MMMalteser Cake

When I saw Debbie put the ingredients up for a Malteser cake I knew I'd have to try it, who could not try a cake thats chocolatey, malty AND has maltesers!

I did make a lil oops though, I picked up the chocolate horlicks drink by mistake and didnt notice until afterwards, so this cake was more chocolatey than malty.

The mix is quite runny which makes for a lovely moist cake. As it was a large cake I had to ccok it for quite a bit longer than the recipe states for the fairycakes, I think it was an hour in total, but I kept checking it to make sure.

And the results.... Everyone loved it! So much so there was complaints when I made one to take to the NEC, from my family as I hadnt cooked them one.

The one for the NEC I substituted the horlicks and cocoa powder for malteser chocolate drink powder. It gave a much lighter taste to how I had done it before.

Definately a recipe I would recommend!!!

Vegetable Cobbler

I tried baking Debbies Vegetable cobbler over at Country Heart and Home (ingredients here)

I followed Debbies tips from her own experience & added a little bit of parmasan to the cheese to give a bit extra flavour. I was still a little worried about it as my lot arent big veg eaters unless its raw and in sticks to dunk.
I loved this recipe, I am a big veggie eater and this was delicious. The topping added a different texture and was nice to dunk in the juices at the end.

My youngest (almost 3) loved the topping but didnt like the veg.

My eldest (11) ate about half of it but found it rather bland

My OH turned his nose up at it before he'd even tasted it purely because it was healthy & had no meat in it so from the start there was no hope of him liking it.

So unfortunately this didnt go down well at all, so I may make it on other occassions, divide into seperate portions and freeze for those times that they want something I'm not keen on.

Lemon cake with crunchy topping

Debbie put up a recipe for Lemon cake with crunchy topping on Country Heart and Home. I normally make Lemon drissle cake which is very similar except you prick holes in it so that the lemon goes inside making it a very lemony, moist cake

This time I baked 5 cupcakes and put the rest in a cake tin.

I had no problems with this cake, woohoo!!

Everyone loved it! Its a moist, light cake with a gorgeous lemon, crunchy topping which gives a change in texture and a zesty taste of lemon.

When I was cropping the photo above Kai came over and said "ooooo, cake YUMMY!!! Cake please" so I had to make another batch as they'd all gone, THATS how nice it is!

Carrot cake with vanilla frosting

This was the first Recipe Debbie put up on Country Heart and Home to try, but I didnt have any bananas in at the time so it had to wait until now.

As soon as I saw the ingredients I decided that this was going to be fab for the kids (and my OH) having got both carrots and bananas in it.

Again the recipe was simple, all in the bowl and mix it up. It cooked nicely and looked good when it came out.

I baked 4 cupcakes and put the rest in a cake tin.

I did come up with a problem with the frosting though. I havent replaced my electric whisk yet after it stop working, and with stirring by hand the butter didnt combine properly. The cream cheese was also rather watery, which could be because it was light cream cheese (only sort I had in).

I solved this by straining it through a sieve and then adding more icing sugar.

And what of the family taste results:

Kai (2 year old) happy to eat some of it, eats all of the icing but always leaves part of the cakey part

Zack (10 year old) really enjoyed it, wanted (and had) seconds.

Ryan (OH) thought the cupcake taste a bit bland and not like carrot cake, it needed spices in to be carrot cake. After craving sweet stuff he tried a slice of the larger cake and found he prefered it.

Myself (ME!) The cupcake was light, soft, slightly moist and therefore a great texture. I found it slightly flavourless, it could have been out flavoured by the frosting. The larger cake had its icing spread thinner than on the cupcakes and had more "cake" flavour because of this. Next time I shall try adding some spices as I do enjoy a spiced up carrot cake, but the texture was so nice on this one I dont want to mess too much with it.

Results: One to give to the kids when wanting to give them more fibre/fruit & veg. Shall try again with spices in.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

Over at Country Heart and Home Debbie is posting a new recipe every week for a year with the idea that we can put them together in a recipe book or as recipe cards with our own photos, tried and tested with comments. This can then be kept or given as a present.

I decided to try the Mushroom Soup for Sunday lunch. Though my chopping speed is diabolical this was a very simple recipe to make and follow.

My lot are a fussy bunch, except for the youngest, he's happy to eat anything from raw onions and lemons to fish fingers.

I expected the eldest to sqwark when he saw it, its a fawn mushroom colour, not the colour of food he likes, but he didnt, his bowl was returned to the kitchen empty.

My other half is the other fussy one, its hit & miss with him but he also loved it, his only whim was that he'd like it again with larger chunks of onion and mushroom in it. Thats 2 yummy votes out of 4.

Kai, my youngest, he enjoyed dunking his baguette in it and eating it that way, but he got fed up of eating it with a spoon, next time I'll put his in a mug.

& me? Well I thought it was delicious, its just the right consistency, creamy without being sickly and full of flavour.

Thats a total of 4/4 votes to cook this again!! Thats what I call a good start.