I ❤️ NY Bake Box: Banoffee Whoopie Pies *REVIEW* & *RECIPE*

Some of you might remember that I am an official ambassador for Bake Box - the bakeware subscription box that is delivered to your door every other month. 

If you'd like to hear more details, prices and see how I got on with my first two boxes you can read my review here and here.

The fruits of my labour from my last Bake Box was this amazing polka Teddy Bear Cake which I baked with Bert shortly after Connie's arrival. It was such a fun cake to make and turned out to be a proper showstopper...how could I top that? 

The fruits of my second Bake Box - A Teddy Bear cake baked with The Bertster. 

Well, this month (September) I decided to choose a crowd-pleasing recipe from the box, one that I knew would go down a storm with various 'taste-testers' who I was seeing over the course of a few days last week: three lovely friends, my Mum, Sister and Stepdad and of course, Liam and Bert. 

This month's box theme was 'I ❤️ NY' and the box included:

-Whoopie pie mat

-Mini doughnut mould

-3 New York themed cookie cutters: Yellow taxi, Statue of Liberty and I ❤️ NY t-shirt

-Giant cupcake cake mould

-Chocolate work sheet

-Blue food colouring gel 

Plus six recipe cards:

-Giant USA Cupcake

-Chrysler Cheesecake

-I ❤️ NEW YORK Cake

-New York Biscuits

-Iced Mini Doughnuts

-Banoffee Whoopie Pies

Contents of the 'I ❤️ NY' Bake Box

The recipe I chose to have a bash at was Banoffee Whoopie Pies, and I used the whoopie pie mat which came as part of the latest Bake Box. 

This was my first attempt at a whoopie pie recipe - I've seen a real influx of these in recent years - much like the beloved cupcake a few years ago, they seem to be to new 'in-thing' in the UK baking scene...if you haven't come across them before a whoopie Pie is a hybrid/mix between a scone, biscuit and a sponge cake. These little cake discs are sandwiched together with combinations of delicious fillings - in this case: cream cheese frosting, sliced fresh banana and caramel. WIN!

"Whoopie pies are favourite with New Yorkers when they meet friends for an espresso or Americano. They're available in a rainbow of colours and flavours and these banana and salted caramel ones are so easy to make using your whoopie pie tray." Bake Box

BANOFFEE WHOOPIE PIES

(makes 9)

Ingredients

For the Whoopie Pie shells: 

-125ml buttermilk

-1½tsp lemon juice

-125g unsalted butter, diced and softened

-175g caster sugar

-1 egg, beaten

-275g self raising flour

-2tbsp milk

-150g chocolate chips (I used milk but dark or white would work too!)

For the filling:

-75g unsalted butter

-100g full fat cream cheese

-275g icing sugar

-1tsp vanilla extract

-2 bananas, peeled and sliced 

For the caramel drizzle:

-200g caster sugar

-2tbsp double cream

-100g salted butter, cut into small cubes

Method

Making the whoopie pie shells...

• Preheat the oven to 180℃ (fan 160℃)/350℉/gas 4. Lay the whoopie pie tray on a baking sheet.
• Stir the buttermilk and lemon juice together. In a mixing bowl, beat the b utter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, sieve in the flour and stir in with the milk. Finally, add the buttermilk mixture and fold in with the chocolate chips until evenly mixed in. 
• Weigh your total batter and divide that number by 18 (mine was 52g per shell). Weigh out spoonfuls of your batter and place into the cups of the tray until your first 6 are ready to bake. Bake for 10-12 minutes until spongy to the touch and golden brown. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before lifting off and placing on a wire rack to leave to cool completely.
• Wash and dry the whoopie pie mat (important - to stop sticking!) and use the remaining batter to bake more shells the same way - you need 18 in total. 

Baking whoopie pie shells

Making the filling:

• Beat the butter until it is pale and creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until it is evenly combined with the butter. 
• Gradually beat in the icing sugar on a slow speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla and beat for a further 5 minutes.
• Spoon the filling into a disposable piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (Wilton 5M is best) and pipe the filling over the flat side of one half of the whoopie pie shells. Add the banana slices and place the other half shells on top. 

Making the caramel drizzle:

• Heat the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat until melted. Boil, without stirring, until a rich caramel colour. 
• Remove the pan from the heat. Warm the cream in a small bowl in the microwave and pour it into the caramel in a thin, steady stream. 
• Add the butter and stir until it has melted. Put the pan back over a low heat and whisk hard to dissolve any lumps of caramel. Pour the caramel into a bowl and leave to cool.
• Drizzle the caramel over the whoopie pies using a teaspoon or piping bag. 

