Lime and Coconut Halloween Slime Ghost Cake

Halloween baking is such fun - you can really push the boundaries of how you would normally decorate a cake, and make it as over the top as you like! Obviously subtle black and purple looks very stylish and striking but this Halloween I decided to go for..... green slime!

The theme for Food 'n' Flix this month is Ghostbusters - the 2016 remake which was chosen by host Coffee and Casseroles. I did enjoy the film and didn't think there was anything odd about an all-female cast - the film was funny, it carried on the ethos of the original Ghostbusters film and there were even several nods to the original - which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it, but you will have fun spotting the cameo roles to the extent that I'd worked out who Patty's uncle was (who she refers to a few times) long before he appears on screen!

My heart is loyal to the original Ghostbusters though (the first one anyway, not the sequel - which I don't remember being that bad but is largely panned). It came out when I was five years old so I don't imagine I would have seen it right away, but by the time it was shown on TV (in the days of only four channels, you had to wait a couple of years for new movies to appear on screen!) I would have been about seven or eight and was transfixed. I even used to run around the playground at primary school with a group of friends acting out Ghostbusters stories - though as one of the only girls I was always forced to be Janine. Though it could have been worse, the other girl played Slimer!

In terms of choosing a recipe for Food 'n' Flix, my mind turned straight away to the Stay Puffed Marshmallow man from the first movie... from the remake, one of the over-riding foodie references is to Chinese takeout - there's a standing joke about takeaway food that Abby (Melissa McCarthy) gets from a Chinese restaurant, and their HQ is above a Chinese restaurant.

But as it's Halloween I wanted to make something 'spooky' and not Chinese food. Slimer, the friendly green ghost, features in both the original movie and the remake, so I took him as my inspiration and decided to make a cake oozing with green 'slime' buttercream!

For the cake itself I used this recipe from RTE for Irish chef Rory O'Connell's toasted coconut and lime cake though I did change it a little. I didn't cover it with the toasted coconut and I didn't make the cream cheese filling and instead did a lime flavoured buttercream which I then added green food colouring to.

 

Despite being green the cake looks quite elegant like this... but I wasn't going to stop there!

 

On top of the cake there is more green buttercream, plus some green candy floss I bought in a tub from a shop called Tiger and some marshmallow ghosts and chocolate eyeballs, also from Tiger.

Does it look like Slimer has been at this cake?!

I'm sharing this with Food 'n' Flix and Cook Blog Share.

 



Slimming World Linguine with Crab and Chilli

This dish reminds me of something I would order in an Italian restaurant or better still, eat while on holiday somewhere sunny, ideally with a view of the ocean. It's actually based on a Slimming World recipe for the rather more prosaically named 'crab noodles' and is really quick to throw together.

Cook some linguine or spaghetti according to pack instructions; when is cooked, drain, and add some tinned crab (a small tin will do 1-2 people depending on how generous you want to be with the crab), a few dried red chilli flakes or a pinch of fresh chopped red chilli, some finely chopped red onion, a squeeze of lime juice, and the grated zest of the lime, and some fresh parsley on top. Serve with broccoli or a salad on the side. Delicious!

Mojito Cupcakes

My mum and one of my best friends have their birthdays very close together so usually when I travel down to my home town I try to see them both at once - and I usually bake them both a birthday cake. This year it had to be more of a flying visit (one day rather than an overnight stay) and I felt I barely had time to make one cake the day before, let alone two, as we were up to our ears in wedding planning with only a few weeks to go.

I didn't want to go empty handed though so decided to bake a batch of cupcakes and give them half each in a pretty box. So they had to be quite special cupcakes! I spent a little while thinking about flavours and looking through recipes and chose this recipe for Mojito cupcakes from Baking Mad.

A mojito is a cocktail made from rum, lime juice and mint (a long drink topped up with sparkling water). I had a tiny bottle of Bacardi rum I'd kept from a plane journey, have plenty of mint in my garden and also had some key lime flavoured icing sugar from Sugar & Crumbs I wanted to use up which I thought would be the perfect twist on this recipe.

