Tag Archives: baking

DIY Porg Meringues

Its not May the 4th, and its not any time around a film being released, but I figured I actually didn’t need an excuse to share what I feel like is one of the cutest baking posts I’ve done in a long time. Well, it is actually the first time in ages that I’ve done a baking post, and its my first time baking in my new house, so ok, there’s the excuse!

Like them or loathe them (but seriously, who doesn’t like them?!), Porgs sorta stole the show in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Fun fact: the porgs were actually created as the island that the scenes were filmed on was populated with a whole load of puffins, and it was easier to CGI the porgs over all the puffins than it was to remove the puffins from the shots, so porgs are basically just space puffins. But I digress..

I’ve had the idea for these cute little sweet treats in my head for a little while now, and here they are – they’re a super simple bake and only 4 ingredients too! I always use the BBC Good Food Ultimate Meringue recipe for meringues, as below, but if you have your own go-to meringue recipe you can use that!

You will need:

  • 4 egg whites
  • 115g caster sugar
  • 115g icing sugar
  • 100g milk or dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 100C, and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper. On the back of my greaseproof paper I drew a porg template ready for piping later, but you don’t have to do this.

Whisk your egg whites using a hand or stand mixer until they form stiff peaks, then up the speed a little and add the caster sugar one tablespoon at a time, waiting a few seconds between each spoonful. Once the caster sugar has all been added, your mix should look nice and shiny! Sift the icing sugar into the egg mix  one third at a time, and fold in gently using a metal spoon until smooth.

Now how you shape your porg is totally up to you, I used a piping bag but I imagine you could do it no problem using a spoon. Pipe/spoon your porg shapes onto the greaseproof paper leaving a little bit of space between each one – don’t worry about them being too peak-y or being all the same shape, it gives them character! Bake for 1 hour 30 mins, and then leave them to cool on a cooling rack.

To give yourself a nice flat canvas to work on, flip your meringues so that the flat side is the front of your porg, and now you’ve got yourself an army of little meringue porgs, you’re gonna want to melt down your chocolate. As you’re gonna be dipping, I suggest doing this in a fairly small bowl so that you’ve got some depth.

Take a porg, and working from wing to wing, dip and turn your meringue to create a chocolate border around your porg, then place them onto greaseproof paper to dry. You can then use either a piping bag or toothpick dipped in chocolate to add facial features. Pop your porgs in the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden, and you’re all done!

The meringues can be stored in a sealed container for about a week, if they last that long..

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My Ultimate Easter Rocky Road Recipe

I haven’t done a baking recipe in what feels like FOREVER (I will bombard you with them after we’ve moved into our new house so enjoy the relative rarity of them while it lasts) and with the Easter weekend upon us, I figured I’d throw as many Easter themed treats into one recipe, and that called for one of my favourite recipes: rocky road.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can add or remove anything you fancy once you’ve got the core mix, so you can totally make this your own and go a little crazy if you want, but here’s how mine turned out..

You will need:

  • 225g chocolate (I personally prefer to use milk, but if you want to do dark, go for it!)
  • 100g butter
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 100g mini marshmallows
  • 100g chocolate chip cookies or digestive biscuits, broken up
  • 100g maltesers (I used slightly less for this recipe because I added mini eggs)
  • 75g Mini Eggs plus extra for decorating
  • 4-5 Creme Eggs

Line an 8-inch square tin with greaseproof paper.

To start off, melt down the chocolate and butter – I do this in a pan over hot water, but you can microwave it if you prefer. Mix in the cocoa powder, caster sugar and cocoa powder until completely smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the marshmallows, cookies/biscuits, Maltesers and Mini Eggs, then pour in the chocolate mix and stir well until everything has a good coating of the chocolate mix, then pour into the tin and squish it down a little bit, but not too much.

Using a sharp knife, cut your Creme Eggs length-ways (along the little join). I then cut them in half again to make them go a little further, but that’s completely up to you! Press the Creme Egg pieces into the top of the mix so that they make their own little indentations to sit in, and chuck a couple of extra Mini Eggs on for good measure, then get this into the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Once set, chop into chunks and be prepared for it all to disappear a lot quicker than you expected..

