Unicorn Rainbow Party Cake

Readers, for a baking blog, I send my apologies that it’s taken so long to put a baking post together.  What I have to confess, my blog is evolving.  It’s not just about baking and cooking any more. It’s becoming a food, cooking, eating out, reviewing and travel blog.  It’s become an extension of my life and me… which is more than just cake! And I’m ok with that.

But tonight, it’s back to my routes, with this TOTALLY SIMPLE, 3 ingredient NO BAKE cake perfect for kids parties or a family get together. Even adults love this one.  Why? Because it’s nostalgic.

I’ve funked this up and gone all out with Lucky Charms cereal for real nostalgia. 

Happy Baking folks!

Ingredients

200g marshmallows (I used 7 giant marshmallows)

50g butter

4 cups Lucky Charms cereal

Method

1. Melt butter and marshmallows in a pan over medium heat, stirring to make sure none of the ingredients stick to the bottom of the pan.  Stir together when melted and remove from the heat – it should be a light cream colour from the butter.

   

   Melting butter and marshmallows

   
   

   

   Mission complete

2. Add in the Lucky Charms cereal – adding more or less depending how coated you want the cereal to be.
3. When fully mixed, pour into a greased 8in x 8in silicone cake tub and using a spatula, flatten out into an even square. Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands before the cake sets.
4. Transfer to the fridge to set and cut into 9 large pieces, or 18 small rectangles.

   

   The finished cake!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge but bring to room temperature before serving.  Best eaten within 48 hours.

I'm entering this post into this week's Cook, Blog, Share over at Sneaky Veg's blog

Travelling to Thailand... The Back Story!

Readers,

I'm keeping this short and sweet tonight, just as a bit of background to what you'll be seeing online over the coming days.

Back in November, I entered a travel competition for bloggers around the world, to write about their ideal trip to Thailand.  It's part of the Tourism Authority Thailand's campaign Fly Me to the Honeymoon, promoting Thailand as the ideal destination for honeymoon travellers.

Hopefully we'll see some of these! Taken in Bangkok in 2011

We are super delighted to have been chosen as the winners of the Culture category and tomorrow morning, we're making our way to London to board a British Airways flight to Bangkok.

It's all been incredibly sudden, two weeks ago, we had no idea we were going, but in a vow to say yes to live to the full and take every opportunity that lands by us, we're going!

Over the coming days, you'll see lots of Thai travel info on social media... I'll be blogging, tweeting, instagramming and facebooking our travel exploits.

Right now, I can't say too much, other than we're taking you somewhere that many Europeans have never been to - the areas of Nakhon Phanom and Sakhon Nakhon Province.  It's up in the north of Thailand at the Mekong River.  We're hoping over the next week to show you some cultural sites you've never seen before and tell you stories of culture - far away from the beaches and islands side of the country.

Travel adventures to the USA in 2016

Stay tuned for more coming soon!

Pork & Haggis Ragu with Macsween Haggis

Readers

I've been busy in the kitchen this weekend. Recently Macsween contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing their new range of sausages. They very kindly sent me a few packs to try. In the madness of Christmas, I didn't have time to work on a recipe before the end of the year, so have made something that is warm and comforting for January. It's also not something you would automatically think of doing with a pack of sausages. 

Macsween is a Scottish family business, making great products (most notably their range of haggis) however, their new range of products come with great history - being created from a recipe used back in the day at their family butchers in Edinburgh. 

These sausages were packed with flavour and made a great meat base for my rich ragu. Note - I made my own pasta for this, but if you are in a rush, a pack of fresh tagliatelle from the supermarket would do the job.

Thanks to Macsween for providing the sausages for this recipe.

Winter Warming Ragu 

Ingredients - serves 4 

400g Macsween Pork & Haggis Sausages (skins removed)

1 red onion 

2 garlic cloves

10 cherry tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato purée

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 spring fresh rosemary, finely chopped 

1 dessert spoon fennel seeds 

1 bag fresh tagliatelle 

Method 

1. Peel and chop onions and garlic. Fry in a pan with the rosemary, fennel seeds and cherry tomatoes. 

2. Add the tomato purée and chopped tomatoes to the pan. Lower the heat to prevent sticking, whilst you prepare the sausage meat.

3. Remove the sausage meat from the skin of the sausages and crumble into small pieces in the pan, cook through for 25 minutes until the sauce is thick and rich and the meat is cooked.

4. Cook tagliatelle according to pack instructions, drain and add meat and sauce to the pasta. Mix through to combine.  Serve immediately with flat bread or garlic bread.