I love to play about with this recipe to try out different flavour combinations and with raspberries in season (finally!) I decided to try and create a Raspberry and Cream Cheese Brownie. I looked at other cream cheese brownie recipes to figure out how to make the cream cheese layer work and even though I winged it to an extent it was a success - woop!


As always, it's simple, easy and quick. In the time it takes for the butter and chocolate to melt I can sort the other aspects of the mixture then quickly bung it all in the oven. 

Often I meet people who are scared of baking or am amazed that I can bake with a small baby but it's all about finding the right recipe. Start with the basics and you will surprise yourself - often it's even easier than it looks! These brownies are so simple and if you feel daunted by the cream cheese layer just leave it out and bake for 10 minutes less.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Brownies

250g dark chocolate

100g milk chocolate

200g unsalted butter

250g soft dark brown sugar

3 eggs

50g plain flour

Punnet of raspberries

250g marscapone

80g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

• Preheat the oven to 170C (fan)
• Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin
• Melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water
• Whisk the sugar and eggs until doubled in volume
• Fold in the melted chocolate and butter mix
• Fold in the flour
• Pour the mix into the tin
• Push a handful of raspberries into the mixture
• Whisk the cream cheese, sugar and egg together
• Pour over the brownie mix
• Tumble in the remaining raspberries
• Place in the over for 45 minutes until the cream cheese topping has a slight wobble and it golden round the edges

Enjoy!

I fully intended to publish this Chocolate Pavlova recipe last Friday but with the results of the EU Referendum I just didn't feel like it was the time or the place to think about blogging while we were all trying to get our heads round the result. 

I'm still shocked that "Leave" won (even by such a small margin) and I genuinely fear for our future and what it means for us all. How will it affect Ireland both North and South and could it see the break-up of the whole of the UK? I just dread to think....

For now I am focusing on the happy things - Mr T, our wee Ethan and of course baking!

A few weeks back some of our friends were hosting a BBQ and as usual I volunteered to bring a pud. I wanted something summery, quick and easy and even though I had made my Summer Pavlova recently I still wanted to make something different. I got thinking about making a chocolate dessert which eventually led me to the idea of a Chocolate Pavlova. Nigella has a great recipe for a chocolate meringue and I opted to make a chocolate ganache instead of using cream and once again decorated it with an abundance of berries.

The Pavlova was a great hit with everyone, I just need an excuse to make it again!

Chocolate Pavlova

6 egg whites

300g caster sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder sieved

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

50g dark chocolate finely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 160C (fan)
• Lay a sheet of baking parchment on a baking tray and draw a circle on it approximately 23cm in diameter or the size of your serving plate
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff and cloud-like
• Add the sugar a teaspoon at a time which should result in a glossy meringue
• Whisk in the cocoa and vinegar
• Fold in the chocolate gently until well combined
• Dollop the meringue on the baking parchment using the circle you previously drew as a guide
• Place in the oven and immediately turn down the temperature to 140C (fan)
• Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until firm to the touch 
• Leave the meringue to cool in the oven which will give you that gorgeous marshmallowy filling
• Melt the chocolate and cream together in a pan over a low heat
• Mix until well combined and smooth and glossy
• Place in the fridge to cool and firm up. You want it to be firm enough to spread without sliding off the meringue
• Once the meringue is cool dollop on the chocolate ganache and scatter over the fruit

Enjoy!

Speaking of which, I was really apprehensive about flying by myself with Ethan but it couldn't have gone any better. From the moment Mr T dropped us at the airport and my parents picked us up on the other side both staff and passengers were so helpful. The lovely lady at check-in gave me a whole row to myself even though babies travel on your lap just so I had some extra space. I put Ethan in the sling as it was easier to collapse the pram and get organised when going through security and thankfully as it's fabric I was able to keep him in the sling when going through the scanner. I had people offering to take my things off the belt for me as you all know how chaotic it is at security. When I was collapsing the pram at the steps to the plane a passenger stopped the queue offering to help then another put my hand luggage in the overhead locker and once we were ready to disembark another passenger got my hand luggage down when he saw me putting Ethan in the sling and carried it off the plane for me. I got the exact same service coming back all from people I had never met before. It was so lovely to see how many helpful people there are around.

Ok, went off on a slight tangent there! Back to the meal plan! I've decided to have a go at doing Meat Free Mondays and Fish Fridays just to make things a bit more interesting. Let's see if I can stick to it!

This week we are having...

Monday - Falafel Burgers with Sweet Potato Wedges

Tuesday - Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Bake

Wednesday - Mince and Onion Pie

Thursday - Lamb and Pear Tagine

Friday - Fish Pie

Saturday - Steak and Chips

Sunday - Roast Chicken

Now I need to get to Aldi and do a food shop before baby group this afternoon.

Have a great week!

It was a strange one for me as it's the first time I left Ethan even though it was only for 2 hours and I was only 5 minutes away if Mr T needed me. I defrosted some expressed milk that I had stashed in the freezer from when Ethan last had a cold and couldn't feed right, left Mr T with a list of instructions and headed off for some adult conversation but feeling like I was missing a limb. I'll be honest though, I did not like leaving him at all. Even though he was with his Daddy and perfectly safe I still felt guilty but it was nice for them to have some father son time and when I got back Ethan had had a nap and they were both chilling in the lounge watching a bit of TV.

