Pretty Plum Muffins

These beautiful plum muffins are easy and delicious. Perfect for birthday muffins or fruit lovers!

Heat the oven to 200C
Mix:
225g plain flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
75g golden caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Then mix:
1 medium egg
200ml milk
30g unsalted butter (melted)

Mix everything together and then add:
4 red or purple plums (180g) stoned and diced
zest of 1 lemon

The icing can be added later, to add the final touch!

Pain d'epice!

Delicious toasted under the grill, quick and easy to make for a tea time snack! And great for finishing off bits in the kitchen cupboards.



loaf ingredients:

125g plain flour
150g icing sugar
1 1/2 teaspoos of ground cinnamon (add a little extra for luck)
2 teaspoons baking powder
175g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs

preheat oven to 190C and mix all ingredients together, baking time 45 minutes and enjoy warm!!

Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake

I have been eager to try this recipe for myself after my father baked it last time i was home. I finally got around to it today, it is utterly delicious, easy to make, very dark, rich and moist.



INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE TOPPING
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream
Serving Size : Makes about 12 slices

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Best Ever Banana Muffins

These delicious muffins are perfect for any time of day. They freeze very well and are scrumptious re heated with butter or plain. They are very versatile and provide a tasty platform for creating many different variations of muffins by simply adding ingredients such as chocolate chunks, walnuts or blueberries to the mixture.



Recipe

3 Large Bananas
3/4 Cup of Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1/3 Cup of Melted Butter
1 tsp of Baking Powder
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1/2 tsp of Salt
1 1/2 Cups of Plain Flour

1. Mash the bananas with the sugar then add the egg (slightly beaten)
2. Add the butter
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together then add the wet to the dry, only stirring gently.
4. Spoon into muffin cases and bake in a pre heated oven at 190c for 20 minuets.

Breakfast Brownie

Start your morning in the sunshine, traveling fast, on an adventure, accompanied by a rich chocolate cherry brownie!
These delicious brownies are full of rich chocolate goo and perfectly placed cherries.

300g unsalted butter
300g dark chocolate (60% plus)
5 large eggs
450g granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
200g plain flour
250g cherries

It makes at least 28 brownies so I used two baking tins! Mix together butter, chocolate by melting. While that is on the stove beat together eggs, vanilla and sugar. Finally mix all the ingredients and cook for 25mins.
Make sure the texture on top is rustic and cracked before removing from the oven!

Health and Happiness

In some places these are called chunky monkeys(urban dictionary enlightened us to the truth of this term). I prefer to see them as great ways of saying thank you, or a quick chocolate fix!

200g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g sugar
125g butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon of milk
150g dark chocolate (50% plus)
50g White chocolate
2 tablespoons coco powder

Just mix it all together and bake for 15 mins!

Flourless but not French

Here is a delicious chocolate gateau, but if you look closely at the recipe we have replaced the flour for ground almonds. It gives the cake an incredible texture very much like a soft chocolate brownie.




We dusted it with the magic of a doily and icing sugar.

150g dark chocolate (50% solids or more)
75g golden caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of runny honey
4 large eggs separated
200g ground almonds
75ml milk

The trick with this cake is all in the whisking of the separated eggs!