Mocha Cupcakes

As I have said before my favourite flavour is coffee. I'm trying to ease up on my coffee drinking but can get away with it in cakes etc! These Mocha Cupcakes are from the Cake Days by the Hummbingbird Bakery book. A fantastic book. They are lovely and made in a completely different way to my usual cupcake recipes. The dry ingredients are all mixed together until they look like breadcrumbs and then wet ingredients are added. It makes for a very light cake. These are really really good. I'm so pleased with them. And despite this being valentines day, the only chocolate hearts I could find were these champagne truffles from M&S. A total rip-off at 6 quid but they were nice!

Mac n Cheese

This is a heart attack on a heart shaped plate! I halved the recipe and it still could feed an army. It's from the Barefoot Contessa at home cookbook and while I love her recipes I think they are mostly terribly unhealthy and huge in their quantities. I didn't really enjoy this either, it didn't have the kick I was hoping for, despite the mammoth amount of cheese I made it for valentine's day as mac and cheese is one of my husbands favourites....which is a good job cos we've so much left over he'll be eating it for the week!

Chicken and Cashew Nut Curry

This is DIVINE! The nicest curry ever. A doddle to make and just so so delicious.I'm getting braver with my use of chilli's too but I put quite a bit of chilli in this and it was quite hot. But still so so good. Bravo Nigella on this beaut of a curry recipe!

Cheesy Scones

A regular bake chez moi. Delicious and herby but don't keep well.

Spruced Up Vanilla Cake with Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote

My very kind sister bought me the Nordic Ware fir tree bundt tin for Chirstmas. So I showed off with it all over Christmas! The cake is lovely. A bit dry, but nice with the compote. I might try this again with lemon flavoured yoghurt to change it up a bit. Cake is beautiful though isn't it?

Sesame Noodles

I didnt like these at all.  Cold noodles just don't do it for me. I made them for my husband really, who's a runner and eats lots of pasta / noodles for fuel and he loved them. Although I've yet to find a food he doesn't like...

Chicken, Smoky Bacon and Bean Shoot Stir Fry

I liked this, I like all stir frys. But the smoky bacon seemed kind of alien to the other asian flavours. The Shao Xing rice wine is a glorious addition. I just bought a bottle in the Asian Market and it's a great flavour to add to my asian cooking. Will make again but without the bacon.