It's a rocky rocky road...

Continuing from my last baking post....what I did with the rest (well most) of the chocolate sent to me by Sainsburys.

It's getting to the time of year when I start thinking about my Christmas baking plans - every year I make a hamper of homemade goodies for my in-laws and distribute treats amongst my friends - well, what's Christmas without a little indulgence?

Rocky roads are one of those great treats to pop into a hamper (cellophane bags are a Godsend for foodie gifts) - and are pretty much failsafe...as well as totally healthy *cough*

So here is my recipe for rocky road....take it as you will, add what you like and take out what you don't - except for the basics, of course...

Rocky Road 

You will need...

350g dark chocolate (I used a mixture of dark and dark fruit & nut)
125g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
200g rich tea biscuits
100g marshmallows
Handful sultanas
Chopped glace cherries (to your taste)

Place biscuits in a sealed food bag and smash with rolling pin

Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup over a gentle heat. Put aside half of the chocolate mix.

Add the biscuits, marshmallows, sultanas and cherries to the rest of the chocolate, mix well.

Spread the mix out in a deep baking dish (I used a silicone brownie tray) and even out

Pour the rest of the chocolate mix on top, transfer to the fridge and leave to cool for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight) - before dusting generously with icing sugar and cutting into generous chunks.

Finally....enjoy.  And try not to get chocolate everywhere :)

When life gives you chocolate...

...you bake!

When I was sent a box of chocolate bars by Sainsburys last week, my first thoughts were -

1. Wipe the drool off my mouth
2. What can I bake?

Normally I would instantly turn to my beloved chocolate fudge cake recipe (find it here) but I decided to listen to the boyfriend and see what he wanted.  The verdict? Cookies.

So here you go - my favourite chocolate chip (well chunk) cookie recipe - failsafe and delicious!

You will need:

Oh, and...

125g butter
100g golden caster sugar
75g soft brown sugar (mix this with demerara if you like a bit of crunch)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
100g chocolate (milk, plain or white - or a mixture) - chopped into chunks

Heat your oven to 190C and get a couple of baking sheets ready - I like to make these nice and big, and the recipe produces about 12 cookies.

Melt the butter over a low heat and add to the sugar.  Mix until smooth.

Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix well.

Add the chocolate, mix well and drop onto the baking sheets in large blobs (I tend to do a dessert spoon full).  Make sure they are spread fairly far apart.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Transfer to a cooling tray and enjoy whilst warm....and try not to eat them all at once!

Next up? I'm thinking rocky road...yes yes? Let me know if you have any baking requests :)

Oh, and if you have a failsafe chocolate recipe, please share!!

Christmas in July - Hummingbird style

As you should all know by now, I am a bit of a cupcake obsessive, so I was delighted to get an invitation to Hummingbird Bakery's Christmas preview evening last night.

Now normally the very thought of eating Christmas themed cupcakes in the middle of summer would be totally bizarre, but with the current weather we've been having it definitely wasn't that hard to force them down...and the odd glass of champagne helps!

Here is a quick preview of some of the cupcakes that were on offer.  

The first ones we tried, raspberry trifle, were unfortunately scoffed down too quickly for me to get a photo, so you'll have to go by the image in the book (most of the recipes are in the new Cake Days book so go get yourself a copy if you haven't already!!)

These were my favourite of the night, a soft vanilla sponge with a raspberry filling topped with creamy vanilla custard and another fresh raspberry.  It was light, fresh and definitely one I will have to be trying at home!  

Next up were a couple of the Christmas decorated vanilla cupcakes - how pretty are these?

And up next...(by the way, don't worry, I was there with a friend - I love cake, but not THAT much!)

White Chocolate and Cranberry - sponge filled with dried cranberries with a sweet white chocolate frosting...this got a big thumbs up.

And my choice - gingerbread.  I have these sprinkles at home, the perfect excuse to get baking these as well! This was delicious, a warm spicy sponge topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.  The quintessential Christmas cupcake? I think so!

Sadly, the last cupcakes were a little neglected and we only got about half way through before having to head on a rather long walk to burn off the excess carbs...and hit the shops!

Have you tried any Hummingbird recipes recently?  Or do you prefer someone else to bake them for you? 

