‘Straight from heaven’

That is how someone described my cupcakes yesterday evening.

Needless to say, my head almost quadrupled in size with the positive comments!

I had however put A LOT of effort into finding an incredible chocolate cupcake recipe. I always find them to be way too dry. But low and behold, this was the moistest, most delicious, fluffy piece of awesome known to man. I kid you not. There are literally not enough adjectives out there to convey how good these tasted (in my opinion).

This recipe was slightly adapted from one on Pinterest.

It is as follows:

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of plain flour (I used Tesco brand)

2 cups of caster sugar (I used Tesco brand)

3/4 cup of cocoa (I used Cadburys brand)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder (I used Tesco brand)

1 1/2  tsp bread soda (I used Shamrock brand)

1 tsp salt (I used average table salt)

2 eggs (I used Tesco brand)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup of milk (I used Tesco brand – low fat)

1/2 cup of sunflower oil (I used Tesco brand)

1 cup of boiling water

Frosting Ingredients:

600g icing sugar (I used Tesco brand).

350g white chocolate (I used Nestle Milky Bar)

220g butter (I used a buttery spread)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, vanilla, oil and milk.

4. Mix wet mixture into dry mixture.

5. Stir in boiling water to create a thin mixture.

6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.

7.  Bake for 18 – 20 minutes (don’t over cook as this will lead to a dry mixture but don’t undercook either – I test my cupcakes with disposable bbq skewers).

8. Cool before frosting using the following instructions.

Frosting Method:

1. Melt white chocolate in a suitable bowl over a saucepan of boiling water on a low heat (don’t use the microwave, it’s lazy and is much more likely to burn the chocolate).

2. Mix butter and icing sugar at a low speed to create an even consistency.

3. Add melted white chocolate to the buttercream mixture.

4. Using a piping bag, get creative with your cupcakes (I added a chocolate star and plain chocolate shavings).

Eating Method:

1. Prepare yourself for the awesomeness that you are about to experience.

2. Enjoy it!

Love, Tasha

 

 

 

 

Burnt coat.

I was so focused on watching comic relief bake off and looking up delicious recipes for the past couple of hours that I failed to notice my coat being burnt to a literal coat crisp behind me from my heater.

Devastated.

Comic Relief Bake Off

Having seen various posts about this show and not ever watching actual tv, I am catching up now on bbc player! J’adore food shows!

Tasha

My ingredients!

Just a little note to say that more often than not, my ingredients are Tesco brand except in certain circumstances! I honestly believe that you can get an exceptional end result without spending serious dollaz!

That is all.

Tasha 

Tasha’s Tasty Tortellini

Having spent hours trawling the internet yesterday, I was very hungry and having seen many delicious pasta dishes, I couldn’t think about anything else. 

Hence.. Tasha’s tasty tortellini! It’s basically an extremely delicious pasta bake, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:

1 packet of fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 pieces of bacon

1 clove of garlic

1 onion

A few shakes of the following (be as liberal as you want):

Garlic powder

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

Mixed herbs (I used a strange one from lidl that a picture of pizza on the front – it felt right and it tasted better)

Granulated sugar to taste.

Cheddar Cheese (as much as you want)

1/2 ball of mozzerella.

Method:

1. Chop onion and garlic finely and saute until slightly brown.

2. Add chopped bacon.

3. Add chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.

4. Then simmer gently for 10-15 mins.

5. Sprinkle sugar to taste.

6. Take sauce off the heat and add to blender and mix until almost but not completely smooth.

7. Boil tortellini for 2 minutes if using fresh pasta.

8. Add pasta to baking dish and layer with half of your cheddar cheese.

7. Cover pasta with sauce and layer the remaining cheese,

8. Top with sliced mozzerella.

9. Bake for 15 mins at 210 degrees celcius.

10. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salted Caramel Cookies

I cannot even begin to tell you how good these cookies are. So ill share my pics of this baking bonanza and the recipe used! I used a recipe reblogged a couple of posts ago from The Vegetarian Ginger albeit slightly adapted.

The adapted version goes a little like this:

1/2 cup caster sugar (I used tesco brand)
1/2 cup of brown sugar (I used tesco brand of light brown sugar)
1/2 cup of butter (a delicious buttery spread will do – mine is my secret )
1 egg (tesco value was good enough for me)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup of plain flour (tesco value again)
6 tbsp cocoa powder (I used cadburys)
1/2 tsp baking soda (I used shamrock bread soda)
2 packets of rolos
1/4 cup of granulated sugar (tesco value again)
2 tbsp sea salt

The method followed is that which is outlined by The Ginger Veg!
‘In a large bowl, mix granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, egg and vanilla extract until smooth and one consistent colour. Add flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Roll dough into one mass. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 370 degrees F.

Pour the extra sugar for rolling into a small shallow bowl. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, place a rolo in the middle of the cookie and form dough around it until smooth and completely covered. Roll each ball in sugar, then place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Lightly press on the tops of each cookie to slightly flatten, then sprinkle sea salt on the tops of each one.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until there are cracks in the tops of the cookies. Let cool for 5 minutes.’

If you don’t make these, I promise you are missing out on a piece of food heaven. They’re just too good.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Reblogged from a whisk and a spoon:

• 

I needed a little weekend baking project to help take my mind off the Frankenstorm that's coming our way.  Spooky.  It's time for Halloween cupcakes anyway...I make them every year, mostly to use my orange and black sprinkles.  I think devil's food is appropriate for Halloween, and it helps that it's my favorite species of chocolate cake.  I have a particular fondness for oil-based devil's food like this one from…

Read more… 333 more words

The frosting recipe that I have been searching for.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Reblogged from the vegetarian ginger:

• 
• 

Whenever I see chocolate cookie batter out in stores I always drool over it but I've never attempted to make it myself. I was surprised at how well this dough turned out on my first try; it's super easy and my friends and I had a great time making them.

I used mini rolos for this recipe, but if you want more caramel I would suggest using regular sized ones.

Read more… 352 more words

Definitely making these. Tonight.

Strawberry and white chocolate muffins!

I had a punnet of strawberries that I had bought with the intention of enjoying as a healthy snack but they got lost in the fridge and I realised they needed to be used up hence these muffins. I found a recipe which I adapted slightly and this was the finished product. I wasn’t entirely happy with the sponge but they got good reviews from those who sampled them! Ill post the recipe later!

Tasha

To bake is the answer.

I constantly complain about having no skills and no hobbies. 

I went to my local book shop today and straight to the baking/cook book section. I’d have spent all day browsing but I only had half an hour. After constantly changing my mind, I made my selection and made my way to the check out. 

I made polite chit chat with the lady working there and said how hard I found it to choose a book because there were some really beautiful ones there but I had settled on a particular one because I knew I would enjoy making every recipe in it.

She said to me ‘You obviously love baking then’ and I replied ‘It’s my favourite thing to do’. 

And it clicked, baking is my hobby!  

So low and behold, mostlysundaybaking.wordpress.com

I intend to dedicate each new Sunday to a new recipe and post about it here.

I may fit some mid week posts in too though if i’m lucky, hence the ‘mostly’ because you never know when you might need an emergency batch of baked goods!

Tasha