’Tis the season to be jolly and as mentioned in my Autumn favourites post I love gingerbread anything but the best form, is of course, gingerbread biscuits. This recipe is pretty straightforward and quick but does require time to cool the dough before baking. 

I N G R E D I E N T S :

75g light brown soft sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp black treacle

1 tbsp water

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 rounded tsp ground ginger

95g butter

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

225g plain flour sifted + extra if needed

1 tube of white writing icing to decorate (or any decorations of your choice)

M E T H O D :

1. Add the sugar, golden syrup, treacle, water, cinnamon and ginger to a saucepan on a low heat and leave to combine. 

2. Add the butter to the syrup mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is mixed together and all of the butter has melted - make sure the mixture doesn’t burn or bubble.

3. Bring the saucepan off the heat heat and mix in the bicarbonate os soda and the plain sifted flour to the mixture until a dough forms - you may need to add some extra flour to the mixture if your dough is quite runny.

4. Leave the mixture to cool in the fridge for thirty minutes. 

5. Pre heat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and roll out the dough - make sure your surface and rolling pin are dusted with flour to prevent any sticking. Cut out your gingerbread and place onto a greaseproof baking tray. Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until brown - they will be soft when they first come out of the oven but will set as they cool so be careful not to overtake them!

6. Once your gingerbread have cooled decorate in any manner you wish. Voila, perfect gingerbread for the festive season. 

What’s your favourite festive treat?

- Jade xx

Chocolate brownies are a staple recipe that everyone has, or should have, down to perfection. Today I thought I’d share my perfect recipe for the best bitter, sweet, gooey brownies. 

I N G R E D I E N T S :

225g dark chocolate

110g butter

35g cocoa powder

3 eggs

150g light brown sugar

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat oven 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4 and prepare your tin. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. 

2. Once the chocolate and butter have fully melted sift in the cocoa powder and leave to the side to cool. Whilst the mixture is cooling whisk the eggs until frothy before adding the sugar and whisking further until the mixture is thick and mouse-like.

3. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture once the mixture is cool. Use a metal spoon to fold the mixture as this helps to add more air to avoid a stodgy mixture. 

4. If you wish to you could add 100g of walnuts, cherries, chocolate chips or whatever else you like to your brownie mixture at this point, personally though I like just plain brownies though.

5. Transfer your mix to your prepared tin and place in the oven to cook for 20 minutes turning the tin around halfway through for an even bake. Leave to cool before cutting into bitesize pieces.

~ Jade xx

It was Lucy’s birthday last week and so I decided to test out my baking skills and create a pastel rainbow cake. Not something I had tried before but ended up turning out pretty great - even if I do say so myself. It takes a bit of time - from start to finish it took me nearly three hours - but the end result is pretty impressive.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

200g Self-raising flour

200g Caster Sugar

200g Butter (at room temperature)

4 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

1tsp Baking powder

Food colouring of your choice (I used five different colours)

For the filling:

200g Butter

400g Icing sugar

1tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

1tbsp Cream

Jam (optional)

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and grease your cake tins. It’s okay if you don’t have enough cake tins for the amount of layers you want your cake to have as you can bake the layers in batches.

2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light in colour (the lighter the colour the fluffier your cake will be, an electric mixer makes this much easier).

3. Add the vanilla extract and baking powder.

4. Add the eggs one at time with a tablespoon of flour to prevent the mixture from splitting. 

5. Fold in the rest of the flour with a metal spoon to add extra air to the mixture.

6. Divide the mixture into separate bowls for each colour, I divided mine into five bowls as I was using five different colours but the same principal applies whether you’re using more or less colours than I did. 

7. Add the food colouring to the bowls of plain mixture. Add a little at time so the colour doesn’t become overly vibrant as we are wanting a pastel look but add slightly more when you think the colour is perfect as the colour will fade slightly as it bakes.

8. Transfer the mixture to the cake tins and spread evenly before putting in the oven to bake. Cooking time will depend on the amount of layers you are baking. For my layers, as they were fairly thin, only took roughly 7 minutes. 

9. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack to completely cool. 

10. Whilst the cake layers are cooling make the butter icing. Mix together the butter, icing sugar, cream and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. The longer you mix the butter cream the lighter in colour it will become, personally I like a fairly white looking butter cream - although its very hard to get butter cream purely white because butter is naturally yellow tones - so I left mine to mix for a good 15 minutes.

11. Once the cake layers have cooled now is time to begin layering the cake. I chose to alternate between raspberry jam and buttercream between my layers so the cake wouldn’t be taken over by buttercream but this optional. I also put buttercream all the way around my cake to give it a neat look and also so the rainbow aspect of the cake is more of a surprise. 

12. Decorate as you please, I used Smarties and pink glitter sugar. You could also cover the cake in fondant icing over top of the buttercream if you wanted to. Chill in the fridge for a while to allow the buttercream to set if the buttercream is very soft or its a hot day.

