Halal Tiramisu (alcohol free)

After watching this years #GBBO bakers make Tiramisu cake...

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Chocolate Tahini Salted Caramel Flapjacks (Oat Bars)

A tasty fusion of the best of Middle Eastern & French flavours in a British flapjack (oat bar)...

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Chai Spiced Chocolate & Tahini Pancakes

As-Salaamu Alaykum

Today I'm guest posting over at umm imran, Anisa's blog Passing Through This Life. Check it out here

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes With Orange Blossom Glacé Icing

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Apologises for my lack of posting in recent months.

Here are some yummy cupcakes to re-break the blogging ice.

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Tahini & Chocolate Chip Cookies [vegan]

As-Salaamu Alaykum

These cookies are the best 'vegan' recipe I’ve ever tried, you do not miss the butter or eggs at all.

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Dairy & Egg Free Baking: Date & White Chocolate Cookies / Biscuits

As-Salamu Alaikum Sisters / Greetings Dear Readers,

I originally eyed a version of these cookies/biscuits on The English Kitchen and was immediately drawn to them not only because they looked scrummy but the way Marie described them was oh so tempting!

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Chocolate Covered Lemon Cake

As-Salamu Alaikum,

No denying I enjoy eating my fair share of cake but what I like just as much is making/baking it.

I find making and baking a cake very therapeutic and satisfying for the soul, every baker whether home or professional I'm sure feels the same.

This cake came from having an urge to bake cake (it happens often) but only having 150grams unsalted butter left in the house, lemons and a bar of plain chocolate cake covering and so my chocolate covered lemon cake was born and shortly after devoured.

You can't beat a buttery, soft, zesty cake with a chocolate 'shell' for extra self-indulgence!

I'm no stranger to the combination of chocolate and lemon together, I recently made chocolate lemon cupcakes and was bowled over by how well they work together BUT feel free to swap the lemon for an orange and you can have a chocolate covered orange cake or if you like cupcakes try my most popular viewed chocolate orange cupcakes instead.

Chocolate Covered Lemon Cake

Makes a 1x 20cm cake

Ingredients

150 grams unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature (take it out of the fridge the night before)

150 grams caster sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs, medium or large

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

150 grams self-raising flour

Covering & Decoration

150grams plain chocolate, melted

Sprinkles (optional)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C/160C (Fan)/Gas Mark 4 and place your oven rack in the centre.

Line the bottom of a  loose based 20cm round cake pan, grease and flour the sides.

Place butter, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl, cream together until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. If you notice the mixture curdling you can add a tablespoon of your self-raising flour to stabilize the mix.

Add lemon juice then sieve in self-raising flour, fold in until your mixture is homogeneous.

Pour cake mixture into cake pan and level using a palette knife. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with clean or with a few dry crumbs clinging to it.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, run a knife around the edges then loosen the collar on your loose based pan and remove it, leave on base place on cooling rack to cool completely then remove base and baking paper.

Place cake on serving plate, you may wish to level it but I didn't. Melt your chocolate in a heat proof bowl inside microwave on 30seconds bursts until full melted. Pour chocolate over cake and leave it to cool slightly before decorating with sprinkles. Leave chocolate to cool and set before taking a slice, if you can resist!

Note If I were to make this cake again, I would add some lemon zest to the top of the cake after pouring on the melted chocolate, just to give it that bit of extra zing! I did add lemon sugar crystals on half the cake (husband doesn't like sprinkles so I try to please everyone lol) but they didn't give so much lemon flavour as I hoped.

My First Chiffon Cake - Peppermint Chocolate

As-Salam Alaykum,

As with all firsts it didn't go according to plan and I've learnt another valuable baking lesson, more on that in a tick, first what is a chiffon cake?

Chiffon Cakes are also known as Mayonnaise Cakes as they contain oil, water and eggs unlike Angel Cake which are made using no fat and can be rather dry Chiffon retains  it's moisture which in my book means they are better.

They are made by first whisking oil, egg yolks and water together, sifting cake flour and sugar into the oil mix and beating for 1 minute at high speed.

To give the cake it's light airy texture the egg whites are whisked separately to stiff peaks with more sugar i.e. a meringue then slowly folded into the first, denser oil/flour mixture.

Valuable Lesson - Fold meringue into the oil/flour mixture in 4-6 stages not in 2!

