Half a pound of tuppenny rice...

A not too serious blog about my cooking, baking and children. Sometimes rants, often not.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Valentines cupcakes, for my Valentine :)

Adam loves chocolate. Mostly dark chocolate, but actually any will do. I'm not THAT keen on chocolate. I will at a push have some but only if it's with something else, like raisins or hob nob biscuits.

So, I think I'll surprise him for Valentines and made him some special cupcakes. Chocolate sponge with chocolate and orange buttercream icing. I love how the icing turned out and the cupcakes were well received - result.

Not baking, children, BUT Russell Howard

Sunday 20th February, Russell Howard at the o2. What a great night! We went up as part of my Christmas present to Adam and damn it was funny.

Short bullet points to remind myself:

1. Hamster in capes, let's flash mob Pets at Home and demand it!

2. Thailand ping pong shows - the budgie. Eek!

3. Danger wanks, I can now relax safe in the knowledge that I now know that this exists.

4. Old people still find farting funny. PHEW!

5. RUSSELL IN A PINK LA SENZA THONG!!!!!!!!!

What a night, home late. Bed at 2am. Up at 8am. Happy as hell - life is good :)


Friday, February 04, 2011

Finally cupcakes!

So it's the end of the week and FINALLY I got round to making cupcakes! I love making cupcakes, they are so easy, so fun and mostly just damn yummy to eat :)

I just use a pretty basic sponge recipe which can have flavours added depending on your tastes. I like just plain vanilla sponge and then to flavour the buttercream icing, but really you can do anything (coffee, lemon, chocolate etc)

So...

4oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Caster sugar
4oz Butter
2 Eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp milk

Pre heat oven to Gas 5. Pop some cake cases into a muffin tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together, sift in the flour and then add the eggs, vanilla and enough milk to get a dropping consistency.

Fill the cake cases until 2/3rds full and pop in the oven for 15 minutes approx.

Take out and allow to cool on a rack.

Buttercream

Icing sugar
Unsalted butter
Vanilla extract - a couple of drops
A few drop of milk

Using roughly double the amount of sugar to butter I whip the butter and icing sugar together and then add a few drops of vanilla and milk to get a soft consistency. Pipe or spread onto the cakes and decorate with whatever you fancy!! Eat and enjoy!!



Lemon and Vanilla flavoured cupcakes!


Thursday, February 03, 2011

Brownies

I made brownies for pud after the gorgeous roast pork we had on Tuesday, in my opinion brownies are best eaten hot and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream - yummy!

The recipe I use is adapted from a Jamie Oliver one and although the ratio of flour/sugar looks completely weird they do taste great and are probably best saved for a treat.

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark Fairtrade chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
• 80g cocoa powder, sifted
• 65g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 360g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs

You could also add chopped nuts, chunks of chocolate or chopped glace cherries

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl or jug add the butter and chocolate, either melt them over a bowl of boiling water or do as I do and that's pop them in the microwave and blast for 10 seconds, take out and stir and then repeat until completely melted. Add the cherries and nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.


I've found that they solidify more once they are out of the oven so bear that in mind when checking if they are ready.