Christmas Pud Cupcakes!

Still on the theme of Christmas, I found this lovely recipe that includes chocolate (a must at Christmas!), sour cherries and soured cream. In the original recipe, these cupcakes are decorated with bay leaves so that it looks like a holly leaf with berries but I could not find any in the supermarkets, so decided to do without.

This tasty cupcake has melted chocolate as well as cocoa powder so it came out really moist and chocolatey. The recipe called for sour cherries but as I had some dried cranberries left over, I used a combination of both. Icing is once again a simple white frosting and decorated with a sour cherry or cranberry on top.

I ended up with 26 cupcakes so will be interesting to see how quickly they will go tomorrow with the ginger biscuits!

Christmas Ginger Biscuits!

In the spirit of Christmas, I have been baking with any ingredients to do with Christmas for the last few weeks. Hence this weekend, I decided to bake some double gingerbread men, trees, stars, holly leaves, angels and teddy bears! The 'double ginger' comes from ground ginger and chopped stem ginger.

However, I think I might have overbaked them and they have come out more crunchy and more like biscuits so I have decided to call them christmas ginger biscuits instead. I have also iced them with simple white frosting and coloured star sprinkles to give them some colour.

The Husband has tried them and said they were 'ok' although he would have preferred more icing!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Icing!

We had an influx of new colleagues in the Office last week and chocolate seems to be a recurring theme with boys, so I decided to bake cupcakes with some chocolate in them to complement the cranberry & orange cupcakes.

The Husband tried these cupcakes without icing and thought they were really good. With the icing, he ate another two in the office the next day!

I also discovered why cupcakes are usually round as star-shaped and heart-shaped cupcakes actually turned out to be a nightmare to ice! I am sure it is fine if I am using sugar icing but because chocolate and cream cream icings are not as stiff, spreading them evenly takes more of an effort to get them right without having icing spreading off the edges!

My in-laws have also tried them and pronounced them 'quite tasty'. Together with the orange and cranberry cupcakes, the Office managed to finish 40 cupcakes in a day!

Orange & Cranberry Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Icing!

I received a whole new collection of cupcake moulds for my birthday from my brother and sister-in-laws and I was quite keen to use them to bake more different shaped cupcakes.

Seeing as Christmas was only a couple of weeks away, I decided on a Christmas themed cupcake recipe that involves fresh cranberries. This is the first time I am using fresh cranberries and I found them quite a hard berry which has to be chopped up finely and baked into the cupcakes. I do not actually think they are that tasty raw although they do look sweet as decorations.

The Husband is not a fan of cream cheese icing, hence did not really these cupcakes but they did vanished in a day in the Office!

Pirate Birthday Cake!

I received a request from a friend to bake a birthday cake for her son last weekend. She was very taken with the raisin and chocolate sandwich cake that I did before so wanted a similar cake for the birthday boy.

The birthday was a pirate-themed one, so I baked the cake the night before and frost it for collection the day of the party. I was slightly worried as one of the cakes had sunk slightly in the middle but luckily the frosting was more than enough to make up for it. The cake was then decorated by my friend with the pirate decorations.

Post-party, she told me that when her partner came home with the cake in a Galaxy chocolate tin, she thought that he had gone out and bought chocolates. Apparently, the birthday boy thought so as well and put his hand in to come out with a palmful of icing which he ended up licking happily! His poor mother had to smooth over the icing to make sure the cake was presentable again. The entire cake was eaten by ten adults and six children in the afternoon.

Christmas Tree at the McNabs!

This is Christmas tree No 2 that the Husband has got for me. Coming from a tropical country, the novelty of Christmas still appeals to me despite the amount of snow we have got blanketing the country for the last 2 weeks.

And below are the pictures of what I came back to a couple of weeks ago....just before we couldn't get the car out of the garage the next day!

Cranberry & Cherry Cake!

I found this lovely recipe in one of my books and since Christmas is almost round the corner (20 days to be exact!), I figured a recipe with cranberries would be ideal.

