Macaroons

I love Macaroons! They are deceiving though ... They look tiny and I always think you need to eat lots to be full but as I discovered 2 (or 4 halves!) do the trick nicely.

Leamington Spa where I now live has hundreds (yes really HUNDREDS!) of cafes and tea rooms. Of course being the lovely thoughtful person that I am , I have made it one of my missions to visit as many of them as I can! When I was pregnant this was one of my favorite past times although I felt sick every day eating cake made me feel slightly better! Some places are slightly more challenging with a pushchair but there are still some good ones. So when lovely Sarah visited not only did I make chocolate cake but we also went to a newly oppened cafe called Comme Si Comme Ca and sat in the courtyard and ate these naughty little things ....

My favourite one was the salted caramel one mmmmm closely followed by the pistachio one. The other 2 were cherry and passion fruit. The cherry was the dissapointing one didn't really have any flavour to it. Overall a definite thumbs up. I will be back...

Blueberry, Raspberry & white chocolate GOOD FOR YOU muffins

I never know whether I like muffins so it seems a bit weird to be making them! I don't really like the shop bought Blueberry muffins although if they were presented in front of me then I would eat them... In fact you could say that about most cake although if there were bananas in them then NO WAY would I touch them... even if they had delicious salted caramel in them... can't stand bananas which is causing a slight problem with feeding them to Molly! So far she only has them when we visit Grandma... Anyway back to muffins. The sun has finally arrived and on a Tuesday Molly and I meet up with our NCT mummies and babies and take it in turns going to each others houses but as it was lovely we decided to go to the park and I volunteered to bring some cake as I had seen this easy to make low fat muffins and we are all on diets trying to lose our baby weight. My weight is going very very slowly could be all the cake?.... No?

I strayed ever so slightly from the recipe and added white chocolate chips to them so probably not as low fat as they should have been .. Oops

Chocolate Cake

Who doesn't love chocolate cake???
I hardly ever make this as I always think of the nasty dry chocolate cakes that you get in horrid little cafes and this is always the only cake that is on the menu... Well determined to make a cake for my lovely friend Sarah who came to visit this weekend , I went in search of an EASY and delicious one... Everything has to be EASY and QUICK these days as I can only cook when Molly is napping and that can be either an hour or in some cases 2 hours - woo hoo !
So looking through some of my food magazines I came across A Classic Tearoom Victoria

Look at the chocolate oozing down the sides mmmmmm...... Apparently it serves 10 ?! The overall verdict was delicious .. Moist..and chocolatey .....will make this again , would be good as a children's cake....

CLASSIC TEAROOM CHOCOLATE VICTORIA
225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
50g cocoa
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract

1.  Heat the oven to 190c/fan170c/gas 5
2.  Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and cream together !!! How easy ???
3. Divide between 2 x 20cm cake time and smooth over and bake for 25 mins

To make the buttercream filling....
100g softened butter
100g icing sugar
2tsp cocoa powder

1. Blend all the ingredients together until pale and fluffy
2. Spread over the bottom sponge & sandwich together with the top.

To make the icing........
100g milk chocolate
15g butter
30g cocoa powder
50ml coffee or water ( I used water)
1tbsp golden syrup

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water ( I blasted it on 10 second intervals in the microwave) meanwhile combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan an heat until almost at the boiling point giving it a whisk until smooth.
2. Add the pan of ingredients to the melted chocolate  and blend to a thick icing and smooth over the top of the cake letting it drip down the sides.....
3. EAT!

We all agreed it was yummy and fortunately Sarah took some home so there wasn't too much temptation left for me although I did eat the rest of it for myself..
I am entering this cake into a fab blog that I have discovered Mrs M recipe link for June

May Foodie Penpals

My second month in the foodie penpals and I love it !! I received a lovely parcel from Paula at Try that wine which was full of yummy things........

