Making Pizza!

Hi chums!

I'm trying to get more hands on in the kitchen as I've never really been someone who makes their own meals from scratch or anything too fancy!

So phase one was me buying some pizza bases and adding my own toppings!

I used tomato puree, cheese, olives, parma ham and salami on my pizza.

Do you make your dinners?

Abi :)

RECIPE: Easter Cake

I have wanted to make an Easter cake for many years and this year was the year I finally did! I followed a Mary Berry recipe which I followed for the cake but I bought the icing in a tub as it was faster and meant less washing up!

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

175g self-raising flour

175g caster sugar

175g softened butter

1½ level tsp baking powder

40g cocoa powder

4 tbsp boiling water

ANY EXTRAS TO DECORATE

I preheated the oven to 180 degrees and put all the ingredients (but the cocoa and water) into a large mixing bowl and used an electric whisk to whizz them all together! Next, in a separate bowl I stirred the cocoa and the water to make a thick paste which I then added to my mixture. 

Once all stirred and mixed together I put the mixture in two round cake tins making sure they were both even and level, before putting them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Once cooled I cut off any peaks I had so that the cakes would sit nicely on each other and spread my icing over the top of the cake with the back of a spoon. I then used some mini eggs, white chocolate buttons and revels to decorate as well as an iced flower!

 We made this for my boyfriend's parents as an Easter surprise, here it is with our Easter 'card'!

Abi :)

Cheat's Homemade Cookies!

When you want to make some homemade grub but don't have all the ingredients, or can't face all the washing up/drying up packs like these are PERFECT! 

I never really use these packs they're literally only used by me a couple of times a YEAR! I prefer to either by shop bought food or fully homemade food! With this one all I did was add water, mix and bake!

Ever used anything similar?

Abi :)

Chocolate Fountain Time!

The other evening my boyfriend and I decided to whip out the chocolate fountain for a bit of fun - and food! I bought this for him as a present two Christmas's ago, it's a miniature one but is perfect for when you just want a bit of fun and not for when you have about 20 people round because it's your birthday or something!

 

We used strawberries and grapes, and with the left over chocolate we made our own hot chocolate!

Charlie's idea of romance!

Abi :)

RECIPE: Pizza From Scratch!

The other night my boyfriend and I decided to make pizzas from scratch! We'd already done the whole buy-the-base-and-add-your-toppings thing, so this time we wanted to do it all buy ourselves! 

We used a Jamie Oliver recipe for the dough which you can find HERE (we didn't follow this recipe exactly though) and added our own toppings. 

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees

You will need:

1kg strong bread flour

2 x 7g sachets of yeast

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp salt

650ml lukewarm water

tomato puree

cheese (any kind you like!)

Firstly, clean a surface and sieve the flour and salt onto it and form a well. Then, stir the yeast, sugar and water into a glass bowl and leave for a few minutes. Thirdly, add the liquid to the middle of the well bit by bit and add the flour into the well, do this until all the flour and solution is mixed and is looking like a dough (you may also want to flour your surface if it gets too sticky). Then leave for about half an hour in a bowl with cling film covering it. 

Once you've left it, sprinkle some flour onto a surface and start rolling your dough out to about 1cm thick depending on how you like it! Next comes the fun part: DECORATING YOUR PIZZA!!! I squeezed some tomato puree all over my dough and spread it out with the back of a spoon, then I added some ready-grated mozzarella, Gloucester cheese and cheddar cheese with some black olives (I love olives) and added some bacon bits and pepperoni too!

Put it into the oven for around ten minutes but keep checking it!

Here's my final result!

Abi :)

BLOGMAS: DAY 10 - Food and Recipes

I tend to eat more food than I make no matter what time of the year but here's a few things that we make in my household!

Gingerbread House I'll link the recipe post I did HERE

Chocolate Mice, literally melting chocolate and pouring it into moulds!

Sausage rolls - rolling sausages in ready made pastry with herbs and cheese!

Abi :)

BLOGMAS: DAY 7 - Handmade Christmas Favourites

I don't tend to make things at all if I'm honest, less face it it's probably less effort to buy something for yourself or for others! My Mum usually makes a Christmas cake and has made mince pies but my favourite has to be her sausage rolls which are so nice warmed through with cheese and some herbs!

Anyway, last year my boyfriend and I made a gingerbread house, some glow jars and chocolate mice so I think we did pretty well considering neither of us tend to make things! I really loved the glow jars because I'd seen them on tumblr and what not and really wanted to do them! I'm probably going to do them again this year too haha!

Abi :)

My Week In Dinners

Hi chums, another photo post for you. Randomly thought I'd take photos of a few of my dinners for the past month just for some insight or inspiration for meals of your own!

Abi :)

My Bacon Baps (Rolls)

Here's my lunch I made and ate the other day - it was just a roll with bacon and lettuce inside and some ketchup and mayo!

Just a random post haha!

Abi :)

Recipe: Tanya Burr's Cookies!

So the other day I watched Tanya Burr's video on how she made indulgent cookies and I thought I'd give it a go too! I'll leave the video here:

Ingredients:

300g Caster Sugar

200g Unsalted butter

1 Large egg

325g Self-raising flour

200g White chocolate

200g Milk chocolate

Extra milk if needed

First, I creamed the butter into the caster sugar. I am not blessed with the luxury of having a hand mixer so had to do it all by hand with a spoon!

I then added the egg and mixed it all in and then bit by bit added the flour - it was really tough doing it by hand I felt like I'd had a proper workout!

Next, I broke up the chocolate (like Tanya I used 2 bars of white chocolate Milkybar and 2 bars of milk chocolate Cadbury's) and then mixed them thoroughly into the mixture making sure there was an even amount of chocolate in each cookie. I then put them in the oven for about 12 minutes.

Once out of the oven I waited for about 40 minutes for them to cool - they were so gooey and floppy that some of them just broke when I picked them up!

These are very nice indulgent cookies for the occasional treat, I'm sure I'll be making them again soon!

Abi :)