I didn't have any buttermilk so made my own by adding lemon juice to milk. Here I'm mixing with the Bacardi and vanilla

Ready to go in the oven. Somehow the cake cases were slightly too big for my muffin tin which is why some are a bit crinkled up to fit!

Making the syrup from sugar, water, mint and lime zest (which you then strain)

The cakes just out of the oven

Making a hole in each one with the end of a teaspoon, which I then wiggled around a bit to make a bigger hole! You pour the syrup inside and it soaks in to give a stronger lime and mint flavour at the centre - yum! You can't see the holes once you've piped buttercream on top.

Here's my flavoured icing sugar - it's flavoured with lime so you don't need to add any lime juice, meaning the buttercream stays the right consistency, and it uses all-natural flavours.

 I decided to pipe swirls on the cupcakes using a star nozzle, but while I would usually start on the edge and work inwards, that creates quite a lot of height and as I was going to place a mint leaf on top I wanted flatter frosting. So I started in the middle and piped outwards, which gives a rose effect. I did also add some green food colouring to the icing.

I also added a few drops of rum to the buttercream as well!

Finally I topped each one with a mint leaf.

I'm sharing these with the Eating al Fresco challenge hosted by Munchies and Munchkins, as these would be great for a barbecue or picnic.

I'm also sending these to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen, as there are various events taking place this month that these would work for: National BBQ Week, The Big Lunch, National Picnic Week, Cupcake Day and Macmillan Summer Nights!

Kiwi and Lime Cupcakes

I love to bake but need to lose a lot of weight, and with my wedding coming up that's a pretty good incentive (though I'm not managing to do very well!). I'm trying to indulge my love of baking without indulging myself, and make things for other people to eat. A good way to do that is to use ingredients I don't actually like!

We had some kiwi fruit left over in the fruit basket at work one Friday so I took a couple home. I was going down to Dorset for my wedding hair and makeup trial, and thought it would be a nice touch if I baked some cupcakes. A bridesmaid and I went to the house of the hairdresser - a beautiful cottage in a pretty little village - and the makeup artist joined her there. We did the trial in her kitchen watched by two dogs and a cat so it wasn't like I was taking cakes to a busy beauty salon - it was a nice homely way to spend the day.

 

I had a massive tub of Stork for Cakes in the fridge so had a look at the Bake with Stork website and found this recipe for coconut, lime and kiwi cupcakes. I wasn't sure if I still had any creamed coconut in the house so decided to leave it out; I didn't even know dried kiwi existed so I left that out too. I chopped up the flesh of two kiwi fruit and stirred that in to the cake batter, which I found made the cake really light.

I didn't have any Midori either so added some lime juice to the buttercream frosting, which I piped in very satisfying little swirls on the cupcakes and topped each one with a little piece of kiwi. I don't normally eat kiwi at all but I tried a little bit of one cupcake and found the taste wasn't overpowering and it was a really light, bouncy cake and the icing was great too. The hairdresser and makeup artist seemed pleased with them too and asked if they could take a couple for their kids!

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at The Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi as their theme this month is Easter and Spring. The vibrant green colour of these cakes makes me think of spring and the zesty flavour might be quite welcome amid all the Easter chocolate!

Tea Time Treats, hosted by Jane at The Hedgecombers and Karen at Lavender and Lovage has the same theme so I'm also sending these to that challenge.

Virgin Mojito - Non-alcoholic drink for BBQ

This is a very simple non-alcoholic cocktail but is so good I had to share it with you! I adapted it from a recipe I found online that involved Ginger Beer, as I didn't have and don't really like Ginger Beer. I wanted a non-alcoholic drink that would be refreshing and feel summery to serve at a barbecue and this proved very popular.

Mix two parts lemonade to one part apple juice - I used Sprite and Innocent apple juice which was really nice.

Muddle in a jug with some ice cubes, one lime chopped into several segments and a handful of fresh mint leaves. Serve and enjoy!

Low Fat Lime Jelly Cheesecake

This is a refreshing and light dessert perfect for a summer's day, post barbecue perhaps. It's based on a Slimming World recipe that I think came from one of the magazines but now I can't find it. I did note down the ingredients and quantities that I used at the time though.

