Mary Berry Iced Chocolate Traybake - Merry Christmas

Sorry it's been so long... hectic with a law degree... but I'm still cooking and baking! In the meantime here is a recipe for Mary Berry's Iced Chocolate Traybake - an easy and quick recipe that feeds a large crowd. I added edible glitter onto mine for Christmas time.

Silver glitter

Gold Glitter

Merry Christmas.

Recipe: (from the Mary Berry Ultimate Cake Book)

Ingredients 

4tbsp cocoa

4 tbsp hot water

225g butter

225g caster sugar

275g self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

4 tbsp milk

- Blend the cocoa and water and allow to cool slightly. Add the other ingredients and mix. Turn into a lined tin and level the surface. Bake at 180c for 25-35 minutes (until the cake has risen and is springy to the touch)

For the icing:

3 tbsp apricot jam

150g Plain Chocolate

6tbsp water

350g icing sugar

1 tsp sunflower oil

- Warm the apricot jam slightly and brush over the cake.

- Melt chocolate in a pan with the water until smooth. Allow to cool slightly and add the sifted icing sugar and oil, stir until smooth. Spread evenly on top of the cake with a palette knife. 

Also a few festive photos from around the house - 

Cupcakes, Cookbooks and Coca Cola Ham!

I hope everybody had a lovely Christmas and are now planning for the New Year! 


First of all, I must blog Nigella's Coca Cola Ham. Not sure if anybody follows India Knight on twitter but she had a ham and there was a lot of debate about whether to do it in coca cola or not, everybody who has cooked it says do it but if you haven't then it probably sounds very strange. And I remember watching Nigella do it on one of her show's a while ago and thinking how weird it seemed. But true to her word, it does really work and I will definitely be cooking all my ham's like this in the future. We cooked this on Boxing Day ready for some family coming the following day and it went down really well (unfortunately not much was left!) The coke doesn't make it too sweet like I thought it would, it just adds a great depth of flavour and colour. Then you add the glaze which tastes really great.  The photo below doesn't really do it justice. 

Ingredients -
2kg mild cure gammon
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
2 litre bottle of coca cola (plus extra to make sure it's covered if your pan is too big like mine was)
For the glaze -
Handful of cloves (optional, I was a bit cloved out from Christmas so left them out)
1 heaped tablespoon of black treacle
2 tsp english mustard powder
2 tablespoons demerara sugar
One spoonful of the cooking water to loosen it up a little.


1. Nigella doesn't bother to soak the ham but I did just in case it was too salty. So if you feel it will be salty, put it in a pan covered with cold water and bring to the boil then tip into a colander in the sink.
2. Then put the gammon in a pan, skin side down if it fits like that, add the onion and then pour over the Coke.
3.Bring to the boil then reduce to a good simmer. Put the lid on but not too tightly and cook for just under 2 1/2 hours. If your joint is bigger or smaller then work out the timing by about an hour per kilo remembering that it will go into an oven later (but add an extra 15mins if it's been in the fridge right up until the moment you cook it)
4. Preheat the oven to 240c.
5. When the ham's had it's time, take it out of the pan but don't throw away the cooking liquid yet. Let it cool for a little bit to make it easier to handle or let it cool completely and finish cooking later if you need to. Then remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make large diamond shapes then if using cloves, stud each diamond with a clove.
6. Mix the sugar and mustard powder into the treacle with a little cooking water and spread onto the ham.
7. Then cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approx 10 mins or until the glaze is burnished and bubbling. 
Then slice when ready and serve! 
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I got lots of cookbooks for Christmas so I shall be sharing many recipes over the next few months. Here are a photo of some of my favourites. I can't wait to get stuck in to some new recipes, especially from Leon and Green&Blacks. But some others I'd really recommend and not pictured are: Jamie's 30minute meals, Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book, Delia, any by Ottolenghi and Nigella Express. 

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And finally, some photos of some food over Christmas including the cupcakes (I just used the Hummingbird vanilla recipe as everyone was a bit too flavoured out) and Turkey!

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Over January, I'll be posting lots of fresh and healthy recipes and lots from the new cookbooks. Happy New Year!

