Blueberry muffins

These sweet, fruity muffins are so light and full of flavour - perfect for summer. They are delicious fresh out of the oven, but still have a crisp top and juicy, moist inside when cooled. They are super easy to whip up so give them a try, they will not disappoint. 

Makes 12 muffins

- 110g butter

- 250g caster sugar

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 250g plain flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 125ml milk

- 225g fresh blueberries

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

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

3. Whisk in the eggs, then add the flour and baking powder, mixing well.

4. Stir in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Fold in 3/4 of the blueberries.

5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases about 2/3 full.

6. Press the remaining blueberries evenly into the mixture in each muffin case.

7. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Cool on a wired rack.

 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 :)

Low fat blueberry muffins

So the one's I baked were incredibly low fat since I forgot to put margarine in... As you can imagine I was extremely annoyed remembering I didn't put any in when they were 5 minutes away from being done in the oven! I tried one straight from the oven (always best when they're warm) and it was still delicious, soft on the inside, crisp on top and a lovely fruity flavour along with warm cinnamon flavours - mmm! However, they were stuck to the paper cases which I presume may not have been so bad if there was more fat in there (from the marg). I also think they would be more moist with marg in as well, so of course, don't be silly like me and forget to put it in! What I particularly love about these is the golden colour from the sprinkling of sugar and spices before baking in the oven.

Makes 6 muffins

- 115g plain flour

- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- pinch of salt

- 1/2 tsp mixed spice (or just cinnamon)

- 55g caster sugar

- 1 egg

- 1.5 tbsp low-fat margarine

- 75ml (5 tbsp) low-fat natural yogurt

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 40g fresh blueberries

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees. Place 6 muffin cases in a muffin tin.

2. Sift the flour, bicarb of soda, salt and half the mixed spice into a mixing bowl. Add 6 tbsp of the sugar and mix together well.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, margarine, yogurt and vanilla extract. Stir in the blueberries then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently stir until combined.

4. Divide the mixture into the muffin cases (about 2/3 full). Sprinkle over the remaining sugar and some mixed spice over the muffins.

5. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until well-risen and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Best eaten warm!

Enjoy :)