I had a day off...

So I  had a day off and £4.75 in my bank... Then this happened!

Snicker Doodles

The Snicker Doodles I was really excited about because I LOVE cinnamon. But their  name is misleading, I thought they would be really gooey but they are quite a simple biscuit. Still tasty with a cup of tea though. More importantly they were SO much fun to make! I would recommend this recipe for anyone with kids who like to bake. This is from a Marks and Spencer Cookbook called Kitchen Encyclopaedia: Baking.

Ingredients:

• 75g Butter
• 175g Caster Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 250g Plain Flour
• 1 Tsp Baking powder
• 3 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon       

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c and line two baking sheets with grease proof paper. 
• Mix butter and sugar until fluffy and then gradually beat in the egg and vanilla.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix into a dough.
• Mix together the sugar and cinnamon on a plate and roll 24 small balls of the dough in it. 
• Pop the balls of dough onto the tray and press down lightly. Leave room for spreading.
• Bake for 12-14 minutes and cool on wire rack. 

Banana Bread

The banana bread is one of my favourites as my mum often makes it. I got this particular recipe from BBC Food mainly because it used buttermilk and I needed to use mine up! This is always great if you have bananas going a bit too ripe...although mine were fine...I just really wanted banana bread.

Honey and Granola Cupcakes

I also made these honey and granola cupcakes taken from a Primrose Bakery cupcake cookbook my brother got me for Christmas (yes I got a fair bit of cooking stuff this Christmas!) These cakes are loooovely. Kind of more like small muffins, they would be a good (albeit unhealthy) Sunday breakfast. I did substitute a bit of granola for chopped walnuts as I ran out after making the mixture! They turned out really well all the same.

Ingredients:

• 110g Butter
• 120g Light soft brown sugar
• 175g Clear honey
• 2 Eggs
• 220g Plain flour
• 1/2 baking powder
• 1/2 bicarb (I just doubled the baking powder)
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 65ml Semi Skimmed Milk
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 65ml Plain yogurt
• 250g Granola (I used 200g plus 50g chopped walnuts)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160c and line muffin tray with cases. (I had small cases so it made a few more cakes)
• Mix together the butter, sugar and honey until fluffy then beat in one egg at a time.
• Sift together Flour, baking powder and Bicarb in a bowl and in a jug put together the milk, yogurt and vanilla. Then add one third of the flour followed by one third of the milk mixture and mix, then repeat until all ingredients are mixed. 
• Fold in the granola and fill the cases two-thirds full. Bake for 25 minutes and cool in tins for ten minutes before moving to a wire rack. 

In other news, I have been cooking a few savoury dishes that use potatoes. Basically, I clicked the wrong thing online food shopping and, well... I accidentally ordered five big bags of potatoes! Oops. What an idiot! So there has been a lot of cottage pie! Spanish omelette made a cheap, quick meal and got rid of some potatoes! But I have also made a potato and leek soup and STILL I have loads left! So recipe suggestions are welcome!

In the next few weeks I am doing something a little bit exciting and stupid and if anyone does see my blog I will be needing help and comments to make a cake related decision! But until then let me know if you try any of these recipes, know anything good to make with potatoes (rolls eyes)  and if you enjoy the blog!

P.S If anyone loves Mary Berry in the creepy, stalker way that I do then watch The Mary Berry Story  on BBC1.