Saints vs Sinners Brownies

I am like every other girl on this planet, I love a bit of chocolate to keep me going and chocolate brownies are the perfect treat! This week I bought the winner of The Great British Bake Off series 1, Edd Kimber's book, The Boy Who Bakes. Oh yes he does. And what did my eyes spy when flicking through, only the most amazing chocolate fudge brownies, so obviously I had to give it a go!

Now until today I had never attempted to make any form of brownies and thought they would be a bit fiddly, but they were the quickest and easiest thing I've made all year! However, I can not lie and say that they are the healthiest thing I've baked this year... 300g of dark chocolate, a total of 380g of light brown sugar and caster sugar not to mention the criminal amount of butter...200g! However, you can't put a price on taste, all that naughty stuff made these brownies heavenly!

Like I said, they were so quick and easy to make, but still being a novice baker I did have to do a double take at the recipe when it said to put both the butter and the chocolate in a medium pan on a medium heat. I presumed the butter would be melted separately and the heat from that would naturally melt the chocolate once combined, so I was extra careful not burn it. In fact I would say I kept it at a low heat and melted the contents very slowly, but I don't think anyone could have a go at me for that, I was just using the ol' noggin!

As the phrase goes though, the taste is in the pudding and after a few small nibbles I can proudly say that these brownies are scrumptious! Well done Edd Kimber!! My two little pieces of advice for all those attempting this recipe or any similar are:

1. They go so blooming well with a glass of cold milk! They are a bit rich, having been made with dark chocolate, and they were so moist and gooey they stuck to the roof of your mouth. And good glug of milk is definitely advised!

2. Secondly... if you are anything like me, I would say for every small piece of brownies (Ash and I only had a piece the size of 50p) have a piece of fruit! Just to combat the nagging voice in your head that you're waist wont like what you've just eaten, even though your taste buds will be having a chocolate extravaganza of a party!

Now, just before I end I should say that there are some really good if not excellent recipes out there if you love the taste of a good chocolate brownie, but without the horible calories. There are also lots of great brownie recipes for those of us out there that have a few dietry requirements, from gluten free, wheat free, sugar free....

Check out these cookbooks for some of these options:

• The Food Hospital
• Cake Angels
• Harry Eastwood's Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache

They are all fantastic recipes, including some which substitute ingrediants for vegetables, such as beetroot to keep in moisture, or simply adding prunes and apple juice with a lower calorie drinking chocolate. There are so many options out there so don't feel like you have to miss out! Infact I keep meaning to buy Harry Eastwood's book so sooner, rather than later, I might be able to try a few of the recipes and let you know what they are like!

Be My Valentine

Ahhh that time of year again, and my chance to get all pink and girly and make valentines themed creations! If you read my other posts, you will know that I intended to make peppermint cremes in the style of buttons. Well I changed my mind again and instead, for the first time ever, I got imaginative with my baking and mixed a few ideas together to come up with my own creation! I made strawberry and vanilla cupcakes, with strawberry cream stars on the top!

I used a combination of different recipes, mostly from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, which is one of my favourites, to make these cupcakes and I took plenty of photographs to show you the steps I took!

The first step I took was to make the strawberry cream stars that go on top of the cupcakes. It is the exact same recipe to make peppermint cremes except that I replaced the mint flavouring for strawberry and I added a red food colouring to make them more appealing for the valentines theme. Once rolled out and cut out with my star cutters they were left to chill while I continued on to the next stage.

The next step was the chop up all the sumptuous strawberries that would be the base of my cupcakes. I must admit I couldn't help eating a few whilst I was chopping them up to small pieces. Once cut I then divided them into the cupcake cases and moved onto making the cupcake mixture. This was a simple vanilla mixture from the Hummingbird Bakery cupcake book and yet again, I might have wiped up the last little dribbles with my finger... delicious!

Twenty five minutes later, out came the golden cupcakes and left to cool. It was now the time to make some mouthwatering vanilla frosting, but instead of just scraping it onto the cupcakes using a flat knife like I have in the past, this time I got to use my new piping bag for the very first time! It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but it still took a few attempts and I'm not going to deny that they look a little rough! I think next time I will go a little slower and not worry if I don't finish them all. As it was my first try I was anxious to cover them all.

