Bring and Share Desserts

As I said on Sunday last week my friends and I had our Bring and Share Christmas Dinner.

For a look at past dinners click here.

We always split up the meal so each person brings something and this year I was given desserts.

I made an apple crumble, Christmas cookies and a chocolate cake.

This was the recipe I used for the apple crumble. Just some notes I jotted down from my Mum's instructions.

I'd never made one before but I think my first attempt when pretty well.

It was just your standard apple crumble, but I added some dried cranberries in with the apple for a festive touch.

I used a simple sugar cookies recipe for the Christmas cookies and made some into snowmen...

...and some into snowflakes complete with a sprinkling of edible glitter. Because it's Christmas!

There were also some angels, stars and Christmas trees.

The cookies were a big hit with my friends wrapping up the left over ones to take home.

And finally the chocolate cake.

I used this recipe and it is a winner.

I finished it off with some dark chocolate curls from Jordans Mill.

Jordans as in the cereal company, so these chocolate curls are the same ones you get in the chocolate Country Crisp.

We had way to much food so some of these came back home with me - but my family weren't complaining!

Banana Flapjack

We still have an abundance of over-ripe bananas so as well as the muffins, we now have flapjacks.

I used this simple recipe from Netmums which is just oats, bananas, brown sugar, syrup, butter and raisins.

In a recipe I've used before it said to soak the raisins (I also added sultanas) in boiling water first, which I did this time. I makes them a bit juicier.

My family concluded that this recipe could have done with an extra flavour.

They don't taste bad, they could just do with a little something something.

If I'd have had my head in the game I would have added some mixed spice like I did with the banana muffins.
But I didn't have my head in the game. Because Steel Magnolias was on tv.

And because there's fruit in them you can totally have two pieces at once and not feel bad about it.

Banana Muffins

My friends and I always buy too much food for things like picnic lunches, and shopping for Centre Parcs was no different. I ended up taking home the leftover, well travelled, bananas only to find that my parents already had a lot of bananas at home.

There was only one thing for it.

Banana muffins.

I used this recipe which I followed exactly, except for adding some mixed spice for an extra flavour. I left them in for exactly 30 minutes so the top has a nice crust.

I added sultanas to the last few just to try it out and they're a good addition so next time I'll add them to the main batter.

What do you do to use up brown bananas?

Any good banana bread recipes around?

Courgette Cake

My parents like to grow courgettes in the garden.

Then they like to go on holiday and leave me to look after them.

This year I didn't forget about them and then find some were way over a foot long.

I picked one at the appropriate size, I think. I'm not actually sure if this is a good size because I don't like courgettes all that much which is why I decided to make cake with it!

I'd never tried this recipe before, but I have eaten the cakes that my Mum's made with it and I think I did a pretty good job.

(This recipe is from somewhere on the internet but I've just typed out the printed copy we have)

Ingredients:

60g raisins

250g courgettes [2 or 3] weighed before grating 

(I've just properly read this bit. My one courgette was something like 340g before grating. Once I'd grated it and strained the excess water it was exactly 250g. Oh well, extra courgette!)

2 large eggs

125ml vegetable oil

150g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.

1/2 tsp baking powder

Oven 180c/Gas Mark 4

1) Grate courgettes and remove excess water with a sieve.

2) Cream eggs, oil and sugar together.

3) Add flour, bicard and baking powder.

4) Stir in courgette and raisins.

5) Bake for 30 minutes as a whole cake or cupcakes.

I made 12 muffins and put the rest of the mixture in a loaf tin.

They taste good guys, nothing like courgettes, and you can legitimately eat more of them because there's a vegetable in them.

Gotta get that 5 a day somehow.

Cupcake for One

Last week my sister spent a long time helping me with my CV and things so to say thank you I made her this cupcake!

You know that bit in Bridesmaids where Kristen Wiig makes and decorates a single cupcake.

Well I wanted to do that, so I googled single cupcake recipes and came across a recipe for a single funfetti cupcake on Chocolate Covered Katie

There's loads of single serving cupcakes and other desserts on there. Well worth checking out.

Everything is measured in tablespoons and the key is using oil instead of egg, because it doesn't make sense to just use a bit of any egg.

When I was mixing the ingredients it was looking a bit doughy so I added more milk so get a better batter consistency. 

Then I tried making it again, following the recipe exactly and I think the cupcakes came out pretty much the same. This just meant that I could have one as well as my sister.

Putting sprinkles in a cupcake is awesome.

The taste is different to a regular cupcake, but still delicious.

I'm excited to try out some of the other recipes on the website.

Best Cookie Ever?

When I was in Nashville I had The Best Cookie Ever.

I'm pretty sure it was the best.

No others from my cookie-eating history stick out as the best.

And, I only had half of it. I only needed half of it cos it was so full of awesome!

(And I was sharing it with my sister)

Here's a fun video of me describing my lunch, which included the cookie, in my best southern accent.

We had an hour to kill before seeing the Kings of Leon. What else was I supposed to do!

(Southern-me cracks me up. Also, who remembers when I didn't have braces?!)

The other day I thought I'd like to do some baking, so I flicked through a recipe book and landed on oat and raisin cookies. And then I thought, 'what if I could make them like the Nashville cookie?'

This is what I came up with.

Note: I was trying to replicate the flavour, not the look of the cookie. Clearly.

I remembered the Nashville cookie tasted of mixed spice and had visible carrot in it.

The recipe I was using had neither of those things, but I put them in anyway!

Yep, I'm a recipe renegade!

The cookies didn't turn out too bad. I'm definitely on the right track.

I think next time I could afford to put in more mixed spice and more carrot.

Also more butter because they were a little crumbly, but the recipe called for 4 tablespoons of butter and I like to be more precise and use grams or ounces like a normal person.

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested:

4 tbsp butter

125g caster sugar

1 egg

50g plain sugar

1/2 tsp salt

(I've just realised I forgot to put in the salt. I didn't miss it)

1/2 tsp baking powder

175g porridge oats

125g raisins

I added: 1 small carrot, grated, and many shakes of mixed spice

15 minutes on Gas Mark 4

What's your Best Cookie Ever?