Maple walnut muffins

2c flour
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/2c (125g) butter
1/2c packed tightly brown sugar
1/2c maple syrup
2 eggs
3/4c milk
1/2c walnuts

- Preheat oven to 180deg C
- Sift four, baking powder and salt
- Cream butter and sugar, stir in maple syrup and beat in eggs.
- Add flour mixture alternately with milk until well combined
- Spoon batter into muffin cups about 3/4 full (this recipe made 15 muffins for me)
- Bake for 20 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

These turned out rather well, even though I'm not a huge muffin fan. I'll admit, I ate a couple, and I rarely eat any of my own baking (go figure!) Boyfriend particularly loved them, it makes a nice change from chocolate or banana muffins, that's for sure!

Marble cake

Ingredients
225g butter , softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa powder

- Mix all ingredients together except cocoa.
- Separate into two bowls, add cocoa to one bowl.
- Add alternative spoonfuls of mixture to greased cake tin, and swirl with a skewer
- Bake at 180deg C for 45 mins

I added chocolate chips to the chocolate part, and this cake turned out quite well. Not as good as mud cake, or banana cake, or carrot cake... but I liked it :) I liked it best when it was warm, but it curbed the chocolate cravings that I've been having since I gave up eating chocolate (bars) a week ago. Success!

Chocolate mud muffins

I forgot to record the recipe I used... but they were delicious, and here is photographic proof!

Vege frittata

8 eggs
6-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, diced
4 button mushrooms
Frozen spinach (thawed)
Frozen peas (thawed)
Grated cheese
Salt & pepper
3/4c milk

-Lightly brown onion and mushrooms in a buttered fry pan. When browned, throw in cherry tomatoes for 30 seconds or so.
-Pour into the bottom of a lined baking dish, mine was about 25x15cm. Add spinach and peas.
-Whisk milk and eggs, add salt & pepper to taste. Pour into baking dish.
- Top with cheese. I also put cheese in the egg mixture, but not as much as I would normally add to cheese sauce.
-Bake at 180deg C for 30 mins

Brookies (brownies + cookies)

Cookie dough:
1c + 2 tbsp plain flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp baking soda
115g softened butter
1/2c brown sugar
1/4c white sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
160g choc chips

Brownie batter:
115g butter cut into cubes
3/4c plain flour
1tbsp cocoa powder
1/2tsp salt
140g chocolate, chopped (I used chocolate chips)
3/4c white sugar
1/4c brown sugar
3 eggs, room temp
1tsp vanilla

Make cookie dough:
- Add flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, stir to combine and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add egg and beat, and add vanilla.
- Slowly add flour mixture and beat to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Make brownie mixture:
- Combine flour, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl.
- Put 2 inches of water in a large pot and bring to the boil. Set a heatproof bowl on top (make sure bowl isn't touching boiling water) and melt butter and chocolate. Take off the heat, but keep bowl on the pot, and add sugars. Leave to cool to room temp.
- Add eggs, whisk until just combined. Then, using a spatula (to avoid too much air in the batter) stir in the vanilla and fold in flour. Do not overmix!
- Pour into a greased muffin tin, have each muffin hole halfway full. Put in fridge for 1 hour.

- Preheat oven to 190deg C and place rack in centre of oven. Take brownie batter out of the fridge.
- Roll cookie dough into small balls and flatten into a disc, and then press discs on top of the brownie batter.
- Bake until cookies are golden, 17-19 mins ish.

Okay, these didn't cook properly. It may have something to do with me not leaving everything in the fridge for long enough, but it also may be our oven as 3 down one side cooked and the others didn't. Might be worth trying again, but given how many ingredients went into it, it was kind of a waste and I might be too scared to try again! but they smelt INCREDIBLE and they looked so cute!

You live, you learn.

Eggless chocolate mint cake

4 1/2 c flour
3c white sugar
1c cocoa
1c vegetable oil (I used Canola)
3c Water
3tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
3tbsp vanilla essence (I used mint essence, hence choc mint cake)

- Preheat oven to 185 deg C
- In a large bowl (and I mean LARGE! Not just a normal baking bowl, it goes all over the bench, I promise you!) sift flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Add sugar and combine.
- Add oil, water and vanilla and mix.
- Pour into a large, greased cake tin (I used a small cake tin and a loaf tin, unsure how much this is going to rise...) and bake for an hour.

Well this may be interesting. I used 2c normal sugar and 1c castor, because I ran out of sugar. I used canola oil because that's all we had. I used 2/3c cocoa and 1/3c of something chocolatey the flatmate had on her shelf. And lastly, I used mint essence because I simply didn't have enough vanilla.

So let's be honest. If this is edible, I will be very (but pleasantly) surprised!

Cross your fingers for me. Also, my bench and floor are filthy because I didn't have a big enough bowl, and my clean skirt is also covered in cocoa.

Update: I wish I had taken a photo, this cake looked beautiful with cream cheese icing. I made my flatmate do a taste test, and even though he will eat ANYTHING he really wasn't impressed. But then Tom had some and really enjoyed it, but it was EXTREMELY minty- he said you had to know it was mint chocolate before taking a bite. So the moral of today's story is, when substituting vanilla essence for mint essence, probably don't use 1:1 ratio.

Might make this again, but I think I preferred my mint cupcakes here.... http://bakeittoenjoyit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/mint-chocolate-cupcakes-with-mint-cream.html

Flourless choc brownie cookies

3 cups icing sugar

2/3 cups cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 180deg C. Line baking sheets with baking paper.

- In a large bowl combine icing sugar, cocoa and salt. Add egg whites and vanilla and stir until just combined. Add choc chips

- Spoon small amounts onto baking paper and chill in fridge for 5mins for dough to harden a little.

- Bake for 10-12 mins until slightly cracked. Cool on wire rack.

Wow these are DELICIOUS. But you must remember to take them out when they first start cracking or they fall apart. I am literally scraping my first lot off the baking paper and eating with a spoon, can't waste them because it's so delicious!