Fat Friday #22 Homemade Mulled Wine

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas fellow food lovers. Do you overstuff your faces on chocolate and turkey? I hope so! (Just not at the same time at least!) I'm still in a festive mood and am still enjoying my mulled wine left over from Christmas. If you've never made your own, its worth making some as it is really easy to make. Mulled wine solves everything.

Got unexpected friends coming over and want to served something special? Mulled wine solves it. Talkative relatives? Mulled wine solves it and dulls the noise coming from their mouths. Had a rough shift at work? Mulled wine solves it. Even at 3pm in the afternoon.... I don't have a mulled wine alcohol problem!

Recipe: Makes 4 servings (Recipe inspired by Boutique Baking by Peggy Porschen)

Ingredients:
·       1 orange, plus a extra orange slices to serve
·       1 bottle red wine
·       1 teaspoon of ground ginger
·       100ml water
·       45g sugar
·       1 teaspoon ground cloves
·       2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
·       ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
·       1 star anise, crushed

Equipment:

·       Saucepan
·       Fine sieve
·       Serving glasses or mugs
·       Peeler
·       Knife

Method
1.    Peel the rind from the orange and cut the orange in half.
2.    Place the peel, orange halves and the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan. Warm for about 20 minutes. Don’t allow to boil.
3.    Take pan off the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid and allow to infuse for 30 minutes.
4.    Strain the mulled wine through a sieve to remove the solid ingredients.
5.    Serve warm in glasses with slices of orange. 

Have a great Boxing day and a happy Friday! 

Christmas Eve Cooking

Baking at the last minute? Or just want to make something festive at this time of year? Here is the blog's rundown of festive recipes!

 Stained Glass Cookies

 Christmas Tree Cupcakes

 Killer Snow Woman Cupcakes

Yeti Cupcakes

Snow Day Cupcakes



Yule Log Cake

Banoffee Cupcakes

 Chocolate Orange Tart

Salted Butter Toffees

 

So that's my Christmas baking list! Have a really great Christmas eve, a merry Christmas and I'll see you on Boxing Day with Fat Friday!

Merry Christmas

 

 

 

Fat Friday #20 Chocolate Orange Tart

Its right in the middle of December at this point and I'm sure that most of you are either done your Christmas shopping early or are struggling fighting the crowds for those pressies. Well if your like me the main concern is food, especially at this time of year! I'm think rich, decadent, comfort food which is perfect for Fat Friday. This Chocolate Orange Tart will delight as well as impress on the table. Serve with a creamy vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce if need more of a chocolate hit!
I must state that I'm giving full credit to my friend and college buddy for the lovely photo. Why not pay her a visit on her cake website?

 

 

Recipe: Makes 1 tart

·       450g dark chocolate

·       300g butter

·       3 eggs

·       3 egg yolks

·       90g caster sugar

·       2 oranges zested

Pate Brisee:

·       250g soft flour

·       205g very cold butter

·       5g salt

·       55g ice cold water

Equipment

·       Bowl

·       Saucepan

·       Bowl

·       Jug

·       Wooden spoon

·       Rolling pin

·       Knife

·       Chopping board

·       4 small round tins

·       Baking beans

·       Baking sheet lined with silicone paper

·       Cling film

·       Fork

For the Pastry

1.    Rub the flour, salt and butter together until just combined. If you over work the mix, the butter will mix too much. 

2.    Add the iced water and bring the dough together.

3.    Once the dough has been brought together wrap in a neat parcel and chill in the fridge while you make the other parts of the dish.

4.    Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c/350f

5.    Cut the chilled dough into 4 pieces. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, until about 2 mm thick.

6.    Line the metal cases with the dough and roughly chop any remaining edges. Prick the dough base lightly with a fork.

7.    Place a little clingfilm into the dough cases and fill with baking beans.

8.    Blind bake for 18 minutes or until completely cooked through.

9.    Take the baking beans out of the tart and bake a little longer to dry the cases out.

Tart Filling:

1.    Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave or over a bowl of hot water.

2.    In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together.

3.    Mix the orange zest into the chocolate.

4.    Pour the chocolate into the egg mixture slowly and whisk.

To Finish:

1.    Pour the chocolate filling into the tart casing and bake on 170c/325f/Gas Mark 3/ for 12 minutes.
2.    Once cooked and cooled. Place the tart in the fridge overnight.

Have a great weekend!

Honey and Banana Cake Revisited

I know I'm a little late with my this post but its been brought to my attention that I've got to do some university work during the summer. During the summer. It's a sin. It hurts my head thinking about it. 
I've been working at my new job and I saw some banana that weren't good enough to serve to customers. They were going to get thrown away! Now what do you do with really ripe bananas? You bake them into something fab! This cake is way better to serve to customers rather then a boring banana. 

