Mary Berry Express Chocolate Cake!

I am a great fan of Mary Berry and her baking recipes are really fabulous.

After watching her life story on telly and the baking of her express chocolate cake for her family picnic, I decided to try out the recipe myself.

And the chocolate cake was FANTASTIC!

It is also really easy - the cake is baked out of cocoa powder mixed with six tablespoons of boiling water, followed by eggs, self-raising flour, baking powder, butter, milk and caster sugar. The baked cake is then spread with apricot jam before filled and topped with chocolate cream icing.

20 pieces were eaten in one day in the Office!

Orange and Spice Ginger Cookies!

Orange and spiced cookies seem like an interesting combination for cookies. They were baked out of orange zest, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, butter, sugar, ground cinnamon, cadamon, ground cloves, ground ginger and eggs.

They smelt great baking in the oven and I was hopeful they would be delicious.

However, the Husband was not a fan.

30 cookies took two days to finish in the Office.

Rose Cupcakes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rose cupcakes sound ideal for Valentine's Day as something pink and sweet.

These cupcakes were baked out of plain flour, baking powder, rosewater, butter, sugar and eggs. They then iced with buttercream icing mixed out of rosewater, butter and icing sugar.

The Husband didn't like them but there were tasters in the Office who loved them!

Banana Nutella Oatmeal Muffins!

There were leftover bananas in the Office, nutella in the cupboard and leftover buttermilk in the fridge from baking the blueberry muffins, so I decided to bake something that will use up all these ingredients.

The result is the banana nutella oatmeal muffin! This muffin is baked out of plain flour, oatmeal, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, vegetable oil, buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, three medium mashed bananas and lots of nutella!

A nice surprise is the teaspoon of nutella 'buried' into the muffin before baking.

Comment from a taster, "Yum so banana-y and moist and I love the gooey chocolate centre plus the chewy oatmeal bits, really interesting different textures and flavours."

Blueberry Muffins!

A friend asked me if I had any good blueberry muffins the other day and I realised I have never tried baking blueberry muffins as I have always preferred the more unconventional muffins.

So from my one trusty baking website, I found this big blueberry muffin recipe.

These 20 muffins are baked out of plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, butter, vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract and 300g blueberries.

They were quite well-received and took two days to finish in the Office!

Comment from a taster, "Very tasty Wee-Li.  Just the right amount of blueberries to keep the muffin moist."

Wholemeal Dark Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cranberries!

Another lovely cookie recipe from one of my favourite recipes.

Since it is January, the idea of baking something vaguely healthy seems appropriate.

This cookie is baked out of butter, wholemeal flour, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, oatmeal, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, vanilla extract, chocolate chips and dried cranberries. You get a chewy chocolately and fruity cookie at the end.

It took 2 days to finish at the Office!  

Gingerbread Bundt Cake!

The Husband is a huge fan of gingerbread but I always prefer a gingerbread recipe that is more interesting than the usual gingerbread man.

This cake is baked out of butter, treacle, golden syrup, flour, eggs, butter, dark muscovado sugar, stem ginger, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, ground nutmeg, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and the secret ingredient, Guinness! 

The baked cake is then brushed with apricot jam and then glazed with lemon icing.

This is a huge cake and it took 2 days to finish in the Office!