These are the ultimate Halloween treat. I wanted to make something this year that looked a little gory and spooky, and filled cupcakes are my newest obsession, so I figured that was the way forward.
I got my hands on some activated charcoal (on Amazon fyi) which not only do some people use for health benefits but also can be used as a natural black food colouring. So I did a little experimenting, and came up with some mega tasty cupcakes. Continue reading
Nothing makes me happy like new cookware. Sign of my age right there, but give me a new oven tray or a shiny new saucepan and I feel like a new woman. Whenever I get the chance to spring clean my cupboards, the feeling afterwards is a Marie Kwondo-esque sparking of pure joy. Oh how I love kitchenware.
The me of 10, even 5 years ago wouldn’t recognise this kitchen utensil loving persona. But a lot has changed in the last few years, I’ve swapped late nights for early mornings, sleeping for cooking and long hours in an office for longer hours with two children. Only joking. Sort of. Continue reading
Hot chocolate is one of those drinks that totally takes me back to my childhood. My mum used to make them for us in the winter, and there’s just nothing like a cosy chocolatey cuppa to make me feel all happy and relaxed on a chilly evening. Continue reading
Seven ingredients. Nothing fancy. Extremely purse friendly. Extremely tummy friendly too. That’s what these brownies are all about. But you wouldn’t know it to look at them would you?
I created these because I wanted to make something super fudgy, super chocolatey and super peanut buttery, and this ticks all of those boxes and then some. When I made these, Mr H’s friend had come to stay, and they got gobbled up in such haste I hardly got a look in.
Is there anything better than chocolate on chocolate? In my opinion, no. Quite often when I’m baking I have a little chocolate left over, from cake decorations and the like, so I pour it into some little moulds and pop them in the fridge for a rainy day. Luckily, as I live in London, said rainy days are pretty frequent.
There I am playing around with baby H making cookies and testing a new recipe and I think to myself hell, let’s fill these cookies with chocolate. I asked baby H for her much respected council. She whole heartedly agreed that more chocolate could only be a good thing. Side note: unless you are the parent who has to clean up your child after they eat these, and for that I apologise in advance.
So here we go, these cookies are so soft they’re almost a cross between a brownie and a cookie and delicious they most certainly are too. Let them cool from the oven and the chocolate will ooze out beautifully, or pop them in the fridge after cooling if you prefer your chocolate centres to be solid. Or try a bit of both perhaps?
For the chocolate
For the cookies
Nothing beats the comfort of banana bread, fresh out the oven and all lovely and warm, smothered with something delicious on top. I’m a big lover of banoffee, so it seemed only natural for me to create a banana bread recipe with a little caramel twist. I’d also just discovered the banoffee almond yogurt made by the lovely people at Nush Foods (which sadly they don’t make anymore but all their other flavours are equally as amazing), so it seemed like a match made in banana heaven. Just call me Yentyl. Continue reading
It seems you lot are custard lovers. When I did a little shout out recently asking what things people would like me to ‘healthify’, custard tarts and custard creams were up there. It got me thinking, and off I daydreamed down memory lane remembering all the custard-covered desserts I consumed in my youth. Continue reading
Mint + chocolate really is a match made in heaven. Whilst the latter is indulgent, rich, warm and intense, the former is light, refreshing and cool. So it makes sense therefore that by the laws of attraction these two flavours make a very happy pairing.
I created these cupcakes because I’d had a real craving for something of the chocolate and mint variety, but I wasn’t quite sure what. One day, in a moment of clarity, it came to me! How amazing would it be to combine a fudgy chocolate cupcake with some light minty frosting! The perfect juxtaposition if you ask me. Continue reading
Who else used to love a Vienetta? On Friday nights when I was younger, we’d go to my grandparents for dinner, and my grandma would always bring out some kind of dessert, a fruit salad and a Vienetta. It might be considered a little bit 90’s, but you’ve got to admit that the idea is pretty genius. The creamy ice cream, combined with wafer-thin layers or crunchy crispy chocolate just adds a whole extra level of deliciousness.
When it comes to recipes where I really feel I’ve hit the nail on the head, I get a bit excited sometimes. Having made these, I knew I was onto something, so quickly photographed them (also quickly because it was so hot they were melting and because baby H was losing her patience at not being able to eat them), uploaded my pics and posted a photo on Instagram promising the recipe to you guys that very evening.
