green tea cupcakes

Wishing a happy mother's day to all the wonderful mum's out there! I decided to bake my mum some treats with a selection of all her favourite flavours. It's incredibly simple, takes hardly any time and the results are delicious. So if you feel like your mum's missing an extra little something today, why not have a go at one of these? :-)

The pictures above are for the green tea cupcakes, which definitely went down the best, and their delicate taste is well suited for today's occasion. Please bare in mind that my recipe is for 12 mini ones and I divided the mixture up into three different flavours (coconut and lemon were also included) so you can always modify yours.

You will need...

• 60g butter
• 60g sugar 
• 75g self-raising flour
• 1 egg
• 1 green tea teabag
• pistachio nuts
• (dessicated coconut)
• (lemon food colouring)
• (walnuts)

What to do....

• Boil the kettle, as you would when making a cup of tea, and pour a small amount of water into a jug, cup, whatever. Then pop in your teabag (to be precise, the one I used was a mango and lychee green tea because that's my mummy's favourite) and leave it resting in the water

• Next, cream your butter and sugar then combine the egg and fold in the flour.

• Take out the teabag and then pour the tea into your mixture and give it a nice mix so it's all soaked in.

• Chop up some pistachio nuts (if you had some) as these make a pleasing topping :-D

• Spoon the mixture into cake cases and then sprinkle some of nuts on top of each.

• Bake for about 15 minutes

• If doing any of the other flavours, simply follow the same steps but for the lemon I sprinkled chopped up walnuts on top and for the coconut I used dessicated coconut.

As you can see below, I did not stop there. Nu-uh. I also make some tarts for dessert. Again this could not be easier to make. I added dessicated coconut to the (homemade, of course) pastry and baked for 15 minutes. Then, once cooled, I added a fine layer of jam to the middle and topped with blackberries and pistachio nuts. We are not sure how it tastes yet as we're saving them for after dinner but for the sake of this post and selling these recipes to you... IT WAS FANTASTIC.

Hope you have a good day/ had a good weekend. I'm off to do coursework now. Fun, fun, fun.

BLOGLOVIN' ♥ INSTAGRAM ♥ TWITTER 

Banana, coconut and raisin cookies

Mmm doesn't this look delicious? scroll down for the baked result which, I can assure you, is delicious. (I thought it was best to stick with the step-by-step photo theme despite the photos not being too appetising)

It has now become a 'thing' of mine to add banana to the cookies I make. The reason being is it tastes so good!! (and they come out with a lovely soft texture). The first batch I did the other week contained banana, nuts and dried fruits. However, for these ones I opted for a more tropical touch with added flavour from coconut. Admittedly, I still prefer the first ones but banana and coconut go together as satisfyingly as Ant and Dec and I just had to share it with you all!

You will need...

• 70g butter
• 50g sugar (I used brown)
• dessicated coconut (I didn't measure the amount but I'd say roughly 100g)
• 1 egg
• 80g flour (I used wholemeal)
• 1 banana
• raisins (again I didn't measure the amount)
  

What to do...

• Preheat your oven to 180
• cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until smooth.
• Mash up the banana (I did this in a mixer) and then pour into the mixture, before beating in the egg
• Add the flour then the coconut and raisins
• Form cookie shapes on a baking tray and then place in the oven for about 15 minutes (As the mixture is quite gooey, I formed the shapes using a spoon not my fingers)
• Take out, leave to cool and then save for lunchtime with a cup of tea or, if you can't resist, eat straight away ;-)

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cheese and sun-dried tomato biscuits

Sometimes (always) it's nice to indulge in Italian-style flavours midday when your tummy's calling for yummy food. These biscuits are ideal for a Saturday lunch, which is why I'm presenting them to you on this Friday evening :-) I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

You will need...

• 100g wholemeal flour
• 50g butter
• 50g cheese
• 50g sun-dried tomatoes
• dried basil
• dried oregano 

What to do...

