Lemon Drizzle Cake

As it was Beth's birthday this week, it was my duty as a house-mate to make her a cake.
She requested a lemon drizzle cake.
So i pulled my resources and created a lemon drizzle cake

For the cake

125g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

125g butter/marg

2 eggs

a teaspoon of baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

a squirt of lemon juice

For the drizzle

The juice of 1.5 lemons

70g caster sugar

• Set your oven to 180'C
• Mix together the butter and sugar until light and creamy
  
• Add the self-raising flour, baking powder and eggs. Mix well.
  
  
  
  
• Add your lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix.
  
• Pour into a loaf tin and put in the oven.
  
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• Meanwhile make the drizzle. Add the juice and sugar to a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
• Once you have taken the cake out the oven poke lots of little holes in it with a skewer or fork and pour the drizzle over it and leave to cool.
  
  
  
  
• Enjoy the yummy sticky cake. Another excellent revision snack!

x

Homemade revision cereal bars

So, it is exam time...this means snacking!
However it is also leading up to summer and the dreaded beach body. A solution to this is my (Nigella's) home made cereal bars.
Made with oats and fruits and nuts they are a healthy snack that actually fills you up, rather than satisfying a craving.

250g oats

397g can condensed milk

150g mixed fruit and nuts (cranberries, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins,almonds)

• Preheat oven to 130'C and line a tin with foil.
• In a large mixing bowl add the oats and mixed fruit and nuts.
  
• Empty the condensed milk into a saucepan and heat until it has thinned, keep stirring it so that it doesn't burn!
• Pour the milk into the dry mix and stir well to make sure the oats and fruit and nuts are all covered in the milk and pour into the tin.
  
• Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Take out the oven and leave to cool before cutting into 16-20 pieces.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Happy revision snacking! x

Banana chocolate caramel muffins

The name alone of these muffins is good, the muffins themselves are great!
My housemate had some very ripe bananas and so she donated them to me to make cakes for the house :)

To make 24 banana chocolate caramel muffins;

80g melted butter

250g Self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

115g caster sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon runny honey

3 very ripe bananas

2 eggs

100 ml milk

1 bar galaxy caramel

• Preheat oven to 180'C
• Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl together. Mix well.
  
• In another bowl mash up the bananas, add the melted butter, milk and honey and mix well.
  
• Add your liquid mixture to your flour mixture, stir well. It will be quite thick and lumpy.
  
• Take your bar of galaxy caramel. Cut it up into rough chunks.
  
• Add to your mixture
  
• Spoon into muffin cases
• Cook in the oven for 20-25 mins till the tops are slightly brown and a skewer comes out clean. 
• Take out the oven and enjoy warm :)
  
  
  
  

Easter Egg Brownies

Seeing as it was Easter weekend last weekend we had quite a lot of Easter eggs lying around...including all over the garden!
So naturally we had an Easter egg hunt!

We spent an hour or so hunting for eggs around the garden with the help of Pluto and Boot.

 I won!

So after we had counted the egg hunt we went off on a walk to burn off all that chocolate! We went up Carrock Fell and along to High Pike which took about 2 hours walking in the snow.

After warming ourselves up with a cup of tea back at home Rosie and I decided to make Easter egg brownies using Nigella Lawson's brownie recipe;

Easter Egg Brownies

150g unsalted butter

300g light brown muscovado sugar

75g cocoa powder

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

150g small easter eggs

a handful of sugar coated easter eggs

• Preheat the oven to 190'C and melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat
• Add the sugar to the melted butter and stir
  
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together and add to the melted butter and sugar mixture. Remove the pan from the heat.
  
• Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly with the dry mixture.
• Quickly add the chocolate eggs to the mixture
  
  
  
  
  
  

Pour the mixture into a foil lined and greased tray

• Press the sugar coated eggs into this mixture

• Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is cracked but you can still feel the gooey mixture underneath.

