Chocolate & Lemon Pinwheel cookies

I first made these cookies with my mum when i was around 3/4 and I've loved them ever since. I hadn't made any in a while and my friends were coming up to see us from Brighton so I decided to crack out the recipe and make them again. They loved them, from 40 cookies to 4 left in an hour, it's safe to say I think they enjoyed them!

Ingredients:

• 280g Plain flour
• half a teaspoon of baking powder
• half a teaspoon of salt
• 220g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 2 teaspoons of lemon extract
• 30g cocoa powder

Method:

• Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy

• Add the milk and egg yolk 

• beat together and then sift in the flour, salt and baking powder.

• Combine into a soft dough 

• Half the dough and place into separate bowls then to one add the lemon extract (add a tad more flour to this if the dough is still rather soft) and to the other the cocoa powder.

• Chill each dough ball for 10/20 minutes

• Once chilled, roll each ball into a square so you have 2 squares of equal size (one of chocolate and one of lemon)(this is a really bad explanation but my pone ran out of charge so i didn't get any pictures!)

• Place one square on a piece of clingfilm or greaseproof paper and place the other square on top.

• Roll together like a swiss roll using the clingfilm or greaseproof paper to help.

• Once rolled together cut in half and chill whilst the oven is preheating to 200c/gas mark 6

• Cut into slices around 1cm thick, larger if you'd like and place on a baking tray (lined or greased)

• Bake for 10-15 minutes,  Until slightly soft to the touch.

• Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool

Just a quick(ish) little recipe to try over the Christmas holiday, 

I love them, 

Lia 

xoxox

Lemon Cupcakes!

I came up (it's probably out there officially somewhere) with this recipe late last Friday night, whilst home alone with nothing to do except bake and watch Elf. My parents were out so I had the kitchen (and all its ingredients) to myself! So I went just a little bit wild on the lemon... 

These cupcakes have a soft lemon sponge cake and a tarty lemon icing. They're perfect with just about anything! They proved a hit with family and friends so I thought I'd share the recipe!

Ingredients: 

• 250g Sugar (caster or granulated)
• 250g Self raising Flour 
• 250g Butter 
• 4 eggs 
• The find of 1 lemon 
• 1 tsp of lemon flavouring (you could also add a drop of the juice from the lemon) 

For Decoration:

• 250g Icing sugar 
• 80g Butter 
• 100g Lemon curd 
• Sprinkles of your choice 

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°c/350°f/Gas Mark 4

• Cream together the butter and the sugar. Then add the lemon rind and flavouring. 

• Add the eggs to the bowl and and add a small amount of the flour as well to prevent the mixture from splitting. 

• Sift in the flour, folding gently. 

• Spoon into cupcake or muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes

• Once cooked (you can tell this if they're springy to the touch, a skewer comes out clean and they're a golden brown colour on top) remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. 

• To make the icing, cream the butter until soft and then incorporate the lemon curd, gradually mix in all the icing sugar until a smooth buttercream Is formed. 

• Pipe onto the cakes in whichever pattern you desire.

Here are some of mine:

Display however you fancy, I opted for this pretty little glass cake stand, but a plate works just fine! 

Thankyou for reading and I hope you have fun baking! 

Lia 

xoxox



Christmas Tree Biscuits

I've never actually made these biscuits before, I'd describe them as very festive tasting and also very fun to make as well as eat! They take around an hour to make ( including chilling, cooking, cooling and decoration) but are super super simple!

Recipe - Makes 25-30:

• 225g/8 oz butter, softened
• 140g/5 oz caster or granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• grated rid of one orange
• 280g/10 oz plain flour
• pinch of salt

For decoration:

• Icing sugar
• any small sweets 

Method:

• Put butter & sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy.

Recipe inspired by the '1 dough, 50 cookies'  recipe book

• Beat in the egg yolk and orange rind. Sift together the salt and flour and add to the bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.

