Mix it up!

I am a sucker for anything gorgeous and gadgety for the kitchen and love the range of products from Joseph Joseph. I spend many a wasted hour in the basement of John Lewis eyeing up their stuff and somehow trying to justify the not so cheap price tag! Well, I spotted these in Fraser's the other day and love love love! They are cute, colourful and look oh so handy!!!! Don't tempt me!

Love hot, sweet and yummy xxx
p.s if you find anything gorgeous and vaguely baking related please please let us know here xxx

\mother in law sends some sweetness!!!

My dear mother-in-law is a wonderful cook and a brilliant baker and always always prepares us delicious things when we visit! She has tons of cook books and collects recipes all the time! I have been looking for a really nice carrot cake recipe that is moist but not too sweet for ages! Christina has tried this one and assures me it is totally fool proof (good thing for me) and that it is 100% gorgeous! So here you are...let us know if you try it and how it turns out!

Christina's Recipe for Carrot Cake

8oz self raising flour       
1 and a half teaspoons baking powder               
1 and a quarter teaspoons cinnamon [sieve this and the baking powder together]
1/2 teaspoon salt           
3 eggs beaten                                         
6oz sugar
6oz vegetable oil            
7oz grated carrot                                    
7oz chopped walnuts

Beat eggs till thick,add sugar and oil. Fold in flour, carrots and nuts. Divide into 2 x 8inch tins, greased. Bake for 35mins 300F/150C/Gas2.

Topping
4oz cream cheese [must be full fat]                    
2oz melted butter                       
8oz icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence                               
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Beat together. Can be sandwiched together or iced separately to make 2 cakes with icing on top only. Decorated as you desire!!!

Happy eating!!


Love hot sweet and yummy xxx
p.s this is only a stock picture of another carrot cake!

all bran and cheatin' tarts!!!

So, if you haven't found a recipe that has inspired you yet on here...maybe one of these ones will! Next week is our second baking group night and we are having a Valentine inspired night. Everyone has to bake something with this most romantic celebrations in mind so I suspect there will be lashings of chocolate, some love hearts sprinkled about and maybe some strawberries thrown in somewhere along the way...anyway, we hope that the sheer variety of treats baked by our group will suit every taste!!! Until then, lets get these last delicious recipes on here! Heather is David's sister and she lives in Brighton. She was up visiting and thought she'd come along as an honorary member! Its a shame we might not see her for a while but she promised to keep in touch and send us regular updates about her cooking!!!! She was another one who pretended she just baked something easy but if you'd tasted this load you'd know she was used to baking up treats and was a rather accomplished kitchen dweller!!! Here is her recipe for 
Heather's all-bran loaf
Ingredients
2 cups All Bran cereal
2 cups soft brown sugar
2 cups dried fruit (raisins, sultanas..or any other combination of dried fruits)
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 pint milk

METHOD
Place All Bran, sugar, fruit and milk into a large mixing bowl and leave to stand for 1 hour.
Then, mix in the flour.
Grease and line a loaf tin and turn mixure into the tin. Do not fill mixture more than 3" as loaf will rise while cooking!
Bake in preheated oven at 180oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4 for 50-60minutes.
Cooking times will vary depending on appliance. Check to see if loaf is cooked by inserting knife into middle. If knife is dry, then it is ready.
Turn onto cooling rack and leave to cool. 
Isn't it amazing that such a healthy and sometime despised breakfast cereal can turn into such a yummy and moist cake! I think Jane spread butter on the slices we each devoured but I can't remember as they disappeared so quickly!!!
Last and by no means least were Richard's tarts! We were all eyeing them greedily and somewhat in awe of his little party cases. I would never attempt pastry but it seemed that Richard had pulled out all the stops and rustled up something way beyond the norm!!! Well it didn't take long until Richard came clean and admitted that the cases were in fact bought and I have to say I was relieved and delighted to find out that you could still create something completely amazing by being clever and not necessarily baking from scratch! I, for one am a huge fan of ready made pastry anyway but this was something I had never thought of. Richard renamed them his Cheatin' tarts which was very apt and we al enjoyed them even more knowing that Richard was indeed human and just like the rest of us! I wonder though, if we might have a pastry themed night soon and learn how to make out own pastry...apparently you need cold hands to work the dough so that's me out for one!!!! Anyway, here's how to make cherry chocolate perfection!
Richard's cheatin' tarts
Ingedients:
8 individual tart cases(shop bought if you want to cheat!)
200g Nutella
1 small jar of wild Italian cherries in light syrup (or similar compote or fresh banana)

4 teaspoons of icing sugar and a handful of crushed walnuts

Put the fruits in the bottom of the pastry cases along with a sprinkling of crushed walnuts. Mix the the nutella with the icing sugar to make a stiffer consistency otherwise it will be too runny when finished. Melt the nutella mixture for 10 seconds in microwave on high power until runny to aid pouring. Pour into the cases and smooth over the fruit with a knife. Lightly refridgerate until serving.
Voila - a quick and easy tart! 

