weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Lesley_Gaye

poohbear59 wrote: »

Thanks Lesley, fudge cake sounds like a good idea. It is the icing that I usually find expensive for these things. We are raising money for the youth cafe that DD runs.

this is the choc fudge icing I use. It makes enough to generously fill and top a cake

50g butter - can use marg, doubt you'd notice
3 tblsp milk, I usually use water
250g sifted icing sugar
2 tbslps sifted cocoa powder

melt the butter/marg in a saucepan and add the milk/water. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat well until smooth and glossy.

you really do have to seive the sugar and cocoa, if you don't, the lumps are permanent, and nasty

I find this works best if you fill and top your cake when it still has a tiny bit of warmth left in it. If the icing has cooled so much it is too stiff to spread, just re-warm it gently in the saucepan until it softens enough.

if you add a little more liquid this makes a lovely fudgy sauce for ice cream etc, and would keep for ages, although it doesn't in our house

got-it-spend-it

I've just made a butternut squash version of the parsnip soup and it was lovely.

I used a medium sized squash in place of the parsnip and only used 500ml of stock. I kept everything else the same.

Not entirely sure what that does to the price, but if you're lucky like me and can get cheap squashes from a market then I should think it is still fairly frugal!

nopot2pin

queen_of_string wrote: »

hi poohbear, I used the carrot cake recipe as a basis for a banana cake. I subbed the raisins for some walnuts I had in, but you could omit them and some frozen, past it bananas. I think 4 for a whole batch, if it looks a bit thick coz of omitting the orange juice I would just add a bit of water or some cold tea.

That does sound quite a good way to use up frozen bananas... I have about 15 in the freezer
I am a wee bit confused though.... do you still add the carrots ?
Or is it just bananas ?

Allegra

Just bananas, Potty. So rather than carrots+raisins, you have bananas+walnuts. I was planning to make some with my own frozen bananas (that have been languishing in the freezer for months and months), but then used up the walnuts in some emergency flapjacks instead, and I really want walnuts in my banana cakes, so it'll have to wait til I restock

nopot2pin

Allegra wrote: »

Just bananas, Potty. So rather than carrots+raisins, you have bananas+walnuts. I was planning to make some with my own frozen bananas (that have been languishing in the freezer for months and months), but then used up the walnuts in some emergency flapjacks instead, and I really want walnuts in my banana cakes, so it'll have to wait til I restock

Ahh.... righto.
I was early shift today, so having a slow afternoon
Thanks Allegra
I normally do banana muffins with pumpkin seeds, instead of walnuts, which is very nice

queen_of_string

Oooh Potty, I have pumkin seeds ;-), I know what I'm trying this week!

VenusFlytrap_2

What a coincidence - all this talk of banana cake, and guess what I made yesterday? Did a banana and sultana loaf using some very sad looking overripe 'nanas that needed using up and it's sooo yummy! Recipe is here if anyone fancies it, you need 3 small bananas so quite good for using them up and you don't use any sugar, so slightly healthier than making muffins too. Apparently it's good toasted so gonna try that for brekkie this week.

queen_of_string

Venus, there's caster sugar in the method, did you just overlook it and is the cake still ok without. Would be good for OH if that was the case .

VenusFlytrap_2

queen_of_string wrote: »

Venus, there's caster sugar in the method, did you just overlook it and is the cake still ok without. Would be good for OH if that was the case .

:rotfl: Ooops yes, I did overlook it! No printer here so I scribble recipes on a big notepad and take that in the kitchen... must have missed that bit! It's lovely without sugar though, just poured the sultanas in, didn't weigh them so probably used more than the 6oz stated and with the bananas too it was definitely sweet enough even eaten plain - can't wait to try it toasted and buttered in the morn! Glad it might be of some use to you.

domesticgoddess789

artybear wrote: »

Just had the mushroom soup for lunch, the lovely pinkhayley789 was here and I think we both enjoyed it. Was very easy to do and a lovely warm lunch on a cold day like today. Highly recommend it.

XXX

I will second that :)The mushroom soup was delicious and expertly cooked by artybear :T I am definitely going to try making it myself. Artybear is also very lovely and welcoming in real life too, thank you for having me for lunch.