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Blueberry Pancake Cupcakes

Happy Pancake Day everyone! I mean, its the most important day of the month today, right?

And I know that I know there are some people out there who aren’t totally pancake crazy (weirdos.. I joke) but if that’s the case or not, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share a recipe I’ve been sitting on for a little while now: my blueberry pancake cupcakes!

For the cupcakes, you’ll need 125g butter, 125g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 125g self raising flour, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional), plus a handful of blueberries – you can decide how blueberry crazy you want to be! Oh, and preheat your oven to 190C

  • Cream together the butter and sugar, then whisk in the egg.
  • Add the vanilla extract, then sift together the flour and cinnamon and mix well.
  • Line a cupcake tray with 12 cases, and drop a couple of blueberries into the bottom of each case, then add your remaining blueberries to the cake mix and whisk a little more so that they break up and release some of their yumminess into the mix.
  • Bake for 12-15 mins, then remove and allow to cool

While your cupcakes are baking, you can start on the fun task of making the (optional) tiny pancake toppers for the cupcakes, because these will also need a chance to cool before you compile your cupcakes at the end. This really calls for a classic American style pancake, and if you have your own favourite recipe then you can go ahead and whip that up, or this is the recipe that I use (you may want to make a half batch though!):

  • Sift together 135g plain flour with 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp caster sugar.
  • Separately whisk up 130ml milk with an egg and 2 tbsp melted butter, then pour into the flour mixture and whisk well until completely smooth.
  • Then you can go ahead and fry up your pancakes on a hob set at a medium heat – you can judge when its time to flip when little bubbles start to form on the top!

I tend to make a bunch of big pancakes, then use a cookie cutter to get them down to cupcake size, but if you have the patience to make a bunch of teeny tiny cupcakes then I’m all for that too! Pop these to one side, and make the buttercream:

  • Whisk together 175g caster sugar with 500g icing sugar until smooth
  • Optional: add 2 tbsp maple syrup and combine well – you may need to give your icing a chance to chill in the fridge before piping

Once everything is ready, get building! Pipe or spoon a good helping of buttercream onto each cupcake, top with a pancake and drizzle a little golden or maple syrup over the top and enjoy! If you’re making these in advance, don’t add the pancake until right before you serve, otherwise it can dry out a little bit, but the cupcakes themselves will store in a sealed container for up to a week!

You can thank me later!

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Hidden Pumpkin Cupcakes

The spookiest day of the year is now just around the corner, and while I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, I love a good bit of baking, and I can’t believe I’ve never shared this recipe before!

With one of my cousins having her birthday on the 29th, I have been baking Halloween themed treats for her birthday parties for years now, and it was actually 5 years ago that I came up with these surprise centre cuties, and now you can make them too!

For 12-15 cupcakes, you will need:

  • 125g caster sugar
  • 125g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 105g self-raising flour
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • Plus..
  • 65g caster sugar
  • 65g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 65g self raising flour
  • Orange food colouring
  • Orange flavouring (optional)
  • Green candy melts
  • Your favourite chocolate frosting

You’ll also need a cupcake tray and either a cake pop machine or a cake pop baking mould!

Pre-heat your oven to 190C and start by making your little pumpkin balls! Cream the 65g butter and caster sugar together, then whisk in the egg and add the flour. Once the mixture is smooth, add the orange food colouring and flavouring. Bake for 10 mins, or as per your cake pop machine’s instructions – I think mine takes about 6 mins!

Let these cool, and use the remainder of the ingredients to make the chocolate cupcake mix using the same method. Line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases, and place one orange cake ball in the centre of the case, then using a teaspoon, add chocolate mix around the edge of the pumpkin – its ok if the top of the pumpkin isn’t covered because the cake will rise around it!

