Believe it or not, there's a soup recipe in here.

Poor Weightwatchers. I started out so full of hope and promise and had a whole 2 days counting points and getting used to the system. But then the embolism happened and it all fell by the wayside. I did try to be dedicated. I even kept track of what I was eating for the first few days, but when it became apparent I was going to be in for a while I decided to write the week off. I did try and remain on best behaviour though. When Mum came to see me on my first day in hospital I accepted the Nutrigrain bars and satsumas but made her take the massive bag of mini cheddars and the funsize Mars bars home.

However it turns out that I was to find myself on a much more productive diet than Weightwatchers. It’s called the Hospital Diet and basically someone tries to feed you the worst food imaginable. So bad that you actually start to develop a bit of a phobia of it and dread the appearance of the mealtime trolley. So horrendous that you end up just ordering salads which you will try to eat but will lose the will to live half way through due to the lack of dressing or salt and pepper. You’ll also develop a rabid fear of coleslaw – NHS Hull and East Riding seem to think that approximately half a ton of coleslaw is required when you have a salad.

Once I was on the outside I did resume my Weightwatchers (apart from Saturday when I went mental and had a Macdonalds for lunch and a steak the size of my head for dinner) meaning that I’ve spent a grand total of 5 days on the plan. Yesterday was my first weigh in I have lost the grand total of 8lbs in 2 weeks. (I'll leave some room for applause now.)


The Hospital Diet was an excellent kick in the right direction, and having lost so much in one go I actually have an incentive to carry on losing weight.

So I guess if I’ve committed to lose this weight I’d better, you know, lose weight and to this end I have nominated my former arch enemy, soup, to help me with this task.

I’m thinking I need all the help I can get until I’m able to step foot in the gym again (the date has been set, next week sees the return of the gym as a regular horrifying feature in my life) so the soup book is out, many many interesting looking recipes have been bookmarked and I am determined to make soup my new best friend.

First on the list was Carrot soup. Mainly because I already had all the ingredients and just needed to buy a leek to complete the list (I will hold my hands up, I’ve never bought a leek before. I’ve just never had a use for one it would seem).

I can see why people are fans of the soupagement. It doesn’t really take that long to make. Most of them require fairly minimal ingredients or rely on stock-cupboard stores. And it’s only just dawned on me how freakin’ cheap it is to make! Why did I not have this revelation sooner?!

This soup is nice although I couldn’t help but feel it was lacking a little something. Probably carrots seeing as I intended to make this soup a week before I injured my ankle and when I opened the bag I discovered that half the buggers had gone off, so I was about 100g short of carroty goodness.

Carrot Soup
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 leek, finely sliced
-450g carrots, peeled and grated
- 2 pints vegetable stock
- 150ml natural yoghurt (optional)
- 1 tbsp chives (optional)

- In a large pan with a splash of oil, stir onions and leek, season with salt and leave to sweat for 3 minutes before stirring in the carrots.
- Cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Bring stock to the boil and pour over the vegetables, cover and simmer for 6-7 minutes.
- Liquidize and then season to taste
- Optional - stir in cream and chives


Recipe from here

It’s still nice even if I was a little short on carrots. It was also not watery, an essential for me in the soup stakes. If it’s watery it’s just too annoying to eat.

And it made a good 4 portions (probably 5 if you’re like me and wanted to eek it out that little bit further) out it which has meant that your lunches for the week are sorted, as long as you don’t mind being a creature of habit for a whole week.

If you speak Weightwatchers this next sentence will mean something to you, the rest of you, look away now please...

...it has zero points. Zilch. Not one. (As long as you don’t add the natural yoghurt that is and I don’t feel the poorer for missing it out.) My only points at lunchtime comes from the slice of toast I have my soup, I can’t eat a bowl of soup on its own, I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.

Sweet potato pie baby!

Since the Curious Cat asked so nicely, I will share with you the joys of Sweet Potato Pie.


This is a slighlty confusing dish. Is it sweet? Is it savoury? WHO KNOWS?!


Well actually I do know. It's savoury. 'Tis for the main course. Although it is so sweet that I guess you could technically have it on its own...like for instance if there is some left over and you're too lazy to make lunch...I don't know who would do that.


