Gluten-free Orange Shortbread!

As my nephew is gluten intolerant, I have decided to experiment with some gluten-free baking. The main issue with gluten-free baking is gluten free flour is just that much more difficult to work with as gluten is what is needed to get the dough to come together and for the finished baked goods to look springy.

This first attempt was not that successful, a bit too crumbly, hence the request from the Husband to drizzle chocolate on top to make them more palatable.

However, I tend to try out more recipes as it is good to try out new things and hopefully at some point, my nephew will get some yummy treats, so I will keep you posted about progress!

Yorkshire Parkin!

What is a Yorkshire Parkin? According to Wikipedia, a "Parkin or Perkin is a soft cake traditionally made of oatmeal and molasses, which originated in northern England", "often associated with Yorkshire" and traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night, which is the 5th of November.

I decided to bake this cake as it is meant to mature for 3 to 7 days before being eaten and can also be kept up to 2 weeks in an airtight container. This is ideal for me as I will be visiting my sister and family this weekend and we can all have it on Bonfire Night!

The recipe actually came from a magazine from one of my favourite clothing shops, so fingers crossed it will actually be quite tasty!

Ginger Cupcakes!

It's Halloween!

For the first time in many years, I am actually around to make some Halloween treats for the Office!

This year we see the arrival of ginger cupcakes. These cupcakes are made out of treacle, ground ginger, milk, self-raising flour, butter, chopped stem ginger, brown sugar and eggs. The ginger fudge icing is beaten out of butter, icing sugar, ginger syrup and lemon juice. They are then decorated with sugar decorations of pumpkins, spiders, skulls and cobwebs! You can't see it from the picture but I have also used Halloween black cupcake cases!

Will update on taste tomorrow!

Pink Cupcakes Part II!

October is Breast Cancer Month and the Office does a coffee morning offering pink iced donuts and coffee for a donation to the charity.

I volunteered to bake some cupcakes with pink icing to supplement the donuts and hopefully helped to increase the donations.

These are rose flavoured cupcakes with rose flavoured icing. From my experience colouring our niece's cupcakes, I was more careful this time to mix the icing into a soft pastel pink.

These cupcakes are then decorated with sugar pink and purple elephants and pink sugar sprinkles.

I think they went down well as I got a couple of emails saying they were delicious!

Pink Lemon Cupcakes!

Pink lemon cupcakes!

These cupcakes are meant to be a present for our niece who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow! She is meant to be a lover of pink but not of fancy cupcakes, so I chose a simple lemon cupcake recipe and just mixed a few drops of natural red food colouring with icing sugar to make pink icing! I also bought lovely sugar decorations as well as those of Winnie The Pooh to top them off.

Fingers crossed she will like them!

Apple & Apricot Cake!

A fruity weekend! After watching the Great British Bake Off on telly, it always makes me want to bake while it makes the Husband want to eat!

Mary Berry is turning out to be one of my favourite bakers and I have also recently bought one of her books, '100 Cakes and Bakes.' This lovely fruity cake recipe is from that book.

The cake is baked out of 250g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 225g caster sugar, 2 eggsm 150g melted butter all mixed and beaten together before 225g chopped apple and 100g apricots are stirred in. The batter is poured into an 20cm tin and then 25g of flaked almonds are scattered on top. The cake is then baked for an hour and a half at 140 degrees.

This is a lovely fruity moist cake and the parents-in-laws seemed to like it enough when they kindly became my tasters!

Orange & Sultana Traybake!

Another recipe from Mary Berry! The fruity theme continues this weekend with this orange and sultana traybake.

This traybake is baked out of 225g self raising flour, 225g caster sugar, zest of 2 oranges, 225g butter, 275g sultanas, 2 tsp baking powder, 4 large eggs and 2 tbspn of milk all beaten together. It is then baked at 160 degrees for 35 mins. The orange icing is mixed out of 225g sifted icing sugar and 3 tbspn of orange juice.

The Husband came wandering into the kitchen when the cake was baking as the entire apartment smelled so good! I thought it is quite tasty and my only gripe is the sultanas seemed to fall out when the cake was sliced into pieces.

Will update on taste tomorrow!

Little Gems!

This week is National Baking Week in the UK! I decided I cannot let it pass without some baking of my own, so the Office got an unexpected treat on Friday!

