March 2013: Doughnuts, Gluten Free shortbread, Dairy free Cookies and Shortbread mushrooms, Doryaki and Easter...

So a couple of years back I tried to make doughnuts, I don't know what went wrong...they were horrendous. So bad that it took me 3 whole years to brave making them again. I like doughnuts, and I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I'm not sure what it is about them, but they are utterly delcious but so expensive so I was pretty pleased when I found this recipe from the 99cent chef- and that it did infact taste very similar to a Krispy Kreme!

I wanted to make something really nice that was Gluten Free at one point and the wife of someone I worked with very kindly said she had a good recipe for Caramel Shortbread. Well I have made it and I can quite honestly say it is the most delicious thing on this planet, you would never know it was Gluten Free, I think it is actually better for using the GF flour as it has the most delicious crumbly textured shortbread base. Well worth having in your baking itinerary.

Speaking of Shortbread, these Shortbread mushrooms are delicious and so very cute and easy to make. These particular ones are made with Pure to make them dairy free for a friend, but they really do taste best with butter. I found the recipe off a website from a girl doing an Alice in wonderland party - I wish I could find the website again but I can't seem to find it! There are plenty of other websites that seem to have similar recipes on though.

Put 180g plain flour, 60g cornflour, 60g icing sugar 1tsp of vanilla extract and 220g of cubed softened butter in a food processor and pulse until combined. (you may need to scrape the sides a couple of times). You should be left with a pliable dough.

Take a small amount and roll it into a ball about 1" in size. Dip the end of an old (clean) extract bottle into some water, and then into some cocoa powder, then press into the ball of dough. Repeat until all the dough is used up bake for 8-10mins at 200°.

March was a busy month - I was quite heavily pregnant so I couldn't do much and baking kept me occupied! I had been wanting to make these  Dorayaki since I ate some in Yo!Sushi. They came out really well and I ate so many by myself!

How cute did my Easter cakes come out! The carrots and flowers were pre-bought from Sainsburys, the mini eggs were a present originally from Whittards of Chelsea. They were plain vanilla, chocolate and mixed fruit cupcakes.