Innovative Croissants

Open the packaging, slightly twist the paper tin and the dough expands!

"Jus-Rol" into your favourite croissant shapes...

13mins and Voilà...Très Bon!

(I couldn't resist having a bite before remembering to take a photo of my quick and easy breakfast :p)

Moist lemon chiffon cake (Baking Fridays)

Found some sorry looking shrinking lemons in the fridge, what's better than turning them into a yummy dessert. I have tried this receipe twice and it seems to be consistently delicious, would think it works with limes as well, so enjoy!

Ingredients:
Lemon cake:
125g/4oz butter cubes (softened in room temperature)
175g/6oz caster sugar
175g/6oz self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking powder)
2 large eggs
1-2 lemons
65ml milk
Lemon sauce:
3 tbsp caster sugar
Juice from lemons 

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven 180 degrees - mine is a fan oven.
2. Grease (with a butter wrapper) and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper.
3. Sift the self raising flour - love my new Habitat sift for lazy people.

4. Combine butter cubes and caster sugar in a large bowl - as you can tell I don't like getting my fingers greasy, so I used a whisk for this but carefull not to get it everywhere.
4. Add the other cake ingredients to the butter sugar mix and whisk until smooth - it'll be quite runny.
5. Pour mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. You can tell that the cake is cooked by poking it with a mental/wooden stick, it should come out clean without any dough stuck to it.
6. Make the lemon sauce by dissolving the lemon juice with the caster sugar.
7. When the cake is cooked, don't remove the tin. Slice the top and pour on the lemon sauce to add flavour. 

8. Cool the cake in the tin to keep the moisture in.

Plum & hazelnut upsidedown cake recipe

This was featured in this week's "Waitrose Weekend" guide. I was impressed that even for someone who's rubbish at baking or following recipes properly, it turned out perfectly moist and spongy. So I decided to share it here. I couldn't find the recipe on the www.waitrose.com/recipe website, so even typed up the whole thing here, happy baking!

Prepare 20minutes
Cook 45minutes
Serves 8 (or a greedy couple over the weekend :-p)

Ingredients
125g butter
50g light muscovado sugar (I accidentally used brown granulated sugar, but seems to work)
50g roasted chopped hazelnuts (couldn't find them so used flaked almonds instead)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Plums, stoned and quartered (make sure they are ripen, some of mine were a bit sour...)
75g golden caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 large free range egg, beaten
150g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml Soured Cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Butter and base line a 20cm round deep cake tin. Melt 50g of the butter and mix with the muscovado sugar, hazelnuts and cinnamon. Scatter over the base of the cake tin and press the quartered plums into the base.

2. Beat the remaining butter with the caster sugar and orange zest until pale and creamy (is it me or should this specifically say melt the butter first?), then beat in the egg a little at a time (again, shouldn't it say beat the egg first, THEN add a bit at a time?). Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and fold into the creamed mixture with the soured cream to give a soft consistency. Spoon on top of the plums and level the surface.

3. Bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen, golden and firm to touch. Cool in the tin for 15minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Serve warm with cream or cold. Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition: 245kcals / 4.3g protein / 35.7g carbohydrate / 21.3g sugars / 20.6g fat / 10.3g saturated fat / 1.7g fibre / 0.7g salt per serving

See what I mean by not being able to follow recipes, now?