Chocolate Easter Nests Recipe

As today is Good Friday, I decided to post a fun and easy Chocolate Easter Nests recipe!

The preparation time for these chocolate nests is 10-20 minutes, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about time! Also, you don't need to worry about using the oven for this recipe, you will only need to heat up a pan of water as far as using the cooker goes.

Original recipe from 'BBC Food Recipes'. This is our updated recipe, as we found we needed a little bit more cornflakes as we had some leftover choclate and we felt it worked better with more cornflakes.

This recipe makes 12 Easter nests.
Preparation time: 10-20 minutes.

INGREDIENTS
225g plain chocolate (broken into pieces)
2 tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
85g cornflakes (Shredded wheat or puffed rice cereals can be used instead)
36 Mini Eggs / Smarties / M&Ms

TOOLS
1 large saucepan
1 medium mixing bowl (has to fit into or sit on top of the large saucepan)
1 wooden spoon
1 spactula
1 tablespoon
1 knife (to cut butter)

RECIPIE
Line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases.

Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Stir the mixture until smooth.

Top tip: Boil the water in the kettle first then put it in a pan to heat up, this is a quicker way of heating the water up.

Measure out the cornflakes ready to put in the melted chocolate, golden syrup and butter when it is ready. It should take about 5 minutes for this to melt, and make sure to stir it often so you know when it is melted.

Remove the bowl from the heat and gently stir in the cornflakes until all of the cereal is coated in the chocolate.

Divide the mixture between the paper cases and press 3 Mini Eggs/ Smarties / M&Ms into the centre of each nest. Leave to set in the fridge for 1 hour, or until set.

***

And voila, you have finished your Easter-themed cornflake nests! Hope you enjoy your Easter Friday!

- Hannah xox

Cake Pops Recipe

My sister got a cake pop tin and a special cookbook for Christmas, so we all had a go at making some cake pops. The picture is of 6 of the best ones, though we made 20 of them!

Cake Pops are great to make for a special event or party, as well as just for eating yourselves! They are very fun to make and don't take that long to prepare or cook, so you can have your finished Cake Pops ready in less than an hour. (depending on how long you take to decorate!)

Vanilla and Chocolate Cake Pops

They are vanilla inside, and coated with chocolate, then decorated with sprinkles  glitter, marshmallows  or whatever we felt like! Recipe is under the picture.

Original recipe from 'Cake Pops' cook book by Molly Bakes. This is our updated recipe, as we found we needed more liquid in the mixture.
It makes enough for approximately 20 medium cake pops.

INGREDIENTS
120g unsalted butter (softened)
150g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs (room temperature)
180g self-raising flour (sieved)
5tbsp milk (room temperature)

TOOLS
1 large mixing bowl
1 wooden spoon
1 sieve
1 cake pops tin
20 cake pop sticks (provided with most tins)
1 teaspoon

RECIPIE
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°. Lightly grease and flour the cake pops tin.
Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs - mixing well before adding the next. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature, otherwise the mixture can curdle.
Add half the flour then half the milk until fully combined. Repeat with the rest of the flour and milk.

Pour the cake pops mixture into the cake pops tin and bake for 30-45 minutes. You can check if the cake is done by putting a cocktail stick into a cake ball, and if it comes out clean the cakes are done.
Once baked, leave to cool in the cake tin for 20 minutes before putting them onto a wire cooling rack. This stops the cake from crumbling, so don't skip this step!

Now simply melt some good quality cooking chocolate and dip the cake pops in. If the cake pops fall of the sticks, dip the sticks in chocolate first, then put it into the cake ball. Leave this to set, then decorate the main ball. Add sprinkles and decorations as you wish, then leave to cool. Voila! You are done!