This cake has 200g of glace cherries and 50g of cranberries baked into it so when one slices it, there is a great contrast between the yellow sponge cake and the red fruits. The orange zest also gives it a tangy feel. It did take some time though as the eggs and flour had to mix in alternately in spoonfuls to get a smooth batter.

The Husband has commented that it tastes like what his Grandma used to bake, which I thought was quite sweet. :)

Ginger Madeleines!

I have been wanting to bake these ginger madeleines since I found this recipe online but I had to wait until I got the madeleine baking pans to do so. Luckily, my girlfriends in the Office were happy enough to get the pans for me for my birthday so I set to work this weekend baking them.

What are madeleines? According to Wikipedia, "madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions.The madeleine or petite madeleine is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France."

These madeleines were quite easy to bake. Stem ginger and ground ginger are both mixed into the batter which gives a strong ginger flavour, ideal for ginger lovers! Butter, eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla extract are the standard baking ingredients. The batter is then chilled for 30 mins before spooning them into the pan and baking them for 10 mins. The madeleines are then dusted with icing sugar.

The Husband has pronounced them 'pretty good'.

Chocolate Revel Bars!

Last Sunday, suffering from jet-lag and trying desperately not to fall asleep in the afternoon, I decided to bake a simple recipe from one of the new baking magazines I bought in the States.

Chocolate revel bars are chocolatey, fudgy, oatmeal bar-type cookies that consist of three layers. The first and third layers are the same butter, sugar, eggs, flour and oatmeal mixture. The second layer is melted dark chocolate (semisweet chocolate in the States) with a couple tablespoons of butter and chopped walnuts stirred in.

I was a bit surprised at the quantity of the oatmeal mixture and as my baking tin was smaller than the suggested size, I had quite a bit of dough left that I had to throw away. Note to self: reduce quantity of ingredients according to pan size! But I did use the full quantity of melted chocolate which I think did not affect the overall taste, especially if you love chocolate like me.

The oatmeal layer did taste rather bland by itself and the top layer baked into an almost biscuit-like crust. However, with the filled chocolate layer, the entire cookie bar was rather delicious!

As most of the Office was away this week, there are still plenty left today but I did spot a colleague having two pieces in minutes!

Lemon Curd Cupcakes!

To use up leftover lemon curd and sour cream, I found this lovely lemon curd cupcake recipe online. There are three different lemon ingredients in this recipe - lemon curd, lemon zest and lemon juice. Other ingredients are butter, eggs, plain flour and golden caster sugar.

Another helping of lemon curd is also stirred into whipped double cream to make the icing for the cupcakes. The two dark cupcakes in the corner of the picture are actually lemon curd cupcakes glazed with a chocolate and cream mix that I thought might go well together. However, the Husband has tried the lemon curd cupcake with chocolate glaze and said it does taste rather strange together.

I will keep you posted about taste tomorrow!

Banana Cake with Pecan Crumble Crunch!

With leftover bananas from the Office, I found this banana cake recipe with a twist. I usually find banana cake recipes quite boring as they are all the same. However, in this recipe, it includes chopped pecans as well as a pecan crumble crunch topping which I hope would give the banana cake a different look and taste.

The Husband has been the first taster and pronounced it as 'good banana cake!'

Guinness Cake!

During the week, the Office was visited by quite a number of overseas colleagues. This recipe was given by a colleague who had heard about my baking adventures.

The Husband decided that it was a challenge that has to be taken up and since the colleague would still be in the office on Friday, I was duly informed that the Husband would go and buy the required Guinness, cream and brown sugar after work for me to bake the cake. :)

This cake actually took some time as the flour needed to be sifted 3X and mixing 200ml of Guinness with 55g of cocoa powder into a smooth paste also took longer than expected. This cake turned out really moist and chocolatey with a hint of Guinness. There was an option to finish the cake off with a dusting of icing sugar or a chocolate cream glaze. To glaze the cake in time for work on Friday, I had to wake up early to get it done.

Luckily, all the work is not in vain as the Husband has pronounced the cake 'one of his Top 5s'! Other cakes that have the same accolade are the lemon blueberry cake, lemon blueberry cake with coconut crumble topping and the chocolate brownie cake.

