No bake flap jacks

For Sarah

Five minutes start to finish. Plus an hour in the fridge. Sweet, squidgy and reasonably healthy. These met with the women's group stamp of approval!

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups rice crispies
3 - 3 1/2 cups porridge oats, NOT jumbo or rolled oats
1 handful each pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and unblanched almonds

Melt butter, sugar and honey gently in a largish pan, when sugar is dissolved let it come up to boil for 2 mins.

Stir in vanilla. Chop almonds into slivers. Stir in 3 cups of oats, the rice crispies and half the nuts and seeds. If it still seems too syrupy and sticky add more oats.

Turn into a brownie tin lined with baking paper. Press down and sprinkle remaining nuts and seeds over.

Chill in fridge for 1 hour then cut into 16 squares.

Butterscotch blondies

Not as tooth achingly sweet as other blondies I've had, and with a real butterscotch tang. Great bars for when you need a sweet hit but can't have chocolate.

Very simple method.

Preheat oven to 160 C fan. As its preheating toast 3/4 cup of pecans in it until 1 shade darker.

Melt 3/4 cup butter in a pan. Remove from heat.

Stir in 1 cup +1 tbsp soft brown sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of mins.

Stir in 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs and a pinch of salt. Add the pecans. Stir till combined.

Pour into a lined 9 in square tin. Bake for 12-15 mins till golden, no longer runny when you tip it but still slightly gooey in the middle.

Cool in tin. Cut into 16. Best first day when still warm, but stays gooey for days, just the nuts get a little soggy.

Fairy sandwiches

OK, so this is neither baking, nor really a recipe. But it's a fondly remembered sweet treat from my childhood, and now a much requested part of my children's repertoire. We have it for picnics - indoors or out - and of course birthday teas.

If you love fairies too, or have children who do, be sure to check out my article on Dancing with the Flower Fairies in the summer issue of the beautiful, free e-zine, Rhythm of the Home 

Ingredients:

Sugar Sprinkles/ hundreds and thousands

Super fresh sliced white bread

Soft butter

Spread the bread thickly with butter, allow at least one slice per person, and be prepared to make more!!

Sprinkle with multi coloured hundreds and thousands (sugar strands).

Cut into tiny, dainty triangles, fit for a fairy – be sure to take the crusts off – neither fairies nor children like them!

Eternal summer sponge with raspberries and rosewater

I make no secrets about how much I love roses - to look at, to smell... and to eat. This cake combines the three of these to create a sponge which sings of summer - yet could be met even in the depths of winter.

Imagine a lemony sponge as light as a summer cloud, filled with ripe raspberries and creamy vanilla scented mascarpone topped with a rosewater icing and crystallised rose petals. This is summer on a plate, just begging to be served outside in the sun for a perfect summer celebration.

I know it looks complicated, but I made it from start to finish in 1 hour - and I was creating the recipe as I went!! If you have kids or other willing helpers get them to make the water icing and do the rose petals. Be aware that they use raw egg - so make sure you are using really fresh egg white from a reputable source. These are even better made the day before so they can really crisp up. They last for weeks in an air tight jar.

If you want to make too much water icing, you can thicken up what's left with a little more icing sugar, roll into balls and leave to set in the fridge and then dip in dark chocolate for gorgeous old fashioned rose creams, perfect for an after-dinner treat.

Pre heat oven to 170C (fan), 180C standard

2 x 8 inch (20cm) round tins, greased and lined

Cake

210g butter

220 g sugar

4 eggs

110 ml milk (100 ml if using lemon juice)

3 tsp baking powder 

220g flour

zest 1 lemon

1 tsp lemon extract or 1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

250 g tub mascarpone

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp icing sugar

Icing

150 g raspberries

Rose water icing

125g icing sugar

2 tsp rose water

drop of red food colouring

Crystalised rose petals

1 egg white

3 tbsp caster sugar

1 pink or white scented rose

Beat the soft butter and sugar together till light and fluffy with electric whisk. Add eggs one by one whisking in. Then flour and baking powder. Whisk for 2 mins, then add in the milk to loosen the mix a little. Add vanilla, lemon zest and juice/ extract.

Pour into two greased lined 8inch tins. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden and skewer comes out clean.

Meanwhile get on with the crystalised rose petals - with a clean paint brush paint both sides of each rose petal completely with egg white. Sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to dry on a sheet of baking parchment.

Leave to cool in tins for 5 mins, then carefully turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool for at least 30 mins before icing.

To make the rose icing combine the sugar and rose water and colour in a bowl. You may need a little more icing sugar or rose water depending on consistency, it needs to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and drip very slowly and lazily off!

For the filling mix the mascarpone with vanilla and sugar with a spatula or spoon, taste and add a little more sugar if desired. Mix through the raspberries, squashing slightly as you stir.

When the cake is cool to the touch, sandwich together with the filling, pour the rose water icing over the top (it will drip down slightly) and scatter with rose petals. Serve immediately, but keeps in the fridge for a couple of days.

Strawberry cream queen cakes

Strawberries mean summer for me. And these dinky darlings have become a classic for special summer tea parties on the lawn.

These are a grown-up take on the British classic of childhood, butterfly cakes. Think basic fairy cakes - with magical cakey wings - which just makes them taste even more special! Be warned - kiddies love them too!

Make these at the last minute so that the cream doesn't melt and the strawberries are at their best.

Makes 16

12 hole muffin tin and 6 hole muffin tin with 16 paper cases

Preheat oven to 170C

Cupcakes

270g plain flour

240g caster sugar

3 tsp baking powder

110g soft butter

240ml full fat milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chantilly

200 ml cream - whipped

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp icing sugar, sieved

4 tbsp strawberry jam

150g fresh strawberries, sliced

icing sugar for dusting

With a handheld electric whisk mix the butter into the flour, baking powder and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk, egg and vanilla. Whisk for 2 mins until well combined. It will look much runnier than a normal cake mix! Divide between 12 fairy cake cases. Bake for 15-20 min - keep a careful eye on these, they need to be light golden and springy. They will be dry if they get to the dark golden stage.

Leave in the tin for 5 mins then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Leave for at least 40 mins until quite cool to the touch.

When they are cool, whip the cream, add the vanilla and icing sugar.

Cut off the tops (carefully!!) so that they are flat. Then cut this piece into two - these are the wings. With a teaspoon dig out a small hole, (removing just a teaspoonful of cake)- this is not needed and can be eaten as you go!!!

Then either with a piping bag (if you're confident with them) or a teaspoon, add a 1/4 tsp of strawberry jam in the bottom of the hole, then a heaped teaspoonful of cream, then 3-4 slices of strawberry- making sure that the outer, seeded sides of the strawberry are showing - then perhaps a little more cream, enough to carefully stick the wings into - they need to be placed curved sides up, baked sides in.

Do them all, then dust with a little icing sugar. Eat straight away or keep cool in the fridge.

Perfect Pecan Choc Chip Cookies

Pecan nuts and chocolate are a classic combination. In our house the kids hate nuts so I make half a batch with and half without.

I realised that I have been focusing on cakes on the blog - when in reality about 50% of my baking is cookies. A strange oversight you might think. But the reality is, photographing cookies is tricky... and they tend not to last long enough (in our house) anyway!

But that stops here - I am famous for my cookies - so here's MY recipe (with a picture that someone else took!!)

Image: smittenkitchen.com

Banana and ginger cake - low fat cake!

Low fat cake seems an oxymoron. But here we have it. A soft, moist cake where the banana and buttermilk mean a reduction of 50% of the butter and 25% of the sugar. Great for breakfast, brunch or afternoon tea. Keeps well for a week.

Vanilla cupcakes

Friends will recognise these from my daughter's recent fairy princess birthday party where they were set upon by a throng of polyester-clad, four-year-old princesses-in-training!

