Easy Easter Cupcakes

Our kitchen is in a huge state of disarray; there are cupboard carcasses installed in some areas, piles of tools everywhere, no flooring, no sink, no worktops… but we do now have our range in and hooked up to the electric. Alas, still no gas connection, so we can’t use the hobs, but we can at least use the oven! With minimal space, utensils and bowls/pans etc, I needed a really quick and easy recipe to make my Easter bake this year. Enter these easy cupcakes; they’re simple lightly spiced sponges with loads of Mini Eggs added for Eastery goodness. Obviously Mini Eggs are seasonal, but Smarties or M&Ms would work just as well!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Tarts

For Mother's Day this year, I hosted an afternoon tea for some of the wonderful ladies in my life; my Mum, my sister, my Nan and my God Mother.
I got out all of our pretty crockery and glasses, made up little triangle sandwiches and baked a whole host of sweet and savoury treats to share (obviously this was before our kitchen was taken out!). Some things I'd make before, like the scones and mini quiches, but I'll be sharing some of the other recipes over the next couple of weeks while we are without a kitchen, starting with these little PB & J tarts! And don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram - @jadebakes89

Mocha Sandwich Cookies

My godmother is the most awkward person to choose gifts for, so when her birthday came round this week I decided to bake her a gift instead of buying something. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time due to an already busy week, so I thought I'd adapt the recipe I shared for ginger pinwheel biscuits to make some cookie dough which I could prepare in advance. And as you bake from frozen, it's super easy to have a batch of freshly baked cookies ready in a flash!

Pistachio and Sea Salt Brownie Cake

I made this as birthday cake at work for another colleague - we've had three birthdays in three weeks! After making the fruity blueberry and coconut cake the previous week, I thought I'd go for something chocolaty this time, and this did not disappoint! I came across this recipe on BBC Good Food months ago, and so adapted this slightly to make this amazingly fudgy, pistachio topped brownie cake. It's a good one for making ahead as it'll keep for a few days and still be rich in the middle, and you could just as easily replace the pistachios with any other nut you fancy.

Chocolate and Ginger Pinwheel Biscuits

I can't believe this is my first post of 2015, and it's been over two months since my last recipe! I needed the break though - the run-up to Christmas, and the festive period itself, was hectic and finding time to keep this up to date would have been one commitment too many I think! I've still baked a lot - mostly as Christmas gifts and desserts for big family dinners - but was so preoccupied with other things that I forgot to take any photographs of a lot of it! Doh! These cookies though, are one of the few things that I do have a badly taken photo of, so I thought I'd start here. I made these for all our neighbours, and the lovely ladies that serve me in the bank when I go for work, as a little Christmas gift, they looked super cute in little cello-bags, decorated with ribbons and bells!

Spiced Rum Chocolate Tart

James and I hosted a Halloween quiz night at the weekend, and put on a bit of a spread - using Tom Kerridge recipes for inspiration for the best part of it. This tart recipe is a slight adaptation of his Cheats Chocolate Tart, using my favourite spiced rum, Old J. It's rich and velvety, and the spiced rum cuts through the creaminess of the milk chocolate. Plus it's super easy to make, and very impressive!

Chocolate Chip Ginger Cake

I made this cake for my Mum’s birthday earlier this week. It’s actually the first cake I’ve ever made in our new house, in the tiny crappy oven… My baking supplies are very limited at the moment, with things still in boxes here and there, but I managed to find out one cake pan and mixing bowl to be able to make this yummy chocolate chip ginger cake. It’s a simple, easy recipe, but tastes so good! Sorry about the photo too – I forgot to take one until we’d already cut it up and started eating it!

Mini Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

This weekend, my parents hosted afternoon tea for the rest of our family. There was SO much food; from sandwiches and quiches, to scones with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I made these mini cupcakes as my contribution to the spread, and they went down a treat! This recipe made about 30 mini cupcakes, which would probably equate to a dozen regular cupcakes.

Nutella Cookie Dough Brownies

This is another experimental recipe that went down a storm! They're great because even though they look super chocolatey, they're actually not too rich or sickly at all, which makes them perfect for people who don't have a big sweet tooth.

Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

 

I am a little behind my on my recipes this month... It was my birthday last Monday and things have been a bit hectic all week! Plus, I have been sharing recipes on Jade Bakes for a whole year today! How time flies!

To celebrate, I'm sharing with your a recipe for some very moreish peanut butter cookie bars; another of the tray bakes I made for my sister's house warming party last month. The white chocolate frosting is also a dream - you can use it to top cakes, dip cookies or if you leave it to cool, you could even make truffles from it!

Jack Daniels Brownie Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Topping

 

This is what I created for my boss' birthday this year. A biscuit base, with a chocolate cake that's midway between sponge and brownie, topped with lots of gooey toasted marshmallows. It looks a little messy, but tastes damn good!

Death by Mini Egg Gateaux

When deciding what to make for Easter this year, the only thing I knew it needed to contain was mini eggs and chocolate. I couldn’t decide whether to make chewy chocolate cookies, rich chocolate sponge cakes or gooey chocolate brownies… so I though sod it. Why not just make all of it? And then, why not make all of it in one amazing, indulgent gateaux, overloaded with chocolate?! After all, that’s what Easter is really about, right? So this, my friends, is my wonderful creation: Death by Mini Egg Gateaux. A chocolate cookie base, topped with a chocolate sponge cake, finished with a thick layer of chocolate frosting and oodles of crushed mini eggs. Seriously bad for you. But totally worth it.

Mini Egg Blondie Pie

I came up with this idea whilst trying to decide what dessert to bake for after our Sunday Roast this weekend. I spotted a bag of mini eggs in the cupboard and instantly set about making them go further; traybakes are more of an afternoon cuppa bake, so I opted to turn a blondie into a pie. So here it is, my mini egg blondie pie.

Cadbury's Creme Egg Brownies

Technically, I didn't make these this year. I made them 2 years ago when they were all over Facebook, and I am by no means claiming this recipe as my own, but they went down so well, that they're too good not to share! Plus I had a request from a good friend for the recipe that I used :) This recipe has been slightly adapted from Precious Little Words recipe, and sorry about the photo - I didn't take a proper one of the brownies at the time, only one of the egg I almost lost!

Chocolate Meringues

I had a few egg whites left over from a recipe that I will share with you  soon, and rather than see them go to waste (or to the dog) I thought I'd use them to try making chocolate meringues. They're so simple, and would be great served with fresh berries and cream, or even chopped banana and hot chocolate fudge sauce!

Red Velvet Layer Cake

I made this cake for my Grandparents’ Ruby Wedding Anniversary at the weekend – it was the obvious choice with it’s deep red colour and it made a great centrepiece on the dessert table. The buttermilk makes for a moist, dense sponge that is perfectly paired with this cream cheese frosting. It’s very rich though, so remember that a little goes a long way when it comes to cutting it into slices!

Baked Creme Egg Cheesecake

Oh yes! A colleague posted a no-bake creme egg cheesecake recipe to my timeline last month, and so for her birthday, I thought I'd recreate my own baked version! I love the hidden 'yolk' under the chocolate layer, and it's so simple to make!

Toblerone Cookies

My sister and her boyfriend moved into their first house last week, and we've spent the majority of the weekend helping them strip wall paper, rip up carpets, clean tiles, paint walls and assemble flat pack furniture. All of which is pretty tiring work, I can tell you! So to keep us going, I baked a batch of these yummy Toblerone cookies - I doubled the recipe and ended up with about 60 cookies in the end, meaning that there was plenty left over for at home!

Tia Maria Cake

This coffee vodka cake is SO good! I'm not usually a fan of coffee cake, but since this is made with Tia Maria rather than cold brewed coffee I figured I had to try it. I think I've been converted...! I made this as a birthday cake for a colleague and we just ate it as a slice of glazed sponge, but I think ideally it should be served with a generous helping of clotted cream and a handful of fresh berries.

White Chocolate, Orange and Cranberry Muffins

I made these fruity muffins to help fuel a friends house move at the weekend... if you've read the recipe below, you will see that these muffins have no sugar. Yup. That's not a mistake. All of the sweetness in these tasty muffins comes from the honey, so make sure to use a good quality honey rather than supermarket value ones! Although I did find that they stuck to the cases a little bit, it's fun to nibble it off the paper :)