chocolate and vanilla marble cupcakes

This was my first bake in my new home in my shiny new oven a year ago. My best friend came to visit me about a week after I moved in which gave me the perfect opportunity to test my oven's baking abilities.

I went with marble cupcakes as I fancied trying two toned piped icing, something I've wanted to try for absolutely years. I absolutely love how the piped swirls turned out and intend to try the technique on a cake some time. I've actually seen some Easter versions online recently where bakers have marbled pastel coloured icing to match Cadbury Mini Eggs and it looks so pretty.

There's something very satisfying about marbled bakes. I always think they look fun, with or without icing.

As a side note I love my cooker, a cream coloured Richmond Stoves. I managed to buy a decent one as I saved a good chunk of money by sourcing second hand kitchen units (£200 from Ebay.) It has a bit of old fashioned charm as the lid makes it look like an old Aga (and handily the lid doubles up as extra worktop space) and the look suits my quirky, retro styled kitchen. I can also confirm after a year's testing that the oven bakes good cakes.

 (Here's a peek at my baking station. This was before I put up my kitchen tiles behind the worktop. It looks even prettier now.)

I also want to say I hope everyone is staying as safe as possible at the moment amidst the Coronovirus mayhem sweeping the world. It's all incredibly scary and unsettling on so many levels. Take care of yourselves and look after loved ones. x

Recipe was just a bog standard victoria sponge mixture divided in half with cocoa powder added to one half and 1/2tsp vanilla extract to the other. For the icings I followed the vanilla and chocolate butter icing from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. My butter icing swirls were created with a Wilton 1M piping tip.... I think!

happy house birthday cake.... and a tractor

My eldest brother recently received planning permission to start building his new house (woohoo!) so naturally his birthday cake this year featured a house. To keep the cake nice and "manly" I used square sandwich tins. It made a fun change to my usual round sponges.

Such fine drawing skills comes from years of art school training. You can see from the level of detail on the roof and windows that I have a painting degree. Hahaha!

I originally intended to ice the sides of the cake as well but ended up having a bit of a jam explosion. That's what happens when you go, "ah there's not much left in the jar, I might as well use it all." I think it adds to the fun character of the cake though. It's a cake to make you smile.

As my brother says, it's hard to go wrong with a plain sponge cake. It just works. And the more jam, the better!!

And lastly... a tractor cake for my youngest nephew's birthday. It's non stop birthdays in my family at the moment. This probably isn't my finest work, but it does resemble a tractor so it's all good. Fondant modelling definitely requires more patience and precision than I posess!

That's meant to be my nephew in a boiler suit jumping out of a tractor. Classy work.

Happy house sponge cake

8oz caster sugar

8oz margarine/softened butter

4 large eggs

8 oz self raising flour, sifted

filling and icing:

a jar of strawberry jam 

a pack of writing icing pens

350g icing sugar 

125g softened butter

2 tbsp milk

a few drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 18cm/ 7 inch square cake tins. Beat together the sugar and butter/margarine for 5 minutes with your mixer until pale, soft and very fluffy. Crack the eggs into a jug and lightly whip together with a fork before gradually adding to the sugar mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last lot of egg if the cake mixture starts to curdle/split. Add the remaining flour and mix until fully combined. 

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes until well risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Beat together the icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Use half the icing to sandwich the sponges together along with a generous spread of jam. Top the cake with the remaining icing and decorate with a writing icing or sprinkles.

banana cupcakes with malted chocolate icing

I have made so many banana bakes over the last few weeks it's getting ridiculous. Bananas appear to brown at the speed of light around here. I wasn't going to bother blogging these as I used the same recipe as this loaf cake I posted not long ago, but I felt the need to rave about the malted chocolate butter icing. It's that good!

The icing is so silky soft it's almost mousse like in texture. It just melts in your mouth, wrapping around a soft, sweet banana crumb. Banana and chocolate is an excellent combination but banana and malted chocolate is even better. I honestly cannot rave about it enough.

