Custard and White chocolate biscuits

I like custard. I like white chocolate. I like biscuits. So a biscuit proudly claiming to be all 3, has most definitely got to be tried.

By strange coincidence I have read a lot of recipes this past week that contain custard powder, this just reminds me of home, especially Christmas, when out would come the birds custard powder, ready to make custard for the Christmas pud! Although I love custard I do not really buy it, but when I do I must admit I am lazy and buy fresh ready made stuff. So I hunted out the custard powder and was very excited to find it in a tin very similar to ones I remember from my youth. And now I have a huge tin it gives me a very good excuse to make the other recipes!

Nostalgia at its best

This was another find in good food magazine.

Custard and white chocolate biscuits


makes 20-25


140g softened butter
175g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used paste)
225 self raising flour
85g custard powder
85g white chocolate chopped into small chunks


Preheat the oven to 180/fan 160. Line 2-3 baking sheets with baking parchment.


Put the butter and sugar into a food processor and whiz until light and fluffy. Alternatively use an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. 


Mix the flour and custard powder in a bowl and add to the mix, pulse until a dough is formed. Scrape the dough from the processor and work in the chocolate by hand. 

The dough is SO orange, thanks to the custard powder

Roll the dough into small balls, I used my tablespoon as a guide, and place on the baking sheets., spaced a little apart to allow for spreading. Press each biscuit lightly down with your fingers. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

My biscuits seem a little deeper than he picture implies, I think next time I  will press them down just a little more.

These little biscuits are very nice, they certainly got eaten quickly enough. The recipe says that they will keep well in an airtight tin for up to two weeks. Now I do not think that they will  last that long, and also I think unless your tin is super airtight they will change texture over time.

Apple crumble loaf cake

Combining two lovely things, apple crumble and cake, it has to be a winning combination.
This particular recipe jumped out from the pages of this months good food magazine, from all the delicious looking recipes this one was positively screaming to be made first.

I did have to make a couple of slight tweaks. Firstly it had raisins in, now I like raisins, I like them by themselves, smothered in chocolate or yoghurt, with nuts and in biscuits but I am not a fan of them in cakes. Besides which, when is there ever raisins in apple crumble? So I took them out. I have included them in the recipe list should you wish to put them in yourselves.

Secondly I had just purchased mini loaf tins, have you noticed how everything small is cute, even if its larger counterpart is not so? Anyway I wanted to use them so halved the recipe to make 2 cute mini loafs.

The cake itself is a very easy to eat cake, there is no creamy icings or rich chocolate, it is a delicious but slightly less indulgent treat. The cake is very light but has a very soft texture, not dry at all, thanks to the apples I presume, and the crunchy topping with the hazelnuts is absolutely fantastic.

Apple crumble loaf cake


For the loaf:


140g butter
250g self raising flour
2 tsps mixed spice
140g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 apples peeled and chopped
5 tbsps milk
100g raisins (optional)


For the crumble:


25g butter
25g plain flour
25g brown sugar
25g chopped hazelnuts


Grease and line a 2 litre loaf tin with baking parchment and preheat your oven to 160/fan 140. I always line the bottom of my cake tins no matter how "non stick" they are. If my tins are very non stick so I feel no need to line the sides, this has always worked so far for me.


I have to admit I have no idea if a 2 litre loaf tin is similar to a 1lb tin or a 2lb tin. I presume it is a 2lb tin but Google has failed me in this simple conversion. I halved the recipe and got two mini loafs.


Pop the butter, self raising flour and mixed spice into a food processor and pulse till it looks like breadcrumbs. Or you could put it in a bowl and beat it until it looks like breadcrumbs. 


If done in a food processor, transfer the mix to a bowl. Stir through the sugar and the raisins, if using. Mix the eggs, milk and apple in a jug and add to the bowl, stir to combine everything. Pour into the prepared loaf tin(s) and level the top.


Bake in a preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, until firm on top and a skewer comes out clean. I cooked my mini loafs for 40 minutes. 

Although I do love the simplicity of this cake it has given me inspiration for a indulgent apple crumble and custard cupcake... watch this space

Milk chocolate and coconut biscuits

Now I cannot tell a lie, I am new to the joys of coconut. Oh I have long enjoyed it in savoury dishes, but sweet and coconut, for me, were NOT a match made in heaven.

However I have suddenly developed a love for most things coconut (not all, I will never like the bounty bar...). After the yummy success of vanilla coconut cupcakes, I wanted more coconut in my life.

This weekend was one of those times where I wanted to bake but did not want anything complicated, not lots of stages, no separate elements, no piping bag etc. By fabulous coincidence I had read a very simple looking biscuit recipe earlier that week and it contained coconut. It seemed obvious what I had to do...

The recipe in question can be found on the caked crusaders blog, I urge you to have a look at this blog, it has cakes galore and I want to make everything!

I admit I did half the recipe as I was not sure how many biscuits I would end up with. I shaped them using my tablespoon and ended up with 14 nice sized biscuits.

I used dairy milk chopped up as my milk chocolate, when I use milk chocolate in baking I tend to buy milka, galaxy or dairy milk depending what is the best price, it is so much cheaper than buying ready chopped chocolate chunks. And inevitably there is always some left over for the chef to munch!

These biscuits are light and crumbly, and quite frankly absolutely divine, they do last a few days in an air tight tin but I am not entirely sure I see them lasting that long at all!

Vanilla coconut cupcakes - Cupcake book club

Kelly, www.americancupcakeabroad.com, has the most fantastic blog, everything looks yummy, don't read it if you are hungry!

