Love cookies

Here are some super easy heart cookies I made for my work colleagues to celebrate Valentine's Day. You can use any colour combinations, or any shape - such a fun recipe to play around with. If you want to make some here's what you need:

Ingredients (makes about 30 medium sized cookies):

• 120g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 650g plain flour
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp skimmed milk
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 medium eggs
• 300g caster sugar
• Pink food colouring (optional)

Method:
Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water or in the microwave. Be careful not to cook the chocolate!

In a large bowl, combine the flour, eggs, butter, milk, baking powder and caster sugar. Beat the ingredients until well-blended with an electric mixer or spoon, occassionally scraping the bowl with the rubber spatula. Take out half the dough and colour with pink food colouring (or leave plain if you want). Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film then refrigerate until the dough is firm enough to handle (normally about an hour, or 20 mins ni the freezer).
 
Mix the melted chocolate into the remaining dough until blended. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until firm.
 
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Once the dough is firm enough to work with, roll it out on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin and use a medium-sized heart cutter to make pink and brown hearts. Remove the centres of the hearts with a slightly smaller heart cutter, then fill them again with the opposite coloured small heart.  Place the cookies on the baking trays a few centimetres apart to allow for spreading, then bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool before eating. You can store any leftover cookies in an airtight container for about 2 weeks.....

Happy Baking xx

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate the Valentine's Day I thought I'd share with you some kitchen lovelies that I adore.

First up is this lovely heart shaped wooden spoon. Also available as a set of salad servers, what a perfect way to dish up a special meal with love.

Next up are these sweet measuring cups:

and this little heart-shaped frying pan - so cute!

Who could resist these pink doilies

Or this cake stand:

Lastly, what better way to make sure you don't mess up your clothes while you are baking than to wear this delightful apron:



All these items are so lovely, I'll definitely be adding them to my wishlish.

Have a lovely day xx

Stencilling

Have been playing with my new stencils this week - they take a bit of practice to use - but are really rewarding once you master them. Here's an example of what you can make.

Happy baking xx

Shabby chic loveliness

I've been playing around with pastels this week and practicing flower making. Here are a few cupcakes inspired by all things shabby chic.

Love the delicate contrast of baby blue against the white flowers. Looking forward to making more soon.

Happy baking xx

Whoopie!

I was spoilt at Christmas and received a whoopie pie pan from Lakeland.

I've always wanted to make whoopie pies and now with the pan they are super easy. Here's how my first batch turned out:

If you want to make some here's what you need:

Ingredients (makes medium 16 whoopies)

• 200g of unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 150g caster sugar
• 125g creme fraiche (or sour cream)
• 75ml skim milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 275g plain flour
• 100g marshmallows (I used chocolate (brown coloured) ones)
• 200g icing sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C). Melt 75g of the butter and set aside. Using an electric hand mixer, whisk the egg until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar, a third at a time, until thick and glossy. Beat in the melted butter, sour cream, 25ml of milk and the vanilla. Sift the bicarbonate of soda and flour into the bowl and beat until smooth. Using a wide piping nozzle or spoon, pipe or spoon the mixture on to the whoopie tray, or onto a lined baking tray (if you don't have a whoopie pan - try to space balls about 3-4 cm apart).  Bake for 12 minutes until almost evenly golden on top. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

For the marshamllow filling, heat the marshmallows and milk in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until smooth, then cool. Beat 125g of butter until creamy and soft then gradually beat into the marshmallow until smooth. Sandwich two whoopie pies together with the marshmallow cream.

A lot of people serve whoopies without icing on the top, but if you want to add a glace icing then mix the icing sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of cold water. Spread a little on each whoopie, or you can drizzle it on (like I did) - whatever takes your fancy. Decorate with sprinkles or other decorations if you want too. I made little sugarpaste flowers and added some edible glitter. Nice and girly. Remember to leave the whoopies to set for a bit before serving. Once filled and iced the whoopies will keep for up to 6 hours.

I'm making some more whoopies this weekend (am experimenting with flavours) so will let you know how they go soon.

Happy Baking xx

Meringue layer cake

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the December festivities and that 2011 is your best year yet.

During December I hosted a number of Christmas parties and found myself resorting to layered meringue cakes for the dessert on most occasions. Meringue is so easy to make and you can do so many things with it. Here's what I came up with:

So yummy...............this is a triple layered meringue cake, filled with berries. If you want to make one for yourself, here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 9 eggwhites
• 400g caster sugar
• 150g icing sugar (plus extra for dusting)
• 500ml thickened cream
• 350ml mascarpone
• 2 punnets of strawberries (sliced)
• 2 punnets of raspberries
• 2 punnets of blue berries

Method
Preheat oven to 120°C. Line 3 trays with baking paper. Trace a 26cm circle on each one.Beat eggwhites with an electric mixer until stiff (takes about 10 minutes). Next add half the caster sugar and icing sugar, and beat to incorporate. Gradually add remaining sugars in a slow stream, beating until glossy. Spread meringue evenly on each circle to make 3 flat discs of equal thickness. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 100°C and bake for a further 1 1/4 hours or until crisp and dry. Turn off the oven and allow the meringues to cool inside (leave the oven door ajar).

Whip cream and mascarpone together. Leave a third to one side. Fold in some of the berries into the rest of the cream mixture. To assemble, place a circle of meringue onto a serving plate, then top with half the cream and berry mixture. Next add another layer of meringue and top with the rest of the cream and berry mixture. Place the last meringue disc on top then cover with plain cream mixture. Decorate with whole berries and dust with icing sugar if desired.

Happy baking x

Cupcake Photo Shoot

Last Friday one of my friends very kindly agreed to come over and take some pictures of a few of my cupcakes. She always takes lovely pictures for her website so I was thrilled that she was free to take some nice shots for the new website for Icing Bliss that I am currently trying to put together. I'm anxiously awaiting to see how the photos turned out.....but in the meantime, here are some of the cupcakes I made and the pictures I took of them before the official photo shoot started..........

 Pretty shabby chic rose cupcake

White petunia cupcake - so pretty - I recon these cupcakes would look beautiful as a vintage wedding cupcake tower 

 Bouquet of roses - I love making these cupcakes :)

 Sample of black and white designs

Pink and black chic

Shabby chic blossom cupcake

I made a few other cupcakes but I will wait for the official photoshoot pictures to come through before I share them with you. Stay tuned......

Happy baking xx