Banana Cinnamon Smoothie

Ingredients: (per person)

1 banana

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon natural yoghurt

1 tablespoon vanilla ice cream

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

Blend all ingredients together until well combined

YUM :)

Choc-Orange Cupcakes

Late night snack :)

Ingredients: (makes 8 small cupcakes)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 pieces Aero Chocolate Orange balls (cut into small pieces) 
3 tablespoons chocolate powder (I used nesquik)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons self raising flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon orange rind

Method:
-preheat an oven to 180 degrees C
-whisk the oil, sugar and egg until well combined and frothy
-add the vanilla essence, flour and chocolate powder and mix until well combined
-mix in the orange rind and aero chocolate
-divide the mixture into the cupcake cases
-cook in the oven for 15min

Birthday Cupcakes!!

My friends Birthday is today, so I made her a cupcake stack.

I made Vanilla sponge cakes, with a strawberry jam filling, and cream icing.

Ingredients: (makes 22 mini cupcakes)

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

6 tablespoons self raising flour (sifted)

6 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
60g butter (room temperature)
Strawberry Jam
Whipping cream
4 tablespoons icing sugar (sifted)

Method:
-pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C
-beat the sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and butter together until creamy and smooth
-once the butter mixture is smooth, add one tablespoon of flour and combine
-add the eggs, one at a time, whisking between each addition
-add the remaining flour, a tablespoon at a time, whisking between each addition. When it gets too hard to whisk (if you are whisking by hand) use a wooden spoon and mix
-divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases, this makes 22 small cupcakes
-cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes
-once the cupcakes are cooled completely it is time to fill them with jam. With a small sharp knife, cut a cone shape from the top of each cake. Fill the space with half a teaspoon of jam.
-once the cakes are all filled with jam the can be iced. Whip the cream, until it forms soft peaks. 
-add the icing sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, and whip until medium peaks (not too stiff)
-ice the cupcakes over the jam filling

Happy Birthday!!

Trifle

How to make a easy trifle from scratch!

Part 1. The cake

Very simple pound cake recipe. This cake doesn't need to look pretty, just needs to taste nice and soak up all the juice in the trifle.

Ingredients:

1 egg

3 tablespoons self raising flour

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

-beat the sugar, egg, vanilla essence and oil together, until it turns a light yellow colour.

-add the flour and combine until there are no lumps

-cook in the oven at 180 degrees C for 20min (I used a muffin tin so the cakes cooked quickly, about 12min)

Part 2.

Jelly. Thanks Hartley's jelly. I used strawberry Jelly, that I made the other day

Part 3. 

Strawberry Syrup. You can use anything you want, basically there needs to be something for the cake to soak up. Traditionally it's boozey, but I prefer a fruity taste.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of strawberry jam

2/3 cup of water

Method:

-heat the water and jam in a saucepan over a medium heat until it thickens to a syrup

Part 4.

Custard. I have been trying lots of ways to get a really smooth, low fat custard. This one is my favourite. 

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups milk (I used 1 cup soy milk and 1 cup skim milk)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

-heat the milk, sugar and vanilla essence over a low heat

-whisk the eggs until frothy

-just before the milk reaches a simmer pour it over the eggs, while whisking

-return the mixture to the saucepan and slowly heat, whisking, until the custard thickens

Part 5. 

Cream. I added some sugar and vanilla essence to some whipped cream :)

Part 6. 

Raspberries, strawberries would have been nice to keep to the strawberry theme, but I didnt have any...

Assemble the Trifle!

This made, 6 individual portions.

-Place the sponge (in small pieces) on the bottom of the serving dish

-Pour a spoonful of the strawberry syrup over the sponge

-Place some raspberries over the sponge

-Put some jelly on the berries

-Pour some custard over the jelly, try to cover all the jelly and berries

-Finish with whipped cream (I sprinkled some chocolate over mine too)

-Enjoy!

Its not that hard at all to make trifle from scratch. 

I cant wait to enjoy one tonight after training.