• Allow to cool and cut into squares to enjoy!
  

Bourbon Banoffee Pie

This weekend my grandparents came to stay, so i made a Banoffee Pie!!!

I Love Banoffee Pie!!

Normally i make the base with ginger biscuits, but we didn't have any, so i used bourbon biscuits.

Banoffee Pie

300g Bourbon biscuits

75g Butter

50 Dark chocolate broken up

1 Tin nestle caramel

2 bananas

325ml Double Cream

1 x 25cm deep fluted tart tin with a loose bottom

• First crush up the bourbon biscuits (i used a magimix) and add the butter and broken up bits of chocolate. Add the butter and mix it all so that the biscuit mix starts to stick together.
• Squish the biscuit mixture into the tin and place in the fridge for 2 hours

• Add the tin of caramel and smooth it out over the base

• Slice the banana on top, if you have too much for the base, either double it up or eat it!

• Whip the cream in a bowl until it forms peaks and smooth it on top.
• Grate some chocolate on top, grab a spoon and enjoy! :)

Stuffed Globe Courgettes

The other day i made my sister and i stuffed globe courgettes for lunch. They were so yummy, so decided i would share them :)

Globe courgettes are just the same as normal courgettes, but round (and often cheaper in supermarkets). My dad has been growing them this year and we have loads at the moment.

For 2 stuffed courgettes
First chop the top of the courgette off (where the green stalk bit is) and scoop out the inside and put them in a bowl.

Chop and fry an onion

Take 2 tablespoons of couscous and cover with boiling water for about 3 minutes. When the cous cous is cooked add paprika, cayenne pepper and a bit of chilli powder to taste. Add the fried onion and some mixed herbs and season with salt and pepper. Add the inside of your courgette (i only used the inside of one courgette). I also had a bit of left over chorizo in the fridge so i chopped that up and added it to the mixture. Grate some cheese and add half of it to the mixture.

Stuff your courgette with the mixture and add half the cheese to each courgette.

Pop the 'lid' back on top

and place in the oven at 200'C for 30-40 minutes, until the courgette is soft to touch (and is a bit squidgy).

Enjoy with a lovely green salad for a scrummy, healthy lunch.

Brownies and Rissotto

So yesterday i had a fun day baking :)
We had had chicken the night before so i had made some chicken stock and with the remainder of the chicken i made a rissotto. It was kind of i left over rissotto, but the basic recipe is;

Chicken Rissotto

Serves 6

250g Arborio rice (normal rice will do)

900ml Chicken stock

90ml (2 wine glasses) white wine

2 Onions

2 Peppers

2 Coves of garlic

6 rashers of bacon

2/3 Chicken breasts

1 tblsp Balsamic vinegar

1 tblsp Honey

Parmesan

• Chop up the onions, peppers, bacon and chicken and place in a frying pan with a good glug of olive oil.
• Crush in the 2 garlic cloves and stir making sure the chicken is cooked thoroughly.
• Add the wine and boil up, next add the rice and gradually add the chicken stock. Simmer for about 30 minutes until the rice is cooked and has soaked up all the stock.
• Just before serving add the balsamic vinegar and honey and stir through. 
• Grate parmesan over the top.

For dessert we had slutty brownies! 

Which are A.mazing!

The recipe comes from a fellow blogger; The Londoner; http://www.thelondoner.me/

Slutty Brownies

1 Packet of betty crockers cookie mixture

1 Packet of betty crockers brownie mixture

1 packets of Oreos

Sunflower oil

1 egg

• Pre-heat your oven to 350'F, 180'C, gas mark 4
• Follow the instructions on the cookie mixture but add an extra tablespoon of the oil and water, and push the mixture into a square tin and place the oreos ontop of the mixture.

Then place the brownie mixture on top and place in the oven for 30 minutes

• Leave to cool and cut into squares. 
• Enjoy!!

These brownies are fantastic and so easy and you should all try them :)