Chocolate Orange Cognac Cake - Recipe

A while ago I shared with you a rather lovely recipe for a Gin flavoured cheesecake, well this month I've been getting my bake on and I have another scrumptious recipe to get your taste buds going, introducing my chocolate orange cognac cake.

Cake Glorious Marlenka Cake

Everyone loves cake right? I know I do. It's like a ritual to eat cake atleast once a day. My favourite has to be mug cake but I won't turn down any other type of cake, I even grown to love the coffee kind. So when I was kindly asked if I'd like to sample some cakes from Marlenka's range there was no way in hell I was going to say no.

                 

Layla's Cinderella Inspired Rainbow Cake

So my little monkey turned three a couple of days ago and her request for the day was everything to do with Cinderella. Trouble for me is that I am no professional cake maker so I wasn't sure how to translate this theme onto a birthday cake. Lucky for me I found some lovely personalised cake toppers on eBay so all that was left to do was actually make the cake. I set myself the hard task of making a rainbow cake.

Everything Can Be Made #BetterWithCake

I love cake, I mean it must be true because my Twitter profile says so. It is one thing that I just can't give up and maybe the reason for that is because I know that everything can be made #betterwithcake, something that Mr Kipling most certainly knows too.

Apple, Cinnamon and Flaxseed Muffins

I love cake. It is no secret but since trying to stick to healthy eating it just seems to call to me more. But worry not, there are so many healthy recipes out there that I don't need to take cake off of the menu!! My latest offering is a muffin that is both full of favour and full of dietary benefits.

Flaxseed is both high in protein and high in fibre so the perfect ingredient to add into your diet. It can mixed in with cakes, smoothies, porridge, the possibilities are endless.

Sweet Potato Mug Cake Recipe

I can't deny it, I love cake, especially mug cakes. These individual puddings are literally to die for. The problem is that they aren't so good when it comes to my diet. I mean my norma nutella or peanut butter ones can't be considered the healthiest.

Trouble for me is that I tend to crave something sweet and I don't know about you but once I have something on my mind I feel I need to have it, sooner rather than later preferably.

So I have been trawling the web and racking my brain, trying to come up with an alternative that squashes my cravings but leaves me feeling less guilty when I reach the bottom of the cup.

I introduce to you the sweet potato mug cake…

Making a Book Birthday Cake

Everyone likes birthday cake right? And it sometimes becomes 100% better when it is made especially for that person. My eldest daughter recently requested that I make her a birthday instead of buying one from the shop. The problem being that I am not an expert baker and I was worried that it would end up a sponge disaster but I impressed myself. I didn't make a master piece but I'm proud enough that I wanted to show it off.

Elise is a huge book worm so I chose to make her a cake that resembled a book.

Spicers of Hythe Hamper Review

We all have those family members that are tricky to buy for a Christmas, the ones who are a little fussy or perhaps have no need for anything in particular. My solution, buying them hampers. I was actually lucky enough to be sent a lovely Christmas hamper from Spicers of Hythe recently and lets say my tummy was rather grateful.

This company stock a range of luxury food hampers and gift baskets, there is something for everyone, from the cheese lover to the tea drinker, the ones with a sweet tooth to those who like a glass of wine. Being from Kent myself, I'm thrilled to be able to showcase a local business.

Rocky Road Mug Cake Recipe

Earlier this year I blogged about one of my favourite recipes, peanut butter mug cake. There are so many variations of the mug cake, it is such a simple pudding to make, perfect for that naughty but nice treat when something sweet is needed in a hurry.

After having a little experiment, I have come up with another tasty alternative version, the rocky road mug cake.

WARNING, one cake might not be enough!!

A scrummy mixture of chocolate, marshmallow and biscuit all found within a delicious, fluffy cake.

I Should Have Been On The GBBO

The Great British Bake Off may be over for this year but that doesn't stop the rest of us from baking. I personally think I should have been on the GBBO for amateurs.

Aldi recently set some of us lovely bloggers a bake off challenge of our own.

Using some Aldi's Home Baking SpecialBuys and core ingredients, I had to pick a recipe from one of the many used on the GBBO show this year, I opted for the Fruity Swedish Tea Ring which Richard cleverly made.

Now this isn't something I've made before and I'm not lucky enough to own a freestanding mixer or a proving bag for that matter but I gave it my best shot….

Chocolate & peanut Butter Banana Bites Recipe

This week I had a few bananas which needed using up. I decided to make banana cupcakes, as you'll see as you carry on reading, these cupcakes got transformed into something slightly different along the way…..

Sugar and Crumbs Review

You must know by now that my kids and I love nothing more than to do a spot of baking. I am in no way a professional, I mean the finished product is never anything fancy but they do always taste delicious. Recently I was given the chance to review some scrummy cocoa powder and icing sugar from a new company, Sugar and Crumbs and when I saw the flavours that they had available, my mouth was already watering before I had had the chance to taste any.

Sugar and Crumbs is a family run business which is run in the UK, always nice to support our own countries businesses!! Their range includes 24 different flavour icing sugars, 5 different flavour cocoa powders and they also sell coloured sugar paste.

