Winter Warmer

As you may of gathered by now, I mainly bake sweet things, but today I thought I'd share something savoury. It's really bloody cold right now, so I'm eating quite a bit of soup...instead of buying it this week I thought I'd make some. I had a huge bag of sweet potatoes and I know they taste good, so making them into a soup seemed like a pretty good idea. 

I must admit, I did find a recipe for Sweet Potato soup online, however I modified it slightly and it tastes good!

What you'll need:
-600g sweet potatoes
-1 onion; roughly chopped
-2 cloves of garlic: finely chopped
-knob of butter
-500ml vegetable stock 
-Small handful of cherry tomatoes; roughly chopped
-Ground spices: chilli, coriander, rosemary & paprika - you'll want a healthy pinch of each. 

The Making Of:
-On a medium heat, in a large saucepan, melt the butter and add: onions, garlic and spices. Cook for about 8mins, until soft
-Add the sweet potato and tomatoes. Allow to soften for a few mins and then add the stock.
-Turn down to a low heat, stir, and simmer until the potatoes are soft. 

If you like a chunky soup, take it off the heat and tuck in straight away. But if you prefer a smooth soup; take it off the heat, let it cool and blend/mash. 

Best enjoyed with a huge lump of warm of bread! 

Flour-less Chocolate & PB Brownies.

There are many things you probably should't do whilst down with a cold; one of which is baking. But whilst sat in my woolies, sneezing and feeling sorry for myself, the only thing I could think of to boost my mood was bake! 

Today I opted for a little challenge...brownies. Yep, a simple recipe, but my first ever attempt at them. And to make it a little more fun, they're flour-less and peanut buttery! 

What you'll need:

-4oz dark chocolate

-4oz butter

-2tsp vanilla extract

-2tbsp crunchy peanut butter

-3oz caster sugar

-2 eggs

The Baking:

-Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 3 / 170c

-In a heavy saucepan and on a low heat, melt down the chocolate, butter and PB

-Once melted, take it off the heat and add the sugar and vanilla extract. Then let it cool down for a wee bit.

-Beat in the eggs and then pour the mix into a suitably sized square tray. I didn't have such a tray, so mine came out far too thin. 

-Pop in the oven and bake for 25-30mins. You want the top to be a little crispy and the inside gooey. 

Best eaten warm, with either: ice-cream, custard, yogurt, cream or just on their own. 

*I made these at lunch, they're now all gone. A clear success*

Fan Girlin'

Okay, so as an aspiring baker I thought it would be a good idea to get some career advice from people in the know. Being a Tweeter, I took to Twitter, asked a couple of ladies and low and behold I got replies. These weren't just any old ladies, no it was the beautiful Gizzi Erskine and Rachel Khoo!!!

They've both been cooking for a long time, they make food fun and they're pretty much who I aspire to be. Getting advice from them has just made my...life! I'm so happy right now. I also now on the look out for a decent place to train/get work experience! 

GAHHH!!

Back to business: I've been ill, and cooking with a cold is just asking for trouble. So in a few days I'll have something new up! 

AHHHHHHHH!!!! and calm. 

Birthday pt.2

Can we just take a second to look at how awesome my best friend's cake skills are?!

Basically, I have the biggest love for Starbucks - I'm addicted AND I work there. So, for Jordan it was pretty obvious what cake she was going to make me. It's a victoria sponge with butter and royal icing. My god it tastes good. 

Oh, I got some more baking goods so now I'm really excited to get back in the kitchen! 

Birthday, pt.1

This is a loosely based baking post. Tomorrow I leave the 22's and become a 23. Yes, it's birthday time! 

So, I don't live with my Mum anymore therefore today was spent with her. A pre-birthday if you like. Of course, the little kid in me just couldn't resist opening my presents; and oh my, am I glad I didn't wait! I have the biggest crush on Cath Kidston products (one day my kitchen will be all CK!), and being the best possible mother, I got a lot of Cath stuff. 

I've never been so happy to unwrap a bowl in my life. But it's just so beautiful! 

Over the next few days I'm going to be pretty busy, but I really can't wait to start cooking recipes from the Vintage Tea Party book. There's also some amazing make-up/hair styling tips which will come in handy. 

My best friend has just snuck off to "cook something" (my cake), I'm excited for cake. 

