American Style Pancakes

Hello! I'm so sorry that it's been almost a month since I last posted! The last few weeks have been pretty hectic with moving back to university for my third (and final..!) year, driving lessons and about 5 friends' birthdays in a row!

Speaking of birthdays, I recently celebrated my 21st birthday, and to kick off the celebrations we made American style pancakes for breakfast. I wanted something quick and easy as I didn't want to be spending too long in the kitchen on my birthday, and this recipe is definitely both quick and easy. You just whizz up all of your ingredients in a blender, cook the pancakes and you're done! Minimal effort and minimal washing up!

Ingredients (makes around 12-15 small pancakes)
225g plain flour
30g melted butter (and extra for frying)
300ml milk 
2 large free range eggs
2tsp sugar
1tbsp baking powder
a pinch of salt


Method

1. Place all of your ingredients into a blender and blitz it until smooth. Pour your pancake batter into a jug - this makes it easier to pour.
2. Heat a frying pan on the stove, add a small amount of butter and coat the pan. 
3. Pour a small amount of the batter into the frying pan into a neat circle. It is totally up to you how big or small you make your pancakes - I think the small American pancakes are really sweet, but you can make yours bigger if you prefer. 
4. Once your circle of batter has cooked around the edges, it's time to flip! Flip it over and cook the other side until it is lovely and golden. 
5. Now it's ready for whatever toppings or fillings you want! Some ideas are:
        - nutella and banana
        - berries and vanilla cream
        - lemon and sugar
        - bacon and maple syrup (my favourite!)
6. If you want a proper American stack of pancakes, once each pancake has been cooked, pop it on a plate and cover with kitchen foil until you're ready to eat them!  

 I hope you like this breakfast idea - they really are so simple, and this is coming from someone who really used to struggle with pancakes!

I know I've had a long break from The Little Yellow Book, but I'm definitely going to be posting more regularly now that I'm back in the swing of things at uni - and baking will be a much needed break from writing my dissertation!

Banana and Coffee Smoothie

This banana and coffee smoothie is such a great way to start the day - you get both your caffeine and your fruit fix in one go! This smoothie tastes like it has come straight from a coffee shop, but it is so easy to make and you more than likely have all the ingredients at home, so it comes at a fraction of the price and effort. Give it a go! 

Ingredients (makes two small glasses, or one large glass)

1 banana, sliced

1 cup of milk

½ cup of cold black coffee

½ cup of ice

2tsp sugar

Method

Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth, pour into a glass or bottle, add a straw and you're good to go! It really is that quick and simple :) enjoy!

Toffee Crisp Cake Bars

I think that Toffee Crisps are so underrated. It's a bold statement to make, but I seriously think that they are the best chocolate bar going, yet I have been to some shops that don't stock them :( No one else agrees with me, which is great because it means theres more for me! To declare my love for the underrated Toffee Crisp I decided to create a cake bar in their honour: a chocolate traybake (courtesy of Mary Berry) with caramel buttercream, caramel drizzle and pieces of Toffee Crisps. I think this traybake makes a perfect cake for a birthday party and you could mix it up depending on your favourite chocolate bar!  

Ingredients 

For the chocolate traybake

50g cocoa powder

6tbsp boiling water

100g soft butter

275g caster sugar

3 large free-range eggs 

125ml milk

175g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

For the caramel buttercream

a jar of caramel
   - 220g sugar

   - 105ml water

   - 245ml double cream

   - 1tsp vanilla extract

150g soft butter

350g sifted icing sugar

a splash of milk

2 x toffee crisp chocolate bars

Method

I would advise making your caramel first so that it has had time to cool down and thicken in the fridge. This means you can add it to your buttercream without it melting the butter. To make your caramel just follow these simple steps:

• Add the vanilla extract to the double cream and leave to one side.
• Pour the sugar and water into a medium sized saucepan and give it a quick stir. Place onto a medium heat and keep an eye on it - don't stir it once it has been placed on the heat - you can shuffle the saucepan around, but resist any temptation to stir!
• Once the sugar and water mixture has turned a deep amber colour, remove it from the heat and slowly pour in your vanilla cream, making sure you are stirring at the same time. It can bubble and steam so be careful not to splash yourself as the caramel will be very hot. 
• If there are any lumps in your caramel, don't worry - just place it on a low heat and stir until there are no lumps left.
• If you like you can add a teaspoon of salt to your caramel to make it salted caramel - just give it a good stir to ensure the salt has dissolved. 
• Pour into a jar and leave to one side to cool down. 

