Easter Chocolate Brownies

Believe it or not I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate and as most women will agree there is a certain time for all of us when Mother Nature rips off her crown, stamps her feet and demands that we give in to what SHE wants (what a villain she is!) However this time, there was definitely nobody holding me a gunpoint, demanding I shovel each and every last chocolately square into my mush, no siree. 

Some of you probably imagine me pottering around the kitchen, whisking away like Suzie Homemaker, a little caster sugar on my nose, scooping up just enough mixture with my little finger in a bid to decide whether it needs a little something extra. Well no ... from beginning to end my fat face was full of chocolate. At one point I couldn't tell where the chocolate started and my face began! If I wasn't chowing down on mini eggs (all of the pink ones) I was reaching into the drawer, the drawer directly in front of my chubby, little tum might I add, for a new spoon to scoop out some of the mixture. I cut off the edges and ate them when I was supposed to be waiting for the brownies to cool down. I was caught stuffing my hand into my bag on my train to work, trying to find the biggest square obviously. And then at work (it was bake off Thursday) I was so reluctant to put out my container that I waited until the last half an hour so everyone was stuffed after lunch knowing full well that meant I also got to indulge in the car on the way home. At no point was anyone holding a gun to my head, demanding for me to finish pretty much half a batch of brownies. 

The recipe is pretty similar to my Old Fashioned brownie recipe in the sense that they are very much grown up recipes, they go great with sophisticated ice creams and coffee's and as this recipe calls for self-raising flour they have the soft and fluffiness of a cake yet the typical brownie chew. The coffee used in this recipe is what makes it so grown up. I used a really flavorsome Parisien coffee by Nescafe and it really gave the brownies that mature, rich aftertaste I wanted. I also added a little orange blossom flavouring rather than vanilla. The Smarties mini-eggs served their purpose adding a fun, Easter theme to the brownies and inside the mixture they added a lovely sweet-smooth, chocolatey texture. 

This recipe is by Mary Berry with my own variations.

Ingredients 

300g plain/dark chocolate (39% cocoa solids)

225g butter

3 level tsp coffee

2 tsp hot water

3 large eggs

225g caster sugar

1tsp orange blossom or vanilla essence

75g self-raising flour

2 packets of mini eggs

Method

- Preheat your oven to 190 deg C/Fan 170 deg C/gas . Grease and line your baking tin with non-stick parchment.

- Break up the chocolate into pieces and melt slowly with the butter in a heat proof bowl over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool. 

- Dissolve coffee in hot water and in a separate bowl (to chocolate and butter mixture) mix coffee with eggs, sugar and flavouring. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour.

- Pour the mixture into your tin and then carefully poke in your desired amount of mini eggs. 

- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the brownies have a crusty top or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.

- Leave the brownies to cool in the tin for around 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire cooling rack. Once cooled completely cut the brownies into squares.

- Store in an airtight tin.

Happy Easter - Moist Carrot Cake Recipe

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you've all had a fab one. I've been down in London so as you can imagine I've been indulging a fair bit of alcohol and not so much chocolate, naughty I know. Seen as how I wasn't in work on Friday I decided to get up early and bake up a mini-feast carrot cake being at the top of the list. I've made carrot cake in the past, in fact the first time I made it I used a Nigella recipe and it came out really nice. Thinking back this carrot cake was my first bake! How could I forget? It was this very cake that catapulted me into the baking-mad Beanie I am today. 

This recipe is perfect, what I love about it is how fruity and moist it is. I love that there is so much you can do with it. For example, adding extra ingredients such as currants and raisins, walnuts, mixed peel or orange zest.

I have made a traybake and layer cake version of this recipe and both turned out perfect I am so happy with the results, I was half expecting to pull it out of the oven and end up launching it down the end of the garden like I have done in the past. But not this time.

The base of this recipe is from Good Food and as always I have added my own little quirks. This recipe is not only great for holidays such as Easter I find it's perfect after dinner and also for afternoon tea, this recipe goes well with Rooibos Gingerbread Tea. I used my offcuts to make little carrot cake hearts with a medium heart-shaped cutter.

