Monthly Archives

December 2018

Travel

Iced banana loaf

I buy bananas and then forget about them, usually when I remember them they’ve gone a lovely mottled brown colour. It was this that inspired this recipe; it’s a way of using those overripe bananas. My kids don’t know that it has banana in it either, if they did they wouldn’t eat it- just because. So I kind of get a cheeky kick out of knowing they’re eating banana and would go mad if they found out.

Ingredients
6oz gluten free self-raising flour
6oz golden caster sugar
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tbsp maca powder
175g softened unsalted butter
3 medium eggs beaten
1 tbsp honey
2 medium ripe bananas mashed

300g icing sugar
water

grease and line a 1lb loaf tin and preheat the oven to 150C.

In a bowl add all the dry ingredients  and combine with a wooden spoon.

Then add the butter to the dry ingredients mixing well, before adding the eggs and mixing well, then the honey and mashed bananas.  Ensure the mix is well combined, it won’t go completely smooth because of the bananas. Pour the mix into the loaf tin and bake for about 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow the loaf to cool completely.  Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the water a tablespoon at a time, mix until you have a thick consistency that is still spreadable.  When you’re happy with your icing mix, smooth across the top of the loaf.

December 10, 2018 By
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Cakes and bakes

Chocolate swirl cupcakes

This is the easiest recipe I make, a sponge mix with a dollop of chocolate spread, there’s not even a need to top them.

Ingredients
6oz gluten free self raising flour
1 tbsp xanthan gum
6oz golden caster sugar
6oz softened butter
3 eggs
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extra
1 tbsp milk
Jar of chocolate spread

Preheat the oven to 150C and line a cupcake tin with 12 cases.

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and mix until you have a well combined smooth mixture.

Spoon the mix into the cases, take a teaspoon and add chocolate spread on top of the mix, with a cocktail stick swirl the chocolate into the sponge mix.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean

December 7, 2018 By
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Travel

Birthday day trip to Amsterdam

We’ve started a new tradition in my family, rather than buy a present we put the money towards a day trip somewhere. This week my sis and I went for a day trip to Amsterdam, a gift for my birthday. It was an early start but in less time that it takes to do most commutes we were in Amsterdam. We flew with Easy Jet, if you’re not tied to a date and can plan ahead you can get some good deals, we also did Dublin with Ryanair in the summer for just £9.99 (that was the Christmas present).

Schipol has a great rail link into Amsterdam Centraal, the journey is just 15 minutes and there are several trains an hour, a return ticket was €9.60. We didn’t plan anything apart from a trip to the Anne Frank Museum, this is something that we both really wanted to do but that you really need to book ahead for.

So by 10am we were in the middle of Amsterdam. With no set plans we decided to get a good look around the city by boat. The boat tour we did was €11 for an hour, each company offers slightly different tours but as they all depart from a similar areas you can have a look around to see which one you prefer.

We stepped off the boat and into Pancake Amsterdam it has a great menu of, well, pancakes, and after drooling over the menu we both went for a dutch pancake with apple crumble and ice cream. I don’t think anything will ever top that pancake. The cherry on the cake was the souvenir clog keyring we each got when we paid.

With full happy stomachs we had a wander down to Dam Square and on towards Prinsengracht, Amsterdam is a pretty compact city so it’s easy to have a meander through the streets and walk to the majority of touristy destinations.

I’ve wanted to visit the Anne Frank house since I read her diary at school. It’s difficult to describe the secret annexe just because it is one of those places that needs to be seen and felt. There are poignant reminders of the family, the postcards and pictures that Anne glued to the wall and the map that Otto stuck pins in to mark where Allied forces had landed.

There are lots of little side streets with unique shops that run off Prinsengracht, these are good for souvenirs that aren’t your run of the mill and for lovely home things. I picked up Christmas decorations and tealight holders.

I also picked up a vintage sequin top in one of the vintage shops. Of course I couldn’t go to Amsterdam and not come back with the obvious souvenirs like clogs and a penis shaped salt-shaker.

And if you want to sample the obvious Amsterdam then there is nowhere better than the red light district. If nothing else, this part is fascinating, the girls in the windows, the adult theatres and the coffee shops all dotted around the beautiful Oude Kerk church and along the canal. We went during the day and didn’t find it intimidating but it was definitely interesting. How do you top that? If you’re me, with a chocolate waffle. There are lots of bakeries dotted around the city and having got a whole set of sweet teeth, I had to go and sample a waffle, yep they’re as good as you’d like them to be.


On the back of a sugar rush we headed back to the train station and up to the airport where we boarded the plane and in an hour we were back on British soil with sore feet, happy memories and a penis shaped salt-shaker.

December 6, 2018 By
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