Lemon 'Cheese' Cake and Mojito Mocktail Recipes for Summer

Hi guys! Today I'll be sharing two Summer recipes with you that you can try out. These recipes are from my Auntie Beverly and are perfect for an afternoon tea party so I hope that have a go yourself!

Here is the recipe for the lemon 'cheese' cake. The reason it is called lemon 'cheese' cake is because it isn't actually a cheesecake however it has a lemon cheesecake flavour. You can see the cake in the photo above, it looks so pretty and delicious!

Ingredients

For the cake:

1600g golden caster sugar

160g butter or margerine, softened

3 large eggs

160g SR Flour

zest 1 lemon

For the syrup:

2 tblsp icing sugar

juice 1 lemon

For the frosting:

2 x 250g tubs mascarpone cheese

1 tblsp (heaped) icing sugar

2 tblsp (heaped) good quality lemon curd

A few strawberries for decoration

Method:

Heat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4

Line the base and sides (using baking parchment) of two 20cm round cake tin.

Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the egg, one at a time, beating after each addition. If the mixture curdles add a spoonful of the flour each time.

Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest.

Tip into the tins, level the top, then bake for 25-30 mins or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Whilst baking, prepare the syrup.

In a small pan mix the icing sugar and the lemon juice together, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat. When cakes are baked, remove from oven and whilst still in the tin prick gently with a fork then spoon over the syrup as evenly as possible. Leave in the tin to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Prepare frosting by beating together all ingredients

Let the cake cool completely. Sandwich together, using about 1/3 of the frosting. Cover the top and sides with frosting. Pipe decoration around the base. Place prepared half strawberries around the side of the cake above the piping and use any left over frosting to pipe above the strawberries.

Yum! Lemon ‘cheese’ cake.

Now that you have a great Summer cake, you can make yourself a refreshing drink. This is the recipe for a mojito mocktail (a mocktail is suitable for anyone because it doesn't contain alcohol). You can see the mocktail on the photo above. Here is the recipe:

MAKES ABOUT 4 to 6 Mocktails

To make the cordial:

2 tblsp sugar

Small bunch of mint

7 limes

To serve:

Ice cubes (lots)

Low calorie Indian tonic water with cucumber (Tesco)

Sprig of mint

Slice of lime

A straw, umbrella, cocktail swizzle stick etc.

Method:

Muddle the sugar with the leaves picked from a small bunch of mint using a pestle and mortar (or use a small bowl and the end of a rolling pin). The idea is to release the oils and flavour from the leaves using the sugar as an abrasive. Add the juice of the limes and pour into a plastic container (with lid), place in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight.

Remove from fridge and strain into a jug.

Place crushed ice into glasses. Divide the cordial and top up with tonic water. Add a sprig of fresh mint, a slice of lime and a straw. Decorate with umbrella if you wish and enjoy.

I hope you all have a great Summer and try out these amazing recipes! Let me know in the comments if you have any Summer recipes to share! 

Potato Salad Simple Recipe for Summer!

My last post was all about what to do this Summer! In the food and drink section I promised that I would give you the recipe for my Mum's potato salad so that you're ready for a great barbecue! It is quite easy but will have you wanting more. Here's the scrumptious recipe:

Ingredients:
.A bag of small potatoes
.A few spring onions (about 2 or 3)
.Mayonnaise
.Plain Yoghurt

...And that's it! Let's get started with the recipe.

1. Cut all the potatoes (the amount you feel necessary) in half and boil them until they are soft
2. Whilst they are boiling, chop the spring onions
3. Once the potatoes are boiled, drain them and put the chopped spring onions in a bowl with them
4. While it is still warm, put in as much mayonnaise and plain yoghurt as you want
5. Stir it all together then leave the potato salad to cool, enjoy!

That was easy! Only 5 steps...and it's worth it!

PS: The picture isn't of the potato salad that goes along with the recipe (I don't have a photo of it) but it looks similar to it.

Tasty Truffles!

Mmmmm.....truffles! Recently I have made two batches of rum truffles with my mum. The first batch was for my Nanna as a gift for Mother's day and the second was to share between my family. The picture (above) is of the second batch. For this batch of truffles, we used shaved/grated milk chocolate as the truffle cream's coating. For my Nanna's batch we used half cocoa powder and half chocolate sprinkles a the coating.
    I think these truffles are a great gift for chocolate lovers because if you were to buy truffles, they would be very expensive but as you are making them yourself, they would be much cheaper yet the receiver of the gift would think they cost a lot more than they did and/or would appreciate it more because it is handmade.
    Truffles can be very rich, but having one or two can be a very luxury treat for an after dinner taste sensation. If you love them so much, you can have a few at a time as a lovely chocolaty dessert.
    If you want to make rum truffles just like mine then just ask in the comments for the recipe and I'll tell you how to make it. I just thought I would leave out the recipe from this post because I wanted to just give you a little taster and keep it peppy so that you would only have to read a whole recipe if you wanted it.
   IMPORTANT UPDATE: Comments are now enabled on this blog so please leave some nice comments on the posts.

A sip of Sour!