Bake for 12-15 mins, and while baking, chop the candy melt buttons into thin strips – it doesn’t matter if these aren’t perfect! Once the cupcakes are done, let them cool for about 5 mins, then carefully push each little green strip into the centre of the pumpkin, and then allow them to cool fully before icing. I personally like to keep the icing simple so it doesn’t give away the surprise inside, but you can find your own style!

Then sit back and watch the amazement when your unsuspecting consumers discover they’ve just bitten into a pumpkin!

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Baking Magic – Spinach Puffs

For the first time in forever, I’ve been in the kitchen creating a Disney inspired recipe.. Pull the lever, Kronk!

That’s right, its a little less well known recipe today, but any fans of Emperor’s New Groove will know of Kronk’s famous spinach puffs. Yzma may not be a fan, but having recreated these little beauties for myself, I most certainly am, and I’m pleased to say they’re super easy to do!

You’re gonna need:

  • A sheet of ready-roll puff pastry
  • 1 cup of finely chopped spinach – I used a food processor to save time!
  • 2 tbsp powdered parmesan cheese
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • A beaten egg, optional
  • A mini muffin tray sprayed with FryLight oil
This recipe makes 8-10 puffs!

Preheat an oven to 180C.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the spinach, parmesan until evenly mixed. Crush the garlic clove into this mixture, add the oil and combine.

Unroll the pastry, and cut into 2×2 inch squares. Arrange the squares diagonally in the mini muffin holes, pressing them down into the dips, then fill with a teaspoon of the spinach mix.

Fold the corners in, and brush the top with the egg mix. Pop in the oven for 10-12 mins until golden brown.

If you’re feeling a little fancy, you can spread the mix onto the pastry sheet, roll it up like a Swiss roll and slice into spirals before baking!

These bites of deliciousness are best served warm, but will also keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.

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Unicorn Poop Marshmallows

Unicorn food is taking of the world right now. Its all over Pinterest, its in ever cutesy indie cafe, and I’m loving it.

I’ve seen lots of recipes for unicorn hot chocolate recently, and while I think they’re all incredibly cute, I think they’re missing one finishing touch.. Unicorn marshmallows. Making marshmallows is one of my favourite things to do, and I personally think they taste a million times better homemade, so I took inspiration from one of my favourite Lush bubble bars to create these pastel perfect unicorn poops.

Making the marshmallows is fairly straightfoward, but does take a little bit of time and you’ll need a candy thermometer!

  • In a heavy based saucepan, mix together 200ml water, 450g caster sugar and 1 tbsp golden syrup. Pop in the candy thermometer, and start heating the mix, without stirring, until it reaches 127C.
  • While its heating, soak 9 gelatine leaves in 140ml water in a bowl and leave to one side.
  • In a large bowl, or stand mixer, whisk 2 egg whites until fluffy. If you’re using a stand mixer, just keep this running at a medium speed, or if you use an electric hand whisk, stop when soft peaks form and wait for the sugar mix.
  • Once the sugar boils up to temperature, remove the thermometer and pour in the gelatin/water mix and stir until fully dissolved, then slowly pour into the egg whites, mixing as you go. I cannot stress enough how hot this mix is, so please be careful and don’t have small children around while you’re doing this as it will hurt!
  • Whisk this mixture on a high speed for around 10 minutes, until it forms peaks.

While the marshmallow is whisking away, get three bowls ready with a few drops of gel food colouring in each. Pour 1/3 of the mix into each bowl and stir so the mallow is evenly coloured.

At this point, I used my Wilton colour swirl kit, but you can also use regular piping bags by filling each one with a colour, and then placing all three bags into another, fitting with a large open nozzle.

Prepare a large tray by covering it with greaseproof paper, and sprinkling a mixture of icing sugar and cornflour, then get piping away! If you don’t want to pipe, you could also use a square cake tin and layer the colours instead!

Let the marshmallows set for 1-2 hours, then sprinkle with more icing sugar/cornflour! These will keep in an airtight container for about a week or two – if you let them last that long!

