I made this...!

Birthday cake for Finn!

Cheats Cuisine!

Another handy number to throw together! Its absolutely delicious and perfect for visiting children!

So simple - it cannot go wrong!

Sticky Toffee Banana Bake

You'll need

2 Jamaican Ginger Cakes

4 Large Bananas

Anything else you fancy, I sometimes add pecan nuts!

For the sauce

100gms Muscovado Light Brown

4 oz butter

150mls double cream

4 tbsp golden syrup

Method

Stir the sauce ingredients together and heat in a saucepan until the butter has melted. Meanwhile slice the cakes and the bananas and layer them.  When the sauce begins to bubble, remove from the heat and pour over the layers.  Bake for 15 minutes at 180c until piping hot. Serve with vanilla icecream. This makes a good amount for 6 people so you can say...

Yes, there is seconds...!

A little nutty...

One of my favorite bars as a child was the good old "Marathon" (now renamed as Snickers),and  pocket money from my great grandfather, of one pound, would buy me a Supercan of coke, a marathon bar and my weekly copy of "the Mandy"... Thems were the days... 

So now, but only on very sunny days, I will often treat myself to a snickers bar, keep it in my pocket until its soft, sit on a wall somewhere and then eat it very carefully, enjoying every bite...

Marathon Muffins 

(aka Snickers Muffins from guess who? Yep Nigella Lawson... I really must branch out and buy another baking book!!)

You'll need

250g Plain Flour

100g Golden Caster Sugar

1.5 tablespoons baking powder

Pinch Salt

6 tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter

60g Melted Butter

1 Beaten Large Egg

175 ml Milk

3 Snickers Bars, chopped into small pieces

Method

Preheat your oven to 200c and line your muffin tray with muffin cases.  Stir together flour sugar, baking powder and salt. Add peanut butter and mix until you have a bowl of crumbs, then in a seperate bowl, add the melted butter and egg to the milk and mix.  Mix the wet ingredients gently into peanut butter mix

and stir in the chopped snickers bars.  Divide mixture between 12 muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Happy Birthday Joe...

Perfect Birthday Cake (from How to be a Domestic Goddess)

This quantity will fill a 12" square tin!

You'll need

500gms plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

.5 tsp salt

400mls buttermilk

3 tsp vanilla extract

250gms unsalted butter

400gms caster sugar

6 eggs

Method

Mix the flour, salt, bicarb, and baking powder together in a bowl.

Then in a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs, one by one, with a spoon of flour, into the mix while mixing all the while.  Add the rest of the flour and buttermilk and blend to a smooth batter.

Bake at 180c for about 40 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin, and then turn out onto a wire tray.

When the cake is cool, run a serrated bread knife through lengthwise to create a top layer and a bottom layer.  Don't worry if it breaks a bit, icing covers all tracks! 

Draw a template onto a sheet of parchment, which you have cut out using the cake tin as a guide.  Then cut out the template and lay on top of the cake, cut around it using a bread knife.

Fill the cake with freshly whipped cream and strawberry jam.  Ice using egg white icing, prebought is just as good, I go for Supercook White Frosting!

Happy Christmas!

Well I've been up to my eyes in the Christmas run-up, this is the first minute I've had to get online!

I will have plenty of recipes and posts after the festivities, but for now I will just post a bit about the wedding cake I put together for my brother and his now wife, for their wedding which was held in Markree Castle last weekend... 

Here it is!

Thankfully it all went smoothly, metaphorically and literally, with only a few bumps in the icing! The tiers were all different, with the brides mothers famous fruit cake on the bottom, and then I made a chocolate orange cake for the top tier and a chocolate biscuit cake using my own recipe for the middle! All went down a treat! 

I will post the chocolate biscuit recipe soon, I'll need to make it again to see how much of everything I put in, its my own recipe that I put together as I always find other biscuit cakes too buttery and sickly sweet... 

But for now you'll have to make do with a picture!  Happy Christmas Everyone!!!!

And of course BEST WISHES TO MY LOVELY BROTHER FERGAL AND HIS GORGEOUS NEW WIFE CAT!!

Chi Ching Cherries!

Okay firstly sorry for the silence, I have been busy as a bee, lots of cooking and baking of course, but very little time to sit down here and get it all blogged!

