Blueberry muffins in minutes

Yes, that's right! Because all you have to do is cream 150g of salted butter with 75g of caster sugar, add two eggs, 150g flour, 1 and 1/2 baking powder, 4 tbls milk, a pinch of nutmeg and well ... blueberries. Are you with me? 20 other minutes in the oven (about 180 fan) and all done! I know two little excited souls that will be very pleased to see me today!

Sunday's cake

I know it's about Sunday's cake in a late afternoon Wednesday but then again better later than never (that's what they say!). This one has been random and original, I wanted a lemon cake  but the reviews online on some cakes put me off. That's why I made my own and it was pretty good if I may add!

Cheers with a glass of creamy fudge that tastes like some of my favorite cocktails! Coool off!!

Sunday's cake

I don't know who said you cannot go wild with your baking? I made one rich chocolate and ginger beer cake here and is one of the best I ever tasted. Life's great! Cx

Birthday celebration and red velvet cake

Happy birthday to my beloved one! 

Cinnamon babka

It is the best! Add butter, serve it with a glass of milk and just enjoy it. Mr T likes to add some extras to his milk. Yum!

Easter little treats

Baking day! Woohoo!! I don't know how we always end up wanting cupcakes when baking. I really wanted to bake this well known (or not) cinnamon babka. If you like Seinfeld you know what I mean.. or if you are Romanian you know what cozonac is as well. So there. Success! That's when Mr T ASKED for cupcakes. Excited to dig into those. Happy baking everyone!

Sunday home made bread

Sunday bread project starts today.

More salads for us. It can only do you good!

Tastiest bread ever. Really, I made up the recipe myself!

Happy Sunday everyone!

About yesterday in very few pictures

My latest lemon and chocolate cake. Success!

Ice tea? Why not? As long as we get sun to go with it!

Baby cactus called "Turkish delight".  Who could say no to it?

Chocolate and pear madness

I made this the other night for a friend's party not knowing how is going to be. I made it and left the premises being ever so nervous about the result. It looked great but i had no idea how it tasted or if i got the consistency right. Early morning today i got a text: thanks for a fab choc cake which was enjoyed by all!.
 Now that's what baking is about!  

Some would call him a lucky man

but I'm the lucky one x

Comfort food - peach crumble

Scrumptious!

Orange and ginger cake

Well, I must tell you about this gorgeous cake. It looks and tastes amazing but it's been a real challenge because the initial recipe didn't sound quite right. To give you an idea of how wrong it was I will mention a couple of things. The initial filling was supposed to be made out of 3 eggs, 200g caster sugar, 25g flour (yes, that's right!), orange zest and 100 ml orange juice. But that's not all, the worst bit was the timing and temperature: 20 min in an 140C fan oven. NO WAY JOSE! I thought.
But I wanted it anyway so I went ahead and changed it. I kept the same ingredients but changed the numbers a bit. I used 100 g flour, 125g sugar, two eggs and one egg yolk, zest of two oranges and 100 ml orange juice. The biscuit base is made out of 250g ginger biscuits and 85g butter. It all went in a 150C fan oven for 45 min.
I hope I didn't confuse you lot too much (I do that sometimes!).
Now the assembling bit. Wizz the biscuits and butter in a food processor then line a baking tray with baking paper. Press the biscuit base evenly and then stick it in the preheated oven (140Cfan) for 20 minutes. While the base is baking  you have time to make the filling which is basically mixing all your ingredients together. It will look runny and you WILL think you messed it up but I promise you it will set while in the oven.
You can change the recipe some more and use lemon or lime instead of orange.
Give it a go, it's great fun!

Oat biscuits on a cold winter day

Now this is comfort food, I've been munching them away all day, they are crunchy and delicious and super easy to make.
All you need is:
70g oats
100g self rising flour
75g melted butter
50g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp of golden syrup or honey
dried fruit (I used cranberries and apple)
Now all you have to do is mix all your ingredients together, make little balls of dough and place them on a baking sheet in a preheated oven, 170fan, for about 15 minutes. That's all, I promise!
Now enjoy with a mug of warm milk by the fire. That's what winter days are for, right?

Tell them you love them

Tell your little ones you loved them by treating them with this super easy and fast delight. They're perfect as an after school snack or between clubs when they need all the energy they can get.
All you need is 5 minutes, 50g melted butter, 2 generous spoons of drinking chocolate, crunchy nuts and cupcake cases. Are you still with me? Melt and mix all of these together and straight in the fridge. See? you're already on your way out but put together something delicious. Sticky fingers and naughty smiles will thank you for ever.
ps. if you add marshmallows they will love you even more!

Brownies, anyone?

They're still warm.

Relax, it's only tiramisu

Today I thought about a treat that's not too heavy or too difficult to make and I came up with this. It's one unconventional tiramisu because to be honest, I don't really know how to make a conventional one (oops?!).  So I went for a couple of packs of sponge fingers dipped in not-too-strong coffee, I sandwiched these with creamy mascarpone (and a splash or two of Baileys), also, I wanted to make it more interesting and found that chocolate flakes would be a good idea, just to give it a bit of texture and crunch. Easy as that, a must try!

You shouldn't have tea fruit cake for breakfast too often

After all the Christmas madness we decided we're going back to our normal routine, back to fruit for breakfast and plenty of vegetables for dinner so the other night, just after 8, we baked this cake. I made it but Mr T made me make it! I was completely against it but then again, you see, we had this frosting that we had to use up!
Anyhow, all you need to be this naughty is:
two eggs
250g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
50ml milk
50ml oil
vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
100g dried fruit (we soaked it in some Kahula, you don't have to but it does give it a nice flavor)
Mix together and bake for 30 min, 175fan, leave to cool down and then generously frost it. It's really delicious. Enjoy!

Chocolate treats

We all love chocolate over here so I decided to do something about it. Chocolate can be challenging to work with, it went wrong for me so many times! It's something about the way you melt it and the time you have to work with before it goes all wrong.
However, this time it went right! All you need to make these delicious treats is plain chocolate (400g), 200g butter, dried fruit (I used cranberries), now you can add you nuts (I love nuts but Mr T doesn't so I didn't use any this time), plus 150g crushed digestive biscuits (I used ginger ones in these). Careful melting chocolate (+butter), it can go messy, mix your dried ingredients in and then quickly press them down on a baking paper. This part is not easy so if i was to make these again I would go for cupcakes cases. Less effort, same results. Time to leave it to set for a couple of hours, best place: fridge.

Well, good luck now and Happy Christmas!
C x

Christmas trifle

I must say, it was delicious !
C x

Four sleeps till Christmas

Four more sleeps till Christmas! I baked these scrumptious cookies for some loved ones, I am super excited to spend two whole weeks with my lovely partner, visiting some family and enjoying this lovely period. There will be lots of delicious breakfasts and also, loads of baking going on in the household.

I adapted this cookie recipe from 'Simply Wonderwoman' by Joanna Gosling, I started by mixing 350g of soft brown sugar, 400g white plain flour, one egg, 250g butter (soft), pinch of salt and 1 tsp vanilla extract. You will end up with a wet dough, surprisingly easy to manage. Feel free to construct your cookies, I used milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, fudge, smarties. They look cute and taste lovely with a cup of milk. Bake for 20 minutes, 160 fan then leave to cool.

They make lovely little presents for your loved ones, I think I have just destroyed the surprise for a couple of them by posting this. Oops!

Enjoy your Christmas!
C x