Lemon Cheesecake (Serves 8)

Indeed it's been a while since I've posted but while I'm posting on a blog that I co-own/co-write I thought I should post a new recipe seeing as I have done a large amount of baking this week. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of everything that I baked but in total I made a Lemon Cheesecake, Banoffee Pie, Profiteroles and a decorated sponge cake, taking pictures of the cheesecake, cake and profteroles (in a tin though, the presentation of them left much to be desired!). For my Lemon Cheesecake base I used a spongecake with chocolate chips but for this recipe I'll explain how to make the more traditional biscuit base. Here are also a few extra sidenotes:

• If you want to make a branded biscuit base (malteaser, oreo, bourbon, etc.) crush about 90g of your biscuit along with 60g of Digestives.
• If you're worried about your cheesecake not setting or if it's going to be in a warm place for most of the time it's on display then it may be worth adding a small packet of gelatine (vegetarian gelatine is available also, I believe) so that it will hold a firmer shape.
• It's important to chill the base otherwise it will absorb the moisture of the cream cheese and you'll have a soggy base that won't set.
• Sieving the icing sugar is also very important otherwise you'll end up with lumps of icing sugar in the cheesecake, which isn't nice!

With those finer points laid out, on with the recipe!

Ingredients
150g Digestives
75g Margerine
50g Icing Sugar
400g Cream Cheese
Lemon Juice (add to taste)
Optional: Gelatine (see sidenote above)

1) Crush the digestives in a bowl or, if you have one, put them through a food processor.
2) Stir in 75g of melted margerine until the mixture is even.
3) Press into a regular cake tin and leave to set for half an hour in the fridge.
4) Soften the cream cheese in a bowl before sieving in the icing sugar.
5) Add the gelatine, if using.
6) Add the lemon juice, tasting as you go along until you reach a taste you like.
NOTE: The more liquid you add, the less solid the cheesecake will be at room temperature. This may mean that you're forced to use gelatine.
7) Pour the mixture on top of the base, smoothing it out until it's level and leave it to set for a few hours.

You can add whatever fruit juice you like to this cake or even melted chocolate to get whichever flavour you like. As always the motto here is to be creative and experiment, really make the recipe your own and enjoy making it. I'll also attach a picture of the sponge cake I made for my Mum to this post, it's decorated completely in glacé icing that I had to make quite thick in order to pipe it. I hope you like it!

Chocolate Truffles

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of my own truffles so I apologise. There was a big rush on the day of the christening to get all the food up to the venue and my poor truffles had to be stashed in a plastic box because there wasn't room on the table, so they wouldn't have even been set out nicely for a picture anyway! I can assure you, however, that they were very well received by the guests and were polished off faster than anything else there (though, to be fair, they were also smaller than anything else there). These truffles are rich and indulgent yet very simple to make, you've just got to be sure to set aside enough time for refrigeration and freezing otherwise they'll never form as you want them to!

Difficulty: ***

Pros: Rich and indulgent yet simple to make.

Cons: Takes time to refrigerate, freeze and set.

Ingredients:

150ml double cream

1 egg yolk

25g caster sugar

150g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

25g unsalted butter, softened

Optional: 1 tablespoon of liquid Coffee (as opposed to coffee granules)

For Decorating:

1 bar of grated chocolate (I use milk chocolate, though you can use whichever you like)

Method

1) Bring the cream to the boil before immediately reducing the heat to a low temperature.

2) Whisk the egg yolk and the sugar together before adding to the cream.

3) Break up the chocolate into its individual pieces before adding to the cream and stirring until it has all melted.
NOTE: It will take constant stirring for a short while before the chocolate fully melts and combines with the cream to form a velvety ganache sauce.

4) Add the tablespoon of coffee to the chocolate, it brings out the flavour more.

5) Refrigerate for an hour or until it has all set.

6) Whisk in the butter, I find it easiest to do with an electric whisk, before returning to the fridge until set once more.

7) Take teaspoons of the mixture, form them into ball shapes in your hand and then roll them in the grated chocolate until covered. This step is very messy!

8) Once the truffles have been formed and coated set them to freeze for a whole hour. This helps them to further firm up and they can be eaten straight from frozen, so you can keep them in the freezer right up until serving.

I hope this recipe works for you all and produces truffles that gain many compliments from people, for me it makes cooking completely worth it when people compliment you. It's not because they compliment me that makes it worthwhile, it's the fact that to want to compliment me they truly must have enjoyed what they've had to eat.
One extra point for this recipe in regards to decorating the truffles, this is another recipe that you can truly make your own in terms of presentation. If you want to coat the soft truffles with melted chocolate to give them a hard chocolate coating when it comes to eating or if you want to perhaps drizzle melted white chocolate on them etc. there are thousands of ways you can personalise and make these truffles unique. So don't be afraid to do so!
I have no idea what my next recipe will be about but, from the looks of things, it's most likely going to be another sweet treat. I apologise to any dieters that read my blog and I do hope you forgive me :P

Christening foodz!