Yesterday evening I decided to mix up lots of different drinks to make my own (obviously non-alcoholic) cocktail. It's a really sour recipe so if you decide to make one for yourself, make sure you love sour things (like me)! This isn't a very technical recipe, I haven't included proper measurements for you to use but I just made it up as I went along. Start by cutting the corner off of a blackcurrant sun shot pouch (from Aldi) and pouring it into your glass. Make sure you keep the straw for later. After that put a splash of cranberry cordial in the drink and also a splash of lime juice (lime juice can be very sour so don't add too much-it will overpower the other flavors). After adding all the flavors, it's time to add the water (to further dilute the cordial-the juice should do most of this for you though). It needs to nearly fill the cup to the brim-but not quite (leave about a centimeter and a half at the top). After this add a splash or two of fizzy water (to add a bit of fizz and create a bitterness). Now you can either mix your drink with a spoon or just swirl it in your hand a bit. It tastes absolutely delicious and is a really unique drink for you to try out!

Perfect Pitta Pizza

Hi guys! Today I've got a really easy but yummy dinner/lunch idea for you to try out. Yesterday I made some really cool pizzas with my mum....out of pitta bread! (mine are the two on the left)
First of all you spread out tomato paste mixed with a few drops of olive oil onto the top of the pitta bread. Then, well... you do anything you want! You should probably sprinkle a layer of cheese onto the tomato paste first, before you add the toppings. I used Lancashire cheese on the bottom, which is a crumbly cheese then added small chunks of tomato. Then I ripped up small pieces of pepperoni and chicken for each pizza. For the top layer of cheese I used mozzarella because it melts well, and then (on the chicken pizza) I sprinkled some paprika onto the top for some flavor! Of course you can use any type of veg/savory fruit instead of tomatoes and any meat you want. You could even make it into a vegetarian pizza! Then you put your pita bread pizzas into the oven at 200 degrees celsius for about 10 minutes (or however long it takes for yours). This is what my cooked pizzas looked like!
My favorite pizza was the chicken and paprika
one, but they were both delicious! I hope your pitta bread pizzas are as nice as mine were! Have fun making them!

Baking Barmy!

Although I haven't done crafting today-I've done plenty of lovely baking. I've already eaten the scones I made with my mum! My sister and mum made some banana bread which we'll be having for dessert too! For good squishy banana bread you have to use bananas with scars on that have slightly brown peel. This way your using bananas that most people won't want anymore to make an amazing cake that everyone can enjoy! Also it makes sure that it's easier to work into the mix so it's stirred quicker.
   Enough about banana bread eh? Today I made a set of drop scones. No wonder they're called drop scones-you'll see a picture later. Even though they ended up a like a little bit of a flop, they tasted really good. Homemade produce is always the best. Before they were cooked they looked like this.

 You can see they're nice and round and plump....but all that soon changed! The cooking time was 15 minutes but it took a little longer to cook. After a few minutes they were warm and ready to come out of the oven nice and fresh.

But alas! They had changed considerably. You just have to see them. Take a look below-on the tray picture you can see the change the most.

 So you can see why they're called drop scones now can't you? I don't know whether they're supposed to flop down like that-but they did. They tasted delicious though and as you can see on the last two pictures, I enjoyed mine with juicy red strawberry jam. They were very sweet. You should try baking your own goodies-I'm still looking forward to my scrumptious dessert of banana bread this evening.

Chili Recipe

Hi, I have been cooking with my Mum and I have found out a recipe for you. It makes a delicious chilli I hope you enjoy.

                                                                  Chilli Recipe

1.)Gently warm oil in pan

2.)Chop 1 large onion or 2 small ones

3.)Put onions in pan until golden brown

4.)Chop a red pepper (if you don't have red use another colour but red is best)

5.)Put in pan until soft

6.)Add the mince,beef or lamb to the pan to golden brown

7.)Fry mince,onions and peppers

8.)Meanwhile rinse can of kidney beans

9.)Get some canned chopped tomatoes ready

10.)Put the chopped tomatoes in the pan

11.)Mix with spoon

12.)Put chilli con carne recipe mix in pan

13.)Put one cube of oxo beef in pan

14.)Add some water if it looks a bit dry

15.)Put a sprinkle of crushed chilli in (if you want it spicier)

16.)Put kidney beans in

17.)Mix with spoon

18.)Simmer for 20 mins but keep stirring ocasionally

19.)(optional) get rice ready in a cup/mug

20.)Put rice in a clean sieve

21.)Wash under running water until the water coming out of the bottom is clear

22.)Get pan with lid ready

23.)Boil kettle

24.)Put a tiny drop of oil in pan

25.)Add one teaspoon of salt to pan

26.)Put washed rice in pan with oil and salt and stir

27.)Put two cups/mugs of boiling water from the kettle in pan

28.)Bring to  boil, turn down low and put on lid

29.)Stir after 5 mins then put lid back on for 5 more mins, fork through before serving

30.)(optional at same time as rice) warm oven gas mark 6
31.)Put garlic bread in for 16-18 mins
32.)Set the table
33.)Once you have set the table slice the garlic bread, put it on a cutting board and put it on the table.
34.) Dish up the rice around the edge of a plate and put the chilli in the middle