Chocolate Chip Pancakes

This chocolate chip pancake recipe is from the GU cook book (yes GU the amazingly chocolately pudding GU), it's a bit more fussy than your usual pancake recipe but its definitely worth doing.

First sift 100g of plain flour, 1tsp of baking powder and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder into a bowl. Then in a jug whisk together 150ml milk with 3 egg yolks, before combining it all together.

In a separate bowl whisk the three egg whites together until they form soft peaks, then add 25g of caster sugar and a pinch of salt until it resembles 'shaving foam'. Mix in one third of the the whisked egg whites into the batter before folding in the rest.

Heat a non-stick pan (I added a small amount of butter just to make sure they didn't stick) and spoon on the mixture (to make one pancake I used roughly a tablespoon and a half). They only need 30 seconds on each side but you'll know when they need turning as bubbles will start to form on the top of the pancakes.

Depending on what time of the day you are eating them, they are even tastier with chocolate sauce and ice-cream...but maybe not for breakfast!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

These have been on my list of things to bake for a long time and this weekend (being the hottest weekend in a long time) seemed like a good time to try them out.

I used a simple BBC Food recipe to make these, so simple in fact you just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. This includes; 200g butter, 200g caster sugar, 200g plain flour, 4 tbsp custard powder, 1 tbsp vanilla essence and 2 eggs. I halved this recipe to make 6 cones but in the end it made around 9.

Then spoon the mixture into flat ice cream cones which need to be placed into a muffin tin to make sure they stay upright whilst baking. Fill the cones 2/3 of the way with mixture so that the cakes rise to the top of the cone.

They will need to go into the oven for about 30 minutes but I found mine needed to come out before then, so keep an eye on them and take them out when they are golden brown in colour (use a cake tester to make sure it comes out clean).

To make the butter icing combine 350g of butter, 350g icing sugar and 2 tbsp of vanilla essence. Then spoon it into a piping big, ideally one with a star shaped nozzle or a relatively big one.

Once the cakes are cool, you can pipe the icing onto of the cones, starting from the edge into the centre.

Then you can decorate them with whatever you fancy, I went for the traditional 99p cone as you can see, only with added sprinkles (obviously)!

Cake in a Mug

I've seen several microwave mug cakes on Pinterest recently (unfortunately mine doesn't look quite as good as them), so I thought I'd give it a go and it turns out it is even easier and quicker than I thought.

             1. Add 4 tbsp of S.R. flour, 4 tbsp          2. Stir in one egg until all the 

             of caster sugar and 2 tbsp of cocoa      ingredients are combined.

             powder into a mug and mix.

              3. Add in 3 tbsp of milk and                  4. Put the mug in the microwave
              3 tbsp of vegatable or sunflower          on a high heat for 4-5 minutes
              oil. As well as any extracts or               or until it has stopped rising.
              additional chocolate drops.

Then tah-dah, you've made a cake in less than 10 minutes!

Whilst I can't say it was the tastiest thing I have ever baked, it was by far the quickest bake I have ever done.

Chocolate Smartie Bark

If you're struggling to get through your Easter eggs or trying to start your diet again but you've still got lots of chocolate lying around the house, why not throw it all together and just be done with it.

Chocolate bark, layered chocolate topped with sweets, nuts or even more chocolate, is probably the easiest thing you could possibly make. I can't even pretend any effort went into making it but it is fun to do and looks great afterwards.

First I melted a Cadbury's Easter egg in the microwave - be careful as the chocolate is so thin it is easy to leave it in the microwave until the lumps have melted completely but it will more than likely be burnt by then so take it out whilst there are still chocolate pieces and mix them in. Then pour this into a baking tray which is already lined with grease-proof paper.

Then put it in the freezer until the chocolate has set (I'm sure this isn't normally how you do it but I was too impatient to wait). 

Then I melted a bag of white chocolate buttons and spread it evenly over the milk chocolate (make sure the white chocolate is cool as it will melt the milk chocolate and it will no longer be white). Alternatively you could drizzle or splatter this on top to make it more decorative. The great thing about using white chocolate is you can colour it too, a drop of pink food colouring would look great for chocolate bark.