Christmas Cookies

 It's Christmas Eve! You've got to have spiced cookies at Christmas to leave out for Santa! You can also poke holes in the biscuits and hang them on the tree. I got the recipe from the book of 'Ultimate Christmas'. 
Ingredients - Makes 12
150g Plain Flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2tsp ground ginger
70g unsalted butter, diced
3 tbsp honey
To decorate - White icing and decorations


1. Sift the flour and spices into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the honey and mix together well to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for 30mins.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180c and lightly grease 2 baking sheets with butter. Divide the dough in half. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a floured work surface to about 5mm thick. Cut out with cutters. Repeat using the other piece of dough.
3. Put them on a baking sheet and if you want to put holes in them, do it using a cocktail stick large enough to thread ribbon.
4. Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 10-12mins until golden. Leave to cool on the sheets for 5minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with white icing or leave them plain. I put some little silver balls on mine.

Other Christmas pressies -
I posted the recipes to the fudge, macaroons and the lavender bath salts a few weeks ago so that people could get ahead. But I made everything yesterday to give as Christmas presents so here are the photos:

<- The Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge wrapped in presentation bags from Lakeland and tied with ribbon.
















<- The Raspberry and Chocolate Macaroons put into small boxes my boyfriend made from cutting and stapling some cardboard and then wrapped in some snowflake cellophane.

<- The Lavender Bath Salts in Kilner jars with purple ribbon and a handmade label.














<- Small crates made from pallets and filled with the home made gifts and a zinc bucket filled with lavender grown in my boyfriend's garden.

And finally, a very Merry Christmas to all readers! 

Stay tuned as I'll be posting some cupcake recipes just after boxing day and New Year recipes!

My Mum's Boozy Peach & Raspberry Trifle -

This is a recipe that my Mum has always made, and she got the recipe from my Grandma. This weekend, she's making it for our big family Christmas gathering. It's a yummy dessert that looks impressive while being convenient. It's also one that can be made in advance so that you're not chained to the kitchen when your guests arrive. We got some really good frozen Raspberries from Costco, that are good at this time of year. It's best to present the trifle in a glass bowl if you have one so that you can see all the different layers. You can also adapt it depending on the fruit or alcohol you want to use. This would also be good for a New Year's Eve type of pudding! 
I'll put the finished photograph up when it's all done on Saturday.
Ingredients - 
1 packet of trifle sponges
1 tin of sliced peaches in natural juice
1 punnet of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
A good splash of sherry
A pint of custard (made using 2 tbsp custard powder, 2 tbsp sugar and pint of milk)
2 Quick-Gel sachets - red or orange (We used red)
Double cream for whipping
Raspberries and Dark Chocolate to decorate


1. Break the trifle sponges and place in the bottom of a glass trifle bowl.
2. Layer the peaches and raspberries on top
3. Add a good splash of sherry over the fruit and sponge

4. Make the quick-gel as per instructions on the packet, once cool and thickened spoon over the fruit and sponge and leave to set in the fridge
5. In the meantime, make your custard mixing the powder with sugar in a bowl and mix to a smooth paste with some of the milk. Heat the rest of the milk until bubbling and then once boiled, pour the milk into the custard mix and stir to thicken and once thickened, return to the heat for a few more minutes. Then leave to cool slightly.

6.Once the quick gel has set, place the custard on top and refrigerate until cold.
7. On the day of serving, whip up about 500ml double cream and spoon over the top. Decorate with raspberries and maybe some chocolate shavings.


NB - this definitely tastes better made a day or two in advance and can be kept in the fridge until the day of serving! Also try and get the custard really thick, shop-brought stuff isn't that great.

Unfortunately, we've had sooo much snow, nobody could get to our family festive gathering!! So we've had to freeze and eat all the food ourselves! Silly weather - but it does look really beautiful everywhere.

Chocolate Yule Log

A chocolate Yule log is so festive and makes a fabulous centrepiece for gatherings over Christmas. It's also a good pudding on Christmas day for those who don't like Christmas Pudding (or for those that like both). The sponge is made by whisking the eggs and sugar to a thick foam before folding in the flour and cocoa. I got the recipe from the book of 'Ultimate Christmas'. Although when I was about to pour the mix into a Swiss roll tin (get one for about £4 in TK Maxx), I suddenly noticed that it didn't have cocoa in the recipe! So I quickly added some. Also, the rum to go in the filling is optional, I didn't put any in.
Ingredients -
Butter, for greasing
150g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
115g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp of almond or vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa (optional)
For the filling/icing - 
280g plain chocolate, broken
225ml double cream
2 tbsp rum (optional)
100g icing sugar, sifted
holly, to decorate
icing sugar, for dusting


1. Preheat the oven to 190c. Grease with butter and line a 40x28 cm Swiss roll tin then dust with flour
2. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the caster sugar and whisk the remainder with the egg yolks in a bowl until thick and pale. Stir in the almond or vanilla extract.