Anyway I did ask The Americans for the recipe that they used for the infamous Thanksgiving of 2005 but they were rubbish and couldn't find it.


Still the interweb came to my rescue and I discovered that it's not that hard.


Is amazingly simple in fact, why have a never made it before?

You'll be needing:

- Sweet Potatoes

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp paprika

- Mini marshmallows

Then you just put the sweet potato on to boil and mash it up with some butter. Add the spices and mix well. Add a handful of marshmallows and stir them in and then whack it all in a dish and put some more marshmallows on the top.

Stick it in the oven for about 10 minutes until it looks a little something like this:

See?! Super simple!!

Then you just need to serve it up - we went for some lamb chops (which the boyfriend did stuff to with herbs although you'd have to ask him exactly what he did) and some sweetcorn and peas.

I know it does sound a little bit weird but you just have to trust me on this one. Go with me. Put your trust in me.

(Unless you try it and don't like it. In which case I will deny we ever had this conversation.)

Have a good weekend everybody - I'm off to the Manchester for the weekend so I'll be back with pictures and probably boring stories to tell. But don't worry, I'll jazz them up and make them good for you.

Bring on the muffins!!

After making the apple crumble at the weekend I remembered that I quite liked this baking malarkey and stomped in to the kitchen to see what took my fancy.

I still hadn't tried anything from my Hummingbird Baking cookbook which I got for the rather bargainous price of £4 (it's about £12 in the shops so saved myself plenty of pennies). Everything in it looks so good and I would love to go and visit the bakery down in the London place but until then I decided to content myself with having a go at some muffins.

I went for the hazelnut & chocolate muffins, which I almost passed by until a quick glance down the list of ingredients revealed just what was in these bad boys. The one and only Nutella!! (Or if you're cheap like me, generic hazelnut and chocolate spread from your local supermarket.)

They came out so well, I was so pleased with myself. They are probably the finest looking muffins I have ever produced. Usually my muffins look like they've been hit by a car or that they've been made with the help of a 3 year old but these were great. Perfect shape and lovely neat icing. I should have got some hazelnuts to decorate the tops with but I was too lazy I'm afraid.
The recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes and a note in the front of the book says that they are based on American cupcake sizes so to use muffin cases. Now I did and I only got 6 muffins. Maybe I have super large cases?! Who knows. Either way it was probably for the best as this way there's only been 6 to scoff instead of 12!

I present to you - Hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1.5 tsps baking powder

pinch of salt

40g butter

120ml whole milk

1 egg

6 tbsps of Nutella

(whole, shelled hazelnuts to decorate)

Frosting

175g icing sugar

40g butter

30ml whole milk

80g Nutella

Method

- Preheat overn to 170c

- Put in flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter and beat until everything is combined

- Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating well until everything is combined. Add the egg and beat well.

- Spoon mixture into cases until two-thirds full and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until sponge bounces back when touched.

- When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with dollop of the Nutella, before placing the top back on (it will stick up a bit but don't worry, it's going to get covered in icing!)

For the frosting:

- Beat icing sugar and butter together (my god be careful, the whole kitchen was covered in icing sugar powder by the time I was finished!). Slowly pour in the milk and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. The longer you beat the lighter and fluffier it becomes.

- Stir in the Nutella by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. Then spoon over the top and finish with the hazelnuts.

Et voila! Eat to your heart's content!!

A recipe for a Bank Holiday Weekend

This recipe will come in handy when you are left to your own devices for 3 days.

Ingredients
- Extensive DVD collection
- A craft of some sorts to keep you occupied
- 2 fur balls (can be any colour but I went with ginger & white and black & white)
- Comfy clothes
- Change of location
- Boring work

Method

Step 1: Take the comfy clothes and apply to the body. Add the craft to keep you occupied (I went with cross stitch but reading, sewing, whatever will do)

Step 2: Mix in the extensive DVD collection - I found a mixture of Sex & The City, House, Wedding Crashers and The Breakfast Club worked well.

Step 3: Stir in the fur balls to 'help' with your craft and most importantly keep you company during the night.

Step 4: Move comfy clothes, craft and fur balls to a different location (a.k.a. the fur balls' real home) and leave to simmer for another day.

Step 5: Remove from fur ball location, back to original location, add in a good dose of boring work and bring to the boil.

