Penny's Top Ten Tips #8 Surviving the Gym

Welcome to Penny's Top Ten Tips, its the 8th one! Sorry there has been a bit of a delay with the T.T.T, but lets not hesitate with this one. Lets begin... 

1. Wear something comfortable-
While exercising its best to wear some comfortable shoes, comfort top and trousers, etc. Oh, and a good sports bra really is helpful. No one wants to see your jubblies bouncing around while on the treadmill.

2. Avoid wearing make-up-
Your going to be sweating... do you really want to have a melty make-up face? No. Avoid the slap and go au natural...make-up wise... 

3. Stay hydrated-
Its common sense really. Stay hydrated between exercise.

4. In your gym bag...-
Water, towel, deodorant, a small towel and a mp3, if your a podcast/music lover.

5. Don't be intimidated-
People aren't looking at you or judging you. Get that in your mind. Everyone is at the gym for the same reason-to exercise and improve their health. The best thing to do is to do the step below...

6. Focus on your exercise-
Ignore the other people around you and focus on what your doing. Not what you look like or what your listening to your mp3 player, just on your exercise.

7. Speak to the trainers-
Some gym trainers can be really intimidating. I've been to a gym that has been really supportive, helped me with the machines and gave me some general advice about fitness and so made going to the gym less of a chore. I had to transfer to another gym because I moved, I was given a 5 minute tour and sent on my way... I did not receive another interaction and was given a guest pass to use because I my pass... "was delayed/at the printers/are you sure you've signed up to THIS gym?" I swiftly ended my membership. If you don't feel comfortable chatting to the trainers at the gym or are treated badly? Leave. Its not worth the money.

8. Push yourself (to an extent)-
You'll hear people pushing themselves to get the best out of their exercise and I do agree, to some extent. I do believe in pushing yourself, but if you have a medical problem or back problems then the only one who will suffer is you at the end of the workout.

9. Make a little goal -
Rather than focusing on the end goal, focus on the little goals like beating the number of miles you do while on the bike. If you train yourself to focus on little goals, it will make the gym less tedious and draw attention away from the clock.  

10. Reward yourself-
After you've been to the gym, you will have a mixture of feelings: tired, elated, relieved and proud and maybe some others. My point is, if the gym session was very tiring reward yourself with something a relaxing bath or shower, a face mask or reading a good book. Try and avoid something food related because that can reverse the work you've done at the gym!


Do you gym it? Is it a chore or a pleasure going to the gym?

Fat Friday #15 Apple Crumble Tartlets

Welcome to Friday and on Cupcakes, Cake and Passion its Fat Friday. The day were food rules the day. This week its an autumnal dinner party dessert which can be made a little in advance. The pastry is called pate brisee, which is a short crust French sweet pastry. You can put any fruit in the tartlets, use any fruit you would use in a crumble. I have to apologise for the lack of pictures. When I'm in the middle of pastry class, I do forget to take pictures. I'm going to try to remember, so my bad!

 

Recipe: Makes 4 (Recipe provided by my pastry tutor)

Pate Brisee:

·250g soft flour

·205g very cold butter

·5g salt

·55g ice cold water

Apple Mixture:
    ·3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

·125g blackberries

·2 tablespoons cinnamon

·50g sugar

Caramel:
    · 200g sugar
    ·25ml water
    ·100g double cream
    ·100g butter

Crumble mixture:

    ·300g flour
    ·200g butter
    ·100g sugar

Equipment:

· Bowl
· Saucepan
·Jug
·Wooden spoon
·Rolling pin
·Knife
· Chopping board
·4 small round tins
·Baking beans
·Baking sheet lined with silicon 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.

Apple filling:

1.Peel, core and cut the apple into the chunks.
2.In a saucepan add the water, apple, sugar, blackberries and cinnamon and cook on a medium until the apples soften to a very soft consistency.
3.Put aside to cool.

Caramel:

1.Put the water and sugar in a pan, allow to boil until the colour changes from clear to a golden brown. Don’t be tempted to stir.
2. Once the colour has changed add the double cream and butter. Mix in.

Crumble topping:
1.Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 4/180c/350f .
2.Rub the flour, sugar and butter together.
3.Spread onto a lined baking sheet and bake for a 12 minutes.

To serve:

1.Place the baked tartlet on a plate.
2.Spoon a little of the caramel in the tartlet.
3.Then add the cooked apples and sprinkle a little of cooked crumble on top. Eat let there's no tomorrow.

Insta-Salmon! (Easy Salmon Dinner with green beans, spinach and white wine)

This meal is very easy to make and its suitable for freezing. Just ensure that you get the meal out from the freezer, in the morning and leave in the fridge to defrost for the day. You can serve with cooked new potatoes or fries, if you want to be really naughty.

Recipe: Serves 1 hungry student (Student Cookbook by Sam Stern)

• 1 fillet of salmon weighing 225g
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 6 black olives
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• (Optional: 2 tablespoons white wine) 
• Pinch a of salt and pepper
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• Olive oil
• 50g Spinach
• 50g Green beans

Equipment:

• Foil
• Oven
• Tablespoon
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Baking Sheet

1. Chop the garlic and cherry tomatoes.  
2. Cut one piece of foil per fish meal. It needs to be large enough to take all the food items plus a little extra.
3. Lay the foil out on a baking tray.

4.Scrunch the edges up slightly and place the fish in the middle.Season.

5.Cover with the garlic, lemon juice and oil.

6.Arrange the potatoes, spinach, green beans, olives and tomatoes around the fish.
7. Drizzle over a little wine if using or more lemon juice and olive oil.
8.Pull the foil up and over the meal. Pinch the edges firmly to close.

