Fluffernuffer Blondies (one pot)

I know it's Fluffernutter not Fluffernuffer, but see I heard wrong the first time I ever had anyone say Fluffernutter to me and I have never gotten it right since.

If you know me, I talk funny. And I don't think I talk funny just because I have an American accent in a foreign country kinda way. I mean I say words wrong and I make up words without even thinking about it. It's just that sometimes my brain is on fast forward and my mouth doesn't always keep up with changes in wordage.

These blondies are a very good example of my thought process. First I wanted to make banana brownies. Then I thought that bananas would be good with peanut butter. Then I was like you know what's good with peanut butter? Marshmallows!! Then I was like ooooooo fluffernuffers! Then the bananas were completely dropped from the ingredient list.

It's a mess living in my head!

If you are know asking yourself what the heck is a fluffernutter? I will tell you it's a sandwich. Specifically a sandwich with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. According to what I have read it has to be on white bread as well. I myself have never had a fluffernutter sandwich, but I love the combo of peanut butter and marshmallows.

So, I made peanut butter and marshmallow blondies and called them Fluffnuffer Blondies! One last thing the best thing about these blondies is that they can be made in one pot! I am always 100% in favor of less dishes.

Fluffernuffer Blondies

100g unsalted butter
225g white chocolate, broken up
175g light muscovado sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
200g crunchy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
80-100g mini marshmallows

Heat the oven to 180C and line the sides of an 8 in/20cm square cake pan.
Melt the butter and white chocolate together in a medium/large saucepan over a very low heat. When the butter has melted remove from the heat and stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Beat in the sugar, egg, peanut butter, and vanilla until combined. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the mixture and fold in until just combined. Gently pour/spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Then scatter the mini marshmallows all over the top until completely covered.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. Since you can't see the top of the blondies, due to all the marshmallows, you won't be able to tell if they are golden brown. If you are unsure give them an extra few minutes it won't hurt. Also if the marshmallows start to brown too quickly just place a loose sheet of aluminium foil on top.
Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares and then eat them!

notes: Read more about Fluffernutters here! Recipe is loosely based on one from Rachel Allen's Cake book. 

Your 5 Must Haves this Season with The Oracle {Reading, Berkshire}

I read somewhere that we only wear 20% of our wardrobes and it got me to thinking about what I wear out of my wardrobe and I would have to say that it's a probably fairly accurate percentage. I wear the same two or three pairs of jeans and the same handful of t-shirts and/or sweat shirts that depends on the season. The rest sits there and I keep saying yeah I'll wear that one day.

Therefore it's very important to take the time to pick out those items that one can and will wear over and over again. This is the idea behind The Oracle's "Your 5" campaign. I was invited along as a blogger guest to check out what it was all about. 

One of the professional stylist's took me through the must have coats, knitwear, trousers, boots, and skirts before having a quick makeover with MAC makeup.

At each station we discussed the different looks and colours of the season and I couldn't resist the military style coats especially the black one pictured above in my 5 must haves! Knitwear is always a must when the weather starts to change! Sweaters are my favorite because they can be dressed up  and down depending on where you are going.

One can never go wrong with a great pair of black wide legged trousers. It's a must for any and every occasion. Because it's such an important piece of clothing it's in my general opinion to pay a bit more for them. I have bought many of cheap pairs that only ever made it through a few wears.

Boots. I personally have been in search for a pair of boots for ages and I found a pair from New Look that I just had to have! As seen in the picture below. The heal is a bit taller then I'm used too so I will have to practice walking in them.... but I am in love with them!

Last must have item was a skirt, but I am not a big skirt person. I did fall in love with this long black leather skirt and I have been thinking about it since yesterday. It might be that item I go back to buy sooner then later! I will keep you posted!

And before I left I had a quick stop at the make-up counter and had a mini-makeover! She asked what colour I wanted to go with for my lips and I said lets go crazy! Crazy for me anyway! Lately all over histogram I have been seeing people with purple lips so that's what we went for! It was MAC Instigator! I had compliments on it all night!

Today is the last day they will be in The Oracle so if you have moment go see them! Everyone was super nice and informative!!

notes: I was invited along to the event and was compensated for my time. I was not asked to give a positive review. Please see my contact/policy page for more information. 

Mason Jar Nation by JoAnn Moser {book review}

Mason Jars have an interesting history and in recent years have become widely popular for it's variety and numerous uses. For food bloggers like myself they make great props and are great to bake cupcakes in!

However, JoAnn Moser shows us that that's not all they are good for! She gives us 50 different ways to use mason jars and I'm sure her ideas will inspire you to do much more with them! The chapters break down by Crafts, In the Garden, In the Kitchen, Inspired Storage, and Lighting and Lanterns.

I'd love to try and make -

From Crafts: 

• Lucky Bamboo Water Garden
• Tissue Paper Tumblers

From In the Garden:

• Mason Jar Bird Feeder
• Jar Band Wind Chime

From In the Kitchen:

• Dark Forest Trail Mix
• Pineapple-Infused Vodka
• Homemade Butter in a Jar
• Fruit smoothie in a Jar
• Night-Before Granola
• Yogurt Breakfast Sundaes

From Inspired Storage:

• Swizzle Stick Pop-up Holder
• Wine-Not Desk Organiser
• Clip and Binder Holder

From Lighting and Lanterns:

• Moonbeam Stakes
• Vintage Firefly Lantern

I am not much of a crafter so the projects I would be most interested in are probably on the easy side, but there are more challenging projects for the craft inclined!

