Beetroot Brownies

I decided to take a break from cupcakes today and have ventured into the unknown world of brownies....I had some spare beetroots that I needed to use up so thought that a chocolate beetroot brownie would be a perfect solution to use up left over ingredients. I cannot get over how simple brownies are to make. If I had known this before I definitely would have tried to make them sooner. Here's how they turned out.....so moist and chocolatey.......

If you want to make these here's what you will need:

Ingredients

• 4 medium beetroots
• 100g unsalted butter 
• 200g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa dark chocolate)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 250g golden caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 110g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder

Method

Peel the beetroot and roughly chop it into pieces. Place it into a large bowl and add a few tablespoons of water before covering it with cling film and microwaving it on high for 15 minutes or until tender. Note that the beetroot is likely to stain your fingers and cutting boards etc at this stage. Wear gloves to avoid pink fingers! 

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan). While the beetroot cooks, grease then line the base of a 20 x 30cm  baking tin or small roasting pan. Once the beetroot is cooked, tip it into a sieve to drain off any excess liquid, then put it into a food processor with the chocolate, butter and vanilla essence. Whizz until the mix is as smooth as you can get it. The chocolate and butter will melt as you do this. It's ok if your beetroot isn't pureed at ths stage. I personally like a few pieces of beetroot in the mix to give it a more rustic texture.

Put the caster sugar and eggs into a large bowl, then beat using an electric whisk until thick and foamy (normally about 2 mins on a high speed). Spoon the beetroot mix into the bowl then fold it into the whisked eggs with a spoon. Lastly sift in the flour and cocoa powder, then gently fold these in to make a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 mins or until risen all over. The top of the brownie will have a nice crust and the centre will be moist and gooey. Cool the brownie in the tin, then cut into squares and serve with creme fraiche. Delicious! 

Happy baking xx

Cookie Mix in a Jar

There seems to be baking fever going on at the moment. So many people are keen to get in the kitchen and bake something from scratch, but often they don't have recipes or a lot of staple baking ingredients. Giving them a jar of cookie mix or cake mix is a perfect gift idea to get around their problem. A jar of cookie mix is really quick and easy to make, and there are endless flavour combinations you can create. Here's a double chocolate cookie mix I made for a friend of mine who loves to bake.

If you want to have a go at making this cookie mix, here's what you will need:

Ingredients
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup roughly chopped chunks of white chocolate
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Method
Mix salt and baking powder with flour. Layer ingredients in jar in any order. I alternated dark and light ingredients to make a striped pattern. You can leave the jar plain, or decorate it with ribbons, if desired. Remember to attach instructions to the jar on how to make the cookies! You can either tie a recipe card to the ribbon, or make a label to affix to the jar.

Here are the instructions for your label:

Double Chocolate Cookies
What you need:
Cookie mix in a jar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 egg

How to make cookies:
Beat butter in a mixing bowl until fluffy with electric beaters. Beat in egg then stir cookie mix into mixture with a wooden spoon until well blended. Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto greased baking sheets. Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Have fun making cookies!

Message in a Cookie

I am completely in love with my new purchase from Williams-Sonoma - message-in-a-cookie cutters.

The kit contains 3 plastic cutters and 7 pre-made words (Welcome, Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, From, I Love You), 3 sets of alphabet letters and some extra vowels and other commonly used letters.

One of my friends was recently in an accident so I thought these cutters would be a great way to send him wishes for a speedy recovery. I made chocolate sugar cookies then embossed them with 'Get well soon'. Here's how they turned out:

and the rest of them......

You can serve the cookies plain, or embellish them with piped royal icing designs or flowers, as I did.

Happy baking x

Easter Tree

I recently bought a gorgeous mould from Great Impressions of leaping bunnies, which I thought would be perfect to make chocolates with for Easter.


I made the bunnies with white chocolate, and then also made some hearts with chocolate coloured with pink food colouring. After they had set (about 1 hour later), I individually wrapped them in cellophane and hung them on a branch I painted white.


To finish off the tree I hung painted wooden easter eggs onto the other branches, then stood the branch in a vase filled with sugar. The tree is so pretty and makes a lovely centre piece on a table.

To continue with the Easter festivities, I made some chocolate cupcakes decorated with mini easter eggs. So simple and so delicious....


Happy Easter x

Cookie Cake

I am officially in love with my new cake pans. The idea of making a sandwich cake shaped as an oreo cookie is just too cute for words. As soon as I saw them on the Williams-Sonoma website I began a hunt to find someone who would post them to the UK. Three weeks later and they have finally arrived!

The box they came in had a recipe for the chocolate cake so I decided to try it out. I'd read mixed reviews online about the pans, and it seemed many people had problems turning the cakes cleanly out of the pans once they were baked. I made sure I greased up the pans well before adding the batter, so I was able to easily take them out. Unfortunately though, I had a lot of air bubbles in the mixture which left holes in the cake. Despite this, I was pretty happy with my first attempt. Even with the bubbles, the cake still looks good......

......................and tastes even better!!

National Cookie Competition - Last Round

The final round of the National Cookie Competition was last week and the theme was 'lemon'. I spent a while trying out ideas, but eventually settled for lemon shortbread cookies with chocolate and basil buttercream.

I know the combination of basil with chocolate sounds a bit strange, but it actually tastes divine. Try it out for yourself:

Cookies
350g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
140g unsalted butter at room temperature (and cut into small pieces)
175g caster sugar
Juice from 1 lemon
2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Buttercream
250g unsalted butter
1 cupsifted icing sugar
2 tbsp skim milk
50g dark chocolate (melted and allowed to cool)
50g milk chocolate (melted and allowed to cool)
1/2 tbsp finely ground basil
1 tsp vanilla essence

To make the cookies, preheat the oven to 200C. Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder into a bowl. Next, add the butter and use your fingers to combine the mixture together until it ressembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and eggs until the mixture becomes a soft dough. Shape dough into really small balls and place them onto lined baking trays, making sure that there is space between each cookie to allow for spreading during baking. Flatten the balls into discs once on the tray using your fingers or a spoon. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Allow them to cool completely on a wire tray before icing.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (normally takes about 5 minutes). Next add the milk and vanilla essence and beat until well combined. Mix in the melted chocolate, then add the icing sugar slowly, being sure to mix it in well after each addition. Lastly add the basil and give it a final mix. Pipe the buttercream onto one cookie then sandwich it onto another cookie of equal size. Dust the tops of the cookies with cocoa powder if desired. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

I've really enjoyed being part of the national cookie network over the last 5 months. Thanks to everyone who has provided such nice comments on my monthly creations.

Happy baking x

Christmas Pudding Cake Balls

I made a chocolate cake recently which didn't rise properly, so I decided to turn it into cake balls. They are a great way of turning a potential disaster into something lovely. To make a cake ball, crumble up a cake, then mix buttercream or your choice of frosting through the cake crumbs to help them stick together. Roll little balls of cake then leave them to set in the fridge on a lined baking tray. You can dip them in melted chocolate, or roll them in sprinkles, whatever takes your fancy.

I dipped mine in white and dark chocolate to make little christmas puddings then decorated them with holly sprinkles. Yum!

And here's one on a stick - a pudding pop!

Happy baking!