Folding the egg whites in

3. Whisk the egg whites in a separate grease-free bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually whisk in the reserved sugar until stiff and glossy. Stir half the flour over the egg yolk mixture and fold in, then fold in 1/4 of the egg whites.
4. Sift and fold in the remaining flour, followed by the remaining egg whites. Spoon the mixture into the tin, spreading it out evenly with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 15minutes until lightly golden.
5. Then sprinkle caster sugar over a sheet of greaseproof paper and turn out the cake on to the paper. Roll up and leave to cool.
6. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to boiling point in a small saucepan, then pour it over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted, add the icing sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and thick. Put in the fridge for about an hour until it is a spreadable consistency. Reserve about 1/3 of chocolate mixture and if using rum, stir into remainder. 
7. Re-roll and place on a plate or silver board. Spread the reserved chocolate mixture evenly over the top and sides. Mark with a fork so that the surface resembles tree bark. Just before serving, decorate with holly and a sprinkling of icing sugar to resemble snow.

My Gingerbread House!

I said in a previous post that I wouldn't have time this year to make a Gingerbread House, but then I was looking through the Sainsburys magazine and saw the cutest little house! And with some persuading from my boyfriend, I decided to ditch the revision for a couple of hours and make it! It's wonderfully Christmassy and will look really good as a centrepiece for Christmas gatherings. Also, the earlier you make it (i.e now), the better the flavour if you keep it wrapped up it will last for weeks. In the recipe, they tell you how to make your own white chocolate buttons by melting it down, piping it into circles etc, but what a waste of time! So I'm using shop-brought jazzies and white buttons along with lots of other sweets to decorate it!
I thought it would be pretty easy, but I made a couple of slight mistakes which made assembling it a bit harder! So follow these tips to make yours easier:
1. Roll the dough out quite thick, mine was a bit too thin and caved a tiny bit when assembling with the icing.
2. Use LOTS of icing! Slather it on to make sure everything glues together.
3. Try not to spill icing onto the front of the gingerbread, it's almost impossible to get off once set and makes it look a little messy (like mine).
4. Don't stretch the dough too much when lifting onto the baking tray or it becomes warped.
5. If you need to cut any of the gingerbread, if it gets slightly bigger in the oven, cut it when it's just cool enough to touch before it gets too brittle.
6. If not confident, make 1 1/2 batches of the mix and leave the extra in the fridge in case it goes wrong, and if not then you have some to make cookies from!


Ingredients -
125g soft unsalted butter
75g dark muscovado sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
100ml golden syrup
375g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb of soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
To decorate the house -
Bags of white chocolate buttons and white chocolate jazzies
3 disposable piping bags
2-3tsp coloured sugar sprinkles
1 x 500g pack royal icing sugar
white sugar balls
2 red strawberry pencil sweets, finely sliced
23 red chocolate beans/smarties/m&m's - at the moment m&m's have a festive pack of half red and half green so buy these instead of having to sieve out the red smarties
32 red Jelly Tots
3 red fruit pastilles
4-5 tbsp icing sugar, to sprinkle

The dough before refrigerating. 

1. Put the butter and sugar into a food processor and whiz until light and fluffly. Add the beaten egg and golden syrup; whiz again, scraping down the sides now and again, until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb and spices and a pinch of salt and whiz until it forms a soft dough. Sprinkle flour on a clean work surface and knead the dough lightly for 1 minute until smooth. Flatten into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least an hour until firm (I couldn't wait that long so left it for about 30mins and it was fine)
2. Meanwhile, make 3 paper templates for the house. (see the photo I've made on paint)

Cut-outs

3. Preheat the oven to 180c, 160 for a fan and line 2-3 large baking sheets with nonstick baking paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 3mm thick. Use your paper templates and a sharp knife to cut out 2 roof panels, 2 side walls, 1 front wall and 1 back wall. Transfer them to the baking sheets and using a sharp knife, cut out a front door from the dough, 4cm wide at the base and transfer to the baking sheet. Use a round cutter to stamp out 2 windows from the front wall.
4. Bake the gingerbread in batches (and take in the Christmassy smell as they cook) for 12-15mins until firm and just starting to brown. Leave to cool.
5. Make up the royal icing according to pack instructions. Add about half to a disposable piping bag and snip a tiny piece at the end. Cover the remaining icing with a damp cloth until needed.

