Carrot, Apple and Raisin Cake

I made this cake on saturday evening after my trip around Nottinghill markets! Wow, Nottinghill is really amazing and two things made it especially great. One was that I had the chance to see the famous Nottinghill cupcake shop called 'Hummingbird bakery' it's looked so cute but people were queuing out of the door and I couldn't be bothered to wait but the cupcakes looked really pretty and lovely. The second great thing was the cook book shop called 'Books for cooks', it was like heaven! Shelfs and shelfs filled to the top with cooking books, baking books, every kind of cuisine you could think of. My husband had to literally drag me away! I love book shops and even more so when there all about food! It has a great baking section containing lots of lovely cake decorating, baking, desserts; I would recommend it to anyone!
And so, yes, i got home and decided to make this cake from a little book i own from the Good Food magazine! The cake tastes really good and is quite easy to make but be warned it does require quite a bit of grating which can be time consuming! It has a lovely fruity texture though and I'd say it's quite healthy for a cake!

All you need to make it is:

225g/8oz self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

5 tbsp vegetable oil

grated zest of 1 orange

4 tbsp Orange juice

140g/5oz finely grated carrot

1 medium apple, grated

85g/30z of raisins

50g/2oz pumpkin seeds

icing sugar for dusting

Don't say I didn't warn you about the grating! So you will nedd to preheat your oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Butter a cake tin about 7-8inch round.

Take a large bowl and mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Take a smaller bowl and mix together the oil, orange juice and sugar. Pour the orange mixture into the bowl containing the flour and add the grated carrot and apple, orange zest, raisins and pumpkin seeds and mix well together. Spoon into the tin and place into the preheated oven for about 50minutes to an hour. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then leave it to fully cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar! Simple!

It's market day!

I have to say that one of the best things about living in London is the markets at the weekend! I love borough market, it's amazing! And brick lane market on a sunday morning! Well this morning on my way to Waitrose there was a little street market on Whitecross street with about 15 stalls selling everything from fresh meat and olive oils to cakes and cheese! Some of the stalls sell the most beautiful food, i love looking at all the cake stalls and the cupcakes they make are stunning! I really like the way the country is turning back round to home cooked food and fresh and organic produce! One day this summer I might try baking loads and cakes and having my own stall for the day, it would be so much fun! Well, i'm off to Nottinghill, i've never been there before (and yes i have lived in London for 7 months now!) and there is suppose to be this little shop that sells every cookbook available! Wow! Sounds like heaven to me....

I've been memed!

So, i've been tagged by http://rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/ and the rules are that I have to give 5 facts about me and then tag 5 other foodies!

The rules you have to follow are: 1) Link to your tagger and post these rules! (Done and doing so!) 2) Share 5 facts about yourself 3) Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them) 4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a message on their blog! Phew so here goes:

1) Well, I got married a year ago to my husband Dan and we had the most beautiful winter wedding and then went on a 3 month honeymoon travelling around Asia.

2) One day I would really like to be a wedding cake designer (I've still got to practice the sugarcraft skills for this, haha!)

3) I currently work in fundraising for Arthritis Care and I love it! I think it's the best job in the world as everyday I get to raise awareness and issues for people with arthritis and help to raise money to provide support and care for them.

4) I'm originally from Preston (a true northern lass at heart) but I moved to London in May. I'm still struggling to cope with the thousands of people here and everytime I go anywhere near Oxford street I get a headache! and why does no one ever smile in London hey?

5) I love cooking as well as baking and like to read cook books in bed. I love food and eat loads and loads, sometimes, in fact, lots of times I struggle to stop, I like to graze all day long.... :)

So that's me done! Now who shall I tag?! Well:

Claire at http://clairesmakeanddo%20.blogspot.com/

my favourite singapore blog http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/

http://flour-arrangements.blogspot.com/

http://skepseidotcom.blogspot.com/

and last but not least the lovely http://brambleramble.blogspot.com/

That's all folks! and thanks again Rosie!

