Autumnal Baking: Peach, Apple & Rhubarb Crumble

The last few weekends, Liam's Mum has given us a big bag of home grown rhubarb so the obvious choice  to us was to make a Rhubarb Crumble!  I initially browsed for some other recipes to use it in, and came across a Rhubarb Upside Down Cake which really took my fancy, but Liam wasn't a fan.  Even though he doesn't really do puddings - he loves the classics, and now it's coming to Autumn, a hot treat seems reasonable!

I didn't realise just how easy it was to make a crumble, so I thought I'd share with you how I did it!  I added in some extra fruit, because our smoothie maker broke last week so we've had a lot more fruit left at the end of the week - the first time I made one, I added in victoria plums, and this week I added in a couple of apples, and some flat peaches!

I'll point out now - I'm no food photographer, and to be honest, I hate it when you follow a recipe and it turns out looking nothing like the photo from the recipe.  Here you've got a proper home cooked recipe, complete with photos of how mine turned out from a novice baker!  (I'll stop with my baking excuses now!)

You will need:
     SIX STICKS OF RHUBARB
     TWO APPLES
     FOUR FLAT PEACHES
     SIX TABLESPOONS OF CASTER SUGAR
     FOUR TABLESPOONS OF WATER
     110g BUTTER
     110g DEMERARA SUGAR
     180g PLAIN FLOUR

You want to start by pre-heating your oven to 180, and then start chopping up your fruit.  I chopped my rhubarb to around two inches in length, and was sure to peel my peaches and apples.  After throwing everything into my crumble dish, I sprinkled six tablespoons of caster sugar and four tablespoons of water across my fruit.  The recipe I was following did ask for eight tablespoons of caster sugar, but it was way too sweet the first time we tried it - especially with all the sugar from the fruit!  I will probably try lowering the amount of sugar again next time just to see if it's even needed at all!  I roasted my fruit for around ten minutes to soften them up a bit.

Whilst your fruit is roasting, you can start on your crumble topping!  Add your butter, demerara sugar and flour to a bowl and start massaging it through your fingers until you have that crumble texture and all of your ingredients have been mixed.   By the time you've done that, it should be almost time to take your fruit from the oven.  After your ten minutes are up, sprinkle your crumble topping over the top and bake for around forty minutes or until the topping has changed to a golden brown!

Well...I love puddings, so I really enjoyed this; I served mine with some hot custard!  I'd definitely make another, and next time I might try an apple crumble with a bit of cinnamon in!  Leave a comment below if you've got any recipes for some Autumnal cooking as I'm starting to feel very cosy, and have been craving all sorts of traditional home cooked meals!

What's your favourite Autumnal dessert?

Psychedelic Space Cake

It was Liam's birthday on Friday 4th, so I spent a couple of days last week baking and decorating his birthday cake!  I don't make him a cake every year, because he doesn't have a need for cake in the same way that I do.  But seeing as we went camping over the weekend with our friends for his birthday, I thought I'd put in a bit of effort and make him something everyone can enjoy to get into a real birthday mood!

He recently bought himself a telescope, and has a huge interest in space and Physics, so I decided to make his cake space themed!  I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to do it, but I luckily managed to spot a hemisphere cake tin which bakes cakes into half spheres.  It made for a perfect moon shape!  I got mine from Lakeland, but you can find them on Amazon and on eBay - they're all pretty similar in price, I tried my best to find a bargain, but cake tins aren't the cheapest!  I also decided on baking some cake pops, which would be little aliens to accompany my moon!

Liam has pointed out to me in the past the super bright rainbow cakes, and said how cool they were, but I never got round to making one for him.  Gel food colourings bring out the brightest colours, so I tracked down some Wilton gel dyes which I bought from Amazon.  For the inside of the cake, I chose to use the neon set which gave an amazing vibrancy and such unusual colours.  The purple took a lot more dye than the others to stop it looking grey, so I think if I made another, I probably would bypass the purple!  I also bought another set of twelve colours, which I used on my cake pops!  These were so good, and maybe even better and brighter than the neons!  You can see the inside of my cake pops on my Instagram feed!

I just used a standard victoria sponge recipe, filled with strawberry jam and butter cream.  Because I picked the large hemisphere tin, I had to use a six egg recipe to make sure it filled the pan.  I dyed some of the icing the bright neons, and made a little spaceman to sit on the cake.  I also cut out some stars with a little star cutter and sprinkled on some gold and white glitter to make it really spacey.

I finished my cake pops with a coating of white chocolate, and some neon sugar!  I attempted to draw some faces with some of those icing pens but they just kind of melted down...don't really know what happened there.  Admittedly, the aliens didn't turn out as pristine and perfect as I had hoped but oh well!  For all we know, aliens might look exactly like these do...

We went camping on the Friday night through until Sunday, which was lots of fun even though field mice managed to break in and eat our breakfast buns and our Sunday lay in was cut short because major winds snapped our tent...  But despite it all, it was a very fun weekend!  Even if we did in the end forget to take the cake altogether...more for us!

So...what do you think?  Am I a master baker?

