Lemon & Lime Cupcakes

Over the last few weeks, I have become my parents personal baker and am frequently set the task of making them cakes to take into work so they can show off to their co-workers. I got a text this morning from Mum asking for 24 cupcakes to take to some kind of sports day event at work. So despite it being my day off and having loads of applications and essays to write I made these lemon and lime cupcakes - they are really easy to make and they are really fresh and summery. As usual I did manage to get icing sugar everywhere, including all over my iPad which is now so sticky I can't use the touch screen...whoops!

Ingredients for the Cakes:
250g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
250g Self Raising Flour
250g Caster Sugar
4 tbsp Lemon Juice
4 Large Eggs (Beaten)
Grated Zest of 2 Lemons

Set the oven to 180 Degrees, make sure it reaches the correct temperature before baking anything!

Mix together the butter and the sugar. Slowly add the flour, eggs and lemon juice and zest until everything is combined. Lay out 24 cupcake cases into a tin and fill with 2 tbsp of the mixture. Bake in the oven for approximately 10/15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Once done remove from the tin and leave to cool thoroughly before icing.

Ingredients for the Icing:
100g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
500g Icing Sugar
Zest of 1 Lime
4 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth, then add the lime zest and lemon juice and mix together until the consistency is thick and creamy. If you prefer the icing to be more lemony, feel free to add another tablespoon of lemon juice. Pipe the icing onto the cool cupcakes and you're done!

This recipe can very easily be halved to make 12 cupcakes, they will last a few days in the fridge, but I doubt they will last long if your family is anything like mine - Dad has already pinched one!

Goats Cheese & Butternut Squash Ravioli

After getting a phone call from Masterchef last week, inviting me to an interview, I thought I had better start practising my cooking again. My pasta skills in particular, need work - I have had a few disasters in the past, ended up with some horrible rubbery pasta which went straight in the bin. But this one worked pretty well so I thought I would share!

Ingredients for Butternut Squash Purée:
1 Whole Butternut Squash (Peeled, Seeds Removed and Roughly Chopped)
1 Whole Clove of Garlic (Peeled and Crushed)
1 Handful Thyme (Remove woody stalks)
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Roast all the ingredients in the oven (180 Degrees) for 20/30 minutes, remove and blend together. After blending thoroughly, pass it through a sieve to make sure it is smooth.

I used the same pasta recipe as the one on me 'Welcome Back' post from May only halved (300g Pasta Flour & 3 Eggs, combined and kneaded for at least 10/15 minutes).
Roll the pasta out until it is as thin as possible; lay it out on top of some flour or polenta to stop it sticking.

Goats Cheese Ravioli:
250g Soft Goats Cheese
30ml  Double Cream
Salt & Pepper

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop a heaped teaspoon of the goats cheese on to the pasta sheet, smoothing it out so it is a rounded shape. Repeat this until half the pasta has filling on approximately 20cm apart. Lay the other half of the pasta over the top and push down gently around the goats cheese to remove any air. Use a ravioli or a cookie cutter approximately 10/15cm in diameter to cut around the pasta with the filling in the middle.


To keep the pasta from sticking to surfaces or each other, sprinkle polenta over the table and the ravioli (it will come off when cooking).

Boil a pan of salted water, and place the ravioli in for 2 minutes until cooked Al Dente. Serve with the Butternut Squash purée, garnish with a sprinkle of oil (I used truffle oil, but extra virgin olive oil would do the trick) and sprinkle on some thyme leaves.

Banana Bread

To celebrate the acquisition of the Kitchen Aid mixer I've been on a baking frenzy so to start off I thought I'd share the recipe for banana bread. This is a really easy recipe and it lasts really well, I made it the morning I got home from Ibiza and after a week of a vodka & coke based diet a bit of cake was welcomed.

Ingredients:
285g Plain Flour
1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
110g Butter (Room Temp.)
2 Large Eggs (Beaten)
225g Caster Sugar
4 Ripe Bananas (Mashed)
85ml Milk
1 1/2 Lemon Juice
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar and add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Sift in the flour, salt and the bicarbonate of soda. Mix together and add the milk a little at a time and then the eggs.

Add in the banana and mix together. Grease a loaf tin and fill it with the mixture. Bake in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the tin and leave to cool, although personally I think it tastes great slightly warm. I've been having it for breakfast - because banana is a breakfast food right...?

Potato Salad

This dish is probably the most requested dishes amongst my group of friends, I remember making it for countless family barbecues and for a barbecue on the beach on my first holiday away with the girls when I was sixteen. Since then I haven't be able to attend or host a barbecue without making this - otherwise I'll be in big trouble.

I had my Graduation Ball on Friday night, after a week away in Ibiza so I have had a busy few days. Nevertheless,  at 9am on Saturday morning my Dad kindly informed me that he was arranging a last minute barbecue having forgotten it was his wedding anniversary and I had to hurry home to help with the cooking, which of course included making my potato salad.

Ingredients:
500g New Potatoes (Halved)
200g Mayonnaise
150g Natural Yoghurt
1 Bunch Spring Onions (Sliced)
1 Handfull Chives (Finely Chopped)
Salt & Pepper

Put a pan of salted water on the hob and boil the potatoes until soft all the way through, drain and leave to cool (you can run cold water over them to cool them faster). While cooling the potatoes, mix together the mayo, yoghurt, spring onions and chives and season well with salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and mix together - refrigerate for half an hour before serving.

In other news, I got home to a new Kitchen Aid mixer - its not technically mine, its Mum's - but I love it as if it was my own and I've been making so many cakes and puddings with it so I will have enough blog material to make up for my week away on holiday!