I came across the icing on Laura's blog, I'd Much Rather Bake Than..., last week and immediately bookmarked her post. As you can see the icing pipes beautiful soft swirls. I imagine it would be very satisfying to cover a full cake too. Next time I'll need to pair it up with chocolate cake for full on swirling and indulgence.

On a separate note, do you like my new cake plate? It's a Royal Winton Grimwades piece, my "ultimate" china brand, and I couldn't contain my excitement when I found it in a second hand shop a few weeks ago after visiting the dentist. I told the cashier I was rewarding myself for not needing any fillings.

Has anybody else had good luck in second hand shops recently? I've found some brilliant pieces in the last couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to organising a blog post about them soon.

blueberry and lemon layer cake

This felt like a purely selfish bake. I had no reason to bake a triple layer cake, which I usually feel deserves an "occasion", I just really wanted one.

It was only 6 inches in diameter though. A satisfying size and height of cake without being massive.

I based this cake on a tasty cake I ate in Edinburgh earlier in the year and also one I bookmarked on Sweetapolita ages ago. I loved the look and flavour of a lemon layer sandwiched between blueberry studded layers. Although my layering isn't as distinct as Sweetapolita's I still think it makes an attractive cake.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use lemon curd or blueberry jam with my lemon butter icing between the layers. In the end I went with both: jam between the bottom and middle layer and curd between the middle and top. They both offer something different flavour wise so I think that was a good choice.

I also toyed with the idea of going for a smooth icing coverage to finish the cake. After a few attempts I came to the conclusion that I don't own a large enough palette knife, I don't have the patience (or skill?) required and ultimately I don't particularly care! I actually really like textured icing. It looks homely and inviting and takes me less time to do therefore I get to eat cake quicker. And that's the most important thing, right?

Flavour wise this cake is a real sharp, sweet and tart sensation for the taste buds. Mum even declared "this is one of the best cakes you've made in a while". I'll take that compliment! I must admit I prefer sweet and sour flavour combinations to sweet and salty, although I'm expecting people may throw their cooking utensils at me for admitting that. Don't get me wrong, salted caramel is good, but I find it hard to go past a sharp and sweet lemon bake.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to go and scream into a pillow. It has been one of those days...

Blueberry and lemon layer cake
I baked this a couple of weeks ago and stupidly didn't write anything down so my memory of this is a bit sketchy. I think this is what I used though!

200g caster sugar
200g stork margarine (or butter)
3 large eggs
200g self raising flour
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp milk (I think!)
2 small packets of blueberries (I think they were about 150g each)

icing and filling:
450g icing sugar
150g butter (I use slightly salted)
lemon juice to taste
lemon curd
blueberry jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4. Grease and line three 6 inch round cake tins. Beat together the sugar and margarine/butter for 5 minutes until pale, light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition. Sift in the flour and add the lemon zest and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and milk. Mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. Divide the mixture between the three tins. Coat a packet of the blueberries in a small amount of flour (to stop them sinking in the mix) and lightly press the blueberries into the surface of two of the cake mixes. I can't remember if I used the whole blueberry packet, but I basically just pressed in enough to roughly cover the surface. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until risen, golden, springy to touch and the edges of the cake have come away from the tin. I only have two tins so the plain lemon layer was baked separately afterwards. If I remember correctly, I think the blueberry sponges took longer to bake, possibly up to 30 minutes, probably due to the addition of the blueberries to the mixture. Once cooked, leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar, butter and enough lemon juice to achieve a nice spreadable consistency. Use to sandwich between the cakes (along with the jam and/or curd!) and coat the top and outside of the cake. Decorate your cake with any remaining blueberries.
 

custard cream cupcakes

Another custard cream themed bake. Sorry, not sorry. Oreo and bourbon lovers will have to sit at the back of the room. It's all about custard creams here.