The last finishing touch was to add the strawberry stars and voila, heavenly strawberry cupcake goodness!

One last little note, I couldn't do a recent baking post without commenting on my friend Caroline's delicious raspberry butter cake that she baked for myself and a group of friends on a Pimms and Pictionary night. It was lovely, a light sponge with little bursts of flavour from the raspberries served with a dollop (or two) of clotted cream. Thank you Caroline!

Going Bananas...

... for mini muffins!!! A couple of days ago I started to notice that my bananas we going to that horrible sludgy brown colour, so obviously I had to get my baking booty into shape and make some delicious banana and cinnamon mini muffins! Now I'm calling them mini muffins as I ran out of muffin cases and had to use your average joe cupcake cases, but this made them more like a lovely light and spongy biscuit - perfect for a cheeky dunk in your cuppa! The best bit of this adjustment to cupcake cases meant that instead of making 12 muffins I actually made a whopping 36 mini muffins! More to pass round I say! And that is exactly what I did...

There is no way I can eat 36 mini muffins, actually that's a lie, I could easily sit down and munch my way through all of these mini treats, but that wouldn't be fair to all my friends who like to get their taste buds on my creations. I kept a small section for myself and put the rest in my tin and took them on my merry way to work. Apart from the fact that I couldn't spell cinnamon when writing a little note to the ol' colleagues, my little muffins were practically gone before my first break, and I made a little profit towards my baking fund for next time!

Oh, and If you were wondering from my previous post, I've decided to make a selection of peppermint creams for valentines day. Not only will they be different shapes, sizes and colours but they might not just be peppermint... On that note I shall leave you for today and my next post will reveal all!

Getting Inspired for Valentines Day...

Valentines is coming up again, and like last year I want to get my creative on and bake some lovingly scrumptious valentines treats. Last year I made chocolate chip and vanilla heart shaped cupcakes with pink vanilla frosting. I based the recipe from one from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, which was my first and the one I will always refer to compare to other recipes. Anyway... the way I made them heart shaped is by using heart shaped silicone cases, and although they looked pretty it was such a mess and such a hassle to eat them. Because they are made of rubber, you have to sort of pop the whole cupcake out, which, if you're as clumsy as me means a lot of icing everywhere. I'm a sucker for traditional paper cases, so I can just rip into it and get my munch on.

So this year, as much as I lke to make cupcakes, I want to experiment... (let's just hope my boyfriend doesn't read this post or else he'll be ruining the possible surprise). 

I'm torn to bake some delicious biscuits like these, which I spotted on the best little website I've found recently, HelloGiggles. I first looked on this website, because it is co-founded by my celebrity crush Zooey Deschanel, and then I saw these... I bought an icing set in the January sales and haven't used it yet, so making biscuits like these would not only be amazingly tasty but I could practise my icing skills. However, I can see a very big downside to making these. I haven't really iced anything before using a piping bag and I know that if I can't ice the biscuits as nicely as these I would sulk and that would defeat the point of valentines day a bit...

I first saw these amazing peppermint button shaped treats in my friends Australian magazine Frankie and I was inspired immediately! This would be so much hard work, and there is no way mine would look anything like these as these were probably made with molds. But what I love about these are the different colours and shapes, and I could definitely incorporate some heart shaped ones in there. Plus I've already made peppermint creams in the past, they are so simple to make and just enough of a sugary treat, when handed round a group of work colleagues!

My last teeny tiny idea, is based on left over candy canes from Christmas... I was thinking, yes back to the cupcakes again, that I could made red velvet cupcakes with crushed up candy canes on the top. They are still the Valentines colours after all...

Give me your thoughts... what do you think I should bake for the very lucky man :)



Biscuit Bedlam and Muffin Madness

Hi guys! I am so sorry for my absence over the past month, I would go on about how busy I have been in work and all that jazz, but I am going to skip over all that boring stuff and instead fill you in on my recent baking achievements!

