Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies‏

I have for you another scrummy recipe from Victoria at Its A Small World After All

These brownies are so squidgy they are more like fudge than cake and the muscavado sugar makes them extra delicious!

•  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade
• Melt 125g of Green and Blacks milk cooking chocolate with 125g of salted butter (or unsalted butter with a pinch of salt added)
• Mix two large eggs in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 150g caster sugar and 50g dark muscavodo sugar
• Once the chocolate mixture has melted and cooled a little, add it to the egg mixture and beat Then add 75g of plain flour and beat until smooth
• Pour half the mixture into a square brownie tin that's been greased and lined. Blob about nine teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter evenly over the brownie mixture, before pouring on the rest of the mixture, making sure that all the peanut butter is covered

•  Put in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, the top will be slightly paled and dry, but the inside will still be sticky.
• Let it cool for about 10 minutes before lifting out of the tin and slicing into squares
• Enjoy

Fruit Cake

The fabulous Kelly from A Place Of My Own has kindly shared this recipe for her Fruit Cake.

Fruit Cake

To bake this cake, you will need a 7" (18cm) square or 8" (20cm) round cake tin (the type with the push out bottom is easiest to use).

Ingredients
• 120g/4oz Butter
• 170g/6oz Sugar
• 340g/14oz Dried fruit - this can be a mixture of raisins, sultanas, cherries, peel... whatever you fancy! (I just use all sultanas)
•225ml/8floz Water
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp Mixed spice
• 2 Beaten Eggs• 120g/4oz Plain flour
• 120g/4oz Self-raising Flour
• Pinch of Salt
 
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas Mark 4
2. Prepare the tin by applying a thin layer of margarine and lining with two layers of greaseproof paper.
3. Put the margarine, sugar, fruit, water, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice in a saucepan over a moderate heat. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 minute.
4. Pour into a mixing bowl and allow to cool*.
5. Add eggs, flour and salt to cooled mixture. Mix well and pour into prepared tin.
6. Bake for about one and a quarter hours. You may need to put brown paper over the top if cake starts to singe before it is cooked throughout.
7. Cake is ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean - leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. Eat!
 
This is a very forgiving recipe; you don't even have to be very precise with the measuring out.
 
The cake should keep for a couple of months wrapped in tin foil in a tin, and can be 'spiked' with brandy or whatever you fancy before being covered in marzipan and icing for Christmas.
 
Or, if you are like me:

You can eat it straight away if you want to, without even waiting for it to cool completely.

*You need to allow the mixture to cool because if it is still very hot when you add the eggs, they may cook straight away, and the cake won't rise properly.

Homemade Valentines Carnival

I discovered this quite a lot of people are making presents and cards for Valentines this year. This made me very happy as I've made a card!!

I decided to put together (at short notice) a small Homemade Valentines Carnival, all you have to do is add the link at the bottom if you have already written a post, if you have pictures you want to share email them to me at makeitbakeit@hotmail.com and I will add them to the post.

OK here is how I made my card.........

I took a piece of white card, folded in half and drew a heart on it

Then using clip-art on word, I found some pictures of hearts, copied and pasted them  and printed

I then cut them out (I'm not the best at smooth edges), and stuck them around and in the heart and ta da......

...one Homemade Valentines Card (and it looks it)

I hope OH likes it

Of course there are lots of ways you can make a card and if the children are old enough get them involved as well.

So now its your time to share, really looking forward to seeing what you make

Boss Pasta Sauce

This great pasta sauce comes from the lovely Ruth at Look Left of The Pleiades

If you make this, you have to refer to it as "boss pasta sauce" regardless of whether or not you're a Scouser. Them's the rules.

Anyway, you will need:

Two large onions (preferably red)

One clove of garlic
Two 400g tins of tomatoes (either chopped or plum is fine)
A lemon (or squeezy Jif if you prefer)
Optional - one large red chilli (hey, some like it hot!)
Olive oil


[Obviously, if you're gonna eat it with pasta... you'll need the pasta too.]



