Fresh Apricot Muffins

It's been a busy old week this week, starting off with a [successful] trip to watch football at Wembley and a catch up with old friends and family, and ending with a day of housework and baking today, with a job interview, spot of work and juggling family life and half term in between. Thank goodness that the weather has been mostly good and the kids have been spending a lot of time outdoors playing football.

Last night I had a bit of a fright when I was closing the kitchen door for the evening, around 11.30, and almost squashed a frog in the doorway. I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to handling creatures so went to call for assistance. The eldest was still at work, middle child was at a friends, husband was away and youngest and his friend were fast asleep, but thankfully the eldest's girlfriend was still awake, but by the time we came downstairs the frog had hopped inside! Many comedy movements later and we'd managed to get the frog back out of the door with the assistance of a couple of flip flops. Hopefully it managed to make its way back to the pond sometime in the night, but I'll be keeping the doors closed tonight just incase.

A few weeks ago I started to have a weekly fruit box delivery from local business, B Taylor Fruit & Vegetables, and we've been enjoying loads of lovely fruits, including many that I wouldn't usually buy. This week we've received donut peaches, kiwis, apricots and strawberries along with the regular bananas, apples, grapes and oranges. It's a great way to enjoy seasonal fruits and the kids are loving the selection. I decided to use a few of the apricots to make some muffins for a friend who had a bit of an accident over the bank holiday, in the hope of bringing a little cheer to her. The recipe is nice and simple and a great one to make with the kids as it just requires a little mixing. The baked muffins are delicious straight from the oven with vanilla ice cream or custard, or left to cool they can be drizzled with a little icing.

Cadbury Creme Egg Chocolate Brownies

Easter is just around the corner, which means that chocolate will be coming out of our ears pretty soon. Why wait until Easter to eat Creme Eggs though, especially as they've been in the shops since Christmas, unless of course you've given up chocolate for lent, in which case you'll have to wait a couple more weeks!

Chocolate brownies are a very popular dessert in this household, especially served warm with vanilla ice cream. For these Cadbury Creme Egg brownies I used the same recipe as my Jammie Dodger Brownies but increased the quantity slightly as I wanted the brownies to be thick enough to surround the Creme Egg half.

Crispy on the top and rich and gooey inside. So indulgent and hard to resist.

If you want neat squares then wait until fully cooled before slicing, however if you can't wait then just grab a spoon and dive in whilst they're still warm!

Cadbury Creme Egg Chocolate Brownies - makes 12

250g butter

240g dark chocolate

325g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

80g cocoa powder

70g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

6 Cadbury Creme eggs, halved

• Add the butter & chocolate to a saucepan over a low heat and stir until melted
• Set aside until cooled slightly
• Whisk the sugar & eggs together until pale and creamy and doubled in size
• Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder
• Whisk the melted chocolate & butter into the eggs and sugar
• Fold in the flour, cocoa powder & baking powder until fully combined
• Pour mixture into a baking tin lined with baking paper (I used 11 x 7 inch pan)
• Bake in a preheated 160 degree C oven for 20 minutes
• Add the Creme Egg halves before baking for an additional 20 minutes - you want the top to be crispy and the centre to be a little gooey

Rhubarb Cake Traybake

Well that was a bit of a typically rubbish bank holiday with the weather. It's May but we spent much of the weekend wrapped up in winter coats watching football. Where we should've been sitting on blankets in the sunshine, we instead had the blankets over our knees to keep warm!

Thankfully the sun came out on Monday afternoon allowing us to spend a couple of hours in the pub garden, catching up with friends who we somehow only seem to see when the sun comes out and we bump into each other over a pint. The best kind of friends!

I hear the sun is shining in Portugal, and as that's where I'm heading next week for a break with old friends I'm happy that I will be able to wear my flip flops at long last.

