Quick Quesadillas

Quesadilla

I made my first quesadillas and they were fab! Elizabeth especially loved them.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 cooked chicken breast
• some chopped up cooked ham
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• about 50g grated cheddar cheese

Heat the oil in a frying pan and the chicken and ham on a low heat for a minute or two, then mix in the tomato puree and soy sauce. Cook for a further 2 minutes. 

• If I was making the quesadillas for myself, I would also add some red pepper and sweetcorn. I would fry them at this stage until they were starting to soften.

In a separate frying pan, lay a flour tortilla in the base of the pan and top with the chicken mixture. Sprinkle over the cheese and top with the other tortilla.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook over a gentle heat for 12 minutes. Flip the tortilla over - I put a large plate over the pan, tipped it so that the tortilla was on the plate, then I slipped it back into the pan. Cook for a further 1-2 minutes.

Remove the tortilla from the pan, allow it to cook slightly, then slice it into wedges.

I served this up with some Cajun potato wedges - peel several large potatoes and slice them up into wedges. Mix them up with a table spoon of oil and some cajun seasoning. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. Turn them over a few times to stop them from sticking to the baking tray.

Updates

I've had a bit of a break from updating while we've had sickness bugs, chicken pox, half term and general real life things going on.

I got two new recipe books for my birthday: Nigel Slater's Eat and Ella's Kitchen: The Red Cookbook. I've already tried a few recipes that I will do again and take photos because they are good!

A while back I added some pages to the blog, including a recipes page with links to all the recipes I've blogged.

I also have a few more days out with kids updates lined up to write about.

Meanwhile I'm always open to suggestions for things to try and I would love to hear what you think of the blog in general or of specific recipes.

Cookies and Mallow Chocolate Heaven Cake

Cookies and Mallow Chocolate Heaven Cake

The plan had been to make the best carrot cake in the world for my birthday. However after eating most of the original cake myself and having a good amount of the one I made for Jeff's mum, I wanted to try something else for my birthday.

The idea was for a cookies and cream cake. And I kid you not, I had a dream that I used the marshmallow icing and woke up thinking it was a wonderful idea!

I used recipes from the Primrose Bakery recipe book. For my first attempt, I used normal cake tins and made a two tier cake with icing in the middle and on the top. Second time round I thought I'd try out my Wilton Heart Cake Tins which I haven't used since the Candy Cake. I doubled up the cake recipe and made two batches of the icing to do it all. However, I think this cake is a little too soft and moist to hold it's shape with the heart insert. Plus it was gigantic!

Heart Insert

So here's the basic recipe for the two tiered cake I made.

Chocolate Cake

• 115g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 85g unsalted butter, at room temp
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 2 large eggs separated
• 185g plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 250ml semi skimmed milk at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan) and grease and line 2 cake tins.

Break the chocolate and break into pieces and melt. I use the microwave on 30 second blasts, the stir until it is completely melted. You can use a bowl over simmering water though.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth.

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg yolk for several minutes.
Slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed mixture and beat well. Next add the melted chocolate to the mixture and beat well.
Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.
Add a third of the flour to the chocolate mixture, beat well.
Pour in a third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter using a metal spoon.
Divide the mixture into the 2 cake tins.
Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean after being inserted in the centre of one of the cakes.
Leave them to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Peel the greaseproof paper from the bases of the cakes.

Marshmallow Icing

• 120g granulated sugar
• 80g golden syrup
• 1 1/2 tbsp water
• 2 large egg whites

Cook the sugar, syrup and water in a saucepan over a high heat until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage (115C). This took a few minutes.

Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, in a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. With the blades still beating on a low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar syrup in a steady stream on the egg whites.

Continue to beat on a low speed until all the hot syrup is in the mixing bowl.

Increase the speed to medium high and continue beating the mixture until it becomes thick, glossy and cool.

Spread a layer of this icing in between the two layers of cake and spread or pipe the rest on top.

Cookies!
Because I wanted this to be a cookies and cream cake, I added 6 crushed oreos on top of the first layer of icing. And I took out the centre of about 6 oreos and blitzed the biscuit then sprinkled it on top of the cake.

This is the basic 2 layered version

I would love to hear what you think of this cake. Please leave a comment.