To make a 9-inch round cheesecake you need:

8 reduced fat digestive biscuits

60g low fat spread

1 sachet sugar-free lime or lemon and lime jelly crystals

juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp powdered gelatine

2 x 125g pots low fat lemon and lime yogurt eg Activia

200g Quark

4 tbsp sweetener

 Place the biscuits in a food processor. Meanwhile melt the low fat spread and then stir into the crushed biscuits. Spoon into the base of a loose-bottomed cake tin and press down firmly and place in the fridge to chill until needed.

8 digestive biscuits

60g low-fat spread suitable for baking*

1 sachet sugar-free raspberry jelly crystals

1 tbsp powdered gelatine (or agar agar)

2 pots Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt (or any other Free yogurt)

200g quark

4-5 tbsp artificial sweetener

400g mixed berries (such as raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries)

A few fresh mint leaves

Icing sugar to dust

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpuf

8 digestive biscuits

60g low-fat spread suitable for baking*

1 sachet sugar-free raspberry jelly crystals

1 tbsp powdered gelatine (or agar agar)

2 pots Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt (or any other Free yogurt)

200g quark

4-5 tbsp artificial sweetener

400g mixed berries (such as raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries)

A few fresh mint leaves

Icing sugar to dust

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpuf

8 digestive biscuits

60g low-fat spread suitable for baking*

1 sachet sugar-free raspberry jelly crystals

1 tbsp powdered gelatine (or agar agar)

2 pots Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt (or any other Free yogurt)

200g quark

4-5 tbsp artificial sweetener

400g mixed berries (such as raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries)

A few fresh mint leaves

Icing sugar to dust

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpuf

8 digestive biscuits

60g low-fat spread suitable for baking*

1 sachet sugar-free raspberry jelly crystals

1 tbsp powdered gelatine (or agar agar)

2 pots Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt (or any other Free yogurt)

200g quark

4-5 tbsp artificial sweetener

400g mixed berries (such as raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries)

A few fresh mint leaves

Icing sugar to dust

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpu

8 digestive biscuits

60g low-fat spread suitable for baking*

1 sachet sugar-free raspberry jelly crystals

1 tbsp powdered gelatine (or agar agar)

2 pots Vanilla Mullerlight yogurt (or any other Free yogurt)

200g quark

4-5 tbsp artificial sweetener

400g mixed berries (such as raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries)

A few fresh mint leaves

Icing sugar to dust

- See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpuf

 Make up the jelly with 150ml boiling water, stir in the gelatine and leave to cool. When the jelly is cool, place in a food processor with the yogurt, lime juice, quark and sweetener. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and place in the fridge overnight.

Meanwhile, make up the jelly with 150ml boiling water. Stir in the gelatine and set aside to cool. - See more at: http://group.slimmingworld.com/recipes/berry-burst-cheesecake.aspx#sthash.zl68rV5x.dpuf

Here is the cheesecake ready to serve, having removed the loose bottom from the tin.

I sprinkled some Dr. Oetker neon sugar over the top for decoration, I think it looks quite pretty!

I'm sending this to Four Seasons Food, hosted by Louisa at Eat Your Veg and Anneli at Delicieux as the theme is celebrating spring, and the zesty refreshing flavour of this cheesecake is great for spring.

Dr. Oetker Great Chocolate Bake and Chocolate Lime Cupcakes

Dr. Oetker is one of my favourite baking brands so I was excited to see their new competition, the Great Chocolate Bake. Create a chocolate cupcake and win a trip to New York!

All you need to do is upload a photo of your entry to the Dr. Oetker facebook page and let them know which Dr. Oetker product you've used to make it. What I like about this competition - other than that it involves chocolate, and cake, and the prize is a trip to New York - is that the winner isn't chosen purely based on the number of Facebook likes, but the company itself will choose a winner. Votes will be taken into account to finalise the shortlist though, so you do need to encourage your family and friends to vote for you. But I hate competitions where the winner is decided purely on that basis, as it means the winner is the person who can persuade the most others to vote for them, and not necessarily the best entry.

So, what are you going to enter?
I made these chocolate lime cupcakes - a moist chocolate cupcake with a lime curd filling, chocolate lime buttercream on top decorated with Dr. Oetker mini chocolate stars and candied lime peel. They tasted delicious!

