Recipe #18 of NEWrecipes52 ...

I made biscuits, not cookies, but biscuits ... and in my mind there is a difference. Cookies are kind of chewy and generally softer in texture than biscuits ... and the new recipe I tried last week was definitely for a crunchy, crumbly and oh so tasty, biscuit! It was from this recipe book ...


DH brought this home from work one evening last week. It had been found in a cupboard that was being thrown out and knowing how much I enjoy baking, he retrieved it and gave it to me.

Here's the [by now] usual suspects, with the addition of dessicated coconut and oats ...


I think the secret to a crunchy biscuit is the mixture of two types of sugar; caster and soft light brown sugar ...


Creamed together until light and fluffy ...


Then the coconut and oats were folded in ...


Teaspoon size amounts of the mixture were rolled into balls, then flattened slightly prior to going into the oven ...


These crunchy treats only took about 10minutes to bake to golden brown perfection ...


They were really good ... especially with a glass of milk, just before going to bed!

Cake anyone?

But this one isn't the edible variety ... nope, this is a decorative gift "baked" for a friend at work, who's expecting her first baby in a few weeks time ... it's a nappy (diaper) cake!

Like any good cake, it has some basic "ingredients" such as nappies (diapers), socks, booties and dummies (pacifiers). It also has some "flavouring"; blue for a boy, pink for a girl and yellow for when the mum-to-be doesn't yet know!

I started by rolling all the nappies into tight bundles and secured them using elastic bands ...


My cakes had 4 tiers, which used 70 newborn size nappies. The smallest, top tier of the cake consisted of 7 nappies ...


The next 2 tiers were basically the same size and each had between 14-18 nappies each ...


All the remaining nappies were used to create the bottom, largest tier, which was placed onto a 12inch diameter cake board ...


Each layer had white organza ribbon and cute pink foot-print ribbon tied round the middle, to hold the "cake" shape (and cover the elastic bands) ...


The smallest tier was topped off with a super soft fleece, sweet pink bunny blankie ...


The booties, socks, dummies and grab clips were threaded onto pink curling ribbon and secured in place with pearl-head pins. Once all the tiers were assembled, the whole cake was wrapped with clear cellophane and tied with more of the white & pink ribbon combo, curling ribbon added the final flourish ...


I'm pleased to say that the mum-to-be LOVED her gift and was so surprised when I gave it to her. I was so busy making sure her cake stayed upright, I totally forgot to get a photo of mum and cake together. Never mind, with a bit a luck I'll get a photo of mum and baby "Tallulah" (that's what we call her bump!) the next time she pops into the office!

Recipe #17 of NEWrecipes52 ...

I love bank holiday weekends! I love them even more when I get to spend the extra day being creative, be it digi-scrapping, gift making (more on that later in the week) or trying out new recipes in my kitchen. So this past weekend, I tried not 1, not 2, not even 3 but 4, yes FOUR new recipes!!! That's got to be some kind of record, right? My fourth and final new recipe was another cake. Orange and almond cake to be precise ...


I grated the orange zest, removed the white pith from the fruit and pop the remaining flesh into the food processor, along with the ground almonds and blended to form a paste ...


I creamed butter and sugar together using a hand mixer ...


3 eggs were added, 1 at a time and mixed thoroughly after each addition. Then the flour and orange / almond paste were added and folded into the butter / sugar / flour mixture ...


I'm going to let you in on a secret now ... with all the cake baking I've been doing over the past few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that the "creaming" method of cake preparation definitely produces the best quality cakes and the secret seems to be not to "over work" the flour. Gently folding the flour into the sugar / butter / egg mix rather than using a mixer to whizz it all together, really helps prevent the cake becoming too dense and gives the cake a beautifully light and fluffy texture.

Anyhoo, back to my recipe ... the cake batter was divided between 2 prepared cake tins, then baked at 180oC oven for around 25mins or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes away clean.

The cakes were allowed to cool completely, then sandwiched together with a mascarpone cream cheese filling, sweetened with a little icing sugar and flavoured with fresh zingy orange zest ...


The result was a delicious, subtly flavoured, wickedly naughty slice of heavenly goodness ...


I think it's fair to say this recipe was my favourite "new" of the weekend and will definitely be baked again in the [not too distant] future.

Recipe #16 of NEWrecipes52 ...

I'm heading east again for my next new recipe of chicken satay skewers with peanut dipping sauce, and any recipe that includes garlic, chili, ginger and lime, is all good in my book!


The chicken breasts were sliced into 4 or 5 slices, put into a bowl and a marinade of lime juice, crushed garlic, grated ginger, chili flakes and soy sauce, poured over. I covered the bowl with clingfilm and put into the fridge to let the flavours infuse into the chicken ...


After an hour or so, the marinaded chicken was then threaded onto skewers (the recipe said to use bamboo skewers but I didn't have any!), ready to be grilled ...


The peanut sauce called for crunchy peanut butter, coconut milk, garlic, finely chopped chili and lime juice all to be combined together ...


Unfortunately, almost as soon as I added the lime juice, my sauce "split" and didn't look terribly appetising ...


But I didn't panic! Instead, I transferred the cold mixture into a saucepan, added a small amount of water and heated it gently, whilst stirring continuously. The result was a smooth, beautifully combined warm sauce ...


Grilled chicken satay and warm peanut dipping sauce ...


Perfect for a light snack or late lunch.

Recipe #15 of NEWrecipes52 ...

A simple breakfast recipe of drop scones with cinnamon butter was on today's menu.

I started out by preparing the cinnamon butter; simply combine butter with icing sugar and ground cinnamon ...


I forgot to take a photo of the next step, but basically I wrapped the prepared butter in clingfilm, then rolled into a tight sausage shape and put in back in the fridge to keep chilled until needed.

Next up was making the drop scone mixture, which is essentially a thick pancake batter, made from 4 basic ingredients of flour, sugar, milk and egg ...


Whisk all together into a smooth, lump free batter ...


I cooked tablespoon size dollops of the batter in a frying pan, with a little melted butter, over a low to medium heat. You'll know when it's time to flip the drop scone, as little air bubbles appear all over the surface ...


Flip 'um and delight at their golden goodness ...


Them stack 'um high and pop a teaspoon of the cinnamon butter on top and let it melt and drizzle over the sides ...


What a GREAT way to start the day!

Recipe #14 of NEWrecipes52 ...

Sweet and tart. That's how I'd describe the lemon drizzle cake I made today. The ingredients are super simple; equal parts butter, caster sugar and flour, 3 eggs and 2 lemons. Simple ...


Start by putting the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl ...


Cream together until pale and fluffy, add the grated zest of 1 lemon and fold in the flour ...


When combined, pour the batter into a greased / lined tin (I used my funky pink silicone bake ware again!), then bake at 180oC for between 35-45 minutes ...


While the cake was baking, I made a simple lemon syrup by dissolving 125g of caster sugar into the juice of 1.5 lemons , I let it boil for 1-2 minutes to thicken, added the grated zest of another lemon, then set it aside to cool until needed ...


Once the cake was baked, I used a skewer and made lots of little holes all over the surface, then poured the cooled lemon syrup over the entire cake and let it seep, deep into the holes ...


I left the cake in the "tin" to cool, before helping myself to a generous slice of lemony goodness ...


The cake was wonderfully moist and the crusts deliciously zingy thanks to the lemon syrup ...


Another successful baking day ... but my new recipe adventures don't end there this week, oh no! As it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, I've got 3, yes THREE more new recipes I'm going to try tomorrow and Monday ... watch this space!