Yule Log!!

This is a bit of a trickier one for those of you who like making food look pretty and fancy a bit more of a challenge. It's a basic cake mixture with some cocoa powder, and a simple butter cream. Some people like to spread their roll with jam as well as butter cream to add extra sweetness and a bit of zing, so like always, do what you want with this recipe!

Ingredients:

For the roll:

150g Self raising flour
150g Butter
150g Caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

For the buttercream:

100g Butter
150g Icing sugar
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1. Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9x13' baking tin.

2. Put all of the ingredients for the roll into a bowl and mix with an electric whisk or by hand until it's lump free and creamy looking. Beat it for as long as possible to get maximum air in there!

3. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 9-10 minutes, making sure a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

4. Tip the cake out onto a piece of greaseproof paper/foil/cling film and remove the other greaseproof paper from the top. Cut a strip of cake about 2 inches thick off the cake and place on top of the other piece of cake. Now roll the cake up starting from this small piece of cake, using your chosen lining paper to help you. Leave to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile you can get started on the butter cream. Put all ingredients in a bowl and whip up until combined and creamy looking. If it seems a little too thick, add a splash of milk.

6. Once your roll has cooled completely, very gently unroll it and begin decorating! Spread a little butter cream on the inside of the roll, then cover the rest of the roll. Remember, butter cream covers a multitude of sins, so don't panic or give up if your roll splits a little when you're unrolling it. Believe me, it happens to me every time! Cover the roll with the remaining butter cream, and use a knife or fork to draw some line patterns on the butter cream to make the whole thing look like a log. To finish, you can sprinkle some extra icing sugar or preferably caster sugar over the log to make it look like it's frosted. If you have any holly nearby stick a sprig on the log to make it look super Christmassy!


This'll probably be my last post before Christmas, so I hope you guys have a fantastic festive season and Santa brings everything you've wished for!

xx

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Friends and family are constantly asking me for this recipe, so here it is. It's a yummy, seriously lemony, seriously simple cake. Minimal ingredients, maximum taste!

Ingredients:

150g Self-raising flour
150g Butter, softened
150g Caster sugar
2 Eggs
2 Lemons
200g Icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9x13' baking tin.

2. Whisk up the flour, caster sugar, butter and eggs in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy looking, and mix in the zest of the 2 lemons (you can zest lemons by grating them on the spikey bit of your cheese grater).

3. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when poked, and a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

4. Meanwhile, juice both of your lemons , putting about 3 dessertspoons full in a separate bowl to make your icing later.

5. When your sponge is done, remove from the oven and, with a kebab skewer or something equally spikey, poke about 12 holes evenly spaced into your cake. Now pour the lemon juice into these holes so that the cake soaks it all up. Leave for 10 minutes to allow the juice to be soaked up, then remove from the tin and leave to cool for about half an hour.

6. Now for the icing. Add the remaining lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix until it resembles icing. If it's a bit thick, add a few drops of water, and if it's too thin add more sugar. You want the icing to be pourable (or drizzlable) but not too runny. Now drizzle the icing all over the cake until it looks pretty, and leave to set.

7. Enjoy!

Jam Sponge Pudding

This is a recipe I discovered this weekend when making a Sunday roast for the housemates. It's great if you're low on oven space (which, inevitably you will be if you're roasting a chicken, potatoes and yorkshire puddings!) and is the tastiest microwave meal you'll ever make, I promise! Stolen from the brilliant Hairy Bikers. Serves 8 generously.

Ingredients:

• 100g/ strawberry or raspberry jam
• 175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 50g golden syrup
• 60g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 175g self-raising flour
  
  
  
  
  1. Grease a big glass bowl (at least 2 pints/1 litre).
  
  
  2. Put all of your ingredients apart from the jam into a mixing bowl and whisk up until creamy and lump-free. Add a bit of milk if it seems a bit thick, it should be at a dropping consistency when you're done (that means it'll fairly easily drop off your spoon).
  
  
  3. Put the jam in the bottom of your greased glass bowl, then pour the sponge mixture on top.
  
  
  4. Cover the mixture loosely with cling film to allow it to rise.
  
  
  5. Pop it in the microwave for 5-7 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  
  
  6. Serve with lots of custard :)

Toffee Apple Pudding

This is a really amazing, simple dish for those with a serious sweet tooth! Another dish you can play with- scatter some berries on top of the apples to add some colour if you wish! It's blackberry season so I've added a handful of them into this recipe.


Serves 4-5.

Ingredients:

2 Bramley apples, sliced thinly.
A handful of blackberries or other berries (optional)
150g self raising flour
200g butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
200g light brown sugar

For the toffee sauce:

150g light brown sugar
200ml double cream
60g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ gas mark 4.
2. Line a medium sized deep oven proof dish (8'x8' ish) with the apple slices and whatever other fruit you're using. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and dot 50g of the butter on top. Now pour about 100ml water over the apples- this will help them to cook and leave you with a delicious gooey sauce underneath the pudding.
3. To make the pudding topping, whisk together the eggs, flour, sugar and butter for about 5 minutes until creamy looking and lump-free. If you wish, you could add a little cinnamon into the mixture too at this point. Now gently spoon this on top of the apples and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge mix springs back up when you poke it.
4. Whilst the pudding is baking, start on the toffee sauce. Place all remaining ingredients in a saucepan and whisk until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Curried Chicken Stroganoff

A really easy, cheap student meal. Not really a curry, not really a stroganoff, but something delicious in the middle! This is a dish you can fiddle with- If you don't like curry powder, you could replace it with a dash of smoked paprika, some wholegrain mustard or anything else you want to try! Don't be afraid to have a play around.

Serves 2.



Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, diced into small cubes
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, thinly sliced (or half a red, half a yellow if you want it a bit more colourful)
150g (about 4) mushrooms
1 mug of chicken stock (1 chicken stock cube dissolved in a mug of boiling water)
1 1/2 dessert spoons of flour
1/2 tsp medium curry powder
1 1/2 dessert spoons creme fraiche


1. Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet. 

2. Whilst the rice is cooking, in a saucepan, add a little oil and begin frying the onions until almost translucent, then add the chicken.

3. When the chicken is nearly cooked, add the peppers and mushrooms and continue cooking for about 3 minutes. Now add the flour and cook off for about a minute. 

4. Add the chicken stock, curry powder and creme fraiche and simmer until the sauce thickens (this should take about 2 minutes, so don't worry if it looks a little lumpy at first! If the sauce is then too thick you can add a little more water, if it's not thick enough add some more flour a little at a time).

5. Serve with the rice and enjoy!


Hope you love this dish as much as I do, stay tuned for a great dessert next time!

Lindsay xx

Hiyaa

Hey! I'm Lindsay. This is my first ever blog, I hope you like it.

In this blog you should expect to find a load of pocket-friendly recipes for students. Some will be healthy, some will be naughty, all of them (hopefully) will be tasty! Each week (ish) I hope to find you a new recipe to add to your collection, and I hope you like them. This week I'll post my chicken stroganoff recipe, hope you like it :D

Anyways, I felt a first post was appropriate to introduce you to me and what I'm going to be doing from here onwards. Also because I want to see what my blog page is actually going to look like...

Speak to you all very soon,

Lindsay xx