Sunflower Seed Granola

The perfect summer breakfast! So easy to make and way better than the shop bought stuff. I'm obsessed with raspberries, apricots and blueberries for a topping.

http://www.recipes/breakfast/granola/easy-granola

Banana Bread

This bread is a complete staple in my family. My mum has been recently trying to cut gluten out of her diet and she absolutely loves this bread! It's quick, easy, really healthy and can work well as a side for savoury soups or toasted with some peanut butter and coffee. Let me know what you think!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2277635/vegan-banana-bread

 

Easter Cupcakes

These cupcakes are light, lemony and spring-like! The actual cupcake is vanilla flavoured and the butter icing is vanilla and lemon. These aren't heavy at all and extremely moreish so just be careful not to eat the whole batch at once! Happy Easter everyone :)

Ingredients

Cupcake mix

-100g softened butter

-150g self-raising flour

-150g caster sugar

-3 tablespoons milk

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Butter Icing

- 100g softened butter

-225g sifted icing sugar

- 1 tsp milk

- 2 tbsp lemon curd

- Easter decorations of choice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.

2. Place all the cupcake ingredients in a large bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Spoon evenly into cupcake cases.

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until sponges are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the sponges.

5. To make the butter icing place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.

6. Pipe or spread the icing evenly onto the cupcakes. Decorate as preferred. I used mini eggs/ crushed mini eggs and dainty flower decorations I got at my local bakery. 

Fruity Flapjacks

Ingredients

- 225g butter

- 225g light brown sugar

-300g oats

-75g golden syrup

-50g raisins

-50g sultanas

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line deep baking tray.

2. Melt together the butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan on the hob.

3. Once melted, fold in the oats and dried fruit.

4. Spoon and flatten mixture into the deep baking tray.

5. Cook for 35 minutes and leave to cool. Once cool cut into 24 squares. 

Banana, Walnut and Almond Loaf

Lent has been going really well so far, no slip ups for over 3 weeks now (touch wood)! ONLY 3 WEEKS TO GO! I'd been wanting to try this recipe of Paul Hollywood's for ages now and I was so surprised how delicious and simple it was. Plus it's moderately healthy....it has fruit in it right?

Ingredients

- 3 ripe mashed Bananas

- 250g light brown sugar

- 125g softened butter

- 2 medium eggs

- 250g plain flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 120g chopped walnuts and almonds 

Method

1. Heat your oven to 190 degrees. Line a 1kg loaf tin with baking paper.

2. Using an electric mixer, blend the mashed banana and sugar together until fluffy.

3. Add softened butter and eggs and blend until evenly combined.

4. Sift the flour and baking powder and gently fold into the mixture. Add in the chopped nuts and vanilla extract. 

5. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes until golden brown or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. 

6. Remove the loaf from the tin and leave to cool.

ENJOY!

Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake

I've decided, regrettably, to give up chocolate again this year. I managed to struggle on and complete this challenge last year so I wanted to give it another go because I'm a complete chocolate addict. It's a serious problem I'm not kidding!

Anyway I thought this lemon drizzle cake would be perfect for anyone going through the same struggle! It's light, super easy and only took me 10 minutes to whip up.

Ingredients

- 75g unsalted butter

- 125g caster sugar

- 150g self raising flour

- 1tsp baking powder

- 2 medium eggs

- 2 tbsp lemon curd

- 3 tbsp full fat milk

For the drizzle

- zest and juice of 1 lemon

-2 tbsp granulated sugar

-1 tbsp lemon curd 

- 50g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 1kg loaf tin.

2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with a wooden spoon. Add the rest of the mixture ingredients and beat until thoroughly combined.

3. Pour mixture into loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.  

4. Meanwhile prepare the drizzle by combining the ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. When the cake is out of the oven pour the drizzle over the hot cake in it's tin. Leave to cake to cool completely, the serve!

ENJOY!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cake

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/johns-white-chocolate-raspberry-cake

Date and Wheaten Rounds

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/wheaten-scones-3386

Mint Mocha Cookies

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/08/29/mocha-mint-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

Healthy fruit and nut cookies

Fruit And Nut Loaf

Since it's the new year I'm trying to cook more healthy, 'good for you' food. I also want to try and make more bread as I'm pretty inexperienced with that aspect of baking. This recipe is from Mary Berry's 'Baking Bible' and is super easy and delicious. It's perfect with some almond butter and a good old cup of tea!

Lebkuchen

As Christmas is mostly over now I wanted to bake something for my Family's NYE party that still had the 'reminiscence' of Christmas but something tasty that could be enjoyed at any time of the year. I've been a huge fan of the Lemonpi food blog for a long time now so I really wanted to make one of her recipe's as some of her family were coming to visit. Definitely check out her blog  http://blog.lemonpi.net/

The recipe is  http://blog.lemonpi.net/2009/04/12/2181/

Christmas Cake

So Christmas has now been and gone. However one of my favourite things about the festive season is enjoying the leftovers for weeks after. For me the classic Christmas cake is the ultimate leftover, it keeps for months and only becomes more delicious as the time passes by. 
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/classic-christmas-cake.html

Christmas Stollen

Stollen is a traditional German cake and something I absolutely ADORE! It was quite challenging to make but the end result turned out so well and my A-Level German class loved it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/stollen_27553

Christmas Gingerbread Houses

Every year my friends have a tradition to get together and do some Christmas baking to really get into the Christmas spirit. I'm so pleased how they turned out (even though they took 4 and a half hours!)

 The recipe we used was http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1802640/mini-gingerbread-houses

Strawberry Shortcake

Summer is tragically coming to an end. It's been an amazing one, I've had the opportunity to travel to France, England and Germany and make some unforgettable memories. As much as I'm sad to see Summer end, I'm also excited for the Autumn months; forest walks with my pup, a dramatic increase in the consumption of hot chocolates and ditching the crop tops for big comfy sweaters. I hope all you lovely people who take the time to read my blog and support me have had an amazing summer and I hope you will all continue reading :)

Ingredients
- 210g self raising flour
- 1/2 a teaspoon baking powder
-120g butter (cubed at room temperature)
-100g sugar
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- 1/2 a teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250g strawberries (halved)
- 2 teaspoons milk
- icing sugar to decorate

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease one medium sized baking tin. Combine ingredients in an 'all in one method' in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.

2. Place 1/3 of the mixture in the greased tin. Layer chopped strawberries over mixture. Place remaining mixture of top of the layered strawberries. 

4. Place in oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. Decorate with icing sugar!