Peanut Butter Squares

This Saturday we took advantage of the summer weather to pack a picnic and head out for a walk along the Water of Leith (Balerno to Edinburgh). This recipe seemed perfect for cutting into squares and packing in a lunch box to snack on as we went. They were so yummy that we ate the rest during the England v USA world cup match - so, perfect for all occasions really!
The pictures don't really do justice to them, I think I should have turned off the flash, but I've included a photo anyway.

They're good warm with a cup of tea but for the packed lunch option leave them in the fridge overnight as they become a bit more moist that way.
I would definitely make these again but maybe with some chocolate chips to add something extra. Yum!
Here is the recipe, from All Cakes Considered (becoming slightly overused on here, I know, but their cakes are so good!):

Ingredients: Click for measurement conversion chart
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup crunch peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of all purpose (plain) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of rolled oats (not quick cook)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease and line a 9 inch square baking pan.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars. Add the egg and beat well. Add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat well.
3. In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Then add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Add the oats and mix well.
5. Spoon the batter into the baking pan and smooth out with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes before removing from the pan or cutting into squares while in the pan. 

Lostalgia

So, Lost, the show that so many millions of people all over the world were hooked on for 5 and a half years ended this week. What better way to celebrate everything we love about the show, and mark the finale, than to hold a lostalgic party - dress up as characters from the show, and of course eat some themed snacks. Andy came as Oceanic 815, Margaret was Sayid and I was Ben in teacher mode from the 16th episode of season 6. And to accompany it all I made these yummy biscuits decorated like the dharma fish biscuits from season 3 and the dharma logo. The recipe is a simple biscuit recipe from Asda.com:

Lost Biscuits

Ingredients

• 175g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 medium egg yolk
• 250g plain flour
• 1 pack writing icing

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C Fan/Gas 4. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg yolk and add the flour and mix to a smooth dough. Gather together with your hands, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
2 Roll out the dough between two sheets of clingfilm to the thickness of a £2 coin. Be quick with the cutting or get someone to help as the dough becomes a bit unworkable as it heats up in your hands (pop it back in the fridge for a while, without clingfilm, if this happens). Cut out shapes with a dharma or fish template (I made my own on card and cut round it on the dough) and put in the oven for 15 mins. Allow to cool completely before decorating. Yum.

The people shaped ones are Boone, Hurley in 1970s jumpsuit, and Jacob.

Happy Norway Day!

Monday 17th May was Norway's National Day when the country celebrates the adoption of its constitution in 1814. For more information on how its celebrated and what it's all about click here: http://www.norway.org/ARCHIVE/culture/heritage/nationalday/

To celebrate the national day of our favourite holiday destination we held our own celebrations yesterday. This included eating a breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and chocolate spread covered bread (what we had for breakfast in our Oslo hotel in January), a dinner of hot dogs (what we ate for lunch in Oslo) and watching Norwegian clips and listening to some Norwegian music (a once a year experience, I think!). But, the centrepiece of our celebrations was our Norway Day cake. It was a basic Victoria sandwich, covered with cream cheese icing and strawberries and blueberries in the shape of the Norwegian flag (sort of). The cake is a sainsbury's recipe and the icing is from All Cakes Considered (p43).

Ingredients:
175g margarine
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
175g self raising flour
strawberry jam

55g  butter
112g cream cheese
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
225-250g icing sugar

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease and line two 20.5cm sandwich tins.


Place the margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with the second egg. Add the remaining flour and beat well.Divide the mixture equally between the prepared sandwich tins. 


Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the cake has risen and springs back to the touch. Cool on a wire rack. Sandwich together with strawberry jam.


For the icing:


Cream together unsalted butter (at room temperature) and cream cheese. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. 


Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until smooth. If your icing isn't stiff enough you can add more icing sugar, or if it's too stiff add some more butter. 


Spread the icing over the whole cake and place in the fridge for ten minutes.


Bring out of the fridge and decorate with chopped strawberries and whole blueberries. Put back in the fridge for 30 minutes before eating.


Due to the fresh fruit and the dairy content this cake can only keep for a couple of days so make sure you have plenty of friends on hand to help you consume it!

