Lemon Iced Fairy Cakes

For a midweek treat and with an afternoon off, I decided to bake some vanilla sponge fairy cakes. Not quite a cupcake, and definitely not a muffin, these bite size portions of sugary softness take me right back to my childhood when my sister and I would make Dennis the Menace fairy cakes with my Mum.

Although these fairy cakes are slightly more grown up, I still used a boxed mix from the supermarket. Yes, ok I know it's cheating but it's an awful lot easier when you don't have masses of time and they still come out delicious.* I also added a little lemon juice to mine to give it a bit of a zing. If you want to make the batter from scratch, I've used this recipe before and it came out great.

To finish off my cakes I topped them with a lemon icing and scattered some lemon zest on top for decoration.

This was also the first time I've tried out silicon cupcake cases. And I was very impressed. They kept their shape whilst cooking, were super easy to clean and are certainly easier to store in my tiny kitchen (and I mean tiny) than a metal baking tin. Plus you can bake many more at a time because you aren't restricted to the 12 holes in a tin. Absolutely brilliant.

*If you want to cheat like I did, I used Tesco Small Cake Mix - you only have to add one egg, beat and add some water.

Banoffee Pie

I was fed up with buying disapointing puddings from the supermarket so decided I'd make a banoffee pie. What a classic, it's one of my favourites and I'm probably not alone. And it's surprisingly easy.

I didn't work from a recipe but made up my own.

Serves 8

You will need:
Packet digestive biscuits
Butter
Can of condensed milk
A banana
Pot of double cream
Grated chocolate/cocoa powder/coffee to sprinkle on top

Boil the can of condensed milk for 2 and a half hours. (Yes, you literally put the sealed can into a pot of boiling water and leave to simmer, topping up the water as you go.)

Crush the digestive biscuits to crumbs (enough to fill the bottom of the dish with a 1cm thickness - about 3/4 of a 400g packet) and put them in a bowl. Add melted butter until the mix stays firm when pressed together. Then pour into the dish and press down evenly.

Open the can of condensed milk and pour the toffee on top of the biscuit base, spreading evenly.

Slice the banana and place on top of the toffee to cover the area. (This step can be done now or on top of the biscuit base, depending on your preference)

Whip the double cream till stiff and spread on top of the bananas.

Sprinkle the cocoa powder on top.

Enjoy!




Maria

Chocolate Mousse

Another recipe from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals although it tastes exactly like a recipe from one of his previous books. Never the less, it's delicious and pretty easy to make.

The recipe serves 8 but I halved it to make enough for 4.

2x100g bars of dark chocolate
A small knob of butter
2 tblsp golden caster sugar (although I used white granulated sugar and it turned out fine)
300ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
2 large eggs
A splash of cream liqueur/brandy (I missed this out but feel free to add it if you like)
Cocoa powder for dusting
1 orange, clementine (I opted for this one) or a handful of strawberries

Smash up the chocolate bars. Put the chocolate and butter into a heat proof bowl and melt. Put the sugar, cream and vanilla into another bowl and whip until soft peaks.

Seperate the eggs putting the yolk into the cream mixture and whites into a separate bowl. Gently mix the yolks in. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk until stiff. Spoon the chocolate into the cream mixture with the liqueur and stir through. Gently fold in the egg whites with a spatula. Spoon the mixture into 8 glasses and chill. Serve with segments of your prefered fruit.












Maria

♥ 3 Things

Just some photos of 3 things I'm loving this week.






Flowers to brighten up the apartment


*Tip: If when you unwrap a bouquet of flowers, a couple of the heads fall off, place them in a glass of water for a pretty table decoration


Homemade pie, baking in the oven


Spinach and Feta pie, another delicious recipe from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals




Nostalgic French Fancies



Maria

Mars Bar Rice Crispy Cakes

I was feeling a little creative today so decided to make something scrumptious on a Sunday.

My go-to cook book for sweet goodies is The Complete book of Cupcakes, Cheescakes and Cookies by Australian Women's Weekly. I found it reduced to £5 at WH Smith (because I think it has a photo mis-print) about 6 months ago and have found the recipes surprisingly successful.

I wanted to make something simple, quick and indulgent so decided on the No-Bake Chocolate Cakes which are really just glorified Rice Crispy cakes.



This is how they turned out - pretty yummy I would say!

If you fancy making them yourself (they are super easy!) the recipe is below.

















Plus they store easily for a week in an air tight box in the fridge.


Maria
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