Step 6: Give up on the work and return to craft and DVDs and await boyfriend's return.


It's been a lovely relaxing weekend (work aside) but I kinda him want back now.

Mushroom & Prawn Risotto with lemon and marscapone

Last night I was the risotto queen. I came across this recipe that I have copied down from somewhere, although I have no idea where. I have a box stuffed with random recipes that I've photocopied or scribbled down and I occasionally have a dig through to look for something I fancy.

I like risottos. I know people always complain that it's a bit of a faff but I don't think it really is. Yeah you have to do a bit of stirring but it doesn't take any longer to make than any other meal, you're just standing over it a bit more. Plus there are things you can do whilst you're stirring,

- text people with your free hand

- read a book

- get lost in random thoughts

- make lists of things that need doing

Anyway, the result was more than worth a bit of stirring - it was gorgeous! If I do say myself.

MUSHROOM & PRAWN RISOTTO WITH LEMON & MARSCAPONE

(Would serve 4 if you're serving it with something else, however on it's own you can get 3 servings out of it)

Ingredients

125g spring onion - finely chopped
2 sticks celery - finely chopped

1 small lemon

300g mushrooms - finely sliced

50g butter

2 chicken stock cubes

175g cooked, peeled prawns

125g marscapone (about half a tub)

Method

- Remove the zest of the lemon and chop to dust

- Dissolve stock cubes in 1l of water

- Melt butter in pan and stir in celery and spring onion and cook for 5 minutes

- Add lemon zest, mushrooms and rice and stir until the rice is coated

- Add 2tbps on lemon juice and then add the stock ladle by ladle until all the liquid is absorbed

- Add in the prawns and stir then add in the marscapone

- Stick a lid on the pan (or if you're like me and don't have a lid for your pan, cover it in tin foil!) and leave for 5 minutes.

- Bask in the glory of producing a damn fine meal!

Lemon Loaf thingymajig

I was lucky enough to get an extra holiday on Tuesday, we get a few 'free' holidays each year, usually after a bank holiday, making it a rather glorious 4 days off work.

Unfortunately I had a double session at uni which rudely interrupted my holiday, but I was determined to have an action packed afternoon. I had plans to hoover and change the bedding and wash the kitchen floor and iron and cross stitch...

However none of that seemed to happen. Where does the time go?

I did manage to get the ironing crossed off the list, I did that whilst I watched Diagnosis Murder and got a huge wave of nostalgia of being back at uni when my day wasn't complete without a hit of Dick van Dyke and his murder-solving doctor friends.

Nothing else happened though. For some reason, rather than clean I decided to bake! And really, there wouldn't be much point in me washing the kitchen floor for me then to get flour and eggs and butter all over it (you would not believe the mess I manage to make when I get in the kitchen).

So I turned to a little book I got ages ago, Good Housekeeping's Easy to Make Cakes and Bakes, and had a look to see what I fancied making. I came across these Vanilla Crumble Bars which looked amazing. Only problem was that it required a shallow baking tin and I don't have a massively well-stocked kitchen. I have one loaf tin so that was what I had to use.

I came out with a very nice loaf which wasn't particularly vanilla-y but was very nice and lemon-y. And I obviously didn't have bars so much as...well...a loaf. So I have re-christened it Lemon Loaf Thingamyjig.

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

125g plain flour, sifted

175g self raising flour

grated zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease your baking tin.

To make the crumble topping, put 75g of the butter and 75g of the sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the plain flour and blend until you get rough breadcrumbs.

Put the remaining butter and sugar, self-raising flour, lemon zest, eggs and vanilla extract in the food processor and whizz until smooth. (Note to self: Next time you make this remember to put the blade in before you put all the ingredients in so you don't have to make more mess.)

Put the mixture into the tin and sprinkle the crumble topping over the surface and press down to cover.

Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine took a little longer to be honest), covering loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes if the mixture is browning too much. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out on to a wire rack.

Slice away and enjoy!

Okay so this didn't turn out like the picture in the book and I definitely wouldn't have called it a vanilla anything because the lemon is so strong it covers any vanilla flavouring. But what it is is lovely and light and citrusy and the perfect antidote to the depression of being back at work. My work colleagues all agreed as we munched away this afternoon with a good old cup of tea!

