Frangipane and jam tarts

Well it seems life got in the way of blogging recently. I can't pretend I've been doing anything glamorous; I've mostly been working, baking some more of my blueberry cupcakes and trying to arrange exciting things for the upcoming months. At the end of the month I'm off to see some of my best friends in Bath and then next month I'll be off to Cardiff for some welsh based fun. Catching up with old university friends is one of my favourite things. I love seeing what they've been up to. The best thing is realising that despite not seeing them all the time, we can slide straight back into old ways and have a great time together. I'm also going to be heading to V Festival in August. Ridiculously excited!

 Today I wanted to share a recent baking beauty. Frangipane and jam tarts sound much more difficult than they are. They only take about 20 minutes in all and then you get a good looking desert to show off! This is another success from my boyfriend and I can't take the credit. I can definitely share the recipe though!

What you will need:
Raspberry or strawberry jam
Pre-made sweet pastry cases
Frozen summer fruits
1 orange
Caster sugar
Icing sugar

For the frangipane:
100g butter unsalted
100g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
1 egg
Orange zest
Vanilla extract

What to do:
Heat the oven to about 180C.

First, make the frangipane: mix all frangipane ingredients together. Leave the butter out to soften at room temperature first.

Put a spoon of jam in each case, then a spoon of frangipane, then jam, and then more frangipane!

Brush egg around the case to keep it from burning in the oven and also to give it a nice golden glow

 Put the tarts in the preheated oven for 15-18 mins

While the tarts are baking, you can make the sauce. This will only take a couple of minutes. In a saucepan add a generous squeeze of orange juice, some frozen summer fruits (blackberries, redcurrants etc) and a good sprinkling of sugar. Allow this to heat in the pan until sauce like. Taste it to check it is sweet enough for you. If not, then add more sugar.

When the tarts are done, whip them out of the oven.

Put them on a place and add the sauce. Sprinkle icing sugar over the top and voila! 

Tuck in and enjoy. 

Blueberry cupcakes

 

Baking is my new found love. My latest Sunday afternoon saw me making blueberry cupcakes. They're really simple, take very little effort and taste lovely.

What you need:

115g plain flour

345g self raising flour

450g unsalted butter

460g caster sugar

8 eggs

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

375ml semi-skimmed milk 

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a cupcake baking tray with paper liners. 

Put the sugar and butter in a bowl and beat it until the mixture is a smooth, light yellow colour.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat them into the mixture as you go. Add the vanilla and mix this in. 

Sift the plain and self-raising flour in gradually and mix together. 

Add in the milk and stir until you have a bowl full of smooth, gooey goodness.

Next, spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners, add in some blueberries and bake for about 20 minutes or until they're golden on top.

After cooking, take the cupcakes out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ta da! Golden on the outside but light and fluffy on the inside!

The perfect little treat! I made so much batter that I decided to freeze half of it so that I can get it out at busier times, leave to defrost and then get baking. I'm still to master the perfect icing so that's next on my baking to-do list. No baking this weekend as I've been busy eating French food (a giant steak) celebrating a birthday and an engagement, eating a gorgeous curry and seeing friends whom I should see far more often! I've spent most of today reading Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman and have only just managed to tear myself away from it in order to blog and then do some work. I really do love weekends.

Oaty banana cookies

Baking on a Sunday is such a brilliant thing. I can listen to some music and mix up a treat at the same time. Today I decided to make some Banana Oatmeal cookies because 1) they have very few ingredients, 2) they are very easy to make and 3) I am trying to have a healthy week and these were my chosen treat!

To make these cookies you will need:

4 ripe bananas
230g oatmeal
150g chopped dates
50g chopped pecans
50g sugar
100ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt

If you dont want to use pecans then you could always replace them with hazelnuts or walnuts, depending on your preference.

What I did:

Peel and mash the bananas in a bowl. If your bananas aren't quite ripe yet, then microwave them for about 30 seconds and you'll have easily mashable bananas in no time!

Mix the bananas and all of the other ingredients in a large mixing bowl until it has all blended. If your mixture looks too dry then add some more vegetable oil. Don't add so much that it makes your mixture greasy.

Shape the mixture into cookie sizes - this is where you can choose to have big chunky cookies or smaller thinner ones.

Cookies before baking

 Bake for 20-25 minutes at 190C/Gas Mark 5 and remove to cool when golden around the edges. Leave to cool on a wire rack. The temperature and amount of time you bake for will vary according to size but you should be able to judge it on when they start looking more cookie-like.

Told you it was easy!

They don't look amazing but it was my first attempt and they do taste really good! Crunchy, oaty with a hint of banana. YUM. The dark bits are the dates so if you don't like the look of them then you could always replace the dates with something else or leave them out altogether.

Enjoy!

Guinness cupcakes

This is officially my first cooking post. I've been meaning to post one for ages but I tend to get carried away with the cooking and forget to take any photos! I like seeing photos of the final product so this time I actually managed to take some as I went. I baked these cupcakes as part of a Valentine's day present and they went down quite well!

You will need:

350ml Guinness (about three quarters of a can)
120ml milk
120ml vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs (beaten)
170ml sour cream
85g good quality cocoa powder (I used Bourneville)
170g granulated sugar
285g plain flour (you can use half and half with self raising if you want big bouncy cupcakes!)
1 and a half tsps baking soda
pinch of salt


This is what I did:

Preheat the oven to about 180C and put your cupcake liners into a tray.

Pour the Guinness, milk, oil and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time. Then mix in the sour cream. These are your wet ingredients so don't worry if they're splooshing about in the bowl, they're supposed to!

In another large bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. When properly mixed it will be a big bowl of brown chocolatey goodness.

Now mix this gradually into the wet ingredients.

Your mixture is done! It should be thick and gloopy. Now spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners up to about 3/4 full and put into the oven for 25 minutes.

After the 25 minutes is up, remove from the oven and put on a wire rack to cool.

I cheated a little bit with the icing of my cupcakes because I wanted to make sure they looked perfect. I used icing tubes from Asda (chocolate and white), white chocolate stars and pink sugar glitter.

Let me know if you give them a go!

HOME SWEET HOME #1

Day Two in the new house and I'm on the internet and blogging already. After settling all my stuff in and having some of the girls round for takeaway, wine and films, I'm starting to feel more like this is my home. The thing about a new house is, you always want to make your own mark on it. It's decorated in neutral tones (beiges, browns and light blue) with John Lewis furnishings. My housemate works there, hence the good taste in decoration. It looks a bit like a show home and I'm scared to eat or drink anything that may stain the carpet when I inevitably fall over or smash something.

My own decorating taste is probably a bit more eclectic and kitsch than most people as I like having lots of trinkets and cute retro bits around the house. I'm sure when I have my own place I will be able to fill it full of exciting little things but for now I am satisfying myself with prowling homeware stores. Today's choice was TK Maxx. I know it's not really thought of as a homeware store but a short trip down the escalator proved otherwise. I must have spent two hours in there looking at all the beautiful bits and pieces on display. I was half filled with wonder, half confusion as I tried to figure out what most of the kitchen gadgets were for.

One of my 'big' plans is to learn how to bake this year and I'm pretty sure I'll be stocking up on cookie cutters from TK Maxx. There were so many different types, I think I will have to buy them all! Animal shapes, numbers, stars, flowers, hearts. Oh the possibilities in the baking world!

Anyway, I thought I would show you a few of the stunners I stumbled across:

These images definitely don't do the shop justice and I would really advise that you go into a TK Maxx yourself to have a look around because there are so many more interesting and different items in the shop!

I'll be saving up for a spree while I dream about having one of these places...