~ Hawaii Cake ~

110g butter

110g golden caster sugar

200g self raising flour

2 eggs

250ml almond milk

200g desiccated coconut

430g tin of pineapple

250g pistachios

 

200g icing sugar

 

Mix the flour, coconut and pistachios together well. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Chop the pineapple into small chunks and save the juice in the tin. Then add all the cake ingredients into one bowl. Mix this thoroughly until all ingredients are fully combined. Bake in a loaf tin at 180C/gas 4 for 45 minutes, you may need to cover the top with foil half way through the bake to prevent too much browning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

For the icing, add 3 tbsp of the tinned pineapple juice with the icing sugar and stir until smooth. Then drizzle onto the cake.

Raffertys Cafe and Wine Bar, St Merryn, Cornwall

There's a lovely atmosphere at this village wine bar. Situated just off the main crossroads, it's a great place to go for a classy glass of wine after a week of work. The food menu is also worth a look. I had baked camembert to share and seafood tagliatelle to follow. It's relatively expensive but worth it for a special treat. I would like to go back to sample some of the tapas available and this dessert..."Chocolate brownie, passion fruit sorbet, chocolate meringue & Cornish clotted cream"! Overall, good ambience, good wine and good, fresh food.

Happy Pancake Week!

Yay it's pancake day this Tuesday! I celebrated this Sunday morning by making the best kind of pancakes. The fluffy and American kind.

270g plain flour

2 eggs

260ml milk

splash of vanilla extract

butter for frying

 

Whisk all the ingredients together in a large measuring jug. If you have a hand blender, that works perfectly. Place a large, flat bottom pan onto a medium heat. When hot, brush over some butter. Pour small dollops of your batter into the pan. Fry on both sides until golden brown and stack high!

Now to choose your topping...maple syrup, bacon, raspberries, lemon, honey, etc. etc. I love my pancakes with Nutella and banana.

Cherry Trees, Padstow, Cornwall

If your ever in Padstow, you simply have to go here. It's a tiny café, making it hard to get a seat in Cornwall's peak summer season. However, their takeaway service covers this well. They do a range of huge cakes, cheesecakes and desserts. I had this coconut chai cake. It was divine, so moist with sweet, rich icing. They also do incredible hot chocolates which are overflowing with cream and marshmallows. Although these don't come cheap at £4.95. I've also heard great things about their breakfast and lunch food.

The overall experience in this harbour front venue was so lovely. I can't recommend it enough.

Valentines Cupcakes

110g self raising flour

100g dark/plain chocolate chips

110g butter

110g sugar

2 eggs

splosh of milk

splash of vanilla extract

 

150g butter

300g icing sugar

about 10 strawberries

 

Cream the butter and sugar together for about three minutes until light and fluffy. Add the milk, vanilla, eggs and a spoonful of flour then whisk together well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and chocolate chips and mix until all the chips are covered fully with the flour. Then mix this into the batter. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake at 180C/gas 4 for about eight minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool.

 

For the butter cream, blitz or mash the strawberries and pass through a sieve. When you buy the butter for this recipe, leave it out of the fridge. This is essential for good butter cream. So, whisk the room temperature butter on high for a good five minutes, if not more. Add the icing sugar and whisk on slow until combined. Add the strawberry juice then turn the mixture up to high for a couple of minutes. Pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes. I added some chocolate hearts for decoration.

Enjoy!