New Make/Bake 17 - Brownie Fudge Pie and a Romantic Cake for Fun!

As we're still doing up our house, and parts of it still resemble a building site, M and I don't often have people round for dinner, well, not as often as I'd like anyway! However he really wanted to invite his Aunt and Uncle over one evening seeing I was enjoying a week off work so I was tasked with planning a two course meal for 4. I wanted to keep the main fairly simple so went for stuffed chicken (I stuffed mine with honey, wholegrain mustard, mozzarella and grated cheese), wrapped in streaky bacon and served it with garlic and rosemary oven baked chips and a side salad.

Seeing as I'm more of a savoury person that sweet, it does seem odd that my preference is for baking and puddings! I've been lusting after a recipe on my favourite site since Christmas and finally I had a chance to give it a whirl... Brownie Fudge Pie

Brownies are one of my all-time favourite things to cook and also eat. If there is one thing to tempt me into having something from a dessert menu, then it's a brownie. This dessert was bound to be a winner from the start. Also it gave me a chance to tick another item off my list making shortcrust pastry (sweet).

As I've never made shortcrust pastry before it was a bit daunting. I followed the recipe for the pastry exactly but I found that it was a bit too pliable and elastic so I think I overworked it too much. I also found that is shrunk quite a bit when I removed the baking beans. I think I may need to practise pastry quite a bit more, but at least it tasted nice!

The Brownie Fudge part however was brilliant and very easy to make. As M can't eat nuts I swapped them for white chocolate chunks which was delicious. The cinnamon in the pastry was really lovely and subtle (I love cinnamon anyway) and the topped was really gooey and fudgy - perfect!

I served the pie warm with either ice cream or good old squirty cream and apparently the leftovers were very much enjoyed by M's colleagues at work!


Seeing as it was also Valentines Day (and also M and I's 4th Anniversary) last week I thought I'd make M his favourite cake - Victoria Sponge Cake. Not terribly exciting and something I've mentioned making lots so I'm not classing it as a new make/bake at all.  I decorated with extra buttercream and some sugarpaste decorations - he was very pleased with the final result and it made for a lovely surprise!

My Valentines/Anniversary present was amazing; a voucher to book myself onto a cake decorating class. I'm very excited!!!