Ice Over It...

Many people have asked me about making the perfect icing for all sorts of different cakes, so I figured I would put my top tips on here for them and anyone else so that you can access them whenever you want!
To start with, every body needs a good butter cream recipe as a basis for their icing repertoire, and here's mine...

Butter Cream

Short of mixing icing sugar with water, Butter cream is definitely the simplest and also the most versatile icing and works great on all types of cakes - fairy cakes, victoria sponge, chocolate cake, and fruit cake to name a few.  But my main reason for using it is to decorate...it's great for piping and creating different designs on your cakes

To make yours, all you will need is:

150g Unsalted Butter (Softened)

300g Icing Sugar

5 tbsp Milk (at room temperature)
3tsp Vanilla Extract

Step 1.

Using a wooden spoon, beat your butter in a mixing bowl until soft.  Add the Icing sugar a small amount at a time mixing well as you go.

Step 2.
Add in the milk and beat well till you get a smooth slightly fluffy consistency.  (Use more/less milk dependant on how thick you need your butter cream for different reasons)  Add the vanilla extract and mix well.  To brighten up your cake, add a few drops of food colouring.

Step 3.
To make your icing look really nice, invest in a good piping set with a good collection of nozzles to make your cakes look extra professional.

Here are some of the cakes I have decorated with my trusty Butter Cream icing...

Let me know what you think and how you get on, an be sure to keep an eye out for all my other icing tips and recipes!!

x ♥ x

"Millies" Cookies...

Everybody loves a Millies Cookie, and as a baker, I have been looking for years for a good recipe to replicate their gorgeous taste from home! At last I have got it, I took a few different recipes and have mixed and matched the ingredients to come up with what I believe to be the PERFECT Cookie recipe, with the same melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness of the Millies cookie...and now I'd like to share it with you...

My "Millies" Cookies

To make yours, all you will need is:

250g Unsalted Butter (Softened)

250g Plain Flour

200g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Granulated Sugar
3 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Baking Powder
A Pinch of Salt

2 Large Eggs (or 3 if they are extra small)
190g White Chocolate
190g Milk Chocolate
(Peculiar chocolate measurements I know, but if you get 200g bars...it means you will have a little extra to snack on while you bake)

Step 1.

Preheat your oven to gas 2 (150C/300F).  Grease and line a large baking tray. Place your chocolate in the fridge to harden.

Step 2.

Using an electric mixer, mix up the softened butter with the different sugars to make a gritty paste consistency.  Add in the eggs and vanilla extract, mix until smooth.

Step 3.
Sift the flour into a seperate mixing bowl, add in the salt and baking powder and mix well with a wooden spoon.  Fold in the egg and butter mixture until well mixed.  Separate half the mixture into a second mixing bowl so you are left with 2 equal portions.

Step 4.

Take the chocolate from the fridge leaving it still in its wrapper.  Using a rolling pin, smash the chocolate into little chunks...This will give a rustic look to your cookies with various sized chocolate chunks (instead of simply using chocolate chips).

Step 5. 

Add the white chocolate chunks to one bowl of mixture, and the milk chocolate chunks to the other. Fold in using wooden spoon - DO NOT OVER MIX!

Step 6.
Using a tablespoon, dollop spoonfuls of each mixture onto the lined baking tray, making sure that they are evenly spaced out as the mixture will spread.  Place on the top shelf of the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until soft and golden.
This mix should get you about 17-20 cookies from each of the white and milk chocolate mixes, so you will need to re-line and re-use your tray as you will probably only get 8-12 spoonfuls on at a time.

Step 7.
Remove from the oven, and using a spatula, place the cookies instantly onto a cooling rack.  Once they have cooled slightly, they are good to go...best served warm!

Enjoy...

x ♥ x

American Slaw...

Following on from my post on Wednesday this week, yesterday I was still feeling a little down at just the general idea that this year, I will NOT be spending the next two months travelling around America...So to cheer myself and Sam up, last night we decided to have an American feast night!!

Food was such a HUGE part of our travels, and oh my god...In America they know how to serve up a good meal. 

 My boyfriend Sam unfortunately suffers from a number of food allergies (among others), and this really limits us to where we can eat when we're eating out in the UK...We found that at first, we stuck to the mainstream chains, and visited a lot of Hard Rock and Rainforest Cafes, but we were made to feel so safe with the food and service we received, we found ourselves becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of branching out and trying local, smaller restaurants, which was lovely to be able to do.

One food that featured with almost every meal we had, was a large helping of Slaw (coleslaw to us brits) on the side of every dish...So with our American feast, we decided to make an attempt at making our own...and here's how we did it...

American Slaw

All you we need for yours:

3 medium sized Carrots

1/2 White Cabbage

1 large White Onion

4 heaped tbsp Mayonaise

1 tbsp White Wine Vinegar

1 tbsp Wholegrain Mustard

Handfull of Dried Cranberries

Salt and Pepper to taste

(obviously this isn't a traditional American Slaw recipe, but we did the best we could with the ingredients we could get our hands on in the UK - and it tasted spot on!)

Step 1.

Start by peeling and thickly grating the carrots and onion, thinly slice the cabbage, and mix together in a large mixing bowl.

Step 2.

Salt and Pepper the vegetables and mix together.  Pour in the white wine vinegar and using your fingers, mix in with the mayonaise, and mustard. 

Step 3.

Finish with a sprinkling of cranberries, to add that extra sweetness to your slaw!

Served up on the side of a half rack of BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken wings, battered onion rings, and potato wedges...YUM!

What reminds you of your favourite holidays?  and to my American readers...what do you think of our recipe? Let me know if you have any suggestions of other great US recipe tricks :)

x ♥ x