#CookBlogShare 2017 - Week 13 Plus 4 Delicious Easter Treats

Hello and welcome to week 13 of #CookBlogShare.

Week 13 means we are finally getting more hours of sunlight! Even though we lose an hour of sleep I am always so happy to see the days lengthening and welcoming in the better weather. During the weekend there was a lovely feeling of spring in the air. Everything seems so much better with the extra hours of sunlight. We spent a lot of time in the garden and I even got my bake on. Baking bread is something that I have not been doing recently. But on Friday the twins, who had the day off school due to illness, wanted a pizza and as they had not been eating much I could not say no. Even though I had no pizza, I did have bread flour so I made some fresh pizza dough and rediscovered my love of baking. I adore the whole bread making process, how the ingredients come together and how you can feel them change as you knead. After my pizza baking I made more dough on Saturday and also made a focaccia as well as a banana bread.

On Mother's Day I was treated to a day off from cooking. The hubby made an amazing meal, he slow cooked a joint of beef in red wine with carrots, onions, garlic and fresh bay leaves from the garden. If he agrees I will definitely blog the recipe!

Last week the CookBlogShare linky was hosted by Eb from Easy Peasy Foodie. There were so many delicious recipes shared and as Easter gets closer there are more and more lovely Easter recipes coming through. This week I could not resist featuring Easter treats and I am sure that you will also find them all irresistible!

Here are my four favourite recipes from week 12 of CookBlogShare...

Gluten Free and Refined Sugar Free Easter Cupcakes - #FreeFromEaster

Following on from the Free From Pancakes collaboration I am, again, joining forces with some amazing free from bloggers to bring you a free from Easter.

I have been told by the hubby that he misses my baking so I am going to be experimenting a lot more with gluten free bakes. I will admit I have found the thought of baking gluten free quite daunting. I can bake gluten free cakes but I am yet to perfect a loaf and still need to try making pastry. So over the coming months I am going to rediscover my baking passion. I find reading the other free from blogs so inspiring and they really do give me the confidence to try more. My aim is to show you that it is possible to create baked treats that are gluten free and will please the whole family, not just those that follow a gluten free diet.

For my first of two free from Easter bakes I have made some delicious chocolate cup cakes and next week I will be sharing a savoury recipe. So keep an eye out for that one!

Today's recipe is a simple sponge cupcake but is gluten free and free from refined sugar. This is what I did...

International Chocolate Cake Day

As it is International Chocolate Cake Day I thought it would be fitting to share with you my favourite chocolate cake bakes. All of these will leave you craving some chocolate cake, you have been warned!

My Well Done Celebration Chocolate Cake was a huge success and certainly helped to cheer J up after he had finished a stressful week at school doing his SATS. The sponges contain golden syrup which gives the cake some extra richness. The cakes have then been sandwiched together using chocolate butter icing and finally the top has been covered in marshmallows and chocolate stars.

My White Chocolate and Lime Cake is a decadent combination of Madagascan vanilla chocolate and sharp lime which leaves you wanting more. Sometimes white chocolate gets overlooked but it is a delicious alternative to traditional milk or dark chocolate and one that we love!

If you are looking for a birthday cake for a chocolate lover then you need to check out this Tunnock's Teacake Birthday Cake. This traditional chocolate cake bake has been revamped into this chocoholic delight, it has been drizzled with chocolate sauce that has been sprinkled with Flakes then topped with the ultimate marshmallow treat, Tunnock's Teacakes!

The next chocolate cakes contain a sneaky vegetable extra! My Chocolate, Lime and Courgette Cakes will leave you astounded, you simply would not know that they contain courgette, but you are getting all of the goodness that they provide. Again, the lime and chocolate are a perfect combination.

#CookBlogShare - Round-up and Week 50 Linky

Hello and welcome to week 50 of CookBlogShare. I cannot believe that we have almost had another year of CookBlogShare! As this is my last CookBlogShare of 2016 be prepared for me to get sentimental!

Thank you so much for supporting the linky over the last year it has been a pleasure to host and read all of your delicious recipes. Next year the linky will continue with Mandy from Sneaky Veg, Eb from Easy Peasy Foodie and myself and we look forward to continuing this lovely foodie blogger community.

This weeks round up is all about chocolate. I simply could not resist the four chocolate delights that I have chosen as my favourite recipes. They are all irresistible, some are even healthy but all four will want you wanting more!

Here are my four favourite recipes from week 49 of CookBlogShare...

