Food & Drink

lifestyle Food & Drink

DID SOMEONE SAY CAKE?

According to a survey by nabim (National Association of British and Irish Millers), 21% of home bakers choose chocolate cake as their favourite cake to bake. It also showed that a whopping 73% of home bakers have made a chocolate cake, which equates to nearly a quarter of the UK population!

With this month’s Chocolate Week in mind, the Easy Peasy Baking campaign has shared this gloriously simple recipe for a two-layered chocolate fudge cake – enjoy!

Ingredients

Sponge: Icing:

- 175g self-raising flour - 300g dark or milk - 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda chocolate - 150g soft light brown sugar - 150ml/g double - 50g cocoa powder cream (cold) - 2 eggs - 150ml/g sunflower oil - 150ml/g milk

Equipment

- 2 x 15cm round cake tins lined with baking paper - Mixing bowl - Whisk - Microwaveable bowl - Icing spatula/knife

Method

- Preheat the oven to 160°C. - In the mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate, sugar and cocoa powder. - Add in the eggs, oil and milk and whisk everything together until no lumps remain. - Divide the batter into the two cake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until springy in the centre. Allow to cool completely before icing. - Whilst the sponges are cooling, melt the chosen chocolate for the icing in the microwave (in 30 second increments and stirring to prevent burning). Once it is melted completely, pour in the cold double cream and combine until glossy and smooth. - Sandwich the two sponges with the icing before covering the top and sides. Decorate as you wish.

Go au naturel!

Celebrity nutritionist, Rob Hobson, claims that food is the ultimate medicine! He says: “The UK grows and produces an abundance of fresh produce that is stocked on our supermarket shelves. Most consumers are unaware that natural foods are as effective, if not more effective than taking supplements to boost our health. For example, British and Irish farmers and growers are enriching mushrooms with vitamin D, with just eight providing 100% of your daily recommended intake (RI). Mushrooms are also a natural source of vitamins B2, B3, B5 and B6, with one 100g serving of Vitamin B6 mushrooms providing 30% of your daily recommended intake (RI).”

Rob’s healthy lifestyle tips include:

• Cook from scratch during the week to ensure you are consuming healthier meals. Use a selection of simple, natural ingredients and avoid using processed foods. • Incorporate vitamin D enriched mushrooms into at least one meal every day. If you can’t get your hands-on vitamin D enriched mushrooms and can only find regular mushrooms, place them in the windowsill when the sun is out, and they become a source of vitamin D. • Drink a minimum of two litres of water a day.

This helps to cleanse toxins from your body, provides you with energy and helps fatigue. • Go outside for at least an hour's walk or daily exercise each day in the fresh air. Exercise can improve your health and reduce the risk of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. • Limit foods high in harmful fat, sugar or salt.

Replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats, and reduce consumption of sugary and salty snacks, opting for low sodium products instead.

Seasonal vegetables 15.48pm is snack time!

Here’s the nation’s favourite vegetables and their Researchers polled 2,000 adults and discovered that 15:48pm is the time we prefer to enjoy a little treat availability in the UK and Ireland!ahead of dinner time. The study, commissioned by Mushrooms, potatoes, carrots and lettuce: Available Peperami, found that there was also a divide when 365 days it came to the preferred snack, with 43% enjoying savoury and 42% preferring a sweet option. Top Broccoli, peppers, onions, cucumber and tomatoes: snacks included crisps, toast, bananas, digestives Travel 1,119 miles min. when out of season and nuts.