Kezia Eniang

When I was approached to collaborate with Bacardi on this project during the festive period, I was elated! I’m a huge fan of the brand & of-course their rum and even though Christmas is well and truly over – January too, I have solid plans on making this Bacardi rum cake again!

What’s to love about the Bacardi Rum cake?

It’s has the perfect balance of sweetness with hints of vanilla & the [8 Year Old] Bacardi Reserva Ocho rum that thankfully doesn’t overpower the cake.

It’s moist thanks to the sweet rum syrup is drizzled ever so delicately over the cake a few minutes after it’s been out of the oven. It soaks right in not only amplifying the taste but also the texture.

Watch my recipe video on my IGTV here:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B6bfaFXnlbQ/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Recipe for the cake:

225g unsalted Butter, Softened
225g muscovado Sugar
4 medium eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
pinch of fine sea salt
50ml whole milk
30ml BACARDI Reserva Ocho Rum

Rum Syrup (for drizzling over the rum cake :))

100g demerara sugar
50ml water
100ml BACARDI Reserva Ocho Rum
Juice and zest of 1 lime

Icing/Decoration:

200g icing sugar
20ml lime juice
10ml boiling water
1 medium pineapple (alternatively I used a pack of dehydrated pineapple slices which can be bought from the supermarket).

Extra butter for the tin
1 x 22cm non-stick bundt tin

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Being both Nigerian & Ghanaian I can never say which Jollof rice is better ( as I don’t want trouble! Lol) but honestly, I believe each of them have their own strengths and whenever I make Jollof I usually draw inspo from both sides. What I would say is that this particular jollof recipe is inspired by the ones I ate when I was in Nigeria. As you may or may not know, Jollof rice is a one-pot dish and is simply rice cooked in a delicious aromatic tomato stew! It’s eaten in almost every part of West Africa from Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Sierra Leone (the list goes on) and traditionally it’s cooked in a cast iron pot over an open flame of coals and firewood. This method imparts a unique yet, delicious smoky flavour & I tried recreating my own at home which I will be sharing with you! Hopefully you find this useful X

Utensils:

• Stainless steel pot
• Stock pot
• Chopping board
• Blender / food processor 
• Knife
• Tin opener 
• Cling film or foil 
• Wooden cooking spoon

Fried Beef:

750g diced beef

1 Maggi cube

1 scotch bonnet, deseeded & chopped 

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

1 small onion, shopped 

1 cup of water (to steam) 

2 cups of oil (to fry)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter 

Jollof:

3 cups of long grain rice 

2 cans plum peeled tomatoes 

2 mediun onions, sliced

2 tablespoons del Rica tomato onion & tomato pureé (normal tomato puree should do).

1 tablespoon garlic & ginger paste (alternatively 2 garlic cloves)

500ml beef stock 

50g butter

Oil 

Spices:

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon thyme 

½ teaspoon sugar (for tomatoe sauce)

¼ teaspoon white pepper 

Salt 

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750g mutton ( I like mine with some bone on the meat)
250g baby potatoes
500g cherry tomatoes, crushed
2 cooking spoons of vegetable oil
2 shallots (or onions)
2 spring onions
2 chillies (or scotch bonnet pepper, depending on how hot you like it)
1 tablespoon tomatoes paste 
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 of each – Red, green & yellow bell peppers
1 – 3 bay leaves

Spices:
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon all spice 
1/4 teaspoon thyme/herbs
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon (2-3 cardamon pods)
2 star anise
2 jumbo stock (maggie) cubes
1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
Salt

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Drizzled in warm chocolate & cinnamon sauce. It’s the sweet comfort you need for a fancy breakfast or a sweet treat. 

Serving: 4 

Time 20 Minutes

What you’ll need:

A mixing bowl (for dry ingredients)
A measuring jug or large cup
Spatula
Whisk
Frying Pan

Ingredients:
– 175g Self raising flour
– 50g brown caster sugar
– 25g cocoa powder
– 25g milk chocolate buttons (optional)
– 1/2 vanilla extract 
– 1/4 teaspoon basking powder
-1/4 nutmeg
– 350ml almond milk (because of consistency I needed more, however, if using normal full fat milk 275ml will do
– Unsalted butter (for frying)
– pinch of salt

Chocolate Sauce…

100g Dark chocolate 
50g milk chocolate
100ml almond milk or double cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinammon powder
25g unsalted butter
pinch of salt

Method:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa powder & salt in mixing bowl
2. In a separate jug whisk milk, egg & vanilla and pour into flour mixture.
3. Whisk all the ingredients together and pour back into jug.
4. Add a knob of butter to heated frying pan (make sure pan on medium-low heat).
5. Pour about 10cm (CD disk size) into the pan, cook pancake on each side foe 2-3minutes (can keep warm in preheated oven) whilst you cook the remaining batch.

For the chocolate sauce, add a knob of butter, sugar, chocolate, milk and cinnamon whisk slowly over low medium to low heat, add a pinch of salt and if the chocolate remains thick as 2-3 table spoons of milk or hot water. Once ll has melted and you get the glossy melted chocolate you desire, drizzle over warm pancakes.