So I will, over the next few days, tell you what I've been doing, but for now, here is a recipe for a Cherry Brandy Cake I made for my mothers birthday on Tuesday.  There is a famous story that we tell where my mother decided to make chocolate cherries for Christmas presents, on a whim, and began immediately.  It turned out, as the chocolate was hardening on its alcoholic little fruits, that the bottle of brandy that my mother had used, was a bottle of aged XO, which brandy lovers and barmen will recognise as one of the most expensive drinks one can order! My father had been given it as a present and was, of course, saving it for a special occasion.  My mother went through various possibilities, such as adding tea to the bottle, or dropping the bottle on the stone floor, before fessing up and taking it on the chin! So it was with a nod to that, that I set about creating a cake version of the expensive sweets and here is the recipe!

Chocolate Cherry Brandy Cake

You'll need

120gms darkest chocolate

60gms butter

300gms cherry jam

150gms self raising flour

2 eggs

150gms caster sugar

70mls brandy

Method

Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan, take off the heat and stir in the sugar, jam, brandy and eggs with a pinch of salt.  Add the flour and stir through.

Pour into a cake tin and bake for about a half and hour on a medium heat until a cake skewer comes out clean.

Decorate with a chocolate frosting and glace cherries.

Who's been eating all the pies?

Short answer - Me! 

These last weeks I have been obsessed with perfecting my Lemon Meringue Pie recipe, and so the house has been dotted with these perfect fluffy desserts.  Any opportunity I had to make a dessert and I was on it! In all, I think, I made seven... and I'm almost happy!

So I'm going to give you the recipe, although it may have to be replaced sometime soon, at this very moment I am Lemoned and Meringued out! 

Lisa's Lemon Cloud Pie

Firstly for the base, line a 9" deep cake tin with greasproof paper or tin foil.  In your processor blitz about 300gms of digestive biscuits to crumbs.  Melt 125gms butter in a saucepan and stir through the biscuits.  Pour the buttered crumbs into the tin and press down, with a soup spoon, until smooth.  Pop into the fridge as you do the next stage. 

Now, for the filling you will need,

2 Large Lemons, zested and juiced

40gms cornflour

290mls water

2 egg yolks, beaten

100gms caster sugar

Method

Pour enough water (maybe 50mls or so) into the cornflour and stir, despite resistance, until smooth.  Then, in a saucepan, bring the water and the lemon zest to the boil.  Remove from the heat and add to the cornflour paste. Add the sugar and the egg yolks.  Return to the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until you will see it start to thicken.  Continue until it coats the back of the spoon and hangs rather than drips.  Pour onto the biscuit crumb crust and chill.

Make your meringue topping by whipping 3/4 egg whites until they have stiff peaks.  Add approximately 120/150gms caster sugar and whip again until the meringue is glossy.  Pour into the tin, on top of the curd and then into a medium oven (I preheat to 200c and then turn down to 150c when I put the pie in) for 45 minutes.  If the top becomes too brown while cooking, cover with foil.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand on a teatowel (curds sweat!) for about ten minutes or longer before serving.

Americana...

So listen, as I've said before, I am enamoured with American food at the moment and have been eagerly anticipating food scenes in my favorite tv shows... Bill tells me I'd see it all in The Sopranos but I just don't find people getting kicked to death entertaining so I'm passing indefinately on that one.  However recently, while watching a gorgeous American movie called "Waitress" I was reminded of that great American institution "The Cream Pie"... 

Then at a family dinner the other evening, my youngest brother mentioned that his culinary high was the eating of a Coconut Cream Pie while visiting my older brother in New York.  His face became wistful and he spoke quietly of its perfect marraige of creaminess, sweetness and nuttyness.  I had to try it.

So with him on his way over to watch the Celtic match with Bill, I set about making one, with a few tips from Martha Stewart, whom I've been told is like Nigella Lawson mixed with Anthea Turner.  We don't get much from Martha Stewart this side of the pond, but I do know she is one to look to for superb baking tips.

Here it is...

Coconut Cream Pie

You'll need

A prepared pie crust (See my fav recipe here)

75gms plain chocolate

85gms cup sugar

170gms unsweetened coconut milk

85gms whole milk

85gms Double cream

30gms cornflour

5 egg yolks

A good pinch of salt

100gms flaked, unsweetened coconut

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter

Prepare your pie crust.  When cool, melt the chocolate and brush the inside of the pie with the melted chocolate until well covered.  Leave to cool.

