Salted Caramel Flapjacks

Salted caramel is a flavour combination I love and recently I've found

a really easy way to add this flavour to flapjacks, a baked treat I make quite

often for the family. I've looked at a few recipes for salted caramel flapjacks

and in most of them you have to make the caramel. It seems to be a bit of a faff,

I just use shop-bought salted caramel sauce. It's easy and quick and the result

has that nice combination of salty and sweet which is what I'm after. I've had to

tweak my recipe a few times but I'm finally happy with it and I thought I'd

share it here with you.

Ingredients:

175 grams   unsalted butter

150 grams  demerara sugar

                     1 tablespoon    golden syrup                           

          3 tablespoons   salted caramel sauce*

350grams  porridge oats

1/2teaspoon   sea salt flakes, plus extra to sprinkle

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C degrees. Grease and line with baking parchment

a square 8x8inch baking tin.

In a bowl, mix together the oats and sea salt flakes. Set aside.

Melt together the butter, sugar, golden syrup and caramel sauce in a saucepan

over low heat. Stir in the oats and sea salt. Mix well and turn into the prepared

baking tin. Press flat with the back of a spoon and sprinkle a pinch or two

of sea salt on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown.

Leave to cool for a few minutes then mark into 16 squares. Leave to finish

cooling in the tin.

*I use salted caramel sauce from Aldi and Waitrose. They're both good.

I've tried this brand before but for brownies. I think it would be great, too, but

I haven't been able to find it in any of the local supermarkets lately.

Thank you for your lovely comments on my previous post. I hope we'll have
 a really good spring season this year - lots of blue skies and sunshine and
not too much rain.

See you soon! x

Orangey Chocolate Cookies

I have a recipe I'd like to share with you today. It's for chocolate orange cookies and

I'm chuffed to say that it's my own. Well, soft of. It's generally based on the double

chocolate cookie recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook but I've added

my own little tweaks and twists to it and it had resulted to these completely different

but so delicious chocolate cookies. These are soft and chewy with an orangey scent

and flavour, plus a lovely bit of saltiness in every bite. If you're a fan of chocolate

and orange, then I'd love for you to try these.

You'll need:

50 grams unsalted butter

325 grams plain cooking chocolate, roughly chopped

2 eggs

170 grams soft light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

85 grams plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

zest of 2 large oranges

75 grams raisins

You'll also need to grease and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

And here's how to make them:

Preheat oven to 170 C/325 F/Gas 3.

Melt the butter and 225 grams of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over

a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. You can use an electric mixer

or do this by hand. Beat until well mixed. Pour in the chocolate mixture and beat

until both are well combined.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl. The sea salt granules are

usually too big to pass through the sieve so I just add them after sifting the flour

and baking powder together. Stir these into the chocolate mixture in 2 or 3 additions,

mixing well. Stir in the orange zest then the remaining 100 grams of chocolate

and also the raisins.

Place spoonfuls of the mixture spaced well apart on the baking trays.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. They're done when the tops start to crack and look shiny.

Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack

to cool completely.

This recipe makes about 15 cookies and they'll stay soft and chewy when

stored in an airtight container.

Everyone who had tried these cookies really liked them. They were well received

when my husband brought some to work and also by a friend and her family. So I really

hope you'll like them too. It's like the cookie version of Terry's Chocolate Orange,

but even better. Definitely much, much better.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Lemony

Last Christmas, I treated myself to a copy of Life is Sweet, the latest
cookbook from the popular Hummingbird Bakery in London. My
husband got me the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook a few years ago and it's become one of my favourites, along with Mary Berry's
Baking Bible. 

Life is Sweet is a collection of baking recipes all originating from America. It's the sort of baked goods their bakeries have become famous for and they're introducing us to more of these American style baking with this new book. I was initially amused to find a recipe for 7-Up Pound
Cake and Chocolate Bundt Cake that uses mayonnaise instead of oil or
butter but I also found them strangely familiar somehow. Then I remembered having cake flavoured with Merinda, an orange carbonated drink, and also Sprite when I was a child. I also recall an auntie making chocolate cake with a dollop of mayonnaise. So I now realize that some of the cakes from my childhood were American-influenced and this shouldn't really be so surprising as the Philippines was once an American colony. I just haven't thought much about it before.

 I'd like to make these cakes one of these days just to give my girls
 a little taste from my childhood. I'm planning to substitute 7-Up with Fanta for that orangey flavour from a long time ago. I'll tell you more once I've made them. For now, though,  I'd like to share a recipe for Lemon Crumb Squares from the book. It's a little less exotic but it's definitely very tasty and you might like to give it a try too.

