It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... I'm so excited for Christmas and would consider it my favourite time of the year, despite being a summer baby. I love the decorations and lights, shopping and presents, food, music, cosy days and evenings, and spending time with loved ones. It's such a magical time! Now that it's December I can be as excited as I want and do as many festive activities as possible to get into the Christmas spirit and enjoy the build up. I hope you all enjoyed your advent calendars, we put decorated our house yesterday with it being the first weekend of December. We went on a family trip to London at the weekend to wander around the shops and see the decorations and lights. Our first stop was Westfield shopping centre which had it's own ice rink, none of us were brave enough to give it a go... Next stop was Selfridges, Oxford Street and that's when we hit the crowds.   

The Christmas displays are amazing!

It was already manic inside but we slowly made it to the Christmas Emporium which was even busier before moving to the food hall, I love this cute little macaroon tree.

We thought Oxford Street was busy until we got the tube to Covent Garden. It's clearly the place to be as the tube station was so busy that we ended up taking the stairs (the 'quick' exit) to get out, 193 steps later we regretted this decision. Covent Garden was worth the workout though with it's giant baubles, tree and reindeer.

A lovely day, but we were so glad to be resting our feet on the train home!

I made this S'mores Cookie Cake as part of my boyfriend's birthday surprise. I knew I wanted to make s'mores in some shape or form, and went from s'mores cookies to a s'mores cookie cake with inspiration from 'milk bubble tea'. To make this fluffy chocolate giant sandwich cookie keep reading...

You will need:

250g flour

200g dark brown soft sugar

100g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

170g unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

200g milk chocolate

As many chocolate chips as you like

Digestive biscuit crumbs

A tub of marshmallow fluff

Pre-heat the oven to 170C and grease or line a baking tin (I used a 24cm spring form cake tin). Mix together the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar beating in the vanilla extract and eggs. Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and stir in the chocolate chips. Drop half the cookie dough in the tin and spread across the bottom (this bit may take a while).

Place the chocolate on top of this layer.

Sprinkle the digestive biscuit crumbs on top of this layer and then whip out your tub of marshmallow fluff (I bought mine from a random little shop but you can it from Asda).

Now for the tricky, time consuming part... Spreading the incredibly sticky marshmallow fluff on top of everything else you've just put in the tin. It doesn't have to be perfect and will look a mess when you eat it anyway (a yummy mess though).

If I'm honest, this was an experiment and I had no idea exactly how long it would take in the oven and how long it did take in the oven. I baked it for about 20 minutes and decided to bake it for longer as the bottom layer of cookie dough takes longer to cook. It tastes delicious when served warm with the melted chocolate oozing out.

A sickly sweet treat for those who have a sweet tooth!

It was my boyfriend's birthday at the weekend and I wanted to surprise him with something lovely and creative. We usually go out for a nice dinner to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions, or maybe a night in a hotel or little trip somewhere. This year I decided to do something different and cook a yummy dinner at home. After changing my mind many times, I chose an American theme with three courses starting with BBQ chicken drumsticks. I can be ambitious when I have an idea in my head so it took me a while to find all the bits and bobs I wanted from shops like Butlers, Wilkinson and Lakeland.

A twist on traditional American hot dogs, frankfurters wrapped in puff pastry with curly fries.

A sickly sweet S'mores Cookie Cake for dessert (recipe to follow).

A warmed up slice of the S'mores Cookie Cake served with a small (it definitely needed to be small) Oreo milkshake served in a vintage milk bottle to finish.

There were no disasters and my boyfriend was happy!

A warm brownie accompanied by ice cream is one of those desserts that you just can't resist when it's on the menu. That's why I decided to make some brownies to complete my mum's five course dinner for my grandparent's visit (posh piggies). After baking these Addictive Triple Chocolate Brownies, I was looking for a twist on the traditional brownie recipes and came across these delicious looking Cheesecake Brownies (I knew they could only taste delicious too). I couldn't wait to bake these decadent treats...

You will need:

For the brownie layers...

50g butter

200g chocolate chips or chopped plain chocolate

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

85g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the cheesecake layer...

225g cream cheese

4 tablespoons caster sugar

1 egg

200g chocolate chips or chopped plain chocolate

Digestive crumbs to finish 

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease a 23cm square baking tin or dish (my dish wasn't square don't worry if yours isn't either). For the brownie layers, combine the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan with water. Stir until just melted and carefully remove the bowl from the saucepan. Stir in the sugar and eggs, then sift the flour and baking powder together and stir into the chocolate mixture.

For the cheesecake layer, mix the cream cheese, sugar and egg together and stir in the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.

Pour half of the chocolate mixture into your tin or dish (this is harder than it sounds and an excuse to eat the mixture that can't be transferred) and then top with the cream cheese mixture. Pour the remaining chocolate mixture on top and swirl this layer with a knife.

Bake for 25-30 minutes adjusting the time depending on the size of your tin or dish. Towards the end, top with digestive crumbs and bake for a further few minutes.

These Decadent Cheesecake Brownies are best served warm but prepare for a struggle when removing them from your tin or dish. It's much easier to leave them to cool, cut and remove individual brownies and warm them up in the oven for a few minutes if you want them to look nice. You might not be able to wait though...

These brownies are definitely a treat to share and enjoy with friends or family whilst relaxing at the weekend.

Because we're always looking for ways to indulge...