When I asked Mum what she'd like me to bake for Mother's Day this weekend she requested custard cream cupcakes. After searching my blog archives I discovered I haven't baked these since 2011! Quite surprising as I baked them a lot pre blog. Sometimes with blogging I think there can be an expectation to only post "new" things, whether it's food, clothing combinations, craft projects, purchases etc. I like revisiting old favourites though. If it works and you love it, who cares!

As I couldn't be bothered faffing about with a piping bag, I just spread the icing on with a palette knife. Ironically, this actually took far longer and some may argue that these look hideously lumpy and ugly, but I rather like the rustic, juvenile application. It has a homemade charm. Plus this form of icing lends itself very well to sprinkles. And everybody knows that sprinkles are the best.

These cupcakes are just as tasty as I remember. The cream in the batter definitely gives the cupcakes an extra indulgent kick and I love the sweetness of the custard cream chunks. I must have picked the cupcake containing the least biscuit chunks to photograph here (typical!) but you can see they're in there.

I'll try to return with a non custard cream related bake, but I can't promise you anything...

Did I mention that I really love custard creams? ;)

red velvet cake

On Saturday night I went into town, just like all the other cool, young people. Except I went to the supermarket. To buy cake ingredients. Then I visited my brother's family and told my nephews bedtime stories about Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft (I don't understand Minecraft.) Later on I baked this red velvet cake.

Living life on the edge, people.

I've never baked a red velvet cake before although I baked red velvet cupcakes way back in my early days of blogging. Although my cake is more dark pink than deep red I was very pleased with it. The sponge is very light and soft in texture due to the buttermilk, and lightly flavoured with cocoa and vanilla. The vanilla cream cheese icing adds to the overall indulgent, creamy flavour.

The cake also gave me an opportunity to try out my new icing pen kindly gifted from British bakeware company, Tala. As the cake wasn't for anybody in particular, I doodled the word "yum" and some love hearts around the border. I drew it all freehand but I think the direct, unmeasured approach adds charm. It makes a fun change from my usual "throw on a pile of sprinkles" approach to cake decorating.

I already own a larger icing syringe but for smaller, linear details such as handwriting the pen is perfect. Plus it's pink and packaged in a pretty tin which is a lovely stylish touch. I suspect it'll come in very handy for decorating gingerbread men at Christmas. Thanks Tala!

Red velvet cake
Recipe from "Vintage Cakes" by  Jane Brocket.

120g softened butter
300g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
220g buttermilk
1-2 tsp red food colouring gel/paste (I recommend buying good quality)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tsp of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3 and grease and line two 20cm round cake tins. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt. Mix then carefully add to the other mixture in batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Add the red colouring and gently fold the mixture until it's a solid deep red colour. In another bowl, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar before folding into the cake batter. 

Once mixed, divide the batter between two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are firm and springy to touch (or a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean). Leave to cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

icing:
110g softened butter
400g icing sugar
220g soft cream cheese (full fat)
a few drops of vanilla extract

Beat together the icing sugar and butter. Once combined add the cream cheese (I added mine cold from the fridge) and the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly until smooth. If needed, level the cakes before icing. There's easily enough icing to sandwich the cake and cover the top and sides. For the writing I mixed up a small amount of icing sugar, water and red food colouring to pipe using the icing pen.

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent a product to use/review by Tala. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

mango chai latte cupcakes and mango lime curd

Perhaps 2013 is my year for baking with different fruit. First passionfruits and now mangoes.

This bake came about when Drink Me Chai offered me some instant chai tea latte powders to play with. They have a great selection to choose from, but I was immediately intrigued by the mango flavour. I had no idea you could get mango flavoured chai latte!

When I decided on incorporating the instant chai powder into a cupcake, I fancied making a mango based curd as a filling. After some searching online I went with a mango lime curd recipe found on My Darling Lemon Thyme and it produced 3 full Bonne Maman sized jars of curd, so unless you want to go curd mad I would suggest halving the ingredients. I should also warn you that sieving mango puree is time consuming and so boring but it is worth doing.