This weekend did mark the arrival of our rhubarb though, which does make me happy, as I bloomin' love rhubarb, firstly because it doesn't require me to have any green fingers to grow it, and secondly because it makes a mean crumble. On Sunday I cooked a roast dinner (which is a bit of a rarity here), and followed it with a home made crumble  and a rhubarb cake. I started to panic when I checked the baking cupboard & realised that the girl teen had used up all the caster sugar making her speciality chocolate mug cakes, but had thankfully left me 3 eggs, which was enough for the cake. I used soft brown sugar instead of caster, but it would work equally well with caster, albeit a little paler in colour.

Rhubarb Cake Traybake by Helen Jessup on Scribd

It's a lovely moist cake, and it can be served warm or cold, on its own or with custard or vanilla ice cream. It's also great for packed lunches and picnics, and keeps well for a few days in an airtight container.

Raspberry Jammie Dodger Cupcakes

I'm a woman of my word, so as promised here is another sweet treat recipe for those that came here looking for something other than healthy January food. These cupcakes are a basic cake recipe that you can add your own flavours to. I chose to add a touch of vanilla extract this time, but grated lemon zest works really well too, especially with the raspberry topping.

Some people can find buttercream a little too sweet, but this simple topping is creamy and fruity, with just the right amount of sweetness. It's also a lot less hassle to make than buttercream as it doesn't leave your kitchen with a layer of icing sugar dust over it!

Perfect for your Valentine.(Nobody can see that the cases have a reindeer on the bottom!)

Jammie Dodger Cupcakes by Helen Jessup on Scribd

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Bloodied Bones Halloween Cake

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 
All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias

Halloween is a week away, but many people are celebrating it early this year and having a Halloween half term week, with end of term Halloween themed school discos and parties galore. Kids love dressing up and what better excuse do you need to join them. I usually don my black cape and witches hat or mask to surprise the trick or treaters when they call, and decorating the doorway gets us into the spirit (excuse the pun) of things.

I've already shared some ideas for simple Halloween party treats , but with some additional effort this Bloodied Bones Cake can form an eye catching centrepiece for your party. Full of blood clots and puss, it really is mouthwatering!

If you don't want to bake your own cake, you could buy a plain chocolate or vanilla cake and decorate it yourself. I made my own, using my go-to chocolate cake recipe, and for the meringues I used powdered egg white, which is very handy to have in the cupboard for the times that you feel the urge to make meringues, but don't want to use all of the eggs.

Dr Oetker Free Range Egg white powder can be found in the baking aisle of most supermarkets, including my local Tesco which has a very good range of baking ingredients. (You can also find a chocolate cake mix for just 99p in the same aisle).

Bloodied Bones Halloween Cake

cake
175g Stork for baking
175g Soft Dark brown sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Baking Powder
3 Eggs
100ml Greek Yoghurt

frosting & filling
300g Full Fat Cream Cheese
300g White Chocolate Spread
250g frozen cherries, thawed & lightly crushed

• Beat the Stork & sugar together in a bowl
• Sift the flour, cocoa & baking powder together
• Add the dry ingredients to the bowl along with the eggs & yogurt
• Beat well until combined
• Divide mixture between 2 x 8" round pans that have been greased & lined with baking parchment
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 25 minutes, until the tops are springy
• Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tins & allowing to cool fully on a wire rack
• Beat the cream cheese & white chocolate spread together 
• Sandwich the 2 cakes together with some of the icing and a few cherries, and use the rest to cover completely

meringue bones

1 packet of Dr Oetker egg white (4 sachets)

225g caster sugar

1tsp white wine vinegar

1tsp cornflour

• make the egg white up according to the directions on the pack
• whisk to soft peaks with an electric whisk or stand mixer
• gradually add the sugar whilst whisking, until it has all been added
• keep whisking on a high speed until it forms stiff peaks, and then whisk in the vinegar and cornflour
• spoon the meringue into an icing bag fitted with a small round nozzle
• pipe your bones onto baking sheets lined with baking paper
• preheat the oven to 150C and turn down to 100C once you place the baking trays in
• bake for approx 1 hour and then turn the oven off, leaving the door ajar, until the meringues are completely cool
• take care when removing from the baking sheets as they can be quite fragile
• just before serving, decorate the cake with your bones and drizzle some cherry 'blood and clots' over the top
• serve extra bones with bowls of puss (cream cheese & white chocolate spread) & blood (blended cherries) to dip into

additional Halloween items :

Light up Pumpkin : Waitrose

Eyeballs, rats, fingernails & bats : Tesco

Have you found any really cool items for Halloween, or made any grizzly looking food?

