Sugar Roses

Oooo it has been a long time since I last posted hasn't it?! I just don't know where this month has gone. It'll be Christmas before we know it!

A couple of months ago myself and my lovely friend Pauline signed up to a cake decorating class. It has been something that I've been wanting to learn for a while and as the class was only £25 (what a bargain!) we signed up straight away.

The first few weeks were spent learning how to make roses and how to put them together to display on a cake. I then got to ice a cake with fondant icing - something that I have never done before. Below are the piccies...i am so proud of my cake!!









We are now working on decorating a christmas themed cakes so Im sure i will be posting some more piccies in a few weeks :)

Chocolate and Berry Puddings

Sadly, a few months ago my lovely Gran passed away. She did leave me some money, however. Although I did want to save some of the money, I decided I wanted to buy something special that I could keep and use and remember my Gran by. After much thought and deliberation I decided on buying some products from the Le Creuset range of cookware. My Gran had always been into cooking and baking and I knew she would approve of this purchase and I knew it would be something that I would enjoy using over and over again in my kitchen.

I have always adored Le Creuset and on many an occasion have stopped to gaze over it in my local Debenhams. There were so many different pots and pans to choose from in so many beautiful colours. In the end I went for a cast iron casserole dish, a large pie dish and 4 ramekins in the gorgeous volcanic orange colour.

I found this recipe in the Waitrose magazine a few months ago and thought at the time that this would be the first recipe I'd make to go in my new little ramekins. This recipe was so simple to make and hardly took me anytime at all. The pudding rose perfectly and I loved the combination of the chocolate pudding with the raspberries at the bottom. My Gran would have loved these little puddings too...she always was a chocaholic!!

Chocolate and Berry Puddings

45g butter plus extra for greasing

120g frozen summer fruits (I used all raspberries)

150g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

75g caster sugar

2 eggs, seperated

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp icing sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 200c

Butter the sides of 4 x 175ml ramekins, divide the berries between them.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a pan of water.

Whisk the sugar and egg yolks with an electric whisk until light and creamy, then stir in the vanilla.

In another bowl whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the whisked egg yolks, then fold in the egg whites with a large metal spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and bake on a baking sheet for 12-14 minutes until risen but still slightly wobbly. Dust with icing sugar.

(I spread the recipe over the 3 ramekins as mine were of a slightly larger size than the recipe called for. Having now made this recipe I think it would probably work just as well with 4 of my ramekins!)

I really wanted to get a picture of the inside of the puddings and as I ate 2 out of the 3 puddings there was every opportunity to do this. But for some reason I'd tuck into the pudding and completely forget about taking a picture until it was too late and I was on the last spoonful..sorry!