Chocolate traybake

1. Preheat your oven to 160ºC and grease and line a traybake tin with butter and baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl sift in the cocoa powder, add the boiling water and mix together. Next add in the softened butter and mix until smooth. 
3. Add all of the remaining ingredients and mix until everything has been incorporated.
4. Pour your cake batter into the traybake tin and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. 
5. Remove from the oven, leave to cool and then make your buttercream.

Caramel buttercream

1. Beat your butter in a mixer until it has gone smooth and pale. 
2. Add in the icing sugar in two halves, making sure it has mixed in smoothly with the butter. 
3. Once you have added all of the icing sugar, add a splash of milk to loosen the mixture. 
4. Next add about 4 or 5 spoonfuls of your caramel - or just as many as you like depending on how you want your buttercream to taste. 
5. Spread your buttercream over the chocolate sponge and smooth it out. 
6. Chop up a couple of Toffee Crisp chocolate bars and scatter the pieces over the top of the buttercream. 
7. Finish off the traybake with a generous drizzle of your caramel. 
8. Leave to set slightly and cut into bars or squares.

I hope you like this recipe, it is so yummy and really good fun - I think it would be perfect for a chocolate lovers birthday! I would suggest storing the cakes in an airtight container so that the chocolate bars don't go stale.

Coffee and Walnut Cake

Two months into setting up The Little Yellow Book and I've finally posted a recipe to my favourite cake: coffee and walnut cake. I have absolutely no idea why it has taken me so long to make this for the blog, but here it is! This cake is beautifully moist and I personally think the coffee buttercream is the best bit - and I'm not overly mad on buttercream or icing, so that is definitely saying something!

Ingredients 

For the cake 

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 free range eggs
225g self-raising flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder
3tbsp instant coffee granules
5tbsp hot water
a splash of milk

For the buttercream

150g softened butter
400g icing sugar, sifted
a splash of milk
3tbsp instant coffee granules
5tbsp hot water
chopped walnuts

Method 

Coffee cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and line two sandwich tins with butter and flour. 
2. Make up the coffee using 3 tablespoons of coffee with 5 tablespoons of hot water and leave it to cool down.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
4. Add the egg one by one, with a tablespoon of flour between each egg and mix together. Also add the baking powder at this stage.
5. Add your splash of milk and the cooled coffee. I would suggest adding your coffee bit by bit and checking the consistency of the batter - you don't want it to be too wet. 
6. Once you're happy with your cake mixture, divide it between the two prepared cake tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. 
7. After 25 minutes, check that the cakes have baked all the way through by inserting a skewer or a fork and checking that it comes out clean. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool and make your coffee buttercream.

Coffee buttercream

1. Firstly make up your coffee using 3 tablespoons of coffee with 5 tablespoons of hot water and leave it to cool down.
2. It will be easier, and quicker, to make your buttercream in an electric mixer, but you can definitely make it with a wooden spoon. You will need to mix your butter until it goes pale and smooth. 
3. Next you'll need to add your icing sugar in stages so that it doesn't go everywhere when you mix it! Add in the icing sugar bit by bit and mix together. Add a tiny splash of milk to bring it together.
4. Finally add in the cooled coffee, bit by bit so that your icing doesn't get too wet, but if it does, don't worry - add in more sifted icing sugar. In fact, it's probably best to experiment with how much coffee you add in, depending how strong you want the flavour to be.
5. When you're happy with the coffee buttercream, slice the cooled cakes in half so that you can layer up the cake. You can always just keep it as a sandwich cake if you prefer. 
6. Place your first cake layer onto your serving plate and smooth a quarter of the icing over it. I was quite stingy with the buttercream for the first couple of layers (as you can see in the second photo), but don't be - I definitely had enough to have equal amounts of buttercream in between each layer. Layer up the cake with the buttercream and if you like you could add some chopped walnuts in between the layers.
7. Smooth some buttercream on the top of the cake and sprinkle some chopped and halved walnuts on the top and serve! 

