Flour, Cake and Pastry

Happy Saturday! As tomorrow is Mother's Day, I thought I'd share some yummy bakes to make Mother's Day that extra bit special... No Bake Orange Cheesecake This is a bake that you can get the whole family involved with, its so simple and fun, the kids will love helping out with this one. Ingredients 15 digestive biscuits 6 tbsp. melted butter 400g cream cheese Grated zest of 3 oranges (save the segments for the decoration) 200g marscapone cheese 100g caster sugar 3 tbsp. milk 184ml pot double cream Method Crush the biscuits roughly with a rolling pin. Pop into a bowl and mix together with the melted butter. Put the mixture into a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Use your fingers to spread it evenly, and press it down the tin to form the base. Put it into the fridge to set for about 30 minutes. Put the cream cheese, orange zest, marscapone, sugar and milk and mix well with a wooden spoon until well combined. Put the cream in a clean bowl and whisk it until it...

Happy St Patrick's Day to all my Irish family and friends! Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick. Over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick and he became Ireland's foremost saint. Today is all about celebrating all things Ireland, and what better way to do that than with a cake. This is the simplest recipe ever, and can be made in a flash. It's from Sainsbury's Magazine, you can find their full recipe here . Without further-a-do, here is today's recipe...Guinness and Chocolate Cake... Ingredients 125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing 100ml Guinness 40g cocoa powder 200g light brown sugar 100ml whole milk 2 large eggs 175g plain flour ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda Milk or dark chocolate, to decorate Frosting 100g unsalted butter, softened 200g icing sugar, sieved 100g cream cheese 1 tsp va...

It's Monday! I hope you have all had a fantabulous weekend, filled with fun, friends and family; but if not then hopefully today's recipe will cheer you up slightly and get your week off to a better start. Today's bake is a yummy Chocolate and Banana Bundt Cake. A Bundt Cake is baked in a traditional Bundt pan, giving it it's distinctive ring shape (you can use a normal ring tin from the supermarket too, I bought mine from Tesco's for £10). The shape of this cake is inspired by a traditional European cake found in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Alsace to name a few. However, the Bundt mould was created in North America and grew in popularity through the 1950s and 1960s, and the rest as they say, is history. Ingredients 8oz self-raising flour 2oz cocoa powder 10oz caster sugar 10oz butter, softened 5 eggs 1 tsp. baking powder 2 bananas, mushed 1 x 10" ring tin Icing sugar, to dust Method Pre-heat your oven to 180C (160C for a fan oven), and...

Ever feel like you just need something to tide you over in that gap between meals? Something that isn't full of sugar or fat, but will keep you filled up until you finish work or school. Well fear not, I have the perfect solution! Homemade granola can be flavoured with whatever you like, whether it be dried fruit such as cranberries or raisins, or roasted and toasted nuts, or go wild and mix them all together, why not add some seeds in too? Low in sugar, and high in protein, these granola bites will fill you up until your next meal. Ingredients 2 cups of porridge oats 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut 1/2 cup of honey 2 tbsps. creamy peanut butter 1 tsp vanilla essence Pinch of salt Optional Ingredients 1 handful of mixed nuts (roughly chopped) 1 handful of dried fruit (raisins/sultanas/currants/cranberries/blueberries/goji berries *make sure they are unsweetened fruits, so stay away from glace cherries, mixed peel etc.) 1 handful mixed seeds You can mix and match these...