Chop your onions and crush your garlic. Crush it. Crush it under your heel (if you like, but a garlic press works better). If you're using a chilli, chop that too. Chop it into teeny tiny little pieces.



Heat a big spoonful of olive oil in a pan

Fry the onion until it's soft but not brown and add your chilli, if you're using it. Fry until it's soft . Then add your garlic and fry it until it's sizzling but not turning brown and then add your two tins of tomatos. If they're plum tomatoes, by the way, you'll have to mash them up a bit while you stir them. Heat until little bubbles start to appear and then let simmer for half an hour, still stirring occasionally

Chop your lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the sauce, and stir it round.

Now, it's up to you. You can serve it "as is" on pasta, but if you've got a child who's likely to say "I SEE VEGETABLES" then it works nicely blended up, too. You may wish to add some grated cheese or parmesan.

By the way, this sauce works well with a handful of mushrooms and/or a red bell pepper, both chopped up. Just add them after the onions, before the garlic

And if you add mushrooms and bell peppers, it's still called boss pasta sauce.

One Pan Sausage Dinner

This is my one pan Sausage Dinner; it’s quick and simple and saves loads of washing up.

I’m really bad with weights/amounts so excuse the lack of them in this recipe

Ingredients 
Sausages,
New Potatoes,
Sweet Potatoes,
Carrots,
Olive Oil,
 Rosemary (fresh if you have it)

Pre-heat oven to 200oC
Cut your veg to the same size making sure they are not too large, I normally cut into quarters
Place in roasting tray
Add a little olive oil and Rosemary and toss
Add Sausages and bake for 30 mins

And that’s it, easy peasy. You can use whatever veg you like, butternut squash is good or peppers

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Our First Award!!

The lovely Ruth over at Look  Left of The Pleiades has given Make It, Bake It its first award, the Honest Scrap Award, thank you very much Ruth

Now as she has said in her post, this blog is a collective, it depends on recipes, how to's and patterns etc to survive.

So I won't be passing this on or tell 10 secrets about myself but If you have contributed so far then please take the award or yourself.

Coming up this week, pancake fun and I'm having a go at making a valentines card.

Please, please, please think about contributing you don't have to be a blogger or a parent if you have a recipe or anything else you want to share please email me x

Basic White Sauce

I know everyone has their own way of doing a white sauce but here is mine.

Ingredients
30g Butter
30g Plain White Flour
300ml Milk

Steps
Melt the butter in a saucepan

Add flour to the melted butter and stir in, it will form a paste. Cook this for 2 to 3 mins, constantly stirring to cook out the flour

Add the milk a little bit at a time, keep stirring.

Once all the milk in incorporated bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer until it thickens, keep stirring continuously so lumps to do not appear and it doesn’t burn

Its normally at this point I add cheese to make a cheese sauce .I find that a little bit of patience helps with this sauce and its so much better then any packet sauce
 
NM X

Fudgy Chocolate Cake

This fabulous recipe comes from the lovely Victoria at Its A Small World After All

The recipe is for her family's Birthday Fudgy Chocolate Cake, so called because they have it for everyone's birthday. It's the best chocolate cake in the world in her humble opinion!


Ingredients for the cake:
3oz plain chocolate in pieces
7fl oz mil
k9oz dark muscavado sugar
3oz butter,softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
5oz flour1oz cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Ingredients for the icing:
4oz plain chocolate, melted
4oz butter, softened
7oz icing sugar
1tbs milk



Set oven to 180C.

Grease and base line two 8 inch sandwich tins.

Put the chocolate, milk and 3oz of the muscavado sugar into a pan, heat gently to melt, then allow to cool.

Cream the butter and remaining muscavdo in a bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, vanilla essence and milk mixture.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb and gently fold in, incorporating as much air as possible. 

Put into the tins and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Turn out and cool. Meanwhile make the icing.

Beat together the butter and icing sugar in a bowl then mix in the melted chocolate.

Sandwich the cakes together with a layer of icing and coat the top and sides with the remainder.

It is extremely rich, fudgy and delicious!