(I chose to drizzle my caramel inside the whoopie pies rather than over the top to make them less messy to eat!) 

Time to fill my whoopie pies with deliciousness...

Banoffee - the best flavour combo in the world??

Caramel porn. Not even sorry. 😂

All ready for their lids...

T'ah D'ah! Banoffee Whoopie Pie ready for devouring! 

All of my taste testers absolutely loved these whoopie pies - most of them had never tried one before, so it was cool to take their whoopie-pie virginities and see them enjoy the fruits of my labour. 

Unfortunately for me, I was in the final days of my #SugarFreeSeptember challenge so I couldn't try them *SOBS*...absolute dedication to the challenge - I didn't even lick my finger when I was making the cream cheese frosting, if that's not willpower then I don't know what is? I'm rest assured they were very tasty and so I will definitely be making them again soon so that I can have a taste. 

Another fabulous box from Bake Box, six brilliant recipe cards (I can't wait to have a go at all of them - mini doughnuts next!), really high-quality bakeware which make exciting additions to my baking cupboard and just an all-round fun time...I wonder what my next box will have in store?

Do let me know if you have a go at baking these Banoffee Whoopie Pies: use the hashtag #MrsBishopBakes so I can see how you get on...

Mrs B

xxx

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Disclaimer: I was sent this Bake Box in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

What's in my Degustabox? September.

It's that time again...we've just had our exciting Degustabox delivery and I'm excited to share with you this month's contents, it's a good'un! 

Hartley's Lunchbox Jellies x4
Tesseire Strawberry & Raspberry Squash
Say Yes...Sour Cream Bread Chips
Mrs Crimbles Gluten Free Mushroom Pasta
Metcalfe's Popcorn Thins (Milk Chocolate)
Emily Fruit Crisps - Banana 
CA Sparkling Fruit drinks x2
CIRO Steam Xpress Berloti Beans x3
Get Fruit Mango bar
Chia Seeds packets x2

I loved that most of this months box contained healthy foods - and so many that contained zero refined sugar - which was pretty useful considering I'm in my last weeks of #SugarFreeSeptember. 

Bert and Liam have gladly devoured those foods that did contain a bit of sugar already, such as the Metcalfe's Popcorn Thins and the sour cream Say Yes to No bread chips. Bert and I shared the Get Fruity bar with our lunch on the day the box was delivered and it was delicious! 

Things like the Mrs Crimbles ready-meal pouches are so handy to have in the store cupboard for a quick meal with zero work when I'm in a rush, or an easy dinner option for Liam when I'm out and he's cooking for one, and it's also great to have cooked beans on hand (like the tinned Cirio Berlotti beans in this months box) as I use them in so many dinner recipes: I'm sure it won't take me long to use them up. 

Liam was well chuffed with the four pots of Hartley's jellies - as we buy these every week in our food shop - they're so low in calories and they make the perfect sweet fix to end the meal with, minus the guilt. So the four new pots will just mean we won't need to buy as many when we hit the supermarket tomorrow night. 

My absolute favourite item in this month's box was by FAR the Emily Fruit Crisps - Crunchy Banana. They are INSANE!! The only ingredients in them are banana and palm oil, they taste amazing - sweet, crunchy and super-bananaery! They are reminiscent of the sweet banana chips you can get in the health food aisle, except that they are crunchy and crisp-like instead of so hard that they could break your teeth!! Plus they don't have any extra sweetener added to them, like banana chips do. 

They were so nice that I immediately went online and ordered 12 bags!! I cannot wait for them to arrive, yum yum - pure snacking heaven for me. 

If you'd like to know more about Degustabox then head to their website or social media channels...

I'm excited to see what will be in our next box! 

If you'd like to give Degustabox a try for yourself then receive £7 off your first box with this offer code... 

Use Code BLDEG15 to receive £7.00 off your first Degustabox! 

*We were sent the September 2016 Degustabox in exchange for this honest review*

25 Cushions You Didn't Know You Needed...

Cushions.

Why am I drawn to cushions so much? I currently have 5 in my living room and countless cushions in each of the 3 bedrooms in my house - I think they're such a fun and quick way to add colour and character to a room, and they're useful too (as long as you go for big, plump, duck down numbers - my fave to snuggle into!) 

My husband and son both HATE them. They find them pointless, annoying and always in the way: they chuck them on the floor and I spend my life picking them up and giving them a good plump. 

Sound familiar? Surely I'm not the only one fighting the cushion war at home?