This 'little gem' cake recipe is again from Mary Berry and really easy! They are baked out of self raising flour, caster sugar, 2 eggs, butter, baking powder and milk beaten together and scooped into 65 petits fours cases. The icing is mixed out of icing sugar and a tbspn of lemon juice. The only hard part is icing the 65 little gems which took ages!

The Husband said they were 'quite good'!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chocolate chip cookies are an all time favourite and I am always trying to find new ways of making them different.

This banana chocolate chip recipe seems ideal as it combines plain flour, baking soda, 2 eggs, 100g light brown muscovado sugar, 200g granulated sugar, 112g of butter, 1 medium banana and 360g of chocolate chips! This cookie smells wonderful and comes out of the oven quite chewy.

The Husband has declared them 'not bad'.

Orange Olive Oil Muffins!

Continuing the fruity theme and trying to be vaguely healthy, this orange olive oil muffin recipe seems like a good idea.

This muffin is baked out of plain flour, baking powder, 180ml of orange juice, 60ml of olive oil, granulated sugar and an egg. Before the muffins go into the oven, more sugar is sprinkled on top to give them a slightly crackled look.

The Husband has declared them 'quite bland', hence I have glazed some of the remainder with an orange icing to add some sweetness to the muffins.

Iced Apricot Fruit Loaf!

A fruity theme this weekend!

This apricot loaf from Mary Berry recipes is baked out of self-raising flour, butter, 150g sultanas, 100g chopped dried apricots, 75g glace cherries, 100g light muscovado sugar and three eggs. The icing is mixed of 100g sifted icing sugar and two tablespoons of orange juice. It looks great so will update on taste later!

Flower or Plant?

I have become quite a fan of little potted flowers on the kitchen table as it cheers up the kitchen. I would usually buy purple orchids that would last for a week or two before the flowers fall off. The Husband is in charge of watering our plants as from experience, I have a tendency to 'kill' them accidentally.

Last weekend I was away in London for a work trip so I missed our usual supermarket trip on Sunday which is also usually when and where I get my flowers. I came home on Monday night to find the plant above on the kitchen table.

I have no idea what it is called but I guess the Husband bought it because it has lovely purple flowers which is the colour of the season for me. It is also lovely to know that he thinks of me when I am not around! :)

If anyone can figure out what this plant is, please let me know!

Fruity Treat!

A fruit plate from the Husband on a Saturday!

It does not look like much but it is the thought that counts that he presents them so appetisingly and in lots of different colours! It did cheer up me up for the weekend! :)

Ginger & Treacle Spiced Traybake!

With the weather turning chilly and autumn approaching, a nice ginger bake sounds like a lovely idea. Once again from my new recipe book, I found this simple ginger and treacle traybake. A bonus with the treacle ingredient as I have a couple of cans to finish up!

This traybake is baked out of 300g self-raising flour, three balls of stem ginger chopped finely, 175g light muscovado sugar, 225g butter, 200g treacle, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of mixed spice, 1 teaspoon of allspice, 4 tablespoons of milk and 4 eggs. Baked for 35 - 40 minutes at 180 degrees or 160 degrees (fan oven), you get a lovely ginger sponge cake. The icing is sifted icing sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons of ginger syrup and another three balls of chopped stem ginger is sprinkled over the spread icing.

This traybake has got rave reviews in the Office!

Pineapple & Cherry Loaf!

I have recently bought a baking book by Mary Berry, who is one of the most fabulous cooks in the UK. Her recipes are easy to follow and her baking looks really tasty!

This pineapple and cherry batter is mixed out of 200g self-raising flour, 100g light brown muscovado sugar, 150g butter and 2 large eggs beaten together before adding 225g sultanas.175g of glace cherries and 227g can of drained pineapple rings/chunks with two tablespoons of pineapple juice. Baked for an hour and a half, you get a lovely moist fruity loaf!

The parent-in-laws and Husband have declared it 'quite good!'

Orange, Oat & Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Another fruity weekend! In an attempt to be healthy, oaty wholemeal cookies always seem like a good idea.

These cookies are baked out of wholemeal flour, baking powder, oats, butter, light brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, pecans and some of my favourite baking ingredients - bananas, orange zest, coconut and chocolate chips!

The husband has pronounced them 'very good!'

Apple & Raspberry Crumble Squares!