Tins to help support

6. To construct the house, take one side wall and pipe icing along one long edge and both short edges. Hold it on your serving board, iced long edge down (use a tin to prop it up). Then pipe icing along the bottom edge of the front wall and hold it at a right angle to the first side wall for a few minutes; use another tin for support. Take the other side wall and pipe icing along one long edge and both short edges. Hold this in place at a right angle to the front wall. Then pipe icing along the bottom edge of the back wall and complete the house.
Leave for 15mins until firm.
7. Then attach the roof, pipe icing along the top edge of the walls on one side of the house and position a roof panel on top. Hold for a few minutes until it feels firm, repeat with the other panel. Pipe icing along the join at the top of the roof, spreading it with your finger to fill any gaps. Then fill any other gaps on the joins to secure the whole structure. Leave to set for 1 hour.

Sweets to decorate!

8. To decorate, put half the remaining icing in the other piping bag and snip a tiny piece off the end. Using the icing as glue, stick white sugar balls around the base. Pipe 2 latticed windows on each side wall and decorate with strawberry pencil slices as shutters and chocolate beans as a window sill. Pipe icing around the door frame and decorate with strawberry pencil slices then use a little more icing to attach the door, slightly ajar, and attach a chocolate bean door handle. Dot icing around the front windows, and pipe a heart on the front and back walls, stick a chocolate bean in the centre. Using the icing to stick 3 rows of 8 chocolate buttons to the lower half of each roof panel. Spread the remaining icing over the top of the roof to look like a snowdrift and scatter with white sugar balls. Then pipe icing along the wall joins and line with red jelly tots. Arrange the 5 remaining plain white chocolate buttons as a path and use icing to make a Fruit Pastille chimney stack, Finally sprinkle icing sugar around the house to look like snow. Leave to set for at least 1 hour. 

Grandma's Mince-Pies!

My Grandma is famous for 2 great things - 1. Her apple pies/crumbles and 2. Her Christmas mince pies! And at this time of year, with the tree up and family coming over, what better than to freshly bake some mince pies. She (and I) cheat a little with using ready-made mince meat from Sainsbury's with some added brandy, and then make the short-crust pastry to her perfected recipe. 
Ingredients - Makes 2 dozen pies.
20 oz self-raising flour
5 oz lard
5 oz butter
2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
5 tbsp cold water
Large Jar of Mincemeat mix (I used Sainsburys)
Good splash of brandy
Egg wash


1. Add a good splash of brandy to the mincemeat in a bowl (preferably leave overnight)
2. For the pastry - cut the fat into small cubes and rub into the flour, stir in the sugar once the mix is like breadcrumbs.
3. Add the water and bring the pastry together (don't be tempted to add more water, it will come together eventually, this is what keeps it 'shortcrust') Then wrap in foil and if possible refrigerate over night, if not at least for a couple of hours. 
4. Cut the pastry in half and roll out for the bottom with a large fluted cutter (approx 1/2 cm)
Place the bottoms in a non-stick tin, add a teaspoon of mincemeat (don't overfill them)

5. Then roll out the other half of pastry and cut the tops out (either using the same size cutter or a slightly smaller one) and then at this point - you can freeze them in the tin for a couple of hours until they're hard enough to carefully lift out the tin and put into a box to keep them in the freezer for a few weeks.
6. Or cook straight away at about 150c for about 20-25minutes until golden.


Then dust with icing sugar and serve with festive cheer!

Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge (Another thrifty Christmas gift!)

This time in 3 weeks, it will be Christmas Day! And while I'm going to make this fail-proof fudge a couple of days before Christmas for presents, I thought I'd better post it now in case anybody wants to make it before. I'm going to make a big batch and bag it up in these presentation bags I got from Lakeland - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/50-presentation-bags/F/product/12007 and tie the bags with ribbon. 

