A Mug Inspiring Compilation

A very interesting trend started in the last few years, cooking cakes, pies or other easy make dishes in a cup. I like my cup of soups and that, but have always been a little sceptical about mug cakes. Here are a few I’m trying currently and I have to say they are absolutely nom! Not to mention how easy they are to make, some with as little as three ingredients!

1. Good ol’ Chocolate Chip Mug Cake – and it only takes 5 minutes!

http://romancerecipes.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/calisa-rhose/

2. Red Velvet – for those that love a well coloured mug cake!

http://cakeophile.com/red-velvet-mug-cake/

3. Eggless Microwave Brownies – very light, absolutely nom! 

The Best Microwave Brownie

4.  Nutella Mug Cake – Nutella?! Sorry I started drooling the minute you said it. 

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/03/15/nutella-mug-cake/

5. French toast in a mug – sounded quirky to me, but a really lovely quick and a little bit of a decadent brekkie! 

http://prudentbaby.com/2012/01/entertaining-food/2-minute-french-toast-in-a-cup/

6. Peanut Butter – anyone for some nom?

http://kirbiecravings.com/2012/01/peanut-butter-mug-cake.html

7. Sugar Cookie – Cookies in a cup also seem to be a thing!

http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/03/sugar-cookie-in-cup.html

8. Blueberry crumble – seriously nom. I had some blueberries spare and try this one if any of them!

http://www.whiskblog.com/2009/03/tuesdays-with-dorieblueberry-crumb-cake.html

9. Christmas Mug Cakes – some people like their seasonal mug cakes too!

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/11/28/chocolate-candy-cane-mug-cake/

10. Strawberry mug pies – fresh, tangy and nom!

Strawberry Mug Pies.

German Hefezopf

This is like one of the most delicious nom noms ever. The great panda, that is my girlfriend, specialises in german baked goods and so I have stolen the recipe from her.

1 cube of fresh yeast (or 3g of dried yeast)

1 tablespoon of sugar

5 tablespoons of milk, warmed

a little salt and flour

—-

500g plain flour

80g butter, ideally unsalted

80g sugar

250ml milk

a handful of sultanas

the rind of half a lemon

1 egg

—-

an egg yolk

First, mix what is called a ‘Vorteig’ in German (pre-dough) by mixing the 5 tablespoons of warm milk (but not too hot so as not to kill the yeast bacteria), the broken up cube of fresh yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a little bit of flour in a jug. Let that rest for approximately 10 minutes. Sieve the rest of the flour into a large bowl and mix in the sugar, butter, milk, eg and lemon rind plus the Vorteig – it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get dirty!

Knead the mix thoroughly till it’s one big smooth lump of dough and doesn’t stick to the bowl anymore. Cover with a towel and place at a warm but not too hot spot and let it rise for about 40 minutes or till it has doubled its mass.

Then, mix in the sultanas with the dough so that they are evenly distributed.

Divide the dough into three equally sized pieces and form them into strings and start braiding (‘Zopf’ in German means braid)! Spread the egg yolk over the Hefezopf and sprinkle some brown sugar on top – the egg yolk will make it all shiny while the brown sugar adds some extra nom to it.

Put in the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes!

Best served hot with some butter and jam for breakfast! Ta da, delicious German Hefezopf nom!

My Dedication to Other Food Blogs Post

I am busy eating post-Christmas turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce, and trying to drag it out for as long as I can. While also avoiding a 2000-word essay I have to write. So I’m taking a break from cooking and blogging that this week and instead passing on some nommy guides to look out for!

The internet is mad full of lots of different wonderful noms, and there are truly some awesome gems out there if you look in the right places, or happen to stumble across them some evening while trawling through the vast expanse of the world wide web.

Here are a 5 food related blogs that I particularly like at the moment!

1. One Man N’ His Pan

A recently new endeavour, but it is sure to take off in the next while. Check out his Poor Man’s Beef Wellington, it’s next on my list of Friday Night Noms!

http://onemanandhispan.tumblr.com/post/40120387425/steaking-is-easy-part-i-wellington-sandwich

2. Gotta bake em all

A pokemon inspired baking blog, run by my flatmate – yes biased, but arn’t they just SO pretty. Also unlike all of you, I get to try their produce on a weekly basis!

http://gottabakeemall.wordpress.com/

3. The Domestic Man

This blog is just the right combo of naughty and nom. The recipes are delicious and just what you want for a good solid nom!

http://thedomesticman.com/

4. The Rantings of an Amateur Chef

There is almost as many recipes up here as you’d find in several cook books. It’s neatly tagged and can all be found on easily accessible pages, with especially good advice on meat!

Recipes: Cuisine, Course, Ingredient, Style

5. 1227 Foster (Previously known as Danny’s Kitchen)

This fella’ is going places, a really good mix of things to cook here, with pretty photos to boot.

http://www.1227foster.com/

Cannelloni Nom

I always think Cannelloni is one of those dishes that takes too much time to ever bother doing, its really just as time-consuming as lasagne and is a really nommy treat if your normal routine pasta dishes are becoming a little tiresome.

This one is made with 1/2 pork and 1/2 beef, only because that’s what I had handy. And this recipe made two trays of the stuff, but leftovers are just awesome.

1kg of minced pork and beef (or the lot of one)

an onion

an egg

a handful of sage

salt and pepper

400g dried cannelloni tubes

Firstly get the meat mix ready by popping the minced meat in a bowl, with the chopped onion, a beaten egg, salt, pepper and the handful of sage that you will have chopped. If sage isn’t to your fancy, use a different herb, it just suited here with the pork. I had mince meat left over and made a couple burgers for extra nom.

Then grab your mince mix and fill the cannelloni tubes. In retrospect I wouldn’t have filled them so densely, but would have instead half to three quarter filled them leaving gaps for some of the sauce to fill later, this would also alleviate the slight dryness I felt the meat had once cooked!

Meanwhile get the bechamel sauce (although not the original as I use milk not cream!) going; 600ml of milk, 50g butter, 50g flour and some ground nutmeg. Whisk over a heat until butter is melted then slowly add sifted flour, whisking continuously so that the flour doesn’t go lumpy.

Line the trays with meat-filled cannelloni tubes and pour sauce over the tubes so that they are all well covered. Cover the top with some grated parmesan and pop in to the oven at 180 Degrees Celcius for about half an hour and until the cheese has crisped.

Serve hot and fresh, as cannelloni is best that way!