Choc full cup cakes!

Ingredients:

4 oz butter softened
4 oz caster sugar
2 medium eggs
3 oz self raising flour
1 oz coco
3 oz white chocolate drops
1 oz chopped baking cherries (optional)


What you do:

1. Pre heat oven to 190C / 375 F / gas 5
2. Beat butter and sugar together together until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs to the bowl and sift in flour and coco.
4. Stir in the chocolate and cherries.
5. Carefully spoon mixture into cake cakes.
6. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until the cakes have risen and are firm to the touch.
7. Put them on a wire rack to coo.

To make chocolate butter cream

6 oz Butter softened
4 tablespoons coco
3 tbsp hot water
12 oz icing sugar
Few drops of vanilla extract

1. Beat the butter in a bowl to soften.
2. In a different bowl put the coco and the water and mix it to make a paste.
3. Add the coco paste to the butter and sift in icing sugar and vanilla. Beat the icing until it is very smooth.
4. Wait until cakes are cold before you ice them (we were a bit too eager and our icing melted!)

What we thought:
"My goodness! That's a cake and a half!"
"These are so good, very rich though, I don't think I could eat more than three!"
"Why would you put cherries in a perfectly good chocolate cake?!"

Marks out of ten/
"11"
"20"
"10 for the cake none for the cherries!"

Ali's Mums Choc Chip Cookies!

Sorry there's no photo the cookies were SO popular that they'd all gone by the time Ali fetched the camera!!

Ingredients

3oz Butter

2oz Castor sugar

4oz self raising flour sifted

2oz choc chips

Pre Heat Oven 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

What you do:

1. Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.

2. Fold in flour and choc chips.

3. Roll mixture into small balls and put them well spaced apart on lined baking sheets.

4. Flatten balls slightly.

5. Put in oven for 15mins or until brown.

What we thought:

"These are delicious!"

"I think they'd be better with milk chocolate not plain"

"LOVELY!"

Marks out of ten?

"8"

"9"

"10 out of 10"

Coconut delights!

Ingredients:

1 375g can of condensed milk (large can)

8oz desiccated coconut

2oz dark chocolate (chopped or chips)

2oz chopped dried cherries

Oven 170c/325f/Gas mark 4

What you do:

1. Open the can of milk and pour it into a mixing bowl.

2. Add coconut, chocolate and cherries to make a thick paste.

3. Line baking sheets with none stick baking paper.

4. Spoon mixture onto paper in mound shapes.

5. Bake in the oven for 10 mins or until lightly browned round edges.

6. Allow to cool slightly on tray before moving to a wire rack.

What we thought:

"This was so super easy, and they're really nice!"

"I like them, they're very chewy and sweet!"

"They would be too sweet without the chocolate in them"

Marks out of 10?

"10"

"10, I could make them by myself"

"9"

Butterscotch Walnut Brownies

Ingredients:

4oz butter
4oz brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
3oz self raising flour - sifted
2oz chopped walnuts

oven: 170C/325F/gas mark 3

What you do:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
2. Beat in eggs, then vanilla.
3. Fold in flour, nuts and mix well.
4. Spoon into paper cases and bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until firm and golden.

What we thought:
"These are dead easy to make and really really yummy!"
"I'd like them to have some icing on top"
"Very moist and tasty"

Marks out of 10?
"10"
"Me too definately 10!"
"At least 9!"

A nice cup of tea

It's true, the British drink a lot of tea!

Every group has a tea break halfway through
(it oils the creative process don't you know!)

Offering a cup of tea says;
"You're welcome here... I have time to listen...
I care about what your saying... Wait till you
hear the gossip!!"

Tea is a very personal thing...
two sugar or not two sugar?
That is indeed the question!
We have a list that says who takes what,
and how they like it!

We thought today we'd share with you
the most frequently used recipe in our kitchen...

how to make 'a nice cup of tea'

A piece and egg...

No baking today - it's art group!

We always have egg sandwiches on a Thursday,

the choice is egg, egg, or egg!

Just as well we all like egg then!

In Scotland a sandwich is often refered to as a "piece"

a piece and jam or egg or whatever!

Today's "pieces" were particularly tasty!

We thought that;

"The bread is very fresh"

"The carrot and pepper goes with the napkin!"

"Today egg is my favoutite!"

Score out of ten?

"10!"

"20!!"

White choc and cherry cookies

Ingredients:

200g (7 oz) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g (4 oz) caster sugar
125g (4 oz) butter (at room temperature)
1 egg
few drops vanilla essence
1 tablespoon of milk
150g (5oz) white chocolate chips or chunks
75g (3 oz) dried cherries (we used sour baking cherries but they can be glace)

What you do:

1: Set the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4
Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a bowl and mix well together.

Cut the butter into little pieces and add them to the bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your finger tips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

2: Beat the egg, vanilla and milk together in a mug. Chop the cherries up a bit so that they're not such big pieces. Be careful with the knife and make sure you use a chopping board!
Put egg and milk mixture, chocolate and cherries into the mixing bowl.

3: Grease or line baking sheets, drop spoonfuls of cookie WELL SPACED APART on the sheets.
Bake in the oven for 10 -12 minutes until lightly browned.
Leave to harden for a couple of minutes on the tray then move to a wire rack to cool
(or to a plate and eat them!!)

What we thought:

"These are really easy and really tasty!"
"They're very sweet, maybe I'd like them more with brown chocolate"
"You could change the fruit to nuts, or a different fruit, that'd make it less sweet"
"Will we make these again?!"

What score would you give them out of 10?
"Ooh! A healthy 8.91!!"
"10, no worries!"

Cheese and courgette (zucchini?!) muffins

Ingredients:

300g (10oz) self-raising flour
salt, pepper, mixed herbs
3 teaspoons baking powder
75g (3oz) grated cheese
1 courgette, about 200g (7oz)
150ml (5 floz) natural yogurt
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs
3 tablespoons milk

What to do:

1: Set the oven to 200C/ 400F/ Gas mark 6. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

2: Put the flour, salt, pepper herbs and grated cheese into a large mixing bowl.

3: Cut the stalk of the courgette and coarsely grate it. Add the courgette to the, yogurt, oil , eggs and milk to the bowl and stir with a fork until it's all just mixed together.

4: Spoon the mix into the paper cases, just over half full is about right!

5: Bake them in the centre of the oven for 18 - 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.


What we thought:
"These would be great with a bowl of warm soup."
"They need something else, a wee bit of kick, they're a bit bland."
"Maybe stronger cheese like Parmesan or strong Cheddar would be better too"
"and chilli or something"
"I don't like chilli"
"no but if you did it would be nice"
"they don't taste of courgette though, that's a good thing."

What score would you give them out of 10?
"6 or 7, but with stronger cheese or more herbs or spices 8 or 9"

Welcome!

This blog is all about
the things we make and bake!

We're going to share our recipes
and our thoughts on them!

If you try them
please
let us know what you think!