The colleague who gave me the recipe said it was very good and that my cake has a stronger 'Guinness' kick! The cake was finished in a day.

Triple Chocolate Raspberry Brownies!

Still on the berry trail, I wanted to bake something with raspberries and dark chocolate. Surprisingly, most recipes call for white chocolate and raspberries but I was determined to find something for my combination.

I found this lovely chocolate and raspberry brownie recipe online that called for all three types of chocolate! 300g of dark chocolate was melted with 150g of butter before being mixed with quite a lot of sugar, 4 eggs, flour and then 175g white chocolate chunks, 100g milk chocolate chunks and 150g raspberries!

This brownie has been well-received by the Office and the Husband has also described it as 'interesting in a good way' with the raspberries as a lovely surprise among the chocolate!

If you look at the picture closely, you can spot the white chocolate and the raspberries!

Pyramid of Baking Ingredients!

The Husband and I go supermarket shopping every Sunday morning and today was no exception. However, with Christmas round the corner (and yes, I know it is only October!), lots of baking ingredients were already on sale. Flour and sugar were both 1/3 off while glace cherries were half price. Hence, I took the opportunity to stock up.

When we got home, I left the Husband to do the unpacking and came back to the kitchen to find the pyramid he has built. It made me laugh which is why I married him!

He explained that the 'hole' in the middle of the tower is meant to be good feng shui, for the dragon to go through!

Simple Coffee Cake!

It has been a funny week when I kept forgetting stuff.

Last Wednesday was the boss' birthday and for some reason, I thought it was Thursday so I only thought of baking him a cake on Wednesday night. The Husband thought he would appreciate it even if it was belated, so I set to work baking a simple coffee cake.

This cake is a lovely sponge sandwich cake with coffee beaten into both the cake itself and into the icing. It smelled really lovely and melted dark chocolate was drizzled over the top.

The Office has been most complimentary about this unexpected baking mid-week!

Chocolate Coconut Squares!

After the success of the blueberry lemon cake with coconut crumble topping, a colleague of mine, who is also a good friend, asked if I could bake something chocolately and coconutty as she is a massive fan of both.

I found a recipe for a chocolate coconut cake but thought it might be a bit too much for the Office with the cookies and fairy cakes, so I settled for these chocolate coconut squares.

These are quite similar to lamingtons, a famous Australian cake, but there have been some disputes on the recipe website, as these chocolate coconut squares have cocoa powder while lamingtons are made out of sponge cakes.

The most fiddly part of these squares is the dipping in chocolate icing (butter, melted chocolate and icing sugar) and then into desiccated coconut. As you can imagine, it is quite tricky to immerse the pieces into sticky gooey chocolate icing and then into dry coconut without bits flying all over the kitchen counter!

They have turned out really rich, moist and yummy so I hope they would meet expectations tomorrow!

Cherry Chocolate Gooey Cookies!

As I had cherries and chocolate bits leftover from Thursday night, I decided to bake more cookies this weekend as well.

This dough is made of two different sugars, golden caster and light muscovado, egg, butter and self-raising flour. This time, rather than sticking on the cherry and chocolate bits onto the dough before baking, the cherries and chocolate bits are mixed into the dough.

However, this dough spreads a lot more so I only arranged 9 cookies on each tray. As you can see in the picture, the cookies are quite big and the Husband has pronounced them 'ok' after sneaking three off the cooling rack!

Brambles Fairy Cakes!

As berries are still on sale, I decided to continue the fruity theme this weekend. These are blackberry fairy cakes and because my lovely boss always calls his Blackberry a bramble, I decided to call them brambles fairy cakes instead. :)

This is an interesting recipe where every ingredient is measured in a yogurt pot of 150g. This batch of 20 fairy cakes consists of a pot of yogurt, caster sugar, oil and 2 eggs beaten together before adding in 2 pots of self-raising flour, rind of 1/2 an orange rind and 250g of blackberries.

Icing is made out of the remaining orange rind, icing sugar and a tablespoon of orange juice. I think I added too much orange juice as my icing turned out quite runny but taste sweet enough. I decorated my fairy cakes with extra blackberries and some with a drizzle of melted dark chocolate.