Mix the cream and milk together.  Combine the coconut milk, the sugar and half the cream/milk mix in a saucepan and heat gently.  Just before the boil take it off.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the remaining  cream/milk mix and cornflour together stirring until smooth. Whisk egg yolks with salt in a seperate mixing bowl. Temper yolks by adding some scalded milk mixture slowly to the yolks while whisking well. Add yolk mixture and cornflour mix back into milk mixture and whisk vigorously over medium heat until thickened and just about to boil. It should coat a spoon and not drip easily.  Remove from heat and add coconut, vanilla, and butter. Mix together until butter is melted. Taste and add more sugar if you need it. Fill your pie dish with the mix and refrigerate.  

My brother was the first to taste it - "thats it, thats it!" he said "perfect!" 

But well guess what! I didn't like it! After all that I put a forkful into my mouth and was not happy. 

It was just too globby... I wonder with a topping of some sort would it even out more for my taste.   I mean I like the inside, I like the outside but the combo just wasn't right for me... I'm now thinking meringue topping? What do you think?

Home Ec Revisted

My favorite thing ever about school was Home Economics class, in our huge classroom with its eight individual kitchens, it was licence to play house well on into my teens! 

Under the instruction of our mad teacher, who was caught in a timewarp somewhere between 1901 and 1968, we learned the basics of cookery.  I remember making lots of things, but rice pudding and rock buns, scones and butterfly cakes stand out proudly amongst memories of incontrollable giggling, silent food fights (standing for role with pudding in my hair was quite a skill) and the joys of carefully but precisely pouring iced water down the back of a friends jumper.  I don't think I have ever laughed like I did in school, and certainly not as hard as the day a very brave friend of mine was asked to taste the teachers offering of our weeks recipe and responded with enthusiasm, which we all recognised as a precursor to mayhem, the tasting was dramatic and followed by a loud scream and pretend retching, choking and falling about.

Anyway, apart from my love of a good session of nervous laughter, I have retained a love of cooking, and above all admiration for all teachers.  

My offering today is to say to them "It was not in vain" and that they did teach me something - the basics, a foundation on which to build and improve.  

Here is my version of a Home Ec favorite.

Apple Crumble

You'll need

150gms plain flour

50gms Brown flour

125gms cold butter, cubed

50gms Ground almond

75 gms caster sugar

25gms demerara sugar

8 large sweet apples

3 Tbsp sugar

Method

In a mixing bowl rub the cubes of butter into the flours, as you would for scones, but it will be less like breadcrumbs and more like biscuit crumbs due to there being more butter.

  When this is done add the almond and give it a firm stir through with your fingers.  Shake in the sugars and mix briefly before setting aside.

Peel, core and slice your apple and line along a deep pie dish.  Sprinkle with sugar and mix around.  Sprinkle with the remainder of sugar and top with the crumble mix.  Don't press the crumble down at all, just allow it fall where it likes.

Bake at 190 for 30-35 minutes until the apple is soft, if the apple is still hard when the crumble is golden and crispy (as types of apple will vary) cover with foil, turn the oven down to 170/160 and leave for a further 15 minutes checking every 5.  Its a labour of love.

Serve with vanilla ice-cream after a roast dinner!

Little Splodges

I usually have the various bits, required for this recipe, left over after baking for a birthday party or dinner party, and to be honest it is a curse that I cannot resist making them, because I will, invariably, end up eating most of them...!

Here, anyway, is my recipe for a refridgerator cake we like to call 'Little Splodges'

You'll need

150gms white chocolate

10 oz packet of digestive biscuits

100gms ground almond

100gms butter

A handful of chopped pecan nuts

A handful of marshmallow

Some dried berries (we favour strawberries)

Melt the butter and the chocolate together in the microwave or ban marie, leave to cool slightly before adding the marshmallow and then crush the biscuits to powder in your food processor or by hand and stir into the chocolate mix, add the almonds and crushed pecans and fruit. Plop spoons of this mix into cake cases and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Tip - Don't eat too many - you may be so ill you have to go to bed.

The Black Stuff...

Its hard to make a manly fairy cake, so when faced with the challenge for a recent birthday party, I knew beer had to come into it somehow.  I had recently bought Nigellas 'FEAST" which has a whole section on cakes, so I flicked through looking for inspiration, and there it was, a recipe for a Guinness cake! Beyond manly if you ask me, Guinness puts hairs on the chests of women! Nigellas recipe was for a cake, but its easy to adjust for fairy cakes, I usually just add a bit more flour if the batter is very damp, a cake can cope with a moist interior but a fairy cake? Not so much...

OH they were delicious!! So easy too! I love that!

Iced with philly cream cheese icing and they looked like little pints sitting there! I only wish i had taken the time to ice little harps on each - that would have been sweet!

