Leek, mushroom and Gruyere Quiche

I had a lovely birthday party this year with a fabulous cake made by my AlphaBakes co-host Caroline. I'm sure it will feature on her blog soon so make sure you look out for it. I planned to make a quiche as this month's AlphaBakes letter is Q but unfortunately ran out of time so my work colleagues got to enjoy this the week after my birthday. I've never made a quiche before and to be honest, I was quite worried as pastry is not my thing and I'm really not a good cook at all. Fortunately, it turned out well and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. There wasn't a crumb left! 

As mentioned I'm entering this to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co-hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is Q for Quiche.

 flour, butter, eggs, cream, leeks, mushroom, cheese 

 making the pastry 

 not too bad... Hope it's not going to have a soggy bottom!!

 First time using my baking beans 

 cooking the filling 

 ready to go in the oven 

 I couldn't resist a slice after it came out of the oven 

 delicious

Recipe from BBC Good Food website 

Peanut Butter Granola Bar

I felt like making granola bars one weekend. It's not something that I regularly bake but I decided it was a good way to clear out my baking cupboard as I could put in a combination of seeds, nuts and fruits all of which were sitting in my cupboard gathering dust. I often buy ingredients in case I want to make something or it's on offer and sometimes I forget about them or change my mind and they end up sitting there for ages. So this recipe is slightly made up based on ingredients I had available but you can easily adapt this your tastes. 

The bars were really tasty and I got lots of compliments about them. I love the peanut butter in there and the mix of fruit, nuts and seeds make it seem healthy. Definitely a good on the go snack or lunch box treat. 

I'm entering this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage this month and co-hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked on alternate months. The theme this month is Flapjacks, Oats and Tray Bakes.

I'm also entering this Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The challenge was started by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All inviting us to share our frugal food recipes.  This recipe is a great way to use up bits of dried fruit, nuts and seeds that you have lying around in your cupboard. It's probably not cost effective if you had to buy all the ingredients separately as seeds and nuts are generally on the expensive side. However, I didn't have to buy anything to make this recipe as I had everything to hand so I think it fits the bill for credit crunch munch.

I'm also entering this to a new blogging challenge called Treat Petite. It's hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi and the idea is to submit any sweet treat that's individually portioned and not a big cake. The theme this month is 'No Theme' so anything goes. These are perfect bite sized sweet treats! 

 brown sugar, crunchy peanut butter, honey, golden syrup, oats, dried cranberries, flaked almonds, roasted chopped hazelnuts, seed mix

 I also had an opened pack of this pineapple and papaya mix so I added it in as well 

 Love the colours! 

 Melt honey and butter 

 toasted granola 

 make the peanut butter mixture 

 drizzle with chocolate before serving 

100g butter
100g honey
480g oats
100g flaked almonds
100g toasted chopped hazelnuts
60g seed mix (pumpkin, sunflower, hemp seed, linseed, sesame seed)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100g dried cranberries
145g pineapple & papaya mix
100g crunchy peanut butter
125mls golden syrup
70g soft brown sugar
50g dark chocolate (optional) for drizzling at the end

• Melt honey and butter in a small pan.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.
• Pour melted honey and butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir well.
• It should be a dry mixture at this point.
• Spread out thinly over 2 lined large baking trays and bake for about 10-12 mins, stirring half way until lightly toasted and slightly browned. Be careful not to burn your granola at this point!
• In a medium sized saucepan, melt peanut butter, golden syrup and brown sugar. 
• Transfer cooled toasted granola into a large mixing bowl.
• Pour over the peanut butter mixture and mix well.
• Press into a large rectangle tin as shown and allow to set completely. (I put mine in the fridge for about 20 mins)
• Drizzle with melted chocolate if using. 
• Slice into large squares and serve. 

3D Dinosaur Gingerbread Cookies

My brother got these 3D dinosaur cookie cutters for his birthday and asked me to make some gingerbread cookies. I dutifully obliged and we had fun putting them together. I've never made 3D cookies before and to be honest was a little dubious but was surprised at how well these turned out. His colleagues claim it the best gingerbread ever and they also had fun putting it together and eating it. 

I used a recipe that I'd used previously and made a few gingerbread people as well which the dinosaurs 'attacked'. There are 3 other dinosaur cutters and they also come in a safari theme - giraffe, lion, elephant and hippo which look really cute. Definitely going on my Christmas wish list unless someone wants to get me a belated birthday present....

I'm entering this to Treat Petite. It's hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi and the idea is to submit any sweet treat that's individually portioned and not a big cake. The theme this month is 'No Theme' so anything goes.

 simple store cupboard ingredients 

 roll out dough and cut out shapes then bake 

it's a 3D T-rex dinosaur! 

 T-rex eating a gingerbreadman

 Anxious family looking worried and deciding if they should run or not 

 There's a lot of dinosaurs here!