I think they are quite yummy but will keep you posted on taste tomorrow!

Raspberry Cupcakes with Orange Drizzle!

Baking overdose this week!

The Office was supporting the Macmillan Cancer Charity Coffee Morning on Friday September 24. How it works: The Social Committee asks for volunteers to bring in some home baking on the day and the office will be able to 'buy' some baking during the day with all procceeds going to the Charity. Known as the frequent baker in the office, I was happy to help. My original baking were raspberry cupcakes with orange drizzle (as above!) and the blueberry lemon cake with coconut crumble topping ( in a previous entry). However, after checking the list, nobody were baking cookies so I also decided to bake the choc-cherry cookies (the choc-cherry lollipops without the lolly sticks!).

Despite baking the blueberry lemon cake on Wed night, it still took me a good few hours on Thursday night to finish the raspberry cupcakes and the choc-cherry cookies.

On the day itself, it was a tremendous spread as lots of people have brought in stuff ranging from lovely pink iced cupcakes, chocolate fridge cake, rock buns, empire biscuits and more. Out of my baking, the blueberry lemon cake was the first to go, followed by the choc-cherry cookies and sadly, the raspberry cupcakes were the last. The Husband believed that I should have drizzled some chocolate over the raspberry cupcakes to make them look more exciting as they did look rather plain despite being quite tasty!

It was a good day as the Office raised GBP367.00 that was matched by the Company and also our team's charity. Hooray!

Triple Ginger & Spice Cake!

Still on the ginger trail, I found another ginger cake recipe that calls for three different forms of ginger.

First is 100g of glace ginger that goes into the ginger bake, second is the two teaspoons of ground ginger that also goes into the bake and lastly is the ginger syrup that gets mixed with icing sugar to form the ginger icing drizzled over the cake.

This cake has a stronger flavour than the previous ginger cake as it has a higher content of black treacle and uses dark muscovado sugar.

This was quite a big traybake and I ended up with 24 pieces that were finished by the second day!

The Husband has commented though that he did not think it was as good as the other crumbles I have made. :)

Lemon Curd & Sultana Cookies!

To use up leftover lemon curd from last week's blueberry lemon cake, I found this lemon curd cookie recipe from one of my baking books.

This cookie is made out of 350g plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, caster sugar, 100g lemon curd, 100g sultanas, butter and eggs. As I am quite fond of sultanas, I added another 25g which makes the cookies more fruity.

These cookies only take 12 - 15 mins to bake and they turn out really delicious. The icing is made of lemon juice and icing sugar which gives the cookies additional lemony flavour.

The Husband has pronounced them 'ok'.

Blackberry & Coconut Rectangles!

Still on the berry trail this weekend, blackberries were my next choice for baking.

This lovely crumble is made of 350g blackberries, dessicated coconut, brown sugar, self-raising flour, butter, eggs and oats. The topping is just a teacupful of the sponge base but as it was the third 'layer' and scattered at the end, it turned out quite crumbly unlike the moist sponge base. I also used large eggs rather than medium eggs which might have made the dough more moist than usual and the topping less crumbly and scatterable but the taste was still intact!

And yes, these were meant to be squares but due to the size of my baking tray, they ended up as rectangles! I brought a few over to the parents-in-law for dessert yesterday and my father-in-law described it as 'class', which as he is quite fond of fruit puddings, is quite a compliment.

The rest are going to the office tomorrow, so will keep you posted!

Blueberry Lemon Cake With Coconut Crumble Topping!

With blueberries currently on sale, I thought it was quite a shame not to bake more berry bakes during the season. I remembered this lovely blueberry lemon traybake in my books and decided to bake it again.

I love baking with coconut as the finished product usually smells fantastic! Although ingredients are few, this bake is made out of 3 'layers'. The first layer is the cake made out of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, blueberries and lemon zest. The second layer is melted lemon curd that is drizzled over the almost-done cake and blueberries. The third layer is the topping mixed out of desiccated coconut, sugar, butter and eggs.