Here is the recipe from Nigella Lawsons book, I might substitute the guinness for flavoured ale next time and see what happens!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

You'll need

250ml Guinness

250gm unsalted butter
75gm cocoa (I use Green and Blacks!)
400gm caster sugar

142ml sour cream
2 eggs 
1 tbsp real vanilla extract
325gm plain flour 
2 and a 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Get your oven nice and hot, around 180^oc, and prepare a tray with your cake cases.

Pour the Guinness into a large pan, add the butter in cubes, and heat until melted. Stir in the cocoa and sugar. Don't worry about lumps unless they're massive! Remove from the heat and in a separate bowl beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the beer mix in the pan and finally whisk in the bicarb and flour. I left mine stand for a while, then filled the cases in my usual way (wondering is it enough, will it overflow, dropping a blob in the middle of the tray, and on the floor, all accompanied by a varying degree of my favorite curse words, most inherited from my mother, including the wonderful "sugery shite"...)

Bake for a snip of ten minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and pop onto a wire tray to cool completely before icing with a mix of 200gms Philidelphia cream cheese, 120mls double cream and 400gms icing sugar.  

Everythings Fudgy...

There is no time like birthday time! I was delighted when my best friends sister rang me to discuss an upcoming party in her honour as it meant I could get to that brownie recipe I've been meaning to tweak! I love Nigella Lawsons idea of serving piled up brownies instead of a traditional cake, with candles stuck in here and there... so I decided immediately to do that!

Only problem is, I'm not too pushed on the brownies from Nigellas recipe, they are a bit 'nneeah' for me... As you know I love the crowd pleaser, the 'oh goomph godff' that is spat through chocolate coloured teeth as my wares vanish into eager mouths...

So I tweaked and I twirped (?) and this is what I came up with...

These brownies are a little special, and I'll let you in  on my secret ingredient - chopped up mars bars!!! They melt and splodge all over the inner workings of what seems to be a garden variety brownie and surprise the eater with a mouth coating delicious moreish goo on biting in!!!

Try them... they will never let you down!!!

The "Can I Have Another" Chocolate FUDGE Brownie!

You'll need

250gms Butter

200gms Green and Blacks Cooks Chocolate (or any good dark)

250 gms Caster sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

100 grams of Mars Bar (Chopped into small pieces!)

100 grams Chopped walnuts

250gms Flour

A handful of glace or dried fruit, I used strawberries.

4 Eggs

Method

Melt the butter, chocolate, and half the mars bar bits in your usual way (I use a thick bottom pan on a low heat) and when melted, leave to cool for a moment before adding the beaten eggs and the sugar. Add the flour and the extract and beat together.  Add the rest of the mars bar and the walnuts. 

Pour into a pan and sprinkle with raisins or, as I did, sun dried strawberries! Pop into a 180c oven for about 25 mins, or until the top is pale and cracking, but the centre still gooey.

Leave to cool completey in a block on a wire tray, then cut into squares and EAT THEM!!!

Darkest chocolate cake...

OVER 18s ONLY!

This cake is far too rich and sumptious to be eaten by anyone who has yet to vote.  Children out the door please! 

This may sound cruel, but I promise you'll understand when you make this... the last place you want to see it is smeared around the face of the under tens, who would be just as happy with a fairy cake!!!

To die for, just one more slice more, I hope no one saw me scraping the silicone cake mould with my teeth(those things are flexible for a reason!!), I want to only eat this forever more!

"Luxury Chocolate" Chocolate cake!

Adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess

I use Black Magic 85%  for this one....

225g Soft unsalted butter

375g dark muscavodo sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

150gms darkest chocolate

200gms plain flour (with tsp bicarb. of soda)

50gms ground almond

250mls boiling water

Blitz the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a processor until smooth,  then by hand fold in your chocolate which you have melted.  Gently add the flour mix and the boiling water and blitz again.  It will be very liquidy but don't worry.  Pour into mould or tin and bake for about 40 minutes at 190c - or until the skewer comes out with what looks like chocolate squidge! 

Allow it go very cold before icing with a simple ganache of melted chocolate mixed with some cream and a tsp of orange flower water if you have it! 

 

Perfect Pear..

Almond and pear is one of my favorite combinations, especially in tart form, but I was equally as excited last week to spy Pear and Almond scones in my favorite avoca shop! However I was one disappointed lady when I got home to eat it with a cup of tea! There was barely a hint of almond and I decided then and there to make my own, almondy and rich.

