Cake pops made with surprises in my pantry.

Every so often I get a surprise package that drops through my letterbox, being a foodie I relish all the ingredients I get sent and always try and make the best use of them.

I was recently sent a hamper from the lovely people at Soreen, it consisted of  Fruity Soreen bread, banana Soreen loaf, fruity five Soreen loaf and some mini lunch box size Soreen loaves. In the hamper was also a Soreen recipe booklet with lots of recipe ideas.

I also received a package from Dr Oetker, in the package was some chocolate, some edible sprinkles, some caramel flavouring, chocolate hearts, wafer butterflies, chocolate chips and some writing gel. Both the sets of ingredients gave me an idea to create a recipe that would combine some of the ingredients and my recipe for Soreen cake pops was born.

Cake pops are very popular these days, they make good party treats and party favours too.A cake pop is cake mixture that is made into crumbs, mixed with a binding agent such as buttercream, nuttella, jam or cream cheese in face anything that will make the cake crumb into dough to roll balls from  the mixture. Keeping this idea in my head I used the Soreen five fruit loaf to make the pops with and used the chocolate and edible sprinkles from the Dr Oetker range to make some cute  fruity cake pops to gift a friend of mine. The Soreen in the cake pops tasted just like fruit cake and  it saved a lot of time as I did not need to bake a cake to make the pops.

Delicious fruity cake pops with a caramel chocolate coating.

Ingredients:

Half a loaf of fruity five Soreen
Dr Oetker chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon caramel flavouring

One bar Dr Oetker chocolate
Some edible sprinkles.

Method:

1. Cut the Fruity five loaf into cubes and place it in the blender, and  blend it to a crumb type mixture.
2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, the mixture will be fairly moist so you will not need to add any binding agent.
3. Add a handful of chocolate chip to the mixture and mix together.

4. Pinch walnut sized balls of the mixture and roll onto perfect round balls with out cracks.
5. Push a cake pop stick into each ball and place all the cake pops side by side on a baking tray and place the tray in the freezer for 30 minutes.
6.Break the chocolate pieces and add them to a glass bowl, place the bowl i the microwave and warm the chocolate up in 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted. ( mine took 1.5 minutes)Stir in the caramel flavouring into the chocolate.
7. Take the cake pops out  of the freezer and dip each one into the melted chocolate, shaking the extra chocolate off by tapping the cake pop gently. Since the cake pops are cold from the freezer the chocolate will start to set very quickly.

8. Sprinkle some of the edible sprinkles onto the chocolate dipped cake pop while the chocolate is still soft  and set them aside to set completely.(Since the cake pops are cold from the freezer the chocolate will start to set very quickly so do this step quickly)
9. To gift the cake pops cover the pops in cellophane and tie the cellophane bag with a pretty ribbon.

I would like to thank Soreen and Dr Oetker  for sending me some products samples to try, I have created this recipe using some of the ingredients I was sent.

New Potato Salad with a Yoghurt and Coriander dressing.

Monday 19th May marks the start of Yogurt Week launched by yogurt council; It is the UK’s first celebration of all things yogurt. Yogurt contains a range of nutrients important for a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, and is a versatile food staple for all the family to enjoy. Yogurt can be used in many forms, you can create sweet dishes, savoury dishes, it can be eaten for breakfast lunch and dinner.

As part of Yogurt Week, the Yogurt Council will be working with a number of different partners and supporters to pass on the positive benefits of yogurt. I love yogurt and to help promote awareness to eating yogurt I have created this wonderful yogurt recipe to entice and persuade my readers to cook, bake, eat and drink yogurt and include it in your daily diets.  

If I have got you excited about yogurt and you want to find out more about it you can get further information  by visiting loveyogurt.org or follow their  Facebook page  & Twitter via loveyogurtuk. In the run up to Yogurt Week, a wide variety of information and recipes will be made available that highlight just how good yogurt can be, along with a number of ways to make the most of yogurt in daily life. You can check out their website to see their yogurt recipe book and meal planner.

I adore cooking with yogurt and I actually make my own yogurt at home using milk and live yogurt culture. You can check out some of my recipes made with yogurt here:
Salted Jeera Lassi
Coconut shrikand with strawberies
Black Gram in yoghurt gravy
Coconut and yoghurt chutney
Drum Sticks in yoghurt gravy

In celebration of yogurt week I am sharing my recipe for New potato salad with yoghurt and coriander dressing.

Delicious new potato salad in a spicy creamy yogurt and coriander dressing.

Ingredients:

480 g new mini baby potatoes
1 teaspoon salt( for adding to water for boiling)
12 mini cherry tomatoes assorted red/orange/yellow
3 spring onions finely chopped
1/2 red pepper diced
1/2 green pepper diced
1/2 yellow pepper diced
1 green chilli finely chopped
2 springs fresh coriander for garnish.


