Look what I bought!

I am gettin super duper excited for Jim's 21st birthday now... I very nearly have everything for his cake, but couldn't wait until it all arrived. I thought I'd share with you the sorts of goodies I've bought so far, since it's not really the norm you'd find in your kitchen cupboards.
As I've already said before, I'm going to be making a cupcake tier cake for him. He has a blue/black/silver theme going on for the decorations and such like, so I've bought things to go along with the theme. My mum thinks that the colours are a bit gash together, but I like them :)

Okay, so what do we have here?
 - A 23-space cupcake tier stand, £12.00 from Amazon. I've found these elsewhere for more than double that price so snap them up quickly - they're the perfect item for displaying your yummy muffins and cupcakes.
- Silver wire. £2 from Lawsons. All will be revealed in about a month's time :D
- Blue, black and white icing. £2-3 each from Lawsons. Ready to roll, I'm going to cut little shapes out of the icing to stick on the cupcakes. Then I'll use writing icing to write little messages like 'Happy 21st Birthday' and 'Jim' on the cakes.

- Piping bag and large nozzles. £4 from Lawsons. Ever been to Mr Bun's Bakery? They have extra-wide buttercream patterns on their cakes, which are a lot simpler and nicer to look at then star-shaped nozzles. I'll be using these.
- Large circular silver cake base. £4 from Lawsons. I'm going to put the cake stand on this so that I get an extra tier out of the cupcakes - more for everyone! :D Plus it's all about presentation, haha...

- '21' diamante cake decoration - £5 from Lawsons. I know it's a bit girly, but I'm going to man it up a bit for the cake, don't worry.. I have faith in my designs!

As you can see, I've bought an awful lot from Lawsons. As far as I know, there's only stores in Plymouth and Tavistock. It's a great shop for kitchen items, and they specialise in making custom-made cakes, especially for weddings. They've got a great selection of examples in display, including a castle wedding cake, and a cake with tier pillars made out of dolly mixtures! They are reasonably priced, too. They've got a website if you don't live near one, check them out: http://www.lawsonshop.co.uk/ .

Stay tuned, this cake is going to be amazing :D

Kirsten x

Pink Muffins

I really think I need to broaden my horizons. All I post about is deserts and pasta. Sorry :( I think that's my culinary calling...
Okay! After a lovely evening baking cupcakes with the gorgeous Abby on Monday, I decided to do some more baking today, since the weather wasn't as nice as it has been all weekend. Sucks, it's my day off, too :(

My boyfriend was around, and he likes to help in the kitchen (score!) so I bought some pink and blue food colouring to make girl and boy muffins :D Unfortunately, the blue buttercream didn't turn out so well... Fear not! It wasn't my cooking's fault - Asda's own blue food dye won't let you go a shade darker than baby blue, no matter how much you add. I added about half a bottle of colouring until I realised, "okay, this just isn't gonna work, and my buttercream has the consistency of water, now." Fail.

So... Girly Pink Muffins it is! Abby and I had a blast experimenting with buttercream the other day - we added two capfuls of Bailey's Irish Cream to the mixture and oooh! What a kick ;) This is all in preparation of my boyfriend's 21st... Remember I'm baking the cupcake tier-cake! :D Eeeeee!!

Ingredients:

110g Butter
250g Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs
150g Self-Raising Flour
125g Plain Flour
120ml Semi-Skimmed Milk
2 tsps Vanilla Extract

For the Buttercream:

60ml Semi-Skimmed Milk
500g Icing Sugar
110g Butter
A few drops of food colouring (optional)

Any other toppings e.g. Chocolate Chips, Marshmallows, Buttons, Sweets, Mini Oreos etc.

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with bun or muffin cases.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth.
4) Gradually add the eggs into the creamy mixture, mixing well. Add your vanilla extract.
5) Sift both flours into the mixture, half at a time. Add half your milk, and fold well.
6) Add the remaining flour and milk together until light and fluffy :)
7) Spoon evenly into 12 bun cases, and bake until golden brown. This will be about 15 minutes later. Pop a skewer into the middle bun and if it comes out clean, you're good to go.
8) Leave to cool on a wire rack.
9) Sift the icing sugar into a new, clean bowl. Add your butter and milk until completely creamed together. If you are colouring the buttercream, add in just a few drops and mix really, really well.
10) Your buns should be cool by now. With a flat-edged knife, smear a big teaspoon-ful of buttercream over a bun, and repeat for all of them.
11) Add your toppings, and devouuur :)

Kirsten x

Vegetable Pasta Bake

Sorry, pasta again guys... It's so easy! And sorry also for not having a post in so long - it's Easter Break and I've literally just settled down after probably the most hectic month of my life. I had looooads of deadlines for Uni, had to plan my 4 Year Anniversary with my boy, then it was my birthday, and to top it off, my mum was in hospital :( So you understand why I haven't had time to tell you about the wonderful world of cooking...

