Zesty cocoa praline!

Hey guys,

Here's a little something I've just made and it took less than 10 minutes to make!
Using some old bananas, cocoa powder (unsweetened), cashew nuts and the zest of an orange, you get a delicious, healthy little treat that's packed with tons of nutritional value and magnificent flavour! Woo!

To start off, break up the bananas into small chunks, throw them into a bowl and zest an orange onto a plate. Bash up the cashews until they're quite powdery and keep them to one side. Mash up the banana with a potato masher, add the cocoa (as much as you want - I used two or three table spoons with 2 bananas and it was perfect), mix with a spoon, add the cashews, mash some more, add the zest and mix it all up.

Now heres the choice, either pop it in the freezer for a few hours for a nice, chilled praline-like mousse... or leave in the freezer overnight for a frozen treat!

I like it either way, it's up to you!

Byee

Important Lessons... with Brownies

Hello everyone!

So as I said, I decided to make brownies today for my friend's birthday.

Now, I got the recipe of BBC Good Food. And it's a great recipe. Unfortunately however, my girlfriend dropped the brownie as it came out the oven and now it's really a chocolatey crumble (delicious though, I might add!).

So, although it did not go quite to plan, this was my first time making brownies and I'm happy that they taste good... even if they're squashed and very ugly. For this reason, I will show you how I made them, but I'm afraid the end result was not photographed.

So here is the recipe:

• 185 grams of Unsalted Butter
• 85 grams of Plain flour
• 40 grams of Cocoa powder
• 50 grams of White chocolate
• 50 grams of Milk chocolate
• 3 Large eggs
• 275 grams of Golden caster sugar

Here are some step by step pictures, I hope you enjoy them! 

For the actual methods and original recipe, click here

 

I hope you try out the recipe! Although mine were broken up they tasted great!! 

Thanks guys, next time I'll be learning to master eggs!

Crazily delicious carrot cake

So it was my girlfriend's birthday the other day and I decided to make a cake, usually I make a bog-standard sponge cake; either vanilla or chocolate. However in the spirit of my new ambition I decided to expand my cake knowledge by attempting to make a... Carrot cake!

Firstly, this is not my own recipe. I got this from the BBC Good Food website and do not take credit for it. I highly recommend the website and it's fantastic recipes.

That said, I made a couple of minor changes. I seriously mean it when I say minor changes.

Right, now that's out the way lets get this going!


The ingredients for the cake are as listed:

• 300 grams of plain flour 

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon (I used 1 and a half tablespoons)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder 

• Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda  

• 200 grams of soft brown sugar (the one I used was also light by the way, from what I've been told dark brown sugar is more appropriate for things like treacle)
• 4 eggs - the ones I used were medium sized

• 250 millilitres of oil - when I first read this I was confused as I've always used butter in cakes, but I used vegetable oil and it worked amazingly well! Don't use olive oil though... seriously, do not use olive oil. 

• 1 orange, zested 

• 1 lemon, zested

• 200 grams of carrots, finely grated (really go for it; as finely as possible - imagine a wet stringy carrot mush... yummy) 

• 150 grams of walnuts, chopped (actually, I put them in a bag and battered them with a rolling pin until they were more dusty lumps than chopped. This comes down to preference though, I do not like cake with chunky walnuts in it!) 

• 227 grams of tinned pineapple pieces, well drained and chopped. This is entirely optional and as I dislike pineapple greatly, I did not include it in the cake I made. 

And for the cream cheese frosting:

• 125 grams of unsalted butter at room temperature

• 250 grams of cream cheese - go for something full fat and not too tangy

• 50 grams of icing sugar is what the original recipe states, however this was not enough for me. I used something closer to 75 grams. Honestly I would just add the 50 grams and then add until you're satisfied with the taste. 

Method: 

Firstly, the most important thing to remember here is that once the wet and dry ingredients are added, you really need to act fast and get it in the oven literally as fast as possible otherwise the cake will not rise properly!

• Heat your oven to either 150C/130C for fan/Gas 2.

• Line a 20cm by 10cm deep cake tin with baking parchment to prevent sticking. 

• Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and stir in the lovely brown sugar

• In another bowl beat the eggs with the oil and citrus zests

• Stir in the grated carrots and gently fold everything into the flour mixture. Remember not to take too long during this stage, get it in the oven fast!

• Fold in the walnuts and pineapple (if you're using them) 

• Spoon the mixture into your tin and bake for about 1 and 20 minutes. My cake didn't take quite as long though, so after an hour keep checking it with a skewer every so often; if the skewer comes out clean then it's ready! 

• Once out of the oven allow it to cool, it will probably take a fair bit of time as it's a rather dense cake!

• For the cream cheese frosting beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then add the cream cheese and beat until creamy. Chill the mixture in the fridge until it's thick - not solid 

• As for spreading the frosting, do it however you like. I followed the advised method of spreading a thick layer on the top, nothing in the center. Again, down to personal preference!

This is genuinely one of the nicest cakes I've ever made, it went down so well with everyone who tried a slice that they've all begged me to make another! If you're a fan of carrot cake you absolutely must try this!

I hope this works out for everyone and thank you for reading my first recipe post!

The original recipe can be seen by clicking here.