This is my standard cupcake recipe which we make at least once a week. It is quick to whip up (even with little helpers) if you have friends calling round. They keep well (if you don't eat them!!) and are as light as a fairy to eat, and pretty to the eye! If you ice with a water icing they are much lower in fat than a normal cupcake. We tend to use a water icing on a day-to-day basis as the cakes don't have to be completely cold before you ice them.

The original recipe (which I have adapted) comes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book.

Banana bread

My adaptation of Nigella's banana bread. But of course it's not really bread but a toffee moist cake that keeps well. I love eating it spread with butter.

Uber-chocolate muffins

You know sometimes when you just NEED chocolate? This is the closest to an instant IV drip of homemade chocolate goodness that you can get.

As of now I am officially "on a diet"  - so of course I need chocolate!

I often have cravings for those warm chocolate muffins with melting choc chunks in that you get in cafes and supermarkets. Well, this is them. But without all the weird chemical preservatives. I cannot tell you how good they are.

I was told off last year for sharing recipes on how to use up easter eggs - no one has to do that I was told - well we do - so that's how we made our chocolate chunks!

Adapted from Joy of Baking who in turn borrowed it from King Arthur Flour  Baker's Companion!

Speedy chocolate sauce

I recently made the fudgey All-American Chocolate cake but was in too much of a hurry to eat it to wait for it to cool. And so I made a speedy, no cook, chocolate sauce to pour over and served it warm, like a brownie with ice cream.

Though I have given a stand alone recipe here, in truth what I did was make up the full volume of cocoa and water needed for the recipe, and then just used half to make one cake - I was trying to be a good girl! - and the other half to make up the sauce!

Pear and cardamom cake

A lightly spiced autumnal treat of a cake, in the tarte tatin tradition. I cook this in a deep 9 inch frying pan which has a removable handle so that I can caramelise the pears, pop the cake batter over the top and put it straight in to the oven. If you don't have one, caramelise the pears and then arrange them on the bottom of a normal cake tin (8-9 inch)

Cake
150 g  butter
150 g caster sugar
150 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
2 tbsp milk

Topping
crushed seeds from 10 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 ripe pears (depending on size)
30 g butter
30 g  soft brown sugar

Choc-orange-cranberry-almond-oat bars!

These are crammed with goodness and easy as pie to make.No easier. Absolutely NO cooking skills needed. The original recipe come's from the speedily super Nigella Express  where she calls them breakfast bars- because that's what they really are - oats, milk, sugar and nuts and seeds. But I had to add chocolate. And orange. And change the nuts. So now they're all mine!

Do note the low oven temperature.
And the oats. DO NOT whatever you do use the powdery, crumbly porridge oats. You must use rolled oats, the thicker, jumbo oats that all keep their shape. Otherwise... yuck!

And be sure you have condensed milk - which is thick like syrup, not the runny evaporated milk.

No, I don't think you're stupid. It's just easy to skim read recipes. Especially easy ones!

Sugar-free american fruit muffins

Healthy cake. Which actually tastes good. Bring it on!

After OD'ing on sugar last night and with multiple half eaten over ripe bananas scattered around the house courtesy of my children, these were just the ticket for a family breakfast. Adapted from Beth Hensperger's Bread for Breakfast

Preheat oven to 170C. Oil 12 cup muffin tin.
2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 mashed bananas
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs 
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sunflower/ canola oil


1/2 cup chopped pecans or 1 cup fresh blueberries - or a combination of both.


Combine dry ingredients with a balloon whisk. Combine wet ingredients with the whisk. Fold the wet into the dry ingredients. Add nuts or blueberries and fold gently in. Do not over mix. Spoon into the muffin tin. Bake for 20 mins until risen, golden and not wet dough inside when tested with a skewer.

Serve by themselves or with butter and a drizzle of honey.

