KUMPULAN MASTER BLOG

Easy Ginger Cake- a very easy recipe for ginger cake which only requires one egg. Foolproof and works every time to make soft, moist, sticky ginger loaf cake, with golden syrup. I love Ginger Cake. LOVE it. It's so sticky and delicious. It gives me fond memories of eating the Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup Cake in childhood. We would have it either as a slice to snack on after school or covered in custard for pudding. Amazing both ways. This Easy Ginger Cake is essentially the same style as that syrup cake but with added ginger. It's so light and moist, with a slightly sugary crust, that it's really hard to stop at just the one slice! You also only need one egg to make this cake which is a bonus, as I always seem to want to bake when I only have one egg. As promised, it's a very easy cake to make. You don't need any fancy cooking skills. In fact, if you've never made a cake before, this is a great one to start with.

Hot Cross Bun Cupcakes- all the flavour of a traditional hot cross bun in a cupcake- cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice and raisins. Easy to make treats for Easter. How much do you love Hot Cross Buns? They're a real seasonal treat (although seasonal for Easter seems to start straight after Christmas now!) There are so many varieties these days, chocolate, apple, ginger etc. I love the apple ones personally, if I'm veering from the traditional. So, I thought, why not add Hot Cross Bun Cupcakes to the mix? My Hot Cross Bun Cupcakes have all the spice and flavour of a hot cross bun, but with a cake base. They have a plain cupcake base with the hot cross bun spices and raisins added. The spices make the cake taste almost as though it's been made with wholemeal flour. I tend to go heavier on the cinnamon than the other spices, because I love that flavour more than the others, but you can play with the balance of spices however you prefer. So if you've had enough of all the Easte...

Prepare yourselves for the wonder that is puff pastry mince pies with whipped cream. They are something special and I am really excited to share the recipe with you. It's so simple- anyone can make them! It's now officially mince pie season. I know they've been in the shops since late September, but for me, all things Christmas really begin on December 1st. There's such an array of mince pies these days, that trying to choose which ones to buy can be a bit of a challenge. I thought that my husband, top mince pie-lover that he is, had tried every different type available. Then m y mother-in-law bought him a kind of mince pie that I have never seen before- puff pastry mince pies with whipped cream inside. They were an absolute revelation and we spent the next couple of weeks trying to find them again! (Morrisons in case you don't fancy making them yourself). Home-made mince pies will always top anything you can buy and until I made these puff pastry ones filled with ...

Spiced Pumpkin Cake- a moist pumpkin traybake cake topped with cream cheese icing and spiced with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Perfect for serving at Bonfire Night or Halloween. It's that time of year again, in the build up to Halloween and Bonfire Night, that we all start searching for 'pumpkin recipes' and 'things to make with pumpkin'. There's always the stand-by classics of Pumpkin Pie and Pumpkin Soup, but if you're bored of those, or looking for something different, then this Spiced Pumpkin Cake might do the trick. It's traybake style, so it's perfect for sharing at a Halloween or Bonfire Night party. You might have bought a pumpkin this year, for carving, and are wondering whether you can use the flesh from inside your Halloween pumpkin to bake with. The answer is- not usually. The pumpkins that are sold for carving, tend to be the types with thinner skins, which makes them easier to carve. They are not known for having good flavour and textur...

Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake- an easy-to-follow recipe for classic chocolate fudge cake with light sponge and thick, fudgy chocolate icing. Chocolate fudge cake is a classic indulgent cake and a popular choice is for dessert or an afternoon treat in restaurants and cafes everywhere. It's a very rich chocolate cake which is made with real chocolate rather than cocoa powder and it is filled and topped with an even richer, thick chocolate ganache. What's not to like? If I'm not sure what to order for dessert, I will usually plump for the chocolate fudge cake because it's reliably delicious. Unless you're not a chocolate lover, it's pretty hard to resist all the deep chocolate deliciousness that's involved. If you want to make a chocolate fudge cake at home, this is an easy recipe and produces a reliably good result. It has a light, almost powdery-soft sponge and the icing is thick and fudgy. There are no tricky techniques or ingredients as it's an all-in-one m...

