Recipe: Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

I've always loved the look of a bundt cake. Growing up I always wondered how they made them round and as an adult I've spent years saying I need to invest in a bundt tin. And a few months ago I did just that. However it wasn't until recently that I actually used it. I based this bundt cake around one of my favourite Christmas confectionaries, the classic Terry's Chocolate Orange. A delicious orange flavour, in a light moist sponge, topped with milk chocolate which could be subsituted by a Terry's Chocolate Orange in fact.

Ingredients
250g Unsalted Butter
250g Plain Flour
225g Caster Sugar
30g Cocoa Powder 
4 Eggs
3 Tsp Orange Extract
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
75g Milk Chocolate, melted

Method 
1- Pre heat your oven to 180C. Generously grease the inside of the bundt tin with butter.
2- Into your bowl place the unsalted butter, sugar and orange extract. Beat until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
3- Add your eggs one at a time, beating well between. This is the time where I take a silicone spatula around the edges of the bowl so nothing is left sitting on the side.
4- Into your mixture sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Gently fold the dry ingredients in as to not knock the air you've just built up out of the mixture. If you're using a stand mixer I advise using the slowest of settings so you don't over mix the mixture.
5- Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Don't worry if your cake doesn't look picture perfect when you take it out, it's only going to be the bottom of the cake once you've turned it out and nobody's looking at that much.
6- Leave to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack, ready for decoration.
7- To decorate your cake, melt your milk chocolate over a bain marie or in short bursts in the microwave. I usually use a bain marie but I was feeling lazy so melted mine in the microwave but somehow managed to burn it slightly. However I still had enough unburnt melted chocolate to decorate.
8- For my decorations I just used a teaspoon dipped in chocolate to create a drizzle style pattern. You can create any pattern you want but as I made this late at night, a simple drizzle worked best for me.
9- Once you're happy with your decoration, leave to set, then cut into slices and enjoy.

Recipe: Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Happy Tuesday. It's crazy to think that this time next week, we'll all be getting up to open our presents, stuff our faces and spend some quality time with our loved ones. As Christmas is only a week away, I thought I'd share my take on a Christmas Tree Cupcakes with you all. The icing doesn't resemble a Christmas Tree much but I'm still working on my icing which can sometimes look a bit lacklustre. However if you can create a tree with your icing then brilliant, you'll have some spectacular looking cupcakes. 

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes 
110g Caster Sugar
110g Plain Flour
110g Stork, softened
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Baking Powder
30g Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

For The Buttercream 
200g Butter, softened
320g Icing Sugar
2 Tsp Peppermint Extract
1 Tsp Holiday Green Food Colouring
1 Tsp Milk

Method
1- Pre heat your oven to 180c. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Place the sugar and stork into a large bowl. Beat until creamy, pale and fluffy in texture. Depending on how soft your stork is, depends on how long this will take. It can take a while but patience is key when it comes to this part.
3- Sift your dry ingredients together and add to the mix.
4- Beat your eggs in a seperate bowl then add to the mix. Beat until everything is combined, taking time to scrape the sides of your bowl so nothing left unbeaten or gathering on the edges of the mix.
5- Spoon your mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6- Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
7- For the buttercream place your softened butter into a large bowl and beat until creamy and smooth in consistency. This bit is the bit that takes forever but it's worth the work at the end.
8- Once your butter has reached the right consistency, sift in half your icing sugar and beat again. This can take a while as you want to make sure that your buttercream is smooth and there are not pockets of icing sugar.
9- Once smooth, add the other half of your icing sugar. Beat again until fully incorporated and smooth.
10- Now it's time to add your colouring and flavouring. Once you've added both, beat until fully incorporated, adding more colouring if necessary. This is also a great time to add your milk so that your mixture is pipeable.
11- Once you're happy with your buttercream, spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto your now cooled cakes. I used a waved edge nozzle for this but you can use any style of nozzle you prefer.
12- When all your cakes are iced, leave them to set. Then all that's left to do is enjoy them.