Dressing:

120 g natural Greek yoghurt
Small bunch fresh coriander
1/2 cooking apple( must be tart)
4 green chillies
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Method:

1. Wash the coriander and pat it dry.
2. Roughly chop the coriander stalks and leaves and transfer the coriander to a large blender jug.
3. Slice the chillies and remove seeds and roughly chop them, add them to blender jug.
4.Core the apple and cut it into chunks leave the skin on.Add the apple to the blender jug.
5. Add the sugar, lemon juice and salt and blend the coriander mixture to form a smooth  paste.
6. Transfer the paste to a clean jar and keep refrigerated. (This paste will keep in fridge for up to 1 week and can be used on pasta, sandwich fillings and salad dressings.)
7. Boil the new potatoes in salted water until tender.Once potatoes are boiled blanch them in cold water to refresh them. Drain and add the cooked potatoes to a large bowl.
8. Add the peppers, whole tomatoes, 2/3 of the spring onions and chillies to the bowl.
9. In a separate bowl add the Greek yoghurt and add to it three tablespoons of the coriander paste previously made and stir it in.
10. Add the coriander and yoghurt dressing to the large bowl and toss all the ingredients until the potatoes and vegetables are coated in the dressing.
11.Transfer the salad to a large serving platter and garnish with the remaining chopped coriander and spring onions.

I would like to thank yogurt council for asking me to help promote yohurt week.I received supermarket vouchers to purchase ingredients to create my recipes.

NB- The dressing is fairly spicy, if you don't like spicy food omit the chillies.

Pineapple sorbet~ Secret recipe Club challenge May 19th 2014

This is my assignment with the Secret Recipe Club.The aim of the club is that you are allocated a blog from which you have to select a recipe and try it and blog about it. My assigned blog was Manu's menu. Manuela lives in Sydney, Australia and she has a wonderful blog with a varied cuisine. I was particularly impressed that she had so many Indian recipes on her blog. I found out this is influenced by her hubby who is Indian. While looking through her blog I decided to pick the pineapple sorbet recipe as it looked refreshing and perfect for a light dessert. I followed the recipe as per her instruction but had to use tinned pineapple in juice instead of fresh pineapple.I added some lemon juice to balance the sweetness. 

Taste the tropics in every mouthful with this refreshing pineapple sorbet.

Ingredients

432 g tinned pineapple chunks in juice
6 tablespoons sugar
Juice and zest of one small lemon

Method:

1. Using a zester, zest the lemon and keep it aside.
2. Cut the lemon in half and extract the juice.
3.Open the tinned pineapple and reserve a few chunks for garnish.Put the remaining pineapple chunks and juice into a blender jug together with the  the lemon juice and sugar.
4. Blend the pineapple pieces to form a smooth purée in the Optimum 9400 blender or any other you may have.
5. Pour the pineapple purée into a tupperware container and add half the lemon zest and stir it in.
6. Place the tupperware in the freezer overnight.
7. Before serving remove the tupperware from the freezer and leave it at room temperature for 5 minutes. 8.After 5 minutes scoop the sorbet into serving cups.Garnish with remaining pineapple chunks and lemon zest.

An InLinkz Link-up


I used my tried and trusted  Optimum 9400 Blender to blend my soup. The blender is so versatile and powerful that it grinds, pulses, makes ice cream, soups and amazing smoothies and nut butters too. It is easy to clean and maintain too.

Vanilla Cupcakes and a birthday celebration.

Birthdays are not birthdays with out cake, so what better way than to present some one with a lovely cake baked  at home and iced for them. These birthday cupcakes were made as a joint effort from both my daughters for their dads birthday. Together with cakes we gave him a lovely breakfast surprise and gift. The gift was really hard to find as a man who has every gadget available what do you buy him?? After much searching we came across the The Watch Hut, a fabulous site with some lovely watches to suit all prices.We selected the Armani Exchange gents silver watch for his gift. He really loved the gift and especially the delicious cup cakes featured below.

Delicate vanilla sponge with creamy butter cream icing makes these delicious cup cakes melt in the mouth.

Ingredients:

120g butter
120g self raising flour
120 g sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For decorations:

Vanilla butter cream ( shop bought)
Maltersers
Blue edible sprinkles
Ready rolled fondant sheet

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 18O C  / 350 F.
2. In a electric mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the butter and mix together.Add the vanilla essence and mix.
4. Gently fold in the flour by using a metal spoon.
5. Divide the mixture into 12 cupcake liners and bake the cupcakes for 15 minutes in the preheated oven until golden brown.
6. To check if the cakes are cooked insert a skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean cakes are baked.
7. Remove cakes from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool.
8. Place a star nozzle in a piping bag and fill it with vanilla butter cream. Pipe a swirl of butter cream onto each cupcake and garnish with chocolate maltesers.
9.Using alphabet cutters cut out the letters D , A, D  from the fondant sheet and place them on three of the cupcakes. Sprinkle with the blue sprinkles.

