Raspberry and Pine Nut bars

These are a delicious treat for summer picnics and outings! I think many people have been baking these recently as I have seen them pop up on many people's blogs! They are quick and easy to make and perfect to take with you on country walks throughout the holidays.

You need:

200g/8oz plain flour
200g/8oz porridge oats
250g pack butter, softened
175g/6oz light muscovado sugar
finely grated zest of one lemon
100g pine nuts
250g/9oz raspberries
Preheat the oven to 190c/gas mark 5 and butter a shallow square tin.

Place the oats, flour and butter into a mixing bowl and rub together until it forms coarse crumbs. Mix in the sugar, lemon zest and three quaters of the pine nuts and once mixed well compress the mixture together so that it forms large sticky clumps.

Place about 3 quaters of the mixture into the tin and press it down lightly. Sprinkle the raspberries over the top and then the rest of the mixture over the top of the rapsberries. Finally scatter the remaining pine nuts over the top and press down lightly.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes until it looks a pale golden colour. Cut into 12 slices while still warm and then leave to cool in the tray! Finished!

I'm very excited today as a few days ago I signed up for a sugarcraft course at the college near where I live. I start in September! So watch this space for some lovely sugarcraft creations! :)

Chocolate Madeira Cake

For my husband's birthday I made a chocolate madeira cake. It was delicious. I used chocolate buttercream for the filling and then covered the outside with chocolate icing! It was gone in no time!

To make the chocolate icing you will need: 30g/1oz of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of hot water, 2 tablesponns of sifted cocoa powder and 125g/4oz of sifted icing sugar.

Combine the melted butter with the 2 tablespoons of hot water and 2 tablespoons of sifted cocoa powder and stir it until it forms a smooth paste. Add the icing sugar and stir until well combined and smooth! I then used a palette knife and dolloped the icing on the top and sides and then swirled it around. It tastes divine and I really recommend this icing as a quick and easy way to cover a chocolate cake. My husband loved it!




Anyone for a slice?!

Pavlova

The perfect summer pudding. Pavlova. Light, crunchy, chewy and just delicious with whipped cream and summer fruits. I didn't take very good pictures; sometimes I feel a bit silly taking photos when everyone is waiting to eat! hehe! I made the meringue the night before and then added the cream and fruits just before we were about to eat it.

It is really easy to make and tastes so better than bought ones! You will need:

4 egg whites
225g (80z) caster sugar
300ml double cream
Summer fruits - I used strawberries, raspberries and red and blackcurrants

Preheat the oven to 140c and place a large circle of baking parchment paper on a baking tray.

Take a large bowl and make sure it is spotlessly clean! Also be extremely careful when separating your eggs. Place the egg whites in a bowl and then using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they are very stiff. Add the caster sugar gradually, whisking the mixture after each addition.

When the mixture is quite stiff, spoon it onto the baking parchment paper, spread in around with the back of a spoon and swirl in around into a lovley pattern. Make sure you leave a dip in the centre so the sides are slightly higher. This is so that you can fill it with fruit later on.

Bake the meringue for about 1 and a half hours. I then turned the oven off and left it in the oven over night.
The next day I whisked the cream, spooned dollops of it into the meringue and then poured over the fruits. The meringue was just delicious, crunchy on the outside and all goey and lovely on the inside! Yum!

Mini cupcakes

I am a little behind in posting all my recent yummy cakes and bakes so here are lots of pictures of some very mini fairy cakes I made a few weeks ago! They are vanilla sponge covered with white icing and then decorated with different sugarpaste creations! I made buttons, roses, flowers, mushrooms and a little pig! Enjoy!

Scones

I love english summer time. It's such a lovely time of year. I don't mind whether it's raining or shining I love the feeling of being outside in the fresh air. I love how the whole country looks like a blanket of green, all the trees and flowers are blushing in the fields and the air smells fresh. Yesterday me and my hubbie got up and thought let's get out of London and so we went to Guildford on the train. It was such a lovely little place, we had a great time. We wandered around the shops and sat by the castle for a bit and had tea and scones in a little cafe.

So when I got home I thought I would make some scones. I love tea and scones in summer especially with heaps of jam and cream. Mmmm, delicious! I followed another recipe from my nan's Be-ro recipe book.

You will need:
8oz self raising flour
half a teaspoon of salt
1.5 ozs lard
1oz caster sugar
milk about 1-2 tablespoons
two tablespoons of currants or sultanas (i used sultanas)
one egg


Preheat the oven, it's needs to be fairly hot so about 425 - 450 f gas mark 7 - 8 and grease a baking tray with some margarine or butter.

Using a large bowl mix together the flour and salt. Rub in the lard. Then mix in the sugar and fruit. In a samll bowl beat the egg and then add it to the other ingrediants with a little of the milk until you have a soft dough. Roll it out so it is about a half inch thick and cut in rounds with a scone cutter. I only own a small one so mine were mini scones! Brush the tops with a little of the beaten egg mixture that is left in the bowl, place on the baking tray and bake for 10 mins! Simple!





There's no better english summer time treat than scones with jam and cream. Only we had no cream in at the time so it was just jam for us! :)

Madeira cake

When my nan died a few years ago I asked if I could have her cookery books to be able to remember her by. I love reading through them, some of them are old be-ro cookery books and others are note books that she had written her favourite recipes in.

My nan was an amazing cook and baker, she lived in Dent in Cumbria. Dent is a tiny village amongst the rolling hills with a village church where the church bells still dong every 15 mins and a coal man still drives around delivering coal. You wake up up the sound of the animals (cows, chickens, sheep) and birds every morning and life is simple. My nan used to work on a farm and then later in life she would sew jumpers for the local village shop. Every church event or summer fair my nan would bake cakes and more cakes and anytime you went round there was always an array of desserts, tins and tins of homemade biscuits and buns and all things nice to eat.

I loved going to see her. We would drive up every month and go for walks in the countryside, try and catch fish with our little nets in the river, walk round the village and chat to all the village people. I think my love of baking comes from my nan and my mum and everytime I bake I think of her. I made this madeira cake following an old recipe from her be-ro cookbook.

You need:
5oz butter or margarine
5oz caster sugar
3 eggs
8oz self raising flour
I used plum jam for the filling.

This makes enough for a deep 6inch cake tin.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3-4, 325-350 F and line the bottom and sides of your tin with greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar and gradually add the lightly whisked eggs with a little flour as you go.

Fold in the rest of the flour and I always add a tablespoon of hot water as it makes a lighter sponge. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 and a quarter hours. Once removed from the oven leave it to stand in the tin for about 5 miutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once completly cooled you can cut it in half and add a filling. I used homemade plum jam!

Chocolate fairy cakes with buttercream swirls

I made these little chocolate gems last weekend. I keep seeing fairy cakes and cupcakes in the shops in London with lots of swirly buttercream swirled around on top of the cakes in an array of colours! Peyton and Byrne cakes in St. Pancras station have them! So I thought I would try doing the same on my cupcakes.

I used chocolate buttercream and sprinkled in some bits of dark and milk chocolate flakes I had left over. I then used my piping bag with a giant star shaped nozzle and piped lucious swirls around and around! The only thing I would say is that the little chcolate flakes sometimes got stuck in the tube and caused air bubbles so I think it is better to have a smooth buttercream.

My husband asked me what the difference between a cupcake and a fairy cake was? I said fairy cakes were english and cupcakes were american and slightly bigger! Is that correct? If anyone has any thoughts on this please do let me know as I'm never quite sure! :)