Chocolate Chip and Banana Loaf


For today's post we're coming back with a chocolate chip and banana loaf. In our house we have always made banana and walnut loaf and the recipe originally belonged to my Nan, which then was passed on to my Momma who used to cook this with us when we were little. 

So battered but much loved!

I never enjoyed walnuts in anything so I never really used to eat the loaf or I would nibble round them, so this time round I decided to remove them all together and stick with a complete favourite of mine in a choc chip and banana loaf! The recipe is quite simple to make, and all you have to do to the banana is mash it, the riper the better! The recipe is in ounces but it is quite easy to convert if you want to use grams instead.



Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
-4oz soft dairy free margarine-
-40z soft brown sugar-
-1 large ripe mashed banana-
-2 eggs-
-1 tbsp golden syrup-
-8oz self raising flour-
-1 level tsp mixed spice-
-1 packet of dark chocolate chips-

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a normal sized loaf tin or 2 small ones.
2) In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.



3) In a small bowl mash the banana, then add the 2 eggs and golden syrup, mix, then add to the butter and sugar and mix until combined and not separated.

(aware that at this point the mix looks like sick, do not panic hang in there!)

4) Mix together in a small bowl the flour and mixed spice and sieve into the wet mix, folding the mixture until just combined.



5) Add in your chocolate chips and fold until evenly distributed.



6) Spoon your mixture into the tin, being careful not to fold your lining over which will make dents in the cake and pop in the oven for 40 minutes, then reduce the temp to 160 and cook for a further 20 minutes.



7) When the cake is cooked (when a knife runs clean of wet batter) leave in the tin for 10 minutes then empty out onto a wire cooling rack until cool.
8) When cool, you can leave the cake as it is and slice it or you can drizzle a thick water/icing sugar icing over the top for decoration.



We hope you enjoy this cake as much as we have enjoyed eating it!

Happy Baking!

xoxox
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Easy 15 Minute Salmon Pasta

Tonight's dinner was this beautiful 10 minute healthy as creation. We had salmon to use up so I came up with this filling salmon pasta. You can add whatever veg you fancy to the dish, we used a veggy pack from Sainsbury's which had brocolli, sugar snap beans and asparagus. We also added feta (just check that it doesn't have cows milk in) as I like the sharpness that feta gives and the calcium too as I am really worried about where I can get some from. On my pasta I added some Tabasco as I love the combo of that and the beans! This really was the simplest pasta dish and was so delicious too! Enjoy! This made 2 portions.


Ingredients:

-2 salmon fillets, ours were microwaveable-
-pasta enough for 2 portions-
-any veg you fancy-
-40g feta cheese-
-half a tub of pasata-
-optional Tabasco-

Method:
1) Pop your pasta on to boil.
2) when the pasta starts to soften, boil your veg and microwave your salmon (or to manufacturers instructions) for about 4 minutes for both.
3) drain your pasta and veg when soft and cooked.
4) place inside the same saucepan and pour in your pasata. Bring to the boil.
5) when the salmon is cooked plate up or mix into the pasta, and then pop your pasta on the plate.

This is stupidly filling and delicious and was made in about 10-15 minutes depending on your pasta and how long it takes to boil! Sprinkle some Tabasco on if you're feeling the heat!

Enjoy!

Happy cooking!

xoxox


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Dairy Free Nutella Cupcakes

Wow it feels good to be back. I have finished my work placement and Caitlin has finished school for this year so we are mostly refreshed, recuperated and all systems go back on the blog. We can't promise content every day or week but what we can hopefully promise is to not leave everyone in the lurch like that again, sorry! So with that, our hiatus is over and we bring you our chocolate dairy free Nutella style cupcakes. These cupcakes are for the die hard lovers of all things cupcakes and Nutella rolled into one delicious mouthful. This recipe uses Nature Store Free From Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread which is beyond all levels of tasty and is most definitely on par with normal Nutella. We normally find this at our local big Sainsbury's and the recipe makes 12 gawjus cupcakes, enjoy!



Recipe:

For the cupcakes:

-100g dairy free margarine-
-100g caster sugar-
-2 eggs-
-75g self raising flour-
-25g cocoa powder-

For the icing:
-125g dairy free margarine-
-225g icing sugar-
-2 tablespoons of hazelnut and cocoa spread-
-1 tablespoon of cocoa-



Method to the madness:

1) Measure out all of your ingredients. Preheat that oven to 180°C and pop some cupcake cases in a cupcake pan.

2) Cream together the margarine and sugar in a big bowl until pale, fluffy and smooth.

