Bunny Baker is Cadey from Nottingham, she is passionate about baking and fashion, she lives with her boy Kieran and he is her guinea pig for trying all her food, he also bakes.
Together they can bake just about anything that tastes good and looks amazing.
Her favourite thing to bake is pretty cupcakes, her favourite thing to eat is cheese, chocolate cupcakes and anything Mexican.
She wants to share her favourite places and recipes with everyone, and would like to hear from you.
Since my Kieran bought me Mad About Muffins: Uniquely Delicious Muffins Everyone Can Make for Christmas, I've always wanted to make these chocolate and cream ones, but never have cream but yesterday I got the cream and got to baking these beauties, and it was worth it - I'm not usually one for over indulging but I had two of these in a couple of hours, they're all gooey in the middle and mouth-watering. I only made half a batch but now I'm wishing I'd made more...
Chocolate & Cream Muffins
Ingredients 285g plain flour 30g cocoa powder 1tbsp baking powder Pinch of salt 170g light brown sugar 100ml milk 190ml double cream 2 eggs 100g baking margarine 150g milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and put your muffin cases in the tin.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pushing the cocoa and sugar through a sieve with the back of a spoon.
3. Combine the milk, cream and eggs, mixing with a fork but not thickening the cream.
4. Melt the butter in a pan or in the microwave.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a metal spoon.
6. Fold the chunks into the batter.
7. Put the batter into the sections and cook for 23-25mins until well risen, cool for a bit before eating.
So when I've been looking on Google for a haberdashery cabinet in the past, one website always came up - nothing to do with what I wanted cause it was The Haberdashery in Crouch End, a cafe in North London, from looking at the website it was always somewhere I wanted to go, I took a long stroll down there to have a peek at their food, again, with my Ma. I loved all the mis-matched teacups although I was jealous of the contraption they had to show them off on the wall - I NEED one.
We sat out in the garden which was so cute with the bunting over everyones heads, had to order a dandelion & burdock and the garden egg frittata with tomato jam on rosemary grilled bread and rocket salad, yum! The tomato jam was extra spesh and they even tell you the recipe at www.the-haberdashery.com so that's another thing on the list to make. Best of all were the 'glasses' for the d&b, Kilner jars with straws, all very rustic and I love it!
With all the shiny weather lately I've been out and about in London, me and my Ma decided to get off the tube in Islington and look for somewhere cakey to stop off, couldn't find many places at first - just cutesy restaurants like The Breakfast Club and S&M (Sausage and Mash) but after a little searching we found the Europhorium Bakery, Upper Street, Islington www.euphoriumbakery.com. They've been around for quite a long time and sell everything from breads and pastries to cakes and tarts, they make most of their produce on site and also sell to other places.
I was a bit gutted that they didn't have the stuff to make the vanilla frappe I wanted, but the chocolate one was still good, cake-wise I picked the swiss roll and Ma went for the carrot cake and we swapped half way through. The swiss roll was the best, made with fresh cream, jam, fresh fruit and topped with a chocolate coated strawberry it was gooood, the carrot cake was a bit dry and crumbly but it meant well.
I don't usually find myself craving sweet things, I'm more of a cheese girl but when I do crave it I always want some of my chocolate cupcakes, they're sooo good if I do say so myself I even let my bunnies have a lick oops, bad, but they loved it. I made little and large ones, and got to try out my new sprinkles, these cakes are usually topped with chocolate sprinkles or flowers but I bought some mini coloured discs a while a go and hadn't used them yet.
These are perfect for birthdays, so if you've got a friends birthday coming up and you want to treat them then order some!
We ran out of bread yesterday and I realised I should just bake my own, Kieran has baked us bread plenty of times but never have I taken up such a role, I'm more of a bake-a-cake kinda girl. The start of the recipe said to leave it 2-4 hours or preferably overnight, so I thought 'oh yeah, do that and then I can just finish it off in time for breakfast' erm... no. It wasn't ready until 3pm, a very late breakfast! This recipe is for a plain white loaf, keep an eye on it towards the end of cooking it, every ovens different and your want your bread nice and soft.
