Brownies With a Twist

Oh yum... lovely, lovely chocolatey yummyness! This next recipe is made up of my three all time favourite flavours, so as you can imagine it is pretty special. This heavenly combo is made up of one layer of brownie, next layer peanut butter dough, and the final layer is made up of chocolate and peanut butter topping. It only takes a little more time but the result... well worth it! This cake is too good not to enjoy, try for yourself and I dare you to only have one piece! xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Chilli Chocolate Puds

Anyone else noticed the recent craze for chilli chocolate? I have to admit that I am definitely part  of the chilli chocolate lovers club, dark chocolate with a little bit of spice; what's not to like? So this next bake is a little more showy than the usual muffins, cookies, or cupcakes but they really are simple! The end result is lovely, not too spicy, really moist and gooey, served with whipped cocoa cream, they're a real treat! Try for yourself and enjoy a little post snow melt (sad face) indulgence xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Chocolate Chip Crunchy Cookies

I found the recipe for these cookies on the good food website. A place that I would really recommend for finding new and exiting recipes, with over 8000 different recipes you're sure to find what you want! The cookies are by Pamela Johnson, a chef/cook that I'd never heard of but the cookies are gorgeous, really tasty, and just perfect as a (pretty unhealthy but yummy) snack, although the cookies are called Butterscotch, after making them I don't really think they taste very butterscotchy but they were certainly crunchy, so for that reason I changed the name. Super easy and really quick, these are great as you can just whip up a batch, in under half an hour. xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Success!

Well, after only making the shortbread last night, they are all gone! Every single one; and I promise I didn't eat them all. I think it's fair to say they were a success.  xxx

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Well, life is slowly regaining normality. The snow has stopped, but more is scheduled for Friday so I wouldn't say the snowy days are over. Anyway, while we wait for the on coming snow, we can stuff our faces with tasty treats! Here is just one option: Chocolate chip shortbread. Inspired by the lovely and rather funny Great Comic Relief Bake-off!  The recipe is an adaptation of that in the primrose bakery book. Enjoy! xx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

And it continues...

Well, the snow is still falling; I don't think it has stopped over the last 2/3 days. Such beautiful weather, but  it's crazy cold! Trust me, my feet have suffered a lot for sledging and snowy adventures. Back home I think it's fair to say we all deserve an indulgent and yummy treat to keep the cold at bay. So have a slice of this tasty chocolate and hazelnut treat, I suppose it could be thought of as a tray bake, but equally it could also be a cake; decide yourself. Really simple and tastes even better snuggled up by the fire with a mug of something warm! xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Snow Days

As many of you will have noticed, here in England, we have been having rather a lot of that cold stuff called snow! I love snowy days and here's some pictures of my snowy day. Hope you're enjoying the lovely weather while it lasts! xxx

Home-made Soup!

Someone likes the snow :)

Cold feet!

Cosy and warm 

Me too xx

Much love Alex-Rose xxxx

Hmmmm...

This next bake is from the Great British Bake-off 2011 recipe book, firstly lets talk about the show. I know it hasn't been on for a while but I love it and just can't wait for next series! I don't own this years book (so I don't know what its like)  but the book from 2011 is really good and I have made loads(!) from it. Anyway on to the bake: Cinnamon and Walnut bread loaf. The method and making of the bread was very easy but when I took the loaf out the oven and tried it I was disappointed with the finished bake's flavour  In the recipe it calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt (!) an amount that I thought was a bit much but added in the exact amount and continued to follow the recipe. When I tasted the bread even with the cinnamon you could still taste the salt... Over all I thought that the it lacked a bit of extra flavour. If I was to make this again I would add less salt and extra cinnamon, I think that would make the bread a whole lot better! xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxxx

Blondies!

So things started well in 2013, but lets face it the healthy baking was never going to last... So as you can see the next bake isn't really very healthy but you've got to treat yourself! I mean come on; the weather's horrible, wet, and dreary everyone needs a little ray of sunshine these days, so here it is: Blondies, or white chocolate brownies! This recipe is a variation of the one in Nigella Lawson's (yes; you guessed it!) How to be a Domestic Goddess. The recipe calls for macadamia nut,s but as I didn't have any in, I just did without. The result was yummy but needed something else, so I drizzled over some dark chocolate and the blondies tasted heavenly!