3) Slowly beat in your eggs until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

4) Sieve in your cocoa powder and flour until all combined and a smooth cake batter is formed.

5) Evenly dollop batter into the cupcake cases until about 2/3rd full and put in the oven for around 15 minutes until cooked through and springy to the touch. Place on a wire tray to cool.



6) To make the icing whip up the sugar and butter slowly until well combined and fluffy. Then add your hazelnut and cocoa spread into the icing and again whip up until light and fluffy. Add optional cocoa powder to your own taste or desired colour.

7) Pipe or spread onto your cupcakes and then voila! You have your beautiful just as damn good as Nutella cupcakes.

Hope this recipe has been just as useful and delicious for you as it was for us!



Happy Baking!

xoxox
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A little update

 
(can we just take a minute for Season 5 Ep 8 of GOT? ERRRMAAAAHHHHHGHHHHH)
 
So I know we haven't posted in a while so just thought we'd give a little life update and try and prove we aren't blanking anyone, promise! 
 
Life is crazy at the moment, I'm coming to the end of placement (and still not in the same place for more than a couple of days at a time) and Caitlin is at the back end of her first year of GCSE's! Hopefully normal service will resume when I am living at home full time over the summer and me and Caitlin have all the free time in the world!
 
I am also aware that the tweeting and instagramming has been all quiet on the western front too and this will get back to normal when I get some sleeeeeeeep zzzzz
 
Now for less moaning about woe betide us...
 
I am thinking about attending the FreeFrom and Allergy fair in London on the 3-5th July, has anyone been and could recommend whether to go or not? I feel like it would be a great opportunity to explore different brands and methods of dealing with being dairy free!
 
I hope everyone who reads this is having the most gorgeous day and we hope to be posting normally soon (6 weeks latest!)
 
Lots of Love
 
 
Hev and Cakes
 
 
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Hotel Chocolat Milk- Free Milk Chocolate

*disclamer, this chocolate has had a product recall due to the risk of milk, you can return the chocolate to hotel chocolate if needed if you are allergic or not happy with the chocolate!

Easter is fast approaching (this weekend!) and I am eager to suss out more dairy free chocolate options to try and stop me dicing with destiny and just indulging in a Crème Egg Easter egg! I had heard from other dairy free blogs that Hotel Chocolat had launched a range of milk- free milk chocolate, I was more than intrigued. I was at home last weekend, and as there is a Hotel Chocolat there I just thought, why not? I picked up 2 edible 'bunny licks' (very cute and Easter themed) one for me and one for our brother Joey. I also picked up a packet of 'puddles', which are basically just giant buttons!
I was slightly taken aback by the price, I knew the chocolate would be costly (coming from a specialist shop) but I suppose you are paying for the chocolate specialism and the awkwardness of making it dairy free! Each bunny cost £1.95 each, and the packet of puddles cost £5.50. Being the sucker I am for something that might revolutionise my chocolate life I forked out.
The chocolates are made with almond powder instead of milk powder, which I think is a different approach to chocolate than I have seen before, yet excludes nut allergy sufferers from the range. However, the range is completely vegan and vegetarian, which is something to consider! The chocolate also uses sunflower lecithin instead of soya lecithin which may benefit some with allergies.

Chocolate Bunny:

bunny lick

Ingredients:
Cocoa solids (cocoa mass, cocoa butter), sugar, almond powder, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin). 

Chocolate puddles:

Chocolate Puddles

Ingredients:
Cocoa solids (cocoa mass, cocoa butter), sugar, almond powder, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin).
Chocolate Puddles

My thoughts:

As it is before Easter and Joey is getting his on Sunday I can't give you his thoughts, even though knowing him chocolate is chocolate and he won't notice anything different!
The first thing that hit me about these chocolates was that they definitely had a creamy feel in the mouth and tasted immediately like normal chocolate, if not a weaker version. After this had subsided there was a definite fruity undertone to the chocolate, which I would liken to raisins. I liked the fact that they looked completely like normal chocolates as well, unlike some I've had before. Aftera few puddles they definitely start to become a little sickly, which is something I never normally have issues ploughing through! Overall I quite liked these choccies. For me, this is one of the closest chocolates to normal chocolate I have found. I wouldn't mind eating this occasionally as an extravagant (probably payday) treat! The price point does put me off, as I am a student, but I would buy this as a gift for others.
Available within the range was 2 different types of Easter eggs and some mini chocolate bunnies in a pack.
I hope you have found this useful and if you feel a little treat is needed then this is a great range of chocolate!
Happy Baking!
xoxox
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Spicy Chicken and Chorizo Stew

It's felt like years since we last blogged, even though it has only been little over a week! Life gets in the way sometimes, and quite a lot of the time it's pretty difficult to plan things to cook for the blog as I'm in Sheffield at Uni and Caitlin's at home. I feel like we are getting into the rhythm of blogging, not sounding too blunt and being a bit softer. Neither of us are that impressive with English (unlike our English obsessed sister) so it's still definitely a getting there process for us. I never want blogging for me or Caitlin to feel pressurised or not fun anymore. It's a hobby we can do together and I love that, considering we're apart for weeks at a time. So I'll stop boring you all with our lives and it's onto the recipe!
 
