Back for good...with carrot cake muffins

Now, some New Year's resolutions just take a little longer to put into practice, hence the silence on my blog but now I am up and running again and have quite a few new recipes to share. It's good to be back!

Carrot cake muffins

With my leg healed, I am back in full swing with my training and eating pretty healthily most of the time.  I say "most" because sometimes I just fancy a little treat and to be honest, I think that's how I manage to be good the rest of the time.  Also, people have very different ideas of what is healthy and what isn't - some love bread, others think it is the devil's work.  For me, the good old "everything in moderation" is pretty much spot on.

So, talking of resolutions, I went for a run today and did a few exercises (in the pouring rain, so I deserve extra brownie points, I'd say :-)).  Before I started working out with my trainer, I couldn't do a single pull-up but now - a mere 4 months on - I managed 8 in one go.  That  called for a celebration or at least that's what I am telling myself: carrot cake muffins!  These would work equally well as a tray bake and are so easy and yet completely yummy - definitely worth a try!  I will continue to amend the recipe to bring down the fat content but in the meantime, this version is perfect for a treat. Enjoy!

Christmas cake ... it's almost that time of year

Gosh, it has been ages since I posted anything :-(  Being on crutches was definitely not very helpful when it came to cooking but I am pleased to say that I can now walk almost normally and that as of yesterday I don't have to use my sticks anymore!  Hooray!  That in turn means that there will be no holding me back from trying out recipes again and skipping around in the kitchen - well, not so much skipping but you get the idea.

At the weekend I did manage to start making our Christmas cake.  I usually make two cakes - one to take home to the family in Germany and one for us to have when we are back home.  I love this particular recipe as you can make it a few weeks in advance or if pushed for time, a couple of days before Christmas.  I love how the flavours develop when you prepare it ahead of time, so that's what I usually do.  I also use a shallower tin, making a much "flatter" cake than is traditional but I always find that it is quite rich with all that fruit and icing, so smaller pieces are not necessarily a bad thing.  There is a non-alcohol option to this cake, using orange juice instead of brandy (although there is not that much of the latter in there anyway).  The decorations pictured are those from last year - I'm still thinking of what the design should look like this year, so watch this space. 

How to make an easy & tasty Christmas cake

Rum truffle cake balls - a delicious treat made from leftovers

I was really struggling to give today's recipe an appropriate name but I hope rum truffle cake balls describes roughly what they are :-)  These are actually quite popular in Germany (they are called "Rumkugeln" there) and I first came across these in my uncle's bakery when I was a little girl.  Traditionally made from leftover cake, they are the perfect way to avoid food waste whilst making something delicious. 

Rum truffle cake balls

When my cake went dry very quickly the other day, I knew immediately what to do with it - turn it into these little treats!  You can use just rum flavouring if you want to keep the alcohol content down (and serve to kids) but with just 2 tablespoons of rum for the whole lot, you are not going to get drunk eating these :-)

They remind me of my uncle and of sleepovers at the bakery - happy times!

Update! Chocolate plum cake with cinnamon...autumn, here we come!

Update!  Since writing this post a couple of days ago I have noticed that the cake has dried out really quickly despite being wrapped in foil and kept in a special cake container.  Very disappointing indeed!  Maybe it would have been better to let the fruit juices seep into the cake after all rather than using the suggested ground almonds.  I thought I'd let you know!
I guess I will use any leftovers to make something my baker uncle used to do when he had spare cake...I will write more about these naughty little treats next week in a new post.  In the meantime, have a good weekend!


Temperatures here have dropped by quite a bit but with the sun still out, it's been a lovely couple of days.

With autumn in the air I was very excited to find a recipe for a lovely chocolate plum cake.  I amended this slightly and added some cinnamon which I think goes very well with both the fruit and chocolate and also with this time of the year.  I could imagine this cake with apricots, peaches or maybe cherries instead of the plums - yum!

I also learned a new trick when I made this - the recipe suggested sprinkling ground almonds onto the dough before putting the fruit on top.  That way the cake doesn't end up soggy with the fruit juice seeping from the plums during baking - great idea I think and it would work well with other cakes too.  I'll have to remember this.

Chocolate plum cake with cinnamon

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

It's our 5th wedding anniversary today :-)  We will be celebrating with a lovely meal tonight - I have a couple of great ideas in mind for a yummy starter and main course and will share the recipes next week.  I hope they come out well!

Raspberry cheesecake brownie

In the meantime, since it is Friday and almost the weekend, it must be treat time, mustn't it?  I don't know about you but I find it really difficult to make the choice between chocolate cake and cheesecake or the healthy option of fruit.  Well, how about having all rolled into one finger-licking cake: a raspberry cheesecake brownie?  This one has the added bonus of a good swig of Amarula liqueur but you could use any cream liqueur or none at all.  With a handful of fresh raspberries giving a good contrast to the rich cake, I think this is just yummy.

