Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans Cupcakes

It seems that once I get a theme going, I just don't know when to stop. Not so long ago, it was cupcakes and flowers and now it is cupcakes and chocolate.

Mr W and I went on a shopping spree for cake toppings and to make the cupcakes even more calorific, I have a box overflowing with wonderful chocolate cake toppings. The great thing about this theme is, I/we get to eat any decorations that are left over.

I made a vanilla cake base, piped with buttercream and simply topped them with these fabulous chocolate covered coffee beans from Waitrose.


You will need: A muffin tin lined with 12 cupcake cases

115g softened butter, 115g caster sugar, 115g self raising flour, 2 eggs, 1-2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

1. Beat together the butter and caster sugar until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly to the mixture, together with the vanilla extract and milk. Fold in the flour.
2. Divide the batter between 12 cupcake cases and cook in a preheated oven 180°C for 20-25 minutes until golden.

Buttercream Icing

250g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon hot water

Simply mix all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

Peach and Raspberry Slice

Another Bill Granger recipe taken from his book, Bill Granger Every Day, there are so many great recipes you are spoilt for choice.

It's always good to cook with fruits that are in season, the raspberries were freshly picked from my garden, unfortunately the same can't be said about the peaches.

This is an unusual recipe and I kept my fingers crossed it would work out. Fortunately, it never let me down - the base is sticky with a cake layer on top. This is quite sweet and I would recommend cutting down on the sugar. The slice kept well in the fridge.

You will need: 20 x 30 cm greased and lined tin but a smaller tin will give you a thicker cake layer.

185g plain flour, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, plus ½ teaspoon extra, 125g chilled and cubed butter, 115g soft brown sugar, 115g caster sugar, 3 peeled and sliced peaches, 90g raspberries, 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract, 1 lightly beaten egg, 185ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the tin.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in both of the sugars. Press half the mixture over the base of the tin. Lay the peaches over the top and sprinkle over the raspberries.
3. Add the vanilla extract, the extra baking powder, egg and milk to the rest of the base mixture and stir well. Pour evenly over the top of the peaches and raspberries and bake for 1 hour. Cool in the tray, then cut into squares.

To peel peaches: score a cross in the skin with a sharp knife, then blanch the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds, refresh in cold water and peel the skin away from the cross.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

I couldn't resist buying a box of White Chocolate Raspberries dusted with freeze dried raspberries, from Marks & Spencer, this beautifully designed box sold them to me immediately.


I could have just eaten the lot, but I decided to top some cupcakes with them and share the remainder with my husband, I would have felt guilty forever if I hadn't saved him any chocolates.

Makes: 12

You will need:

115g butter at room temperature, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 115g self-raising flour, 2 tablespoons milk, grated zest of 1 lemon.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift over the flour and fold in by hand. Stir in the milk and lemon zest.
4. Spoon heaped tablespoons of batter into each paper case and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.

Buttercream Icing

This recipe isn't as rich as a normal buttercream icing because my husband finds the topping a bit much.

You will need: 167g softened butter, 500g sifted icing sugar, two tablespoons hot boiled water.

Simply whisk all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

Apple and Cherry Tart

This recipe is from Bill Granger Every Day. On my bookshelf there is a gap just waiting to be filled with his latest book, Bill's Basics. I have all of his other books and started buying them before he was a recognised name in this country. It was his love of breakfast and brunch that attracted me to him, and also the fact that he has the ability to even make scrambled eggs seem glamorous.


I chose to make one large tart in my tarte tatin tin, it needs to be made in a metal pie dish of some sort otherwise the underneath pastry won't cook, soggy pastry bottoms are horrid. The individual tarts are a bit fiddly because you have to line the muffin tin holes with strips of baking parchment, to lift the tarts out after they are cooked, but they are worth every minute of your time. A more cost effective way is to put the filling in a tart tin and just top with the pastry which is something I have done in the past, so one recipe and lots of different ways to make the tart.



The sweet pastry is fabulous, although I think it would be a good idea to use less sugar, the pastry rolls out easily which is always something to be grateful for. I'm not a fan of sweet pastry because it can be sugar overload especially when the filling has already had sugar added to it.

According to my husband this tart is one of the best I have ever made and everyone should like it - I think I'll make this one again because I think it did the trick, he bought me some new furniture today!

The recipe can be found here on the Good Food Channel website. A couple of things regarding this link, the photograph doesn't look like cherry pies and also the mixed spice isn't in the original recipe.

STRAWBERRY AND REDCURRANT PAVLOVA

I watched Delia on a TV advertisement making Strawberry & Vanilla Pavlova, so next time I went shopping in Waitrose, I couldn't resist picking up the Waitrose Recipe Collection card.

I always use Nigella's pavlova recipe, which for me just can't be beaten, I looked at Delia's recipe and to me it's a meringue recipe and not a pavlova recipe. A friend brought us some homegrown redcurrants, I then returned to the Waitrose Recipe Collection card and made the vanilla cream and strawberry sauce. So basically, I have paired Delia up with Nigella!

The secret to a great pavlova is to make it the evening before and then let it dry out in the cooling oven. This way you will get a crisp outside and a marshmallow inner, bliss.

The vanilla cream, which is made with fromage frais and Mascarpone set to give a firm filling. Next time I would alter the recipe yet again and use my usual filling of softly whipped cream mixed with yogurt. The pavlova was delicious except for the cream filling which my husband wasn't very keen on. You must make the strawberry sauce though because it is so very, very delicious.

Has anyone else made Delia's Strawberry & Vanilla Pavlova?

Nigella's Pavlova recipe from How to Eat.

You will need: A large baking tray lined with baking parchment.

4 large egg whites, 250g caster sugar, 2 teaspoons cornflour, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they reach the soft peak stage. Whisk in the caster sugar a third at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny.
Fold in the vanilla essence, cornflour and white wine vinegar.
3. Draw a 20cm circle on the baking parchment, put blobs of meringue on a baking tray, turn the greaseproof paper over and stick the baking parchment down onto the tray.
4. Spoon the meringue onto the baking parchment circle and flatten the top and smooth the sides.
5. Place in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 150°C and cook for 1¼ hours.
6. Turn the oven off and leave in the oven overnight to dry out.
7. Take the pavlova off the baking paper, fill with cream and decorate with fruit.

STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES

My strawberries are fabulous this year and I think the squirrel has got the message at last that my strawberries belong to me and not to him!


I was very fortunate a couple of years ago and won a huge prize from Rocket Gardens which included a fruit garden, a spring and autumn vegetable garden, herbs and other garden goodies as well. I couldn't use all of the prize and I donated lots of it to my Grandson's school who have an allotment, which is supervised and run by a very keen gardener, namely the caretaker. He couldn't contain himself with excitement when I told him his school and the children were to share in my good fortune and I know they have had lots of fun with all of the plants Rocket Gardens sent to them on my behalf.

I made some lemon cupcakes, topped them with butter cream and half a strawberry - delicious.

Makes: 12 cupcakes

You will need: A standard size 12 hole cupcake tin lined with paper cases.

125g softened butter, 125g caster sugar, 2 medium eggs, finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon, 125g self-raising flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, lemon rind and juice. Fold in the flour.
3. Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake in the centre of the oven until the cakes have risen and are just firm to the touch in the centre or bake for about 20 minutes.
4. Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Buttercream

You will need:

175g softened unsalted butter, 350g sifted icing sugar, 3 tbsp boiling water, few drops vanilla extract.

1. Beat the butter in a bowl to soften it. Add the icing sugar, boiling water and vanilla extract, and beat until the icing is very smooth and pale in colour.