Carrot Cake

The first homemade carrot (cup)cake I tasted, from the Hummingbird Bakery, was probably one of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever eaten.

...which is why I had to make one myself! I used a recipe from the I ❤ SUGAR Marks & Spencer recipe book (which annoyingly I can't find online) to make the cake below. However, instead of using the icing from the original recipe, I used the Lorriane Pascale Carrot Cake recipe to make a really yummy lemony icing.

I used the exact same recipe to make a batch of cupcakes. Although I must admit I did use muffin cases to make these (well you wouldn't want to make them too small would you?).

Delicious Doughnuts

I was a bit scared about making these as I thought they'd be quite tricky and end up looking nothing like doughnuts but I was pleasantly surprised at how uncomplicated they were! I would definitely recommend making these impressive (-ly easy) jam doughnuts.

I choose to use a BBC recipe to make them as it had clear and simple instructions to follow (unlike some of the others I read). Whilst the prep time is between 1-2 hours, most of that is leaving the dough to rise as it only takes around 10 minutes to cook the doughnuts.

I found the 'cube of bread' tip was a great way to test the temperature of the oil as it was at this point I realised my oil was too hot as it burnt my bread.

The recipe suggests you should 'make a small slit in the doughnut with the tip of a knife' to insert the jam (with a teaspoon), however after trying this once, I realised it was too messy and used a small piping bag instead.

Mary Berry's Cappuccino Coffee Cake

I'm not a big fan of coffee cake myself but I made this for someone's birthday the other day and I have to admit I didn't leave a single crumb behind.

This is a Mary Berry recipe (I'm a big fan of Mary and the Great British Bake Off - the clue's in the name) and as you can see it has very few ingredients.

What I love about this recipe is that you weigh all the ingredients, one after another, throw them all together in the mixing bowl, stir, add the coffee and that's it done.

You'll see on the recipe that it is a four layered cake (one cake but cut into four layers) but as Mary advises, to make it easy, you can just cut it into two halves. To save making a mess of it, I choose to split the mixture into two and bake separately.

Whilst that's cooking, you can mix up the coffee butter icing - which is just that: coffee, butter and icing. It makes a nice thick butter icing, so you can spread it easily without it dripping everywhere.

Then once it has cooled down you can add a big dollop in the middle of the two halves and another over the top.

And there you have it, a simple but yummy coffee cake...with a tiny eeny weeny bit of gold glitter sprinkled over the top.

EAT ME biscuits

Nothing beats a good biscuit, especially one that's so easy to make it only has 5 ingredients and takes 5 minutes to prep and 15 to bake. 

I used the BBC GoodFood Basic biscuit dough to make these yummy buttery biscuits as it's exactly what it says on the tin.

They proved to be the perfect gift once I'd stamped them with an 'EAT ME' stamp and sprinkled some (edible) glitter over the top of them.

Crunchie, Malteser and Rolo Rocky Road Bites

This is the recipe, that after trying it, everyone wants a copy of. I have passed it on a few times now and the main reason being it not only tastes delicious but it's so simple and quick to make as you literally just chuck it together.

I always tend to stick to recipes that aren't over complicated or packed full with unnecessary ingredients (in my opinion!). Therefore this Nigella's Rocky Road recipe to add to.

When using this recipe I swap the dark chocolate for milk chocolate and the rich tea biscuits for digestive biscuits (that's the good thing about rocky road you can change the recipe to include whatever you like - within reason).

After I've melted the butter, chocolate and syrup, I transfer it into a cooler bowl (instead of  keeping it in the saucepan) before adding in the rest of the chocolate. It's up to you what you choose to add but the household favourite is to add in a 135g pouch of maltesers, a 4 pack of crunchies and 4 pack of rolos (yes I know, what a lot of calories but wait until you've tried it...) 

Triple Chocolate Brownies

Gooey chocolate brownies are by far everyone's favourite, which is why I thought it would be the perfect recipe to start the blog off with. This recipe has never failed me, whether it's been used to make a birthday brownie or an anniversary brownie.

This GoodFood recipe makes the most delicious gooey centered brownies I have ever made and for that reason, since stumbling across this recipe, I have never used any other since.

It makes one (thick) tray of brownies but due to popular demand I always tend to double the recipe to make sure there are enough brownies to last until the end of the day.

If you want to be extra naughty and serve the brownies hot as a pudding, I'd recommend serving it up with this simple but very tasty chocolate sauce.