Have a lovely weekend!

Easy tray bake recipe

Isn't it funny how some conversations can give you energy and others leave you feeling drained?  I have had lots of lovely chats this week - with family, Mr Happy Larder but also with people I don't know or at least not very well.  And with the great comments here on the blog there is a real feeling of community which I love, so thank you to everyone who has made my week special - I hope I have been able to return the favour :-)

Talking of things that make me smile, how about this easy to prepare jam tray bake I made for the weekend?  I came across this recipe on Pinterest and simply had to try it - the original recipe can be found on Marie's fabulous blog "The English Kitchen".

This is a simple but very tasty cake and it'll definitely be featuring on our plates again :-)  I made half a tray's worth and froze a few pieces - just to stop us from gobbling up the lot.

Have a lovely weekend!

A weekend treat...super easy sponge cake

It's almost the weekend and what could be better than having a nice treat to serve up with a cup of tea or coffee?

Rather than reaching for a packet of shop-bought biscuits, why not make this quick sponge cake that can be filled with cream & jam, a fruit mousse,...?  I couldn't believe how easy it was to make this - it was mixed and baked within 30 minutes!

Easy sponge cake

Have a lovely weekend!

Strawberries and cream

When I was a little girl, one of our birthday treats was to choose our the cake for the day.  For me, it was always the same:  a sponge base topped with a light and creamy fruit mousse.  It's called "Mandarinenquarksahnetorte" in German (we like our long words) and still is my absolute favourite. The mousse is made from a mixture of quark (a soft curd cheese very popular in Germany, similar to fromage frais), whipped cream, fruit (mandarin segments), a little sugar and gelatine - it's really easy to make and tastes utterly divine.

At the weekend, I decided to make a variation of the above, using strawberries.  And since the two of us could hardly eat a whole big gateaux by ourselves, we had a couple of little individual ones instead. 

The result was the taste of summer on a plate. :-)

What I love about this recipe is how versatile it is - you can use pretty much any fruit you like (fresh or tinned), change the base to a biscuit crumb one or leave it out completely, serving the topping as a dessert. Or why not fill a Swiss roll (see link) with this?

I had some sponge in the freezer that was left over from my rainbow cake baking (see link), so I used that as my base with dessert rings* (see note) cutting out small rounds and providing the support for the filling.  The base was topped with a spoonful of strawberry jam and I then filled the rings almost to the top with the mousse.  The little cakes rested in the fridge for 30 - 45 minutes to allow the filling to set and were then gobbled up within seconds.

I reckon a birthday cake is good on any day!

PS:  One of the blog readers was after a recipe for a strawberry cake a little while ago - unfortunately, I can't find who it was but I hope this recipe will be useful...

Little treasures

Keith the dog has been keeping us up in the night - first he thought it was really important to bark at the scaffolding outside the house...at 3:45am (!) and the following night he let us sleep in until 4:45am before alerting us the the "terrible threat" of a badger by the back door.  Several jugs of coffee later and I slowly resembled more than a mere shell of a person.  Bless him - he was only trying to be a good watchdog.  Needless to say that he went on to have a snooze, just like when he was a small puppy.

Despite the lack of sleep I am pleased to say that I have finally got the search function on the blog to work - now, the "Search for Inspiration" button on the right-hand side will make it so much easier to find dishes and good food ideas.

The recipe I tried out yesterday was one I found in a handwritten cookbook which must be a good few decades old.  What a treasure! This date & walnut loaf is so easy, you can make it in your sleep - which is probably just as well - see above :-).  The result is what I call an old-fashioned, simple cake/bread that isn't too sweet.

You could amend the recipe by adding raisins, other dried fruit or chocolate chips but I must say I like the original version and enjoyed a couple of slices for my breakfast.

Have a lovely weekend!

Sniffles...

Typical - I've managed to stay healthy for over a year with not a sniffle in sight and just before we are due to go on holiday, I get ill :-(. Mr Happy Larder is on dog walking duties this morning and I will hopefully be back to normal soon.  Lots of hot drinks and vitamins for me and a bit of sleep - I usually fight these things off quite quickly :-).  For dinner tonight, we will just have a pork casserole - it's so easy to just throw together and leave to slow cook in the oven - the perfect food when ill as there is really just minimum effort required but you still get the goodness of a home cooked meal.

Talking of food and recipes, I have just realised that I haven't yet posted the recipe for the chocolate cake we had for Easter, so without further ado, here it is.

Have a lovely weekend!

