Halloween!

It's nearly Halloween :)

I have spent the morning carving my Pumpkin and making Pumpkin and sweet potato soup!

The pumpkin carving was harder than I expected actually... but i think the results are good:

Now I just need it to get dark so I can light it up!

The pumpkin soup wasn't so hard.. Here's the recipe i used:

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato
An equal amount of pumpkin to sweet potato
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
teaspoon of olive oil
200 ml of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of milk
1 tablespoon of light Philadelphia

First I chopped up the onions and garlic and fried them in the olive oil for 3-5 minutes, until soft. Then I added the chopped up sweet potato and pumpkin and fried for a further 5 minutes. I then poured in the stock and left it to simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid of the pan on, until the vegetables were mushy and easy to blend. Then I poured everything into a blender and whizzed it all up until completely smooth. Once this had been achieved I poured it back into the pan and added the cream cheese and milk to give a creamier texture. Bring the soup back up to the boil and serve with croutons and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Happy Halloween!

xx

Hiii!

So I've just got back from 5 and a half weeks travelling around Australia and Singapore.. This time gave me some great inspiration for desserts and cakes! The Australian's are very big on muffins, and i have to say they make some of the best muffins I have ever tasted. Since I have been back in England i have tried out a couple of Australian recipes but so far this one has to be the mos successful.

Blueberry and cream cheese muffins:

Ingredients
280g Self Raising Flour
110g caster sugar
100g butter melted and cooled
100ml milk
2 eggs lightly whisked
1tsp of vanilla extract
150g blueberries
60g cream cheese
2 tablespoons of blueberry jam (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin pan.

Combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Whisk butter, milk, egg and vanilla in a jug. Pour into well. Add blueberries and gently fold until just combined. 

Half fill muffin holes with mixture. Top each muffin with a cream cheese cube and 1/2 teaspoon jam (optional) and cover with remaining mixture.
Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the top half of muffins comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Turn muffins onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.

Happy Baking! x

Sacher Torte

I was a great fan of The Great British Bake of when it was on this summer and when they made the Sacher Torte using Mary Berry's recipe I immediately added that to the list of things that I knew I wanted to try out.
My Grandma recently requested a homemade Sacher torte from me on my next visit to her and seeing as I'm due to visit her tomorrow I thought I'd better crack on and make one! Obviously I used Mary Berry's excellent recipe and although I haven't tasted it yet I would say it has worked pretty well!

Can't work out why the picture is sideways :/

Here is the recipe I used to make this lovely torte:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sachertorte_59630

Happy Baking!

Becca xx

Filo Pastry Quiche

To begin my first posts I am going to record the recipes and products that I am preparing for our family weekend away in Thorpeness Suffolk, to celebrate my Mum's 50th Birthday!!

First I began preparartions by making two Quiches, one normal Quiche Lorraine and another one inspired by a recipe I read in the Tesco Real food magazine, using Filo Pastry.

Here are the ingredients and method for this special Quiche:

Ingredients:

• Half a pack of filo pastry sheets
• 150g Smoked bacon chopped up
• 2 peppers (any colour)
• 50g strong cheddar cheese
• 200ml creme fraiche
• 200ml double cream
• 3 eggs well beaten
• pinch of ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Firstly using a quiche/flan tin grease the bottom and layer each sheet of filo pastry on top of each other brushing each one with oil as you go. Each time you put on a new sheet slightly turn the tin so that eventually all the sides end up covered. Leave any extra just hanging over the edge. Once this is all done you can start with the filling. Cut up the peppers into rough shapes and place on a baking tray, drizzle oil over the top and season. Roast these in the oven for 20-25mins. Next beat the creme fraiche to slacken it up a little, once this is smooth beat in the double cream, then mix in the beaten eggs and season (not too much salt though) and add the nutmeg. Now fry the bacon pieces and pour off any extra juices. Fry until the bacon is slightly crispy. Chop half of the cheese into small 1cm cubes and grate the rest of it. Scatter the cudes of cheese across the bottom of the pastry case, now scatter the bacon and raosted peppers ontop of the cheese, fold the excess pastry over ontop of itself to create a high edge, use some olive oil to sick the pieces of pastry together if needed. Pour half of the egg and cream mixture into the pastry case and place on a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven. Pull the shelf out slightly and pour the rest of the mixture until the case is completely full. Scatter over the grated cheese and bake for 25mins or until the quiche is firm and a nice golden colour.

Happy Baking!
Becca xx