Caramel-filled Chocolate Brownies

These are based on the salted caramel brownies that Alexa Chung made on the recent Comic Relief Great British Bake Off. I made them for my boyfriend's birthday as I wanted him to have something nice in his lunchbox at work; they also made for a quick dessert that evening at home (we had his family over for dinner). And they tasted amazing!

I followed the recipe which is here, though as I was short of time I used a tin of Carnation Caramel as the filling, which worked perfectly. I also added a little condensed milk to the brownie mixture as I had a tin open from another recipe and thought it might be nice!

Brownie mixture coming together

After preheating the oven, I spread half the brownie mixture into a greased pan and spread the caramel on top.

 

 

Then cover with the rest of the brownie mixture so there are no gaps.

Bake in the oven

When it has cooled, drizzle with melted white chocolate

You can see here the caramel in the middle - it tasted amazing!

Plenty for my boyfriend to enjoy in his lunchbox

I'm sharing my brownies with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter I have chosen is B.

I'm also sharing this with Kitchen Clearout over at Madhouse Family Reviews, which is a roundup of dishes and recipes made from things found lurking at the back of the cupboard - which was the case with the Carnation caramel.

The theme for this month's Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at The Hedgecombers, is chocolate.

Read More

Slimming World Asparagus and Red Pepper Muffins

Now that the weather is getting nicer our thoughts are turning to al fresco eating. Whether it's a picnic in the park with your friends, high tea at the garden table with the family or even just taking your packed lunch outside the office to eat on a bench, you are going to need recipes which are easy to

throw together in a hurry, can be packed up and eaten cold - preferably without the need for cutlery!

These asparagus and red pepper 'muffins' are low calorie and fat free; they aren't muffins in the usual sense as there is no cake - instead the filling is made from egg. The recipe comes from Slimming World so it is great for anyone following a heathy eating plan. The colours are really vibrant which is another reason I like this recipe.

To make a dozen, you need:

Spray oil such as Fry Light

200g asparagus tips

1 jar roasted red peppers in brine, drained and chopped

6 eggs

2 cloves garlic, crushed

small handful fresh chopped herbs eg tarragon, parsley

salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for two minutes then chop



Mix in a bowl with the chopped red pepper

Line a muffin tray with paper cupcake cases and spray the inside of each one with Fry Light. Place a spoonful of the asparagus and red pepper mixture into each one.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Pour into each muffin case, being careful not to fill too much. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until risen.

Allow to cool before removing from the tin

These can be served warm or cold; just peel off the paper cases and enjoy.

These will keep for a few days in the fridge in a sealed container so you can make them at the weekend to take into work or make them a day or two before your picnic.

I'm sending this to Eat Your Greens, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment2Kitchen, as it contains a green vegetable.

These are also a good way to get some extra veg into your diet so I am sending this recipe to the Extra Veg challenge hosted this month by Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

The theme for this month's Treat Petite is hello spring, and I think these muffins are perfect for spring. The challenge is hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat at the Baking Explorer.

Asparagus is now in season so I'm also sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours on behalf of Ren Behan.

Read More

Restaurant Review: Giraffe Kiosk, King's Cross

Opinions on the Giraffe restaurant chain seem to be divided – the fact that it is usually full of families with children seems to put a lot of people off – but I really like it. So one day when I was travelling to London’s King’s Cross station for a morning meeting, and arrived so early I decided I had time to get breakfast (having skipped it at home as I was in a rush to leave) I was pleased when I spied a Giraffe Kiosk.

This is the chain’s “grab and go” service, and so far they only have one, at King’s Cross. It is takeaway but importantly there are a few tables outside and some stools along the window inside, which means if you do have a little more time – or want to eat something that’s difficult to eat with one hand while walking along – this is perfect. At the same time it’s quicker than going into a café.

The kiosk offers continental breakfast favourites like croissants, plus porridge, muesli pots, breakfast burritos (as well as a lot of lunch choices like wraps, salads and sandwiches) – and my favourite breakfast, a sausage sandwich. This is what I ordered  and it was a little different to the usual, as it came with Panini-style bread that had been grilled and squashed flat with the sausages inside. In retrospect that is actually quite a good idea as it’s much easier to eat while walking – which I imagine most people do rather than sit at one of the tables.

It was a bit disappointing that the sandwich only had one and a half sausages inside (which had been cut in half) which I didn't think was particularly good value for money for £4.75. This isn't a bad place though and I will definitely be on the lookout to see if any more of these Kiosks open in other locations.

Read More

Best-Ever Lemon Cake for a Baby Shower

This is a perfect cake for someone going on maternity leave or who has just had a baby – a deliciously light, zingy lemon cake decorated with a teddy bear and a bow.

 

I made this for the lovely lady I sit next to at work for her last day before maternity leave. I’ve made a couple of cakes for baby showers before and

didn’t want to do exactly the same thing again, but it’s hard to think of something completely different (and I flatly refuse to make one of those baby bump cakes where the cake is the woman’s stomach!). Luckily I had been on a half-day cake decorating course not long before, where we had made a fondant teddy and a bow. I made them in lilac, a gender neutral colour, which was good because my colleague doesn’t know whether she will be having a boy or girl.

