Recipes Archives : Me, Annie Bee.

The Perfect Christmas Cake recipe – IMHO

Anna — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:38:29 +0000

As a fan of Christmas I’ve tried to create lots of lovely traditions for us as a family and make everything just perfect. Since she was three, Aoife and I have always made and later decorated the Christmas cake together. It’s something we both really enjoy doing and it means I can use lots of lovely hashtags across social media, you know the sort; #preciousmoments #mumanddaughter #makingmemories #familytimes #lookatuspretendingwearetheperfectfamilywhenwewereyellingateachotheraminuteago The hashtags matter not, we have created a lovely tradition. The Perfect Christmas Cake I’m going to hold my hands up though, there is an ulterior motive to this tradition. The reason I actually let Aoife help me bake the cake and decorate it herself is so the rest of Christmas is mine. I am very particular with what I like and how I like it. No one decorates the tree but me. So when Aoife says “Mummy, can we have though blue sparkly baubles with cartoon characters on them?” I can chuckle and say “Oh darling, I didn’t interfere with your cake so don’t you interfere with my tree” Perfect! I’m not entirely awful though, I leave a special space at the back, middle of the tree for the lovely decorations they make at school. My quest for all things perfect at Christmas has resulted in me trying and tweaking many different recipes until they are just right. I like our Christmas cake to be nutty and not too moist. The recipe is largely Delia but with less faffing and a bit more rum. I did suggest to Rory that I use amaretto in the cake this year, it was a little too controversial for his liking. Below is the recipe Aoife uses. Once the cake is made she decorates it. I didn’t put that bit but you know because you are super. Perfect Christmas cake recipe ingredients 225g plain flour 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 3/4 teaspoon mixed spice 225g dark brown/muscovado sugar 750g soaked dried mixed fruit 4 eggs – large 225g cubed butter 1 tablespoon black treacle 50g glace cherries – chopped 50g almonds – chopped 50g almonds – flaked zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon Perfect Christmas cake recipe – method Preheat your oven to 140º/gas mark 1 Line an 8 inch round cake tin with grease proof paper making sure that the paper comes about 4 inches above the tin Sift the flour and spices into a large bowl Add the sugar, butter, eggs, & treacle then beat it all together with a hand mixer or by hand Fold in the rest of the ingredients making sure they’re well mixed in Pour the mix into the prepped tin making sure it’s flat The grease proof paper above the edge of the tin needs folding toward the centre of the tin to create a roof effect with a gap for the hot air to escape and stop the cake catching Bake for 3¾ – 4 hours , use a knife or metal skewer to check it’s cooked throughout. When it comes out clean it’s done Leave to cool for 15 minutes then turn it onto a cooling rack Once the cake is cooled, pierce holes into the cake and brush with rum (or whatever alcohol you’re using). Wrap it in grease proof paper and place in an airtight tin. ‘Feed’ the cake once a week with a tablespoon of the alcohol you used for the cake. Note If you can’t source pre-soaked fruit, you can soak it yourself. Just put the fruit in a large bowl, cover with 100ml of alcohol of your choice and leave for 12 hours. Why not take a look at my other recipes here.

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Baking With Kids – Easy Cheese Scones

Anna — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 10:09:18 +0000

How amazing are cheese scones? TOTALLY AMAZING is the answer – especially warm from the oven with butter on. As with many things in life, I’m cheese scone fussy – I like them really cheesy and not too mustardy so when we make them we like to use a really mature cheese – The Wensleydale extra mature is perfect for the job. This cheese scone recipe is so easy to follow and uses ingredients you’ll likely have in so it’s perfect for the kids to do. You’ll notice all my recipes are easy for kids to follow – I’m slowly trying to outsource the baking aspect of my life! These scones don’t rise so much when cooking so you do need to make them a good depth before they go into the oven – no one likes those flat little scones that you have to sandwich together just to feel you’ve enjoyed them! Go. Bake. Enjoy!

