M & Em's Cakes

On Thursday I spent the whole day making cakes with my Mum. I must say i get my cooking skills from my Mum and we do spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking. However Mum is better at baking than me, she has many more years of experience though. These are our results from Thursday.

This cake was inspired by the film Summer Holiday starring Cliff Richard.

It took hours to make and we were a bit over ambitious but it didn't end up that bad in the end. However if we had to charge for this cake it would cost £400, because of the amount of icing and time it took. However we enjoyed making it and we have a few more ideas of cakes we can make.

The other cakes we made this day were for a 13th Birthday party and they were more successful. :)

These didnt' take as long and the turned out just how we wanted the to :). We made the butterflies with a butterfly cutter and some pink and purple regal icing. My mum orders a lot of her cake decorating stuff from amazon. If you want to see any more of cakes please visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/maryemcupcakes

Chicken and Bacon Cacciatore

This recipe has been tried and tested a few time by my boyfriend and friends.

Apologies for the photo my Ipad is a bit blurry

Ingredients

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts halved

2 rasher bacon sliced

1 onion diced

2 garlic cloves crushed

150g plum tomatoes halved

1/2 red pepper cut into inch pieces

250g passata

2 tbsp Philadelphia (don't be shy)

1tsp dried oregano

1tsp dried basil

Seasoning

Dried chilli flakes (optional)

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c/ gas mark 4. In a frying pan with oil cook the chicken breasts and bacon on both side for one minute, then transfer to a large roasting dish.

2) Fry the onions and garlic in oil until the onions are soft, transfer to the roasting dish.

3) Place the uncooked tomatoes and peppers in the dish and pour the passata over the chicken, bacon and veg. Then add the Philadelphia herbs and seasoning. If you want to give the meal a bit of a kick then add a pinch of chilli flakes.

4) Place the cacciatore in the oven for 40minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. You may want to give the dish a stir half way through. Best served with potatoes or pasta. My personal favourite is what Danny calls my juicy potatoes. I shall post the recipe for this.

omnomnomnom :)

Baileys fudge chocolate brownies

75g butter

150g Demerara sugar

40g cocoa powder

75g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 to 4 baileys fudges pieces chopped finely

1) Preheat oven to 180c/gas 5. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. When melted add the demerara sugar and stir to blend.

2) In a bowl sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and the pinch of salt. Pour the sugar and butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir together.

3) Add the 2 eggs and vanilla extract and beat into the mixture until all combined.

4) Add the chopped pieces of baileys fudge and stir. Pour the mixture into a foil lined shallow baking tin and place in the oven for 20minutes or till set.

5) Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Cut brownie into desired squares.

Easy peasy lemon squeeze :)

Pesto Manchester

Pesto Deansgate Manchester

My boyfriend won a bit of money on the Grand National and decided to treat me to lunch at Pesto Deansgate. I've been to Pesto at the Trafford Centre before but i'd never been to the one on Deansgate before.

Pesto is located in an ideal busy location on the corner of Deansgate and John Dalton street. We went on a Tuesday lunchtime so it wasn't very busy. The decore inside pesto has a true Italian feel and the walls are covered in paintings and other ornaments. I loved the spiral staircase down to the toilets.

We were greeted as soon as we walked in and taken to our table. The staff were all friendly enough, however one in particular member of staff was very polite and attentive, which made our visit even better. Pesto serve Italian style tapas with little dishes of everything Italian. We chose the four dishes for £9.95 per person, which we thought was really good value. We had spaghetti alla bolognaise (I know not very adventurous but I just love it), pizzetta formaggio di Capra, pollo alla pizzaida and patale campegnae.

Spag Bol

The meat in the spaghetti bolognaise was cooked perfectly, the spaghetti was aldenti and the tomato sauce had just the right amount of herbs and garlic. I ate most of this because Danny isn't that keen on Spag Bol (weirdo).

Pizzetta formaggio di Capra ( pizza with goats cheese, caramalised red onion and spinach)

The pizza was by far my favourite. The caramalised onion made it sweet (not really sweet) and the goats cheese balanced out the sweetness with it's creaminess. The only negative about the pizza is that the base was a little bit chewy.