Lavender shortbread

A taste of summer... or old ladies with lace handkerchiefs, depending on your associations with lavender! These are gently aromatic rather than over-powering. Elegant and refined, they would not be out of place at a proper English afternoon tea - which is just what I cooked them for today, when a dear family friend in her eighties called round for tea. Leave out the lavender and it's the simplest biscuit recipe in the world. Add in a tablespoon of garam masala or the grated zest of a lemon for a totally different take on them. If you think you're not a baker, then these are a good place to start - even my father can make them - he calls them 2-4-6 biccies (because of the imperial measurements) and is known to make them for grandchildren. From beginning to end they take maximum 20 minutes to make! The only way you can go badly wrong is to overcook them. Keep an eye on them like a hawk after the first 5 minutes - under done is better than over done with these, they go bitter if they get too dark. You are looking for a pale golden colour.

Preheat oven to 180C (170C for fan oven)
Makes 25

2 oz sugar
4 oz soft butter
6 oz plain flour
1 heaped tsp fresh or dried lavender flowers (pull them off the main stem so you have lots of tiny florettes)
More lavender and sugar for sprinkling.

Rub the butter with the sugar by hand or using an electric whisk. Add flour and lavender or other flavouring. Whisk or mix to combine. Then using your hands bring it together into a ball, pushing and kneading it slightly till it is in one big lump.

Lightly flour a clean surface. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch (5mm) thick with a rolling pin. Cut out using a medium (5cm diametre) round or heart shaped biscuit cutter and place onto a non stick baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 mins, watching carefully. Remove when pale golden. Sprinkle lightly with a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Remove from baking sheet onto a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle with more lavender to serve.

Mojitos

Mojitos - because it's summer , so it's too hot to be slaving away at a hot stove!

Juice of 5 limes

3 tbsp sugar (could be more, but start with this)

6 large sprigs of mint

200ml white rum

300-500ml soda water (can use sparkling water if necessary)- depending on how strong or long you want 'em

Lots of ice

Put the mint in a measuring jug (keep the leaves on the stalks). Add the sugar and pound for a couple of minutes with a pestle.

Roll and squeeze the juice from the limes, pour it over the minty sugar, and pound another couple of times.

Pour over the rum (you can measure it in the jug).

Top it up to the top of the jug with some of the soda water. Give it a good mix and taste it – now is the time to balance the tones- does it need more lime or sugar?

Fill a bigger jug with ice cubes, add in the mojitos and more soda water to taste.

Taste and adapt, taste and adapt! Taste, taste, taste!

American Baking Goodies for the rest of us...

i have, I know, let slip once of twice my love of American baking, in fact most of the baking bloggers are American too, which a very happy mama me makes!

But it also causes problems: ingredients. So much of what is avaialble in the US does not exists in Ireland. Whenever I go over to visit family in America (only once every few years) I pack my bag full of American junk food and goodies to bring back!

Well now I have discovered http://www.americansweets.co.uk my troubles are over -(they even have a section devoted to all the ingredients mentioned in Nigella Lawson's books!)

I am going to get a shipment of American wonders- peanut butter cups, maple flavour extract, butterscotch morsels, and gold fish crackers for my kiddies. Oooohhhh I'm excited. BUT I still can't track down mint chips for my mint brownies - might have to make my own!

Mint choc brownies with hot mint choc sauce

Apologies for the absence - there has been no baking in the Pink House due to chicken pox and book-writing and birthdays. That's right, not even a birthday cake! But normal service has now resumed - and how - with these brownies!

Top of my birthday list was Fat Witch Brownies - oh my what a tempting book it is - but very American in its measurements (fine if you're an American of course!!). And today I tried my first recipe from there (see below for my tweaked version with Europeanised measurements). Oh mama! I added my own simple chocolate sauce recipe, adulterated with mint and served with vanilla ice cream - though for the total full-on experience this calls for mint-choc chip ice cream as well! These are moreish, and if you will believe me, refreshing because of the mint.

Makes 16
Preheat oven to 170 C
Line a 9 inch square tin with foil and grease with butter.

6 oz butter
4 oz chocolate (I used 3/4  70% dark and 1/4 left over Easter egg - yes we STILL have lots!!)
10 oz sugar
6 oz plain flour
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp peppermint extract/ essence
4 oz mint chips (optional )  - have no idea where to get these- but I remember them from childhood

Melt the butter and chocolate very gently in a small saucepan - remove from heat before completely melted and stir till melted. Leave to cool a little.

