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'.