New Baby Girl Card

My friend Jane just had a baby, yay! I made a girl and a boy card in anticipation as I didn't know which she was going to have; it turned out that she had a daughter.



I went with the traditional pink theme and used a pink card blank, and cut a rectangle from a piece of printed backing paper that I thought would make a nice contrast. The swaddled baby, the small heart and the larger heart with the word 'baby' are made of wood, and all came from the same sticker pack. I think cards look nice where they are symmetrical and elements are within the lines but it can also look good to cross lines and borders, like I have done with the 'baby' heart which cuts through the border. The border itself is a silver outline sticker, as is the 'congratulations' word.

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Restaurant Review: Hot Rocks, Bournemouth

The feeling of sand in your toes, sun warming your skin and the sound of the sea lapping at the shore can't be beat... especially when it's the middle of the week and you feel like you are playing truant from work. I was getting to the end of my tether with the house buying process (five months and counting, thanks to Mr and Mrs C, the most awkward people I've ever had to deal with) and decided I needed to get away from it all. Unfortunately, with the sale of my house imminent I can't go away on holiday, but I realised I had only taken one day off since I started my new job back in February and it was about time for some R&R. Hearing that a heatwave was forecast I decided there was no time like the present and booked the following day off work - and a train ticket to Bournemouth.

My boyfriend couldn't get any time off at such short notice but luckily one of my best friends is a supply teacher and didn't have any work on for the next day, so happily agreed to meet me in Bournemouth. We spent a lovely few hours on the beach, though the promised heatwave never materialised - it was quite cloudy and windy by the sea and I ended up at one point having to put clothes back on! The sun was strong nonetheless, as I discovered when I got home that evening and noticed the sunburn!

We didn't want to stray far from the beach at lunchtime but liked the idea of getting out of the wind for a bit so wakled back up to the promenade. There is a huge Harry Ramsden's on the beachfront but after eating in one in Brighton last year and not being especially impressed, I didn't want to go there.

We debated checking out the restaurant at the end of the pier but instead went to Hot Rocks, a large restaurant only a minute away on the promenade. It has a large outdoor seating area and a long queue inside, but we were told that the queue was people who were sitting outside having to order their food at the bar, whereas if we sat inside, we would have table service. Outside was pretty crowded anyway so we decided to sit inside.



The menu is fairly broad and in keeping with a "surf shack" theme, e.g. luau chicken, malibu ribs, big kahuna burger and shark island, which is a vegetarian patty on foaccia with stir-fried vegetables. Strangely, a lot of the dishes seemed to come with stir-fried vegtables and I'm sure it was even an optional topping in the burger!



I had a lovely non-alcoholic cocktail to drink and the big kahuna burger (without the stir-fried veg) but it was just too big - this is a meal and a half! The burger was quite dense and it came with three onion rings in the burger, and salad and chips on the side. I don't like wasting food (and normally have a big appetite) but left about a quarter of it, it was so filling!

My friend enjoyed the exotically-named luau chicken which was the rather less exotic chicken breast topped with bacon and BBQ sauce (and those stir-fried vegetables again!). I was expecting prices to be steep given the beach front location but thought the £11.95 for my burger and £10.95 for her chicken was pretty normal, until I remembered we weren't in London! I am so used to paying London prices that I forget other parts of the country are usually cheaper (a meal out with the whole of my immediate family in Wiltshire sometimes comes in at less than a meal for my boyfriend and I alone in London!). I was reminded of that when we paid for all day parking in a car park only a few minutes walk from the beach; I was expecting it to cost about £12 but in fact it was £4!


After our afternoon on the beach we walked through Bournemouth's Winter Gardens and I spotted one of my favourite activities as a child - crazy golf. I've played on this course countless times and usually won (whether I was good, or cheated, or my family let me win as I was the youngest, I'm not sure!). It's a traditional course where all the obstacles are made from rocks or wood or involve a bridge or tunnel - none of the clown faces and windmills you sometimes see. Needless to say, I won!

