Gem and Jo's Water of the Week - Apple and Grape.

It is a gorgeous bank holiday Monday here in Ireland at the moment (it actually isn't raining for once!), so what better way to enjoy the little sunshine we get than relaxing with a nice glass (or pitcher) of fruit infused water! Today's special; Apple and Grape!

Here's what you'll need:

An Apple!

A Handful of Red Grapes. 

Thinly slice the apple and chop your grapes in two. 

Chuck it all into some ice water and you're good to go!

Here's why this combo is good for you: 

• Grapes are a great source of potassium. 
• Apples are a great source of immune boosting vitamin C
• Apples are a great source of antioxidants which help fight free radicals
• Grapes can help to reduce blood pressure through anti inflammatory mechanisms. 
• Grapes are great for keeping your hydrated!

What's your favourite fruity water to drink on a sunny day?

 Until next time,

Gem and Jo's End of Summer BBQ

We are starting back at college very soon and we have to face the fact that our summer is pretty much up! So in order to come to terms with this quite depressing notion, we decided to have a bit of a bbq with our friends, to say farewell, adios, au revoir, aloha, slán and auf wiedersehen to summer (That's goodbye in five languages for those of you who didn't get that!).
So in order to have a properly good shindig we felt the need to firstly make bunting. what kind of a party would it be without bunting, not a very good one in our opinion! We made it using A4 paper, string, and paint and strung it up in the trees to make the place look all sorts of pretty!

Next we prepared all the food because whats a bbq without food, its just a bunch of people hanging around! We decided to have a pretty laid back menu with burgers, sausages, salads and whatnot. We got pretty much all of this from Aldi, which meant everything was super cheap and really delicious! Seriously, their meat rivals some of the best butchers in Dublin (which Jo wouldn't know  since she's an ole veggie head). 

For dessert we baked!!!! And boy did it taste good! But you'll have to wait and see what we made in our next post, which will be up soon! 

We also made smores, cause what would a barbeque be without smores? They're kinda mandatory at a bbq! To make them we put rich tea biscuits on some tin foil wrapped trays and topped each with a marshmallow and a piece of chocolate (however we may or may not have eaten half the bar before it reached the tray!). You just have to stick the tray under the grill for a few minutes and voila! Top with one more biscuit and shove it in your mouth! (A glass of milk is advised).

As we are all of drinking age (yes we are adults even though we don't act it all the time!), we decided to make a bit of a cocktail to serve up with dinner. Now Jo is a bit of a peach fiend, anything peach flavoured or scented she must own, so peach schnapps was a must. We added that to equal parts orange juice and pineapple and passion fruit juice, gave it a swirl and poured it over ice for  super summery liquid-y deliciousness. 

Just before everyone arrived we set out some really cute little candles in jars, for the ambiance you know? It made the place look really cute and cosy!! Plus the candles were citronella, which kept the flies away, who likes flies all over their burgers? Not us! 

We had a really good night and it was a nice end to a great summer! The food was delicious (thank you Jo's mammy, we weren't really allowed near fire. That would have put everyone at risk!) and it was great getting to chill and goss with our friends before the hectic-ness of our final year of college takes over. 

As always, thanks you guys for reading! We really do appreciate it when we look at our stats at the end of the day and realise so many people have read our stuff!

Let us know in the comments if you liked this post! 

Until Next Time, 

Gem and Jo Take on Lemon Cupcakes!

So the other day we decided to bake some lemon cupcakes! Jo's brother was coming to visit and they are his absolute favourite so Jo thought that it would be a nice treat for him as she doesn't get to see him that often. Aww!
So here's how you make these lemony pieces of heaven!

Here's what you'll need:

For the Cupcakes:

• 8 oz of butter
• 8 oz of caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 11 oz of self raising flour
• the zest of one lemon 
• 4 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of milk

For the lemon icing:

• 6 oz of butter
• 12 oz of icing sugar
• 3 table spoons of lemon juice 
• 2 table spoons of hot water
• a few drops of yellow food colouring (if wanted)

So here's what we did:

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar together with a mixer, until it is a creamy consistency. 

2. Add the lemon zest to the mixture

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. 

