Chocolate cupcakes with Bailey’s icing

This is dead easy – a simple chocolate cupcake and butter icing flavoured with Baileys – these are definitely grown-up cakes!

For the cupcakes you’ll need:
100g butter
100g sugar
2 large eggs
75g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder

Firstly, line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases and pre-heat the oven to about 180°C.
Next, cream the butter and sugar together until it becomes fluffy. Then add the eggs and beat.
Sift in the flour and cocoa butter and beat until smooth.
Distribute between the paper cases and bake in the oven until springy. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the butter icing, you’ll need:
75g unsalted butter (softened)
200g icing sugar
Enough Bailey’s to taste – I used caramel flavour

Put the butter in a bowl and slowly add the icing sugar, bit by bit, beating it in until its all been bound into the butter.
Add as much Bailey’s as you like – I used quite a lot so the icing tasted quite strong but it loses some of that when spread on the cake.
Pipe the icing onto the cake and then decorate with chocolate curls.

Really tasty with a cup of tea – perfect for a grown -up tea party!

Recipe of the month – chicken & noodles

This is so quick and simple to make, although I have to admit I cheat when it comes to the sauce, but given that this dish is full of goodness otherwise, I don’t care!

For this you’ll need:

2 chicken breasts, diced
Half an onion, sliced
A whole pepper, sliced
A couple of mushrooms, sliced
Half a tin of sweetcorn, drained
1 carrot, grated
Chow mein sauce
400g fresh egg noodles

Firstly I throw the diced chicken in the pan and fry it until it starts go go brown. I’ve got some really nice all purpose season which I sprinkle on – the paprika in it give it a bit of a kick.

Then I throw in the all the fresh veg and cook for a few minutes before adding the chow mein sauce – ok its store bought but its really tasty!

Throw in the noodles and cook for another couple of minutes – making sure the meat and veg has worked its way into the noodles is hard work but it’s got to be done unless you want a load of noodles at the bottom of the bowl once you’ve eaten all the good stuff! Once it’s all worked in, its ready!

Super quick and healthy – and pretty tasty too!

Recipe of the month – homemade wedges

This is actually a recipe from my brother’s fiancee, but I was so impressed I just had to make them myself!In fact, I was so impressed I decided I never need to buy wedges from the shop again, they’re so simple and really tasty.

Basically, just cut up a few potatoes into wedge shapes, place in a pan, drizzle with some oil and shake over some cajun spice or seasoning. Be sure to give it a good shake to make sure the seasoning covers the whole wedge and then bung in the oven for about 40 minutes until they look golden brown and soft to the touch.

Recipe of the month; oat & raisin cookies

These areso easy to make, and are considered quite healthy I guess – especially if you stuff it full of oats and raisins!I like these as they’re a perfect alternative to additive-stuffed cookies for my niece and nephew!

To make about 30 cookies you need:
225g butter
225g sugar
170g condensed milk
200g oats
150g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
150g raisins

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and then stir in the condensed milk.
Mix in the oats, flour and cinnamon and then add the raisins.
Roll small parts of the cookie dough into balls and squash onto a lined baking sheet
Cook at 180 for about 10-15 minutes until golden and transfer to a cooling rack.

and voila…crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and lovely with a cup of tea or glass of milk! Next I’m going to try chocolate chip and mixed nut oat cookies, hopefully they’ll turn out well and they get the seal of approval from the niece and nephew!

Recipe of the Month: Healthy pasta

This month is a bit of a cop out – I’m beginning to run out of exciting new recipes to tell you about, so instead I’ve gone for one of my hubby’s favourites.

4 handfuls of fusili pasta
2 rashers of bacon or 2 sausages
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Squirt of tomato puree

Couple of squirts of brown sauce
2 spring onions
Half a pepper

Half a tin of sweetcorn (drained)
A few mushrooms
Italian seasoning

• Put the pasta on to boil and the bacon/sausages on to grill

• Chop the pepper, spring onion and mushrooms and bung into a pan with the chopped tomatoes.
• Add all the other ingredients, give it a good stir and heat until simmering.
• When the bacon/sausage is cooked, slice and add to the sauce.
• Drain the cooked pasta and pour over the sauce.
• Sprinkle with cheese and serve with garlic bread.

This is really yummy and very healthy. It’s so quick and it tastes so much nicer than shop-bought ready-made sauce. And its very versatile – you can add any ingredients you like and use up whatever is left in the fridge!

Recipe of the Month; Homemade pizza

This is a new one I’ve just discovered. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out but it was fantastic so I thought I’d share it!