Ruby Wedding Anniversary Cake - Great Bloggers Bake Off Final

That is it. The Great British Bake Off is over for another year, and sadly over for the way we know and love it. This year I was not surprised that Candice won, she always seemed to go the extra mile despite it costing her bakes along the way. But her final bake was outstanding. I have loved watching Great British Bake Off grow from a little show on BBC2 featuring an unknown baker and a legendary cook to moving to BBC1 and making Paul Hollywood the celebrity he is now and rekindling our love for Mary Berry. But for me the two people who transformed the show from just a baking show to a comical, entertaining baking show has to be Mel and Sue. They are hilarious with their quips and baking innuendo. I simply cannot imagine Bake Off without them! But I understand why each have done what they have. Mary, Mel and Sue have remained loyal to the BBC while Paul has remained loyal to the team and show which made him. What the show will be like on Channel 4 is yet to be seen!

Anyway, now onto my final bake.

This weeks bake came along at a perfect time. My parents celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary last weekend and an occasion like that certainly deserves a show stopper of a cake. They deserved a cake fit for a Queen and her King.

This is what I did...

Chocoholic Chocolate Cake

A few weeks ago I was delighted to be asked to bake a cake for the village Macmillan coffee morning. The cake sale was a huge success and raised almost £600 towards helping this amazing cancer care charity. Macmillan were there for our family when my grandfather was poorly with cancer and they are a charity that touch the lives of families that have been or are effected by the evil disease. So to help raise as much money as possible I knew my cake needed to be something special. I decided to make a chocolate cake and all that I needed to get was some items to finish it off. I knew that I would find the perfect finishing touches at Aldi and I certainly did.

Aldi have a great selection of home baking products along with chocolate treats, sweets and biscuits. I eventually settled on chocolate fingers, everyone loves chocolate fingers! So I stocked up with chocolate fingers, cocoa powder and the other ingredients and got baking!

This is what I did...

Tunnock's Tea Cake Birthday Cake with Aldi

For this weeks Aldi baking post I am going back to cake week. Yesterday was J's 12th birthday. As his birthday was on a Monday we decided to make it into a birthday weekend for him. We had a family meal out for him and birthday cake on Saturday, followed by another meal out with family on the Sunday, followed by a treat dinner last night and yet another birthday cake!

This year I managed to make two birthday cakes. Both cakes were made using ingredients and equipment from Aldi. At the moment Aldi have a wide range of baking equipment special buys on. I have seen utensils, cake tins, baking books and even electric mixers and all at the great price that you expect from Aldi.

Today I am going to share with you my recipe for the Tunnock's Tea Cake Birthday Cake that J had yesterday. All of the kids, especially J, and the hubby love Tunnock's Tea Cakes which are sold in Aldi so I knew that they would make an easy yet effective cake topping. This cake was a huge success with everyone!

This is what I did.....

Cinnamon Crisp Viennese Fingers

As you no doubt know, I love the Great British Bake Off! A couple of years ago I even applied to be on the show, but got no further than an interview. I have not applied since and do not think that I will but that does not stop me baking along with the show.

While the show is on Aldi have challenged me to bake along using their ingredients. So for the next few weeks my regular Aldi posts will all be around the baking theme. Last week I shared my Honey and Lemon Cupcakes for week one of the bake off. This week I am baking for biscuit week. Last week I made Viennese Whirls and we all loved them. I am not a big biscuit maker as I have never really had much success with them, until I made Viennese Whirls last week! After realising how easy they were to make. This got me thinking about how I could adapt the recipe to add extra flavours. So when I was doing my weekly shopping trip last week I was on the look out for ingredients that I could use for this weeks recipe. I found some lovely Belgian chocolate that had flavours that really stood out to me. The Cachet chocolate bars come in four tempting varieties Cinnamon Crisp, Caramel and Sea Salt, Peppermint and Cocoa Nibs. Today's recipe features the Cinnamon Crisp but I am already planning how I can use the others so keep an eye out! But first let me show you how I used the Cinnamon Crisp in my biscuit bake.

This is what I did...

Chocolate, Apple and Cinnamon Couronne

This week on the Great British Bake Off it was bread week. Bread week has to be my favourite week. I love to bake bread, I love the whole process of seeing the separate ingredients come together to create a loaf. I love how you literally feel the ingredients coming together and changing as you knead. There is something so therapeutic about bread making. Tesco asked me if I would like to take part in the Great Bloggers Bake Off using their products for bread week. As it is my favourite I jumped at the chance!

This week Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry challenged the bakers and really put them to the test. For the signature bakes they were asked to make a sweet dough with a twist that must contain chocolate in some way or another. The technical was a new one to me and the bakers. Paul asked them to make a German dumpling style bread called dampfnudel. Then for the final showstopper they were asked to make a plaited bread centre piece that uses four different flours.

