The Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake Recipe ~ Thanks to The Pioneer Woman!

Posted on January 25, 2009 by Sarah under Baking, Blogroll, cakes, chocolate, Cookery, Daily Digest, family, Food, Recipes

One of the blogs that I read is The Pioneer Woman, and there has been a recipe over there that has been niggling away at me to try for a long time now…

But.. today was the day and I finally made it. It turned out brilliantly, below is a link to the Pioneer Woman’s Site, where you can find the recipe and a detailed photographed step by step tutorial…. enjoy 🙂

Pioneer Woman Chocolate Sheet Cake

Combine in a mixing bowl:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a saucepan, melt: 2 sticks / 8oz butter
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa. Stir together.
Add 1 cup boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In measuring cup, pour 1/2 cup buttermilk.
Add: 2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees F or 180 degrees C for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make icing:

Chop 1/2 cup pecans finely.
Melt 1 3/4 – 7oz sticks butter in a saucepan.
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat.
Add: 6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Stir together. Add pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

Chocolate and Banana Muffins

Posted on January 24, 2009 by Sarah under Baking, Blogroll, cakes, chocolate, Cookery, Daily Digest, family, Food, Muffins, photo, Photography, photos, Recipes

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These tasty muffins got the thumbs up from the kids, they turned out very well indeed 🙂

Makes 12-14

Ingredients:

225g / 8oz self raising flour
55g / 2oz cocoa powder
half a teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225g / 8oz caster sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
85g / 3oz plain chocolate chips
1 egg, beaten
30g / 1oz unsalted butter, melted.
225ml / 8fl oz milk, warmed to blood temperature.

Method:

Heat the oven to 190 degreec C / 375 Degrees F / Gas mark 5. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cases or grease the tin well and line with greaseproof paper discs.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda together into a big bowl. Add the sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the banana, chocolate chips, egg, butter and milk. Mix well and pour into the muffin cases.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly with a finger. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe courtesy of : Leith’s Baking Bible – ISBN 0-7475-8189-4

Tasty Sausage Rice

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Sarah under family, Food, frugal living, Recipes

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I made this for lunch yesterday, it was cheap to make because I picked up the hotdog sausages at the reduced counter for 29p, and the rest of the ingredients were either in the fridge or the store cupboard,

This recipe definately hit the right spot with the kids 🙂

Ingredients:

Long Grain Rice
Half a Chopped Yellow Pepper
Half a Chopped Onion
Half a clove of Garlic, Finely chopped
Salt & Pepper
Soy Sauce (light or dark both work well)
a packet of 10 Herta Hotdog sausages.
a couple of teaspoons of oil, I used groundnut, but olive, sunflower or veg is fine.

Method:

Bring a saucepan of water, lightly salted, to the boil and add the long grain rice, cook as per the instructions on the pack, usually for around 12-15 mins, drain and set aside.
Chop the Onion & Pepper and Garlic, add to your frying pan and cook until onion is translucent.
Slice the sausages and add to the frying pan and cook until thoroughly cooked/heated through.
Add the cooked rice to the frying pan
Add the soy sauce (i used about a tablespoon, enough to coat the rice) but you can add as much as you like.
Mix the ingredients thoroughly until the rice is coated with the soy sauce.
Serve in bowls and enjoy 🙂

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