As you can see in the picture, the traybake cuts really well and into quite big pieces as the tin is a 30 by 20cm size!

The Husband has a piece for dessert and said it is pretty good!

Anzac Biscuits!

After a busy day at work on Friday, I wanted to bake something comforting and familiar and hopefully not too unhealthy if I end up eating lots(!), so I went through my recipes and found this lovely oaty biscuity recipe.

What are Anzac biscuits?

According to Wikipedia, "Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I . It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation."

These biscuits are made of sugar, oats, golden syrup, coconut, butter, flour and bicarbonate of soda, which makes them spread nicely in the oven and has a lovely coconutty smell to them when done.

The Husband is a big fan and has been eating them from the tin when I am not looking! :)

Chocolate-Chunk Pecan Cookies!

Just before the end of the work week, the boss trotted along and requested for some baking to be put aside for a meeting on Tuesday as we have invited a client for a talk. Hence, beside the ginger cake, I decided to bake some cookies as well as not everyone is a fan of ginger!

These are chocolatey pecan cookies that spread in the oven so a dollop of dough produced quite a cookie size. The dough consists of 200g of melted chocolate and chocolate chunks so they smell really lovely when baking in the oven.

The original dough stated 12 cookies but I managed to get 27 good-sized cookies so imagine the size if I have only made 12!

Have just tried one and have to agree with the Husband that it is not sweet enough. Brilliant if you love dark chocolate but will probably try it with milk chocolate next time.

Sticky Stem Ginger Cake with Lemon Icing!

Still on the ginger trail...The Husband managed to track down black treacle at another supermarket and bought me four tins. I read that ginger cakes taste better after a few days to rest so I decided to bake this ginger cake a couple of days before I bring it into the office on Monday. However, you can see that a quarter cake is missing as I brought it over to the parents-in-law for dessert tonight. Reviews were good tonight. :)

The most difficult bit of making this cake is grating the stem ginger balls. As each ball is quite wet and syrupy, I grated most of a ball using a fork and then chopping the rest into tiny pieces. I was also quite worried when I was melting the sugar, golden syrup, black treacle and milk as they seemed to start forming little black bits but with more heating, the bits seemed to dissolve. The cake is then beaten into the flour mixture with the grated ginger before being poured into a cake tin and baked in the oven.

I am personally not a fan of ginger but the little chunk I tried had quite a kick!

Will keep you posted about taste on Monday!

Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies!

At a restaurant the other night, I ordered a ginger and dark chocolate mousse tart which was really tasty. One of my dining companions, a young colleague, then mentioned that he was quite fond of ginger. I was reminded that the Husband is also quite a fan of ginger, so I went in search of a ginger baking recipe during the weekend.

I found this lovely ginger cookie recipe in one of my favourite BBC cookbooks. Combining both stem ginger bits and dark chocolate chips which are two of the Husband's favourite things, I decided I was on a winner.

This cookie turned out really well and the Husband had quite a few. It has been described as 'Very good. Just the right amount of ginger.' by a taster.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes!

The sweetest cupcakes I have ever made!

This weekend, the Husband suggested a visit to the niece and nephew, so I thought I will bake a batch of cupcakes for them as a treat. Knowing they are quite fond of chocolcate, I found this lovely cupcake recipe online that allows the baker to use any kind of toppings to decorate the cupcakes. As I have recently bought some lovely sprinkles and elephant sugar shapes on sale, I was quite keen to use them.

These cupcakes are really easy to make by melting the butter, sugar and chocolate in a big saucepan before stirring in the eggs and vanilla extract. The chocolate mixture is then stirred into the flour before being poured into muffin cases. Although the recipe originally only indicated 12 cupcakes, I managed to get 18 round and 6 heart muffins in the end.

The fudge icing is made out of another 200g of chocolate, double cream and icing sugar which is really tasty and more than sufficient for 24 cupcakes.


The Husband has pronounced them 'ok' as I wanted him to try one before dropping off a batch for the niece and nephew. Anyway, I hope they are enjoying them right now!

Double Chocolate Loaf Cake!

I thought it might be time to bake something chocolatey this weekend after baking the orange cookies. I found this chocolate loaf cake recipe online and thought it looked quite delicious and tasty.