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Cherry Chocolate Pavlova Recipe

Anna — Tue, 26 May 2020 11:01:18 +0000

Pavlova is one of my favourite desserts – mostly because it tastes amazing but also because is so light I’m convinced I could eat a whole one. I haven’t actually done this. Yet. The nice thing about a pavlova is once the meringue is down you can make it pretty much any flavour. As much as I enjoy the traditional strawberry route I will always opt to make a cherry chocolate pavlova. All my favourite things in one meal and it’s fairly straightforward to make. I will say now, my cherry chocolate pavlova is not a lot to look at but we aren’t here to look, we’re here to eat! If you have that baking bug, Check out one of these recipes.

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Baking With Kids – Inspired by Bero Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anna — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:17:50 +0000

We usually head to BeRo for some simple, child friendly recipes – the chocolate cake and the rock buns are our school holiday ‘go to’. This time we’ve decided to go off piste… While the BeRo Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe is GREAT we prefer our cookies a little more chewy (and chocolatey) so we have adapted (and some might even say perfected) the BeRo Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe into something wonderful! Even the neighbours loved them… Getting the kids engaged in the kitchen from a young age will give them a better understanding of food groups and how to make balanced choices though it can sometimes be a bit of a chore. We found that getting them their own cool kids baking kits so they can “practice” cooking was a great way to get them hands on in the kitchen. The Printable recipe card is down below. Inspired by BeRo Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 100g Brown Sugar 100g Caster Sugar 125g Margarine 1 Medium Egg 1 tsp Vanilla Essence 200g Self Raising Flour 20g Cocoa 150g Smarties Inspired by BeRo Chocolate Chip Cookie Method Preheat the oven to 200°/180° fan/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking tray Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy Mix in the egg and vanilla essence Sift the flour and cocoa into the mix and keep stirring until it gets a bit dough like Stir in the Smarties Roll into ping pong ball sized pieces and flatten a little. Evenly space them on your baking tray. I recommend baking only one tray at a time to get an even bake. Bake for 7 mins for a really chewy cookie or 9 mins for a slightly crisper cookie. They are best warm but will last a few days in a good tin.

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Gingerbread House Recipe & Templates

Anna — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:49:43 +0000

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a Gingerbread House. Fact. Making gingerbread houses is the perfect pre-Christmas activity to do with the kids (or alone if you’re a perfectionist) As you know, I am a BIG fan of all things Christmas and a Christmas gingerbread house is on my list of things to make each year. I am really fussy about how I like my gingerbread (quite gingery) I found the Mima Sinclair recipe to be the perfect balance. Some years, if I’m particularly well prepared, I make both a big house and smaller houses to gift to others. The smaller houses are cute and can sit on your coffee cup too whilst watching a Christmas film. Parfait! This is the recipe I now use for my gingerbread houses, it makes two large houses and a few biscuits or around 20 small houses – the templates for the houses can be found at the bottom. Gingerbread House Ingredients 200g unsalted butter 200g dark brown sugar 80g treacle 60g golden syrup The zest of 1/2 an orange 4 rounded tsp ground ginger 2 rounded tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves A level tsp bicarbonate soda 500g plain flour 1 medium egg, lightly beaten Royal Icing Sugar for decoration Gingerbread House Method Put the treacle and syrup into a large saucepan with the sugar, butter, zest and spices. Melt it all together over a low/medium heat, stirring until the sugar has all dissolved. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to boiling point. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the bicarbonate soda. It’ll all fizz up, panic not (just watch your hands), mix until it’s all combined then leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Sift the flour and salt, fold it into the mixture in small batches. You can use a wooden spoon unless you have one of those big fancy mixers. I don’t. Once the flour is folded in, beat in the egg until just combined. Do not overwork the mixture. Scrape the mixture onto a clean surface and knead until smooth. The dough is really sticky but don’t add more flour – it’s meant to be like this. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour. Heat oven to 160°C/140°C fan assisted/Gas mark 3. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper or silicone tray liners. Use the printable templates to create card versions. I have included templates for small houses and big houses. Roll the dough onto greaseproof paper to a depth of 5mm. Use the templates and a sharp knife (I use a small craft knife) to cut out the pieces to create a house. Place on a lined baking tray and repeat until you run out of tray. Place the tray into the fridge or freezer for few mins and then pop them in the in the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Use the your sharp knife to carefully straighten any edges that may have spread whilst baking. For smaller houses, make sure the doors are wide enough or they won’t fit on your mug. Leave to cool for 5 minutes on the tray and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. How To Build Your Gingerbread House Make up the Royal Icing as per the instructions on the box. It needs to make soft peaks in the bowl. You could make your own but I’m not the person to ask about how to do that! Put some of the icing into an icing bag with a small nozzle. Pipe icing along the side edges of the wall pieces and stick them to the end wall pieces. Pipe a little extra icing on the joins INSIDE the house for support. Ice along the top edges of the end wall pieces, where the roof will sit. Stick the roof pieces in place and hold for maybe a minute while it sets. On small houses, stick the chimney on. Use the remaining icing to decorate. If your roof doesn’t quite meet at the top, use icing to disguise it as ‘snow-lined’, icing along the roof edges can look like icicles. I sometimes use smarties for the roof and jelly sweets for windows – stick whatever you want on it! Leave to set for a couple of hours before moving them. Note – if you have made gingerbread biscuits too, they are lovely dipped in milk or dark chocolate. Gingerbread House Templates Just click the button and download your Gingerbread House templates here. Gingerbread House Template Mini Gingerbread House Template Why not check out my Christmas Cookie recipe and my perfect Christmas Cake recipe.