Raspberry and Banana smoothie

The temperature today was 9 degrees! Time to try to make it feel like summer. So I made some smoothies for my boyfriend and I.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon honey
1 banana
2 handfuls of raspberries
1 cup of soy milk
1 cup of skim milk

Method:
-blend the raspberries and soy milk.
-pour into a jug, straining the seeds with a sieve
-pour the raspberry mix back to the blender and add the remaining ingredients
-blend until smooth and ENJOY (and pretend it's summer)

Jammie Doggers

I am rubbish at cooking biscuits, brownies, pretty much anything that isn't a cake. So I have promised myself that I will learn to cook things that I'm not very good at. So tonight's treat is jammie doggers.

I started with a really simple recipe...

Ingredients: (makes 8ish)
7 tablespoons self raising flour
5 tablespoons sugar
50g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 small egg, lightly whisked
strawberry jam

Method:
-preheat oven to 190 degrees C
-combine the sugar, flour, butter and vanilla essence. using your hands until you achieve a breadcrumb like texture
-add half the egg and combine until the mixture comes together. If you need to add more of the egg add it in small amounts. You dont want the mixture to be too wet.
-roll the mixture into log, wrap with cling wrap and put into the fridge to harden, for about 15min
-once the dough is hardened, use a sharp knife and cut into discs, about 2cm thick
-using the end of a spoon make a hole in the middle of the biscuit (dont press the whole way through the biscuit)
-place some jam in the hole, and place on a baking tray. Leave some space between the biscuits as they will grow as the bake.
-bake in the oven for 10-15min, until the just begin to brown on top
-leave to cool on a wire rack completely before eating (remember the jam will be super hot!)

Not the most amazing and complicated biscuits, but my first attempt received a pass from my boyfriend, and myself!

Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes

These cute cakes are so easy, and taste amazing. You can add whatever you want to the recipe, this time I had some left over cream so decided to make mini victoria sponge cakes :) 

Ingredients: (makes 6)

3 tablespoons room butter at room temperature

3 tablespoons self raising flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg

50mL whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon sugar

Strawberry jam

Method:

-preheat oven to 180 degrees C

-cream the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth

-add one tablespoon of flour and combine

-lightly whisk the egg and add to the mixture

-add the remaining flour and combine
-divide the mixture between 6 cupcake cases and cook for 15min

-while the cakes are cooking prepare the cream. whisk the cream, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence until soft peaks are formed

-allow the cupcakes to cool completely and  then remove from the cupcake cases

-make sure the cupcakes are cooled completely and then cut in half

-spread the cream and jam                                                                              between the cakes and sandwich together
-sift some icing sugar to serve

Chocolate Truffles

After watching Bake With Anna Olson the other day, I have been wanting to make some truffles of my own.
Over a year I made some chocolate truffles with my friend, they were really tasty, but took us forever to make. The recipe I used this time was way easier and quicker.
I made some vanilla truffles but you can make whatever flavour you want!

Ingredients:
250mL whipping cream
250g chocolate (I used 200g of milk and 25g of white, but you can use whatever you want)
Vanilla essence (or any flavour you want)
Toppings- I crushed some rich tea biscuits, and melted some chocolate

Method:
-heat the cream on a low heat until it reaches a simmer
-pour the heated cream over the chocolate, let it sit for a while then mix the cream and chocolate. The cream should melt the chocolate
-leave the mixture to come to room temperature, once it has put it in the fridge until set
-once the mixture has set roll into small balls (about the size of a teaspoon). Return the rolled balls to the fridge and let them set for about 30min
-prepare your toppings. I used a blender to finely grind some biscuits and melted some milk chocolate. 
-I rolled half the truffles in the crushed biscuits, and covered the other half in melted chocolate. Dipping the truffles in chocolate can get messy, I used some cocktail forks, and placed a cooling rack over a tray to catch any drippings. Once the chocolate had set, I melted some white chocolate and drew some white lines on the half that I dipped in chocolate.

These are so rich so a little goes a long way. They are great for gifts and parties, they look like lots of effort has gone into them, when really not much has. 
I will give some to my lift to hockey tomorrow morning, lucky whoever is picking me up :)