Chocolatey Banana Bread

Anytime I have some bananas that have gone a bit too ripe, or fancy something delicious that I also want to pretend is healthy, I use this banana bread recipe. This has become a firm favourite with friends and family too, and after you make it you'll realise why!

Ingredients

• 5 medium or 4 large bananas
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 100g chocolate chips
• 100-200g chocolate

This is a really simple, quick recipe, especially when using cup measurements. If you'd prefer not to use cup measurements, you can find a converter on google which will change it into grams.

Ok so first you need to preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Then peel and slice the bananas, transfer into a large bowl and then mash until they are all gooey. They are much easier to mash when over ripe, and it's also the perfect way to use up those bananas you'd forgotten all about! Now melt the butter in the microwave and add into the bowl of mashed bananas, along with the sugar and the egg, beaten first. Mix thoroughly and then stir in your chocolate chips. A fun alternative for chocolate chips is M&Ms, which give your banana bread a surprising splash of colour when you slice into it!

Now gently stir in the flour and then pour the mixture into your bread tin. I use a silicone mould, which is ready to use straight away, but if you are using a traditional bread tin remember to grease and line with baking paper first otherwise your bread will get stuck! Bake in the oven for roughly 45 mins, then check if it is cooked by putting a knife in the middle. You will need to use your own judgement on whether it is cooked or not, as the banana will leave a bit of goo on the knife.

Once cooked, take out of the oven and leave to cool before turning out. Now you get to cover it in chocolate, my favourite bit! Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a glass bowl over boiling water and then just slather it all over your banana bread! This time I chose to do a marble effect with milk and white chocolate. It will run all over the sides of your bread, but this just means each slice has a generous helping of chocolate on it!

And then all that's left is for you to enjoy! I've found that it tastes the best warm, so either tuck in straight away or give it a blast in the microwave first!

Valentine's Day Biscuits

I thought I'd show my love for my housemates today, as it's Valentine's Day, and make them some heart shaped biscuits. Of course, if you're not a fan of all this lovey dovey stuff, you can still make these yummy biscuits but just cut them into different shapes instead!

Ingredients

• 225g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 280g plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• icing sugar
• red or pink food colouring

Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl and then stir in the vanilla extract and egg yolk, beating first in a small bowl. A trick my mum taught me for separating an egg yolk from the egg white is to break the egg in half and then catch the yolk in one half of the egg shell, letting the egg whites fall into a bowl underneath. Now sift the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly until it all comes together (I had to knead my dough on the work surface for a while to get it into a neat ball). Now wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for approx 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and collect your dough from the fridge. Then sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto a clean work surface. You now need to roll the dough out to approx 1cm thickness (it doesn't really matter how thick you have your biscuits, just remember that thinner ones will bake faster than thicker ones so try to make them all the same size). My dough kept sticking to the work surface, rolling pin... well it stuck to almost everything at this point so I had to add more flour until it's got to the right consistency!

Once it's rolled out, it's time to cut out your biscuits. I was slightly unprepared and was without a heart shaped cookie cutter so had to cut them out free hand by using a knife. I wouldn't recommend this because it took ages and I was left with lots of different sized, wonky hearts... but hey love comes in all shapes and sizes, right? Ok let's ignore that ridiculously cheesy line and carry on shall we?

Once you've cut out all of your biscuits, place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. When they start to go golden around the edges, take them out and leave to cool. Now it's time to decorate them...

Sift some icing sugar into a small bowl (it depends how you're going to decorate them for how much icing sugar you want to use) and then add a drop of food colouring and small amounts of water until it's a runny consistency. Now with a teaspoon, drizzle the icing back and forth over the biscuits (still on the baking trays to reduce the amount of washing up you have to do!) until they're striped all over! Leave the icing to dry and then hand out to your most loved friends and family members!

Mum's Cherry Chocolate Birthday Cake

 So it was my mum's birthday this week (I won't tell you how old she was) and I wanted to bake her a cake, as you do for birthdays! I thought about what type of cake she likes and decided a cherry and chocolate cake would be perfect. Having not made this cake before I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was surprisingly nice. I'd go as far as saying it was one of the nicest chocolate cakes I've ever eaten! And if you don't like cherries, don't worry! In the end they just helped keep the cake moist, if you didn't know they were in there I don't think you'd be able to tell!

(The ingredients are measured in cups for this recipe, which I just used a small mug for, but you can easily convert the measurements into grams on Google)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 3 cups muscovado sugar
• 2 2/3 cups self raising flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cold coffee
• 200g fresh cherries
• cherry jam
• 100g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and then grease and line two cake tins. Now put the cocoa powder into a bowl, add the hot water and stir until it's completely mixed. Put this to one side, you'll use it later! Now in a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour and baking soda, then add the butter and cocoa liquid and combine using an electric whisk, until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla and coffee with a fork (make sure the coffee is cold, if it's hot it will start to cook the eggs and it might curdle). Now add this to the cake mixture, a little at a time, whisking in between. Using a large chopping board and sharp knife, dice the cherries until they're in small pieces and then add this to the cake mixture.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for about 40 minutes. I checked the cakes after 35 minutes, just in case they were ready early! Leave to cool, then turn the first cake out and spread a thin layer of cherry jam over it. Now place the other cake on top and drizzle some melted white chocolate over it for decoration (you could be more creative with the decoration if you wanted to!)

Now all that's left is to sit back and enjoy this yummy cake!