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Ferrero Rocher Brownies

It has felt like FOREVER since I’ve done a baking post, or any recipe post at all to be honest, so I dedicated a whole day last week to baking yummy stuff so I can share a few of my favourites sweet treats over the coming weeks, yay!

Today, I’m gonna be sharing a variation on my famous brownie recipe (and when I say famous, I mean among the few people in my life who have eaten my brownies, haha), featuring my boyfriend’s favourite chocolates: Ferrero Rochers.

You will need:

  • 115g butter
  • 115g milk chocolate
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 115g plain flour
  • 8 Ferrero Rocher
  • 4 tbsp Nutella (optional)
  • 4 tbsp hazelnuts, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180C

First, melt together the chocolate and butter. I do this in a pan over boiling water, but you can also do this in the microwave! While this is melting down, line an 8 inch square pan with greaseproof paper, and chop the Ferrero Rochers in half.

Once the chocolate mix is fully melted (don’t worry if the butter and chocolate is a little bit separated!), pour it into a large mixing bowl, add the caster sugar and stir together, then beat in the eggs until smooth. Sift in the cocoa powder and flour, and mix together. You can add the hazelnuts now if you want!

Pour half of the brownie mix into the pan and let it settle evenly. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the Nutella in 10-20 second intervals until its runny enough to pour, and drizzle it over the first layer of brownie mix, then pour the remaining mix on top.

Arrange your Ferrero Rocher halfs on the top of the brownie, pushing them down into the mix slightly, then bake for 30-35 mins. Allow the brownie to cool in the pan for 5-10 mins, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Slice and enjoy!

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Meringue Roses for Mothers Day

In case you’d forgotten, its Mothers Day this Sunday!

If you do something a little different this year, why not forgo the regular flowers, and treat her to a sweeter treat.. Enter, meringue roses!

To make these, I used the BBC Good Food Ultimate Meringue recipe, which goes a little something like this:

  • Preheat your oven to 100C
  • Whisk 4 egg whites until fluffy and stiff peaks form – you can do this with a hand or stand mixer
  • Add 115g of caster sugar a spoonful at a time, up the speed and continue to whisk until thick and glossy!
  • Sift in 115g of icing sugar, 1/3 at a time, and fold into the mix with a metal spoon until smooth

Cover a baking tray with a non-slip mat, or greaseproof paper. Spoon the mix into a piping bag with a star nozzle, then starting in the middle, pipe spirals to make roses with a diameter of 2-3 inches, and bake for 1.5 hours. Once done, turn the oven off and let the meringues cool inside the oven for about half an hour, then take them out and transfer to a cooling rack.

You can serve these as they are, or sandwich two together with cream – or any other way you fancy! You don’t even have to make them for your mum if you don’t want to.. 😉

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Garlic and Rosemary Potato Spirals

You know those 30 second recipe videos you see on your Facebook news feed on a daily basis? Well this post is sorta inspired by one of those, and while I definitely didn’t find it as easy as those videos make it look, these were pretty straightforward and extremely delicious!

Garlic and Rosemary potatoes

You’ll need potatoes (large-ish ones work best!), butter, garlic and dried rosemary, a sharp knife and some kebab skewers.

Get your oven pre-heating at 180C, and stick each one of potatoes onto a skewer. Now this is the tricky bit.. Starting at one end of the potato, start to slice while turning the potato so you get one continuous cut all the way down the potato – don’t be afraid to cut all the way down to the skewer, this will make it easier to spread apart in a minute! Give the potato a little twist, and tug it so it stretches out down the skewer leaving the cuts open.

garlic and rosemary potatoes

In a separate bowl, crush a garlic clove, and mash it with some butter – about 2-3 tbsp butter and half a clove per potato – then using a butter knife, slather the butter over the potato, getting into all the nooks. Top with a generous sprinkle of rosemary, then pop onto a baking tray.

Garlic and rosemary potatoes

Bake for 35-40 mins until golden and crispy, then slide the potatoes off the skewers and enjoy!

