Recipe: Banana and Nutella Cake

In my opinion, nothing smells better than warm banana bread. I baked this the day of an exam and it certainly calmed my nerves. A good dollop of Nutella and a chocolatey-nutty flavour to this crumbly cake/bread. Is banana bread actually bread or is it cake? I never know.
Anyway, this was incredibly easy to make and was even easier to eat!

Recipe adapted from BBC Food

You will need:

• 145g softened unsalted butter
• 145g caster sugar
• 2 large room temperature eggs
• 145g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed (make sure these aren't too cold if you kept them in the fridge, like me)
• 2 tbsp Nutella

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until golden, light and fluffy.

2. Beat the eggs and vanilla together before adding to the butter/sugar mixture.

3. Add in the flour and baking powder.

4. Gently mix in the banana 

5. Place into a lined loaf tin and spoon on your Nutella

6. Use a knife to swirl it throughout the loaf

7. Bake in a 180 oven for 50 minutes

This cakes ends up with a kinda crispy outside and all the Nutella sinks to the bottom, meaning every slice gets a large chunk of the goodness. Bake and eat quickly!

Recipe: Oreo Cheesecake Bites

This recipe was initially inspired by a picture I saw on twitter of an Oreo cheesecake, which looked ridiculously delicious. Then, the theme for my next University Baking Society meeting was "no bake" so instead of making the standard rocky road or flapjacks, i thought about no bake cheesecake and thus Oreo Cheesecake Bites were born. Cute story, right?
Anyway, these are ridiculously simple to make and they are even easier if you have a stand/hand mixer (to whip the cream). If you leave these overnight then the layer of Oreo in contact with the cheesecake can get a little soggy but I think it really adds to the overall texture.

Ingredients:

• A packet of Oreos (approximately 14)
• cupcake cases
• 250g soft cream cheese
• 100ml double cream
• 50g icing sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract/essence

1. Place the cupcake cases in a cupcake tin and put an Oreo in the base of each. These actually fit very nicely.

2. Whip up the double cream until it becomes nice and thick.

3. Mix in the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar until it is smooth.

4. Place a nice dollop on top of each Oreo and put in the fridge until you want to eat them

Mmmmm, looks so good!

Recipe: Apricot and Honey Flapjacks

I recently baked these for my university baking society for the theme of Healthy Baking. So the sugar and butter may not make these the healthiest snacks but it's the thought that counts, right? These were super easy to make and I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen already so these are perfect for a quick bake.

Adapted from here

Ingredients

• 140g unsalted butter
• 140 soft light brown sugar
• 2-3 teaspoons honey
• 180g oats (I ended up using porridge oats)
• up to 200g of dried apricots (however many you fancy)

Put the butter, sugar and honey into a sauce pan and heat until the butter is melted. Chop the apricots up into small pieces and add to the oats. Add the melted mix to the oats and apricots and stir. Add to a greased and lined tray and cook for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 160 degrees Celsius. Remove for properly chewy, gooey flapjacks. Enjoy!