Homemade Waffles

Randomly my eldest son asked for waffles for breakfast last week, he must have seen them on a TV program or something because I have never made them before! Initially I said no and then I remembered that my toastie maker has waffle plates on it and I have never used them, so I thought why not? I googled a few recipes to see roughly what the ingredients were and then made up a batter using what I had in the cupboards.They are relatively simple to make, you just have to take care when folding in the egg whites because this is what gives them a light fluffy texture over a stodgy one - cooked well they should be crispy on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle. They cook quickly and the variations for sweet or savoury toppings are endless - myself and the boys had strawberry and banana with maple syrup and the Hubby had crispy bacon with maple syrup! If you have any type of waffle maker at home I would highly recommend giving them a go! This batter made 6 waffles.


Ingredients

170g Plain Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
30g Caster Sugar
2x Eggs
250ml Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

How To Make

1. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

2. Combine the yolks with the milk and vanilla and then pour into the dry mixture and thoroughly combine. 

3. Whisk the egg whites until they a fluffy and form soft peaks. Then carefully fold them into the batter, keeping in as much air as possible. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes whilst you prepare you toppings and heat up you waffle maker. 

4. Cooking instructions may vary depending on your waffles maker. Mine is a 3in1 toastie maker and I cooked them by pouring approx 40ml - about half a ladle - of batter onto the bottom plate of the waffle maker and then closed the lid and cooked them for 4 minutes.

5. Once cooked, pop them onto a plate and top with your desired topping!

S'Mores Cones

I can't remember exactly how this recipe came about... We had a family BBQ planned at our local woods for my cousins graduation and I was asked to do a pudding but it needed to be something easy to transport and that didn't require more than a cool bag to keep it chilled. I thought about toasting marshmallows but that to me wasn't a pudding, then I thought about S'mores and somehow I came up with my own version - S'mores cones! My eldest had great fun helping me stuff the cones with all the filling. These are so fun, simple and adaptable - you can use any fillings you like but I'd say you definitely need either marshmallows or chocolate (preferably both) for gooey-ness. They can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you're ready to BBQ them. Makes 10.

Ingredients

10 Waffle Cones 

10 Strawberries (quartered)

2 Bananas (sliced) 

100g White Chocolate Buttons

100g Milk Chocolate Buttons

100g Mini Marshmallows

How To Make

1. There is no strict rule for stuffing the cones here, simply stuff the cones with each of the ingredients. Approximately 1 strawberry (4 quarters), 2-3 slices of banana and 10g each of buttons and marshmallows. Make sure you push the filling all the way to the bottom and alternate which ones you put in so you've not got all strawberry at the bottom for example.

2. Once they are all stuffed, carefully wrap each one in foil and twist the top to seal the cone in. Store in the fridge until needed.

3. When you're ready to cook them, simply pop them on the BBQ (preferably on low, or in a cooler spot if using charcoal). Leave them on there for approximately 5-10 minutes, turning every so often. They are ready when the marshmallow is gooey and the buttons have melted (open the twist at the top to check). 
 

Prosecco Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was a Rossini, which is Prosecco and strawberries. I used my vanilla sponge recipe and subbed the vanilla for prosecco and for the strawberry element I soaked some fresh strawberries in prosecco and popped them in the middle of my cupcakes as a little surprise. I topped them with vanilla buttercream, freeze dried strawberries, wafer butterflies and a prosecco shot. Makes 12. 

Ingredients

6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
150ml Prosecco plus 2 tbsp 
12 Whole Strawberries

For the icing...
450g Icing Sugar
200g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tbsp Milk

How To Make

1. Soak your strawberries in 150ml of prosecco. Preheat the oven to 160'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. 

2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of flour. Fold in the flour and stir through the 2 tbsp of prosecco. 

3. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

4. Once the cakes have cooled, cut a strawberry sized hole in the cakes (I used a cupcake corer). Pop a strawberry into each one.

5. For the icing, cream the butter until soft and then combine the rest of the ingredients. Pipe over the cupcakes and decorate as you wish.