My goodies arrived in a  lovely Sugar and Crumbs bag which is now in my changing bag, saves using carrier bags.

In the bag was 3 different icing sugars and one sample bag of cocoa powder as well as recipe sheets for making a basic cake and butter icing.

Where did that year go??

When I think back to a just over a year ago, I had just given birth to a tiny little girl, my last ever baby.

Fast forward a whole year!!! And we have just celebrated little miss Layla's first ever birthday and boy was I emotional. That tiny little bundle of joy who entered the world has turned into a cheeky little monkey who makes me smile and laugh every day.

Her sister's were keen to get involved in making her first birthday special. We were lucky enough to be sent a card from InnaBox for the girls to write. The lovely card was just the right size for little hands and came complete with a set of stickers which allowed the girls to personalise it, keeping it unique for Layla, there was a good range of cards to choose from but Freya and Elise decided on a card that had a monkey on the front, very fitting in my opinion. The pictures below show the card and what they did with it, I loved that they even managed to decorate the envelope!!

Preparations continued with wrapping up presents and blowing up balloons, bit of team work between Daddy Hazelden and I, I blew up the balloons and he tied them, high five!! And I enlisted the help of my lovely Nannie to make Layla's cakes, although I did buy the cake toppers off Ebay.

Bless Layla, it was like any other day to her, she really didn't understand what was going on, if anything she found it a bit overwhwelming with all the visitors that were arriving but we kept it traditional.

Present opening.

Card reading (ripping).

And of course the eating of the birthday cake nom nom nom

If Layla could talk I'm sure she would say that she had a wonderful birthday and was spoilt like she should be. As much as I am sad to see my baby growing up, I am also excited to see the kind of child that she grows into.

Here's to the terrible twos :)

xxxx

Baker Days Letterbox Cake Review

Baker Days is a lovely company situated in the Sherwood Forest. They produce personalised cakes for all occasions and can deliver them to anywhere within the UK.

Now anyone that knows me, knows I can't say no to cake, so when I was kindly asked to review their letterbox cake, the only thing I could say was yes.

I immediately love the fact that you can make the cake personal, I chose a one direction cake and sent through a couple of pictures of my daughters to be placed on there too, seen as they are their biggest fans!!

The video below demonstrates just how well the cake really does fit through the letterbox :

As you can see, this cake really is the perfect size, it fits through the letterbox with ease, making it the perfect gift because you know that if the recipient isn't in for whatever reason, they will still get their cake on time, no waiting for redeliveries or going round the sorting office to collect it. I love the goodies that you receive with it, not just the cake but ballons, party blower, candles and of course the stunning  cake tin which makes a lovely keepsake after the cake has been consumed.

On the underneath of the cake it tells you :

* your order number

* what type of cake it is

* all of the ingredients which have been used to make the delicious cake

* the date which you need to eat your cake by (although I'm pretty sure it will be eaten well before the epiry date!!)

The picture to the right shows you the cake which we recieved.

I was blown away at just how well made it was, as you can see, not only do we have a one direction picture, two of by daughters have also been placed on there too. The detail is truly amazing, I really couldn't have asked for anything better and of course the pink colouring of the background was the perfect choice for my girl girls.

In some ways I didn't want to cut into the cake because I didn't want to ruin it. Both Gracie and Freya decided that they each wanted the pieces of cake with their faces on.

I just wanted to show you the inside of the cake once I finally dared to cut into it.

The icing is nice and soft and the cake itself was very moist.

We chose carrot cake but you can also choose from fruit cake, madeira cake, double chocolate chip cake and even gluten free cake, there really is something for everyone.

I think the letterbox cake was actually the perfect size, we managed to get 8 pieces of cake from it, this meant there wasn't anything wasted but also that they weren't eating too much, as they always seem to suffer from the classic eyes bigger than belly syndrome!!

Of course I couldn't do a review of cake without showing you the cake being eaten so take a look below :

We have the all in one method.

The breaking little pieces off method.

And the get crumbs everywhere method.

The final verdict was a big thumbs up!! Costing just £14.99, you have yourself a real bargain. Whether you want it made for a birthday, christening, aniiversary, or maybe just a treat for yourself, this is an amazing treat. The fact that you can get a unique design really adds to the value. I can testify that it really does come through the letterbox and because of the lovely cake tin that it comes in, no squashed cake in sight. 

What flavour cake and design would you opt for??

xxxx

Disclaimer : This cake was sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes, however all thoughts and opnions are my own.

Who Fancies a Cornflake Cake?

Seen as there were grey clouds in the sky this morning, we decided to use up the rest of the Mini Eggs that I found and make some cornflakes cakes.

Here is the recipe that we used :

* 225g chocolate
* 50g butter
* 2tbsp golden syrup
* 75g cornflakes
* packet of mini eggs

These cakes are easy peasy to make, just melt the chocolate, butter and syrup together, mix in the cornflakes and place the mixture evenly into 12 cake casings. To add a little twist we used a mixture of white and milk chocolate.