I'm currently in the planning stages of a big re-decoration of our living room, and during the process I have (of course) been looking at cushions that I might choose to accessorise my new living room scheme with. While I was browsing I found so many amazing cushions in all sorts of price ranges which would suit a variety of interiors/styles, and I thought I'd share them with you today. 

Obviously, where you choose to purchase accessories for your home is very much budget-dependent. You could of course splash the cash and buy designer cushion covers, or you can source cushion covers online at best prices in places like Yorkshire Linen's e-store. 

In this collection I've tried to include something for all tastes and budgets. 

Which is your fave? 

YORKSHIRE LINEN:

Sofia Chenille Cushion Cover - Teal

Icons Shaped Cushion : Wink

Hayes Spot Cushion Cover, Slate

Stag Embroidered - Cushion Cover - Navy

H&M:

Red Stripe Cotton Cushion

'Enjoy Today' slogan cushion

John Lewis:

Scion Mini Mr Fox Cushion, Orange / Beige

little home at John Lewis Anchor Knitted Cushion, Blue

Orla Kiely Linear Stem Cushion, Persimmon, Sunflower

Morris & Co Strawberry Thief Cushion, Indigo

John Lewis Sheep Cushion

John Lewis Miko Floor Cushion, Saffron

John Lewis French Knot Seagulls Cushion

John Lewis Nordic Houses Cushion

Scion Snowdrop Bicycle Cushion, Burnt Orange/White

Voyage Expressive Thistle Cushion

Voyage Rory Cushion

bluebellgray Portree Cushion

Joules Chevening Cushion, Blue

Laura Ashley :

Garden Birds Hedgerow Cushion

Amara Living:

Watermelon Silk Shaped Cushion

Nikki Jones Concentric Cushion

Cath Kidston Antique Rose Bouquet Cushion

Nikki McWilliams:

Supersize Malted Milk Cushion

Bouf:

Typewriter Cushion

^^ Why not Pin This for later ^^

So, what do you think? Is my taste too ecclectic for you? Too colourful? Kitsch? Or are you lusting after some of my choices too? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Mrs B

xxx

This is a collaborative post. 

A Little Owl Gift Basket for Connie's Arrival... and WIN a £20 gift voucher

Shortly after Connie's arrival back in June, the lovely Helen from Little Owl Gift Baskets very kindly sent us one of her beautiful baby gift baskets - Helen creates bespoke gift hampers from a Newborn essentials collection, a bath-time hampers, to bookworm baskets. She also sells nappy cakes, milestone cards and some rather fabulous 'preparing for birth' affirmations in the form of a digital download. 

The basket we received was the utterly gorgeous Baby Bookworm Book Gift Basket priced at £64.99  - which contains a bath book, buggy book and then your choice of 4 classic children's books (or you can opt for a surprise selection). This little mini-library comes presented in a gorgeous wicker basket, and is wrapped in cellophane and can be decorated with your choice of pink, blue or yellow ribbon. 

Connie's stunning Little Owl Baby Bookworm Gift Basket 

Our basket contained:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar (board book)
• Guess How Much I Love You? (board book)
• Dear Zoo (board book)
• That's Not My Owl... (board book)
• Freddy Frog - Buggy Buddies (buggy book)
• Numbers in the Jungle (bath book)

The book list selection is genuinely perfect for little ones - there are such classics to choose from including:

• Each peach Pear Plum
• Fox's Socks
• The Gruffalo
• The Gruffalo's Child
• The Tiger Who Came to Tea
• Where's Spot?
• Zoom

And obviously the books that were in our basket too!

What a BRILLIANT selection of books! 

This book basket is such a thoughtful gift for a new baby - what a perfect start to a little one's library! There's something so overwhelming (in a good way) about receiving such well put together gifts shortly after the arrival of a new baby - especially one's that you know they'll get use out of for many months ahead. 

In fact, even Bert was mega excited by the arrival of the  book basket - there were some titles in the box that he remembered from his own early years (as well as some from MY childhood too *Dear Zoo*) and he got stuck into reading the books as soon as they arrived. 

Bert getting stuck in to The Very Hungry Caterpillar! 

We're already enjoying sharing the books with our gorgeous girlie - how time is flying...she is 14 weeks already and growing FAST! 

Connie - 14 weeks

Look at this cheekster...Connie messing around with her Big Brother Bert!

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! 

The lovely Helen from Little Owl Gift Baskets has very kindly offered to giveaway a £20 voucher for her website to one of you lovely lot. To be in with a chance of winning, use the Gleam app below. 

Good luck guys! 

Mrs B

xxx

WIN a £20 voucher for Little Owl Gift Baskets