Easy Farmhouse Loaf For the first bit: 225ml warm water 1tsp easy blend yeast 175g stong white bread flour
For the second bit: 175g strong white bread flour 1tsp salt 25g butter
1. Scald your big-boy mixing bowl with boiling water from the kettle, after that chuck in your yeast and warm water.
2. Add the flour and mix it up well with a wooden spoon, cover the bowl with cling film and leave 2-4hours or overnight.
3. After all of that, put the second batch of flour in another bowl, with the salt and rub the butter in with your fingers til its like crumbs.
4. Add that to the other mix, scrape your fingers off then cover the bowl with a tea towel for 10mins.
5. When then 10mins is up, knead the dough and put it back in the covered bowl for 10mins, repeat this every 10mins over half an hour, then leave for 30mins.
6. Flour the work surface, roll the dough into a rectangle slightly smaller than the length of the loaf tin and put in your buttered floured tin, cover the tin with a tea towel and leave for an hour and a half in a warm place.
7. Heat the oven to 220'c and put a deep baking tin in the bottom, when the oven is heated, tip boiling water from your kettle into the baking tin to make a little steam.
8. Turn the oven down to 200'c, slash the bread across the top to make your print, then chuck in the oven, get a spray bottle full of water and open the oven door a little, stick the nozzle through and spray to create a little more steam.
9. Cook for 20-25mins then cool on a wire rack. Took a while, but its done!
Cookies always remind me of my Mum, we never had shop bought ones, just soft in the centre homemade ones. Whenever I get bored, I bake for Kieran, my always hungry boyfriend. I scoured my cookbooks for biscuits eventually deciding on tonights menu being double choc cookies, and - not biscuits but - jam tit bits, as I like to call them. I remember when my local Costcutter started to get those lil French sponge cakes with jam in the middle, I always loved having them, felt like I was on holiday but as I started to enjoy baking for myself I decided to make these for myself, except mine are just fairy cakes with a splodge of jam in the middle.
I can't give you my cookie recipe because ssshhh, its a secret recipe, strictly family only, I will give you a highly recommended recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, an English all-American cookbook so they know about their cookies (although I don't agree with electric mixers, its all about the elbow grease!). Enjoy... Double Chocolate Cookies
Makes 12
50g Stork 450g chocolate all chopped up 2 Eggs 170g Light Brown Sugar 1/4tsp Vanilla Extract 85g Plain Flour 1/2tsp Salt 1/2tsp Baking Powder
Preheat the oven to 170'c.
1. Put the butter and half the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth.
2. Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment, and beat until mixed well. Pour in the chocolate mix, beating until well combined.
3. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a separate bowl, then stir into the chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Finally stir in the remaining chocolate until evenly dispersed.
4. Arrange 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each baking tray. Make sure the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15mins, checking regularly after 10mins. They are ready when the tops start to crack and look glossy. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
I will however give you the recipe for my jam cakes, they're really simple to make, just choose whatever jam you're feeling, I usually go for strawberry but tonight I was a rebel and went for a bit of the old raspberry.
Jam Tit-Bits Makes 12
120g Stork 120g Caster Sugar 2 Eggs 120g Self Raising Flour 12tsp Jam Icing Sugar to dust
1. Mix the margarine and sugar together til creamy.
2. Add the eggs and mix in well.
3. Put in the flour and mix til smooth.
4. Put a little mixture in the bottom of the fairy cake cases then about a tsp of jam with more mix to cover the jam.
5. Repeat with the rest and put in the oven for 15-18mins.
6. When done, leave to cool then dust with icing sugar.
After going to the library and finding a book called Cooking the Caribbean Way, I decided to try my hand at Jamaican Patties, I've always loved the ones from Victoria Market and they're so easy to make - I've made a few different pastries in my time and this is by far the easiest. The recipe I found is for a meat one but being a veggie, this is my adapted recipe...
