Strawberry Marble Cake (eggless)

Luscious strawberry in a moist sponge makes this cake delicious.

Ingredients:

225g (8 oz) self-raising flour
225g (8 oz) butter, at room temperature
225g (8 oz) caster sugar plus 2 teaspoons
4 eggs or (4 tablespoons egg replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons water )
1 teaspoon baking powder
10 strawberries
1 teaspoon  natural red food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / gas mark 4.
2. Mix the egg replacer with 4 tablespoons water whisk and keep aside.
3.Mix together the butter and 225 g sugar until light and fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl sieve together the flour and baking powder
5. Add spoonful of flour and egg replacer alternately into the butter and sugar and fold it in until all the flour is mixed in.
6. Chop the strawberries into small pieces and add 3/4 of them  to the batter and fold them in
7. The remaining 1/4 of the strawberries place in a food blender with 2 teaspoons sugar and whizz blend them to form a smooth puree.
8. Sieve the puree to remove pips. Add 1 teaspoon red food colour to this puree and mix it in. Pour the puree into a plastic piping bag and keep aside.
9. Grease and line a rectangular cake tin .
10. Pour the cake batter in the tin and tap the tin gently to spread the batter out evenly.
11. Cut a tiny hole in the piping bag and pipe red swirls all over the top of the cake batter.
12. Using a cocktail stick swirl the red strawberry puree into the batter.
13. Place the cake in the oven to bake for 35-40 mins at 180 degrees c /350 degrees F . Check the cake is done by inserting a skewer in the cake if it comes out clean cake is baked.
14 Remove from oven and cool  on a wire rack before serving.

You may like:
Strawberry Kisses mini muffins

Submitting to:
Flavours of the world ~Grand Finale

Orange Chocolate Mousse Vegetarian friendly and Shaken Udder Milkshakes giveaway.

I recently wrote about some yummy milkshakes that I was sent by Shaken Udder, we really enjoyed them and we not only drank them but created some awesome desserts with them too such as Banana caramel Ice cream and Orange chocolate mousse.

Here is the recipe:

Creamy rich and chocolicious with a hint of orange chocolate mousse.

Ingredients:

240 ml Shaken Udder Choc Orange Milkshake
120 ml Milk
1 tablespoon agar agar flakes
1 tablespoon sugar
60 g milk chocolate grated or finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon orange essence
Orange slices for garnish
6 Orange chocolate match sticks for garnish

Method:

1. Add the milk to a pan and add the agar agar flakes and sugar bring to boil, keep stirring  until agar agar and sugar are fully dissolved.  Turn off heat and add in the chocolate and keep stirring until its all melted.
2.Whisk the milk shake until thick and creamy. I used my milk frother for this.Add the orange essence and mix it in.
3. Fold the agar agar mixture to the whisked chocolate milk shake to combine it.
4. Spoon the mixture into small shot glasses.
5. Place the mousse in the fridge for 4 hours to semi set.
6. Before serving garnish with orange slices and a chocolate match stick

NB- Due to this mousse being gelatine free it does not set fully and will have a creamy smooth texture.

I was sent the Shaken Udder milkshakes to try and they have been very kind and have agreed to provide two simply.food readers 16 bottles of their milkshakes each  for a giveaway prize.

How To Enter

Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
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Closing date – 12th February 2014 12.00 am

Open to over 18 years old and UK residents only.
2 prizes of 16 bottles of Shaken Udder Milkshake (One prize per winner only)

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box. Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
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•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
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Apple Crumb Bars ~Secret recipe club challenge 20th January 2014

This is my assignment with the Secret Recipe Club.The aim of the club is that you are allocated a blog from which you have to select a recipe and try it and blog about it. My assigned blog was Mele Cotte.This blog is written By Chris who is from an Italian background.Browsing through her blog there were many recipes that caught my eye but one that I immediately want to try was her Apple Crumb Bars.Being the christmas holidays I always have an invite  or two to someones house, a baked goodie makes a perfect edible pressie.
I did not make any major changes to the recipe but I halved it and reduced the amount of sugar slightly. I also tossed some flaked almonds on the crumb topping for extra crunch .The apple crumb bars turned out delicious. My only challenge was that living in the UK working out what a stick of butter weighed took some googling. :)
You can find the original Apple crumb bar recipe here.