Half of my cupcake batch were filled with the mango lime curd, also mixing it into the butter icing, and the other half were left plain with a mango chai latte flavoured butter icing.

It's hard to pick a winner. The curd batch had an extra punch of fruitiness, really pulling out the mango flavour, whereas the other batch were all about the chai latte flavour. I particularly enjoyed the creamy, spiced quality in the latter's icing. Despite my fondness for curds, I think I liked the more chai-ified (I'm making it a word) batch, but this is only if you're holding me at gun point to decide. I will happily eat tray-loads of either cupcake.

I also tried the mango chai as a drink and needless to say I loved it. The sweet, tropical fruitiness really comes through the warm spices. The powder can also be mixed with hot water instead of milk but I found the flavour disappointing as a water-based drink. Similar to water-based hot chocolates, they just lack that wonderfully indulgent sweetness and comfort you get with a milky drink. I always think if you're going to have a treat, do it properly!

And yes that's a new cake stand I picked up from my Glasgow travels two weeks ago. Is it possible to own too many three tier cake stands? (Humour me, please say no.)

Mango chai cupcakes

makes roughly 18 cupcakes

225g Stork margarine

225g caster sugar

225g eggs (I used three large duck eggs, but 4 normal hen eggs should weigh roughly the same)

2 tbsp instant mango chai latte powder from DrinkMeChai

2 tbsp milk

200g self-raising flour

1 jar of mango lime curd

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4 and line cupcakes trays with cases. Beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add each egg one at a time, beating between each addition, and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Mix together the chai powder and milk and add to the mixture. Sift in the remaining flour and mix everything together until fully incorporated. 

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases, filling each one 2/3 full. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until well risen and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
 

For the curd version, cut a hollow into the centre of each cupcakes (I just use a knife) and fill with a teaspoon of mango lime curd before replacing the top. Mix some of the curd into a standard butter icing (one part butter to two parts icing). I think I used 150g icing sugar, 75g butter and two teaspoons of curd to cover 8 cupcakes.
 

For the straight forward mango chai version, top each cupcake with butter icing flavoured with some of the instant chai powder. Once again I used a standard butter icing, but added some chai powder to taste along with a splash of milk until I was happy with the consistency.

Spread the icing on in a child-like fashion (like me) or pipe in swirls using a fancy nozzle, such as a wilton 1M or 2D.
 

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent products to bake with by Drink Me Chai. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

Recent birthday cakes

Just a quick post on a couple of birthday cakes I whipped up last week.

The first was a little vanilla sponge cake for my aunty's birthday on Saturday. My mum bought me two 6 inch round tins a couple of weeks ago and they make a very cute cake. So cute that I made a vanilla chai tea latte cake the same size for my sister in law's birthday on Sunday. As I didn't alter the quantities I ended up with enough left over batter to bake a tray of buns/fairy cakes too.

To cover up my scruffy edges I piped shell shapes back and forth around the top and bottom of the cake using a wilton 1M nozzle. Here's a useful video tutorial by Sweetapolita if you fancy giving it a shot. I also recommend heavy quantities of sprinkles. They cover all manner of uneven icing!

As I baked these cakes quickly I didn't really have enough time to do a proper crumb coat or level the sponges properly on either cakes, so there were some crumbs running through the icing. To be honest it didn't spoil the overall effect; both cakes still looked pretty.

Apologies for the slightly fuzzy images. I photographed these cakes in such a hurry that I'm not entirely convinced I had my camera on the correct settings.

6 inch vanilla sponge cake

I followed the standard recipe of equal quantities self-raising flour, golden caster sugar, margarine and eggs. For two 6 inch cakes I used the weight of 2 large eggs, about 150g

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat your sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add your eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of your flour with the last egg to stop the mixture from splitting. Add the rest of your flour, along with a tablespoon or so of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract (or to taste). Mix together until everything is just incorporated. Divide the mixture between two tins and bake in the centre of the oven for roughly 25 minutes, or until golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Once cool sandwich together with jam and vanilla butter icing. I followed the Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla frosting, making 1 1/2 batches.

