Lemon Daisy Cupcakes

I'm back today with a brand new recipe for you!

These are perfect little Summer cupcakes for any kind of occasion. 

I personally made these cupcakes for my Grandma's Birthday, and everyone loved them, I also posted a shot on Instagram of them and they were a real hit so I wanted to share the recipe.

SERVES 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cakes:

125g softened butter

125g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

100g self raising flour (sifted)

2 tbsp milk

1 and a half lemons (for zest)

1/4 of a lemon (for juice)

For the icing:

100g softened butter

200g icing sugar (sifted)

1/4 of a lemon (for juice)

12 edible wafer daises - you can get the ones I used HERE

Recipe:

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line your cupcake tray with cupcake cases.

Using a freestanding mixer, beat together your butter and sugar until fully combined.

Add the eggs, sifted flour, milk and the zest of 1 and a half lemons and the juice of quarter of a lemon.

Then mix everything until completely smooth.

Spoon your mixture into your 12 cases until they all have an equal amount, I started by adding one and a half teaspoons into each case and then continued on until I had used all of the mixture and the cases where equally full.

Bake for 15 - 20 mins, or until golden brown and when putting a cake tester or knife into the cupcake and pulling it out it is completely clean.

The icing:

(I didn't add a huge amount of icing to the cupcakes because my Grandma isn't a fan of a huge amount of buttercream)

Add you sifted icing sugar, your butter and lemon juice to a free-standing mixer and blend together until the mixture turns a pale primrose colour and looks light and fluffy.

Once the cupcakes are COMPLETELY cool spread the buttercream onto each cupcake and decorate as you please! I added these lovely edible daises to each one.

Let me know how it goes if you ever make these cupcakes!!

Love El
xxx

Shortbread Meringue Slices

I decided today it was time to put me and my Kenwood Mixer* to the test!

So this recipe is the combination of making shortbread and meringue all in my kMix* and in 30 mins, and I am extremely happy with the very delicious results.

I thought this was all going to be a lot more complicated but it was all surprisingly easy, and made easier without all the elbow grease, letting my mixer do that for me!

Ingredients:

For the shortbread:

115g softened butter (I used a diary free alternative so my mum could share!)

55g caster sugar

175g plain flour

For the meringue:

2 large egg whites

115g caster sugar

4 tbsp strawberry jam

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 200°C (fan 180°C) and grease a 9" tin.

Use the dough hook attachment on your mixer and add all of the shortbread ingredients to your free-standing mixer, turn the speed up to 1 for about a minute and then whop it up to 3 for another minute or until the mixture begins to clump together. Tip this mixture into your tin and press into an even layer on the bottom. Bake this in the over for 17 minutes or until it looks pale golden.

Meanwhile, to make your meringue swap over your mixer attachment to the whisk and separate your eggs. Add your egg whites to your bowl, putting the speed on maximum. Once the mixture starts to look like stiff clouds, add the sugar a teaspoon at a time and continue mixing everything until it is stiff and glossy.

Remove your shortbread from the oven (once it looks pale gold) and spread your jam over the hot base. The spoon your meringue over the jam to cover everything completely. Then put the tin back in the oven for a further 5 mins or until the meringue is a pale gold (I baked mine for 6 and a half minutes in the end) and then enjoy the slices hot or cold!!

I think the recipe sounds a lot more complicated than it really is!

Let me know if you make these slice. 

Love El

xxx

*This post includes a product that was gifted to me. All opinions are my own and I would never recommend something that I do not truly love.

Easy, Light Meringues

Meringues, to me, always remind me of my grandma, without fail she will always have some to serve alongside an array of other desserts after a delicious meal! She seems to get them spot on every time and they are just perfect for when you fancy something sweet!

I thought I would give them a go myself especially as my new, beautiful Kenwood* mixer, from the kMix range, has a whisk attachment.

Makes 8

Ingredients:

2 Egg Whites

125g Caster Sugar 

1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 110°C and line two baking trays with baking parchment paper.

Separate your eggs and keep the egg whites for this recipe (there are many things you can do with the yolks so don't throw them away!)

Attach the whisk attachment to your free standing mixer and drop the egg whites into the bowl, my beautiful Kenwood* kMix free-standing mixer has a glass bowl which just happens to be perfect for making meringues. Once the egg whites are in the bowl turn the mixer speed up to maximum. As soon as the whites start to look like stiff clouds add in your sugar a teaspoon at a time, and then your vanilla extract.

Continue mixing on maximum until the mixture is stiff and glossy! When the mixture is looking like this turn off your mixer and start spooning or piping it onto your baking trays.