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Treat Yourself – Pastel Dream Cheesecake

For a lover of bright and bold colours, I’m surprisingly obsessed with pastels right now.

So I’m scrolling through Pinterest, looking for pins for my new Pastel Dreams board, when I came across this ADORABLE cheesecake from SprinkleBakes, and I knew I had to give it a go – with my own twist, of course!

Pastel Cheesecake

You’ll need an 8 inch springform pan (I used a silicone one which made getting it out a little tricky!), an electric mixer – handheld or stand based – and plenty of bowls and spatulas at the ready!

To start off, I made my favourite cheesecake base: Oreos! Crush up 250g, and mix with 40g melted butter until its nice and sticky, then press into the base of your tin, making sure to get it nice and even. Pop this in the fridge for now.

Pastel Cheesecake

Next up, make the cheesecake mix. I stuck to the SprinkleBakes recipe:

  • Whip 1 3/4 cups of whipping cream in a glass bowl. Once it starts to thicken, gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form
  • Give 10 oz. cream cheese a good stir to make sure its nice and soft, then beat this into the cream bit by bit, then add 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Sprinkle 1 tsp powdered gelation over 1 tbsp water, and let it absorb fully – about 2-3 minutes – before blitzing it in the microwave for 10 seconds, then folding it into your cheesecake mix
  • Divvy the mix up into three bowls, then using gel food colouring, tint the mixes into your favourite pastel shades. I really wouldn’t recommend using liquid colouring here!

Ok, this is where I deviated from SBs technique a little..

Inspired by another pastel favourite of mine, Flumps, I bought a load of the extra long ones and cut them up into 1.5 inch lengths, although if you can get shorter ones you’ll save yourself a job!

Pastel Cheesecake

Take the base out of the fridge, and very carefully stand the marshmallows around the edge of the base – don’t worry, they’ll hold up fine once you start filling it with cheesecake mix!

Pastel Cheesecake

Pile in your first colour, then smooth it out carefully with a palette knife, and repeat with all your other colours. Get this into the freezer now, and leave it for a good hour or two to set nice and solid.

I recommend taking it out of the freezer about 20-30 minutes before serving; it makes it a lot easier to remove from the tin, and cleaner to cut!

Pastel Cheesecake

Pastel Cheesecake

Dreamy, right? Another great reason to serve it semi-frozen is that it has the consistency of icecream and its just so yum!

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Baking Magic – Butterfinger Cupcakes

I’m just gonna prefix this post by saying that this is definitely more of a lazy person’s guide to the butterfinger cupcake due to the fact that my kitchen currently has a giant hole in the ceiling, so I’ve had to make do with the ingredients and space that I had!

Disney park cupcakes are the best, right? Apart from the fact that they’re often too big to finish in one go, YES. Today I’m taking on a Disney World classic, the Butterfinger cupcake.

Now Butterfingers are an American candy bar, and although you can get them in some UK retailers, I’ve made these as totally butterfinger-free butterfinger cupcakes. I feel like I’m totally cheating today, but I’m gonna pretend that I’m just making this recipe accessible for novice bakers.. BUT LOOK AT THEM YUM

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Right, here we go!

1. Start off with a batch of your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, and to get a proper WDW experience, fill the cases a little more than you normally would! If you don’t have one, cream 125g butter and 125g caster sugar, add a dash of vanilla extract and 2 eggs, then mix in 20g cocoa powder and 105g self-raising flour and bake at 190C for 15-17 minutes. Ta-dah!

2. Once cooled, take a sharp knife and cut a hole into the centre of the cake, like a classic butterfly cake, and pop this to one side for the time being. It doesn’t matter if they get mixed up and you can’t remember which centre belongs to which cake.

3. (Cheat 1, coming your way). Well now you’ve got a hole in the middle of your cupcake that needs filling, so find either your favourite chocolate and peanut butter spread, or just a regular chocolate spread or frosting, and fill that hole all the way up. I recommend spread or frosting for this because its a little gooier than buttercream!