• Half the dough, shape into balls, wrap in clingfilm and chill for anywhere between half an hour to an hour.  

• Whilst the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 190°c /375°f/ gas mark 5

• Remove 1 of the balls from the fridge. lightly flour the surface and rolling pin. Roll half the dough to about 3mm/ ⅓ of an inch thick.

• Use a shape cutter of your choice to make as many biscuits as you desire, be wary though, the cooking speed is dependent on the size of your biscuits (These took half the recommended cooking time).

• Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining dough and then use the second ball of dough to do the same.

• Lightly grease a baking tray (more if you have them. You make a lot of biscuits!) and space out your shapes. The biscuits don't spread so you can place them pretty close (just not touching). 

• Place into the oven for around 10-15 minutes. Checking them every 3-4 minutes. You want to remove them when they're still rather pale, it took me 3 batches to distinguish when they needed removing! If you can see any golden brown on them, they're overdone so be careful.

• Once baked, place onto a cooling rack and decorate with items of your choice. I opted for a sprinkle of icing sugar, but you can go as wild as you like! 

I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I did, if you bake any for winter, tag the picture #lialikestobake and I'll check it out! 

Lia 

xoxox

Ideal Home Show Haul Manchester 16-11-14

Last Sunday, I ventured to the Ideal Home show In Manchester, and let me tell you, it was amazing! Never have I been surrounded by so many bargains!

I've never personally been to an ideal home show before so I wasn't too sure what to expect. My mum went earlier this year and loved it so she bought tickets for this show just gone, I'm so glad she did!

Here's what I bought!

The first thing I bought was this cute little 'Belissimo' lip glitter kit

The retail price when not in the showroom is £13 for one pot of glitter and the lip glue? is that what it's called? I'm not too sure on that one! Anyway, at the ideal home show, it was 2 pots for £13 (basically buy on get one free) plus free application there and then of any colour of their glitter. This was incredibly good value as their competitors store had 3 pots of glitter for £25 and £3 for application! I had my lips done at both stores and Belissimo was far superior, their customer service and attitude was also much better than their competition, hence why I bought from them.

In the bag you get 2 glitter pots and 1 glue pot, as mentioned before. You also get 5 Q-tips for application and their gorgeous business card. I've not yet tried to apply this on myself yet, but it didnt seem complicated at all. The feel on your lips when first applied is a tad strange, but after five minutes of smiling (so the inner corners can dry) you can barely tell it's on. I ate, drank, kissed and had a bath and the glitter stayed perfectly in tact! Each glitter pot has enough glitter for 25 applications which works out at around 26p per application! Absolute bargain, I'm very pleased and cannot wait to try it out for myself! 

    

The next thing i bought was this rather large acrylic rolling pin

I've been in need of a large rolling pin for absolutely ages, when I saw this one at the bake and create stall for £15 I knew I had to have it. It's 20 Inches long which is great for covering large cakes. I had also hoped to get some engraved rolling pins? The ones that leave a pattern on the icing? I'm having a mental block again, I'm sure there's a word for what I'm on about! So yeah I was aiming to buy a few of those too but i had seen them cheaper elsewhere so I didn't purchase any from them.

I also bought another MoYou Proffesional Nail Art Suitcase 

My mum bought me last seasons suitcase and it was the best gift i've ever received, it's changed the way i do my nails forever! I'v always been very passionate at nail art but have never been all that good at it. This kit changed that, not a day goes by anymore where i dont get complimented on my nails, honestly, it's amazing... So i bought another one.

This case contains many new features which i just couldn't resist! The case is rather pricey, verging on £200... But you know me.. i never pay more than i have to! In the show promotion this case was £165, a little bit of bargaining & bartering and the use of my NUS card later, the price dropped to £135. 