In a bowl whisk eggs and sugar till smooth using a electric whisk.

Add chocolate mixture, peppermint and vanilla and whisk again. Then flour and whisk briefly till combined. Fold in mint chips if using.

Pour into prepared tin and cook for 20-25 mins until a tooth pick comes out with crumbs not batter - do not over cook!

Leave to cool in the tin, cut into 16 squares. Serve alone at tea time or with ice cream and the sauce below for dessert.

Chocolate sauce 
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp good dark cocoa powder
2 tbsp sugar
8 tbsp boiling water
a few drops of peppermint extract

Mix together in a small pan, bring to boil and simmer till thick and syrupy - check for sweetness- if too sweet add a little more cocoa and use a whisk to disperse the lumps (about 5 mins). Stir in the peppermint extract totaste. Serve hot/ warm/ cold!

Gingerbread robots

A quick, simple melt-it-down, one pan method for yummy gingerbread, which I originally got from a kids TV show! You don't have to make robots - how about hearts, men, planets, rabbits... or a gingerbread house.

Preheat oven to 180C

50g butter
20g white sugar
30g soft brown sugar
100g golden syrup
200g self raising flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Melt sugars, syrup and butter in a pan. Stir in flour and spices. Stir until combined.

Pour onto a non stick sheet of parchment. Roll out to about 3mm thick. Cut out. Cook for 10 mins, keep a careful eye on them so they don't go too dark around the edges. Cool on a wire rack before icing. Un-iced they keep well for a couple of weeks and are crisp. Iced they keep fine but are soft.

Ice with a water icing, (icing sugar mixed to a paste with a little water).

Lucy Loves...chocolate

It being that time of the month, chocolate is on my mind - did you notice? It is like medicine for me... and my two little girls - melt downs and disasters are swiftly averted. A square of chocolate is adminsitered, and normality resumes.

We took delivery of our bulk order from the health food wholesalers. Usually my chocolate of choice is Divine - a fair trade bar, the 70% bar is smoky and sexy, the milk version is creamy and rich. The white with strawberries is to die for. But this time I tried the Green and Blacks (organic) cooking chocolate. Wary at first, becaase cooking chocolate usually means low cocoa mass, this is 72%. In their words, "a combination of cocoa mass, which gives the chocolate its intense flavour, and cocoa butter, which gives it a smooth consistency when melted - makes it suited perfectly for cooking & secondly, each piece of chocolate weighs exactly 5g, making it easy to measure the exact amount needed."
Clever - huh? And taste wise certainly lives up to its write up...
But the best thing? Because it is classed as "cooking" rather than "snacking" it is not a luxury item, and so you don't pay the 21% luxury VAT rate. Hurray!

We have had coconut kisses and up-cycled easter egg cake here on Queen of Puddings in the past week! And while we are on the subject - have you tried my very first posting Chocolate cherry cupcakes? Or my chocolate pavlova with raspberries? Or my red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting?
Not yet, what are you, mad?!

And my ultimate All-American chocolate cake - I have fantasies about this one! What, you're gluten-free? Then try my flour-free chocolate cake with almonds

Or feeling worthy? Then I dare you to try my secret brownies made with tofu! No one would EVER guess!

So it would be of no surprise to those of you who don't know me that I used to have a little chocolate making business... rose creams; peppermint creams; Old Morgan spiced vanilla rum truffles; spiced chocolate with orange, cinnamon and chilli;  dark chocolate dipped citrus peel...

I noticed a triple chocolate mousse cake over at The Year of the Cookie - one layer baked, one a mousse and the other lighter and fluffier. I used to love a version of this as a child which my dad and step-mother both claimed to make and I never knew who it was!  Oh the innocence of childhood, my dad would be no more capable of cooking this as push out a baby!
http://theyearofthecookie.blogspot.com/2011/05/triple-chocolate-mousse-cake.html