This recipe below will make an 18cm traybake, I have also made a layer cake using sandwich tins for this recipe I doubled up on the quantities and shared equally amongst the tins.

I have added two separate decorating methods one for a traybake and the other for a layer cake. For a simple yet effective form of decoration you can dust either versions of this cake with icing sugar and it'll look just as yummy!

Enjoy x

Ingredients

175g light muscovado sugar

175ml sunflower oil

3 large eggs

140g grated carrots 

Grated zest of 1 large orange

Grated Zest of 1/2 lemon

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

Freshly ground nutmeg

50g Raisins (optional)

50g Mixed Peel (optional)

For the buttercream (layer cake)

275g Icing Sugar

150g butter

A little milk

1 tsp Orange Blossom flavouring

For the Icing (traybake)

175g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

 Method

 - Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. In order for the parchment to fit perfectly I drew around the base of my tin and then cut out a little larger in order to make sure it fit inside my tin properly. I then snipped down each corner and stuck the over lapping flaps to the sides of my tin using the oil.

- Add the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon then stir in the grated carrots, add lemon, orange zest and raisins/mixed peel if using.

-  Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients. When everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin/s and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)

Buttercream for layer cake

- Add the butter and beat until smooth. 

- Add in icing sugar a little at a time, until the mixture becomes a little stiff (if you need more icing sugar to get a nice stiff mixture keep adding.) the mixture should not be sloppy or runny.

- Pour in flavouring and mix together.

-  Place buttercream in the fridge for around an hour (if you are in a rush you can skip this step and move straight on to the next step.)

- Add milk a little at a time until the mixture is no longer stiff and resembles smooth ice cream. Remember not to add too much milk this will cause you buttercream to become sloppy and wet.

- Spoon the buttercream onto your cooled cakes and smooth out with a palette knife. Repeat until all cake layers are added. Then decorate with topping of your choice.

Icing for traybake

- Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.

- Let icing set and cut into sqaures using a sharp knife.

 

Rose Petal Shortbread Recipe

I have chosen to make rose petal shortbread because I have a slight obsession with all things rose at the moment, the smell, the taste, the look. And prior to making these I had been to see my Nan who was burning the cutest rose candle, it smelled absolutely delicious. It's funny, because I've never really been fond of rose until now. In fact I found it quite sickening. Rose and Lavender were probably my two least favourite fragrances and now I really do like both, rose a little more.

This is a deliciously, simple recipe by Laura Scott of 'How to cook good food'. I have always wanted to make shortbread but I remember a year or so ago watching Kirsty Allsop's tv series and the method seemed so technical. In all fairness she was entering some kind of competition and was being taught by some kind of shortbread enthusiast.

This particular recipe is quite simple and the method is easy. I am sure there is some perfect way to making these biscuits however we'll keep it simple and darling and we'll have fun with it. Even if you aren't a fan of rose, I know some people can find it too fragrant, you can tone it down by using less essence and if I'm being honest the rose flavour works really well the buttery, sugary taste of these biscuits. So do give it a go I'm absolutely positive you'll like it. I went rose crazy after making these and enjoyed mine with a cup of Rose Earl Grey tea the flavours work equally as well with Rose Pu-Erh tea (you'll be able to find reviews of both teas by clicking the tea link on the menu bar.)

Dried rose petals can be bought online from a trusted website for example a whole foods store. A lot of people do grow and use their own flowers in baking, I have done and will continue to. However homegrown rose petals can be hard to find in the middle of winter so for this recipe I stuck to sourcing them from a specialist. I have also used a few dried petals and buds from my Rose Pu-Erh tea jar.

Enjoy x

 Ingredients

175g plain flour
125g butter, at room temperature
2 tsp dried organic rose petals, finely chopped

1 tsp rosewater (optional)
50g caster sugar (Plus extra for sprinkling)

Method

- Preheat oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3, grease a baking tray and line with parchment.