Bacon Jam - Have seen this before and wondered what it tastes like... it is delicious and I get to eat it all as my partner is vegetarian.. shame! I haven't bought it before as was slightly put off by the fact that it is called Jam and imagined it to be sweet but it isn't, its like a chutney with bacon bits , I had it with salmon fillets which does sound odd but worked!
Cheeky Frog Popcorn - Fortunately there were 2 packets in the box so there wasn't any fighting between Stephen and I as to who had the most - this was yummy - chocolate orange flavour -had just enough chocolate to satisfy me and a lovely orange taste to it -  It will be hunting this out so that I can have some more.
Peters Yard Crispbread - This gave me a fab excuse to buy some delicious cheese- these are wafer thin crackers and have a lovely crisp texture and I think have a sourdough type taste to them - they were fantastic with the stilton that I bought.
Homemade Cherry Muffins - Now there were 2 of these but I couldnt stop myself and ate one as soon as I opened the parcel and then remembered that I hadn't taken a photo - oooppps they were packaged beautifully as well! They tasted gorgeous and Paula told me they were from Lorraine Pascals cookbooks and  as I appear to have all of her cookbooks (how did that happen??) then I will be trying these .
Olive Crispbreads - Again delicious and have these with some hummus one night whilst watching the TV - good snackage.
Selection of teas that I haven't yet tried but intend to this week and finally saving the best till last
Petes' homemade marmalade - Paulas' husband makes marmalade - It was sooo delicious had a carrabbean twist to it as there was some rum to it - made my toast very happy!

Thanks again to Paula for your thoughtful parcel..
Stephen calls them my food rations! Roll on next month.....

Birthday Cake for my lovely Boyfriend!

It was my lovely boyfriends birthday this week and how could I not make a cake??? I said that I would make a carrot cake as I haven't done one of these in a while - I normally make the Humming Bird one but that is huge and there are only the two of us and we would eat it and then regret it! So I looked through one of my other ga-zillion cookery books and found an easy carrot cake that is baked in a loaf tin. Its from Rachel Allen Bake! I really like her books , they are always easy to follow and most of the time simple. So whilst little Molly was having a morning sleep I made this...

 It was more delicious than it looks I promise.. I have asked Stephen to make me a cake for my birthday in a few weeks .. could be interesting....

WI Bake off!!!!

In my attempt to make new friends since moving to a new town I have joined the WI! I thought it would be full of women of a certain age drinking tea and eating cake well the tea and cake is true but the age range has changed. They are called the Lighter WI and the women are in their 30's,40's and 50's so I slipped easily into one of these brackets!
Anyway this month they had a Bake off! I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a cake! I meant to look for a new recipe from one of the hundreds of cookery books that I have but I forgot that looking after a 7 month old is time consuming so I made an easy one that I have done before. A white chocolate and raspberry cake recipe from the winner of the TV show the Bake Off John Whaite Bakes .
It wasn't as pretty looking as I wanted it to be but I wasn't going to make another one....

It doesn't look that gorgeous does it?  ! I blame the photo myself! I was in a rush to get out the house and grabbed the camera and took these 2 photos and they were in the tin!

Unfortunately I didn't win, but did have comments to say that the taste was delicious. It was a really good evening as there were some fantastic bakes and we got to try them all !! What could be better? Next time will give myself a bit more time... ha ha who am I kidding , will leave it till the last minute again!

World Book Night 2013

Slighty off the topic of  food ! World Book Night is a fantastic idea that I have had the fortune to be involved in for the past 2 years being a World Book Night giver . The book that I received was Little Face by Sophie Hannah . I hadn't read this one so I was excited to read it and share with other people. I had great fun giving out the 20 copies that I was sent - I took most of them to the baby groups that I go to and gave a few random ones out to the ladies in the local post office and some more went to a friends dinner party. Will definately apply again next year it is such a lovely feeling giving out books for free and everyone I gave them to was pleased to get them.