Blueberry Muffin Mug Cake Munchies

My wonderful friend and fellow cake obsessive Bex bought me a mug cake recipe book for my birthday back in September and I have been steadily working my way through it since! So last night when I could think about nothing but having some sort of naughty food, I threw together the Blueberry Muffin as a late night treat. Yummmmm....

As usual I added a blog of greek yogurt to serve!

All of these Mima Sinclair Mug Recipes have been delicious! Excellent birthday present buying skills Bex! xxx

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Rich design on this Millionaire Short Bread!

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Make millions of new friends with this recipe! 

I love short bread so covering it in caramel and chocolate seems a little indulgent... but that's they way I like my treats! 

I started with a nice firm shortbread.

And then layered my pan-made caramel and a mixture of milk and dark chocolate I'd melted in a bowl over a steaming saucepan. 

 Finally, following my boyfriend's incredibly inspired idea, I melted some additional milk chocolate for a lighter colour to drizzle in parallel lines across the top and then streak across with a fork the opposite way for a classy, decorative look!

This was my first Millionaire shortbread so thank you to the BBC Good Food recipe (a bit of a theme with me recently, I love learning new recipes!) 

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Mother's Day Raspberry Bakewell Cake

What a lovely Mother's Day! Thank you for BBC Good Food for a nice simple recipe that fit the 'something fruity' cake request from my mum this year.

This recipe was made really easy by my hand-whisk. Throw the ingredients (except for the raspberries and almond flakes), whiz briefly until combined and then pour in half the mix, raspberries, the other half and almond flakes go on top! Check out the Raspberry Bakewell Cake Recipe!

I made a square one:

I should warn you that it is a thick mixture and you really will need to get your hands into the cake tin to push the mixture down over the raspberries to nestle them happily into the mixture. 

I could NOT stop eating this cake! Definitely going to make this again.

Happy Mother's Day! Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Nuts for Nutella Cookies

Got a choke craving and can't bring yourself to just grab the pot of Nutella and a spoon? 

If you are then you are feeling much the same as me this Sunday evening after Top Gear. There is something much more sophisticated and respectable about making Nutella into cookies than simply picking up a spoon like a savage (or indeed not bothering with he spoon at all!)

I found this super simple and quick 4 ingredient recipe and decided to make a half batch. http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/Biscuits-and-cookies+45/4-ingredient-Nutella-biscuits-recipe+4904.htm 

Shortly thereafter, my boyfriend, me and my glass of milk had seen off all 6 of them! Whoops!  

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Pop, Pop, Popcorn - the healthy way (and the easy way)

Pop, Pop, Popcorn! Don't you just love the shock of the first pop? And then the thundering patter against the pan lid as it reaches a crescendo?! Beautiful music to my ears.

Popcorn is so easy to make at home and great fun if you have friends over. It can be a really low calorie treat if you make it right and can be delicious however you serve it! 

Popcorn Recipe

1/4 popcorn kernels
1tbsp coconut oil

Topping of your choice (Choc Shot to drizzle on, tbsp coconut oil mixed with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, knob of butter mixed with tbsp brown sugar)

Method

1.      Heat your coconut oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat until melted and drop in 3 popcorn kernels, put the lid on and wait for them to pop. (Squeal with delight when they do).

2.      Pour in popcorn kernels, replace lid and remove from heat for 30 seconds (this is so all the kernels get to the same temperature so they pop together).

3.     Return to heat with lid still on and keep the pan moving continually over the heat. They will start popping after a little while - excitement! I recommend a clear pan lid so you can watch them pop! Do not remove the lid until popping has stopped...I mean it...w..a..i..t... 

4.     Discard any unpopped kernels (or duds). 

5.     Pour over and/or stir in your flavouring.

6.     Devour! Preferably with great company and a rubbish movie!

Try your own variations!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownie in a Mug = Happiness

Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownie in a Mug = Happiness

I do love a good mug cake and got onto brownie in a mug because of the delicious gooeyness of it. A little coffee shop around the corner from me always has pistachio brownies in the window and I happened to have both white and milk chocolate left over from my Valentines Triple Chocolate cookies (see previous blog). Anyway, long story short, Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownie in a Mug was born! Happy Days.   

Cake Recipe

1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch salt (to activate flavours)
Generous pinch of cinnamon (to add flavour)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (yum yum)
2 tbsp vegetable oil (I think I will try this with coconut oil next time)
1/4 water

8 Pistachios
A couple of pieces of white chocolate broken up
A couple of pieces of milk chocolate broken up

An extra piece of chocolate or two to melt on top.