• In a large bowl, simply rub the butter and flour together until breadcrumbs are formed
• Then put in the rest of the ingredients by grating the cheese, chopping up the tomatoes into small pieces (perhaps smaller than I did), and adding a dash of basil and oregano for extra flavouring
• pour in a bit of water to form a dough-like mixture and then flatten on a lightly-floured surface using your hands. 
• cut out the shapes, pop onto a a tray and then place into a preheated oven at 160 for 10-15 minutes.

It really is nothing complicated at all.

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blueberry and banana muffins

Exams are looming, revision is taking over your life and you feel like your brain is slowly disintegrating from all the information you need to store. Sound familiar? Well these muffins are the perfect way to start the day. Packed full of fruity energy, they should keep your mind healthy and the act of getting up in the morning a lot more enjoyable- plus they don't take long to make at all so you'll hardly be wasting any valuable time. See below for the recipe!

Enjoy!!

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post-Christmas cupcakes

OK, hands up: who's feeling the consequences of Christmas with stodgy, bloated stomachs and the desire to detox for the new year? It's natural, it's common, it's understandable yet why deprive yourself of yummy food when you know, deep down, that's the last thing you want to do. Well these poppy seed and lemon cupcakes are a healthy alternative that still have the appearance of being indulging but are filled with fresh lemons- a successful component in detox dieting because of the ability to break down the build up of toxins in the body while contributing to short term weight loss. Result ;-)

You will need...

1 lemon
50g wholemeal flour,
2 table spoons of poppy seeds,
50g butter,

1 egg,
50g sultanas

What to do...

• mix the butter with the sugar in a bowl and then beat in the egg. 
• Squeeze the juice out of a lemon and pour into the bowl of ingredients
• combine the poppy seeds and then fold in the flour
• mix in the sultanas and then spoon the mixture into cake cases.
• bake for approximately twenty minutes at 180 degrees.
• I then juiced a second lemon and lightly spread it on top for extra flavour and a shinier finish but this is entirely optional.

Let's bake! Fruit cake cupcakes

It's the most wonderful time of the year sang Andy Williams and he couldn't have been more correct. Festive food is just one of the pleasures of December and I'm not talking about Turkey and all things meaty (hi, Veggies!) It's only around now that I can snack away on a whole chocolate orange and feel guilt-free, or munch on Ferrero Rochers (especially the coconut ones. yum) because my mother refuses to buy chocolates like that any other time of the year. And, of course, fruit cake! My grandma always used to make the best fruit cake but that was a while ago and since then Lakeland's have always been a pleasant alternative. Right now though I decided to combine the delight of both Christmas cake and cupcakes with these simple-to-bake lovelies. The photos above were taken during the process of making them so I hope you have find the final result (placed next to home-made mince pies) more appetising to the eye. Scroll down for the recipe. Enjoy!! ♥

63g butter,

50g brown sugar,

1tsp grated orange,

1 egg,

250g dried mixed fruit,

50ml orange juice,

38g plain flour,

38g self-raising flour,

1/2 tsp mixed spice,

decoration: regal icing, glace cherries, dried apricot, raisins, green food colouring

• preheat the oven to 170 then begin by beating the butter, sugar and orange peel together in a bowl
• once creamy, add the egg and beat in
• pour in the dried fruit, walnuts and orange juice and then, once mixed, stir in the flour and mixed spice
• divide into cupcake cases and place in the oven for 30 minutes
• When ready and your kitchen is smelling delicious, leave to cool and begin with the decorations.
• Roll out the icing (I brought some ready made) and then cut out circles to place on top
  You can then do whatever you fancy but I attempted holly (using a cherry cut in half and food-coloured icing) and Rudolph (using a cherry cut in half, raisins and dried apricot)
• Then finally and most importantly, take a bite and enjoy the taste of Christmas

Let's bake! Rainbow cake

Today is the 5th November which, of course, means the start of the ATP World Tour Finals (vamos, Murray!)  it's bonfire night. I love fireworks. There's something magical about bright exploding colours forming pretty patterns against the black of the night sky. Yet my village is not embracing the occasion this year and therefore I will not be seeing any fireworks displays. Instead I will have to make do with the closest best thing...a rainbow cake. Below is the recipe in case you want to try it yourself.

