Mulled Apple Hots

Ok, so I KNOW that “hots” isn’t technically a noun.. but I didn’t want to call them hotties because it made me laugh/cringe everytime I thought it. And also.. can I just add – NOUN SCHMOUN! These are a nice alternative to mulled wine for the kids or non-drinkers. I know people think of apple as an autumn thing, but it goes so well with ingredients like cloves and cinnamon, that I thought I would go with it.

If you hate mulled wine (…how!?!?), but you want to make this into a tasty alcoholic beverage you can also add vodka or cointreau when heating the apple juice to give it that bite! Sorry that this is such a short post. My head is crammed with christmas thoughts like presents and partying…. and not much space for blog post thinking.

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Plum and Cinnamon mini cakes

haaaaa. You know that feeling when you write a whole post and then you delete it my accident. That’s how I feel right now. Not a great feeling! Oh well – here goes for post number 2 on plum cakes.

My weekend was a veritable funfair of ridiculous eating and drinking. Waffles on Friday, Hard Rock Cafe on Saturday and mulled wine. Way too much mulled wine. I think I shall just have to continue this way until Christmas. Lebkuchen – which I will be making at some point in December. Little Ginger cakes with jam and chocolate. MMmmmm. I will make them at some point and post them on here for the season!

 

Chocolate Moustache Biscuits for Movember

As you probably know, not only is it November, it’s Movember. Although I have a pretty impressive moustache for a girl, I don’t think growing it out would be noticeable enough to raise awareness. So instead, I thought I would bake these cute moustache biscuits. If you’re from the UK, these are actually modelled on the classic bourbon chocolate biscuit, if you have no idea what a bourbon is – you are missing out and should make and eat these asap. They are SO chocolatey without being too sweet. Perrrrfect. Plus they are shaped like moustaches, that’s just hilarious. And yes, I did hold them up in front of my face before eating them as did my flatmates… I think I would look pretty cool with a handlebar moustache.

Dulce De Leche Brownie Muffins

Ohhhhh dulce de leche. How I love you and your ridiculously sweet gooeyness and how I would love to eat you with a spoon from the jar… This post is my ode to dulce de leche – one of my greatest vices in life.

Realising that eating it straight from the jar would probably reduce my life expectancy by more than just a little bit, I decided to pop it in a cake. but NOT just any cake, a deliciously moist and brownie like muffin. If you are really greedy, like me, then you can also spread some on the top once they’re done and eat them like that.If you don’t – you’re missing out. You should have FOMO.

Walnut Loaf Cake

Slight rant: I was woken this morning by builders hammering about 2 metres from my head at 7am on the dot. WHY is it the law that builders can start at 7 – surely 8 would be a much more civilized time! I am extremely disappointed as I was looking forward to going upstairs and ranting to  the builders about their illegally early starting times – as I was sure it was 8. But I checked online, and 7 it is. ERGH! SO TIRED.

Last week was ABSOLUTELY manic and all I wanted to do every spare moment I had was watch Game of thrones or SATC. I had a dinner party where I made some nice stuff, and I had planned to share that on the blog – but you know after a glass of wine I just couldn’t have taken any nice photos! I will have to recreate the stuff I made!

Hazelnut, Cinnamon & Chocolate Biscotti (!!!)

When it’s freaking cold. When you HAVE to wear socks in your house to stop from getting pneumonia – even with the heating on. That’s when I like to have a cup of black coffee with a biscotti. Hazelnut biscotti in particular – because I love that warming crunchy flavour of a roasted hazelnut!

Plus my awesome friend Teco is leaving Berlin and going back to Brazil – literally SAD times. Such sad times. He gives amazingly long hilarious speeches with very little actual message – politician worthy! So the weekend was spent drinking, eating, being tipsy, being full – and starting again every few hours. Was fab – but as you can imagine, I am worse for wear. So the biscottis helped. I woke up at about 4am – and ate some more of them… and went back to bed. Am I the only weirdo who gets up in the middle of the night and feels hungry? – not so much hungry as – “tasty”.

Family Traits: Grilled Corn with Chilli and Salt

I have realized that colder weather strikes up a little bit of nostalgia in me – first the rock cakes.. and now this! Every Friday after school, my grandma – we called her Mumma – used to pick us up from school and take us back to hers. She was one of those un-strict grandparents – most grandparents spoil their grandchildren I reckon. Always lots of cartoons and toys.

But she also introduced me to corn on the cob. Such a great snack! And it looks so pretty with the leaves one when it’s been grilled. EVEN if the leaves are a teeensy bit burnt like mine, still looks lush.

Rock Cakes with Jam

This is another nostalgic  (and lazy) bake. Back in school we used to have home economics lessons aka cooking and rock cakes were always a recurring theme. They were what our teacher considered easy, but many of us, at the age of 12, were simply at a loss. Too busy gossiping about what we would wear to the school disco and paying no attention to how long they had been in the oven, they came out like actual rocks. Grey and inpenetratably solid. MMmmmm.

Luckily, since the age of 12, I have perfected the art a bit more. I am not a fan of completely scruffy looking rock cakes, so this is my slightly neater … more “uptight” version. They go really well with some thick berry jam – in fact they go pretty well with anything sweet. Slap some nutella / honey / even fruit yoghurt on it and it will be a dream. And MAPLE SYRUP. Add some maple syrup to some jam and whack it on… you will literally hear a choir singing a melody on your tastebuds. LITERALLY (but not really).

Also – I have recently bought a jar of fluff. My friend Mark used to eat the stuff out of the jar with a spoon and I only bought it for some frosting… but I have to say, it gives me the heeby jeebies to think about spreading it on bread. Isn’t too sticky? Anyway, any advice on how to use fluff as a spread with the greatest effect would be much appreciated.

Orange and Grapefruit Lemonade

Happy Monday all!

My weekend was full of far too much drinking and headacheyness. Fun at the time, brutal the morning after – you know the kind I mean. I was saved by some roast chicken and garlic mayo and watching Trevor Noah and Patrice O’neal. Only just realized that chicken and comedy are the perfect duo for fighting a killer hangover. That and staying in your pajamas all day – even after a shower – HEAVEN.

Now, you may think this drink is inappropriate for the season – most people are moving towards Pumpkin lattes already. And while I am the first the gulp down some tasty hot drinks – got my tea beside me as I write – Citrus is an awesome way to get your vitamin C and fight off those pesky flu and cold viruses. Also, not to go on about hangovers – but fizzy water is amazingly refreshing compared to normal water:  I was so dehyrated I felt like I wanted to drink a lakeful of water and fizzy water gives you that “ahhhhhh” feeling, just like coca cola. AWESOME.

Some friends had been making their own lemonade with lemon juice and fizzy water, so I thought I would make a grapefruit, orange and lemon syrup instead to add to the fizzy water… with a slice of grapefruit and some ice – you are good to go! If you don’t like grapefruit then add more oranges or lemons in their place.

Pork Dumplings

So, I thought I would give these pork dumplings a try – I found them on one of my favourite food blogs Spoon Fork Bacon. Great GREAT recipe and so easy! I haven’t got much time to write a blog post unfortunately but I really recommend their blog for party food ! So wonderful and simple. Also, their photography is the bomb.

If you, like one of my flatmates and my boyfriend, don’t like pork, give it a try with minced chicken or beef. I personally think pork is amazing, especially when seasoned so well, because it has tasty juices that I really don’t think chicken can compete with! My mum also makes amazing dumplings with a pasta making machine and pork. PORKITY PORKITY PORK!