Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

Hey guys! Long time no speak! I've been attempting to work quite hard lately haha (not like me!). I've had a mountain of essays that have just been getting bigger and stressing me out. I'm currently in the library with Sean, I've just written 1000 words on a very boring topic so I thought I had earned a little break, but sssshhh! I've just got to do this for another 5 weeks and then I'm done with university FOREVER!! And then it's on to bigger and better things (not sure what yet :S any ideas??. So today I've got a quick recipe for some yummy carrot cake cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, yum yum! I found this recipe on my old favourite website, BBC Good Food! So here it is..

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

175g soft brown sugar
200g self-raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp cinnamon
zest of 1 orange
2 eggs
150ml groundnut oil
200g carrots grated
1tsp vanilla essence

200g soft cream cheese
100g icing sugar
250ml whipping cream
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and orange zest. Whisk together the eggs and oil, then stir into the dry ingredients with the grated carrot.
3.  Divide the mixture between cases and bake for 20-22 mins.
4.  Cool  before icing.
5. For the icing, beat the soft cheese, add the whipping cream lemon and icing sugar, then beat until icing consistency. Pipe unto cupcakes and decorate how you wish ( I used cute little jelly carrots and bunnies for Easter!).
6. Chow down :).

These little buns were perfect to have around the house for Easter visitors :). Seriously good! I hope you give them a go and I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! I better get back to work :( yuck! Have a nice day! Happy Baking!

Rachael xx.

Nutella and Banana Bread!

Hello! While the snow is falling outside (again!), Where are you spring? I have a yummy, comforting recipe to share with you guys. This is my first bake of my baking bucket list and it was a success, Yay! It is super sweet and not that unhealthy (due to the lack of butter)! I've wanted to try banana bread for a while now, I think it's the perfect thing to start your day and what doesn't Nutella make better? Haha..so here goes!

 

The recipe is from AllRecipes UK. Here is the linky >.(http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/31482/nutella-reg--banana-bread.aspx)

 

Nutella Banana Bread

 

 2 dessertspoons Nutella

200g  plain flour
140g  caster sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
4 mashed over-ripe bananas


How to make...

1.Preheat oven to fan 180 C.

2.Place the Nutella in a bowl and microwave until it becomes workable.

3.Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix until well combined. Put your mix into a greased  loaf tin.

4.Bake for 30 minutes (or until a good crust has formed on the top of the loaf) then turn the oven down to 120 C and bake for a further 30 minutes.

 

5.Enjoy it warm with butter, custard, ice cream or like me with lashings of extra nutella.

 

Baking bucket list number 1 is completed woop! Such a tasty wee loaf and perfect for an extra sweet breakfast! It's also a good way of getting fruit into kiddies :). I hope everyone is having a fantastic week, mine has so far consisted of work, uni work, making soup for my sick granny, dressing my puppy up in scarves and baking this beauty!  I've got a few interesting posts in the pipeline, next up is a craft, a recipe or an outfit, we shall see :). Just to say as well you can follow me on bloglovin if you want, I'm a bit lonely over there :).

 

Lots of love,

 

Rachael xx.

 

P.s. Please let me know if you try it, I would love to know what you think of it? Oh and is it spring with you yet?The sun is taking it's sweet time in coming to Northern Ireland :(.

 



 

Day to Night...Lace Dress!

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well today, I've been a busy bee making soup for my granny who is very poorly, hopefully it brings her some health! So today I'm going to do my first outfit post! I'm slightly nervous about this haha hopefully the photos are ok, I'm not the best photographer! I love to shop in charity shops because they are so cheap, good quality and all your money goes to a great cause :). So I thought I would share some of these charity shop purchases with you lovely people and show you how I will style them! Hopefully this will help get everyone not only shopping for charity but also donating more :).

So to start us off, this lacey dress was, wait for it....£6 from a local charity shop. I just couldn't say no when I found it (lace and polka dots are my 'go to' patterns!). This is how I will wear it for DAY...
 