Okay, quick update for this week, it's my wonderful nephew's christening this Sunday so I'm going to be making some Butterfly Buns and some Chocolate Truffles. The latter I plan to be posting a recipe for on here, but if I get the extra time and motivation to make something else quite simple such as Jam Tarts or Maids Of Honour then I just might. It all depends on what's available ingredients-wise as well as the time I've got left, but I thought I would update my blog to let people know =P
I'll blog again soon, in the meantime I'll be slogging out exams at school. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Don't let jealousy take over too much though, 'cause I'm more than halfway through them all now (thank god).

Strawberry Pavlova

I've got a quick, easy recipe for a Strawberry Pavlova that's impossible to mess up (well, not literally, but you get what I mean) and will make you look like a very accomplished baker. If you don't like strawberries than you can use any fruit you like or, if you're feeling particularly indulgent, something like profiteroles!

Ingredients
3 Egg whites (you could use the yolks for scrambled eggs in another recipe if you dislike throwing food out)
175g Sugar
150ml Double or Whipping cream
400g Strawberries

Oven Temp: 160 degrees celsius

NOTE: For ease, an electric whisk is ideal for this recipe!

Method

NOTE: When making meringue the method is very important, if you get it wrong your meringue may come out with big sugar crystals or be one mushy mess all over your oven tray.

1) Whisk the egg whites until frothy, then (while still whisking) add the sugar slowly. You'll see the mixture become pure white.

2) Continue whisking until the mixture forms stiff, white peaks (i.e. peaks that stay up by themselves) when you take the whisk out (turn it off first!)

3) On a piece of greasproof paper, draw around a cake tin with a pen or pencil and then turn the paper over. You'll use this outline for the boundary of the meringue and you flip the paper over so that the meringue doesn't absorb any of the colour from the pen or pencil.

4) Using a butter knife, palette knife, spoon, spatula, whatever you please, form or mould the merginue however you please. If you've whisked it right, it should be very agreeable to moulding to the point where you can make a bowl.

5) Bake for around 40 minutes, but when the time is up don't take the meringue out of the oven. Turn the oven off and open the door just a crack. The meringue is very delicate and a sudden temperature change can cause cracks.

6) Once the meringue is cool, whisk your cream in a bowl until it is thick and whipped.

7) Cut your strawberries up in chunks or slices, however you prefer.

8) Spoon the cream onto the meringue and place the strawberries on top. Your pavlova is ready to serve.

This recipe is very satisfying to eat and is extremely customisable to your likes. Any fruit you like can be used, you can layer the cream/fruit however you wish and the meringue can be moulded however you like as well.
When I made this recipe a second time I shaped my meringue into a bowl with high sides and had 3 layers of strawberries and cream through it.
So don't feel you have to rigidly stick to the presentation I've descriped above!

Grandparents & A Fun Weekend

Righty then. I've recovered from my rather exciting weekend with my friends that involved a lot of Band Hero, some extremely weird scenarios and yorkshire puddings with custard (don't try it...just, don't). It was truly a weekend I shall never forgot for a number of reasons.
On a separate note though, my grandparents are visiting for a few weeks! For me, this is a very good opportunity to have a party because they live all the way on the other side of the Atlantic in Florida, so they don't visit very often. In fact, I think the last time they visited was 6 years ago. It's been nice to talk to both of them now I'm more mentally aware and mature because I can finally fully appreciate them for what good people they are ^_^
So for the next almost-month I'll be able to see my grandparents, which is nice, and there's also a good event around the corner that I may be making a small, culinary contribution to: My youngest nephew's christening! It's been planned for a while now and if my sister gives me a list of things she wants me to make then along with other members of my family I'll be working to get the food-side of things under control so that it's one less thing for my sister to worry about. I do hope it goes alright, I'll be sure to take pictures and post on here ^_^

Banoffee Pie (Serves up to 12)

Never before had I tried to make this until my Mum forced me to (I say 'forced' in the nicest possible way) but I've got to say that this pie (which isn't really a pie) is very simple to make and it tastes really nice. The reason I'm blogging today as opposed to procrastinating and posting later in the week is because I probably won't have time to post at any other date.
Tomorrow I have an exam ([sarcasm] yay me [/sarcasm]) and later on in the day I'm going to my friend's for a two night sleepover. It'll be me and three other friends just having a good laugh about doing god-knows-what until god-knows-when in the morning. So far we've got Buzz, Rock Band, a dance-off and dvds planned as well as the possibility of eating mentos and diet coke and seeing what happens (stomach pump on standby). It should be a fun night I reckon, but for now it's on with the recipe!

