So I'm 29 now... it's rather fun!

 Last week I turned 29 and was happy to enjoy spending a few days with my little family enjoying the finer things.  You know croissants, ribs, sculptures, curry, full English breakfasts/brunches, cupcakes, marvel films... it's a hard life!

I got to have a lie in on the day which is a miracle with a toddler!  Then enjoyed some nice warm buttery croissants before opening my many cards and presents.

After that we got ready and headed out for a birthday lunch at Damon's then a nice cultural walk around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  (Of course we weren't shouting "poo", "sheep poo", "sculpture" you must have us mistaken for someone else...)

Later after a long drive back via Aldi we enjoyed a takeaway curry.  The next day we ventured to my son's toddler Spanish class then enjoyed full English breakfasts at Fancie.  It was good! I had Paul's mushrooms and black pudding and my son had my beans.  The lovely waiting staff also gave him a giraffe toy which he adores.  Obviously we ended the visit by purchasing some cupcakes as a cake-a-way.  This resulted in a bit of a toddler meltdown on Ecclesall Road... turns out they can't handle the idea of seeing cake and not eating it. 

 We consumed the cupcakes later with a cup of tea when the sleeping beauty had awoken from his rage induced nap and enjoyed a kick about in the local park.  The day was topped off with the rest of the left over curry, a visit from my Mum who babysat so we could have a trip to the cinema to see Avengers: Age of Ultron.  It was an entertaining film and a very good day

Since then I have also returned to work, watched a couple of roller derby bouts and enjoyed a birthday lunch with my Dad, Step Mum, Sister, Grandparents as well as my small family unit.

After a couple of days of healthy eating I decided to test the Giant Cupcake mould I was given as a birthday present.  It would be rude not to wouldn't it? So obviously I have had to experiment.  The results were not quite up to the Great British Bake Off standards but still rather tasty.  Might need to practise a little more.

So it seems that being 29 is every bit as good as being 28! I've been spoilt my my friends and family with nice cards, thoughtful presents and more nice food than I should really consume in a month.  I think this will be a good year.

Food Glorious Food! - Blog Every Day in May!

One of the reasons I started this blog was to write about food.  Food is one of the things I find that I can get most pleasure from as well as most displeasure from if it doesn't suit my palette or it is prepared incorrectly. I haven't written much about food recently as my appetite is a fraction of what it used to be! Here's a few pictures of the highlights of some of the recipes I've tried over the years and other lovely food I've sampled whilst out and about though...

 

 

These are a few of the things I have made, bought or had made for me in the last couple of years and I'm hoping to pop a few more posts up in the not too distant future regarding my future adventures with food.  Watch this space!

52 Recipe Challenge - Week 31.

For this week's recipe I decided to try another sweet recipe from one of my cupcake books as I wanted to use up some overly ripe bananas but am sick of making the same banana bread recipe! So I consulted Cupcake Magic and found a banana cupcake recipe right opposite the tried and tested Ginger and Lemon Cupcakes recipe.  I took this as a sign and decided this was the right recipe to use!

To make this recipe you will need:

250g/ 9 oz Butter
225g/ 8 oz Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Bananas
375g/ 13 oz Plain flour
1 Tablespoon of Baking powder
75ml/ 2 1/2 fl oz Milk
1 Teaspoon of Lemon juice

I started off by turning my oven on to the top temperature to preheat as I gathered the bananas, flour, eggs, etc. When I had all my ingredients together I lined my muffin tin and turned the oven down to 180c/350f/ gasmark 4.

I looked at the recipe and it said whisk the butter and sugar together but I decided instead to put all the ingredients bar the bananas in my food processor and mix them together.

By doing this I could weigh the dry ingredients like the flour and sugar without worrying about them sticking to the measuring bowl... this always happens to me when I weight the butter first! After I mixed the flour, butter, sugar, milk, eggs and baking powder together in the food processor I took my bananas peeled them, put them in a bowl and them mashed them using a potato masher. Once the bananas were mashed together I stopped, then I mixed the ingredients in the food procesor again before adding the bananas.

I briefly used the food processor to mix the bananas to the rest of the mixture before stopping it and removing it from the stand and spooning some of the mixture into the muffin cases. When I filled the muffin cases I put them into the oven for about 25 minutes, then removed them after they had risen and were golden brown. As I only have a 6 space muffin tin I took these out and put them on the side to cool and then refilled the empty holes.