I love ginger cake. I love ginger in general, but ginger cake really is gorgeous, and dark chocolate accompanies it really well. The slightly bitter chocolate taste complements all that sticky golden syrup and sugar, add some chocolate buttercream and mmmmm, you've got yourself a winner! A little while back I made a chocolate chip ginger sandwich cake, for one of my husband's colleagues who was leaving. It went down very well, lasted about 5 seconds according to my husband, but I never remembered to take any photos. I had some time spare this weekend, so I decided to have a bit of a baking/cooking day and make it again. This chocolate chip ginger cake recipe makes a pretty foolproof sandwich cake. The ginger sponge is feather light and just slightly sticky. The only thing you need to watch out for is when you come to turn the cake out. It will stick and crack at any opportunity, so make sure that the tin is well greased and let the cake cool for several minutes before trying to...

Breadmaker Hot Cross Bun Loaf- if you love hot cross buns, this sliced loaf version is for you. Make this spiced fruity loaf in the breadmaker and enjoy toasted with lots of butter. Perfect for Easter breakfast. I am a big fan of hot cross buns, so when I saw that Marks and Spencers had a sliced, hot cross bun loaf on the shelves, I bought one straight away. It was perfect- just the thing for an afternoon snack. It got me thinking- I'm pretty sure I could make a hot cross bun loaf myself. Even better, I could make one in the breadmaker! Generally, I don't like anything with a lot of mixed, dried fruit in it. Christmas cake- ugh! Traditional wedding cake- no thank you. But hot cross buns, I love! I don't mind that they appear in the shops the second that Christmas is over. So much the better! The very idea of a hot cross bun loaf is brilliant. Pop slices in the toaster without any danger of them getting stuck, burnt and mangled and you get a lot more out of one loaf than you...

Apple and Cinnamon Scones- fragrant spiced apple scones, delicious served warm with butter for afternoon tea. Jump to recipe Apple and cinnamon just belong together don't they? There's something very warm and comforting about the flavours and adding them to scones makes a winning combination. They are especially amazing when still warm and served with butter. Seriously, droooool! Once you've eaten one apple cinnamon scone, it's very easy to accidentally eat two, three, four! They're not too sweet so it doesn't feel like you're being too naughty. They are very easy to make in big batches and you can freeze them. So you could whip some out at very short notice and wow your guests with what a super host you are. I won't tell if you won't!

It was half-term this week and, after a couple of days of enjoying my freedom and visiting family and seeing friends, I got the baking itch. I wanted to make something that would serve as dessert and as an afternoon treat to have with a cuppa. Brownies fit the bill perfectly! I had a packet of crushed hazelnuts in my baking cupboard that I had been hoping to use for something, and brownies seemed to fit for that too. Chocolate and nuts is never a bad idea, so I threw them in with the mixture to add some extra texture. My husband is not a fan of nuts in any form, so I ended up doubling the mixture and only putting hazlenuts in half. We were going away for a few days to Canterbury for our anniversary, so I packaged them up to take with us. I thought it might save some pennies if we had our own treats instead of buying cafe treats everyday. Unfortunately, even though we packed very light, there still wasn't room for an enormous tupperware of hazelnut brownies so, at the last minute I ...

Mini Cheese and Onion Quiches- small cheese and onion quiches, perfect for children's parties buffets and afternoon tea. Jump to recipe When me and my sister were young, and my mum first went back to work, one of our standard after-school dinners was cheese and onion quiche with jacket potato and salad. It was also one of our first food technology lessons at secondary school- how to make cheese and onion quiche. I vividly recall a girl in my class dropping hers on the way to the oven and spending the whole rest of the lesson mopping up the eggy mess! We took our quiches home and had them for dinner. Mine wasn't half bad, but I probably didn't really eat quiche again until I was first teaching. That was when I first ate the (frankly amazing) quiche that the school caretaker makes for the staff training day lunches. So, when someone asked me if I would make them a quiche last week, I wondered, why haven't I made one since school? Maybe it's trickier than I remembered...

