Lemon drizzle cupcakes

Everyone who likes a bit of tangy sweetness will love these!

They are the perfect, Spring cupcake, particularly if you use cute cupcake cases (mine are from poundland)

 They will stay moist for a good few days as well, just in case you don't eat them all at once...

I whipped them up for Mother's Day and my mum ate 3 in one go - just to prove how delicious they are.

Makes 10-12 cupcakes
- 125g butter
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 125g self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- dash of milk
- dash of vanilla essence
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon

For the lemon drizzle icing
- 200g icing sugar
- juice of 2 lemons
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon, for decoration

1. Line a cupcake tray with cases and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth, beat in the eggs then fold in the flour and baking powder. Mix until smooth with a dash of milk, vanilla essence and lemon zest.
3. Spoon into cupcakes cases then bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

4. To make the lemon drizzle icing, simply mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice and stir until smooth and fairly runny. Spoon/drizzle on top of the cupcakes - as much as you prefer, then finish with some lemon zest!

Enjoy :)

Valentine's chocolate & raspberry cupcakes

Double chocolate chip cupcakes with a raspberry jam centre, chocolate frosting and a raspberry topping

Perfect for Valentine's day - for your boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, family, or just for yourself!

They taste divine too

Makes 18 deep cupcakes
- 225g margarine
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 225g self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- dash of milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- cocoa powder
- 100g milk chocolate chips
- raspberry jam

For the frosting and topping
- 200g butter, softened
- 275g icing sugar, sifted
- dash of warm milk
- 150g dark cooking chocolate, melted
- fresh raspberries
- freeze dried raspberry pieces (or red sprinkles or hearts)
- edible glitter (optional)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a cupcake tin with cases. (Use special ones for valentine's day!)

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar until well combined. Whisk in the beaten egg, then fold in the flour and baking powder.

3. Stir in the milk, vanilla essence, enough cocoa powder to change the mixture to a deep brown colour, and the chocolate chips. Mix until well combined and then spoon into the cupcake cases (about 2/3 full).

4. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the middle.

5. Once cooled, cut the top centre out of each cupcake and spoon in a teaspoon of raspberry jam into each.

6. Place the tops back on (trying not to eat them) and set aside.

7. To make the chocolate buttercream frosting, beat together the butter, icing sugar and milk until smooth (be patient). Then stir in the melted chocolate.

8. Spoon the frosting into a large piping bag with a star nozel and get piping! (you can also just spoon and spread onto the cakes if you prefer)

9. Place a raspberry on the top of each cupcake and sprinkle with the freeze dried raspberry pieces, or whatever decoration you are using, and finish with a dusting of edible glitter.

They will look something like this when you finally get to eat them!

Enjoy :)

Halloween cupcakes

Sorry this post is so late - I'm going to try and post more frequently now although I am quite busy but I will do my best!

I thought I would share with you my Halloween cupcakes anyway, I made chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and they went down a treat. I have posted this same cupcake recipe time and time again so I will link it below for you to follow if these take your fancy and you want to indulge in some delicious, home-made chocolate cupcakes! The only difference is obviously the decorations on top (from Lidl) and that I put milk chocolate chips in the sponge. 

http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/chocolate-and-vanilla-jam-cupcakes.html

To make the chocolate buttercream just follow the same recipe above but add 100g dark cooking chocolate (I used Sainsbury's Belgium dark cooking chocolate) for a rich, chocolatey flavour. Never stint on ingredients when making buttercream - always use good chocolate and butter, for me, that's always Lurpak!

I just piped on the buttercream using a disposable piping bag and a large star piping nozel. I started to run out of icing though so I just spread the rest on but it still looked good!

Oh and the gold cupcake cases are from Sansbury's.

Enjoy :)

Strawberry cupcakes

In keeping with the strawberry season of Wimbledon, I thought I'd make some strawberry treats. With fresh strawberries in the sponge and strawberry jam in the buttercream, these cupcakes are incredibly light but creamy and delicious. They are exactly what you would expect - sweet and pretty damn tasty.

