It was one of my friend's birthday recently so of course, this called for a cake. But not just any cake, this one had to be super duper extra special! I searched far and wide on the internet (slight exaggeration but you get me) until I stumbled upon this gem of a recipe on BBC Good Food. White Chocolate and Raspberry...I mean you just can't go wrong with such a classic combination.

Enough babbling, this is what you'll need to make it:

For the cake

200g Unsalted Butter 

100g White Chocolate

4 Large Eggs

200g Caster Sugar

200g Self-raising Flour

175g Raspberries

For the Ganache

200g White Chocolate

250ml Double Cream

A little bit of Icing Sugar

Method:

(1) Preheat the oven to 180C and then grease and line two standard size cake tins. Chop up the butter into small chunks along with the white chocolate and then let it melt over a bowl of boiling water.

(2) When the butter and chocolate have melted into a heavenly bliss, allow it to cool for a couple minutes, before beating in the eggs and sugar with a whisk. 

(3) Sift and fold in the flour and raspberries.

(4) Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and place in the centre of the oven for 20-25mins. 

(5) Once the cakes are ready, allow them to cool whilst you get started on the ganache!

(6) Chop up your remaining chocolate and add 100ml of double cream. Place them over a bowl of hot water and allow the chocolate to melt into the cream. Once it's melted, allow it to cool before adding the remainder of the cream.

(7) Whisk the mixture until it's light and fluffy. Once the cakes are cool, spread the ganache between the two cakes, making a sandwich. I had so much ganache that I also put some on the top, chucked on some spare raspberries and dusted on the icing sugar.

Et voila!!!

Chunky Chocolate Jazz Cakeies

I'm going to hold my hands up now and admit that these did not turn out how I wanted them to, They were supposed to be, well you know...normal flat cookie shape. They were an accidental tasty mistake so I thought I'd share exactly how to make these scrummy little chunks of goodness! They're texture is between a cookie and a cake, so we're going to call them cakeies!

You Will Need:

125g softened butter ( I used clover light which is maybe why they went like this)

100g brown soft sugar

1 medium egg, lightly beaten

225g Self-raising flour

2 splashes of milk

As much chocolate as you want, I used broken up easter egg

Lots of Jazzies!!!

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C

2. Cream the butter and sugar together, before mixing in the egg

3. Sift in the flour and mix well to form a dough, adding the 2 splashes of milk to help it all stick together

4. Break up your chocolate and Jazzies and distribute them through the dough. I'd give you a precise measurement but lets face it, you're probably going to eat half of it anyway

5. Roll the dough into walnut sized ball and place on a grease-proof paper covered baking tray and bake for around 10 mins, until the tops turn golden

Enjoy!!! Send me photos if you make some :)

p.s. I now have a facebook page which you can find here

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300 Followers Cake Celebration and giveaway!

It may not seem like much to some, but reaching the 300 followers milestone is a big deal for me. Back in August when I wrote my first blog post, I genuinely didn't think that anyone would read ALF, so I really do appreciate all your follows and comments! Especially when the same people come back and comment time and time again...it doesn't go unnoticed trust me!

When Baker Days asked me if I'd like to review one of their cakes, I saw this as a great opportunity to celebrate my little milestone and also as a way to say thank you to you lot (more on that later!)

I got a letterbox cake which means you don't have to be in to receive the package, making it such a lovely surprise to come home to! I mean, who wouldn't want cake through their letterbox!? But they also do lots of various sizes and cupcakes too, all of which you can personalise either using their designs or adding your own photos!

I sent my blog banner to them and said what I wanted written on the cake and left them to make it look good and I'm so so impressed with how pretty it looks! They really did make an effort to make it fit in with my blog :) 

I wasn't expecting the cute cake tin, balloon, candles and card either! I would LOVE to receive this for my birthday or any other special event, it's like moonpig but better because you can eat what you're sent! 

I'm not a huge fan of icing usually but this actually tastes amazing! Very fresh and light. I can't believe the cake stayed so perfect despite my housemate saying the postman fired it through the letterbox!

Here I cut a slice for you...

Okay, sadly sharing of food through a screen isn't possible...but what you can do is enter my giveaway* below for a chance to win your very own letterbox cake! :) I'm a big food lover so to me, this is the best way I can say thank you to you all for reading my blog and making my day with your comments!

*UK entries only - sorry!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A cute idea: afternoon tea at home

Last Sunday, I decided it would be nice to have the girls over for  bit of quality time together. We're all lovers of tea and cake so it only seemed right that we do our own little afternoon tea!

Everyone was told to bring a sandwich, which we cut up and shared between us, and then a bake!

I feel like triangle sandwiches taste better than rectangle ones! So dainty and delicious :)

I made scones using Mary Berry's recipe which you can find here. I was a little hungover so I ended up making these very last minute...which turned out to be a good thing as I took them out them oven just as the girls knocked on the door!! Freshly baked scones are the best!

Jay made some yummy raspberry mousses with coulis which were very light and fruity! They looked great in the little jar pots - She used the pots you get with GU desserts (great excuse to buy some!)

Tiffany made a selection of chocolate, vanilla and marble cupcakes which I actually thought she'd bought as they looked that good!

Helen made some brownies - a true classic! Our chocolate fix was met that day..

There's nothing like fresh flowers to finish off the look of a table :) I bought these for my room to cheer me up this week for only £1.50 in Tesco!

I really wanted to share this all with you as we all had such a lovely afternoon and it's just a bit different isn't it! I think next we'll have to have a "pot luck" night or something...we're all major food lovers!!

If you're into afternoon tea posts then you can read another one here!