Lemon Curd Cupcakes.

Hello! Long time no speak. I have now officially finished my exams and also my first year of University which, literally just flew by and I can't actually believe it's already over! I am so happy to be home now though and can't wait to spend my summer at home in Cornwall with my family. As lovely as Liverpool is, Cornwall is home and there is no place I'd rather be, especially in the summer when you can spend your days lying on the beach and munching on clotted cream and jam scones! Lovely.

I don't think there is anything more summery, refreshing and delicious than a lemon cake and last weekend I decided to embrace the gorgeous weather we were having and bake some yummy, zesty lemon cupcakes. I really love this recipe; the lemon and poppy seed cupcakes are so moist and soft, the lemon curd is zesty and delicious (thanks very much Delia!) and this lemon curd frosting, oh this lemon curd frosting is so sweet and velvety. If you decide to give these a go I really hope you enjoy them and let me know what you think!

Recipe

For the Lemon and Poppy seed Cupcakes:

225g self-raising flour

175g golden caster sugar

zest of 2 lemons

1 tbsp. poppy seeds

3 eggs

100g natural yoghurt

175g unsalted butter,melted and cooled a little

For the Lemon Curd:

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 2 lemons

2 eggs

90g golden caster sugar

55g butter

For the Lemon Curd Frosting:

250g icing sugar

80g butter

50g lemon curd

To decorate- Crushed lemon sherbet sweets, grind in a food processor or crush with a rolling pin

Method

1. Heat oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan and line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases. 
2. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon or whisk until lump-free, then divide mixture between the cases. 
3. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean or the surface springs back when lightly pressed – the cakes will be quite pale on top still. Cool for 5 mins in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
4. Next, prepare the lemon curd. Sit a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, but don't let the bowl touch the water. Then place the eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice in the bowl and whisk together. Now add the butter piece by piece and cook for about 15 minutes, giving it a good whisk from time to time, until the curd has become smooth, glossy and thickened. Allow to cool.
5. Once the cupcakes are cool use an apple corer to cut out a dip in the centre of each cupcake and once the lemon curd is cool fill each dip/hole with 1-2 tsp. lemon curd.
6. Finally, prepare the lemon curd frosting. Beat together the butter, icing sugar and 50g of your homemade lemon curd until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then pipe a swirl of the frosting onto each cupcake and scatter with the pieces of crushed lemon sherbet sweets.

This time next week I'll be queuing up to see McBusted so I can't wait to revert back to my 10 year old self again as I sing and dance along to Year 3000 and Air Hostess. As much as I pride myself on loving rock music, I do love a good boyband and I always will! McFly and Busted are two of my favorites as well so I can't wait to see them, I think it will be a lot of fun and McFly are also singing Shine A Light which, I'm really happy about as it's one of my favourite songs. Dougie Poynter also happens to be one of the most beautiful men alive so, he'll also be pretty wonderful to look at, Ellie Goulding you lucky girl! 

Have you got any exciting plans for the rest of may? How will you be spending your summer?

Summer Shopping List.

1. Topshop Gingham Slip Dress £65.00. 2. Oh My Love Floral Lace Camisole Dress £35.00.

3. Oh My Love Dogtooth Camisole Dress £35.00. 4. Motel Rocks Morris Flower Hoppy Playsuit £45.00. 5. Motel Rocks Mandala Blue Skirt £28.00. 6. Motel Rocks Winter Rose Strappy Playsuit £42.00. 7. Motel Rocks Mandala Red Cami Crop £22.00. 8. Topshop Folk Print Tee £36.00. 9. Motel Rocks Isadora Sunflower Cami £25.00.

               
I really love gingham at the moment, it just makes me feel really summery and I adore both this Topshop red gingham slip dress and Oh My Love dogtooth dress although, I think the Topshop one is a bit out of my price range if I'm honest. I really like the trend of styling camisole slip dresses over t-shirts too like fashion blogger LLYMLRS did here with the Oh My Love dogtooth dress and I think it will create some really cute outfits for the summer months. Ofcourse wearing a t-shirt underneath helps to hide the old tops of your arms as well which, is never a bad thing if you're a bit self-conscious about them like me .

I also adore pastels and florals and have had my eye on the Motel Morris Flower Hoppy Playsuit for months now as I just love the icy blue colour and think that it would be perfect for the summer although, it is currently out of stock so I will have to keep a look out for it. The Motel Winter Rose playsuit is just gorgeous too and it would look lovely with a little white crop top underneath and some black Dr Martens (another expensive summer want) on the feet but, I do already have the winter rose print in the Beatrix Babydoll Dress  so is it a bit silly to get the exact same print in two different styles of dresses? I'm sure I'll be able to justify it though! 

Finally, I'm really liking boho and folk style pieces at the moment and would love to get my hands on literally anything in the Motel Mandala print but, I particularly love the blue skirt and red crop top. I think the Topshop Folk tee would be perfect to throw on with my Levi shorts and converse too for a simple, laid-back summer outfit while, the Motel Sunflower camisole is just really vibrant and pretty and again I think it would look great paired with some Levi's and converse to add a girly twist to a casual outfit.

