This week (10th October to 16th October) is National Chocolate Week and to celebrate, I chose to make a chocolate cake flavoured with orange in my new slow cooker which has a waffle topping which adds a different texture, colour and flavour. Slow cookers are a fantastic way to cook cheaper cuts of meat which…
Chickpea Chilli Con Carne
There’s something comforting about coming home and knowing that you’ve got a tub of something in the freezer that you can just stick in the microwave and you can eat straight away. And my Chickpea Chilli con Carne is just that! Cooking large batches and storing it away is a great way to save money…
Paprika Cumin Tortilla Chips
So you buy a pack of 8 tortilla wraps for yourself and you get pretty sick of them after having just 2, what do you do with them? You can make your own flavoured tortilla chips with them and you’ll fool your flatmates into thinking you bought them when you know it cost you hardly…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: ‘Nuts for Chocolate’ Tart
You might have seen my recipe for Dark Chocolate Teacakes using Mr Toms but I chose to reinvent the way in which I used it in a bit of an experiment to make my Nuts for Chocolate Tart. Mr Tom is essentially a peanut praline bar and so I decided to crush it up into…
Mini Lemon and Almond Drizzle Loaf Cakes
I’m currently embarking on the next part of my education as I head off to university! I couldn’t leave without doing a final bake and I chose to make a variation of my Mini Glazed Lemon and Almond Loaves. You can find the original recipe for the Glazed Loaf Cake or the Mini Glazed Loaves…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: Bitter Chocolate Tart
The second of the chocolate tart recipes in my ‘Exploring Chocolate Tarts’ series is my Bitter Chocolate Tart. The shortcrust pastry base is filled with an intensely flavoured chocolate ganache-style mixture and is baked in the oven to set, giving it a smooth texture. The foundation of the filling is a ganache made with milk…
Restaurant Review: Tang’s Oriental Buffet
We don’t usually eat out but we decided to head to a new restaurant in Southend to try it out. Tang’s Oriental Buffet is located on the high street as part of the Victoria Shopping Centre and opened in September 2016. It’s deceptively small ground floor location Is a mere Tardis in comparison to the…
Exploring Chocolate Tarts: Chocolate Brownie Tarts
I’ve been wanting to do a series of different versions of the same bake and everything seemed to come together all at once. I found another one of my reduced bargains from Marks and Spencer and it was ready rolled shortcrust pastry for 80p and it tied in perfectly with the arrival of my Food Thoughts…
Mini Glazed Lemon and Almond Loaves
My Glazed Lemon Almond Loaf Cake has been one of my family’s favourite cakes of mine and I’m always being nagged to make it. These little loaves use the same recipe except the smaller tins make this cake look incredibly dainty and perfect for when you want a small slice of cake with a cup…
Cornflake Streusel Cake: Revamped
This is a revamped version of the original Cornflake Crumble Cake but this version is much lighter and fluffier. A simple way to elevate any cake is by adding a streusel topping, a mixture of flour, butter and sugar almost like a crumble. My little twist on the classic streusel is to use Demerara sugar…
Tips for Baking in Large Quantities
In the past 2 years, I have baked 2 dessert buffets for 120 people each, 300 chocolate chunk cookies for parents and students at an open evening, a commission of 24 cupcakes in 3 different flavours, sweet treats for our school’s leaving barbecue and 50 chocolate chunk cookies and 24 cupcakes for Bubakes’ Depressed Cake Shop event. Having…
Product Review: Nanny Violets Jam
I was contacted by Nanny Violets Jam to try and review their fantastic homemade jams in my cooking and baking. I was excited at the prospect of trying lots of different flavours of jams, chutneys and relishes since you probably wouldn’t find these in your supermarkets. The 6 flavours that were given to me to…
Making a Gingerbread Oven Showstopper
Inspired by The Great British Bake Off’s Biscuit Week Showstopper in which the bakers made a 3D gingerbread story containing at least 8 characters or objects, I decided to have a go at the challenge myself, by making an oven completely out of gingerbread. My Gingerbread Oven is currently baking 10 gingerbread diamond biscuits and…
Dark Chocolate Teacakes with Marshmallow Meringue and Mr Toms
You may remember that I told you that I bought some silicone hemisphere moulds from my time in Hong Kong when we went to Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei, which you can read about here. I just couldn’t resist having a play with them as soon as we got back and I decided to…
Homemade Vanilla Custard Creams: #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong
Whilst the Rio Olympics sweep the nation, you might know that Bake Off starts in just under 2 weeks time on Wednesday 24th August. On Twitter, @kuskus1 and @Rob_C_Allen are hosting the #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong where the Twitter baking community will be baking along with the new series. Currently we are doing a few pre-bakes and from…
Andrew in the Kitchen 