Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

This recipe was created because I wanted to take some cakes to work and they wanted lemon. I didn't want to make a large one because I would then have to bring a knife! So these are my lemon drizzle cupcakes, building on the vanilla cupcake recipe.I like to use the yellow food colouring because it makes the cakes pop a little bit.

Ingredients:

200g Butter or Margarine
200g Caster (Golden) Sugar
200g Self-raising flour
4 eggs
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Yellow Food Colouring
3 tsp of Lemon Juice

For the drizzle:

5 tsp Lemon Juice
30g of Caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°c or Gas Mark 5.
2. Cream butter and sugar together.
3. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl to get lots of air in.
4. Weigh all the dry ingredients in another bowl and mix together.
5. Add the food colouring and lemon juice to the butter and sugar, then add about a quarter of the eggs. Beat together and add some flour if the mixture starts to curdle. Keep doing this until all the egg is combined with the butter and sugar.
6. Slowly add the flour and fold in with a large metal spoon so not to overwork the gluten, this will help your cupcakes rise.
7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, a little over half way to account for rising. Try and make sure they're all level so you can achieve a nice effect when they're displayed.
8. Bake for between 15 - 20 minutes depending on how big your cupcakes are.
9. Whilst the cupcakes are in the oven prepare the lemon drizzle. Mix the lemon juice and the caster sugar together until completely combined.
10. Once you take the cupcakes out of the oven leave to cool for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Then stab the cupcakes with a cocktail stick, making sure not to stab all the way to the bottom. Then with a cooking brush, brush the lemon drizzle over the cupcakes. Repeat this process twice for each cupcake.
11. Leave to cool completely before decorating otherwise your hard work will just melt! To decorate use icing sugar and lemon juice to form a thick, smooth icing. Spread this over the cupcakes and add sprinkles!

- Emma xxx

Red Velvet Cake

This recipe is basically double the cupcake recipe. It's a huge cake. I've baked it just in one tin, but normally it's baked in two or three. My oven at university isn't big enough for this but I think it worked well in one tin and my friend's birthday cake still looked great!

Ingredients:

250g Butter
600g Sugar
6 eggs
4 tbs Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Red Food Colouring Paste (Or 5 tbs of Red Food Colouring)
380g Self Raising Gluten-Free Flour
270ml Buttermilk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Large Pinch of Salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Preheat oven to 180°c or Gas Mark 5.
2. Cream butter and sugar together.
3. Soft the Cocoa powder into the butter and sugar and mix well. Once combined at the food colouring and vanilla extract.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. I would use a whisk at this point to get in as much air as possible.
5. Weigh out the dry ingredients and mix together in a bowl.
6. Then alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, folding in the flour so your don't lose the air.
7. Once the mixture is fully combined, pour the mixture in to the round tins (1-3) making sure to smooth the tops.
8. Put in the over for about 30-50 minutes (depending on how many tins you used) until the mixture is slightly browning on top.
9. Remove the tins and leave to cool in the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

10. Once it's fully cooled you can ice and decorate! Traditionally red velvet is made with a cream cheese frosting but because I'm not really a fan (and neither are my friends!) I make them with butter cream. We made this particular cake with vanilla butter cream. So 1 part butter, 2 parts icing sugar and a tsp of vanilla extract. You could cut the cake it half (we didn't have a big enough knife!) and layer buttercream inside the cake as well.

This particular cake I decorated with my friend Harri, it was for our friend Hayley's 21st. We had SO much fun. We used purple ready to roll icing and stuck sugar flowers on the cake. We also made leaves and stems. As you can see the red worked really well with the purple!

- Emma xxx

Rocky Road

This is my recipe for rocky road. It's really easy to make and it's very difficult not to impress with it. I originally used the Nigella Recipe available on the BBC website but the more I've made it the more I've changed it.

Ingredients:

200g Unsalted Butter
500g Dark and Milk chocolate (depends how rich you want it)
5tsp Golden Syrup
135g Maltesers (One share bag)
100g Chocolate Digestives
100g Marshmallows (Smaller ones rather than the big ones)
Icing Sugar to decorate.

Method:

1. Melt the butter, golden syrup and the Chocolate in a saucepan over a very low heat. I would also melt 10g of marshmallows in there too.
2. Whilst this is melting (make sure to keep a constant eye on it!) Put the digestives in a plastic bag and back with a rolling pin, don't bash so hard that it all becomes crumbs because you do want larger chunks as well.
3. Once the chocolate mixture has completely melted remove about a third and place it in a jug. Then take the rest of the mixture off the heat.
4. Once you've left the mixture for a few minutes stir in the malteasers, chocolate digestives and the rest of the marshmallows.
5. Pour the mixture in to a deep baking tray and level it out. Then with the remaining chocolate mixture pour that over the top. This will create a smoother finish.
6. Once it's cooled a little place in the fridge for at least 3 hours but overnight is best.
7. Once you've removed from the fridge, dust the rocky road with the icing sugar.

- Emma xxx

Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

Hi, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've just been finishing off my degree and I haven't really had time for baking, let alone writing recipes! Anyway, these were inspired by a red velvet cake I made for my friends 21st, I will post the details to this in my next post. I'll also give you a choice of icings because these cupcakes work with either chocolate or vanilla icing.

Ingredients:

125g Butter
300g Sugar
4 eggs (or three large)
2 tbs Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp Red Food Colouring Paste (Or 3 tbs of Red Food Colouring)
190g Self Raising Gluten-Free Flour (Or 190g of normal Plain Flour with 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda)
125ml Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt

Plus if you're doing the Gluten-Free Version put in 1 tsp of Gluten-Free Baking Powder.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Preheat oven to 180°c or Gas Mark 5.
2. Cream butter and sugar together.
3. Soft the Cocoa powder into the butter and sugar and mix well. Once combined at the food colouring and vanilla extract.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. I would use a whisk at this point to get in as much air as possible.
5. Weigh out the dry ingredients and mix together in a bowl.
6. Then alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, folding in the flour so your don't lose the air.
7. Once the mixture is fully combined, line the cupcake tray with cases and put the mixture into the cases. (I managed to make 20 cupcakes with this mixture but it really will depend on how full your cases are and how big they are)
8. Put in the over for about 18-20 minutes until they're slightly browning on top.
9. Remove the trays and leave to cool in the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

10. Once they're fully cooled you can ice and decorate! Traditionally red velvet is made with a cream cheese frosting but because I'm not really a fan (and neither are my friends!) I make them with butter cream. I usually divide them in to chocolate and vanilla so I have contrasting colours.

Ingredients are 1 part butter and 2 parts icing sugar. Once the mixture is light and fluffy add either cocoa powder or vanilla extract.

- Emma xxx