A Couple of January Favourites

I am not the biggest fan of spicy food, this could be down to my mother thinking she had roasted a sweet pepper, me wolfing it down and realising that it was not a sweet pepper at all, it was, in fact, a yellow chilli and I wrongly drank so much water that I felt ill.

These, on the other hand are delicious, they are peanuts that have been coated in something with nori or other and then rolled in wasabi powder and they are incredibly morish, hence why the packet is only half full as I had already tucked in.
 

I got mine from the local food hall, but these are the closest that Amazon have.
 

Next up is my favourite lipbalm from Benefit which is half price in their sale!

The balm is sheer so it's great for those who, like me, aren't bold enough to wear a full red lip, and when you know its SPF 15, moisturising and smells of roses, you can't really go wrong, especially for the sale price of £7.

 The fact that both products are by Benefit is completely accidental but "That Gal" is great, again, and I think this is the same with most Benefit products, it smells delish, like raspberries.

It's marketed as an illuminating primer, but I also like to put it on my cheek and brow bones for extra "light"

 

This could be seen as an odd favourite, but this is about both the brand and the jumper.

Beyond Retro is a company who sell vintage clothes and accessories, now I'm a huge fan of thick, warm jumpers, and I get them from these guys. Nearly all of their jumpers are 100% wool and for the quality, they are so inexpensive (mine was £25).

After buying my boyfriend a cream cable knit jumper from them for Christmas, and when it arrived it provoked a great deal of jealousy on my part, I thought I had better get my own.

 

 

 

Apologies for the less than flattering picture, but I wanted to show how it fitted and self-timer really wasn't working out for me!

 

Welsh Cakes

I'm aware that the 1st March is a long way away, making this post seem a little early for St David's Day but fed up with one of my friends tempting me with Marks and Spencer's version, I thought it was time to tackle them myself.

 



With the help of my assistants, Pip and Wisp.

Makes about 20, depending on your cutter.

You will need:
125g cold, diced butter (preferably unsalted)
250g self raising flour
75g caster sugar (and more for sprinkling)
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
100g of currants (I also added a couple of sultanas)
1 large egg
A round cutter
A cast iron frying pan

Weigh the butter, dice, and pop into the bowl.

Add the flour and rub together, as you would if you were making pastry, so that it resembles breadcrumbs.

Pour in your sugar, and add the egg.

Weigh out your currants, and for a little chew, I added a couple of sultanas.

Sprinkle in your allspice.

Mix these all together and a ball of non-sticky, soft dough should form. If, like me, it doesn't hold, add a very small amount of water.

Then put it in the fridge for at least twenty minutes to let it rest.
Then turn out onto a well floured surface and roll out so that it is at least 1/2 cm thick.

Heat your frying pan on the oven, but don't add any oil or butter, they won't stick as they already have butter in them.
 I could only get about four to a pan, avoiding any touching but it's up to you.

Turn them over when they're golden, they shouldn't take more than three minutes on each side.

To dust them with sugar, I took them straight off the heat and flipped them in a bowl with a little caster sugar.

These are great with jam and butter, but especially delicious on their own!

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is my mum's favourite cake and after finding the perfect recipe, I decided I'd make it for her.
The recipe itself is relatively healthy (no butter) unless you want to add the icing, this can be as low-fat as you like thanks to Philadelphia's extesive range, and I could live off this icing if I had to with no objections.

8oz (225g) self-raising flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
6oz (170g) muscavado sugar (or do what I did, part dark brown and part demerera)
4oz (115g) grated carrots
2 mashed bananas
150ml oil (I used sunflower)
2 large eggs
2oz (50g) chopped walnuts

 

 

Bung all of the dry ingredients, except the nuts, into a bowl and mix together.

 

 

Then grab your carrots...



2 and a hunk carrots

Top and tail...



 

 

...Then get grating!

 



 

 

Top and tail then get grating.

Add that to the mixture, then get the bananas, I'm using 2 and a half because mine are tiddlers.

 

 

Then mash like there's no tomorrow.

 

When they resemble baby food you can add them to the mixture.

 

Add the sunflower oil and the two eggs and mix it all together.

 

Add your walnuts, I only realised I didn't have any whilst I was making the cake, so pistacios it is!

 

Grease and line a baking tin, I'm making mine as a traybake but you could also make it into a cake, pour the batter in and put it in a 180 degrees celcius oven for 40 mins, I would check it after 30, but it depends on your oven.

Now, you could just leave it there, or, you could add cream cheese icing:

3oz (85g) butter
6oz (170g) icing sugar
8oz (225g) Philadelphia cream cheese (I used extra light)

Cream these three tasties into a bowl

 

 

 

After a heartbreaking transport from tin to rack problem and a hungry baker, there was a gap left in the cake,

 

Pile on the icing

 

I only got to it after my mother had helped herself to an enormous chunk
 

And serve yourself a large piece.



As you probably can tell from the crumbs, this is my second piece, the first didn't last long.

This comes from Mary Berry's New Aga Cookbook, but with all the ingredients I have replaced, I've put my own twist on it.