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Baking with Kids – BeRo Chocolate Cake Recipe

Anna — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 13:47:45 +0000

Have you even done the school holidays properly if you haven’t done baking with kids? No, is the answer. I’ve mentioned before that the Bero rock buns are one of my favourite recipes to use with the kids as it’s simple enough and the end product is meant to look a mess. Now both kids are a bit older, we have progressed to slightly more difficult recipes. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t quite to Great British Bake Off standards but we are partial to chocolate cake. As with the rock buns we use the BeRo Chocolate Cake recipe, partly because it’s simple and partly because it’s the recipe my mum and I used to use when I was a child. I would normally just stick the sponges together with buttercream and smother it all over the top, heck if we’re feeling really fancy we pop some cherry jam in too. However, it’s the Easter holidays so we decided to make our chocolate cake into a nest! Seasonal fun… BeRo Chocolate Cake Recipe 200g Self raising flour 225g Caster sugar 25g sifted cocoa powder 100g Margarine 2 x eggs – medium 75ml Evaporated milk (normal milk works fine) 75ml Water 1 x tsp Vanilla essence BeRo Chocolate Cake Method Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4 and grease two 8 inch tins Mix together the flour, sugar and cocoa Rub in the marg Beat the eggs with the milk Stir the egg mixture, vanilla essence and water into the dry ingredients and mix well Divide mixture between the tins and bake for 20-25 minutes We tend to make a chocolate butter cream to sponge it together – roughly 100g of butter/margarine, 200g icing sugar and a tablespoon of cocoa. I say roughly – I add icing sugar until the top stops sliding off the bottom. So how do you make it an Easter Cake I hear you cry? Well you pop a nest on top of course. We melted 200g of chocolate and stirred in 6 crushed Shredded Wheat then piled it on top of the chocolate cake in a nest like fashion (don’t judge us – we used our hands) then filled it with chocolate eggs. The kids love making (and eating) this chocolate cake and everyone was well impressed with their decoration! I would definitely recommend the BeRo Recipe book as there’s loads of simple cakes and biscuit recipes to do with the kids. We have adapted the cookie recipe to create these amazingly chewy and chocolatey cookies. If you fancy something a little more decadent, try my cherry chocolate pavlova or one of my other recipes?

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Spectacular Speculaas recipe with a cup of Christmas Tisane.

