English Mum is hosting a Bake Off and all month I've been meaning to bake something spectacular that would wow everyone with my Domestic Goddess-like skills. I was going to make my yummy, moist carrot cake or some lovely rich chocolate brownies that would guarentee to having you bowing to my superior kitchen prowess.However, the reality is that I left it till the last minute and I've ended up baking a plain old chocolate sponge cake, I've tried to make it look a bit fancier by adding some whipped cream and sprinkles ;-)So, Ladies and Gentleman, I present you with a chocolate sponge … [Read more...]
When Life Gives You Lemons – make Lemon Cake….
....Make easy peasy lemon drizzle cake! This is the most delicious cake we've had in a good while and the recipe is so easy to follow.Ingredients for the cake:225g butter or margarine 225g sugar 4 eggs finely grated zest of 2 lemons 225g self-raising flourIngredients for the drizzle topping:the juice of 2 lemons 85g sugarNow I know I say this about everything we make but this really super simple, everything we make is super simple as I'm not in any way culinarily (is that a word?) gifted!First of all pre heat oven to 180 c. Beat together the butter and … [Read more...]
Bursting Blueberries….
We managed to buy some bargain blueberries from the shop tonight - a big punnet reduced to 65p. I was planning to use them to make something exotic and different but in the end we just made plain old boring muffins! All you need to recreate my delicious little muffins is: 75g butter (softened) 75g sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 egg, beaten 200g plain flour 125ml milk 100g blueberries Gradually add the sugar and the egg to the butter Mix 1 tablespoon flour with the blueberries and put to one side. Sift the remaining flour together with the baking powder. Fold the flour and … [Read more...]
Cupcakes….
Anyone who knows me knows how much of a cookbook freak I am, I have loads but hardly ever use them for recipes - I just like to look at the pictures and dream.... I have had the occasional go though and one particular memory of chilli and chorizo scallops springs to mind - I won't go into it but it's safe to say that we haven't had scallops since ;-) I've also had more than one disaster with chocolate mousses and it's probably best if I don't even mention my previous risotto issues! Anyway, my various disasters haven't put me off buying cookbooks and when I went shopping yesterday I heard … [Read more...]
Cupcake Challenge….
After reading about English Mum's Cupcake Challenge and looking at the lovely cakes that others had made, I decided that I fancied trying my hand at making some tasty little works of art.However, as usual in the Frugal House, things didn't quite go according to plan. It beats me how everyone makes their cupcake icing look so perfect and why is it when I want my cakes to be quite flat on top they come out huuuuge?We decided to make mini carrot cakes using the recipe that I followed last weekend (here). We didn't have any lemons in so I thought we would use lime for the … [Read more...]
Yummy Carrot Cake….
I normally bake with Miss Frugal because (a) she loves to make things, (b) she is at the age where she is able to do things for herself and (c) she doesn't try and eat everything in sight every time I turn around. Yesterday, however, my baking buddy deserted me to go to her friends for a sleepover so I was left with Master Frugal to be my helpful assistant. To be honest he was more of a hindrance than a help but he had fun so it doesn't really matter if he ate more of the mix than I managed to get in the oven!I've never made a carrot cake before and was really surprised by how moist and yummy … [Read more...]