- Place the flour, chopped-up butter, rose petals, rosewater (if using) and sugar in a bowl and mix it together with your hands until the mixture begins to form a ball of dough, alternatively you can use a dough hook on a medium speed until mixed together, however still make use of your hands for combining the mixture into a dough.

- Roll out the dough on a lightly dusted surface and cut out your desired shapes, this can be done free-hand or with a cookie cutter. I used a medium sized heart-shaped and round cutters. Once done, place onto your lined baking tray and sprinkle with lots of caster sugar.

- Bake for 15 minutes, then turn up the oven to gas mark 6 and cook for another 5 minutes to give  a lovely golden-brown colour.

- Once removed from the oven sprinkle with more sugar and leave to cool for ten minutes.

- Transfer biscuits onto a plate or wire cooling rack and leave to cool. (We ate a fair few with a cup of tea while they were still warm.)

Marshmallow Recipe

I thought I'd quickly add the Marshmallow recipe along with some pictures of the cake, just so you guys could get an idea of how to decorate and what the mallow should look like. This recipe is from the Primrose Bakery and is absolutely one of my favourite cake toppings to make. It's really easy to and I always use my leftovers to dollop in my coffee or hot chocolate,  just as a little treat mind. The mallow will keep in an air-tight container for a good 3-5 days. After that I do recommend dis-guarding.

Enjoy x

Ingredients

240g Granulated Sugar

160g Golden Syrup

  2tbsp water

  4 Egg Whites

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Food colouring of your choice  

Method

- Put the sugar, golden syrup and water into a pan and cook on a high heat for around 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken and turn golden and should slowly drip from a spoon. (The soft ball stage). 

-Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form then keep beating while you slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the bowl. 

- Continue beating at a higher speed until the mixture becomes thick, glossy and cool. Add the vanilla extract towards the end. (I added a drop of Wilton Rose food colouring at this point, then mixed in on a high speed until the icing was pale pink.)

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

Guys! It's been forever, how are you all doing? Firstly, let me apologise for being so lazy, I haven't posted in like, FOREVER! The reason being, I found myself a new full time job and had really started struggling to find the time to bake. I absolutely could not dedicate any time around my job to large orders and waiting for customers to come and collect. I found I was letting people down frequently because I was too tired or had loose ends to tie up at work which meant getting home late resulting in me having to cancel or rearrange customers. I HATE letting people down. Darling Cupcake is my little empire so I definitely haven't given up instead I've decided to dedicate my free time to helping others with their baking journey by sharing my advice and techniques. Getting to know you all has been an uplifting and amazing journey for me so there's no way I could give that up. I've made some really good friends with amazing talents. I'd like to thank you all, you probably don't even know what you've done, your kind words, help and all round interest in Darling Cupcake has really inspired me and has really kept me going. Bloody Nora, I'd be brilliant at the Oscars wouldn't I? I told you guys I'm 100% dra-ma queen. But hey! What good is a life with no drama? It's entertaining and it's fabulous (as long as you aren't mean.) Anyway back to baking. I've got so many recipes to share and I have been meaning to start with this chocolate cake recipe, I wanted this to be my big comeback recipe especially since it had such a big response over on instgram. I actually have to thank a very lovely instagrammer for asking me for the recipe because it was just the kick up the bum I needed to pull my finger out and start blogging again.

I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake but this recipe is delicious. I do believe it's a really good base to start with especially for adding your own frostings and hints of flavours to. I've used this cake recipe to make a chocolate marshmallow cake and a chocolate orange cake, I've also used this recipe for last years chocolate Christmas cake recipe which I decorated ... you guessed it, PINK. I will post pictures and recipes for those too. 

I was a little bit skeptical about this recipe at first purely because it has 'water' as an ingredient and in my experience water can dilute the taste of certain things. In this case it absolutely does not. The flavour is still there, the water just adds a texture and moisture to the sponge and unlike most cakes this does not dry out when stored in the fridge. 

