Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes!

As it's valentines day on Friday I have been looking on Pinterest at valentines themed cakes..when I woke up today I was just well in the mood for baking so thought I'd make something mildly valentines-ish! 

I decided strawberry cheesecake cupcakes sounded an interesting idea plus I only needed to buy eggs and strawberries for the recipe so it was an easy option! They are delish! They would have been even better if I had remembered to buy the cream cheese for the frosting mind..I forgot and ended up using buttercream icing instead but they are still amazing!

For the base:

12 digestive biscuits
20g butter, melted
1 tsp sugar

For the cakes:

225g self raising flour
225g sugar
225g butter
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g chopped fresh strawberries

For the topping:

200g cream cheese
25g butter
300g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract/strawberry flavouring
Chopped strawberries

1) Mix the digestive biscuits in a food processor to make crumbs (or bash them with a rolling pin)
2) Add the sugar and melted butter and stir well
3) Add a thin layer of the biscuit mixture to the bottom of the cake cases
4) Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth
5) Add in the eggs and the vanilla extract
6) Stir in the flour slowly until well mixed
7) Stir in the chopped strawberries
8) Spoon evenly into cake cases (I got about 18 cakes!)
9) Put into a preheated oven, 180 degrees, for about 20-25 mins
10) Meanwhile, make the icing. Mix the cream cheese and butter together and slowly add the icing sugar until you get a thick but smooth consistency
11) Add in the vanilla extract. I also made a strawberry icing as well with strawberry flavouring and pink food dye.
12) Once the cakes are cool, spread or pipe on the icing. Top with chopped strawberries and crumble over some biscuit!

Chocolate Fudge Cake with White Chocolate Frosting..

I found myself with some spare time today..I had two choices: go to the library and try to put my teaching portfolio together or bake a cake.. The cake won.

I decided on a chocolate cake and Jamie loves white chocolate so I thought I'd make a double chocolate one!

For the cake..

• 100g butter
• 250ml milk
• 100g milk chocolate (melted)
• 15g cocoa powder
• 300g self-raising flour
• 225g sugar
• 2 eggs

For the icing..

• 100g white chocolate (melted)
• 70g icing sugar
• 140g butter

1) Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl and then add the egs, stir until smooth
2) Add in the coco powder and milk
3) Melt the chocolate on a low heat in the microwave and add into the mixture, stir until well combined
4) Add in the flour (use an electric mixer if you have one as it is much easier!)
5) Spread into a lined cake tin and bake on 180 degrees for about 45 minites
6) Once the cake has cooled cut it in half

7) Melt the white chocolate in the microwave
8) Cream together the butter and icing sugar until smooth
9) Add the chocolate and mix well
10) Spread some of the icing onto one half of the cake and then put the other half on top
11) Spread the rest of the icing over the top of the cake
12) Add some chocolate shavings or drizzles of milk chocolate to decorate!

Blueberry & Lemon Drizzle Cake!

So today me and Jim Bob decided to bake a cake! We came across a recipe for blueberry and lemon drizzle cake but the measures looked a bit small..so we maximised them to make a huge fat drizzle cake! It is so lemony and sticky and moist and delicious we just wanted to eat the whole thing!!!

To make this delicious dish you will need..

350g self raising flour
200g butter
350g sugar
4 eggs
2 lemons zested
8 tbsp milk
150g blueberries

To ice the cake..

1 lemon juiced
75g sugar

1) Preheat oven to 180 and grease a cake tin with butter
2) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl apart from the blueberries and beat until smooth
3) Add half of the blueberries and carefully mix them in
4) Pour the mixture into a cake tin and then add the remaining blueberries to the top
5) Put in the oven for about 60-80 minutes. Until the cake is golden brown and just firm to the touch!
6) Take the cake out of the tin and put on a plate
7) Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a pan until boiling then remove from the heat
8) Whilst still warm, drizzle the lemon and sugar mixture over the cake
9) Leave the cake to cool for 20 minutes
10) Enjoy a slice with a nice cuppa!