Bake the meringues in the oven for 1hour 20mins or until they sound hard when you tap them. Leave the trays to cool on a wire rack to cool, they will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container and you can serve them in whichever way takes your fancy!!

Love El

xxx

*This post includes a product that was gifted to me. All opinions are my own and I would never recommend something that I do not truly love.

Focaccia Rustica With Red Onion And Pine Nuts

This week I wanted to share a recipe to a cupboard staple: bread!

I don't know anyone that doesn't love a delicious bit of bread and this is one of my favourites, the recipe shown was taught to me by my mum.

A lot of the time making bread can be annoyingly messy and a bit of a faff but I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use my beautiful Kenwood mixer* with it's handy dough hook, and my gosh did it make everything amazingly easy!!

My mixer is from the stunning kMix range that you can check out HERE.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

2 sachets of fast action dried yeast

1 tsp salt

350g water

red onion

pine nuts

1.5 tbsp oil

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease your baking tray.

Add the bread flour, dried yeast and salt to your freestanding mixer and set the speed to just above minimum. While your dough hook is combining the dry ingredients gradually add in your water.

After you have added the rest of the water turn the speed on your mixer to 1 and leave to mix for no more than 5 mins. If your mixer seems to be struggling stop and let the mixture fall off the hook and into the bowl and then continue! After those 5 minutes you dough should be very well combined and elastic.

You then want to leave the dough to proof in the bowl covered with a tea towel for 20 mins.

Once the dough has risen (it is fascinating to see how it increases in size!) you will spread your dough out onto the baking tray using your hands or a floured rolling pin, continue to spread out until it is about 1.5 cm's thick. Then cover with your tea towel again for another 20 mins.

When your final 20 minutes of proofing the bread is over you need to poke some dents into the dough using the end of a wooden spoon and then add some toppings! I have personally gone for red onion and pine nuts, cut your red onion into rings and then half those rings and add on a sprinkle of pine nuts. The final ingredient is to add 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil all the way across the bread.

Place your bread into your oven for 30 minutes or until it is golden and cooked through!

I think this will now be the only way I make bread as the mixer and dough hook made it so easy!!

Love El
xxx

*This post includes a product that was gifted to me. All opinions are my own and I would never recommend something that I do not truly love.

Simple Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Sometimes when it comes to baking you've just got to go back to basics and bake something that reminds you of your childhood, something that can totally hit that sweet craving AND something that is super easy to make!

Baring all of that in mind and the fact I was very, very kindly gifted this beautiful Kenwood kMix Mixer (isn't it pretty!!) I thought I would share a very simple chocolate chip cupcake recipe.

Having always been a fan of Kenwood I thought this would be a nice, easy recipe to get to know my new mixer. I am so, so happy with how lovely the mixer is to use and can't wait to share more recipes soon, because I will now officially be using it all the time (it has made me fall in love with baking even more!)

Ingredients: 

100g self-raising flour

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

100g plain chocolate chips

Milk Chocolate (Optional)

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 190°C and line a 12-hole cupcake or muffin tin with cupcake cases.

Sift the flour into your free-standing mixer, then add the butter, caster sugar and eggs; beat until smooth. Fold in your chocolate chips; on my Kenwood there is a fantastic feature (red arrow on the dial) which will do said folding for you. 

Spoon your mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Lift the cupcakes out of cake tin and place on cooling rack to cool.

Meanwhile, if you want to add chocolate to the top of your cupcakes, melt some chocolate over some boiling water on the stove. Once your cupcakes have cooled drizzle the chocolate using a spoon.

Let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think!

Love El
xxx

*This post includes a product that was gifted to me. All opinions are my own and I would never recommend something that I do not truly love.*

Dairy Free Banana Bread

You know when you really want to upload a fashion or makeup blog post but the World decides that's not what's going to happen and gives you an allergic reaction...well unfortunately that's exactly what happened to me. An allergic reaction equalling in a face of eczema and (sorry to be disgusting but this is actually what happened) blisters a makeup post and fashion post is just not going to happen! I was gutted when I couldn't publish the posts I wanted to but with a face now reaction free we're nearly ready for those posts.

But something that can definitely cheer you up during said allergic reaction is the smell of banana bread! So I have a really easy recipe that I have slightly changed from Pippa Middleton's Celebrate book, to make it dairy free.