I immediately knew that I wanted to make the signature bake. I always enjoy the challenge of making an enriched dough, plus they are so delicious!

This is what I did...

Lime and White Chocolate Cake

For this week Aldi post I thought that I would share a delicious cake that I made on Fathers Day using the deliciously creamy Moser Roth Madagascan Vanilla Chocolate. But before I share my recipe with you, I want to tell you some news from Aldi!

Last week saw The Grocer Gold Awards 2016 take place. Aldi walked away with not just one award, but two! They were awarded The Grocer of the Year 2016 and Own Label Range of the Year for their baby brand Mamia. The judges acknowledged that Aldi offer responsibly sourced, quality products at the lowest possible price. This allows families to enjoy more for less!

The Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Barnes, said "We're absolutely thrilled to have been named The Grocer of the Year 2016. This recognition gives customers assurance that Aldi is the best supermarket in Britain." Read more about the awards and the full statement here.

Congratulations Aldi on your awards and here is to many more!

Now on to cake!

I love the combination of lime and white chocolate. The creamy chocolate compliments the bitter lime perfectly.

This is what I did...

Fathers Day Cupcakes with Lindt

This Sunday is Fathers Day and the perfect time to spoil dad. What better way to treat dad than with some cake!

I was recently sent some delicious chocolates from Lindt to use in a recipe. However Lindt chocolates are perfect just as they are. They are the perfect sweet treat to add to the top of a cake. I was sent some boxes of Lindt selection to try.

If you are looking to get dad some chocolates this fathers day then I would thoroughly recommend going for the Lindt Selection. This delectable selection of milk, dark and white continental chocolates includes popular flavours made using the expertise of the Lindt Master Chocolatier. They are ideal for any occasion and is the perfect gift for those who simply want the best!

The selection comprises of 12 exquisite varieties of chocolate:

• Hazelnut Praline Heart
• Dark Hazelnut Cluster
• Dark Wafer Pyramid
• Smooth Melting Lindor
• Dark Hazelnut Praline
• Almond Praline and Cocoa Nibs
• Dark Hazelnut and Orange Cluster
• Milk Chocolate Meringue
• Dark Coffee Intense
• Luscious Velvety Caramel
• White Hazelnut Praline
• Crispy Almond Pyramid

Today I am going to share with you an easy chocolate cake recipe that is perfect for the little ones to help with.

This is what I did...

Well Done Celebration Chocolate Cake

Like all year 6 children J sat his SATS last week. The week started off well, he seemed to be calm but toward the end of the week the stress started to show. This got me thinking how to cheer him up? What better way to cheer up an 11 year old boy than chocolate cake.

When I say chocolate cake, I mean the king of chocolate cakes!

This cake was a huge success and is perfect for any celebration cake for any chocolate lover!

This is what I did...

Lime and White Chocolate Cheesecake

Ever since I made the No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake that I wrote about last week we have wanted it again, it was that good. As it was another glorious weekend last week and we had a barbecue planned we had to have another cheesecake. This time I wanted to try another flavour combination. I had plenty of limes in the fridge so I decided to make my own take on a key lime pie style cheesecake.

We liked the strawberry cheesecake base so much I have followed the same recipe again using the coconut oil. I have used the limes to enrich the cheesecake centre and have finished it off with creamy white chocolate pieces.

This is what I did...

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - Baking with Kids and Degustabox Contents

For this months Degustabox post I thought that I would share with you a recipe that I made with the twins. Each month Degustabox comes with a wide variety of products that can be enjoyed as they are or they can be used to create delicious meals and treats.

Today I am sharing with you an easy chocolate chip cupcake recipe that the twins love to make. This month we received a jar of Canderel Sugarly in the Degustabox so we substituted caster sugar for the sweetener to see how the cakes turned out. Canderel Sugarly looks and tastes like sugar but without the calories!

Before I tell you how we got on let me tell you about the contents of April's Degustabox.

Banana, Cinnamon and Peanut Cake

I first told you about my new favourite combination when I shared my Full of Energy Porridge. Ever since trying banana, cinnamon and peanut I have loved the combination and have been thinking of other ways to enjoy it. What better way than in a cake!

This cake is two layers of moist banana cake with a slight crunch from the peanuts, sandwiched together with a banana butter icing and topped with melted dark chocolate. If you love bananas, you will love this cake.

This is what I did...

Using Leftover Easter Chocolates

I don't know about your house, but here, each and every year we end up with leftover chocolate from Easter. It is usually down to me to use them in bakes and desserts.