Vanilla chai tea latte cake

I had a chai-normous amount of fun baking this cake. (HA! See what I did there?)

Awful puns aside, I was really pleased with this cake. I immediately knew what I wanted to bake when I saw instant vanilla chai in my bundle of goodies from Whittards: a fluffy, spiced, brown sugar sponge with a sweet, vanilla cream cheese butter icing. The homemade stencil decoration was a last minute addition to cover up my slightly lumpy icing (perhaps my butter was too cold?) and I think it looks fun although I may have been a tad overzealous with my cinnamon dusting as it caught the back of my throat a little when eating the cake!

 
I wasn't sure how much the vanilla chai flavour would come through (I baked this while my biscuit dough was in the fridge) but it worked really well. I thought there was a good balance between warm, cinnamony spices and vanilla sweetness.


It actually took a couple of weeks to get round to baking as I was enjoying just drinking the vanilla chai, but I'm glad I eventually did. I'm definitely making this cake again providing I don't drink all the chai first.

For a bit of fun I put a different flavour of instant chai in each cup for myself, my brother and mum to try. Out of the three we all liked the vanilla chai the most. I liked its sweeter edge over the spiced chai (I do have a raging sweet tooth after all) although the spiced chai was more refreshing and, well, spiced (you can tell I'm going to be inundated with product reviews with descriptions like that.) The chocolate chai was lovely too and makes a nice alternative to hot chocolate if you want something comforting but not as sickly sweet.

Hope you're all enjoying my tea series! I'll be back with my final tea themed bake on Sunday.

Vanilla chai tea latte cake
Own recipe 

Sponges:
200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
200g (7oz) margarine
3 large (7oz) eggs
170g (6oz) self-raising flour
30g (1oz) instant vanilla chai
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream cheese butter icing:
300g icing sugar
50g softened butter
175g cream cheese
a few drops of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins. Beat together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, and add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to stop the mixture from curdling. Add the flour, chai, milk, cinnamon and vanilla and mix everything together until just fully incorporated. Divide the batter between the two tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 25 minutes until risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for around 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

For the icing just beat everything together for a few minutes until light and fluffy and use to fill and top the cake. For some reason the butter stayed a bit lumpy with me but wasn't too visually horrifying and still tasted fine. Finish with a dusting of cinnamon.

Disclaimer: I was sent tea products to bake with as Whittards recognised that I'm a cake/biscuit obsessed crazy tea lady. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

Passionfruit white chocolate cake

When I bought myself a copy of the new Clandestine Cake Club book a couple of weeks ago I immediately knew I had to make this cake. Not only does it involve my new found love for passionfruit but also my long term love for white chocolate. And I got to make curd!

The cake did not disappoint; it tasted absolutely gorgeous. The sponge was light and juicy, and white chocolate butter icing with passionfruit curd whipped through it might just be my favourite new icing. The zingy-ness of the passionfruit with the sweetness of the chocolate is such a great pairing.

I used duck eggs in my cake and curd and I'm sure it made them extra sunshiney and yellow, although perhaps not as radioactive as my photographs may suggest (damn night time light!) My friend and I baked in the evening and decided to enjoy the cake as late night elevenses, the best kind of elevenses if you ask me!

The original recipe comes from the creative chocolate fiend Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog which she baked for her first CCC event. If you haven't visited Choclette before then I highly recommend you do. The recipe is more or less a victoria sponge with the addition of two tablespoons of passionfruit curd and a tablespoon of lemon juice so I won't type it out. However I will direct you over to the Chocolate Log Blog for the passionfruit curd recipe. It is the brightest, happiest curd you'll ever set eyes on. I may have made a little extra just to eat from the jar...

Chocolate cupcakes

Hello, remember me?

Apologies for my disappearance. I did absolutely no baking last month (I know, I'm as shocked as you). Life and lack of internet connection for 3 weeks (thanks BT) left me feeling too tired to bake or blog.