I didn't fold my meringue into the oil/flour mixture well enough, thinking I would knock all the air out of the cake if I folded in the flour in many stages I tried to do it quicker in 2 but it didn't work when I poured the batter into my silicone cake pans there was still quite a lot of the denser oil/flour mixture at the bottom of the mixing bowl which I scraped out and put into the center of one of the pans and gave it a quick stir in hoping for the best!

As I made two cakes the one you see below ended up being more dense in 'spots' where the batter hadn't been mixed / folded in properly Alhamdulillah it was still edible just not worthy of being frosted so I sprinkled it with icing sugar and put it to one side for second best bites.

Chiffon Cakes usually are baked in tube/Bundt pans as this helps the cake rise evenly and as they tend to sink once removed from the oven they are baked in ungreased/floured sided  pans and inverted (onto such things as the bottom of a flower pot) upon removal from the oven and left to cool totally inside the pan.

I haven't got any tube pans (they are on my long shopping list) so I resorted to my round silicone pans and still inverted them, onto a cooling rack lined with baking paper however, as silicone is non stick they started to slide out and stick to the baking paper, ooops! So I do recommend you use metal cake pans for chiffon cakes. It wasn't such a disaster after all, as once the cakes had cooled completely and been unmoulded from the silicone pans I peeled off the baking paper without causing too much damage to the surface of the cakes and kept those sides face down :)

The need to make the buttercream icing green and blue for this cake apart from it being peppermint flavoured of course, was that my 4year old son asked me for a green monster cake.

He got a green and blue frosted chocolate cake without a monster in site (depending on how you view this cake that is lol) I intended the blue to be a rose in the center, but I used an unfamiliar open star tip (not the wilton 1M which is my favourite for piping roses) and ended up going for a swirly circle?!

Next time I make this cake, I will dare to slice the fluffy pillow in 2 and fill it with a lighter buttercream, say Italian meringue or even whipped cream would go well as the cake is so delicate it deserves a filling to match.

Here is my cake recipe, using self raising flour instead of the more traditional cake flour.

The cakes flavour and the texture (lots of air holes) reminded me of a mint aero chocolate bar!

Peppermint Chocolate Chiffon Cake(s)

Adapted from Chiffon Cake Recipe found in the book, The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg.

Recipe makes 2 x 23cm cakes but the recipe can easily be divided by 2 to make only 1 cake. I highly recommend you make just 1 cake if like me, it is your first time baking this type of  sponge cake. Folding in a 4 egg white meringue will be much easier than one made using 8.

Ingredients

2/3 Cup (160ml) Vegetable Oil (I used sunflower)

8 Egg Yolks

1 Cup (250ml) Water, room temperature

1 Tablespoon Peppermint Oil

336 Grams Self Raising Flour

85 Grams Cocoa Powder

400 Grams Caster Sugar, divided (see method)

8 Egg Whites

Method

Pre-Heat Oven to 375F/190C /170C (fan)

Beat Egg Yolks, Oil, Peppermint Oil together and stir in water.

Sift Flour, Cocoa & 130 Grams sugar into egg yolk mixture and mix in. Beat mixture at high speed for 1 minute (2 if doing by hand with a spoon - it's hard work!) and set aside.

In a separate grease free bowl whip your egg whites at high speed (I recommend using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or an electric hand whisk) until frothy then gradually add 270 Grams sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peak stage.

Fold Meringue into your cake batter in 4-6 stages, I used a tablespoon to do this but ideally you need a bigger metal spoon or a rubber spatula.

Divide final cake mixture equally between your 2 cake pans and bake in the center of your oven for 25-30minutes or until the center springs back slightly when pressed with a finger.

Remove from oven and invert pans onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Fill and decorate your cake with your favourite icing, whipped double cream, jam, layer of fruit etc..

Chocolate & Date With A Hint Of Orange Blossom, Star Shape Brownie 'Cupcakes'

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

These 'cupcakes' aren't really cupcakes at all but rather mini star shaped brownies!

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A Bakers Dozen (13): Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes

Asalam Alaykum,

Ever heard the term 'Baker's dozen'? Well a Baker's dozen in England = 13 why? you may ask, i know i have, when all bun tins i've ever seen are even numbered i.e. 6, 12....

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Photos of my first Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes



The Only Use I Find For The Telephone Directory lol 

Salam Alaykum,



For a short while now i have been developing my own cupcake recipes, likey likey my Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes and Espresso Cupcakes.



The Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes pictured above are a work in progress.... i have succeeded with the cupcake itself, but the buttercream icing i made although it looks delightful was too sour, I'd over estimated how much i liked the bitter taste of lemon and not taken into account the fact that cocoa powder itself is slightly bitter, tut tut.



I was inspired by Lizzy's Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes and i mean come on what girl doesn't like either chocolate or lemon so why not combine both win, win situation!



I don't work from box mixes so following Lizzy's recipe was out of the question and since I'd had success before inventing cupcake recipes i thought why not? anyway i may take a leaf out of her book next time and go for a lemon cream cheese frosting as there is something eye catching about the contrasting colours, brown cupcake and creamy coloured frosting.



I am cupcaked out to be honest but my son's only baking request these days is 'let's make cupcakes' masha'Allah he helps by turning on the mixer and whisking the cocoa powder/flour together oh and he is a dab hand (NOT but let the lad learn) at sprinkling the sprinkles lol



* Note: Here is the link to my Chocolate Lemon Cupcake Recipe

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

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Espresso Cupcakes

*note the above pictures were from the first batch of espresso cupcakes which were nice but weaker in coffee flavour, i was still working on the recipe! here they are darker and stronger!

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Cupcake Wars: Victoria Sandwich vs Espresso

Salam Alaykum,

Here is a light hearted battle of my most recent homemade cupcakes, both were delicious but only one will come out on top, who will it be?

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes - straight from oven

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes 

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes -  with a dusting of icing sugar but who can spot the odd one out? 

VS.

Espresso Cupcakes straight from oven

filled with whipped cream, but wait it gets better

Chocolate, melted and drizzled over oh and a dusting of icing sugar that was not at all necessary

and the winner is:

Espresso!

I just had to make these delights again but this time they were a stronger espresso flavour!

(excuse the lighting, i took this photo at night compared to the rest which were in the morning/early afternoon)

Recipes, coming soon in shaa Allah

Update * here are the recipe links

Victoria sandwich cupcakes recipe

Espresso cupcakes recipe

The Creamiest Nutella Ice Cream! (egg free)

I know i shouldn't...i really shouldn't but what do you do when your in the ice cream making mood, there is no milk left in the fridge and a big pot of double cream? Yes, make the most creamiest nutella ice cream there as ever been.....FOR REAL!

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Mint Chocolate Madeleines

Earlier this week i mentioned my trouble baking Madeleines, it's not that I haven't made them before but well i was out of practice and had forgotten which recipe I previously used. 

This is one of the reasons I started to blog so I would have a log of all my favourite baking recipes without having to search in cupboards and draws for that printed recipe you know you had but it's not in there now, dilemma.

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Pistachio Chocolate & Rose Water Cupcakes

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Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Chocolate Orange has to be one of my favourite flavour combinations but ssshhhh don't tell chocolate mint i said that!

Mint Choc Ice cream vs. Chocolate Orange Chocolate, which would you choose?

Here is the recipe:-

Makes: 16
Baking Time: 15-20mins

Ingredients

250g lightly salted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
250g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder(unsweetened)
3/4tsp baking powder
finely grated rind of 2 oranges


Buttercream Icing
180g unsalted butter, softened
500g icing sugar
3-4 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1-2 teaspoon buttermilk or regular milk
Orange food colouring (optional)

Sprinkles of your choice to decorate (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 C Fan/ 180 C/ 350 F / Gas Mark 4, Line your cupcake tin(s) with paper cases (greaseproof ones ideally)
2. Weigh all ingredients, make sure everything is room temperature, zest your oranges and then put all ingredients in bowl and beat starting slowly and then cranking up the speed for 1minute maximum until light and creamy.
3. Divide the cake mixture between the paper cases, i find using a ice cream scoop works best for this but regular tablespoons will work too. Bake in middle of oven for 15-20mins, resisting the temptation to open the door until your timer beeps. To check for doneness insert toothpick and if it comes out with a few dry crumbs clinging to it, your cupcakes are ready.
4. Leave to cool for no longer than 1minute inside tins and then carefully remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack
5. Buttercream icing - cream butter, gradually add your icing sugar, add orange juice, buttermilk, food colouring (a few drops at a time until a pale orange colour is achieved) and beat at medium speed for a few mins. Once cupcakes are completely cool, using a palette knife generously spread with icing and decorate with chosen sprinkles

If you feel overly citrus you could add the zest of another orange in your buttercream to give an extra zing!