4. Those little cake centres, sit those back onto the cakes on top of the pool of chocolatey goodness to make a little peak.

5. Now grab some vanilla buttercream, or make some using a 2:1 icing sugar to butter ratio and a splash of vanilla extract. To replicate WDW buttercream, thicken it up with a bit more icing sugar – this will help it hold better when we load it onto the cake in a minute. Pop it into the fridge for a minute while we get a few more things ready.

6. Has anyone else noticed that basically every recipe I share involves crushing something at some point? Yep, we’re doing it again.. If you’re one of my American readers, grab yourself a butterfinger and crush it up nicely. UK friends, find yourself a peanut butter KitKat and a few cookies and stick them in a food processor to crumb them down nicely.

7. Grab your buttercream from the fridge, and using a knife or metal spatula, pile it onto your cupcake, then smooth it around the little peak you created earlier. Now grab your cupcake by its case and roll the buttercream mountain around in those crumbs until you get a nice covering.

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Is anyone else drooling?

Headed to the parks? You can get the original Butterfinger Cupcake from Starring Roles Cafe in Hollywood Studios!

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Treat Yourself – Fluffernutter Bars

Chocolate, check! Peanut butter, check! Marshmallow fluff, check! This is such an easy recipe but I could eat these bars all day!

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Fluffernutters are an American thing, but I see absolutely no reason why the UK can’t enjoy peanut butter and marshmallow together and its my dream combination of sweet food!

You’ll need: 250g biscuits – I used chocolate chip cookies, 1/3 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, 2 tbsp icing sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 jar Marshmallow Fluff and 200g milk or dark chocolate. You’ll also need an 8 inch square tin.

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1. Start by lining your tin carefully with greaseproof paper. Crush up your biscuit of choice into fine crumbs, then melt the butter and combine with the crumbs, then press into the base of the tin. Pop this in the fridge to harden while you work on the peanut butter.

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2. Don’t worry about using a fresh bowl here, any remaining biscuit crumbs won’t hurt! Scoop out your peanut butter; I used smooth but you could absolutely use crunchy if you fancied it. Add the icing sugar and beat together. If your PB mix is really thick here, add the vanilla to make it more pliable. Scoop this nutty paste onto the biscuit base and spread evenly.

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3. I apologise for this next step; working with Marshmallow Fluff is like working with tar, good luck. Empty the contents of your jar onto the peanut butter layer and spread it out as best you can. I recommend scattering blobs of the stuff all over the place, then letting it settle in its own time – you’ll find the whole thing a lot less stressful than fighting it with a spatula.

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4. Once your fluff has settled and you’re happy with the coverage, melt your chocolate, and pour evenly over the marshmallow. I say pour evenly because if you dump it all in the middle, the gooey fluff is gonna melt away underneath, so work quickly to pour it out and spread it to cover the whole of the tray.

5. An hour or so in the fridge, and these babies are ready for chopping up. You may find the chocolate shatters as you slice, but who needs uniform edges on their bars, right? Store your bars in the fridge, otherwise your marshmallow is going to try and escape.

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*drools at screen, then goes back to fridge for another slice*

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Baking Magic – Mickey Cake Balls

I was gonna start off this post by saying its a great way to use up leftover cake, but seriously, who ever has leftover cake? Like, is that even a thing?

So you might need to bake a cake in preparation for this; I think its a pretty good excuse. Personally, whenever I make a cake and I need to cut it down so its level, my offcuts are always destined for cake pop mix, saves waste! As well as pop mix, all you need is candy melts in black and red, and you’re good to go!

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Now you will find making these cute little Mickeys SO much easier to make if you use traditional cake pop mix, rather than just baking cakes using a ‘cake pop’ mould. Never made it before? Its the easiest thing: crumble up cake into a fine crumb, then mix with buttercream until it combines into a semi-sticky, mouldable dough of deliciousness.

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Ok, so get rolling the dough into little balls, place onto greaseproof paper and get them into the fridge to chill nicely while you start melting down your Candy Melts, starting with black. I recommend melting the buttons down with a splash of oil (I use a lump of Trex) to give it a better consistency and shine.

