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Cake Pops at Harrods

Exactly one year ago today I went to Harrods to try one of their new whoopie pies. It was one of my first blog posts and it's also the number one post with the most visitors! I thought it would be fun to go back and try another one to see if they had changed at all.

I got to the bakery case and saw that they now also had cake pops! Even better! I went for one cake pop and one whoopie pie.

I chose a Strawberry & Pistachio cake pop. At £2.25 I think it's the most expensive cake pop I've ever had! It's pretty darn cute though. The little hearts are drawn on, not sprinkles. The outside coating is white chocolate. I was also excited to see such an exciting flavor combination.

I was trying to take a picture of it and it wasn't staying on the stick very well because it's actually two cake halves made from a mold. The cake was pistachio and the center was filled with strawberry frosting! The cake was good and moist but didn't have much flavor. I couldn't taste any pistachio at all. The center was light and had a lovely strawberry flavor.

I might be tempted to try another one since I really liked the "surprise" in the middle, but due to the filling there wasn't actually much cake on the stick.

Last time I had a Mango & Lime whoopie pie. This time they only had three kinds to chose from and only in one size.

I chose a Red Velvet whoopie pie with peanut butter filling, £2.50. I think it's a fun idea of putting a classic American filling inside a classic American cake. It also had a pink glaze on the top but same as last time the boxes they pack them in are too small and the glaze all came off on the lid.

The filling is a really perfect light peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream/marshmallow type frosting. The cake part is not very good. It's the wrong consistency and tastes as flat and dense as it looks. It has potential but as the whoopie pies haven't changed since they launched I doubt they will improve.

I think next time I'll stick with a cake pop!

P.S Thanks to the person at Google with a sweet tooth for choosing me as the Blog of Note for April 6th!

· cake, cake pops, fruit, peanut butter, whoopie pies, yummy places

Mayonnaise Secret Ingredient Brownies

Hellmann's recently had a bloggers event in London. I wasn't able to make it but they were kind enough to send me a brownie kit! I couldn't decide what to title this post without it sounding gross!Mayonnaise Brownies, Secret Ingredient Brownies, Peanut Butter Mayonnaise Brownies?

I saw the pink bowl and made the brownies the very next day! It had everything needed to make the brownies (except the eggs).

I was a bit skeptical at first of how they would taste, but as I thought about it mayo doesn't have an overly powerful smell, so I figured it wouldn't affect the taste of the brownies and I was right.

The mayo only contains eggs, vinegar and rapeseed oil which makes it creamy. The purpose of the event and the kits are to show Hellmann's as a versatile ingredient for both sweet and savory dishes. I've seen the brownies in quite a few magazine adverts this month.
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I do love a taste test! This fared 100% more tasty than the last secret ingredient I tasted. The brownies tasted really chocolaty as it uses melted chocolate and cocoa powder. I added half a bag of my precious peanut butter chips from the US instead of nuts for fun. I think these would also make fantastic brownie cupcakes! I think I'll have to add those to make list of things to bake.

Hellmann's Posh Brownies

Ingredients

40g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

140g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

3 eggs

225g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla

8 tbs Hellman's mayonnaise

55g walnuts (or chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 160 C. Grease a 9x9 inch brownie pan and line with parchment paper (I have an excellent non stick dish and simply greased it). Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a small bowl and set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals stirring in between until melted and set aside.

3. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla until thickened. Whisk in the melted chocolate.

4. Fold in the flour mixture, mayonnaise and nuts (or chips). Pour batter into the greased baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Thanks to Hellman's for my Brownie Kit

· brownies, chocolate, peanut butter, secret ingredient

Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

After I started making these I remembered why I hate cut out cookies. I can never get the shapes to be perfect! Besides that small part they are fun to make. Different fillings and different shapes the possibilities are pretty much endless.

