LoveToCake

Life is what you make it. Make it a piece of cake.

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Chocolate Cupcakes

My favourite easy chocolate cupcake recipe

Ingredients

100g good quality unsweetened cocoa powder

380ml of boiling water

350g plain flour

4tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

224g unsalted butter – room temperature

400g granulated sugar

4 large free range eggs

3tsp vanilla extract

  Method:

  Pre heat oven to 165/170 degrees

Combine cocoa powder and water and whisk until smooth. Then let it cool down.

Mi…

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I had another first birthday to bake for over the Christmas period (which feels so long ago now), nephew number 3! My sister had decided on a Teddy Bear’s picnic theme for the party, every child brought their own teddy!

The cake had to be chocolate of course so I used my chocolate cake recipe for the following mixes but made double the batter to fill the following tins:

2 x 8inch sandwich tins

2 x 5 inch sandwich tins

1 x 4 inch cake tin

There was a lot of cake!

The larger of the cakes made the base and face of the teddy bear. The medium sized tins were slived at an angle using a pizza cutter to make the ears, you need 4 curved pieces as they need to stack on top of each other against the cake.

The smallest of the cake tins make the snout, this doesn’t need to be too thick so just make a little extra batter for the 5-inch cake tins.

Buttercream in between the sandwiches

The Icing

The icing was a different method to my usual cocoa powder and butter icing medley but as I wanted to be sure that the chocolate was dark I opted for a recipe that used melted dark chocolate! I’ll be honest I did buy chocolate food colouring too, but this really didn’t make a huge difference so I wouldn’t bother.

Ingredients and Tools

100g Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate

200g Butter

200g Icing Sugar

Vanilla Extract 2 tsp

Piping Bag

Wilton grass/hair nozzle 234

Hand mixer/mixer

Coupler (optional)

Tip no.1: You don’t want the icing to be too soft as you’ll lose the hair effect, you don’t want it to be too stiff as it’s a nightmare squeezing it out. Practice first to get a rhythm of piping and releasing fast enough to get the hair effect without it being too stubbly or too long!

Tip no.2: Before you add the chocolate, save a little bit of icing aside and make it with cocoa powder instead, this will give you the lighter brown for the snout and ears.

    Teddy Bear Chocolate Cake I had another first birthday to bake for over the Christmas period (which feels so long ago now), nephew number 3!

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Chocolate Buttercream Icing

This chocolate buttercream is very rich but also really tasty. To make this extra creamy add a little cream in till soft. Ingredients: 100g Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate 200g Butter 200g Icing Sugar Vanilla Extract 2 tsp Cream or milk to soften. Cream is much better to get a silkier creamy icing. Chocolate Buttercream Method: Melt the 100g chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Be…

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Chocolate Cake

This here is my favourite cake I have made, moist, chocolatey and actually made super quickly with whatever I had in the fridge. Ingredients used: For the chocolate cake: 3 large eggs 175g self-raising flour 175g caster sugar 175g softened butter (stork) 1½ level tsp baking powder 40g cocoa powder 4 tbsp boiling water Spread and Topping: Strawberries Maltesers Left over chocolate fountain mix…

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Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

450grams of chicken or 1 Quorn packet of chicken style pieces if vegetarian 250g of mushrooms are good 1 medium-sized onion 2 cloves garlic 1/4 cup flour Salt and pepper Puff pastry 2 Tablespoons of White wine Cream 1 cup peas Oil for pan frying 4 oven ramekins or one oven dish medium sized oven dish Method: Take the puff pastry out the fridge and let sit for 30 minutes before unrolling. (My…

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Hen Cupcakes See full post Afternoon Tea Party – Hen

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Fluffy Oat Flour pancakes A friend of mine made some slightly different oat flour pancakes for me last year when I went to stay with her (thanks Finey).

