Easter weekend fun

When I come home for the big holidays, my family go mad with me because I launch into full-on 'let's-do-cute-family-fun-things-and-be-adorable' mode. I like making big deals out of occasions like Christmas and New Year, but more recently Halloween and Easter too. I started asking what Easter plans we had weeks ago and when I was faced with two parents who laughed and said they hadn't even thought about it yet, I challenged myself with the task of planning something. Starting with a long run early Sunday morning, we spent the bank holiday making the most of the weather (hello sunshine! we've missed you!) and taking advantage of the fact we were all together as a family.

Mum made the effort to do an Easter tree this year which was super sweet to arrive home to, and we bought some new decorations from Tesco too- the upside-down sheep and chicks in the photo that we couldn't get to hang properly! 

I actually did my first proper roast for our evening meal (took me long enough, I know). I was determined to make everything perfect and thought I'd nailed the timings, but typically it didn't go completely to plan. But, all things considered, and when it was finally all ready, I think I did a pretty awesome job! The roasted vegetables (carrots, potatoes, parsnips, broccoli and red onion) were delicious, and were by far my favourite part of the meal. The gammon was super tender and the honey glaze I added topped it off perfectly. Yumm. Oh, and of course it was followed by chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Mum even managed to find me a white chocolate Lindt bunny which seem to have been difficult to track down this year. If they ever stop selling these, my heart will break.

Our miniature pony, Rupert, was also subjected to the Easter fun. I didn't expect him to look this cute - my heart positively melted. Unfortunately, I think he pulls them off better than me.

Like the rest of the British population, Easter Monday was spent in the great outdoors enjoying the glorious sunshine that finally arrived in England. Yay! We went for a bike ride, even managing to drag my brother with us too! It was my first cycle ride in a long time, and definitely my first since I've been properly running and become a bit of an exercise enthusiast so it was a fantastic feeling to find cycling so much easier than I remember! And it was great to be able to get out into the beautiful countryside that surrounds our little village.

Easter is fast becoming equally as exciting as Christmas for me. I get far too carried away with all the potential family time, good food and fun things. How was your Easter? Did you have any special plans, or just get down with all the chocolate?!

Light Chocolate Cake

Thought I’d do the second cake as a separate post to enable easier searches. Making my brother’s cake may have contributed to the highest stress levels I have ever experienced when baking. I was so nervous about the outcome. He’s fussy; as in likes-chocolate-cake-but-only-one-type-of-chocolate-cake fussy. This one type of chocolate cake seemed utterly impossible to recreate. It’s from our local bakery but is the richest, most sickly chocolate fudge cake ever and after numerous searches on-line for something similar, I had to compile my own ideas into a new recipe. But do you know what his verdict was? HE PREFERRED IT! I don’t think I’ve ever heard words so golden! 

The sponge itself was perfectly chocolately, and definitely not in a sickly way which was perfect for everyone else who wanted a slice and didn't want to feel queasy. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the kind of fudgey, gooey icing I was searching for without the use of cream (which he was quite adament he didn't want- difficult customer). This turned out to be a good thing because it stopped the cake from being too sickly. So, if you're looking for cake that's moist and chocolately, but still light enough to eat a whole slice, here's the recipe: 
(find the original here, thanks Mary Berry! Here video tutorial is especially useful)

Ingredients-

2 oz (50g) cocoa
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
175g self raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
100g baking spread, I used Stork
250g caster sugar
50g dark chocolate, melted
30g milk chocolate, melted

(For the icing and filling)
Batch of buttercream (enough to fill, and cover an 8" cake)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
30g milk chocolate, melted
30g dark chocolate, melted

Method-

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160 fan/Gas 4 and prepare two 20cm (8") cake tins.
2. Measure the cocoa and boiling water into a large bowl. Mix together until it reaches a smooth paste-like consistancy.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined. After melting your two chocolates, either over a pan of simmering water (without the bottom of the bowl touching the water!) or with intermittent bursts in the microwave, leave to cool slightly. When the chocolate has cooled, stir it through the mixture until combined.
4. Divide the cake mixture between the two tins. Put in the oven for about 30 minutes until well risen and you see it pulling away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool.
5. After making your batch of buttercream, melt the dark and milk chocolate separately and leave both to cool slightly. Add cocoa powder to buttercream and stir through. Then add the two chocolates and beat until all combined. Spread over the first sponge, put together and then ice the top. Enjoy! 

Cookie success (against all odds)

I don't get much baking done in France, which saddens me because I just love to bake (and then eat it all afterwards, obviously). The 'oven' we have is one of those microwave-ovens and I don't trust them at the best of times. On top of that, the instructions are all in French. I tried shortbread a couple of months back and ended up with a melted mass of butter, sugar and flour. My flapjacks went a little better last month, but still ended up burning on the bottom. 

But I think I've cracked it! I finally found a setting which cooked something properly! I had leftover chocolate, flour, sugar and golden syrup in my room and following an edited eggless cookies recipe ended up with these beauties:

Eggless chocolate chip cookies

Here's the recipe (altered slightly from smokingviper1's recipe on allrecipes.co.uk, find the original here):

Ingredients- (supposed to make 18, mine came to about 14 with two tiny ones)

• 100g margarine
• 75g caster sugar
• 180g self raising flour 
• 100g chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 2-3 tablespoons milk

Method-

1. Heat the oven to 180 C. Grease (or I floured) 1 to 2 baking trays.

2. Beat the margarine until soft, and add the sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy. (Having no electric beaters I did this by hand as best I could, which wasn't very creamy but they still turned out fine!)

3. Stir in the flour, chocolate chips, golden syrup and milk. I didn't have 2 tablespoons of golden syrup left like the original recipe states, so used one, and added in another dash of milk towards the end of mixing. 

