Recent Baking Adventures!

I really love baking (and eating the baked products, of course) but I don't always have the time, or the patience, or the effort to bake. Recently though I've done a bit of baking! Here are some things I've made lately.

I made these raspberry and coconut tarts from Oh So Lovely Vintage. They were suuuper easy to make and no one noticed the fact that mine were a little bit browner than Erin's! Despite slightly over-baking, they were a huuuge crowd pleaser.

Last week it was my brother-in-law's birthday and he loves peanut butter goods so I made him these peanut butter chocolate chip blondies. Mine don't look quite the same, but that's because I'm dorky and like to write people's name with food. I think he liked em!

Have you baked anything yummy lately? I'd love to here about it!

PS. Sorry for the dodgy photos. I am relying on iPhone pics at the moment!

Sammie And The Chocolate Factory

Last weekend my family and I all went to the country side to visit a chocolate factory. My whole family loves chocolate, and I am no exception, so this was possibly one of the greatest days. I left with a stomach ache, but it was the greatest of stomach aches.





Our haul. There was also waffles and a two person fondue. All this food shared between 6 people may have been the reason we stumbled out of there clutching our stomachs (picture Augustus Gloop stumbling around Willy Wonka's chocolate factory)!

Picnic With Percy

The other day, we had our first touch of warm weather. It was sunny and 29 degrees, so my sister and I thought that we should celebrate the weather by going on a little picnic! Here are some photo's from our picnic!

Little Percy lying on a rug. He's cute like that.

My gorgeous sister.

Our feast. We had boiled eggs, turkish rolls and beetroot and tzatziki dip, strawberries, apples, kiwi fruit, sweet potato chips and peanut butter biscuits!


I made some peanut butter cookies from this recipe and they were amazing!

The cutest spoon!







Me and Perce enjoying our picnic.


Hope you have enjoyed our photos!

Strawberry Shortcake

I have been seeing so many people devouring strawberry shortcakes on so many different blogs that I have become extremely jealous.


Today, however, I accidentally came across this recipe which I have not tried yet, but it looks so simple that I think I will have to ASAP.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 pounds (6 cups) strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and quartered
• 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons cold (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, toss strawberries with 3/4 cup sugar; let sit to bring out their juices.
• In a food processor, pulse flour, baking powder, 1/2 cup sugar, and the salt until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal but with some pea-size bits of butter remaining, 10 to 12 times. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup cream and the eggs; pour over flour mixture, and pulse until some large clumps begin to form, 25 to 30 times.
• Using a half-cup measuring cup, gently pack dough, invert, and then tap out onto a baking sheet. Repeat to form 8 biscuits. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool, about 15 minutes.
• Beat remaining 1 1/2 cups cream and 2 tablespoons sugar with the vanilla until soft peaks form.
• Slice biscuits in half horizontally. Spoon strawberries and their liquid over bottom halves. Spoon whipped cream on strawberries, and replace top halves of biscuits.

Hope you enjoy!
XO Samantha

Happy Birthday Dad

So a few days ago was my father's birthday, happy 46th birthday papa, and I had to think about what to get him for a present within a small budget. Luckily for me, my father is the most un- materialistic person (a quality which was definitely not passed down to me) and so I decided to make him stuff instead. So I made him an incredibly long mix tape - it ended up being a mixed dvd due to lack of space on a regular cd - took him out for breakfast and made him this incredibly easy and incredibly delicious (if I do say so myself) Rocky Road.

I thought I'd include the recipe, and some poorly taken photos (bear with me as I am learning the ropes on this whole photography thing) of the rocky road as it really is ludicrously simple and yummy :)!!

What You Will Need:
 x     2 family-sized blocks Cadbury chocolate - I used one dairy milk, one hazelnut
 x     2 packets of marshmallows
 x     100g turkish delight - my dad doesn't like turkish delight so I used strawberry flavoured liquorice - I was a bit iffy about trying this, but it's so yum
 x     100g unsalted cashews, roughly halved - I added more, but that's personal taste
 x     1/2 cup desiccated coconut

What To Do:
Fill a saucepan 1/4 of the way with water, and bring to the boil. Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting bowl. Break up both blocks of chocolate and melt in the bowl over the boiling water. Remove from the heat.

Dice turkish delight (or liquorice) into small cubes. Add it to the melted chocolate along with the marshmallows and cashews. Mix until all ingredients are covered in chocolate.

Line a baking tray with cling wrap and pour the mixture into the tray and refrigerate overnight.

Here's a picture of the finished product. Not very attractive photo, but oh-so-yum!!!

If you try this recipe and like it, let me know! Or if you have any recipes you'd like to share, please do!!!