What You'll Need:

100g Dairy Free Butter

175g Light Brown Sugar

200g Self Raising Butter

1 tsp Baking Soda

3 Ripe Bananas

1 Large Egg

What To Do:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C

2. In a bowl cream together your butter and sugar

3. Into the same bowl, sift in your flour and baking soda, and mix together well

4. After mushing (clearly a technical term) your bananas with a fork, in a separate bowl add to the rest of the mix along with your 1 Egg

5. Pour into your loaf tin and place into the oven for about 55mins, I checked on mine a 45 mins but it needed those extra 10! (You can check it ready by sticking a knife into the cake and if it comes out clean it's done, also the cake will have risen and become golden!)

This is such a delicious recipe!

Love El

xxx

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake by Cath Kidston

If you've been reading my blog for a little while now you will know I am a massive baking fan, I just can't get enough of it! In fact I would just constantly bake if I could. Recently I picked up Cath Kidston's Teatime recipe book, had to be done as I am a huge fan of her brand, and decided I needed to make something from it! Well the first thing to be made is this recipe you are reading today - lemon and poppy seed cake.

This recipe is extremely easy and doesn't involve a lot of recipes at all!

The Ingredients:

For the cake:

125 ml of warm milk

2 tbsp of poppy seeds

Zest of 3 lemons, and the juice of 1

200g of unsalted butter

200g of caster sugar

3 beaten eggs

200g of self-raising flour

For the icing:

150g of icing sugar

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

The Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 180° and line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper

In a small bowl mix together the warm milk and poppy seeds, then set aside.

In a large bowl cream together your butter and sugar, using a standing mixture or a lot of elbow grease! Gradually add in your egg, beating the mixture well after each addition.

Sift over the flour and carefully fold into your previous mixture until just incorporated. Then fold in your milk and poppy seeds, and your lemon juice and zest.

Pour the mixture into your tray and place into the oven to bake for 40-45 mins, until a skewer comes out completely clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack for a few minutes and then turn out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing mix together you icing sugar and zest and juice from one lemon. You may need to add more juice or some water to get the right consistency.

I seriously think you all need to go out right now or order this cookbook online because it is one of the most beautiful and brilliant recipe books I've come across.

Love El

xxx

Very Easy Vegan Raison Flapjack

Yesterday I ended up doing a little bit of spontaneous baking and whipped up these vegan raison flapjacks. There is a whole mix of random ingredients I threw into our family's staple flapjack recipe (yes we have a staple flapjack recipe) and I thought I would share it with you!

The ingredients:

4.5 oz of Brown Caster Sugar

7.5 oz of Butter (I used a vegan butter - Vitalite)

1.5 tbsp of Golden Syrup

12 oz of Oats

As many Raisons as you see fit (I just dolloped a load in, and kept adding after stirring)

1.5 tsp of Flaxseed

1.5 tsp of Cacao Powder

A splash of Soya Vanilla Drink

The baking steps:

First:

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease a large baking tray.

Melt your sugar, butter and golden syrup in a large saucepan over a low heat.

Second:

Add the oats in a little at a time and keep stirring until they are covered in your sugar, butter and syrup mixture!

Third:

Then add your raisons, flaxseed and cacao powder to the mixture and stir, after stirring I then added more raisons, stirred again and then needed even more raisons!

Then add in a splash of Soya vanilla drink (which is also brilliant for porridge) and stir once more.

Fourth:

Pour and spread you mixture into the baking tray, I pressed the flapjack concoction down using a fork to make sure it was completely even and filled every corner of the tray.

Pop into the oven for 20 mins.

And that's it, it really is so so simple, and you can really alter this recipe however you want to!

Love El

xxx

Cookies in a Jar - Marvellous Mixes

If you know me then you'll know I absolutely love cooking and baking, I just love it. But sometimes baking can just take longer than the spare time you have, therefore I wanted to share this amazing invention with you.

I had seen these around before online but when my best friend Jess bought me this jar full of the dry ingredients to make cookies I was extremely excited to get stuck in. The company Marvellous Mixes have an array of things to choose from!

For the rest of this recipe all you have to do is add:

1 Large Egg (slightly whisked)
110g Unsalted Butter (softened)

Everything else you need to create these cookies is inside the Kilner jar!

The easy steps to follow are:

First:

Preheat you oven to 180°C/160°C (fan). Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Second:

Empty your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir well.

Third:

In a separate bowl beat together your egg and butter with a whisk (handheld/electric), until fluffy.

Four:

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Fifth:

Roll approx. 18-22 balls, place onto your baking trays, leaving a couple of inches between each ball. And bake for 10-12 mins.

Sixth:

Take out of the oven, leave to cool for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack. And you're done to enjoy the fabulous cookies you've just created!

Love El
xxx