Enjoy your afternoon tea with scones...

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE! I for one am SO glad its Saturday...had a lie in, hit the gym, watched The Devil Wears Prada - one of the most fabulous films in my collection, I love Meryl Streep, New York and God I wish I was as stylish as the modele-esque (is that how you spell it?) girls that work in the magazine! Then my little sister and I got stuck into baking scones as my New Years resolution of being able to cook and bake continues...

I hope the photo shows that they were a success, and I have to say I'm quite proud of myself because they were scrumptious... I ate one while still a little warm and spread some lurpak across the middle. If you would like to have a bash heres what you need and how you do it!

Ingredients:
8oz self-raising flour
1 egg (beaten before added)
a little milk
a pinch of salt
1oz caster sugar
2oz margarine.

Recipe:

• Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7/ 220C and grease an oven tray or place in grease-proof paper.
• Mix together the flour, salt, and caster sugar.
• Rub in Margarine.
• Add egg mixture and milk reserving a little for brushing the tops.
• Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out to 1 cm (½ inch) in thickness and cut into 6.5 cm. (2½ inch) rounds.
• Re-roll the trimmings and cut more rounds.
• Brush the tops with egg and milk and bake for about 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoy your scones and thanks for reading!

Fairy Cakes

Hi all! Its Friday!! Hope you all had a good week :) Here is my latest successful culinary quest:

These delightful little cakes are a variation on the Strawberry Princess Cupcakes posted earlier in the week. I followed the same recipe only this time I added vanilla essence and made the buttercream icing using cooking butter and icing sugar. I used a sieve to dust the tops with icing sugar. They were so delicious and didn't last very long with my family tucking into them!

Spaghetti Carbonara (Serves 2 Hungry People)

I don’t know about you but I love Italian, and Spaghetti Carbonara is one of my favourites! I love it especially when it’s cold and wet outside and your inside all snuggled up, it’s just good hearty food! The recipe that I have used as a guide is ‘Feast’ by Nigella Lawson, a wonderful cookbook that has sections of food for different celebrations such as Christmas or Easter. Spaghetti Carbonara rightfully comes under the ‘Midnight Feast’ section. I have not followed her recipe exactly if you have the book yourself and notice it’s a little different

Ingredients:

500ml pack of spaghetti ( I use fresh spaghetti)

275g pancetta

2 tsp olive oil

4 eggs

50g parmesan

60 double cream

Black pepper

(There are a couple things on her list which I have not used because I couldn’t find them in the supermarket and, therefore, have not added to mine)

Instructions:

1. Cut the pancetta into small cubes.

2. In a pan cook the pancetta cubes with oil on a low heat until crispy but not crunchy. Turn off the heat.

3. Using a bowl, beat together the eggs, Parmesan, cream, and black pepper.

4. Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions and add a little salt because apparently that’s the proper way to do it.

5. Heat the Carbonara sauce over a low heat; don’t overdo it by boiling it.

6. After the spaghetti is cooked and drained and back it the pot, add in the pancetta and pour in the Carbonara sauce and stir altogether and toss around to really mix everything.

7. Now you’re ready to tuck in! I like to grate a little more parmesan onto the pasta once it’s in the bowl and have a glass of vino on the side.

 I said it before, I’ll say it again, I love Spaghetti Carbonara and the above photo proves anyone can make it! Delish!

Little Princess Strawberry Cupcakes

Kitchen Expedition Number 2 has been a straight up success! Nearly all of my previous attempts to baking cupcakes have been a complete disaster, either they sink in the middle or they are too hard at the top, as a result of cooking for not long enough or too long. I followed an old recipe in a book that belonged to my grandmother.  The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients
100g (4oz) Margarine
100g (4oz) Caster Sugar
100g (4oz) Self Raising Flour.
2 medium Eggs

Chef's Tip - My Mum said the way she remembers the amounts without the recipe is '4442'

1. Heat oven to 180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4.
2. Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time adding a little flour with each.

3.Gently fold in remaining flour.
4. Using spoons scoop mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Chef Tip - Don't open the oven door while cooking, this will make them sink in the middle!

5. After baking leave to cool then decorate as you like, this is an easy sponge to make and is great because it goes with all different icing flavours, I have chosen strawberry today in keeping with my Little Princess theme but next time I would like to do Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes as a variation.

I iced the cupcakes with a ready made creamy icing because I was focusing on learning how to make the sponge today, with icing, I want to buy a pipe to make fancy icing, so if you know any shops I can buy one from please leave a comment for me.

The cakes were delicious, tasted very light and fluffy, thankfully no crispiness or hard edges, and went down a treat with my family! My next post will be about making Spaghetti Carbonara, learning to make the sauce from scratch, that is tonights dinner, so I shall be back very soon with what happened! I hope you can make these cupcakes too and enjoyed reading this post. x

Happy New Year and Welcome to My Very First Blog!

Hi there! So this officially is my first blog! I would like to start by wishing you all a Happy New Year! I had lovely New Year, on Hogmanay my friend invited a group of us round for dinner and drinks and it turned into a very merry night indeed, we enjoyed Chilli and Jacket Potatos, Bubbly and, less sophisticated, played The Ultimate Drinking Game, The Ring of Fire, a sure fire way to increase levels of inebriation! On New Years Day I began my quest of learning new things in the kitchen and decided to cook a good old Fry Up, I had cooked this before, but I had never mastered the Art of a Fried Egg. I am starting simple here, hence the first lesson being a Fried Egg. It was a success, with the help from an expert giving me instructions as follows:

• Keep the hob on a low heat, slow cooking is the way forward for Fried Eggs.
• Heat a considerable amount of oil, then place in egg yolk quickly, and observe.
• As it cooks sprinkle in a little salt and pepper
• Flip if you would like it thoroughly cooked, personally I like Sunny Side Up!
• Lift out using a spatula and ta - dah!

Isn't this the best hangover breakfast in the world??

Now again, I have kept this first post very simple, partly because I am super new, partly because its late, and partly because really how much can you say about a Fried Egg!
Thank you for reading, and my next post will be about me baking Strawberry Cupcakes using my Grandmother's recipe, I hope you will come back and read all about it! x