The yummy treat in question  today is a Chocolate Celebration Cake.

 First made for a surprise birthday party by our friend, this delicious recipe has been passed around to all our friends and family ever since.

The original recipe for this cake is in the form of a tray bake but for today's post we will show you how we make our version of the cake ( a little bit more exciting than a tray bake!) 

It's a easy simple recipe and even better it can be made 48 hours ahead of when you want to serve it.(if you could wait that long before eating the whole thing!) Well done if you can :) 

Right so first...

Decide whether you want to make a sandwich type cake (our recipe and in picture above) or a tray bake.

If option two; you will most obviously need a tray bake tin or if your kitchen is not equipped with such tools a simple smallish roasting tin will do the trick!

For our recipe we use two 20cm (8in) sandwich tins.

Tin decisions out of the way and sorted....

Set out and weight the following wonderful ingredients,I have split cake ingredients and ganache topping ingredients separately, depending if you want to add ganache to your cake ( it would be silly not to though really!) 

For cake:

100g of soften butter, (tiny bit extra needed for greasing tins).

50g of cocoa powder

6 tablespoons of boiling water

3 eggs

4 tablespoons of semi skimmed milk (or whatever in fridge basically)
175g of self raising flour

1 good full teaspoon of baking powder

300g of caster sugar

For the ganache icing:
150g of dark chocolate
200-250ml of double cream
3 tablespoons of apricot jam(warmed up slightly in microwave). p.s you can use other jams, this is just what we made ours with but what ever jam you put on your Hovis in the morning will do too :)

Heat your oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 5, once that is done grease (butter) your lucky chosen tin/s.

Firstly quickly sieve your cocoa powder into a bowl then add the boiling water to great a chocolaty smooth paste.
Then add all the rest of the ingredients into your chocolate paste. Mix it all together until its all combined nicely! No need for the gym with this recipe, will have nice toned upper arms mixing this cake!


Pour into your chosen tray/tins and pop it into the hot oven for 20-25 mins.

 To pass the time whilst the mixture is in the oven, get cracking on your ganache icing!
For that:
Melt your chocolate and double cream in the microwave,(keep your eyes peeled) you don't want it to burn. Leave it to cool for abit and it should then become thicker creating scrummy icing.


Now to ensemble your masterpiece....
Take the cooled cake bases and spread your jam all over them, once jam is on, it is time for your ganache icing. A pallette knife will help with this but a plain and simple knife with do the trick.
Done.
If you want you are finished with the cake and you can serve it straightway but if you can, put on....

Toppings :)
We used raspberries and white chocolate (use a potato peeler for cool chocolate shavings)
Tahdah! Celebration Complete, bring on the next birthday!

Cut into piece and enjoy! 

I hope you've missed us...

Hello sunny (but slightly-windy-and-still-freezing) afternoon!

We are SO sorry for leaving it so long...as you know I have been en France, and then when I got back Fia jetted off to London and then home for a week, whilst I promptly decided to become very ill...

so apologies...

Fia has an extremely tempting chocolate cake recipe coming very soon, but I thought I'd share with you one fabulous part of my trip to Lyon to visit my beautiful friend.

I had no idea how pretty Lyon was.

Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I have decided to refrain from 'unnatural' sugars recently, and so far its going pretty well. But when in France... you simply cannot resist the sweet cakes. So it became 'I'm off sugar, I get a treat once a month(?! - im crazy i KNOW) and it doesnt apply outside of the UK. GENIUS.

Why thankyou...

So I was only there for five days, but on the first day I landed and we promptly went to 'Paul' for a yummy coffee and croissant. You can't go to France without eating a croissant. Delicious.

Later went we retreated to my friend's apartment, we decided to do a bit of baking, just to get into the 'scrummy sweet' spirit!

Here is my recipe for an extremely easy Tarte Tatin...

You'll need

• A flan style baking tin, one of those ones with the pretty edges
• About 10 apples, I think. (If you use all sweet apples, don't put in as much sugar, otherwise try and use a mixture of 'sweet' and 'sour' apples
• Some kind of brown sugar
• 100g Plain flour
• 50g Butter

(Thats it, you can probably just go and make it if you've got some spare apples!)
   
First, peel the apples and slice into flat pieces (cut half, then half again, core and cut into segments)

Grease the whole flan tin with butter, and cut out a circle of greaseproof paper to fit in the bottom, put that in and grease that too.