 

(me being weird and blurry, sorry!)

 
and NIGHT!
 

 

(HAHA...What am I doing with that arm?)

 
I love this dress it is so comfortable and stylish! I find it really hard to find dresses that are short but not too short (if you know what I mean haha!) but this dress is the perfect 'short' length! The Keyhole back is also a gorgeous touch for night-time glamour :). Oh and a big thank you goes to my little sister once again for helping me and taking these photos! Hope you enjoyed this slightly different post, if it goes down well, it might be more a regular thing on the old blog. I love fashion almost as much as I love baking and crafting, so why not combine all my loves in one place :). Thanks for reading and let me know what you think :).

Lots of love,

Rachael xx.

My Favourite Recipe books...

Hey guys just a quick post for you for today! I realise that I often refer to recipe books many of you have never heard of before, so I thought today I would give you a tiny glimpse onto my recipe book shelf (believe me I have a problem, these are just five of about a million!). These books have loads of my favourite recipes which I have tried and tested. So if you are searching for a new inspirational recipe book, look no further than my mouth watering top 5....

 1. Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson.
This is my most recent find and I have mentioned it a few times on the blog. Such an inspirational Italian recipe book from a true domestic goddess :). My favourites are the Italian Traybake, Chocolate Hazlenut Chessecake, Chocolate and Orange Mousse and the Pepper and Bean dish. Truly scrumptious.

2. The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo
I must confess I haven't cooked anything out of this yet but I want to try nearly everything. This book is beautifully put together with gorgeous illustrations and interesting facts. (Her tv show was divine too). This is perfect for fancy looking French food.

3. The Great British Bake-Off: How to Bake by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.
( Just a wee side note, my copy is signed haha, Mary Berry is my idol!).  This has a wide range of baking recipes from breads to cakes and pastry. It includes all the favourites from the hit tv show too. My favourites are the Banana Fudge layer Cake, Strawberry and White Chocolate Cream cake, chocolate chunk cookies and the Limoncello and White chocolate Croquembouche ( I made this for Sean's birthday, he was such a happy boy, he ate the whole thing haha!).

4.Home Baking by Meg Rivers.
I'm not sure who Meg Rivers is but boy can she bake, she has some wonderful recipes in this cookbook. Apparently she is Cath Kidston's favourite cake maker, that says a lot, she must be great!
This book is great for some great alternative or artisan bakes. My favourites are the Chocolate and Pecan muffins, Blueberry and Raspberry mini megs, Chocolate cookies and carrot cake. This book also has some amazing food photography!

5. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.
Last but by no means least this little number. An amazing woman and an amazing story (you should also read her autobiography, absolutely divine!). It can be a little difficult to follow but boy are these recipes tasty. Julia ( we are on affectionate first name terms hehe!) also includes a lot of information about why we cook the way we do, you can almost here her teaching you! My favourite recipes are the cakes especially the butter spongecake, this is a great base which you can feel free to experiment with flavour wise. Also, the risotto is pretty good, Sean made this a few times, yum yum!

As I said these are only a few of my books and this list constantly changes. I might do a regular feature on the blog where I review recipe books that I have bought too. If you would like that? I love recipe books and magazines, I continuously read through them looking for inspiration (they also make me hungry!). I would also like to know what your favourite recipe books are, so comment down below :). Also any recommendations are absolutely welcome :).

Lots of love,

Rachael xxx.

Mother's Day Raspberry Red Velvet Cake

hey guys! So it was mother's day yesterday here in the UK. So my little sister and I treated our lovely mummy to some home baked goodness :). We are rather proud of this showstopper cake....

Such a yummy cake, vanilla cream cheese frosting, raspberries and a light chocolatey flavour, simply scrumptious...Our mum enjoyed it too haha! I even tried some fancy piping to make it look a lot more professional, our mother deserves the best don't you know :). This recipe is taken from the April issue of BBC Good Food but you could also find it on their website. SO here goes and I hope you also treated your mummy well this mother's day!