 *Lemon Crumb Squares*

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F), Gas Mark 4. Line a 9x13 inch tin

with non-stick baking parchment.

To make the base and topping, sift together 180g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking power in a bowl and set aside.

Using an electric mixer or whisk, cream together 115g unsalted butter (softened) and 200g soft dark brown sugar for around 5 minutes on

 a medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add 90g rolled oats and

the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and mix until it resembles 

breadcrumbs.

Press half of this mixture into the base of the prepared tin and set

the rest aside in a bowl.

To make the filling, whisk together 370 ml sweet condensed milk,

140 ml fresh lemon juice and the zest of one lemon.

To assemble, spread the filling evenly onto the pressed base.

Sprinkle the rest of the reserved topping gently over the filling.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the topping begins to go brown.

Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then in the fridge for

at least 1 hour. Cut into squares. 

This was so easy to make, I'm looking forward to making them

again with the girls. It's got a nice, crumbly base, a soft and gooey

middle that is both sweet and lemony, and a golden, crunchy topping.

 Actually we think it's like a traybake version of cheesecake

 but much thinner and with a condensed milk-lemon juice-zest filling 

instead of cream cheese. It's really good, especially with a hot drink.

I can see this becoming another family favourite.

Before I go I'd like to say thanks for all your comments and well
 wishes for last Monday. It went okey. The morning school run was
more chaotic than usual due to road works and closures around
the school but we made it on time and the girls came home in the afternoon very tired but happy. As back-to-school/nursery days go,
it was all right.

 Thanks again. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Easy Chocolate Oat Treats

We tried a new recipe this week- 'easy chocolate oat treats' from
The Scandi Kitchen by Bronte Aurell. The cook book was featured
in last weekend's Saturday Times and the recipes included looked
lovely and delicious. I particularly liked this one because there was
no baking involved, just lots of sugar sprinkles and mixing and rolling
by hand. It sounded like something concocted with my girls in mind
 and making them certainly kept them happy and occupied on a rainy
half-term morning! They taste really good too and despite their sugary
appearance they're actually not too sweet, just a nice mix of chocolate,
 sugar and coffee flavours. They were very easy to make as well, just
as the name suggests. If you'd like to give them a try, here's how:


Ingredients

250g butter
400g rolled oats
175g caster sugar
4tbsp cocoa powder
4tbsp strong, cooled coffee
1tsp vanilla sugar
Dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar,
to decorate

1. Blitz all the ingredients, except the coconut, sugar sprinkles
    or pearl sugar, in a food processor, or mix by hand but allow
the butter to soften before doing so.
2. Put the mixture in the fridge to firm up a bit before using it
or it can be a bit too sticky. Add more oats if you feel the
the mixture is too soft.
3. Roll into 2.5cm diameter balls, then roll each ball in either
dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar.
4. Firm up in the fridge before eating.

Makes approx.40 and they will keep up to a week in the fridge.


We didn't have sugar pearls or dessicated coconut so we just
used what we've got which were mostly pink glimmer sugar and
hundreds and thousands, all leftovers from last June's birthday
baking. I didn't think the girls would like coconut anyway. And I
wasn't too sure at first about all that raw porridge oats but they
 all got absorbed into the mixture after they've been blitzed and
give the mix a bit of crunchiness. I've added this recipe to our list
of favourites, no doubt we'll be making these again soon.

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post especially

about the pop up restaurant. As Michelle said, it is crazy, but a good

sort of crazy. We're already making plans for the next one, hopefully on
November 28th. Thanks again for your kind and encouraging words.
Fingers crossed it will go well again, I'll keep you posted.


Enjoy your weekend and happy Halloween!

Autumnal Apple Cake

Saturday before last was Apples and Pears Day at the walled garden
in Wortley Hall. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon with blue skies
 and warm sunshine, just perfect for a wander round the grounds of the
estate and see all the organic vegetables and fruit trees grown within
 the hall's walled garden. There were lots to see but it was mostly the apples that caught my eye. They were all over the place, in trees,
 on the ground, in wooden crates, displayed in boxes on a table, and
 floating in water inside a plastic tub. I'm not sure why they were
 in that tub, to be honest, but anyway, they were just everywhere.
And of course there were delicious cakes and freshly pressed juice
too, all of which we tried and really enjoyed.

