Chocolate Easter Egg Nests

Its almost Easter, and the shops have been selling Easter eggs for months, this has not helped my love for chocolate at all-hahah! One of my favourite chocolates around Easter is Mini Eggs, they are amazing, anyway, I wanted to do an easter bakes and I thought I would incorporate my favourite easter chocolate. So, I am doing chocolate Easter egg nests!

For the chocolate Easter egg nests, you will need;

12 hole fairy cake tin
Cupcake cases
225g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
2tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
75g cornflakes
36 mini chocolate eggs

 How to make the nests;

Firstly, line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with the cupcake cases.

Then melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (try not to let the base of the bowl touch the water). Stir the mixture until smooth. Alternately if don't want to melt the chocolate you can use a microwave.

Remove the bowl from the heat and gently stir in the cornflakes until all of the cereal is coated in the chocolate. If you don't want to use cornflakes, you can use shredded wheat or Rice Krispies.

Divide the mixture between the paper cases and press 3 chocolate mini eggs into the centre of each nest.

The last step is to leave the nests to chill in the fridge for 1 hour, or until they are completely set.

Once they are set you can then enjoy the fantastic treat you've just made! I absolutely love making these, as they are so simple but so great. I love how simple and quick they are to make!

Thank You,

Lydia 

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Halloween Inspired Cookie Cake

With Halloween lurking around the corner we thought it would be apt to create a Halloween inspired recipe! Two of our favourite foods are cookies and cakes! So why not mash them together? We have a recipe for a cookie cake!

To begin with, you are better off to weigh out all your ingredients. You will need:

• 12 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips + more

For the icing: 

•  4 Tablespoons of butter     
•  5 Tablespoons of icing sugar
•  2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
•  3 teaspoons of orange food dye
•  Halloween decorations

After you have weighed out your ingredients, preheat oven to 200 degrees. 

Then line a 12-inch pizza pan with greased parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream together melted butter and brown sugar. 

After that mix in eggs and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.

Then add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stirring until a soft dough forms.

Fold in mini chocolate chips and pop the dough into the pan.

Bake for 13-15 minutes. (do not over bake. Remember cookie will continue to cook as it cools)

Let cookie cool on pan until completely cooled... to which by the pictures we did not do!! This part of the recipe is crucial! But, were going to roll with it and say it is all gooey to look spooky. 

Whilst the cake is cooling, mix the icing ingredients together and decorate your cake as desired. 

This cake can be for any time of the year! However you would like to decorate it, is how the cake will fit with your festivities!! Hope you liked this recipie! What is your staple Halloween baking recipie? 

Thank You,

Jade & Lydia 

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Bourbon Biscuit Brownie Recipe

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Hello everybody, welcome back to our blog. How is your day going? Today's blog post is by Lydia and as you can see from the title, this post is a recipe! We haven't done a recipe on the blog for a while, so, I thought I would do a recipe. This isn't my own recipe, it's one I found on Olive Magazine, but I wanted to try it as they sounded really good and they are! This recipe is for Bourbon Biscuit Brownies, they are delicious, plus really easy to make. They combine 2 of my favourite sweet treats Bourbon biscuits and brownies. Anyway, let's continue with the recipe!

Ingredients:
15 Bourbon Biscuits,
100g Butter,
200g Dark Chocolate,
4 Eggs,
250g Caster Sugar,
100g Plain Flour,
1 tsp Baking Powder,
30g Cocoa Powder,

Method:
1. Heat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4). Line a 20x30cm rectangular brownie tin with baking parchment.
2. Keep 5 of the bourbon biscuits for decoration, and use a sharp knife to cut them down the middle and separate the 2 sides. I then left them just as the sides to decorate the brownies. Roughly chop the rest of the bourbon biscuits into chunky bits.
3. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, then cool to room temperature.
4. Whisk the eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk until the mixture is pale, has doubled in volume and leaves a trail when you pull the whisk out.
5. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture then sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Fold this in then stir in the chopped bourbon biscuit pieces. Spoon into the tin and smooth down.
6. Scatter over the reserved bourbon biscuit bits, however, I just placed them on as 10 bits.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is shiny and the middle just set. Cool completely then lift out of the tin and cut into squares.
8. Serve and enjoy.

