Grasshopper Slices

 It was my birthday the other week and some really good friends of mine got me the brand new 'Humming Bird Bakery Home Sweet Home' book as a gift. It was really hard to know what to bake first. But I decided on these, Grasshopper Slices.

 It's a 3 layered tray bake, brownie base, mint filling and chocolate topping. When I was at Secondary School, they used to sell something called mint cake that looked very similar and I loved it, that's why I chose this one.

The mint filling was a bit faffy to make. It's a white chocolate ganache with peppermint essence and green colouring. I haven't had a lot of experience with ganache, originally the recipe asks you to use 1kg, yes that's 1kg of white chocolate (which is ridiculous!) so I halved the recipe and used 500g (which is still pretty ridiculous but I'd set my heart on making it by this point). 

So I heated up some double cream and poured it onto chopped up milky bar and stirred and it went into the gungiest mess ever and I thought how is this ever going to turn into ganache?! So I put it in the fridge and after 30mins and a stir it did - phew! Then I stirred in the peppermint and green colouring.

I did the same thing with the chocolate topping, the original recipe asks for dark chocolate but the shop I was in didn't have any so I used galaxy.

They came out well. I think dark chocolate would have been nicer, and I need to work on my ganache skills (not pleased with the top layer!). Tim (husband) doesn't like mint in cakes and declared he refuses to eat toothpaste!! ha ha. Oh well can't please them all....

Berry Shortbread Cheesecake

I made this a few summers ago for a friend's leaving BBQ (she's now returned which is nice!). It was the front cover of the BBC Good Food magazine at the time. It was yum.

Here's the recipe...

Shortbread base - 200g shortbread biscuits and 50g butter, melted

For Cheesecake - 2x 300g tubs of Philadelphia, 1x 200g tub creme fraiche, 1tsp vanilla extract, 175g golden caster sugar, 2tbsp plain flour, 2 eggs

For the topping - 5tbsp seedless raspberry jam and 300g of summer berries (strawberries happened to be on offer!)

1. Blitz biscuits into crumbs, add melted butter mix together and press into the base of a lined loaf tin
2. Beat together philadelphia, creme fraiche, vanilla and sugar then stir in flour & egg pour into the tin 3. Put in oven for 10mins on 180 then 1 hour and 30mins on 120
4. Turn off heat and leave to cool in oven and then chill in the fridge
5. Heat jam in a pan and add enough water to make it a pouring consistency
6. Take the cheesecake out of the tin (carefully) and pour over the sauce and top with your chosen fruits

Now all we need is the summer....

Marmalade Cake

I'm not a fruit cake fan, but my husband is. It's my life long ambition to find a go between that satisfies both of our cake needs!! A friend of mine told me about a lovely Marmalade cake recipe that sounded like a good start. (I also must mention that this friend is an amazing artist you must have a look at her work www.fionachariscarswell.com). 

It's an unusual recipe, in that it has no eggs, and ingredients include lard and vinegar.

You begin by rubbing fats into flour and salt, add sugar, mixed fruit, spice and citrus rinds.

Gradually stir in milk, then the vinegar.

Add marmalade (luckily both our Mums make lots of scrummy homemade marmalade so we have plenty to use in cakes as well as on toast!).

Pour into a loaf tin and top with Demerara sugar and cook for an hour ish.

 It came out nice and moist and citrusy  - I liked it, especially the crunchy Demerara sugar on top. Unfortunatly my husband liked it less and thought it was too 'cakey' - which is probably why I found it alright!

Here's the recipe is you want to try it...

8oz SR flour sifted

4oz caster sugar

2oz butter

2oz lard – both at room temp

1 rounded tablespoon marmalade

Grated rind of half lemon

 ‘’         ‘’        ‘’ orange

Half teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon vinegar

Pinch salt

6 fluid oz milk

4oz dried fruit/sultanas

1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

Preheat oven to gas mark 4 or 180degrees

Line a loaf tin 7half’’x 3 ‘’ approx