Recipe: Ferrero Roche Brownies

If there is one thing I enjoy eating the most at Christmas it's Ferrero Roche. I know they're available all year round but there's something about eating them during the Festive period that I can't get enough of. And that's when I thought to do a Ferrero Roche Brownie. These didn't turn out as perfectly as I hoped as they caught slightly when baking but apart from that, I now have a tin of rich, gooey, Ferrero Roche topped brownies to enjoy.

Ingredients 
200g Dark Chocolate
200g Unsalted Butter
275g Caster Sugar
90g Plain Flour
35g Cocoa Powder
3 Eggs
100g Dark Chocolate Chips
9 Ferrero Roche

Method
1- Pre heat the oven to 180C. Grease a 9 Inch square brownie tin with greaseproof paper.
2- Into a bain marie place the dark chocolate and butter. Over a low heat, melt the two together, taking care to keep the heat down low so the chocolate doesn't catch and burn. I also melt my chocolate in a bain marie as melting it in the microwave always burns it and renders it useless.
3- Once everything is melted together, place it to one side to cool down. I always used to make the mistake of not letting cool properly and adding it before it was ready which resulted in a bread like brownie instead of the beauties I get now.
4- Into a seperate bowl place the sugar and the eggs. Whisk together until the mixture is pale, double in size and leaves a trail when you pull the whisk out. This is the only part of the recipe where you can use a higher speed on your electric mixer, everything else has to be slow or you'll end up knocking out the air you've just created.
5- Take your now cooled chocolate mix and pour into the sugar mix. Fold gently to keep the air into the mixture but remembering to scrape the side of the bowl so everything gets fully incoporated and nothing is left sitting on the side of the bowl.
6- Add the flour and the cocoa powder and fold gently into the mixture. Again this part requires slow, gentle folding actions to keep the air in the mixture. However you will need to scrape the sides of the bowl as the flour and the cocoa powder will stick to it and you don't want to end up with pockets of flour in your brownies.
7- Pour in your chocolate chips. You can use any type of chocolate chip you like but I prefer to use dark chocolate chips to give them a richer taste. Again fold everything in whether with your mixer or a silicone spatula.
8- Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin. Smooth the top over with a palette knife and then gently press your Ferrero Roche into the mixture. You should still be able to see them slightly but you don't want them just sitting on top of your mixture. Pop in the oven and bake for 30-40mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
9- Leave to cool completely in the tin. This helps it keep it's shape and gives them a chunkiness that a lot of brownies lack.
10- Once cool, cut into squares or chunks. Then all that's left to do is enjoy a piece or two. 

Recipe: Christmas Pudding Cupcakes

Christmas puddings are a traditional part of Christmas. Some of you may love them, some of you may hate them. I for one love them after having spent my entire childhood hating them. And with it being the season of eating copious amount of pudding, I thought it only right to try and put a cupcake twist on the traditional Christmas pud. These cupcakes can be made two ways, one is a chocolate sponge like I've made or you can do a spiced fruit sponge to give it a more authentic taste. I went with chocolate purely as it made them look more like Christmas puds and they were more likely to be eaten by my work colleagues if they didn't contain fruit.

Ingredients 
100g Caster Sugar
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Stork, softened
2 Eggs
30g Cocoa Powder
50g Ready To Roll Fondant Icing
12 Miniature Holly Leaf Sugar Decorations
A Dab Of Nutella

Method
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hold cupcake tin with paper cases.
2- In a bowl, cream together the sugar and the stork until it's pale in colour and fluffy in texture. An electric mixer is the best for this as it's quicker and gives it a creamier finish which leads to a lighter cake.
3- Break one egg in at a time followed by a spoonful of flour. Combine with the butter and sugar mix, taking care to scrape round the sides of the bowl so everything gets fully incoporated.
4- Once you've mixed in both eggs, gently fold in the rest of your flour. Take your time doing this as you don't want to knock out any of the air you've just built up.
5- Add in the cocoa powder and fold again, taking care to scrap everything off the sides of the bowl.
6- Spoon into your paper cases and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7- Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- When the cupcakes are completely cool take your ready to roll fondant icing and cut a block off. I just estimated how much I thought I'd need from a 500g block. Knead it a little to soften it up then roll out on a lightly floured surface until you have your desired thickness. 
9- Then using a sized cutter you want, cut out twelve identical shapes and place to one side. Grab your now cooled cupcakes and smear a little nutella over the area where you want your fondant icing to go.
10- Gently place your fondant shapes onto your nutella topped cakes, using your fingers to gently press it into place. Be careful not to tug at the fondant too much as you'll end up losing any definition your edges may have.
11- Once you have your white topped cupcakes, dab a little nutella onto the your holly leaf decorations and place gently into the centre of each cupcake. Press down lightly to keep it in place.
12- Once you've successfully decorated all twelve cupcakes, place to one side to let everything set slightly. Then all that's left to do is enjoy them, preferrably with a cuppa. 