Can you tell I was worried about running out of icing at the beginning?!

I hope you like this recipe - it goes perfectly with a cup of tea!

Mushroom and Gorgonzola Twists

Here is my final Sunday challenge recipe (lets ignore the fact that it's actually Monday...) and although it's the last of the challenges it is also a first for me: the first savoury post on the The Little Yellow Book! This blog was meant to be just for baking cakes and all things sweet, but I do really enjoy cooking, despite the fact that I am a broke student! I love the independence of cooking - and planning - my own meals whilst at uni, so I think I will be putting quite a few savoury recipe posts on here in the future. So, for my final Sunday challenge I made the mushroom and gorgonzola twists from The Great British Bake Off's How to Bake.

It is quite hard to make savoury stuff look as pretty as cakes! 

Ingredients

300g filo pastry (or 6 sheets)
4 large portobello mushrooms
2-3tbsp olive oil
small bunch of parsley
a few sprigs of rosemary
1 large garlic clove, peeled
100g gorgonzola (or any blue cheese)
50g unsalted butter, melted
black pepper

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 190ºC. 
2. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and leave to one side. Heat up your oil in a large frying pan and cook your mushrooms on a medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. 
3. While the mushrooms are on the hob, chop up the mushroom stalks, the garlic and herbs and season with black pepper. Divide your cheese into quarters and roll it into a rough ball shape. 
4. Lay out your filo pastry on a work surface and halve it so you have two lots of 3 layers of pastry. Cut the layers into two so you are left with 4 lots of 3 layers. 
5. Place a mushroom on each square of 3 layers, followed by the garlicky herby mixture and the ball of cheese. 
6. Brush the edges of each square with melted butter and gather the edges and twist the four corners so its held in place.
7. Place the filo parcels on a baking tray and brush with more melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes and until the parcels are a lovely golden brown colour. 
8. Serve them hot with a little salad. Enjoy!

Apologies for the lack of prettiness! 

I think these mushroom and blue cheese twists would make a great starter with a side salad or as a main with baby potatoes and salad. I hope you enjoyed this savoury recipe and let me know if you want to see any more meal ideas on my blog!

Hidden Name Birthday Cake

Last week it was my boyfriend Liam's 21st birthday and I had an exciting birthday cake idea up my sleeve! After a few weeks of planning and internet shopping I made his cake and was so proud of it! I've never made anything quite so challenging and everyone was really impressed with it, especially the birthday boy - so it was worth every bit of stress! I really hope you like this recipe, although it's a bit tricky and fussy, everyone is so amazed so it's definitely worth it for a special occasion! I also apologise in advance for the length of the instructions...!

Ingredients  

For the vanilla letters
225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder

a splash of milk 

1tbsp vanilla extract

For the chocolate sponge
450g softened butter 
450g caster sugar
8 eggs
280g self-raising flour
200g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
a splash of milk

For the chocolate ganache
300ml double cream
300g dark chocolate
3tsp caster sugar


Method

Vanilla letters

1. The day before you want your cake to be ready, make the vanilla letters. Start by preheating your oven to 180ºC and lining two loaf tins with butter and flour. 
2. In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add an egg and a tablespoon of flour and combine. Repeat this until all of the eggs and all of the flour has been mixed together. 
3. Sift in your baking powder and add your splash of milk and vanilla extract and combine everything. 
4. Spoon the cake mixture into your prepared loaf tins and bake for 30 minutes - an inserted skewer or fork should come out clean. 
5. Let the vanilla sponge cool completely and then turn them out of the tins. Cut the loaves in half lengthways and cut out your letters - you can use cookie cutters like me, or cut them out by hand. This will only really work with a 3 or 4 letter name. You will need 4 of each letter, so for example I had 4 L's, 4 I's, 4 A's and 4 M's cut out of my vanilla cake.
6. Once you have cut out your letters, wrap them in cling film and pop them in the freezer. You can carry on with the cake the next day, or if you wanted to continue the same day, make sure your letters have completely frozen. This prevents them from over-baking when they are in the middle of the chocolate sponge.
   