Chocolate Lime Cupcakes
an original recipe by Caroline Makes
To make 12, you need:
100g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks 54% Dark Chocolate
85g butter
175g brown sugar
2 eggs
175g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarb of soda
250ml milk
150g lime curd
For the frosting:
150g butter
250g icing sugar
50g cocoa powder
juice and zest of 1 lime
50g caster sugar
Dr. Oetker chocolate stars to decorate

Cream the butter and the brown sugar then the eggs. Meanwhile melt the chocolate in a bain marie or microwave.

Add the flour, bicarb of soda and baking powder and the melted chocolate and mix well.

Finally beat in the milk.

Use a zester to pare the zest of the lime, then cut in half and squeeze out the juice into a small bowl (or the juicer itself).

Spoon the cake mixture into a dozen cake cases in a muffin tin. I used green cases to reflect the flavour of the cakes.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until risen. Allow to cool.

Use a spoon to carefully scoop a small amount of the cake out of the middle, and add a teaspoon or two of lime curd.

Replace the parts of the cake you removed and gently sit on top of the curd. To make the candied lime peel, bring the sugar to the boil in a small pan with 100ml water and add the lime zest. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins. Remove the lime zest from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

To make the buttercream, cream the butter and the icing sugar and add the lime juice. Pipe onto the cupcakes. I decorated them with Dr. Oetker chocolate stars and the candied lime peel.

I am sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as our letter this month is C. I think we will get a lot of chocolate entries!

Disclaimer: Dr. Oetker sent me a selection of baking products in return for mentioning this competition on my blog.

Key Lime Cheesecake

My name is Caroline and I'm a cheesecake addict!

When I saw the letter for this month's Alphabakes was K, I immediately thought of key lime pie. Then I got a new recipe book for my birthday called Cheesecake, by Hannah Miles, and when I found a recipe in it for key lime pie cheesecake, I decided to make this instead.

I adapted it slightly from the recipe so to make my version you need:
300g digestive biscuits
100g butter
4 limes
300g cream cheese
300g Quark
397g tin condensed milk

First crush the biscuits - I find it easiest to do this in a food processor.

Fine biscuit crumbs

Melt the butter and stir in the biscuits

I also had the chance to use another birthday present for this recipe - my friend Jane gave me a springform cake tin with a glass-bottomed base, which is a great idea as you can serve your cake or cheesecake on the base and it looks like a glass plate.

It also comes with a thin plastic spatula which is for loosening your cake around the edges, so you don't scratch the tin with a knife. It's made by a company called Pampered Chef and I'd definitely recommend it.

Press the buttery biscuit crumbs into the base of your cake tin and bake at 180C for about ten minutes.

Finely grate the zest of two limes, and juice all four.

Mix the cream cheese and Quark in a large bowl

Add the condensed milk, lime zest and juice and mix well

Here's the cheesecake mixture

 Spoon onto the biscuit base and smooth over the top.

The recipe in the book suggested making candied lime peel to decorate then piping whipped cream on the top. I decided the extra cream was a calorific step too far, but I did try to make the candied lime peel. However I got sidetracked by something else and when I returned to the pan it had burnt! I had to think of another way to decorate the top as it did look quite plain, and remembered I had this tub of neon sugar that Dr. Oetker had recently sent me to review. It comes with four colours and I decided the neon green looked like lime and would work well on top.

The tub has four separate openings so you can use one colour at a time. After a few hours on top of the cheesecake the colour from the strands did start to run, but I put that down to the wetness of the cheesecake- I think these would be quite good on top of cupcakes.

Here are the sugar strands sprinkled over the cheesecake

After it was removed from the tin

The cheesecake tasted lovely with a zingy lime flavour that was noticeable but not overpowering.

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge that I am hosting this month, as the letter we have chosen is K. I actually had to look up the difference between key limes and normal limes, and I'm not sure which I used- the only kind the supermarket had! I also noticed that while the recipe was called key lime cheesecake it didn't actually specify in the ingredients list to use key limes, just limes. I think key lime might have become generally accepted as the name of a lot of lime desserts, whether key limes are used or not!