Whilst I was sat at work, I couldn't stop thinking about beans and chorizo. Considering one of my passionate food hells is baked beans I thought this was a bit coco bananas! But it got to the point where it was nigh on obsessive, and as I was due to go food shopping anyway I thought why the heck not buy some stuff and mash it together and see what happens! So what was created was the chicken and chorizo stew. I'm not really sure why it is called a stew, but to be honest I couldn't think of a more suitable name for this! It's based on tomato and has a heck lot of garlic and chilli in for flavour and a nice warm kick up the bum! I used a small tin of cannelloni beans for this, alongside some chorizo sausage and turkey (I used turkey as it was cheaper in the shops but can be made with either chicken or turkey!). It really filled me up and I missed the feeling of being full up but in a healthier way, and not just from KFC (which may or may not have been happening far too often recently). The tomato makes for a delicious base to the dish and everything else compliments beautiful, and would even taste delicious with added bacon or no chilli if you wished! Quite a lot of the amounts here are rough estimates, just splash however much you want in of everything to your own tastes! We hope you all enjoy!

Spicy Chicken and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients:
-splash of oil for the pan-
-500g chicken or turkey, diced-
-2 small chorizo sausages-
-50g onion-
-1 small tin of cannelloni beans-
-1 large tin of tomatoes-
-1 small tin of sweetcorn-
-30g tomato puree-
-30g crushed chilli-
-30g garlic puree-

Method to the madness:

1) Pop oil into pan, and add the diced meat, chorizo sausage and onions. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the meat is cooked through.

2) Add in the beans, sweetcorn and tomato, stir through.


3) Add in your garlic, tomato puree and chilli, stir again and simmer down for around 10 minutes.
 
Look at that beautiful uni hall stove, so pretty...

4) When reduced down, meat cooked and the flavour is what you require, take off the heat, pop in your bowl and tuck in!
 

So in under 20 minutes you should be left with a super simple, quick and hearty meal, enough to feed 2-3 people depending on sides! As you can see I enjoyed mine with a cider and I regret nothing!
 

We hope you enjoy!
 
Happy Baking!
 
xoxox

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Minute Molten Mug Brownie

Hi everyone! As you may have seen we have had a slight blog redesign, with a new banner which should make us easier to find on twitter and instagram! Please let us know what you think of these, we're slowly learning all about blog coding and layouts so please bear with us whilst we figure out how to make the blog look and feel the best it can be! However, now is the thing you've been waiting for- the recipe!
Coming of the back of our delicious minute mug cookie recipe, we are bringing you all yet another super delicious, minute long recipe for the impatient chocoholics out there! The recipe can be made in any microwavable mug, perfect for curling up on the sofa and eating whilst watching some Sunday night TV! Once again this recipe is only measured out in tablespoons, so can be measured at home or in the office (if you're feeling particularly naughty!). This recipe is incredibly moist and gooey, and if you prefer a harder brownie you can keep it in the microwave for slightly longer! The chocolate chips in this recipe can be swapped for a dairy free Nutella style spread, we normally use Natures Store chocolate hazelnut spread which we find tastes exactly the same as normal Nutella! We hope you enjoy!


You will need:

- 2 tbsp water-
- 2 tbsp dairy free butter/ margarine-
- 4 tbsp caster sugar-
- 2 tbsp cocoa-
- 4 tbsp plain flour-
- 1 tbsp dairy free chocolate chips (or dairy free nutella like spread if you fancy it!)




1) Melt the butter in the microwave at short 20 second bursts until fully melted.


2) Mix all the ingredients into the butter well so that the mixture is smooth and has no lumps.


3) Pop your brownie mixture into the microwave for 40-70 seconds depending on how squidgy you like your brownie!

4) Leave to cool for 1-2 minutes until just warm and serve!

We hope you enjoy another super quick and simple mug cake recipe as much as we enjoyed eating it!

Happy Baking!

xoxox
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