Lady Grey Cupcakes

Cupcakes are back on my blog...hooray! It's been aaaage since I made a batch of cupcakes and I've really missed these tasty little treats!

This is a recipe I've been wanting to make for awhile now...to be fair, more out of curiosity then for a love of tea. I'm not a massive tea drinker...I'll maybe have the odd cup of green tea every so often but I don't think I've ever really bought 'proper' teabags!

This recipe is from the Primrose Bakery cupcake book and calls for Earl Grey teabags. Now call me stingy if you want but I really didn't want to waste my pennies on 40 tea bags, 4 of which I would use for these cakes and the remainder of which would be shoved to the back of my cupboard never to be seen again, so my lovely friend at work who is a lover of tea donated 4 of her Lady Grey tea bags instead.

The tea bags are put into hot milk for half an hour to infuse and then this milk is added to a vanilla cupcake mixture along with some almond extract. I didn't really know what Lady Grey tea tasted like but as soon as I put the bags into the hot milk I could smell a lovely citrus aroma..I couldn't wait to try these cupcakes! The cupcakes were then iced with vanilla butter cream.

I didn't think I would like these cupcakes as much as I did. I thought they would either taste too much of tea or be too bland. They were neither of these...the taste of tea was very subtle and you could really taste the almond extract - this combined with the vanilla buttercream made for a lovely cupcake. A nice change to plain vanilla!

Toffee Apple Tart

A few months ago when Karl and I went to visit my parents we had a lovely lunch out at their local pub where Karl has the best dessert apparently he had ever tasted...sticky toffee apple crumble...ever since then I have been looking for a similar recipe to recreate at home. In the Sainsburys magazine this month there was a recipe for Toffee Apple Tart. I couldn't resist trying it to see how it would compare!

This recipe was so simple to make and didn't require a certain tin size etc. It tasted gorgeous...the toffee sauce was to die for! It was that good I'm sat here eating another big serving off it for my tea...yes thats right..no main course for me..I jumped straight to dessert...perfect!!!

....And Karl's verdict...apparently not quite as good as the pub's but still a very yummy effort that he wouldn't mind me making again!

Toffee Apple Tart

Serves 8 (apparently...me and Karl must just be greedy!)

250g plain flour
pinch of salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I added extra as I absolutely love cinnamon and apples)

100g caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

1tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg, beaten

For the sauce and filling

100g unsalted butter

150g soft brown sugar

3/4 vanilla extract

1 x 150ml tub of double cream

juice of one small lemon

6 medium eating apple - such as coxs, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

50g almonds

Preheat the oven to 190C, 170C fan, gas 5. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then stir in the salt, cinnamon and caster sugar.

Add the butter, cut into chunks and quickly rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips. Keep the rubbing in light and airyso that flakes of butter are left rather than totally mixed in.

Stir in the lemon zest. Make a well in the centre and add all but 1-2 teaspoons of the egg to the bowl.

Bring the pastry together using your fingers. If more liquid is needed use a squeeze of lemon juice. Chill whilst you make the filling but don't let it get too firm.

Put the unsalted butter, 120g of the brown sugar and the vanilla extract in a pan and heat gently until the butter melts. Turn up the heat and let it bubble, then pour in the cream - it will bubble but keep stirring and cooking until it makes a smooth toffee-ish sauce. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Toss the apples with another squeeze of lemon and the remaining sugar, followed by half the toffee sauce.

Place a piece of non stick baking paper on a baking sheet and roll out the dough into a 35cm circle. Neaten the edge as you shape the dough.

Sprinkle the centre of the disc of dough with the ground almonds. Pile the apples on top leaving 4-5cm border all around.

Then using a palette knife and your fingers flip the edges of the pastry over the apples to form a shell - it will be a little uneven and home made looking but that's how its supposed to be.

Brush the pastry with the left over egg and sprinkle with a little caster sugar.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the apple is tender and bubbling.

To serve gently reheat the remaining toffee sauce and drizzle over the warm tart.

Devil's Food Cake/A Big Chocolate Birthday Cake!

