White Chocolate Almond Cranberry Cookies!

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I have felt as though I had been on a cooking fest entertaining guests for most of the holiday!  It was obviously great fun, but I have missed adding my dose onto the blog!
I baked a batch of these this afternoon and they were super yummy...unfortunately (for me!) the recipe didn't really state the quantity that this batch would make, so there were a fair few to say the least!  Hubby and I both packed some away to take the office too!  

They were a very exciting texture and there were lots of goodies packed within... Crunch chopped almonds, sweet white chocolate and the lovely tartness of the cranberries made these a real treat.  I almost overcooked the first small batch, so make sure they are just done at the base and not too brown otherwise they will end up rock solid! These ones were left in for 8-10 minutes as the recipe stated and were just perfect.  

This recipe made approximately 40 cookies!

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup unsalted Butter, room temperature
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 whole large Eggs
1 tablespoon Almond essence
1 cup dried Cranberries
1 cup White Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped Almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 175C degrees.

Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Then add vanilla and mix.

Add dry ingredients until just blended.

Add cranberries, chocolate and almonds and incorporate into dough.

Roll out and cut with cookie cutter or make into small balls and press down.  They do not spread, so you don't need to allow for the cookies to flatten out whilst baking!

Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for about 12 minutes.

Glitter Animal Christmas Jars

These little treat jars were great fun to make... A collection of jars with painted lids or paper wrapped with the glitter animals on top. I just bought the animals from eBay and covered with a thin layer of pva and glittered all over... The biggest challenge was keeping them away from my little girl!!! 

Filled with yummy smarties, midget gems and cola bottles :-)
Merry Christmas to all my work buddies! x

Poptastic Cake Pops!

Finally... having had the cake pop mold in my cupboard for a few months, I finally got started...  WOW!! Very very Exciting!! I just used the recipe which came with the mold and they turned out amazing and were a definite showstopper! This glitter just makes everything look amazing anyway, but really, they tasted as good as they looked! I can't wait to get started on more... plus, the recipe makes around 24 so you can experiment in one batch with the different toppings.

Fudgy Cake Pops

¾ semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ cup butter

¾ cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

2 eggs

¾ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

24 lollipop sticks

12 oz. chocolate bark coating

Heat oven to 325F. Grease and flour pan. In medium saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips and butter together. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into medium bowl. Add sugar and cocoa. Mix until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flour and salt. Stir until blended. Spoon batter into bottom half of pan (without holes) filling each well so it mounds over the top of the pan. (I used my Norpro 1tbsp scoop for this step. Worked perfect.) Place top half of pan on top and secure with keys. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out almost clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove cake pops from pan to cool completely. Melt chocolate bark according to package directions. Dip lollipop stick into melted chocolate and insert into cake. Repeat with all cakes. Allow chocolate to cool to secure stick in place. Dip cake pop in melted chocolate, spinning to let excess chocolate drip off. Decorate with sprinkles as desired. Place on parchment paper to set. Makes about 24 cake pops.

The Best... Banana Choc Chip Loaf

All packaged up ready to go! The labels from Paperchase are fab and I love these little fabric patchwork strawberries! 

This is such an easy recipe and the banana teamed with the chocolate is just yummy!

 Here is the recipe straight from my mini baking bible!

Chocolate Pocky Cake!

Rachel's Chocolate cake decorated with yummy Pocky's which I bought whilst travelling in Hong Kong... Love the different types of Pocky's which can be found there!

Edible glitter adorned! 

And... we got stuck right in! Chocolate heaven!

I love this recipe and always start with this for a lovely dense chocolate cake with a great balance of flavour.  I think the coffee really helps to enhance the chocolate taste!

Ingredients

• 200g good quality dark chocolate , about 60% cocoa solids
• 200g butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 85g self-raising flour
• 85g plain flour
• 1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 medium eggs
• 75ml buttermilk (5 tbsp)
• grated chocolate or curls, to decorate

• 200g good quality dark chocolate , as above
• 284ml carton double cream (pouring type)
• 2 tbsp golden caster sugar

Method

1. Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break 200g good quality dark chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Cut 200g butter into pieces and tip in with the chocolate, then mix 1 tbsp instant coffee granules into 125ml cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
2. While the chocolate is melting, mix 85g self-raising flour, 85g plain flour, ¼ bicarbonate of soda, 200g light muscovado sugar, 200g golden caster sugar and 25g cocoa powder in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat 3 medium eggs in a bowl and stir in 75ml (5 tbsp) buttermilk.
3. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes - if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don't worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop 200g good quality dark chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour a 284ml carton of double cream into a pan, add 2 tbsp golden caster sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
5. Sandwich the layers together with just a little of the ganache. Pour the rest over the cake letting it fall down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.