Vegan Pumpkin Seed Energy Bar

It was the morning that parents of young children dread but I managed to embrace the clock change and made the most of my extra hour this morning. I woke at 6:30 and decided to hop to it and soon the smell of ginger and cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds was wafting through the house - although the children didn't appreciate it as they were taking part in one major Sunday morning sleep in.

Every year, following our annual pumpkin carving day, I clean, dry out and roast the seeds from the aforementioned large orange vegetable ready for my daughter and I to nibble on over the following days. Today though I decided to use some of the seeds in some baking and having the usual over ripe banana situation going on decided to make some vegan energy bars loosely based on my go to flapjack recipe, but healthier and vegan friendly.

Ingredients:
125g Vitalite
150g soft brown sugar
75g golden syrup
zest of a lemon
1 banana
200g porridge oats
100g pumpkin seeds - I used a mix of my own roasted seeds and the traditional shop bought ones

Line a baking tin with baking paper - my tin measured approx. 19x29cm.
Pre-heat the oven to 160c.
In a saucepan melt the Vitalite, sugar and golden syrup.
Once all melted give it a good stir then add the lemon zest, mashed up banana, porridge oats and pumpkin seeds and stir into the mix.
Spread the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Once cooled I enjoyed a slice with a cup of cinnamon tea and a handful of extra pumpkin seeds before tacking the garden for it's annual Autumn makeover.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

x x x

Cherry Bakewell Green Tea Cake

I am a big lover of tea.
BIG lover.
Earl Grey, milk and one sugar being a favourite.
Recently I have been trying to cut down the caffeine and sugar in my diet so I thought I'd give green tea a whirr.
I will be honest with you - I don't think it's that great.
However!
I have discovered that green tea can taste good, and my most recent favourite is Cherry Bakewell Green Tea from Twinings - this is not a sponsored post but I'm not yet aware of a cherry bakewell flavoured tea from any other tea manufacturer!

Today I was in the mood for baking, not really the best way to cut down on sugar I know. But I'd done my yoga and walked to school and back so I thought I'd give myself a treat.
I had glacé cherries and ground almonds in the cupboard so went for it and made up the following which I like to call...

Cherry Bakewell Green Tea Cake

To make you will need:

125g margarine
125g caster sugar
125g SR flour
50g ground almonds
50ml milk
1 cherry bakewell green tea teabag
80g glacé cherries

And you will need to:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180c.
2. Weigh out the margarine, sugar, flour and ground almonds together in a bowl.
3. Add the eggs and mix.
4. Warm up the milk and add the tea bag for a couple of minutes.
5. Mix the milk into the above mixture.
6. Cut the cherries in half and mix in.
7. Pour the cake mix into a greased and lined 25cm diameter tin and bake at 180c for about 25 minutes until golden and firm.
8. Sprinkle with icing sugar!

Once cool, make a brew, cut a slice and enjoy!

x x x

Best Birthday Cake! {Recipe}

Last weekend the sun was shining and we headed out to do the Bank Holiday shop in preparation for the boy's 6th birthday.
The economic dent to the wallet was softened by, the gratefully received, shopping vouchers from Morrisons.
For this weekend I became a #MorrisonsMum.
Morrisons is not my usual supermarket of choice purely due to the geographical location and ease but I always liked them as a store ever since shopping in one when up North many years ago, when they were an unknown store down in the South West.

As with any new store it took longer to get around and there was a lot of going up and down looking for the items on the list. We were doing our weekly shop as well as buying for party food and cake.

Ah, the cake...

I picked up some offers for this; £2 for a 500g tub of Cadbury's drinking Chocolate and £1 for butter.
The recipe follows with pricing based on my shop from Morrisons - it includes online prices for items I already had in as well as the eggs that I get free from the chooks!

250g butter £1.00
4 lg eggs - free range £1.40
170g dark brown soft sugar £0.42
250g drinking chocolate £1.00
55g SR Flour £0.06
200g icing sugar £0.40
1 tbsp. cocoa £0.18

Total cake cost = £4.46

First grease and line two 8" sandwich tins and turn on your oven to 170-180 c.

Cream 170g of butter and dark brown soft sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one by one and beat well.
Sieve the flour and drinking chocolate into the mixture.
Beat well.
Pour into the two tins.
Bake for 30 minutes.

When cool beat the icing sugar and 70g of the butter and sandwich the cake together.

