Egg and Spoon

Cadbury's Crème Eggs. I can never get over how delicious they are!! I know they're a real love or hate sweet but really, how can anybody resist?? I always dreamt when I was younger about getting an Easter Egg filled with the Crème Egg inside. Thankfully Cadbury's never invented such a creation, and I have not yet delved into a sugar coma. 

Pimp That Snack is an epic website where people even more obsessive than me actually make these giant desserts!!! It's a dangerous website, but soooo worth a troll. Have a look at my favourite, the home-made giant Crème Egg.

Anyways, I've finally accepted the fact that this will probably not become a reality for me, so I turned to a new product... Cadbury's Egg and Spoon!

The chocolate isn't as thick as the Cadbury Crème Egg, but that isn't to say that they aren't as heavy! This was the white chocolate mousse version and wowzers were they filling!! But oh so tasty! I could eat them all day every day! Definitely store them at room temperature because the filling solidifies in the fridge (it'll soften after a few minutes, but who wants to wait that long??)

Creamy, comforting, chocolatey and cute these are fab! You tap off the top of the egg and then dive into the filling! Adorable! I really was pleasantly surprised by them and they'd be great for a girly night or a snack with someone special! 

Be warned they only come with two spoons- encouraging us to be fatties maybe! They also are quite pricey but a few stores are selling them at a special introductory price at the moment so if I were you, I'd scoop some up now while you can! :)

Stay sweet! x

Over- Cook(i)ed

Last Saturday I was super bored, beyond bored. Living in a house that usually resembles Grand Central Station, everyone was either out of the house for the day. Aside from walking the terriers, I had no company, wa waaah! I know this should have been the opportunity to study and make good use of the day, but with an assignment due the night before I was burnt out! My brain was fried so the only thing I could do which didn't require much thought was bake. I borrowed this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod, minus the caramel and with mini chips instead of regular. I was too tired to adapt a recipe and when this one had baking soda which I thought was a nice addition and wondered how it would turn out!

Now, this would have been good if my tired, tired mind took note of their recommended cooking time... 10 minutes. However, as the cookies still looked pale and flattened when I touched them. The cupcake-baker in me quickly snapped the door shut and left them in for another TEN minutes. BIG mistake! So the lesson here is, follow the instructions when it comes to cookies! :) Still, they weren't that bad... Just a tad crunchy! Think Hagrid's Rock Cakes! I joke I was the only person who seemed to care about them being hard, everyone else just dipped them into tea! Where there's a will, there's a way!

Lesson learned! Here are some cute photos of the cookies anyways, a feast for the eyes!

Don't forget to tune into UCC98.3fm tomorrow for the Mother's Day edition of sUCCulent! 

Until then,
Stay sweet! x

Danish Baking with a Great Dane!

After a sickness-induced hiatus, sUCCulent was back on air today! Sarah Foley, a classmate and baking enthusiast was on the show chatting about Danish baking! From culture to ingredients, recipes and traditions, you'll find all you need to know about Danish baking here.

Sarah's amazing Danish buns are a real crowd pleaser and as she said on the show, don't let the yeast put you off- 15minutes in the oven and you'll be as popular as our guest!

The recipe for gorgeous Danish 'fastelavnsboller' (Custard buns)Makes 14 buns 

Custard:

3 egg yokes
2 tablespoons sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar 
2 dl. fullfat milk 
2 teaspoons cornflour

1. Whisk the egg yokes, sugar, vanilla sugar  into a bowl. 
2. Boil the milk in a pot and whisk it into the eggmix. 
3. Pour the custard back into a pot and let it boil for a couple of minutes. 
4. Leave to cool.

The dough:

1 yeast satchet
1.25 dl. lukewarm fullfat milk#
1 egg
50 g. sugar
1 tablespoon salt
175 g. soft butter in pieces
450g. flour

1. Dissolve yeast into the milk. Add egg, sugar, salt, butter and flour. 
2. -Work the dough for ten minutes. To begin with it will be very moist and fall apart, but keep going and you will end up with a nice, firm dough ball. 
3. Leave the dough to raise for 30-45 mins. 
4. Roll the dough until it is 1 cm. thick. Cut squares of 10x10cm and place a tablespoon of custard in the middle of each square.
5. Fold the squares into small sachets (if you fold the corners 8 times instead of 4, more custard will remain in the bun).
6. Glaze the buns with egg, and bake in the oven for 15 mins at 200 degrees. 

Enjoy! :)


Thanks again Sarah for being a fab guest!
More recipes to come over the weekend, but until then...

Stay sweet! x

Lemon Meringue Sponge

Yes I hear you, sponge you ask?? Why sponge? Why not pie?? Well, because I didn't have time to make a pie crust but also because pie isn't as celebratory as cake! And for some occasions you just need cake! 

