Easter Goodies

Easter Goodies

For a quick and easy Easter treat make some cup cakes or muffins and decorate with coloured icing and a few chocolate eggs, or use small slices of iced chocolate cake in colourful cup-cake cases. For an extra impressive presentation wrap in some cellophane or arrange in a small box to give away as a personalised Easter gift.

Recipe 1: Simple Cup Cakes

Makes 24 muffin sized cakes. Use large muffin cases in muffin trays.

Measures: 1 cup = 250ml

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 2 sachets of vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups self-raising flour

For icing:

• 3-4 cups icing sugar
• a few tablespoons of water, or juice of 2 lemons
• optional - a few drops of food coloring, yellow or another pastel colour

Method:

Set oven to 180 c fan or 200 c non-fan. Line muffin trays with paper cases.

Melt butter in a small saucepan and set aside.

In a medium bowl mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy, about 4-5 minutes using electric mixer.

Add melted butter with mixer running on low, then mix on high speed for about 30 seconds.

Sieve flour on top, then fold in with a large spoon.

Using a large serving spoon, place mixture into paper cases. Do not overfill, about half way up is correct.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Check they are cooked, using a cocktail stick to test - it should come out dry, but try not to overcook them.

As soon as they are cooked remove the individual cakes onto a wire rack to cool - use a palette or other knife to lift them out carefully as they will be soft.

Once cooled, decorate with icing. To make icing use sieved icing sugar and add a few tablespoons of water or lemon juice. Use food colouring if desired, yellow goes well with the Easter theme, but other pastels work well too.

The icing will need to be quite firm as it will otherwise slide off the cake.

Apply some icing to cakes with a flat knife and place some sugar eggs or other decorations onto it before it dries.

Variations:

1. Use round cake tins to make this as a sponge cake. Sandwich the two cakes with some butter icing ( 100g softened unsalted butter mixed with 1 cup sieved icing sugar) or use jam, or both. For a simple presentation dust top with caster sugar and decorate as you wish.

2. Make as above but use good quality lemon curd to sandwich the cakes, then spread some lemon curd on top and decorate with some chocolate eggs or even an odd fluffy chick decoration.

3. For a really fancy twist, instead of vanilla add a juice and rind of 2 lemons to the cake mixture. Make the round cakes and sandwich together using butter icing made with 3-4 tablespoons of Limoncello (Italian Lemon liqueur). Decorate the top with some icing made using about a cup of icing sugar and a juice of half a lemon, with or without food colouring. Allow the icing to be a little runny and create some drips down the sides of the sandwiched cake. Decorate with eggs, chicks, or whatever takes your fancy.

Recipe 2: Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 250g unsalted butter
• 300g dark chocolate
• 2 cups caster or unrefined sugar
• 1/2 cup marmalade or jam
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup self-raising flour

Icing:

• 300g dark chocolate
• 3-4 tbsp milk
• optional - 2 cups desiccated unsweetened coconut

Method:

Grease and flour a square or rectangular pan, about 30cm square. Preheat oven to 170 c fan or 190 c non-fan.

Melt butter and chocolate in a medium sized saucepan, add jam/marmalade and mix to blend and warm through but it does not need to be smooth. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

Add sugar and mix in with a wooden spoon. Lightly beat the eggs (just with a fork) and mix into the mixture until well blended. Add sifted flours and mix in well.

Pour into prepared pan and cook for approximately 15-20 minutes. Use a cocktail stick to test if done, but do not overcook. However the stick should not be coated in wet cake mixture.

Allow to cool in the pan.

Icing:

Combine milk and broken-up chocolate in a small saucepan and keep mixing with a wooden spoon until smooth and thick. If adding coconut you should add at this point, then spread mixture on top of the cake.

If not adding coconut the mixture will need to thicken a little. Keep mixing it every few minutes to prevent it from crusting and to ensure smooth icing. When thickened enough (only takes 5-10 minutes) spread onto the cake.

If you prefer a sweeter icing you can add 2-3 cups of sieved icing sugar once mixture is cooked, then keep mixing as above until ready to use.

Best to wait a bit before cutting the cake, if you can. Decorate each cake square with a colourful chocolate egg, a piece of chocolate flake or other decoration, if desired.

Variations:

1. Use round cake tins and sandwich the two cakes with some of the icing, then spread the rest on top (the middle only if not enough icing!) and decorate with some chocolate eggs or even an odd fluffy chick decoration.

2. Make as cup cakes and decorate as above.

3. Make the chocolate icing as above (but do not add the coconut) and use as a dip to serve with some fresh fruit - strawberries, banana slices, grapes, pear and apple slices - or even an odd marshmallow or two!

Enjoy and Happy Easter!

With Love, Diana x

Diana's Best Chocolate Brownies

Diana's Best

Chocolate Brownies

I have spent many years searching for a Brownies recipe I liked, but having never found one I decided to create my own. This recipe is very easy and forgiving, except for the baking part: the final bit, the baking, is where all your love comes in to ensure that it is cooked to perfection. A dry brownie is nothing to get excited about!