So, that's the end of the recipe. I have to say these brownies are some of the best I've made! They are delicious too. If you like brownies and/or bourbon biscuits this is a recipe you should try, they are amazing! If you do try this recipe, we'd love to see them! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading!

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Lydia Xx

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Golden Syrup Flapjack Recipe

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Hello everyone, welcome back to our blog! How are you today? As you can tell by the title of this blog post, this is a recipe. We haven't done a recipe on our blog for a while, so, we thought we would do a flapjack recipe. This flapjack recipe isn't our own, it's a Jamie Oliver recipe, but it makes great flapjacks and is so easy to make! So, lets get on with the recipe.

Ingredients:

150g butter,
75g light brown soft sugar,
3 rounded tbsp golden syrup,
250g rolled oats (porridge oats).

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C) gas mark 4. Grease and line a shallow 20cm square tin with parchment or grease proof paper.

2. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a medium pan and gently heat until melted.

3. Once it's all melted, add the oats and stir them until all oats are covered.

4. Then put the mixture into the tin, level and press the mixture evenly and firmly with the back of a spoon.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes, then mark into 12 (or however many slices you want, I did my bigger than what the recipe says) whilst still warm.

6. Cool the flapjacks completely before turning out onto a board and cutting again with a sharp knife.

Then it's time to enjoy the flapjacks!

So, that's the end of this recipe. We hope you enjoyed this blog post! This is a really good recipe, it makes lovely flapjacks, the flapjacks will keep up to a week in an air tight container. If you decide to follow this recipe, we would love to see your results by tweeting us a picture. Thank you for reading this blog post and we hope you enjoyed reading!

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Thank You,

Jade & Lydia Xx

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Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies

Hello It's 2 Peas In A Pod Blog Here,

Hello everybody, welcome back to our blog! How are you all today? Today's blog post is by Lydia, and as you can tell by the title it's a baking blog post! It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, and as it's near that time of the year, we have a festive recipe blog post for you here. Both Jade and I love a chocolate orange, we always have them around this time of year. Especially when we get them as gifts at Christmas. I love watching a Christmas film and sharing a chocolate orange with my family of an evening in the countdown to Christmas. So, we made some chocolate orange cookies, and here's how we made them!

Ingredients;

1. 110g Unsalted Butter, softened,
2. 200g Light Brown Sugar,
3. 1 Large Free-range Egg,
4. 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract,
5. 165g Plain Flour,
6. Pinch of Salt,
7. 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder,
8. 1/2 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda,
9. 30g Cocoa Powder,
10. Terry's Chocolate Orange .

Method;

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5). Line two large baking trays with Parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated,
3. Add the flour, pinch of salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder, mix until a dough comes together.
4. Divide the mixture into balls. Spread out evenly on the baking trays.
5. Put a segment of the chocolate orange on each ball of dough.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until spread out and crackling on top. 
7. Once cooked, allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes - in this time the cookies will harden a bit to make them easier to move. Finish cooling on a wire rack.
8. Once cooled, enjoy the delicious cookies.

So, that's the end of the blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading, this recipe makes such nice cookies! If you don't like chocolate oranges then you can use the same recipe but change the chocolate orange to a chocolate of your choice. These cookies were delicious! We also made different cookies using the same recipe just had the small pieces of terry's chocolate orange mixed into the mixture. They were both just as nice. If you make these cookies we would love to see them! Thank you again for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading.

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Lydia Xx

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Monster Brownies

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Hello Everyone! Welcome back to our blog. Today's blog post is by Lydia and is a recipe! September flew by and now we're in October, and as we are, it's only right for there to be a Halloween baking blog post here on our blog! I made these 'Monster Brownies' the recipe is essentially a normal brownie recipe, just the decoration on them makes them perfect for a Halloween party! So, lets get on with this blog post.

Ingredients:

• 185g unsalted butter,
• 185g dark chocolate,
• 85g plain flour,
• 40g cocoa powder,
• 50g white chocolate,
• 50g milk chocolate,
• 3 large eggs,
• 275g caster sugar.

