Finally I have managed to make doughnuts!! 

I have had many disasters when attempting doughnuts and they have all failed until now! Behold, strawberry doughnuts! Baked, not fried!

SUCCESS! 

It’s been a long couple of weeks without a lot of baking for me so once I started with Ice cream cone cupcakes (below) I had to make something else and this was the something else…
Banana & Walnut loaf.
These types of cakes never take a good picture! ha!

I found this recipe online and although it was straight forward and the cake was tasty, I found it very crumbly. This could be down to the fact I like to slice my banana so you find chucks of it in the loaf rather then mashing it up so the batter might not be as sticky.

Family & friends who have tasted the sliced banana cakes and muffins I’ve made previously have much preferred it.

Here’s the recipe if you would like to try it out - I suggest if you are slicing the banana to add a little more milk or butter to help the batter stay moist and stick together better.

Banana & Walnut Loaf

This weekend I finally got around to making jaffa cakes! 
I’ve had the recipe bookmarked for a while but kept avoiding it, not sure I would be able to make anything that is even close to the classic Jaffa cake. 

Not only are these straight forward to make, they smell amazing and I have been told today by my happy co-workers - the sponge is nicer then that of the original! YIPPEE! 

You can find the recipe here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/homemadejaffacakes_91480

I used less chocolate then the recipe says and still had plenty left over. I also had a lot of orange jelly left so you could make two batches of the sponge. :) 

When I posted the pictures of my millionaire shortbread, I did infact write out the recipe but for some odd reason, it didn’t post. So here I am again! :)

I had always thought millionaire shortbread would be really difficult and time consuming to make. Turns out I was wrong. They are really easy!

To begin..
The shortbread
250g butter (softened)
50g caster sugar
250g plain flour
125g cornflour

I found my shortbread to be a touch too short so perhaps use a little less cornflour.

Line a 11x8 inch baking tray (I think the one I used was a little smaller but it did the trick!)
Pre-heat the oven to 170*c.
Cream the butter & sugar together until pale and fluffy. Stir in your flour and cornflour. This is the part to get your hands dirty and put down your wooden spoon.
Form the mixture into a smooth dough, once you have squish out evenly in your baking tray, right up into every corner.
Be sure to prick with a fork otherwise you will get air bubbles.
Put into the oven for 20minutes (turning half way through time to ensure an even golden colour) leave to cool while you start the caramel…

The Caramel
175g butter
175g caster sugar
4 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 can (400g) of condensed milk

Put all your ingredients into a pan and heat slowly over a medium heat.
Keep stirring until mixture has combined and butter has melted. Bring up to a bubble but be careful not to boil and to keep stirring. You don’t want it to spit and burn you!
Keep simmering and stirring for 5 minutes until it has thicken and turned golden in colour.
Pour over your cooled biscuit and leave to set for half an hour to an hour.

The chocolate
350g chocolate (plain, milk, dark - whatever takes your fancy! I used plain)

Melt the chocolate & pour over the caramel, pop it into the fridge for a few hours. I left mine over night.
Once set, you can cut into pieces as big or small as you like!!

My Millionaire shortbread.
I did write the process & recipe for these but for some reason it hasn’t posted.

I will post it tomorrow :)

Caramel birthday Muffins. Sweet & slightly sticky icing. I love their little red cases!

These were baked Saturday morning as ordered and I carried them into central London for delivery. On my way, I met so many smiles, happy and helpful people that I am considering carrying cakes everywhere I go from now onward!

The recipe for these puppies is really easy, the dulce de leche can be a little difficult to find but it’s worth the hunt once you taste these!

80g butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
240ml Milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
150g tinned caramel/dulce de leche.

Pre-heat your oven to 190.
Whisk together the butter, sugar, flour & baking powder until crumb like.

In a jug, whisk the milk, eggs and vanilla together by hand.

Pour just over half of the liquid into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
Add the caramel sauce to the remainder of the liquid, mix then pour into the combined ingredients.
Whisk until smooth, then spoon into your cases.

The batter is quite running so can be a little messy spooning into the cases! Fill them just over half way.
I made 16 muffins out of this so prepare two muffin tins or maybe cut down the recipe slightly if you don’t want that many :) 

For the icing, I mixed together icing sugar with butter, a spoonful of dulce de leche and a couple of spoonfuls of milk. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth - if too runny, add more icing sugar, if too stiff, add a little more milk or butter.

I drizzled the caramel sauce over the top for an extra caramel taste. 

Banoffee Muffins appear to be very popular! I made these last night and brought them with me to work. 9:30am and they are all gone! (apart from two which I have had to fight to save for my boyfriend!) The best part about them, not including the toffee sauce, is they are so easy to make. 300g plain flour 1 tablespoon of baking powder 1 egg, beaten 200ml Milk 150g brown sugar 85g melted butter 2 Bananas, peeled & diced Jar of dulce de leche for topping :) In a big bowl, sive the plain flour & baking powder together. In a separate jug, combine the rest of the ingredients & mix together before pouring into the dry ingredients and stirring together. Spoon into muffin cases and put into the oven for 20mins on 200degrees. Once cool, cover in as much dulce de leche as you like! YUM!