This case contains brand new accessories:

• silver and gold nail foil to create show stopping designs, 
• what I can only describe as sparkly nail sellotape to create intricate patterns and lines,
• 5 more Special MoYou nail varnishes (the other case contains 15, I also got to choose my colours but when bout from the website it contains one of each)
• A dotting tool & brush along with the nail file, buffer and cuticle tool 
• 2 X-Large MoYou pattern board

There's not a lot extra to the last case but the value for money was also what made me buy this case. For 20 special nail varnishes on their own its £60 and each XL design plate is £45 so to buy the products separately only just falls short of the price i paid, for the quality of the products, i am very pleased!

Here's the old and new case for comparison 

Old

As you can see, there's nail glue and a travel kit which the new case doesn't include. 

15 nail varnishes and 6 glitter pots. 

The exterior of the case.

Here are the 2 together, no difference in appearance at all

New

My latest nail design using my new plates

Pro-Step Mini

The last thing we bought was quite an indulgence. All the way around the exhibition, there were many stalls offering varying model of these vibration boards 

After trying them all we decided on this model. retailing usually at £700, the £300 we paid seems too good to be true! It's not arrived yet as it's coming from the manufacturer however i will do an update on it after i've had a good use of it. It claims to have miracle properties... I'm a little sceptical as apparently 10 minutes on the pro-step equates to 1 hour in the gym. We'll see how that turns out! It does feel like you're working out all over, on its highest frequency, its enough to make your eyes water and make you brake out in a light sweat, just by simply stood there doing nothing. I'm not complaining! 

I hope you enjoyed my little home show haul, I hope to post more like this in the near future.

Lia 

xoxox

Christmas Ginger Biscuits!

I LOVE these cookies! They taste lovely and are perfect with a hot drink in front of the fire on a cold day. They're super easy to make and even easier to eat. The orange gives them a mild citrus flavour which is followed by the warmth of the ginger. I really like them and I hope other people do too.

This recipe makes around 30 small cookies or 16 larger ones. The large ones spread significantly in the oven, the small ones not so much, I prefer the smaller ones. You don't have to go through as much pain sharing a small one 

Here are the ingredients:

125g/4.5oz - Unsalted Butter (plus extra for greasing)
350g/12oz - Self Raising Flour (Sieved)
A pinch of salt
200g/7oz - Caster Sugar (granulated works fine too)
1 table spoon - Ground Ginger
1 tea spoon - Bicarbonate of Soda
75g/2.5 oz - Golden Syrup
1 Beaten Egg
1 tea spoon - Orange rind

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160°c/325°f /gas mark 3. 

Prepare your ingredients. 

Place the sugar, flour, salt, ginger, and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.

In a pan place the butter and golden syrup and melt over a low heat then leave to cool, the butter and syrup should combine after cooling. Don't worry if they don't, it all gets mixed together anyway.

Add the egg and the contents of the pan into the dry ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms.

Form small balls and place on a greased baking tray. I'm not sure how to describe the perfect sized ball... around about the size of an eyeball should be okay. Maybe a tiny bit bigger?

Press each ball down slightly to spread each ball a little bit. Be warned they do spread quite a bit in the oven !

Bake for 15-20 minutes and transfer the cooked cookies onto a wire rack or plate to cool

There we have it! I made these recently with my Grandma and thought I'd share the recipe to these magnificent little creations.

 I hope you enjoyed!

Lia 

xoxoxox

My Bakes So Far

I'm not starting this post with the intention of finishing it today, but if i do that's a bonus!

Im currently getting ready to go to an awards ceremony for my undercover work that i do with the police but i'm waiting for my curls to set so i thought I'd take some time to show you my previous bakes.

I'll start with my first proper cake!

Cake No. 1
i made this cake at a decorating class i attended back in April. I have made many cakes prior to this, but these are the ones worthy of photography!

A bit shabby, but for my first attempt at piping... I'm pretty proud!

It's a vanilla sponge, covered in fondant then decorations piped with royal icing and to say the least, it was tricky!