Rabbit-proof fence...and the giveaway prize...

I promised to share my cake with you today.  It's taken me a little longer because I had run out of KitKats (other chocolate fingers are also available ;-)) and Mr Happy Larder had to dash to the shops to get some more.  So, finally, here it is:

I hope it tastes good - fingers crossed!  I saw the KitKat fence idea a little while ago online and thought that would make the ideal decoration.  Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw it but if I do, I will let you know.  The cake itself is just a simple chocolate sponge with a layer of chocolate ganache in the middle and on the outside.  Ganache is something I had never made before but it is very easy - it's basically just heated double cream with melted chocolate.  Once cooled you can use it to create a wonderful even glaze on a cake or leave it a little longer and it becomes pipeable and spreadable for cake decoration.  The little carrots in the picture are shop-bought, the rabbits (recognise Karl?) are made out of marzipan and the lawn is just a bit of green icing, rolled out thinly.  The ribbon came from one of my birthday presents - I knew it would come in handy one day :-).  So, all in all not a difficult cake at all but I am very pleased with the result and hope my niece and sister-in-law will be too.

I had also promised you some more details about the next giveaway.  Please remember to stop by on Monday, leave a comment and you are in with a chance to win a copy of the River Cottage Handbook BREAD.  It is an absolute gem of a book and got me into making my own bread, so I hope the winner will enjoy it as much as I do.  Also, there is a US version available, so I can get that one for the winner if preferred.

Right, time to lay the table for coffee and cake now...

Have a very happy Easter!

PS:  recipes for the chocolate sponge & ganache to follow shortly...

Little treasures...

I was thinking this morning that every time I use one of my mum's recipes, I am only satisfied with the result if it tastes exactly like hers :-)  Even if my dish is nice - if it doesn't taste like my mum's, it's not right.  As a little girl she learned to cook and bake from watching her mother and I guess that's how it happened for me as well.  Having a mum (or dad, for that matter) in the house cooking and baking is a very good inspiration.

My mum makes the best baked cheesecake in the world!  It has a hint of vanilla to it and she sometimes puts raisins into it as well - delicious.  Her recipe uses quark (a type of soft curd cheese) and the cake is just lovely and light.  I will ask her for the recipe, so I can share it with you.

In the meantime I have one for baked mini cheesecakes that I think you will enjoy.  We found that these tasted best the day after baking which is ideal if you want to prepare something for guests in advance.  They also freeze incredibly well - just defrost and you have fresh cheesecakes.  Perfect! 

I will give you the original recipe below which uses cranberries - I replaced these with tinned cherries, cut up into small pieces and put a spoonful of cherry sauce on top (made by reducing some of the juice from the tin plus a few cherry pieces and some sugar over a medium heat).  I also used a different base for the cakes as described below.

Mhm...I could do with one of these little treasures right now...

Counting Down...

Only one more week until 1st March and the Fragrant Freebie Giveaway...don't forget to mark your diaries and let your blogger friends know...entry will be open to all and I have some really lovely goodies for the winners!

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Cinnamon Rock Cakes...

Since it's almost the weekend, I think we need a little treat, don't you?  Picture this:  slightly warm cinnamon rock cakes, a hot mug of tea or coffee and the Sunday newspapers.  Ok, maybe you won't have time for the papers but these little fellas on the right will only take half an hour from start to finish. And I hope that the smell of cinnamon and freshly baked goodies will put a smile on your face even after the busiest of weeks.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Of famished food bloggers and muffins

Now, this will make you laugh:  yesterday was a busy day with one thing and another - so busy in fact that in the afternoon I started to feel sick.  What happened?  It turns out that I had forgotten to eat!  How silly is that - a food blogger who forgets to feed herself? :-)  It did make me laugh (once I felt a bit better).  I think it was because I spent most of the morning in the kitchen, preparing food, having little tastes here and there and I just didn't feel hungry when it came to mealtime.  I won't let that happen again!

One of the reasons I was busy was that I was making a batch of muffins for our local community centre.  I think you will like these too - they have been inspired by the German cake "Donauwelle" ( = waves of the river Danube) which is normally baked as a tray bake.  It's a lovely mixture of marble cake, cherries, cream or cream patisserie (basically custard) and chocolate.

I needed the cakes to be portable and easy to eat, so I chose to make muffins and instead of a thick layer of whipped cream, I dug a little well into the muffin and filled it with creme patisserie.  A cherry on top, a light sprinkling of melted chocolate and a dusting of icing sugar...job done!

I'd probably call these "Black Forest Muffins" as they remind me of a Black Forest cake - what do you think?

Over the Rainbow...

