Rustic Loaf

As if making homemade seafood chowder (see bbc good food for haddock chowder but then add mussels!) wasn't enough to make us domestic goddesses, we went one step further, baking our own homemade rustic loaf.

Dough Ingredients

500g Strong White Bread Flour

1 x 7g Yeast Sachet

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 tsp Salt

300ml Water

1. Firstly mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.

2. Make a well in the centre, then add the oil and water before mixing into a dough.

3. Knead the bread on a floured surface until smooth then leave to rest for an hour or until its doubled in size.

4. Shape into desired form before placing on a baking tray, leaving for another hour before baking.

5. Heat oven to 220C or gas mark 7, baking for 25 to 30 mins.

(N.B. for extra rusticness add mixed seeds to the doughs surface just before baking.)

Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

It was another week and another moment for contemplation and procrastination. I'm a complete chocolate lover (of any size, shape, colour or form!) with my counterpart being an avid fan of the white chocolate variety. Taking this on board we opted for a chocolate treat - chocolate cupcakes with indulgent white chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients

120g Butter

120g Caster Sugar

95g Self-Raising Flour

25g Cocoa Powder

2 Large Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

50g Crushed Milk Chocolate

Icing Ingredients

70g Butter

70g Icing Sugar

50g White Chocolate

50g White Chocolate (for decoration)

1. Cream butter and sugar together.

2. Mix in one egg at a time, adding half of the flour with each.

3. Add cocoa, vanilla and chocolate, before binding to create final mixture.

4. Place into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180C for 25 - 30 minutes.

1. Cream together butter and icing sugar.

2. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a hot pan and after leaving to cool briefly, add gradually to the butter and sugar mixture.

3. If necessary allow mixture to stiffen in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4. For decoration, use remaining white chocolate to create chocolate curls with a knife or peeler.

Homemade Calzone!

It was Friday night and being the good little souls that we are we ignored the calls of the pub and instead recognised the importance of being studious. the essays must come first.

well.. after calzone's.

Making your own dough might seem like a bit much but its quicker and easier than it seems and gives great results.

Dough

1kg Strong White Bread Flour

1 tbsp Salt

2 x 7g Sachets of Dried Yeast

1tbsp Caster Sugar

4tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

650ml Luke Warm Water

Filling

Your choice!

We chose..

Passata (with Garlic and Herbs)

Oak roasted Ham

Field Mushrooms

Buffalo Mozzarella

Wilted Spinach

Red Onion

1. Sieve flour and salt onto a surface and make a well.

2. Mix yeast, sugar, oil and water in a jug.

3. After leaving for a few moments, pour the mixture into the well gradually whilst continually bringing the flour in.

4. Once mixed, knead until you have a smooth and springy dough.

5. Leave the dough in a flour dusted bowl with a damp cloth over the top in a warm room for approx. 1 hour.

6. Once ready knead dough briefly before rolling out.

7. Slip mix into portions, rolling each portion out into a large circular shape on the work surface.

8. Fill one half with filling, then pulling the other half over the top.

9. Seal edges either by pinching or with a fork.

10. Flour dust and cook for 15-20 minutes at gas mark 7.

Original dough recipe from Jamie Oliver Online.

Sweet and Savoury Scone Surprise!

Becca's Birthday Brunch - Delicious sweet sultana scones with jam and clotted cream - classic! and for the savoury fiends, some exciting cheese and spinach scones.

Serve with Hibiscus fizz, tea and lots of presents!

Sweet Sultana Scones

225g Self Raising Flour

55g Butter

25g Caster Sugar

50g Sultanas

150ml Milk

1. Preheat the oven to 220C or Gas Mark 7.

2. Mix flour and salt together.

3. Rub in the butter with your fingers.

4. Stir in the sugar and sultanas, and then add milk to create a dough.

5. Flour the work surface, before kneading the dough.

6. Cut shapes to approx. 2cm thick and 5cm round.

7. Place on a baking tray and brush the tops with milk before baking for 12-15minutes.

8. Serve in classic form, with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

Cheese and Spinach Scones

As Above, minus the sugar and sultanas.

50g Cheese (Mixture of parmasean and cheddar)

50g Spinach leaves, finely chopped.

2 tsp Dijon Mustard.

1. Mix as for sweet scones until no.4.

2. Instead of sultanas and sugar, add cheese, spinach, mustard and seasoning.

3. Add milk to create dough and then knead on floured work surface.

4. Cut shapes to approx. 2cm thick and 5cm round.

5. Place on a baking tray and brush the tops with milk before baking for 12-15minutes.

6. Serve with tomato or onion chutney.

Cloud Cakes with Frosting *Update*

A second round of cloud cake making for our dear flatmate Rebecca Felgate's 22nd birthday. Being a beautiful girly girl, we wanted to make the centres extra jammy and the frosting extra sweet with different pastel colours. Here's what we learnt..

The original recipe suggests a teaspoon of jam stirred into each case of cupcake mixture. Although this adds a little bit of something special to each cake, its often not enough. We suggest placing a further teaspoon of jam on top of the mixture just before baking.

After being so successful with the fluffy frosting last time, we decided to make cupcakes with coloured frosting. However we learnt the hard way that this type of frosting doesn't work with regular food colouring. Once added the mixture becomes too runny and is unable to make peaks. Such a shame because of the beautiful colours!

We suggest instead to create several different batches of coloured sugar for on top of the white fluffy icing.

Cloud Cakes with Frosting

Strawberry Swirl Buttercake

90g Butter

110g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs

150g Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 tbsp Milk

Strawberry Jam

Fluffy Frosting

220g Caster Sugar

80ml Water

2 Egg Whites

Decoration

Pink Sugar

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 180 C and lining a 12 hole muffin tin with 12 large cupcake cases.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

3. Add an egg with half of the self raising flour and fold in. Repeat with the second egg and the remaining flour.

4. Add vanilla extract and milk and mix together.

5. Divide the mixture between the 12 cases.

6. Spoon approximately one teaspoon of strawberry jam onto each cake, mixing into the mixture with a skewer (or chopstick if unavailable!)

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

8. For the frosting, combine the sugar and water in a small pan and stir on the heat until the sugar has dissolved.

9. Boil without stirring for 5 minutes.

10. Remove from the heat.

11. Whisk 2 egg whites in a bowl until you form soft peaks.
12. Whilst continuing to whisk add the syrup mixture slowly. Continue to whisk for approx. 10 minutes.

13. Decoration - To make coloured sugar simply put caster sugar in a plastic bag or cling film, add food colouring and massage.

(N.B. - when putting jam into cake cases, adding a little extra dollop on top before you place in the oven gives an extra sweet kick!

Original recipe from Marks and Spencers - Cupcakes.