   

Chocolate cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and line two loaf tins (or a square cake tin - I kinda wish that I used a square cake tin, it would make the finished cake look a bit better) with butter and cocoa powder. 
2. Cream together your butter and sugar and add the eggs and flour and cocoa powder bit by bit. 
3. Sift in the baking powder and add the splash of milk and mix together until the mixture has combined. 
4. Smooth out a bit of the chocolate cake mixture into the bottom of the loaf/cake tins, take your vanilla letters out of the freezer (and out of the cling film!) and place them inside the tins. Stack them upwards as they'll hold their shape better if they're lying flat. 
5. Once the letters have been placed in the tins, add the rest of the chocolate cake batter - it may take some time filling in around the letters, but you want to make sure that there are no gaps. 
6. Cover the letters at the top, smooth the mixture over and pop into the oven for about 50 minutes. For the last 10-20 minutes of the bake you may want to cover the tins with tin foil as you don't want the cake to burn, and it's quite hard to tell if a chocolate cake is burning or not!
7. After the cakes have been in the oven for 50 minutes, insert a fork or skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean or very nearly clean, remove it from the oven and leave to cool in the tins. Once they are cool you can move on to the chocolate ganache!
   
   

Chocolate ganache

1. Start by breaking up your chocolate and placing it into a large heatproof mixing bowl. 
2. In a saucepan, heat your cream and sugar together and when it reaches the boil, pour it over your broken up chocolate. 
3. Keep stirring the chocolate and cream until all of the chocolate has melted and the ganache is shiny and smooth. 
4. Leave your ganache for about half an hour to set. 
5. Once the ganache has set, cut your two cakes in half lengthways (or just the one cake if you have used a large square cake tin). Make sure that your letters will match up when you assemble the cakes, and once you're happy with the order in which your cakes will go, put a bit of ganache on each cake and stack them up. Be sure to make a note of the 'front' of the cake - you don't want to cut into the cake and the name to be backwards!
6. Leave the cake to set for a little while and then you can ganache it all over! 
7. I also piped on some white chocolate ganache at the bottom of the cake - I brought 100ml double cream to the boil with 1 tsp sugar and poured it over 100g white chocolate and left to set in the fridge before piping. You can decorate this cake however you like! I also piped '21' onto the top of the cake but didn't take a good enough photo of it...oops! 
8. Add candles and it's good to go!

I really hope that this recipe helps anyone who is thinking of giving a hidden name cake a go! Although a lot of planning (and ingredients) goes into this cake, everyone who sees it is so impressed and happy with it that the planning and stress 100% pays off! What's even better is that it tastes great too! I was really worried that people would think that it looked good but the flavour wouldn't match up, but that wasn't the case :)

Also, you can definitely switch up the flavours of this cake - you could do chocolate letters with vanilla sponge or a vanilla sponge with coloured letters and flavoured icing.

Chocolate Pannacotta

Ooops! This post is two days later than I had planned, so for this week the third 'Sunday challenge' is the 'Wednesday challenge'! Last week was just so busy that I didn't have a chance to make the chocolate pannacotta from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. I started a work experience placement at a museum, had a few driving lessons and made my boyfriend's birthday cake (look out for a post on that this week!) and before I knew it, Sunday evening had come around and I was sans-pannacotta! I hope you lovely lot don't mind and enjoy this recipe nonetheless :)

Ingredients 

6g leaf gelatine (approx. 4 sheets)

