Halloween RIP Mini-Graveyard Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!

I made these cupcakes for a Halloween bake off at work which was supposed to be on Monday.

Turns out it was cancelled, but I didn't get the message. 

But hey, who's complaining when you've got cupcakes?! :D

(Although my team did get a little suspicious when I have them cakes with 'RIP' written on them... "Xinmei, are you trying to tell us something? Have we been working you too hard?!")

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies (Green & Black's recipe)

So I don't know how long (if at all!) you've been following my blog, but I've kinda cheated.

Chocolate and Orange Tart

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I'm not back at uni and swamped with work so have been running around like a headless chicken (actually, I wish. I have been sat at my desk buried in my notes like a bookworm). This is probably why it's taken me about a week to write this post. I keep writing a bit, going back to do some homework, coming back to this, and then wondering what on earth I was on about...

Meringue Roulade With Chocolate

I'm worried that since exams I've gotten less... funny :S I mean, not that I'm saying you guys were falling-off-your-seats-lolling about at my blog (yes, lolling, not 'haha'-ing, because if so, you are living in the dark ages), but I'd just run out of sarcasm (mostly pointless, sometimes witty) and jokes (mostly at myself, sometimes at someone else) to keep even myself entertained :O

I blame it on the exams. I blame it on the stress. I blame it on the lack of sugar I've been eating recently.

But it's fine, this meringue if full of it! I'll be back to normal in no time!

Three Pôts de Crème

I finally finished my exams :)

Life is pretty good right now.

I award thee...

A while ago, I was so lucky to get not one, or two, but three (times a lady...) blog awards in one week. I'm so sorry it took me something like a month to blog about it, but it just took me an age to think up seven random facts about me that weren't:

a) incredibly boring
b) economics related 
or 
c) both.

Anyway, it's not that long. I made this Light and Dark Chocolate Mousse in 2009 and am FINALLY getting round to blogging and posting a recipe on it.
:)

Chocolate Chilli and Lime Bread

Yes, it's from the Green & Black's cookbook! (And no, I'm not being paid to make all of these recipes.) I haven't made bread from scratch since Food Technology lessons in year 9, when we made bread, and I really really wanted to do well so I could get a green slip. Green slips were like getting merits, but green and had stars on it. If you got a red slip, you were in trouble. If you got three green slips, you got something really cool and special.

Or maybe it was just a letter home. I forget.

Pets De Nonne, which means...

"Nun's Farts". Hehehehe.

You can totally tell I'm turning 21 next summer.

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(I know I know, I didn't do a royal wedding related post. But if you really want, you can hop over to see the chocolate digestive biscuit cake, which is not quite as elegant as the one Prince William chose, but it will do :) Also, William and Kate are now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, where I spend my time predominatly studying procrastinating (i.e. baking) who needs Fiona Carns when they can have someone like me baking for them?? I just don't understand.)

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I bought this to back to university at the beginning of term, que lots of:

"Would you like another fart?"

"Where are your farts?"

"She did do that, but it was quite half-farted".

Spicy Pork & Herb Chilean Chocolate Burgers

Woah. Woah woah woah... this isn't a pudding. Or a pie. What's it doing here?! 

Because it's got chocolate in it! 

That's right, it's from the Green & Black's cookbook, and with every chocolate cookbook the inevitable had to happen. Savoury chocolate food.

Green & Black's Brigadeiros (gone wrong) - International Incident Cake Pops Party!

So I shall call them upside down cake pops instead!

What? You don't know what cake pops are?? :O I saw them on Bakerella and I thought they were the cutest thing. 

I was meant to make brigadeiros (a Brazilian chocolate truffle) from the Green & Black's cookbook (which I have finally added a countdown to in the sidebar! As you can see, I mostly just have the weird recipes left) after I made the fish cake, but then I had all this cake left over...so I decided to put them in the milk mix. Also because the original brigadeiros recipe went a bit wrong (read the recipe section to find out why...)

I also made some fruit shaped ones as well, which I shall do another post for. This is because cake pops aren't as easy to ice as I thought they were, and I want to show you my better attempt first :)

Fruity Fishy Cakey...Thingy

"I'm a little yellow fish, in the deep blue sea, won't somebody save me?"

That song takes me back to the days of B*Witched and N Sync, and when people wanted to Reach for the stars. Basically, before the days when 16 years olds sang about babies. 

And then I was going to say I'm bringing some old skool cool into baking, but then that just sounded weird.

SO.....