Decoration Ingredients:

• White chocolate,
• Edible eyes.

Method:

1. Cut 185g unsalted butter into small cubes and put into a medium bowl. Break 185g dark chocolate into small pieces and put into same bowl.
2. Fill a small saucepan (Quarter full) with hot water, put bowl on top so it rests on the rim of the pan. Put on a low heat until butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally. Remove bowl from pan. Leave the melted mixture to cool to room temperature.
3. Turn the oven on to 160°C (Gas mark 4), and grease and line your tin.
4. Tip 85g plain flour and 40g cocoa powder into a sieve held over a medium bowl, make sure to get rid of any lumps.
5. Chop 50g white chocolate and 50g milk chocolate into chunks on a board.
6. Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and tip in 275g caster sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed whisk the eggs and sugar. They will look thick and creamy. This can take 3-8 minutes, depending on how powerful your mixer is.
7. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, gently fold together with a rubber spatula, get all of the mixture from the sides by doing a figure of eight, moving the bowl around each time.
8.  Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa and flour mixture, shaking the sieve. Gently fold in the powder using the same figure of eight action as before. then stir in the white and milk chocolate chunks until they're dotted throughout.
9. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping every bit out of the bowl with the spatula. Make sure the mixture is even, and put in the oven. Set a timer for 25 minutes, when the timer goes off, open the oven and shake the tin, if it wobbles in the middle, its not quite done-so put in back in the oven for a few minutes.
10. Once the brownie is cooked take out of the oven and leave to cool. Once its cooled then cut the brownie into squares, as many as you like.
11. Then melt the white chocolate for decoration.  Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the top of the brownies. Then add the eyes. And enjoy! You could add more decorations but I just stuck to the white chocolate and eyes!

Well, that's the end of this blog post! I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Let us know through twitter if you made these! We would love to see them! Thank you for reading.

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Thank You,

Lydia Xx

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Banana Bread Recipe

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Hello everyone! Welcome back to our blog, today's blog post is by Lydia and by the title you can see this is a recipe of how to make banana bread. I've made this a couple of times using this recipe. This recipe is a Jamie Oliver recipe, he mostly does healthy recipes so this is quite good for you, plus the main sugars in it are from the apple juice and honey. So, with that lets get on with the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 250g Self-Raising Flour,
• 3 Ripe Bananas,
• 2 Table Spoons Apple Juice,
• 125g Unsalted Butter,
• 2 Large Eggs,
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon,
• 2 Tablespoons Runny Honey,
• 50g Pecans (Optional).

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 (180°C),
2. Lightly grease bottom and sides of 1 litre loaf tin with olive oil,
3. Dust sides of tin lightly with flour, tap to get rid of excess,
4. Peel and add bananas to a mixing bowl,
5. Use a fork to mash bananas - once smooth and slightly chunky,

 6. Add apple juice and stir to combine,

7. In a different bowl, beat butter with wooden spoon until creamy,

8. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating each one in well,

9. Add in the flour, cinnamon, honey and banana - don't over mix,

10. Add pecans if using,

11. Spoon into loaf tin, then bake in hot oven for around 40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through,

12. Check if done, using cocktail stick or fork,

13. Allow loaf to cool slightly, put on wire rack,

14. Cut up into slices and enjoy.

So, that's the end of the recipe. I hope you enjoyed this recipe, if you make it then let us know if you like it and what you think about it. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

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Lydia Xx

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Neapolitan Cake Recipe

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Hello everyone! Welcome back to our blog. Today's blog post is by Lydia, and yet again it is another recipe. I can't help it I love baking. A while ago, Jade and I made a Neapolitan cake, and it was so nice I thought I would do a recipe of it over here on our blog! Neapolitan cakes are strawberry (pink), chocolate (brown) and vanilla (white). The actual cake recipe is based off of a Mary Berry Victoria sponge cake but we changed it to make the Neapolitan cake. So we made a unique twist on things. So, lets continue and get on with the recipe.