Blueberry muffins are my favourite kind of muffins, some people like chocolate, double chocolate or even triple chocolate, some like lemon and poppy seed but I’m a sucker for the traditional blueberry muffin. Mainly because they feel a little healthier than the chocolate alternatives. I’ve tried many muffin recipes over the years but this is my favourite as it creates the best light and delicious muffins I’ve every tasted.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

110g Plain flour

110g Butter

65g Caster sugar

2 Eggs

1½tsp Baking powder

125g Blueberries - fresh, frozen or from a can if you want the juices to run into the cake

Pinch nutmeg

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6. Cream together the butter and sugar, slowly add in the eggs and mix for three minutes. 

2. Add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg to the mixture and combine. Fold in half of the blueberries to the mixture leaving some for decoration on top. 

3. Leave the mixture to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. 

4. Place a spoonful of the mixture into each muffin case filling each to just over half way. Stud each muffin with the left over blueberries. 

5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden on top. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the muffin tin.

~ Jade xx

Rocky road is a great recipe for any novice bakers out there or anyone who doesn’t venture into the kitchen very often. It doesn’t involve any actual baking so is quick and easy but more importantly, nigh-on impossible to mess up. It’s a great treat to add to lunchbox’s or picnic’s and any small human will be thanking you dearly for making it.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

350g Dark or plain chocolate

150g Salted butter

4tbsp Golden syrup

250g Cookies or biscuits (honeycomb would be great also)

150g Mini marshmallows

Anything else you would like to add - nuts, raisins, glacé cherries etc

M E T H O D :

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain-marie (glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water without the water touching the bowl), stirring constantly to be sure the chocolate doesn’t burn.

2. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the golden syrup. Break up the cookies into small pieces by placing in a freezer bag or tea towel and bashing with a rolling pin (or put them in a food processor and 'pulse' a few times). 

3. Add the cookies and marshmallows as well as any extras to the chocolate mix. Pour the mixture into a square, lined tin and push the mixture into the tin until it covers evenly.

4. Leave the mixture to chill in the fridge for at least four hours, but preferably overnight, to set. Remove from tin once chilled, cut into pieces and enjoy.

~ Jade xx

Custard tarts have been my favourite pastry since I can remember. My grandmother would always buy me custard tarts for a Friday afternoon when I would visit and recently I came across a recipe for them. They’d never been something I thought of making myself beforehand but they’re super easy, and super tasty. 

I N G R E D I E N T S :

165g Plain flour

25g Ground almonds

120g Unsalted butter, chilled and diced

55g Caster sugar

1 Medium egg

For the custard filling:

700ml Whole milk

7 Medium egg yolks, room temperature

90g Caster sugar

Freshly grated nutmeg

M E T H O D :

1. To make the pastry mix the flour and ground almonds together in a bowl. Add the butter and rub together until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. 

2. Stir in the sugar and break in the egg. Work the mixture together with your fingers until it forms a soft dough.

3. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface. Form into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4. Whilst the dough is chilling, make the custard filling. Gently heat the whole milk in a medium sized saucepan until just below boiling. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and creamy. 

5. Pour the milk onto the egg mixture in a steady stream stirring constantly. Pour the mixture into a jug with a good pouring lip. Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6.

6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a 5mm thickness. Using a cutter 11cm in diameter to cut out discs until you have 12. Gently press each disc into a muffin tin to line evenly, the pastry should come slightly above the tin. 

7. Carefully pour the custard filling into the pastry cases. Sprinkle the centre of each tart with a pinch of nutmeg.

8. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6, then bake for further 10 minutes at 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4. The tarts are done when the custard filling has a slight dome but is still a bit wobbly. 

9. Leave the tarts to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before carefully removing them.

~ Jade xx

I N G R E D I E N T S :

300ml Warm water

7g Dried yeast

500g Strong white bread flour

2tbsp Honey

1tbsp Salt

1 Egg white

1 Egg

Handful of chives

M E T H O D :

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Combine the flour, salt, honey and yeast water in a bowel and then knead for 5-10 minutes until a soft dough is formed - I used a dough hook and an electric mixer but you can do it by hand also. Leave the kneaded dough to prove for an hour in a warm place under a cloth.

2. Add the flavourings to your dough. You can leave them plain or add chives - like I did - seeds, cinnamon sugar, anything you want to. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and create a round bagel shape about 2cm deep. If you struggle to form the circular shapes then you can roll out the dough and use cutters like I did, this also makes the bagels more uniform in shape.

3. Place the bagels on a baking tray. If you formed the circular discs, cut out a hole in the middle of each bagel using a cutter. Leave the bagels to prove again for 30-45 minutes.

4. Heat a large pan of boiling water and preheat your oven to 180ºC. Boil the bagels two at a time for 1 minute on each side, dry them off on a tea towel before returning to the baking sheet.

