Brownies

Sometimes, you've just got to have brownies... nom nom nom...

Jam Tarts

I tried making these jam tarts, using a ready rolled pastry and a blob of jam in the middle. Unfortunately, the pastry I used was not at all nice! Very flavourless, it was like eating cardboard.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Everyone at work loved these when I took them in, but OK, I admit it. I cheated a bit on these ones. The cakes were made from Tesco's ready mixed chocolate cake mix, and the icing was Betty Crockers Chocolate Fudge Icing. A few sprinkles and some edible spray paint, and they actually looked pretty good too.

The cakes themselves were not what makes this memorable though. A special mention must go to the first decorated cake of the evening. I tried making my own piping bag, but it didn't go quite to plan...

It's ok, you can say it, it looks like a cat turd on a cupcake. My attempt to rescue it didn't make it any better.

I was in fits of giggles all evening after that. I'm surprised the rest of them actually got decorated as I had to keep going to sit down and compose myself every time I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye.

I gave this special cupcake to my friend at work, who would later become my awesome boyfriend. I'm sure it was my mad cake decorating skillz that sealed that ^_^

Blueberry muffins

I love blueberries. This was my first attempt at blueberry muffins. It was converted from a US recipe, so the measurements were originally in cups and I tried to convert to grams. They didn't rise very well, but I think now adding some baking powder would have helped with that.

I can't find the website I originally used, but here is the recipe if you'd like to give it a go.

• 2 cups / 256g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1/4 cup / 55g brown sugar
• 1 cup / 140g frozen blueberries
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup / 170g apple sauce
• 1/4 cup / 125ml semi-skimmed milk

1. Mix sugar, milk, eggs and apple sauce together and add to flour
2. Gently fold in the blueberries
3. Divide into muffin tins
4. Bake at 160c for 15 minutes

All the cookies!

I was thinking of something to do with my nephews and niece, and I got it into my head to make cookies... lots and lots of cookies... I figured I can make some icing up with some food colouring and they could decorate their own.

They loved it! There were even sprinkles available! I used the silicon cupcake moulds to put the icing in, and they each chose which colours they wanted.

Ingredients (makes about 30 cookies)

• 250g butter, softened
• 140g caster sugar
• 300g plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180c
2. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl
3. Add egg yolk and vanilla
4. Beat to combine
5. Sift over the flour and stir well to combine
6. Bake for approx 15 minutes

Variations

• To make them chocolatey, simply substitute 50g of flour for 50g cocoa powder
• Substitute vanilla essence for lemon essence to make lemon cookies
• Add 50g chocolate chips, or chopped nuts, or dried mixed fruit, or whatever else you think might be nice

Jewel Biscuits

The recipe I followed for these was from a kids cookery book, but unfortunately, I can't find it at the moment, so you'll have to make do with this recipe instead.

Easy Chocolate Cheesecake

This was taken from the book "The Takeaway Secret"

• 150g melted butter
• 10 digestive biscuits, crushed to crumbs
• 140g soft cheese
• 200g chocolate spread

1. Mix butter and digestives
2. Press into cake tin
3. Mix chocolate spread and soft cheese
4. Spread onto bases
5. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles
6. Put into fridge to chill

Weetabix Cake

A really easy cake that is a little bit like malt loaf. Really nice with some butter spread on it! My family really like this one, and it's been happily received as a present a couple of times.

I originally found this recipe online, but it looks like the website that I found it on has gone!

Ingredients

• 2 x weetabix
• 150g sugar
• 150g raisins / dried mixed fruit
• 200g self-raising flour
• 250ml milk (I use semi-skimmed)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c/160c (fan)/gas mark 4
2. Grease and line loaf tin
3. Crush weetabix into crumbs
4. Add sieved flour, sugar and raisins
5. Give it a quick stir to mix it all up
6. Add milk and mix well until there is no dry flour around the bowl
7. Spoon into tin and bake for an hour
8. Leave to cool for 10 minutes after removing from oven, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely