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I updated the cookie recipe to be a little more specific about chocolate chunk size and the state of the cookies when they're ready check it out on

Basic Cookie Dough Recipe/ Cinema Floor Cookies

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Basic Cupcake/Muffin Recipe

Before you start, if you haven't already, read the posting on Everything you ever wanted to know about cupcakes but were afraid to ask, it's not everything but it's everything I could think of. Know this you can tweak this basic recipe so that you can make all sorts of weird and wonderful cakes (the one in this image has a basic cupcake mix with a little lemon rind for flavouring and the frosting is marscapone, icing sugar and lemon with a little lemon rind on top. If I'm honest the cupcakes were lovely really fluffy nice and moist too but the frosting



100g Sugar
100g Butter
100g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs

1. Preheat oven to 200c
2. Cream Butter and Sugar until it pales in colour in an electric mixer.
3. Add eggs one at time making sure that each was mixed thoroughly
4. Sift Flour and add to the mix on a low until the flour is combined and then increase the speed for one minute.
5. Divide into 6 muffin or 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 mins (depending on cake size) or until a skewer comes out clean.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about cupcakes but were afraid to ask

• Cupcakes are also known as fairy cakes, queen cakes or buns
• The muffins that I am referring to are American style muffins rather than the English style teacakes that are called English muffins
• If you ask me the main difference between cupcakes and muffins is size if the recipe says you'll get 12 cupcakes it means you will get 6 muffins.
• Use muffin or cupcake tins so that the cakes stay in shape
• You can line a cupcake tin with paper cases or squares of greaseproof or parchment paper
• If you don't line the cases with paper make sure that you grease the tins really well
• You can evenly measure out 3/4 filling of a muffin case using an ice-cream scoop (this speeds things up considerably)
• The range and scope of muffins/cupcakes are only limited by your imagination
• Cupcakes got a resurgence in popularity thanks to the cupcakes of New Yorks famed Magnolia Bakery as featured in Sex and the City
• You can use silicone ice cube trays in the oven to make mini cupcakes which are even smaller than mini muffins and are best covered completely in frosting or chocolate and treated like chocolate truffles
• To make raspberry buns, add a spoonful of the cake batter to the paper case followed by a tsp of raspberry jam, then followed by another spoonful of the cake batter and bake as usual
• To make butterfly buns; cut the top off a cup cake and cut the top down the middle to form two halves (these will be the wings). Put a layer of jam followed by a layer of butter icing on top of the cake. Place the two wings on the cake and dust with icing sugar
• Drunken ratinis (these were always a hit at our birthday parties when we were kids theres no alcohol in them the drunken refers to the way in which the the decorations inevitably slides: Take the bun and attach a marshmallow to the top with a little melted chocolate. Cut to holes in the top of the marshmallows and insert to chocolate buttons to form ears. Use strawberry shoelaces to make whiskers and use melted chocolate to draw the remaining rat features
• Coconut buns: In one saucer place a little jam and warm in the microwave. In the second saucer place a little desiccated coconut. Dip each bun in the jam and then in coconut.

Duck Egg Sponge

So here's the thing, I'd heard all sorts of wonderful stories about using duck eggs in baking and I figured to myself that the only way of truly seeing what they were like was to make something with them and I figured a sponge was the best way to start. The difference is said to be because of the richness of the yolk. I bought these eggs in the butchers and he asked me had I tried them before I said no and he said "well, when I got them in here first I brought them home and decided that I would have a couple of boiled eggs for me tea, like I normally do, but could only manage the one". So I bought a half dozen free ranged mixed sized duck eggs and I was going to use all six egg because of the mixture of sizes but for the second time in my life I found a double yolk and elected to use the 5 eggs (6 yolks). I baked the cake and to be honest I really didn't notice much difference.



150g Caster Sugar
5 Duck Eggs
150g Sifted Plain Flour

1. Preheat oven to 150C.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk for about 10 mins until it reaches ribbon stage

3. Fold in the flour.

4. Divide the mixture into two greased tins and bake for 25 mins.

The difference between a cake and a biscuit

The answer to this is also the answer to why a Jaffa Cake is a cake and not a biscuit. If left out overnight a cake gets hard and a biscuit gets soft. Jaffa Cakes had to prove themselved as Cakes in 1991 to retain their VAT free status in the UK because if they changed to biscuits they would have change VAT brackets.

How to tell something if is baked

Victoria sponges and most other cakes Pop a skewer into the cake and it should come out clean (ie not with uncooked cake batter on it)

Sponge Cakes When you press gently on the cake it should spring back up and as with most cakes it should start to pull away from the sides of the tin.

Bread Knock on it's underside it should sound hollow. This is the description generally used and it sounds a bit mad but if you want to get a comparable sound knock on a cake of uncut brown soda next time you buy one and you'll get what I mean.

Biscuits and Cookies They should darken a little in colour and get that smell that makes your tummy rumble. Some like their cookies a little soft and thus require a little less time in the oven.

Ribbon stage

When eggs and sugar have been whisked together enough that when you lift the whisk out that the whisk leaves a 'ribbon' of mixture on the surface.

Chocolate and Mandarin Cheesecake

This recipe was inspired by a favourite dessert of my in a coffee shop many years ago called Escape in Bray (Co Wicklow, Ireland). I've taken the chocolate and madarin and applied it to a cheese cake, it's a little different from other cheesecakes in that it has a layer of madarins between the base and the creamy layer. There isn't much chocolate in it save for the chocolate digestive base. I've also used light cream cheese because I'm using double cream, if you don't understand why, you've never supersized and ordered a diet coke simultaneously and I'm afraid it can't be explained to you



1 pkt of Chocolate Digestives
100g Butter
4 heaped tblsp Icing Sugar
1 tin mandarins in natural juice
1 tin mandarins in syrup
1 pkt light philadelphia cream cheese
1 carton double cream

1. Put chocolate digestive biscuits in a bag and smash them to crumbs with a rolling pins. Melt the butter in microwave and mix biscuits and butter.

2. Press the biscuit mix in to the base of a loose bottomed or springformed tin.

3. Drain the mandarins in syrup and mush them up and layer them on top of the biscuit base and then pop in the fridge to set.

4. Into a bowl place the remainder of the ingredients with the exception of the mandarins and whisk. Drain mandarins retaining a little of the mandarin juice. Add the mandarin and a little of the juice and whisk thouroughly so that the segments are fully and evenly dispersed throughout the mixture.

5. Pour the mixture on top of the base. I've sliced some fresh mandarins on top for decoration and put a little dot of chocolate in the middle of each mandarin to hint at the chocolate base beneath.

6. Refridgerate until its set at least an hour but overnight would be best. Remove from tin and serve with on its own or with cream.

How to release a cake from a springform or loose bottom tin

This is one of those things that I didn't think too much about but it meant that when I learned what to do it saved me from cheesecake arms or worse, burns.

1. Run a knife around the inside edge of the cake tin.
2. Take a either a soup bowl or dessert bowl that is deeper than the tin and place it under the tin.
3. Release the clasp (if present)
4. Gently slide the sides of the cake tin down the side of the cake until it circles the bowl.
5. You are now left with the base.

5 minute Chocolate Mug Cake

This has been bouncing around the net for ages now. There are a zillion versions this is ripped word for word straight from 'Shlings blog. What can I say this is quick easy tasty and indulgent


4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons chocolate chips or (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract and your favourite tipple
1 large coffee mug

1. Add dry ingredients to your largest mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using), vanilla extract and a drop or two of your favourite tipple, then mix again.

2. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

If your feeling very very naughty, cover liberally in Bailey's Irish Cream. And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now you are only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night! You are going to forward this straight away, aren't you...

Waffles

These freeze really well and can be reheated by popping them in the toaster.

Dry ingredients
200g Plain Flour
50g Caster Sugar
1 tsp salt

Wet ingredients
300ml Milk
2 Eggs
100g Butter melted
Makes 8 waffles

1. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
2. Loosely mix wet ingredients together and pour into the well. Mix well
3. Preheat waffle iron. When its hot enough ladle the mixture onto the waffle iron. Cook until the steam subsides

Cinnamon Waffles with fried Bramley Apples and toasted flaked almonds.
You can add 2 tsp of cinnamon to the mix and serve the waffles. Apples peeled cored and cut into wedges, fried in butter with some maple sugar. Toast the almonds in a dry pan and serve on top.

Rocky Road

So you can mix all manner of sweets, nuts and dried fruits or glace fruits you like. You can use mini marshmallows or quarter them using a knife powdered with icing sugar

300g Chocolate
300g Butter
2 Tbsp Golden Syrup
Marshmallows
Pecan Nuts
Sultanas
1 large pkt loosely broken Digestives
Maltesers gently crushed
White chocolate buttons
Additional white and chocolate

1. Melt Butter Golden Syrup, and Chocolate over a pot of simmering water
2. Mix in digesitives pecans, sultanas and maltesers.
3. Allow to cool and sprinkle white chocolate buttons, marshmallows
4. Melt and drizzle milk chocolate and then white chocolate
5. Chill and indulge

Lemon Madeira Celebration Cake

Wedding Cake, Christening Cake, Birthday Cake, Retirement Cake.  This cake would be too sweet were it not for the lemon. This is very easy to make too. The basic madeira mix is from the Odlums website (where you'll find smaller equivalents), but I've meddled with it a little to make what is essentially an over sized french fancy. This cake will fit a 9"/23cm square tin or a 10" round tin though I baked in a disposable foil roasting tin for ease of slicing while still maintaining a respectable depth of cake. Ingredients marked with an * indicate that they are in both the cake and the icing




Cake
To add a lemony tang mix warm lemon juice and a little icing sugar and pour over the just cooked cake
575g Self Raising Flour
500g Caster Sugar
500g Butter*
9 Eggs
4 Tbsp Milk
Rind of two lemons*

1. Preheat the oven to 150c and grease the tin(s)
2. If you have a mixer - pop everything into the bowl, turn on the mixer at a low setting until all the ingredients are combined then mix on high for 1 minute. If you don't have a mixer - Cream butter and sugar, sift flour, mix eggs and milk together. Add a little of the egg mix then a little of the sifted flour to the creamed butter and sugar and repeat that until you've used all the ingredients. Stir in the lemon rind
3. Bake in the oven for 2-2¼ hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing
Icing in contrast to cake making is such an intuitive thing if the icing doesn't taste right don't be afraid to tweak it according to how bitter the lemons are or your own personal taste.

1.5 pkts of Fondant Icing (lifes to short to make it)
500g Icing Sugar
454g Butter*
Lemon Juice of two lemons*
Finely grated rind of a lemon

1. Whip together icing sugar lemon and butter.
2. Saw the cake in half down the width of it with a bread knife using careful long strokes
3. Spread the icing on both insides of the cakes and sandwich together. Then spread over the top and sides.
4. Knead fondant icing sugar until it's pliable. Roll out a thin layer and smooth over the cake like you would a christmas cake.
5. Cover and chill in the fridge

Vanilla Fudge

This recipe is from 'Shling it tastes so good but it only uses the simplest and purest of ingredients. The key to getting this right is to follow the method carefully.

300ml Milk
450g Sugar
100g Butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
Makes 50 pieces

1. Bring milk gently to the boil.

2. Add sugar and butter and heat slowly stirring all the time until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.

3. Bring to the boil then cover with a lid and boil for 2 mins.

4. Uncover the mixture and then stir frequently while the mixture continues to boil steadily for a further 10-15 mins. (Technically speaking you should be at soft ball stage which is where you drop a spoonful of the mix into a glass of cold water and it forms a soft ball, the other way of checking is to use a sugar thermometer it shoudl read 116c)

5. Mix in the vanilla and leave the mix cool for 5 mins

6. Beat fudge until it starts to get thick and creamy as it loses its gloss.

7. Grease 7 inch tin. Pour mixture in leave to cool. Cut into pieces and eat.

Microwave Smores

This was so decadent, trashy and sweet that although it's not technically baking, I felt obliged to share this 5 minute wonder. You could use butter biscuits or choc chip cookies instead of digestive biscuits.

2 Digestive Biscuits
Nutella
Mini Marshmallows

1. Spread Nutella on inside of two digestive biscuits. Sprinkle marshmallows on one biscuit and sandwich the two together.

2. Microwave for 30 seconds.

3. Enjoy!

May's Egg Sponge

My Mam makes a damn fine sponge cake and when I asked her for a recipe this is what she provided. This recipe is based on the tins my mam uses at home to increase the recipe ensure you increase all ingredients. An unfilled sponge will keep in the freezer for 3 months

75g Plain Flour
1 level tsp Baking Powder
75g Sugar
3 Eggs
Lemon / Vanilla Essence

Mams method:
1. Preheat oven to 190c. Grease two tins.

2. Whisk eggs, essence and sugar with an electric whisk until light and foamy

3. Sift flour and baking powder into the egg mix and mix with the electric whisk until blended thoroughly.

4. Pour the mixture into two prepared tins. Bake until you can press on the centre of the cake and it springs back up.

Alternative method for a more risen cake:

1. Preheat oven to 190c. Grease two tins.
2. Separate eggs. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Whisk yolks with essence and sugar.
3. Fold in a little sifted flour and little whipped egg white until the mixtures bit by bit until you've used all the ingredients.
4. Divide mixture between two prepared tins and bake as above.