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