That lovely, apple-filled afternoon (sorry pears) inspired my cake-

baking this week. I found a recipe from the Bake-a-boo Bakery
 Cookbook that is very similar to one of the cakes I tasted that
Saturday. It's deliciously moist, full of apple and cinnamon flavours

 and, to me, very wonderfully autumnal. You might like to try it too.
Here's the recipe:


**Autumnal Apple Cake**

For the cake:

175g (6 oz) butter at room temperature
150g (5 oz) light muscovado sugar
3 large free-range eggs
200g (7 oz) apples, peeled, cored & sliced
100 g (3 1/2 oz) sultanas
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour, sifted
1tsp ground cinnamon
icing sugar, for dusting

For the topping:

2 apples, peeled, cored & finely sliced
2 tsps demerara sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas Mark 4. Grease and line
the bottom of a 20cm (8 inch) loose-bottomed cake tin.
Cream the butter and muscovado sugar together until smooth
and creamy, then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in the apples and sultanas, then gently fold in the flour
and cinnamon until well combined. Transfer the mixture to the
prepared cake tin and level with a spoon.

Arrange the apple slices for the topping in a neat fan all the way
around the outer edge of the cake, then make a circle in the centre.
Sprinkle the apples with the demerara sugar, then cook in the
preheated oven for 45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake
comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then release and serve
dusted with icing sugar.

I hope you'll like this cake as much as we do. I forgot to dust
the top with icing sugar but it doesn't really matter I think. It's still
very taste, especially paired with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

On another baking note, I'm very pleased for Nadiya for winning
this year's The Great British Bake Off. She was in great baking form
in the finals and aced through all three challenges. She's the real
deserving winner, well done to her.

A lovely Sunday evening to you all. See you soon!

Homemade Lemon Ice Cream

Hello! I hope this week has been a good one for you. We got back
from our seaside break yesterday. We spent five days in Robin Hood's Bay, our favourite holiday place, and we had the most wonderful time.
I'll write more about it soon. For now, though, I have here a lemon ice
cream recipe to share with you.

My husband made this for us recently. He makes this and other
fruit sorbets every spring and summer and they're perfect frozen treats on lovely, sunny days. I know you usually need to have an ice cream maker to make your own ice cream at home. Without one it's very labour
 intensive. Well, this ice cream is super easy and quick to make and no
ice cream maker needed!

It's from River Cafe Pocket Books Puddings, Cakes & Ice Creams 
by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

You'll need:

juice and finely grated zest of 3 lemons
200g caster sugar
450ml double cream
1/2tsp salt

Combine the lemon juice and zest with the sugar.
Slowly add the cream and salt, mixing carefully. It will
immediately thicken. Freeze in a shallow container.

It is best to leave it overnight in the freezer and my husband
also recommends using good quality double cream.

You'll have a delicious ice cream that's very creamy with a lovely
sweet lemony taste. It is great on its own or paired with shortbread biscuit, cake or a fruit sorbet. We all love this here in our house.
I do hope you'll try it.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Enjoy!

Ginger Tea

I have a recipe here for ginger tea or salabat as it's known
in the Philippines. This is a popular hot drink back home particularly
during the cold or rainy season. It is a soothing brew and a good remedy
for colds and sore throats. A steaming cup or two of this will help you
if you're feeling under the weather. You'll also have the spicy aroma
of brewing ginger filling your kitchen and home which is a lovely bonus
when you make this tea.

The simplest way of making salabat is by boiling ginger in water.

 Over Christmas I found a recipe from the excellent book Memories of

Philippine Kitchens where apples and oranges are added to the mix and

 this is now our preferred way of making this. The added fruit lessen

the edge of the ginger and add sweetness to the flavour. I've sipped

many cups of this throughout the winter and have always felt warmed

and comforted especially when I was unwell. So here's how to make it 

based on the recipe from Memories of Philippine Kitchens.

You'll need:

approx. 65g fresh ginger, peeled and cut into small chunks

1/3 orange, cut into thin slices

1/3 apple, cut into thin slices

Place the ginger, apple and orange slices in a small saucepan.

Add 400 mls of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 5 minutes
or until the brew has developed a nice flavour. Strain through a fine
sieve into a cup. Add sugar or honey to taste. Orange juice also works
well as a sweetener.

This recipe makes enough for one large mug or two small cups.

If the ginger taste is too strong for you, just add a little more water

or sugar. However, if you want it more spicy pound the ginger

before boiling.

I hope you'll find this recipe useful and helpful.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A cake for the weekend

Hello! I hope it's been a happy Friday for you. If you're planning to do some baking this weekend, I have a recipe here that you might like to try.
 It's for Moist Orange and Almond Cake, a firm family favourite.
 It is easy and simple to make, tastes delicious and as the name suggests, moist in a soft and lovely way. Plus you'll have the sweet
 scent of orange cooking filling up your kitchen and home,
always a nice bonus when you make this cake.

This recipe is from afternoon tea by Molly Perham.