For the sponges (makes 12)

- 125 margarine

- 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

- handful of fresh strawberries, finely chopped

For the buttercream

- 125g butter (has to be lurpak!)

- 300g icing sugar, sifted

- dash of warm milk

- 2 tbsp raspberry jam

- 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

- pink food colouring

- strawberries, to garnish

- edible glitter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a cupcake tin with cases.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Beat in the eggs and fold in the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

4. Stir in the milk and vanilla essence, and add the chopped strawberries, mixing until well combined.

5. Spoon into the cupcake cases (about 3/4 full) then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wired rack.

6. Meanwhile, to make the buttercream, soften the butter then cream with the icing sugar, adding a dash of warm milk in to help mix. 

7. When the buttercream is smooth, stir in the jam and vanilla essence until well combined, then add a small amount of pink food colouring to enhance the colour.

8. Using a piping bag with a large star nozzle, generously pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake.

9. Top with a quartered strawberry (or however you prefer) and a sprinkle of glitter!

Enjoy :)

Recipe repeats!

I have been appalling with blogging the last couple of months - end of second year at university means a lot of assignments and exams, but I still struggle to find the time even though these are all over now! I have also been cooking/baking a lot of the same things that are already on here and it would be a bit pointless to post them again. I have a couple of new recipes to put up in the near future, but this summer I am hoping to get back into experimenting with new recipes for dinners and get back into doing a lot of baking, so watch this space for some delicious recipes. I want to try out different tapas dishes too so keep checking back over summer. I am going to Morocco in a week so may be inspired by some dishes there too!

I thought I would post just add some recipe repeats in here because they are particularly good:

1. Chocolate smartie squares - http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/chocolate-smartie-squares.html

These are so easy to make, absolutely delicious and look really cute.

2. Homemade pizza - dough and all! - http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/perfect-pizza.html

These are our two favourite toppings - parma ham and mushroom with parsley and parmesam, and goats cheese and red onion - delicious!

3. Cupcakes - http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/chocolate-and-vanilla-jam-cupcakes.html

This is the recipe I always use for the sponge and buttercream, only this time, these cupcakes that I made at Easter had lemon juice in both the sponge and the icing for a sweet tang. I also made chocolate ones as well.

Hope these give you some inspiration :)

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!*

Carrot cake cupcakes

I hadn’t tried carrot cake until the other week and I fell in love with it. I don’t really like nuts or citrus which are all things I thought the cake would taste of but it didn't at all. I decided to make my own mini versions and they worked really well – they are really moist and warming from the cinnamon, and have great texture from the occasional crunch of walnut and soft sultanas. The frosting is to die for and compliments the flavours in the sponge so well. The carrots on top are white chocolate cake decorations from Sainsbury’s. You could also decorate them with walnuts or chocolate mini eggs for Easter time. If you like that citrus twang, then feel free to add some orange zest into the cake mix or the frosting! This recipe will be appearing in my uni newspaper - Redbrick, yay so if you're at the university of Birmingham make sure you pick it up!

*Just a quick apology for the infrequency of posts - I'm busy at uni and my laptops been playing up. I've got lots of posts I want to do though so keep checking back! I really appreciate everyone who looks at my blog*

Makes about 12 cupcakes

275g caster sugar

50g margarine

150ml sunflower or olive oil

4 medium eggs

4 carrots, grated

50g walnuts, finely chopped

50g sultanas, finely chopped

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the cream cheese frosting:

125g butter, softened

125g cream cheese

275g icing sugar

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees / gas mark 4. Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases.

2.       Mix together the sugar, margarine and oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs then stir in the grated carrot, walnuts, and sultanas.

3.        Sieve the flour and baking powder, cinnamon and cocoa powder into the carrot mixture and stir well until combined.

4.       Spoon this mixture into the muffin cases (about 2/3 full) and bake for around 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a wired rack.

5.       To make the frosting, whisk together the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

6.       Add the icing sugar, stirring until combined and smooth. Spoon on to the cupcakes and smooth over with a knife. Decorate as you wish!

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 :)