Banana Bread

Life is fairly rosy post essay hand in last week. I am totally ignoring how dauntingly close finals are and throwing myself into a spot of baking this week. What's new?! I have three birthdays coming up and therefore there is much baking to be done. Potassium is needed in my life today after last night...Banana bread is clearly in order. 

Moist and soooooo good! Banana bread is ideal for many occasions; afternoon tea, pudding served with ice cream, essential hangover treat (high levels of potassium) or just pure indulgence. If you have a few old bananas that are beyond consumption as a normal banana, put them to good use! 

You can customise your banana bread with added extras as you wish. You can go for the simple banana bread or you can add in some chocolate chunks, sultanas or walnuts; it's entirely up to you...

Serves 10

Pre-heat oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 35minutes

You will need the following:

250g Butter

250g Self Rasining Flour

250g Brown Sugar

4 Bananas

4 Eggs

50g Sultanas/ Chocolate Chunks/ Walnuts (optional)

Method:

Measure out the Butter and Sugar

Mix together

Add in the Eggs, one at a time

Next, add the Self Raising Flour

Mash the bananas in a separate bowl and add to the mixture
Today I also added chocolate chips & sultanas

Pour the mixture into a loaf tin and bake to perfection for 35minutes.
Until it looks like this...

Good old fashioned advice: Use a wooden kebab skewer to poke into your cake. If it comes out with raw cake mixture on it, it needs longer. When it comes out clean you know your cake it cooked to perfection.

Enjoy

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Life has been incredibly stressful with final law essays due in this week, so to celebrate the end of the traumatic experience I am sharing a great retro recipe that I think should be bought back with a vengeance. Quite possibly the easiest little pudding! Can be served as a retro dinner party pudding, an afternoon tea treat or just for pure indulgence. 

If served as a pudding, accompany with custard

If served as an afternoon tea treat allow to cool, pre-slice and drizzle with honey or golden syrup

Serves 8

(as a pudding)

Pre-heat oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 40 minutes

You will need the following:

115g Butter

115g Caster Sugar

115g Self-Raising Flour
1tbsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

A few drops of Vanilla Essence
1inch of fresh Pineapple

Method:

In a bowl measure out your butter and caster sugar

Cream the two together till they are combined in a smooth & fluffy mixture

Next add the eggs, one at a time

Add the flour and baking powder and mix in well so there are no lumps

Add a few drops of vanilla essence 

Cut an inch thick slice of pineapple and cut away the skin


Finely slice the pineapple into roughly 0.5cm thick slices


Lay them flat in the bottom of a loaf tin so that the bottom of the tin is covered in one neat layer
Then pour in the cake mixture


Bake to perfection for 40 minutes. Be patient and do not open the oven door till the time is up


Once it is baked take out of the oven and it can be served immediately, if being served as a pudding. Put a plate over the top of the tin

When you are ready flip the plate and tin over and tap the top of the tin, like you would when making a sandcastle

et voilà ...

Enjoy ... 

The Cookie

So with my life deep in essays this weekend, today the England v Wales rugby match is my half time break. To make this break far more pleasurable I am baking cookies & lots of them, I shall be baking two batches of the recipe as I want to make several flavours. Cookies are a great sharer and way better than shop bought packet cookies. They are also remarkably easy and cheap to make, you can add any extras that you wish into the mixture after you have completed the basic dough. Better yet, you don't even have to cook them & can always roll the mix up in cling film, freeze & take out when you fancy a couple of cookies or simply crumble into softened ice cream and re-freeze.

Makes 12-15 Cookies

(depending on how much mixture you eat whilst making)

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 8 minutes

You will need the following:

185g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

85g Brown Sugar 

(if you don't have Brown Sugar just use 185g Caster Sugar)

225g Self Raising Flour

1tsp Vanilla Essence

75g of your flavour of choice

1pinch of salt

Method:

Measure out your butter & then melt the butter in the microwave for 1 minute

Mix together the butter, sugar & vanilla essence

Add in the flour & salt and mix well

Next add a pinch of salt

Add in your flavour of choice, this could be any of the following or whatever you fancy; 

white chocolate, milk chocolate, chopped nuts, raspberries, strawberries, chopped mini eggs, oats or raisins. If you would prefer slightly flavoured cookies e.g. cinnamon or mixed spice add 1tsp of the flavour. If you would prefer citrus cookies add the zest of 1 lemon or 1 orange along with the juice of half of the fruit.

Today I have opted for milk & dark chocolate chip cookies
(30g dark chocolate, 45g milk chocolate)

Oats & raisin Cookies 

(50g oats, 25g raisins)

Finally Double Chocolate Cookies with raspberries

(50g cocoa & 25g raspberries

Drop the mixture into cookie dough balls using a desert spoon to roughly gage the size of your cookies

Place a maximum of six cookie dough balls per tray 

(you need a gap of about 5cm between each cookie)

Once baked for 8 minutes remove immediately & place on a wire rack to cool down. 

Be patient this will take time, do not get tempted to move the cookies off the trays, they will be flimsy still until cooled & hardened

Once hardened, remove from tray & eat!

Enjoy ...

The beginning of the baking blog...

I am not the kind of girl who can diet. My mother kindly said to me a few years ago "Darling, I know I will never have to worry about you becoming to skinny; you enjoy cake too much!" This I have to say is true, I am incredibly food conscious until it comes to my cake. It baffles me that more people don't bake more regularly, many of my girlfriends at uni choose not too bake as they are unsure and overwhelmed by the whole affair. Madness I say! Baking should be easy & enjoyable...

I am of the opinion that baking is one of those fab skills to have in your weaponry - a quick cake to go with a cup of tea when a friend drops round, the show stopper pudding to casually bring to your friend's dinner party or that essential cure to a hangover that will be highly appreciated by anyone in the same state who gets to share in your genius! 

So what can I promise you from this blog ... fab EASY recipes for every occasion and some good old fashioned advice for achieving the modern day perfect bake. Hopefully if you follow these you shall enjoy (as much as I do) deliciously divine results to share with friends & family.