Sticky Toffee Pudding

My Mum's a teacher and one of her colleagues always makes this for special occasions, so he passed on the recipe. It's so simple to make, so I hope you'll give it a try!

Ingredients for the Sticky Toffee Pudding:
4 oz chopped dates
7 oz hot water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 oz butter
5 oz caster sugar
2 eggs
6 oz self raising flour

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 
2. Grease and line a 2 pound loaf tin, or two 1 pound loaf tins.
3. Chop your dates into small chunks, then add to a small bowl along with the bicarbonate of soda and the hot water. Allow to soak, giving a stir once in a while. (Note: It is worth doing this being setting up the other ingredients to allow the dates to soften).

4. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.
5. Once the butter and sugar is creamed, add one egg at a time slowly, along with a little flour to avoid curdling. Mix with a metal spoon, and repeat with the other egg.
6. Stir in the date mixture in stages whilst also adding a little flour.
7. Fold in the remaining flour. Keep folding for a few minutes to get air into the mixture. 

8. Pour into your tin/s and cook for around 30-40 minutes. Mine were done around the 30 minute mark, so be sure to keep an eye on them towards the end.

 Ingredients for the Toffee Sauce:
3 oz butter
6 oz brown sugar (you can use either light or dark, but I find light brown works best)
4 fl oz double cream

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan over a medium heat, before adding the brown sugar. Stir.

2. Once combined, pour in the double cream and bring to the boil. Serve immediately over the pudding.

This tastes best warm along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Over the Christmas period this has been made three times (so six puddings!) for my family, and all have asked for the recipe so it is definitely a hit.

I hope you have a go at this simple recipe and be sure to let me know how it goes!

Merry Christmas!

I managed to miss out on all the Christmas baking in the run up to Christmas Day, so I'm afraid I have nothing to share with you all at the moment! My Mum did make a delicious Sticky Toffee Pudding which I intend to recreate here at some point, because it was sooo good!

Santa treated me to a new stash of recipe books, so I'm sure to have a post up here soon. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Biscuits

I think I originally saw this idea on the Lakeland website. The idea is that using varying sizes of star cutters, you layer them up, ice them, and they will resemble a Christmas tree! Now, being a poor student, I tried ebay for a cheaper alternative, and got a set of 6 star cutters for around £3. Here's a set on Amazon that are similiar to the ones I used - Star cookie cutters.

 For the biscuit, I used the same recipe I used in the dinosaur biscuit post. Then I began to cut the stars for my biscuits. Now, I'd decided to give each of my friends one for Christmas, so I had to make 8. 8 Christmas trees at 11 biscuits each equals a lot of biscuits to bake and ice! So I reduced my Christmas trees down to 7 biscuits, and hoped that they still retained the tree look, rather than a bush.

I have to admit, I iced these rather sloppily as it was 11pm and I was ready for my bed! Of course, this did not affect the taste and my friends didn't seem to mind either.

I also forgot to take any photos until I'd bagged them - so I'm afraid we'll have to make do with the bagged product, but I think you can still see the gist of the idea.

So, there's the first of my Christmas baking! Now, it's off to the wonderland of revision...

Christmas Treats!

Unfortunately, I'm at the beginning of the exam revision period. My days are about to be filled with hours of revision, all leading up to the scary three hour exam on the 17th. Yes, the 17th December. How cruel! Luckily, I've got an early Christmas to look forward to with friends coming up. Another thing keeping me in the Christmas spirit (despite all this snow!) are these blogs.


The Pink Whisk is run by Ruth Clements, one of the finalist's from the BBC2 series "The Great British Bake Off". Ruth is currently doing the "12 Days of Christmas", blogging about a different festive treat all the way until December 12th. I'm wanting to try out her version of Lebkuchen, the German gingerbead. I usually buy some from one of those budget German supermarkets but this year I will definitely try out hers!

"The Pink Whisk's" Lebkuchen!

Another blogger who is getting me into the Christmas spirit is Debbie over at Dulwich Munchies. Debbie is doing a sort of advent calender, with a treat or craft, accompanied by a song, for each day. Her Cinnamon Candy Canes especially look delicious! 

Debbie's "Cinnamon Candy Canes"

The ever wonderful Bakerella has some wonderful Christmas treats over at her blog. I love these cute Polar Bears in their snowglobes! If I could get my hands on some of those bottles I would make these in a heartbeat. 

"Bakerella's" Polar Bear Cupcakes

I hope this small selection of blogs gets you in the Christmas mood for baking! If you're making any Christmas treats, be sure to let me know! I will try my best to try and get a recipe up for you on Tuesday, but I'm afraid this is dependent on the trains getting me back up to Dundee.


Have a nice weekend, and be sure to take care on the icy pavements and roads!