Mix well, until it has the consistency of dough. I used my hands in the end because it was easier, and also showed me that my mixture was a bit too moist and too sticky and I was worried about ending up with a melted mass in the oven again. 

I sprinkled more flour into the mixture (I've added an extra 5g into the measurements of this recipe compared with the original) which also allowed me to shape it better.

4. Finally, place teaspoon-sized balls of the mixture on the prepared trays, gently flattening each one into the shape of cookies (note: they will spread out a little wider than this, so mine were about 5-6 cm across and over 1cm thick) and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Once cooked remove them from tray immediately and place them on a wire rack to cool. 

Treat yourself and eat one whilst they're hot- that's when they're best!

Popping to Paris

Sitting by the river Seine in Paris last Friday night, sipping wine and appreciating life, I told my two new friends that, by the end of the year, my aim is to be able to ‘pop’ to into Paris, to my favourite café, or to my favourite spot along the river. Well, that vision doesn’t seem so far away...

... To read the rest of this post about my adventures, click here to visit the Parisian Life page on this blog.

By the Seine in the sunshine

My first macaroons!

A Gooey Slice of Paradise...

I have long wanted to make a cheesecake as part of my baking venture, and being an avid New York cheesecake fan (especially the one from Waitrose- lush), I always imagined that I would start simply... Cue the deliciousness which is the white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake seen on UK morning programme, Lorraine, and the temptation to launch straight in was too much. And I am pleased to say, the risk did pay off! Since this was my first time making anything remotely like this, I struggled with how it was meant to look consistency-wise, and parts of the recipe were very simple and vague and left me at a bit of a loss. However, although it could have been more solid overall, this was absolutely incredible as a sweet treat. A very sweet treat considering the amount of cream that went into it... Here's how to make it: 

Ingredients:

230g digestive biscuits
80g unsalted butter melted
200g white chocolate (proper cooking chocolate is best as white choc can often be temperamental)
400g mascarpone cheese
100ml sour cream
300ml double cream
80g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Crush the biscuits to fine crumb in a food processor, or with a rolling pin. Mix in the melted butter until crumbs are all covered. Place the mixture into a buttered 23cm loose-bottomed spring form cake tin, compress down and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. If you don't have a spring form tin, I put baking paper around the outside of my tin so it wouldn't stick.

2. Gradually melt the white chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and then set aside to leave to cool slightly.

3. Cream the mascarpone, chocolate, sour cream and sugar together along with the vanilla extract, until light in weight.

4. Whip the double cream to soft peaks then fold the two together. Set aside.

5. Halve the strawberries then place around the outside of the tin with the insides facing out. Place a few more in the bottom of the tin then cover with the cheesecake mixture, making sure to smooth it into the gaps. Chill for at least 1 hour to set (mine required about 2 in the end to set properly).

6. Remove from the tin then decorate with the remaining strawberries, and dust with icing sugar (optional).

Definitely give this a go, even if you're beginner baker like me. It was actually really easy and, the actual preparation time was fairly minimal. Plus, it's delicious. 

The finished result!

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday

Happy first birthday to Little Musings! So it was about this time last year that I started this blog and it’s been a wonderful little outlet for me (when I have the time to use said outlet) and it’s led me to look at some other really great blogging sites. I’m pretty sure one of the first posts I did was about my white chocolate Easter cake last year and so this post is going to seem like a little bit of a déjà vu, but with a little bit of a better twist. Yay to cake success!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Easters, I certainly got far too many white chocolate orientated treats, as you can see! People know me far too well… (not that you see me complaining!) This long weekend business has completely fuzzled up my brain and I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, whether it’s Friday or Sunday! But it’s been fun! This year, I had another crack at the BBC Good Food’s white chocolate Easter cake but put my own twist on it. Since the white chocolate sponge was so hit and miss as to whether it went well or not (plus it was very heavy last year which resulted in a lot of sicky feeling), I decided to go for a plain sponge but mixed it up but stirring in crushed white chocolate. The sponge itself came out perfectly, in fact I think it’s my most lightest, fluffiest to date. And although there weren’t little bit of melted white chocolate as I had envisaged throughout, it had all sunk to the bottom in a nice, crunchy block. I covered with an amazing (seriously, like totally the best thing a white chocolate lover could ever discover) white chocolate buttercream which I found on this lovely site: http://www.4thsensecooking.com/2012/11/strawberry-cake-with-white-chocolate.html The consistency was perfect! Stiff peaks but also spreadable and then I topped with the classic Easter favourites, Mini Eggs. It was definitely one of my best ever cakes. Success!

White chocolate Easter cake- a success!

My second ‘baking’ attempts were cornflake cakes! Taking me back to my childhood, I cooked these treats up in no time. After putting more of the chocolate, butter, syrup mixture in that it originally said, I halved the mixture and stirred a melted mars bar through one which was one of my best brainwaves yet! I feel like I must have heard it somewhere before but it made them so gooey and chocolatey. A traditional favourite made all the more fattening… Sounds perfect to me!!

Somebody knows me too well...

My family deviated from the traditional Sunday Easter dinner this year, since the weekend before I had returned from university and we had the biggest roast dinner known to man… Seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much… Anyway, so because we decided we probably couldn’t manage another huge one, we opted for a tapas themed buffet! I was actually really good, with different breads and dipping oils, olives, loads of chorizo because that’s my fave, stuffed peppers, cheeses, the lot. And some mini sausage rolls for my fussy brother, many of which I may have scoffed for myself too. I’m sure there’s no need for me to tell you that my keeping-the-weight-off-diet isn’t exactly going to plan, but I just lurrve food.