Day 13 - Heart Shaped Brownies

In case you haven't noticed I love brownies. So this post is very self-indulgent. This way I get to eat and make brownies and record my favourtite brownie recipe from my mum's recipe book to my blog, to take with me wherever I go! :)

Honestly, make these today. Chewy, sticky, chocolatey, walnutty goodness!

Ingredients:

• 4 oz butter
• 4 oz plain chocolate
• 8 oz caster sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 4 oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 4 oz chopped walnuts
• pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Weigh the chocolate and butter.

 Melt in a bowl over hot water on a low heat. Keep stirring until the chocolate and butter are fully melted but be careful not to let it burn!

Sieve the weighed caster sugar, flour and baking powder into a bowl.

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat.

Add the melted chocolate/butter mixture and beaten eggs to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

Weigh the walnuts and chop into small pieces.

Add the walnuts to the mixture and stir in.

Line a swiss roll tin with parchment and spoon the mixture in. Spread to the edges.

Bake at 180 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.












Leave in the tin for 10 minutes to cool.












Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

Or cut into hearts with a cookie cutter. And enjoy eating all the scraps! :)

Things I've Learnt:
- I ♥ brownies.
- You can get heart symbols by typing "♥" when you're editing in html mode. :)

Day 6 - Inside Out Carrot Cake Muffins

So continuing my trend for hiding things inside cupcakes today I made some inside out carrot cake muffins. :) These are delicious - not only is the carrot cake recipe really light and cinnamon-y but the icing is baked inside the muffin! It even has less sugar than normal icing so you don't have to feel guilty when you eat way too many. Yum! :)

I found the recipe here - King Arthur Flour

Here's what you'll need:
Cream Cheese filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Carrot Cake batter:
- 2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) plain flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup grated carrot (about 2 medium carrots)

So first turn on your oven to 200 degrees and pop some muffin cases into your muffin tin. (The recipe makes about 12).

First we'll make the cream cheese filling.
Microwave the cream cheese for about 30 seconds. Then add the granulated sugar and vanilla essence. Stir until smooth and set to one side.








In another bowl mix the dry ingredients together - plain flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, bicarb of soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger and salt. 

Set to one side.







In a third bowl whisk the eggs, water and vegetable oil together until combined.









Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until combined but no need to beat (unless you like rock hard muffins!)

Add the grated carrot.





Now the fun part! Spoon some of the batter into your muffin cases (about 2 spoonfuls). Then add a spoon of  cream cheese filling on top. And finally put another spoon or two of batter on top of that so the cases are quite full and all your cream cheese filling is hidden!






Then pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes. 









The top of the muffins will feel firm when they're done. And don't worry if your cream cheese escapes a bit, tastes the same either way! :)

Yum! :)

Linked to these parties: Round Tuit @ Creating my way to Success
                                    Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

                                    It's a Blog Party
                                    Foodie Friends Friday
                    

Day 1 - Strawberry Brownie Cupcakes!

Day One of the 30 Day Creativity Challenge!

Strawberry Brownie Cupcakes

So I love making cupcakes, but don't actually love eating them that much. Brownies on the other hand I could eat all day!! So as you can imagine I've been wanting to try out one of the brownie cupcake recipes I've found on pinterest. But why stop there? Why not add strawberries into the mix and make the best rainy-day-stuck-in-the-house-feeling-sorry-for-myself treat ever! :) 

Unfortunately the 30 day challenge idea only came to me mid bake and my good camera's battery was dead so the first few pics were taken on my phone. Tomorrow will be better, promise!! 

So I tried this great brownie cupcake recipe: http://sweetpeasandhappythings.blogspot.ie/2011/04/brownie-cups.html (very tasty!)

Next I cut out a little piece from each cupcake, just big enough to pop a strawberry in. 

Then I made some chocolate icing. I kinda estimated the measurements but roughly:

 1/2 stick of melted butter

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 cup of milk (add as you need it)

1/2 tsp of vanilla essence

Ice up the cupcakes:

And, once the icing has set, serve them on plate cut in half. Beautiful! And pretty tasty too!

Blog parties I'm linked up to:
The Trendy Treehouse, Foodie Friends Friday, Scrumptious Sunday, Michelle's Tasty Creations

Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes

It might not always be ice-cream weather this summer so we might need to be a little creative! I'd seen cupcake ice-cream cones all over pinterest and decided to give it a try. Afterall what better way to beat the rainy summer blues than with chocolate chip cupcakes!! :)

 I found flat-bottomed ice-cream cones but if you can't you could try covering your cupcake tray with tinfoil and tearing small holes in each section to sit the cones into.

Then just use your favourite cupcake recipe (I made a mixture of chocolate and chocolate chip) and spoon the batter into the ice cream cones instead of a cupcake liner and pop them in the oven!

They went stale pretty quickly so make sure you've got a tin big enough to store them in (or that you're feeling hungry enough to eat them that afternoon!).