Method

1.      Pop it all in your mug, stir it with a fork.

2.      Pop your chocolate piece on top (I have also done this with a lovely blog of    Nutella or other chocolate or nut spread before for extra gooey yumminess).

3.      Microwave on 900W for 1min, 30 seconds. 

Try your own variations. I strongly recommend serving with a nice big dollop of ice cream!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Valentines Baking: Triple Chocolate Cookies and Ginger Cake with Caramel Frosting.

It was love at first taste for me with these Triple Chocolate Cookies last Valentines so we just had to make them again. But then Ginger Cake with Caramel Frosting has walked into my life. Fortunately, society doesn't demand monogamy when it comes to cake. Phew!

Triple Chocolate Cookies
I am still in love with these Triple Chocolate Cookies from the BBC Good Food Recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/408617/triple-chocolate-cookies

Green and Blacks Chocolate makes these taste really creamy, although they are amazing full stop (I've tried them with lots of different chocolate brands this last year). 

You cannot go wrong as they are super easy to make. You might like to microwave the chocolate for just a short time rather than keeping it over the boil as it can burn and I recommend doing it in two batches (for storing into the mixture and then again for decorating the cookies later when they have cooled).  

Ginger Cake with Caramel Frosting

 This ginger cake is seductively light and moreish  The caramel frosting is a finger licking temptress. And together...they are truly irresistible. 

We wanted to use our super cute hexagon tin from Lakeland so we made buns to and adjusted down out cookie time for the cake and buns accordingly.

Instead of crystallised ginger we crushed pecans and sprinkled they on top. Next time we would stir chunks of them through the mixture too. I may even have to try carrot and ginger cake based on this recipe.

Thank you again to BBC Good Food for a lovely Valentines treat! http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3019676/ginger-cake-with-caramel-frosting

Happy Valentines! Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Chocolate chip birthday garden cake with chocolate brownie pots and Kitkat fencing!

 Chocolate, glorious chocolate! Cake, brownies and kitkats!
Three helpings a day -
Our favourite diet!

My sweetie of a friend Bex loves chocolate, so naturally I made a chocolate cake for her birthday. 

We have a long history of baking together and I often find myself turning around to see her ladling in extra quantities of cocoa or handfuls of chocolate chips!

So I decided to make a chocolate cake but I did not stop there...not only was this a very chocolatey chocolate cake, it was also filled with chocolate chunks and had deliciously creamy chocolate butter cream spread generously through the middle to ensure it was delightfully moist. 

But I could not stop there...I made chocolate brownie pots (again filled with velvety melted chocolate chips) and following the garden theme decorations, I created a little fence from a family pack of double kitkats! 

Needless to say - she loved it!

Cake Recipe

115g / 4oz butter (by now you know I worship Stork for cake making)

115g / 4oz caster sugar

85g / 3oz self-raising flour
30g / 1oz cocoa (I strongly recommend Bournville here)

2 eggs (from chickens with life experience)

1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Chocolate chips or a bashed up chocolate bar you didn't eat at christmas!

Method: Sponge

1.      Beat butter and sugar together with wooden spoon.
2.      Alternate cracking and stirring in an egg with sieving in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.
-> Add the vanilla essence for a little flavouring.

             3.       Line your tin with butter and baking parchment. (This quirky shaped one is from Lakeland and should NOT be put int he dishwasher - live and learn).

            4.       Bake in oven for 20 mins (ish) at 175C. You want a nice springy chocolate cake!

            5.      Cool on a cooling rack while you make the brownies and icing! When it is cool and your icing is ready you can cut it through the middle to put the icing inside (if it is not cool then your cake will go all crumbly on you so be patient and leave yourself plenty of time - a watched cake never cools).

Icing/ Filling Recipe

nob of butter
icing sugar
cocoa
good splash of milk

           Method: Icing/ Filling

Mix the butter, cocoa and icing sugar together with a fork and use milk to make it smooth and spreadable. It wants to be a little runnier than what you make for fairy buns because cocoa can make it taste more dry and you want a nice moist chocolate cake. It will also be easier to spread if it is a little thinner.

Brownie Recipe and method
I actually used this chocolate brownie in a mug recipe and method: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/brownie_in_a_mug/

I threw in some chocolate chips and popped the mixture into the 4 pots and in the oven they went for 10 mins on 175c. Chocolate, glorious chocolate! Wouldn't change a thing. (Although I will in all likelihood make brownies for valentines next week and post a proper oven brownie recipe full of real melted chocolate then!)

Decorating time!
I went for a garden theme to suit my little pots and cake shape. Roll out green icing between two sheets of cling film and cut it down by pressing the knife gently through the cling film. Peel off one side and then transfer to cake top and peel off the other piece, easy! Nothing is stuck to anything and you haven't smeared the lovely icing colour with white icing powder! (I got this idea from rolling pastry between cling film pieces). 