 

I had found out by a not-particularly-subtle line of questioning a few weeks before that her favourite flavour cake was lemon so that’s what I decided to make. I wasn’t overly impressed with some of the lemon cakes I’ve made in the past – they were good, but not as moist and light as I would have liked, so I decided to try something different.

 

I came across this recipe from the wonderful Richard Burr, a runner up on the last Great British Bake Off. I didn’t have time to make a triple-layer cake so changed the quantities, and I knew I wanted to decorate it differently, and I also made a different filling, so really it isn’t his recipe at all (his is for a lemon and raspberry cake ) – I just used it as a starting point. So I think I can safely say that this is my own recipe. It was probably the nicest lemon cake I’ve ever eaten, so I am calling this the

 

Best-Ever Lemon Cake – an original recipe by Caroline Makes

Double these quantities for a bigger cake – this made two thin layers each about 2cm high.

 

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

175g self-raising flour

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

 

For the filling:

250g butter, softened

500g icing sugar, sifted

3 tbsp lemon curd

 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease (and also line, if desired) a loose-bottomed 20cm round cake tin.

 

Cream the butter and the sugar then whisk in the eggs. Fold in the flour, then the lemon zest and juice.

 

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked (test the middle with a skewer). Allow to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack.

 

When the cake is cool, carefully slice through the middle so you have two layers. As mentioned before, these will be quite thin –once the cake is covered in fondant it adds height but if you’re not going to do that and want to ice the top, you may want to double the quantities of this recipe to make a deeper cake (which will need a longer cooking time).

 

To make the filling, carefully cream the butter with a little of the icing sugar, adding more icing sugar as you continue to mix. When you have used all the icing sugar add the lemon curd and stir in. Use to fill the cake; I also used a little as a crumb coating for the sides and top as I was covering it in fondant.

 

I rolled out the fondant and covered the cake, then simply placed the teddy bear and bow I had already made on top. I also had a few flowers I had made for another project and didn’t use which I brushed with lilac lustre dust and added these to the cake as well.

  

I actually had to make the cake two days in advance as I was out in the evenings and wanted the cake for a particular day when my colleague was departing for maternity leave. I wrapped the cake in foil and placed it in a cake tin and it tasted perfect even three days later when there were a few slices of the cake left. I highly recommend this lovely set of cake tins from Flamingo Gifts – they come as a set of three of varying sizes, which of course fit inside each other for convenient storage. The RRP is £25 which I think is reasonable for a set of three – the largest tin is very roomy and the middle tin will also comfortably fit a cake, while you could use the smallest tin for biscuits. I love the fun animal designs which are also available on other products in the range like egg cups and coasters.

 

 

Everyone at work thought the cake looked very pretty and it tasted wonderful so I will be bookmarking this recipe to make again!

I'm sharing my baby shower cake with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter I have chosen is B.

Read More

Formula 1 Foods: Bahrain round-up and the next challenge

Last weekend's Grand Prix took place in Bahrain which was a hard one for many of us in food terms. The idea of the challenge is to make something from or inspired by the host country of each Formula 1 race and I'd never eaten let alone made anything from Bahrain before. So it was funny that of the three entries I had this month, two of us made the same dish!

Suelle at Mainly Baking made this Middle Eastern date cake, which uses rose water, cardamom, saffron and sesame seeds to give a moist and fragrant cake.

I made chicken machboos, which is a type of curry using a blend of Arabic spices - which naturally I didn't have so I mixed my own. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as I never cook rice from scratch, but it turned out pretty well!

Jane at Onions and Paper also made chicken machboos and commented on the length of the recipe and list of ingredients; she didn't take as many shortcuts as I did and I have to say I think her dish looks a lot better than mine!

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix takes place over May 8-10 in Spain so add your Spanish-inspired recipes to the link up below! You've got a bit longer this time so I hope I get plenty of entries!

');

Read More

Meal Planning Monday 2015 - Week 17

I’ve decided to stop following Slimming World specifically as I have been struggling with their plan and instead ‘eat clean’ and follow my personal trainer’s diet advice. It seems to be working as I lost three pounds last week!
 

This week will be hard though as I have a lot of meals out, and I mean a lot – a combination of a work colleague visiting from another office, my birthday and a party for friends who are moving abroad. I just have to make sensible choices and not snack in between.

