Raspberry swirl cupcakes

These cupcakes are by far my favourite out of all the ones I've ever made (and that's a lot!). I made these for my friends birthday, and I love how pretty and girly they are. The cream cheese frosting is to die for and is made with raspberry jam as well so has a delicious, sweet flavour, and the way the frosting is piped just adds something a bit different, giving a marbled effect. The sponge recipe is the one I always use but I will write everything down below anyway! Oh, and if you don't like cream cheese don't be put off, the frosting tastes amaaaazing... my friend hates cream cheese and refused the cream cheese icing on my carrot cupcakes so this time I didn't tell her it had cream cheese in and she loved it so much she was even eating it out the bowl!

For the sponges (makes 12)

- 125 margarine/butter (or both)

- 125g caster sugar

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 125g self raising flour

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For the frosting

- 50g butter (I always use lurpak slightly salted cause think it tastes the best)

- 300g icing sugar, sifted

- 125g full fat cream cheese

- 2 tbsp raspberry jam

- pink food colouring

- edible glitter

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees / gas mark 5. Line a cupcake tray with cases.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually whisk in the egg then fold in the flour and baking powder.

3. Add the milk and vanilla essence and beat until fully combined and smooth.

4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until risen, firm and golden brown. Leave to cool.

5. Meanwhile, to make the cream cheese frosting, beat the butter and gradually add the icing sugar until light. Whisk in the cream cheese until light and fluffy.

6. Transfer half the frosting mixture into another bowl and add the jam and a few drops of food colouring, stirring until fully mixed. 

7. In a piping bag with a large, star shaped nozzle, spoon raspberry frosting on one side of the bag and the plain frosting on the other (if you are using a tube syringe instead of a piping bag like i did, then alternating the different frostings on top of one another works just as well). Pipe generous swirls on top of the cupcakes.

8. Don't forget to sprinkle with glitter!

*These will last for up to 3 days - keep them in a cool place in an airtight container - don't forget there is cream cheese in the frosting so they will go off quicker!*

Mint chocolate cupcakes

I made these yesterday for my sister's birthday celebrations tonight, and they were so delicious! Chocolate and mint is always the perfect match, and with a mint aero bubble on top, what could be better? These look really cute and taste surprisingly light and refreshing. I used a large star piping nozzle that I recently brought off Amazon and you can really tell the difference - I think these look a lot more professional than previous cupcakes I have made - it's definitely worth the money. These would also look good decorated with after eight mints.

For the chocolate sponges (makes about 24)

- 225 margarine/butter (or both)

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs, beaten

- 225g self raising flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- 4 tbsp cocoa powder

For the peppermint buttercream

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 4 tsp peppermint extract (according to taste)

- few drops of green food colouring

- mint aero bubbles, to decorate

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Line a few cupcake trays with cupcake cases.

2. Beat together the marg/butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding flour occasionally if curdling occurs.

3. Sift the remaining flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl, then gradually whisk in the milk and vanilla essence.

4. Spoon into the cupcakes cases and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes. Leave to cool on a cooling tray.

5. For the butter cream, cream together the butter, sugar and milk until smooth. Add the peppermint extract and food colouring and stir thoroughly. Taste and if necessary add more of the peppermint.

6. Using a disposable piping bag and a large star nozzle, pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcakes - be generous! Place a mint aero bubble on top and voila!

I ran out of buttercream and so decorated the remaining 3 cupcakes like this, ha ha ha it makes me laugh:

Enjoy :)

Coffee and mascarpone cupcakes

I made these for my mum's birthday since she loves coffee cake, like this tiramisu cake which I made for mother's day here! I usually always just stick to buttercream to ice cupcakes (I would've done coffee buttercream for these), but I thought a cream cheese frosting would be a nice change. It does mean you should probably keep them in the fridge though, as the mascarpone might go off otherwise, but I found that if anything it made the sponge more moist so keeping them cold worked great! You can decorate these with anything you like - walnuts would look really good placed on top and are the perfect match for coffee, but none of us really like walnuts so that's why I didn't do that. We tried to find chocolate coffee beans but couldn't which is a shame because they would have looked perfect. In the end I used these chocolate hearts which are really cute - they came from Sainsbury's, I think they were the Silver Spoon brand. These decorations will be particularly perfect for Valentine's day. The cupcake cases are from Ikea last year so they probably don't do them anymore. I love the colours and designs but always get annoyed because they're tall, slim cupcake cases, and I don't have a suitable cupcake tin to bake them in, so they lose their shape and it means the sponge doesn't go higher then the case. This really annoys me because I don't think the cupcakes look as good aha. Sorry for the long introduction! In short, these cupcakes make a really nice change and are super moist and flavoursome so definitely give them a try if you like coffee flavoured cakes.