 

Does anyone else feel a weird sense of responsibility to their blog in terms of maintaining standards and keeping an "online presence"? I know it's largely self imposed, as we can do whatever we want within our own blogspaces, but I felt really guilty for not updating or replying/commenting on other blogs. I've also been aware for a while that I should make a few little changes here, but the thought of doing anything extra makes me want to stick my head in a bucket full of sand as there are so many other things I need to be getting on with at the moment.

However I am back, with cupcakes (yay!), and have been gradually catching up with everything online over the last week. I had forgotten how good chocolate sponge batter tastes. It's the best! The mixture uses cocoa powder as opposed to real chocolate, but it still produces a cupcake with a satisfying chocolatey punch.

I baked these last week as I wanted to try out my new(ish) Lakeland cupcakes cases and show off my new cake stand which matches one of my sets of china. I don't think it's an exact match as the cups and saucers are fine bone china whereas the cake stand plates are quite chunky, but it's close enough to be pretty and only cost a fiver. 

I'm very impressed with the cupcake cases. They kept their colour and pattern really well, and that's with a chocolate batter! You know you're a little sad when you're impressed with the standard of cupcake cases, but it's so annoying to find a pretty case only to discover the pattern disappears or the colours go transparent once baked. Anyone else find that disappointing?

Chocolate cupcakes

  
175g Stork margarine

150g caster sugar

25g soft light brown sugar (I fancied adding a bit of brown sugar, might put more in next time. As long as the overall sugar weight is 175g)

3 eggs (weighing roughly 175g)

150g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line cupcakes tin with cases. Beat margarine and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, lightly beating between each addition, adding a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to prevent the mixture curdling. Mix in the remaining flour, vanilla extract and milk until the mixture is fully combined. Be careful not to overmix though as you don't want to beat all the air out the mixture, just make sure it no longer looks streaky with cocoa powder. 

Fill the cupcake cases 2/3 full. The mixture should stretch to roughly 15 cupcakes. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the icing I followed the Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate buttercream and piped as swirls (working from the centre outwards) using a Wilton 1M nozzle.

Passionfruit cream biscuits.

Last week I found this pressed glass pedestal cake stand in the charity shop. With its fluted edge and yellow rose pattern, it was begging for a fresh, sunshine bake. As it is quite a small cake stand, I decided it had to be biscuits.

Some may be horrified that I've never worked with passionfruit before. I've had drinks and eaten cake containing passionfruit, but I've never physically handled one! Clearly I lead a sheltered existence.

I love how all the flavours come through in the biscuit: zingy lemon zest and passionfruit pulp, sweet golden syrup and rich butter. The passionfruit seeds add a bit of crunch too, which I always enjoy in a biscuit. Then there's the passionfruit buttercream which can only be described as sweet sunshine. I may have eaten four of these in one sitting....

Bake these zingy biscuits if you're feeling miserable or fed up with the cold winter weather. They will make you happy :)

Passionfruit cream biscuits

Recipe from Lakeland Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

75g caster sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

100g plain flour

60ml passionfruit pulp

2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp

90g butter, softened

160g icing sugar

Beat the butter, lemon rind and sugar in a bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup and beat together. Stir in the flours and passionfruit pulp. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cut dough in half; roll each portion between sheets of baking parchment to 5mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Grease oven trays and line with baking parchment. Cut 25 4cm fluted rounds from each portion of dough and place about 2.5cm apart on trays. Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven until light golden (mine took about 15 minutes). Cool on the trays.

For the buttercream, strain the passionfruit pulp through a sieve into a small jug and discard the seeds. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the passionfruit juice. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with 5mm fluted nozzle (I used a wilton 1M). Pipe the cream onto half the biscuits and then place the other biscuits on top.

Note: You will need about 6 passionfruits in total.

I think I made 30 in total as opposed to 25 which meant I didn't quite have enough icing so I made an extra quarter of the icing quantity.