So when Aldi challenged me to come up with a way to use leftover chocolate, I knew it would be fun. Today I will be sharing my ideas for how to use up some chocolate decorating cakes. After reading this you will be looking for leftover chocolate to use!

Gluten Free Spiced Chocolate Cake

This is a recipe that started off as a good old chocolate cake. As it is nearing the festive time of year I decided to add some mixed spice. I love to add mixed spice to bakes, it really can give any bake a festive touch. Plus I adore the combined spices!

This got me to thinking about how I could make this cake something a bit more special. This led me to look in Novembers Degustabox for more inspiration. In there I discovered both Jim Jams No Added Sugar and Gluten Free chocolate spread and Food Thoughts Organic Cocoa Powder. They would both be the perfect ingredients for this festive, gluten free chocolate cake.

This is what I did...

Quick, Easy Microwave Cake - Surprise Chocolate Bottom Pudding

A couple of weeks ago the hubby was moaning that there was no cake in the house. So I gave in! But I certainly was not going to bake a regular, oven baked cake at 8 o'clock in the evening. So instead I made a microwave cake. This got me reminiscing about my childhood. I have many fond memories of doing some of my first baking with my Nanna using a microwave. Using a microwave is a great way to let children cook and bake more independently. I remember feeling so grown up as I could place the buns into the microwave, set the time and watch them bake. My Nanna had a traditional, round bun mould, which now seems to be classed as a 'vintage' piece of kitchenware and she had one of the first microwave ovens that were around in the 1980's. Now, 30 years on (yes I do feel old saying that) technology has improved no end. We now have a combination microwave that can also grill and cook like a regular oven and the moulds are now silicone.

I have been spending time trying to perfect this recipe and have been using a glass bowl. But now that the recipe is just how I want it to be I have been looking into buying some better microwave cake moulds. I did have a look for one like my Nanna had but they really are quite rare and the only one that I did find was from America! But this is what it was like...

Photograph courtesy of Amazon

Unfortunately I cannot find a brand new one and if I am honest I would only want it for old times sake. For the fact that it reminds me of my Nanna. But after taking a look at what products are available now for microwave cakes I am settling on silicone. Silicone is a great material to bake with. After only a slight greasing the cakes easily pop out thanks to the flexibility of the moulds. After looking around at different shops the best set that I have found has to be this 6 piece silicone bakeware set from ProCook Kitchenware. I love the colour of it but the fact that you get a great variety of moulds makes this a must have. Also with 50% off the retail price means that it is going on my 'to buy' list!

Now back to the cake. The first one that I made was a chocolate chip cake. I have also tried making a classic sponge. But I have found the chocolate chip cake the most successful. With small microwave cakes they are better eaten warm. With the chocolate chip cake as you cut the cake the chocolate chips spill out delicious melted chocolate. This led me to try something else which has turned out to be a perfect, quick dessert that will please and surprise your guests. Cooked in individual ramekins it is an ideal pudding and has just the right amount in, they are not too filling nor will they leave you hungry. It is perfect with a scoop of ice cream melting over the top!

So without further ado, let me tell you and show you what I did...

Bakedin Christmas Special Recipe Box

Last year you may remember that I worked with Gousto and wrote a review on their delicious recipe boxes. These are great boxes which arrive with all of the ingredients and step by step instructions on how to create a restaurant style meal. We all really enjoyed the meals that we received. So when they got in touch with me again asking me if I would like to try their Bakedin Christmas recipe boxes that are perfect for little hands I could not turn them down. Now that the twins are three they love to help me in the kitchen when they get the chance so I knew that they would love this.

Bakedin have joined forces with Michel Roux to create a deliciously festive Snowflake Brownie box. We received two boxes, one for the twins and one for Joseph to bake with. Joseph also loves to bake, but he likes do bake independently. He is now 11 and wants to done things on his own so this box is an ideal way to raise his confidence in cooking. These boxes are a perfect way to help children bake more independently. All of the ingredients are labelled and pre weighed so all that the children need to do is add a couple of fresh ingredients, have some adult help when using the oven and they can make their own delicious treats.

Here is how the twins got on making their own Snowflake Brownie...

National Chocolate Week - My Favourite Chocolate Recipes

As it is National Chocolate Week I thought it would be good to look back at my previous chocolate posts and share with you my favourite ones. It is also a chance for me to remember the older recipes and get baking them again!

I have also searched through some of my favourite foodie bloggers sites and have listed my favourites that I thought you should really check out!

After looking back through my posts here are my eight favourite chocolate recipes...