Chocolate and Pear Cake

Ingredients 

200g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

75g dark chocolate

275g brown sugar

50g butter

3 eggs beaten

1 teaspoon of rum

150ml sour cream

75ml milk

Method

Grease and line a baking tin 23cm 

Sift flour,cocoa,bicarbonate of soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

Melt chocolate.

Using an electric whisk, cream sugar and butter together.

Gradually add beaten eggs and dry ingredients a little at a time.

Stir in the rum, sour cream, milk and melted chocolate.

Pour into the baking tin.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees.

Top with melted chocolate or icing sugar.

Recipes in the sun ☀️

Easy Coconut and Cream Cake.

Ingredients 

200g desiccated coconut

100g self raising flour

2 eggs

250ml fresh liquid cream

150g caster or brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing sugar to decorate

Method

Place desiccated coconut, flour and sugar in a bowl and mix.

Using an electric whisk mix the eggs and cream together.

Pour the cream and eggs into the dry mixture and add the vanilla extract.

If the mixture is too thick add a little milk.

Pour into a baking tin greased and lined.

Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

When cool sprinkle the icing sugar over the cake.

Simple Pesto

This is a recipe that you can make quickly using a blender. It can added to pasta or to make a  pesto lasagna or even on toast!

Ingredients

3 cups chopped fresh basil
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
half cup of pine nuts
1 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 cloves of crushed garlic

Place the basil in the blender, pour in about tablespoon of the oil and blend the basil into a paste. Gradually add the pine nuts,Parmesan cheese and garlic. Then add the remaining olive oil blend until smooth.

Keep in the fridge in a sealed container. Will keep for a few days.

Enjoy this versatile sauce!

I'm back! It's been a while but here we go again with some exciting new recipes!

Carnival Time !

Carnival is a celebration of the Christian tradition that precedes the period of Lent.It is celebrated with people dressing up in fancy dress costumes. The celebrations that characterise this period vary from country to country giving us very different traditions and cuisine. The Carnival period ends on Shrove Tuesday, before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

In Lucca Tuscany we are very lucky to have the famous Viareggio Carnival. So I have decided to make some carnival 'chatter' biscuits- chiacchiere. A very simple but tasty recipe.

Chiacchiere- Chatter or small talk biscuits!

500g  Self raising flour
120g  Sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
half a cup olive oil
30ml Limoncello liquor/sweet white wine

Icing sugar powder to decorate.
Oil to fry

In a bowl put all the ingredients and mix till you have a dough. Place the dough to rest in the fridge for half an hour.After the half an hour roll out the pastry dough trying to keep a rectangular shape.Heat up the oil in a frying pan.Make all biscuit shapes and when the oil is hot place the biscuits one by one into the frying pan, turning the biscuits every now and then until golden brown. Dry off excess oil on kitchen paper and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Pasta with Broccoli.

300g Broccoli which is high in vitamin C and also contains multiple nutrients with potent ant-cancer properties.

4 cloves of garlic rich in antioxidants.

Remember boiling vegetables reduces the nutritional value!

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Salt & Pepper.

160g Pasta.

50ml vegetable stock.


Clean the broccoli and steam for 5 mins. keeping them still quite firm. In a frying pan sauté the garlic until slightly brown, add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable stock, add the broccoli to the stock, in the mean time boil the pasta to 'al dente'.When the pasta is cooked add to the broccoli mixture. Season with salt & Pepper.