More baking (are you bored of it yet?) and a storm in a teacup

Hello everyone, hope we are all doing well and that the snow melted before it had a chance to turn to ice.

Right, I have baked a few things over the last week or so, so just like the news, if you don’t want to know the score/ see me ramble on about baking, look away now.

First up, peanut butter bars.

Now don’t worry, I have not gone crazy, and yes I know these are biscuits. The recipe is from Sweet Vegan, and it starts off with 15 vegan “Graham crackers” (another recipe in the book). I think they are a bit like digestives? Anyway, I made them one day. As you know, I have the time!

Then they got broken up (why did I bother cutting them out into neat circles? Oh right, the having loads of time thing) and whizzed up with peanut butter and icing sugar. And maybe something else, can’t remember.

The topping is the prettiest part. It is meant to be chocolate melted with some butter substitute (as it is a vegan book) but I used Dark chocolate dreams instead, and let me tell you that is the most amazing topping for anything, ever. Ever!

I added the stars to pretty it up some more 🙂

As I was giving some away for friends who came to visit. It was very crumbly to cut, but it was really worth it. Although next time I think I would just buy biscuits for the base.

Next up- Carrot Cake.

Andy’s family were again coming over for the football, so I wanted to make something pretty. This was a Hummingbird  recipe, but I swapped pecans for walnuts (not a fan of walnuts), and added in some grated coconut.

I made some sugar carrots for the topping- something I have always wanted to do! I had to use my gel colours  (I keep them in the cute owl box) 🙂 I rolled the orange icing into balls, then rolled them into sort of sausage shapes making one end thin and one end fat. For the greens I rolled into very thin rolls, and used 2 for each carrot. I made a little hole in the end of the carrot with my little finger, and poked the greens in there. Then I used a knife to make nobbles on the carrots.

Hooray for my little carrots!

I baked the mixture in two tins, and then made some icing. Now my plan was to use coconut cream (the little tiny tins from Waitrose) to make a coconut icing. When you pour it out, it looks like loads! Anyway, I added in icing sugar and mixed until it was thick, and left it in the fridge to thicken further. I sandwiched the two cakes with some, and had the rest to put on top.

Now, the cakes were cool but I think the kitchen was warm because the icing really melted and kept pouring off the top of the cake. I shall call it a glaze. Andy’s Mum said she much preferred it to normal thick icing because it got in all the nooks and crannies. Anyway, it did taste really coconutty. More practise needed though!

I had some a day later and the icing had hardened more, so maybe that is the key.

Finally, hot buns. 

From Great British Bake Off book. They are not hot cross buns, because I could not be bothered to make the cross. These were for my parents and I made them with half wholemeal as we all prefer that. Seriously, anyone who visits or has me as a visitor has got to expect some baking at the moment as it is a good way to pass the time.

Something else exciting- Andy had to pop to Tescos the other day, and I went along for the ride (I lead an exciting life)- anyway while preusing the “fancy pretend milk” section look at what I found!

Alpro almond milk! I love the Provamel Almond milk but it is hard to find, and I like the unsweetened Ecomil but that is pretty expensive. I am excited that other companies are making almond milk anyway, especially as this is fortified with calcium and vitamins. 🙂 Plus it is cheaper than the Ecomil stuff.

Finally, the storm in a teacup. Well, sort of. I was sent a few types of tea to review from Storm Teas (love the name) so feel free to check out my review here.

Stay warm people 🙂

And if you could top one thing with the chocolate/ dark chocolate dreams topping, what would it be?