It was also surprisingly quick as from weighing the ingredients to freshly baked out of the oven, the loaf cake took almost 2 hours. Although it is called a double chocolate loaf, the chocolate content is actually threefold - from the cocoa powder, chocolate chips to the milk and white chocolate drizzled onto the cake.

The Husband has suggested going halves on both cake and cookies to both teams in the office, so will keep you posted on taste!

Rainbow Cookies!

Earlier this week I promised to bake something for a team at work who attempted to help me to figure out a complex excel problem. As they are new to my baking, I wanted to bake something easy to eat and hopefully tasty. I found this recipe online and thought it looked quite sweet. If it fails on taste, at least it should not fail on looks!

The cookies are made out of icing sugar, golden caster sugar, butter, flour, egg yolks and orange zest. The Husband has commented that the cookie tastes a bit dry but the icing is pretty good. I thought the dough looked a bit flaky after adding the flour so should probably add some milk or orange juice next time.The icing is made out of orange juice mixed into icing sugar so there is a tang to it.

Will keep you posted about feedback from other tasters!

Pecan, Orange and Oat Crumbles!

I found some orange dark chocolate in the cupboard and thought this recipe would allow me to bake with the bar as well as adding some plain dark chocolate. This recipe also seems vaguely healthy with its mix of oats, nuts and dark chocolate.

The original recipe called for pistachios which I do not have readily available so I substituted them with pecans instead, hopefully not affecting the overall taste.

This was an easy to make cookie recipe and I got 30 cookies in total. The Husband has described them as a bit bland right out of the oven but the next morning, I found him chomping at them in the office!

Frosted Banana Bars!

Bananas and chocolate - what better combination can one come up with?

This weekend, I wanted to bake a traybake that is like a cake but easy to slice and eat. I found this recipe in one of my new baking books and thought it looked delicious.

The banana cake base did take some time with alternating spoonfuls of egg and flour to be mixed into the creamed sugar and butter batter before mixing in the mashed bananas but the batter smelled delicious while mixing and baking in the oven.

The chocolate frosting was 'cooked' while the cake was cooling in the tin. The frosting is made out of butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and a couple tablespoons of milk and then melted over the stove. I am not sure if I did not melt the frosting enough as it was not as smooth as the picture in the book and I was paranoid it was burning in the pan. Hence, the frosting did not spread well and seems to harden really quickly so that the star sprinkles did not get a chance to 'stick' to the frosting. I was not impressed when I tested the cake but the Husband seems to like it well enough.

Conclusion: Depending on the piece of cake you get with the thickness of frosting and number of star sprinkles, it is a real sugar rush!

Blueberry & Raspberry Lime Drizzle Cake!

We went over to the parents-in-law for Sunday lunch to celebrate the Husband's birthday belatedly with the McNab family including the children. The ugly cake made its regular appearance and was happily eaten by the family. I had planned to bake this fruity drizzle cake for the office so decided to bring a few pieces along for the family lunch. My brother-in-law happened to be quite fond of limes so had 2 pieces of this cake which he seemed to enjoy.

I had put off baking this cake as it called for 6 limes that required much zesting and juicing for the cake and the drizzle syrup. It helped that raspberries and blueberries are currently on sale so it seemed quite a shame not to bake this when the fruits are in season. Baking this cake did take longer than I expected as the limes did take some time to zest and juice and to cream the golden caster sugar, butter and eggs mixture together before folding in the flour, lime zest, juice and berries. To enjoy this bake, it definitely helps if you like limes as the cake is further drenched in lime syrup after coming out of the oven.

Comments from a taster: Should never have tried the lime drizzle, couldn’t stop myself from eating the whole piece. Very tasty and moist and I loved the combination of the fruit. :)

Campfire Cupcakes!

I was browsing through my new baking book when I saw this adorable cupcake recipe. Seeing that it has been quite sunny for these few days, campfire cupcakes seem to be a good item to bake.

