Rolo Cupcakes

I impulse-bought a sharing bag of Rolos a few weeks ago with the intention of baking something with them, and today seemed like the perfect time to plug in my KitchenAid, switch on the oven and briefly take over the kitchen for a spot of Bank Holiday baking.

These Rolo Cupcakes were a bit of an experiment, and I'm pleased to say they worked pretty well! Like my Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake I knew exactly what I wanted to do, it just took a bit of research to find the right recipes to combine to make my vision a reality. After a lot of consideration I decided on a fluffy chocolate sponge topped with a sweet caramel frosting and crowned with a Rolo (I couldn't make my mind up with the chocolate/caramel cake/frosting combination!).

This is a ridiculously easy recipe. I'm not kidding: it's virtually impossible to go wrong with and it requires very little baking knowledge at all. So, if you're not the most confident of bakers this is the recipe for you!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

I celebrated my 19th birthday a few years ago with a BBQ party at home with all of my best pals, neighbours and family friends. At the time I'd just started to seriously enjoy baking, so used my birthday as the perfect opportunity to make a huge selection of bakes from The Hummingbird Bakery book, Cake Days. I planned out the couple of days before the party with military precision and spent them hiding in the kitchen from dawn till dusk so that for the party there was a table of cakes, cookies, tarts and whoopie pies for everyone to enjoy. Of everything I made, this is the cake that had the most compliments, and the one that I still have people asking me for the recipe literally years later. Well, here it is...

Fans of chocolate, rejoice, as this cake will be utter heaven for you, and in a not entirely coincidental turn of events it contains Guinness, so it's pretty appropriate for St Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Whether you're just in the mood for cake, or if you need/ want to make something themed for St Patrick's Day then you can't go wrong with this Chocolate Guinness Cake topped with a cream cheese frosting. Delicious doesn't even cover it.

Candy Cane Cupcakes

"I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel."

It's only the December 6th but I've already watched Elf more times than is socially acceptable.

With Buddy the Elf and his sugar obsession on my mind, the next recipe to try out for my Christmas bakes was a bit of a no brainer: Candy Cane Cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery.

These look impressive, smell amazingly pepperminty and are deceptively easy to make. Winning on so many levels!

Chocolate Orange Cookies

As far as I'm concerned Christmas is the best time of the year. I love absolutely everything about it, and spend 11 months (im)patiently waiting for December to come round again, so I can watch Elf repeatedly, have Christmas CDs playing at full blast in my car and excitedly shop for presents before ruining them entirely with my rubbish wrapping skills.

One of the best parts though, is the baking.

In the run up to the 25th I'll be posting a series of 10 festive-themed bakes, all ranging in difficulty, and hopefully providing a little inspiration for homemade gifts, alternatives to traditional desserts (not everyone likes Christmas pudding…) and the perfect naughty treats for yourself that are totally allowed in December.

Remember, calories don't count at Christmas.*

* Unfortunately they do, but let's pretend like they don't…

It's not Christmas without a Chocolate Orange. They're practically a staple requirement in Christmas stockings, and I don't think I know any family that doesn't end up with at least one to tap and unwrap on Boxing Day. As most supermarkets will have them on offer over the next few weeks, it seemed like the right time to try experimenting and these cookies are the ideal way to put your Terry's Chocolate Orange to good use!

Children in Need Pudsey Vanilla Cupcakes

Since leaving school - and therefore no longer having the long, exciting build-up - Children in Need seems to creep up on me without realising and all of a sudden it's Friday, Terry Wogan's everywhere and I'm frantically trying to bake something Pudsey-themed for charity.

If, like me, you're a little unorganised this year and need to whip something up quickly this afternoon for a last minute bake sale or to munch on while you sit on the sofa and watch the show (and donate!) then look no further than these super easy vanilla cupcakes with the best chocolate frosting IN THE WORLD. Seriously, Lorraine Pascale hit the jackpot with this recipe.

They're so simple to make, taste amazing, and if you can muddle your way though using a piping bag then they'll look really, really cute.

Now's the time to be a Baking Hero, so aprons on, and bake for the nation!

Beetroot and Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe was a bit of an experiment.

I've never used beetroot before - mainly because the smell of it repulses me - but it seemed to keep cropping up all over the place in Halloween-themed recipes so I thought now was as good a time as ever to try it out.

It turns out even though it plays a large part in the recipe, you can't really taste it at all, and these cupcakes are perfect for Halloween.

Spiderweb Cheesecake

Confession time: I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween.

I hate horror films with a passion, I'm a complete arachnophobe and growing up in the middle of nowhere meant I never got involved in Trick or Treating as a child. As a result it's an event that largely passes me by each year. However, I'm a sucker for thematic baking so knew I'd have to give in to all of the Halloween paraphernalia in the shops and make something appropriate for the 31st.

The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook - Cake Days - has an excellent section on Halloween and Bonfire bakes, and I was immediately determined to try out the Spiderweb Cheesecake.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

This week it's been National Cupcake Week.

Therefore the obvious thing for me to do would be to bake cupcakes - after all, I'm practically morally obligated to given the nature of the week.