250ml milk

500ml single cream

60g caster sugar

80g dark chocolate

20g cocoa powder

Method

1. Start by soaking your leaf gelatine in a bowl of cold water. Leave it in there while you crack on with the next stage. 
2. Pour your milk and cream into a large saucepan. Add the sugar and cocoa powder. Break your chocolate into pieces and add it in. 
3. Place your saucepan onto a low heat and stir until the chocolate has melted and the whole mixture is completely smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat before it boils. 
4. Once the pan is off the heat, squeeze any excess water out of the gelatine and add it to the chocolatey milky mixture. Gently whisk the gelatine in to ensure that it dissolves into the mix properly. 
5. Leave the pannacotta mixture to cool, giving the mixture a whisk every now and again. 
6. Once the mixture has cooled, transfer it into a jug so that it is easier to pour. Divide the mixture between six pannacotta moulds (I just used normal ramekins), cover with cling film and leave in the fridge until it has set. Mine were in the fridge for about 11 hours and they set just fine!
7. To remove each pannacotta from their moulds simply loosen the edge with a knife and dip the moulds into a bowl of water for a couple of seconds. Don't dip them for too long as you don't want the pannacottas to melt, but they may require a couple of dunks - mine were quite feisty! Tip them onto little serving plates and enjoy!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have made countless batches of chocolate chip cookies over the years and although they have been good, I have never found the perfect recipe to create a soft, chewy cookie...until now! I used Annie Bell's Baking Bible (again...!) but they are so so good! My cookies are quite small and I reckon that if I flattened them out a bit more they have been even softer - I'll have to experiment with them and let you guys know! 

Ingredients (makes 20 cookies)
110g lightly salted butter
125g light muscovado sugar
1 medium free range egg (although I only had large)
1tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
150g dark chocolate chips


Method

1. By spoon or in a mixer, cream together the butter and muscovado sugar. 
2. Once the butter and sugar have come together, add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together.
3. Sift in the flour and the baking powder and mix again until it has all been incorporated. 
4. Add the chocolate chips (leaving a handful to one side) and mix into your dough with a wooden spoon. Cover the mixing bowl with cling film and place into a fridge for at least a few hours to chill. 
5. Once your cookie dough has been chilling in the fridge, preheat your oven to 170ºC fan.
6. Lightly grease a couple of baking trays (you may need to bake the cookies in batches). Roll the cookie dough into balls the size of a walnut and flatten them with the palm of your hand. In hindsight I would have flattened them quite a lot to make them super soft. Whatever size you decide on, arrange the cookies on the baking trays about 5cm apart. 
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they are golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and using a palette knife, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 
8. Grab a cup of tea, coffee or a glass of milk and dunk away! They are so yummy warm or cold!

Tiramisu Torte

I'm really enjoying challenging myself with my Sunday bakes and this weekend saw me attempting Annie Bell's Tiramisu Torte and it turned out way better than I expected! I absolutely love tiramisu, whenever I can manage dessert at a restaurant I'll always choose it if it's on the menu, so when I spotted the recipe for a tiramisu torte in the Baking Bible, I decided it would be one of my challenges. My family have just had it for pudding after our Sunday roast and everyone enjoyed it (including my coffee-hating little brother!), so I'm really pleased and very excited to share it with you! 

Ingredients 

For the cake base

50g self-raising flour

50g light muscovado sugar 

50ml vegetable or groundnut oil

1 medium free range egg, separated

1-2tbsp cooled black coffee

1tbsp milk

For the filling

300g dark chocolate (approx. 50% cocoa solids)

4 medium free range eggs

30g golden caster sugar

250g tub of mascarpone 

2tbsp strong black coffee (or kahlúa)

Method

Coffee cake

1. Preheat your oven to 170ºC and butter a 20cm cake tin (with a removable base).
2. Sift the flour and the sugar together into a mixing bowl and add the oil (I actually used sunflower oil, which was fine), egg yolk, coffee and milk. Mix everything together until nice and smooth. 
3. Whisk up your egg white until it is stiff and gently fold it into the cake batter in two goes. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth it out ensuring it covers the base of the tin evenly. 
4. Bake for 12 minutes: until it is golden on top and coming away from the sides of the tin. Leave it to cool in the tin and make your tiramisu filling. 