 In the end this recipe made 15 banana muffins, maybe if I had used smaller bananas they would have been cupcakes but they seemed too large to ice.

The original recipe suggests using cream cheese frosting on top but they were light and airy enough not to need any icing. I'll definately be making these again!

52 Recipe Challenge - Week 25.

So weeks 23 and 24 seemed to fly by and before I know it I’m sat here once more writing about why I’ve neglected the blog for what seems like the fifth or sixth time. It might not be new year yet but keeping up with the blog is high on my resolution list! Worry not I have done a recipe this week!

Whilst I’ve been away from the blog I have been out and about sampling the hot chocolate and chocolate cake in the Blue Moon cafe as well as the cocktails at The Wick at Both Ends.

They are as good as they look in the picture! I’ve also watched The Lancashire Hotpots with my Dad, panic bought Christmas presents and started trying to sort out my house for Christmas.

This week I decided to make some cupcakes which have intrigued me for a while the Malted Cupcakes in the: Cupcakes from the PrimroseBakery book. I decided to make these partly because they looked nice and partly because I had some Fluff, an American make which is a kind of marshmallow stuff you can get in jars; which looked like it would work as a topping.

To make this you need:

110g butter

120g light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

185g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g Ovaltine

125ml semi skimmed milk (the recipe says at room temperature but I’m not sure why.)

½ teaspoon vanilla flavouring

1 tablespoon sour cream

The remainder of a jar of fluff or according to the recipe a batch of marshmallow or chocolate buttercream icing.

To start off I turned on my oven to preheat and then got out my muffin tin and lined it.

Next I measured out my dry ingredients the flour, baking powder and ovaltine and then sifted them into my mixing bowl.

Whilst doing this Frankenstein the cat came along to see what I was doing.

I stopped to tell him that the cakes weren’t for cats before measuring my caster sugar then the soft brown sugar, once I did this I weighed the butter and put the lot in the food processor.

Then I then mixed them together.

As the sugar and butter were mixing I got the bottle of milk out and poured 125ml into  the measuring jug and then returned the rest of the bottle to the fridge. When I did this I stopped the sugar and butter mixing then checked the mix before scooping the stray bits down with a spatula.  When it the butter and sugar seemed creamed together enough I added the first egg, mixed that in then I added the other one and finished mixing it. After I did this I double checked the recipe and reduced the oven heat from the top heat down to: 180c/ Gas mark 4.

Next I got the sour cream from the fridge and spooned the remnants of the tub into the milk, (I had eaten the rest with nachos the night before) and then added the vanilla flavouring before stirring it all together as best I could. When I checked the measuring jug I realised that the fluid in the measuring jug had gone up too much and that I couldn’t add it all in to the mix.

Once I mixed the milk, sour cream and vanilla flavouring together I took this along with the flour mix to the food processor. I started off by pouring a little flour to the mix about a third as the recipe suggested and stirred it together in the food processor.

When that was combined I added a  bit of the milk and sour cream and stirred it up.  The recipe said to add a third of the milk mix too but I thought this wasn’t the best idea when I had too much liquid.

Then I repeated this process until I had no flour and 50ml of the milk and sour cream mix left and all the ingredients were combined, when this was done I used a tablespoon to spoon the mix into my muffin cases and put them in the oven. After I put this batch in the oven I set the timer to 25 minutes and looked at my food processor mixing bowl and saw that I still had loads left so I got out my bun tin, lined that and filled those too.

When the timer went off I checked on my muffin sized cupcakes and as they were ok took them out of the oven and swapped them with the buns.  When all of the cupcakes were cooked I put them on the side to cool.

Then I  smeared Mashmallow Fluff on top of most of them as icing until it ran out.  I then delved into my cupboards, pulled out my stash of Malteasers and crunched a few of them up on top of the iced cupcakes then finished them off by putting a whole Malteaser on each of them.

These cupcakes took a bit more faffing to make that most of my baking and I think I like things you can just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thogether the best; however, they did go down well with the people most of the people I shared them with. Which is great because this recipe made loads!

That's partly because the recipe assumes you have a 12 hole muffin tin which I don't so I ended up with 18 cupcakes, 6 large & 12 bun sized but as they were very tasty I think they may have to be made again for a special occasion in the future.