To make the topping, gently melt the remaining butter and 1 tbsp of milk.
Beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder.
If the mixture is too stiff just add more milk.
Pour over the cake.

Decorate as desired.
We used 60g of Morrisons mini marshmallows - £0.30 and 40g of Morrisons Chocolate Dots - £0.38.

AND ENJOY!

x x x

Disclaimer: I received £80 vouchers to carry out my Bank Holiday shop at Morrisons. As always, views and opinions are my own and are honest.

From Morrisons:

This is the start of a new cheaper Morrisons.

From today (1.5.2014), we’ve cut the prices on over a thousand of your favourite products. Not temporary reductions or supermarket smoke and mirrors, these are new every day low prices on the things you buy every week. So you’ll notice the difference with every shop.

And although we’re cutting prices, we’re not cutting corners. You can check our pricing at www.Morrisons.com/pricecuts.

You’ll still get award-winning meat and fish, still get trained butchers and bakers, still get the best of fresh on Market Street and still get friendly Morrisons service.

Look out for the yellow markers when you shop in store and online atmorrisons.com. If it says I’m cheaper you know it’s staying cheaper.

Mingles & Jingles Christmas Cake

Finally the day is here.
Work has finished and the children still have a day at school so I can open my bag of Mingles & Jingles chocolates from Hotel Chocolat.
Alone and in peace.
Rather than devouring the lot in one sitting I thought I would attempt to make them last much longer and thought there should be cake involved.

Now, not everyone is a fan of traditional Christmas cake so I've made my own non-traditional version, guaranteed to please most taste buds, and used the Mingles & Jingles to add a festive touch.

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4oz slightly melted unsalted butter
4oz light brown sugar
3 eggs
6oz drinking chocolate
1oz SR flour
half tsp. vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together then beat in the 3 eggs.
Mix in the drinking chocolate and flour until smooth.
Finally stir in the vanilla
Spread into a greased lined 20cm x 30cm tin.
Bake at 170c for 25 minutes.
Let it cool

1oz butter
1-2 tbsp. milk
4oz sifted icing sugar
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
Selection of Mingles & Jingles from Hotel Chocolat

Gently melt butter and 1 tbsp. milk.
Beat in icing sugar and cocoa.
If too stiff mix in a little more milk.
Beat and spread over the cake.
Decorate with Mingles & Jingles.

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A Christmas cake to keep all chocoholics smiling through the holiday period!

The Mingles & Jingles come individually wrapped as a selection of milk chocolate penguins, caramel milk chocolate angels and white chocolate bells. As always with Hotel Chocolat you can expect a high quality product and great service. The Christmas chocolate range is still available for Christmas delivery if ordered by 6p.m. Monday 23rd December.

 

Enjoy!

x x x 

 

Disclaimer: I was sent the Mingles & Jingles bag of chocolates from Hotel Chocolat for review purposes. As always views and opinions are honest and are my own.

Cherry Traybake

Following Stir Up Sunday and Christmas Pudding making yesterday I had some left over glace cherries, and as always had a pot of natural yogurt in the fridge, so made a rather scrumptious Cherry Traybake.

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210g SR flour

180g caster sugar

150g Stork

150ml natural yogurt

half tsp baking powder

3 eggs

 

Mix all of the above until smooth.

Stir in 12 chopped glace cherries and 6 chopped large marshmallows.

Spread into a greased and lined 20cm x 30cm tin.

Bake at 170c for 30-35 minutes until springy to the touch and lightly golden.

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The marshmallows add some chewy surprises and extra sweetness but am sure this would work just as well without them.

 

Enjoy!

 

x x x

Muddy Boots & Honey Cake

 

The weather has turned a bit for the worse and the ground is now well and truly soggy.

Welly walks are calling despite the mud - that just adds to the fun.

 

We discovered electrical monsters looming up from the fields and created mud monsters of ourselves. The boy mastered the stiles with grace then nearly lost his boots to the mud.

Two hours later we deserved some cake.

 

Due to a new found love of honey on my girl's part, I used Greek style yogurt with honey which proved to be a good choice making the cake moist and, more importantly, delicious.

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130g SR Flour

100g caster sugar

150g Greek style yogurt with honey

30g Stork

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp honey

 

Mix all of the above until smooth.

Pour into a lined baking tray (approx. 28cm x 19cm)

Bake at 170-180c for about 18 minutes until lightly golden and springy to the touch.

___

 

Eat and enjoy!