Ultimate Chocolate Drip / Freakcake Birthday Cake

When it's the birthday of one of my children, I usually make their birthday cake. I may have bought the odd caterpillar cake in the past, because, let's face it, the thought of a slice of a £5 caterpillar cake drying up in the bottom of a party bag is better than a slice of that cake you spent the hottest September day on record sweating over, rotting away in there. The cakes have not always gone to plan, and some have been bloody hard work - there was the time that I sieved fondant icing to make fluff for Boobah. If you don't know who or what Boobah is, Google it, your mind will be blown. Think Teletubbies on Ecstasy.

Cakes over the years have definitely become easier to make. It's more about what their favourite chocolate is rather than their favourite tv character. The kids can also be swayed by chocolate. Jack:"mum I think I'll have a football cake again this year'. Mum:"wouldn't you prefer to have a big chocolate cake with loads of yummy chocolate on".Jack:"yeah, yeah. Chocolate". Easy.

I'm no fan of fondant icing so a cake that benefits from buttercream or ganache is good for me. I'm not particularly neat when it comes to baking cakes either, so haphazard-less-is-most-definitely-not-more cakes are also good for me.

The basis for this year's cake came from a pot of Pinteresty looking polka dot sprinkles that I came across in a supermarket in Ireland in the summer, and I was desperate to use them. Aside from the sprinkles there was no great plan. As long as there were mint Aero Bubbles this teen girl was going to be happy. We'll ignore the fact that mint Aero Bubbles are half green and definitely didn't go with my beautifully colour co-ordinated cake!

A 5 layer ombre sponge cake was made (same recipe as this pink ombre sprinkle cake), and covered in buttercream, before refrigerating.

I then made a ganache by weighing out equal parts double cream and milk chocolate. The cream was heated and the chocolate was stirred in until the ganache was smooth and silky. Next time I'll leave the ganache to cool for a little while as it was a lot drippier than planned, and some of the toppings slid a little - the photo lower down of the back shows how the drips should look!

Sweets, donuts, biscuits and chocolates were added to the cake in a random fashion, with lollies and other tall items at the back to give the cake more height, and then I threw some of the sprinkles at the cake - yep, there was no delicate sprinkling involved.

BY THIS POINT THE CURLY WURLY HAD GIVEN UP & FALLEN OVER

PINK OMBRE SPONGE SANDWICHED WITH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

THE BACK

Reduced Sugar Lemon & Strawberry Cake

I haven't done much in the way of baking recently, mainly because I'm trying to cut out sugar as much as possible (which is a bit ironic really when I have a handmade marshmallow business), but when you have a handful of strawberries not looking their best, there's really only one thing to do with them, and that's throw them in a cake! 

I've reduced the sugar in this by over a third, but with the sweetness of the strawberries, and a sprinkling of sugar on the top, you really wouldn't notice.

Reduced Sugar Lemon & Strawberry Cake

175g butter or margarine (I use Stork for baking)

100g caster sugar

zest of one large lemon

tsp vanilla extract

3 medium eggs

175g self raising flour

85g ripe strawberries, sliced

• Set aside 1 tsp of caster sugar
• Beat the butter, remaining sugar and lemon zest together until pale & creamy
• Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
• Fold in the flour, until well combined
• Pour batter into a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin
• Scatter the sliced strawberries on the top of the batter and sprinkle on the reserved caster sugar
• Bake in a preheated 170C oven for approx 45-50 minutes, until golden brown on top and springy to the touch
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely

Serve warm or cold, on it's own or with a drizzle of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Pictured are gorgeous recycled cotton napkins and bamboo cutting board, received from A Slice of Green, the home of ethical products to help you live more sustainably.

