Super simple strawberry jam!

Strawberries have got to be one of my favourite treats of summer, and a huge favourite of my little man's too (although he strangely doesn't like jam!). This jam recipe is super simple to do and makes 4 very full jars of jam (I used old Bonne Mamon jam jars to give you a rough guide). Make sure the jars have been washed in hot, soapy water then washed cleaned and sterilised. I do this by putting them in the oven on a baking tray for about an hour and using them straight from the oven. I always use Silver Spoon Jam Sugar with added pectin and the recipe is from the back of the packet:

Super Simple Strawberry Jam

900g of strawberries (you could also use raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, pears, peaches, rhubarb and loganberries with this same recipe),

1kg (1 pack) of Silver Spoon jam sugar with added pectin,

Knob of butter.

1. Hull the strawberries and place int a large saucepan. Crush them with a potato masher until they are pulpy.

2. Add the jam sugar to the pan.

3. Heat gently and stir continuously until the sugar melts. Do not bring to the boil at this point. Add the knob of butter.

4. Keep stirring, gradually increasing the heat until it reaches a rolling boil that bubbles up and cannot be stirred down again. Boil for 4 minutes, stirring often.

5. Spoon/pour (if you have a steady hand and a good saucepan) into the four sterilised jars and seal immediately. Leave to cool completely before storing in a dark, cool place until you wish to use them. A general guideline is to use within a year if kept unopened and when opened, store in the fridge and use within a month. When my jars have cooled I will add some labels and pretty toppers too!

Perfect for scones with clotted cream!

xxx

Death by Chocolate!

I wish I could blame a major need for chocolate on being pregnant but anyone who knew me pre-pregnancy would know that to be a lie!! Sometimes though, for many a reason, a girl (or a guy) just needs some cocoa goodness so I decided to make this delicious gooey chocolate brownie cake. I never have much luck with brownies so had my fingers crossed for this to turn out better and it is lush!! The original recipe comes from Vegetarian Good Food Christmas and can be found online here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2882/chocolate-brownie-cake-

or you can follow my step by step instructions and adaptions here:

Chocolate Brownie Cake

175g Stork,

200g castor sugar,

225g dark chocolate, broke into pieces (I used a mixture of dark chocolate bars broken up and milk chocolate chips),

3 medium eggs, separated,

65g plain flour,

50g pecans (I used walnuts as that's what was in my baking cupboard, other baker's suggest you could use fudge chunks, sultanas, other nuts, whatever you fancy really).

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.

2. Put the Stork, sugar and 175g of the chocolate into a heavy based saucepan and melt over a very low heat, stirring occasionally. Don't be tempted to turn the heat up and rush this. Leave to cool.

3. If you are using a stand mixer and only have one bowl I would whisk the egg whites next to save lots of washing up. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks and whisk the whites until they form soft peaks and set aside to use shortly.

4. Mix the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture (do let it cool a bit so you don't end up with scrambled eggs!), then mix in the flour, nuts and the other 50g of chocolate.

5. Gently fold in the egg whites a bit at a time until you cannot see any white. You need to work gently and thoroughly (channel Mary Berry at this point) so that you don't knock all the air out of the egg whites but that you do mix them in properly. The egg whites will help the cake to rise.

6. Line a regular round cake tin with foil and gently spoon in all the mixture. Bake for 40 minutes then leave to cool until it is just warm. Turn it out the tin and enjoy.

I am going to be devouring a big piece of this cake tonight with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream, but it would be just as nice with other flavours of ice cream, custard or cream, and I reckon it would be rather enjoyable just on it's own too.

Hope you enjoy this chocolate feast, if you have a fave chocolate recipe don't forget to share it on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/yummymummyletthemeatcake

Happy baking!

xxx

Banana-rama!

Two things I hate are over ripe bananas and wasting food so this recipe is perfect for battling both of these things; banana loaf. My little man was keen to help me and this is a good recipe to do with little ones as they can help with lots of different parts of it depending on their age and ability. This recipe comes from Jane Bull's 'The Ultimate Cooking Book', a book I have mentioned before that is wonderfully simple and colourful for children to bake from, with excellent step by step pictures for them, and one that I still love now.

Cheeky Monkey Banana Loaf

4oz/100g Stork,
8oz/200g self raising flour,
40z/100g soft brown sugar,
6oz/150g sultanas/raisins,
2 eggs,
2 large desertspoons of runny honey,
3 ripe bananas, mashed.

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C.
2. Rub/mix the Stork and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add the sugar, sultanas, eggs and honey.

4. Mash the bananas with a fork (or your hands if you are a toddler/like getting messy) and mix well into the mixture.

5. Line a loaf tin with foil and pour the mixture in.

6. Bake for 1 hour until golden brown on top.

7. Leave to cool completely in the tin before turning out and slicing like a loaf of bread (serving suggestion is to eat it like malt loaf with butter on, yummy!).

A couple of other suggestions that this recipe has is:

• to bake this same mixture in fairy cake cases for 15 minutes to make 12 monkey muffins,
• substitute the bananas for 2 chopped and peeled apples, 125ml of milk and 1 tsp cinnamon,
• substitute the  bananas for 2 carrots peeled and grated, grated peel and juice of 1 orange and 1 tsp mixed spice.

Both these substitutions can be baked as mini muffins or as a loaf cake!

Enjoy making with your little or big monkeys!

xxx