Difficulty: **

Pros: Not technical at all

Cons: Crushing biscuits can be messy!

Ingredients
125g Margerine
300g Digestives (crushed)
2 large bananas
1 tin of Caramel
1 tub of whipping/double cream
Optional: Grated chocolate
Method
1) Crush the digestive biscuits. There are a few ways to do this, but the way I prefer to do it is to use a rolling pin to pound and crush the digestives (a few at a time) in a large bowl.
Another way you may like to do it is to put the digestives in a towel, fold the towel over and then crush them with a rolling pin. This method does leave you with a crumby towel though.
2) Melt the butter in a pan and then pour it over the digestives, stirring until thoroughly incorporated.
3) Into a large dish (or a number of small dishes if you prefer) pour the mixture. Pat it down with a spoon or a fork and leave to set for an hour in the fridge.

NOTE: If you're lucky enough to have a food processor you can bypass steps 1 and 2 by just blending the ingredients together. The high speed of the processor allows the butter to incorporate despite not being melted.

4) In a bowl pour the caramel and soften it out before adding in 2 chopped bananas and stirring well.
NOTE: It's important to make sure the banana is covered by the caramel otherwise it will oxidse, turn brown and taste bad.
5) Whip the cream however you prefer before spreading it over the top of the caramel.
Optionals: 1) Refrigerate the whole thing before serving. 2) Sprinkle on some grated chocolate as I've done.
In other news I was very pleased today because I found the perfect angle and environment in my house to take decent looking pictures of food. So it seems for now the background/setting of my photos won't be changing, but I hope you'll forgive me because now you can properly see what's in the pictures! Ta-ta for now readers, hope you enjoy :P

Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Serves 1...or 2)

After watching a 3 year old youtube video by Spricket24 (A vlogger whom I highly recommend you watch) I got the inspiration to make something truly American/Simmish (Play the Sims 2 Nightlife, you'll understand): A Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It turns out that a grilled cheese sandwich is pretty much just a toastie without the toastie maker, but it feels different when you make it.

Difficulty: **

Pros: Quick, simple and easy.

Cons: I guess it could be easy to burn?

Ingredients
2 Slices of Bread
Margerine
Cheese

Method
1) Butter one side of each slice of bread.
2) Grate/cut an amount of cheese that you'd like
3) Spread it over the unbuttered side of one piece of bread
4) Place the piece of bread, butterside down, into a frying pan on a medium heat. At this point place the second piece of bread, butterside up, on top of this.
5) As the cheese melts it will act as a food glue that will keep the piece on top in place. The butter on the pieces of bread will stop them cooking onto the pan and will also help the bread get a golden colour to it.
6) When the bread is golden on the buttered side, flip the whole sandwich over to brown on the other side.
7) Once both sides are golden, serve as you wish!

It's very unusual for me to blog twice in one day, I think this is a first, but it really was a spur-of-the-moment blog that I hope you all enjoy trying out because the ending result is really nice. It's better than a toastie because the cheese isn't trapped in the bread so when you bite into it your mouth isn't burnt by molten cheese or hot air escaping. Keep reading for a banoffee pie that I *promise* is coming soon!

Political GaGa Buns (serves 12)

The name is a bit confusing, I know, but bear with me and I'll explain it. In the last week of school me and my friends decided to have a mini-party at lunchtime and I decided to make some buns to say thank you to the teachers that had helped me over the past 5 years. So to do this I decided to make buns, cover the tops in buttercream (coloured red, blue, yellow and green) and, once that had dried, I piped on letters in white glacé icing so that the buns formed a word together.
The name that I gave these buns comes from two things:
1) The yellow buttercream turned out so yellow that it reminded me of Lady GaGa's hair (see the picture for comparison)
2) A friend of mine commented that I should offer a teacher interested in politics a choice between a red and blue bun (the colours of the Labour and Conservative parties) and see if she chooses the red bun. He then added that if she chose the red bun he would take the blue bun and proceed to eat it, proclaiming that 'this blue bun has really changed my life'. Of course, when it came to offering her a bun, I made sure that there were only green ones.
When it came to writing a title for this blog entry I thought it'd lack any creativity to just put 'Buttercream Buns' so I decided to be a bit original. Moving swiftly on from this slowly growing paragraph, here's how to make them!

Difficulty: ***

Pros:
The ending product is really quite nice.