Makes about 12
- 100g butter, softened
- 100g soft brown sugar
- 100g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 2tsp coffee mixed with 100ml water
- pinch of salt
- dash of milk

For the mascarpone frosting
- 200ml mascarpone
- 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- the remaining coffee

1. re-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees, and line a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and fold in the flour and baking powder.
3. Stir in the coffee, a pinch of salt and a dash of milk until creamy.
4. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden.
5. Leave to cool on a wired rack.
6. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, whisk together the mascarpone, sugars and coffee. Once the cakes are cool, spread on top.

 7. Decorate the cupcakes with anything you like - chocolate hearts, coffee beans, walnuts, grated chocolate etc etc. Don't forget to store in the fridge!

Enjoy :)

Chicken and mushroom pie

*I have made this before - the recipe is here, but wanted to post some better photos as I made it tonight for my mum's birthday and absolutely loved it again!*

I served it with creamy parsley mash again and spring greens mm mm. Make sure to check the other post for the recipe because you don't want to miss out on this delicious meal

Enjoy :)

Celebration cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my friends 21st (and her Dad's 50th) - it's the recipe I always use, just plain vanilla sponge, with vanilla buttercream but thought I would just share the pictures because they're so pretty and sparkly! You can find the recipe here :)

I used a lustre spray for some of the cupcakes, which just gives the icing a really nice shimmer. I think I bought this at David Shuttle but I'm sure you can get them in any cake shop. It's really easy to use and gives such a professional finish.

You can see the effect of this pearl lustre spray below - it just leaves a really glossy finish, which was perfect as the party was themed black and silver - hence the cupcake cases as well. The chocolate letters I used on these cupcakes I think were just from a supermarket, probably Tesco or Sainsbury's.

On all the other cupcakes where I piped the buttercream, I topped with edible glitter dust which I absolutely love. My friends mum bought these from a cake shop for me to use. They're from the range 'edable art' and are in the colours disco silver, and disco black hologram. The silver is so sparkly and more versatile as it would go with any colour icing and is just more simple and elegant. The disco black is also really pretty however, since it has different shimmers of colour - I would recommend both. They were £2.40 each which seems quite pricey for such small pots, but there's so much glitter in there that you probably would never need to re-purchase them!

Below shows the silver glitter, and the picture below you can see the black with the different colours shimmering.

Hope this has given you some ideas of how to decorate cupcakes to give a classy, simple look - they are perfect for any celebration, especially something like New Year's Eve as well. 

Enjoy :)

The best victoria sponge

All I'm going to say is that this looks good, but it tastes even better!

For the sponges

- 175g margarine

- 50g butter

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs, beaten

- dash of vanilla essence

- 225g self-raising flour

- dash of milk 

For the buttercream

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar, sifted

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- raspberry jam

- strawberries

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees and grease and line two cake tins.

2. Cream the butter/marg and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Gradually whisk in the eggs and vanilla essence, then sieve in the flour and stir in the milk to create a creamy mixture.
4. Pour the mixture evenly into the two cake tins and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool.

5. Meanwhile, to make the buttercream, simply whisk all the ingredients together until light and smooth.
6. Once cool, turn the sponges upside down and spread the jam on one side, and some of the buttercream on the other.

7. Sandwich together and leave for around 10 minutes.

8. Spread the remaining icing on the top of the cake (generous amount!) and top with some strawberries in a decoration of your choice!

Enjoy :)

Chocolate and vanilla jam cupcakes

I made these for my 19th birthday the other week, for friends and family. I hadn't made cupcakes for a really long time so loved doing it, and actually discovered that piping icing isn't so bad! I've never been that good at piping technique but realised that with some good piping bags stuffed full of lots of icing, it really is quite simple and fun to be creative with it. I wanted the contrast of chocolate and plain vanilla sponges as well as the contrast with the plain cream icing and pink icing so that they looked good on my cupcake stand. Make sure you use cute, colourful cupcakes cases to make these scrummy cupcakes look even more appealing. I use this recipe time and time again, I have probably posted them on here before. It's so versatile - you can pretty much do anything you like, adding fruit to the sponge, using different coloured icing and decorations etc etc. Just have some fun!

For the sponges (makes 24)

- 225 margarine/butter (or both)

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs, beaten

- 225g self raising flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- cocoa powder (for the chocolate cupcakes)

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Line a few cupcake trays with cupcake cases.

2. Beat together the marg/butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding flour occasionally if curdling occurs.

3. Sift the remaining flour and baking powder into the bowl, then gradually whisk in the milk and vanilla essence.

4. Spoon half of this mixture into cupcake cases.
5. Sift cocoa powder into the other half of the mixture, stirring and adding more until it is dark brown in colour. Spoon this into the remaining cupcake cases.

6. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to cool on a cooling tray.