 

Monday-

Lunch- jacket potato with prawns

Dinner- sandwich at cake decorating course

 

Tuesday

Lunch- sandwich – needs to be very quick as I only have 10 mins

Dinner – the Other Half is out so I will have a pork casserole I made ahead and froze

 

Wednesday

Lunch- probably out with colleagues as we are off site

Dinner: restaurant with a friend

 

Thursday

Lunch – restaurant with work colleagues

Dinner- sausage and mash with Quorn or Slimming World sausages for me

 

Friday

Lunch- salad

Dinner- At a Mexican restaurant for my birthday (which is next week)

 

Saturday

Brunch- at a friend’s to meet their new baby/ wish them farewell as they are moving abroad

Dinner- homemade burger and Slimming World chips

 

Sunday

Lunch- bacon sandwich for him; mackerel in mustard sauce on toast for me

Dinner- roast chicken

Read More

Chicken Machboos

This weekend's Formula 1 Grand Prix is in Bahrain which was never going to be easy in terms of thinking of something to cook for my blog challenge Formula 1 Foods. I turned to the internet to search for recipes and one in particular kept coming up - a type of curry, usually with chicken, called machboos. Apparently it's the national dish of Bahrain and is a spiced chicken and rice dish with a blend of Arabic spices. It's similar to an Indian biriyani.



I found many recipes for this which were all slightly different and ended up choosing different elements of each; for instance my boyfriend doesn't eat chicken thighs or legs so I used breast; I didn't have any of the specific spice blend so mixed together what I had that went into it, and I have to admit making a big change that probably changed this dish quite a lot - rather than cooking the rice together with the chicken I used microwavable rice and added it afterwards. That is probably sacrilege but I didn't have much time (not getting home from work until 7pm and that's if the trains are running on time, which usually they are not) and I am hopeless at cooking rice from scratch!



So the recipe I used, pieced together from various others, was:

to serve 2:

1 onion, chopped

1 glove garlic, crushed

2 chicken breasts, diced

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp turmeric

squeeze of lemon juice

1 tbsp. oil

200ml chicken stock

200g tinned tomatoes



Fry the chopped onion and garlic in the oil in a large pan then add the spices.



Add the chicken and fry until cooked through.



Add the tomatoes, stock and lemon juice and cook until the sauce has reduced by half.



Serve with rice

I'm sending this to Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I host - you've still got a few days to add any Bahrain or Formula 1 inspired recipes!

Read More

Movie Night: Chocolate Marshmallow Popcorn and a Beer Glass Review

Last April I bought my boyfriend a popcorn maker for his birthday and a recipe book, as he loves popcorn and I thought it would be fun to add some more interesting flavours – even though I knew I would be the one using the recipe book! That was right around the time we were preparing to move house so the popcorn maker ended up being packed – and then our house purchase was delayed, and stuff ended up in a storage unit. When we finally moved at the very end of August, the rest of the year was taken up with decorating and getting the house how we wanted it. So it was only very recently that the popcorn maker saw the light of day.

I’d bought a bag of ‘raw’ popcorn and was amazed at the tiny amount we needed to put into the popcorn maker to make a massive bowlful of popcorn. I know you can make popcorn in a saucepan but this machine was far more fun, and very quick. You do need a big bowl underneath to catch the popcorn as it comes shooting out!

I did have a look through the recipe book but as it was quite last-minute, I didn’t have a lot of the ingredients to hand and some of the recipes involved making the popcorn, covering it with toppings and then baking it in the oven, which I didn’t want to do as we wanted popcorn right away! So instead I threw together a couple of things and decided to share this in a post as it really did taste wonderful.

I simply made a chocolate sauce, by melting chocolate and butter and adding a little golden syrup, and stirring it through the popcorn along with some mini marshmallows. The chocolate cools quite quickly, so while you might get a little messy eating this, it’s not that bad. Popcorn is pretty healthy and you don’t need to add much chocolate or marshmallow to feel like you have a really indulgent snack.

The perfect accompaniment for your bowl of popcorn and a movie is a tall glass of your favourite tipple, whether it’s beer or a soft drink. I was recently sent a selection of products to review by Flamingo Gifts, a website that offers unique gifts for all occasions, ranging from funny novelty items to leading brands like Bombay Duck, Ted Baker, Orla Kierly and Sass and Belle. They also have a large range of Lolita glasses, which I’ve loved ever since I was given a martini glass for a birthday present several years ago. These glasses are beautifully decorated, all hand designed and painted in varying themes. They come in gift boxes and really do make wonderful gifts. Flamingo sent me this movie-night themed beer glass, which is large enough to hold a pint and the designs on the side make it feel very special – perfect for the man in your life to use on movie night. Just don’t forget the popcorn!

Read More

Mini Egg Chocolate Brownies

Cadbury's Mini Eggs are very popular in my house and the fact that they are only available around Easter makes them extra special! I bought a couple of packets and wanted to use them in baking - then my boyfriend ate them, so I bought some more - then he ate those, so I bought some more! Eventually I got around to choosing a recipe and for me there was one clear winner - Mini Egg chocolate brownies.



You can add Mini Eggs to any chocolate brownie recipe; I used Nigella's everyday brownies recipe which you can find here.

In retrospect what I should have done is saved some of the mini eggs and added them on top of the part-baked brownie five minutes before the end; this would have ensured there were some to decorate the top as they all sank in! You can see the mini eggs inside the brownies though.

I am sending these to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker; the letter I have chosen this month is B.

I am also sending these to Simply Eggcellent, hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen, as his theme this month is chocolate.

The theme for Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at The Hedgecombers, is also chocolate.

Read More