I love birthdays and September was most definitely a month of birthdays! As soon as my Mum's birthday was over, it was onto Karl's. I decided months ago I was going to make Karl a proper birthday cake rather than cupcakes. I had it straight in my mind that I was going to make the chocolate cake recipe out of the Primrose Bakery book. However, a week before his birthday Karl bought me the new Nigella book Kitchen and on the first flick through the book I saw what looked like the yummiest, stickiest, chocolatiest cake and decided that this was the cake my boy would be getting for his birthday!

I've never made a chocolate cake before in the way that this recipe tells you to do. Most chocolate cake recipes I have made tell you to sieve the cocoa powder into the rest of the dry ingredients. However with this one, you make the cake mix as if its just going to be a plain cake and mix the cocoa and dark muscovado sugar with boiling water which is then added right at the end. I was concerned this wasn't going to work due to the large amount of folding in it required, however once the cake came out of the oven I was happy with the result.

The next job once the cake was made was to make the frosting. This was a mixture of water, muscovado sugar, butter and chocolate. Nigella said at the start of the recipe don't worry if it looks too watery, once it is cool the consistancy would be perfect for spreading on the cake. That wasn't what I was worried about though. The recipe said to heat butter, water and sugar together and then add the chocolate. I just couldnt understand in my head how on earth the butter and water would mix together. I gave it a good go...followed everything Nigella said in the recipe but there was no way this was going to work and as the mixture started to cool it just seperated..leaving a huge amount of chocolate gunk in the bottom of my pan with a layer of water on top..yuck!

Luckily, I had bought extra chocolate and I made a batch of chocolate butter cream from the Primrose Bakery book which I used to fill the cake and then put on the top of it. I then decorated the cake with huuuge amounts of white and milk chocolate curls and chocolate stars.

Despite the disaster with Nigella's icing the cake was one of the best chocolate cake recipes I have made. The cake was very chocolatey but not overpowering and very moist the middle. I served it with cream which made it taste even better!

Devil's Food Cake

50g cocoa powder

100g dark muscovado sugar

250ml boiling water

125g butter

150g caster sugar

225 plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the bottom of 2 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.

Put the cocoa and muscovado sugar in a bowl and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix and then set aside.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beating well until pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in another bowl.

Put the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar - mixing all the time- then drop one egg in followed by a spoonful of flour and then the second egg.

Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture.

Divide the batter between the two tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the tine for 10 mins or so before turning out.

Ice with chocolate butter cream (sorry I've not got time to type the recipe out but I'm sure you all know how to make chocolate butter cream!).

Lemon Layer Cake

My blogging has been terrible recently. I've logged on just now and my last post was the 11th September....aaages ago! There has been good reason for it however...it was my Mum's birthday, Karls birthday (more on that later!), I've been off work, I've been ill and I've been away for a few nights too...so all in all I've been quite a busy girly!

Back to my Mum's birthday though...I had been thinking for awhile about what I could bake my Mum for her birthday and in the end, knowing how much she loves Lemon Cupcakes, I thought I would attempt a Lemon Layer Cake for her.

I used the recipe in the Primrose Bakery book for the cake and butter cream, however I decided it needed something more so I made a batch of Lemon Curd from the Rachel Allen book Bake and put that along with the butter cream in the cake. I have never made Lemon Curd before but the fresh home made version was so much better than any of the stuff I've bought from the supermarket before!

The last few recipes I have attempted from the Primrose Bakery, although weren't huge disasters, didn't quite go to plan, so I was really nervous about making this cake for my mum. I had visions of her cutting into it and it being as solid as a brick or not cooked! Luckily, the recipe worked...the cake rose perfectly and was really moist. The butter cream was sweet and lemony and the lemon curd gave that little extra lemony flavour to the cake. This is a recipe I will most definitely be making again.

Lemon Layer Cake

Makes two 20cm cakes which can be sandwiched together

225g golden caster sugar

225g self raising flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

25g cornflour

225g unsalted butter at room temperature

4 large eggs

Grated zest and juice of 2 large lemons (otherwise use 3 lemons)

Preheat the over to 170C. Grease and baseline the two tins.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is pale and smooth.