My first bake of the new year was some very stressful butter biscuits. I was attempting to make them into the children's character the Gruffalo, with a cookie cutter which I got from work. I was doing this because I run a pre-school book club in work and the weeks theme was surprise, surprise, the Gruffalo. However, it was so much harder than I had thought. My plan was come home from work, have tea, bake for a bit and then sit down and watch a little bit of t.v., but that didn't happen. Instead I was baking these annoying biscuits until 10.30 at night and ended up very stressed. If you can't tell already this was my first attempt of making butter biscuits and although they turned out ok, I doubt I will be making them again for a very long time. I was a little naive as I didn't really contemplate how wet the mixture would be because of the butter, and I just couldn't use the mixture. I couldn't roll it without it sticking to the rolling pin and I couldn't cut it with the Gruffalo cutter. I kept having to add more and more flour, as well as changing to a simple round pastry cutter. At this point I was very upset, so with a flash of inspiration and perhaps a little desperation I tweeted this years winner of the Great British Bake Off, Joanne Wheatley, with a cry of help and guess what... SHE REPLIED! Within 10 minutes of my tweet, she replied back with two very helpful pieces of advice: first to try chilling the mixture and then rolling it in some parchment paper, and thankfully it worked! I can't put into words how happy I was that she replied and with such great advice! I can fully understand why she won the Great British Bake Off and I would highly recommend you all follow her on twitter and to go on her website, Jo's Blue AGA, and see all the great things shes doing and baking!
I suppose the best way to end this little rant, is that although they weren't Gruffalo shaped, the biscuits went down well, in fact one of the little boys I was reading to had two at the same time and still wanted more!

The second thing I've baked this month is Lemon and Blueberry Muffins! Now I have baked several cupcakes and muffins before so this was a doddle. But what I really loved was the fact I was making this particular type of muffins, because blueberry muffins are my favourite! The recipe I found though was lemon and blueberry and I must admit I was a bit dubious about the combination, but I can very proudly say that I loved them! Especially the lemon glaze that I put on the top!! The only change I would do would be to have a muffin tray instead of a cupcake tray. The best part of making the muffins was that I could use my new two tiered display set, which I got for Christmas from my boyfriend parents! Which you can see from the picture above!

On that note I will say adieu for now, but I promise I will not wait so long to add another baking post! In fact as I'm following everyone else on the January health kick, you might see a few recipes of a healthier kind!

Those Last Minute Stocking Fillers...

Here I am, after a excruciatingly long period of time since I last posted anything, listening to Michael Bubles Christmas album and getting very festive. Although I haven't baked anything since my epic Children In Need cake, I thought I would write a little post on a few things that I've seen or read which you could put on your last minute Christmas list...

The first thing I want to rave about is Eric Lanlard's show I've been watching on 4od. I have been meaning to write about this for ages, but unfortunately I just kept watching it instead. A couple of months ago I got a bit fed up of all the rubbish on T.V. so my lovely boyfriend suggests looking at all the food shows on 4od, and low and behold I found this little treasure. Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard has kept me quietly entertained for a few weeks now and I highly recommend it to any avid baking group or those of you who have more of a creative flair. I had never really heard of Eric Lanlard before, but since watching this I've had a good look in work and found two very good cook books by him: Cox Cookies and Cakes and Home Bake. Now, I'm still very new to this baking malarkey, so I personally would buy the book Home Bake, it seems a little more friendly and with a selection I could attempt. However, the Cox Cookies and Cakes would be my guilty pleasure because the food looks incredible! You can tell just by looking at the front cover! I will definitely be keeping a beady eye out for anything with this man's name on it.

My second recommendation for Christmas would be Harry Eastwoods' Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache. I was first told about this amazing book by my good friend Caroline, and she has since let me borrow it and I have unsurprisingly fell in love with it.  Harry Eastwood is well known from her assistance in the TV series Cook Yourself Thin, alongside one of my other favourite bakers and chiefs Gizzi Erskine. Considering that I've just told you that she was on Cook Yourself Thin, you might have already guessed that Harry has put a few twists and turns in her sumptuous recipes. Yes, ladies and gents, Harry Eastwood has created this fabulous book filled to the brim with the most tantalisingly delicious treats, but without the guilt of eating millions of calories.

It is clear from the very first page that Harry is a true lover of cake, but has made me and a lot of other people out there very happy, as she has adapted and created lots of lovely recipes to make them waistband friendly by substituting a few of those naughty ingredients for, wait for it.... vegetables! For awhile now I have heard about the use of courgettes in cupcakes, as they keep them nice and moist, but I must admit I struggled to see how other vegetables could work. Harry Eastwood has opened my eyes. If I get any money for Christmas it is going into buy this book! I can't wait to try and make Parmesan and Paprika Scones, that uses butternut squash, or, Forbidden Chocolate Brownies, which includes beetroot, but I am most excited about making the Caramel Swiss Roll with Passionfruit Cream! Scrumptious!