This all started when I saw this delicacy in Dunnes Stores. For years I yearned to try Marshmallow Fluff, which I had read about and salivated over on countless blogs. But last weekend, I saw that Goodall's have brought out their new Marshmallow Crème- essentially the same thing! I was so excited that I wanted to use it straight away, and since I didn't have time to trawl through the web I came up with this lemon meringue cake. 

I used Chivers Lemon Curd (which tastes delicious on bread, scones, pie, anything you can imagine!) so sweet yet tangy and a great consistency too. That brings me back to the fluff- pardon, crème- it was very hard to spread to use as a cake topping/filling. Very thick and fluffy and as it had to stand for a couple of hours before consumption outside of a fridge it began to melt slightly and became runny rather than fluffily delicious. Don't get me wrong it was still good but learn from my mistake- decorate just before serving. 



















I used Mary Berry's Baking Bible Victoria Sponge recipe which is nothing extraordinary  honestly I would have preferred a more moist cake- the hunt continues for such a recipe! Anyhow, here is the one I used. I hope you like it as much as I did!

Ingredients:
4 eggs
8oz margarine
8oz caster sugar
8oz self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder  (don't question the double raising agents, they work really well together) 

1. Pre-heat oven to 180degrees Celcius.
2. Grease sides of two 8inch cake tins and line the bottom with circles of baking parchment.
3. Mix all ingredients together with an electric mix.
4. Pour into prepared tins.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until springy to touch/a skewer comes out clean.

To decorate:

1. Once cooled, spread a layer of lemon curd on one layer.
2. Spread a thin layer of marshmallow crème on the other (be gentle whilst doing this as the consistency can be quite rough and may tear the cake.
3. Sandwich together.
4. Frost the top of the cake with marshmallow crème. 
5. As it was an engagement party I decorated this with Haribo hearts and rings, they looked fab but you could use any other gummies to garnish. I think sprinkles/Smarties/M&Ms or other sweets with a food colouring outer may run once they hit the marshmallow fluff so try to avoid these.

Stay sweet! x

Nutella Cupcakes / Cheat's Lava Cakes

For St. Valentine's day I baked these in heart-shaped moulds and served these beauties hot from the oven, with strawberries, ice-cream and other tasty treats! They looked fab on a platter (made to share!) and even better when matched with little bowls of lovehearts, Hershey's kisses and Haribo hearts.

These heart-shaped moulds from Lidl, at under €4 were perfect for Valentine's baking! 

I greased them as recommended but apparently they will be non-stick hereafter, fingers crossed!

They were so simple to make and oh so delicious! The smell of chocolate from these cakes is almost delirious- treat with care! The soft centre makes these cakes so versatile, if served warm they are the easiest lava cakes but can be eaten cool as cupcakes- it's a win-win situation!

The recipe is from odlums.ie 

Makes approx 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

6oz self-raising flour

4oz Caster sugar

4oz Margarine

3 Eggs

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/2 Jar of Nutella

1. Preheat the oven to 190degrees Celcius. 
2. Line cupcake tray with cases.
3. Put all of the ingredients (EXCEPT the Nutella) and beat until smooth.
4. Spoon half of the mixture into the the prepared cases.
5. Place a teaspoon of Nutella into the centre of each case.
6. Cover with a spoon of mixture on top of the Nutella.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until springy to touch. NB the knife test won't work with this recipe as the centre of the cupcake is supposed to be gooey!
8. Serve immediately as lava cakes or allow cool on a wire rack for cupcakes.

Stay sweet! x

Romantic Recipes

Valentine's Day is thought by many to be a Hallmark holiday, shops rack up the cost of flowers and sell teency boxes of chocolates for extortionate prices... Luckily for you I'm not at all cynical! I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY! (sorry for the caps, just felt they were necessary to express my feelings on the matter!)

So, when it came to conjuring up romantic recipes meant to be shared, or organising a celebratory engagement party this week I was more than excited!

In the following posts I'll share with you some of the decadent delights I made and shared. I hope you like them as much as I did! And I hope you enjoyed St. Valentine's day!

Stay sweet! x

Pancake Tuesday

I hope you're as excited as I am for Pancake Tuesday!!

This week on sUCCulent,  I talked about savoury and sweet pancakes, as well as the pancake party possibilities! :)

As you know I'm a huge pancake lover, as documented here... and here! The recipe I mentioned, by Darina Allen is one which I live by, here's a previous post on how to make the perfect pancake.

We all know I love sweet, decadent flavours but what about you? Let me know in the comments section.

Get flipping!!!

Stay sweet! x