Jason's WORLD FAMOUS ginger cake!

I was treated to this recipe at my Grandma's 90th birthday party this summer when my lovely cousin Charlotte made these as muffins, and I knew I needed to get my hands on this recipe! It was created by one of her work colleagues, Jason (who I've been told is an amazing baker), and he has kindly let me share it with you. 

The original recipe is designed to bake 2 x 2lb loaf tin cakes and I have used it to make 18 large muffins/cupcake size cakes.

Jason's WORLD FAMOUS ginger cake

2 mugs of self raising flour,

1 mug of sugar,

2 heaped tsp of ground ginger,

1 heaped tsp of bicarbonate of soda,

4oz/100g of Stork,

2 generous tbsp of golden syrup,

1 mug of boiling milk (I heated this in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes),

1 free range egg.

1. Preheat the oven to Electric 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 6.

2. Mix together the self raising flour, sugar, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda.

3. Add the Stork, golden syrup and milk and mix until smooth.

4. Add the egg and mix until well combined, it should resemble a runny batter with some bubbles.

5. Either pour into 2 lined 2lb loaf tins or spoon into 18 muffin cases (I made a bit of a mess doing this as the mix is runny, which led to a few odd shaped muffins. I used a knife to even them up after and eat the bits, what a hardship).

6. Bake the loaves for about 40 minutes and then leave to cool. I baked my muffins for about 25 minutes in an electric fan oven, you may find they need less time in a gas oven.

I decided to add rather messy lemon icing (made of icing sugar, a bit of hot water and lemon juice) to mine. 

This recipe is perfect for this time of year as the night's draw in and really make me feel all Christmassy. The cakes are soft, squidgy, gingery and delicious, I am definitely going to try it as a loaf cake soon too!!

Thank you Jason for letting me share and enjoy your recipe!

Happy baking!!

xxx

Chocolate praline truffles!

I have ALWAYS wanted to be a chocolatier so decided I should give making hazelnut praline truffles a go! As a total amateur to chocolate making I decided to stick with a recipe for my first attempt and have got my suggestions for how I would improve it personally next time. This is the recipe I used:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9622/hazelnut+praline+truffles

You'll notice mine don't look anything like the pictures on there but they have probably made them loads of time (I'll tell myself that). Here's some pics of mine in the making and the final products, with a few tips and ideas for improvement along the way:

 Sugar dissolving in water to make caramel.

 Uh-oh, this recipe doesn't have enough water! I have just realised this is an Australian recipe and Australian 'cups' are slightly smaller than American cups (which I have) so that must be why!

 This is what happened to my 'caramel', lumps of hard sugar! Luckily I quickly added a good slug of water and it dissolved again...

 And turned into beautiful caramel, sorry saucepan!

Stirred in the hazelnuts (PS. buy blanched ones rather than bothering to roast and rub your own) to make the solid praline.

Utter decadence- chocolate ganache from dark chocolate, butter and cream. Next time I would make this with half milk and half dark chocolate as it's very rich and wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. 

 Whizzed up hazelnut praline.

 Chocolate ganache and hazelnut praline combined to make the filling for the truffles. 

Truffles rolled out and coated in white and milk chocolate. The white chocolate wasn't as easy to coat with as it started to melt the truffle which showed through on the outside, my husband said he thought it was intentional though and that he likes them best. Next time I would make them half the size the recipe suggests as they are HUGE! I'm not complaining though...

Looking forward to trying these again with all my improvements and hopefully a much nicer finish on them too, think being smaller would help that as they would be easier to coat, these are nearly the size of golf balls!

Happy chocolating!

xxx

Cake and Bake Show!