It was my Dad's birthday last week and a great excuse to give my Christmas present, a NordicWare Bundt tin, a trial run, by making him a cake. I decided to make a Satsuma and Yoghurt Cake, given all the satsumas that were available post-Christmas. I know many people will find this an unsual idea, but satsuma juice is absolutely delicious and makes as good a citrus cake as any other citrus fruit. It's a great way to use up any spare satsumas that you have to hand. The tricky part about using satsumas is the zesting. Satsumas don't have really firm skin like lemons, limes and full-size oranges. But, if you're careful, you can zest it. The first thing is to choose satsumas that aren't loose in their skin. You want the ones that would be annoying to peel, because they won't come away in nice big pieces. Then use your zester gently to grate the zest from the skin. You can't go at it hard, like you would with a lemon, so restrain yourself! Using a really good zest...

Chocolate Sandwich Cake with Whipped Cream Filling- a Victoria Sponge style cake with a chocolate sponge and slightly sweetened whipped cream filling. At the weekend, I made a chocolate sandwich cake. It's one of those soft, fluffy cakes that's so light it melts in your mouth. Essentially, it's a chocolate version of a Victoria Sponge! This type of cake is the perfect cake to whip up quickly when you've got visitors coming round. There's no fuss, no fancy techniques, no icing to pipe, and it's sure to be a winner with anyone you give it to. I normally say that you can make cakes by hand just as well as you can with a fancy mixer or a hand mixer, but Victoria Sponge style cakes are where the gadgets come into their own. If you have one, you can incorporate a lot more air into the sponge and really get that light texture. I prefer to make Chocolate Sandwich Cake with a sweetened whipped cream filling, but if cream's not your thing, you could make a chocolate ...

Mocha cupcakes- cupcakes with a light mocha sponge and chocolate icing on top. Perfect for afternoon tea or parties. It's that time of year again at work (parents' evening) where I try to do my bit and provide cake for all the teachers doing a 12-13 hour day. It's amazing how much a little bit of cake can cheer you up when you're exhausted and feel like you've talked the hind leg off a donkey! So far, over the years, I have made blueberry doughnut muffins, lime and coconut cupcakes , chocolate brownie cupcakes and lemon drizzle cupcakes . I spent a while pondering what flavours to do this time and finally settled on Mocha cupcakes. I'm a bit of a funny fish with coffee things. I don't really like coffee as a drink. I would choose tea every time, given the chance! An occasional latte is about my limit. However, when it comes to coffee flavoured things, I'm straight in there! Coffee truffles, coffee ice cream, coffee cake- all winners for me. Part of lov...

Coconut Oat Cookies- soft chewy cookies filled with coconut and oats. Quick and easy recipe to make. Jump to Recipe I have been going through a bit of a coconut phase the last few months. Having not eaten it for a very long time, I am back into it and absolutely loving it now. The Coconut Oat Cookies should be that perfect combo of crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. The key to that is in how long you bake them; too little and they will be a bit floppy and cakey, too long and they will be hard. If you can, it helps to spoon out fairly uniform sizes of cookie dough onto the baking sheet. It's a fairly firm dough, due to the inclusion of the additional dry ingredients of oats and coconut, so it doesn't spread an enormous amount unlike most American style cookies. That means that it's better not to leave the dough as golf-ball shaped lumps on the cookie sheet when you put them in the oven. Instead, try to flatten the dough down with the back of the spoon so you get...

Cheese and Jalapeno scones- a classic cheese scone with a kick of spice from the jalapenos. Perfect for afternoon tea, a snack or a buffet. Jump to recipe Scones are such a British thing aren't they? And so easy to make too. I love them- traditional scones, fruit scones, cheese scones, all the scones! Cheese scones are possibly my favourite type of scone. I like them so much because they are versatile; they work for breakfast, a snack or afternoon tea and all you need to have handy is a knife and some butter. I made some mini cheese scones for my nephew's first birthday party recently and they went down very well with the parents and the children. This time I wanted a bit more kick with the cheese. A lot of spicy cheese scone recipes use cayenne pepper, but I find that to be a bit forceful, a bit sharp and I wanted something a bit more subtle against the cheddar, so I made Cheese and Jalapeno Scones. Jalapenos are spicy, but they also have a touch of sweetness to them, which I ...