The Best Chocolate Fudge Cake

Following my previous cooking post, I thought I would introduce you to quite possibly the best chocolate fudge cake recipe around.

This recipe actually came from my mum, who used to cook it when I was younger.  The fudge icing used to drip down the side of the cake and I would surreptitiously run my finger round the base grabbing as much of the sweet glaze as possible before the cake was cut.

These days it's one of those definite 'treat' cakes served with a cup of tea or warmed and eaten with ice cream for a decadent pud.  It also works really well for cupcakes - one batch will give you at least 20 cupcakes - and it stays super moist for a good few days.

Anyway, onto the recipe!

For the cake:
100g chocolate (plain or milk, the better the quality the better the taste)
1/2 pint milk
100g brown sugar
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs (separated)
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing:
25g butter
1-2 tbsp milk
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa

Heat the oven to 180C then get cracking!

Melt the chocolate with 4 tbsp of the milk and brown sugar.  

Add the remaining milk

Cream together butter and caster sugar, beat in egg yolks

Sift in flour and bicarb, beat well

Add chocolate mix.  Beat egg whites and fold into mixture.

Transfer mix to a lined (or silicone) cake tin and bake for 50 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling tray.

Now for the icing!  Melt the butter with the milk then sift in icing sugar and cocoa and mix well.

Pour icing over the cake whilst still warm.

Let the icing set before slicing a generous portion...enjoy!

Let me know if you give it a go...any other recipes you want to see?

What Makes Me Happy

Baking cupcakes for my Goddaughter's third birthday (pink, naturally)

Deliveries of beautifully wrapped dresses

Finding the perfect summer sandals

Rediscovering vintage gems

Planning trips to Somerset

And...finishing my course...finally!!

Baking on a mission!

It was my beautiful Goddaughter and her baby brother's Christening yesterday.  My gift?  60 cupcakes!

I've never baked so much (well in one go) before, and it was a massive challenge - especially when the first 20 or so cupcakes sank due to my slightly dodgy oven.  But I perservered and I think they came out pretty well...if only they were all exactly the same, the perfectionist I am :)

For anyone interested, I used the hummingbird vanilla cupcake recipe, and my own improvised vanilla buttercream recipe (150g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar and a generous glug or two of milk).  I then coloured some ready made royal icing and cut out some little stars and topped with edible glitter.  They all disappeared within about 20 minutes so a job well done, if I do say so myself :)

Now I just have to brace myself for the incoming orders...eeek!  Do you ever give homemade gifts?

A Little (cake related) Giveaway!

So I finally managed to get my mitts on a copy of the new Hummingbird Bakery book - Cake Days - and following the very positive response to my red velvet post, I couldn't resist picking up an extra copy for one of my readers.

So up for grabs is a brand new copy of 'Cake Days' as well as some lovely cupcake boxes ready to display your new baked goods!  I may also pick up a few more cupcake goodies this weekend...if you're lucky :)

Sound good?  Well if you want to enter, it's easy.  All you need to do is comment below with your dream cake recipe - and I'll start us off.  My ideal cupcake would be toffee apple - apple filled sponge with a toffee icing.  Yum!

If you would like an extra entry, please tweet about it (mention me - @jennyayre) and add an extra comment below.  Oh and you must be a follower, I will check!

This is open to everyone (UK and international) and will close on Friday 1st April.  So get your entries in!

Oh and to whet your appetite...a few images from the book...do they look good or what?!

Wrap me in red velvet . . .

As is tradition with me, it is one of my best friend's birthdays tomorrow so I set about baking some special cakes to help celebrate on Saturday.  Her cake of choice? Red velvet cupcakes!

I followed the Hummingbird Bakery recipe, which although a little complex, always turns out perfectly.  I topped them with the traditional cream cheese icing (though I always add vanilla to stop it tasting too 'cheesy'), and then decorated them in two different ways - the six that were set to be boxed up were topped with sugar paper flowers and edible glitter, the others were sprinkled with the crumbs of another cake from the batch.

I packed them up and brought them into London for an afternoon spent strolling around the corridors of the V&A and a relaxed late lunch in South Kensington...followed by cupcakes of course!

What's your cupcake of choice? Let me know if you want me to keep posting my various creations :)