Cupcakes!

Everyone loves to remember their childhood and this is the perfect way! Cupcakes, Fairy cakes, or buns; call them whatever you want, but they are fun to make and taste great!




Ingredients;

-150g self raising flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-110g soft butter
-2 eggs
-2/3 tablespoons cocoa powder
-A little vanilla extract
For the icing;
-275g icing sugar
-20g cocoa powder
-110g butter
-3/4 tablespoons water
-Sweets e.t.c. for decorating

Bun cases!

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6, and set out the bun cases (preferably onto bun trays, but a baking tray will do. Just be sure to double up the bun cases if you're using a baking tray, for a bit of extra strength).
Mix all the cake ingredients together in a bowl, and mix quickly with a wooden spoon until soft and creamy. Split the mix into two bowls, and in one bowl add some cocoa powder. Put about 1 teaspoon of each mixture into each bun case. They should look something like this:





Cook the buns in the oven for about 15 minutes or until browned. Now, they are ready to decorate!

To make the icing, gently melt the butter (mixed with the water) in a pot. Don't boil. Mix into the icing sugar, and like with the cake mix, split into two bowls and add cocoa powder to one of them. Decorate, and eat!

Lemon Chicken

This is a really, really nice dish! It's pretty easy too. The recipe here serves 2 people.

Ingredients;

-2 chicken breasts (or 1 per person)
-110g basmati or long grain rice
-1/3 tablespoon vegetable oil
-4 drops sesame oil
-1 clove thinly sliced garlic
-1 tablespoon of lemon juice
-2-3 spring onions, chopped
Marinade;
-2 cloves thinly sliced garlic
-1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 tablespoon cornflour
-6 drops of soy sauce
-A little egg white

First, mix together all of the marinade ingredients. Stir this into thinly sliced chicken. I usually leave the marinade to sit overnight, in a sealed container in the fridge but if you want to use it right away, that's fine too!

Put the rice into a pot, and add lots of water (just over double the amount of rice there is) bring to boil and salt.

Heat a wok or pan, and add the vegetable and sesame oil. If you can get groundnut oil instead of veg oil that's great, but substituting the sesame oil for another oil really changes the taste (I did this the first time I made it, and it was nowhere NEAR as nice as it was when I made it the second time, using sesame oil!) so I don't advise it. Stir fry the garlic quickly for 20 seconds; don't brown! Next, add the marinaded chicken. Stir fry quickly for 3 minutes until cooked white all the way through (this is why it's important to cut your chicken extra thin!). Reduce the heat, and add the lemon juice and spring onion.

dish up with your rice, and you're done!

Chickpea Burgers

These we seriously yummy! They did however break apart a little - this seems to happen every time I use chickpeas in cooking and I don't know what I'm doing wrong - if anyone could shed some light on this it would be great!



ingredients;
-3 tablespoons Oliver Oil
-1 onion, finely chopped (should weigh aprox 110g)
-2 cloves of crushed garlic
-1 small chili (optional)
-1 tablespoon ground coriander
-1/4 tablespoon turmeric
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-200g finely chopped mushrooms
-juice of 1 lime (I used lemon, and they were still yummmy!)
-1 x 400g tin of chickpeas (drain before use)
-75g fresh breadcrumbs
-A few splashes of Tabasco sauce (optional)
-salt & pepper
-Some white flour for coating

First, heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the onion and garlic very gently, for about five minutes until soft. Add the chilli, cumin, coriander, turmuric, and cook for about three minutes, stirring carefully.Add the mushrooms and lime (or lemon) juice. Cook for another five minutes and remove from heat.Crush the chickpeas with a fork or blender, and add to the fried vegetables along with the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and Tabasco if you are using it!

This is where it gets messy! Spread a flour coating on a plate, and shape the chickpea mix into about 6 burgers with your hands, being very gentle. Roll the burgers into the flour, and leave to chill for at least 15 minutes. Once chilled, fry in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes or until cooked.

Your burgers are now done! Eat them on their own, in a bun, in pitta, however you want! I added some mayo mixed with sweet chili sauce and some spring onions.