Recipe: Gingerbread Men

Happy 1st Of December. If you're wondering why I'm posting on a Saturday, it's because for the month of December I'm going to be doing two posts a day right up until Christmas Eve. Yes you read that right, I had a moment of insanity mid November and I decided to do a new post every day for twenty four days alongside my evening 24 Days Of Beauty series which will be coming back at you at 7.30pm tonight.

Right back onto today's post. Today marks the first day of December and to me that can only mean one thing. It's Christmas! Now I know it's not actually Christmas but for me, the first is when it actually starts to feel like Christmas. There is going to be Christmas songs and movies aplenty for me in the upcoming weeks alongside a dozen Christmassy recipes which I plan on sharing with you. And to kick off the month, I'm going with a Christmas classic of Gingerbread Men. I made these last year but never shared them with you so am so excited to be sharing this with you this year. These are ridiculously easy to make and even the smallest bit when baked makes you feel Christmassy AF!

Ingredients 
- 350g Plain Flour
- 125g Butter, softened
- 175g Soft Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 4 Tbsp Golden Syrup
- 1 Tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
- 2 Tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method
1- In a bowl sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger. Add the softened butter and rub the mixture between your fingertips until it's looks and feels like breadcrumbs. This may take a while but is worth that bit of extra work.
2- Add the sugar and blend with you fingers, taking care to break down any large lumps of sugar that you may have.
3- In a separate bowl beat together the egg and the golden syrup.
4- Add to your breadcrumb mixture and use your hands to mix. The mixture should begin to form a dough and whilst it's sticky and slightly gross process, it's the best way to create a kneadable and rollable dough.
5- Once you have your dough, knead lightly into a ball, cover in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to chill for fifteen to twenty minutes. This is the part where you can get your cutters ready, make yourself a cuppa or tidy up any untensils you've already used.
6- Pre heat your oven to a 180C. Line several baking trays/sheets with parchment paper. I'd advise keeping spare baking trays and your roll of parchment paper to hand, this recipe can make more than your average amount.
7- Take your now chilled dough out of the fridge and place onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out your dough to a 1/4inch thick. I advise making sure rolling pin is dusted in flour as well as it makes the dough easier to roll out and won't stick or break.
8- Using a gingerbread man cutter; size of your choosing, and cut out as many gingerbread men you can from the dough. Keep rerolling the dough until you can't get any more out. I made thirty six gingerbread men but my cutter was relatively small in size so I got more out of my dough. A larger cutter will obviously make less than that but will still create a fair amount.
9- Place evenly spaced on your prepared baking trays and bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are slightly golden in colour. Don't worry if the middles still feel slightly soft, they'll soon firm up as the biscuits cool.
10- Leave to cool on the tray for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Then all's that left is to enjoy them, preferrably with a cuppa and a Christmas movie.

Recipe: Mince Pies

If there's one thing I love the most about Christmas it's the food. I love that during the run up to Christmas you can use it for eating half a tub of Celebrations or a six pack of mince pies in one sitting. And that's when I had the idea to make my own mince pies instead of spending a good part of my wages on boxes of them from supermarkets. Now I will admit I did use ready to roll pastry to make them as pastry isn't my strongest point just yet.