Light & Summery Lemon Cup Cakes!

Been feeling in the baking mood all week seeing as though I'm now a jobless bum again with tonnes of time on my hands..so today was the day!
It's very very warm..kind of sunny today so I thought what better than a lovely fresh lemon cake! Never made them before and I was unsure of whether they would turn out as I sort of just bashed loads of ingredients together and hoped for the best..but all was well and they're prettyyy tasty!

To make them you need:

125g Self raising flour
125g Butter
125g Sugar
3 Eggs
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1/2 lemon

1) Cream together butter & sugar in a bowl until smooth

2) Crack in the eggs & mix until smooth batter

3) Add the lemon zest & juice

4) Fold in the flour

5) Place into cases in & put into a preheated oven at 180 degrees.

For the frosting:

125g Butter
250g Icing sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon

1) Mix together the butter & icing sugar gradually to make a thick paste

2) Add in the lemon juice and mix again until smooth

3) I usually add a bit of blue food colouring if I want white frosting..makes it look whiter!

4) Spread onto the cooled cakes (or pipe if you can be bothered!)

5) Voila!

P.s.. Please also excuse my dreadful attempt to make my photos look like something out of a baking book.

Low Fat Banana & Raspberry Muffins!

Felt in a baking mood today but Mam and me are trying to be on a diet..so looked for some low fat recipes. None of them really took my fancy so I sort of just combined a few together to make my own!
The original idea was banana and blueberry but for some reason Morrisons had no blueberries?! So raspberry it was instead.

To make them you will need:

300g self raising flour

100g brown sugar

50g porridge oats

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 egg whites

2 bananas

200g raspberries

1) Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl

2) Mash the bananas to a smooth paste in a bowl and then add in the egg whites

3) Make a well in the dry mixture and pour in the egg and banana mix

4) Stir until mixed together..the mixture is very sticky and thick and looks a bit odd but don't worry!

5) Stir in the raspberries very carefully!

6) Spoon mixture into muffin cases, fill them quite full!

7) Put into an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees for 18-20 mins!

They are absolutely delish! What I did notice though is that they stick to the cases quite a lot..might try greasing the cases with oil in future!!

Christmas Tree Cup Cakes!

I made these for my Mam to take to her Christmas party at work but I'm also making some for the family on Christmas day..so this was a good practice for then!

They actually turned out better than I imagined for my first try and I am super pleased with them..the Christmas spiced sponge is do die for as well!! I think next time I will make the trees higher!

To make these you will need:

225g (8oz) butter

225g (8oz) caster sugar

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

4 medium eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees / Gas mark 4

2) Cream together butter & sugar

3) Beat in the eggs

4) Fold in the flour gradually

5) Add the spices and the vanilla extract

6) Spoon into cake cases & bake for 15-20 mins

For the icing:

125g (4oz) icing sugar

100g (3oz) butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp green food dye

1) Cream together butter & icing sugar

2) Add the vanilla extract and the food dye. You might need to add more dye than this depending on how green you want it!

3) Spoon into a piping bag with a large star end nozzle.

4) Start from the middle and work your way upwards in a spiral to make a Christmas tree shape.

5) Decorate with silver balls for a bauble effect!

Christmas Tree Shortbread Biscuits!

I found some Christmas cookie cutters today and couldn't resist buying them. So then I decided to knock up some quick Christmas tree shortbread biscuits!
I used just a basic butter shortbread recipe with:

125g (4oz) butter
60 g (2oz) caster sugar
180g (6oz) plain flour

1) Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl
2) Stir in the flour
3) Knead until firm..don't need to much though!
4) Roll out onto a floured work surface and cut out some shapes!
5) Put into an oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I used a bit of butter cream icing mixed with green food dye for the decoration and some silver balls (icing looks yellow in my pic..it's not?!). You can just use glaze icing with water but I really hate the taste!

I rushed these, might make some nicer ones at a later date! Also will be making some Xmas cupcakes so looking forward to that! :-D