I'll rephrase that to "Very very shabby".

Cake No.2

This cake was a complete disaster which shall only be known as "The collapse of the castle". 

I don't know if I'm the only one, but when I bake with somebody else, any skill I ever had flies straight out of the window and becomes little more than a handicap. That's what happened with that cake. I had great intentions for this cake to be the best cake I've ever made... it wasn't. It wasn't even worthy of being called a cake. We used a castle mould and baked for far too short a time. When it emerged from the oven all looked well... the top was springy and a cake tester came out clean... from the centre. After turning it out onto the counter we saw what could only be described as a self formed moat form around the cake due to the corners of the cake still being liquid. I don't know what went wrong, all I can put it down to is that baking should not be done in pairs!. #Antisocialbakersunite. Then to top off the 'cake', and simply to accentuate the natural disaster that had occurred, we covered it in bright yellow icing and made a 'sea' from chocolate butter cream that had been turned a funny shade of Algae with the excesses amounts of food colouring used to try and get rid of the brown. 

I got a photo...

Nobodies perfect... 

Cake No.3

No sooner had my accomplice in disaster cake gone home, I started preparation for my next cake. 5pm, and already downhearted from the previous disaster, I didn't have high hopes for this cake. My boyfriend had been away for 2 weeks so i wanted to welcome him home with a cake. 

I made the batter and set it off to bake. An hour later I had 2 perfectly formed cakes cooling their little socks off waiting for me to assemble what I can only describe as my best creation to date.

9 hours of hard work paid off

    Covering the cake was eventful! After getting the fondant over the top, I discovered a huge tear up the side. 16 Carnations and 4 hours later, the rip is no more. Each flower takes around 10 minutes to perfect. If you're interested in how to make these, and anything else you see, let me know and I may make a tutorial post.

The scale model of my boyfriend.. okay not to scale.. but I am rather impressed with him, was my first attempt at a human figure and I think he turned out pretty well. 

The most pleasing thing i think there is about baking is the joy it brings to other people. Staying up until 3am seems worth it when you see how happy what you've crafted makes somebody else. It's the best therapy. 

Cake No. 4

 I threw this cake together pretty quickly, hence the lack of skill. Disaster cake accomplice was going through a bit a rough time so I thought I'd cheer her up with a cake.

Very very very shabby!

Cake No. 5

Recently I made a cake for my dads friends daughters hen night. She didn't give me much of a briefing. So besides pink, purple and girly, I didn't have much to go off. I managed to put this together in between college and homework.

Is this pink, purple and girly enough??

Cake No. 6

This cake was supposed to be Oreo shaped, however the mould didn't work again... (see a bit of a pattern occurring here?) 

Definitely not an Oreo

I made it just for fun and ended up giving it to my friend for his birthday! The sand is coloured sugar skillfully made by my boyfriend. I don't quite know how it turned from an Oreo to an ocean but im glad it did. 

My first wedding peice!!!

My boyfriends sister got married in June and I was asked to make the Bride and Groom figures for the cake!!  This was nerve wrecking as not only would it be other people seeing my figures, they'd be part of their wedding memories forever and I really did not want to mess this up!

I'm really proud how she turned out. Again i made her with minimal briefing. Having only met her once before (when she was blond) and most of her Facebook picture with her hair blond... I did her hair blond. On the day her hair wasn't blond... Woops. 

Bride, Groom & Son

I'm really pleased with them and how they looked on the cake. Even if the grooms arm fell off in the heat of the car. 

Its now Tuesday morning.. nearly a week after i started this post and i've got a driving lesson to get  ready for!I Hope you've enjoyed this little update on my baking so far! And I hope to keep you updated on my future baking endeavours

Lia 

xoxoxox

PS...

The awards evening went so so well! Here are a few pictures 

Chief Superintendents Good Citizen Award

Mayor and Mayoress of Halton 

<3