Chocolate Banana Bread - Recipe

I love banana bread, I like to think that it is healthy as it has banana in it lol!

I had some bananas that had gone past their eating stage, when they are too ripe and far to soft - perfect for making banana bread. So last Sunday I decided to make a loaf but with a twist, I added in some chocolate. Because surely when adding in chocolate nothing can go wrong, and I was pretty impressed with how it turned out.

My toddler even said it was yummy so it had to be true!

So I thought I would share it with you. It's perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon while the kids nap.

Ingredients

5oz butter

5oz caster

2 eggs

4oz self raising flour

1oz coco powder

1tsp baking powder

2 bananas, mashed

Method

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees. My oven is a fan over so temperatures may vary. Line a loaf tin with grease proof paper.

Put the butter in the microwave for a few seconds just so it is easy to work with. Beat the butter and caster sugar together until it is fluffy. Add an egg, sieve a little flour and mix well, repeat with the second egg and some flour. Then add in the remaining flour and coco powder.

Beat in the baking powder and mashed bananas. I tend to mash my bananas in a bowl with a fork, mash well so you don't get lumpy bread. Make sure it is well beaten together.

Pour into the loaf tin and level. Pop it into the oven for about 30/40 minutes, until a pricker comes out clean from the middle of the loaf.

Leave on the side to cool, once cool remove from the load tin and take off the grease proof paper. Leave on a cooling rack to cool completely and serve.

If you want to be a little naughty you could spread some butter onto a slice.

Recipe - Oreo Cupcakes With Buttercream And Glitter Sprinkles

It was Noah's joint 2nd Birthday party with his friend on Sunday and I decided to make some cupcakes. I planned to make about 60 as that was how many people we had confirmed coming but somehow I managed to make 84!!

I made a selection of vanilla, chocolate and marble cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing, glitter sprinkles then topped with an Oreo. These went down pretty well at the party and I was impressed with how they had turned out, considering the amount I had made.

So I thought I'd share it with you all as we all love cake and I especially love Oreos! So here it is.

Ingredients to make roughly 24 cupcakes

For the sponge

8oz margarine

8oz caster Sugar

8oz self raising flour for the vanilla cakes or 7 oz self raising flour for the chocolate cakes

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1oz coco powder (for the chocolate cakes)

Buttercream icing

250g unsalted butter that has been left at room temperature while you make the sponge

Icing sugar (I wing just how much I need, sorry!)

Topping

24 Oreos

Glitter sprinkles (you can get them in most supermarkets in the baking section)

Baking Equipment you will need

Large bowl

2 x cupcake baking trays with 12 holes

24 cupcake cases

Piping bag

Piping nozzle

Method

Put 24 cupcake cases into 2 cupcake baking trays and preheat the oven to 180 degrees. I have a fan oven so the temperature may vary.

Start by mixing the margarine and caster sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add in an egg and sieve a quarter of the flour mixture into the fluffy mixture and beat together. Do this 4 times until all the flour and eggs have been used. Add in the vanilla essence if you are making vanilla ones or add in the coco powder for the chocolate cakes. Make sure its beaten well and all combined.

Put about 1 tablespoon of mixture into each cake case. Any left over distribute between the cases. Then bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are a golden colour and a thin pricker comes out clean when tested.

Place them onto a cooling rack and leave to cool for about 30 minutes.

To make the buttercream, put the butter into a large bowl and mix to make it fluffy. This makes it easier to mix in the icing sugar. Then sieve in a little bit of icing sugar at a time. I do it until the buttercream takes like icing and not butter. Add in a little vanilla essence if you would like.

Once the cakes are cool pipe on the mixture. I got some disposable piping bags from Asda and the piping nozzles from the pound shop, and they are amazing!

When the icing has been piped on, sprinkle on some glitter and then top with your Oreo. If you put the Oreo on straight away it will stay on the cake but the only thing is after a few days they do go soft. So its fine to put them on if its the day before or a general batch but if your making them for an occasion and a few days in advance maybe wait until the night before to add on the Oreos. You could maybe use some normal icing to help the Oreos stick.

For the marble cupcakes I just made up a vanilla mixture then put one teaspoon of mixture into each cake case. Then I added 1/2 oz of coco powder to the remainder of the mixture, mixed well and then spooned into the cases. Once all the mixture had been distributed I used a baking pricker and lightly swirled the mixture. I then baked them on the same heat and time as the others.

Enjoy!



Recipe - Salmon With Sweet Chilli Vegetable Noodles

This has got to be one of my all time favourite dinners, so I had to share. I don't get to have it that often as my husband doesn't like salmon so when he isn't home until after tea this is my go to food. Its so simple to make and takes about 20 minutes.

You can add into the noodles what you like but here is what I use.

Ingredients

Aldi Infusions salmon fillet infused with ginger, chilli & lime marinade

Sainsburys thin egg noodles (you can use whatever noodles you prefer)

Frozen onions

Frozen peppers

Frozen peas

Frozen sweetcorn

1 tsp paprika

Salt & pepper

Worcester sauce

Tomato puree

Sweet chilli sauce

Method

You start by putting the salmon onto cook. There are many ways you can cook the salmon - microwave, grill or oven - and the instructions on how to do so are on the back of the packet but I chose to do it in the oven. All you have to do is remove the salmon from its packaging, wrap it in tin foil and place it on a baking tray then into the oven. It takes about 18 minutes to cook.

While that is cooking put on a saucepan of water and bring it to the boil for the noodles.

In a frying pan fry the onions, peppers, peas and sweetcorn. The ingredients I use are all frozen so very easy to just get from the packet and throw into the frying pan.

Put the noodles into the boiling water and boil until they are cooked, about 10 minutes.

Once the vegetables are cooked add in some Worcester sauce, salt & pepper, the paprika and tomato puree. (I use the tomato puree as it adds some flavour and also thickens up the fluid from the frozen vegetable) The amounts of these I just guessed, use as much or as little as you think and like.

When the noodles are done put them in with the vegetables and mix it all up. Add in some sweet chilli sauce, again however much you would like. Leave for a few minutes and then when the salmon is done, transfer the noodles & vegetable to a plate and just add the salmon on top.

And its ready to eat. I didn't have any poppadoms but I think they would be rather tasty with this dish.

Enjoy!

I'd love to hear if you make this dish and what you think.