What do you think of my summer fashion finds? What's on your summer shopping list?

Creme Egg Cupcakes.

Another yummy treat for the Easter weekend; chocolate cupcakes, butter-cream frosting and two mini Cadbury's creme eggs, I don't think you can really go wrong with that can you? 

Recipe

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

110g unsalted butter, softened

220g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

165g self raising flour

55g cocoa powder

½  tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp baking powder 

140ml sour cream

12 Cadbury's Creme Egg minis

For the Butter-cream Frosting:

500g icing sugar, sieved

160g unsalted butter, softened

50ml whole milk

3-4 drops of vanilla extract

Yellow food colouring

12 Cadbury's Creme Egg minis

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°c.

2. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.

3. For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar using an electric whisk. Gradually beat in the eggs. Add the sour cream. Sieve together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold in to the mixture. Divide the mixture between the cake cases, filling each half full and place a Cadbury's creme mini egg into the centre of each and cover with more mixture so each case is about 2/3 full.

4.Bake for 15-17 minutes or until risen and just firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

5.Prepare the butter-cream  frosting. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl, add the softened butter, vanilla and milk and beat until pale, soft and fluffy. You are aiming for as white as possible to form the egg on top.

6. Pipe a swirl of white frosting onto the top of each cake using a large round piping nozzle and then colour the remaining icing yellow. Pipe a yellow dot into the middle of each swirl to form the yolk and place another Cadbury's creme mini egg onto the top of each cupcake.

Note. Although, I had wanted to make a bright, vibrant, yolk yellow I had to use a pale yellow frosting instead as my food colouring just wouldn't go beyond pale yellow and the more colouring I added, the more my frosting became very bitter and chemically to taste. I used Morrison's natural yellow food colouring but, I will deffinately invest in a proper food colouring paste or gel in the future to gain a better colour and flavour. I have heard Wilton colour gels are very good.

Carrot Cake.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new blog and a very happy Easter to you all! I thought I would start by sharing this delicious carrot cake recipe with you which, I made last weekend for my sister's 26th birthday as I thought it would be the perfect cake for this Easter weekend. 

It is a lovely recipe and a gorgeously moist cake with a nice cinnamon flavour and a lovely cream cheese frosting. I've never been the best at making large cakes, in fact you can almost guarantee that every time the lid goes on all of the filling will squidge out the centre and my cake will be left looking like a sloppy mess. I tend to stick to baking cupcakes which seem to be more forgiving to my impatient, slap everything together attitude but, as it was my sister's birthday I thought that I would give this carrot cake a go and I was very pleased with the results. I even managed to colour some marzipan orange and green and create my own little carrots which I don't think look too shabby. So, whatever you are doing this Easter weekend whether it be; having an easter egg hunt in the garden with the kids, munching on hot cross buns, relaxing in the sun with a few days off work or whipping up this carrot cake or some of your own Easter treats, have a lovely time!

Recipe

For the Carrot Cake:
100g walnuts and pecans
340g raw carrots, finely grated
260g self-raising flour
1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
300g caster sugar
240ml sunflower oil
2 tsp. vanilla essence
120ml pureed pineapple 
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
300g icing sugar
50g butter
125g mascarpone or full-fat cream cheese such as, Philadelphia
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/ 180°C fan and grease and line the base of two cake tins with greaseproof paper.

2. Chop the walnuts and pecans coarsely and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes until lightly brown and fragrant.

3. Peel and finely grate the carrots.

4. In a large bowl mix together the walnuts and pecans, sieved self-raising flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

5. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and whisk until the batter is thick and pale in colour (about 3-4 minutes). Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Pour the liquid into the flour mixture along with the pureed pineapple (blitz pineapple chunks in a food processor until pureed) and beat until incorporated.

6. Fold in the grated carrot and evenly divide the batter between the two cake tins.

7. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the cakes are just firm to touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and after about 5 minutes remove the cakes from the tins and allow to cool on a wire rack.

9. Make the cream cheese frosting by beating the cream cheese, sieved icing sugar, butter and orange zest, if using, together with an electric whisk, blending until there are no lumps and the frosting is light, fluffy and smooth. 

10. Spread about half of the cream cheese frosting on the top of one cake, leaving a gap of about 1cm around the edge to allow for spreading when you place the other cake on top. Spread the remaining cream cheese frosting on top and sprinkle with cinnamon or grated chocolate e.g. terry's chocolate orange. Arrange walnut pieces around the edge or bought or homemade marzipan carrots. I used a few drops of red food colouring to colour some golden marzipan orange and some blue food colouring to colour some golden marzipan green. I then formed little carrots and used a tooth pick to indent them.

It is also easy to convert this recipe into cupcakes and the mixture will produce about 24 cupcakes but, it can be halved if you only want 12. If making the full 24 cupcakes you may need to double the quantity of frosting. Pipe a swirl of frosting on the top of each cupcake and top with a walnut or marzipan carrot.