A tried and tested alternative is to replace the honey yogurt and honey with Greek style yogurt with vanilla.
Equally delicious.

 

 

x x x

 I'm linking up with the great Country Kids:



Lacock Abbey & Blood Orange Cake

It's been a busy week with the ever increasing build up to Halloween and all things pumpkin. For the first time we have been frugal with our pumpkins baking the flesh and roasting the seeds - the latter being a very pleasant surprise.
The weather finally improved and we had some lovely days out including a wander around the National Trust's Lacock Abbey...

 

A potion trail, clues all around, growth in the greenhouses, outdoor sculpture and tree climbing - one more thing to tick from our #50things list. There is always plenty to see and do here.

 

Back home potions were made.

 

 

And a cake was baked...

 

This delicious, moist and autumnal cake was made using Yeo Valley's Blood Orange & Caramel Yogurt - unfortunately a limited edition flavour. I adapted this recipe.

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150g caster sugar
230g self raising flour (I used half and half regular and wholemeal)
70g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
250g Yeo Valley Blood Orange & Caramel Yogurt
2 eggs
150g unsalted butter
grated zest of half an orange
glug of milk - if mix is thick and not smooth

Mix all of the above using an electric mixer adding milk at the end if not smooth.
Pour into a 20cm greased and lined tin.
Bake at 180c (160c fan) for 45 minutes until the top is springy.
My tin measured 18cm and the cake took nearly an hour.
Cut and serve.

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Enjoy!

I'm linking up with the inspiring Country Kids...

And the delicious Tasty Tuesdays...

x x x

 



Ginger & Cinnamon Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Finally.
I've mastered it.
After some trial and errors involving maple sugar and too high temperatures on the oven I have found the perfect mix of spices and crunch to roast your leftover pumpkin seeds.

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Recipe:

seeds from a medium pumpkin - washed and dried.
a glug of olive oil
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp of ground ginger
dessert spoon of sugar

In a large bowl mix all of the above.
Pre heat the oven to 150c.
Spread the seeds out on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
Roast for 30 minutes.
Give the seeds and jiggle.
Roast for a further 10 minutes.

___

 

I challenge you to make them last!

 

x x x

Take two pumpkins {carve it, puree it, deseed it, bake it}

Today has been a wet, windy, sunny, altogether a strange mix of Autumn weather kind of day. Perfect for baking. Luckily we escaped the worst of the storm so we dodged the showers and went out to buy pumpkins. Last time we did the whole pumpkin thing we just carved and binned the rest. Completely wasteful I know so this time we were going to do things differently.

I turned to the power of social media. Pumpkin recipe upon pumpkin recipe has been pinned to Pinterest over the past month - the majority calling for cans of pumpkin puree. So I asked good old Twitter for some pumpkin advice and as a result used all of the pumpkin up.

Well, nearly. Not sure what we could have done with the skin of the cut out pieces - any suggestions?

We carved, pureed, deseeded and baked.

Thank you to the lovely Modern Mummy for her Pumpkin Puree Recipe and Over A Cuppa for her Spiced Pumpkin Cake Recipe.

Pinterest is providing me with lots of ideas for roasting the seeds - my heart is going with Cinnamon at the moment - watch this space.

So, do you use all of the pumpkin?!

x x x

Take two eggs {Meringue Ghost Caketoppers / Cheese Straws}

I have a confession to make.
I'm not the world's biggest fan of Halloween.
It's the whole 'trick or treat' thing really.
But I have children and don't want to be a complete killjoy.
As an avid fan - some may say I'm addicted - of Pinterest I haven't really been able to avoid the Halloween treats that can be made and eaten.
Edith caught me on there the other day and spotted the meringue ghosts and seeing as we have a great supply of eggs from the trusty hens outside we thought we would have a go.
They ended up looking more of a Pinstrosity but still, they tasted rather good!

___

Here's what to do:

Simply whisk up two egg whites until stiff.
Whisk in 50g of caster sugar.
Whisk in another 50g of caster sugar until the mix has gone shiny and super stiff - tip the bowl upside down, if the meringue doesn't end up on your head then you're good to go.

We piped the meringues onto a baking paper lined tray then added chocolate chip eyes.
We then baked the ghosts at 120c for 90-120 minutes - we took ours out at 90 minutes as we like a chewy centre to our meringues.