9. Put in fridge for later or bake in the oven at 200c/ 400f/Gas Mark 6 10-15 minutes.

Monday Catch-Up: Halloween is Over...Let Christmas Begin...

Its the weekend after Halloween and two weeks after my last Monday Catch-Up, and as most of you now if you've read it, I've been suffering with a bad back. Its been really holding me back from doing everyday stuff. So I've learnt that you really need to look after yourself or it just gets a million times worse. Don't make my mistake, just take care of yourself when you're poorly.

I've had a busy week, I've been baking quite a lot for Halloween including salted caramel brownies, pumpkin pecan bars, pizza chunks and chocolate cupcakes (all gluten free btw-Your welcome Zoe) with Sugar and Crumbs "sugar and spice" icing sugar, that I got from the Cake and Bake Show this year.

Rob and I had a little bit of a 'get together' at our flat, for Halloween and as a house warming, where the drinks flowed and tacky games were played, it was such a laugh and I think everyone had a good time. It was a moment to be enjoyed and we forgot to Instagram any of it. It is a good thing as it proves that we didn't need to document that moment in our lives because we were living it!

My mum also dropped by last weekend, in which we went shopping and had lunch :) which was lovely! I haven't seen her in 3 months and she was so excited to see me and Rob. 

I also had a side trip to Lush Poole, which I got a couple pre-Christmas gifts (for myself...).I'm also pleased to let you all know that I'm almost done with all my Christmas shopping. Its only the 3rd of November and I've got 3 more gifts to buy and I'm fully done! Woo! So when the shops are crammed in December, I'll be at home with my cup of herbal tea and a cookie all snugged up and smug because I did my Christmas shopping ridiculously early. Is it wrong that I've done my cards as well... that's not wrong... is it?

So now that Halloween is done... Bring on Christmas!

Fat Friday #14 Halloween Special

Welcome to the Halloween Fat Friday Special! This is the first Fat Friday to fall on Halloween and I'm having some people over and am doing lots of cooking. Instead, I'm doing a round up of all my
ideal Halloween party recipes for you to bake for yourselves. Happy Baking! and have a spook-taclar Halloween!

Orange Juice Cupcakes

 

                                Ginger and Treacle Cupcakes

 Dios de los Muertos Cupcakes

 

Horror Film Gory Cupcakes

 

Gluten Free Zombie Cookies

Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Muffins

 

 Pizza Chunk Biscuits

 

Pumpkin Pecan Bars

Have a great Halloween, a Happy Fat Friday and a great weekend...Sleep tight...



Fat Friday #13 Blackberry Lemonade Marshmallows

Its unlucky week number 13 for Fat Friday! This week we're  looking at blackberry lemonade marshmallows. The tartness of the citric acid makes the white half really taste like lemonade. The blackberry was added because it's blackberry season here in the UK. It's actually a coincidence that this recipe is being published on week 13, because the first time I made marshmallows it went so wrong that I nearly cried with the amount of mess that was leftover. This time it much better than expected and they were so tasty. I gave them to a couple of friends at college and they thought they were lovely as well. I would suggest that you eat the marshmallows as soon as possible because they will sweat once you dust them with icing sugar. 

Recipe: 30 minutes (Depending on how many you cut) (Adapted recipe from Sweet Things by Annie Rigg)

Ingredients:

·       2 tablespoons corn-flour

·       2 tablespoons icing sugar

·       Sunflower oil

·       The zest of one lemon and the juice

·       200g blackberries

·       350g caster sugar

·       ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

·       6 gelatine leaves

·       2 large egg whites

·       A little salt

·       ¼ citric acid

Equipment:

·       20cm square baking tin

·       Baking sheet

·       Silicone paper x 2

·       Sugar thermometer

·       Knife

·       Saucepan

·       Blender

·       Free-Standing whisk

·       Rubber spatula

·       Palette knife

·       Sieve

·       Fine sieve

Method

1.    Mix the cornflour and icing sugar together in a bowl. Lightly grease the tin with the sunflower oil and line with silicone paper, lightly grease this again. Dust with the icing sugar and cornflour mix and save the rest for later.  
2.    Finely great the zest and save the juice and put aside.

3.    Place a saucepan with the blackberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar on low heat. Cook until blackberries have burst and they become soft.

4.    Using a blender blend until really soft and push the blackberry puree through a fine sieve to remove the pips.
5.    Cook the blackberry puree until it becomes a jam like consistency. Add the vanilla and remove from heat.

6.    Cover the gelatine in cold water in a separate bowl.
7.    In a free-stand mixer place the egg whites, salt and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

8.    Tip the rest of the caster sugar into a clean saucepan with 150ml of  water and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring the syrup to boil until it reaches 120c/248f.
9.    Working fast switch the free standing whisk on to whisk the egg whites fast until the hold a stiff peak.
10.    Drain the gelatine and add to the sugar syrup, combine with a rubber spatula.

11.   With the mixture running on a medium speed pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites (be careful not to get any on whisk). After whisking for 3 minutes it should have doubled in size, it should be thick and glossy.
12.   Put half the mixture in another bowl and add the reserved lemon zest and citric acid. Mix well, spread in the prepared baking tin and spread evenly with a palette knife.
13.  Fold the blackberry puree into the other half of the marshmallow mixture and combine.
14.  Smooth over the lemon marshmallow to create a double layer of marshmallow.

15.  Once completely cold cover the marshmallow with clingfilm and leave to set overnight.

16.   To serve, tip the rest of the cornflour/icing sugar mixture onto a silicone paper lined tray.
17. Tip the marshmallow out of the lined, carefully peel the paper off.
18. Cut the marshmallow into pieces and roll in the icing sugar/cornflour mixture to coat.

Have you made any marshmallows before?
Happy Baking! and Have a great weekend!