We'd been invited to visit my brother and his family near London at the weekend and with my niece having just had her 13th birthday, I decided to bake her a cake: a rainbow cake.

Surprise...

Rainbow Layer Cake...

Now, I don't know about you but I have a bit of a soft spot for rainbows and was eager to make one of these cakes.  I've seen pictures on the internet but had never eaten or tried making one until now.  Yes, it was a little time consuming but difficult it really wasn't.  The whole cake simply consists of several layers of sponge cake, sandwiched together with icing (or butter cream or jam).  I didn't really follow one particular recipe - more a mixture of different ones but the cake came out well and was very tasty.  And my niece loved it which was the main thing!

For a special occasion, this really is a lovely surprise cake and well worth the effort! And the great thing is that you can make the layers in advance when you have time and just stick them in the freezer until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Have a break...

...and grab a muffin? Or doughnut?  Or how about both rolled into one?

I came across a couple of recipes for exactly that recently: jam doughnut muffins!  And they are just the perfect treat on a Sunday afternoon or on a Monday in your lunchbox if you need to cheer yourself up at the beginning of the new working week.

We love these, especially since they are a lot lighter than your average greasy doughnut.  You can vary the jam filling according to what you have in the larder...ideal for scraping the last bits out of jam jars.  I used raspberry and strawberry jam for these.

I hope you'll have 5 minutes to yourself today and time for a little treat!

You've gotta roll with it...

Yesterday, I forgot to buy eggs.  That made for a very Un-Happy Larder as it meant that I couldn't really do any baking or at least not what I had been planning to do.  But sometimes you just have to roll with it, don't you?  There were plenty of other things I could do and the eggs could wait.

Fast forward to later in the day and the Happy Larder was back to being cheerful again - the egg situation had been resolved and I could get on with making my cake: a Swiss Roll filled with strawberry jam and a bit of cream.  I had attempted this once before and it turned out horrible - it broke apart and the sponge was rock-solid.  Well, I found out later that my baking powder had been out of date...no wonder then!  See, things do go wrong at the Happy Larder...it's just that I prefer writing about the good stuff :-)  And good it was because this attempt worked out fine - I made a little photo guide... I hope you like it!  It was done using a website called Picmonkey that lets you do photo collages for free.

So, here we are: a super-easy but lovely cake to impress your family with.  It is so versatile as well - you can vary the filling pretty much according to what you have to hand.  How about adding cocoa powder to the sponge and filling the roll with cherries?  Or using apple lemon curd as per my post a while ago?  You can have it with or without the cream and have the whole thing done within 30 minutes... now, that's what I call an easy recipe! :-) 

Sunday afternoon treat

Sundays used to be all about the cake when I was a little girl.  I can picture my mum now, standing in the kitchen with her apron on and stirring in a bowl or another.  Every now and again little fingers would appear out of nowhere trying to steal a bit of the delicious mix she was creating.  And soon after the lovely smell of cake baking in the oven would fill the house.  She always made the time to bake for us - amazing really when I think that she brought the five of us up by herself after my father passed away.  But in doing so she lay the foundations for our appreciation of homemade food and shared meals.  Sitting around the table on a Sunday afternoon with her baked goodies, telling stories and laughing is one of my fondest memories.  And now, when she comes to visit us here, we still keep up our little tradition, only this time I return the favour and serve one of my cakes.

The following recipe is one of those baked treats she used to make for us and it is still a favourite now.  Easily put together, it can be baked in a loaf tin, square or rectangular tin as I have done here.  You can cover it in chocolate icing and decorate it or leave it plain - it is yummy and moist and quite different to chocolate brownies but definitely worth trying, I think.

Impress with French pastry

It's January - the festive season is long behind us and the resolutions for the New Year have been backed up by buying lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Maybe the "buy one, get one free" offer on apples seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the year but now they are sitting in the fruit bowl, getting slightly past their best. 

Well, I have just the recipe for you: a French Apple Tart.  Slightly decadent for January but how about a special treat for family or friends after a Sunday walk, run, play-about- in-the-snow?  You'll have burnt off those calories beforehand and it'll also help use up those old apples...

Apple Tart...

A chocolate hug

There is lots of snow across parts of the UK today and although it has not hit us here just yet, the cold is making me think of curling up by the fire with a mug of hot tea and - you guessed it - chocolate...or cake...or both rolled into one.  Whether you like it dark & bitter, milky-silky or simply any type in large amounts, melt-in-the-mouth chocolate does the trick...and so do these lovely brownies.

Brownies...

Studded with little chunks of white chocolate they are gloriously rich; divine as an afternoon treat served with a little vanilla ice cream on the side.  A small piece goes quite a long way but fear not, these freeze well for when you next need a chocolate hug.