I think you'll agree that the picture makes you just want to grab one and eat it in one mouthful! Oh and Richard got his wild cherries from Sarti's Italian Deli on Wellington Street in Glasgow.
I have to sign off now but I can't wait to BLog about our next group and tell you all about the yummy things we all created!!!
Love Hot, sweet and yummy xxx

  

empire state of yumminess

Well, here we are - almost 4 weeks after the inaugural meeting of Hot Sweet and Yummy and I still haven't managed to Blog about all the delicious things that everyone made! I still have to tell you about harry's Empire biscuits, David's peanut cookies and Heather's all bran loaf and I'm very happy to tell you that I have managed to extricate Jan's blueberry apple crumble cake recipe from him...it wasn't that difficult but I wonder if he has disclosed it all or whether he has kept a secret ingredient to himself! Oh well...you'll have to make it to see!

So, anyone who has ever been at Harry's famous Eurovision parties will have sampled his delicious Empire biscuits! They are the most gorgeous, crumbly, melt in the mouth biscuits you could ever imagine and this batch were not going to disappoint! Harry had iced half with chocolate vermicelli and the other half with sugar flowers and little silver balls...apparently they have gelatine in them so Paul wasn't able to enjoy them! Harry was a star pupil and emailed me over all the bits and bobs he wanted you all to know so here goes!
Harry's Empire biscuits


8oz plain flour
6oz icing sugar
2oz cornflour
8oz butter at room temp
strawberry jam
one egg white
decorations


 Firstly, sieve the plain flour, 2oz of icing sugar and the cornflour into a large bowl.  It is the addition of cornflour which gives the biscuits such a light texture.  Next, work in the butter into the dry ingredients with your hand.  This can also be done effectively in a food processor – which also has the benefit of keeping the ingredients cool.  This recipe is effectively one for a sweet pastry, and the heat from your hands can make pastry difficult to work with. I usually use the food processor but couldn’t on the day of preparation for the baking group as Paul was using it to make the chocolate cheesecake!

Next, roll the pastry out thinly on a floured surface, and cut out biscuits using a 2 inch round pastry cutter.  Always cut with a sharp downwards tap, and never twist, or your biscuits will come out of the oven oddly shaped.  Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180° (gas mark 4) for 15 minutes.  Once cooked, turn the biscuits onto a wire rack and leave to cool.  On the occasion of the baking group, the recipe yielded precisely 46 biscuits – i.e. when paired, enough for 23 empire biscuits.

Once cooled, sandwich pairs of biscuits together with strawberry jam.  You’re now ready to decorate.  Mix about 4oz of icing sugar into a thick syrupy consistency.  I used an egg white to mix the icing sugar which gives a harder, crisp finish.  But you can use water if you want to avoid raw eggs.  Spread a little icing on each biscuit, and finish off with decorations of your choice.  I used silver balls, sugar flowers and chocolate strands.  Halved glace cherries or sugar strands look good too.  Oddly enough, the Dr Oetker brand silver balls from contain gelatine and thus are non-vegetarian – but I later noticed that Asda’s own make ones do not, so stick to Asda if you want to be veggie-friendly. 


Everyone agreed that they were amazing and we all scoffed one each -after the night was over we all got to take home a doggy bag and I'm happy to report that Harry's biscuits got a huge thumbs up from my greedy boys!

Next up were David's peanut cookies...and I love cookies so this was going to be make or break for me! They have to be crispy round the edge with a nice crumbly bite but soft and gooey and sticky in the middle! Well they were all of that and totally gorgeous too!!! David bakes a lot and is one of those guys who doesn't work from a recipe...he seems to know exactly what will make a good treat and just throws it all into a bowl. David is one of those naturally busy people and he manages to squeeze a million things into his day...I cannot quite remember all that he had done that day but were all in awe of this man machine! Anyway, I'm just delighted that he managed to make these yummy cookies for us and now you all can too!!!!