Summer is drawing to a close, so I decided to bake another fruity treat before berries go out of season. This fruity traybake is baked with three layers. The base is baked out of flour, butter, golden caster sugar, egg, self-raising flour, milk and apples. The second layer is a layer of raspberries. The crumble topping is mixed out of butter, golden caster sugar, self-raising flour and lemon zest.

The Husband said the cake is not bad but the raspberries were too tart.

Soured Cream & Pecan Cake!

Cake for the Office! I had a carton of soured cream that I need to use so this recipe came in handy.

The pecans are mixed with cinnamon and caster sugar before they are spread on the cakes. One can see the mid-layer of pecans as well as as topping. The pecan topping get nicely roasted and crunchy while the cake is being baked. The cake is baked out of flour, soured cream, butter and caster sugar and turns out a nice sponge cake.

The Husband has described it as 'pretty good'.

Apricot Friands!

Friands are little almond cakes, ideal for afternoon tea. We were popping over the parent-in-laws for dinner tonight and I decided to bake something apricoty for dessert as my father-in-law is a great fan of apricots. This simple friand recipe seems ideal.

These friands are baked out of 3 whisked egg whites and 100g melted butter mixed into 100g ground almonds, 40g plain flour and 125g icing sugar. 3 chopped and diced apricots are then mixed in. The dough is then separated into 8 muffin/friand tins and topped with flaked almonds. Baking time was about 15 - 20 mins at 170 fan/190 degrees.

Have to hear about taste from my tasters so will keep you posted!

ABC Cookies!

Another fruity treat for the weekend!

These cookies are baked out of 85g caster sugar, 85g light brown sugar and 170g butter creamed together, an egg is beaten in and 1 tsp vanilla extract, 170g of chopped dried apple, 55g desiccated coconut and 255g mashed banana are stirred in before 250g flour and 1 tsp baking powder are sifted in and mixed to form a dough, which is chilled for 30 mins. The dough is then scooped into teaspoon-sized cookies and baked at 170 fan/190 degrees for 20 mins.

The Husband then requested for some chocolate drizzle so I have done so over the cookies!

These cookies took two days to finish in the Office!

Can you guess what ABC stands for?

Carrot & Raisin Biscuits!

I have been wondering what is the difference between a biscuit and a cookie? According to various definitions, a biscuit is a hard baked good while a cookie is a soft baked good. Alternatively, these are just interchangeable terms used by the British and the Americans.

Last weekend, I have decided to bake fruity biscuits and cookies. These lovely carrot and raisin biscuits are baked out of 115g butter and 115g light brown sugar creamed together and an egg is then beaten in, 55g grated carrots, 85g raisins, 115g flour, one tsp of baking powder, one tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and a pinch of ground ginger are then mixed in to form a sticky dough. The dough is then chilled for an hour before being baked in tbspn-size cookies at 170 fan/190 degrees for 10 - 15 mins.

The Husband seemed to like it well enough and these 24 cookies were finished in a day in the Office!

Mocha Cupcakes!

I bought a new cupcake recipe book today and thought that since the Office is quite keen on coffee, a mocha cupcake with chocolate icing should be quite suitable. I topped them with sugar balls to give them a dash of colour.

The recipe is a tad different as 250g of caster sugar is first melted with 250ml of water over the hob, and then 125g of butter, 2 tablespoons of instant coffee and cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp of soda bicarbonate are added into the sugar mix and brought to the boil before being cooled. Two eggs and 225g self raising flour are then added and beaten together. The final batter is quite watery and I was actually quite worried I might have missed something. However, the cupcakes came out beautifully but I have yet to try one, so will update on taste tomorrow!

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing!

Cupcake weekend 2! Continuing my 'journey' of cupcakes, this lovely white chocolate cupcake recipe was calling to me this weekend. I also wanted to use my lovely sugar balls to 'adorn' the cupcakes, so a simple white chocolate recipe seems suitable.

The cupcake is baked out of flour, milk, melted white chocolate, vanilla, egg and sugar and the icing is mixed out of cream cheese, icing sugar, butter, milk and more white chocolate!

Will update on taste tomorrow!

Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Cupcakes galore this weekend!

As I had some buttermilk leftover and in the interest of trying not to waste food, I found this red velvet cupcakes recipe. The original recipe called for marshmallow frosting but as I wanted to make a batch to go with the Funfetti cupcakes as well, I decided to use vanilla buttercream icing instead.

Unfortunately the cupcakes sank while cooling. I used the frosting to fill up the dent in the cupcakes and so ended up with a flat top cupcake instead.