Combine the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl.

Add the eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time mixing for a few minutes after each addition, alternating with the dry ingredients, and finally the grated lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat well after each addition but do not over beat.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until raised and golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Once cool, sandwich the layers together with lemon butter cream icing and lemon curd and ice the top with more lemon butter cream.

Lemon Butter Cream

110g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Grated zest of 1-2 unwaxed lemons

500g icing sugar

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and half the icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat again until smooth and creamy.

Lemon Curd

75g butter

150g caster sugar

Finely grated zest and juice of 3 lemons

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a saucepan and heat very gently until the butter is melted.

Put the eggs and egg yolk in a bowl and beat thoroughly.

Pour the beaten eggs into the melted butter mixture and stir carefully over a low heat until the mixture has thickened and will coat the back of a spoon.

If the heat is too high the mixture will scramble. If this happens quickly push it through a sive.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour into a bowl.

Pear and Raspberry Crumble

I've been meaning to blog about this recipe for a little while. I got it out of last months Sainsburys Magazine. I love this magazine..there's always at least one recipe I want to make in every copy I buy and its only £1.40..what a bargain!

I made this recipe a few weekends ago as a simple dessert on a sunday night. I love crumbles - so quick and easy to make and they always taste so so good...proper comfort food for me!

Pear and Raspberry Crumble Recipe

Serves 4

3 large slightly unripe pears - 700g cored and thickly sliced

300g fresh raspberries (or blackberries..whichever you prefer)

60g caster sugar

For the crumble

100g cold butter, diced

225g plain flour

50g caster sugar

Preheat the over to 180C, fan 160C, gas 4. To make the crumble topping, in a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, or pulse them together in a food processor, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Butter a 1.2 litre oven proof dish and arrange the pears in it. Sprinkle over the raspberries and then the sugar.

With a large spoon, scatter the crumble mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour. The crumble should just be turning golden and there will be some raspberry juice bubbling up around the sides.

Sprinkle with a little extra sugar and serve with ice cream like me...or custard or cream...all equally yummy!

Mars Bar Cupcakes

Last minute this weekend I decided I would bake some cupcakes. I've been wanting to try making Mars Bar Cupcakes for ages. I don't particularly like Mars Bars but I thought in cupcake form I would like them much better...and I did....these cupcakes are seriously yum!

I didn't actually have a recipe for these cupcakes. They are made up of a basic chocolate cupcake recipe with a chunk of Mars Bar baked into the centre. I then topped them with chocolate butter cream, caramel sauce, another chunk of Mars Bar and chocolate curls.

I so wanted home made caramel/toffee sauce on the top of these cupcakes and I set about making it using the recipe from the Primrose Bakery Cupcake. Toffee sauce just wasn't to be this weekend though. I made the recipe 4 times in total and used nearly a whole packet of sugar and every time it turned out wrong! Either I accidently boiled it too long and it turned back to sugar, or it was too runny or it was all grainy like sand..eugh...I don't know what was going wrong but it was a total disappointment and Karl was sent out on a mission at half 4 on Sunday to Tesco to find a decent toffee sauce! He succeeded and the cakes got coated in Tesco Finest Toffee Sauce. A bit of a cheat but tastes very good anyway!

We Should Cocoa!

I have decided to enter the cupcakes mentioned in my last post (White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes) for the September 'We Should Cocoa'

Now, I really should have mentioned this in my last post....but after the whole disappointment of the cupcakes I really really wasn't wanting to enter them into anything and decided against the whole thing. However, after having a few days to think about it and hearing the positive feedback from Karl and Karl's family I have changed my mind..yet again.. and am going to enter them.

We Should Cocoa is the fab idea of Chele at Chocolate Teapot and Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog. The idea is to bake something with chocolate in it each month, incorporating the special ingredient that is suggested by the host. September's ingredient is raspberries and has been set by Chele.

Entries have to be received by the 25th of the month..so what are you waiting for?? Get baking!