In a fantastic flash of inspiration she has started a cupcake book club, the basic premise is to read a book with a foodie theme then bake a delicious treat inspired by the book. You can read all the details here, why don't you join in?

This months book is called Love in the making (also called Semi sweet: A novel of love and cupcakes) by Roisin Meany and it centres on Hannah opening a cupcake shop in Ireland. Lots of flavours of cupcake are mentioned but not specific execution, which allows you to be creative.

The words vanilla coconut jumped out at me and that was the starting point for my cupcake.

I made a vanilla cupcake filled with a coconut pastry cream, this was frosted with a marshmallow frosting and the whole thing topped with toasted dessicated coconut.

Vanilla Coconut cupcakes

makes 12

For the cakes:

125g butter at room temperature

125g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste (what I would recommend) or 1 tsp vanilla extract (NOT vanilla flavouring)

2 medium eggs at room temperature

125g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

3 tbsp milk 

For the pastry cream:

2 egg yolks (you will use the whites in the frosting)

50g caster sugar

12g plain flour

175ml coconut milk (I used light)

For the marsmallow frosting:

225g caster sugar

3 tablespoons water

2 egg whites at room temperature

pinch salt

pinch cream of tarter

First make the pastry cream to allow it time to chill in the fridge. 

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and flour until light and thick. 

Put the coconut milk in a saucepan and bring it slowly just up to the boil. Pour the hot coconut milk onto the egg mixture slowly, whisking all the time. Return the mixture to the pan and stir over a low-medium heat until it comes up to a gentle boil. (It must boil for it to thicken.) Continue to cook, stirring all the time, for 2 minutes or until it has thickened.  Mine thickened very quickly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour into a bowl.

Cover with Clingfilm, the surface of the Clingfilm must touch the custard or a skin will form, and allow to completely cool in the fridge.

Next make the cakes. Beat your butter, sugar and vanilla together until very light and fluffy, this can take up to 7 minutes (!) depending on the speed of your mixer, thankfully it takes me about 3-4.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat for a further two minutes.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. Finally add 3 tbsp of milk and mix till combined

Fill each of your cases 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven at 180/Fan 160^oC for ~20minutes. They are done when they are lightly springy on top. Allow the cakes to fully cool on a wire rack. 

Once the cakes are completely cool cut out a cone and fill the cavity with the pastry cream, put the cone back in, trimming it to fit. 

Next make the frosting. In a small saucepan, combine the caster sugar with the water and bring to a boil over a moderately high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved, this will take ~2 to 3 minutes.

Beat the egg whites (with a hand or free standing electric whisk) with the pinches of cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form.

With the mixer at medium speed, carefully pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites, make sure you keep whisking as you pour the syrup in.  Continue beating the frosting until cool and billowy, the bottom of the bowl should feel cool, this will take about 5 minutes. 

Pipe swirls onto the top of the cupcakes and top with toasted dessicated coconut. (to do this just put dessicated coconut in a pan and toast lightly till golden, keep an eye on it, it will turn very quickly).

These cupcakes are one of the nicest I have eaten in a long time, the flavours and textures are made for each other. The general consensus is that the frosting could be eaten straight from the bowl with a spoon. Nb. Do keep an eye on your frosting otherwise partners/lodgers/houseguests might just well attempt to do this from under your nose...

The only downside was I gave most of these away as gifts. I am under strict instructions to make them again soon and this time not let one solitary cupcake out of our front door!

Cookies and cream cupcakes

I mentioned a few posts back about baking a selection of cupcakes to give away. I have already detailed the raspberry champagne cupcakes and next up is the turn of the cookies and cream cupcake.

Everybody probably has their own interpretation of how exactly this cupcake should be assembled but this is the one I came up with on the day. A chocolate cupcake filled with bits of broken Oreo, and a vanilla buttercream, containing finely crushed Oreos, as the frosting. The whole thing was topped with half an Oreo.

The chocolate cupcake recipe that I used was the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from the hummingbird bakery. Of course if you have another favourite chocolate cupcake recipe use that instead! I only needed 6 cupcakes and found that 3 Oreos broken up into the batter mix was enough to give each cupcake plenty of texture.

Cookies and cream cupcakes

Makes 12

For the cakes:

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g soft unsalted butter

120ml whole milk (I used semi skimmed and all was fine)

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla paste

6 Oreos broken up

For the frosting:

80g butter

250g icing sugar

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla paste

3-4 Oreos, very finely crushed

6 Oreos cut in half

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/Fan 150^oC and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and butter in a large bowl and beat on a slow speed, with either an electric hand mixer or free standing mixer, until well combined and a sandy consistency.

Whisk the egg, milk and vanilla extract together in a jug and add half to the dry mixture.

Beat slowly to combine and then a little quicker to beat out any lumps. Add the remaining liquid mixture and beat slowly to combine. Do not over-mix. Finally fold in most the broken up Oreos reserving a few pieces. 

Divide the mixture between the cases, each one 2/3 full, sprinkle the top of each one with a few pieces of the reserved broken up Oreos. Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven until they spring back to the touch. Note the mixture will be very slack, do not panic this is how it should be.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack before frosting.

To make the frosting beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together, at first the mixture will look a sandy consistency, but be patient, it will eventually come together. Add the milk a table spoon at a time, and continue to beat for 3-5 minutes until very light and fluffy. Finally slowly beat in your fine crushed Oreos until combined.

Using a piping bag or a palette knife frost the cupcakes and top them with half an Oreo.