Lemon cupcakes

I have declared Spring! Fresh flavours and cheery yellow crockery. All I'm missing is a vase full of daffodils.

A very light, fluffy sponge with lemon zest, a sneaky dollop of lemon curd in the middle and a swirl of lemon buttercream on top. Perfect for zingy lemon lovers, which I definitely am. Sometimes I wish I categorised my blog posts better and added ingredients to my labels as I'd be interested to see how many times I've baked with lemons. They're definitely one of my favourite flavours. Does anyone else have an obvious ingredient they bake with again and again?

I followed the fresh lime meringue cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery book, page 26, although I swapped the lime for lemon and the meringue for lemon buttercream.

For the cupcake:
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs, free range or organic
90ml semi-skimmed milk
30ml freshly squeezed lime juice (in my case, lemon)
1 tbsp sour cream
150g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
1 tsp grated lime/lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases. (I halved the recipe and used 12 standard cupcake cases.) In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together using an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Measure the milk into a jug, add the lime/lemon juice and sour cream and combine well.

Sift the flours into a bowl and stir together. Add alternate amounts of the flour and the lime flavoured milk to the creamed butter and sugar as follows: add 1/3 of the flour and mix well; add 1/2 the milk and mix well; add another 1/3 of the flour and mix well; add the remainder of the milk and mix well; finish by adding the last 1/3 of flour and then the lime/lemon zest and beat well. If the mixture looks as though it is curdling slightly don't panic - simply add another spoonful of plain flour and beat well. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin/cupcake cases, filling them about 2/3 full.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes. To test if the cupcakes are cooked insert a skewer into the centre of a cupcake - it should come out clean. They should be light golden in colour. Leave to cool in their tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Once cooled, cut a small hole in the top of each cake using a small sharp knife, insert a teaspoon full of lime/lemon curd. (I put the tops back on rather than discard them and then iced with a lemon buttercream which I just mixed to taste).

Nutella cupcakes

I don't know why it has taken me so long to try this recipe but it was worth the wait. Words cannot describe how deliciously chocolatey and nutella-y these are. I can see myself baking these again this week because they are that good. If you love nutella, please refrain from eating it all (like I usually do) and use it in this recipe. You will love it!

I took these to work this week for my coworkers as I'm leaving my job on Thursday. They can't be too upset if I give them cake before I go. Some may say I am mad to leave even a poorly paid job in this rubbish economic climate to become a full time artist, but I feel ready for a change and it'll be exciting.

I can't decide what I like best about these cupcakes. The smooth icing, the fluffy sponge, or the thick dollop of nutella in the centre. I was so pleased that the sponge turned out so big and fluffy as the last couple of times I used Hummingbird cupcake recipes the sponges came out a bit stodgy.

If you fancy making these (which you should!) the recipe can be found in the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook or you can find it through Helen's blog. I can now see why this is one of her favourite recipes.

Do you like the new blog header? I fancied a change but unfortunately I am completely useless when it comes to photo editing. Does anyone know why the image is slightly blurry? I do very basic editing (colour balance/lighting/cropping) through Windows Photo Gallery and added my text this time through Picnik. I saved it at as high a quality as possible (least amount of compression) but I'm still not 100% happy. Then again I thought my last header was a bit blurry too! Any suggestions or tips will be greatly received!

Banoffee cupcakes

As well as baking an orange cake last weekend I made the Primrose Bakery's banoffee cupcakes. I used my colourful silicone cases for the first time too despite receiving them at Christmas.

The banana flavour came through really well and I absolutely loved the sweet, fudgy icing. As the icing set quickly I just swirled it on with a palette knife. Although called cupcakes these were actually meant to be baked in muffin cases but I halved the recipe to make 12 standard sized cupcakes.

I also went for a walk with my cameras (DSLR and manual) last weekend as it was lovely weather for taking photographs. Although I am no fashion blogger I thought I'd show you my pair of £2(!) floral tights from Tesco. What a bargain. Strolling along the beach with flowery legs is great fun.

Sorry about my scruffy old boots, definitely not fashion blogger worthy. They've seen better days but I love them nonetheless.