Presidential Pecan Pie

Alright, so this may not be President worthy, but after the success of Obama's re-election (yes, I'm a Brit with more interest in the US government than her own) I figured I'd tip my hat to the Americans. 

I've never actually had Pecan Pie before, so this is all completely new to me. But it's pretty easy to make. 

Just a pre-warning; this will get your sweet tooth going! 

What you'll need:

The Middle: 
-4oz butter

-4oz golden syrup

-1tsp vanilla extract

-8oz brown sugar

-3 beaten eggs

-A healthy handful of pecan nuts

Pastry: You can always cheat (I wont judge) and get shortcrust from the shops, or like me, bake your own. I left a "How To" in a previous post. 

The making of:

-Pre-heat the oven to 180c / gas mark 4 / 350f

Ideally, you want to get the pastry made first so you can let it set for a while before rolling it out. You'll find the method in the said previous post. 

-Okay, so once thats done: pop the butter, sugar, syrup and vanilla into a sturdy saucepan and melt down on a low heat. 

-Once it's all melted down to a sweet, gloopy mess; take it off the heat and let it cool for 5-10mins.

-Whilst cooling, you can add a few of the pecan nuts into the mix. You can also roll out the pastry and whack it in the dish. I had a little trouble with my pastry - it wasn't co-operating. Hopefully you'll have better luck. You may want to blind-bake it, but as you will know, I never do. 

-Anyway...once the mix has cooled, you then mix in the eggs and pour your mix into the pastry.

-Pop it in the oven for approx. 40-50mins. Ideally you want the middle to be a little soft and golden brown. 

-Decorate the top with your remaining pecans and leave to cool. 

Now, in honour of Mr President; hold you hand on your heart, send him congratulatory thoughts and tuck in!

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Here today, Scone tomorrow

When you think of England you think of; tea, strawberries and Scones. Well, I do anyway. Usually this would be a Summer combination but I could eat scones all year round. Especially when they're doused in clotted cream! So on that premise, Winter or not, scones are acceptable! 

This was my second attempt at making the little beauts (my first was a terrible shame), and I have to say I was most impressed!

It's not an exciting recipe, but you can obviously jazz it up if you wish. 

What you'll need:

-225g self-raising flour

-pinch of salt

-55g of butter

-25g caster sugar

-150ml milk

-1 beaten egg

The baking:

-Pre-heat the oven to 220c / 425f / gas mark 7 & grease a baking tray

-Mix the flour sand salt together, add the butter and rub together

-Stir in the sugar and add the milk; mix into a soft dough

-On a floured surface (don't want anything sticking) roll out the dough so it's still pretty thick, and use a small cutter to cut out the rounds. Repeat until it's all gone. 

-Smother the tops with the egg, then pop them in the oven

-Bake for approx.15mins; or until golden brown and risen. 

They're best enjoyed when still warm with lashings of cream and jam. 

Anyone for Squash?

Okay, so the next couple of recipes aren't "fresh from the oven", I actually made them a few months ago but for some reason they didn't make the site. 
The first, and one of my most popular, recipes is a modified version of Jamie Oliver's Butternut Squash cupcakes. But I'm sure they're equally as good. 

What you'll need:
-"technically" 400g, but I'm lazy and just use half a butternut squash.
-350g light brown sugar
-4 eggs
-300g plain flour
-2 tsps baking powder
-Jamie says to use 175ml of olive oil, but for some reason I've always used 90ml and that works perfectly. So your choice!
-1 tsp cinnamon/a spice of your choice. 
- A handful of your chosen nuts. Jamie says to use walnuts, but I go for almonds. 

The making of:
-Pre-heat the oven to 180c / 350f / gas mark 4
- Peel, then chop the squash roughly and pop into a blender. (My first attempt at making these I didn't have a blender, so I was left with a grater. Not a fun task!)
-Mix the squash, sugar and eggs in a bowl
-Add flour, oil, nuts and flavourings, and mix together. 
-Fill up your cupcake cases with the gloopy mess and then pop into the oven. 
-Leave in to rise and get firm for 20-25mins

Now, for the icing Jamie gets all fancy and uses lemon and lavender and other stuff I didn't have at the time. So, I stuck with a simple glacier icing (method found on pack) with the tiniest splash of vanilla essence. 
When the cupcakes are cooked, cooled and ready; you just want to drizzle the icing on. No need for artsy stuff. 

Now tuck in!