It's been AGES since I've blogged without giving you a recipe so please forgive me for this one! I've had a fab day out at the Earl's Court Cake and Bake Show in London today, tired feet now and propped up in bed with all my pregnancy pillows!! It's the first cake show I've been too so wasn't sure what to expect but it didn't disappoint. There was LOADS of stalls, celebrity chefs, workshops and demonstrations. We got the goody bag when we arrived (who doesn't love a goody bag?!) then hit the 'marketplace'. Nearly every stall was giving away tasters, especially good for cheese and bread (Tom's Fudge place take note- if it's less than half the size of my fingernail on my little finger I can't taste it!) and there was so much variety. Marmite brownies were scrummy, may have to make some of these!!

We decided to do a full circuit before coming back to buy pecan and honey biscuits from PS. Love Biscuits, amazing tomato and smoked garlic cheese and caramelised onion and Rioja cheese from the Cheshire Cheese Company, Oreo cake pops and a box of delights from the Little Round Cake Company. I am really taken with these cakes, if you haven't heard of them before (which to be fair neither had I) they make something called a 'tweener' which is a small cake filled and topped and easily enough for 2 or 3 to share. They had such yummy looking flavours too and we were not disappointed with the one we tucked into when we got home! 

http://www.thelittleroundcakecompany.co.uk/cakes/tweeners.html

I'm going to be on the look out for some tweener tins to make my own! Lunch was courtesy of an Italian bakery; bruschetta topped with spicy chilli paste, it was to die for!!

We took a well needed rest to watch Rosemary Shrager bake hot chocolate cakes with caramel sauce which also looked yummy. She was hilarious and took no prisoners! The sound guy had to keep turning her down as she only seemed to shout, but her recipe looked great and I am going to have to make my own caramel sauce soon as it looked really easy to do; just sugar, water and cream!

Next on the agenda was all the cake making accessories and I had to be restrained here. I bought some gorgeous little pink, blue and white buttons for decorating cakes and a cocoa butter transfer sheet which is always something I've fancied trying. If you're not sure what this is I will attempt to enlighten you, and will do a more detailed description when I've actually used it. It is a design made from cocoa butter printed on acetate that you apply to either melted chocolate or fondant icing and when it is cooled you peel it off and the design is left on your baking. Here's a couple of examples from google images to explain it a bit better:

Something else I was delighted with, although I have no idea what I am going to use it for yet, was my new GIANT Bonne Maman glass jar! I'm sure my husband will wonder what on earth it is for but I LOVE it! I may use it for storage in the kitchen or just make a giant amount of jam.
I'm sure I have many other goodies too but am shattered now! Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for a lovely day Mum! Will post again soon with new recipes and ideas.
Much love, 
Yummy Mummy
xxx

Back To School!

Back to school time! Whether your little one is just starting, your older ones are starting a new year or you are back to work as a teacher/TA/parent who has had a lovely summer at home with the children, lunchboxes are back on the agenda! These flapjacks are quick and easy to make, easy to transport in lunchboxes and you can easily add 'extras' to suit your family's taste. Flapjacks are often toted as a 'health food', don't be fooled, most are made like these with butter and sugar/syrup but the oats will help keep little ones going and everything is good in moderation. This recipe is very quick to do and has enough stages for little helpers too as the pan doesn't get too hot!

Super Quick and Easy Flapjack

250g/10oz rolled oats,

125g/5oz Stork,

125g/5oz sugar,

2-3 tbsp of golden syrup/honey.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Weigh out the Stork, sugar and golden syrup into a pan (my little man's favourite part is spooning out the butter!)

3. Melt on the stove over a low heat until the sugar and syrup has dissolved and the Stork has melted.

4. Set to one side. Weigh out the oats and add to the melted Stork/sugar mixture. You can also add some extra ingredients here if you want such as dried fruit, chocolate, nuts etc.

5. Line a small tin with foil (I found that a 'normal' brownie tin needed double this mixure to fill it fully as you don't want them too thin).

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden on top. If you bake them longer they will be crunchier so it depends how you like them! I like mine quite squidgy! Leave to cool in the tin before cutting and enjoying.

If you've got any good recipes for 'back to school' lunchbox goodies please share them on my facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/yummymummyletthemeatcake

xxx

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