Chocolate Cupcakes

I love cake. I love sweet things. Ok I love food in general but sweet things in particular :) As you can see most of the recipes I post tend to be of the sweet variety! I don't usually bake cakes though, but yesterday I had a day off work and decided to try my hand at some cupcakes as a little afternoon treat :)

They turned out reasonably well, especially the violet buttercream icing! Heres what I did:

Ingredients:

100g Plain flour

20g Cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baing powder

pinch of salt

40g unsaltd butter

120ml milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla paste

Mix together the dry ingredients and butter using a electric hand whisk. In a separate jug, mix the egg milk and vanilla paste. Gently combine with the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

Spoon into cupcake cases (this makes 12 cakes) and bake on gas mark 3 for 20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean when inserted into the cake.

Buttercream icing:

75g soft butter

125g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

optional : food colouring

Beat the icing sugar and soft butter until well combined, You may need a tiny drop of milk to help blend together. Add the vanilla paste and food colouring. I used a ultra violet purple food colouring gel from Tesco. It was quite weak so I needed to use quite a bit even to get a faint purple tone.

Spread over the cakes once they are cooled. I topped mine with fresh blackberries and silver edible balls. :)

Enjoy :)

Tiramisu Teacups

This was a lovely little dessert I whipped up for a weekday pudding! They are only small so you get a little taste of what you fancy, without the extra calories!

Tiramisu is one of Scott's favourite desserts so I always feel a bit of pressure when making this particular pudding! But this is a simple quick and easy version for when you have some cream left over in the fridge.

This recipe made 5 teacups!

Ingredients:

1 Pint double cream

1 1/2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 cup of strong sweetened coffee

 lady fingers (trifle sponges)

5 teaspoons Nutella

chocolate to flake onto the top

Method:

Soak the lady fingers on a plate with the sweetened coffee.

Place 1 and a bit lady fingers in the bottom of the cup.

Layer a teaspoon of Nutella on top of the lady fingers. 

Drizzle over a litte more of the coffee mixture,

You could keep repeating these layers if you had a taller glass but you'd obviously have to adjust the ingredient quantity.

Now whip the cream with the icing sugar until it is thick but not over whipped.

Spoon over the top of the puddings.

Finally sprinkle over some chocolate gratings or shavings,

And pop in the fridge to cool!

You can see here the lady fingers soak up the moisture from the coffee mixture and become soft and tasty.

I love chocolate, so ultimately it had to make it's way into a coffee dessert!

The sizes are great when you want that little treat after your meal.

Afternoon treats

I've been loving all the delicious British strawberries we've been getting this summer since Wimbledon!   Their in perfect season and really make it feel like summer. Scott and I have been eating lots, covered with clotted cream and sugar, and here is a little snap of our afternoon treat we had whilst watching a film in bed! The perfect afternoon :)

A delicious chocolate, nuts and seeds flapjack

I think I may have found my new favourite cake. 

This cake is a yummy combination of both naughty and healthy ingredients! It is undoubtedly better for you than a chunk of chocolate cake, but equally as delicious, and even helps you stay fuller for longer (which I need!!) 

Ingredients:

2.5  tablespoons golden syrup

3.5 tablespoons clear honey

200g unsalted butter

370g rolled oats
60g soft brown sugar 

Mix the honey, syrup, butter and sugar in a pan. Careful not to burn the butter! Once everything has melted nicely together, mix in the rolled oats. You want to make sure they have all been coated well in the sticky mixture. Line a baking dish with parchment paper, and spread the mixture over the paper. make sure you flatten it out to the edges.

Bake for 15-20 minutes on gas mark 5 or until the flapjack has lightly browned on top.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool completely.

Topping:

200g Dark chocolate 

1 tsp soft brown sugar

2 tsp butter

1 handful pumpkin and sunflower seeds

1/2 handful dried cranberries

1/2 handful dried currents/ yellow raisins

1/2 handful chopped almonds

Mix the chocolate, sugar and butter together.

Spoon over the cooled flapjack. Then sprinkle over your desired topping! Leave to cool on the side, or pop it in the fridge until the chocolate sets. And thats it! Delicious, healthy, sticky flapjacks :)

Lidl do a really good range of nuts and seeds so you don't have to spend the earth to use nice ingredients!

Here's my special plate again ;)