These two batches of cupcakes have received mixed reviews. The Husband is not a fan of cupcakes but for other cupcake tasters, I think the red velvet cupcakes have got a better review.

Funfetti Cupcakes!

I was in the mood for sprinkles last weekend so this recipe was ideal as I get to bake sprinkles into the cupcake and decorated it with sprinkles!

This cupcake is from a white cake batter mixed from egg whites, flour, vanilla extract, milk and sugar. It gets its name from the confetti-like bits of colour throughout the cupcake from the sprinkles stirred into the batter.

These cupcakes took two days to finish in the Office.

Chocolate & Mango Brownies!

These brownies might not look great but they taste fabulous! For the first time ever, the Husband was so impressed that he insisted that I packed two pieces into a tin immediately so that he can ferry them over to the parents-in-law for a taste tonight!

These brownies are baked out of 250g dark chocolate, 85g of butter, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 200g light brown sugar, 2 eggs, 70g of plain flour, 115g of chopped dried mango (all the way from the Philippines!) and 75ml soured cream.

Quick recipe - melt the chocolate and butter over low heat and allow to cool. Beat the vanilla, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in the sifted flour, followed by the chocolate mixture, chopped mango and soured cream until well mixed. Pour into a greased lined 20cm square tin and bake for 40 - 50 mins at 180 degrees/fan 160. Cool in tin before cutting into squares. And you get yummy chocolate mango brownies!

They are a bit crumbly than I would like and I think that might be because I did not cut the mango pieces small enough but the Husband had a good time scoffing up the crumbs!

Ginger & Banana Cake!

The Husband is a huge fan of ginger and bananas, so what can go wrong with a combination of both? Nothing except for choosing to bake the chocolate and mango brownies at the same time which meant he preferred them!

This ginger and banana cake can also claim to be vaguely healthy as there is wholemeal flour baked into it as well. The ginger comes from two tablespoons of ground ginger and the banana in its name comes from two medium sized mashed bananas.

All in all, a lovely ginger cake by most standards.

Lime & Ginger Drizzle Cake!

The choice of recipe this weekend comes about due to the Husband's request for a lime cake. He actually suggested a lime sponge cake with chocolate icing which I thought sounded like a terrible combination. However, I was happy to find him a lime cake recipe and since he is also a fan of ginger, a combination of both ingredients should work.

This loaf is baked out of plain flour, baking powder, three balls of stem ginger, zest of three limes, juices of two limes, dessicated coconut, ground ginger, three eggs, butter and caster sugar. After coming out of the oven, the loaf was drizzled with a mix of juices of two limes, granulated sugar and stem ginger syrup.

The Husband has concluded that "it was nothing special."

Apricot Fudgy Cookies!

These cookies were originally meant to be toffee & apple but I substituted the toffee with fudge and dried apple with apricots so did not seem right to still call them toffee apple cookies!

I have to say these are pretty ugly looking cookies as the fudge melted while baking and ended up oozing out of the cookies. They are also rather sweet and crumbly cookies so it helps if you like your cookies chewy.

The Husband has described them as 'ok'.

Berry Drizzle Cake!

It's berry season in the UK now and when I found this beautiful recipe, I had to give it a try.

This fruit loaf is baked out of golden caster sugar, self-raising flour, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and 100g of blackberries and raspberries. The red topping is mixed out of granulated sugar, a tablespoon of lemon juice and 75g of raspberries and blackberries. You get the lovely red colour by mashing the fruit lightly.

I thought the cake turned out really well, a firm berry sponge cake with crispy red sugar topping. The Husband has also pronounced it 'quite good'.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chocolate & nuts - what more can you ask for? These lovely cookies are baked out of butter, plain flour, baking powder, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, two tablespoons of nutella, egg, 180g chocolate chips and 78g chopped hazelnuts.

They were really nutty and chocolately and from a taster 'You can really taste the chocolate and the nuts. I particularly like the crispness of the cookie.' The Husband did not consider them as good as the lime and white chocolate cookies though. They were finished in two days in the Office.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake!

According to Wikipedia, "the Bakewell Tart, is a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and a sponge filling with almonds." This is a Bakewell cake as it has ground almonds and is topped with flaked almonds. Rather than a layer of jam, this cake has a layer of 225g of raspberries.

