Triple Chocolate & Orange Cookies

My god, these cookies are amazing. Without sounding cocky, I don't think I will ever need another cookie recipe again.

Eat them warm out the oven and enjoy the lovely melted lovelyness of the chocolate chunks.

Want to make them? Sure you do. Here's how:

Ingredients:

280g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
170g unsalted butter
100g brown soft sugar
200g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 orange
200g white chocolate
150g milk chocolate

Preheat your oven to 180C. Sift your flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, melt your butter and add in both sugars and eggs. Pour this mixture into the flour bowl.

Stir like crazy, and finely grate in the zest of a whole orange, and add a little juice too (not too much, you don't want a watery mixture!) Chop up your chocolate, and stir that in as well.

Spoon up your mixture, roll them out into little balls with your hands, and gently press them down onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Makes sure they have plenty of space to spread out.

Bake for around 10 minutes (I like them gooey in the middle, but they do harden up when cool anyway)

Enjoy with a nice cold glass of milk.

Now excuse me, while I grab another...

Summer Berry Souffles

Ooooher, I hear you say. SOUFFLES?! How pretentious and fiddly to make! Even Masterchef's Greg Wallace says how hard they are to perfect!

But no. I am about to share with you a brilliant recipe that not only is relatively easy to make, but looks absolutely spectacular at dinner parties and never fails to impress the guests. It also tastes delicously light - perfect if you've had a heavy meal. And it only comes in at around 100 calories! What's not to love?! I spoil you, I really do.

This recipe serves around 6, depending on the size of your ramekin dishes. I'd recommend the smaller ones as they always come out more impressive.

You will need:

250g frozen mixed berries
3 tbsp fresh custard
1 egg yolk
4 egg whites
65g caster sugar
2-3 drops vanilla extract
1 tbsp icing sugar


Preheat your oven to 180°C, and butter your ramekin dishes and coat with caster sugar. If you have the space, pop them in the fridge.

Thaw out your berries - 40 seconds in the microwave should do it. Take 1/3 of them out and squish with a fork.

In another bowl (this recipe uses a lot of bowls, so be prepared!), mix together your custard, vanilla extract and egg yolk. Stir in your crushed berries.

In another bowl, whisk up your egg whites so they form soft peaks. Add in the sugar and whisk a little bit more.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into your custard berry mixture very gently - you want to keep all the air in. Then alternate between adding the berries and egg whites until it's all nicely folded in. Pour into your ramekin dishes, and fill to the brim Run your thumb around the edge of each rim - this helps with the rising.

Cook for 7-8 minutes, until they've risen nicely and have a slight golden brown colour on the top.

This is the tricky bit. Organise your serving dishes and icing sugar ready for when the souffles come out of the oven, you want to serve them ASAP whilst they are still risen. Take the ramekins out of the oven and put straight on a plate - don't bother taking them out of the dishes, it will turn into a big ol' mess. Aint nobody got time for that!

Sprinkle over some icing sugar on top for decoration. Best to use a seive for this.

Serve to the ooohs and aaahs of your guests, and try not to act too pleased with yourself. This is the kind of thing you just casually whipped up, right?!

Ginger Squares

It might suprise you to know that I love cake.

And one of my favourites are these Ginger Squares.

Delicously soft and fluffy, they stay nice and moist for a several days when kept in an air tight container. I had a huge tin of these that were a god send when I was a fresher! They're also ridiculously easy and relatively cheap to make (if you regularly bake the only thing you will probably have to buy is the ginger). No larking about with separating eggs or folding, just bung all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. Let's go!

You will need:

6 ounces (175g) soft margarine
6 ounces Light brown sugar
6 ounces self raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk


For the topping:

1 1/2 ounces (40g) finely chopped stem ginger
6 ounces (175g) icing sugar (sieved)
2-3 tablespoons ginger syrup (from your jar of stem ginger)

Preheat your oven to 180°C/ Gas mark 4. Grease and line your cake tin with some greaseproof paper.

Combine all your ingredients into a large bowl and beat well. Use a whisk if you're lazy like me, life's too short!

Spead your mixture evenly round your tin and bake for 20 minutes

Sprinkle over some of your finely chopped ginger, and bake for another 15 minutes. Take it out when it's a nice golden brown colour. Leave to cool in the tin.

Blend your icing sugar with the ginger syrup and the rest of the chopped ginger. Once the cake is cool you can drizzle it over the top. It's up to you how you want to do it, I'm not a particularly neat person and was in a bit of a rush so i just flicked it all over the cake with a spoon.

Stack 'em up on a plate and enjoy with a big mug of tea.