I mean, it's not like I'm obsessed with fish or anything, it just happens that I made sushi cake a while ago, and this recipe is from the Green & Black's cookbook. So obviously I had to make it!

It did say I could make it any shape I wanted to, so why didn't I made a chicken? Or a sheep?

Chocolate Crusted Lemon Tart

I get cranky if I haven't baked for a long time.

When I'm cranky, I don't want to bake.

Well. Thank god I managed to break that vicious cycle.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is a story about a chocolate pecan pie. (Feel free to sing along :)

Early morning, girl wakes up,

Chop chop chop, on the board,

It's time to bake up, perfect smell,

It's you they're all eating for, they go:

Chocolate and Lemongrass Mousse

When I made this, it was just to get another one made from the Green & Black's cookbook. I thought chocolate and lemongrass would be weird, but it was...actually nice. Really yummy.

Yay :)

It's just that the first 4 years that lemongrass was in my life I'd only ever known it in the form of Fairy lemongrass antibacterial washing up liquid. And so it took me the next 4 years to get over the idea that lemongrass was in fact, an ingredient, and not just what washing up liquid tasted like.

I actually quite like the chocolate and lemon combination now. Maybe I might even try dipping lemons in the chocolate fountain next time. It can't be worse than dipping in cheddar cheese slices, but that's a story for another day...

Chocolate, Pear and Ginger Tart

I'm kind of cheating again, I did make this tart in January when I met up with some friends, and it was my 'thank you for hosting present'. And then when I got home I was going to blog about it, because it was from my Green & Black's cookbook!

But then this phenomenon called laziness took over and I decided to take a nap instead.

I mean, it's not like I've been sleeping for the last two months, I just never got round to it ;) But it's perfect because I've performing in a dance show tomorrow and in between pirouetting around the stage at trying to calculate multiple game theory equilibria (sadly not simultaneously, now THAT would be time saving), I haven't really had time to bake (I know, I know, if my cake tin had emotions, it would be weeping from neglect).

But anyway, here it is, in all of its ginger and pear and chocolate glory, ready to be baked by wonderful people like YOU! :)

I found a recipe! (A Hungarian Kuglóf, to be precise)

Well, I didn't quite 'find' this recipe, it's the 'Hungarian Kuglóf' adapted from my Green & Black's cookbook. What I mean is that I made this cake twice for two friend's birthdays, took a load of photos (no really A LOAD, you have been warned) intending to blog about it.

Then I forgot - I probably got distracted by something shiny. Or chocolate. Or better still, shiny chocolate.

So I can blog about it not feeling guilty that I should be working, because I've already made this cake, and the time spent writing this post would probably be the same amount of time I spend procrastinating on youtube.

This pretty pizazz-ey (and slightly podgy) panda topped version was also for a friend's birthday (you can skip to the panda sculpting here). And just for the record, she was turning 20. Not 2, as the cake would suggest.

Chocolate Macaroons and Micah’s Truffles

Today, I made the mother of macaroons. I was so happy, I made a whole family of macaroons. And then I ate them all. Well, I gave some to my friends, but I ate the rest.

And then I was going to say that the lesson learnt today was not to get born a macaroon but then I thought that this would be taking the metaphor too far, so I shall instead talk about why I love macaroons so much – move over cupcakes, this is where it’s AT.

Bretton Butter Cookies

Possibly the most beautiful thing in the world? Apart from my face, obviously.

Okay, seriously, they look nice, and it’s pretty simple to make! You can’t go wrong really, AND you can eat the dough. It’s a win win situation.

Back to Black(‘s): White & Dark Chocolate Mousse with Red Berry Coulis

Now that I’m back at uni, I really shouldn’t be baking. I really don’t have the time, and I really should concentrate on my work. Well, that’s what I always say, right after I’ve spent 4 hours in the kitchen. I mean, especially this mousse; the cookbook warned me that it would takes hours of preparation and create tons of washing up, but I’m sooo close to baking everything in the Green and Black’s cookbook I reckoned it was worth it. But ohmigosh when I started I underestimated the washing up. Thing is, I only have 2 bowls, so when I came to whisking and mixing and separating I had to keep washing up the same bowls and then dripping washing up liquid all over my furry slippers.

Chocolate Spice Gingerbread

I am going to visit my boyfriend today. Unfortunately, he lives in The Lands Of The North whereas I am down in The Sunny South, so I thought I should I should bake accordingly. Having almost run out of transportable recipies, I came across this delightful one: Chocolate Spice Gingerbread. I mean, gingerbread is traditionally eaten when it's cold right? It's cold up north right? Right. Perfect! So off I went.