Basic buttercream

I often get asked by friends & family for a simple buttercream recipe so i thought I'd share my go to recipe

The amount below will easily  cover 10-12 cupcakes, but can also be used to fill & crumb coat a sugar paste/fondant covered cake. Depending on the size of your cake you may need to double or even triple the amount below

To cover 10-12 cupcakes you will need

8oz salted butter ( soft at room temp)
16oz icing sugar

° Sift the icing sugar into a bowl & add the butter

° Using an electric hand held whisk or using a freestanding mixer ( I use my free standing mixer) mix the butter and icing sugar on a  slow speed  ( to stop the icing sugar flying everywhere)

° Once the majority of the icing sugar has incorporated, turn your mixer/hand held whisk up to a faster speed till you have a smooth & fluffy mixture. For it to be pipeable i always add 3-4 tbsp of milk & mix again. At this point I add flavorings

For vanilla flavour .. add 2-3 tbsp vanilla extract or seeds from a whole vanilla pod

For choc buttercream replace 3 oz of the icing sugar for cocoa powder or alternatively add in melted choc

For strawberry buttercream I add about 4-5 tablespoons strawberry nesquik powder or strawberry Angel delight

For oreo buttercream i in a good handful of oreo biscuits but blitz them in my food processor till really fine and mix into the buttercream - this would be perfect for filling but maybe no so much for crumb coating as there may still be chunks of biscuit that would you a lumpy surface if covering a cake with sugarpaste/fondant

For coffee buttercream replace 2 oz of the icing sugar for fine powdered coffee or 2-3 tsp of coffee granules mixed with 1-2 tsp of cooled boiled water- I add it straight in with the icing sugar

For other flavours just experiment as you go 😍

Chicken & chick pea masala pasties

Chicken & chick pea masala pasties are always a hit with all my family, and since getting the hang of making my own puff pastry I'll happily whip up a batch at any given chance, so handing them out to friends as well as family during ramadhan was the perfect excuse to indulge in batch loafs

So here's the recipe if you'd like to give them a go.

To make a batch of 6 -8 pasties you will need
1 batch of my home made puff pastry or 2 sheets of ready roll pastry and 1 batch of my chicken & chickpea masala

• Start by ensuring your block of pastry is chilled & cold but not rock solid. Cut the block in half, put one half to a side or back in the fridge till later use.

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the block out to a large square, to about an inch thick. Cut the large square into 4 equal peices. If you're using the ready rolled sheets just cut both sheets into 4 equal squares.

• Taking one of the squares, fold it in half lightly and open it up. Use the line through the middle as a guide for the middle of the pastie

• Take 2 -3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture and place in the middle of the square. Brush the bottom edge and sides with a little bit of egg wash, and fold the top half of the sqaure over the filling, ensuring all 3 edges meet as neatly as possible

• Pierce 2 sets of holes in the top of the pastie using a fork - this will help the steam escape during cooking. Seal all the edges by gently pressing them with a fork.

• Repeat the above process with the remaining squares and the remaining pastry dough. Place the pasties on greasproof lined baking trays, brush the tops of each pastie with egg wash  and bake in a fan assisted oven at 180c for
20 -25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown & serve 

*** if you have any filling remaining, and run out of pastry dough,  you can freeze the filling & save it for another time. Ensure that any filling you defrost is used uo completely as you cannot re freeze thawed meat***

Chicken & chickpea masala

This is the filling i use for my chicken pasties :

1 kilo boneless chicken- I used thigh meat as i find it doesn't dry out as much as breast
1 & 1/2 level tsp salt
2 large onions diced
2 tsp cumin seeds
3 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
Handful fresh coriander chopped
1 tin of chickpeas ( water drained )
2 handfuls garden peas
Tsp of garam masala
6 - 7 baby new potatoes cubed
1 tsp lemon juice

• Start by frying off the onions i a little oil till golden brown. Add in the salt and green chillies and cook on a medium heat till the chillies have softened

• Add in the chicken, and cook the chicken through completley, then add in the potatoes & chickpeas, cook the mixture until the the potatoes are soft but not mushed & the chick peas have browned a little

• Still on a medium heat, add in the cumin seeds, chilli flakes and garam masala. Check the seasoning of the salt & chillies and if required you can add in a little more chilli flakes or salt if needed.

