Extra Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Dieters look away now. Because each bite of these indulgent slices of heaven contains enough naughtiness to send Gillian McKeith into a nervous breakdown. But are they worth it? Totally.

Now I’m a big fan of baking, and if there’s one treat from the dessert menu I can never resist, it’s a brownie. But for some reason every time I attempted to make a batch they would never compare to the perfect ‘crispy on top gooey in the middle’ ones from Starbucks. I’d always end up with a dryer cakey consistency, when what I was really craving was that melt in the mouth experience that’s so good you would happily discard all dreams of ever getting a Lucy Meck body, just for that 5 minutes of heaven. 

Anyway, after a lot of trial and error, I finally discovered the perfect recipe for my perfect brownie and my-oh-my were they gooey. So gooey in fact I could barely get my knife through them! 

So it’s goodbye lacklustre cakey brownies... hello new favourite recipe (and a couple of extra inches on the waistline!)

To make these oh-so-gooey brownies you will need:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 300g brown sugar
• 75g cocoa powder
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tsb bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch salt
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 150g dark chocolate

1. In a saucepan, over a gentle heat, melt the butter. Then once melted add the sugar and stir until blended. 

2. In a separate bowl stir together all the dry ingredients. You can sieve them if you really want but I never bother.

3. Combine the dry and wet ingredients. 

4. Add the chocolate in chunks and stir, gazing lovingly into your chocolately potion until it’s all melted and smooth. (This is the time to have a final guilt-free taste before the eggs go in... although even the risk of food poisoning probably won’t put you off licking the bowl after you've tasted it). 

5. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together then add to your concoction. 

6. Combine quickly then salivate as you pour the mixture into a deep 25cm baking tray. 

7. Shove it into a 190 degree oven and cook for around 20 minutes. But do not, I repeat DO NOT overcook these badboys. Overcooking is the prime cause for dry cakey brownies. When you get them out the oven there should be a crispy layer covering the top but the rest may still seem a little runny. This is fine. They will be sticky enough to hold together after cooling.

8. Devour those beauties like there’s no tomorrow. And don’t feel bad about it. Be proud that you created something so delicious and congratulate yourself with a second helping!

Cupcakes Tutorial

Following on from my last post, Sweet Treats, I thought I would post a cupcake tutorial just in case any of you fancied having a go yourself! I have also found (from a lot of trial and error) that this recipe is pretty fail-proof and always ends up tasting amazing, so you don't need to worry if you're not a baking expert!

As we are throwing a surprise 30th birthday party for my sister this weekend I thought I would make some girly '30th' cupcakes, but obviously you can just use this recipe as a foundation and use your own creative flair if you wanted to make a batch for a different occasion.

Ingredients

For 12 cupcakes you will need: 

115g/4oz butter

115g/4oz caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

115g/4oz self-raising flour

1 tbsp milk

10 Simple Steps

              

1) Preheat the oven to 180degrees/Gas Mark 4. 

2) Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together thoroughly. 

3) Gradually beat in the eggs.

4) Beat in the vanilla extract.

5) Sift the flour into the bowl and fold into the mixture.

6) Fold in the milk.

7) Make sure the mixture isn't too thick/thin. Add more flour/milk to balance out.

8) Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases (only about 1/3rd full!)

9) Bake in the over for 20-25 minutes.

10) Leave them to cool before decorating!

Decoration!

This is my favourite part of the baking process as I usually go a bit mad with icing/sweets/sprinkles, but today I decided to keep these ones elegant and simple with vanilla frosting and wafer daisies.

To make the vanilla icing you will need:

150g/5.5oz butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

280g/10oz icing sugar

Method

1) Put the butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat until very soft and fluffy.

2) Gradually sift in the icing sugar (the more you beat, the softer the frosting will be!)

3) If the the consistency is a little thin to pipe (like I found mine was) keep adding a bit more icing sugar until you reach a thicker mix.

4) Place the icing into a piping bag with your choice of nozzle (I went for a wide flower-shaped one) and pipe it around the top of your cakes.

5) Decorate to your taste- for this batch I used Dr Oetker's Wafer Daisies which are available at most large supermarkets.

6) I also made a little flag out of paper and a cocktail stick to prepare them for the party!

 

I hope this tutorial is useful to you, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Happy baking and happy longest day of the year! :)

Sweet Treats

Team GB//pear & amaretti cheesecake//gingerbread house//
raspberry & vanilla// valentines lovehearts// scarfed snowmen 

One thing you will get to learn about me is I love a good baking sesh.

When I was little I would go to my Granny's house at least once a week and we would have epic baking marathons making endless batches of icing-smothered creations. As I've got older I don't bake as much (and definitely don't like to make as much mess as I did then!) but every now and then when I've got some spare time on my hands I like to revive my childhood hobby.

I've popped up a few pictures of my favourite creations- maybe one day I'll have a bakery of my own!