Green Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

I'm back! After a bit of an absence from my wee blog due to moving and dieting, I'm now settling into life in London as a postgraduate English Linguistics student, and I've joined my university's Baking Society which has made the cake making urges return tenfold! I attended their welcome meeting last week and had a jolly old time meeting fellow baking enthusiasts and sampling some scrumptious homemade goodies. The theme for the night was 'try something new' so I thought this'd be the perfect excuse to try out the matcha green tea powder my other half very kindly brought me back from California after I said I'd like to use some in my cooking. Fortunately the oven in my new flat is wonderful and these cakes turned out beautifully - despite turning the sponge a lurid swampy colour, the green tea powder gives them a lovely subtly fragrant twang which works well with white or milk chocolate icing. I'm proud to say they were the first tin of cakes to disappear!

I've since found out that matcha green tea powder is extremely expensive to buy here in the UK (I've seen prices from £20 to £50!!) so they may not be the most practical cupcakes to try. However, you could add the contents of regular green tea bags instead and still get the flavour, just without the distinctive eye-catching green sponge.

Like a moron I forgot to photograph the insides of the cakes but the sponge came out very green! I ran out of white chocolate icing for the last two cakes and was in a hurry so I slathered them in Nutella - they were also delicious!

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12-14

For the cakes:

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 6 oz caster/granulated sugar
• 6 oz butter/margarine
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing (measurements very approximate, sorry!):

• 5 oz white chocolate
• 3 tbsp butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• Splash of milk
• A few pinches of matcha green tea powder
• 12 wafer daisies (optional)

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the butter/margarine and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, green tea powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the cake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the icing:

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 30-40 seconds (or 1 minute if using cooking chocolate - this tends to be more forgiving) until smooth.
2. Add the butter, icing sugar and milk and beat until the mixture is a spreadable consistency. If it's too runny add more icing sugar and if it's too stiff add more milk.
3. Spread onto the cakes using a palette knife - make sure you work quickly as this icing tends to stiffen rapidly!
4. Sprinkle a little matcha green tea powder onto the top of each cake and add a wafer daisy as a pretty finishing touch if you wish. Voila!

Just a quick post to say that I haven't abandoned my little baking blog despite a long absence - it's currently on hiatus due to me a) being on a diet that tragically doesn't accommodate fatty sugary treats and b) being in the middle of packing for my move to London!

I'm looking forward to baking in my new flat so more recipes to come :) Watch this space!

Cloud9.1 x

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

I've always thought there's something so cute and jolly about (albeit not strictly traditional) Mr Kipling style individual bakewell tarts, with their pure white fondant icing and bright red cherry decorations sitting atop jam-filled sponge and pastry. I'm not even a fan of almonds but I love them! They were the inspiration for these lovely and easy to make cupcakes, which I think scream retro village fete cake stall. I'm always reluctant to use glace icing due to being paranoid its runniness will make my creations look like a three-year-old was let loose in the kitchen but luckily keeping it at quite a thick consistency meant they looked a tad more sophisticated.

I just used ground almonds in the sponge as I didn't have any almond essence to hand and still managed to achieve a subtle nutty taste, but you may like to add some almond essence to the sponge and/or icing if you have some to further enhance the bakewell flavour.

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12-14 cakes

For the cakes:

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 3.5 oz ground almonds
• 8 oz caster/granulated sugar
• 8 oz butter/margarine
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glace icing/jam filling:

• 4 oz icing sugar
• Water or milk
• 12-14 tsp (approx.) strawberry or raspberry jam (raspberry is traditional but I used strawberry as my friend at work is allergic to raspberries)

METHOD

For the cakes::

1. Line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the cake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the filling/icing:

1. If your cupcakes have risen up to form dome tops in the oven and you'd prefer a flat surface to put the icing on to avoid excessive drizzling, use a serrated knife to slice the tops of the cakes off (don't throw them away - scoff them later!)
2. Using a teaspoon or small sharp knife, carefully cut a small hole (about 2cm deep by 2cm wide) in the top of each cupcake. Don't discard the bits you've cut out!
3. Drop about a teaspoon of jam into each hole and then gently push the sponge part that was cut out back into each one so that the tops of the cakes are even.
4. Place the icing sugar into a bowl then add enough milk or water and stir to form a thick but slightly running mixture.
5. Spread the icing onto the top of each cupcake in a thick, even layer using a teaspoon or pallette knife and top with a glace cherry.