• Once the mixture has cooled completley, add in the fresh coriander and lemon juice & mix well. The mixture is now ready to use to make my chicken pasties or alternatively as a filling for a pie.

Puff pastry

Some of you may or may not know that this year i auditioned for a place in GBBO .. I got all the way to the final round which involved a filmed technical trial. Unfortunately I didn't get through to this year BUT I will re apply for next year.

For one of the rounds I had to make my own puff pastry which I'd never done, but now 3 months on i can say i absolutely love making my own & I thought I'd share the basic recipe

To make 300g of puff pastry you will need:

° 300g bread flour
° 300g salted butter - cold but not rock hard 
° 1 tsp lemon juice
°  135-140 ml cold water

In a bowl add the flour and 50 grams of the butter, rub the butter into the flour to get a breadcrumb consistency, alternatively you can blitz them in a food processor

Add in the lemon juice, then the water a little at (a time as you may not need it all) using a knife  to mix together till you get a soft ( but not wet ) dough

Knead it together for no more than about a minute as you don't want to over work the dough & develop the gluten- other wise you'll end up with bread dough. Cover with cling film & chill the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes

Take the remaining butter, sprinkle a bit of flour all over it, place between 2 sheets of greasproof paper and roll it out till it's about 1/2 It's origional thickness

Remove the paper, fold the butter in half , cover again and roll out again to half its thickness .. then roll out to a square roughly 10cm

Take out the dough and roll out onto a lightly floured surface to almost double the length of the butter, with the short  side at the bottom facing you (The butter should be pliable and still cold. If it starts to soften or melt, pop it back in the fridge for a few minutes )

Place the slab of butter width ways on to the bottom third of the dough. Seal the butter starting with the edges then fold the top onto the butter. You shouldn't be able to see any of the butter.

Brush off any excess dough with a pastry brush, and then turn the dough upside down so the sealed edges are now on your work surface.

Gently press the dough with your rolling pin, to flatten out the dough away from you till you get a rectangle double in the origional length

Fold the bottom 3rd to the middle of the dough,  then fold over the top third so the edges meet and make a neat square, and lightly press the edges with your fingers to seal the dough

Lift up the dough and turn it one quarter anti clockwise so the sealed edges are to the sides

Pop into the fridge for 15 mins then roll out the dough once more, fold it again into 3, give it a quarter turn wrap and chill again .

Give the dough 3-4 more ' turns ' remembering to chill between each turn

Once all the turns have been done, leave the dough to completely chill before using as required. I leave for a minimum of 2 hours, and a maximum of over night and use as required

Virgin Mojito

I love mocktails & my all time favourite has to be the mojito. I cannot actually belive I've never attempted to make it at home until yesterday, it was such a hit that even the husband asked for seconds so i thought it had to go up on the blog

To make virgin mojito's for 6 people  you will need:

° 7up/Sprite ( I used a 2 litre bottle ).
° A good handful of fresh mint  per person .. roughly ripped up -  ( I bought 2 of the pre cut packs of mint you can get from most superstores )
° lime cordial ( I bought mine from asda next to all the dilute fruit juices)
° Ice cubes
° 1 lime per person cut into quarters

• To start if you have a pestle and mortar, lightly crush the mint leaves to release their flavour & scent. Divide equally between the 6 glasses

• Add in lime quarters into each glass, squeezing each quarter just before adding them to the glass to release their juice

• Pour in enough lime cordial into each glass  just as you would if you were making up a regular dilute squash and leave for a minimum of 5- 10 mins for the flavours to develop - I did this 20 minutes before serving and left the leaves to steep in the cordial

• When you're ready to serve, add a couple of ice cubes into each glass and top up with the 7up - give it a stir, ( I used a spoon to squash the limes a little more just before I added the 7 up ) And your mojito is ready to drink

Alternatively to make a large serving, you can add the mint, cordial & the lime to a jug & top up the jug with 7up/Sprite and serve straight fron the jug