Cons:
Colouring the buttercream can be a bit awkward

Ingredients
For the buttercream
75g Margerine
175g Icing sugar
Food colouring (you can choose whichever colours you like)

For the Glacé Icing
Icing Sugar
Water

Method
For the buttercream
1) Soften the margerine in a bowl before sieving the icing sugar in and stirring until soft. You may need to add a small amount of water.
NOTE: Sieving is very important otherwise the buttercream will contain icing sugar lumps
2) Divide the buttercream equally into as many bowls as colours you want (i.e. if you're making 3 colours, divide it into 3 bowls)
3) Add the food colouring a capful at a time to the buttercream until you get the colour you would like.
NOTE: Different colours will require different amounts, don't assume that because one colour requires a lot of colouring that every colour does. Otherwise you'll end up with GaGa buns like me!
4) You may need to add more sieved icing sugar to the ending buttercream to thicken the consistency.
5) Place about a tablespoon of buttercream onto each bun and smooth it out before leaving it to set in a cool place.

For the Glacé Icing
1) Sieve any amount of icing sugar into a bowl and make a small 'well' in the centre.
2) Add small amounts of water (about a teaspoon) at a time and mix well.
3) The consistency for piping, generally, should be thick enough so that if you run your finger along the back of the spoon the line of icing left behind should hold for at least a few seconds.
4) Pipe the glacé icing into whatever letters or images you like!

That's pretty much it. They're not tremendously difficult to make, though I should warn you that the food colouring does affect the taste slightly (though not in a negative way) depending on how much you add. The next thing I'll be making is a Banoffee Pie, purely because my Mum's asked me to make one. So I hope you all keep reading!

Goodbye school, hello exams! Wait, that's not a good thing...

Yes, earlier this week I officially finished high school and went on study leave for my final exams. At our school we celebrate the last day for year 11 with shirt signing, an hour long assembly celebrating the year's achievements, a few more hours of shirt signing (with some tears from some people) before a quick trip to a buffet and being escorted off the premises (with more tears from some people).
The day went by very fast, I felt, and it was very hectic with everyone rushing round to get *everyone* to sign their shirts, but for me I felt it was the emotional climax I was looking for. People were happy, sad, joyous and regretful, but everyone felt something and everyone said their goodbyes and their thank yous to their teachers and close friends. In the end, although not all of us may have wanted to leave, I think that we were ready to leave at that point.
Of course it was never really leaving for long as some people had revision sessions the next day and I had an exam this morning (Biology, for the curious among you) but never again will people be together as a form going about their proper lessons for a day and I'm unsure if that truth has emotionally hit me yet, despite being mentally aware of it. Maybe I expect myself to cry or something? Maybe I will? Maybe I've underestimated myself and it's already hit me without the tears? I honestly don't know.What I do know is that I'll never forget my last day. There were many bubbles blown, shirts signed and it was fun walking round with a GaGa-bolt askew on my face and a Telephone on my hands (I'm that sad, yes), now it's the home stretch before the next race: College.
In other, blog related news, I'll be blogging about the recipe for the leaving buns I made earlier in the week this weekend and after that I may be blogging about Banoffee Pie (I'm only speculating at this point, I saw the digestive biscuits, bananas and double cream in the kitchen earlier). Hope you had a good week!

Photo source: Rachel Cross, all rights reserved. The unauthorised reproduction and illegal distribution of these photos for money is strictly prohibited and may result in a minor fine and gelding, applicable to all men, Lady GaGa and Mrs Boffey.

Butterfly Buns (serves 12)

Unfortunately I didn't manage to make my '2 blogs a week' last week (which is disheartening for me, at least) but I promise to give you 3 blogs this week, you lucky people. This blog's all about the butterfly buns that I made for my friend Eliza's charity function at a local community centre. It all went extremely well on the day and through the baking stall, selling tea and coffee as well as various other things like a raffle she managed to raise over £400 with more still to come! Personally I found this fantastic. From a relatively small coffee morning I had not expected to get that much at all.
So once the donations have stopped coming the money will be split in half with half of it going to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation (Sophie, pictured on the left) and the other half going to the Price Of Wales Hospice, two very good places. 'Tis all I have to say about that really, so I'll let you get on with reading about the recipe!

Difficulty: **

Pros
Easy to make
Classic and tasty

Cons
Buttercream can have a varying consistency

Ingredients (fills roughly 12 butterfly buns)
75g Margerine
175g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method
1) Soften the butter in the bowl.
NOTE: this makes it easier to stir the icing sugar in.

2) Add the vanilla essence.

3) Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl in small amounts, stirring between each sieving until a smooth consistency is reached.

4) Using a sharp knife, cut the tops off of your buns however you prefer. Then cut the pieces in half, these will be the butterfly's wings.

5) Using a spoon or a piping bag, put about a heaped teaspoon of buttercream onto the bun.

6) Place the cut off pieces into the buttercream in a way that they stand up like wings (refer to the pictures if you are unsure how to do this)

Another suggestion: Instead of buttercream you could just use whipped cream. Simply take a carton of double or whipping cream, whip it until it forms stiff peaks and pipe/spoon on as you require!