Tardy cake

Apologies for the delay in posting the recipe for the spice cake. I have no explanation other than that I had some relaxation to be done in the wake of a flurry of uni work and then had to get my dissertation underway. I have some good news though in that the oven has been 'de-goosed' by the electrician and is in full working order for future cakes and other baked goods. Next up: a Norewgian flag cake to celebrate Norwegian Constitutional Day on 17th May (in honour of our trip to Oslo and love of all things Scandinavian)! Then, there are plans afoot for some cookies that should resemble the main characters in Lost for the end of show finale party that Margaret, Andy and I are having on May 24th. But for now, here is the Araby Spice cake recipe:

Ingredients:
(for the cake)

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 and a half cups of sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups plain white flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa poweder
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

(for the frosting)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1 and a half teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 and a half teaspoon hot coffee (plus extra in case)

Instructions
(cake)
preheat the oven to 180c (350F). Grease and line a 9 inch cake pan or 10 inch tube pan with baking paper.
Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, mixing until smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.
In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and cocoa together. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice. 
Add 1/2 flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat together. Then add 1/4 buttermilk mixture and beat again. Continue until all the mixtures are blended together. Beat for a futher 1 minute.
Pour the mixture into the baking pan and cook for 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from the cake pan. Leave to cool completely.

(frosting)
cream together the butter, egg yolk, icing sugar, cocoa and coffee until smooth. Spread over the top and sides of the cake. Enjoy!

Easter Spice Cake

Yum, yum, yum. The Araby Spice Cake, which I'm currently referring to as the Easter Spice Cake, has been successfully produced and cosumed. The oven problem was not resolved (and who knows when it will be) but we were able to make it in Chris's kitchen with the help of a few ingredients and utensils from my place. It was quite an easy cake to make, and it looked perfect, like an experienced baker might make. I'm not sure how many cakes we have to make before we can describe ourselves as experienced bakers though? Perhaps when we can bake without a book and can make any cake whatever the difficulty if we want to.

Thanks to 'All Cakes Considered' for this one!

Although it isn't a heavy cake, it will have you buzzing around on a sugar high if you eat a big slice as it contains quite a few cupfulls, particularly in the icing (3 cups of icing sugar). But who cares? Cakes are supposed to be sweet and make you feel happy and high. The cake is a delicious blend of sugar and spice with a sticky sweet topping contrasting nicely with the hints of nutmeg and cinammon in the base. We upped the sweet stakes even further by throwing a few Cadbury's mini eggs on top to make it more easter like, but it would be just as good without. A top tip is to leave the cake for a few hours in the fridge before you dig in, although it will require will power not to get munching straight away.

Here are some pictures of the loveley cake. I'll put up the recipe too:

Oven S.O.S

Tension mounts in the days running up to the day for baking the Araby Spice Cake for easter - the oven is broken! It's been hard enough coming up with exciting meals you can make in the microwave or on the hob for a whole week, but not being able to bake a delicious cake is a major problem! Someone is coming to take a look at the useless piece of metal today, and hopefully restore it to its former glory. Fingers crossed!

There is the option to bake it at Chris's of course, if all else fails. But that seems to take away from the drama.

Lost in Chocolate

Last night I enjoyed a big slice of gooey chocolate cake courtesy of my flatmate, Margaret, via Chris and myself. We gave Margaret the recipe for the cake a few months back after baking what is probably the best chocolate cake, home made or store bought, that I've ever had. But we can't claim all the credit, it's the Bruce Bogtrotter cake from the Roal Dahl cookbook that should get the accolades here. But it's some compliment that Margaret enjoyed our incanation of the recipe so much that she asked for the recipe so that she could bake a birthday cake for her sisters. I have to say, even though I am probably a little biased, that our version had a slightly better consistency and was more attractive, but both were heavenly! I mean, how bad can any attempt at mixing copious amounts of chocolate, cream and sugar really ever taste?
Pictures of our delicious, quickly gobbled and friend winning cake are below.

The cake comes from the book Matilda. click here for Matilda cake scene from the film

Here's the recipe. Top tips: use half dark chocolate, half milk chocolate and leave the icing in the fridge for 30mins -1 hour to make it easier to spread over the cake, and so that it looks better. Yum!

Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake

Serves 10-12

Ingredients
For the cake
8oz/225g plain chocolate
6oz/175g unsalted butter, softened
8oz/225g caster sugar
4tbsp/60ml/quarter cup plain flour
6 eggs, separated
For the coating
8oz/225g plain chocolate
8oz/225g double cream

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line an 8" cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or on low heat in a microwave. Once melted mix in the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the double boiler.
3. Mix in the sugar, flour and lightly beaten egg yolks.
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until white and stiff.
5. Gently fold half of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Then fold in the rest.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on the outside and when tested using a skewer, it most likely won't come out clean as the inside will still seem uncooked, however the cake gets more firm when it has cooled.
7. Allow to cool for a while until the tin can be handled and the cake removed safely. Remove the greaseproof paper. The cake will most likely sink slightly, mine deflated from a large dome to a level top.
8. Set up a new double boiler and melt the chocolate and cream together until well blended. Leave to cool for a little while then spread smoothly over the top and sides of the cake.