Coconut Ice Cakes

I should probably begin this post by declaring the following: I do not like coconut cake. I really don't. However, for some bizarre reason, I'm a huge fan of the colourful sugary treat known as coconut ice. I'm not normally a big lover of sweets in general but I've been craving this by the bucketful the last few weeks and so, out of curiosity, had a Google to see whether anyone had had the stroke of genius to incorporate it into a cake recipe. Shockingly enough, turns out no one had. Naturally, I had to try and resolve this so I donned my experimental chef's hat and hit the kitchen armed with desiccated coconut, red food colouring and crossed fingers. I'm pleased to say the result was fantastic - simply adding desiccated coconut to regular buttercream icing really does make it taste very reminiscent of the sweet itself - and it went down a storm with my colleagues :)

For an extra homemade touch, you could make the actual coconut ice yourself (it's very easy - mostly just desiccated coconut and condensed milk) but, if I'm brutally honest, *whispers* I prefer the bought stuff. On that bombshell, here's my recipe...

Aren't they pretty??

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12 large squares

For the cakes:

• 12 oz self-raising flour
• 12 oz butter/margarine
• 12 oz granulated/caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 oz strawberry milkshake powder
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• Few drops of red gel food colouring

For the coconut icing/jam filling:

• 4 oz icing sugar
• 2 oz butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of red gel food colouring
• 4-5 tbsp strawberry jam
• 12 small cubes of coconut ice (or 6 large chunks cut in half)

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Grease two identical cake tins with butter/margarine or line with baking parchment.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour until a batter of soft dropping consistency has formed then place half of the mixture into a separate bowl.
4. Add the vanilla extract to one bowl and set aside.
5. Add the strawberry milkshake powder and strawberry extract to the other bowl then stir in the red food colouring a drop at a time until the mixture turns a pale pink colour.
6. Pour each bowl of cake batter into the two separate tins and bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-18 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponges comes out clean.
7. When baked, place the cakes on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage they can be frozen for decorating at a later stage if you wish.

For the coconut icing/jam filling:

1. Spread the strawberry jam onto the top of the pink sponge and carefully place the yellow sponge on top (you may wish to trim the tops to make them nice and flat so they sandwich together more easily).
2. Place the butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and stir/whisk while gradually adding the icing sugar until a thick, fluffy mixture has formed.
3. Stir in the desiccated coconut and red food colouring until the icing turns your desired shade of pink.
4. Spread the icing over the top of the cake in an even layer then neatly trim off the outer edges of the cake to get the full effect of the lovely coloured sponge layers (but don't throw away the offcuts, they're still yummy!) 
5. Cut into 12 even squares then top each one with a piece of coconut ice.

Maria's Ridiculously Good Best Ever Blondies

I normally find it quite arrogant when people put their names on recipes but I couldn't resist putting my stamp on this one as it's my definite favourite of all the baked creations I've made up myself so far, and their irresistible butterscotchy flavour really makes them ridiculously good!

I was reluctant to reveal my secret ingredient to my eager samplers but I shall share it here for the benefit of the baking community at large (ahem). And that secret ingredient is...*drum roll*...custard powder. This idea came about when I was simply too lazy to look up a blondie recipe and decided just to go by my fail safe brownie recipe (available here: http://cloudninepointone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/best-ever-jack-daniels-brownies ) and substitute the milk chocolate for the white variety. It then dawned on me that I had no idea what to add in place of the cocoa powder. There's no such thing as white cocoa powder (to my knowledge?!) and I was worried that making up the cocoa quantity with more flour would affect the flavour and make them too plain so, in the absence of butterscotch Angel Delight, I reached for the vanilla scented custard powder. And hey presto! The rest is scrumptious cakey history.

The lovely golden blondies pictured with their darker chocolate bretherin, pre-cutting...

INGREDIENTS

• 200g granulated/caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80g self-raising flour
• 120ml cooking oil
• 130g white cooking chocolate
• 4.5 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but really makes the butterscotchy flavour pop!)

METHOD

• Grease the baking tin with margarine/butter or line with baking parchment.
• Briefly whisk the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla extract and caramel flavouring together in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 1 minute until smooth, then pour into the mixing bowl.
• Fold the flour and custard powder into the mixture and pour into the lined tin.
• Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out pretty much clean then leave to cool.
• Cut the blondies into squares using a sharp knife and marvel at their deliciousness as you dive in.