That's pretty much all you need to know for making butterfly buns, they're quite simple but very nice to have once in a while. If the amount of buttercream is too little or too much for you then you can alter it however you please!
My final sidenote for people that want to make the chocolate buns pictured, all you have to do is replace 50g of Self Raising flour with 50g of Cocoa Powder when making normal buns.
So you'd put 100g of Self Raising flour into the bowl with 50g of Cocoa Powder.
I hope you enjoyed this post guys, I'll be putting up another one about buns I've made for teachers and leaving day next!

Icing Syringe - tried and tested!

Okay, so I got the chance to use my new toy on some cream cakes last week (see previous recipe) and my charity buns (post to come) and I can say that I rather like it!
It's not without its flaws, like putting the mixture *into* it (air bubbles can be easily made and it's generally messy) but because of its shape and how you need to press it your hand doesn't cramp like with an ordinary piping bag and you can get some rather good designs done with it.
The test of strength with my first piping bag was whipped cream. It failed, I should say, by bursting at the seams and is the reason why I judge whipped cream as a piping strength test. The syringe passed with flying colours (and no flying cream) and I think it was a very good buy for the cheap price it was. If you ever get the chance to get one, you should :P

In other blog-news I should be blogging about butterfly buns soon with more bun decoration to come *next* week as a gift for my teachers on my leaving day. It's gonna be a weird day, leaving, but it's something everyone goes through I guess. Hope you all read my next recipe, the buns look gorgeous!

Strawberry Cream Cakes (Serves 12)

I made these cakes for someone’s birthday and they went down quite well, I was glad to hear, and they turned out quite well. So I thought it was only more than appropriate that I share the recipe and my tips with you guys. Be warned, though, that although this recipe is easy to do it does take time.

Difficulty: **

Pros
Easy to make

Visually appealing

Cons

Takes time to make

Ingredients

For Buns

150g Margarine

150g Sugar

150g Self-Raising Flour

3 Eggs

Optional: 1 tbsp Vanilla Essence

For Decoration

150ml Double/Whipping Cream

300g Strawberries (ideally small strawberries)

2 tbsp Jam

1 tbsp Water

Method

For Buns

1) Soften the margarine in a bowl and then add the sugar before creaming them together.

2) Add the egg and the vanilla gradually, stirring in well.

3) Add the self-raising flour to the mixture and stir until smooth.

4) Pour into 12 bun cases in a bun tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180C until golden brown.

5) Allow to cool

For Decoration

1) Cut out a deep cavity from each bun

2) Whisk the cream until it is thick and fill each cavity with whipped cream.

3) Put 6 strawberries aside to use at the end and slice up the strawberries you have left.

4) Place the strawberries in a ring formation on top of the bun, ideally overlapping.

5) Slice the strawberries you set aside in half and put one half on top of the bun, cut-side down.

6) Melt the jam and water in a pan together until they form a kind of sauce.

7) Brush each of the buns with this sauce. It gives them a nice sheen when it dries, extra flavour and can help them keep for longer.

There are a lot of steps for decoration, but the ending product looks lovely in my opinion and you’ll feel very relieved when they’re all decorated and done. If any of you want to try this recipe for yourselves I really hope that you take pictures and post!

For my next recipe post I’ll be making 24 butterfly buns for a charity event that a friend is throwing. Since the bun recipe will be the same as the one I’ve used in this recipe, I’ll just be writing about the decorative steps and offering advice on those. I hope you all read it and have a nice week in the meantime!

New Toys!

As weird as I'm going to sound, kitchen equipment is something that I can't get enough of. Ceramic baking beads, silicone bakeware, egg separators and handwhisks, they just fascinate me! Two things that I find myself constantly lacking, though, are cookie cutters and piping equipment. I have a small collection that I've amassed over a year or so, thanks mainly to my Mum's keen eye more than anything, but this Bank Holiday Monday I went absolutely crazy in Wilkinson's.
To my utter amazement they had cookie cutters, piping bags and even a piping syringe (that I was completely entranced by) for very, very reasonable prices. Whether this price means they'll break on the first use or not, I simply couldn't resist the chance to expand my cookware inventory. Just how much my inventory had expanded by I didn't know until I took this picture.
Needless to say, this has put me in a very good mood towards baking and I'm very eager to make cookies and cakes that I can decorate to my heart's content. It's quite fortunate that my next few projects will require the use of these new implements then, though not so good that I've coincidentally banned myself from eating biscuits (far too addictive for me) and I plan to make Sugar Cookies. I'll let you know how I get on with this equipment in later posts, but for now I shall leave you to awe at my new toys just as I did.

Also: This week I'll be making Strawberry Cream Buns for someone's birthday. Using a recipe from a 'cupcake' book I have, I'll be tailoring it so that my dear readers can make the same thing with ease and a great result. Ta-ta for now!