Then it is up to you how you decorate your chocolate bark, I used smarties (half whole and the rest crushed) with a sprinkling of silver dust (obviously).

Then all that's left to do is smash it up into pieces of chocolate bark. 

Cliff Richard Biscuits

Whilst it's hard to make out the recipe below as it is caked in mess, these are Cliff Richard Biscuits. To cut a long story short, the name came after they were served at tea to Cliff Richard when he visited my grandfather's vicarage. They are soft brown sugar biscuits with a crunchy sugar coating around the edge.

As with any biscuit recipe, first cream the butter (6oz) and soft light brown sugar (4oz) together until light and fluffy. 

 Before adding in 8oz of plain flour and pinch of salt to make a firm (but sticky) dough. Then lightly flour the surface (but be careful not to over do it with the flour as once you have worked it all into the biscuits they will become tough) and lightly knead the biscuit dough before rolling it into a long sausage.

 Take a long stripe of foil (the length of mine changes every time but the recipe recommends 18 inches by 6) before sprinkling brown demerara sugar over it. 

Then take the biscuit dough and place it on top of the sugar, gently rolling it to make sure all sides are coated in sugar before wrapping it up in the foil. Then it needs to go into the fridge until firm, whilst this is a bit tedious I have tried to do it without this step and it just ended up being very messy. 

Once out of the fridge, you can begin cutting thr roll into biscuits (this isn't as easy as it sounds as you have to be careful not to squash the dough when cutting it). The biscuits should therefore be a lot rounder than mine but I think I might have squished it too much (woops!).

These are delicious when they first come out of the oven hot. And I'm sure Cliff Richard would agree, with a fresh pot of tea.

Easter Chocolate Nests

If there is one thing that has to be baked (or thrown together in this case) on Easter weekend its chocolate Easter nests, especially as it gives you another excuse to eat mini eggs.

Unsurprisingly it only has three ingredients; chocolate, shredded wheat (or cornflakes/rice crispies if shredded wheat is not a popular choice in your household) and mini eggs. I tend to double the recipe as I find it never makes enough (but that could just be me!).

First smash up 170g of shredded wheat before melting 400g of milk chocolate. You can either do this in a bain marie or the microwave. I find it quicker (and less washing up) in the microwave but it burns much easier, therefore put it in for 1 minute to begin with and check it every 50 seconds after, stirring each time.

 Once the chocolate has melted add it to the shredded wheat and stir, it may not appear like there is enough chocolate to coat the shredded wheat but just keep stirring.

 Place a tablespoon of the mixture into individual cupcake cases in a tray (should make around 18) and pop the mini eggs in the centre.

Then put them in the fridge to firm up for half an hour/an hour and they're ready to eat! Unless like me you choose to decorate them with little chicks (and gold glitter) - from past experience I would suggest putting these on once the chocolate has set as I find otherwise the chicks set with the chocolate and you end up with very fluffy nests.

Cadbury Mini Egg Cupcakes

Everyone loves a good vanilla cupcake, especially an Easter themed one with a butter cream icing topped with crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs. The good thing about this recipe is each ingredient requires the same quantity (4oz). 

First combine 4oz of butter with 4oz of caster sugar until it makes a creamy, fluffy mixture. Then add in two eggs (one at a time) before adding in 1tsp of vanilla essence.

 

Then add in 4oz of self-raising flour (and if you think it is a needed, a few drops of milk to loosen the mixture) before spooning into the cupcake cases. The mixture makes exactly 12 cupcakes - whilst it may not seem as if there is enough in each they will raise and it also allows for room for the icing on top. 

 

To make the butter icing, combine 10oz of icing sugar and 5oz butter (it will always be double the amount of icing sugar to butter). If it seems too thick, you can add a small amount of milk but I found 

it wasn't needed for these. 

Then place the icing into a piping bag before piping onto the cupcakes.

 Then take a handful of mini eggs and place them in a sandwich bag before giving them a good bash with a rolling pin. Then sprinkle the crumbs on top of the iced cupcakes before placing a mini egg on the top of each. 

Then all that is left to do is sprinkle them with gold glitter (obviously).