missiecindz.com | Missie Cindz

Say it with a card. Go on, take her out for pudding this Valentine’s Day, a posh skinny salad is soooooooo passé!

Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to put pen to paper and write delicious stories and letters to your loved ones or any family members. It’s also a great way to encourage them to do the same and share in the playful happiness.

Celebrate these moments with friends, family, partners and all the special someone’s in your life – afterall it’s the little things you do that can make the biggest difference.

Happy Valentine’s Day gorgeous foodies – have a super delicious day! – Missie Cindz x

Love is in a jar of chocolates giveaway

Win a bag of stationery treats in our Valentine’s competition!

Question: How many chocolate truffles are in the Missie Cindz sweet jar? Tell me by commenting below and 3 randomly selected romantics will get a delicious bag of Missie Cindz Valentine’s treats. No cheesy stuff.

I’m thrilled to pair this giveaway with Sheffield’s Victoria Made {um, hello deliciousness!} and some of my own Missie Cindz paper-licious goodies {I want to read those romantic written musings}. It’s all a bit like a lucky dip really, only without the barrel or sawdust.

The competition is also available on Instagram (#LoveMissieCindz). Winners will be notified on Facebook and via email :)
Closing Date: Entries must be posted by Tuesday 12th February (12noon) and gifts will be sent First Class for you to enjoy on the 14th February 2013. Sweet.

UPDATE: Congrats Lizzie Baker, Carol Fry and Rebecca Helen for winning Missie-licious goodies this time. Big thanks to Victoria Made for picking our winners.

*Giveaway limited to UK residents only.

{Illustration by Cindy Cheung}

Yes, you're my favourite...now, get that kettle on! :)

I Wish All My Lovely Readers A Happy Valentine‘s Day!

Although, I don’t think you should have just the one day to show your favourite things (or person) that you should love them, I believe you should be either scoffing them in moderation or showing that special person daily that you care 24/7. Love/food loving should be happening 365 days a year, and not just the one! – so go out today and have something you reeeeeeeeeeeeally enjoy, I will be! :)

If you’re stuck for some Valentine’s Day baking recipes – love bread? last year, I made some amazingly sweet and delicious heart-shaped bread rolls – find the recipe and instructions here: Cinnamon heart-shaped rolls

Heart-shaped cinnamon bread rolls – go on stuff him/her up on these rolls of love!

Now where’s Bazza-Noms?

My first bread making attempt - Cinnamon roll hearts

I am definitely a Bread Lover and this weekend I decided to set myself a ‘Foody Challenge’ which was to make my own bread rolls (I’d never made breads before).

This weekend I made Cinnamon Buns. As it’s Valentine’s Day next week (and as I have alot of love to give), I wanted to try to make these heart-shaped and also added grated white chocolate to the cinnamon filling (like always, I like to add a bit of ‘Missie-ness’ to a recipe ;). The aroma from the oven as they cook is amazing and they taste delicious. Here’s how I made these delicious hearty delights…

Brush two 20 x 30cm deep baking trays with melted butter and set aside.

For the dough:
450g strong wholemeal flour (you can use strong white if preferred, I wanted healthy hearts and wholemeal flour adds a nice texture/golden colour to the rolls :)
70g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
85g butter , cut into small pieces
7g sachet dried yeast
2 eggs , beaten
150ml full-fat milk
vegetable oil , for greasing

1. Place the flour, sugar and 1 tsp salt in a mixing bowl, then rub in the pieces of butter until the mix has the texture of breadcrumbs. Tip in the yeast and eggs. Pour in the milk and mix well until you get a soft dough (you may need to add a little more milk). Knead in a mixer with a dough hook for 7 mins or by hand for about 15 mins until the dough is smooth, soft and springy. Tip into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film or a clean tea towel, then leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hr or until doubled in size.

The dough can be put into the fridge until the next morning, if required.

2. When the mixture has doubled in size. On a lightly floured surface, punch down the dough and knead to knock out the air, then split the dough in two. Roll and stretch each piece to form a 15 x 30cm rectangle about 1.5cm thick (trim the edges if you”™re having trouble getting the desired shape – see photograph, marked A).

[Directions from here on are for both breadmaker and handmade dough]

For the cinnamon filling:
50g butter
50g light brown soft sugar
60g grated white chocolate
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3. Make the filling: melt the butter and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Spread half the cinnamon sugar/butter mixture evenly over the entire dough rectangle. Sprinkle generously half the grated white chocolate.

To form the heart shapes:

4. Now you need to carefully roll the long edges of the dough into the centre (see photograph, marked B).

When both edges are rolled into the centre, cut each log into six similar-sized pieces.
Taking one piece at a time, unroll both edges about 1 inch and pinch the loose part at the bottom to form a heart shape. Place into the baking tray/tin – note that the rolls will expand as they rise so spacing is important. Try to make sure they all have equal space so that all of the heart-shaped rolls will be a similar size (see photograph, marked C). Keep going until you have shaped all six pieces. Cover with a cling film and leave in a warm place to rise.

5. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. When the rolls have risen so that they take up most (or all) of the space of the tin. Remove the cling film from the tray, then bake for 30 mins until the buns are lightly browned and feel firm. Serve with a nice cuppa tea!

The Icing is optional but makes this a naughty little hearty bun! :)

For the icing:
4 heaped tablespoons icing sugar
lemon juice

In a small bowl add a few drops of lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix to a fairly thick consistency (you want the icing to be a bit gooey but not so runny that it slides off). Remove the rolls from the oven and leave to cool slightly (5-10 minutes). Drizzle the icing over the top of the rolls and serve. Delicious!

As you all know, I’m a real cakey (and all foods) lover, so when I heard from Whatsonupnorth‘s Simon that Sheffield’s Fancie Cupcakes were giving away a special box of ‘customised’ Valentine delights, I rushed to find out when, what and HOW!!?

To enter was quite simple, I was asked to explain why, in less than 100 words I thought Bazza deserves to win the Cupcakes. Well, at first I thought “Bazza better reply back to Fancie asap!” (and have even posted him the link, but obviously it seems he’s not got the hint, yet! :)

…but as I’m such a generous and ‘sharing person’. Bazza deserves a box of Red Valentine Fancie Cupcakes because we don’t get to see each other much (he’s not a SheffTowner) so he’s a very ‘sickly’ blue when he’s not with me (just look at him in the illustration above). He works incredibly hard and a box of red cupcakes would colour him up nicely to my Missie Purple self – so that next Monday (14th), we’ll be a perfectly matched up colour. Plus I know he will share the cupcakes, and that is love.

So please Fancie let him eat cake! :)

Send someone a double helping of the sweet stuff. A super-tasty treat for any foody :)

Here’s another rather nice gift idea I’ve stumbled across today – The Sheffield Honey gift packs. The packaging by @DEDass is so clean and beautiful (I don’t want to open it), and comes in three (112g) jars of honey types: Heather, Soft Set and Blossom, all neatly contained in a cute woven canvas bag (and includes the big red bow too! – as pictured). Priced £12.95, these are available from a range of stockists in Sheffield (including Sheff’s @PJtaste) or you can email The Sheffield Honey Company where someone will be more than willing to help with your enquiry.

I always appreciate foodie gifts (hint hint, oink oink) and maybe ‘Someone’ will treat me to something local, or homemade, like jam, local honey, or a farmers market find – which are all interesting gift ideas.

Perhaps you have a rather ‘Cheesy’ special one? How about this Cheesy Two Hearts gift set from The Cheese Shed (as blogged a couple of weeks ago). Happy Shopping!