David's Peanut and Banana Cookies
INGREDIENTS
6oz plain flour
6oz caster sugar
4oz butter
1 ripe banana - mashed
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon porridge oats
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda

METHOD
Cream butter and sugar til creamy.
Add banana, peanut butter, oats, syrup and coconut
Mix well
Add flour and bicarb and mix well to form a sticky dough.
Dough should be fairly stiff..if not, add little more flour.
Spoon teaspoon sized dollops onto a greased baking tray leaving about 2-3 inches between dollops to allow cookies to spread while cooking.
Bake in moderately hot oven 180oC /350oF/ Gas Mark 4 for around 15 minutes.
Cooking time will vary depending on fan assisted, electric or gas oven so you need to keep your eye out after ten minutes!
Bake until golden brown. Leave on tray to cool slightly then remove to cooling tray.
Cookies will be very soft when removed from oven, but will firm up when cooled.
This recipe should make around 20-25 cookies depending on how generous your teaspoons are!
Well there you go - two more totally delish recipes from our group! I hope by now you have tried at least one of the recipes...we really are trying to get all our friends baking again! Just think how lovely it is to create something all by yourself and smell it cooking...I know my house always feels so much more homely with the smell of something yummy baking through! 
I'm going to Blog the final two recipes after this one and you will be able to find Jan's crumble cake recipe back in the first post!!!
Remember if you have any fab recipes you want is to road test or just share with us then you can email us here hotsweetandyummy@hotmail.com or visit our Facebook group! 
Lots of love hot, sweet and yummy xxx

good old fashioned pancakes and coconut loaf!

There are still many delicious recipes for us to post here so I better crack on. Its snowing quite heavily outside and it made me think of Jane's Mum's yummy coconut loaf and all the desiccated coconut that went into it to make it so! Jane was the hostess with the mostess for our inaugural get together so she decided to impress with two recipes! Jane says her Mum has a battered little book full of old fashioned baking recipes handed down through the females in her family and she trawled through it for inspiration. Jane makes really good comfort food anyway so it was no surprise that her coconut loaf was simple, tasty and just the way it should be! She also made some pancakes but I'll get to those in a minute. It was utterly unbelievable that we all had the propensity to consume any more cake but we were all up for it! Jane lovingly sliced her loaf and brought it through to more oohs and aahs! It was quite amusing really - the universal language of food! We scoffed half of that load in a blink of an eye! Jane told us the basic recipe and method and although there was quite a lot of sugar in the recipe it didn't taste too sweet at all. I'd also imagined that the desiccated coconut dries things out but it was moist and lovely and I wanted more! I also knew that the hungry masses back at home would go crazeeee for some of this - as well as everything else!  So, here's a little pic to tantalise your taste buds and the recipe will follow!


Jane's Mum's coconut loaf

• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 1 cup of des coconut
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 egg made up to same cup with milk, slightly beaten

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Add egg and milk mixture and beat in well.  Pour into well greased and lined 2lb loaf tin for approx 45 min.  Oven temp 150 - 160 deg cent.  Think I had my fan assisted oven at 150.  You can use a skewer to test if ready - prod in middle - if comes out clean then it's ready, if comes out sticky bake a little longer.

Next came Jane's Gran's pancakes. I defy anyone not to be tempted by a little round patty of batter smothered in butter! Its the most simple of recipes but probably the one that everyone, without exception loves! I doubt, however that we make them as often as we should. I'm just thinking what a great after school snack this would be...especially on a cold day like today. So, this recipe was handed down from Gran to Jane's Mum to Jane and now to all of us! All the other cakes looked so naughty that we only had small bites but nobody asked for just half a pancake! They just looked to innocently delicious lying on the plate that we just shrugged our shoulders and dug in! The only thing missing for me was a cuppa! Pancakes need a cup of tea! Anyway, they were really nice and I'm sure even nicer hot and straight from the oven! The picture here shows how lovely and golden they were. I'm sure there are other titles for them such as Scotch pancakes or drop scones but these will always just be Jane's Gran's pancakes!!! Here's the recipe...


Jane's Gran's pancakes

• 6oz self raising flour
• 2oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt

Sift flour, sugar and salt together.  Beat egg lightly with milk.  Gradually add to the flour mixture and beat well.  Bake on a hot girdle or frying pan.

Tip - dollop a spoonful of pancake mix into the pan, look out for bubbles forming on top - then it should be ready to flip over.  Keep made panckes warm by wrapping up in a tea towel then smother in butter and golden syrup.

I will check with Jane what size of cup she uses here. With the loaf recipe it doesn't matter as long as you use the same cup for all the ingredients but I wonder if this is a teacup or maybe a proper cup measure. Jane has a few nifty little measuring gadgets! 

I know that I am going to make pancakes this avo...if they are half as good as these I'll be delighted! 

Love hot, sweet and yummy xxx