For the base you need:
200g self-raising flour
1/4 pint warm water
1 teaspoon salt

• Slowly add the warm water to the flour and mix until it forms a soft dough.
• Roll out on a floured surface until the desired thickness (don’t forget it will rise a bit).
• Now add the topping…

For the topping:
Tomato puree
2 rashers of bacon
1/4 onion
Mushroom/sweetcorn/pepper/any other topping you like
Cheese
Pizza seasoning/mixed herbs

• Spread the tomato puree over the dough base
• Add the cooked bacon and onion, then sprinkle with any other topping you’d like
• Sprinkle over the cheese and top with a few shakes of pizza seasoning
• Bake in the oven until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown

Yummy with wedges and chicken wings just like the picture above  my husband’s favourite!

Recipe of the Month: Chicken Stew

This is a lovely winter dish, and great for using up all the Sunday Roast leftovers. It doesn’t have to be chicken, you can use any meat you like – it’s also lovely with leftover roast beef. And it’s so simple – bung all the ingredients into a dish, pour on some gravy and bung in the oven.

In our stew we usually have:
Leftover roast chicken
2 medium potatoes, diced
2 small carrots, diced or sliced
Handful of green beans, chopped
A few heads of broccoli and cauliflower
1 pint of gravy

We like our stew with dumplings. I usually bung these in the over once the stew is bubbling as they take about 25 minutes to cook. For four dumplings I use:
4oz plain flour
2oz butter
Splash of water

Just rub the butter into the flour and bind with the water before splitting into four. You can either cook them in a dish of their own, or on top of the stew so they soak up some of the gravy.

Recipe of the Month: Fruit and nut flapjack

This is so quick and easy, and I make it every couple of weeks for my husband who takes a slice to work everyday for his mid-afternoon snack.  Full of goodness (and sugar!) it keeps him going for the afternoon – a busy boy needs his strength!

You can substitute the fruit and nuts for anything you like really; its particularly good with peanuts and covered in chocolate – my hubby says it tastes just like Snickers bars!

For the main flapjack mixture you’ll need:
150g butter or marg
75g golden syrup
75g sugar
250g oats

and then for the extras:
A couple of handfuls of sultanas or raisins
25-50g chopped mixed nuts or coconut (depending on how much you like nuts!)

• Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a large saucepan and heat over a low flame until all the sugar has dissolved.
• While that’s heating, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper as it’ll make it much easier to get out later on!
• Once all the sugar has dissolved and you’ve got a clear yellowy liquid remove from the flame and add the oats.
• Stir until all the oats are coated  in the butter mixture, then add your fruit and nuts and stir
• Then transfer to the lined tray and squash down.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees until golden brown on top.
• Take out of the oven and let cool before cutting into slices

Here are a few other ideas to brighten up your flapjacks:

• Replace the fruit and nut with peanuts, and coat with melted chocolate once out of the oven.
• Used dried apricots, cranberries – any other type of fruit that takes your fancy!
• Marshmallows and chocolate drops

Recipe of the Month; Sausage Surprise

This is something my brother first made for me – knowing his love for sausages, it had to include them somewhere!  Its actually a take on a Gordon Ramsay recipe, and you can pretty much alter it to include anything you like.  Its a really quick, but hearty and warming wintery dish.

This is what we usually include – serves 2 – and is really yummy with crusty bread

4 butchers sausages
1/2 tin baked beans
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 tin sweetcorn
4 mushrooms
1/2 pepper (green looks prettiest)
Tomato puree
Brown sauce

• Fry the sausages in a pan (we usually chop them up into bite-size pieces)
• Bung everything else in the pan and heat until simmering.
• Ladle into bowls and serve with warm crusty bread.

Recipe of the Month; Victoria Sponge

Thought I’d just do a really basic recipe this month, a classic Victoria Sponge. To make this you’ll need

200g butter/margarine
200g sugar
4 large eggs
200g self-raising flour
Strawberry or raspberry jam

• Cream the sugar and butter until fluffly
• Add the eggs and mix
• Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until all combined
• Separate into two round 6 or 7 inch tins and bung in the oven at 180 and cook until it springs back when touched and its shrunk from the edges.
• Let it cool
• Once cooled put one half on a plate and smother with jam, and then bung on the top.  Sprinkle with icing sugar.

You can also make this a bit more exciting by a layer of whipped cream on  top of the jam, although make sure everything is completely cooled before you do this otherwise the cream will melt – yes I have done that – wasn’t pretty!