Eton Mess Cupcakes

Now it's getting (slightly) warmer, I'm wanting to try more summery flavours to get me in the summer mood. I know it's still Spring, but I absolutely love the summer time, and going to Spain next week means it feels like Summer earlier for me this year! I've wanted to try Eton Mess cupcakes for a while. Strawberries, cream and meringue - on a cupcake? What's not to love!? Give these a try - they are amazing!

 

Recipe (Makes 7)
2 eggs
113g (4 ounces) margarine/butter
113g caster sugar
113g self raising flour
200ml double cream
2 large meringue nests
7-8 strawberries

Preheat the oven to 160c. First, whisk the cream until it's nice and thick so you can pipe it on the cupcakes later. Then put it back in the fridge until you need it.
 

Whisk together the margarine and sugar, and then add the eggs and whisk again until it's mixed thoroughly. 
 

Add the flour and slowly fold it into the mixture. 
 

I chopped up about 3-4 large strawberries into small pieces and put them into the mixture. You don't have to do this if you don't want to (they do go a bit mushy but still nice). You could leave them out or you could go with adding jam to the cupcakes when they're cooked & cooled instead.

Add to cupcake cases and cook for about 20-25  minutes. 
 

Add the cream to a piping bag, with whatever nozzle you choose (or just spread it on!) I used a closed star tip. Pipe round in a swirl.
 

 

Chop up the rest of the strawberries and place them randomly over the cream, and then crush up some meringue nests and sprinkle over the cupcake. (I was lazy and used shop brought meringue seeing as I was only making a few cupcakes, but you can always make your own). Hope you enjoy these as much as I did! 

 

Blueberry & Lemon Cupcakes

After making my lovely blueberry crumble cupcakes, I had a few to spare and wanted to use them for some more baking. I also had some lemons in the fridge that desperately needed using, and so I came up with the idea of lemon & blueberry cupcakes. Not a flavour combination that I've ever really heard of, but I thought it sounded amazing and had to try them. A combination of my basic cake recipe, flavoured lemon with added lemon curd and blackberries, and finally topped with lemon buttercream. I have to say they are now in my top 5 favourite cupcake flavours - I absolutely loved them! 

Recipe (Makes 7 cupcakes)

•  2 eggs
• 113g (4 ounces) margarine/butter
• 113g caster sugar
• 113g self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 7 teaspoons of lemon curd
• 100g blackberries (keep a few for decoration

Buttercream

• 300g icing sugar
• 125g margarine
• Juice of half a lemon.

Firstly, whisk together the margarine and butter until nice and fluffy.

Add the eggs, whisk until fluffy again. Then gently fold in the lemon zest, flour and baking powder. Finally, add the blackberries. Add to cupcake cases and bake for around 25 minutes, until they spring back when touched and a skewer comes out clean. 

To make the buttercream, mix together the butter and icing sugar. I find this is a lot easier with a stand mixer, however you can do it with a wooden spoon if you don't have one (it just takes a lot longer!). Add the lemon juice. Add it a few squeezes at a time and taste until it is as lemony as you like it. 

Before you add the buttercream, use a cupcake corer or a knife/spoon to cut out the middle of the cupcake. Add a teaspoon of lemon curd. Then add the buttercream to a piping bag with a star tip and pipe a nice big swirl onto the top (or just spread it on if you prefer). 

Liddie x

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

I've wanted to make muffins for ages, and finally buying those big tulip muffin cases you see in bakeries meant I had no excuse not to try out a new recipe. I've never made a blueberry muffin before, and one recipe that caught my eye was the lovely Ruth's off The Pink Whisk. She had the great idea of putting a crumble topping on the muffins, and they looked amazing, I had to try them! 

Recipe

• 180g self raising flour
• 55g soft light brown sugar
• 150ml milk
• 1 egg, large
• 25g melted butter
• 100g blueberries

 Crumble Topping (I've halved the original recipe here as I found it made far too much!)

• 1 tbsp flour
• 5g butter, softened
• 1 tbsp oats
• 1/2 tbsp soft light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 170c. Stir the flour and sugar together.

In a jug, add the milk, egg and melted butter and whisk together.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the liquids, stirring with a wooden spoon.

 

Add the blueberries. I put half of them in whole and mashed the other half up. 

Pour the mixture into muffin cases. I found that I got 5 muffins out of this recipe, so you can always double it if you want more. 

To make the crumble topping, rub the butter into the flour, then add the oats and sugar and mix well.

Sprinkle onto the muffins and bake for about 45 mins. (If you don't have the large muffin cases, they will probably take half this time!)

 Take them out of the oven, let them cool and enjoy! They don't taste too unhealthy and are perfect with a cup of tea!

 Liddie x