I did strawberry jam centers with cookie icing (the bottled kind from Wilton) drizzled on top and melted chocolate mixed with peanut butter drizzled with peanut butter on top.
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This is about as neat as I can decorate
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This is the second recipe I made from Fiona's Bake & Decorate book and I'm really glad I picked this one. The salty chocolate and peanut butter filling I made are melt in your mouth delicious.

Shortbread

from Fiona Cairns Bake & Decorate with permission from Quadrille

Ingredients

500g salted butter

200g golden caster sugar (I could only find golden granulated sugar)

500g plain flour, plus more for dusting

250g cornflour

1/2 tsp vanilla (plus seeds of one pod)

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, mix together the butter, vanilla and sugar until combined.

I tried to pulse the sugar to make it a bit finer but it didn't really work

2. Sift together the flour and cornflour and add to the butter mixture in batches mixing in between until bound together.

3. Flour your hands and knead until smooth.Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes minimum.

4. On a lightly floured surface or between 2 layers of clingfilm roll the dough 3-4mm thick.

5. Using a large cookie cutter cut as many shapes as possible out of the dough. Re rolling the scraps if necessary. Place the cutouts on 2 baking sheets a few inches a part. Place on parchment paper if using a non stick pan.

6. Cut out a smaller shape in half of the cut outs if you want shortbread sandwiches with "windows". Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack.

7. Drizzle the cookie icing (or royal icing) over the shortbreads with windows. Once dry spread the filing onto the other shortbreads and sandwich together. I was too impatient and drizzled the icing over at the end. This is why I'm a terrible decorator. I want to eat what I've baked straight away!

Someone who shall remain nameless kept chucking the whole cookies in the melted chocolate before I could finish sandwiching them.

Filling Options

Nutella

Jam

Peanut Butter

Lemon Curd

I used Strawberry jam on half and a few squares of chocolate melted and then 2 scoops of peanut butter and a pinch of salt stirred in for the other half.

· chocolate, cookies, fruit, peanut butter

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Today is my birthday (and also Groundhogs Day!). I'm at that age now where it's not fun to be turning one year older, but not quite at the age where I lie and say I'm turning 25 for the third time. To celebrate I wanted to make some really fun cupcakes.

I've always wanted to make cookie dough cupcakes but I've already seen chocolate chip done before. I thought if chocolate chip works in a cupcake why not any other kind of cookie? I love the peanut butter and chocolate combo so I thought peanut butter cookie dough in the middle of a chocolate cupcake would be a really tasty!

I tried to cut it in half straight away which didn't go very well!

I decided on a light fluffy peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream for the frosting as the cake and cookie dough are pretty intense. I also made some homemade salty peanut butter cups as toppers.

I used the chocolate cupcake recipe from the Love Bakery Book (I've loved everything I've made from it, please support Samantha and buy it). It's important to use an egg free cookie recipe as this part doesn't cook the whole way through. The peanut butter cups and cookie dough can be made a day or more in advance and stuck in the freezer (the cookie dough will be placed in the batter frozen anyway).

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1. Mix the peanut butter, butter, both sugars and buttermilk until combined.

2. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the peanut butter mixture and mix until well combined.

3. Using a cookie scoop take one round of dough at a time and place it into a container. Make sure to squish the dough down a little bit so it's more flat than what I've done (use a fork). A few of my cakes ended up with air holes because I didn't. Freeze overnight or for a few hours.

Chocolate Cupcakes

adapted from Love Bakery (makes 24)

Ingredients

120g unsalted butter at room temperature

300g caster sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

40g cocoa powder, sifted

300g self raising flour

280ml buttermilk (about 3/4 cup)

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp white wine vinegar

Early birthday present

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and line muffin tray with liners. Cream the butter and caster sugar together for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until combined.

2. Add the cocoa powder and mix. Add the flour and buttermilk and mix until combined. Add the baking soda and vinegar and mix for 2 more minutes.

3. Add one scoop of batter into each cup.

4. Place one frozen cookie dough ball in the center of each cup on top of the first scoop of batter. Cover with one more scoop of cake batter. Bake for 25 minutes and place on a cooling rack.