After leaving them in the fridge for an hour to set they were all ready to eat at lunchtime. 

They are very mourish, I'm not sure how long the rest of them are going to last!!!

xxxx

How Many Sprinkles

So today Gracie and I decided to a little bit more baking with our Dr Oetker goodies. Cake of choice was fairy cakes, an oldie but a goodie.

We still had lots of sprinkles left over and we had a blue and yellow food colouring, so I thought it would be good to have different colour icing.

Here is the recipe we used to make the cakes :

• 110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
• 110g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110g/4oz self-raising flour
• 1-2 tbsp milk
  
  

To make you firstly have to preheat your oven to 180C, then :

* cream the butter and sugar together

* beat in the eggs a little at a time

* stir in the vanilla extract

* fold in the flour and then add milk til the mixture is a soft consistency

* using a spoon place the mixture into the paper casing until they are half full

* bake for 8-10 minutes then place on a cooling rack

Once the cakes were baked and cooled the icing needed to be put on, so to make the icing :

• 300g/10½oz icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp water
• 2-3 drops food colouring

We had three bowls. Firstly I mixed the icing sugar and water together in the big bowl, I then separated the mixture into the three bowls and put blue in one, yellow in one and then mixed the two in the last bowl to make green.

Now it was Gracie's time to shine, the placing of the sprinkles. The little monkey actually managed to empty all three pots of sprinkles.

And finally the big reveal, ta da!!!

xxxx

Nothing says I love you like cake

Another year goes by, another Valentines day arrives. It seems to be one of those days that gets forgotten, especially since Gracies' birthday is so close to it.

I do however always like to get daddy Hazelden a nice card and this year I decided to make him his favourite cake, using the lovely cooking chocolate that was in my Dr Oetker goodie bag.

Incase you were wondering, his favourite cake is Tiffen cake, here is the recipe I use :

Ingredients

110g (4 oz) buttter

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 4 teaspoons cocoa
• 225g (8 oz) Rich Tea biscuits, crushed
• 1 handful of raisins
• 225g (8 oz) cooking chocolate - half milk & half dark

Preparing

1.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, syrup and cocoa. Add the biscuits and raisins when melted. Stir to combine.

2.

Pour mixture into a swiss roll size tin and press down. Melt the cooking chocolate and pour over the mixture in the tin.

3.

Pop the tin into the fridge and leave for about 1 hour to set. To serve, cut into about 20 pieces.

Here is a picture of the finished product before my lovely husband started eating it all :

And as the chef I had to have a little taste test ;) and I give this cake a big thumbs up!!!!

xxxx

Yummy yummy in our tummy

Always nice when you open your post to find yummy treats inside.......

The kind people at Dr Oetker had sent us a selection of their baking goodies to have fun with. Now the tricky part was deciding what to make with it all!! The kids and I decided we would try and make something once a week.

Well here we are in week 1 and it just so happens that it is our Freyas' birthday on Friday so Gracie and I decided to make her a birthday cake. And it just so happens to be my 1st time making a cake from scratch, I usually cheat and go for the ready mixtures, who knew it could be so simple. Here is the recipe I used incase you wanted to try too : 

Ingredients for the cake

150g butter

150g castor sugar

110g self raising flour

40g cocoa powder

3 medium eggs

* Preheat your oven to either 200C/ 180 fan/ gas 6

* Cream the butter and sugar

* Then sift in the flour and cocoa powder

* Finally add the eggs and mix until smooth

* Divide into two greased cake tins and pop in the oven for arounf 15 minutes. 

* Put on wire rack to cool. 

Ingredients for butter icng

165g icing sugar

100g butter

35g cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Cream all ingredients together, add water if necessary

I spread the butter icing on one cake and fruit jam on the other, placed the two cakes together like a sandwich. I then spread the remaining butter icing on top of the cake and Gracie helped me decorate the cake with the giant chocolate stars, sugar flowers and soft shimmer pearls from Dr Oetker.

Here is Gracie in action pouring, mixing, decorating and of course most importantly, licking the bowl :  

The cake will be taste tested tomorrow but here is the final product which I am  really quite proud of. 

Keep an eye out for next weeks creation :)

xxxx

Baking time

Well while it was pouring hard with rain and we were stuck indoors I decided that it would be a good idea to do some baking. After asking for some recipes on twitter and having a little google myself, I came across this recipe :

Peanut butter and Sultana Flapjacks

Ingredients needed :

• 75g crispy rice cereal
• 150g porridge oats
• 75g sultanas
• 75g brown sugar
• 100ml golden syrup
• 125g crunchy peanut butter (I prefer unsweetened)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make : 

In a large bowl, stir together the rice cereal and oats and sultanas. Set aside. Grease a 23x30cm (9x13 in) baking dish.

Combine the brown sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just until boiling, then remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cereal and oat mixture, and mix well.

Press into the prepared dish using the back of a large spoon. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

The girls helped me to weigh and mix the ingredients together and here is the finished result : 

My little taste testers all agreed that they were scrummy yummy. Little bit naughty but full of fibre and protein so a good little snack.