You could make your own flowers but I was on a deadline and making this up as I went along so mine are shop bought. Just cut down your Kitkats and fix them to your board with a blog of left over butter icing! Yummy!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Christmas cul-de-sac creation: a treat of gingerbread house artistry

We decided to call this cracking Christmas cul-de-sac 'Drury Lane' (Shrek fans will understand).

We made a smarties house, a jelly tots house and a dolly mixture house - because we could!

This made a really cute festive centrepiece at the Christmas table during dessert and the little oohs and aahs of appreciation were the cherry on top of a wonderful afternoon spent baking and engineering.

It was so much fun decorating with sweeties from my childhood. My grandma ran a sweet shop and loved to bake - I like to think she would have liked this.

Can you see our little street sign right next to where the marshmallows have snowed them in?

 Miniature village: a success.

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House

We made a gruesome gingerbread house for Halloween!

I may have taken a no handed bite right out of the roof - now that was a terrifying sight!

BBC Good Food inspired recipe. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/gingerbread-haunted-house

This is the BBC Good Food Picture!

The pieces all grew into gnarly distorted forms of their former selves during baking but that only added to the halloween feel. I have since learned that Mary Berry takes hers out half way through the baking time to reshape them: top tip!  

Front of our creation...(I'm quite pleased with the finished product)

Back of our creation! (Takes the biscuit!)

I am excited to have another go at gingerbread houses this Christmas. I'm thinking: miniature village!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Tripple chocolate cookies

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate…these triple chocolate cookies taste so heavenly they must be sinful! 

My first ever experience of the yummy delights of these divine triple chocolate cookies was last February on St Valentines Day. My boyfriend and I hadn't been together long then and both felt valentines day was a bit much pressure so we decided to stay in, wear onesies and bake! (Which, as you may have guessed, just happens to be the way to my heart). 

These are from a BBC Good Food recipe and I'm not sure I would change a thing. We made these as well as some brownies and we were so corrupted by the angelic, melt in your mouth chewiness that we nearly ate both batches that same evening! (There may have been cookies for breakfast with freshly melted warm white chocolate the next day). http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/408617/triple-chocolate-cookies

Make these for your loved ones and they will know how much you care…if you don't eat the whole batch yourself of course!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Carrot Cake in a Cup with Bex

I went to visit my super cute friend, Bex, for afternoon tea and homemade scones last week and we just couldn't resist coming up with a Carrot Cake in a Mug recipe. 

You will love this! 

 Recipe (makes 1; serves 2-3)
4 1/2 tbsp self-raising flour
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 medium egg, whisked

4 tbsp milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp greek yogurt
juice half orange
1 small carrot, grated
2 tbsp raisins

Method

1.      Throughly mix the flour, sugars and cinnamon together and stir in the egg.

2.      Add the milk, oil, yogurt, orange juice, carrot and raisins. Mix well.

3.      Pop in the microwave for 4 mins (800 watts). You may need to adjust timings for different microwaves.

Happy afternoon tea to you all! Have a lovely time with your friends (or just when you get a cheeky cake craving).

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Honey almond (and raisin) oat biscuits. As versatile as they are moorish.

I'm totally addicted to both honey and almonds so when I was left home alone on Friday evening this was bound to happen! In fact, I don't think I even made a decision to bake...I'm sure I only got up to make a cup of tea.

I was so pleased with these honey almond oat biscuits I made as a Friday night treat that I made them again with raisins on Saturday morning to take to a children's birthday party! 

One versatile recipe coming up...

 Recipe (makes 6 biscuits - perfect for a Friday evening binge)
40g almonds (whole with skins - whole for now anyway…muhahaha)
40g plain flour
25g oats
45g caster sugar

35g Stork (buta as I call it)
1 tbsp honey (lick the spoon after - you will be filled with happiness)

1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tsp boiling water

Method

1.      As always, the necessarily practical part first: baking paper on a tray. Oven set to 150C fan (160C if not assisted). Sorted.

2.      Pop your almonds inside a food bag and place on a chopping board. Hold the opening of the bag closed to avoid mess (don't tie it shut or you may cause your food bag to explode!) Gently but with purpose hit / chop the almonds with a heavy knife. This should miraculously chop the almonds and leave the bag reasonable intact! Mess free: the way I like my kitchen.

3.      While you are still tripping from the magic of cutting the almonds without cutting the plastic bag, pop them in a large bowl on your scales so you can add and mix in your oats, sugar and sifted flour.