Rachel's Baked Cheesecake with Blueberries

The day: Bank Holiday Sunday

The event: Sunday lunch round at the in-laws

The challenge: Make something for dessert that will feed 10 people and will be fairly straightforward to make, given my limited talents in the kitchen.

The saviour: Rachel Allen, Bake

The result: Brownie points from the in-laws who can rest assured that I am looking after their only son very well. And a warm glow hearing people very happily munching away and asking for the recipe.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take a photograph of it when it was whole, my boyfriend's family is not to be messed with when it comes to feeding time at the zoo so I had to grab a picture before the last of it was snaffled!

BAKED CHEESECAKE WITH BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients

175g digestive biscuits

75g butter, melted

175g blueberries (plus extra for decorating)

450g cream cheese

150g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Icing sugar, to dust.

24cm diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed tin

Method

Preheat the over to 180c. Butter the sides and base of the cake tin.

Place the biscuits in the food processor and whizz until quite fine. Mix with the melted butter and press down in to the base of the tin so it's nice and even. Spread the blueberries over the base and whack it in the fridge while you make the topping.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour over the top of the blueberries and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until it is pale golden and should only wobble very slightly when you gently shake the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then run a knife round the edge to loosen it and carefully remove it from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over a few blueberries and dust with icing sugar.

This could not have been easier to make. In fact it was made so quickly that I found myself reading through the instructions again and again, absolutely sure that I had missed something vital out along the way.

It tasted amazing and will forever now become my go-to dessert when I need to make something that looks much more impressive than it actually is!

This is the 2nd thing I've made from the Bake book so far and I'm loving it. She explains everything in such a straightforward manner and both the Snickerdoodles and this came out perfectly. Can't wait to make the next thing I have bookmarked!

Rachel's Snickerdoodles

I got the Rachel Allen, Bake, book a while ago. I had a voucher and had seen Maria do a few recipes out of it and they looked right up my street. Of course I got it and then it's sat in my kitchen for god knows how long.

(If I had my way I'd bake something different every night and spend the day eating the fruits of my labours.)

So I pulled it out the other day and had a look at all the pages I so studiously bookmarked the day I got it. The Snickerdoodles won out ecause they looked relatively simple and, well, they're called Snickerdoodles.

And they rule.

They rule the biscuit world.

They are light and fluffy and taste a little bit like Christmas because of the cinnamon and nutmeg.

I seriously might spend all day eating these...

Ingredients

(Rachel reckons this makes 26 but I only got 13 - not sure where I went wrong!)

125g butter, softened

110g caster sugar (plus 1dsp extra for rolling)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

Half tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground because I'm lazy)

Three quarters tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 dsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c

2. Cream butter in large bowl. Add 110g caster sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until combined.

3. Sift in flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt and mix together to form a dough.

4. Mix dsp of sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

5. Using hands, roll dough into walnut-sized balls then roll in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place on baking tray (This could be where I went wrong - maybe I thought walnuts were twice the size they actually are!!)

6. Leave about 3cm between each ball (no need to grease or line the tray) and then flatten down with the palm of your hand.

7. Bake in oven for about 15 mins, or until they feel firm around the edges.

8. STUFF THEM IN YOUR FACE!!

Loving these and will be taking them to my Mum's today because my brother is over with his wife and baby and I'm hoping we can all enjoy them with cups of tea. That is if there's any left before I go over there...

Nigella's Chocolate Mint Cookies

The other day I realised I hadn't baked in ages and AGES. Trouble is I have stacked on the weight since moving in with my boyfriend, weight that has been stacked on top of weight that shouldn't have been there anyway.

Baking + diets = MISTAKE

But I wanted to bake (the little child within me is stamping her foot at the moment) so bake I did. I sat for longer than was necessary because I needed to find something that I could make with what I had in the kitchen because I didn't want to go out and buy more ingredients (cue stomping child again)

And I found these Chocolate Mint Cookies in Nigella Express,

Ingredients (this makes 26 but I thought of my flab and halved everything and only came out with about 10 although mine were probably bigger than Nigella intended!)

100g soft butter

150g light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

150g flour (annoyingly she doesn't bloody tell you what kind of flour she wants you to use - damn you Nigella!! I closed my eyes and picked whatever came to hand - self-raising come on down!)

