Alfie

Guess what! Lauren got a puppy! His name is Alfie and he is a cute little ball of fluff.

Currently all he does is sleep, eat, play and poop. However, he is definitely loving and loves to cuddle.

I am thinking about writing frequent blog posts updating you on his growth and some of the adventures I will be taking him on.

Here are some photos from his first few days at his new home.

End of summer

Unfortunately, school starts again soon, which means summer has ended.

As you can probably see, we didn't make as much progress on the list as we first anticipated, however this doesn't mean we will stop with the summer adventures.

Both of us have decided that we will continue completing the list even though summer has ended.

We hope you enjoyed our adventures so far and can't wait to share more with you!

Baking Tuesdays: Pizza

Today we made pizza! It didn't turn out amazing, mainly because we forgot to put cheese on, but it was edible. We used tomato puree and BBQ chicken as toppings, but you can use whatever you want. Although it looks a little burnt it didn't taste like it was.

Here is the video with the recipe underneath, enjoy!

Ingredients

250 grams flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon yeast

150 ml warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1.     Combine dry ingredients.

2.     Mix yeast in with warm water, then add to the dry ingredients, with the oil.

3.     Mix it up with your hands and knead it for 10 minutes. 

4.     Cover dough with a towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Don't worry if it doesn't rise all the time, for some reason it doesn't always rise, but it doesn't matter.

5.     Knead the dough until its softer and workable. 

6.     Roll it out and lay it onto an oiled oven tray. 

7.     Add your toppings and bake in a preheated oven (150 Celsius  for about 30 minutes (depending on how thick you rolled it out).

Baking Tuesdays: Chocolate Brownies

Today we made chocolate brownies!

They tasted delicious after, so we decided to share the video and recipe with you, hope you enjoy it.

Recipe

Ingredients

375g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

250g baking margarine

2 tsp instant coffee

2 tbsp hot water

2 eggs

250g caster sugar

90g self-raising flour

250g plain chocolate chips

Method

1. Grease a 30x23cm (12x9in) roasting tin, line the base with greaseproof paper, and grease the paper.

2. Put the chocolate and margarine in a bowl and sit the bowl on top of a small saucepan of gently simmering water. Melt the chocolate slowly, then remove the bowl from the pan and let the chocolate cool.

3. Put the coffee in another bowl, pour in the hot water, and stir to dissolve. Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour, then the chocolate chips.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190°C (170°C fan, Gas 5) for about 40–45 minutes or until firm to the touch. Don’t overcook – the crust should be dull and crisp, but the middle should still be gooey. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 24 pieces.

Baking Tuesdays: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today we made chocolate chip cookies. And guess what, they actually turned out right!

Here is our video of us making cookies, the recipe is below if you want to try them out for yourself.

Recipe

Ingredients

150g salted butted, softened

80g brown sugar

80g granulated sugar

1 large egg

225g plain flour

A pinch of salt

100g chocolate chips or chunks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2.  Put the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat until creamy. Beat in the egg. Sieve the flour and salt over the mixture and mix in with a wooden spoon. Add the chocolate chips and stir well.
3. Using a teaspoon, place small mounds of the mixture well apart on the baking trays. Bake in the oven for 8–10 minutes until light brown on the edges and still slightly soft in the center.
4. Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Picnic Day

Today, since it was a little warmer than usual, we decided to go on a picnic adventure!

We found a nice spot in a park, just a short walk away from where we live, to eat our newly bought food. The day consisted of eating, videoing and exploring, so it was an all round fun day. The woods were exciting as I was sure I found an alien and a few little monsters visiting us whilst exploring the depths of the woodland. We might of ended up with a few blisters but I think it was worth it in the end.

We also managed to produce a short little video to show what we did on our day at the park, enjoy!

Here are some photos we took in the woods.

Baking Tuesdays: Chocolate Cake FAIL

Today we decided to bake a chocolate cake. It didn't exactly go according to plan but we thought we'd show you anyway.

Firstly, we didn't have two sandwich tins, which is what you're supposed to use, but we decided to use a bowl instead. We also couldn't find any cocoa powder in the shop, so we used hot chocolate powder instead, it is kind of the same thing but has dried milk and sugar added into the powder. Consequently, this made the cake turn out wrong.

Anyway, here is our fail video of making the chocolate cake and the recipe is underneath if you want to try it, enjoy!

Recipe

Ingredients

50 g (2 oz) sifted cocoa powder

6 tablespoons boiling water

3 large eggs

50 ml (2 fl oz) milk

175 g (6 oz) self-raising flour

1 rounded teaspoon baking powder

100 g (4 oz) softened butter

275 g (10 oz) caster sugar

FOR THE ICING AND FILLING

150 g (5 oz) plain chocolate

(39 per cent cocoa solids)

150 ml (¼ pint) double cream

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Grease two 20 cm (8 in) deep sandwich tins then line the base of each tin with baking parchment.

2 Blend the cocoa and boiling water in a large bowl then add the remaining cake ingredients and beat until the mixture has become a smooth, thickish batter. Divide the cake mix equally between the prepared tins and level the surface.

3 Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25–30 minutes or until well risen and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

4 To make the icing, break the chocolate into pieces and gently heat with the cream in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water for about 10 minutes or just until the chocolate has melted, stirring occasionally.

5 Remove the bowl from the heat and stir the chocolate mixture to make sure it has completely melted. Leave to cool until it is on the point of setting then spread on both cakes. Sandwich the cakes together and use a small palette knife to smooth the icing on the top. Keep in a cool place until ready to serve.