24 Sept 2013

Jalapeno and cheese muffins


You know you want to try these from the their name right? the jalapenos and cheese combo is a bit like the peanut butter and chocolate combo...you can't really go wrong. These are like cheese rolls punctuated with a tangy chilly hit. I definitely needed more Jalapenos than the recipe specified- I would double up next time. You could do any number of things with these-put some tomato chutney in the middle, put some cream cheese with jalapenos/mustard stirred through it in the middle...you get the idea...They are from the lovely blog of Joy the Baker. She has much better pics on her post so check it out.





17 Sept 2013

THE best carrot and pecan cake


I have tried many a carrot cake in my time and this really is my favourite so far. It is from Jo Wheatlys' "A Passion for Baking"It is my favourite baking book- a real home bakers book. I have already made lots of things from it already and have so many things earmarked! I found the recipe already typed up here. The cake is super moist with just the right amount of pecans. I loved the icing-I thought had the right amount of tang and I thought the amount of icing was right too, but I like a fair bit off icing on my cakes! It might be a lot for some people so if you don't like as much icing you could probably get away with 2/3 rds the amount I would say. The tang is from orange juice,so go easy when squeezing the juice-add gradually and check consistency and taste as you go. I made this traybake for the cake table at our summer street party this summer which was amazing. We had it on a beautiful sunny day in June (not always a given in London) and it was my sons first street party so very special indeed. I also made some pistachio and raspberry meringues which you can see in the cake table shot (post on those coming soon). And that is my son in the last shot driving happily down the street :)