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"Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers......" Shakespeare.




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Welcome to my blog. I live in the UK, I'm 23 and have a huge passion for baking. Thanks for stopping by!

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Pink Parsley's blog:

Pink Parsley

Tanja's Cupcakes:

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Friday 31 December 2010

Happy New Year - Chocolate Marshmallow Cake


My in-laws are throwing a new year's eve party tonight, and I offered to bake something sweet for their guests. I decided on making a chocolate marshmallow cake because it's sweet, chocolatey and doesn't contain anything that fussy eaters will turn their noses up at. I baked two chocolate sponges, using an incredibly easy recipe I found online (see below), and I sandwiched them together using a mixture of melted marshmallow and cream.

I've seen lots of marshmallow frosting recipes that I could've used to frost the outside of the cake, but I feared that this would be too sickly for some guests and I opted for a candy pink butter icing instead. I finished the cake with an assortment of marshmallows, and lots and lots of edible glitter! In fact, the cutesy girliness of this cake has caused my friend to dub it "Melted Barbie Cake."

Happy new year! x




Incredibly Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
  • 1 + 1/4 cup self raising flour
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup flavourless vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C). Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
  2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
  3. Add milk/water, vegetable oil and eggs. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed. If the batter is too runny you may add slightly more flour.
  4. Transfer to bake tin and bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.
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Tuesday 28 December 2010

Lemon and Strawberry Hearts


Perhaps these little treats are too summery for this time of year, but they're so dinky and light I can't resist knocking up a batch whenever I have some cream that needs using up. Cream usually needs to be used within three days, and if I have no use for it (or in this case - I'm sick of drizzling it over mince pies) I whip it, and stir in lemon juice/zest and some icing sugar. The lemon helps preserve the cream, meaning that you can enjoy it for a few days more. I use it to sandwich puff pastry hearts that I've cut from a ready rolled sheet (and then drizzled with chocolate). Throw in a few sliced strawberries and you have the perfect little dessert.
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Monday 13 December 2010

One Ham: Three Meals


My Nan is spending Christmas in snowy Scotland, so before she leaves town I decided to invite her over for dinner. Her favourite meat is baked ham, so I bought a large 3kg joint (knowing that I would be able to make a few meals out of it.) For dinner with my Nan, I boiled the joint for one hour then glazed it with a honey-orange marinade. I found the recipe on the the Honey Association website, and it's so easy and delicious.

Combine the juice and zest of one large orange with 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 4-5 tbsp of pure clear honey. Drizzle and rub all over the ham joint, and baste regularly. Here's the finished product:



Served with dijon mustard mash and maple roasted parsnips, it made for a real winter warmer:


We had at least half of the gammon left over, so I used some of it to make pea and ham soup:



And the rest of it, to make ham and cider bake with mustard mash:


The gammon bake was by far my favourite meal of the three. There's no real recipe for it, I read about it on a forum. I lightly fried one sliced red onion and one peeled and chopped apple in a pan, and added the remainder of the shredded ham once the onion and apple were slightly softened. I then added some creme fraiche and a couple of teaspoons of wholegrain mustard. Once warmed through, I added some salt and pepper and a few large sloshes of strong cider.

The whole mixture was then poured into a casserole dish, where I topped it with wholegrain mustard mash and baked until crispy. Delish
!
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Sausage and Red Onion Swirly Whirlies


The weather has turned cold and it's really put me in the mood for warm, comforting food. However the long, dark evenings have rendered me far too lazy to want to fiddle around in the kitchen for hours, preparing complicated dishes.

I thought of this recipe one Sunday breakfast time. By mid-morning they were baking, and by lunchtime we were enjoying them with a nice cup of tea. Simple!

Please forgive the laziness of this recipe.



Ingredients
  • One pack of Jus-Rol ready made puff pastry.
  • One pack of good quality sausage meat.
  • One jar of caramelised red onion marmalade.
  • Dried thyme.
Directions
  1. Roll out the puff pastry sheet.
  2. Spread thickly with the marmalade.
  3. Press an even layer of the sausage meat over the onion layer. Roll the puff pastry horizontally, until you have a long pastry 'sausage' (see below). Egg wash the pastry flap to the pastry roll so that it sticks.
  4. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, then cut into around 20 swirlies with a sharp knife.
  5. Lay each swirly on a greased baking tray and egg wash. Sprinkle with dried thyme.
  6. Bake a 180 degrees celcius for around 20 minutes.

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