Choc Chip Cookies and Nest Cakes

This is my favourite choc chip cookie recipe and is very easy, perfect for Kids. You can vary it by adding some nuts instead of choc chips or combine the two. To make these cookies ‘eastery’ I put a mini egg on top of each dollop of mixture, not a total success as you can see some of these cracked.

Also included is a photo of some Easter cup cakes I made this week. They are iced to look (loosely) like nests complete with mini eggs, but here the piece de resistance(s) are the very kitsch wire chicks that I remembered from my childhood and couldn’t resist buying in a pound shop.

Choc Chip Cookies - makes 16-20

125g / 4oz Butter or Marg

50g / 2oz soft brown sugar or golden caster

1 egg beaten

150g / 5oz Self raising flour

175g / 6oz plain chocolate chopped or chocolate drops (I find that 100g of chocolate drops and 50g of nuts like hazel nuts is enough)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180^oC and grease two baking sheets

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in the egg

Sift in the flour and mix

Add the chocolate chips and nuts if using

Put teaspoons of the mixture well spaced on the baking sheets and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool, they are a little fragile warm but will firm up as they cool.

Hen Night Cupcakes

As Easter approaches it seemed like a good time to post these cupcakes. As the title suggests I made them for a hen night but I think they also look quite Easter-y. These are for a reasonably sophisticated hen night – if I get any requests I can post what I make for a more rowdy hen night...

The cupcakes are made from a devil’s food cake recipe and hens are made from chocolate plastic. I shaped them to have very thin beaks and then dipped them in a little bit of white chocolate*. I also coloured a small amount of white chocolate red and then piped little combs and wattles (yup, that’s what the red bits are called). I put the hens here with smartie eggs but that’s because it wasn’t near Easter and I couldn’t find any mini eggs, but they would obviously be better.

Note the comb and wattles!

* when I am only melting a very little bit  of chocolate I do this in a metal measuring spoon (like these ones pictured) over boiling water, I have some spoons for measuring cups and ½ and ¼ cups which are just the right size for this.