choccy bunnies and easter chicks

Easter next weekend so I think some biscuits are in order.  Choccy bunnies for Boris and some yellow chicks on orange biscuits.

for the biscuits
100g softened butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg
275g plain flour
zest of 1 orange

Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest.  Beat in the egg.  Add the flour and mix together until a soft dough is formed.  I found it was still a little too crumbly so added a squeeze of orange juice.

Roll out until about 5mm thick and using cutters, make into bunnies and chicks.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190c for about 15-20 minutes until just golden brown.  Leave to cool.  I then popped them bake in the oven for a few minutes just to crisp them up and biscuits should traditionally be cooked twice*

for the orange topping
about 100g icing sugar
a squeeze of orange juice
a couple of drops of yellow food colouring

Mix together until just liquid but not too much so.

for the orange topping
50g dark chocolate
a squeeze of orange juice

Decorate the chicks with yellow icing and the bunnies with chocolate.  Leave to set in a cool place.

OK, so they're not brilliant but they make me happy!

* The name biscuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere, coctus (to cook, cooked), and means "twice-cooked".  This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven.

hot cross buns

Last week's attempt at hot cross buns wasn't too successful.  I forgot to allow for the fact my oven is fan assisted and managed to burn the tops.  They also ended up a bit too hard so this week is second try.

450g strong plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp mixed spice
14g yeast (I always use Dove's Farm for consistency)
50g caster sugar
50g melted butter
150ml milk
75ml water
1 egg
*100g currants
50g mixed peel

 *I soaked the currants in some tea before I started as I find they can be a bit too chewy otherwise

Put the flour, salt, spice, yeast and sugar in a bowl and mix. 

Melt the butter.  Warm the milk and water slightly and add to the butter (this cools the butter down slightly which is good.  At this stage you don't want anything too hot to upset the yeast).

Pour the liquids into the flour and add currants, peel and egg.  Work into a soft dough until smooth and elasticy - about 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in the Kitchenaid.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to prove in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Knock the dough back and divide into 12 balls.  Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.

Leave to rise for another half hour on a baking tray then slash a cross on the top with a knife just before putting them into a pre-heated oven at 220c or 200c for a fan assisted for about 15 minutes.

For the glaze
2 tbs granulated sugar
2 tbs water

Melt the sugar in the water over a low heat and boil gently until it's really syrupy.  On my first attempt I didn't boil it enough so it stayed quite wet and sticky.  This time was much nicer.

As soon as the buns are done, brush with glaze and leave to cool if you can.  They smell sooo good!

Check out my buns!

banoffi cupcakes

Some rather squidgy bananas in the kitchen that really needed eating but I can't stand them once they get the slightest bit of brown on the skins so cupcakes it is with a nod to Ian Dowding's Banoffi Pie.  Banoffi Pie was originally made at The Hungry Monk in Jevington not far from me.  Sadly I never got the chance to visit and it has recently closed.


for 12 cupcakes
2 over ripe bananas
125g stork margarine
*60g Tate & Lyle golden syrup sugar
60g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs (mine were really small so I used 3)
pinch salt
150g flour
2 tsp baking powder


for butter icing
125g butter
250g icing sugar
** 2-3 tbs toffee sauce

to decorate
more toffee sauce
50g melted dark chocolate

Beat the  marg and sugars together.  Add the bananas and beat until smooth.  Beat the eggs up separately from the banana mix until light and fluffy. Add to the banana mix along with the flour, salt, vanilla and baking powder and mix well.

Pour into cases and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about 25 minutes.  Allow to cool

Make the butter icing and decorate with toffee sauce and chocolate.

* I found this in Waitrose - never seen it before but thought it would add a bit extra toffee-ish flavour to the cupcakes

** The toffee sauce is for ice cream.  If they still made Ice Magic I reckon that would be great on cupcakes too.  I wonder if it would set so hard?

over the top neopolitan cake

Time for a birthday cake and I've always liked neopolitan ice cream so thought I'd give it a go in cake form.  So, a layer each of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla sponges, filled with buttercream and covered with pink, yellow and brown icing.  Sounds delicate and simple....

for chocolate layer
2 eggs
100g stork margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs cocoa powder

for strawberry layer
2 eggs
100g stork margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp strawberry flavouring
a few drops of red food colouring

for vanilla layer
2 eggs
100g stork margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops of yellow food colouring

to make the cakes, cream together the margarine and sugar.  Beat in the eggs then add flour, baking powder, colouring and flavouring.  Pour each into a greased and lined 15cm loose bottom sandwich tin and bake for about 20 minutes until risen and nicely done.

for butter icing
200g butter
400g icing sugar

Cream together and sandwich the layers together keeping a bit back to smear over the cake to ensure the icing sticks.  I also used a bit of homemade blackcurrant jam between the layers just in case there wasn't enough sugar already.

after everyone had tucked in

For the icing I used ready made icing and added cocoa powder for the brown, strawberry flavouring and red colouring for the pink, and vanilla extract and yellow colouring for the yellow.  No holding back on sugar and artificial colourings on this cake!

I had this crazy idea that stripes would look good so wound the icing round the cake in layers, finishing with concentric circles on the top.  It wasn't until later that I realised that this cake looks like it has a nipple on top.  Maybe not the best looking cake I've every made but certainly the most amusing!