Breakfast Bars

There is nothing like rushing out of the house in a morning trying to get to work with all the other millions of Londoners. Well, these muesli bars that I made using a recipe from Nigella Express will save you a good few minutes as they are homemade breakfast bars that you can eat on the way! They are so simple to make and relatively healthy if you add in lots of nuts and seeds. The main ingredients are oats and condensed milk and then it's pretty much up to you what you add!


All you need is:
1 x 375g can condensed milk
250g rolled oats
75g shredded coconut
50g raisins
50g dried cranberries
125g mixed seeds (I used pumpkin and sunsflower seeds)
100g mixed nuts (I used chopped hazelnuts and almonds)
I also added chopped dried apricots


Preheat the oven to 130c and lighty butter a medium sized baking tin.


Heat the condensed milk in a pan over a low heat (ooh I do love the taste of condensed milk, it's so sweet and sticky). In a bowl mix together all the ingredients and then pour over the condensed milk. Stir well until all the mixture is covered and then pour into your baking tin.


Bake for 1 hour (which means these are best to be made on a weekend!) and then remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tray. Cut into squares after about 15 minutes. Enjoy them on the way to work or at that time of day when your feeling sluggish!

Chunky nutty choccy cookies

This is one of the best biscuit recipes I have tried. The biscuit is crunchy and delicious and I would recommend this recipe to anyone wanting to bake some lovely biscuits! I made two different kinds, one with raisins and one with dark bitter chocolate and tasted just irrestible! You could add all kinds of things to these biscuits and I'm sure they would taste great, white chocolate, milk chocolate, cranberries, seeds.....



All you need is the following ingrediants:
125g/4oz butter
125g/4oz light muscovado sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
150g/5oz plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
75g/3oz porridge oats
200g/7oz chocolate (if using dark like me use a little less!)
50g/2oz unsalted nuts (I used almonds and hazlenuts but anykind will do)


Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and take two large baking trays and cover them with baking paper.


Take a large mixing bowl and beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, flour, baking powder and oats and beat until the mixture is well combined. I then spilt the mixture into two bowls and in one bowl I added the roughly chopped dark chocolate pieces. In the other bowl I added the raisins. Again, mix well. It's as simple as that!


All you need to do now is to spoon small balls of the mixture on the baking tray and flatten slighly. Bake them for 15-20 minutes until they have spread out and are a lovely golden brown colour. Leave the biscuits on the tray for a few minutes before transfering them to a wire rack to cool.


Eat. Delicious. The pictures below show the raisin cookies and the dark chocolate ones just out of the oven!

Spice biscuits

My dad made me these biscuits when I went home for the weekend and I told him I would put the pictures on my blog so here they are. I don't have the actual recipe but I know they were made using self raising flour, mixed peel, mixed spice and ground ginger. They were a cross between a cookie and a cake but they tasted just delicious! Thanks dad for the lovely biscuits! Check out the pictures below!

Happy New Year Everyone

Happy 2008! I can't believe how quickly the year has past and now it's the start of a new year. I had a lovely christmas and new year full of lovely home cooked food by my mum! Some of the delicious things I ate over the christmas period included christmas cake (my favourite!), mince pies, my mum's trifle, lots of chocolate and candy canes! It really is my favourite time of year!

For New Year's Eve, my husband and I, with our two friends went to Brussels the land of chocolate! I have never seen so many chocolate shops, they were everywhere, filled with all kinds of gorgeous treats, it reminded me of the book 'Chocolat' by Joanne Harris.

I've now made all my resolutions for the year and am looking foward to spring baking! For christmas I received Nigella's Lawson's 'Express' book, a BBC baking book and a book about how to make home made ice-cream! Someone must know how much time I like to spend in the kitchen!

So a Big Happy New Year everyone, I hope it's going to be a great year! And thanks to everyone for reading my blog, it's been so much fun! x