Oatmeal, Sultana, Pecan & Vanilla White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 Cups Mixed Oats (Jumbo, Rolled etc)
1.5 Cups Flour
0.5tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
0.5 tsp Salt
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Ginger
0.5 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 Cup Unsalted Butter at Room Temperature
0.5 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
0.5 Cup Light Brown sugar
1 Large Egg
0.25 Cup Whole Milk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Chopped Pecans
0.5 Cup Sultanas
0.5 Cup Chopped Vanilla White Chocolate

Heat oven to 180 c and mix oats, flour, soda, baking powder, salt and spices together.

In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugars until fluffy then add egg, milk and vanilla.

Add creamed butter to the oats and mix then add nuts, sultanas and chocolate and mix.

Roll into small golf balls and place on lined baking tray with 5cm gaps and bake for 13 minutes.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

From Humminbird Bakery's Cake Days cookbook

I swapped the orange zest for orange essence in the cake and the frosting and it worked really well, they are really light and tasty and very child friendly. I skipped the candied orange decoration and use an orange chocolate button and edible gold glitter as this batch was for children (and some very big kids!).

Chilli, Cheese & Sweetcorn Muffins

from Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days cookbook

I swapped the chilli paste for a sliced red chilli without the seeds. They are a bit dry, if I was to make a gain I would use more cheese (sprinkle some on top at the end before baking), more sweetcorn and more onion. Very nice accompaniment to soup.

Orange Pistachio & Dark Chocolate Cookies

This one was a combination a few recipes to make something a bit middle eastern in flavour which was what I fancied that day!

220g Unsalted Butter
145g Caster Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
2 tsp's Orange Essence
1 tsp Ground Ginger
275g Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
150g Chopped Pistachios
250g 60% Dark Chocolate
1 tbsp Honey

Cream butter and sugar then beat in egg yolk and orange essence. Sift flour, salt and ginger and mix in with the creamed butter until they form a dough and mix in 100g of the chopped pistachios. Put into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.     

Heat oven to 180 c and line baking sheet. Roll dough out between baking paper until 1cm thick and use a cookie cutter as desired. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden.

Chop the dark chocolate and put in a microwavable jug with the honey for 30 second bursts until melted. Dip a corner of the cookies in then sprinkle with the rest of the chopped pistachios and leave to set in the fridge for 20 minutes.  

Everybody said these were fantastic and have asked me to make these again and pass the recipe on - well here it is!

Strawberry Brule Cheesecake Squares

I crumbled 150g of Nice biscuits and 150g of Gingernut biscuits and mixed with 100g of melted unsalted butter and 200g melted vanilla white chocolate and pressed into a loose bottom tin with a fork and refridgerated for 30 minutes.

I preheated the oven to 150c, mixed 200g Philadelphia and 250g Mascapone with 2 large eggs, 150g caster sugar, 2 tsp's of vanilla paste, 1 tbsp. of lime juice and 1 tbsp of honey put into the prepared tin and baked for 18 minutes.

I pushed halved strawberries in as soon as I took it out of the oven and dusted the entire thing with icing sugar then used the blow torch to caramelise the sugar.

Everyone said they loved it, it was gone really quick and I have had requests to make it again already so I think it went down well!

Caramelised Banana & Snickers Mini Cupcakes

Making Cupcakes With Lola

I made the peanut butter cakes but for the topping I just whipped up Nutella, Biscoff and some butter and it was really really good (peanut, chocolate and caramel - all the snickers requirements)! I ran out of the frosting though (possibly because I kept tasting it to check it was ok?!) so used sliced snickers for the rest which looked good but didn't taste as good.

I made the banana cakes which were really easy, I added an extra banana as well for a bit more of a banana hit. I made the cream cheese frosting but put half in a separate bowl and added vanilla paste, cinnamon and yellow food colouring then put them both in a two colour piping bag which was much messier than I thought it would be! For more of a banana flavour, I caramelised sliced banana in sugar and butter (I used salted butter here) and used to decorate the cakes. The caramel really held the banana flavour.

Mexican Feast - Wahaca Cook Book

Wahaca Mexican Food At Home - Tinga de Pollo with Guacamole, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, Feta, Sour Cream and Blue Corn Tortilla's

The Tinga de Pollo was easy to make though had to order the chipotles online and it took about 20 minutes just to shred the chicken but it was worth it.

The recipe for the Fresh Tomato Salasa said 1tbsp!!! of salt which nearly ruined the salsa so I had to make up more of it to calm down the salsa!

The guacamole was really good, I will definitely make my own again, the same with the tortilla's, it does take a while but it gives a lot more flavour.

Great Saturday night feast!