Freckle Biscuits

I cannot take credit for these colourful beauties. My sister made them after seeing something similar in a  cafe. The classic chocolate treat "Freckles" have always been a favourite but they're so much better in biscuit form. My sister decided to make a shortbread for the base and used Lorraine Pascale's "Dreamlike Shortbread" recipe. The full recipe can be found here. Once the biscuits have cooled completely, dip the tops into some melted chocolate and then into a bowl of hundreds and thousands. Easy as you like! Na xo

Wholemeal Banana Pancakes

During the holiday season I liked watching "Jamie's Family Christmas". I especially loved his no fuss pancake recipe that he made with the help of his adorable little daughters. The basic recipe is so easy to commit to memory and it goes like this...1 mug self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, mix it all together and you're a few minutes away from delicious fluffy pancakes. Make sure that you use the same mug to measure the flour and the milk. So that's the basic recipe, which is great as is but if you want to turn them into something a little bit more special then just add some fruit to the mix. Jamie grated some pear into his mixture but I opted for banana. My wholemeal banana version goes like this...

Add 1 mug wholemeal self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt and 1 large mashed banana. Mix it all together. Melt a little butter in a pan and fry on a medium heat until golden brown. Squeeze a bit of honey on them if you like. Perfect start to a lazy Sunday! Na xo

Christmas Tree Cupcakes (Chocolate & Peppermint)

These Christmas trees featured alongside Mi's delicious red velvet cupcakes last Christmas and were part of our very first blog post! Unfortunately, the recipe was not included in that first post...just a pretty picture. So here it is...just in time for Christmas!

Hungarian Tart

Another tried and true recipe from my mum for HUNGARIAN TART. It's basically a buttery shortbread with a strawberry jam filling. I'm not exactly sure if this is traditionally Hungarian but it's what we've always called it! 

Naan Katai (Semolina Shortbread)

This delicious crumbly biscuit has been a family favourite for pretty much all of my life. The recipe was passed from my grandmother to my mother and now to me. It was a bit difficult to write the exact recipe because a lot of it is done by feel as opposed to measurements. My advise would be to practice till you get it right!

Green Tea and White Chocolate Cookies

You may recall from a previous post that my Mum doesn't really have a sweet tooth and loves green tea hence the green tea cupcakes for her birthday. I've had recent success with making earl grey tea cookies and since my mum was visiting on the weekend I thought to myself why not try making green tea cookies. I used the same recipe for the earl grey tea cookies, using matcha instead of earl grey and a handful of white chocolate chips (about 50 g). I rolled the cookies dough into a log, wrapped in baking paper, placed in the fridge for about an hour, sliced and baked. Easy. If you enjoy green tea and want to try something a bit different this is the cookie for you. Enjoy! Mi xo

Peanut Butter and Jam Cupcakes

These little cakes came into being thanks to a mildy humorous story. I was walking back to work, munching on a sandwich and enjoying the sun rays, when I heard the raucous laughter of university students. They walked past and through the relaxing sounds of Neil Young coming out of my headphones, I overheard one of them say very proudly "I havn't had a peanut butter and jam sandwich in such a long time and now I have two!". There he was, marching proudly with not one but two of almost everyone's childhood favourite.

I'm not quite sure why I found this amusing but it made me smile so I thought I'd use it as inspiration for a cupcake recipe. To be honest, I'm always trying to turn almost every idea into a cupcake recipe. This one turned out pretty well I think. The recipe is as follows:

Little Lemon Puddings

It's been a little while between posts, I've been moving house and trying to cope with a new oven. After an initial baking disaster I managed to bake something without burning it! Turns out my oven is way too hot and I had to turn the temperature down by 40 degrees. My sister came over on the weekend to see our new place, so I decided to make one of her favourite desserts Bill Granger's little lemon puddings. These puddings are really quick and easy to whip up and perfect when you are in the mood for something sweet but light, however, be warned they rise beautifully in the oven but sink quickly when out of the oven. The photo below was taken while the the puddings were in the oven and as you can see the ones closest to the front have already started to sink.

Carrot Cake

Today is Father's Day! To celebrate this, my dad requested a carrot cake so a carrot cake is what I made...

Chocolate and Walnut Oat Cookies

I had a hankering for a biscuit that incorporated oats and chocolate so I tinkered with my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and came up with this! They're slightly crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside, which is just how I like them!

