friends! Sorry for being a bit quiet here lately – the weeks are just going by so fast! Not long until I go back to the day job so I’m enjoying every moment with Little One. Have you made any Christmassy plans? I’ve been working on a few handmade bits that I can’t share with you yet…and also doing a bit of baking. I love trying out new recipes for Christmas each year, and this one is so good. These Christmas brownies are the perfect treat – the fruit, nuts, hint of spice and brandy all work so well with the chocolate. They really are a taste of Christmas! Even Tom enjoyed them and he’s not usually a fan of fruit and nuts, so that’s saying something!

This recipe is originally from the BBC Food website.

Ingredients

30ml/1fl oz/2 tbsp brandy

100g/3½oz dried cranberries

300g/10½oz dark chocolate, broken into chunks

200g/7oz butter

4 free-range eggs

300g/10½oz light muscovado sugar

200g/7oz plain flour

1 tsp mixed spice

100g/3½oz pecans, roughly chopped icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 30x20cm/12x8in tin with baking parchment.

2. Gently heat the brandy then add the cranberries and leave to soak while you prepare the brownie mix.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave. Stir gently until smooth then set aside to cool slightly.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.

5. Whisk the chocolate and butter mix into the eggs then gently fold in the flour, mixed spice, pecans, cranberries and brandy until fully incorporated.

6. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the surface then bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the brownie is firm to the touch.

7. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack until cooled completely. Once cool, cut into squares and dust the tops with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

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There are some times when it’s a bit to early to use the ‘C’ word, but when it comes to making a Christmas cake it’s good to be organised! Last year, my Mum gave me the recipe card for our family Christmas cake. It was from Family Circle back in the day and has the amounts for various sizes of square and circular tins, so it’s pretty handy. I was so excited to make it! I was pregnant at the time and having a break from my blog, which is why the recipe has only just made it here this year. Now it’s that time again when I’m starting to think about making one for this Christmas. I fed this cake with brandy 2-3 times before adding the marzipan and icing, which I made without egg whites last year. We love this recipe and I hope you will too!

Ingredients (for a 15cm /6″ round cake tin)

225g (8oz) sultanas

225g (8oz) currants

225g (8oz) raisins

50g (2oz) Glace cherries, chopped

50g (2oz) candied peel, chopped

50g (2oz) chopped almonds (chop up some blanched almonds if you can’t find them ready-chopped)

225g (8oz) plain flour

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

150g (6oz) butter

150g (6oz) soft dark brown sugar

3 large eggs

To prepare the tin

Cut a double thickness strip of greaseproof paper to fit around the sides of the tin, and stand 5cm (2″) higher than the rim. Make a 2.5cm (1″) fold along the lower edge, and then snip from the edge to the fold along the lower edge at 1cm (1/2″) intervals all the way along. Grease the tin and then insert the strip around the sides, pressing the snipped pieces flat onto the bottom of the tin. Press paper agains the sides. Cut a double thickness of greaseproof paper to fit the base of the tin and grease lightly.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140 (120 Fan)/Gas mark 1. Measure the dried fruit, cherries, peel and almonds and put them in a large bowl. Sift the flour and spices over the top and mix well.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – you can use an electric mixer if you have one.

3. Beat the eggs together and add a little at a time to the creamed mixture, alternating with the fruit and flour mix. Beat well between each addition.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading it carefully and firmly into the corners.

5. To protect the cake whilst baking, tie several thicknesses of newspaper around the outside of the cake tin with string. Stand a roasting tin of water at the bottom of the oven during cooking to keep your cake moist.

6. Bake for 3 hours, and remove from the oven when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. It may take a little longer, depending on your oven.

7. Cool in the tin for an hour, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store it in an air tight tin in a cool, dark place.

Finishing your Christmas cake

I usually marzipan and ice our Christmas cake a couple of weeks before the big day. This leaves chance for me to feed it some brandy beforehand! Last year I fed it in 2-week intervals, with 1 tbsp of brandy each time. You can feed it as much or as little as you prefer – I don’t like it to be overwhelmed by the alcohol. Leave your cake in the tin for 2 weeks after baking before adding the marzipan and icing. You’ll need some warmed up apricot jam to stick the marzipan to your cake.

The standard way to ice a Christmas cake is to use Royal icing – click here for a recipe. I couldn’t use that last year because Royal icing contains egg whites, so I made a very thick water icing with a splash of lemon juice. If the icing doesn’t have snowy peaks, then it isn’t a traditional Christmas cake as far as I’m concerned!

I didn’t get any good photos of the finished cake last year, so this post will be updated in a few weeks so you can see the finished Christmas cake. You may want to try out some of my other festive recipes and crafty projects below too!

Post updated 24th November 2020.

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Ingredients

150 millilitres regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)

50 grams good-quality cocoa powder (sifted)

125 millilitres boiling water

2 teaspoons best vanilla extract

150 grams ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 pinch of salt

200 grams caster sugar

3 large eggs

Method

1 Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.

2 . Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.

3. In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.

4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

5. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.

6. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

7. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

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