Anna — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 12:15:58 +0000

I really love Christmas, have I mentioned that? Part of what I love is the side of me that becomes possessed by Martha Stewart. The bit that becomes obsessed with the unattainable ideals of Christmas that are presented to us via Christmas 24. I imagine a Christmas with snow lying deep and crisp and even outside my gorgeous lodge type house. I plan for house guests to entertain in front of the great, roaring fire. Maybe even a singsong of carols around the piano. Obviously none of this happens. It never snows, our house is a ‘new build’ Lego type thing. We don’t have an open fire. Or a piano. Or guests for that matter. Every year I like to make and bake lots of festive things. I’ll make spiced red cabbage, gingerbread houses, Christmas cake, mince pies, chocolate bark, eggnog and Christmas biscuits. Rory has asked me more than once why I do it all, I always say “So we have lots of lovely things to offer when people visit” He then points out, correctly, that no one ever visits! ALL THE MORE FOR ME THEN! This year I decided to try the Dutch classic, Speculaas (or Speculoos). A spiced biscuit traditionally served on Saint Nicholas Day (December 5th) which is the main gift giving day of the festive season fact fans. To the not very festive amongst you, it’s a bit like the biscuit you get with a cup of coffee in a fancy caff. The speculaas are pretty simple to make, just have to remember to make the dough in advance as it needs to chill overnight. I use this Nativity silicon mould to make mine which means I can only bake six at a time but the mould can be put in the oven. You can actually buy the traditional wooden moulds. They are beautiful but pretty expensive and you can’t put them in the oven so it’s a bit of a faff, alternatively you could try a cookie roller (though I’m not sure how easy that would be). Speculaas Recipe Ingredients 100g softened butter 150g soft, light brown sugar 1 medium egg Zest of 1 lemon (unwaxed) 200g plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/8 tsp ground white pepper 2 cardamom pods, peeled and seeds ground. 50g ground almonds 30g flaked almonds Speculaas Recipe Instructions Beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients (minus the flaked almonds) and bring together in a dough, Wrap the dough in cling film and chill over night. Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan assisted/Gas mark 3. If you’re using a mould to make your Speculaas, dust with a little flour, otherwise line a baking tray with grease proof paper. Press a small piece of dough into each mould section the sprinkle flaked almonds on the back. If you’re not using a mould, roll the dough to no more than 5mm thick, the thinner the better. Cut with biscuit cutters and press flaked almonds into them. Bake for 12-15 mins, leave to cool for 5 mins then transfer to a wire cooling rack. When stored in an airtight container, the speculaas will stay fresh for a good few weeks! Steenbergs Organic kindly sent me some Christmas Tisane and a jar of Speculaas spice blend to try. I replaced the individual spices in the recipe with 3 big teaspoons of the spice blend and they are bloody good. We enjoyed the biscuits with a cup of Christmas Tisane, a caffeine free hot drink, like a herbal tea. The blend of redbush with festive flavours including orange, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and rosehip complimented the Speculaas beautifully. These may be my new favourite festive flavours, the tisane also makes a nice change from coffee too. Just on occasion mind you! The Speculoos spice blend and tisane were provided by Steenbergs for purpose of review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post contains an affiliate link to Amazon, if you click it and buy anything I might get 1p. Diclosure is available here.

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Baking with kids – BeRo Rock buns recipe.

Anna — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 20:06:08 +0000

This BeRo rock buns recipe is my favourite recipe to use with the children. It’s perfect for rainy day baking or passing time in the school holidays, they are so versatile you can make pretty much any flavour you choose! Rock Buns are absolutely perfect for little ones to make, they’re totally simple and they don’t have to look pretty! I was bought up making the ones from my Mum’s BeRo baking book and so these are the ones I have Aoife make too. We really like to swap the sultanas for coconut and cherry. Exotic! BeRo Rock Buns Recipe 225g Self raising flour 100g Marg 100g sultanas/raisins (or coconut and cherry OR white chocolate and cherry. 100g of your flavour combo) 50g caster sugar 1 egg dash of milk BeRo Rock Buns Method Heat the oven to 200°C or gas mark 6. Grease 2 baking trays. Rub together the flour and marg until it’s a bit like breadcrumbs. Stir in the fruit./chocolate/flavour and sugar. Mix to a dough with the egg and the milk. Place in heaps on trays and bake for 10-15 mins. Et voila! Perfect piles of cake that the kids can be proud of. If you fancy something a bit more biscuity but just as simple and versatile take a look at our Cookies recipe! Do check out my other recipes – spoiler, I’ve got some pretty nice Christmas recipes! Happy baking!

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