Hello Kitty Carrot Cake

Hey lovely people! I know I've been a bit AWOL from the blog for quite a while but I'm really going to try and post all these ideas and recipes that I have floating around in my tiny little brain. So here goes!

Today's recipe is going to be Hello Kitty Carrot Cake! This is the first cake which I have made which has been of special importance and special request. It was my sister's 21st birthday and she requested this very cake (she's very particular, don't you know). So today I'm going to share with you how I attempted to make this happen for her!



( Well this is it, isn't she a beaut!)

To make the cake all you need is:

4 eggs
300ml vegetable oil
400g caster sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
350g grated carrots
125g chopped pecans

And then:

-Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and flour a cake tin.
-In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
-Stir in the carrots and fold in the pecans. Pour the mixture into a prepared cake tin.
-Bake for 40-50mins, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. The cake will colour quite a bit (i.e. it will look a bit burnt) but don't panic, it will be fine but cover the top in tin foil if you are of a nervous disposition like me (haha cakes mean serious business to me).
-Leave the cake to cool completely before icing with some lovely lemony cream cheese frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting, I use the hummingbird bakery basic frosting and add lemon zest. You will need:

600g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g cream cheese, cold
the zest of one un-waxed lemon

-beat the icing sugar and butter together in a mixer. Be careful with this bit, the icing sugar tends to go everywhere. I inhaled some when I did it, it was NOT pleasant.
-add the cream cheese and lemon zest and beat more until completely combined. Continue beating until you get some lovely light and fluffy frosting.
- cut your cake in half if you would like a two tier effect, otherwise just spread the icing on as desired.

To make hello kitty's face, this was the most difficult part for me, she looked a bit scary at one point when her face was lopsided but I soon rectified that. I just used shop bought fondant icing (ahhh the horror), drew a template and cut out the icing in the shape of her face and used some icing pens to draw on the detail and voila, hello kitty on a carrot cake, as per instructed! The cake was lovely and moist and went down very well with a celebratory glass of proseco. I hope you enjoyed this recipe and let me know if you gave it a go, I would love to see pictures also. Until next time, happy baking!

Rachael xx.

Italian Banana Bread

Hey Guys! I have another banana bread recipe for you today (can you tell I really love it)! This recipe was requested by my husband as he has recently started a new job and he wanted this to have in his morning break! This recipe is the grown up version of my Nutella banana bread recipe. This bread would be perfect served at a brunch, breakfast or for a tasty midnight snack (it's slightly healthy too!). The recipe comes from one of my favourite recipe books Nigellisima! The woman is amazing, she produces truly fail-safe recipes full of yummy flavour! Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the bread, it usually doesn't last long enough to snap a picture.

Nigella's Italian Breakfast Banana Bread

150ml vegetable oil
3 ripe bananas
2tsps vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Method

1. Preheat oven and baking sheet to 170 degrees Celsius. Lightly oil a loaf tin.

2. Blend bananas with vanilla extract and salt, then beat in the oil. Beat in the eggs one by one and then beat in sugar.

3. Mix flour, bicarb and espresso powder. Beat these into batter.

4.Put batter in loaf tin and put in oven for 50-60 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

5. Try and leave it to cool before digging in, if you can wait that long :).

This is such a yummy recipe and the addition of the coffee gives it an almost chocolately taste. Yum Yum! I hope you give this a wee try and if you know of any other yummy Nigella baking recipes please let me know :). I will leave you today with another picture of my wedding (last one, I promise!). Can't believe it was a whole 2 months ago...
 

(This is me and my two sisters, this photo is courtesy of our lovely florist, Ma Fleur!)

Love Rachael xx.

A Wee Update + Pimm's Cupcakes!

Hello friends! It has been such a long time since I visited my little blog but the past few months have been a whirlwind with so much happening, so as well as a lovely yummy recipe for Pimm's cupcakes today, I though I would give you an update on how much my life has changed in the last few months. First and Foremost, I am now married, aaah still can't really believe it, but i'm definitely loving married life :). Here's a wee photo of my lovely husband and I on our wedding day...

It was such a happy day and everything went smoothly and beautifully, I wish I could do it all over again!! (I will maybe do a blog post on my wedding with the details of the day, if you guys would like to see it??).

I also graduated from university during my spell away from the blog (woohooo finally!) and I even did very well and managed to come out of it still smiling with a good degree. Here's a photo of myself in my lovely Queen's robes....

 

 As well as these big things I have moved house and started living with Sean (my hubby!), been on honeymoon and baked a lot of yummy buns (recipes to follow). So i'm sorry for neglecting this space but I really haven't had time to breathe let alone type haha! But I'm back( hopefully for good this time) with recipes galore!

 

To kick things off I have a lovely cupcake recipe for you guys. I found this recipe in a recipe magazine called Recipes (haha orginal!)Here's a wee picture of how they should turn out...

 



 

Pimm's Cupcakes

 

For the cakes-115g salted butter

-160g caster sugar

-2 eggs

-grated zest of 2 oranges

-100ml of orange juice

-200g self-raising flour

-120ml buttermilk

 

For the Filling-200g strawberries

-1tbsp sugar

-3tbsp Pimm's

-1tbsp cornflour

 

For the icing- 250g cream cheese

-250ml whipping cream

-100g icing sugar

-1tsp vanilla paste

-Strawberries, orange slices, cucumber and mint leaves to decorate.

 

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a cupcake tray with paper cases.

 

2.Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, orange zest and juice. Gradually add the flour and buttermilk. Beating between each addition (careful not to overbeat).

 

3. Fill paper cases with batter, making sure they are all equal in size. Bake in oven for 30mins and allow to cool in the tin.

 

4. Make the filling. Blend and sieve the strawberries. Add the Pimm's, cornflour and sugar and heat gently. Keep stirring until it becomes a thick jelly-like liquid. Leave to cool in the fridge.

 

5. Then make the icing, beat the whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla into the cream cheese until it is fluffy and will be easy to pipe unto the cupcakes.

 

6. Core a hole in the middle of each cake and fill with the strawberry Pimm's jelly (this is yummy stuff, lick the bowl once you are done).

 

7. Pipe the icing unto the cupcakes and decorate with strawberries, orange and cucumber. Then munch away!!

 

These are delicious cupcakes and the delicate taste of Pimm's is just wonderful in these! Give them a go and let me know what you think?? Happy Baking Guys!!

 

Love Mrs Rachael (haha!) xo

 



 

 

 

 

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 :(.

 



 

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.