Broccoli and Stilton Soup

It doesn't look very exciting in this picture, probably could have done with a garnish! Anyway, another recipe from fabulous BBC Good Food. I thought it could have done to have been a bit thicker, so either slightly less stock or more potato - how large is a large potato?

Ingredients
1 large onion , roughly chopped
olive oil
1 large potato , peeled and cubed
1l vegetable stock
1 head broccoli , about 300g, roughly chopped
blue cheese, such as Stilton or roquefort, about 100g, crumbled

Method
1. Cook the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the potato and stock and simmer until the potato is tender (about 10 minutes).

2. Add the broccoli and cook for 3-4 minutes until just tender but still bright green. Add half the cheese and whizz to a smooth soup in a blender. Season then serve with the rest of the cheese crumbled over.
Recipe from olive magazine, December 2007.

Chocolate Fudge Easter Cakes

These were delicious and really easy to make.


Chocolate Fudge Easter Cakes
This is from the BBC Good Food Website
Makes 16 (I got 18)

140g soft butter
140g golden caster sugar
3 medium eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g cocoa , sifted

FOR THE FROSTING ( I only made half this amount and it was plenty)
85g milk chocolate, broken
85g soft butter
140g icing sugar , sifted
2 35g packs white chocolate maltesers,
mini foil-wrapped chocolate eggs
We use Fairtrade Divine milk chocolate eggs from Waitrose
I used Green and Blacks Caramel Mini Eggs and Cadbury's mini eggs

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and put 16 gold cases into a fairy-cake tin. Tip all the ingredients for the cake into a mixing bowl and beat for 2 mins with an electric hand-whisk until smooth. Divide between the cases so they are two-thirds filled, then bake for 12-15 mins until risen. Cool on a wire rack.

2. For the frosting, microwave the chocolate on High for 1 min. Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the melted chocolate. Spread on the cakes and decorate with Maltesers and chocolate eggs.

Birthday Cake

I had all kinds of grand plans for my Mum's birthday cake, but in the end it was a combination of simple icing and some papercrafting skills to make the bouquet of flowers. The cake is a 'Half Pound' cake from the Good Housekeeping Baking book, half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar etc etc. I used to make it to take away on holiday when we were self catering as it is nice and moist and cuts well. As my mum and her friends are all excellent bakers it was a relief when it was cut and the fruit was nicely distributed not sunk to the bottom!

Banana and Raisin Loaf for Tea Time Treats

  In 2008 when this loaf was first posted, I wasn't aware of many cooking and baking challenges, in fact I doubt if there were many.  However since then they have multiplied to the stage where I struggle to get them all done!  That and the fact that we still have a ton of baking left over from Christmas and are trying not to eat too much of it at once means that I know I'm not going to get anything made for Tea Time Treats this month so I'm resurrecting this post as my entry!

 This month (January 2012) the theme is Sweet Pastries and Breads  and it's being hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage


 I'm afraid this recipe is all in imperial measurements but you can find a convertion table at Delia's website  here

Banana & Raisin Loaf
4oz butter
4oz sugar (can use either white or brown or a mixture)
Beat these together
Add 2 eggs
Then add
3 or 4 ripe bananas (you could leave one for the end and mash it less)
Sift and fold in
8oz self-raising flour
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5oz Raisins


Bake at 180C for 45 minutes


It's quite possibly the easiest recipe and it always turns out well, even people who don't like banana loaf tend to enjoy this one.

Original post
I made Carolyn's Banana and Raisin Loaf again. Yes, I had those three black bananas in the fruit bowl! This is a very forgiving recipe as it is supposed to be baked at 180C, however I was also making a cake for my mum's birthday and it needed to be in at 150C, so I just put the loaf at the top of the oven (still hotter even with the fan) and left it in for longer. I even managed not to burn it this time, so maybe longer at a lower temperature is better!