Recipe: Halloween Shortbread

 

“This is Halloween, This is Halloween” Sorry couldn’t resist it. October is finally here which means Spooky Season is finally upon us. And what a way to kick off the month than with a simple yet punchy recipe that’s absolutely adorable to look at and taste delicious with a cup of coffee. For this recipe I once again played with my flavour combinations, opting for ginger and dark chocolate so it’s got a bit of a kick to it but isn’t too overpowering or bitter. The dark chocolate adds a nice little bit of sweetness whilst not making it overly sweet. 

Ingredients     

- 115g Butter

- 55g Caster Sugar

- 175g Plain Flour

- A Pinch Of Salt

- 100g Dark Chocolate Chips

- 1 Tsp Ground Ginger

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. 
2. Into a bowl place the salt, sugar and flour.
3. Add your butter and rub between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
4. Add your ground ginger and dark chocolate chips. Keep rubbing the mixture together until it starts to come together and form a dough. You may need a little water to help bind it together but it should come together quite easily on it’s own. 
5. Place your dough on a lightly floured surface and roll until about an inch thick. Make sure your flour your rolling pin as well as the chocolate chips are likely to stick to it after a couple of rolls. 
6. Using Halloween shaped cutters of your choice cut out as many shapes as possible, rerolling the dough until you have none left. I got my cutters from Shein and really love the plunger on the top to help get them easily out of the mould. 
7. Place on your prepared baking tray/s and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Don’t worry if the middles still feel a little soft, they firm up as they cool on the tray. 
8. Leave to cool completely on the tray and then all that’s left to do is enjoy them. I recommend them with a good cup of coffee or a nice hot cuppa. 

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Shortbread Bites

I absolutely love shortbread and can happily devour packet after packet. However I tend to associate shortbread with Christmas so only ever find myself making it as the festive period looms. Originally this was going to be a chocolate chip shortbread recipe that were all festive shaped but my cutters weren't playing well so I had to quickly rethink it. So I went with mini shortbread bits that melt in the mouth with the added sweetness of the chocolate chips. I made these on Sunday, am writing this on Tuesday and there are none left. They've all gone and I made a big batch.

Ingredients 
115g Butter
55g Caster Sugar
A Pinch Of Salt
100g Chocolate Chips
175g Plain Flour

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a large baking tray or two small baking trays with baking parchment.
2- In a bowl place your flour, sugar and salt.
3- Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4- Add you chocolate chips into the mix. You could a do a mixture of both white and milk but I went with just milk chocolate so it didn't take away from the shortbreads taste.
5- Keep rubbing together until it starts to form a dough. Add a little water if necessary to get the dough to stick together. Don't overwork the dough though, you want it still have that slight crumbliness to it that makes the shortbread that little softer in texture.
6- Once you have your dough, place on a lightly floured surface and roll out until a 1/2inch thick. Make sure you keep your rolling pin floured as the dough may stick to it once you've rolled it a few times.
7- Taking a cutter; size of your choice, cut out as many shapes as you can from the dough. I went with a small cutter so I got more out of the dough. It gave me these adorable little bite size shortbreads that melted in the mouth and left you craving more.
8- Once you've filled your baking tray/s place them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden and the middles still a little soft. They'll soon firm up as they cool but you don't want to leave them in too long otherwise they'll catch and burn.
9- When they're cooked leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Or you could wait a few minutes and taste test one for yourself like I did.
10- All that's left then is to enjoy them. And trust me when I say one won't be enough and before you know it, you're entire batch will be gone.

What I Got For My Birthday

 

On Tuesday I shared with you a GRWM that I created for my birthday and today I'm back with what I'd say is my final birthday post but I do have another birthday centered one coming on Saturday. Today I'm doing my What I Got For My Birthday. And before I go any further, this is by no means a way for me to show off. I just want to share with you thoughtful gifts that I have recieved and maybe it'll give you some gift ideas for any upcoming birthdays you might have.

From my mum this year I didn't recieve a lot as she kindly gave me £200 towards buying a new iPad back in the Summer. However she wanted me to have something to open other than just a card. So she brought me this beautiful Nightmare Before Christmas travel mug. It's not just the multitude of Jack Skellington faces I love so much about this mug, it's the intricate barely there pattern underneath them that's remniscent of a design from the film itself. I already had a perfectly good travel mug but the lip on it was really deep and hard to drink from so this new mug will certainly become my new go to tea mug when I take a cuppa into work.