This post was sponsored by The Watch Hut.

Hot and spicy sprouted mung bean soup.

Protein packed hot and spicy sprouted mung bean soup.

Ingredients:

125 g sprouted mung beans (Check here how to sprout mung beans)
350 ml water
1 teaspoon dark soya sauce
1 teaspoon garlic chilli sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
1 medium tomato finely chopped
125 ml pasatta (sieved tomatoes)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger paste.
1 teaspoon olive oil

Method:

1.In a pan add the olive oil and when it is hot add the garlic and onions and sauté until pink and translucent.
2.Add the sprouted mung beans, garlic paste, pasatta, salt  and simmer the soup for 10 minutes until mung beans are tender.
3. Add the soya sauce and garlic chilli sauce and the chopped tomatoes.Simmer for 2-3 minutes and turn off heat.
4. Transfer the soup to serving bowls and serve hot.

Submitting to:

Lets cook with pulses event by simplyfood.

Cookin with/luv

Onken yoghurt "Dollop of difference" master class at L'atelier de chefs.

I was recently invited to the Onken yoghurt  "Dollop of difference"  master class presented by Lisa Faulkner and Nutritionist Angela Dowden at the L'atelier de chefs in London. The evening was themed around cooking with Onken Natural yoghurt. After a brief introduction we were taken into the well equipped  L'atelier de chefs kitchens to have a hands on cookery class with Lisa.
We started off with making some amazing banana muffins. Healthy delicious and super moist the muffins were easy to make and assemble and perfect for breakfast or snack on the go.

Next we made an amazing caramelised onion and yoghurt dip using the creamy Onken yoghurt. The dip was perfect served with crudités, crackers and warm pitta bread.The recipe was simple yet very delicious.
Lastly Lisa demonstrated how to make  a wonderful and fragrant marinade  She explained the importance of roasting the spices before grinding them in a pestle and mortar to release their flavours and then adding them to Onken yoghurt to make a delicious marinade for chicken, paneer or vegetables.

The master class was very enjoyable and relaxed with lots of interactions between the students and staff. The team at L'atelier de chefs were super and they miraculously had our workstations tidied and replenished after each recipe we created. 

The evening ended mingling with everyone and tasting all the food we had prepared accompanied with endless glasses of bubbly. We were also presented with lovely goody bags to take home so that we could all recreate the recipes. In my goody bag was a muffin tray, spices, yoghurt, skewers and a dipping bowl and recipe leaflets. It was a very enjoyable evening.

I would like to Thank Onken for inviting me to the lovely master class. All the views and opinions in this post are my own and of my own experience I was not asked to write a positive review.

Rose Icecream

I was inspired to click this photo after reading a tutorial of photographing ice cream in a can by Ellen Fremont in Food Photography and food styling blog. If you get a chance visit Ellens blog it has amazing photography.

Fragrant rose scented rich and creamy icecream that will leave you wanting more.

Ingredients:

180 ml fresh cream
397 ml sweetened condensed milk
100 ml full cream milk
1 heaped tablespoon milk powder
60 ml rose syrup
1 teaspoon rose essence

Method:

1. In a blender jug whisk together the milk and the milk powder until its fully mixed.
2. Add the condensed milk and rose essence and rose syrup and whisk again.Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.
4. Gently fold the whipped cream into the first bowl making sure the cream and condensed milk mixture are fully mixed with each other.
5. Transfer the mixture to a tupper ware container with a lid and place in the freezer over night.
6. To serve the icecream take it out of the freezer and leave at room temperature for 3-5 minutes and then scoop into serving bowls.

NB-This icecream does not need churning between freezing time.

To create the background board I have used in this picture visit citrusspiceuk

Round Up ~Lets Cook Sweet Treats for Easter

Thankyou for all the wonderful entries that every one has linked up to this event.

Here is the lovely Round Up:

Announcing Event Lets cook with Pulses

This month Lets cook series theme is pulses. Pulses are a good source of proteins in our diet and there is such a vast variety of them that you could eat anew type of pulse everyday for a month. 

To Participate:

1. Prepare any dish sweet or savory for vegetarians (eggs allowed),  please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory. (Any entries sent with out the mandatory link will be disqualified.)
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can use it.

4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.

4. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format:

Your Name: Recipe
Name Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.
Event Ends 30th  April 201

An InLinkz Link-up