Since moving from London I only packed a single suitcase. My whole life in one suitcase. Needless to say that I couldn't bring down a single recipe book so I wanted to revisit a recipe that had already been published on the blog. The Banana and Honey Cake
that my friend Louise had given the recipe to me is a cake that often gets baked when I've got some manky banana's that need to be used up. To make it even quicker, skip out the icing and just drizzle a little honey on top.  

Ingredients needed:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 6 tbsp honey
• 300g self-raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 150g brown sugar
• 2 ripe banana's 
• 250ml milk
• 2 eggs, beaten

Equipment needed:

• 450g loaf tin
• small saucepan
• tablespoon
• sieve
• 2 large bowls
• fork
• wooden spoon
• metal spoon
• skewer/knife
• foil

1.     Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c/350f, and grease and line your loaf tin.

Step 2. Add t

2.     Melt butter with the honey in a small saucepan.

3.     Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir.

This is my mashy face

Look at the intense concentration 

Step 4. Add the melted butter and honey. 

4.     Mash the bananas, mix them with the milk and eggs, and then add the melted butter and honey.

Step 5. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients

5.     Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and fold it in with a metal spoon.

Step 6. Cover with foil and bake

6.     Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, cover loosely with tin foil and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.

Orange Cream Cheese Icing. 

As said before, if you haven't got time to make a frosting, just try heating some more honey and brush it on top. 

• 175g cream cheese
• 325g icing sugar
• 125g unsalted butter
• the zest of one orange

Equipment needed:

• Sift
• 2 bowls
• Hand mixer
• Knife

1.     Sift the icing sugar in one of the bowls

Step 2. Mix all the other ingredients together

2.     Mix all the other ingredients together in the other bowl.

Step 3. Combine all the ingredients together

3.     Once combined, mix the icing sugar a little at a time. 

4.     Spread the icing onto the cooled banana cake. 

5. Decorate with something nice such as sprinkles or fruit slices.

Have an excellent week! Also, don't forget to check me out on BlogLovin'

Killer Snow-woman, Boyfriends and Cranberry and Orange Cupcakes

"It's only cupcakes Penny, the ingredients don't have to be exact."

"Hey let's eat the batter."

"Look it's a Snow-woman in a Lush bath. It looks like you!"

Some of the best quotes that my boyfriend had blurted out when we were baking cupcakes. 

He doesn't bake much, bless. 

Baking is one of these things that can bring people together. The combination of doing something fun with someone you love as well as dancing around the kitchen to some tacky music to finally decorating the cupcakes and stuffing them in our faces afterwards. 

We did bake and decorate the cupcakes in the end and not just flinging flour at each other. It was lovely to spend some down-time in the kitchen with my better half. We, (well I did really,) decided upon Cranberry and Orange cupcakes with an Orange Cream Cheese Frosting.  

Cupcakes makes 12

•      228g plain flour
•      ½  tsp of baking power
•      1/4 tsp salt
•      ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
•      1 tsp ground cinnamon
•      200g caster sugar
•      2 large eggs
•      100g sunflower oil
•      135ml sour cream
•      1 tsp vanilla extract
•      Grated orange zest about 1 tea spoon
•      140g fresh or frozen cranberries, finely chopped

For the Frosting:

•     175g cream cheese
•     450g icing sugar, sifted
•     125g unsalted butter at room temperature
•     Grated zest of one orange

Equipment

•  12 hole muffin tray lined with cupcake cases
• Sieve
• Knife and chopping board
• Bowl x 2
• Electric hand whisk/ mixer 
• Christmas themed decorations 
• A bit of tacky Christmas music (optional)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150c/300f/Gas Mark 2. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Cream the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. This should take around 3-5 minutes with an electric hand whisk. Slowly pour in the oil, a little at a time, beating well after each addition, repeat this process with the sour cream and vanilla extract, making sure that everything is well combined. Add the orange zest once everything is well combined.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and then add to the batter and beat well. Finally, fold in the cranberries.
4. Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.
5. To make the frosting place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat well until well combined and the icing is smooth and pale.

My Boyfriend came up with a story for the snowman on these cakes: "This is a single snowman all on his own and no one to talk too."

 "Next he meets a lovely snow-woman called Penny and they fall in love."
"Awww That's sweet."
"Not for long. The snowman is beginning to annoy the snow-woman. He keeps messing up the cupcake decorations and weighing out the ingredients...."

"So she kills him for messing up her cupcakes."

 "To celebrate her cupcakes no longer getting messed up. She has a Lush bath. THE END!"

I stood there in an annoyed silence with which he stroked my arm and said:
"LOVE YOU!" and he turned back to decorating cupcakes with a silly smile on his face. 

 <<<<<<Something like this<<<<<<
So sweetie, you wanted a mention on the blog and here it is! That's what you get for saying:
"It's only cupcakes, Penny"
Well too baking mad people like me, its not just cupcakes. Its bite sized cups of heaven. 

Bake on and Merry Christmas! (And you have been warned in boyfriend baking)

Penny