4. Add the sifted flour to the mixture and mix well 

5. Add the lemon juice and milk and again mix well (that's super important, if you hadn't guess from how many times we've mentioned it!)

6. Put the mixture into a cupcake tray lined with cupcake cases (gotta love some alliteration) and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes.

Now onto the icing! 

7. While those bad boys are cooling combine the sifted icing sugar and butter into a bowl and mix well (yep there we go again!)

8. Add the lemon and water to the mixture bit by bit so as not to make the mixture too wet (for want of a better word).

9. Next add as much food colouring as you desire and the put the icing into a piping bag.

10. When the cupcakes are fully cooled (and we mean fully, or else the icing is just going to melt right off and you'll end up with a lemony mess rather than a perfectly formed cupcake), pipe the icing onto the cupcakes et voilá! you have yourself a lemon cupcake with lemon butter cream icing 

 This recipe makes about  24 cupcakes (boys eat a lot!!).

Thanks for reading and happy baking!
Until Next Time!

Gem and Jo Take on Brownies

To go along with the cheesecake that we made on Friday, we decided to make brownies too! Now this recipe belongs to Jo, it is her creation and so we ask that you do not claim it as your own, that would be mean.

Here's what you'll need:

3 oz. of dark chocolate, the brand of your choice.
4 oz. of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
6 oz. of caster sugar
2 large eggs
4 oz. of plain flour
half a teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt.

These are some of the brands we used!

 So to create these little squares of deliciousness, this is what you'll have to do:

1: melt the butter and chocolate together, now you can do this either in the microwave or on the hob. We used the hob because chocolate can burn really easily in the microwave!
Plus you can eat it while it melts on the cooker!!

2: Add the sugar into the chocolate-butter stuff with a wooden spoon.

3: beat 2 eggs together and add to the mixture!

4: sift in the flour, salt and baking powder.

5: mix it all in really well and mix in the spoon of vanilla essence too!

6: pour the mixture into a baking tin, which is lined with baking parchment. (The parchment stops it sticking to the tin!)

7: Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius, (or for those using the imperial system:  356 degrees Fahrenheit!) for 20 minutes!

We recommend checking them after 15 minutes so you don't burn those beauts!!

8: After they've cooled, sprinkle some icing sugar on top and chop into squares!

Voila, you've created awesomeness!

Here's what ours looked like:

om nom nom!!

Don't forget to follow us by email and on twitter, @gemandjo. Thanks for reading! Until next time!!

Gem and Jo Take on White Chocolate Cheesecake

For our friend's birthday we had bought a her gift online, however it hasn't arrived yet and the party is today, (!!) so after a slight panic attack and a mental breakdown or two, we decided to make her a cheesecake to bring instead!  Now, for all you copyright obsessors the cheesecake recipe does not belong to us! We found it online a long time ago and adapted it to be made with chocolate! No stealing of recipes here!

Heres what you'll need:

               

• 500ml of fresh cream
• 600g of Philadelphia or other cream cheese brands
• 250g of butter
• 400g of digestive biscuits
• 1 pack of cookies (without nuts)
• 3 (150g each) bars of white cooking chocolate  
• 1 sachet of gelatin 

You will also need an array of bowls, spoons and a cake tin for the cake to set in.


1. First you need to mash up the biscuits and cookies into a fine dust for the base.

 2. Melt the butter in the microwave until it is all liquid and pour into the biscuits, mix until all biscuits are covered in butter, the mixture should be sticking together. Put this into the cake tin and press hard with the back of a spoon until solid. We used a potato masher and it was soooo much easier!

3. You should start melting all the chocolate now as it needs to cool slightly before its added.

4. dissolve the gelatin as per instruction on the box (follow them VERY carefully because we did not and now everything is sticky, everything...)

5. When the gelatin and chocolate are cooled a little, add them and all the tubs of cream cheese to a mixer and mix that shtuff up! Mix it gooood! 

6. While thats mixing, you should whisk the fresh cream until it is stiff (and try not to eat it all!) 

7. You should now fold the cream and chocolate cheese mixture together and add it on top of the biscuit base! 

8. Put it in the fridge for a good 4 hours and voila, chocolate cheesecake without the use of a hot oven!

Thanks for reading and happy baking! 

Until next time!!