Sprinkle a good layer of sugar into the bottom, and then arrange the apples into a pretty pattern until they're layered up. Use as little or as much as you like/have..

Bring together the flour and the butter in a big bowl with clean hands, rub the butter into the flour and work it into a soft dough ball. Add more flour or butter if you feel it needs it. Don't panic!

Now, you have two options here. you could either chill the pastry if you have time, or even freeze it for a bit. Then I reckon you can try and grate the pastry over the apples, just so it sinks in and gives a good coverage.

Or, if you're slightly lazy and got less time, just roll the pastry out into the right shape so it fits over the apples. Press it over nicely, then pop into a preheated oven at 180*C, for about 40 mins. 

Take it out of the oven when the pastry looks golden, and check to see if it is not 'soggy'.

Voile!

Now, you are 'supposed' to eat this chilled, I think, but it is absolutely delicious straight from the oven. Don't eve bother cutting it...just grab a friend, coffee, and a fork...

Tell me what you think!

Do you have a treat that sounds hard but is really really easy?!

Soph x

Happy Thursday afternoon!

Thursdays are always good days to celebrate with something sweet and a cup of tea (which I happen to be doing right now...good english breakfast tea after my lecture, with a toasted hot cross bun for good measure ;)...they mean the weekend is nearly here! 

This weekend is especially exciting for me as I am jetting off to the (hopefully) warmer climate of Lyon, to visit my friend (and bridesmaid). Looking forward to lazy days, wine, and above all, the sweet treats I can find in the patisseries...I may even allow myself a few sugary treats over the next few days!

Last weekend, however, my sister came to visit! She is an incredible baker, and seems to just 'whip up' ingenious delicious and scrummy goods, whilst staying unbelievably tiny. She was horrified at the thought that I've given up sugar (for a longer time than I care to share) and came up with the most delicious treats for me, which I just HAD to share!

Sugar-free Sultanas Cookies

This truly is a sugar-free treat that you cannot miss out on!

If you don't like sultanas though...I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere ;) (but you can get them super cheap at Morrisons) and...I know sultanas/raisins have a lot of sugar in themselves, but I'm not giving up fruit too, that would be pretty boring!

This is a very 'improvised recipe', so add what ingredients you do have, and keep adding stuff until you think they look like they've got a soft consistency...

You'll need:

75g butter (salted)

a lot of sultanas/raisins

a few slices of banana

A few drops vanilla essence

40g oats

90g self-raising flour

First things first, mix together a handful of sultanas (75g) with the butter, using a hand-liquidiser thing. This may sound odd, but it gives the butter a sweet taste.

Then mix in the banana so it's a puree. 

Add the oats and mix in the rest of the sultanas. Don't liquidise these ones!

Then add the flour, don't be tempted to add too much flour because more flour means tougher cookies, and you want them nice and soft!

Make sure it is quite sticky and uncomfortable to roll in your hand.

Spoon out onto greaseproof paper on a baking tray and make round 'mounds' of them.

Bake at 180*C, for around 15-20 mins, keep an eye on them!

They are incredible eaten warm, so either eat them straight from the oven, or if you've managed to save some, pop them in the microwave for 50 seconds. 

They are delicious on their own, or, as I have recently discovered, even more incredible smothered in whipped cream...go on, give it a try!

I would even choose to eat these many a time over a chocolate cookie (and that is saying something!)

Have you got any ingenious sugar free treats you'd like to share with us?

With all my love, Sophie x

P.S. Did you see that rose I just 'snuck' in to my last pic....couldn't resist, my (fiance) got it for valentines...most beautiful thing ever! Did you get anything fun/pretty/funny/romantic?

Haven't  posted in a while but this next recipe is worth it's weight in gold.

Gooey Chocolate Pots

They are abolsutely delisious and will get you scraping the pots clean (fab no washing up)!

I first tested out the recipe for a dinner party with friends and lets just say everyone fell silent savouring the awesomeness as they ate and one friend even tried to put her face in the pot to get out  every last bit! 

So for Valentines day and my uni dissertation draft handing in day I decided to treat my self and others to the chocolate delights again!

They are so so simple to make using ingredients you probable have in the cupboards anyway.