Pollo alla pizzaida (chicken in a rich tomato sauce)

The chicken was cooked really well however I found it quite bland. The tomato sauce was rich, with a strong taste of red wine. However the chicken may have been better if it had been marinated.

  Patate campegnae (sautéed potatoes with onion, garlic, chilli)

Danny loved the potatoes and didn't leave me many at all. I love everything cooked in garlic because it is definitely my favourite ingredient. The potatoes were quite dry, but this may be a good thing as sautéed potatoes can often be greasy.

Overall we had a great time at pesto and we will definitely be visiting again to try other dishes. We spent £30.50 altogether which we thought was a great value as we also had dessert and Danny had 2 alcoholic drinks.

This is my first of many restaurant reviews. I'm trying to practice my skills in food writing and I hope you will enjoy reading them.

Thanks :)

P.s sorry for the lack of pictures, i will try and get that sorted

30 day picture challenge

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

Day 04 - A picture of your night

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

Day 12 - A picture of something you love

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity

Day 19 - A picture and a letter

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change

Day 25 - A picture of your day

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member

Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile

Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss

 

Ten Facts

1) I'm Emily, age 20 (nearly 21) and i picked this picture because it's my favourite picture of me, i felt beautiful this day :).

2) I have a strange fear of circles, well not exactly circles but shapes all close together ( yeah i sound strange) but it is actually a fear called trypophobia.

3) I think i come across as rude to some people but i'd like to think i'm a nice person.

4) I also can be quite shy in some situations but when i'm at work or with friends and family i'm extremely loud and cheeky.

5) I love buying new clothes and have a very big obsession with dresses, i must have over 50 of them.

6) I'm at University studying Home Economics. I love food infact i'm pretty obsessed with it. I want to be a food writer.

7) My favourite band is Linkin Park i love them so much. The best album is Hybrid Theory.

8) I'm pretty obsessed with my weight and sometimes i like the look of my body and other times i'm like eewww get these fat bits off me. I know i should just be happy in myself.

9) I'm extremely emotional and everything gets to me really easily.

10) I live in Manchester with my gorgeous boyfriend who i love huge amounts, i think were just good together :).

 

Chocolate Banana Muffins

This recipe is from Nigella's new book Recipes from the heart of the home.

Introduction
I'm not the biggest muffin fan i must admitt, i love a nice cupcake or carrot cake. However i just had to have a go at this recipe because i love chocolate and bananas. I'm also having a new years eve party and thought they would be great to put out on the table.

Appearence
They didn't look as brown as i expected they would be but still looked appertising with the hints of yellow banana. I have also seem much nicer looking muffins than these.

Taste
In my opinion these muffins didn't have a rich enough chocolate flavour and the banana was over powering. The lack of chocolate could be down to the cocao powder i used as it was a cheap brand. Again i added my own touch to the recipe by putting in broken up chocolate pieces, which added a nice touch especially when serve warm.

Extra
This recipe was good but i would definately change it a little by putting more cocoa powder (maybe use a better quality one or even dark chocolate) in and use less banana. I would also recommend serving them warm with vanilla ice cream.

Rating - 5/10

Sticky Stir Fried Beef

I found this recipe by Brian Turner on the BBC recipe page.

Introduction
I don't usually cook beef, but as my mum gave me half a beef joint left over from christmas i thought i may aswell use it. However i'm use to cooking stir fries as i love them, i usually use chicken, quorn or just vegetables so it was good to try something different. This recipe was incredibley easily to make and it only took about 30mins to do. I did change the recipe slightly because i served it with egg noodles.

Appearance
Unfortunately i didn't take a picture because i was eager to dig in but it was a sticky, glossy, brown colour which looked very appertising.

Taste
The sauce was very nice with a sweet flavour, it reminded me of a plum sauce you would find in a chinese restaurant. However i would probably add more garlic to the recipe as i'm not to fond of a really sweet sauce. My boyfriend seemed to be very impressed with the sauce and the meat quoting 'I think i prefer beef stir fry to chicken' and he has got a sweet tooth.

Extra
I would definately use this recipe again maybe adding my own touch too it with a few more vegetables and see what it's like with chicken or other meats.