Juice Plus Complete shakes

Just a quick post about Juice Plus Complete vanilla shakes which I've tried for the first time today, and wanted to share with you what they are and why I've decided to try them.

Juice Plus Complete 'provides all the nutritional elements of a whole meal; a balanced mix of carbs, proteins and fats as well as dietary fibre and vitamins and minerals'.

I decided to try these Juice Plus shakes due to a friends recommendation, and am using them as a nutritional supplement and for pre or post-workout recovery since the powder contains a good amount of protein, calcium, zinc and all other great vitamins and minerals. I will probably also add it to a home-made smoothie for a nutritional boost and to make the shake taste nicer and last longer!

For those of you wanting to lose some weight in the new year - Juice Plus shakes can also be used for weight control, by replacing a meal with a shake (they come in chocolate flavour as well!) I know a number of people who have successfully lost weight using Juice Plus as a meal replacement whilst eating healthily and staying active.

I will keep you updated with my thoughts on the shakes - so far they seem good as a motivational thing for me where it encourages me to eat healthy and eat clean, to give my health a boost and as a post-gym shake to replenish my energy levels. I will also have a Juice Plus Complete smoothie recipe up soon so keep checking back if you are interested!

(p.s. don't worry this food blog has not turned into a health freaks blog - I will still be posting a range of recipes!)

Honeycomb cheesecake

If you love cheesecake now, you will love it even more after trying this. It is so delicious! I've wanted to make this for a while since I love the honeycomb cheesecake from Prezzo - and I will definitely be making this time and time again, particularly because it's so quick and easy as well. The biscuit base was a little crumbly, but it didn't detract from the amazing flavour or the creamy, soft texture. I just used Cadbury crunchie bars as the honeycomb but you can use any kind, or make your own. This dessert will definitely impress!

Serves 6-8

- 200g milk chocolate digestive biscuits, finely crushed

- 50g butter

- 150ml double cream

- 50g icing sugar

- drop of vanilla essence

- 200g good quality cream cheese

- 2 Cadbury crunchie bars (or any honeycomb), roughly chopped

1. Grease a circular loose-bottomed tin, or line a normal circular tin with grease proof paper.

2. Melt the butter and mix with the crushed biscuit. Press into the tin until compact and set aside.

3. Whisk the double cream with the icing sugar until thick consistency, and add the vanilla essence. 

4. Beat the cream cheese in a separate bowl then stir into the cream and sugar mixture until combined.

5. Stir in half of the chopped honeycomb/crunchie bar then spread evenly on top of the biscuit base.

6. Sprinkle the remaining honeycomb on top of the cheesecake, then chill in the fridge for an hour or two.

Enjoy :)

Raspberry swirl cupcakes

These cupcakes are by far my favourite out of all the ones I've ever made (and that's a lot!). I made these for my friends birthday, and I love how pretty and girly they are. The cream cheese frosting is to die for and is made with raspberry jam as well so has a delicious, sweet flavour, and the way the frosting is piped just adds something a bit different, giving a marbled effect. The sponge recipe is the one I always use but I will write everything down below anyway! Oh, and if you don't like cream cheese don't be put off, the frosting tastes amaaaazing... my friend hates cream cheese and refused the cream cheese icing on my carrot cupcakes so this time I didn't tell her it had cream cheese in and she loved it so much she was even eating it out the bowl!

For the sponges (makes 12)

- 125 margarine/butter (or both)

- 125g caster sugar

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 125g self raising flour

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For the frosting

- 50g butter (I always use lurpak slightly salted cause think it tastes the best)

- 300g icing sugar, sifted

- 125g full fat cream cheese

- 2 tbsp raspberry jam

- pink food colouring

- edible glitter

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees / gas mark 5. Line a cupcake tray with cases.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually whisk in the egg then fold in the flour and baking powder.

3. Add the milk and vanilla essence and beat until fully combined and smooth.

4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until risen, firm and golden brown. Leave to cool.

5. Meanwhile, to make the cream cheese frosting, beat the butter and gradually add the icing sugar until light. Whisk in the cream cheese until light and fluffy.

6. Transfer half the frosting mixture into another bowl and add the jam and a few drops of food colouring, stirring until fully mixed. 

7. In a piping bag with a large, star shaped nozzle, spoon raspberry frosting on one side of the bag and the plain frosting on the other (if you are using a tube syringe instead of a piping bag like i did, then alternating the different frostings on top of one another works just as well). Pipe generous swirls on top of the cupcakes.