Belgian Speculoo (Caramelised Biscuit) Cupcakes

I thought it was about time I made my first blog post of 2014!

In October last year I went for a lovely long weekend in Bruges with one of my best friends and, in between stuffing our faces with the heavenly chocolate and fruit beer, we found ourselves sampling delicious golden caramel-flavoured 'Speculoo' spread every morning with breakfast in the hotel. This is a peanut butter style spread that's made from 'Speculoo' biscuits which, we later found out from the distinctive red and white packaging, can be bought here in the UK under the name 'Lotus Caramelized Biscuits'. Just recently, the spread has also become available to buy in the supermarkets over here so it went without saying that I needed to cake-ify it somehow! And here's the meltingly moreish result, topped off with Belgian chocolate chips for the ultimate Bruges experience :)

(Sorry for the rather pants photo, took it on my phone...)

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12 medium-large cakes

For the cakes:

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 4 oz brown sugar
• 2 oz caster sugar
• 6 oz butter/margarine
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but stunningly delicious and aromatic!)

For the icing (apologies if measurements are a bit off here, made it up as I went along):

• 3 tbsp butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 4 tsbp Lotus Caramelized Biscuit spread
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp milk
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (again, optional but scrummy!)
• Handful of Belgian chocolate chips

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and both lots of sugar together in a mixing bowl then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder, vanilla extract and caramel flavouring until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the paper cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later stage if you wish.

For the icing:

1. Stir/whisk the butter, Lotus spread, vanilla extract, caramel flavouring and icing sugar together in a bowl until well combined, while gradually adding the milk to loosen the mixture until it's of a spreadable consistency. If it's too thick, add more milk and if it's too runny, add more icing sugar.
2. Spread onto the cakes using a palette knife or pipe on using the nozzle of your choice.
3. Top each cake with a few Belgian chocolate chips.

Hot Chocolate Biscuits

My original attempt at hot chocolate biscuits were a sub-par batch of dry, cakey chocolate cookies from a recipe I found online so I went back to the drawing board and invented my own version which keeps the hot chocolate powder, generous chocolate chunks and gooey marshmallow but uses icing sugar in place of caster sugar and plain flour instead of self-raising. This creates a more even and less puffed-up biscuit without making them hard and brittle.

The combination of chunky milk chocolate pieces and chewy marshmallow inside a rich, dark cocoa biscuit makes for a delicious taste and texture. For further hot chocolatey decadence, sandwich two biscuits together with Marshmallow Fluff - scrumptious!

Note: the large chocolate chunks in these cookies means the dough will be fairly thick and slightly uneven when rolled out and the final result will be a little bumpy with oozy marshmallow patches, so I'd advise using a simple cutter rather than an intricately shaped one for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 20 biscuits depending on size of cutter

• 8 oz plain flour
• 1 oz cocoa
• 1 oz hot chocolate powder
• 1 tsp Horlicks (or other malt drink powder)
• 1 oz icing sugar
• 6 oz margarine/butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz milk chocolate chips or cut-up chunks
• Handful of marshmallows snipped into small bits
• 0.5 tbsp instant ground coffee dissolved in approx. 0.5 tbsp boiling water

METHOD

1. Boil the kettle and pour about half a tbsp water over half a tbsp instant ground coffee and set aside.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and icing sugar together until combined.
3. Add the flour, cocoa, hot chocolate powder, Horlicks, chocolate chunks and bits of marshmallow and mix briefly.
4. Add the vanilla extract and prepared coffee then use your hands to squash the mixture together to form a ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or a freezer bag and chill in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
6. Place the ball of dough onto a large clean sheet of baking parchment then place another sheet on top and roll out with a rolling pin until about 1.5cm thick, depending on the size of the chocolate pieces (alternatively, you could roll the dough out on a floured surface but this may spoil the colour of the biscuits a bit).
7. Cut out as many biscuits as possible using your cutter of choice (I used a flower shape) and place onto a parchment-lined baking tray then squish the offcuts of dough together, re-roll and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
8. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack. This is the part where I'd normally say leave to cool but don't leave them too long as they're delicious while still warm from the oven - just beware of molten marshmallow!

