Easypeasy Hazelnut Nutella Cake

 
Ingredients... 

175g softened butter
175g golden caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 rounded tbsp Nutella
50g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

...and what to do with them:

Bung butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, milk and cinnamon into a bowl. Mix until light and fluffy. Pour around 3/4 into a buttered and lined 20cm round cake tin. Add dollops* of Nutella. Add the remaining mixture and use a skewer to make a pretty pattern. Sprinkle the hazelnuts on top. Put into your preheated oven (180c or fan 160c). Bake for 1 hour until risen and nicely browned. Put the kettle on and have a hot chocolate or make Nutella on toast. Remove from oven, leave to cool and then enjoy! If you're lacking confidence in my info, no problem (I probably would be, too). You can find the full instructions here.

This was one of two cakes I made for my friend's wedding cake reception. It's a quick and easy recipe and once it's cooled, the cake's ready to eat. No messy icing and lots of cakey goodness. I think it turned out well, although *I think I'd add the Nutella in smaller dollops, or at least swirl the skewer about a bit more to spread the chocolatey goodness more evenly through the cake. If you give this a go, let me know how yours turns out.

A Baking To Do List

1. Banana bread bites from Kitchen News. Good way to use up older bananas.
 

2. Banana and nutella loaf from Pomegranate Days

3. Raspberry and chocolate clafouti from Baking Obsession
 

4. Pear almond tart with amaretto cream from Baked Bree. Could anything sound more delicious?
 

5. Lemon torte bars from Treats
 

6. A low pastry apple pie on Frugal Freebies
 

7. Nutella espresso mug cake with fresh raspberries, made in mere minutes, from A Taste of the Vegetarian Lifestyle
 

8. Pecan pie bars from Just A Taste This reminds me of the pralines I ate by the bucketload in New Orleans.
 

9. Lemon blueberry cheesecake bars from Epicurean Mom

My kitchen better watch out. I'm going to check them off once I've made them, and will try to post the results up on the blog. #domesticgoddess!

Daily Bread #JanuaryJoy

#JanuaryJoy no.28: Bake some bread.

Until a couple of years ago I had only had one (failed) attempt at baking bread in a school home ec class. The recipe asked for a couple of tablespoons of water. I poured in the whole jug...

Image Source

How do you make good bread quickly? Well this website, Artisan Bread in Five, suggests making it in advance and then only needing to bake when you need it. Great time saver, but I think this misses the fun parts of knocking back and kneading. Rebecca at Florence Finds has also added a bread recipe which looks quick and simple. I think I'll have to give both a try.

I love flavoured breads, particularly rosemary based recipes. I've tried and tested Lorraine Pascale's Rosemary and Sea Salt Foccacia, with success every time. I have her book, but you can also get the recipe at BBC Food here. Really easy to follow, delicious, and there's nothing quite like the smell of rosemary through the house.

Our rosemary and sea salt foccacia, pre-oven

Bread bake to do list:

• I'm going to add this Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread from A Hint of Honey to my list of breads to bake. 
• For an American twist, I'm adding these soft pretzels from Life Made Simple to the list, too. YUM. 
• Slow cooker bread. A friend recommended a recipe, so I'll have to give this a go at some stage.

What are your tried and tested bread recipes? 

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Thai Curry Sauce #JanuaryJoy

Today's #JanuaryJoy: Try a new vegetarian dish

Tonight's meal: Baked Sweet Potatoes with Thai Curry Sauce

Image from Tesco Real Foods

When we go our for dinner, my menu choice is almost always the lamb dish. I love hearty meat dishes and walking into the house to the smell of a beef stew bubbling away in the slow cooker. When we host vegetarian friends, there's usually a moment of 'what on earth do we cook?' panic, before realising that actually, we don't do badly for eating no-meat meals in our house. Pesto pasta is a good 'there's nothing left in the fridge' meal; I make a mean veggie moussaka; and warm squash rocket salad is a quick fix light tea. The problem is, that is pretty much our repertoire. Not very extensive. Lets see if this quick and easy mid-week dinner gets added to our vegetarian meal list!