Raspberry Red Velvet Cake

280g caster sugar
175g softened butter
3 large eggs
280g self-raising flour
2tsp vanilla essence
75g cocoa powder
150 ml butter milk
1tsp white wine vinegar
85g full-fat cream cheese
75g pureed raspberries
150g punnet raspberries

For the frosting...
200g icing sugar
140g cream cheese
2tsp vanilla essence
140ml whipping cream

1. Heat oven to 160 degrees fan oven. Grease and line two cake tins.
2. Use electric whisk beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating in between.
3.Sieve flour and cocoa powder into a separate bowl. Add half to the egg mixture and fold carefully.
4. Mix buttermilk, vinegar, cream cheese, raspberry puree and fold have of this into cake batter. followed by the rest of the flour mix and then the rest of this wet mix.
5.Spoon into cake tins and cook for 25-30mins until done.
6. leave to cool and make frosting by mixing cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar and beating in whipping cream.
7. When cake is cooled assemble with frosting and raspberries. Decorate and present to your mother :) .

I hope you enjoy giving this cake a go. It really looks and tastes beautiful. Give me a wee comment if you do give it a go and let me know what you think! I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday. I'm going to go thrifting this afternoon (one of my favourite things to do), I might share my finds with you if you would like that??

Lots of love,

Rachael xx.

Chocolate and Hazlenut Cheesecake Cups!

Hi guys! I've got a quick, easy and very yummy dessert to share with you today! As you know, yesterday was my engagiversary, so Sean and I had a romantic little dinner for two :). We decided to try another Nigella Lawson creation for dessert and boy was it delicious! A perfect end to a perfect meal :). Here's a wee picture to get you drooling....

 

The recipe is roughly taken from Nigella's new Italian cookbook, Nigellisima! (thoroughly recommend this, everything looks gorgeous, gives you real cooking inspiration!).

Chocolate and Hazelnut Cheesecake Cups

Makes 2 cups

200g cream cheese
250g Nutella
Icing sugar to taste
4 chocolate biscuits
1 tbsp butter
chopped hazelnuts to top it off

Method

1. Mix cream cheese, Nutella and as much icing sugar as you like until smooth.

2.Crush chocolate biscuits and mix with butter and place in the bottom of your chosen cups.

3. Top the base with your cream cheese mix and then scatter your hazelnuts on top.

4. Refrigerate until you can't wait any longer. (For us, about 2 hours!)

A yummy, easy recipe that would be perfect for showing off to your friends at a dinner party. The only problem is you always want more :). Hope you give this a go and let me know how you get on! Next up on the old blog, I should have my first fashion post, aaaah! Happy desserting,

Rachael xx.

Baking Bucket List 2013!

Hey Guys! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Mine was crazy busy from my car breaking down to bridesmaids dress shopping (no success, ggrrr!), I don't think my bum hit a chair all weekend :). So I'm here today with a wee list of ten treats that I am looking forward to baking in 2013. Such a big year for me so I though I would mark it with some exciting new bakes to try. So here they are, I'm really looking forward to giving these bad boys a go....

1. Red Velvet Cupcakes
2. Lemon drizzle cupcakes
3. Lemon meringue pie
4. Macaroons
5. Banoffie Cupcakes
6. Baked Alaska
7. Chocolate Eclairs
8. Banana Bread
9. Make my own chocolates
10. Black Forest Gateaux ( Sean's input, he's been begging me to make this for years!)

(This is just a wee pic of my fiancé, Sean and I when we first got engaged, a year ago today! Can't believe it's only  5 months until we are hubby and wife! Eeep I'm excited!).

So there you go! What do you think? I think the macaroons will be difficult, I've heard they can be notoriously tricky to get right. But it's all about trying new things and expanding my baking repertoire! If you want to have a list along with me, leave me a wee comment with your baked treats which you want to try, I would love to know what you guys like baking :)! I have some different posts coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned :), including a fashion-related post which is new for me, but hopefully you guys like it :). Happy Baking,

Love Rachael xx.

P.S. What do you think of the blog revamp? I think it's much more me :).