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Healthier Pancakes

This is based on my usual weekday breakfast recipe, but slightly converted for weekend pancakes! For a more fluffy, treat worthy version see my Fluffy Oat Flour Pancakes post. What you need: 40gram oat flour 1 Tablespoon peanut butter 1 scoop banana protein powder 50ml egg whites (or one egg) 250ml almond milk/soy milk 1 table spoon baking powder Method: Add all the ingredients to a blender. Heat…

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Prawn and Mango Salad

Prawn and Mango Salad

This is very similar to the Summer Salad. Equally as tasty but a little different in texture and flavour. For this recipe I used: Jumbo King Prawns 225g Leaves (watercress, rocket and spinach) Mango Carrots Green and red peppers Green Olives Cucumber Red Onions A little Oil for pan frying the prawns Paprika, chilli flakes & garlic salt to season the prawns Method In a bowl mix a little oil,…

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Summer Salad with Fish

Summer Salad with Fish

We’ve had a couple of weeks of summer in England this month, which meant salads were on the menu for dinner! This is an easy weeknight dinner that can easily be put together and has lots and lots of flavour! Ingredients 1 fillet of Cod, or preferred white fish (per serving) Parma Ham (one slice per serving) Chilli Oil Corriander Salad Cucumber Peppers Tomatoes Red Onion Carrots Chopped Leaves…

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MY Favourite fluffy Victoria sponge

MY Favourite fluffy Victoria sponge

So it was my second nephews 1st birthday party this weekend and I baked a simple cake for his day. After an attempt at deep cake tin baking, I decided to go down the sandwich route, it’s so much easier! This cake consisted of four layers, and it was my favourite cake yet for its super airy texture! Recipe to fill 2 x 8inch sandwich tins: 225g Stork baking butter 225g Self raising Flour 1 table…

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Don't feel screwed over, there's mainly socks and underwear in the wash - sorry I'll help you dry them!

Husband 

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Sausage Rolls

Love these, and I'm not even a big fan of sausage rolls!

Ingredients:

400g good quality sausages (approx 8)

25ml Worcestershire sauce

crushed fennel seeds (optional)

Jus Rol Puff Pasty (or just any puff pastry)

Method:

First let the puff pastry sit at room temperature (whilst still rolled up)

Pre heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6

Take the skin/film off the sausages by slitting a little cut with a knife in them and peeling it off each of the sausages. Put the minced meat into a bowl.

Once all the meat from the sausages is in the bowl, add the Worcestershire sauce and mix with a spoon.

If you have fennel seeds crush them in a pestle and mortar and add to the mix.

Half the mixture within the bowl by creating a divide.

Roll out the puff pastry out into a rectangle and divide long ways to create two narrow rectangle shapes, this allows you to create two sets of long sausage rolls.

Next create long sausages from the mince and place in a line on the pastry leaving 1 cm from one side. Leave the other side of the rectangle pastry empty, you will need the excess pastry to fold over the meat eventually.

Once the meat is on the pastry in a sausage like manner, brush the edges of the pastry with either egg or milk, this will help the pastry edge stick to one another.

Fold over the thicker side of the pastry and press down.

Score the top of the rolls and chop into small pieces.

Brush the top with milk or egg and add more crushed fennel seeds.

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Turkey Burgers

Yesterday I made some turkey burgers which were melt in your mouth gorgeous. Either that or I was really hungry and anything would have tasted nice!

I’ve got to write this down else I will forget how I made them.

Ingredients:

1 packet of mince turkey - I used thigh as it’s a little fatter

Seasoning of choice

1 egg

handful of breadcrumbs

finely chopped red onion

Burger buns, preferably fresh

Method:

Pre heat the over to 210C.

Put the onion in a chopper to get a super fine cut, perfect for burgers. 

Mix all the ingredients into a big bowl and create burgers from them, not too thick else they won’t cook right. 

Place in the oven for about 15-20 mins turning over half way through. 

I’ve just read that if you create a bit of a dip in the burger before it cooks it keeps the burger level, as the burger tends to rise once it’s been cooked.

I put these in a soft burger bun bought from the bakery of my local supermarket, added some cheese and bbq sauce and salad, it was amazing!

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The perfect christmas gift, a hamper full of of homemade sweet treats. I made peppermint creams and coconut ice here. They are so quick and easy. 

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My first attempt at using the rose nozzle last year for a triple layer - chocolate and vanilla cake. 

It didn't need anything else.

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Fondant animals are my new favourite thing to do. I love them! You create a little character within minutes. I used these on the first brithday cakes in one of my earlier posts.