Banoffee pie cupcakes
Recipe from The Primrose Bakery Book by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas, 2011 page 74

For the cupcakes:
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
250g golden caster sugar (I think I used ordinary caster sugar)
2 large eggs, free range or organic, lightly beaten
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
250g plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
4 ripe bananas (preferably turning black), mashed with a fork or broken by hand into small pieces.

For the caramel buttercream topping:
45g unsalted butter
4 and 1/2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
165g light, soft brown sugar
180g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with muffin cases (or half the mixture and use standard sized cupcake cases)/ Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric hand mixer until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat again briefly. Gradually add the flour and the baking powder and beat again until well combined. Do the same with the bananas. Divide the mixture evenly between the cases, filling each to about two-thirds full. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Combine the butter, milk and brown sugar in a heavy based saucepan and put on the hob over a high heat. Stirring continuously, bring the mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and stir in half of the icing sugar. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the rest of the icing sugar and vanilla extract and stir until it thickens to the desired consistency. If it starts to set just transfer to a microsafe bowl and soften it for a few seconds in the microwave before beating again (or to safe extra washing up just heat it up on the hob for a few seconds, it worked fine).

It says you can leave any unused icing in the fridge for up to a week, but honestly, it's so tasty there won't be any left over.

Mother's Day orange cake

Being the lovely daughter that I am, I made a cake for Mother's Day (not that I take much persuasion to make a cake). I decided on the orange cake from the new Primrose Bakery Book I bought last week. It leapt into my shopping basket, demanding to be bought. I really had no choice in the matter.

The recipe made a light, fluffy sponge cake. It was a basic Victoria sponge mixture with the grated zest of an orange, nothing too complicated.

The cake looked beautiful, especially with the orange glaze drizzling down the sides. Somehow it makes a cake look even more appealing.

My only complaint is the orange buttercream. It tasted a bit..... odd? Not bad, but odd. Maybe too buttery and not enough icing sugar. I usually taste my icing before using it but for some reason I didn't bother this time. I find unsalted butter a bit strange in general, in fact I often use slightly salted butter in my buttercream and I like the flavour (just don't use it in cooked frosting, it tastes AWFUL.) That's the only thing I would change with the cake.

I also made a little Mother's Day card to go with the cake. It's fun to do a bit of (scruffy) embroidery every so often.

Now I need to turn my attention back to Desperate Housewives on tv. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hermione the sourdough cake

This is Hermione, a German friendship sourdough cake. On Saturday I received a little tub of gloopy mixture with an accompanying recipe.

In a state of dopeyness I didn't read the instructions properly and broke the chain letter. (Am I now doomed to friendship/baking hell?) Hermione was meant to sit and bubble over 10 days before I was allowed to bake her but because the instructions had been ticked off by the previous person I think my brain thought "oh I just need to bake it then!" (honestly, I was very dopey on Sunday). The baked Hermione has been shared though so she has been passed along in some form.

Although a completely vague recipe, my Hermione turned out very nicely. It suggested walnuts, almonds or raisins to add alongside the apples and cinammon but I opted for pecans. The cake's crust was deliciously crunchy with the liberal sprinkling of demerara sugar and melted butter added before baking. The brown sugar also paired brilliantly with the pecans. I think the cake would taste even better with custard, although it's perfectly moist without.

I also made some banana and chocolate cupcakes last week from the first Hummingbird Bakery book. I made these a couple times last year which worked perfectly, but for some reason they didn't turn out right this time. I made sure all ingredients were room temperature and checked my recipe thoroughly, I even made a second batch (which were slightly better admittedly) but they mostly came out stodgy and mildly anaemic looking. Although the flavour was still lovely, they were nothing like the ones I made last year. Who knows what I did!

On Thursday I bought the Primrose Bakery book after reading favourable blog reviews so I'm going to try their cupcakes this week to compare with the Hummingbird Bakery ones. It's such a pretty book, it was worth buying for the pictures alone. I honestly can't decide which recipe I want to try first.

Gruffalo cake

It was my nephew's 2nd Birthday yesterday (and coincidently my blog's 1st birthday!) and I made him a Gruffalo birthday cake. It took most of Saturday to bake and decorate, in between drinking tea and watching films on tv, but I was very pleased with it. Word of advice: working with fondant icing can get very messy!

The birthday boy was pleased with my efforts too.

