Cake Mix Ice-Cream

There are very few things better than cake, but un-baked cake mix is definitely one of them. I decided a little while ago that I wanted to make a cake-flavoured ice cream, and on doing a Google search for such, found that rather a few people have had a much better idea: cake mix ice-cream!

I looked at a few recipes online, but in the end decided to just improvise with some custard. After all, cake and custard just GO, am I right?

Ingredients:
284ml double cream

440g fresh custard

1 packet of cake mix

2 tbsp sprinkles

Prep time: [time] 

Makes approximately 1 litre of ice cream

1. Get your ice-cream machine ready to use. For me, this means leaving it in the freezer for at least 12 hours before use.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Fold in the custard and the cake mix into the cream until evenly combined, then pop into the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.
3. Take the mixture out of the freezer, and pour into the ice-cream machine. Leave the machine running for around 20 minutes, until the ice cream is thick and has a "whippy" type consistency. Pop the ice cream into a freezer tub, and mix in the sprinkles.
4. Pop the ice-cream into the freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm up. Try not to eat it all at once!

Happy Thoughts
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Cadbury Fruit and Nut Tiffin

Right, it’s been a few weeks since we had a tiffin recipe, so I thought now would be a good time to share another of my tiffin selection box: Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut tiffin! I made this one with my dad in mind, who loves Cadbury Fruit and Nut. Obviously you don’t have to use Cadbury’s chocolate if you don’t want to, but if you don’t then you won’t get that authentic Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut taste! 

I thought I should mention that I’m not actually being sponsored by Cadbury for this post – I’m just a big fan of their chocolate. Of course, if anyone from Cadbury is reading this and would like to send me some free chocolate, I’d be cool with that!

Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Chill time: 1 hour
Makes 20 pieces

Ingredients :
400g Cadbury's Dairy Milk
90g butter
3tbsp golden syrup
150g digestive biscuits
100g whole almonds
50g dried fruit

1. Start by lining a square brownie tin (20x20cm) with clingfilm or greaseproof paper.
2. Break the chocolate into chunks, then pop 200g into a large microwavable bowl. Add the butter and golden syrup, and microwave on a medium heat in 20 second blasts, stirring between each blast, until the ingredients have melted together to form warm, gooey, chocolately loveliness. Pop this to one side to cool slightly.
3. Put your biscuits into a food processor and wizz until they are mostly crumbs (a few small biscuity lumps is fine!!)
4. Add the biscuit crumbs, almonds and dried fruit to the melted chocolate mixture, and stir until everything is coated.
5. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and flatten down with the back of a spoon. Pop this in the fridge to chill for 5 minutes, and then move on to the topping.
6. Melt the remaining chocolate, and then carefully pour over the tiffin. Use the back of a clean spoon to spread this evenly over the tiffin, then return the tin to the fridge to set for at least 1 hour.
7. Once set, turn the tiffin out of the pan onto a chopping board and cut into 20 squares.
8. Pop one in your mouth and marvel at how something so tasty can be made so simply!

Oh, Pooh!

Disney bakes are back! Yay!! I had said I'd keep my Disney and Pixar baking collections up-to-date with each new release, so here we are with Winnie the Pooh. :-) Ok, ok, I know that this isn't exactly a new release - but when it was released I didn't realise it was in the Classics collection so I missed it *hangs head in shame*

At any-rate, I would like to get up-to-date with the Disney and Pixar movies, so Wreck it Ralph will follow shortly, followed by Monster's University (which is out next week!) and Frozen later in the year.  Exciting!

As with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, this bake could only ever be based on one thing: hunny (honey!) I baked a big honey cake for The Many Adventures, so this time I wanted to do something a little different: honey buns! The basis for this recipe was Paul Hollywood's Chelsea Buns, but I dechelseafied them and then honeyfied them to make them more suitable for our silly old bear. These buns are super sweet, sticky, and delicious!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

300ml milk

40g butter

1 tbsp runny honey

500g plain white flour

1 tsp salt

7g dried yeast

1 medium egg

For the filling:

3 tbsp honey

1tbsp cinnamon

For the topping:
100g icing sugar
2-3 tsps water

Prep time: 30 minutes (plus an hour and a half proving time)

Cook time: 25 minutes

Makes 9 buns

1. Pop the milk, butter and honey in a jug and microwave in 10 second bursts until the butter has melted. Leave to one side to cool down to a lukewarm temperature.
2.  Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl, then make a well in the centre and tip in the yeast. (This stops the salt from killing the yeast, don’t you know!)
3. Pour the lukewarm honey milk into the well created in the flour. Add the egg and then stir with a fork until the mixture comes together to form a dough.
4. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. You’re done when the dough is “smooth and elastic” (according to Mr Hollywood ;-) ) Pop the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for one hour.
5.  After the hours proving, the dough should have doubled in size. Tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into an A4 sized rectangle.
6. Prepare the “filling” by mixing the honey and cinnamon together. Brush 2/3rds of this over your dough, leaving plenty of space around the edges as the honey is probably going to ooze out at the next step!
7. Carefully roll your dough up, swiss roll style, trying not to lose too much of that yummy cinnamon honey! Cut the roll into 9 slices.
8. Grease a baking tray and place the buns, cut side up into the tray, leaving no more than 2cm gap between each (Paul says we want them to bake together so that we get a lovely soft edge!) Leave these to rise for another 30 minutes whilst you preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190.
9. Once risen and rested, pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and smelling lovely. If after 15 minutes the buns start to look a little too brown, just pop a bit of foil over them and let them continue to bake.
10. Remove the buns from the oven, and brush with the remaining cinnamon honey. Mix the icing sugar and water together to make a slightlyrunny icing, and drizzle this over the buns.
11. Allow them to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack, or a serving plate, if you can’t resist. These babies are best eaten warm!

Happy Thoughts

x

White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscotti

I love biscotti! I know that traditionally it should be served with a dessert wine, but it’s just so great dripped in tea until slightly soft, but still with a bit of a bite!

I originally baked these white chocolate and cranberry biscotti to go into my Christmas hampers last year – I love white chocolate and cranberry as a combination, as you’ll see when we reach December and I start posting Christmas recipes again! (Oh, dear. It’s July and I’m already talking about Christmas. I really am turning into my mother!!)

One quick tip – be sure to use white chocolate chunks or thickly chopped white chocolate rather than chocolate chips. The biscotti is in the oven for a long, long time and chocolate chips are just a little too small to withstand that!

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g light-brown sugar

35g dried cranberries

50g white chocolate chunks

2 medium eggs, beaten

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 50-55 minutes

Makes 16 pieces of biscotti

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (around 170 degrees) and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
2. Put all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together. Create a well in the centre of the dry mix. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs to the well you created then start to beat with a fork, working in the dry mixture a little at a time until a rough dough forms.
3. Knead the dough lightly by hand until it becomes smooth, then break in into two pieces. Shape both pieces of dough into a sausage shape, then place them on the prepared baking tray. Make sure to leave plenty of space in between them as they will grow!
4. Pop the biscotti dough into the oven for 20-25 minutes until it is firm to touch and just starting to turn golden brown. Remove the biscotti from the oven and allow to cool on the side for 5-10 minutes, until cool enough to handle. Leave the oven on at gas mark 4.
5. Once the biscotti is cool enough to handle, slice into it diagonally with a serrated knife, to create pieces1-2cm thick. Put those pieces back onto the baking tray and bake for a further 25-30 minutes, until crispy and golden brown all over.
6. Allow the biscotti to cool on a wire rack before tucking in!

Happy Thoughts

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