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Sorry guys!

Sorry for my lack of posts over last few days but my laptop has gone funny so I can't upload the pictures for my posts!! Don't give up, treats will come soon! Thank you for all your lovely comments and support xxx

Oatie Cookies

So as you can see, I've baked some Oatie Cookies! To be more precise I have baked Healthier Oat cookies from the BBC GoodFood book 101 Teatime treats. The cookies are spiced raisin and oat but they contain olive spread rather than butter and fat, making them (slightly) healthier, I'm assuming that's why they are called Healthier Oat Cookies. I thought it was about time that I did bake some proper cookies because in all the 3 months (gone so quick!) that I've been blogging, not once have I mentioned cookies! I've done, biscuits and tray-bakes, cupcakes and layer-cakes, but no cookies. With a name like raining cake and cookies it seems a tad ironic that there are no cookies to be found on my blog! So anyway; here they are, Healthier Oat Cookies!

Much love, Alex-Rose xxxx

There's a first time for everything...

As you will have probably noticed I was given the Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes and Muffins Book for Christmas by "Santa" (who doesn't love their Christmas stocking?) and so I decided to do a little review of it. The review is just my thoughts (totally honest) on the book and how good/useful I thought it was. This is something I've never done before, but there's a first time for everything and this seems as good a time as ever! So, here goes...

The Hummingbird Bakery- Cupcakes and Muffins (9/10)
I'd give this book 9 stars out of ten because it is overall a wonderful recipe book, with beautiful pictures and illustrations as well as easy to follow instructions.One of the great things about the book is the notes and advice it gives as well as the background story of the bakery. One of the other features of the book that makes it so good is the way that the ingredients are listed, it gives the measurements in grams and cups making it even more easy and suited to everyone! The methods used in the book are quite unconventional but I like that! It's great to discover new ways to make tasty things. All the recipe's that I have tried have worked wonderfully, tasted and looked beautiful! The book doesn't just contain recipes for cupcakes but also muffins (clues in the title), the muffins are wonderful, with a good range of flavour combinations; some sweet, some savoury. I would say that the only downfall that the book has is that a lot of the recipes require either a free-standing mixer or an electric whisk, this isn't an issue for me, but for anyone who doesn't own either of these you would be kinda stumped, and even if you could work out some way to get the same effect, the end result mightn't be the same. That aside I would totally recommend this beautiful book to anyone. xxx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx
Ps. Look here for the cupcakes that I made from the book!

Cheesecake!

But not just any cheesecake, Nigella's London Cheesecake! I was torn between her New York cheesecake and the London one, but I eventually decided on the London Cheesecake as I had never really heard of one before. The recipe is from her How to be a Domestic Goddess book and definitely my favourite of her books! As you will have noticed I bake quite a lot from this book and would always recommend it is as a book that, if you don't already own, you should buy! The London Cheesecake is made up of three layers and cooked in a bain-marie (roasting tray filled with boiling water) but don't let this scare you off as the end result is much too tasty, trust me, as someone who doesn't always like cheesecakes I can definitely say that this is a damn tasty cake!

Much love Alex-Rose xxxx

The Final Bake of Christmas!

The end is here at last! The twelve bakes of Christmas turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected! I really hope that they were vaguely interesting, inspiring, or useful to you guys, they certainly made me think more about great bakes and what are my favourite; I think it as to be the peanut butter squares as I hadn't really thought of myself as a peanut butter person until then, and they are super yummy! So the final bake (well...not really a bake, but something yummy) are... Milkshakes! After all the food and stodge (yes; that is a word!) of Christmas and new year the final bake needed to be something tasty but not too sweet! I made a banana milkshake, super simple all you need is a small amount of natural yogurt, couple of spoons of sugar, splash of milk, and two bananas. Pour all the ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth! Enjoy! xxx
Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Facebook!

Raining Cake and Cookies is now on Facebook! Go to http://www.facebook.com/RainingCakeandCookies to like the blog!

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

A little break...

Christmas is over, so's 2012! Hello 2013! This post is just a little break from the baking. It's well known that we all eat too much at Christmas (and new year!) and our house was no different so off we went; out for a walk! Out the house and into the cold; but it wasn't that cold, this year really hasn't been too cold at all!

Soggy doggy...

Enjoy the holidays! Much love Alex-Rose xxxx