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 :)

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!*

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!!

Marbled meringue nests (Valentine's Day dessert)

Marbled Meringue Nests

Served with whipped cream, raspberry coulis, raspberries and blueberries, and a chocolate lattice

Mmmmmmmmmm is all I can say. I haven't made meringues in years but this was a success! I made everything from scratch; even whipping the cream, and it was all worth it. The raspberry coulis was particularly excellent.

Meringues (makes 4): 3 egg whites, 165g caster sugar, pink food colouring

- Whisk the egg whites until stiff, gradually add the caster sugar still whisking, until stiff and glossy

(Make sure you have an electric hand whisk or mixer because my hand even started to cramp with one; can't    imagine what hand whisking it would have been like!)

- Dollop the meringue mixture on to a baking try lined with grease-proof paper.

- Using a cocktail stick, swirl pink food colouring into each meringue to give a marbled effect.

- Cook for 40 mins on gas 1/2 and leave to cool in the oven once turned off (always cook more than you need because meringues are very fragile, they will crack!)

I also made my own raspberry coulis (just raspberries pressed through sieve with icing sugar), whipped some cream, added raspberries and blueberries, and made some chocolate decorations (i'm improving!.. i think) but you can do whatever decorations... this is what it looked like, I was so pleased :)

Oh and this is what the table looked like in the end:

Hope you enjoy the recipes! x

Valentine's Day table setting

Cooking a meal for someone special on Valentine's Day?

Then you better start planning your table setting!

Mine is nothing too special, and as I live at home with my mum it is not my choice of furniture etc.

First of all, choose a colour scheme (mine is black, white and pink). Try not to use more than 3 colours, and one or two of those should be neutral shades so it doesn't look too complex or messy. As it is Valentine's day try to incorporate a pink, red or deep purple colour.

Things you should definitely use: tablecloth, centrepiece decoration, candles

I have used a linen feel tablecloth in white from Tesco, a sheet of wrapping paper from Paperchase as the centrepiece/colour/main decoration, and various candles. 

The white, engraved heart candle holder is only £1 from Tesco, an absolute bargain and must have for Valentine's Day celebrations! The black, vase-like candle holder is from Ikea (they have an amazing range of modern, chic decor). The middle candle holder is from a local gift shop that my mum manages; Temptation gifts. All the actual candles are simple tea-lights that you can get pretty much anywhere for a good price (supermarkets, garden centre, gift shops etc.)

I have had this wrapping paper for a couple of years now because I love the patterns and colour scheme and have decorated my room accordingly! Wrapping paper is great for centrepieces (I have stuck the corners down with some blu tac) and I might even consider cutting it up soon to use for various things; put in picture frames to decorate my room, use as decoration on home-made cards, or laminate and use as place mats.

The table obviously looks a little bare because I am not cooking this Valentine's meal until Wednesday ( the day after V day), so it has not yet been properly set. I don't actually have any place mats that match, what I need really is some plain black, square leather place mats that would perfect this modern look. A vase of pink roses would have also worked perfectly as a centrepiece instead of the 3-part candle holder. But I absolutely love candles so once they are all lit it will look amazing! The twig tree in the corner with the fairy lights will add to the romantic tone; I adore that decor!

Happy Valentine's day everyone :)
Check back in a couple of days time to see the 3 course meal I cooked my boyfriend.

(all pictures taken by me)