35g cocoa powder

Half tsp baking powder

200g dark chocolate chips

For the glaze

75g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa, sieved

2 tbsp boiling water

teeny tiny drops of peppermint extract (taste it til it feels right)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c

2. Cream butter and brown sugar and then beat in vanilla extract and the egg

3. Mix flour, cocoas and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat in to creamed mixture (I feel I should add at this point that the mixture goes all weird and sticks to your beaters causing them not to turn round anymore. Cue real-life stomping girl in the kitchen until boyfriend comes in and explains that cookie dough is supposed to look like that)

4. Fold in the chocolate chips

5. Put little balls of cookie dough mixture on a baking sheet, leaving space between each one

6. Bake in oven for 12 minutes - put them on a cooling rack and put newspaper or tin foil underneath to catch the glaze you're about to pour over them (and get all over your work surfaces if you don't put something down)

7. Put glaze ingredients into saucepan and heat until combined

8. DRIZZLE!!!! (using a teaspoon)

They were pretty marvellous actually and better than I thought they were going to be (I was still sulking about the dough mixture).

I then took them in to work and made all my colleagues eat them so that I don't munch them all - I think they might be wondering if I have some kind of over-eater by-proxy syndrome and am trying to fatten them all up to be like me. As if....

Sweet and Simple Bakes - Vanilla Cupcakes

Finally! The essay is finished and handed in. What a nightmare. Talk about making things difficult for yourself. All was going very well until Sunday when I got up and looked at what I'd written was rubbish and appalling and not even relevant and decided to start all over again. I'm an idiot. I think I was just over-thinking the whole situation and making things more difficult than they needed to be - not only have I not had to write an essay for about 3 years but the last essays I was writing were for my Masters degree and this is just a Diploma level, there's no need to panic.

Once I sat back a bit and stopped freaking out completely I realised what I needed to do and set about writing my masterpiece. Well. Maybe not masterpiece.

Either way it is now out of my hands and handed in so now it's just a case of waiting.

So what did I do to cheer myself up when I was buried under a mountain of papers and couldn't see an end in sight? Got myself in the kitchen!

The Sweet and Simple Bakes blog is something I've been following for a while but haven't plucked up the courage to try out. So this is my first go - I couldn't resist these babies!!They were absolutely brilliant and did exactly what they said on the tin - they are sweet and oh so simple!! Simply chuck all the ingredients in the bowl, give it a whisk, put in the cases and you're off! Which meant that I didn't need to feel guilty about taking time out from essay writing to make them - you are supposed to give your brain a rest after all!!

The other fantastic thing about this recipe is that I got to take a trip back to my childhood and play with food colouring and sprinkles - nothing wrong with that.

These cupcakes are soft, fluffy and light and I could happily eat a million of them. But I'm trying not to!

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients

175g (6 oz) self-raising flour

1½ level tsp baking powder

175g (6 oz) butter, softened

175g (6 oz) caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream Icing

150g (5oz) butter, softened

300g (11 oz) icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Edible food colouring(s) of choice, optional

Sprinkle(s) for decoration of choice

You will also require 12 holed muffin tin lined with 12 paper muffin cases

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Sift the self-raising flour and baking powder into a large bowl, and then add the butter, caster sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Beat together until well mixed, trying not to over mix the mixture.

Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar and stir until it’s just mixed in, then add the milk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Divide into as many bowls as you want different colour(s) and add edible food colouring (you only require a few drops). This is purely optional should you wish to leave out the edible food colouring(s) and keep the buttercream natural. Spread the icing on thickly with a palette knife on top of each cupcake or put the icing into a piping back and make a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate each cupcake with your chosen sprinkle(s).

I'm really looking forward to trying out more bakes at Sweet and Simple and at least I will now have an excuse to get in the kitchen and make things - I'm constantly having to find good reasons for going and baking things and now I'll have a perfect one - for at least once a month...

http://sweetandsimplebakes.blogspot.com/

Vegetable Bhajis - Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

2 large carrots

10cm piece of fresh root ginger

2 medium red onions

2-3 fresh red chillies

Large bunch of coriander

2tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp turmeric

1 heaped tsp cumin seeds

2 tsps sea salt

125g self-raising flour

1 litre vegetable oil

Juice of 1 lemon

2 limes

To prepare the bhajis:

- Peel and finely grate or shred the carrots, ginger and red onions and put them in a large bowl (if you have a food processor, this is where it comes in handy!)