8. Don't forget to sprinkle with glitter!

*These will last for up to 3 days - keep them in a cool place in an airtight container - don't forget there is cream cheese in the frosting so they will go off quicker!*

Chocolate and vanilla jam cupcakes

I made these for my 19th birthday the other week, for friends and family. I hadn't made cupcakes for a really long time so loved doing it, and actually discovered that piping icing isn't so bad! I've never been that good at piping technique but realised that with some good piping bags stuffed full of lots of icing, it really is quite simple and fun to be creative with it. I wanted the contrast of chocolate and plain vanilla sponges as well as the contrast with the plain cream icing and pink icing so that they looked good on my cupcake stand. Make sure you use cute, colourful cupcakes cases to make these scrummy cupcakes look even more appealing. I use this recipe time and time again, I have probably posted them on here before. It's so versatile - you can pretty much do anything you like, adding fruit to the sponge, using different coloured icing and decorations etc etc. Just have some fun!

For the sponges (makes 24)

- 225 margarine/butter (or both)

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs, beaten

- 225g self raising flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- cocoa powder (for the chocolate cupcakes)

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Line a few cupcake trays with cupcake cases.

2. Beat together the marg/butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding flour occasionally if curdling occurs.

3. Sift the remaining flour and baking powder into the bowl, then gradually whisk in the milk and vanilla essence.

4. Spoon half of this mixture into cupcake cases.
5. Sift cocoa powder into the other half of the mixture, stirring and adding more until it is dark brown in colour. Spoon this into the remaining cupcake cases.

6. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to cool on a cooling tray.

7. Once cooled, you can begin making the buttercream. But first, take the vanilla cupcakes and cut a small hole in the middle of each to fill with a tsp of jam. I used raspberry but any flavour would work well.

8. Cover with the cut out bit of sponge, and they are ready to be iced!

For the buttercream

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- pink colouring (for vanilla sponge cupcakes)

1. Cream together the butter and sugar with the milk until smooth and silky. Stir in the vanilla extract.

2. Spoon this into a large piping bag with a nozel in (I ordered large, plastic disposable icing bags off amazon - you just snip off the end, pop in the nozel, fill with icing and are easy to use!) and start icing the chocolate sponge cupcakes - I go clockwise in a swirling pattern to get the effect you can see in the pictures.

3. Once all the chocolate cupcakes are done, add some pink food colouring to the remaining icing and stir until fully combined. Pipe this on to the vanilla cupcakes in the same way as the chocolate ones. Voila! You can decorate with fruit (strawberries or raspberries) or sprinkles or whatever really, but I just wanted to keep them simple.

Enjoy :)

Oh, and just wanted to show you this cute apron my friend bought me for my birthday, I love it, can't wait to wear it!!

Easter cupcakes

I made a combination of sponges - vanilla sponge, vanilla sponge with cranberries in, and chocolate sponge. Then I made a huge range of different frostings and toppings - creamy chocolate, vanilla buttercream, buttercream with various different colourings, mini eggs, crushed twirl bars, and crispy cakes (see previous post!). Although this took a lot of time, attention to detail, and washing up, it was definitely worth it! They look so cute and I think will put a smile on everyone's face on Easter Sunday tomorrow :) I will post all the recipes below, hope you give them a try! Don't forget that these aren't just for Easter, you can make these anytime - they are brilliant, versatile cupcake and frosting recipes!

Sponge recipes - makes 12-14 cupcakes
- 125g margarine
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 125g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- cocoa powder
- dried cranberries


1. Cream together the marg and sugar until well combined. Gradually whisk in the eggs and vanilla essence.
2. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and fold in, stirring well.
3. Fill this vanilla sponge mixture into cupcake cases - I filled 5 cases.
4. Take half of the rest of the cake mixture and place in another bowl. Mix with a few handfuls of dried cranberries, or other dried fruit (put as much as you want in), and fill another 5 cupcake cases.
5. Sieve some cocoa powder into the remaining mixture and combine until brown in colour. Spoon into the remaining cases. (For me, this was another 4 cases)
6. Bake in a preheated oven (gas mark 5/190 degrees) for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wired rack.

Frosting recipes


Chocolate cream cheese frosting (used on 4 cupcakes)
- Half a tub (80g) of Cadbury's chocolate Philadelphia 
- small bit of icing sugar
- small knob of butter, melted

Combine everything together in a bowl, fill into a piping bag with a star shaped nozel, and pipe onto the cupcakes. I piped onto 2, and spread on to the other 2. I topped with mini eggs and crushed Twirl bars.

