Raspberry and Lime Jam Duffins.

There are many pairings that go together in this world; peanut butter and chocolate, macaroni and cheese, rhubarb and custard, kenan and kel but, never before had I realised just how fantastic combining a doughnut with a muffin would be. Never before had I even known about combining a doughnut with a muffin so thank you kindly Bea for your delicious recipe! The result of this gorgeous combination is a soft, moist, doughy bundle of joy, oozing with a luxurious, zesty raspberry and lime jam filling and enveloped in a shimmering blanket of sugar. 

I recently baked these duffins for one of my final assessments at Liverpool John Moores University where I just finished my second year studying Home Economics and I filled them with a lovely rhubarb compote and vanilla custard filling which I will definitely share on here at some point too but, for now I just thought that the vibrant, zesty raspberry and lime jam duffins would create the perfect little treat to enjoy on a nice summery picnic or to pack up for a trip to the seaside on a lovely, sunny day. Alternatively, if like myself all you are seeing outside your window is the all too familiar sight of a British summer filled with grey skies and showers of rain, then I think that means that we can all just eat even more of these melt in the mouth bundles of sweet, sugary heaven to drown our sorrows, after all they'll be no need for a bikini body in this weather so might as well get working on building up that extra layer of padding for winter!

Ingredients
Makes 12 delicious duffins
For the Raspberry and Lime Jam:

300g raspberries, fresh or frozen

300g jam sugar

zest and juice of 1 lime

For the Duffins:

210g plain flour
2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
165g caster sugar
1 large egg
188ml buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

65ml sunflower oil

For the Topping:

150g Unsalted butter, melted

200g caster sugar 

1 tsp. cinnamon

Method

1)    Start by preparing the raspberry and lime jam. Place the raspberries, lime zest and juice into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and once turned to a pulp, add in the jam sugar and stir, allowing the sugar to dissolve. Bring to the boil again, boiling for about 10 minutes or until you reach the jam thickness you desire.

2)    To test the set of the jam, place a small tea plate into the freezer to chill whilst you boil the jam. Place a small bit of your jam onto the cold plate and if it is set the surface of the jam should wrinkle when you push a finger through it.

3)    Once the jam has reached your desired thickness, pour it into sterilized jars and set aside.

4)    Next, prepare the delicious duffins! Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/ Gas mark 4 and sieve the plain flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. Add the freshly grated nutmeg.

8)    Next, whisk the buttermilk, large egg and sunflower oil together and add the vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients slowly into the dry ingredients and stir using a spatula until just combined.

9)    Take a 12-cup muffin tin and use a little oil to lightly grease each hole in the muffin tin. Spoon the duffin mixture into the muffin tin holes, filling them two thirds full.

10)  Bake for 20 minutes until golden and well-risen and until the surface of each duffin springs back when lightly pressed with a finger.

11) While the duffins are baking, melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low-heat, pour into a bowl and set-aside. Now, add 100g caster sugar to another bowl and into a final bowl add 100g caster sugar and stir in 1 tsp. cinnamon to create cinnamon sugar.

12)  Remove the muffin tray from the oven once the duffins are cooked and gently lift the duffins out onto a wire cooling rack. Immediately dip the duffins into the melted butter and then roll in either the sugar or cinnamon sugar to liberally and evenly coat them before allowing to cool completely on the wire cooling rack.

13)  Once cool, use a cupcake corer, apple corer or sharp knife to gently remove the centre of each duffin, creating a hole. Finally, fill each duffin with 1 tsp. of the raspberry and lime jam and devour and enjoy immediately!

p.s. any of the remaining jam can be popped in the fridge and enjoyed on toast or scones- well everybody loves a good scone with jam and clotted cream in Cornwall don't they!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes.

There are some combinations that you just can't go wrong with like; chocolate and peanut butter, maple and pecan or marmite and beans on toast...(no, just me?). The bloomin' delicious combination of white chocolate and raspberry is no different. To start with; the vibrant pink rasberries paired against the delicate, creamy white chocolate looks amazing but, it also tastes great which, is definitely the most important! The juicy, tartness of the raspberries perfectly accompanies the luxurious, rich, sweet flavour of the white chocolate and I discovered that this lovely flavour combination doesn't disappoint and continues to work perfectly together to create a really lovely cupcake too so, do enjoy if you decide to whip up a batch yourself!

On a side note, I reverted back to my 13 year old boyband obsessed, fan-girl self again on Friday morning and managed to get tickets to see 5 seconds of summer in Birmingham next year which, I am fairly sure I am far too excited about for a 20 year old but, oh well! I had 3 laptops going, recruited my sister to help out and managed to get my tickets which, I am over the moon about. I felt slightly insane refreshing the page every few seconds, panicking that I wouldn't get any, it was really a very stressful time. I am definitely too obsessed for a grown woman but, nevermind, it's a healthy obsession... largely. A group of handsome Australian guys (albeit most are two years younger than me :/ but hey, what's two years?), playing instruments, writing great music, singing great songs, wearing great clothes, having great hair and generally looking gorgeous all the time, what grown woman wouldn't fall slightly in love? Needless to say, next June regardless of whether I am supposed to be a respectable, sensible and adult 21 year old, I will definitely be rocking out with my socks out for 5sos and won't care at all!

Recipe

For the White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes-

300g plain flour

2 tsp. baking powder

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 225ml whole milk
• 50g butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 100g fresh raspberries, cut in half
• 110g white chocolate, chopped into chunks
• For the Raspberry Filling-

80g fresh raspberries

1 tbsp. caster sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. corn flour

60ml cold water

For the White Chocolate Frosting-

170g white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

230g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

240g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp. whole milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt 

To decorate - white chocolate shavings, white chocolate chips or grated white chocolate and 24 fresh raspberries.