Easy, Healthy Lunch Idea: The Fajita Salad

Working in the middle of a field really does have it's benefits; fresh air, nice views from the office and most importantly, no shops nearby so I can't nip out and get a sneaky Subway for lunch.  I make a packed lunch every evening right before I go to bed, so that I get maximum sleep time and just so it's done and out the way.

Recently, as we know, I've been trying to make a lifestyle change.  Whilst I've got going to the gym down, and I'm sorted on the fitness side of things, my eating habits definitely need some work.  I've been trying really hard to eat well whilst I am at work.  I usually have a sandwich or a wrap, but it gets a bit boring and there are more healthy options to be had!  I'm a bit of a salad dodger - I can think of a million and one things that I'd rather eat than a salad.  And I always end up hungry through the afternoon.  I wanted a lunch with all the healthy bits in a salad, just...nicer.  I'm quite good at throwing things together and hoping for the best, but here I am writing my second recipe post which is this fajita salad - all the ingredients of a fajita, but without the high calories.

You will need...

           35g BROWN BASMATI RICE

           CHICKEN BREAST

           SMALL RED ONION

           1/2 RED PEPPER

           1/2 YELLOW PEPPER

           1/2 TOMATO

           2 CLOSED CUP MUSHROOMS

           HANDFUL OF SPINACH

           GROUND CUMIN

           HOT CHILLI FLAKES (OPTIONAL)

Weigh out your rice - it's so easy to go overboard on rice, so weighing it out is the best way to ensure a perfect portion for lunch.  On the packet, it's usually 75g of rice for a portion, but seeing as this is just a lunch, I halved my portion and found it to be just right.  It's important to get brown rice, because it has a low GI meaning that it will keep you fuller for longer, and it's just better for you than white rice!  You'll want to put your rice on now, as this takes the longest to cook - usually around twenty five minutes.

First things first, you'll need to chop all your ingredients.  I sliced my onions and peppers into fajita style slices, sliced my mushrooms and diced my tomato.  My chicken breast was ready chopped, but if yours isn't, just roughly chop your chicken into bite sized pieces.

To avoid extra calories, use a non-stick frying pan so that you don't need to use oil!  I dry fried my onion and my chicken breast.  If you absolutely must use oil, try using the spray one calorie oils to make sure you don't go for it on oil.

Add your peppers and mushrooms to the pan and stir fry until they soften.  I add my diced tomato last just as a bit of an extra flavour.  The main part to the fajita flavouring is your ground cumin.  If you give this a sniff, it's just screaming fajita to me - I give this a good sprinkle across the ingredients and stir in.  If you are wanting a little extra spice, add some hot chilli flakes or some fresh chillis.  Remove the pan from the heat and wait for your rice to finish cooking!

When your rice is done, drain and rinse with boiling water to get rid of all the starch.  Add your rice to your fajita pan, and stir in to mix with all the ingredients and coat it with the fajita flavour.

Put the pan back on a low heat, and add a handful of spinach.  Stir until the spinach has wilted slightly and then remove from the heat and put in your lunch box to cool.

You can eat this cold, but I prefer to reheat mine again at lunch the next day.  I literally don't know how I would make this an amazing food photograph, but you'll just have to trust me that it's nice!  I always get compliments on how good it smells, and not to blow my own trumpet, but it tastes pretty damn nice as well!  The best part that it is really filling and comes in according to My Fitness Pal at just 270 calories!  If you wanted to, you could also serve this with a bit of guacamole on the side!  You can find my recipe for that here.  So there it is...my one pan, low calorie lunch wonder.

What's your favourite thing to eat as a healthy lunch?  Will you try my Fajita Salad?

Holy Guacamole!

Today is my anniversary with my boyfriend Liam.  We've been together for nine years today!  How very amazing, and I'm very happy!  So happy in fact, that this evening I've been preparing a Mexican feast for us both to indulge in as soon as he finishes work.  Liam and I both - to put it bluntly - bum Mexico.  We have been to Cancun twice with our group of friends and it's literally the best place ever, it is worth every single penny!

 

Aside from the sun, sea and nightlife, one of the things that I love the most about being in Mexico is the guacamole.  There are literally no words to describe how amazing this stuff is over there - I've never found guacamole as good!  The next best thing to Mexican guacamole is home made guacamole.

 

 

It's so simple to make, and is so much nicer than shop bought guacamole and it takes no time at all!  To make this bowl of guacamole, I used;

           TWO RIPE AVOCADOS
           ONE RED ONION
           ONE TOMATO
           THE JUICE OF ONE LIME
           ONE CLOVE OF GARLIC

All you need to do is chop your Avocado's in half, scoop out the middle and mash.  Finely chop the tomato and the onion and add to the mashed avocado.  Add the juice of one lime, stir that in.  And mince your garlic clove and crack that in there too!  I also added a bit of salt and pepper just for some seasoning, because all pro chefs add salt and pepper...

I swear the photograph that I've included doesn't do the guacamole justice.  Just give it a go, you will not regret it!  You can even spice things up a little by adding in some chopped chilli!

So...will you be trying to make your own guacamole?