Napkins £5.00 for a set of two

Bambu cutting board with coloured edging £16.00

Chocolate Finger and Sweets Covered Chocolate Birthday Cake

Last week my eldest child turned 15. FIFTEEN! How on earth did that happen? It doesn't seem very long ago that he was born, yet fifteen years before that I was only fifteen myself, and I don't recall those fifteen years passing as quickly. I really hope the next fifteen don't pass as quickly, because you don't need to be a genius to work out how old I will be then!

Enough about my age though, and onto the cake. Thankfully it seems as though my character birthday cake making days are behind me, and the kids are happy to settle for a chocolate or carrot cake for their birthday, following a takeaway pizza. This time I made one of my favourite cakes with chocolate fingers around and sweets on top, and as my eldest loves Dolly Mixtures I added some of these, along with some red, white & blue M&M's which I found in the pound shop - 2 bags for £1! 

I have various chocolate cake recipes that I use, and this time I made a basic one that replaces some of the flour with cocoa powder. Two other chocolate cake recipes can be found here : chocolate fudge cake, chocolate orange cake, which can both be used as a base for this cake.

Chocolate Finger Birthday Cake

cake

4 medium eggs (weighed in their shells they were 260g - use this weight for your flour,sugar & butter)

260g butter, softened

260g caster sugar

260g self raising flour (remove 1 heaped tbsp & replace with the cocoa powder)

1 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

icing

200g full fat cream cheese

200g chocolate spread

to decorate

2.5 packs of Cadbury chocolate fingers

sweets & chocolates

• beat the butter and sugar together until light & fluffy
• beat in the eggs one at a time
• sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder together and fold into the batter
• divide the batter into two greased & lined 8" sandwich tins
• bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 25 minutes
• cool for 10 minutes in the tins before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely
• beat the cream cheese and chocolate spread together
• use some of this to sandwich the cakes together, and cover the rest over the top and sides of the cake
• position chocolate fingers around the edge of the cake, and place 6 on the top to divide into 6 sections
• add sweets into the sections on top of the cake

Raspberry & White Chocolate Crumble Muffins

On a recent visit to our allotment I was surprised with a lovely crop of raspberries, just when I thought raspberry season was over. They don't last long once picked, so rather than filling my face with them I decided to make some muffins for the family to enjoy over the following few days.

Raspberry & White Chocolate Crumble Muffins - makes 12

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

225ml milk (I use skimmed)

50ml oil (I used rapeseed)

125g fresh raspberries

125g white chocolate chips

crumble topping

50g plain flour

25g butter

25g caster sugar

• mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together in a large bowl
• beat the egg, vanilla, milk and oil together in a second bowl or jug
• add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine (making sure not to over mix)
• fold the raspberries and chocolate chips carefully through the batter
• pour batter into 12 muffin cases
• add the crumble ingredients to a food processor and blitz until a breadcrumb type consistency is formed
• spoon the crumble onto the batter
• bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 25 minutes until golden brown

Honey Fruit Cake with Honey Caramel Glaze

A couple of days ago I was having a bit of a clear out in one of the kitchen cupboards, and discovered a few bags of opened dried fruit. Most of the bags didn't have much more than a handful of fruit in them, which is not really much use on their own, however, pooled together they were perfect for a fruit cake.

I received some Cheshire rapeseed honey recently, along with a couple of bottles of rapeseed oil , from Calvia, so decided to try it out in the fruit cake instead of using refined sugar. I also used the honey to make a delicious glaze, which was just like caramel, and would be great over ice cream.