Vanilla buttercream (used on 10 cupcakes)
- 125g butter, softened
- 200g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp warm milk
- various food colourings

Beat everything together until smooth, and lighter in colour (feel free to add more of anything depending on consistency, flavour and colour). I iced 4 cupcakes with plain vanilla frosting, then used pink food colouring for 2, green for another 2, and yellow for another 2. This requires a lot of different bowls to transfer the icing too! (It is worth it though, so pretty) You can either pipe these onto the cake or simply spread with a knife. For the yellow and the green frosting, I used a piping bag and nozel to dot the icing on making flower shapes - prefect for Spring!

Enjoy :)

Cupcake inspiration and frosting recipes

I LOVE baking cupcakes and decorating them. I am going to invest in some new piping bags and nozels so I can pipe my butter-cream properly though, because it never turns out as good as I want! This post will provide you with some inspiration through my pictures (above), and some ideas and top tips of what to decorate your cupcakes with.

1. Firstly, use some cute cupcakes cases - I have so many different designs (not many actually shown in the pictures above, sorry) that I love to use. Plain white always looks good and simple as well though (see first 2 pictures). You can also use cupcake moulds for a more interesting shape, for example I have heart and star moulds, which is perfect for occasions such as valentines day or birthdays.

2. Colour schemes - one of the best things about cupcakes aside from the taste is that they look good. I like to decorate half a batch with plain vanilla butter-cream, and the other half with chocolate butter-cream, it makes them look really luxurious; well, I think so anyway haha...

3. What icing shall I use?

I nearly always use butter-cream (butter, icing sugar, milk, flavourings) because it is fairly simple and tastes divine! I will post my butter-cream recipe at the bottom of this post.

4. What other types of icing are there?

- I also quite like just melted chocolate drizzled on to the cupcake which then solidifies; this makes a nice change in texture as it will be crunchy, but the chocolate can crack so be careful.

- Glacé icing is also simple (icing sugar and water) and usually has a nice sheen to it. I used this in the last picture - the christmas pudding cupcake.

- Cream cheese frosting - this is, hence the name, a much creamier frosting.

- Chocolate fudge icing - mmmm, the dark chocolate and egg makes this frosting really rich and glossy!

(I will put recipes for each of these at the bottom)

5. What can I add to icing to make it more interesting?

Food colourings, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, flavourings like vanilla, strawberry, peppermint or lemon, coffee, orange or lemon zest, chopped nuts, dried fruit, cinnamon, jam etc.

6. How do I put the frosting on the cupcake?

- Use a piping bag and nozel. Experiment with the different nozels and decide which you like best. Most commonly is just piping in swirls (see the first 2 pictures) but you can also make flower patterns (see the 3rd picture) - this is perfect for mother's day!

- Spread it on using a palette knife (see the vanilla butter-cream in picture 4). This is a better technique for runnier icing like chocolate fudge icing.

- Glace icing and melted chocolate can simply just be drizzled on with a spoon - it should spread the surface of the cupcake on its own.

7. What can I top the frosting with?

- Grated chocolate (see chocolate mousse cupcake recipe - check sidebar)

- Pre-bought cupcake decorations from the supermarket - chocolate balls, white chocolate stars, silver balls, sugar flowers, chocolate letters, sprinkles or anything like that.

- Any sweets like jelly tots or chocolate buttons

- Royal icing (see christmas pudding cupcake picture above) - you can make all sorts of shapes with this icing, which you can buy in the shops.

- Crystalised flowers or leaves. This is what I did on the other christmas pudding cupcake. It looks really delicate and shimmery - so pretty.

- Dried fruit, chopped nuts etc.

- Chocolate lattice - see mocha cupcake recipe - check sidebar

- Dust with icing sugar or coca powder depending on the colour of the icing

- Inedible decorations like plastic/tin/cardboard hearts or stars or balloons on cocktail sticks. You can hand-make things like this or buy them in specialised cake shops - see picture at the bottom of this post!

- I have this edible shimmer spray in a clear/silver colour which gives icing a beautiful, but subtle, sheen. See picture of star cupcake at the bottom of this post.

Ta-daaaaaa! You now have some beautiful cupcakes :)

Hope you enjoy - read on for the frosting recipes that I use...

Vanilla butter-cream:

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- flavourings & colourings of your choice

Beat the butter until light and fluffy, beat in the icing sugar, milk and vanilla.

Chocolate fudge icing:

- 125g dark chocolate

- 50g unsalted butter

- 1 medium egg, beaten

- 175g icing sugar

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter and chocolate, whisk in the egg with the icing sugar and vanilla until smooth and glossy - leave to cool and thicken before spreading.