Why these cupcakes are called campfire cupcakes is because the topping is made of melted marshmellows like how one would grill marshmellows over a fire at summer camp. The cupcakes are a simple chocolate cupcake recipe with chocolate chips and the topping is made by spreading mini marshmellows on top of the cooked cupcakes and then grilling them for 30 secs until they brown and melt slightly. Using a mix of orange, pink and white marshmellows is also a good constrast with the chocolate, making the cupcakes look rather sweet.

Feedback has been pretty good from my other tasters but the Husband found them a bit bland and would prefer them with proper icing. Oh well, you can't please everyone! :)

Frosted Lemon Poppyseed Cookies!

This weekend, I found a lemon lurking in the fridge and decided to use it before it gets soft and mushy. This recipe is ideal as I baked the lemon zest into the cookies and the lemon juice is used to make the frosting.

I am not the biggest fan of poppyseeds at times but it does seem to work in cookies and cakes, giving them an interesting texture. The downside, of course, is you could end up with poppyseeds stuck between your teeth! These cookies turned out crumbly and crunchy due to the poppyseeds.

The Husband has also pronounced these cookies as 'quite good' and that I have baked two very good types of cookies this weekend. :)

Orange Cranberry Brownie Cookies!

I have not baked anything chocolatey for quite some time so thought with the weather getting rainy and dark these days, I might want to bake something chocolatey and comforting this weekend. The Husband is a massive fan of chewy cookies and brownie cookies should be chewy with a soft brownie-like texture.

This receipe seems ideal with chocolate chips, orange zest and dried cranberries. The dough itself is made of flour, brown and white sugar, butter, cocoa powder and eggs. I thought the amount of cocoa powder might make the cookie dough a bit dry but it was thoroughly absorbed by the wet mixture of sugar, butter and eggs to form a lovely chocolately fruity dough.

These cookies were really easy and quick to make and I got 72 cookies out of a batch of dough. They turned out really well and the Husband has eaten 4 already, pronouncing them 'quite good'.

Mini Egg & Macadamia Nut Cookies!

The Husband was going through the kitchen cupboards when he unearthed 3 packets of mini eggs that we bought on sale. Knowing that they will get eaten by the Husband if I do not bake with them, I checked my caramel egg slice recipe which required 500g of mini eggs. As I only had 300g, I went online to find an alternative recipe and found this cookie recipe instead which called for 285g of mini eggs but what is 15g more of chocolate in a cookie?

Although they do not look that great, these cookies turned out really tasty which is lucky as I ended up with about 60 cookies in the end that filled up an entire tin and more. As I was packing some for the parents-in-law, the Husband remarked that it was lucky that our niece and nephew visit the grandparents every week which means they get cookies too! They are definitely quite moreish as my colleagues happily told me they were on their 5th or 6th cookie at the end of the day.

Cookies were all finished on the second day!

Raisin Oatmeal Coffee Cake!

As I was already planning to bake the mini egg and macadamia nut cookies, I decided to bake a healthier choice as an alternative. I found this lovely raisin (my favourite!) oatmeal coffe cake recipe in my collection.

Just for information, coffee cakes do not necessarily contain coffee but is more like a category of cakes intended to be served with coffee. According to Wikipedia, "coffee cakes are typically flavored with cinnamon, nuts and fruits. These cakes sometimes have a crumbly or crumb topping called streusel and/or a light glaze drizzle."

My raisin oatmeal coffee cake has a sweet streusel topping and filling which is made out of cinnamon, brown sugar, flour and butter. I think a mistake I made was to sprinkle the filling too thinly to end up with a topping that was too sweet but the office seems to like it well enough. I have also given a quarter of the cake to the parents-in-law so will be interested to see what they think as they really like the cookies!

The cake was also finished on the second day!

Blueberry Banana Loaf!

Due to the availability of blueberries on sale and bananas from the office fruit basket, I decided to bake something with both ingredients. Surprisingly, there are not a lot recipes that combine both blueberries and bananas and this was a recipe that got good reviews.

I thought it tasted quite nice but have to admit it was not as tasty as the blueberry lemon loaf that gets rave reviews everytime. It took 2 days to finish in the office.

