Malteser Blondies

Hey Guys, so yesterday I was hit with the urge to bake, I mean Sundays are the perfect lazy day for whipping up some form of baked goodie and yesterday was no exception. I decided to try GBBO winner Jo Wheatley's recipe and they didn't disappoint, I've popped my few little notes at the top here before posting the recipe!

Edits*

1. I didn't have horlicks so used a white hot chocolate instead which tasked lovely also. I feel like malteser hot chocolate would work really well here also!

2. I followed the baking time on the recipe exactly and it led to mine being over baked, mine were done after around twenty- twenty five minutes, so I should have just taken them out. 

Okay so here's the recipe taken from Sainsburys magazine, hope you enjoy making these yummy little (or big depending on how you cut them) treats! 

Carly xoxo

Ingredients

100g White chocolate chopped, plus 50 extra for the topping

125g unsalted butter

225g of light brown sugar

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

3 large eggs beaten

100g plain flour

50g self raising flour

4tbsp of horlicks

1 35g bag of maltesers

60g of chopped milk chocolate 

• Steps 
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, fan 150°C, gas 3. Lightly grease a 20cm square baking tin and then line it with baking paper.
• 2. Place the 100g white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Add the butter and melt gently together over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat, stir until smooth and combined, and leave to cool slightly.

• 3. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and beaten eggs to the slightly cooled melted white chocolate and butter. Stir well to combine.
• 4. Sift both of the flours and Horlicks powder into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Fold in 100g Maltesers and the milk chocolate and spoon into the prepared tin. Bake on the middle shelf for 35-40 minutes.
• 
  
  5. Leave to cool in the tin. Melt the remaining white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Meanwhile, lightly crush the rest of the Maltesers. Drizzle over a little of the the melted white chocolate. Then scatter over the crushed Maltesers, and finish with the remaining melted chocolate. Cool, then cut into squares.

When your baking goes wrong... #1 Cookies

Hey guys so we've definitely all had mishaps in the kitchen before and there's always a way to salvage it and make something out of a bad situation. I thought I'd share one of my best disaster avoiding ideas, if your cookies have gone up in smoke, figuratively of course then my best suggestion is turning them into cookie dough sundaes.

If your cookies are too soft in the middle or too crispy, then what I always do is rip or snap them into pieces and make sundaes! So line a mason jar or Sundae glass with broken up cookie and add ice cream, keep layering them as you go and if you have some toffee or chocolate sauce, pop that in to! To top I always try and keep a big part of crispy cookie to stick in the top, as a fan, it looks great and then go to town decorating, if you have it whipped cream, spare chocolate from the cookies make a truly scrumptious sundae and no one ever needs to know that wasn't the original end game! 

Also if your cookie did go wrong, it went wrong for a reason and this helpful diagram I found curtsey of pinterest is perfect at explaining why! 

So happy baking whether it goes right or wrong, have fun, It doesn't have to be a total disaster! 

Carly xox

Traditional Cupcake Recipe

Hey guys there's nothing better than a traditional cupcake made with vanilla buttercream, they look delightful and taste gorgeous and are a great place to start if you want to bake something quick and easy! This is my personal recipe which I use every time!

Ingredients

For the Cakes 

100g Self Raising Flour

100g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs 

1 tsp of vanilla essence 

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of milk

For the Icing 

50g of butter

150g of icing sugar 

1 tsp of vanilla essence 

1 tsp of milk 

Method

1. Start by preheating the oven to 160 degrees C and lining a cupcake tray with cases.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together, before adding the eggs one at a time and beating them in.

3. Fold in the flour and baking powder.

4. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until you have a smooth and thick mixture.

5. Divide the mixture into cupcake cases.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

7. For the icing gradually beat the icing sugar into the butter and add milk, tasting is the best way in my opinion to know when the consistency between ingredients is correct.