Honey Fruit Cake with Honey Caramel Glaze

Cake
450g dried fruit (I used a mixture of cherries, raisins, currants, dates, pineapple and apricots)
300ml cranberry juice
50g butter
200g honey
tsp vanilla extract
3 medium eggs
400g self raising flour, sifted

Honey Caramel Glaze
25g butter
50g honey

toasted flaked almonds (optional)

• Add the dried fruit, cranberry juice, butter, honey & vanilla to a saucepan
• Heat gently and stir until the butter has melted
• Set aside to cool, or leave overnight (if you leave overnight the butter will harden a little so just bring back to a liquid by heating a little)
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Stir in the flour until well combined
• Pour into a well buttered spring form cake pan - I added a ring insert to mine
• Bake in a preheated 160C oven for around 1 hour, until a skewer inserted comes out clean
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack & cooling completely
• Make the glaze by bringing the butter & honey to the boil & simmering until it thickens
• Drizzle the glaze over the cake and scatter a few of the almonds over the top

If you're in the Cheshire/Manchester area you can find stockists of Calvia here, with an online shop coming soon for those further afield.

Chocolate Orange Birthday Cake

As if one teenager in the house wasn't enough, I'm now officially the parent of two teenagers. A birthday always calls for cake, and as for most of the birthdays that fall midweek there were two cakes - one for a weekend party and one on the actual day of the birthday. This chocolate orange cake was made for a birthday sleepover, and shared amongst friends and family. 

I originally intended to serve the cake after dinner on Saturday night, but as I'd left the husband to feed the girls whilst I took the eldest to A&E for a suspected broken ankle (still no firm diagnosis on that), we enjoyed it for a late Sunday morning breakfast instead - got to love cake for breakfast!

A photo posted by Helen (@thecrazykitchen) on Sep 13, 2015 at 2:21am PDT

Chocolate Orange Cake

sponges
100ml coffee
35g cocoa powder
190g caster sugar
1 egg
60ml vegetable oil
125ml milk
115g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

filling
1 pack of orange jelly
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar, sifted
4tbsp room temperature water 
150g good quality milk chocolate, melted

to decorate
1 box of Lindt Lindor orange truffles
jaffa cakes (I used 13, which was just over 1 box)

• Beat together the coffee, cocoa powder and sugar until smooth
• Beat in the egg, oil and milk
• Sift together the flour, baking powder & bicarb of soda
• Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well
• Divide the mixture between two greased & lined 8" tins
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 20 minutes
• Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
• Make the jelly up with half a pint of boiling water
• Pour into an 8" cake tin lined with clingfilm & place in the fridge/freezer until set
• Beat together the butter & icing sugar
• Add the water and beat until light and fluffy
• Beat in the melted chocolate until fully combined
• Lay one cooled sponge onto a plate & spread a little buttercream on top 
• Place the set jelly on top 
• Spread a little buttercream over the flat side of the other sponge and place on top of the jelly
• Spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sides
• Decorate with Lindt chocolate orange truffles & jaffa cakes

I was sent some Lindt Lindor orange truffles free of charge

Courgette & Lemon Madeira Cake

It's that time of the year again when the Great British Bake Off bakers face the judges, and after strolling in a day late to watch the first episode I'm already quaking in my boots on behalf of the contestants. If they're already tempering chocolate and caramelising at this early stage, I fear for what lies ahead.

I took the easy option and went for a Maderia cake, mainly because I'd already planned to make a courgette cake with our whopper of a courgette/small marrow, so it fitted in perfectly. I'm not sure what Paul and Mary would make of my twist on a traditional Madeira, or my very small (but perfectly formed) crack *snigger*.

Courgette & Lemon Madeira Cake 

175g butter or margarine (I use Stork)
175g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
3 medium eggs
250g self raising flour, sifted
approx 135g courgette

icing
150g icing sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
tbsp Greek yogurt

• Beat the butter and sugar together until pale & creamy
• Add the lemon zest and the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition
• Fold in the flour
• Grate the courgette and squeeze as much of the liquid out as possible
• Add the grated courgette to the batter and fold through
• Add batter to a greased & lined loaf pan
• Bake in a preheated 175C oven for approx 45 minutes
• Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
• Make the icing by beating the icing sugar, lemon juice & yogurt together until smooth, adding more lemon juice as needed

GRATED COURGETTES IN THE BATTER

WHAT A WHOPPER