Cream cheese frosting:

- 50g unsalted butter

- 300g icing sugar

- 125g full-fat cream cheese

- flavourings & colourings of your choice

Beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, add the flavourings/colourings if necessary, whisk in the cream cheese.

Glacé icing:

- 225g icing sugar

- 2-3 tbsp boiling water

- flavourings & colourings of your choice

Sift the icing sugar and gradually stir in the water until the right consistency. 

Classic victoria sponge cake

This is always a winner and looks so classic and cute, perfect for any birthday or other party celebration, particularly in the summer seasons. I made this for my boyfriend's birthday last summer as he loves a good old victoria sponge! I always use raspberry jam for the filling because I just prefer it, it isn't as sickly as strawberry... for some reason I decided to top it with a strawberry though haha.

For the sponges:

- 225g margarine

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs

- dash of vanilla essence

- 225g self-raising flour

- dash of milk (I always add milk when making sponge because it gives it a smooth and silky texture)

For the filling:

It's up to you what you fill it with, I think the classic is just strawberry jam, or jam and whipped double cream, but I like to use raspberry jam with vanilla butter-cream! You can also chop up strawberries for the filling.

For the topping:

It is tradition just to top it with a dusting of icing sugar and a cut up strawberry, but you can use whipped cream or buttercream or anything you want! I again, have used vanilla butter-cream. Flavoured butter-cream would also be good, like chocolate or raspberry/strawberry.

So... for the butter-cream:

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar, sifted

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar (for the sponge) until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in the eggs, adding the odd bit of flour to prevent curdling.

3. Add the vanilla essence, fold in the flour and stir in the milk.

4. Fill two 7 inch baking tins (which should be greased and lined with baking paper)

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes on 180C/Gas 4, or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when poked in the middle. Place on a cooling rack.

6. For the butter-cream, cream together the butter and sugar and milk, and add the vanilla extract.

7. Once the sponges are cooled, spread one with jam and the other with the butter-cream and sandwich together. Top with the remaining butter-cream, add a strawberry and ta-da!

Hope you enjoy :)

Baked raspberry cheesecake

This cheesecake was divine! I had never baked a cheesecake before this; only ever whacked together some cream cheese and mascarpone and put it on top of a biscuit base - and the conclusion is that it really doesn't taste that good this way, you might as well be eating cream cheese out the tub! And we all know that feels far naughtier than one slice of this crunchy, creamy, soft, juicy, sweet cheesecake. Or maybe not...

I got this recipe from the Comfort Food recipe book I have (which I linked and put a picture of in my baked carbonara post). The recipe was for a Manhattan Cheesecake with a blueberry topping - basically just a syrupy coulis drizzled on top. I had seen so many pictures online, however, of marbled cheesecakes, and so I really wanted to try this. The majority of the recipes were from American writers, however, where cups are flying at you in all directions - I don't think anyone has the time or effort to convert those! So I followed the recipe from my cookbook for the vanilla cheesecake, but I didn't do a soured cream topping which is typical of a Manhattan style cheesecake. I then made a raspberry coulis and marbled it in and the outcome was fab. It didn't really sink that much in the middle which was brilliant as well. So this cheesecake is perfect if you're trying to impress (as the marbling technique looks great and is fairly simple to do) and if you want a naughty, comfort food.

Ingredients:

- 85g butter

- 200g digestive biscuits, crushed

- 400g cream cheese

- 2 large eggs

- 140g caster sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- raspberries (can't remember how many I used, but probably a punnet)

- icing sugar (couple of spoonfulls)

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5 and brush an 8-inch springform tin with oil.

2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the crushed biscuits, stirring until coated in all the butter. Spread in the bottom of the tin, pressing down with your knuckles to check it is firmly covering the surface.

3. Place the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a food processor and process until smooth (I did this by hand, may take longer though). Pour over the biscuit base and smooth the top.

4. Crush the raspberries through a sieve (doesn't have to be particularly fine), and stir with some icing sugar. Spoon the raspberry liquid on top of the cheesecake in patches - basically blob it on in various places. Next, using cocktail sticks or a small pallette knife - depending on the effect you want - gently swirl through the raspberry patches. The picture below is what mine looked like at this stage, before I baked it.

5. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until set. It should be a bit wobbly in the middle, but not liquid. Leave to stand for 20 minutes, then chill in the fridge for 8 hours, or overnight. (I think mine was only chilled for about 6 hours and it was absolutely fine so don't worry too much, as long as it is set enough to cut slices!)

6. Serve on its own or with extra raspberries, or cream, or a chocolate truffle.

Enjoy :)