I said to Mr T if I feel like this leaving him for two hours what will I be like when I go back to work in January or do some KIT days before then?

Anyway... going off on slight tangent there! So - cake club! I decided on a simple theme as it was midweek and people don't often have a lot of time with work and family commitments. Also I find some people get stressed or worry about how their cake has turned out when it's a more complicated theme instead of just enjoying the baking process. Going back to basics allowed us all to focus on the simple cakes that we can do really well and look back on those recipes that got us in to baking in the first place.

We also had a few new members turn up which was lovely to see, I do hope they come back again! I've been struggling for new members for a while now and as much as I love all of our regulars I really want to expand the club and share the cakey love.

We held our event at the Chippendale Tea Rooms in Otley and it's a gem of a place. Very quaint and twee it was the perfect setting for the cake obsessed group that we are. With the evening sun streaming through the windows and the sound of live music being performed nearby it was a wonderful place to enjoy a Monday evening fueled by cake.










Thanks to Chippendale Tea Rooms for allowing us to host our Back to Basics event and thanks to all our members, old and new for attending (and baking delicious cakes of course!).

How is it that you are 3 months old already? I considered writing you monthly letters but instead I've opted for quarterly ones as they mark some bigger milestones.

We have now officially left the "Fourth Trimester" and the newborn days behind. Daddy and I were keen to follow your lead in these first few months slowly finding our feet and adjusting to life as parents while you got used to life outside the womb. 

I suppose I should really go back to the start when we first brought you home from hospital. You were born on Monday 7th March at 2:51am (after a long labour) and we took you home on the Tuesday evening. I was in no rush to get home as I was keen to get breastfeeding established and thankfully you took to it really well.

When we got home Granny and Granda were there which made things a lot easier. They looked after Daddy and I while we focused on you and even had a few lovely cuddles with you while Daddy and I caught up on some sleep. 

Most of that first week passed by in a blur of visits from Daddy's family, the midwives and some friends. Uncle Michael, Uncle Christopher and Uncle Stephen all came to separately over the following weeks with Granny and Granda coming back for almost a week after they had all gone home.

By the time we got to 6 weeks old you had been on a plane back to Ireland to visit the rest of the family, we had had a few trips on the train in to Leeds and you seemed to take any amount of travelling in your stride.

As I mentioned earlier I was really keen to get breastfeeding established. Even though I knew it would be hard at the start I really had no idea how difficult it would actually be. Once my milk came in you found it hard to latch so we had to hand express a little before each feed to encourage you. Then you started to dislike the right side and kept slipping back once you latched which resulted in a cracked nipple. I had to express for a few days to allow myself time to heal and thankfully you took a bottle with no objections. Since then we have found our groove with breastfeeding and dare I say it, but actually now it's really easy. My initial aim was 1 week, then 6 weeks and now I'm hoping to get to 6 months before we start weaning.

You aren't too bad with sleep although I'm still waiting for you to sleep through the night. In the early days nights were horrific and I used to dread bedtime but now you tend to have a 30 minute nap between 6 and 7 then go down for the night around 9. Sometimes you will sleep for 6 hours and other times only 3-4 hours but generally there are only 2-3 wake-ups a night and you feed for around 10minutes before going straight back to sleep. You tend to spend most of the night in your Snuzpod but by 5am I usually end up bringing you in to bed with us just so we get a guaranteed sleep until 7am. Day time naps are totally hit and miss. Sometimes you sleep lots while other days I'm lucky if you nap for more more than an hour - total pot luck!

You have now had 2 rounds of vaccinations and you weren't too bad with them although I wasn't keen on the nurse who did the most recent ones. Let's just say I don't like being told what to do in a patronising tone. Daddy reckons I'm being too sensitive - I disagree! Seeing that look on your face when you have not one but three needles stuck in your legs was awful but sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind.

We meet up with the NCT babies every Tuesday and the Twitter babies every other Wednesday. I also take you to baby group on a Monday and Thursday but you seem to be making a habit of falling asleep at them - perfect timing eh?

You have now truly mastered the art of smiling and will smile at anyone, you just love attention and to be cuddled. We often joke too that you will be walking next week as you are so strong and love to be stood up all the time (although Granny tells me off that it will give you bendy legs). Right from the start you have had great head control which makes carrying you so much easier. Your new favourite thing is for Daddy to gently pull your legs from side to side. You give the biggest smiles when he does that. Hopefully soon you will be rolling over but if I'm honest I'm in no rush. I'm cherishing you being my little baby boy for as long as possible.

We have also been to look around nurseries and have put a deposit down on one near Daddy's work. I'm aiming to go back to work 3 days a week and we hope you love the place we have picked for you. It was hard to have to make this decision when you are still so tiny but we want the best for you and were worried that if we left it until the last minute we would be left with somewhere awful. Honestly, some of the nurseries we looked around were horrendous but this place seems really special.