Ingredients
225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
175g self- raising flour
food colouring
75g butter
175g icing sugar

coco powder

white chocolate

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees
• Cream together the 225g of butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy
• Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour.
• Divide the mixture into bowls, the number depending on how many colours you are going to use, and then mix the food colouring into those bowls. 
• Spoon the mixtures into cake tins. Do two spoonfuls of one colour and then another et cetera to create the multi-coloured effect. 
• Place in the oven. The recipe I followed told me it would take about 25 minutes but mine took more like 40 so just keep it in till it's ready (helpful) 
• For the buttercream, cream the butter and sugar together and then combine the coco powder. I put a few spoonfuls in the middle of the two layers and then the rest I used to cover the top and sides. 
• Grate the white chocolate on top.

Anyone for lemon cake?

Here's an idea for you: A lemon cake with two toppings- chocolate and Walnut. Sound tasty? Below is the recipe I used but, like always, you can modify it to whatever your preference may be.

Ingredients

(for the cake) 2 eggs, 3oz self-raising flour, 3oz caster sugar, 3oz butter, 3/4 level tsp baking powder, grated zest of 1/2 lemon.

(for the lemon icing): 100g caster sugar, juice of 1 lemon. Then some milk chocolate/walnuts to grate on top.

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees then beat together the eggs, flour, caster sugar, butter, baking powder 
• Add the lemon zest and mix it in so the sponge will be lovely and lemony
• Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch
• For the topping, simply mix together the sugar and lemon juice and evenly spread onto the cake.
• I then cut the cake in half and grated chocolate on one and walnuts on the other before slicing each one one into three segments and serving with a cup of tea. Yum.

chocolate and biscuit rock buns

200g self-raising flour, 100g margarine, 75 sugar (or, as I used, the wondrous sugar substitute that is  Stevia), 1 egg, chocolate, biscuits. Combine flour, sugar and margarine and form breadcrumbs. Add your chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate and biscuits. Then mix in the egg. Form it to ball-like shapes and place into oven for 20-ish minutes. 

I don't know, baking seems to be appearing a lot on my blog recently. Do you all like reading about my attempted efforts of making food? I'm still unsure on what my blog is about so perhaps it could be a regular theme.
Anyway, I was competing in a tennis tournament on Tuesday and the lovely organisers handed each competitor a goody bag containing a packet of locally baked gingerbread (which taste surprisingly pleasant as they melt in my mouth like shortbread) I decided to use them in a rock bun recipe with chopped up chocolate as a way of stopping myself from munching on them all afternoon, afterwards realising there was no logic in that as the rock buns probably contain double the amount of fattiness..

I'd also like to take this moment to say, if any of you received your exam results today, I hope you are pleased and did as well/better than you expected. If like me you didn't (I got my AS)  then don't worry, it will all turn out the way you hope as long as you believe in yourself!

 xo

On the playlist
Mumford and Sons- I Will Wait
Lucy Rose- Bikes
Suki Waterhouse- Stoned

going for gold with gingerbread men

Sat solemnly at the bottom of a small bag, colourless, worn and neglected. I don't like to see things treated in this way and I knew that, come my next sort out, they would probably be thrown in the bin. But then, off a diving board of creativity, an idea sprung into my mind and shortly after the above was born: Two gold rings made from two old buttons, a short amount of wire, and gold paint.

Yesterday I also delved into some baking fun and made my very own Team GB gingerbread men. I'm not actually too keen on gingerbread but I became deeply inspired after coming across the adorable 'sporty gingers' available at biscuiteers.com  As you can see, my baking is no better than a six year old's but my mother was hugely grateful for the diver, badminton player, and sprinter (the middle one could actually be anything) I gave her that afternoon.