Lemon and Poppy Seed cake

Boy, I sure do love a lemon drizzle cake. I'd even go as far to say it's my very favorite kind of cake. When I'm in a bakery, faced with an array of multi coloured cakes and cookies I'll always opt for old reliable lemon drizzle. I'd grow old with that cake, love and cherish it for always, Katie & LDC 4eva!


When I saw the variation at the end of the Whole Orange Poppy Seed Cake recipe that replaced the orange with lemon, I was over the moon. I mean, I'd already decided on swapping the citrus siblings but this means I'd have something to work from.

The cake was delicious, the glaze was so super tart it pulled your gums over your teeth, but that's how I like my lemony treats. Painfully tangy. I think I'm going to give the orange version a try next, just for comparison.

A big thank you to the fantastic Melissa of Lulu the Baker for choosing this recipe! It's been one of my favorites to date. Go have a browse through the good old SMS bakers for more citrusy poppy seed fun.

Apple Crumble Custard Creams

Everyone loves custard creams, they're the ultimate English biscuit perfect for tea dunking. Combine this with a much loved English desert, apple crumble, and you're onto a winner! I discovered this recipe in a book I picked up in Marks and Spencer a few weeks ago, out of the dozens of wonderful cookie recipes this one simply jumped off the pages, begging me to make them.


The dough is a little tricky to work and tore quite easily when cutting out shapes but it really was worth the extra time and care. The bran in the biscuit gave a wonderful hearty crunch and complimented the creamy custard center perfectly. An utterly delightful biscuit, perfect for your morning cup of tea!

Apple Crumble Custard Creams

1 medium apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
2 tsp water
125g butter, softened
75g brown sugar
2 tbsp apple juice
150g self raising flour
110g plain flour
30g oatbran (I used wheat bran)
20g dessicated coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp icing sugar

Custard Cream:

1 tbsp custard powder
1 tbsp caster sugar
125ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
125g cream cheese softened

Stew apple with the water in a small saucepan with the lid on until tender. Mash with a fork and leave to cool.

Beat butter, sugar and apple concentrate in a small bowl till creamy.

Stir in sifted flours, oatbran, stewed apple, coconut and cinnamon in two batches.

Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Roll dough between two sheets of baking paper till around 3mm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pre heat oven to 180C/160C fan assisted. Grease oven trays and line with parchment.

Using a cutter cut around 40 shapes from dough. Place shapes around 3cm apart on oven trays and bake for around 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

While the biscuits are in the oven, make the custard cream. Blend custard powder, sugar, extract and milk in a small pan; stir over a medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cover surface with clingfilm and leave to cool. Beat the cream cheese until smooth then add custard mixture and beat til combined.

Sandwich cookies with custard cream and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Sweet Melissa Sunday, Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake

I've never really been that keen on cheesecake, something about it just never appealed to me. With this in mind I was planning on giving this week a miss but in a fit of utter boredom I threw caution to the wind and decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, and not down to a lack of searching, I simply couldn't find course cornmeal, if I'm honest I'm not even sure I know what it is. So, my cheesecake is made with a plain digestive crust and rather than making the blueberry sauce I decided to bake them right into the cake. Another obstacle I hit was my lack of a Bain Marie, in other words my roasting pan isn't big enough so I reduced the cooking time by 30 minutes and just stuck it in the oven. I actually prefer the look of a baked cheesecake to those done in a Bain Marie, it's those delightfully golden sides that do it for me.


The result was absolutely delicious and has totally changed my previous opinion on the humble cheesecake. I'll defiantly be baking this one again, trying different fruits according to the season.

Please, don't forge to check the SMS blogroll for more fabulous cheesecake and if you want to give this one a try the recipe is over at Elianas A Chica Bakes.

Caffeine isn't a drug, it's a vitamin

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely despise coffee. I just can't abide the taste, the smell however is out of this world. So, whenever I'm asked to bake with the stuff I'm elated that I get to inhale the beautiful scent while participating in my favorite pastime, baking.