Ingredients
- 500g Ready To Roll Shortcrust Pastry
- 250g Mincemeat
- 1 Egg, beaten
- Granulated Sugar for

Method

1. 1- Depending on whether you've brought frozen pastry or not then depends on this step. If you have, give it two to three hours to defrost. You'll be able to tell when it's ready to use. 
2. Once the pastry is defrosted, pre heat the oven to 180C and prepare your tins. I used mini yorkshire pudding foils for my mince pies as they were the closest thing I could get that would mimic the shape of a mince pie. 
3. Once your tin is prepared, it's time to roll out the pastry. For that you'll need a clear, lightly floured surface so the pastry doesn't stick to it. 
4. Place your pastry on the surface and add some flour to your rolling pin. It'll stop the pastry from curling around the rolling pin as you roll it. Once ready, you'll need to roll it out to the thickness of a pound coin, making sure to create enough surface space to cut out twelve bases. 
5. Now your pastry is rolled out, take a cutter; preferrably round and cut out twelve bases. Keep the trimmings as you'll need them for the lids. 
6. Gently place your bases into your prepared tins, I found I needed to stretch the pastry out slightly to make sure there was enough room for the filling. 
7. When your bases are ready, add a teaspoon of mincemeat. You don't want to add too much otherwise it will spill out as it cooks.
8. Then it's time to create your lids. Roll out what's left of your pastry and cut out twelve same size or smaller lids. Place them off to one side for the moment. 
9. Take your beaten egg and lightly brush it around the edges of your filled mince pie. Once you've done that, take a lid and press the two together, making sure to keep the filling in the pie. 
10. Once all your mince pies have lids, brush the lids with what's left of the egg and then sprinkle with sugar to give that extra sweet touch. 
11. It's then into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. When they're cooked you can either leave them to cool completely or enjoy them wam, my personal favourite way to enjoy a mince pie.

Recipe: Terry's Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

There's one thing I absolutely adore around the Christmas time. And that's eating as many Terry's Chocolate Oranges as feasibly possible before they become hard to find once again. However for a change, instead of eating a bag of miniature slices to myself, I decided to bake with them. And I'm really happy with how these Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream turned out.

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
- 110g Butter (Softened)
- 110g Plain Flour
- 110g Caster Sugar
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 3 Tsp Cocoa Powder
- 2 Tsp Orange Extract

For The Buttercream
- 50g Dark Chocolate
- 100g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
- 200g Icing Sugar
- Milk (To loosen)

To Decorate
- 1 Bag Of Miniature Terry's Chocolate Orange Slices 

Method

1. Pre heat over to 180c and line a 12 hole muffin/cupcake tin with paper cases.
2. Place the softened butter and sugar in a bowl. Using a stand mixer, hand mixer or silicone spatula, beat until pale and fluffy.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl. 
4. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. 
5. Add your flavouring of choice. I wanted mine to be orange so I added two teaspoons of orange extract to give it a real orange flavour. However you can add whatever flavouring you'd like, depending on what cakes you're making. 
6. Beat the mixture until combined, making sure to scrape around the edges to combine all the mixture/ingredients.
7. Spoon into cases and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them as I tend to find that recipes containing cocoa powder are quicker to burn/overcook if left unattended. 
8. Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. 
9. Then it's time to start making the butter cream. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave. Once melted, leave to cool or at least not hot to touch.
10. Beat the softened butter in a bowl until soft, then gradually sift in the icing sugar, making sure to beat everything fully before adding more. Not only will it let you know if you have too much icing sugar but also stops it from flying everywhere and leaving it looking like a winter wonderland in your kitchen. 
11. Pour the chocolate into the mixture and gently fold through, making sure to scrape along the sides and bottom of the bowl so every thing is fully incoporated. 
12. If the mixture seems a little stiff and doesn't look like it would be easy to pipe, add a couple of teaspoons of milk to loosen the mixture. It'll make piping so much easier. 
13. Once you're happy with your buttercream, spoon it into a piping bag. Cut the end of the bag as high up as you want, all that it's going to change is whether you get a thin line of buttercream or a thick line. 
14. Once your piping bag is ready, pipe your icing in any design you like, making sure to keep the air out of the piping bag as it'll only cause you to use more icing when you don't want. 
15. When you're happy with your piping, decorate with miniature Terry's Chocolate Orange slices. Leave to one side to allow the buttercream to set slightly, then tuck in and enjoy