Healthy Smoothie Recipes

  

 

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes! & Mini Doughnut Toppers

Since transitioning to vegan by far the thing I have missed the most is cupcakes and all the other kinds of baked goodies if I'm being honest. It's not like I had a whole cake or even a cupcake on a daily basis but you know when you can't have something you want it even more? Yeah. That. I did try to follow a vegan cake recipe a couple of days ago and though they were edible they definitely weren't photo worthy so I did a little more research and found my missing ingredient. Egg replacement! I got mine from Amazon but I think they're available in some supermarkets although you might want to double check that. It works exactly the same as actual eggs do and made for some pretty amazing cupcakes (and doughnuts) if I do say so myself! You can buy it here.

Vegan Food Haul (UK)

Never in a million years did I ever think I would be a Vegan. A year ago - nope, scratch that even just a week ago, if you would have told me that I'd be giving up all animal products I would have scoffed at you with a mouthful of cheese - but here I am and I think it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Cookie Dough Easter Eggs

Lovely Shortbread Stacks

Ingredients:
200g plain flour
80g unsalted butter
80g caster sugar
half a tea spoon vanilla essence & red food colouring
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
100g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate


Method:
1. Mix butter and sugar together and beat until smooth.
2 Add flour and combine using your hands.
3. Separate the dough into 2 equal parts and add the vanilla and red food colouring to one half and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the other and mix everything together (I still used my hands for this part but feel free to implement any instrument of your choosing).
4. Cover both pieces of dough in cling-film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3 (160 degrees).
6. Roll out one piece of your dough and cut into shapes of your choosing (I bought my heart ones from eBay - you can find them here)
7. On a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper pop on your biscuits and put in the oven for 12-15 minutes. When they're done you'll be able to touch them without denting them.
8. Repeat the previous step with your other batch of dough.
9. While your biscuits are cooling it's time to start melting some chocolate and trying desperately hard not to grab a spoon and eat it immediately. You can melt it however you find easiest but I did it the good old fashioned way by putting it in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.
10. When both types of your chocolate are melted leave it to one side (or in the fridge for 5 minutes) to cool slightly so it's more manageable.
11. Use a knife to spread the chocolate over each biscuit and stick it to any other one you want to! I used all 3 sizes of my cookie cutters and made large and mini versions.


Trying to think of something to buy my boyfriend for Valentine's Day is impossible. Both of us are extremely romantically challenged which means it often becomes an issue to think of cute and love themed gifts, but one thing I do know that he loves is food and so where flowers are his fall back, adorable heart shaped biscuits are mine. So whether you want to bake these as your fall back plan, as a cute gift or just to eat 20 delicious biscuits to yourself I thoroughly hope you enjoy them and have a lovely Valentine's Day.


What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

F I N D  &  F O L L O W  M E  O N 

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12 Days of Blogmas - Day #10 | Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Shopping List:
Recipe will make & ice 8 cupcakes.
For the cakes -
75g self raising flour
90g caster sugar
110g butter
2 eggs
30-50g cocoa powder (depending on how much you love chocolate - I used 40g)
1 flat teaspoon baking powder
For the icing -
160g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter
1 Terry's chocolate orange; around 10-12 slices
milk to loosen


Method
1. Preheat oven to 200° (Gas mark 6).
2. Over a pan of boiling water, place a bowl on top and add your slices of chocolate orange. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Once melted, set aside to cool. You'll need to stir this every now and again to make sure it doesn't set.
3. In another bowl, add butter and caster sugar and mix well.
4. Gradually add sifted flour and eggs combining as you add them. Add cocoa powder and continue to mix.
5. Pop the batter into cupcake cases (mine were from Asda in case you were wondering) and put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Don't forget to stir your chocolate!
6. Get your cupcakes out the oven and leave to cool.
7. Going back to your chocolate, add 80g of room temperature butter and mix until glossy.
8. Gently fold in your icing sugar.
9. If the mixture looks lumpy and is beginning to form a paste and a few drops of milk and mix continually. Only add a small amount of milk at time but if you do over do it and the mixture becomes too runny, add some more icing sugar.
10. Spread icing over the cupcakes and leave to set for 10-15 mins.
11. Decorate as desired - I went for festive & adorable.

I love baking at Christmas but I'm not a huge fan of traditional Christmas desserts but I am however, a HUGE fan of chocolate orange and thus these were born! I decided against adding orange to the cupcake batter too as to not over do it but you could easily do so by grating some orange rind into the mixture. These were absolutely delicious and one that I'm going to bring back every Christmas from now on. It does hurt my heart though that chocolate oranges are only around at Christmas - God damn you Terry!


Do you enjoy baking at Christmas? What's your favourite thing to make?

F I N D  &  F O L L O W  M E  O N 

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Recipe: Love Muffins

Shopping List:
170g Dark chocolate
150g Milk chocolate chunks or a large milk chocolate bar cut into small pieces

70g Unsalted butter
200g Plain flour
100g Caster sugar
150ml Milk
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla flavouring/extract

1 Egg

Method:
This recipe makes 10-12 muffins.

1. Boil water in a pan and once boiled put a bowl over it. Break up the dark chocolate and add to the bowl, stir occasionally to stop from burning.

2. When the chocolate is almost melted add your butter to the bowl and mix well.

3. Leave chocolate and butter mixture to cool and preheat oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6.

4. Add flour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda to a bowl - mix together and create a well in the middle.

5. Whisk the egg and add the vanilla flavouring.

6. Add egg & vanilla, milk and chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.

7. Add the milk chocolate chunks.

8. Add mixture to muffin cases and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your muffins.

I recently bought the heart cases and wanted to use them for a recipe it just worked out well that Valentine's day is coming up. I bought these in a set from Tiger for £7. It also came with 3 cookie cutters and a piping kit - bit of a bargain I think! 

I'll be sitting at home with the boyfriend eating these when St. Valentine makes a visit. Being together for 5 years means that baking heart shaped things is the epitome of romance.

What are your plans for Valentine's Day?

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