Ingredients:

1 large orange
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
1tsp baking powder
225g ground almonds
25g plain flour
Icing sugar, for dusting


1. Pierce the orange with a skewer. In a pan, pour over water
to cover completely. Bring to the boil then lower the heat,
cover and simmer for an hour or until the skin is very soft.
Drain, then cool.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line with baking
 parchment a 20cm round cake tin. Cut the orange in half and
discard the pips. Place the orange in a blender or food processor
and puree until pulpy and smooth.

3. Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick. Mix together the
baking powder, almonds and flour, then fold into the eggs.
Fold in the puree.

4. Pour into the prepared tin, level the surface and bake
for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes
out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to
a wire rack, peel off the lining paper and cool completely.
Dust the top with icing sugar.

The book suggests serving this with whipped cream. It's already gorgeous on it's own but if you really fancy it, we think it will be very,
very nice with creme freche.

 Apologies for not having a photo of the whole cake. It was sliced
and served before I had the chance to do it when we made this
 a few days ago. This cake is always a winner in our house.
 I hope you'll like it too.


Have a great weekend everyone!

Festive Flapjacks

These are festive flapjacks, a Christmas version of
our favourite homemade treat. They're made with the usual
ingredients sugar, porridge oats, golden syrup, butter,
but made seasonal by the addition of mincemeat. They're so
 simple and easy to make, and they taste so good!

The idea for this came from this recipe that I found online.
 I've made some changes with the quantities and instead of brandy
and mincemeat I used brandy-infused mincemeat that we
got from Aldi. It works really well and for me it's just the right mix
of citrussy and spicy with a slight hint of booze, giving the flapjacks
a lovely Christmassy flavour.

Here's our recipe for making this irresistible treat:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line with baking

parchment a square 8x8 inch baking tin.

Gently melt 175g of butter in a large sauce pan along with

 3 tablespoons golden syrup and 175g demerara sugar. 

Remove from heat and stir in 100g brandy-infused mincemeat.

Stir in 325g porridge oats. Mix well and turn into the prepared tin,

pressing flat with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 13-15 minutes, or until pale

golden brown. Remove from the oven. Leave to cool for about

10 minutes then mark into 16 squares. Leave to cool completely

in the tin.

Lulu and I made this yesterday for Markie's teachers at school.
We put five flapjack squares in each party bag and tied it with
red bakers' twine.



I also added labels made from brown gift tags and washi tape,
with the ingredients written at the back.

So they're not only easy to make and taste delicious, they also
make lovely presents. I really hope Markie's teachers like them.

We were actually planning to make some today to take to
playgroup tomorrow but unfortunately my sweet little helper
was feeling poorly. We hope and pray she'll feel better soon.
We have plans to make more festive flapjacks to give to friends
and of course, for us to enjoy too!



Hope your Christmas making and baking are going well.
See you soon!

Coffee Cups and Cake

I've been asked by the lovely Wilfing Mum to share the recipe for
orange and sultana cake, one of our favourite bakes, and of course
I'm very happy to. First though I'd like to show you these two
coffee cups that we got as presents for our wedding anniversary
last weekend. Aren't they lovely? I think they're simple but elegant.
They're from David Mellor in Hathersage, a place to go if you like
beautiful and well made cutlery, dinner and kitchenware.
Even if you don't you should still go if only for the scrumptious cakes
 on offer at the cafe and the scenic Derbyshire countryside.
It's really worth a visit.

Now back to the cake. It's Mary Berry's, one of her easy,
mix-everything-in-one-bowl cakes. Very helpful when you're
baking with the kids. It's also delicious, fairly cheap and as it's
a traybake, you can fill up a good sized cake tin easily and be
well supplied with yummy cake for several days.

So here's what you'll need:

225g (8 oz) softened butter
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
275g (10 oz) self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
275g (10 oz) sultanas (I just use raisins)
grated rind of 2 oranges
demerara sugar, to sprinkle


And here's what you need to do:

Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Fan 160°/Gas 4. Grease a 12 x 9 in) traybake
 or roasting tin then line the base with baking parchment.

Measure all the ingredients except the demerara sugar into a
large bowl and beat until well blended. Turn the mixture into the
prepared tin and level the top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes then sprinkle
the top with demerara sugar and return to the oven for a further
10-15 minutes or until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin
and springs back when pressed in the centre with your fingertips.
Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 21 pieces.

That's it! I usually sprinkle a bit of flour to the raisins so they
won't sink to the bottom of the cake and we like lots of
demerara sugar on top.

I didn't take photos of last week's bake so I've re-posted some
old ones here. Hope you enjoy trying out this recipe. The girls and I
are making Victoria Sandwich Cake this afternoon.


Happy baking everyone!
See you soon!