This cake is AMAZING with Earl Grey Supreme tea, no sugar. You can find tea recommendations on the Tea page of this blog. The Salted Caramel is to die for. The recipe is by Nigella Lawson, however as always I made some adjustments which I will note in the recipe below. I actually wanted to drink it straight from the jug while it was hot and obviously I did! I drank enough to rival the chocolate monster that is Augustus Gloop! At one point I pictured myself in lederhosen, stuck in my dear Mother's already dodgy kitchen pipes crying, while two engineers from Dyno Rod tried to get me out. My imagination is so vivid because although this seems like something that couldn't possibly happen, in my world things like this happen on a regular basis. Anyhow bake, share, enjoy! (I use the term 'share' very loosely).

This recipe will make two layers in 8/9inch sandwich tins. I divided the quantities by half then added it on to the recipe to make a 3 layer, just for the cake. The quantities for the buttercream and caramel is enough to decorate a 3 layer.

Recipe courtesy of BBC Food and Nigella.  and Darling Cupcake.

Ingredients

For the Cake 

 225g plain flour 

350g caster sugar 

85g cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder 

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2 free-range eggs 

250ml oz milk 

125ml vegetable oil 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

250ml boiling water

For the Salted Caramel

 150g best-quality unsalted butter 

100g soft light brown sugar (I used Dark)

100g caster sugar 

100g golden syrup 

250ml double cream 

1 tsp Fleur De Sel

For the Salted Caramel Buttercream

125g Lightly Salted Butter

300g Icing Sugar

50ml Salted Caramel 

1/2tsp Coarse Sea Salt.

Method

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

2. For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.

3. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)

4. Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in their tins for 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool, before icing. 

For the Salted Caramel

1.  On a medium heat melt butter, sugars and syrup and butter in a small heavy based pan and let simmer for 3 minutes, swirling every now and again with a wooden spoon.

2. Add in the cream and Fleur De Sel and mix, give the caramel a taste to as you may want to add more salt, it will be hot so be careful. 

3. Pour into a jug and leave while you move on to the buttercream. 

For the Buttercream

1. Mix the butter on a high-speed until it is nice and smooth.

2. Add in half of your icing sugar and beat again on a high speed. Gradually add in the rest of the icing sugar. I like for my icing sugar to be stiff from the get go, so it gives me more to work with, so if the mixture isn't stiff add in a little more icing sugar.

3. Slowly add in the caramel mixture, turn the mixer down to a low speed and pour in gradually. The buttercream should be a nice smooth, spreadable texture. Not too sloppy. If you want to add more caramel then do so, but remember to keep it smooth. 

4. Add in the Fleur De Sel and mix. 

Finale

1. You will now want to go back to your cakes, level both before adding a nice thick layer of the buttercream. On top of the buttercream drizzle a little of the caramel mixture. (The caramel may have thickened up as it cooled, if so pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Make sure you are using a microwave safe bow, such as Pyrex.) 

2. Add the second layer of your cake, and more buttercream on top of that. Smooth out using a palette knife then add the popcorn. 

3. Once the popcorn has been added, drizzle the caramel over the whole cake you can even have some dribbling down the side of the cake, makes it look all the more delicious.

4. Serve, I like to heat up some Salted Caramel and pour over a slice of the cake, it's so tasty and lovely when it's warm. The cake can be stored in the fridge. I wouldn't recommend an airtight container as the buttercream can melt and is much nicer when it's a little solid. Enjoy!

For the marshmallow version to this cake please see the recipe for my chocolate and marshmallow cupcakes. Double the ingredients for the marshmallow topping and you'll have enough to decorate this yummy chocolate cake. Instead of popcorn use mini-mallows to decorate.

Baking with Mum - Coconut Pyramids/Macaroons

This blog post is one of my favourites, simply because it's about baking with my Mum. Now let me give you a little bit of a bio on me old mukka' (please don't tell her I called her old!) My Mum is an absolutely amaaaazing cook. She can literally whip up a masterpiece from nothing. I personally don't know how she does it. She's the type of person that'll come home from an overnight shift at work and no matter how late, or tired she is she will always cook. Thinking about it now, for the most part I've always thought my love for baking has come from my Nanny, which it has. But my kitchen habits have most definitely been handed down to me from my Mother, my ability to bake however, has not.