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Banoffee Cupcakes in Edible Cake Cases

I'm not a fan of banana so I've never made banana bread or banana cupcakes other than these awesome Elvis cupcakes. But when Dr. Oetker sent me some of their newest products to try, including these banoffee sprinkles, I decided it was a great opportunity to make some banoffee cupcakes.

Banoffee Cupcakes - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

75g butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg

2 soft bananas, mashed

100g self-raising flour

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla flavouring or a few twists of Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla from the grinder

for the filling:

397g tin Carnation Caramel (or similar dulce de leche)

for the frosting:

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar

Dr. Oetker edible cupcake cases (optional)

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream the butter and the sugar then beat in the egg and the mashed bananas.

Fold in the flour then the milk and either the vanilla flavouring or vanilla from the grinder. Dr. Oetker included this among the products they sent me to review. It costs £4.99 (though is currently on offer at Tesco for £3.74) which seems a lot compared to the liquid vanilla flavourings which you can get for about £1, but this is good quality Madagascan vanilla and thanks to the grinder, a little goes a long way - and it stays fresh as it isn't ground until you need it. The little jar also looks very smart so I think this is definitely something to treat yourself to.

I had been hoping to review the new edible cupcake cases from Dr. Oetker but they had run out at the time so I bought these myself in Asda. They are quite expensive - £2.49 for only 6, whereas the standard Dr. Oetker cases are £1.49 for 50. But I do highly recommend trying these - either if you are making a small batch (6 or 12) cupcakes, or to try a few as a treat and then you make the rest of the cupcakes in non-edible cases (as long as you remember which are which!).

The cupcakes come in pink and blue; they are quite large but fit comfortably in my muffin tin.

Spoon the cake mixture into the cases - I used 6 non-edible ones as well as these - until they are about two-thirds full, then bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.



Banoffee is of course banana and toffee; the banana is in the cake so I wanted to put some toffee (or rather caramel) in the middle. You can make your own, but to save time (and because it's just the right consistency) I used a tin of Carnation Caramel.

Using a teaspoon, carefully scoop a little out of the middle of each cupcake, and place a spoonful of caramel in the cavity, then replace the cake you have removed. Repeat for each cupcake. Of course, you need to wait until the cupcakes are cool before you do this.

I made some caramel buttercream to go on top. Carefully cream the softened butter and the icing sugar until you have a stiff buttercream, then add 2 tbsp of the leftover Carnation caramel (you should have plenty left). Mix well then pipe onto the cupcakes or swirl on with a palette knife.



Here are the banoffee sprinkles Dr. Oetker sent me - a mixture of yellow and brown in a convenient shaker tube. These cost £1.99 at Tesco (but also currently on offer at 2 for £3) which is a little more expensive than their regular sprinkles as these are from the premium collection. They will last a while though - I only used about a third of the packet on a dozen cupcakes.

Here's a cupcake complete with caramel buttercream and banoffee sprinkles, in an edible case.

It's really fun and quite an amazing feeling to bite into the cupcake without removing a paper case, and to eat a big chunk of cake, frosting and wafer case! The cases held up really well - I was worried they would go soggy from the raw cake mixture but they work perfectly. The sprinkles are a lovely touch as well - you could use them on banoffee pie or ice cream as well as on cupcakes.

Thanks to Dr. Oetker for sending the products to review. All opinions and words are my own.



I'm sending these to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Janie at the Hedgecombers. The theme this month is picnics; you can take these on a picnic if you package them carefully in a small tupperware box and best of all, as you don't peel off the paper cases, there is no rubbish to leave behind! You could also make these if you were having a family staycation or picnic in the garden.

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Strawberry Marshmallow Mousse

I had some strawberries that needed using up and had recently come across this recipe for strawberry mallow mousse on the Waitrose website so decided to give it a go. I left out the pistachios which are used as decoration. You can also use some extra strawberries for decoration if you like.