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Once you’re happy with the consistency, take the balls out of the fridge, and dip the top of the balls into the candy so it covers about half. Place the half dipped balls, dipped side up, back onto your greaseproof paper, then use two more candy buttons to create Mickey ears – do this one at a time, otherwise the candy could harden before you get the ears in!

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Back into the fridge with the balls, and onto melting the red candy. I always melt my candy on a double boiler rather than a microwave so that I can keep the mix warm while I’m working with it, but its probably 5x quicker to microwave them – just preference I guess! Once melted, grab onto those nicely hardened Mickey ears and dip the remaining half of the cake ball into the red to create Mickey’s trousers. At this point, you could pop the balls onto sticks and let them cool standing up, but I like to smush them back onto the greaseproof paper to make little feet!

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You could even go the extra mile and use a bit of white or yellow to add buttons or shoe details if you were really trying to impress!

Who’s the leader of the pack who’s made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E

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Baking Magic – Marshmallow Pop Treats

Don’t you just hate it when you’ve spent so much time in the parks eating your favourite treats, only to come home and live without them? Yep, me too 😦

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BUT this series is about bringing some of your park favourites to life in your everyday kitchen, and today is a combination of two of my favourite things: marshmallows and caramel! Marshmallow pops are available in so many designs and flavours in a bunch of locations in the parks, and today I’m gonna share how easy they are to create!

Ingredients wise, you’ll need: regular sized marshmallows, classic toffee sweets, condensed milk, chocolate/candy melts and whatever kind of sprinkles and sweetie decorations you like.

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1. First up, you need to melt down your toffees. I seriously recommend you do this in a metal bowl over boiling water – it’ll take a while, but will save you a burnt disaster! It’ll basically become one huge toffee lump, which while delicious, would be a nightmare to work with, so I add condensed milk to smooth it down; about 3tbsp for every 20 toffee sweets.

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2. While your toffee is melting into a caramel goop, get sticking your marshmallows onto whatever you fancy: lollipop sticks, straws, etc.. Squeeze them nice and close together into a column of squishy goodness.

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3. Once you’re happy with the consistency of your caramel, using a rubber spatula, scoop and smooth it all over the marshmallows. You can try and dip them, but may find they get stuck.. Give each stick a twirl to cool it off a little – it’ll dry quite quickly – then place onto greaseproof paper or tin foil, and get them into the fridge for half an hour or so.

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4. While the pops cool down, you can start to prepare your decorations. If you want colourful pops, I recommend Wilton Candy Melts as they’re really easy to work with – just melt down and mix with a little bit of vegetable oil to give it a shine – and you can also get different flavours (peanut butter!!!). Now you can let your imagination go wild; recreating your favourite designs from the parks or imagineering your own spectacular creations – just be sure to have fun with it!

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5. Once you’re done decorating, get the pops back into the fridge to fully cool and set, and voila!

What’s your favourite Disney park treat?

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Treat Yourself – No Bake Smores Cheesecake!

Another new food series for 2016, yay! Treat Yourself is all about rewarding yourself with amazing food, and I’ll be posting something new and delicious on the first Saturday of each month, woo!

Cheesecake is something that I’m slowly coming around to; I used to be completely repulsed by the idea of it, but in the last few years I’m starting to change my mind.. What I do love forever and always though is smores. To me, its the epitome of dessert goodness. Hello combination idea..

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You will need: a 9 inch springform pan, 200g Oreo cookies, 50g butter, 550g cream cheese (full fat is much easier to work with!), 70g icing sugar, vanilla extract, 100g milk chocolate and 2 cups of mini marshmallows. I work in cups for marshmallows because its the volume that’s more important than the weight! You’re also gonna want an electric hand mixer!

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1. Break up your Oreos by whatever method floats your boat – food processor, chopper, beating with a rolling pin.. – so long as they’re in crumbs, its cool. Melt down the butter and mix with the cookie crumb, then press the mix into the bottom of your pan and put into the fridge to start setting.