Red Velvet Star Biscuits

I haven't updated my little blog in a while due to being busy but now we've officially entered the most wonderful time of the year for cooking I've been squeezing in lots of festive baking.

These decadent biccies have got to be one of my all time favourite recipes and more than make up for my first (and so far only) attempt at red velvet cake being a disaster. They contain quite a large amount of red gel colouring and icing sugar, plus buttermilk and egg, so they're not the cheapest cookies to make but they look and taste fantastic and are a perfect luxurious treat for Christmas, Valentine's Day or any other special occasion, or as a gift. I wish I'd taken photo which showed their beautiful dark red colour better as it makes the cookies look very distinctive even without decoration, although I added Dr Oetker Gold Shimmer Spray for an extra festive sparkly sheen. These would also be delicious sandwiched together with some cream cheese frosting for an even more authentic red velvet experience.

If, like me, you don't want to buy buttermilk (it's not very widely available here in the UK), I found a great tip online showing you how to make your own by simply adding a dash of white wine vinegar or lemon juice to milk and leaving it to curdle for a few minutes. Et voila - bona fide red velvety goodness in biscuit form!

This recipe is an adapted version of an American one I found here: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2012/02/red-velvet-roll-outs-recipe/

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 40 biscuits depending on size of cutter

• 4 oz butter/margarine
• 6 oz icing sugar
• 9 oz plain flour
• 0.5 egg
• 2 oz cocoa
• 3 tsp buttermilk (or 3 tsp milk + 1 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice)
• 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tbsp red gel food colouring (NOT the liquid kind as this won't work!)
• Dr Oetker Gold Shimmer Spray (optional)

METHOD

1. If making buttermilk as outlined above, pour the white wine vinegar or lemon juice into the milk and set aside for a few minutes.
2. Whisk the butter/margarine and icing sugar until combined.
3. Stir in the egg, vanilla extract, buttermilk then add the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix briefly.
4. Add the gel food colouring a teaspoon at a time and mix until the mixture turns a deep blood-like red shade then squash together with your hands to form a ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add some more flour.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or a freezer bag and chill in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes until fairly firm.
6. Place the ball of dough on a large clean sheet of baking parchment then place another sheet over the top and roll out with a rolling pin until about 1cm thick.*
7. Cut out as many biscuits as possible with your cookie cutter of choice (I used a star shape) and place onto a parchment-lined baking tray (they don't spread out much when cooking so they can be placed fairly close together). Squish the offcuts of dough together and re-roll and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
8. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 8 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
9. If you want a gold sheen effect as in the photo, hold the can about 10cm away from the biscuits and spray each one with the Shimmer Spray then leave to dry.

*You could just sprinkle flour onto the surface to prevent the rolling pin sticking but this ruins the bold colour of the dough when baking.

Custard Creams & Strawberry Milkshake Creams

Although I try, as a rule I'm not one for aesthetic neatness and elegance when baking. Despite numerous attempts, my piping is never up to scratch and my cookies, though tasty, are always sloppy and uneven (in fact, this is the primary reason I have still not yet plucked up the courage to have a go at posh French macarons despite having bought a packet of ground almonds for this purpose over a month ago). But I impressed myself with these lovely little biscuits which were a bit of a labour of love. The secret of their prettiness is that the dough barely puffs up at all during baking which means the biscuits keep their beautiful even shape.

Although it took me a while to lovingly craft each button using a round scone cutter, a tiny espresso cup and a straw, these colourful treats certainly aren't complicated to make. And they were certainly worth the extra time as they received an abundance of compliments on both taste and appearance - in fact, Edd Kimber himself (whose recipe I used for the custard creams) saw them on Twitter and said they were fantastic! Praise indeed :)

The pink strawberry milkshake creams were an original invention of mine which I'm rather proud of though I say so myself - I simply followed the same recipe as I did for the custard creams but substituted the custard powder and vanilla extract for strawberry milkshake powder and strawberry extract respectively. The result was utterly delicious and I will definitely be making them again!

If you don't have the time or patience to make buttons, just use your favourite cookie cutters like I did for the mini stars and hearts below. To make a Bourbon cream-esque variation, you could substitute the custard/strawberry milkshake powder for chocolate milkshake powder or cocoa.

The yellow custard creams were made using Edd Kimber's fab recipe which can be found here - http://theboywhobakes.co.uk/2011/06/custard-creams/ - so I'm just going to post the recipe for my strawberry milkshake cream version.