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They are moreish on their own but also make good cake toppers so we whizzed up a dozen Chai & Ovaltine cupcakes - this time I combined the powder mixes 3oz Ovaltine and 1oz Chai - and stuck some ghosts on using an Ovaltine and water paste.

 



Now, I do love meringues but clearly end up with spare egg yolks so we tried something new and had a go at cheese straws - minus the pinch of mustard powder and cayenne powder, as usually found in recipes, as I couldn't find them anywhere in my kitchen. They are on the shopping list for next time though to give them some extra flavour.

These went down a storm with the kiddies though...

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375g plain flour

225g butter

200g strong cheddar cheese - grated

2 egg yolks

water

 

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Mix in the cheese, egg yolks and a tbsp. of cold water.

Combine into a ball adding more water if needed.

Wrap in clingfilm and fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out to about the thickness of a £2 coin - into a rough square if you can.

Cut the square in half and cut into strips about 1cm wide - you will get about 30 - 40 straws.

Lay the strips on a baking paper lined tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes at 180-190c until crisp.

___

 

I challenge you not to devour the lot in one sitting.

 

Have you spotted my rather lovely new cake tins and serving plate?

They are part of the Vintage Ivy range from dotcomgiftshop.com and the colours and design are just lovely and fit in with a range of colour schemes.

 

x x x

Disclaimer: I was sent the Vintage Ivy products from dotcomgiftshop.com for review purposes. As always the views and opinions are honest and are mine.

Cupcakes {Chai / Ovaltine}

I'm not 100% sure what defines a cupcake. Is it the same as a fairy cake? What I've baked today are what I would usually call a bun. But that seems to have gone out of fashion so I'll stick with cupcake. A naked cupcake if you like as I always picture cupcakes covered in decorative buttercream - which neither of my two children like. Odd things.

Anyhow, today I had a little experiment in the kitchen and played around with my 'go to' 4oz/4oz/4oz and 2 eggs recipe. I wanted to use up my natural yogurt - and cut the fat - and add some flavours; chai for me, Ovaltine chocolate for the kiddies.

Here's what you need and how to do it...

4oz S.R. flour
4oz caster sugar
3oz natural yogurt
1oz Stork (cooking margarine)
2 eggs
0.5oz Chai Latte - Drink Me Chai
0.5oz Ovaltine Chocolate Light

Mix the flour, sugar, yogurt, Stork and eggs in one bowl until smooth.
If making two different flavours of cupcake split the mix equally between two bowls.
Into one bowl mix the Chai Latte powder, into the other the Ovaltine Chocolate powder.
Spoon equally into cupcake cases.
This makes enough mix for six of each.

Bake in the oven 170-180c for about 18 minutes.

Malt chocolate traybake

It's been ideal baking time what with the nights drawing in, the weather getting chillier, kiddies lunchboxes needing filling and my diet clearly going down the pan. 
Yesterday I pulled out my 'go to' chocolate traybake recipe and played around with it a bit due to running low on drinking chocolate powder - the kiddies have been having to have hot chocolate every night lately. I did, however, have Ovaltine on the shelf. This gave the traybake a nice malty taste and actually worked really well.

Here's how to make it:

4oz Stork or butter
2 eggs
4oz dark brown soft sugar
5oz drinking chocolate powder (I used 50/50 Cadbury's and Ovaltine Chocolate Light)
1.5oz SR Flour
Milk

Cream the Stork and sugar together until soft.
Beat in the eggs.
Stir in the flour and chocolate powder.
Beat in a splash of milk if stiff.
Spread into a greased and lined tin - mine was 26cm x 18cm - and bake at 170c for about 25 minutes.
Leave to cool.
Slice and enjoy!

x x x

Tuna & Yogurt Quiche

Please, stick with me, this quiche isn't as odd as it sounds.
I first baked it back in Junior School - something I've been trying to explain to the kiddies. We had a whole classroom devoted to cookery and am sure we made something every week. Well, maybe not every week. I may be looking back on those heady days through rose tinted glasses but we did have a whole room just for cooking. And a whole classroom just for music. Where did it all go wrong?

Anyway, the quiche. I recall making this back in Junior School and loving it. Having still got a pile of natural yogurt from the lovely Yeo Valley folks I thought I should dust off the old recipe and try it on the children.

Upon being told what we were having for tea Edith's reply was, "Oh, yogurt?" Upon consumption she stated, "It's much better than I thought it would be!" and promptly wolfed down the lot.

Here's how to make it...