To make the cake I doubled my favourite chocolate sponge cake mixture to bake in two 30 x 23cm (12 x 9in) traybake trays and sandwiched them together with raspberry jam and chocolate buttercream icing. The cake was covered with white fondant icing and to make the Gruffalo I printed out an image from online and cut around it on top of brown fondant icing (mixing a green and red block of fondant together). The trees, grass and Gruffalo's nails etc were all cut out with left over fondant and I used some food colouring to add a bit of background colour and definition to the Gruffalo. I even gave him a hairy appearance by marking the fondant with the point of a knife.

I was a bit unsure of how the flavour of the fondant icing would work with the chocolate cake but I think it was ok, although quite sweet. It was the definitely the best way to make a Gruffalo image though.

My sister in law made an impressive rainbow style cake too, so the birthday boy got two cakes. That family are going to be eating cake for weeks! They might find me visiting more often this week...

Versatile Blogger and some cake.

Fallen from Flavour kindly nominated me for a Versatile Blogger award recently. The rules state that once nominated you pass the award along to 15 other bloggers and reveal 7 facts about yourself. As I passed a Liebster Award along not too long ago I felt it would be wrong/annoying to re-nominate the same people or even to not re-nominate them (as they're obviously blogs I enjoy) in favour of other blogs who then may feel second rate as I didn't pass on the first award to them (I'm completely over thinking this aren't I?)

However (if you're still following me after that confusing ramble) I thought it would be fun to do the latter part and reveal 7 random facts about myself. It's always nice to find out more about the face behind the blog isn't it? Even if you discover they're a bit strange.

1. Despite my blog and the china I collect being predominantly pastel coloured I never wear pastel colours. I much prefer mid to darker tones, the colours I wear most being green, turquoise, teal and plum. I rarely wear black.

2. I like heavy rock music, particularly the stoner variety which usually surprises people. Kyuss, Alice in Chains, Dozer, the Hellacopters and Audioslave are on my little ipod shuffle. I blame having two older brothers who play in bands and a Mum who brought us up on Free and Thin Lizzy. Saying that I also love listening to piano music, Chopin's Nocturnes in particular, and will quite happily dance along to 90s boybands like Backstreet Boys (ah wonderful nostalgia.)

3. If there's an empty cardboard box lying around I will try to fit myself in it. If I do fit inside I will sit and wait for somebody to walk past so I can scare the life out of them.

4. I massively dislike the following phrases and descriptions: "EPIC", "WIN", "FAIL", "TOTES", "GOOD TIMES", "BANTER" or even worse "BANTS". It just annoys me when I hear people say "That was a totes epic free sandwich we got from Costa at closing time today. WIN!" .... What?! I've also recently discovered "AMAZEBALLS" although I find that quite funny as it's so ridiculous.

5. Despite being a barista, where I serve coffee and alcohol all day, I drink neither. I keep trying to make myself like coffee but I don't and I can't find a type of alcohol which doesn't make me pull my "disgusting face". I would love to be refined and drink good wine but I'm afraid it pulls the biggest "disgusting face" of them all. Alcohol in food is fine though.

6. I took to collecting and drawing pebbles from beaches at uni (I'm a fine art graduate and they informed my work). It then extended to larger stones, some of which were probably bordering on small boulders. I also had a big box of sand as I liked mixing it in my paint. After three years my uni bedroom resembled a beach. You can imagine how much fun I had moving out of my student flat, on the top floor, especially when I was so attached to practically every stone and owned quite a lot of crockery.....

7. I grew up thinking I didn't like lemon things. It was only when I set myself a "try things you used to hate" challenge when I was about 18 that I discovered I absolutely LOVE lemons. Lemon cake is quite possibly my favourite cake now. I also discovered that I like cinnamon, broccoli, courgette and pickle.

So there you have it, seven random facts. And just to prove how much I love lemons, I baked a lemon drizzle traybake on Tuesday (recipe blogged here). My nephew requested it and I didn't need persuading.

I also baked my favourite banana bread at the weekend but it disappeared  before I got a chance to photograph it.

Just for fun, write a random fact about yourself if you fancy leaving a comment. In the words of Mrs. Doyle, "go on go on go on go on go on!" And while you're at it, have a nice cup of tea.