Serve with fresh strawberries and there you have it 🙂 

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I’m hoping to make this more of a segment on my channel and blog – a chilled Sunday cooking whilst having a conversation with you guys. This week I had a few friends round for some pasta & wine and as I sat down to eat (and film my outro for the video) I thought I’d answer a few of your questions in a candid Q&A.

One of the most asked questions was based my career, love life and surprisingly more popular undergarments (bras) and whilst I have a few tips and tricks of my own I was never sure if it would be suitable to share on my blog or my channel but as I inundated with questions regarding this subject of course I had to answer.

That will lead me onto a more detailed video and may have inspired a new topic on my channel, so in regards to that stay tuned for my Q&A video where I will be answering your questions in my next video, in the meantime let ‘s get to the recipe for this seafood pasta dish.

First things first….

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti – 175g (half the pack, I like to use (De Cecco Spaghetti & supermarket own brands) 
• Cooked Scottish Mussels, 300g (For this I used, Rope-Grown Scottish Mussels with Garlic & shallot sauce).
• Raw jumbo prawns, 1 pack
•  Extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons 
• Any dry white wine, 200ml ( I used Gallo white Chardonnay, as it’s most affordable) 
• Butter, 1 tablespoon
• Tomato Puree, 2 tablespoons or 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• Garlic paste, 1 teaspoon ( I love using Gia Garlic Puree) 
• Shallot, 1 
• Bunch of Flat leaf parsley
• Red Chillies, 2 
• Salt & Freshly Cracked black pepper (or aromat seasoning, my ultimate fave!).

• Pre-cook your prawns in butter for 3 minutes (alternatively 1 tablespoon oil).
• Cook the mussels for 8-10 minutes on it’s own and set aside.
• Boil the spaghetti in salted water for 8 minutes ( I like mine al-dente) and set aside when done.
• In a deep pan, saute shallots (or onions), chilli, along with garlic puree for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste,salt & black pepper & stir for a few more minutes,then add the wine stir and cookdown for a few minutes 3-5 minutes. 

Add cooked prawns, mussels to the tomato/wine sauce and stir for a few more minutes. Add cooked spaghetti and little of the spaghetti water and coat in the sauce. Roughly chop fresh parsley and drizzle on top, (this should be done right at the very end).

I like taking the pan straight to the table for everyone to help themselves, the pasta is best served with some extra chilli (more parsley if you like) & olive oil. 

Enjoy (and remember have fun with it) xoxo

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I’m typing away whilst sipping on the absolut apple & ginger ale sprtiz I made earlier… The weather has been quite good so I took the opportunity to make the very most out of  it & invited friends round for cocktails & nibbles. Which included these two spritz cocktails.

As some of you know Absolut Vodka recently released 2 new limited edition juice flavours – apple & strawberry, flavours very reminiscent of summer.

Absolute Elderflower & Strawberry Spritz

• 1 part Absolut Strawberry
• 2 parts elderflower presse
• Fresh strawberry slices
• Ice 

Absolut Apple Ginger Spritz:

• 1 Part Absolut Apple Juice 
• 1 Part Ginger ale
• 1 Part Ginger beer
• Cinnamon stick (to garnish)
• Ice

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As I was going through my phone deleting & reorganising photos, I came across my Marrakesh photos and I was instantly reminded of the bittersweet feeling I had. As some of you know, if you’ve have watched my Marrakesh experience video I shared a few experiences during the first few days of our stay & although unfortunate & deeply disturbing at the time it didn’t stop us from making the most out of our stay taking photos along the way. I also realised that I hadn’t shared a blog post about the trip so here goes…

A few friends reached out shortly after the experience and asked for some tips and advice as they were planning on visiting and this is the notes I shared:

Visit the markets in the old town called Medina (just make sure you’re wearing appropriate clothing)  they also have a secret garden which is super pretty and ysl garden.

Do a Hammam at Les Bains de Marrakech Morocco (it’s amazing)  is really relaxing and good for a skin, although a little on the pricier side but if you want to treat yourself I’d certainly recommend. You can also do Hammam for as little as £2 in the old town.

If you can depending on your hotel you can book yourself into a day resort like move pick hotel or hotel Pullman palmeria resort.

Try to spend as much time in the new town as well and make sure you book activities beforehand like quad biking and atlas mountain (if you’d like to visit the waterfall).

Use taxis if you don’t have transport organised and negotiate price.

Places we ate:

Lunch – Terrace De Spices (old town) you can smoke really nice rooftop.

L’addresse really good lunch spot (and ice cream)

Cafe del la poste – sit outside if you can really beautiful and the food is good.

Dinner –

Restaurant Azar

Dar Moha – riad but so beautiful and romantic perfect for your dinner date (tables are by the pool).

A lot of the new town has the best and modern restaurants so try and got there for dinner most times.

Club – triple 55 club  they also have a shisha rooftop bar next door by the pool and it’s really pretty

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