The recipe is very versatile, and can be served warm with cream or ice-cream, with strawberries or raspberries as a dessert, at room temperature as a cake, or from the fridge in small pieces as a coffee treat, as a base ingredient for a brownie sundae and who knows what else! For a birthday cake treat cut into squares and stack up, then 'decorate' with a few candles. And if you find that you have somehow forgotten a few pieces, let them dry out fully and use as a Biscotti with your Latte.

The Recipe:

Set oven to 180 c Fan or 200c non-fan. Grease and flour a square or rectangular, solid baking dish of any sort, but make sure that it is suitable for brownies being cut in the pan (not the sensitive coated type that will scratch).

Below are quantities for small, medium or large cakes. Brownies can be made in any thickness, as liked, but the cooking time will be shorter for a thinner cake whilst any cake above 2-3 cm before baking will be difficult to cook evenly; however this may be just how you like it, with a crust on the outside and gooey soft inside!

If you are planning to eat them right away then cook for a little longer as otherwise you may find it hard to cut (although spooning it out whilst still hot and topping up with cream or vanilla ice-cream works really well too). If you want it to keep it soft and moist for a few days then cook it slightly softer and wait to cut it until next day. You can also cook it quite soft and keep in the fridge - it changes the taste somewhat, but still just as good, some even prefer it like this. To keep it soft for longer use a sealed container, or for a real treat place small squares into colourful cup-cake cases and seal with some cellophane. For a good friend you might even resent some brownie squares on a tissue lined shallow gift box.

This recipe is very easy and quick to make and is not too fussed about the 'exactness' of the measures. It can tolerate slight variations in ingredients, as well as other real life situations such as chatting on the phone for half hour in the middle of making it, a quick trip down the pub before putting them in the oven, different types of chocolate and who knows what else, all without having any negative effect on the end result.

The labour of love is in having the patience to stay with it and keep on checking it to make sure it is cooked to perfection! No mixer is used at any time, all you need is one saucepan, one bowl and a fork to mix the eggs in, the scales and a wooden spoon!

Ingredients:

• 250g / 375g / 500g butter
• 250g / 375g / 500g dark chocolate*
• 5 / 7 / 10 organic or free range eggs
• 400g / 600g / 800g caster sugar**
• 175g / 265g / 350g plain flour***

OPTIONAL: Either 200g / 300g / 400g chopped walnuts

or 150g / 200g / 300g chocolate chunks or chopped chocolate

* Chocolate: quality to taste; darker the chocolate, richer and more decadent the taste, but too strong a chocolate produces a much drier cake. It also does well if using some high content chocolate (say 70%) with low grade leftovers like easter eggs. I prefer a 50% chocolate, but this is very personal, so experiment.

**Sugar: unrefined or white; non-caster also does OK. If you prefer cakes less sweet you can reduce sugar without loss of quality, say to 700g for large cake - or add a little more if you have a really sweet tooth, by up to 900g for the large cake. The effect of this is that slightly less sugar makes for a slightly dryer cake (so don't overcook) whilst extra sugar makes for a softer, slightly stickier cake.

*** Flour: '00' type is best and no need to sieve, but any other flour when sieved should be ok; however some economy brands may be too course and turn the brownie mixture dry as a result of not binding so well

Method:

In a large saucepan melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat (cut up butter into a few pieces and break up chocolate a bit). Mix from time to time using a wooden spoon. Turn off when melted. Add sugar and mix it in.

Lightly beat the eggs (no mixer), as for scrambled eggs, and using your wooden spoon mix them in, fairly vigorously until joined in evenly (1 minute or so needed for this). When done the mixture turns slightly glossy and amalgamates.

Add flour then mix it in. If adding walnuts to the mixture, mix them in now.

Pour the mixture into prepared tray. It will self level, if not shake and tilt a bit.

Variation: place chopped walnuts or chocolate chunks/pieces on top. (push down lightly on walnuts) – or do half and half in the same tray. Or if you prefer a plain brownie, just leave as is.

Place in a pre-heated oven, set timer for 10 minutes (8 if making very thin brownies) then turn tray around and check - use clean cocktail stick to see if ready. If not ready set timer for 2 more minutes and check again – stay there and watch it! You want it to be cooked but really soft. If it is overcooked it will be dry. Keep setting the timer for no more than 2 more minutes at a time. On average 12-14 minutes is enough for a cake about 1 ½ cm thick before cooking.

To gauge if done, it should look cooked all over (if it looks wet anywhere it is not done). Use a cocktail stick to test, if it comes out really wet with runny mixture then it is not done; when done only some cake will stick to it but it will not be runny, more sticky. Remember that the cake will carry on cooking for a while when out of the oven. If your cocktail stick comes out clean it is over-done, so eat it quickly or keep refrigerated to save it loosing too much moisture.

Cooking times can vary even in the same tray and same oven so always watch it! Best to leave it to cool completely in the pan and cut next day, as the squares are then much neater and easier to remove. However, fresh, warm brownies are very yummy, so it is very rare to see that happen in our house!

Enjoy!!

With love, Diana x