Happy Banana Bread Day

We love a food inspired celebration day at Ellie Ellie, and today is Banana Bread Day! What better way to celebrate and dig into some well earned treats than making your very own (and very simple) banana bread!

There are all types of different additions to the basic banana bread, and having tried chocolate chip banana bread, we highly recommend it! As well as other flavours we have yet to try, such as blueberries, nutella and carrot.

Here's an easy recipe for you to follow:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c, 350F, Gas mark 4 and sift the flour bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and mix well. Then fold into the flour mixture.

4. Grease a loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin

5. Back for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Happy Baking!

House of the Rising Bun Cupcakes!

The lovely Laura at House of the Rising Bun sent us over one of her baking cake mixes, and as it was Holly's birthday at Ellie Ellie HQ last week, it was the perfect excuse to get baking and try out the mix. 

The cake mix arrived in a brilliantly packaged box, with a great design and all the information you needed to bake your cake clearly written on the back. Inside the box you have a cake mix and an icing mix, all you need to add is 3 eggs and butter! 

House of the rising bun was founded by Laura Stephenson, who noticed her cupboards were full of ingredients that she had only used once when baking. Her mixes use the best ingredients and apart from the eggs and butter, includes everything you need to bake the perfect cake. 

Our cake was Lemon Poppy Seed, but her other flavours include raspberry and vanilla, double chocolate and vanilla bean! 

I started by following the simple instructions written clearly on the back of the packaging, and my mixture soon looked like a yummy cake mixture, all i had to do was soften the butter and add in their cake mix packet. Simple, no need to add a teaspoon of baking powder or a cup of sugar, it's all done for you. 

Once the cake mix was blended in, i added the eggs one by one, and soon my mixture was ready to put in my cupcake cases and into the oven. 

Once the cupcakes had been in the oven, they came out looking tasty and ready to cool.  

Once they were cool i started the simple task of making my icing, which again just included adding water to the icing mix!

When i finished my icing, i simply covered my cupcakes and added some sprinkles to add some colour! 

Not only were the cupcakes easy to make, but they tasted delicious too. All the girls in the office absolutely loved them and their lemony goodness. 

The cake mix was so simple to use and meant i didn't need to rummage in my cupboards for ingredients i wouldn't ever use again. Rather than buying each individual ingredient for a cake, i think stocking your cupboard with these cake mixes is a much better idea!

Thank you House of the Rising Bun, now to try out the other flavours!