My stepdad never knows what to buy me so he usually goes halves with my mum on a present. This year however they've decided to do that with one of my Christmas presents instead so for my birthday he ever so kindly got me a Primark voucher. Now some may turn their noses up at that but I bloody love a stroll round Primark and can easily spend a good thirty quid or more when I'm in there. So of course while I was out on my birthday I just had to spend it. I did get one more item that isn't pictured here but that's because it's got to go back as I didn't like it when I got it home. I also got some underwear with it but didn't think you would want to see my knickers so I didn't add them to the picture. When I saw the Mary Poppins range had arrived I just had to get something and what better item to get than the snuggly fleece. I'm mad for a Primark fleece, I have tons from their Harry Potter and Disney collections and can't resist buying another when I see them. I can't wait to snuggle under this with a hot chocolate and a Christmas film. Lately I've been really enjoying wearing necklaces either on their own or layered up over a basic knit or t-shirt. And Primark is the best place to pick up on point, inexpensive necklaces that aren't a waste of money if you don't get a lot of wear out of them. I got three in total, two in the same design but just one in gold and the other in silver. They're very similar to another necklace I own with it's flipping coin design. These kinda give me Harry Potter vibes so I have a feeling that I'll be wearing one when I visit the Harry Potter Studios (TODAY!). And the third resembles a pressed penny with a gold bird design pressed into it. I think this will look great layered with other necklaces and a chunky knit. And the final thing I brought was yet more Christmas earrings. I already have a ton but just couldn't resist picking up another set. These have the most adorable stockings and beanie hats and I just couldn't help myself.

And the most exciting of all my gifts, some of which I haven't shared is from my best friend Jasmin. She has ever so kindly paid for the pair of us to visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour. That happened yesterday and I still can't get over how amazing, magical and breathtaking it was. I took so many photos and could have probably taken more but it was quite busy so I think I may have missed a few details. I was in awe over the Great Hall, Forbidden Forest, Hogwarts Express and Diagon Alley. I can't even put into words how much I loved it and I'd happily go again and again and again. There was also a Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them section as you leave and it was brilliant to see all the costumes from the two films. I also met a lovely worker there called Luisa who bumped into me and Jasmin in the Gift Shop and then stopped us again as we were leaving to ask us what we thought of the tour and gave us some amazing extra tidbits about the costumes and the films. I treated myself to Hermione Granger's wand (even though I'm a Slytherin), a Time Turner keyring and a poseable Bowtruckle who I'm absolutely in love with.

And Jasmin also brought me a couple of other little Harry Potter bits to coincide with our visit to the Studio Tour. She ever so kindly brought me a Slytherin Bath Bomb. It has hints of Juniper and Bergamot and I can't wait to use this. She also brought me a Princess Jasmine sheet mask. It's printed to look like her face and I actually can't wait to wear this and take about a dozen selfies with it on. And both of them came in this stunning Slytherin make up bag. It's green, it's Slytherin, it's shiny, what's not to love. This is literally going to go everywhere with me, it's so soft; something I found intriguing for a metallic finish, it's a decent size and it's just the perfect gift for my Harry Potter heart.

Overall I'm feeling extremely lucky and grateful for all my gifts and the time spent with the ones I love. And to top it all off, me and my work bestie Lauren who is now on maternity leave for the next year are going for dinner tomorrow. She only left last Friday but I already miss her like crazy and can't wait to see her and bump tomorrow.

Recipe: Spiced Fruit Cupcakes

 

 Happy Monday! Today I'm back with my first of only two recipes this month. The cold weather has definitely made it's presence known over this last fortnight something I'm thoroughly enjoying as it means I get to wear snuggly pjs, big jumpers and drinks copious amount of hot chocolate and tea. However there are times when a cup of tea on it's own just isn't enough and a sweet treat is definitely needed to compliment it.

And as I was planning out my Christmas recipes, my thoughts turned to adding a twist to the traditional and simple fruit cake. Initially I was going to attempt a cute Christmas Pudding themed cupcake and you could easily adapt these cupcakes to create that but to start off with, I wanted to take it back to basics but experiment it to give it a bit more kick and seasonal spice. And with that these delicious cupcakes were born. Light, fluffy sponge with a gentle kick of the spices melt in the mouth alongside the sweet tang of the sultanas, creating the perfect Autumn cupcake that would be perfect for coffee mornings or a tea break pick me up. They're going down a storm in my house, I don't know if there will be any actually left for me to take into work.

Ingredients 
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Stork, softened
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 100g Sultanas
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- A Pinch Of Ginger
- A Pinch Of Nutmeg

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hold muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Place the softened stork and caster sugar into a bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy, either by hand or by electic mixer. My stand mixer does the job a lot faster but you get exactly the same results from doing it by hand.
3- Beat your first egg into the mixture alongside a tablespoon of flour. Once beaten into the butter mix, add your second egg and another tablespoon of flour. Beat again until fully incorporated, taking time to scrape the sides of bowl to make sure everything gets beaten in.
4- Fold the rest of the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger into the mix, taking your time to make sure you keep all the air you've already beaten into the mixture. For this part I put my mixer on the very first slow setting so whilst it takes some time, it ensure you have a aerated mixture that'll be light and fluffy cake once it's cooked.
5- Once everything has been folded in, gently fold the sultanas in. I actually take the bowl of my mixer and do this part by hand so I know I'm not knocking any air out of the mixture. I use a silicone spatula for this part as they're flexible enough to scrape the sides yet still sturdy enough to fold/mix the sultanas in.
6- Spoon into the paper cases and pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7- Once cooked, leave them to cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- Then all that's left is too enjoy them. I love how they taste not straight out the oven but after a few minutes. It makes the sponge even light and the sultanas just melt in the mouth.