4.      On the hob very gently melt your butter and honey into each other. Beautiful!

5.      Drop in your bicarbonate of soda and boiling water into your honey-butter mix (you may want to giggle at this point because the frothy fizzing is all very exciting), stir it in and then pour this immediately into your dry ingredient mixture and combine well.

6.      Get yourself a little messy rolling the mixture into inch diameter balls and give them a squish down on your parchment. Keep in mind they will spread because of the honey yumminess so don't put them too close together or you will end up with one massive tray bake (but if you don't want to share then go ahead!)

(Note: This is a picture of the raisin version and is a stickier mixture)

7.      Bung 'em in the oven fur tweny mins. 

8.      Leave them on the tray for 5 mins when you get them out of the oven (they will be a little gooey until they have some cooling time).

Transfer to a cooling tray using a fish slice to finish cooling. 

9.      Eat entire batch in one sitting. Joke!

These are so yummy! I just made them on auto-pilot but they were such a success. If you want to make 2 dozen instead just times up the recipe by 4. 

And if you don't like almonds (in the first instance try them again because they are amazing) or, if like me you just don't want to risk triggering a nut allergy at a children's party, then you might like to try them with raisins. Just use raisins instead of almonds and keep in mind that it will make a stickier mixture. 

Next time I am going to make them with honey, almonds AND raisins. I know. I spoil myself. 

I hope you go Nuts for these almond biscuits!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Cake in a Mug! YES!

Yes, you read that right. Cake in a Mug is a THING - how wonderful is the world to live in?

Cheers to my gorgeous boyfriend for this delicious, 3 mins in the microwave, Cake in a Mug.

Just look at this thing of beauty!

I won't write anymore because I'm sure you are dashing out of the house to go buy one of these right now! (This one is from Lakeland). I can see lots of variations on this recipe in my future.

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Banana Bread News: This just in!

Very quick update!

As promised, I tried my banana bread recipe with dark brown sugar and everyone went even more banana bread bonkers! 

Served here with a dollop of greek yogurt, sliced banana and blueberries

I used a slightly smaller loaf tin for my main banana bread so I had mixture left over to trial half a dozen muffin buns with walnuts in and these were really good. 

Served here with mashed strawberries, kiwi and flaked almonds with a little strawberry and honey drizzle. Yum!

I thought the walnut complimented the banana bread well but if you really love a strong banana flavour then I wouldn't add the walnuts as their flavour really comes through. Enjoy!

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x

Nummy Nana Banana Bread

Nummy Nana Banana Bread - say that three times fast!

Who wants to make some Nummy Nana Banana Bread with me? And who wants to eat it?! Yer, you do!

Had some lovely friends over for tea, scones and nummy nana banana bread - now try saying that with a mouthful! It was so nummy that we couldn't stop eating it, so it was all gone in no time! I am going to have to make another batch very soon...but here is the recipe for you now.

Recipe

110g / 4oz butter (I'm still swearing by Stork on this one), plus a little for your favourite loaf tin

225g / 8oz caster sugar (I'm trying it with golden or a chunky granulated grown next time as an experiment so I'll let you know how that goes)

2 free-range eggs (let those chickens live the life a little)

4 ripe bananas, mashed (fork of potato masher - choose your own weapon)

85ml milk soured with 1 n' 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla essence (love this stuff)

285g / 10oz plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1.      Flick the oven to 180C (a smidge higher if you aren't fan assisted). And butter your 20cm x 12.5 cm / 8in x 5in loaf tin while your'e at it, then the functional bits are over with and you can get on with the fun of baking banana bread.

2.      Grab a jug, measure out your milk and pop in the lemon juice to curdle it a little. (Wee bit healthier than buttermilk) Stand this aside to do its thing while you are busy with the next step.

3.      In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until silky smooth. (I use a good old wooden spoon like Grandma taught me but the electric mixer does the same job quicker - unless you have built up your cake making muscles of course).

4.      In another bowl - mash up those bananas! Use a fork, masher or just mash it plain bare-handed if you like. Baking is meant to be as fun as it is delicious!

5.      Thoroughly stir in the eggs, mashed banana, milk mixture and vanilla extract.

6.      Sift and fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Easy. 

Looks yummy already.

7.      Pour your cake mix in the tin, level with a spoon and tap the tin on the counter top to help it settle (Grandma's old trick). Then it is time to wash up because your banana bread will take about an hour. Yesterday I popped mine out to check the centre with a knife at 50 minutes and it was still a little guey, so it had exactly an hour fan assisted at 180C.

And it looked like this! Nummy!

I ate mine with a little greek yogurt but it was lovely and moist already. Nummy! Right, I think I am going to have to go make some more...

Cake Love, Fayerie Faye x