Overall the book was very well researched and I thought the projects weren't just cute, but actual things people would want to try out!!

notes: I was given a copy of Mason Jar Nation by JoAnn Moser to review by the publisher, Cool Springs Press. Retails at £11.99 and available now from your local book retailers or online! All opinions are my own, I was not given any other compensation nor was I asked to give a positive review, please see my contact/policy page for more information.

Apple & Elderflower Drizzle Cake

The Great British Bake Off is back! Well it was what 2 weeks ago? Every year I say I'm going to bake along with the Bake Off and every year I don't. I like baking and I enjoy the show, but I hate feeling like I have to bake something I don't want to bake just to tag along.

But every year there is that part of me that wants to tag along! I want to be apart of all the social media groups that are baking along and take part in all the competitions held by Lakeland and Dunelm and other various kitchenware companies.

I just can't get my act together. I made a drizzle cake, the one I'm about to share with you two days after the first episode! Yay great, but I'm only just blogging about it. Oops. I also had all the ingredients to make Viennese Whirls and I still have all the ingredients sitting in my cupboard. Oops again. And there is no way I'm going to prepared for this week! Bread.

However, I will be watching every week and maybe I'll be able to sort it out and actually bake something and blog it all in the same week? Although please don't hold me to it.

Apple & Elderflower Drizzle Cake

2 granny smith apples, diced
juice and zest of one lime
2 tbsp sparkling elderflower presse
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
250ml sunflower oil
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs, 3 separated
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drizzle
2 tbsp sparkling elderflower presse
juice and zest of one lime
50g demerara sugar

Heat the oven to 160C and grease the bundt with butter and dust lightly with flour.
Mix the diced apples with the juice and zest of the lime along with the elderflower presse.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and almonds and leave to the side.
Beat the sunflower oil, 125g of the sugar, 1 whole egg and 3 yolks plus the vanilla until completely combined it should be lighter in color. Fold in the dry ingredients and just the juice from the apples.
In a separate bowl whisk the 3 leftover egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the leftover 125g of sugar and whisk until thick and shiny. Gently fold it into the cake batter a third at a time. Last, but not least, fold in the diced apples.
Gently pour/spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before carefully turning the cake out of the pan gently poke holes around the cake.
Leave mixing the drizzle ingredients together until you finished the last step. You don't want the sugar dissolving in the liquid you want it to be a bit crunchy where the sugar doesn't soak all the way through. Leave to cool completely before serving!

notes: recipe is inspired from a BBC Good Food recipe found in their 2016 calendar.

The Traveling Oreo Brownies

Summer finally arrived and then it went again just like that. Luckily before it went my friend and I made a trip to London to visit the Tate Modern when it was still sunny. It is my favorite museum in all of London, because to me modern art is the most expressive and interesting. Don't get me wrong, my university professor Kyle Crocker taught me to appreciate all art in all it's forms, but I like art that says something even if I don't agree with what it's saying.

I have been to the Tate Modern many times and there is always something new to see! There are always new exhibitions, but the art that has been there since it's opened is different every time I see it. It's like a book or a movie that speaks to you differently at different points in your life.

However, this time there was actually something new to see! The Switch House has been rebuilt with a 10 story tower and loads of more gallery space. As we were exploring this new space we must have looked a bit lost because a security guard stopped us and asked if she could help. She asked if we had been to the 10th floor yet, we hadn't. She instructed us to go up there right away and to come back and tell her what we thought after we'd seen the view.

Of course it was amazing, London always looks amazing from the sky. Here at the Tate the view is free and you can go whenever you want! The Shard and London Eye charge for the view and where the Sky Garden is gorgeous and free you have to plan the trip in advance and book tickets.

To make our trip even more cost effective we packed our own lunches. Neither of us were interested in playing the game of where to eat. It's a game we both despise. So, to accompany us on our day out I made my favorite brownie recipe and added some chocolate creme Oreos to them, because when you are going for chocolate you might as well go all out right?

They were great and added the sugar boost we needed after an an exhausting day of being cultured!

Chocolate Creme Oreo Brownies

100g dark chocolate, broken up
200g milk chocolate, broken up
250g salted butter
400g light muscovado sugar
4 large eggs
140g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1 pkg (154g) chocolate creme Oreos

Preheat oven to 180C/gas4 and line a 9in square pan/tin with parchment paper. Line approximately 9 Oreos on the bottom. I didn't want mine touching so spaced them out a bit. But line them up however you want! Crush the remaining Oreos until they are crumbs of varying sizes.
Very gently melt both chocolates with the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan. Just before the chocolate is completely melted, take off the heat and gently stir until it’s completely melted.
Then add the eggs one at a time to the melted chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the pan and stir until just combined. Stir in about half of the Oreo crumbs.
Gently pour the mixture over the Oreos and sprinkle the rest of the crumbs over the top before baking in the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes.
I suggest baking them until more firm if you are taking them on a picnic, less if you want a gooey brownie.

Oh, and we did see the security guard again in another gallery and we told her how very impressed we were with the view! The piece of art that spoke to me this visit: Ibrahim El-Salahi 'Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I' 1961–5

Tate Modern: Bankside, London, SE, United Kingdom

notes: this post is not sponsored in anyway by either the Tate Modren nor Oreo people for more information please see my contact/policy page! Recipe is adapted from Bakes & Cakes Magazine Summer 2013 (BBC Good Food Mag).
Other brownies I made using variations of this recipe: Snicker Stuffed Brownies, Twix Brownies, and Chocolate Chip Brownies!