Snickers and peanut-butter muffins!

I have heard about Nigella Lawson many times, but for some reason I never felt inclined to buy her books.

I went to a local boot sale not long ago and looking into a box full of books I found "How to be a domestic goddess" by Nigella Lawson, hard cover, I didn't think too much and got it straight away, of course!.... for £1 can you believe it?, I'm such a lucky girl!. The book is absolutely GREAT!, loads of yummy recipes that I have started to try. I love her writing, she has the ability to pass her inspiration and passion for food through her words and I have to admit, it's catching!.


On page 218 you'll find "Snickers and peanut-butter muffins"....yummy!!!
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
-250g plain flour
-6 tbsp (85g) golden caster sugar
-1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
-Pinch of salt
-6 tbsp (160g) crunchy peanut butter
-60 unsalted butter, melted
-1 large egg, beaten
-175 ml milk
-3 x 65 g Snickersbars, chopped
-12 muffin tin with paper cases

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 (I have a fan oven and 170C was fine)

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the peanut butter and mix until you have a bowl of coarse crumbs. Add the melted butter and egg to the milk, and then stir this gently into the bowl. Mix in the Snickers pieces and dollop into the muffin cases. Cook for 20-25 minutes (18 minutes was enough in my oven!, so check them every now and then) when the tops should be risen, golden and firm to the (light) touch. Sit the tin on a wire rack to cool. If you can.

Makes 12

Citrus poppy seed cake

Every season is "cake season" to me so I'm always looking for new tempting recipes to try.
Not long ago I bought this little book: "Good Food 101 cakes & bakes" from Amazon, after reading all the excllent and convincing reviews. I have tried a few recipes and I have to say they are great!. This has been the only cake I managed to photograph so far because the other ones vanished before I could take my camera out of the bag! hahahahha...


Now, back to this cake in particular.....is very easy to do (you don't even need an electric mixer!) and 100% delicious. This has been the first of many more I'll make, no doubt!.
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
-175gr butter, softened
-175gr caster sugar
-3 eggs, beaten
-250gr self-raising flour
-50gr poppy seeds
-Grated rind of 2 oranges
-Grated rind of 2 lemons
-4 rounded tbsp natural yogurt

For the topping:
-250gr tub mascarpone
-Grated rind and juice of 1 small orange
-3 tbsp orange or lemon curd
-Grated rind of 1 lemon

Before I continue let me tell you that I only sprinkled some icing sugar on mine, I didn't use the topping from this recipe simply because I didn't have the mascarpone nor the lemon curd, BUT....I'll surely try it next time!.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas2/fan oven 130C.
Butter and line the base of a deep 20cm/8in round cake tin.
Using a wooden spoon, beat together the butter, sugar,eggs, flour, poppy seeds, citrus rinds and yogurt until smooth.

2. Spread the mixture in the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes until just firm. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Peel off the paper.

3. Meanwhile, mix the mascarpone with enough orange juice to make a spreadable icing. Lightly swirl in the curd to give a marbled effect. Roughly spread over the top and sides of the cake, and scatter the grated citrus rind over the top to decorate.

Serves 10

Flower Power Cake!

Jasmine's 18th birthday was coming and as I promised to her, I made the cake.
I was getting a bit nervous as I knew I needed more time to practice with fondant and at the same time I wanted to make a very special and beautiful cake for her.
I used to take tips from the internet, YouTube and so on, but for some reason it didn't seem enough help!. So I went to Amazon's and looked for cake decorating books....there are loads, difficult to choose!. I started reading the reviews of the ones I liked and that's how I ended up buying "Cakes to inspire and desire" by Lindy Smith....fabulous book! it has just the right and very clear information you need, good recipes and priceless tips. Although I still need to learn A LOT, her book helped me with the basics and gave me more confidence to try new things. I recommend it 100%!

I thought at first I was going to make a simple cake, and by this I mean, a "one tier" cake... but seeing the pictures in the book was very tempting so I gave it a go, following all the instructions in the book...2 tiers then!, it worked perfectly well.
I used a 7 inch round cake for the base and a 3,5 inch cake for the one on top, rather small but very cute!...here's the result!


As I didn't want to write on the cake to not spoil the flowers, I made this tag with fondant and used an edible ink pen to write on it, I think it looks great, what do you think?


In the book there's a list of useful tools....I was quite impressed with the "Sugar Shaper", which I had to get, I couldn't resist it!... and let me tell you, Squires Kitchen has the best price online! :-)

Lavender cookies

After I bought the book "Cookie Craft" I have been thinking and even dreaming about cookies... the book is so inspirational!!!....the photographs, tips, recipes, tricks.....hmmm perfect!, honestly, if you're interested in cookie decoration THIS is the right book.

I was so eager to start using the ideas and techniques from the book that I dashed to get all what I needed, although I forgot the squeeze bottles, more pastry bags and extra nozzles.....which I can't find easily where I live. When I visited a friend the other day I remembered that I saw a pack of 4 sauce bottles in a shop, very cheap, not the perfect ones, but they would definitely help, so I got them. The pastry bags and extra nozzles had to stay in my "wish list" for now. Not to worry :o)

As I got a pack of greeting cards with photographs of lavender, I thought it would be nice to use the same colors for my cookies :

It was great to experiment with royal icing as I have never used it before. It can be tricky, I made some mistakes...that I ate afterwards :o)
I feel that I learnt a lot today and believe me.... I can't wait to decorate more!.

I'll put these in a clear bag with a nice ribbon plus a thank you card (the lavender ones...of course) to a very sweet friend of mine, Jacqueline, who sent me by surprise 5 pots of food coloring paste with a note that said "Happy baking and marzipal modeling"....isn't she nice!?.

"Cookie Craft" fabulous book!!!

After reading comments about the book "Cookie Craft" and seeing samples of the cookies you can make following very easy steps I got very excited and I bought a copy. I just received it today and believe me, it's a fabulous book! with great pics, great tips, recipes and more.
I recommend this book 100%

I couldn't sleep well last night thinking about all the ideas I have, things I can do with cookies, etc etc.... oh dear I'm going insane!!!!!!!!!!

I just can't wait to decorate cookies!!! :o)