Baked Alaska (Serves 8)

As promised earlier in the week, this is my blog about making a Baked Alaska. Warm, spongy meringue that insulates a core of ice cold ice cream sitting atop a simple, yet delightful, sponge cake base. That’s a Baked Alaska. The thing that makes it so awkward to cook is that, unless you have access to a blowtorch (and the confidence to use it!), then you’ve got to cook the meringue at the right temperature for just the right amount of time so that the meringue is cooked…but the ice cream in the middle stays cold.

After being mentioned briefly in a conversation I decided to embark on making this, despite having a mounting list of other things to make and it turned out quite well. Serving it proved to be a messy affair though. Surprisingly, melting ice cream doesn’t provide the best support for meringue and so the whole thing doesn’t stand up tremendously well. So I apologise in advance for the bad photography (it’s always amateur anyway)!

Difficulty: ****

Pros

Ingredients are easy to get hold of and cheap

Impressive if it works out!

Cons

Very easily messed up…

Ingredients

For the Sponge Cake:

75g Self Raising Flour

75g Sugar

75g Margerine/Butter

1 Beaten Egg

Optional: ½ tblsp Vanilla Essence

For the Meringue

3 Egg Whites

150g Sugar

NOTE: For this recipe the general formula is 50g Sugar for every 1 Egg White

Ice Cream

Optional: Jam

Method

Sponge Cake

1) Soften the margarine in a bowl and then cream it with the sugar.

2) Bit by bit (so it doesn’t curdle) add the egg and the vanilla essence (if you’re using it)

3) Add the flour and mix well

4) Pour the mixture into a greased sandwich tin and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C (Gas Mark 4 or 380°F)

5) Allow to cool

Meringue

NOTE: This recipe is best done with an electric whisk! Your arm will be very tired otherwise.

1) Whisk the egg whites lightly until they’re foam-like

2) While still whisking, add the sugar a little bit at a time and the mixture should thicken and become very white.

3) Continue whisking to work air into the mixture until it forms stiff, white peaks similar to the ones in the picture shown.

Baked Alaska

1) Have an oven pre-heated to 220°C (Gas Mark 7 or 425°F) and have the cake on an oven tray

NOTE: Put tin foil or greaseproof paper down on the tray, otherwise the cake will cook onto the tray, I found this out the hard way.

2) Cover the cake base with jam and then scoop ice cream onto it. Be sure to leave 1 inch all the way around uncovered.

3) Using a palette knife (or spatula, spoon, whatever you prefer) scoop meringue mixture on top of the ice cream and shape it so that it covers absolutely everywhere.

4) Bake for 4 minutes until the meringue is a golden colour.

5) Serve and enjoy!

This recipe may seem very daunting in terms of the steps involved, but once you get going it really is simple to make and is very rewarding if it turns out right. Once again I apologise for not posting this earlier, I’ve been lazy and working (two things that take up a lot of time) though I’m still sticking to two posts a week! Speaking of which, here is a short list of the things that I will be making in the next month or so that you should hopefully enjoy. Unfortunately there’s nothing savoury in this list, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

7^th May – Strawberry Cream Buns for someone’s birthday, these look gorgeous!

15^th May - I’m preparing 24 Butterfly Buns (chocolate and plain) for a charity event that my good friend Eliza is hosting. I’ve made them plenty of times before, so they should turn out fine.

19^th May – As a small thank you to my teachers I’m planning to bake some cupcakes with buttercream and piped icing letters.

After this: Sugar Cookies and Decorating! (two separate posts)

Thanks for reading this, I hope you all have a great bank holiday Monday tomorrow. If you decide to try out this recipe or have any questions then, as usual, post pictures and just ask away!

Addictions

For those of you that have seen my facebook, I apologise because I promised I'd make a blog about a Baked Alaska. This blog's gonna be quite personal about me though, I hope you don't mind. So here it goes, I guess.

Recently my Mum has decided to try and give up smoking for a third time, she's been smoking since she was 13 so that's a very considerable amount of time spent smoking and for her to try giving up for a third time is a very brave thing, I feel. She's holding out well so far, it's been just over a week since she stopped completely and she seems very determined.
It's difficult to watch her do it though. I can see her bored and I know that she's craving, but there's nothing I can do. 'It's like a small, constant pain' is how she described it and it's heart wrenching to sit here and talk to my friends while I know that although she's downstairs watching Emmerdale, that pain is just poking away at her. Addictions are hard to break...and when smoking is so common it's going to be even harder to break. Did you know that it takes the average smoker 7 attempts to stop? That's 6 rounds of struggling and defeat before you finally manage it.
It's not all bad though, as much as it seems that way. Despite the bad things and the things that bother me (and more importantly that bother my Mum) the goal of this entire thing is a good and beneficial one. If she succeeds (which I very much hope she will) then not only will it be a fantastic achievment for her, but she'll reap the health benefits and some financial benefits.
My Mum is a strong woman and I'd want nothing more than for her to succeed at this because she does truly deserve it, but it's not going to be easy. I just hope that she knows that everyone's here for her and that we all wish the best for her.