Method

1. Start by preparing the cupcakes. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases and pre-heat the oven to 200C.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir the sugar into the flour mixture.

3. In a separate bowl crack the egg, whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter (melt for approximately 30 seconds in a microwave and allow to cool slightly before adding to the egg and milk). 

4. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry mixture.

5. Using a metal spoon, fold the raspberries and white chocolate chunks into the cake mixture.

6. Fill each cake case 2/3 full with the mixture, making sure that each case has some white chocolate chunks and raspberries in. Bake for around 17-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are golden and spring back when the surface is pushed lightly.

7. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool.

8. While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the raspberry filling. Combine the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and begin to simmer over a low heat.

9. Whisk the corn flour into the cold water until smooth, add to the raspberries in the saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly until the desired consistency is reached and set-aside to cool. The sauce will thicken further as it cools.

10. Using an apple corer, dig out a hole in the centre of each cupcake and once the raspberry sauce is cool, spoon 2 tsp. raspberry sauce into each.

11. Finally, prepare the white chocolate frosting. Beat together the butter, icing sugar, milk, vanilla extract, white chocolate and salt until the frosting is thick, smooth, light, pale and fluffy. Pipe a swirl of frosting onto the top of each cupcake and sprinkle with the white chocolate shavings and top with two fresh raspberries.

Blueberry Crumble Cupcakes.

Hello again! Yes I know, yet another cupcake recipe for you. I promise I do do other things and don't just sit in my kitchen baking cupcakes all day, not everyday anyway. I do occasionally make other types of food too I swear, in fact I am actually making some homemade nachos, guacamole and salsa tomorrow. Yum. Does anyone else adore nachos? 

I really wanted to sell my cupcakes at farmers markets this summer to see if anybody would like and buy them but, I haven't had much luck with hearing any good news back from farmers markets yet so I don't think it looks likely now. As I mentioned in my blog post the other day, I'd really like to start up my own little baking business after University and to run a food truck so that I can travel around Cornwall selling my food. I thought that selling my cakes at farmers markets would be a good place to start just to see if people would actually like my food but, never mind. I'll just keep practicing my recipes for now and then hopefully one day CeeJay's Cupcake Cafe will be trundling along from beach to beach in Cornwall serving up ice cream and cakes. Who knows ay? Fingers crossed.  
Anyway, on to the cupcake recipe.

Recipe

For the Blueberry Cupcakes-

300g plain flour

155g caster sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

¼ tsp. salt

250ml whole milk

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla essence

85g unsalted butter, melted

50g fresh or frozen blueberries, plus extra for decorating

50g fresh or frozen raspberries

For the Crumble Topping-

50g plain flour

40g unsalted butter

30g soft light brown sugar

40g pecans, chopped

1 tsp. cinnamon

For the Blueberry Sauce-

70g blueberries

20ml water

60ml orange or lemon juice

40g caster sugar

20ml cold water

10g corn flour

1 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. cinnamon

For the Lemon Curd Frosting-

250g icing sugar

80g butter

50g lemon curd

Method

1. First, prepare the crumble topping. In a bowl, rub the flour and butter together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining ingredients and place enough (perhaps 1 tbsp.) of the crumble topping into a tray and bake in the oven for about ten minutes until golden and crunchy, ready to scatter on the tops of the cupcakes. Set the rest aside for later.

2. Next, prepare the cupcakes. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C and line a cupcake tin with 12 muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar and salt and place in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a jug, add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix together by hand.

3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and mixing slowly, pour in the egg and milk mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to catch every bit of the mixture, increase the speed to medium and continue beating until smooth. Then pour the melted butter in and beat again to incorporate.

4. Stir in the berries by hand, making sure they are evenly spread throughout the mixture, then spoon the batter into the muffin cases, filling each up to two-thirds full and sprinkle with the remaining crumble topping.

5. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are bronzed and bounce back when lightly pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

6. While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the blueberry sauce. In a saucepan over medium heat combine the blueberries, water, orange or lemon juice and sugar. Stir gently and bring to the boil.

7. In a cup, mix together the corn flour and cold water. Gently stir the corn flour mixture into the blueberries so as not to mash the berries. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 3-4 minutes.Remove from the heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon. Allow to cool slightly.

8. Cut a hole out of the centre of each cupcake and fill with 1-2 tsp. blueberry sauce. 

9. Next, prepare the lemon frosting. Beat together the butter, icing sugar and lemon curd until fluffy, light and smooth and pipe onto the cupcakes using your favorite piping bag and nozzle. Finally, scatter the top of each cupcake with some of the crunchy crumble you prepared earlier and finish with a plump, juicy blueberry.    

Note. instead of using the lemon frosting on these cupcakes you can also top them with whipped double cream and they are delicious, like mini gateau's! Just whip up 600ml double cream and dollop away! 

I also forgot to say the other day but, McBusted were incredible! Oh I do love a good boyband. It was just so much fun and such a great show and all of the guys looked like they were having a great time which, was really lovely to see. They were all hilarious and Danny and Dougie were looking particularly gorgeous too which, was rather nice. Since finding out James spends some of his time living in Padstow I also seem to have become quite attracted to him which, gives me even more reason to trundle to Padstow selling my cakes all in the hope that James will one day fall in love with me and my cooking. It was fun to be able to dance and sing along to every song and at the end of the night I just wanted them to do it all over again. It was honestly one of the best concerts I've ever been to! I definitely need to start going to more concerts, it's always such an amazing atmosphere and really incredible and overwhelming when you see a band you really like.