The minute I bit into my scone I knew instantly I had made a mistake - scones are not cakes after all, so a sweet decadent flavour doesn't suit their homely texture.  

Everyone else in the house loved the scones, but I, possibly a purist, couldn't stomach even one. Still, I think the recipe deserves a mention, but keep in mind that they may not be what your after, leave out the essence if you want a more sconey experience! 

Pear and Almond Scones

You'll need

300g Plain white flour

100g strong brown flour (or make up with plain white)

100g ground almond
2 teaspoons bicarbPinch salt
4 and a half teaspoons cream of tartar
75g unsalted butter diced300ml milk1 large pear

1 tsp almond essence (optional)

Beaten egg, for glaze.
Caster sugar and flaked almonds for sprinkling.

Method

Preheat oven to 200c. Sift the flour, bicarb, cream of tar

tar and salt. Rub in the cold butter until it resembles sand. Peel the pear and score it through, then use a potato peeler to take thin strips of pear until its to the core. Add to the mix. Make a well and pour in the milk and essence, and stir together. Flour a surface and turn out the dough. Roll out with a well floured pin to 3 cms thick. Cut into about 10 round scones. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar and almonds.

 Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown (I often turn mine upside down for the last 5) 

Burnt is gooood!

Over the weekend I remarked to someone how I hate, and rarely try, recipes without pictures. How I am a visual eater, and often wish restaurants would have pictures on the  menu, to avoid disappointment! However this conversation left me feeling unadventurous and non participational. Like I felt feel in school when raised eyebrows and a sigh were the response to "can I just watch the dodge ball"...

So I decided to give it a shot, but for safety sake to go with a cookbook that I swear by, Nigella Lawson How to be a domestic goddess. 

So I went for the Burnt butter cupcakes, and for once decided to follow the recipe to the letter.

Now here is where I have a problem, descriptions are so subjective, aren't they? In this recipe it advises burning the butter to a dark golden colour.  Well what is that? Is it brown? Yellow? Midway? I think there was a ten minute debate with Bill as to what colour dark golden was, I bantered that a dark golden cake would be brown brown, but dark golden paint might be deep yellow.  We settled on a midway yellow brown and proceeded with the cake... I am therefore including this picture of the colour I decided on in case you have a similar problem!

Burnt Butter Brown Sugar Cupcakes

As per Nigella Lawson

You'll need

150g unsalted butter

125g sef raising flour

60g golden caster sugar

65g light muscavado

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

2-3 tbsp milk 

Firstly burn the butter.  Put it in a small saucepan, and stir until it turns a dark golden colour (see above) when you will take it off the heat and strain through a sieve.  There should be a nutty smoky smell off the butter.  

Now Nigella says to let the butter re-solidify, I left mine for nearly an hour and nothing so...

Allow the butter cool somewhat and then blitz with the other ingredients to a smooth batter in your processor.  

Divide into as many cases as you can, to about halfway up, and bake for 15 minutes or so, until the usual skewer comes out clean.  

Make the icing by repeating the burning of a smaller amount of butter then stirring in enough icing sugar and a bit of milk to make a sweet buttery paste.  Top the cupcakes with this and leave to harden before eating.

Personally I thought the cupcakes were okay, very very buttery though and I think next time I'll use a different icing.  The lack of picture did affect my baking, I find to have an end goal, ie this is what it should look like, makes it a good incentive to do well.  Also for more elaborate cakes, sometimes it can be too vague to simply describe how to do it... showing the final product can help you along, or allow you more freedom, depending on what you like!

Same old, same old...

I know, I know. I'm obsessed with jam or mashed fruit in chocolate cakes, has there been a cake I've made recently without the same method? Sorry but it is an obsession, I can't stop imagining the combinations...

Here are some I'm thinking about...

white chocolate and blueberry jam

darkest chocolate and ginger preserve...

dark chocolate and mashed banana (would it work?)

I made yet again a cake of this sort, becoming less and less like the original Nigella recipe, and more like my own... tweaking is such a huge part of baking, and I always find I try again and again until I find something people just can't eat without rubbing their tummy and saying "mmmm"... So brace yourselves for a spate of these cakes, as that is usually par for the course in my kitchen! Find something that works and rework it until you can do no more!

So I arrived to Ciara and Jays on friday with a pie as you know but also about 30 Raspberry and Pistachio Chocolate Brownies.... 

Lordy lordy... I think I ate ten of 'em...!

