I moved house, again. I am now a resident of Bow Road. Pretty much opposite the tube station, so pretty handy. Now you know where I live. No stalking please. But because of this move, I’ve been a bit slow on the baking lately. I’ve not had a chance to try out the new oven yet (don’t worry, that’ll be soon). On top of moving, I’ve been to my first press event and been quite social in the weeks. Baking takes time, as does editing photos and writing up the posts. But here’s a Blueberry Pie I baked about 2 weeks ago. Read more
fruit
Simple Water Recipes: The eBook
The sun’s out, that means it is basically Summer, right? This means that it’s finally time to start thinking about refreshing cool drinks. I personally drink a ridiculous amount of water. I find that if I don’t have 4+ pints in a day I get headaches and my skin dries out. I’m one of those people that’s fortunate enough to absolutely love the taste of water (I know people that hate it, to the point where they just will not drink it) but even I sometimes get bored of it. Fortunately there are a number of great ways to flavour up your drinking water without using cordial or without having to shell out for anything fancy.
Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies with Lemon Drizzle
More fruit in things. Carrying on from the Strawberry Drizzle cake I made last week I wanted to keep with the berry and summery bake theme going. I also didn’t want to do anything overly complex. I’ve been really busy on the nights so wanted something I could bake quickly one night, hence the Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies with a Lemon Drizzled Glaze.
I also wanted to make something relatively light that gave a bit of energy. At work we’ve set up a couple of exercise bikes on the balcony and as a company are aiming to cycle the length of the Tour De France in 10 days. We managed it in 6 but we’ve been continuing to cycle anyway. I personally put in a couple of short half hour shifts. The second being 18km in the 30 minutes. Which is a personal best and I’d like to think a signal of my continued improved fitness.
Anyway, back to the cookies. I found them here. And completely agree that, while they are great on their own, the drizzle really does make them.
I’m also moving in the very near future. This may mean that my posts become slightly more sporadic, so apologies in advance.
Cookie endorsement:
Scott Malthouse, Senior PR Exec said: “These cookies are A-MAH-ZING.”
Puneet Mitra, Digital Marketing Exec said: “Best cookies you’ve ever made.”
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 12-16
Ingredients
- 192g cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 225g unsalted butter, softened
- 200glight brown sugar
- 200g granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 255g old-fashioned oats
- 100g blueberries
- 128g powdered sugar
- juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted) and line a cookie tray (I only have a standard baking tray).
- Quickly whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream together both sugars and the butter. Do this on a medium speed for about 3 minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add in the vanilla.
- Stir in the flour mix, then the oats. Finally mix in the blueberries with a spatula, carefully so that they don’t burst.
- Using two heaped tablespoons per cookie, roll them into a ball and space evenly on the prepared tray. Spaced about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until they are golden brown.
- Allow them to cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.
- Once they have cooled. Combine the lemon and icing sugar until it’s a paste.
- Drizzle over the top and set aside until it hardens.
Strawberry Drizzle Cake
SUMMER. STRAWBERRIES. FOOD. BAKING. EXCITED NOISES. Yeah, I wanted to do something a little different to last summer’s Strawberry and Cream cupcakes but still strawberry based. So I spent some time looking around this here internet thing (i.e. I did a few googles) and all I was coming across was “such and such topped with strawberries and cream” or “tort with strawberries” and the like. It wasn’t really what I wanted. Until I came across a recipe on the waitrose website, that’s right, waitrose. It of course is “use all of our own brand things to make this cake”, so I went to Tesco, or Asda, or whichever supermarket it was and got all the ingredients cheaper. I’m poor, sorry. Anyway, the recipe is for a Strawberry Drizzle cake. Something, which even when I had decided to make it I was still unsure would work. Strawberry drizzle to me, sounded like it would either be glorious or a bit mushy and odd.
Fortunately it was glorious.
The cake is wonderfully light, so perfect for the summer, doesn’t use too much sugar and is loaded with strawberries. So it’s healthy, right? (I say this as I am half way through eating the second one in two weeks). Pressing the juice out of the strawberries may make the cake look like it’s soggy at first impression but it’s far from it. Staying moist for a couple of days (it does need to be fridged though, and yeah I know you shouldn’t fridge cake).
Also, I booked my flights to Chicago today to go to RiotFest in Chicago in September. Can’t wait. Can anyone recommend some stuff to do while I’m there? My current plans involve getting fat(ter), drinking a lot and maybe a tattoo.
Strawberry Drizzle Cake
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 100g Salted Butter, at room temperature
- 200g Golden Granulated Sugar, plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling
- 1 large Egg
- 120ml Milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g Self-raising Flour
- 400g Strawberries, halved
- 50g icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC(160ºC fan oven) and grease and line a 23cm cake tin.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg and the milk. Beating until well combined. Add the vanilla then the flour, beating until well combined and there are no lumps.
- Spoon into the prepared tin, shaking slightly to make sure it’s even.
- Set 6 of the strawberries aside (these will be used for their juices later) and position the remaining halves, cut side down, on top of the cake. Sprinkle some golden granulated sugar on top of the strawberries afterwards.
- Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
- Meanwhile, cover the strawberries you set aside with 1tbps of the icing sugar, and leave for around 15 minutes.
- Press this through a fine sieve into a bowl to get the juices out. Combine 1tbps of the juices with the remaining icing sugar, whisking until they are combined and leave to thicken.
- Once the cake has been removed, allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack.
- Drizzle the juice mix over the top of the cake.
Mini Lime Drizzle Loaves
First of all, apologies for the lack of updates the past couple of weeks. I’ve spent a lot of time away the last month or so and had barely any free time. Then the sun came out, and suddenly I found my evenings filled with sitting in the sun with friends and the odd beer. But in amongst this I’ve been doing the odd bit of baking. From cheese (scotch infused mull cheddar) and onion bread through to more summery pieces. Today’s recipe is one of the latter. I absolutely love lemon drizzle cake, it’s sharp, moist, full of flavour and refreshing. It’s perfect for a summer’s day. I also got my hands on some miniature loaf tins a few months ago and have been itching to put them to use. A drizzle loaf is the perfect thing to just make miniature.
Unfortunately when I popped into the shop they were 100% out of lemons. It’s pretty lucky that limes work just as well for this isn’t it then? This recipe only makes a few, small loaves, which makes it great for a set of light summer snacks.
Mini Lime Drizzle Loaves
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 125g butter
- 125g golden caster sugar
- 125g self-raising flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 Dollop Sour Cream
- 2 Limes
- 5 tablespoons of golden syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease the loaf tins.
- Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the first egg, beating until well combined. Add half the flour, beat again. Repeat, with the second egg and then the last of the flour.
- Grate both limes into a bowl (do this before you juice them, or it’ll get a bit tricky). I used some of the rind in the cake mix, but it’s up to you.
- Mix in the sour cream, two tablespoons of lime juice and (if using) some of the lime rind.
- Divide up evenly between the mini loaf tins. These rise pretty well so make them about ⅔s full.
- Bake in the oven for between 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and ease out onto a rack.
- While they are cooling, prep the drizzle. Take the rest of the juice from the limes and the rind. Reduce over a low heat then stir in the syrup. This will turn runny fairly quickly. Take it off the heat to avoid it catching.
- Prick holes into the loaves with a fork (I push the fork about ⅔s of the way into the cakes) and drizzle the syrup over the top.