Flourless Orange Cupcakes with Candied Orange

Mr Mi loves the little flourless orange muffins from Luxe Bakery (and I love them too)! So I decided to try and make these sweets treats for him. After some searching, I came across this great recipe from Citrus and Candy. I followed the recipe exactly as written, except instead of using a cake tin I used muffin tins to make 22 cupcakes and reduced the baking time to 20 minutes. To decorate, I made some candied orange slices using this recipe, replacing white sugar with raw sugar resulting in a nice caramel syrup. The cupcakes were lovely, moist and the candied orange finishes it off nicely. Mr Mi gave it a 10 out of 10 and thumbs up, he especially loved the candied orange. Try it out, you won't regret it. Mi xo

Cornbread

I made some cornbread to accompany a recent texan themed family dinner, complete with steak, mash potatoes and home-made baked beans. Having never made cornbread before, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Unlike your average loaf of bread, this corn variety doesn't require yeast and can be made to be savoury or sweet by adding sugar or honey. The end result is quite a heavy bread that's delicious, addictive and extremely filling! If you want to have a go at making these southern delights; just follow these simple steps:

Christmas in July

I usually only make gingerbread once a year at Christmas time. Our friends recently invited us to a Christmas in July dinner, complete with ham, Christmas presents and carols! I decided to re-create my favourite recipe for gingerbread. It never disappoints, soft and chewy with a hint of spice and the lovely full flavour of molasses. Yummy! Mi xo

Teapot and Teacup Sugar Cookies

I love cookie cutters and hope to one day have quite a collection but until recently, all I had were circles, flowers and gingerbread man shapes. The other day I found myself in a situation where I was faced with a wall of cookie cutters! All shapes and sizes! There was so much to choose from but once I saw the teapot and teacup shaped cookie cutters, I knew they were coming home with me that day. 

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I was recently in a Steampunk inspired production of The Mikado and wanted to make something in theme to give to the cast and crew as thank you presents. I came across these amazing Steampunk Cookies, she used this recipe to make Earl Grey tea cookies. At first, the thought of using tea leaves in a biscuit did seem a bit strange to me but trust me you will not be disappointed by the result. The biscuits were buttery and crispy with a slight hint of Earl Grey...not too strong. I tried to re-create the cog shape using two circle cookies cutters and a small rectangular one, it was not very successful...the cookies spread quite a bit as they cooked and so turned out a little bit more like flowers! Oh well, I guess it's the taste and thought that matters the most. Mi xo

Chocolate Chai Cupcakes

A slight modification of the chai cupcake recipe that I posted earlier. I was asked to make a batch of my chai cupcakes for a special occasion but I wanted to change it up a bit since I was growing a little tired of basic vanilla. I'm a chocolate fiend, so the first thing that came to mind was adding chocolate to these spicy chai cakes. You can find my full recipe on the Chai Cupcakes post. Just add 2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder to the basic vanilla cupcake batter. Simple! Next time, I would like to make them a little bit more chocolatey by adding some choc chips or melted chocolate. Na xo

MiNa's Thursday Lunch: Pot Pies & Pudding

Lentil (centre) and chicken (top right) pot pie with sweet potato mash and peas.

Every Thursday at our workplace, we have what's called "Thursday lunch" where we take turns cooking lunch for all our work buddies. It's been a long standing tradition and is a great way to bring everyone together. Soon it was our turn and for weeks leading up to the day we dreamt up all these fabulous dishes that we would make...then we stopped and realised that we had to make it for 30 odd people and suddenly we decided to re-think the plans and make something that is easy to upscale yet still delicious. This is when Jamie Oliver came to the rescue! We are both big fans of his cookbook Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, so turned to this for inspiration. What would people want to eat on a cold winter's day? Steaming hot pot pies with a side of mash and peas topped off with soft-centred chocolate puddings, raspberry coulis and double cream! Perhaps this was also inspired by our recent trip to the Pie Tin.

Vanilla and Rose Water Cupcakes

For Mr Mi's recent birthday bash, Mi asked me to make a batch of cupcakes to accompany her brilliant Nyan Cat Cake. I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to make a basic vanilla cupcake with a pleasing swirl of buttercream frosting on each one. I gave the buttercream a bit of an exotic touch by adding just a hint of rose water essence. The full recipe is as follows:

Butterfly Cupcakes

I absolutely love the smell of vanilla cupcakes baking in the oven. I've made a lot of cupcakes in my time and I still think the best recipe for a basic vanilla cupcake is equal portions of butter, sugar and flour. I got this recipe from 500 Cupcakes one of my favourite baking cookbooks. It's super easy and you can't go wrong. In fact it's very similar to Na's basic cupcake batter in her recent post Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. Just make sure the butter and eggs have come to room temperature before beating together.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

What do you get when you mash together a cake with a cookie? Whoopie pie! I came across this recipe from one of my favourite food blogs, Not Quite Nigella. The first time I tried this recipe, I used rock salt thinking somehow that the granules would dissolve...well it didn't! So, second time around I just decided to omit the salt and instead of the marshmallow filling I made a peanut buttercream. I also made them much smaller, using a teaspoon instead of an ice cream scoop. They rise and expand quite a bit in the oven, you have been warned! I used Na's buttercream recipe with some slight modifications:

Peanut buttercream recipe

• 125 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter
• 1 and 1/2 cup of pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk

1. Beat the butter and peanut butter with an electric whisk
2. Add the icing sugar, vanilla and milk
3. Beat until smooth and creamy

I love peanut butter and while I thought this buttercream was pretty good, I think I would add more peanut butter next time. Enjoy! Mi xo