I made this for three people; you need:

200g strawberries

grated zest and juice of half an orange

20g caster sugar

125g marshmallows

200h fromage frais

Hull the strawberries and chop; place in a small saucepan with the orange zest, juice and sugar. Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved then simmer for up to ten minutes until the strawberries have softened.

Add the marshmallows and stir until melted.

I wanted my mousse to be smooth so I pulsed the mixture in a blender. Then leave to cool.

Fold in the fromage frais and spoon into three serving dishes. Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight until set.

The marshmallows definitely gave this a different texture to regular mousse; I'm not sure I was completely sold but it had a lovely zingy flavour and would make a nice summer dessert.

I'm sending this to the Biscuit Barrel challenge, hosted by Laura at I'd Much Rather Bake Than...., as her challenge this month is for no bake goodies.

Similarly the theme for Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi, is no bake.

Dead Easy Desserts, hosted this month by Slice of Me on behalf of Sarah at Maison Cupcake, is a challenge for recipes taking 30 minutes or less (not including the chilling time so that's OK) and the theme this month is strawberries.

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Baby Shower Card

I made this card for a friend's baby shower. She didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl so I wanted to choose a neutral colour range and thought a lilac card would be pretty and that the green floral backing paper worked well with it. The embellishments come from a pack of baby stickers and the 'good luck' is a silver outline sticker.

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Ladybird Cake

My sister Clare made this cake for our mum's birthday and I thought it was so good I asked her permission to share it on my blog.



Clare made this with the Lakeland hemisphere tin I gave her for her birthday the month before. She used the small size pan and said the cake - a simple chocolate cake recipe - took a very long time to cook, in fact she had a couple of attempts as the first time the cake wasn't cooked through.



She used ready-coloured roll out icing and cut out circles, and used pink shimmer balls for the mouth. It is a simple design and very easy to do but looks fantastic! It also tasted extremely good.

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Pinoy Prawn Curry

Pinoy Prawn Curry. The Pinoy version of a curry dish is not as intense as the real curry in terms of hotness or spiciness. The Pinoy curry uses only the pre-mixed yellow curry powder in comparison to the South Asian and the Middle Eastern curry based dishes where the curry spices are made from scratch. Our curry dishes has a slight curry taste, it is sweet and uses a lot of coconut milk. I have made some Pinoy curry dishes which are basically all similar in terms of use of curry and method of cooking, just click the link list below to check out the recipes.



Pinoy Pork Curry

Pinoy Beef Curry

Pinoy Fish Curry with Kalabasa

Seafood and Vegetable Green Curry

Thai Green Chicken Curry, Pinoy Style

Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoots

Pinoy Chicken Curry

Pinoy Chicken & Pork Curry

For today I would like to share a very mild Pinoy version of Prawn Curry. It is fairly easy to make, I used pre-cooked prawns and canned coconut cream, I am sure all the ingredients used would likely be available in supermarket near you.

Here is the recipe of my Pinoy Prawn Curry, enjoy.





Ingredients:



1 Kilo medium to large precooked prawns, trimmed

2 packet baby spinach

1 small size carrot, skinned, sliced

2 small red/green bell pepper, cut into strips

3-4 thumb size ginger, skinned, cut into thin strips

1 large size onion, chopped

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

2-3 tbsp. yellow curry powder

1/2 tsp. turmeric powder

1/2 tsp. paprika powder

1/4 cup fish sauce

1-2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. ground peppercorns

1/4 cup cornstrach

1-2 stalk lemongrass, trimmed, crushed

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a sauce pan sauté garlic, ginger and onion until fragrant. Stir in the lemongrass, prawns and stir cook for about a minutes. Add in the fish sauce, ground peppercorn, 1/2 part of the coconut cream and about 3/4 cup of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring once in a while. Now add in the curry powder, turmeric, paprika, sugar and continue to simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the carrots, bell pepper, chili and the remaining the remaining coconut cream, continue to simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes. Then thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup of water. Correct saltines if required. Add in the spinach, cook for another minute, Serve immediately with a lot of rice.

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