 

She is absolutely useless. My earliest and most fun memory of baking with my Mum is from when I was 9 and we decided to bake muffins. This is a time I always flash back to when I'm baking nowadays, particularly when I'm measuring out ingredients. Anyway when I was 9 we had decided to bake muffins, we had no scales (so we were already off to a terrible start) and we used plain flour, which haunts me to this day! Whenever I come across a cake recipe that calls for plain flour I hear 9 year old Beans saying, 'NOOOOOO! BLUE BAG! BLUE BAG!' (For those that don't know what I'm talking about Plain Flour comes in Red Bags and Self Raising in Blue.) So we baked, and we baked, I was so excited! And when the cakes came out they looked okay, they smelt amazing! We poured on our mixture of icing sugar and water, while the cakes were still hot might I add. And when we tasted them, they tasted like over salted Yorkshire puddings with sugar on top. It had gone so wrong and I still can't figure out how it went so wrong. In fact the only thing we did get right was the baking tray. We used proper muffin trays to bake so the shape was perfect and very deceiving, but the taste. The taste! Awful. Never-the-less we had fun and the experience has been added to my collection of fun memories with my best friend. 

I'd decided to give my Mum one more go and nearly a decade later we found ourselves back in the kitchen having lots of fun. This time with me in charge! I decided to choose something quite simple for us to do, this recipe doesn't call for many ingredients or much attention to be honest. It's easy and fun for any pro-baker or beginner. Plus my Mum absolutely LOVES Coconut pyramids. She used to always bring me one home in a paper bag after her rounds when she was a carer. They really are a guilty pleasure of hers and she did them justice! For someone who falls asleep at the drop of a hat and has the attention span of a cat she did so well! I was so proud, In fact at one point she was telling me that I need to pack more of the mixture together so they didn't collapse! Wit woooo, get you! Lol. 

Hope you guys enjoy this really tasty and uber simple bake courtesy of All Recipes UK. Enjoy x

Coconut Pyramids/Macaroons
Makes 12-16

My Mum kept her Pyramids simple and traditional and I covered mine with chocolate and decorated with white chocolate coloured pink. 

Ingredients 

2 free range eggs 

225g (8 oz) desiccated coconut 

150g (5 oz) caster sugar 

glace cherries to decorate

200g Milk Chocolate (for chocolate macaroons)

100g White Chocolate 

Method 

1. Preheat oven at 180 C

2. Line 1 or 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper

3. Beat eggs well then stir in the coconut and sugar

4. If you have time, leave mixture to stand for up to 20 minutes. If not, don't worry! 

5. Dip hands in cold water. Shape mixture into 'pyramids', using your hands or an eggcup as a guide.

6. Place on baking trays, decorate with glace cherries if desired. 

7. Bake at 180 C /gas 4 for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Remove from sheets and cool on a wire rack.

8. Once the Pyramids have fully cooled melt the milk and white chocolate (separately).

9. To colour the white chocolate use a colour PASTE as liquid colourings caused the chocolate to klump and lose it's smooth consistency. Add a tiny drop at a time from a toothpick or skewer. Then mix.

10. To coat the pyramid you can dip it directly into the Milk chocolate. I placed my pyramid on a fork and used a spoon to pour the chocolate. Place the coated pyramids onto greaseproof paper to set a little.

11. Scoop up the coloured chocolate with a tea spoon, let some of the excess chocolate drip off then drizzle over the coated pyramids. (Be sure to do this whilst pyramids are on greaseproof paper.)

12. Store in an airtight container to retain moisture. 

Grandad's Apple Pie

I've been dying to bake with the apples from my Grandad's apple tree, probably ever since he planted it. My Grandad was my first best friend. We did absolutely everything together, we were amazingly close and formed an unbreakable bond from the minute I was born to the day he passed away. He taught me a lot of what I know today, including gardening which is one of the things I remember us doing together so frequently. He was so very proud of his garden and he pretty much grew everything from cabbages to some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. So you can imagine how much I cherish what he has a left behind. It's nice to see how strong and determined my Nanny has been in keeping his little legacy going. She's fought off everything from the nuisance children who are  also very determined to destructively pick each and every apple for no reason whatsoever to the very persistent and as it appears hungry fruit bats, who every year are very successful in nibbling away at the apples and pears. I've had my eye on the apples since very early this year and I'd wished with all of the wishes in the world that hopefully towards the end of summer I'd have enough undamaged apples to bake an apple pie with.