Home-made Gnocchi with Roasted Tomatoes & Basil

This is my first attempt at gnocchi so I know they are a bit big, next time I will cut them a bit smaller :) I don't usually like gnocchi when you buy it from the supermarket, but I thought I ought to try to make it - especially since Mum and I raided Lakeland at the weekend and I am now the proud owner of a potato ricer. She didn't give in to my demands for a kitchen aid mixer though - I'm still trying. Anyway, since I don't have to be at work until 4 today I decided to make myself a nice lunch so I attempted gnocchi. This recipe makes loads - probably enough to feed 6 people maybe even more.

Ingredients for Gnocchi:
1 kg floury Potatoes
1 Egg (Beaten)
100g Plain Flour (Sifted)
Salt & Pepper

Boil the potatoes with there skins on until they are totally soft all the way through (for those of you who don't know how to check if a potato is cooked - I'm talking about you Alex Bamford - poke it with a skewer and if it goes through easily, its done). Once they are done, drain and leave to cool for a bit. Remove the skins and mash the potatoes thoroughly - if you have one use a potato ricer (they are great, get one). Once the potatoes are mashed, add the egg and the flour and use your hands to mix together to form a dough.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and cut into 4 pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a sausage shape about 3cm thick and 30cm long. Then cut the dough into smaller pieces about 2cms wide. To cook the gnocchi, place in boiling water until they start to float (approx 5 mins, maybe less).

Ingredients for Sauce:
300g Vine Tomatoes
50ml Olive Oil
4 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
Salt & Pepper
50g Salted Butter
1 Handful Basil (Roughly Chopped)
Parmesan to grate

Roast the tomatoes on a tray with the garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil. You will need to roast them for abour 30/40 minutes on 200 degrees. Once the tomatoes are done take them out of the oven and leave to cool. Melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the tomatoes. Add the cooked gnocchi to the sauce and mix together. Serve with chopped basil and grated parmesan.




Still holding out hope for that mixer - if anyone is feeling particularly generous I'd like it in cream...

Goats Cheese & Roasted Vegetable Cannelloni

So I got home from work yesterday evening expecting dinner to be ready and waiting. How wrong I was, even a six hour stint running around the pub garden doesn't mean I'm excused from cooking dinner. Gone are the days that a roast dinner is essential on a Sunday night - fortunately I scoffed about 4 Yorkshire puddings and countless roast potatoes at work where the roasts never end. Still hungry when I got home and although  I definitely meant to make gnocchi, I really didn't want to wait around so I made this instead.

Serves 2/3
Ingredients:
1 Yellow Pepper (Diced)
1 Red Onion (Diced)
10 Cherry Tomatoes (Quartered)
4 Asparagus (Roughly Chopped)
4 Cloves Garlic (Roughly Chopped)
8 Cannelloni Tubes

150g Goats Cheese (Roughly Chopped)
1/2 Ball Mozzarella (Roughly Chopped)
100ml Double Cream
Olive Oil
1 Handful Basil (Roughly Chopped)
2 Slices Prosciutto (Fried and Dried, before roughly chopped)

Put a pan of salted water on to boil with a table spoon of olive oil so the pasta doesn't stick together. Roast the vegetables and garlic in the over for 20 minutes on 200 degrees with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Par boil the cannelloni for 5/6 minutes, then drain. Fill each tube with roasted vegetables and put into a baking tray, cover the canelloni with the double cream and the cheese (I never said this was a healthy meal)
. Sprinkle over the dried prosciutto and drizzle a little more olive oil over the top. Bake in the oven for another 20 minutes. Once done, sprinkle over the chopped basil and serve.

Nothing goes with this meal better than rocket and parmesan salad with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic glaze.

I am currently making gnocchi as I write this, so I will have a recipe for you tomorrow!

Ciao!

Blueberry, Cranberry & Sultana Scones

I spent a large amount of my childhood on camping holidays, whether it was the Lake District, Devon or Cornwall, there was always a hill to climb, lake to walk around and obviously, a coffee shop selling fresh cakes. The only thing better than a home-made scone, is a home-made scone after you've been dragged on what seems like a never ending walk. I'm not one for camping these days, I prefer the comforts of a hotel (far too precious to sleep outdoors), but my love for scones has certainly continued. I made these this morning, they are so easy to make and they keep quite well. You can pretty much add any fruit you like to them, I raided the cupboards and added whatever I could find and came up with these.

Ingredients:
250g Self Raising Flour
Pinch Salt
60g Caster Sugar
50g Chilled, Unsalted Butter (Diced)
1 Egg (Beaten)
90ml Milk (Little extra for bushing on top)
50g Fresh Blueberries
25g Dried Cranberries
25g Sultanas
Zest of Half a Lemon
2/3tsp Demerera Sugar

Set the over to 180 Degrees/C. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and add the chilled butter. Mix together with your fingertips until the butter is completely incorporated and the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the milk and the egg and mix together to form a dough - you can sprinkle a little more flour in if the mixture is too sticky. Add the fruit and lemon zest and mix in until it is fairly distributed through the dough.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and pat out until it is approximately 3cms thick. Using a 8cm Cutter, dip the edges in flour and cut out each scone, placing them on a baking tray. Keep patting out the dough and cutting more until you have used up the mix, you should get 8 or 9.

Once on the baking tray, brush each scone with a little milk and sprinkle over the demerera sugar to add some crunch. Then bake for 15/20 minutes until golden brown on the top and bottom.


The best thing about having scones at home, is that you can take as much jam and cream as you like - those little coffee shops never give you enough! I think these scones would go nicely with lashings of clotted cream and a blueberry or raspberry jam.

I have a few evenings off work this week, so I am already planning some new recipes to write about on here. I'm even going to attempt home-made gnocchi tomorrow, so fingers crossed!

Teagan thinks if she sits nicely, I might give her a scone - not likely.