The Devil In Her Heart

Hey

Now I do love my chocolate, so chocolate cake is one of my favourite things to bake when given the chance. The most indulgent chocolate cake that I know is devil's food cake, but I only really make this from a packet mix. That was until I came across this recipe for devil's food loaf. The one thing I don't like about packet mixes is that it make one big cake (it means it is round longer to tempt you), where as this loaf cake is good for a couple of days for a family of four. The recipe is surprisingly simple as well.

Ingredients:

• 50g cocoa
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 medium eggs
• 250g light muscovado sugar
• 120ml groundnut oil
• 130g self raising flour
• 125g dark chocolate
• 20g unsalted butter
• 30g cocoa
• 4 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp treacle
• white chocolate to decorate

1. Lightly grease a 1.2L loaf tin or line with a paper liner
2. Whisk the cocoa with 100ml of boiling water, then add the bicarbonate of soda and leave to cool for 20 minutes

3. Preheat the oven to  180C
4. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil until smooth and combined

5. Stir in the flour, then the cooled cocoa solution until combined

6. Pour into the loaf tin, and tap it a couple of times to release any bubbles.

7. Bake for 60-65 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack

9. To make the frosting, gently melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over simmering water.

10. Mean while, combine the cocoa, milk and treacle in a small saucepan and heat to almost boiling point, whisking occasionally

11. Whisk together the melted chocolate and the cocoa solution until a thick glossy glaze is formed
12. Slit the cake in half horizontally, and smooth over a third of the chocolate glaze, then replace the top half
13. Spread the remaining glaze over the top, and leave this to set slightly for 10 minutes

14. Decorate your devil's food loaf with white chocolate - I used buttons as that was the only white chocolate I had
15. Leave the frosting to set for a couple of hours before serving

xxx

Grapefruit Moon

Hey

I have definitely been trying to increase my knowledge of French food by cooking my way through my little Paris and little French kitchen cookbooks. When I was hunting through the cupboards this weekend, I found that there was a book of 6 mini flans. After this discovery I decide to try the recipe for grapefruit tartlets with pepper meringue. I do like lemon meringue pie so I was sure I would love these too. As I had the mini flans I didn't make the biscuit base but I will definitely will the next time I make them. It was the first time I have made my own curd from scratch and it wasn't that difficult, the description of pureed tomatoes as a consistency did throw me for a while though. 

This was one of the recipes that Rachel Khoo recorded during her Little Paris Kitchen series for the BBC. It was viewable on Youtube but for some reason that one recipe seems to be blocked everytime I find it now.

xxx

Mother Mary

Hey

I always hunt through magazines looking for recipes especially in the YOU magazine on Sundays. The YOU magazine is where I found my go to lasagne recipe which I always used now. Recently the recipe feature has been on Mary Berry and her new book. As she is the queen of cakes I had to try out her white chocolate and strawberry muffins as it is such a classic combination. 

Ingredients:

• 300g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 225ml milk
• 100g butter, melted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g white chocolate chips
• 12 tsp strawberry jam

The recipe is so simple:

• mix together all the ingredients for the batter
• stir through the white chocolate chips
• divide the half the mixture between 12 muffin cases
• place a teaspoon of strawberry jam in each
• top with the remaining mixture
• bake for 25-30 minutes at 200C
• enjoy!

xxx

All The Small Things

Hey

For this valentine's day I was inspire by a DIY gift idea from Bethany Moto (aka MacBarbie07). The idea was included in her Christmas gift guide but I think it is perfectly suited for valentine's day. So let's get started.

What you will need:

• a deck of cards
• hole punch
• label stickers
• decorative tape
• pens
• ribbon

To begin with, start by hole punching each card twice so once it is finished to can be tied together to form a book. Do hole punch the joker card as well as this be the cover for your book.

Then place an label sticker in the middle of each card and fold round the edges. Place the label sticker on the back of the joker card so that it is the opposite way round to the rest of the cards to create a book cover.

On the book cover add some of your pattern tape above and below the label sticker to create a pretty border. Next comes the special part. List the things you love the most about the person you are creating your little book for. The more personalised it is to the person or the two of you, the more special it will be and it will mean more to that person.

Once all 52 reasons have be written, its time to collect them all together and thread ribbon through the holes and tie a bow to finish off your book.

All that is left to do is to deliver it to the person you love. To watch Bethany's tutorial on this gift it can be viewed here.

xxx

I'm Eating Fried Chicken at People's Square

Hey

I'm not quite eating fried chicken but I did, try out a Chinese recipe at the weekend as it was the Chinese New Year. I do love a good Chinese but only really do stir fries from scratch at home but I'm going to change that especially as I got my second Chinese recipe book for Christmas.

This was definitely a good recipe to start with. It's so simple. Mix together the ingredients for the marinade, then adding the chicken and refrigerate for as long as possible. Then roast for 30 minutes in the oven (I left my for longer and did turn up the oven to get them really crisp. 

 
When I came to make my marinade I did discover that I had no runny honey (too many hot honey and lemons), so instead I used golden syrup as it would act in the same way.

This recipe will be hopefully be a regular at home.

xxx