125g unsalted butter, softened
110g dark brown sugar
2.5 cups plain flour, sifted
1 egg yolk
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4-6 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp mixed spice
270mls golden syrup

• Preheat the oven to 160C
• Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in a bowl until smooth
• Stir in the remaining ingredients until its mixed properly
• You may need to add a little more golden syrup if the mixture is crumbly
• Knead the dough on a floured surface and roll it out to approximately 5mm in thickness.
• Cut shapes using cookie cutters
• Place on a baking tray and bake for approximately 8-10 minutes until they are brown
• Cookies will harden once cool

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I can't believe it's September already. September is my favourite month of the year as we head into autumn but more importantly it's my birthday month! I absolutely love birthdays, it was always a big celebration in my family growing up and that tradition has continued. It turns out that it's birthday week this week at work so I had to make something extra special (3 birthdays in 3 consecutive days).  Here's a snippet of the conversation at work which gave me my inspiration. 

Colleague : Ros, what cake are we having tomorrow?
Me: Cake? Well I wasn't planning on baking anything but what would you like?
Colleague : Oh the brownies were really good. Pause. Actually that peanut butter cake you made was amazing....now I really want peanut butter.
Me: Ok I'll think of something.
Colleague : It's J's birthday tomorrow and E's birthday the day after.
Me: And mine the day after that!

So I decided to make these peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes - some baked in ice cream cones and others decorated to look like a giant ice cream cone. I also got a chance to use my silicone spoon mould to make some chocolate spoons. I wanted to make chocolate biscuits but ran out of time. These were so popular I made them again the next day so in total I've baked over 50 cupcakes in 2 days and there's 2 left that I know of! 

I used my trusted peanut butter cupcake recipe which has a lovely light texture and is full of peanut butter flavour. The first day I made a peanut butter cream cheese icing as I didn't have any double cream and the second day I made peanut butter frosting with double cream. Personally I prefer the cream cheese version as it helps balance the sweetness of the cake. I also made a batch of chocolate buttercream frosting which went well with the peanut butter/chocolate cupcakes. 

I'm entering this to Calendar Cakes hosted by Laura from Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel from Dolly Bakes. The theme this month is cupcakes as it's National Cupcake week between 16-22nd September. 

I'm also entering this to a new blogging challenge called Treat Petite. It's hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi and the idea is to submit any sweet treat that's individually portioned and not a big cake. Luckily cupcakes are acceptable, otherwise I'll enter my chocolate spoons! The theme this month is 'No Theme' so anything goes. 

 ready to bake my cupcakes

 I bought 2 different ice cream cones. The cornets for decoration and the cup cones for baking. 

 my chocolate batter was quite liquid compared to the peanut butter one but they turned out well after baking 

 I used some foil to support the ice cream cones. 

 start with some chocolate dough

 add some peanut butter dough

 peanut butter cream cheese frosting 

 ready to decorate. I coloured some of the peanut butter icing to resemble ice cream flavours 

 I used some icing to stick the cone to the tray and to stick the cupcakes to the tray 

 pipe different colours on each cupcake and decorate with sprinkles 

 silicone spoon mould 

 fill with melted chocolate and leave to set in the fridge 

 ice cream cone cupcakes 

 The cones remain crisp after baking but will go a little soft after leaving it overnight with frosting on top 

 you can see the 2 different batters I used for the cupcake. 

 Tip for carrying ice cream cone cupcakes - use an egg tray 

Peanut butter cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

75g butter
130g smooth peanut butter
190g dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
60ml semi-skimmed milk

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar until well blended. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in the vanilla extract. 
• Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.
• Add 1/3 of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.
• Pour 1/3 of the milk and beat again.
• Repeat until all the flour and milk have been added. 
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and/or ice cream cones 
• Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes (depending on size of your cupcakes) until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (The ice cream cones need about 20-25 minutes) 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating. 

Chocolate cupcakes

125g/1 cup all purpose flour
40g/ 1/3 cup cocoa powder
56g/ 1/4 cup caster sugar
100g/ 1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
180mls/ 3/4 cup whole milk
125mls / 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

• Preheat oven to 160C.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs.
• Stir until just combined, scraping bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula to incorporate all of the flour
• Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and/or ice cream cones
• Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream frosting
175g dark chocolate
225g butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g icing sugar, sifted

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
• Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and icing sugar until smooth.
• Add the melted chocolate and continue beating until thick and creamy.

Peanut butter cream cheese frosting

200g icing sugar
200g cream cheese
110g butter
125g smooth peanut butter

• Place all ingredients in an electric mixer and beat until smooth.

Peanut Butter frosting

110g icing sugar
200g smooth peanut butter
70g butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
80ml double cream

• Place the icing sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
• Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work.
• Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.