I was so exhausted yesterday evening that I couldn’t even muster the energy to open my laptop, let alone blog about anything worthwhile!
As you already know, I spent the weekend celebrating my daughter’s 5th birthday. Saturday was taken up by her wonderful pirate themed party and Sunday (her actual birthday) was a day of family celebration and lots of treats!
I thought that rather than my usual sort of post-weekend ramblings I’d let you all in on the recipes for my favourite party treats. Surely musing about cake and chocolate is a good way to start a new week!
I have always loved preparing for Isabel’s birthday and I try and do as much of the catering myself as I possibly can. I find baking very therapeutic… all that stirring and mixing. I also love the simplicity of it. A bit of butter, some eggs, flour and sugar and you can knock up something delicious and fairly impressive. I’ve always found that sweet treats seem to provoke a much more enthusiastic response from those sampling one’s cooking. I mean, few would get excited about stew for example… but chocolate cake makes everyone smile! I tend to deliver the same spread each year. There is something comforting about the familiarity of it all. Moreover, these have always been very well received!
Mini Chocolate Orange Muffins – this recipe is taken from ‘After School Meal Planner’ by Annabel Karmel.
Ingredients
150g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
125g soft margarine
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
75g orange milk chocolate (I use Terry’s) chopped into small pieces
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
- Sift together flour and cocoa powder.
- In a separate bowl cream together the margarine and the sugar.
- Add the eggs to the creamed mixture a little at a time, adding a tbsp of the flour with the second egg. Mix in the remaining flour and cocoa until blended.
- Stir in the chocolate pieces.
- That’s it, so simple! Line 3 muffin trays with paper cases and spoon in the mixture until each one is 2/3 full. Bake in the oven for 12-15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean (20-25 minutes if making large muffins). Allow to cool (if you can… I like them when the chocolate is still gooey!)
Rocky Road – This recipe can be found in my personal baking bible ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ by Nigella Lawson. For all her irritating finger-licking foibles I truly adore Nigella’s books.
Ingredients
200g milk chocolate
25g dark chocolate (to echo Nigella, it really is worth using the best chocolate you can)
75g brazil nuts, roughly chopped
75g mini marshmallows
- Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or using a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
- Mix the brazil nuts into the melted chocolate with the marshmallows.
- Drop heaped teaspoons onto a lined baking sheet, and leave to cool in a cold place (though not in the fridge if at all possible as it will take some of the gleam from the chocolate).
- Simples. So delicious and I think these would make a wonderful gift too!
Happy baking everyone!
Loveaudrey xxx