Ingredients;
225g/8oz Caster Sugar
225g/8oz Self-raising Flour
225g/8oz Margarine or Soft Butter
4 Eggs
2 tsp Baking Powder
Red Food Colouring
Strawberry Extract
Chocolate Powder
Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for icing;
100g Butter (softened)
140g Icing sugar, sifted.
Vanilla Extract

Method;

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4). Grease and line 2 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

2. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder and margarine (soft butter), mix everything together until well combined with a hand whisk (or use a wooden spoon) be careful to not over mix.

3. Divide the mixture evenly into 3 different bowls. In one of the bowls use a small amount of red food colouring to make the pink, then add liquid strawberry extract, that is then the pink strawberry mixture. In one of the other bowls add cocoa powder, this then makes the brown chocolate mixture. Finally in the bowl remaining just add vanilla extract which makes the white mixture.

4. Once you've got your 3 different mixtures, make a pattern with the different colours, for example do pink, brown then white all the way around in a spiral or just dot it everywhere and anywhere. Make sure that it stays all the same level.

5. After you have used all the mixture, and it is all even, then put the tins into the oven for around 20 minutes. Check after around 15 minutes by looking through the oven doors, and after 20 minutes use a cocktail stick or fork in the middle of the cakes, if it comes out dry then take the cakes out of the oven, if there is still mixture on them then cook them for a bit longer but don't let them burn.

6. Whilst the cakes are cooling on a cooling rack, make the icing. To make the icing, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually add in the icing sugar and add vanilla extract (if using).

7. Once the cake is completely cooled, put one of the cakes onto a plate, then add half of the icing onto that cake, then put the other cake on top and put the rest of the icing on the top of the cake and decorate as you wish.

8. Then serve and enjoy!

Well, that's the end of this blog post! I hope you enjoyed reading this recipe. This cake was really nice! Such soft sponge. If you make it yourself at home, be sure to tweet us a picture, we would love to see it! Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoyed it!

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Thank You,

Lydia Xx

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Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Hello It's 2 Peas In A Pod Blog Here,

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to our blog, how are you today? Today's blog post is by Lydia, and as you can tell by the title this blog post is a recipe. The recipe is for chocolate cupcakes, this recipe isn't my recipe, it's actually a Mary Berry recipe, and I will tell you now, they are probably the best chocolate cupcakes that I've ever made! It is a really good recipe! So, let's get on with the recipe.

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 40g Cocoa Powder,
• 3 Eggs,
• 175g Butter (unsalted), softened,
• 165g Caster Sugar,
• 115g Self-Raising Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder,
• 4 tbsp Boiled Water.

Ingredients for the icing:

• 60g Butter (unsalted),
• 30g Cocoa Powder,
• 250g Icing Sugar,
• 3 tbsp Milk (if needed).

How to make the cupcakes:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6),
2. Line the cupcake tin with cupcake cases,

3. Sift the cocoa powder into a bowl, pour boiling water and mix into a thick paste,

4. Add the remaining cake ingredients and mix with an electric whisk (or beat with a wooden spoon),

5. Put mixture into cake cases, make sure the mixture is evenly spread out,

6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 12-15 minutes, until well risen and springy to touch.

7. Once baked put move the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool down.

How to make the icing:

1. Melt butter and pour into a bowl and sift the cocoa powder,

2. Stir in the icing sugar a little at a time until glossy and spreadable,

3. If the icing is too thick gradually add the milk until it reaches the desired consistency.

4. Pipe the icing over the cupcakes, although I just spread the icing onto the cupcakes.

5. Add decorations, if you want. I just added white and gold sprinkles on top, and this is the finished product!

That is the end of the recipe, I absolutely love this recipe. It is so good! I seriously recommend that you make these cupcakes as they are so yummy, plus they seem to go down well with my family. The order that this recipe is much different to what I normally do but it's so much better!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this recipe blog post! If you follow this recipe then be sure to let us know and tweet us some pictures of your masterpieces! Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed it! Have any of you got a recipe that you swear by? If so let us know and we will check it out. 

Please Share The Pea Pod Love,

Thank You,

Lydia Xx

Where To Find Us: 

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Blog Accounts:

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Lydia:

Twitter:  Lydia_Greyhound 

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