Fried Rice (Serves Two)

Well the results are in and you, the people, wanted to know how to make Fried Rice. I decided to make it one day on a random whim after reading about it in a 4 Ingredients Book. Originally I stuck to the recipe like treacle on a spoon, but the key to savoury cooking is to be original, creative and really make the recipe your own.

So although I’m giving you a full ingredients list, do feel free to alter it as and however you like. If you don’t have or don’t like carrots, then don’t use carrots. Peas, broccoli, sweetcorn, whatever you like can go into this rice to good effect.

Something I tried out that produced a particularly nice, slightly spicy, rice was adding ½ tsp of Cayenne Pepper, 1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice and ½ tsp of Paprika during frying. It was purely done on an experimental basis and I rarely use spices or herbs, but it turned out rather well!

Difficulty: **

Pros

The recipe is very easy going

You can use pretty much anything you want in it

Cons

The state of the rice can really affect the end product

Ingredients

185g (1 cup) Rice

1 Beaten Egg

2 Rashers of Bacon (or whatever meat or meat substitute you might prefer)

4 tbsp. Soy Sauce

For vegetables, I used:

2 Radishes
Brocolli
1 Carrot
1 Spring Onion
1 Small Onion
Cabbage

But remember that you can use any vegetables you like for this!

Method

1) Boil the rice in around half a litre (500ml) of water before draining it and setting it aside to dry.

NOTE: If the rice is wet when you come to frying then your fried rice may turn out wet also.

2) Slice up the bacon and fry it in a slightly oiled pan until it is pale in colour.

NOTE: If you’re using onions and/or mushrooms, fry them at this stage also.

3) Add the beaten egg to the pan and stir while you fry to evenly cook and distribute the egg.

4) At this point add any other vegetables you wish and continue frying until the egg and meat you’re using are cooked.

5) Add the rice along with the soy sauce. The soy sauce is what gives fried rice its distinctive colour!

NOTE: At this point add any herbs/spices you would like to.

6) Continue frying and stirring, evenly distributing the ingredients. Once this is done the rice is ready to be served!

TIP: Instead of boiling the rice yourself, an easy alternative would be to use an instant, microwavable pouch of rice. The result is still the same and depending on what kind you use then your ending product could have a whole new dimension to its flavour!

I hope you all try out this recipe, it’s great as a late night snack, as lunch or a side dish to a main meal and the results can be absolutely wonderful. If you’ve got any questions or you want to share pictures of what you’ve made, then you’re entirely welcome to do so and I will reply!

For my next blog I’ll be putting sugar cookies on hold to show you how to make a Baked Alaska really easily and then (because I’m baking a lot of buns for charity events and birthdays!) I’ll be showing you how to make buns as well as demonstrating some decorative techniques. I hope you all read it!

Back to school!

So this week I'm now back at school, though this time will be the last as I'm now in my official last term. That means that there's a lot of work to be done, a lot of work to do and a lot of reviewing of work already done...plus 20 hours of exams for yours truly!
Fortunately for me I spent a large amount of time over the holidays and the past few months writing up notes on all my various subjects, so revising should be a lot easier. This doesn't mean that I'll be neglecting my dear blog though, heavens no! In fact, after a facebook messaging conversation with a rather nice girl it's spurred me on to keeping this blog even more =D

And what does *that* mean? Well it mean that I'll be updating with another recipe at the weekend and it'll either be fried rice (if there are ingredients for it and if anyone wants it) or some of those lovely sugar cookies I linked to a while back. Which would you guys prefer?


I should just add that both of those photos are from the internet and probably won't look anything like that when I make them, but it gives you some idea at least!

Pancakes

A lovely treat that can be enjoyed as something savoury or sweet, pancakes are easy to prepare and cook. The beauty of this recipe, that I learnt from my Mum years ago now, is that you don’t even need weighing scales for it. All you need for the measurements is a mug, or cup of any kind, and the ability to count.

Difficulty: *

Pros:

Ingredients are easy to get

A versatile food

Cons:

They’re easy to burn!

Ingredients

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Milk

1 Egg

Sweet pancakes: ½ Cup Sugar

For a more American style pancake use self-raising flour instead of plain.

NOTE: Where the list says ‘cup’ you can just use any mug you have at hand.

Method

1) Whisk the ingredients thoroughly to a liquid consistency.

2) On a medium to low heat, pour enough pancake batter into a hot, oiled frying pan to completely cover the base of the pan.

3) Allow the batter to cook until it has become solid and the bottom is a golden colour and then flip the pancake over to cook on the other side.

4) Once the pancake has cooked to a golden colour on the other side it is done and ready to be served.