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2. Get your cream cheese and icing sugar in a bowl together and get your hand mixer ready to go. Pop your marshmallows into a microwave safe bowl and blitz in 15-20 second intervals until they’re soft and they melt into a fluffy paste when you stir them.

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3. Working quickly, get that marshmallowy mix into the bowl with the cheese and sugar and get mixing – leave it too long and those marshmallows are gonna start to get super sticky and lumpy! Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and after a minute or two of good whipping, you’ll have a lovely creamy consistency.

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4. Pour this mixture onto your biscuit base, then pop back into the fridge while you melt your chocolate. You can do this however you like, microwave or double boiler are best, then pour the melted goodness onto the top of your cheesecake. This is where you can get fancy with squiggles or shapes; I like to dump it all on top, then use a skewer to swirl it into a sort of controlled chaos! Now get it back into the fridge for at least another 4 hours before serving.

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YUM YUM YUM

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Baking Magic – Lost Princess Loaf Cake

I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS SERIES!

Something I don’t talk about on my blog very much is that while I’m not busy blogging away, I have my own cake business, and there’s nothing I love more than baking and developing new recipes. Something I talk about almost every day on the blog is how much I love Disney, so this series is sharing my two great loves in order to create some food magic by recreating some Disney park favourites, and also sharing some fun Disney-inspired baking creations! Are you as excited as I am for this?!

Today I’m making one of my favourite basic-but-impressive cakes – the hidden centre loaf cake! You might have seen my Mickey Mouse one a while back, but today I’m taking inspiration from my favourite girl Punz as it seems so fitting!

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You’re gonna need: 250g butter (today I’m using dairy free!), 250g sugar, 5 eggs, 250g self-raising flour and vanilla extract, as well as some food colouring (I used yellow, its totally your choice though), a Swiss roll tin, a standard loaf tin, a crown cookie cutter and any icing or decoration of your choosing!

You’re also gonna want to preheat your oven to 180°C

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1. First up, mix together 150g of the butter and sugar, beat in 3 of the eggs and a splash of vanilla, then stir in the flour. Once you’re happy with it, add your food colouring – I would always recommend a professional gel or paste colouring, either Wilton or Sugarflair, because you get much better colours with minimal colourant added! Line your swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper, and spread this mix out across it – its gonna look pretty thin, but its gonna rise up nicely in the oven. Pop it in for 10 minutes, then let it cool on a cooling rack.

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2. Once cooled, take your cookie cutter and go to town, but be sure to get as many crowns out as you can.

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3. Mix together your remaining ingredients in the same way as Step 1, just no more food colouring this time! Its up to you whether you want to grease or line your loaf tin, or even use loaf liners, but do that now, then pour about half of this new cake mix into the bottom and spread it out evenly.

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4. Now take those pretty little crowns and line them up in the tin; squish them together nicely, but don’t overpack – if you’ve got some crowns leftover then lucky you!

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5. Pour your remaining mix over the top of the crown-sausage and spread it out – again, don’t worry if it looks thin or your crowns are poking up a little, it’ll be fine! Back in the oven with the cake, for about 20-25 minutes, then let it cool in the tin a little before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

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6. Now its time to get creative! Decorate your cake however you wish (you can use this as an opportunity to cover up any crowns that are peaking out), and then watch your friends faces as you slice to reveal the secret within..

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Who’s your favourite Disney princess?

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360° of Disney Cake by Lottie’s Cupcakes

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Aladdin’s lamp, Cinderella’s pumpkin, Fairy Godmother wand and the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast

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Toy Story aliens and pea pods, Tinkerbell’s wand and Olaf

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Poison apple, lost runes of Atlantis and the iconic lantern scene from Tangled.

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Monsters Inc and The Lion King

 

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Ariel, Nemo, 101 Dalmatians and Lilo and Stitch

To show your love, head on over to www.facebook.com/LottiesCupcakesBournemouth and like their page 🙂

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