You will need:

• 125g plain chocolate (I used a cheap variety and they tasted fab so with good quality probably will taste even better!)
• 125g butter
• 3 large eggs
• 150g caster sugar
• 35g plain flour
• extra butter and flour for the ramekins.

There is no real method for this recipe but easiest to follow these instructions:

• Break the chocolate up and put it into a microwaveable bowl with the butter and then heat in microwave until melted together.
• Whilst chocolate and butter is in the microwave put everything else into a mixing bowl and combine together well.
• Then once chocolate/butter mix is melted pour that into the mixing bowl, stirring it all in with the other ingredients in there already.

And that's it, the mixture is made... Easy peasy.

You can leave that mixture now for a few hours if you want it doesn't really matter or pour into pots straight away.

For the pots I used glass ramekins but as long as there oven proof then thats fine.

Once you are nearly ready to scoff them set the oven to 200.°

Rub the insides of the ramekins with a little butter and dust with flour so the flour sticks to the butter.

 Divide the mixture between  5 ramekins and put them on a baking tray and into the oven the little delights go.....

I usually cook them for about 10 minutes or until I can see the sides slightly cracking and the tops of them still a little squishy (that means the gooey goodness inside is just right).

Serve immediately and enjoy.

Even more yummy served with a little (or a lot) of cream or with some strawberries ( trying to be a little healthy).

They really are amazing, every time I have made them everyone raves about them, one friend even said they were better than the ones she had eaten from shops or restaurants... :) 

So go ahead make your own gooey pots of chocolatey heaven, and try to eat all five pots to your self!

Happy Pancake Day Friends!

So, the obvious choice for the post today was to delight you all with our brilliant and amazing pancake skills...the dream was to 'enlighten' you with tips for pancakes throughout the day... breakfast pancakes, maybe brunch pancakes (if we're pushing it...),lunchtime pancakes, with a finale of dinner time pancakes. (maybe with dessert pancakes added on for good measure).

We felt this would have adequately summarised our love (and Sophie's obsession) with this glorious batter topped with delightful and scrummy treats! Maybe couldn't even sleep because I was so excited for Pancake Day!

Alas, (fabulous word) TO NO AVAIL!

I can pretty much conclude that this was a disaster. Not even really sure why!

I think our problem started when we attempted the french style 'crepe'. 

Now, this is not normally the type of pancake that I (Soph) would celebrate over. Not that I would refuse one, I'd happily gobble one right up...

But the American style pancake is where my heart is at.

So for some unknown reason, we decided to go with the thin ones....

(we have chosen specifically NOT to include the recipe because they were a DISASTER. We are ashamed and urge you.... do not try these at home ;)

maybe where we went wrong was choosing a recipe that included water.

WATER??

strange choice...

However a fab idea and something that managed to save them enough to be edible was the addition of cinnamon to the batter. Nice one.

We did in fact munch away on them...fairly happily, after adding a lot of lemon (and Sophie did actually even add a sprinkling of sugar...sshhh! it was necessary)

Enough to not actually want to make them for brunch, or lunch...

Although we may do an alternative 'Toad in the Hole' for dinner...yum!

I think next time we'll stick with American style, with maple syrup and crispy bacon.... mmmm....

How did your pancakes turn out???

Our updated version of the carrot muffin..... Yummmm! Squirty Cream best thing EVER! 

Excited for our first post!!

Today at our normal 3.30 afternoon scrummysweets sweets break, we were bored of our usual hot cross buns, the ones we don't particularly enjoy (more about that later) so...

As work was not happening today we decided  to make something yummy to make to inspire us to keep working.

As Sophie is not eating sugar at the moment and us being too lazy to go to the shops for cake ingredients we decided to make these sugar free mini carrot muffins using ingredients we already had!

Loosely following an American recipe (using cups) we used a small coffee mug instead for our measurements and hoped for the best....

1 cup of self raising flour

Half a cup of melted butter

2 eggs

3 grated carrots

Good table spoon of honey(substitute for sugar)

1 and half teaspoons of cinnamon

And here is the result (using our perfectly placed props to make it look more appealing)..

Actually tasted pretty good, although a little more honey and some added raisins would have made them even better... We did manage however to scoff two each in the space of a few minutes so calling them a success considering they are basically sugar free and not having to spend a penny on ingredients! 

Around 90 calories each they are a new scrummy afternoon treat to be enjoyed with a cuppa... In fact boil the kettle we are onto our third! 

Enjoy :)