5. Brush the bagels with a beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool and then serve how you like - my favourite way is toasted with cream cheese and cracked pepper.

Today I thought I’d share my easiest baking recipe in my repertoire, banana bread. This all-in-one recipe is so easy the most amateur of bakers can’t get it wrong. 

I N G R E D I E N T S :

225g (2 cups) Self raising flour

175g (1 cup) Caster sugar
1tsp Baking powder
2 Eggs
2 Bananas
2 tbs Milk
100g (1/2 cup) Unsalted butter
90g (1/2 cup) Chocolate chunks    optional

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Add all of the dry ingredients - excluding the chocolate chunks - to a bowl and mix.

3. Mash up the overripe bananas in a small bowl and add to the dry ingredients along with the rest of the wet ingredients.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and bake in the oven for about 50-60 minutes - cooking time depends on your oven, but keep checking the loaf band when a skewer or knife is inserted in the middle and comes out clean, its done. Remove from the tin to cool and cut into slices.

Waffles are my favourite thing to eat for breakfast, brunch or even lunchtime. I have an unhealthy obsession with my local waffle house which luckily for me is only five minutes up the road from me, so I’m constantly dragging my friends to get waffles with me - not that they need too much persuasion. Apparently my family have taken note of my love of waffles and for Christmas presented me with my own waffle maker so I could make my favourite treat at home. So, today I thought I’d share my recipe for the perfect at home waffles.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

250g (2½ cups) Plain flour

2tsp Baking powder

20g (1½ tbsp) Caster sugar

475ml (16 fl oz) Milk

2 Eggs

30ml (1 fl oz) Vegetable oil

M E T H O D :

1. Pre heat your waffle maker and spray with oil if it isn’t non stick already.

2. Weigh out all of the dry ingredients an place into a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the eggs, milk and oil to the dry ingredients and beat the mixture until smooth. Try not to over mix the mixture or the waffles will turn out heavy when they've been cooked.

4. Pour 3/4 of a cup of the batter into the waffle maker and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Don't overfill the waffle maker as the mixture will pour out the sides and make a big mess - trust me on this, I’ve been there.

5. Serve hot with toppings of your choice - my favourite combination is bacon and maple syrup but you could opt for fruit or Nutella, anything you want.

6. Cooked waffles can be frozen and heated in the toaster. Any unused batter can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days. I tend to make up a batch at the beginning of the week, freeze them and then take one or two out in the morning to have as my breakfast.

What’s your favourite breakfast treat?

~ Jade xx

Madeleines are a small french cake known for their shell like shape. Traditionally they are made with lemon but you can use any flavouring you’d like. I only recently added Madeleines to my baking repertoire after rediscovering The Transporter, a movie starring Jason Statham which came out years and years ago which I watched repeatedly as a kid even though more than likely I wasn't old enough for the age certificate - I much preferred movies with explosions to Disney films when I was younger, weird I know. Anybody else remember the scene where Lai makes madeleines for breakfast? These cakes are a great snack to have with a cup of tea in your favourite mug - of course - and are super easy to make.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

100g (1/2 cup)  Butter

100g (3/4 cup) Self-raising flour

100g (1/2 cup) Caster sugar

1 Lemon ~ zest & juice

2 Free range eggs

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6 and prepare madeleine tray ~ brush the tray with melted butter and shake a little flour over the tray to coat the pan.

2. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until the mixture is frothy.

3. Gently whisk in the rest of the ingredients being careful to not knock out the air created by the frothy egg mixture.

4. Leave the mixture to stand for 20 minutes.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. These are best eaten within the same day so they're perfect for if you have friends coming over - although I have been known to eat nearly all of them myself.

~ Jade xx

Afternoon tea is a British tradition that has been around for centuries. It’s one of my favourite affairs, there’s something about sitting down in the early afternoon for tea and cake that seems very indulgent especially during the week when everyone else is at work. A few weeks ago I decided to make my own afternoon tea as I had a few hours spare and was in the mood for baking.

Victoria Plum Jam recipe

I N G R E D I E N T S :

1 kg (35 oz) plums (or any other fruit you wish)

2 kg (70 oz)  caster sugar

150 ml (5 fl oz) water

100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) lemon juice

2 sachets pectin (optional)

M E T H O D :

1. De-stone your plums, the easiest way to do this is to cut around the outside of the plum all the way around and pull the top half off and then take the stone out. Be warned, if you de-stone plums with bare hands they may be temporarily stained orange. I used Victoria plums which are smaller and sweeter than regular plums but any kind of plum will work for this.

2. Add the plums, sugar, lemon juice and water to a large stock pot and bring to the boil. If you'd rather a more tart jam opposed to sweet - like myself - don't use all of the sugar.

3. Leave the mixture to boil for at least ten minutes.