Recipe:Salted Caramel Millionaire's Shortbread

On the weekend I made some Millionaire's Shortbread for my housemates because we all have freshers flu and needed cheering up. I only had one piece because they were eaten so quickly!

This recipe is fairly simple but takes a while to set, so if you only have an hour don't try and make it!

Ingredients:

• Shortbread:
  175g unsalted butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
• 225g plain flour
  
  
  Caramel:
  200g unsalted butter

• 1 x 397g can condensed milk
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp sea salt

• Topping:
  350g  milk chocolate
  
  
  Method:
  
  
  1.Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.
  2.Rub the butter, sugar, vanilla seeds and flour together in a bowl to make rough dough. Press the dough into the cake tin and prick all over with a fork.Bake the dough in the oven for five minutes, then reduce the oven to 150C and bake for a further 35 minutes.
  3.Once cooked, allow to cool in the tin. Meanwhile for the caramel, place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil for 10 minutes,Pour the caramel mixture over the shortbread. Chill in the fridge until the caramel has cooled and hardened slightly.
  4.Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, pour the chocolate over the caramel. Chill in the fridge again until the chocolate has set, then cut into  squares.
  
  
  Hope you like them! I found that you don't necessarily need the vanilla pod as it doesn't really add as much flavour as you would think. Also it does take a good 3 hours to set in the fridge! The original recipe is here

Recipe: Hot Chocolate Pudding

Hello :)

Sorry I havnt posted in a long while I have been busy moving house, starting uni again and dealing with the usual annoying bits of life!!

As next week is national chocolate week I though I would share one of my absolute favourite chocolate  recipes! It is good for winter, and seeing as it has just turned cold its perfect right now.

Ingredients:

2 tsp Baking Powder

50g Dark Chocolate Roughly Chopped

175g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

125g Plain Flour

4tbsp Cocoa Powder

50g Caster Sugar

100ml Milk

1 Large Egg

50g Unsalted Butter

175ml Boiling Water

Method:

1. Heat the over to 180' and melt the butter.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder,caster sugar and half the cocoa powder in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the milk, egg and melted butter.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until smooth and then add the dark chocolate.

5. Pour into a greased dish.

6. Mix together the brown sugar with the remaining cocoa powder and sprinkle over the top, then pour over the boiling water.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes and serve hot.

This isn't the most elegant of puddings but it tastes so good you wont even care. 

No Cook Chocolate Tart Recipe

I absolutely love chocolate. So when I found this recipe of course I had to try it. It was pretty easy and the result was great. It is very rich so you couldn't eat lots of it at once (that is coming from someone who can sit and eat a box of Kripsy Kreme donuts!) Give it a go, its perfect with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients:

100g Butter

1 tbsp Golden Syrup

110g Dark Chocolate

100g Milk Chocolate

1tsp Vanilla Extract

2tsp Icing Sugar

200ml Whipping Cream

200g Digestive Biscuits

Method:

1. Crush the biscuits by putting them in a plastic bag and hitting them with something hard (a good stress reliever!)

2. Melt together the golden syrup and butter and stir into the biscuits

3. Press the biscuit mixture into the base of a round 23cm springform tin and place in the fridge.

4.Melt both the chocolates in a microwave, add the vanilla and icing sugar and stir then leave to cool a little.

5.Whip the cream until it forms peaks and add into the chocolate mixture.

6. Pour on top of the biscuit base and chill for two hours.

Yes it is a long time to wait for it to set but it is worth it! Enjoy!

Sorry for the lack of picture on this one... I ate it all before I remembered!

Original Recipe Here

Review: Veined Butterfly Cutters

Last year I made a celebration cake for a 25th Wedding anniversary. Their original wedding cake had butterflies on it so I decided to invest in some new sugar paste cutters. I have since used them to make a few cakes, including a Cath Kidston inspired cake for my friend.

These are the cutters I purchased.

I found them really simple to use and they make a really pretty decoration. If you want to make them stand out from the cake as if they have just landed you can fold a piece of card in half and rest the cut out shape in it until it dries, then use a small blob of royal icing to attach to the cake. The only downside to them is that they are fiddly especially when you are using very thinly rolled sugar flour paste.

I bought mine on ebay for a few pounds but most cake shops also sell them.

Review- Rainbow Dust Cake Glitter

I do have a bit of a passion for glitter so when my friend bought me some that was edible I got very excited. The colour I got given was purple.

Pros: Adds a little sparkle to icing and makes a boring cake look amazing!

Cons: It does taste a little odd if you eat a large amount of it!

For this cake:

I cut out some star shapes from the leftover icing, moistened with a little water and sprinkled over the glitter. Was a bit fiddly and I got messy but it was worth it!

Hand Painted Union Flag Cakes!

Last year with all the lovely things happening in Great Britain I was asked to make some cakes as a raffle prize. I used a simple sponge recipe and buttercream filling but wanted to make them special. I decided to give hand painting a go, So here is the final result! I used normal food colouring but given the chance again I would use paste rather than liquid.

Anyone could give this a go as it just takes a bit of patience and a paint brush!

Caramel Croissant Pudding

I have never really liked bread and butter pudding because of the stodginess. But I gave this croissant version a try when making dinner for my boyfriend. It is fairly easy and super tasty, give it a go!

Ingedients:

• 2 stale croissants
• 110g sugar
• 2 tbsps water
• 110g double cream
• 2 tbsps bourbon
• 110ml whole milk
• 2 eggs, beaten

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180C

2) Tear the croissants into pieces and put in a small gratin dish

3) Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help dissolve the sugar before putting the saucepan on the hob over medium to high heat. Caramelise the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away until it all turns a deep amber colour; this will take 3 to 5 minutes. Make sure you keep and eye on it!

4) Take the pan off the heat and add the cream followed by milk. Whisk to mix, then still whisking add the beaten eggs. Pour this over the croissants and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

5) Place in the preheated oven for 20 minutes and enjoy!

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson's TV programme! Original recipe here!