Well! My Nan's efforts were not in vain this year as I'd received a call from her stating she had a gift for me, so off I popped only to find a bowl full of the greenest, cutest little apples ever and I knew straight away where they were from!

I already had it in my mind that they were definitely going to be baked in a pie. Not just because they were apples, and what else could I possibly bake with them? But because before my Grandad's diabetes took a turn for the worse, we used to sit in on a Saturday afternoon, watching Westerns and old Musicals stuffing our faces with Mr Kipling's mini Apple Pies and Digestive biscuits, he'd have coffee and me, a grown up cup of tea. So how could I possibly think of baking anything else?

I have no idea what kind of apples they are so I've named them Grandad Wilson's not very creative on my part as we already have Granny Smiths, but very fitting non-the less. The apples are very juicy, crisp and sweet. The closest supermarket-bought apple I can think of is the Pink Lady (my now 2nd favourite apple), so maybe consider using a few of these in this recipe. And I've opted for Golden Caster sugar for my pastry just for something a little closer to the taste of a digestive biscuit. As you can tell I was filled with nostalgia when putting this together. I also left my pastry quite thick, as nontraditional as it may seem, I really like a little bit of a stodgy pastry and I pack my pie full of apple but do feel free to alter to your liking. Hope you enjoy it!

 Grandad's Apple Pie

Ingredients

425g Plain Flour

115g Golden Caster Sugar

3 Large (beaten) eggs

200g cubed butter (cubed)

1/2 tablespoon of Salt

1/2 Lemon zest & juice

2 tsp Cinnamon

For the filling

8 large cooking apples (try a mix of cooking apples & Pink Lady's)
2 tsp Cornflour
1 tsp Lemon juice
40g Demerara sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

2.Sift salt, flour, cinnamon and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

3. Grate the zest of half a lemon and add to your dry ingredients.

4. Gradually add butter (make sure the butter has been in the fridge) blend together with fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

5. Beat together 2 eggs, add to mixture gradually and beat until smooth and well combined. 

6. Lightly dust a clean surface with some Plain flour and bring the dough together further by kneading with clean hands.

7. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 45-60minutes.

8. Once chilled, remove dough from the fridge, again on a lightly dusted (with plain flour) surface roll out your dough into a large enough diameter to cover the base and sides of your pie dish.

9. Sprinkle a little plain flour into the bottom of your pie dish. Then using your rolling pin carefully pick lift the rolled out dough and lower it into the dish. Make sure the bottom and sides are covered and be sure to press the dough into the sides of the dish. 

10. Sprinkle a little more plain flour onto the pastry.

11. Peel, core and cut your apples then cut into your desired sizes. ( I like to use a mixture of thick and thin sized apples just to add texture and a little authenticity to it's homemade look.)

12. Add your apples to a pan with lemon juice, demerara sugar and cinnamon  and mix with a wooden spoon on a medium-high heat for around 2 minutes. Be careful not to let your apples stick to the pan, if this happens reduce heat.

13. Add in cornflour give one last mix then add apples to pie dish (do not let any juice go into your dish.) Sprinkle over a little more demerara sugar.

14. Roll out the remaining dough, using heart-shaped cutters proceed to cutting out your shapes. (What I did here was use larger hearts on the outside and got smaller towards the centre.)

15. Place each heart on top of your apple mixture, brush with egg-wash and sprinkle a little more sugar.

16. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Your kitchen should smell amazing within 15 minutes! I served with Salted Caramel or Caramel Latte Ice cream. This pie can also be frozen and microwaved when ready to eat. I had apple pie for pudding every night for a week!