Ethan, my darling, I could talk about you all day and how amazing the past 3 months have been but for now I think it's time to draw this letter to a close. Daddy and I love you more than you will ever know. You really have changed our lives for the better.

Your first 3 months in photos

Our first family photo

With Daddy

One month!

Making the night feeds more bearable looking at your cute face

Meeting Tom Kerridge at the BBC Good Food Show at only 5 weeks old

Meeting your Great Great Uncle Jackie

With Granny and Granda

Your crazy Uncles

I love this one

With your cousins, Finn and Ollie

Cake club for the first time

2 months!

Tummy time!

I adore this vest Uncle Michael bought for you

12 weeks in - 12 weeks out

Family walk up the Chevin

Picnic with the NCT babies

3 months!

All our love, forever and always xxx

I also videoed a food haul when I did a shop last week but then never got round to publishing the post. This week as soon as I got in from Aldi Ethan needed feeding so I quickly threw the frozen stuff in the freezer and forgot to get the camera out. I'm really interested in Vlogging so I'll try and do another one next time if I can.

Thursday - Beef Casserole

Friday - Mixed Fish Grill (Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)

Saturday - keeping it flexible, maybe out for an early dinner?

Sunday - Roast

So there we go, that's our week ahead. It's supposed to be a scorcher this week so I'm wondering if the Cottage Pie and Casserole are good ideas. The main aim is not to order a takeaway!

Have a great week!

All month I kept thinking "I must take a family photo for the Me and Mine project" but then Mr T was so busy with work and his exam classes then Ethan seemed to spend half the month full of cold, before I knew it the month was up and the only family photo I have is this bad selfie of the three of us taken a couple of weeks ago. 

Initially I didn't want to use this photo, it's pretty awful but it does tell a story of another first for Ethan and that's one of the reasons I'm taking part in this project. I look seriously rough, Mr T needs a shave and Ethan isn't even looking at the camera. We had had a run of sleepless nights with the night before being particularly bad and I was just shattered. He wouldn't nap in the day and I was wore done. I had went to a friend's house for a couple of hours that afternoon to get a break and when I got back Mr T had been to Sainsburys, bought a disposable barbecue and some meat and fish to cook on it. It was Ethan's first barbecue and even though we were sat in our grotty back garden (I cannot wait to move!) with next door's cats hovering around I knew we needed to mark it with a photo.

Sleepless nights (and days) are all part of the package in life with a little baby. Yes I need to put some make-up on and fix my hair, yes Mr T needs to stop pulling a silly face and yes, Ethan needs to look at the camera but that's our life and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Let's hope next month's photos are a little better and we get some more sleep!

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a massive fan of Sugar and Crumbs Icing Sugar. I have been using their sugars for 2-3 years now and they have to be the best flavoured icing that I have ever used.

A few weeks back I was having a root around in my baking cupboard when I spotted an unopened bag of Pink Lemonade Icing Sugar that only had a few months left on the date. I had actually bought it at the Cake and Bake Show last year but somehow forgot I had it.

I was wracking my brains trying to think how I could incorporate it in a cake when I noticed Sugar and Crumbs had started stocking Nordic Ware Bundts. Now I am purposefully avoiding their website at the moment as maternity pay, yummy icing and gorgeous cake tins are not a good combination. 

Anyway... I digress... I got chatting to the S&C folks on Twitter and we began to wonder how their icing sugar would work in a Bundt so of course I realised how I would use the Pink Lemonade Icing Sugar - I would make a Bundt! 

I opted for my Blossom tin as it's just so pretty (although it's a bugger to grease!) and my favourite tin to use.

I was unsure as to how icing sugar would work in a sponge so I did a 50/50 ratio of icing sugar to caster sugar. The result was interesting but in a good way. The Pink Lemonade flavour wasn't that strong but what it did give was a sweeter sponge. The flavour did come through stronger in the icing glaze and I think that had it been more evident in the sponge it would have been too overpowering.

To add a little bit of fun (and pink) to the Bundt I decided to create a marble effect with some pink food colouring. It was only afterwards that I began to wonder should I have flavoured the pink bits with the Pink Lemonade icing sugar and left the rest of it plain. I think I might do that with my next batch of icing sugars as now I'm thinking about it as I type I'm quite intrigued by it.

Pink Lemonade Bundt

340g Baking Spread

170g Caster Sugar

170g Pink Lemonade Icing Sugar

340g SR Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

6 eggs

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Pink Food Colouring

To Decorate

250g Pink Lemonade Icing Sugar

A few tablespoons of water

Edible Silver Balls

Freeze Dried Raspberries

• Preheat your oven to 160C (fan)
• Grease and flour your chosen Bundt tin
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Whisk in the flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla extract until well combined
• Scoop half the mixture into another bowl and gently stir in pink food colouring (I use Sugarflair Gels)
• Alternate between the two cake mixes adding a spoonful at a time into the tin
• Place in the oven and bake for 45-50mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean
• Leave to sit in the tin for 30mins before tipping onto a wire rack to cool
• Once cool mix the remaining icing sugar with some water until it is a thick but pourable consistency
• Pour over the Bundt
• Decorate with a scattering of edible silver balls and freeze dried raspberries

Enjoy!