NOTE: If using self raising flour, you will need to flip the pancakes when they begin to bubble on the top. This may be messy at first and you’ll have to flip them quick, but with practice you’ll find the right thickness to cook this kind of pancake at.

You can serve your pancake however you like with whatever you like, but I love to have mine very classically and simply with jam. Something that I found works well, to add a twist to your pancakes, is to add half teaspoon measures of mixed spice, ginger and nutmeg in with the flour. The flavour that this gives the pancakes reminds me so much of Christmas and I’m sure you’ll see why if you try it for yourselves!

Please comment and/or link to pictures of pancakes you’ve made yourselves, I'd absolutely love to see what you can come up with! Also, sorry for the shoddy presentation of mine, it didn’t turn out quite how I expected…

Plans, Plans, Plans!

I have decided to do around 2 updates a week, whether they're at the start or the end of the week i will try to do 2 new blog posts per week and I'm going to try and make my posts personal as well as food related.

Now I'm the kind of person that quite likes to write, no matter what it is, as long as I have an idea that I can go with. Those of you that know me will also know of my insane obsession with Lady GaGa (those of you that don't, well now you know) and as of an hour or so ago I've managed to fuse the two together with satisfying success!
'The Haus That Monsters Built' is a worldwide fanbase of Lady GaGa fans that are working to create a huge, evolving, creative movement through their fanwork (be it artistic, photographic, written, videod, sung etc.) that will not only unite Little Monsters everywhere but will, in theory at its pinnacle, attract the attention of the media and/or GaGa herself. There are many other goals of the group, such as working with charities to give back to society, but setting it up is the hardest part.
So I applied to be a writer and the creator asked for a sample of my work. The only sample I had on my hard drive was a rant I did for English that was about Lady GaGa (as a challenge to myself I chose to rant about someone I loved/admired) and I took a risk and decided to send that as my English teacher gave me some compliments on it when I first showed it to her. I also attached a new, original piece inspired by Lady GaGa that talked about Fame Obsession. I thought it was slightly risky, sending a RANT about Lady GaGa to a Lady GaGa fan (though I did attach an explanation) but nevertheless, I waited eagerly for a reply.
My risk paid off it seems! Apparantly I raised 'some interesting points', made the woman chuckle and my article shows that I wasn't a crazed GaGa fan that saw her as perfection, but someone who could see her flaws, analyse them and accept them. My Fame Obsession piece was 'especially' loved apparantly, which made me very happy (though it can be improved, which was a thought that had also occured to me). The best part of the email, to me, though was when she said that she wanted me to keep writing and that she would post my work on her site!
Did I say yes? Of course I did! So now I'll be working on GaGa inspired works, non-GaGa inspired works and improving previous work so that I can contribute to the fanbase. Should be fun guys!

On a food note now though, I've already planned that my next post will look at something simple, easy and delicious: Pancakes! (Both American style and English!)
That means you're getting your frying pans at the ready and stocking up on jam (well, I will be at least).
I also had an idea to try my hand at some more intricate cookie decorating thanks to a baker that my friend Rachel linked me to. I don't know her name, only her blog, but the things she makes are just wonderful. Here's the recipe I'll be attempting hopefully in the near future:
Sugar Cookies!
I accept no credit, ownership or copyright over that link or the content within the link =P

That's all I've got to say for now, so I'll end this long post here and I hope to see more readers on here soon! For those of you reading this thank you so much for taking time out of your days to read this, you're my inspiration for this whole blog ^_^

Advertising!

Along with my welcome banner I've also designed an advertising...square (for lack of a better term. Avatar perhaps?) that people can use should they so wish, I'm posting the image here because I know that my friend and fellow blogger Rachel said she was going to use it on her blog. In return, I've used a graphic she's made to advertise her blog.

I'd highly recommend that you all take a few minutes out of your internet lives to read Details In The Fabric, it's a truly great blog that's wonderfully written and provokes so many thoughts within us. You can visit it by clicking on the graphic that's on the right column above the search box, it'll take you straight there!

Revamp!

To those few, regular visitors to my blog, you may notice a number of changes. My reason for this? Well the previous blog was very infrequently updated and I started to feel very guilty, so I backed up all my posts in a word file and redesigned the whole thing so I could start fresh!
Now I'll be updating '2 Oranges & A Banana'.
From now on this blog will be updated regularly (I hope) and will be personal and informative, meaning that I'm gonna post about recipes as well as general things in my life as well. I just hope that you guys like it =

Finally, I'd also like to give thanks to two people that inspired and helped me to redo my blog and they are my dear friends Rachel & Helen. I owe Rachel a lot in terms of her help with my new graphics and I owe Helen a lot because she thought up of the name for the new blog and also made the message I wanted it to have into the poem that you see in the welcome banner. Thank you so much guys ^_^