I can't remember when I bought this book, but it's fabulous. The Hummingbird Bakery has the best cupcakes around, and their books are filled with American-style cupcakes with inventive flavours, and their recipes are guaranteed to be a success no matter what your level of baking. This one, Cupcakes and Muffins, has a small selection of the best Hummingbird recipes, and as I hadn't tried Black Bottom Cupcakes before I knew this was the perfect opportunity to see what they're like.

Marshmallow Cupcakes

Here’s yet another recipe that I made ages ago but have only just got round to blogging. I hadn’t made cupcakes for quite a while, so after flicking through The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and finding a recently opened packet of marshmallows from my mum’s secret stash of sweets I decided upon Marshmallow Cupcakes. They’re a lot fiddlier than I anticipated, but seemed to work okay. I doubt I’ll be making them again quite like this, but I’ll put the recipe I used below and make sure to comment on the bits I wasn’t too keen on.

Blueberry and Soured Cream Loaf

From having no blueberries to having them taking over the fridge, I decided to use them again but this time in a Blueberry and Soured Cream Loaf. This was particularly good as the soured cream ensured the loaf remained fluffy and moist for days after it was baked. The blueberries sank to the bottom half of the loaf (which is nothing to panic about if that happens to you) and they looked amazing: really vibrant and made for a good photograph! This is definitely recommended if you like blueberries and you like cake: if so, then get on it!

Blueberry Muffins

I’ve made many variations of muffins, but for some reason never the classic blueberry. This summer I’ve thrown away so many tubs of blueberries as I’ve always started out with good intentions and never got round to actually using them, so after 10 weeks I decided enough was enough. Time to take the bull by the horns – so to speak! – and tackle for once and for all.

Pea, Ham and Feta Cheese Muffins

Savoury muffins seemed like a good idea at the time (courtesy of Cake Days), but in reality they really weren’t at all! I’m not sure quite what didn’t work – I’m thinking it was the feta cheese – but even so these are not something I’ll be making again in a hurry. That being said however, I thought I’d blog the recipe, the photos and let you see for yourself! The people that tried them said the main issue was understanding that it wasn’t supposed to be sweet and was meant to taste savoury, so if you can get past that then give them a try!

Caramelised Fruit and Nut Tart

The cupboard in the kitchen that houses all of my baking supplies has been significantly depleted as of late, and in particular I’ve ended up with lots of open bags of different nuts and dried fruit all of random and annoying weights. A quick read of my baking books gave me the perfect solution: Caramelised Fruit and Nut Tarts. The recipe allowed me to use up the pre-opened packets and do something useful with them. Plus, it came at the right time – this week was tart week on the Great British Bake Off so I felt at least this bake would be relevant!

Pistachio Whoopie Pies

I’ve made whoopie pies twice before, the first time was an undisputed success (carrot cake whoopie pies went down a treat at my 19th birthday party) and the second was an absolute disaster (chocolate and peanut butter – didn’t rise, dry and hard as rocks). I almost owed it to myself to try again and this time decided to go with pistachio. I’m a big fan of pistachio - particularly in macaroons - and was keen to attempt to give this all-American pie an elegant twist. It has to be said: these had to be the best whoopie pies I’ve ever made. They rose well, were light and fluffy, and the pistachio was a welcome addition.

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Cake

The photograph for this cake in Cake Days looked delicious, hence my determination to make it at some point during the summer. However, I seriously underestimated how much faffing making it would involve! Nonetheless, I was quite pleased with the outcome so feel it would only be appropriate to share. It takes a while to make – mainly due to the fiddly instructions – but if you like salted caramel and are a bit of a chocoholic, then this Sweet and Salty Chocolate Cake is worth the effort and perfect for you!

Rhubarb and Almond Loaf

I made this a few weeks ago but have only just got round to putting the photos on my laptop and actually blogging it. I hadn’t worked with rhubarb before, so picked this recipe as it would be something a little out of my comfort zone – a toe in the water of branching out: I’m unbelievably unadventurous when it comes to baking, in complete contrast to the sheer quantity and variety of baking books and blogs that I read! Plus, after an epic tidy up of all my baking things that had become scattered all over the house, I was able to assess the ridiculous amount of baking tins I’ve accumulated and decided to put the neglected loaf tin to good use.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The first chocolate chip cookies I ever made were from a recipe out of the Be-Ro book, and despite following the instructions to the letter, the taste was good but they always came out tough and closer to a biscuit in texture than a cookie. I’ve tried numerous recipes since then, getting closer and closer to cookie nirvana, and I’m pretty confident I’ve reached it with this recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook! The cookies had the perfect crackled top, were soft without crumbling and were gooey for days.

Rocky Road

I haven’t baked anything for at least a week (which for me feels like forever while I’m at home) so felt like some time in the kitchen soon was well overdue. Today I wasn’t in the mood to do anything complicated, but wanted to at least do something, eventually settling on the quickest and easiest recipe I know: extremely chocolaty and scarily calorific Rocky Road.