I chose to bake this cake this weekend as berries are once again in season and on sale, so summer has to be the best time to bake fruity desserts!

This cake vanished in 2 days at the Office.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars!

This weekend, I was in the mood for bananas and chocolate, so this recipe looked ideal. This recipe is baked out of 275g of bananas, 225g chocolate chips, plain flour, butter, caster sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla extract and an egg!

20 pieces vanished in a day at the Office and the Husband has declared them 'pretty good.'

Lime, White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies!

This weekend, I found a bag of macadamia nuts lurking at the back of the cupboards. Not wanting to see the nuts go to waste, I searched for macadamia nut recipes on my favourite websites. White chocolate and macadamia nuts seem to be a common combination so I was intrigued if the addition of lime zest makes any difference. The problem with using lime zest of course is that limes are quite small so one would usually need quite a few to get enough flavour. For this recipe, I used two middle sized limes to get about a tablespoon of lime zest.

This cookie is baked out of 280g plain flour, 200g sugar, 150g butter, 1/2 tspn of baking soda and powder, lime zest, 100g of nuts and 135g of white chocolate chips. A quick 10 - 12 mins in the oven and the cookies were done! The Husband has pronounced them 'quite good'.

Chocolate & Banana Cake!

Back to sunny Scotland after two weeks away, I was jet-lagged and exhausted. However, my demand market awaits so I was happy to find a new recipe for the Office on one of my favourite websites. I have baked chocolate & banana cakes before and I do not remember being particularly impressed but this recipe looks easy and tasty so I thought I would try again.

This cake has 175g of mashed banana and 100g of chocolate chips baked into it. The icing is made out of 100g of milk chocolate and 100ml of soured cream topped with dried banana chips. I thought it was actually a lovely moist chocolatey cake but the Husband just said it is 'alright'.

The cake was finished in two days in the Office.

Orange & Lemon Cookies!

Cookies galore this weekend! These cookies are from an old favourite cut-out cookie recipe. I bought new cookie cutters this week and I was really keen to try them out. As you can see, I got clovers, four-leaf clovers, hearts and suns. These cookie cutters are meant to cut the cookies out so that they can hang off a coffee mug but they did not turn out that well for me.

Half the dough was mixed with lemon zest to produce lemon cookies. The other half was mixed with orange zest and a tablespoon of orange juice which produced round orange cookies as the dough was then too wet for cut-outs. I also made two different types of icing to go with the cookies - lemon & orange - which makes it took me three hours for about 50 cookies.

My parents-in-law were once again my first tasters and they seemed to like them!

Smarties Cookies!

Smarties chocolate overdose weekend! This is an original recipe for M&M cookies but for some reason, the UK does not seem to sell regular chocolate M&M but only the peanut version, so I decided to substitute M&Ms with Smarties!

This recipe also includes chocolate chips, cocoa powder, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, bicarbonate of soda and vanilla extract. This cookie came out of the oven really chocolatey sweet, chewy and quite pretty with the Smarties colours. The Husband has described them as 'alright'.

Strawberry Lemonade Muffins!

Berries are now in season and on sale, so I was quite keen to bake a berry recipe this weekend. These lovely strawberry lemonade muffins are made out of chopped strawberries (of course!), lemon zest, lemon juice, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. They turned out quite moist and I think they were better warm rather than at room temperature. Anyway, 14 muffins were all finished in two days.

Double Chocolate Coffee Toffee Cookies!

I found a bag of toffee lurking at the back of the cupboards this week so decided to bake with them. Chocolate is always a firm favourite so this chocolatey toffeey recipe should be perfect.

I halved the recipe and still got 36 cookies. This cookie is made out of flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, toffee bits, instant coffee bits, egg, butter, baking soda and vanilla extract. They came out beautifully chewy and I have to stop the Husband from scoffing them all weekend!

These were finished in a couple of days and the Husband has rated it one of his Top 5!

Maple Ginger Apple Cake!

I thought this was an interesting receipe and with apples in season, decided to try it out. As the original recipe is equivalent to 16 cups, which is A LOT, I decided to halve the recipe for an 8" baking square tin.

This recipe calls for plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, brown sugar, eggs, 80g of maple syrup, vanilla extract, ginger root (but I substituted ground ginger instead), sour cream and 125g of diced apples.

The cake seems to have baked beautifully in the oven and it turned out to be a really moist cake. It took two days to finish in the Office.

Black & White Brownies!

