Banana had a sleepover, and I knew about that maze game where the scary thingy pops up in the middle of it, so I told them it was a psychology test that analyses your hand movements and gives you a profile. And they fell for it hook, line and sinker. They made so many attempts and failed, so they were really really concentrating when they finally got to it. And then they did it again! Twas a great evening!
This. Is. Genius.
I mean. It’s completely genius.
‘Catchphrase’
It deserves a shout-out.
DipsDipsDips
Righty-oh so Jen and I went to Aunty’s house a few weeks ago for (the most amazing) dinner. I mean… there are no words. This lady inspires me. I want the cooking part of her brain. (Also she’s like the nicest person!) Anywho, so cooking genius aunt brings us out some dippedy dips for starters and they were rather wonderful and since she shared the recipe with me, I thought I would share with ye! She served these with cucumber, celery, carrots, peppers and tortilla chips, but anything goes in dipworld!
Really quite sleepy today…
So I shan’t write too much. Went to Hannah’s play earlier, was fantastic! Results are tomorrow night, fingers crossed! But honestly they have got to win, it was so good. And so very chilling! She’s now through to a special competition, basically they pick out the favourite actors from the whole thing and they all perform a piece tomorrow. So herself and Eimear are through with a handful of others, eek. The two of them are really good! Did I mention they won 1st on Sunday? Well they did and they have a shiny silver cup to show for it!
But anyway, the bread turned out really nice! Slight problem though, it may have been gobbled before I got a picture. I do apologise… The cheese and onion was superior by far! Nice strong cheddar – fantabulous. That disappeared quite quickly. Then, the cupcakes (photos to follow, I can’t find my camera lead right now!). The cupcakes are rather lovely. I made some extra icing – 100g butter, about 230 of sugar and 4.5 tbsp cocoa – and iced them using my new nozzles. So prettified and wow they taste good! I believe 12 out of 24 are left! The cookies are lovely as usual. I love when recipes never let you down!
Photos!
So that’s the sceal for today. OH just got a pic message from Jen the cupcakes she made look fantastic. (Hey if you’re reading this the cupcakes you made look fantastic. ) And yes. Baking is contagious. Yaaay! If I feel generous I may MAY just share one of my 2 best cookie recipes in the next few days… watch this space! Also will be making New York style cheesecake in next week. Will include handy andy hints and recipe. Am I tempting you? Good.
Icing is God’s gift to cupcakes. And maybe me too.
It’s raining and miserable BUT
I will be productive today. I got up (Maaaybe not as early as planned) and bounded down the stairs full of optimism. And I decided, being super enthusiastic, to make myself a breakfast smoothie! Which I must say turned out wonderful. So I thought I’d share the ingredients:
Breakfast smoothie (Makes about 3 servings)
2 handfuls of frozen strawberries 2 bananas One little mini lunch-type carton of orange juice, you know the ones!One small tub of strawberry yoghurt (Fat-free, yeah baby) 2 Kiwis (optional, I love ’em)
Method– Very complicated! 1. Put em all in a good smoothie maker and whizz round til all gloriously pink and happily delicious 2. (Not an optional step) Pour into a nice fresh glass and enjoy your lovely breakfast smoothie!
There you have it Ladies and Gentlemen!
So on with the story.. As I said, I was perfectly happy and in a wonderful mood, not to be dampened by the rain (harhar). I set off up to my room and prepared my desk so that it was nice and organised and prettified and down I sat to begin studying, knowing that I would absorb everything instantly and it would all be fantastic.By the way I’m a little bit stationary obsessed. I mean, is there really anything nicer than a pen that writes really neatly and a nicely formatted notebook? Is there? (Well there probably is but you get what I’m saying)
And then the kidneys happened. May I just say that my aforementioned hatred of kidneys has doubled at this point. I don’t know why exactly, I just have a mental block. And they’re so touchy, the slightest thing can set them off, and when they decide to get wrecked, boy do they get totalled. So I began looking at the pathology.. It lasted about 3 minutes before I got horribly bored and decided to check my email. I replied to a few random emails. I opened the book again. 6 minutes later I felt the need to go and wash my glass. To keep my desk clean of course. I then proceeded to tidy the kitchen. And the sitting room. And my shelves. Then I sat back down to it, telling myself firmly that I just need to get it over with and learn it off. So I made a list of things I need to learn off instead of learning off the list of things. Sigh. And now I’m taking a ‘study’ break. But at least my shelves and the kitchen and the sitting room are tidy. I promise I will go right back to it.. In 5 minutes. Just as soon as I change a few light-bulbs, scrub the sinks, repaint the hallway and make a 7 course meal.