Comment from a taster: Preferred your cake today with the lemon. Very nice. :)

Blueberry & Apricot Crumble Cake!

As everyone would know, Sunday June 20 is Father's Day. As my father-in-law is a great fan of apricots and (hopefully!) also a fan of my baking, I decided to bake something apricoty as a gift. I found this recipe online and with blueberries conveniently on sale, it looks like the perfect summer bake for this weekend.

Once again, this was a 3 layer bake. The first layer was a simple sponge cake, the second was a layer of vanilla yogurt, blueberries and apricots and the last layer was a lovely cinnamony crumble topping. It might sound a tad of a hassle but when you can use canned apricots rather than fresh apricots, it does reduce the work involved.

This cake has been well-received by the parents-in-law and the Husband also finished his piece so I would conclude it is quite tasty!

Comment from a taster: If anyone says this is not delicious then they need their taste buds checked. :)

Millionaire Shortbread!

Millionaire shortbread or caramel shortbread is believed to be of Scottish origin due to the use of shortbread. Because the team is having an offsite on Monday, I decided to bake this as it is easy to eat and an old favourite of the team. This is from a brilliant recipe I found online and I have been able to produce the same tasty results everytime.

The first layer is the shortbread, the filling is homemade caramel made out of condensed milk, golden syrup, brown sugar and butter and the topping is a layer of melted milk chocolate. I have used different types of brown sugar and milk as well as dark chocolate to the same tasty effect.

The Husband has already successfully sneaked a piece out of the tin when I was out this morning and claimed that he will only try to eat another 2 pieces tomorrow!

Banana, Sultana and Choc Chip Muffins!

For some reason, I really got into bananas this weekend. Besides the banana cake, I decided to bake something bananay and chocolatey as well. I am a massive fan of sultanas so I reduced the quantity of chocolate chips from 200g to 125g instead and added another 125g of sultanas instead.

These muffins smelled fabulous in the oven and were tasty too. I bought 10 muffins into the office and had a right giggle when my boss came in and found the empty tin. He immediately started asking everyone if they were really good which would explain why they disappeared so quickly! Luckily, I have put aside a couple so was able to offer him one which made him really happy. It was probably a good thing to keep your boss happy on Appraisal Day!

Banana Cake with Cream Topping!

First, a confession. This was meant to be a sticky toffee banana cake but as you can see, it looks nothing like a toffee cake. My mistake was not having the right kind of toffee that was required to be mixed with the double cream and hence my filling/topping came out a lot more watery and not so toffeey. I was toying with the idea of making a cream cheese filling instead but after cooling the non-toffee filling in the fridge, it seemed to harden enough to be spread without running all over the cake. As you can see, the filling definitely spread out of the cake but luckily, not so much as to soak the cake and make it soggy. There is also a layer of sliced banana on top of the cream filling that turned out to be a nice surprise for my tasters.

The cake got a good review overall as it is quite moist and the filling/topping sits easily on the cake as a cream spread. Hopefully it will all be finished by tomorrow!

Coca-Cola Cake!

I found this recipe online and thought it looked quite interesting using Coke as an ingredient. I know we have a couple of cans of Coke in the fridge and the Husband kindly produced another can from the highest cupboard in the kitchen. This is an interesting recipe consisting of a lot of sugar, almost a can of Coke, marshmallows, flour for the cake and icing sugar, more Coke and roasted and salted pecans for the topping.

I was slightly worried as the cake was bubbling away in the oven as it looked as though it was going to bubble-over and the marshmallows were floating merrily on the top. However, once out of the oven, the cake seemed to calm down and topped with the pecan icing glaze, smelled delicious.

However, the cake seemed to be really crumby and falling apart when I started slicing it up. I was surprised as I thought it should slice really well. Further investigation of the recipe revealed that the cake is meant to be really really moist and really soft and to be served from the baking pan, so it is hardly surprisingly that it does not slice well. I gave the first piece to the Husband and he pronounced 'it's ok'.

To make it easier to take the cake into the office, I have managed to put each mis-shaped piece into a muffin case so they will be more portable and removable rather than sticking to the tin.

Will post the outcome on taste in due course!