Peanut Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream

adapted from the Red Deer

Ingredients

8 egg whites
2 1/2 cups caster sugar
500g unsalted butter at room temperature
4 tsp vanilla
8 tbs peanut butter

1. Place the egg whites and caster sugar in a double boiler. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the egg whites are really hot.

2. I got my "station" ready with the butter cut into cubes and the peanut butter measured. Once the egg whites are ready (transfer to a large bowl if necessary, eggs will start to double in size). Start whisking on medium high speed until the mixture is completely cool (this can take 10 plus minutes).

3. Start adding the butter one cube at a time on medium speed. Add the peanut butter and vanilla. Turn back up to medium high and keep whisking until it becomes thick enough to pipe. I've only got a hand mixer and had to stop because I thought my arm was going to fall off, so it wasn't as thick as I would have liked!

4. Pipe on each cake and top with chocolate sprinkles and peanut butter cup! I also gave each one a drizzle with some Wilton Peanut Butter drizzle.

· chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, peanut butter

Homemade Dark Chocolate Salty Peanut Butter Cups

I've been dying to make these since I came back from the US. I bought a bunch of candy and chocolate molds at Hobby Lobby. There are a lot of things you can put in a cup mold but I had to do peanut butter first! I used dark chocolate and made a salty peanut butter filling so it wasn't too much an imitation Reese's.

Cross Section

Yum!

Best $1.99 I spent!

Ingredients

300g dark chocolate (I like using a baking chocolate that sets easily)

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

sprinkles, nuts or peanut butter drizzle for extra decoration

1. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for one and a half minutes, stir, and let cool for a few minutes.

2. Make the peanut butter filling by mixing the peanut butter, icing sugar and salt in a medium sized bowl.

3. Using a pastry brush brush the inside of each cup thoroughly. Make sure it is even and not too thin.

don't make a mess all over the tray like I did

4. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

5. Take out of the freezer and put 1 teaspoon of peanut butter filling in each cup

6. Spoon melted chocolate over the peanut butter covering it completely but not spilling over. Add any extra decorations at this point before the chocolate sets. Tap the tray once on the counter to level and let out any air bubbles.

7. Put back in the freezer (on a level surface) for 15-20 minutes. Take out of the freezer turn upside down and tap each cup. They should fall out like ice from an ice cube tray.

8. Add any peanut butter drizzle after they come out of the freezer. This won't set.

I think they taste good cold so I keep them in the refrigerator. They are dangerously addictive!

· chocolate, peanut butter

Peanut Butter Apple Bars

We got our wedding gifts delivered last night. At the moment we live in a small apartment and don't actually know where to put all of it! We can't wait to get our own house and deck out the kitchen the way we want!

I can't wait to have more space and set the kitchen up the way I've always dreamed of! I really love these bistro sets with the high tables and chairs. My mom has one in her big open kitchen and it's a great place to hang out in the house. What item or piece of furniture is essential in your dream kitchen?

I bought a cookbook when we went to the Apple Barn in Tennessee.

The bars were nice and light but they could have used a little more umph like some chocolate chips and a few extra handfuls of apple slices.

Peanut Butter Apple Bars

adapted from The Apple Barn Cookbook

Ingredients

1 egg

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup milk (I used soy)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sifted all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chopped, peeled apple (add 1 1/2 cups for more flavor)

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and grease a brownie pan. Beat egg until light. Beat in brown sugar, add peanut butter, milk and vanilla; mix well.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; stir into peanut butter mixture. Stir in apples.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and cut into slices or rectangles. Top with icing sugar if desired! Alex wanted a slice before I even had a chance to sprinkle some on top.

My Brown Sugar Bear! Put in a tub of brown sugar to keep it from turning into a rock or in a Tupperware of your cakes to keep fresh!

· cake, peanut butter

Archive HOT

Cake Pops at Harrods

Mayonnaise Secret Ingredient Brownies

Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Homemade Dark Chocolate Salty Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut Butter Apple Bars

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