Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Magical Kelpies and Salted Caramel Brownies!

Today was one of those perfect days, spent with a good friend and a lovely man  (my husband!).  Sue and I had an idea to have a day out to celebrate our birthdays and eventually decided to go to Falkirk to visit the Kelpies. I had never heard of these, but they are 100 feet high sculptures dedicated to the heavy working horses (Clydesdales) who spent so many years helping build the UK with a focus on the canal systems in Scotland.  








To give an idea of the size of these beautiful horses, Alan is standing at the base of the one called Duke!  Duke and Baron were real working horses who the sculptor, Andy Scott, used as his models.










Part of the tour was to go inside Duke, here is what that looks like!

This was such a special thing to do, and the timing of it was fantastic!  The Kelpies only opened to the public at Easter this year and there is no visitor centre or anything yet.  As a result, there are not many crowds.  I predict by next year, there will be tour buses and school groups.  Many thanks to Sue for being aware of these gorgeous creatures! 

As always, a road trip is not a proper road trip without home baking.  Sue had requested Salted Caramel Brownies after we had a taste of them at the grand opening of the Steamer Trading Cook Shop's basement!  It was up to me to find a recipe that would work!  And finding the time to do it.

I admit to cheating a bit and buying Tesco's Finest Salted Caramel Sauce.  Maybe one day I will have time to do it all, but not right now.  Cheating is fine as long as the final product lives up to its promise. And these brownies were incredible.  When Sue first tasted them, the look on her face was such shock, I began to wonder if I had made a terrible mistake.  But the shock was from having no words to describe how delicious they were!  What  a great compliment!  

Due to time constraints, I found a brownie recipe I had used before trouble is, I can't remember where I got it. Looks like I tore it out of a magazine a long time ago, and here it is (I do try to convert measurements but cannot guarantee I get them perfectly correct!):

Double Chocolate Brownies

3/4 cup unsifted flour (175g plain flour)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter (100g)

3/4 cup granulated sugar (195g)

2 tablespoons water

1 12 ounce package (2 cups) chocolate chips (339g) - divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325F, 160C.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine butter, sugar and water.  Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.
Add 6 ounces (half) the chocolate chips and vanilla extract.  Stir until morsels melt and mixture is smooth.
Transfer to a large bowl.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually blend in flour mixture.
Stir in remaining 1 cup chocolate chips and the nuts (if used).  
Spread half the batter into a greased 9 inch square baking pan.  
Add the salted caramel sauce and then the remaining brownie batter.  I used a knife to swirl the mixtures together before adding the second layer of brownie batter. 

and I forgot to take a picture before putting the send layer on!  Here is the best I could do, a bit of caramel peaking out!


Bake 30 - 35 minutes.  

Cool completely.  This instruction is always impossible for me to follow!

Cut into 2 1/4 inch squares.
Makes 16 squares.


The recipe with no notes or photos is at the end of the blog!


In the beautiful sloping hills of Connemara in Ireland, for example, faeries were believed to have been just as beautiful, peaceful, and pleasant as the world around them. But in the Scottish Highlands, with their dark, brooding mountains and eerie highland lakes, villagers warned of deadly water-kelpies and spirit characters that packed a bit more punch.” 
― Signe PikeFaery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World



Double Chocolate Brownies

3/4 cup unsifted flour (175g plain flour)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter (100g)

3/4 cup granulated sugar (195g)

2 tablespoons water

1 12 ounce package (2 cups) chocolate chips (339g) - divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325F, 160C.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine butter, sugar and water.  Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.
Add 6 ounces (half) the chocolate chips and vanilla extract.  Stir until morsels melt and mixture is smooth.
Transfer to a large bowl.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually blend in flour mixture.
Stir in remaining 1 cup chocolate chips and the nuts (if used).  
Spread half the batter into a greased 9 inch square baking pan.  
Add the salted caramel sauce and then the remaining brownie batter.  I used a knife to swirl the mixtures together before adding the second layer of brownie batter.
Bake 30 - 35 minutes.  
Cool completely.
Cut into 2 1/4 inch squares.
Makes 16 squares.



Monday, May 26, 2014

Classic Cupcakes

It has been awhile since I posted.  One reason is that we are very busy in the house. Just doing massive clearing out and reorganising, redecorating, changing things and dejunking. All at the same time.  Not a very pleasant stage in our lives, but necessary!

The other reason I have not posted is because we did manage to escape from the drudgery of housework and take a lovely cruise around Italy, with other stops in Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu and Corsica.  Here is the link to my blog about that trip - Our Mediterannean Adventura


This weekend is a holiday weekend, whether you live in the US or the UK.  In the US, this is Memorial Day weekend. Which, when I was little, was the weekend the public (outdoor) swimming pools opened.  I wonder if they even had indoor pools "back then"!  In addition to the summer season beginning and BBQ's everywhere, there is also a serious element about the weekend because it was established to give a thought to our Armed Forces.  In memory of my Dad, who fought in World War II, here is a picture of him with the crew he flew missions with.

In the UK, this weekend is simply referred to as a bank holiday and is not necessary a long weekend for everyone.  But where I live, this was a 3 or 4 day weekend for all.  The schools were out Friday and Monday.  I was lucky to be available for my grandson for Friday morning  since the day off came as a shock to his Mum!  With all the chaos in the house, he had not been over for a while and really enjoyed just being here.

Then, our son came up from London for the weekend!  He met friends and Alan and I walked to Belleisle for a Festival which was part of the Burns an a' That Festival.  First time in a long time I can remember free concerts as a result of this festival, and to have them within walking distance was amazing.  All the bands were relatively local, with the exception of Matt Cardle.  He won X Factor a few years ago, and was the only performer I had heard of. But it was fun just enjoying the music!
Matt Cardle


Clare Grogan from Altered Images

A lovely day at Belleisle






Alan and I were able to go together on Saturday, but I went by myself on Sunday.  It was nice, in a weird way, to be there on my own.  I don't do many things just on my own and I really enjoyed it!

Maybe I am still in travel blog mode because this was really supposed to be about cupcakes! So I will focus now!







Corbyn's mum had tickets for the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend in Glasgow so he stayed with us all day Sunday and Monday.  It was great that Martin was here too, because the two of them had some serious quality time together! 



This morning, after exhausting his uncle, Corbyn thought it might be fun to bake.  I got out "My Baking Journal" since we had not baked anything from this in a long time.  Corbyn chose the Classic Cupcakes after considering every other recipe.  This is a basic recipe, but in the past, I always made cupcakes using cake mixes.  I am trying to stop this and was happy to try a recipe from scratch!  I apologise though, I was not able to do any conversions.  

Here is the recipe:

Classic  Cupcakes     makes 12 according to the recipe, but with the smaller cases, I got 18

200g plain flour
125g butter
150g caster sugar
125ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

1.  Preheat oven to 180C and place 12 cupcake cases into a cupcake tray.  (I used smaller cupcake cases, not mini ones though)

2.  Cream together butter and sugar, then add vanilla essence and then beat in the eggs.

3.  Sift in the flour, salt and baking powder.  Mix well whilst slowly adding the milk.

4.  Divide the mixture between then cake cases and bake for 20 minutes. 

5.  Have fun decorating the cakes with your choice of topping.

After the cupcakes were cooled, I used another recipe from this baking journal:

Normal Glace Icing

125g icing (powdered, confectioners) sugar
1 tablespoon warm water

1. Sift sugar into bowl.  Slowly add water until the icing become thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.  

2.  Add more water if needed - one droop at a time.


"Uncle, a double blessing. You love like a parent and act like a friend!"  Anonymous