- Finely chop the chillies and add to the bowl

- Roughly chop the coriander leaves and stalks and add to the bowl

- Add the mustard seeds, turmeric, cumin seeds and salt to the bowl

- Add the flour and 125ml of cold water and scrunch together well, using your hands, until you have a nice thick mixture.

To cook your bhajis:

- You either need a deep fat fryer or put a large pan on the hob and add the oil. Once the oil is up to temperature (you can test by putting a piece of bread in, when the bread sizzles you're good to go!)

- Using 1tbp of the mixture, press it together tightly and then lower into the hot oil.

- Repeat until you have several on the go.

- Cook for 5 minutes until crispy and golden then remove with a slotted spoon and put them on kitchen paper to drain.

- Sprinkle with salt and lemon

- Continue until all the mixture has been used.

To serve your bhajis:

Cut the limes into wedges and serve them on a big platter or plate with your bhajis.

These are absolutely fantastic and I seriously couldn't believe just how easy they were to make. And you can trust me because I'm totally clueless in the kitchen department. Believe me if I can do it then anyone can do it.

The sense of satisfaction was so great that I don't know that I'll ever buy them again!

(PS - I know the picture is the wrong way round but Blogger doesn't seem to upload it the right way round. After the 5th time of trying I've just given up!)

My Birthday & Red Velvet Muffins

It was my birthday this weekend which meant we had our first party in the flat which was very exciting. I've been really looking forward to getting people round to the flat since we moved in and I haven't really had a chance to so my birthday was a great excuse to get everyone round and for those who hadn't seen the place yet to have a good nosy round.

Entertaining can only mean one thing - food and drinks. However I guessed that since I was going out the night before my birthday I probably wasn't going to be in that good a shape to be providing lots of finger food the next day so I cheated and just got a load of crisps, dips and those frozen party pack things in. Next time I'll be brave and try and actually make some stuff.

I did get my baking hat on though - no birthday is complete without birthday muffins/cupcakes and I knew exactly what I wanted to bake. I'm fairly new to the baking game and I'm still finding my feet a little bit, there have been a few disasters along the way - I still can't talk about the orange shortbread (although I still insist that the recipe for that was wrong and it wasn't my general incompetence). Muffins I'm not too bad at though and these bad boys are my favourite and perfect for adding a little wow factor. Everyone just loves the look of them (it's amazing what a little bit of food colouring can do for you) and once they have a bit of the cream cheese frosting on top they're hooked forever.

So I present to you.......

Red Velvet Muffins

These bad boys are not for the faint hearted - they definitely wouldn't make a list of healthy muffins but they were for my birthday! They're also a little fiddly to make - one spoon of this, one spoon of that and a hell of a lot of folding but I've been told you've got to fold to keep the air in and keep the muffins light so who am I to argue! Pain to make they might be but one bite and it'll all seem worth it...

Ingredients - makes approx 12 muffins

150g butter, softened

350g castor sugar

2 eggs

450g self raising flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

250ml buttermilk

2tbsp red food colouring

1tsp vanilla essence

1tsp white wine vinegar

For the frosting:

1 vanilla pod (or if you're poor like me some more vanilla essence!)

100g softened butter

125g cream cheese

200g sieved icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 170c and take a 12 hole muffin tray and full with muffin cases

Cream the butter and sugar together until it looks fluffy and then add in the eggs one by one, beating well in between.

Take 2 separate bowls and sieve the dry ingredients in to one and the mix the wet ingredients into the other. Then mix alternate spoonfuls from each into the egg mixture, folding thoroughly after each addition.

Fill cases with a spoonful of the mixture - be careful not to overfill the cases as these babies rise! Then bake for 10-15 minutes or until they have risen and feel springy. Remove from the oven to cool completely and then transfer onto a wire rack.

To make the frosting scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod and then add the butter and cream cheese (for those of you that can't afford the pods stick in a little bit of vanilla essence - you can always add more to taste). Beat well and then gradually add the icing sugar a little at a time until mixed in and smooth.

Once the muffins are cool, pile a splodge of the icing on top and you're good to go! How can you say no?!