Today I am sharing an Apricot Cake recipe. Apricots are a bit of an under-rated fruit, I think, but I love their subtle flavour and their bright colour! They are amazing as a cooked fruit too. Have you ever had an apricot pie? You've really missed out if not! The good thing about cooking the apricots is that it intensifies the flavour; you really don't need any added sugar most of the time. This is a simple apricot cake with the addition of ginger icing to give it a subtle kick. It's not an overly sweet indulgent cake, so it's perfect for people who don't have a really sweet tooth. It could easily be left naked and un-iced if that's your preference. It makes a nice change from chocolate or lemon and a great alternative to my mango and coconut cake ( Mango and Coconut Loafcake ). Make sure that you chop your fresh apricots up quite small, or you will get big soggy patches in your cake. You'll notice that it cooks at a low temperature. That is so the apricot ...

These cappuccino brownies were made for my dad, the biggest coffee-lover that I know! On Father's Day weekend, I went to stay with my dad so we could meet up with my sister and her family for brunch at Giraffe. During the day, he was busy gardening in between watching the Euros, and, not being much of a football fan, I got the baking itch. I wanted to make something for him that he would really like. He always denies that he has a sweet tooth, which everyone in the family knows is a lie, but there are some flavours he particularly does like. Ginger, lemon and coffee would always be winners. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with coffee. I don't mind the occasional latte, I love coffee flavoured baked goods, and espresso ice cream is just gorgeous. But I hate instant coffee as a drink. I hate the after-taste. I don't even really like 'proper' coffee for the same reason. Give me a nice cup of strong tea any time! My Dad on the other hand, loves swish coffee. He...

Not everyone likes chocolate cake. I know, those people are just weird! Only teasing, my Dad is one of them. So, whenever I am baking for a crowd, I always try to have an alternative for the 'no-chocolate' folks, and lemon is my go-to flavour. I made a lemon and lime drizzle cake for my Dad's 70th, which he loved, but for my husband's birthday tea, I wanted to go really lemony with these 'Very Lemony Cupcakes'. 'Very Lemony Cupcakes' have lemon zest, lemon drizzle and lemon curd all happening in one cupcake, and they are just little bundles of citrus deliciousness. If you don't like lemon, you won't get on with these! When making citrus cakes, I always used to do battle with the finest side of a grater for zesting fruit, and quite a battle it was! As I seem to need to zest quite a lot, eventually I treated myself to a zester. It was quite pricey for a single utensil, but it's worth its weight in gold. It glides over the fruit so easily, zes...

I asked my husband what birthday cakes he would like for his family birthday tea, and he replied with- chocolate. That's it, just chocolate. With that rather flexible license to bake, I played around with a few ideas and settled on some kind of chocolate cake/cheesecake combo. These Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake Cupcakes have a lovely, soft, chocolatey sponge with patches of baked cheesecake distributed through them. They are, in one word, delicious! I had a fair bit of trouble with the cheesecake mixture, namely that it was very runny. I have had this recently with cream cheese icing as well. Quite frustrated, I googled around and discovered that this is an issue with British cream cheese. Even the full fat varieties have quite a lot of liquid in them compared to US versions, which are much more dense. When cooked, it tastes the same. It's the consistency during the process that's the issue. I have explained as best I can in the method, how to handle it. Cream cheese issu...

Mango and Coconut Loaf Cake with Lime Drizzle- a moist, yellow loaf cake made with leftover ripe mango and desiccated coconut and then drizzled with lime juice. We have been buying a lot more fruit lately, partly because it's summer, and there's so much more to choose from, and also as part of my husband's Slimming World diet. The trouble with having so much lovely fresh fruit around, is that you have to keep on top of what needs eating and by when. I'm a pro with whizzing up something with bananas on the turn (Look here if you need ideas for banana recipes- Banana Recipes ), but mango? kiwi? Not so much. So when I noticed that a mango had gone a bit wrinkly, I wasn't sure what to do with it. Mango makes me think tropical, so I immediately thought coconut. I wondered if I just mashed the mango, whether it would work in the same way as banana in a cake, and it did! The cake is a gorgeous deep yellow when you slice through it. It has a lovely texture too. I thought ...