Anyways,  this is uber yummy AND it's also Weight Watchers approved so very healthy all round, wouldn't you say? Pretty much, if you've tried my Cheesey Pasta recipe - think that with vegetables. Mmmm!

It's so simple, feeds a family, and it's healthy. Perfect meal, huh?

Okay, here we go:

Ingredients:

1tbsp Butter
4 tbsp Plain Flour
As much Cheese as you want
Semi-Skimmed Milk - probably at least 300ml. You'll see why in a bit...
Vegetables - I chose broccoli, peas and carrots for my mixture. Add mushrooms, onions, green beans, potato if you want... It's whatever you fancy - veggies are good for you, go crazy with them.
125g Macaroni Pasta
Half a slice of wholemeal bread

Method:

1) Get 3 saucepans. As per my photo, use one for the Cheese Sauce, one for the Veggies, and one for the Macaroni. Get the kettle going for some water to boil the veg and pasta. Get these going as soon as possible.
2) Meanwhile, melt your butter in your remaining pan, and mix in the flour until you get a doughy mixture.
3) Gradually add small dashes of milk to your dough, mixing the entire time. You don't want dough to stick to the bottom of the pan. Keep doing this, gradually adding milk, until you get a creamy consistency like you would a carbonara sauce. Add in the cheese 'til it melts into the sauce. Hey ho - you've made a Cheese Sauce via the Roux method! Go you!
4) Okay, your sauce is ready. Your veg and pasta most probably is, too, by this point. Remember, if you can run a knife smoothly through the boiling items, it's ready to eat. Drain your veg and pasta.
5) In your largest saucepan, add the pasta, the veg and the cheese sauce altogether. Get a large oven-proof dish and pour your concoction into the dish, spreading evenly.
5) Whizz your bread in a food processor for a few seconds until you have breadcrumbs. Sprinkle these evenly over the pasta/veg/sauce mush.
6) Chuck the whole lot under your grill for 3-5 minutes until the breadcrumbs are golden.
7) Voila! Serve, enjoy, and tell your friends :)

Kirsten x

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hello beautiful people :)

Spaghetti and Meatballs... Simples! Another pasta dish, I know. I said this was gonna be a basic cookery blog :P No, this is not just an ordinary meal. Did a little altering. Do we have any Dragon's Den fans in the house? I added about some Reggae Reggae sauce to the bolognaise and OOOH it was to diiiiie for! Also, tried the new Co-operative Beef Meatballs, they were on offer - £2 for 25 balls. Hehe... Anyways, my boyfriend was being really picky last night and couldn't be bothered to pick the pineapple off a Hawaiin Pizza. So we went to the Co-op and saw that there was a little offer going on: Meatballs + Spaghetti Pasta + 2 Sticks of Garlic Bread + a Jar of Sauce +£4. Not too shabby, huh?? But, like I said, my boyfriend's VERY picky. So we ended up buying a basic Dolmio sauce that wasn't in the offer, and I thought we had garlic bread at home. But we didn't. Fail. Long story short, it was an epic meal that I will definitely try again. The meatballs are a great alternative to just regular mince. Want the recipe? Here goes:

Ingredients:

1 Jar of Tomato Pasta sauce. I know, I'm lazy and could've made it from scratch with onions and tinned tomatoes etc. But I don't like onions or tinned tomatoes. So Dolmio it was :)

1 packet of Dried Spaghetti

1 tray of beef meatballs. Alternatively, make your own! Just get minced beef, mix in a bowl with a little olive oil and roll into balls on a floured surface.

Optional:

5 tbsp of Levi Root's Reggae Reggae sauce.

Garlic Bread to Serve.

Method:

1) Heat a little oil in a frying pan, and boil a kettle full of water.

2) Transfer the boiled water into a deep saucepan and turn on the hob to keep it boiling. Add in your spaghetti. Don't worry if it sticks out of the pan, it will relax as it cooks and drop into the pan itself.

3) Add the meatballs to the oil, fry until brown all over and cooked right through.

4) Pour the contents of your sauce jar into a jug. Add your Reggae sauce (if using, optional but freaking amazing!) and stirrrr. This was the part where I also SEIVED my sauce for my picky-ass lad. He doesn't like any onions or whatever either. So, yes I seived the sauce. Quantity went down quite a bit then!

5) Pour your sauce over your balls.(:P) Let it simmer until the sauce gets a bit bubbly, then you know it's ready.

6) Your pasta should be cooked by now. With spaghetti it's easy to tell if it's cooked because it's not straight like when you took it out of the packet. Drain it and spoon a hearty amount onto each plate.

7) Dish out your meatballs to each plate, then add any remaining sauce. Serve with garlic bread if you have chosen to chuck some in the oven :)

Kirsten x