Tiramisu filling

1. Break up your dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Stir the chocolate as it gently melts and then put to one side to cool. 
2. Separate your eggs and whisk up the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk up the egg yolks with the golden caster sugar until the yolks have gone pale and the consistency is slightly mousse-like. 
3. Add your mascarpone to the melted chocolate and mix together. Like me, you may have to try very hard to not eat your bowl of mascarpone chocolate... 
4. Add the chocolate mixture to your egg yolks and gently mix. Finally fold in the egg whites in two goes, followed by your coffee/kahlúa - I used coffee in mine, but if you wanted the alcohol flavour of a tiramisu then I would definitely go for the kahlúa! 
5. Smooth the chocolate cream over the cooled cake (still in the tin) and decorate it if you like - I quite like the simplistic look, but Annie Bell decorates her torte with crushed edible silver decorations which looks rather pretty.
6. Chill your torte in the fridge for several hours and when its ready to be served, run a knife around the edge of the torte, remove it from the tin, slice and enjoy!

I have added this recipe to #CookBlogShare with SuperGolden Bakes

Mocha Cupcakes

The past year or so has seen me develop a love for coffee. It will never replace tea as my favourite drink, but with university exams and countless assignments, coffee definitely helped me pass the year! So, what better to have a coffee flavoured cake accompany a cup of tea? I love a slice of coffee cake, but I think a mocha cupcake is just as good, if not better!

Ingredients 

For the cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes)

100g softened butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

120g self-raising flour

4tsp instant coffee granules

4tsp cocoa powder

2tbsp boiling water

2tbsp hot milk

For the buttercream

150g softened butter

380g icing sugar, sifted

2tsp milk 

4tsp instant coffee granules

2tbsp boiling water

dark chocolate shavings (optional)

Method

Mocha cupcakes

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. In two separate mugs, mix the coffee and water together and the milk and cocoa powder together and leave to one side.
3. Cream together the butter and the sugar then add your eggs and mix together. 
4. Sift in the flour and mix well.
5. Finally, pour in the hot chocolate mix and the coffee and stir together until it is all combined.
6. Spoon the cake mixture into your cake cases and place into your preheated oven for 15 minutes. 

Coffee buttercream

As I'm back home from university I am lucky enough to be able to use my Mum's KitchenAid, but if you don't have a mixer, a mixing bowl and wooden spoon will work just fine :)

1. In a mug, make up the coffee with the granules and water, but make sure you leave it cool completely before adding it to your buttercream as if it is warm it will melt the butter.
2. Put the butter into the mixing bowl and beat until it has gone a bit paler and is nice and smooth. Add half of the icing sugar and mix, increasing the speed as you go along. 
3. Once it has come together, add the rest of the icing sugar and add the milk and continue mixing. 
4. Add in the cooled coffee and give it one final mix until it has turned a lovely caramel colour.
5. Spoon the buttercream onto your cooled cupcakes, sprinkle over the chocolate shavings and enjoy!
   Best served with a cup of tea or coffee!

Pistachio Macarons

For my first Sunday recipe book challenge I have made the pistachio macarons from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. Macarons are notoriously difficult so I began baking these very apprehensively. But apart from some technical issues with my piping bag, these lovely little macarons were actually pretty easy to make. I think having an electric whisk for the egg whites and a blender for the pistachios made the whole process a lot easier!

Ingredients 

For the macarons (makes 20)

75g shelled pistachios

125g icing sugar

2 large egg whites

15g caster sugar 

For the pistachio buttercream

55g shelled pistachios

250g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter, softened

Method

Pistachio macarons

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC. 
2. Put your shelled pistachios and icing sugar into a food processor and blend until the mixture is as fine as dust. Pour this into a mixing bowl.
3. Whisk your egg whites in a separate mixing bowl until fairly stiff and then sprinkle in the caster sugar. 
4. Fold the whites into the blitzed pistachios and icing sugar (I actually sieved the mixture after it had been blended to ensure that it was really fine) and combine gently. 
5. Put the macaron mixture into a piping bag with a plain 1cm nozzle. Pipe a small amount of the mixture onto the corners of two baking trays and place greaseproof paper onto the tray. Pipe small rounds onto the baking trays (you should be able to do about 40, to make 20 macarons). Leave them for 10 minutes so they can form a skin. 
6. Put your macarons into your preheated oven for 10 minutes - they should be set, but not dried out. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once they have cooled you can make the pistachio filling.