As it was the birthday of my father in law to be, I was asked to whip up a batch of coffee cupcakes to celebrate his 53rd year. Pretty basic and as I've been making a lot of cupcakes recently (it seems I'm baking for pretty much everyones birthday at the moment) I thought I'd try something different. I've always fancied the sound of Swiss Meringue Butter Cream but never got round to trying it, so today was to be the day. A little bit fussier than normal butter cream the SMBC requires constant whisking over a double boiler to thicken up the egg whites, but boy is it worth the extra effort. So silky, so creamy, the most sophisticated frosting I have ever experienced.


Recipe for Coffee Swiss Meringue Butter Cream (from how to eat a cupcake)

170g caster sugar
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp hot water
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee

Put sugar, egg whites and salt into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees). Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes total. Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, stir 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee into 1 tbsp hot water until dissolved, then put it in the fridge or freezer until it comes down to room temperature. Reduce mixer speed to low and add coffee mixture. Continue beating 1 minute to reduce air bubbles.

River Cottage Jam

After months of waiting, my local pick your own farm finally reopened its doors offering up a bounty of delicious locally grown berries. After watching the latest episode of River Cottage, the very episode I watched getting filmed, I was inspired to take a trip to my favorite farm shop to pick some Strawberries and Gooseberries for Hugh's wonderful Strawberry and Gooseberry Jam!


So, off I went, trudging through muddy fields in pursuit of the ripe berries ruining my shoes and coat in the process but the finished product sure was worth the effort! Hugh's preserving method was much shorter than those I've seen before, opting to boil the fruit for only 8 - 9 minutes making this a super quick and super easy jam for first timers like me.


The resulting jam was amazing, sweet and juicy strawberries with the sharp tang of the gooseberries, a perfect combination. I'm dying to try his strawberry jam with sweet scented geranium leaves which apparently tastes like a fine wine!


I'd advise anyone who is a bit nervous about jam making to give this recipe a try. Quick, easy and delicious.


Many thanks to my ex graphic designer boyfriend for the label. He even drew the lil fruit himself <3

Choco cherry tastic!

It's that time of the week again! This weeks choice was the delectable sounding double chocolate cherry cookies as chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures. Cookies again I hear you say, but who ever gets tired of chomping on a cookie? Not me!


The preparation for these biscuits were exactly the same as the toasted almond and chocolate chip cookies from two weeks ago (or last week for me), mix, chill, chop, bake. So simple yet so delicious. I much preferred these to the choc chip versions, although I'm a cherry addict so I think I'm a little bias here. I adored the rich, velvety taste of the chocolate when paired with those wonderful dried cherries, add a cup of tea and I was in comfort food heaven.

Check out the other Sweet Melissa Sundays girls for more cookie fun and also don't forget to check Megan's blog for the recipe, you won't be sorry!

Sunday is my favorite day

Not only because of the wonderful Sweet Melissa Sunday group but Sunday is the day my very good friend and I meet up for our weekly cakeathon. I'm still keeping shtum about the reasons for this but all will become clear in the next month or so.

This week was our first week back after my op and I was dying to get back into the swing of things. Not to let myself off lightly I decided to make three batches of cakes for us to sample while my chum brought over three batches of her own. I think I put around a stone on that day, bad times. First of all I decided to try a recipe I came across on How To Eat a Cupcake, cherry chocolate cupcakes. Let me tell you, they are delicious! Even my non-cherry eating boyfriend couldn't get enough of them. The cherry flavoured cream cheese was to die for and the little chunks of cherry strewn throughout the cake, well I ate about three and I think that speaks volumes.


Next up I made a smaller batch from a book gifted to me by my very best friend in the world, Cupcake Heaven (thats the name of the book, not my friend, her name's Sarah). From this I chose the banoffee cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing and drizzled with a toffee sauce (the latter was my addition to the recipe). I didn't try one of these as I was too full of choc cherry cake but I have it on good authority that they are amazing! My only problem with these cakes were they just weren't big enough. I'm going to do some experementation and get back to you on this one ;)


Last of all, inspired by the Marks and Spencer's version, I whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry jam and topped with strawberry butter cream. Anyone who's tasted the M&S version will probably agree that they are just too darn sweet and one cupcake is just too much for a single person to enjoy. With this in mind I used quite a tart jam and went easy on the icing. They turned out quite nicely, although the icing was far too stiff, I think next time i'll add a drop more milk.


Can't wait for this Sunday :D