These gorgeous brownies are seriously yummy! For some reason, the Husband & I have been scoffing chocolate all week so it was inevitable that chocolate will be on the baking menu this weekend. I have been hoarding this chocolatey recipe for some time now and concluded this weekend is its time to shine!

This recipe is made out of three layers - the batter is mixed out of sugar, butter, vanilla extract, eggs and flour and then divided into two halves, where 180g of melted white chocolate and 180g of milk chocolate are beaten into each portion. The bottom layer is the white chocolate batter, the second layer is 180g of white and milk chocolate chips and the third layer is the milk chocolate batter.

After the baking is done, the entire kitchen smells delicious! My parent-in-laws were my first tasters and they both seemed really pleased with the brownies! These brownies vanished in a day at the Office!

Blueberry & White Chocolate Coffee Cake!

I was planning to bake two items for the Office last weekend but due to the oversupply of cookies, I decided to delay the baking of the coffee cake. However because the blueberries were going to expire, this evening was spent in the kitchen.

This coffee cake batter is mixed out of flour, vanilla and almond extract, sugar, butter, buttermilk, egg, baking powder and baking soda with a final stir of 150g of blueberries and 90g of white chocolate chips topped with a sprinkling of demerara sugar.

The cake came out of the oven beautifully brown. Sliced into 20 pieces, they were all eaten in a day!

Apricot Pecan Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies!

This weekend, I found a bag of chopped apricots in the kitchen cupboard and so decided to bake some apricoty cookies. This recipe came in handy as the cookie has almost everything to cater to everyone's taste whether for fruit, chocolate or nuts! The total fruit, chocolate and nut content comes up to 539g and despite a stated production number of 3 dozen, I ended up with 73 cookies instead!

The Husband has pronounced it 'too apricoty', a colleague 'too sweet' but another colleague who loved the fruit content requested for the recipe!

The cookies must be alright though as all were finished in two days!

Tomato Juice Spiced Cake!

Dinner with the girls calls for dessert, especially when the starters and mains are courtsey of M&S! I decided that I would try another new recipe, spiced tomato juice cake with cream cheese frosting. Luckily, my girlfriends were happy guinea pigs and ate the cake. The cake tastes just like carrot cake and I wonder if I might have just found a happy replacement instead of grating carrots!

I brought the extra portions into the Office and the comment from a taster was 'So moist and the topping was delicious. You can repeat this one again. I think this is your best yet.'

Happy days!

Chocolate Tomato Juice Cupcakes!

I had a carton of sour cream that I wanted to use up so I was browsing online for a recipe that might be suitable and found this interesting recipe that calls for tomato juice or condensed tomato soup in the baking.

The cupcake is baked out of flour, brown and white sugar, egg, tomato juice, baking soda, butter, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, vanilla and almond extract, cocoa powder and finally, chocolate chips! The frosting is made out of melted butter, melted chocolate, vanilla extract, icing sugar and sour cream. A bit tedious but the end product is really quite delicious!

As tomorrow is a flexible holiday for the Office which means less people working, I only got 12 cupcakes, so will keep posted about taste then!

Sunny Cupcakes!

Cupcake galore! There are lovely lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling as once again I have a jar of lemon curd left from last week's baking.

These cupcakes are baked out of sugar, butter, lemon zest, milk, flour and baking powder. A scoop of cake is then taken out of the cooled cupcakes and then topped with lemon curd.

I have yet to taste them so will keep you posted about taste tomorrow!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies!

These delicious chocolate chip shortbread cookies were really easy to bake although the dough did require an hour in the fridge to chill before it can be sliced and baked. The dough is made out of plain flour, butter, chocolate chips, brown sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of cornflour! The dough is then gathered and rolled into a log before being wrapped in clingfilm and chilled.

Slicing was a challenge as the chocolate chips were too densely packed in the middle which means the dough is too thin to stay together. Hence, a lesson learnt is to make sure the chips are well distributed and to make sure the log is evenly shaped as one can see, I ended up with cookies that vary in size and number of chocolate chips!

However, they did turned out really well so definitely something to repeat!

Blueberry Lemon Curd Cake with Coconut Topping!

An old favourite! A friend at the Office requested for this traybake for the coming Monday so I decided to oblige with blueberries conveniently on sale as well!

I also brought a few pieces for dinner with the parents-in-law and both of them are great fans of my baking. :)