8. Once the cakes are cooled completely, ice away and decorate how you wish!

Carly xoxo

Super Fudgy Melt Mars Bar Brownies

Ingredients

• 125grams of Self raising flour 

•  3 large Eggs 

•  150g of milk chocolate 

•  4 mars bars 

•  200g of caster sugar 

• 200g butter 

•  75g cocoa powder 

•  Dash of vanilla essence 

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a brownie tray with grease proof paper, I'd really recommend doing this as i didn't and even though my brownie tray was well greased it was tricky getting them out.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together over a low heat. 
3. Once cooled add in the sugar, cocoa powder and eggs and flour.
4. Mix in the eggs.
5. Chop the bars bars into small pieces and mix evenly through the mixture.
6.  Cook for forty to fifty minutes till the top looks well done and the mixture doesn't move when you wobble the tray. Putting a stick through won't work as it will be fudgy in the middle so will be sticky. I would suggest letting the brownies cool and putting them in the fridge to set the gooey bits so theyre easier to cut.
7. Enjoy, I just experimented making this recipe and omg they're so good my friends went a little bit crazy so happy baking.

Red Velvet Cake

Hey guys so I made this divine recipe two weeks ago and wanted to share it with you, I'll post the Recipe I used and my comments and amendments that I made! True to red velvet this is a delightfully buttery and indulgent cake, Enjoy!

Ingredients 

                 250g butter, softened

• 600g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 tablespoons red food colouring
• 3 tablespoons best quality cocoa powder
• 375g plain flour
• 250ml buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

• Icing
• 2 (200g) tubs cream cheese
• 350g white chocolate
• 250g butter, softened



Mid Icing 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3. Grease and flour three 20cm tins.
2. In a large bowl, cream 250g butter with sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix food colouring with cocoa and add to mixture.
3. Add flour alternately with buttermilk. Add vanilla and salt.
4. Mix bicarbonate of soda with vinegar, and gently stir into mixture. Be careful not to over mix.
5. Divide cake mixture into three prepared tins. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Allow to cool.
6. To make the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing: Melt the white chocolate and allow to cool to lukewarm. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in melted white chocolate and softened butter. Beat until it is the consistency of whipped cream, then use to fill and ice the cake

My amendments 

1. I only used two layers rather than three, just for personal preference!

2. I used Milkybar for the chocolate and a little bit of icing sugar to sweeten it even more!

3. 100% use the food colouring gel I only had food colouring and I used a whole bottle and it wasn't red enough. 

Carly 

xoxo

Still not red enough...

Vanilla chocolate chip cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream icing!

Hi guys new Foodie Friday post! A nice simple cupcake recipe with yummy icing to make for the perfect January treat or pick me up! 

Ingredients 

200g of butter 

200g of caster sugar

200g self raising flour

4 eggs 

1 tbsp on vanilla essence 

1 tbsp of milk

150g chocolate chips 

For the Icing 

1 cup of butter 

2 cups of icing sugar 

1 tsp of vanilla essence

100g of white chocolate, melted

50g of chocolate chips (to decorate )

Method 

1. Okay this is literally the easiest recipe ever and super yummy, start by creaming the butter and sugar together, making sure you've preheated the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix together.

3. Fold in the flour, before adding in the vanilla and milk.

4. The mixture should be nice and gloopy and thick now so add in the chocolate chips, add more or less than suggested at your discretion, its down to your own personal taste.

5. Fill cupcake cases at least half full, before popping the cakes in the oven and baking for ten to fifteen minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

For the Icing 

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar together before adding in the vanilla. Feel free to add a little bit of milk if the mixture seems too thick! 

2. Add in the melted chocolate to your taste, again don't feel like you need all of the suggested amount it's up to you!

3. Ice the buttercream onto your cooled cakes and sprinkle with some chocolate chips to decorate.

Hope you enjoy this recipe guys and have a good week! 

xoxo 

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Hiya loves, back with a new baking post once again thought I'd share this lovely lemon drizzle cake recipe, it's pretty dense but lovely with some fresh cream and nice and tangy! 

Ingredients 

225g Unsalted butter 

225g of Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

224g Self raising flour

1 lemon's grated zest

For the crunchy sugar topping

200g granulated sugar

1 lemon's juice 

Method

 1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c.

 2. Beat the caster sugar and butter together until creamy and smooth.

3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix slowly.

4. Add in the flour and lemon zest. 

5. Bake in a greased loaf or cake tin for 45 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

6. For the topping just mix the lemon juice and sugar together to form a thick gloopy mixture.

7. Drizzle this over the top of the cake for a zingy crunchy finish! 

Hope you enjoyed this lovelies ill be back with a new baking post next week! 

xoxo