Pistachio buttercream

1. Like before, blend the pistachios and icing sugar together in the food processor until they are fine. 
2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and then add the pistachios and icing sugar and continue creaming together. I added a splash of milk as the buttercream seemed very stiff, but you can see how you get on. 
3. To finish your pistachio macarons you can either pipe or spread the buttercream onto one macaron and pop another on top and sandwich them together. 

I really hope that you have enjoyed this 'challenge' recipe. I would normally steer clear of something like macarons purely because I have heard how difficult they are. I'm glad that I tried making them, and although they aren't as beautiful as the macarons in Ladurée, I've definitely boosted my baking confidence by trying out something new. I hope that this spurs on anybody who has been put off by the humble macaron's difficult reputation :) I also think I'm going to make some more of these cute little treats in different flavours so keep your eyes peeled for those!

P.S: Nigella calls these 'macaroons', but I believe these to be called 'macarons' - I'm not totally sure but I think macaroons are the coconut cookie type cake. Let me know and please correct me if I'm wrong! 

My Favourite Cookbooks!

As this is my 10th blog post I thought I would do something a little bit different: a review of my favourite baking books! I'm back home from university for the summer holidays so I have gone through my Mum's bookshelf and chosen the books that I always keep coming back to whenever I'm home and want to bake. I thought it might be quite nice to choose my favourite recipes from each book, as well as a 'challenge' recipe for me to attempt in future blog posts! I hope you like this different style of post :)

1. The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake

I am so happy that The Great British Bake Off  has finally returned! Until I get my yearly fix, the How to Bake book has had to suffice. This book, with recipes by Linda Collister and forewords by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, is fantastic for new and old bakers alike as there are classic bakes, old favourites as well as the infamous 'technical challenges'. It's a great book if you're a follower of the show as they include the 'Best of the Bake Off' recipes - so you can recreate some of your favourite bakes from the show at home!

Favourite recipe: Cherry Bakewell cupcakes

Challenge recipe: Mushroom and gorgonzola twists

2. Tessa Kiros: Apples for Jam
This book wins every award for photography, typography...recipe-ography. No? Haha. 
It is so beautiful that I'm always too scared to attempt anything in fear that my bake would never live up to expectation! Other than how gorgeous it looks, the thing I really love about Apples for Jam is that each section is colour coded: red, orange, yellow, pink, even gold! It's so cool. It is also a cookery book rather than a baking book, and whenever I pull it out to bake from it, I just end up getting hungry from all of the dinner recipes. 

Favourite recipe: Chocolate & vanilla marble cake

Challenge recipe: Chocolate pannacotta

3. Nigella Lawson: How to be a Domestic Goddess
It is definitely no surprise that this book made its way into my favourites! I absolutely adore Nigella, I love the decadence of her recipes, I respect her large portions and her frank way of writing is just so great. This cookbook is clearly a favourite with both me and my Mum - the pages are splattered with chocolate and cake mix...nice! I really would recommend this book, I feel you really can't go wrong with Nigella, and who doesn't want to be a domestic goddess?!

Favourite recipe: Brownies

Challenge recipe: Pistachio macarons

 4. Annie Bell: Baking Bible
Annie Bell has been named a 'bright light among Britain's food writers' and by going through her Baking Bible it is clear to see why. Her book contains more recipes than I can count, with beautiful photographs and lovely paragraphs about each recipe. It is split into twelve chapters as well as an introduction and a section about the basics of baking. Meringues and cheesecakes have their own chapters which I think is great! 

Favourite recipe: Raspberry & almond traybake

Challenge recipe: Tiramisu torte

So, there we have it - a round-up of my favourite baking and recipe books! I am excited for my challenge recipes, keep your eyes peeled for those. I will be tweeting when I am making them, so make sure you're following @theyellowbook_ over on Twitter! I'm thinking a Sunday night post for each challenge which will take us through August, along with some mid-week recipes!