Raspberry and Pistachio Chocolate Brownies

(adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess)

You'll need 

 250gms unsalted butter

250gms dark chocolate

400 gms tinned raspberries, strained and mashed (or use raspberry conserve)

4 eggs

250gms caster sugar

300gms self raising flour

150gms or so of pistachio nuts, blitz half to powder.

Method

As per usual, melt the chocolate and butter together, add then the sugar and eggs, and then the fruit and stir.  Add the pistachio powder and the flour. Stir through some of the whole nuts. 

Scrape the batter into a brownie tin, sprinkle nuts on top and cook for about 25- 35 minutesat 190 c  until a cake skewer comes out clean.

The smell of baking...

...through the house gives me a sense of peace and the dog an extra wag in her tail.  So I try to bake at least every second day, depending on what the week is like.  Its usually bread or plain scones, or crackers or sometimes cake! If I have a new idea, or there is a party, or we fancy a little something something!

Last night, while watching Of Mice and Men (Me for the millionth, Bill for the first time!) we both got a hankering for a little something with our tea, and scones are so easy and quick, so between rubbing in the butter in front of the tv and then wandering in and out of the kitchen now and then, the scones appeared, risen and golden and warm beside our cups of tea...

One is never enough...

Buttermilk fruit scones (as per the river cottage cookbook)

You'll need

450gms Self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsps Baking powder

100gms butter

100gms Caster sugar 

125gms of mixed dried fruit (I use sultanas, raisins and cranberry mix)

about 300ml buttermilk

Method 

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until you have a damp sandy texture.  Add the sugar and the fruit.  Then add the buttermilk, bit by bit, until you have a raggy dough.  Upturn onto a floured board and with your hands flatten to about 2-3 cms thick.  I do this with my hands, instead of a rolling pin, because it leaves the texture, inside the scone, airy and layered.  Cut out as many scones as you can get and place on a hot baking tray (helps cook the bottoms!)

Just before putting in a hot (190c) oven, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with caster sugar, this leaves a lovely crispy sugary glaze!

My other favorite scone recipe, from Domestic Goddess, has no sugar in it, which this one does.  It really depends on what mood you're in, these scones are sweet and light.  Try both and pick your fav, I tend to chop and change depending on my mood!

Bake Sale Cakes...

I know this is going to cause a stir around the more community driven of you, but I hate baking for the annual bake sale held in my daughters school... Isn't that awful? I will try to explain myself,  as you know I love baking, so it is difficult for me to bake dotey little cupcakes, or delicious biscuit cakes, using wonderful ingredients and lots of love, and then to see them either smashed into bags of "lucky dip" and being sold for less than 50 cents or worse scoffed in two seconds by some ten year old boy who has no respect for presentation.  

I want ooooh and aaaah showered over my creations, I want them popped into an appreciative gob and to immediately followed by "oaf myf...chew chew... GOFPH" - I want people on their knees begging for more...

I hate the way, at this bake sale, the cakes are priced all the same, and I took serious umbrage the first year when my blackberry and vanilla cupcakes (with real vanilla) were priced beside something I can only describe as iced doo doo.  Rice crispie buns made with cooking chocolate are hardly in the same league as my caramel centred dairy milk chocolate rice crispie balls... so I can no longer bring myself to fork out for expensive ingredients, and precious time, when the produce is thrown around like hay at a horse fair.

Therefore I introduce you to the Bake Sale Fairy Cake, a cheap little processor quick cupcake.. perfect fodder for toddlers, 'tweeners and headmasters.  

Iced Sweethearts

You'll need

150gms self raising flour

125gms caster sugar

125gms unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsps milk

Some strawberry jam

For the icing

500gms Icing sugar

Some coconut milk

Blitz all the ingredients in a food processor until a smooth batter, the eggs being at room temperature should prevent a curdle but if it does add a bit more flour.  Plop about two tsps of mixture into the bottom of prepared baking cases on a baking tray.  

Then add a half teaspoon of jam to the centre of that and top with more mix.  Space the cases evenly so to get perfectly round cakes. Bake at 200 degrees in a preheated oven for about 20 mins or so... a toothpick inserted will come out clean when ready.  Leave to cool before icing with the sugar mixed gradually until stiff peaks (don't rush this you can add more but not take it out!!)

You can see where the name comes from when you bite in, a sweet heart does a sweetheart make!

While I was snapping these little cupcakes for this blog, a little hand snuck into the shot... what could I do? Believe me the mmm mmm sounds eminating from the little thief were worth forfeiting a better shot for!