The Macaroons I posted last week will be for the girls and the fudge can be for the guys (Nearly all grandpas love fudge!). 

The recipe is from Nigella, I saw it on her Christmas TV programme a couple of years ago and it's so quick and easy to make yet looks really good. The photo below is from her website, I'll post mine when I make it and bag it all up.

Ingredients - Makes about 70 pieces)

350g Dark Chocolate, chopped (minimum 70% cocoa)

1 x 397g can condensed milk

30g butter

Pinch of salt

150g pistachios

Put the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt in a heavy-based pan on a low heat. Stir to melt.

Put the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken into rubble (both big and little pieces)

Add the nuts to the melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix.

Pour the mixture into a tray 23cm square, smoothing the top.

Let the fudge cool and put in the fridge until it has set. Then cut it into small pieces. Cutting 8 x 10 lines in the tin.

One cut, it can be kept in the freezer, no need to thaw just eat. (Or keep it in bags for a couple of days maximum like I'm going to do)

p.s Put the Christmas tree up today at my parents house ->

I love Christmas!

Does anybody else find Christmas magical and enchanting? Carols being played, lights, decorations and the smell of cinnamon mixed with pine from the Christmas tree.


I've always wanted to make a Christmas Gingerbread House, they look so good and last for months. But it's finding the time! With January exams, Christmas parties and lots of baking for gifts to do, I think I'd better give it a miss this year. But if anybody makes one and finds an easy recipe, please let me know for next year!
Meanwhile, I'll stick to admiring the ones in the shops, these > were in the Selfridges food hall (a.k.a Mecca).


All is not lost though, I'll be posting some Christmas cupcake, cookie and fudge recipes in the next couple of weeks!


Happy Baking and Christmas Shopping!

p.s this is a photo of the outside of my parents house all lit up! Getting the tree tomorrow!

Some other thrifty Christmas gift ideas...

Continuing the thrifty gift ideas from the macaroons, here's some other things I'm making:

Jars of sweets - 

I got some Kilner jars from Dunelm for something like £1.79 each and brought a variety of sweets to fill them with! I've seen jars like this in Selfridges for £15!! They look really lovely.

Since this photo was taken, my boyfriend has made some mini polaroid photos to tie around them as labels. 

Sweets used - Liquorice all-sorts, Marshmallows, Chocolate Buttons, Flying Saucers and Moams! 

Lavender Bath Salts -

Using the Kilner Jars I also made some bath salts for ladies in the family.

I got a salt mix from ebay which includes epsom salts, sea salt and bicarbonate of soda. 

Use 2 cups epsom to 1 cup sea salt and 1/2 cup bicarb and then add some dried lavender (my boyfriend had an abundance cut back from his garden) and essence of lavender.

I then tied the jars with a purple ribbon and made a tag out of brown luggage-style labels attaching a sprig of lavender! A perfect, thrifty gift! And it makes your muscles feel amazing after a hot bath.

Mary Berry Gingerbread Traybake - Perfect for Christmas or Bonfire Night!

So I made this gingerbread tray bake a couple of weeks ago for bonfire night and it was a huge success! It will be great for Christmas too, it smells incredible when baking and fills the house with a warming Christmas aroma!
It's also so easy to make and serves big crowds. It can be kept in a tin for up to 2 weeks and tastes better with age! I just added some crystallised chopped ginger on top but if it's for Christmas you could add some silver balls for example.


The recipe is from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book - 
Ingredients -
275g golden syrup
275g black treacle
225g light muscovado sugar
225g soft margarine
450g self-raising flour
2tsp mixed spice
2tsp ground ginger
4 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp milk
For the icing - 
225g icing sugar
about 2 tablespoons water


Pre-heat the oven to 160c. Grease and base line a 12 x 9 in (30 x 23 cm) roasting tin with greased greaseproof paper.
Measure the syrup, treacle, sugar and margarine into a large pan and heat gently until the fat has melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour and spices. Add the lightly beaten eggs and milk and beat well until smooth. Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 45-50mins or until well risen and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out and cooling on a wire rack.
For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the water a little at a time and mix until smooth. Spoon over the cake and add decorations, leave to set. Cut into pieces and serve!


- Mary's secrets of success - Heat the syrup and other ingredients through very gently. If they are too hot when the flour is stirred in, it could go lumpy. If it does, you'll have to rub it through a sieve.