7. Once cooled, you can begin making the buttercream. But first, take the vanilla cupcakes and cut a small hole in the middle of each to fill with a tsp of jam. I used raspberry but any flavour would work well.

8. Cover with the cut out bit of sponge, and they are ready to be iced!

For the buttercream

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- pink colouring (for vanilla sponge cupcakes)

1. Cream together the butter and sugar with the milk until smooth and silky. Stir in the vanilla extract.

2. Spoon this into a large piping bag with a nozel in (I ordered large, plastic disposable icing bags off amazon - you just snip off the end, pop in the nozel, fill with icing and are easy to use!) and start icing the chocolate sponge cupcakes - I go clockwise in a swirling pattern to get the effect you can see in the pictures.

3. Once all the chocolate cupcakes are done, add some pink food colouring to the remaining icing and stir until fully combined. Pipe this on to the vanilla cupcakes in the same way as the chocolate ones. Voila! You can decorate with fruit (strawberries or raspberries) or sprinkles or whatever really, but I just wanted to keep them simple.

Enjoy :)

Oh, and just wanted to show you this cute apron my friend bought me for my birthday, I love it, can't wait to wear it!!

Food, glorious food

Just wanted to do a quick post about some delicious food I've eaten recently (not cooked by me)!

I went to Ibiza on holiday with my boyfriend at the end of June and the all inclusive food was not anything special, but we did eat out a few times, my favourite being this caesar salad:

It was the most delicious salad I've ever tasted - the chicken was bread crumbed which added brilliant texture and it was still so moist, there were mini garlic croutons, lots of lettuce, but the best part was the sauce. The caesar dressing was creamy and refreshing but there was also a ton of balsamic vinegar (reduction) drizzled over the top. I would never have thought of putting balsamic vinegar with caesar (and I put it with most things!..) and I wish I had because it is genius. So next time you are making a caesar salad, don't forget to try it because the sweetness works perfectly with everything else.

On holiday, I also started an obsession with milka chocolate - this oreo one is amazing, and I also tried the caramel one and Daim one too. Nothing beats the oreo though! I haven't seen this oreo one anywhere in England yet, so let me know if you come across it :)

One evening we ate at this beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea with this view of the sunset:

 It was a beautiful place - I definitely recommend going on holiday to Portinatx. It's north of Ibiza, so the non-clubby part. The beaches are lovely, and our hotel was right on the sea, and the town had some lovely restaurants including this one.

The salads were great, mixing normal salad stuff (lettuce, carrot, tomato) with meat or fish (chicken and tuna), as well as lots of fruit (pineapple, strawberries, melon etc.) I wouldn't have thought so many flavours would taste so delicious together but they did. I particularly loved the pineapple chunks with the chicken - so refreshing and sweet, mm mm.

For main we both had a mixed grill which was steak, two different cuts of chicken, lamb and pork. It was all marinated beautifully and was very tender. It was a nice change from the normal British mixed grill of sausages, gammon and a ton of bacon!

Back in rainy England, I celebrated my birthday with my mum and sister at this lovely restaurant in London called Little Sicily - the website is http://www.littlesicilylondon.com 

The cocktails were so delicious but I'm here to talk about food so... we started with a bread basket of focaccia, breadsticks etc and a meat board of different salamis and hams which were scrummy. My sister and I also shared the calamari which came with a perfect tartare sauce. I'm not quite sure how I feel about squid yet... it wasn't rubbery which was good, but occasionally when I realised what I was eating I did feel slightly grossed out - I love fish but I'm not great with the more unusual seafood!

 For main course I had Pollo Creme which is basically a big piece of chicken served on papperdelle, with a creamy, mushroom and white wine sauce. I am a sucker for anything creamy so this was my perfect meal. The flavours were great and the chicken very moist, although I think it could have done with more sauce.

 The desserts were presented beautifully - I ordered the cheesecake with berry coulis and my sister had the hot chocolate souffle with pistachio ice cream. They were to die for!

I would definitely recommend this restaurant, the service was great, as was the atmosphere and the food was brilliant - a bit expensive but perfect for a celebration.

My friend also took me out for lunch on my birthday to the Blue River Cafe - http://www.thamesriviera.com/dining I had the rosemary foccacia filled with chicken, bacon and a blue cheese sauce, with a salad. It was so yum - and actually very filling. The chicken had a bit of a spice to it which was interesting but there wasn't enough blue cheese sauce so parts of it were a little dry, but it was a lovely lunch all the same.

My boyfriend and I decided to go less posh and ordered Dominoes for my birthday meal - what beats texas bbq and new yorker pizzas!? He then made me pancakes and porridge the following morning which was a lovely surprise.

I hope everyone else has been enjoying some delicious food recently, since the weather is so rubbish in England we need something to treat ourselves! I have a few posts lined up including egg fried rice, another salmon recipe, and the cupcakes I made for my birthday, so don't forget to check back :)