Procrastinate? Me? Never!
Simplicity…
Bet you're hungry now
A friend made these little bites of heaven for a cupcakes and cocktails party. I just thought they needed mention. Strawberries – amazing. Chocolate – amazing. And some person (for whom I am eternally grateful) thought ‘What if… we put them together?’ Let’s have a minute of silence to show our respect for this person…
Strawberries and Chocolate. Genius.
Sushi? Like… with the fish?
Right. So being a rural Irish girl I naturally had a huge aversion to the idea of Sushi. Raw fish and all that. However, after a rather lovely post-quiz sushi evening on Wednesday last I am completely converted. It didn’t start off too well, and I figured okily dokily I’ll just stick to the veggie options. However my Sushi-experienced classmates thought differently and eventually I was convinced to try just an itty bitty bit of tuna, but confident that I would hate it (naturally). Ahem. I didn’t hate it. I actually maybe sorta liked it just a little. It didn’t actually taste like fish, like in that tinned strong-smelling tuna (which I do like but couldn’t think about eating raw tuna like that…) And so I tried some more. And I tried a bit of salmon. And decided that yes, in fact I did like this stuff. And then I had super mighty fun making a sushi roll with the aid of all-knowing classmates.
So now I’m kinda hooked.
So now, next step in process – ease family into the sushi era. Now, this is not going to be an easy process. There’s not a flying hope that they will actually eat a sushi roll straight up (aforementioned raw fish). Sooo I’m going to go with the less raw types of fish i.e. smoked salmon, cooked tiger prawns etc. I bought the sushi rice, the nori, the rice vinegar, got the mat to roll it. I have some avocados, asparagus, carrot, cucumber on standby, aaaaaand I have invested in a rice cooker, so it’s all set to go… just as soon as I’m better.
Stay posted for updates!
So this is what I made the other day
As the title says, I made this case full of joy last week. Let me just say, these were absolutely scrumptious. Like seriously.. The icing in particular is fantastic!
Recipe to follow hopefully… Edit: Success! The wonderful Donal Skehan over at Thegoodmoodfoodblog (its fantastic, check it out) has said it’s all good for me to post up this recipe.. sooo with one or two edits – here it is:
Mega Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food and food styling by Erica Ryan) This batter makes really delicious and moist cupcakes which will give you more reason to have just one more! The batter is a lot more runny than normal cupcakes batters, but will rise so just make sure not to overfill the cases, halfway up is just perfect.
Makes about 16 normal size cupcakes, or an awful lot of mini cupcakes..
175g Self raising flour
2 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
150g caster sugar
2 eggs beaten
150 ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil
150 ml (1/4 pint) semi skimmed milk
2 tablespoon of golden syrup
For the frosting
75g unsalted butter (Real butter, not margarine. At room temperature)
175g icing Sugar
3 tablespoon cocoa powder
Drop of Milk
- Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line a muffin tray with cupcake cases. I actually used a mini muffin tray here, see photo number 2. I made 36 mini cupcakes and 12 normal size cupcakes with the above amount of batter
- Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
- Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with electric whisk until smooth. I tend to give it a quick stir first as I have on many occasions ended up covered in a fine dusting of flour along with everything within a 10 foot radius of me..
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases about halfway up and bake for about 20 minutes or until they have risen and are firm to the touch.
- Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack. (Yeah, try to resist them at this stage). Also, and this may or may not be related to the last sentence but while I know it’s hard to believe, these are pretty hot so do be careful! Now put them away to cool. Out of sight. Away from the temptation to gobble them up right there. Its icing time!
- To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable. I had to add a fair bit in all fairness.
- Spread on COOLED cupcakes. I mean it. You can’t put it on nice warm cupcakes cos it just slides right off or melts in. It’s worth it. Trust me. I had limited success with piping these all prettily but I was using a fairly small nozzle so it may work. But I like that spread on icing so it’s all good.
Ok I really wish I wasn’t feeling sick right now. I am now craving one of these like there’s no tomorrow. Sigh. And the fact I got my new icing nozzles that are sitting there staring at me, begging to be used does not help. But here you are, my newest fail-proof wonderfullest (it’s a word..) delicious cupcakes. Enjoy them 🙂
P.S. Check out this place of wonders for more awesomeness (I appear to have added this word to my vocabulary, I blame Julie).
Cake in the country 