Peng Jamaican Patties
Makes 2
For the Pastry 1/2tsp Salt 1/2tsp Curry Powder 60g Butter or Marg 220g Plain Flour About 75ml Cold Water For the Filling Half an Onion 1 Chilli (Less if you don't want it too spicy) 1 Small Carrot 1 Small Potato 1 Small Sweet Potato A Few Mushrooms A Few Small Cauliflour Florets A Handful of Peas 1/2tsp Paprika About 300-400ml Veg Stock Salt and Pepper
1. Mix the flour with the salt and curry powder in a big bowl.
2. Rub the marg or butter in with your fingers til its like crumbs, then add water a bit at a time. 3. Start to knead it til it becomes like a ball of dough.
4. Then wrap in tin foil and put in the freezer for an hour.
5. In the meantime, put all your veg, chopped and peeled into a bowl with some oil and your chilli, mix up with your hands and chuck into a saucepan, fry it til it starts to brown then add some stock, only enough to cover your veg, boil then simmer for about 15mins.
6. When the veg is all soft, drain most of the stock out and add a few gravy granules and the paprika, it shouldn't be too liquidy.
7. After the hour, get your pastry ball out and divide into two, roll into two circles of the same size. 8. Fill one half of each of the pastry circles leaving a gap round the edge, fold over the top like a pasty and crimp the edges with the edge of a fork.
9. Chuck on a baking tray and cook in the oven at 200'c for 35mins. Yum Scrums. Whilst waiting for my Patties to cook, I started to feel cakey so I whipped out the butter, sugar, etc and made some fairy cakes, I haven't had fairy cakes in tiiiiime! It always about the cupcakes these days but I remebered how me, my bro Elliott and Ma used to make the little cakes with a loada sultanas chucked in, as soon as I chowed down on them I felt like I was back in the early 90's, so good I eat 10! Shame I only made 6!
We got a order last night to make 30 mixed cupcakes for today so we had get our bake on today! We pulled it off with a mix of Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon, Gingerbread, Carrot, Mint Choc, Bakewell and a new addition - Mini Victoria Sponges! They're so adorable and yummy! So we'll give you the recipe...
And to decorate...
½tsp Jam
150ml Double Cream
A bit of Icing Sugar to dust
Preheat oven to 180°c and put your muffin cases in the muffin tin 1. Cream your Stork and sugar together.
2. Add 2 eggs and mix in well.
3. Put in the flour and vanilla essence, stir until mixed well.
4. Fill the cases equally and pop in the oven for 15-18mins.
5. Let them cool down on wire rack for a bit, then tip the cream
into a bowl and use a whisk to whip it, this will probably take a while,
you'll know when its done.
6. Take the cakes out of the cases and cut sideways, its easiest with
a serrated (wavy) knife, put a blob of cream on top and a blob of jam
on the bottom and sandwich together.
7. Get a sieve or shaker and sprinkle some icing sugar over the tops.
Kieran was fancying a midnight munch and scouring all the cookbooks for something to bake with what we've got in the cupboards (not alot). He finally decided on cheese scones, having only ever had the fruit variety I was looking forward to them... And he did himself proud, they're definitely best with Marmite on.
Cheese Scones Makes 7
250g Plain Flour
½ tsp Salt 1 tsp Bicarb 2 tsp Cream of Tartar 55g Stork 150ml Milk 40g Good Cheese Egg Wash (Beaten Egg to brush on top)
Firstly preheat your oven to 220°c
1. Sift the flour, bicarb and cream of tartar into a large bowl, add your margarine and rub with fingers until its like sand.
2. Add all the milk and cheese, mix, then tip out onto a surface dusted in flour, knead it to form your dough.
3. Roll to a 3cm thickness, then get a round cutter and stamp out the scones.
4. Put them on a greased baking tray not too far apart, brush the tops with egg and bake for 10mins.
5. Eat whilst warm, and love it or hate it, they taste gooood with Marmite!
for Christmas, I've always wanted to make these chocolate and cream ones, but never have cream but yesterday I got the cream and got to baking these beauties, and it was worth it - I'm not usually one for over indulging but I had two of these in a couple of hours, they're all gooey in the middle and mouth-watering. I only made half a batch but now I'm wishing I'd made more...
, an English all-American cookbook so they know about their cookies (although I don't agree with electric mixers, its all about the elbow grease!). Enjoy...