If it wasn't clear from this rant I think I now have another baker to add to my list of favourites!

My last little Christmas present idea is one I stumbled across in Boots, also with my friend Caroline, (we are becoming a right little baking pair). It is a Joules Baking Hamper. For just £40 the hamper is stocked to the brim with everything a starting baker would need, from a ceramic mixing bowl, icing shaker, cupcake cases, spatula, reusable icing bag... the list goes on. I can hear a few keen bakers out there tutting with disapproval. Yes, I would advise shopping around for some of these items and perhaps getting a more trusted and traditional baking brand, but, I think this is a brilliant idea for anyone, young or old, who are just starting out. Think of the fun you have on Christmas day, making lots of cookies or cakes!

Now, if you've read all of this, first of all thank you it was a bit of a rant, but secondly I hope it's given a few of you a little help for any last minute gift ideas. However, I now need your help. I am stuck for what to make next, either Christmas cupcakes, or nice warm bread. I am slightly edging towards bread as I have never made it before, but cupcakes would be a nice little pudding on Christmas day, especially if I get a cupcake display set, which I've asked for.

The choice is yours. Please vote by either leaving a comment below or replying to the link on my Facebook or Twitter!

Thanks!

Children In Need Bake Sale

Sorry it's been such a long time since I posted anything new, but at least I have kept you waiting for something good! Last week was of course Children In Need and for the first time ever I decided to get creative and try and raise some money for the charity. I asked round in work if people would be interested in having a bake sale all week and I got a brilliant response! Quite a few people were keen on baking something, while a majority were unsurprisingly happy to eat the treats and donate. And no one was left disappointed!

On the first day I brought in gingerbread men, cut with my new gingerbread men cutters which I got for my birthday. I loved how they looked but unfortunately a few things went a little wrong. I made baking error 101 - I got distracted by the X Factor results and I let my second batch of biscuits burn slightly. Then my raisins, which I used to make the buttons didn't stay in place, and last but not least I tried to make a piping bag to ice the biscuits but instead I pressed it too hard and it exploded all over the place, leaving my gingerbread men a little naked and a little boring. So, as you can tell I was a little disappointed by the outcome. However, they seemed to go down quite well in work so as long as the charity gained that is all that mattered!

Now, I can't take all the credit for raising lots of money for Children In Need, lots of lovely people from work put in the elbow grease and got baking. On the first day, not only did I provide gingerbread biscuits but my colleague Ed made scrummy banana and fudge biscuits from the Dan Lepard book which went down very very well! On Tuesday another lovely colleague Kat, made chocolate brownies, and although I wasn't in work on the day to try them, my boyfriend had one and thought they were delicious! And so the week continued... Caroline made heavenly lavender cupcakes, Joel made amazing Portuguese custard tarts, Helen made adorable teeny tiny mini cupcakes and Charlotte made a loaf of very tasty bread!

When I first came up with the Children In Need bake sale the first baking idea I had was that I wanted to bake a cake. I had recently bought some cake tins, which obviously needed using, and I had also never attempted to bake a cake before, so this was my best opportunity. And I was over the moon with what I made!

It was a traditional Victoria sponge cake from the Great British Bake Off book I got for my birthday with a little Pudsey twist! I won't bore you with too many details but I can't describe how happy I was when I made it! From making the sponges to the raspberry filling and finally the Pudsey design of icing, thankfully nothing went wrong! The whole process took 4 long hours but hopefully you will agree from the picture that it was worth it! The sponge was nice and light, the icing didn't dry out and most of all my creativity actually worked!! The only issue I had with it at work was that I think people didn't want to cut a slice of cake, because they didn't want to ruin Pudsey's face!

In the end, with all the bakers contributions and all the other lovely friends from work digging deep into their pockets and eating all the treats, I am very happy to announce that we made £68. 48 for Children In Need!! I am so grateful for everyones hard work and I am ecstatic for the money we raised for such a good cause!

You too can still donate by clicking on any part of this blog that says Children In Need as it will take you to the charity's donating page!