Strawberry Milkshake Creams

INGREDIENTS - yield depends on the size and shape of cookie cutter used but the below quantities resulted in the number of pink biscuits seen in the photo above

For the biscuits:

• 230g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar
• 50g strawberry milkshake powder (I used Hello Kitty brand but any will do!)
• 180g margarine/butter
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• Splash of red food colouring
  
  + cookies cutters of your choice or a round cutter, an espresso cup & a plastic straw if you want to make buttons like in the photo

For the filling:

• 100g icing sugar
• 25g butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 1.5 tbsp strawberry milkshake powder
• Splash of milk
• 0.5 tsp strawberry extract
• Drop of red food colouring

METHOD

For the biscuits:

1. Line two large rectangular baking trays with parchment.
2. Place the flour, icing sugar and strawberry milkshake powder into a large mixing bowl then add the margarine/butter and strawberry extract.
3. Rub the fat into the dry ingredients so that crumbs form and then squish together into a large ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour. If it's too dry and crumbly, add a little milk.
4. Add the red food colouring, a tiny splash at a time, and knead the dough in the bowl until it turns your desired shade of pink.
5. Take the dough out of the bowl, wrap tightly in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes to half an hour.
6. Sprinkle flour over your work surface to prevent sticking then roll the pink dough out until it's roughly 1cm in thickness (remember you'll be sandwiching them together two at a time so you don't want them too thick or they won't be pleasant to eat unless you have an extremely massive gob!)
7. Cut out as many circles as possible using the round cookie cutter and stamp each circle with the espresso cup, firmly enough that it makes a definite indent but not so hard that it cuts through the dough. Then use the end of a plastic straw to stamp out four tiny circles in the middle of each biscuit to make a button, transferring each one onto the baking trays as you go.
8. Squish all the off-cuts together then re-roll the dough and repeat the process. If you're lazy like me, cut out other small simple shapes such as hearts or stars once you've made 20 buttons.
9. Pop in the oven and bake at about 180 degrees C for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms have started to colour very slightly at the edges then transfer onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

For the filling:

1. Place the butter and strawberry extract into a bowl then add the icing sugar and strawberry milkshake powder gradually while stirring/whisking. Add a splash of milk and continue to stir/whisk until a smooth, spreadable mixture has formed.
2. Add the red food colouring a tiny drop at a time and stir until the mixture turns your desired shade of pink (you'll only need a very tiny bit).
3. Spread a small blob of the icing onto the back of one of the pink biscuits using a palette knife then sandwich together with another biscuit of the same shape and repeat until they've all been paired up.

Edit: I also used Edd's custard cream recipe to make these cute jammy heart biscuits - just make imprints in the dough with your thumb then fill with raspberry or strawberry jam :)

Best Ever Jack Daniel's Brownies

Oh em gee. Seriously...there are no words to describe how utterly delicious these decadent chunks of chocolate heaven are! Just writing about them is making me crave one...

My previous attempts at brownies were pleasant enough but always seemed more like a moist chocolate cake and never turned out anything like bakery bought ones with their glorious gooey centres and thin top crusts. Then a friend from work sent me her recipe that used oil rather than butter and this, without a doubt, made all the difference in creating the perfect texture. Adding the Jack Daniel's whiskey was my little twist and the end result is simply sublime and devastatingly addictive. Milk cooking chocolate gave a lovely fudgy flavour but dark chocolate would also work if you prefer.

Please don't let the wrinkly, sunken appearance of the brownies when they come out of the oven put you off - I promise you the taste will be amazing!!

(Apologies for the rubbish photo, took it on my BlackBerry...)

INGREDIENTS

• 215g granulated/caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 70g self-raising flour
• 120ml cooking oil
• 150g milk cooking chocolate
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp Jack Daniel's whiskey
• 3/4 tbsp vanilla extract

METHOD

• Grease the baking tin with margarine/butter or line with baking parchment.
• Briefly whisk the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract together in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 1 minute until smooth, then pour into the mixing bowl.
• Fold the flour, cocoa and Jack Daniel's into the mixture and pour into the lined tin.
• Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the brownies comes out pretty much clean then leave to cool.
• Cut the brownies into squares using a sharp knife and devour while moaning pleasurably. Easy peasy!