Crisp baked oats and apple bars with a delicious cinnamon crumb topping.

Ingredients:

Bottom layer

½ cup rolled oats
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
120 g butter
1 tablespoon egg replacer mixed with three tablespoons water

Middle layer-apple layer

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Top layer-crumb topping

½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup sugar
60 g/ 2 oz butter chilled

30 g / 1 oz flaked almonds

Method:

1. Heat oven to 175°C/ 350° F.

2. Lightly line & grease a shallow baking tin

3. To prepare crumb topping take a medium bowl and add to it the flour and rub in the chilled butter to form a bread crumb type mixture, stir in the oats and sugar and set aside.

4. To prepare the apple layer, add the apples slices to a bowl add to it the sugar and cinnamon and toss together. Keep aside

 5. To prepare the bottom layer take a medium bowl and add to it the flour, salt, baking powder and chilled butter and rub gently to form a crumb type texture.

6. Stir in the oats and sugar and add the egg replacer and mix together.

7. Spread this mixture into the greased and lined baking tray and smooth it out.

8. Arrange the apples in cinnamon sugar over this layer.

9. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the apples and smooth it out so that it forms an even layer.

10. Bake the apple crumb bars in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

11. After 25 minutes of cooking sprinkle some almond flakes on the crumb bars and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the crumb mixture is golden brown and apple are cooked.

Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before cutting into bars.

You may like:

Honey Ginger Flapjacks

Submitting to:

Lets cook with Apples  :


Flavours of the world ~ Grand Finale event by simply.food

Shaken Udder Milkshakes review

I love milkshakes and its such a good way to get your children to drink milk without making a fuss. Making milkshakes at home is fairly simple and can be made with a variety of fruits but sometimes when we are out or need lunch on the go its not practical to carry homemade milkshakes.In this situation Shaken Udder milkshakes are perfect for on the go.

Shaken Udder is a range of delicious milkshakes made from fresh British milk, combined with finest ingredients such as Belgium chocolate, vanilla beans, fresh strawberries and real bananas, no artificial colours or flavourings are added the the milkshakes.The milkshakes have less than  5% added sugar providing a good source of Calcium. They are gluten free and suitable for vegetarians too.

The four amazing flavours are Choc Orange, Top banana, Chocolush and Vanilllalicious. Having tried all the flavours my favorite was the choc orange however my family disagreed and voted for the banana.The milkshakes are available in Waitrose, Sainsburys and Tesco. You can also purchase them online. The online price is £ 14.00 for 8 bottles.

In the photo above you can see we enjoyed the top banana flavour , perfectly chilled and served with a garnish of banana slices covered in chocolate sauce. Apart from drinking the shakes, I am sure you can create ice creams with them too which is going to be my next task.

Thank you to shaken Udder for sending me the samples. All the views expressed  in this review are my own.

Pixley Berries Cordial Review

In the summer it’s nice to have refreshing soft drinks but I prefer to serve soft drinks that are low in sugars and made from fresh fruits rather than concentrates with additives in them. Pixley Berries cordials are made from fruit juices, sugar, and water. They are completely free from additives and preservatives and are not made from concentrates.The cordials come in three flavours blackcurrant, cranberry and apple and blackcurrant and raspberry.
Pixley Berries sent me the Cranberry and Apple flavour to sample. I tried it diluted with ice cold still water and also tried it by diluting it with ice cold sparkling water. I definitely preferred mine with the sparkling water.You could taste the cranberries and the sweetness of the apple which left a pleasing sensation on the palate.
All the berries used in the cordials are carefully selected from suppliers and pressed to retain the flavours of them. Each bottle will provide 12 servings .The cordials are perfect for making mocktails, cocktails or even added to fruit salads and used as flavourings. They are available to purchase from Waitrose and online.

Thank you to Pixley Berries for sending me a bottle of the Cranberry and Apple cordial to try, all the views and opinions expressed  in this post are my own.