Strawberries and Cream

Thought I would share these! They are a celebration of the last day of our holidays and the wonderful month of MAY! (click to be linked to the fabulous Eat the Seasons site)

They are from Primrose Bakery Cupcakes Recipe Book and stupendously easy to make!

• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 225g (8oz) caster sugar, preferably golden
• 2 large eggs, free-range or organic
• 150g (5½oz) self-raising flour, sifted
• 125g (4½oz) plain flour, sifted
• 120ml (4fl oz) semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
• 1tsp good-quality vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan)/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tray or 3 x 12-hole mini muffin trays with cupcake cases.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.

In a separate bowl, combine the two flours. Put the milk into a jug and add the vanilla extract. Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes (regular size) or 15 minutes (mini size) until slightly raised and golden brown. To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.

Once cool, make a small hole in each (I used the end of a teaspoon) and spoon in a 1 tsp of strawberry jam. Warming the jam, makes this easier.

*I swirled a dollop of shop bought vanilla frosting on top and a sliced (dried off) strawberry. But they would be wonderful with a good splodge of whipped cream if you were serving immediately. Summer treat bliss!*

Perfect with your afternoon cup of tea in your May garden

x

I Can't Resist!

She's right, you know! What can I say... I can't resist! How could you? The cupcake is a glorious thing! Miniature (I adore all things small!), the realms for creativity are boundless and even when plain they are perfect! So I have started you off with the recipes that I use! Ha ha, bring on National Cupcake Week (a whole week.....love it!!) So whip out your pinnie, grab your cupcake cases and get practising! The Perfect Cupcake Recipe (Nigella's....naturally!) INGREDIENTS 125g self-raising flour 125g caster sugar 125g soft unsalted butter 2 eggs Half a teaspoon real vanilla extract Approximately 2 tablespoons milk METHOD 1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line the tin with the muffin cases. 2. It couldn't be simpler to make cup cakes: just put all the ingredients except for the milk in the processor and then blitz till smooth. 3. Pulse while adding milk, to make for a soft, dropping consistency, down the funnel. Or using a bowl and wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour. 4. Then add the vanilla extract and fold in the rest of the flour, adding the milk to get the dropping consistency as before. 5. I know it looks as if you'll never make this scant mixture fit 12 bun cases, but you will. I promise you this mixture is exactly right to make the 12 cup cakes, so just spoon and scrape the stuff in, trying to fill each case equally, judging by eye only of course. 6. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cup cakes are cooked and golden on top. As soon as bearable, take the cup cakes in their cases out of the tin and let cool, right way up, on a wire rack. Vanilla Butter Icing Ingredients Enough for 2 layers in one 18 = 20 cm cake 2 1/4 cup (250 g) icing sugar (confectioners sugar) 1 stick (8 tbsp) 4 oz (112 g) softened butter 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 1 tbsp milk Method 1. Mix the vanilla essence with the milk 2. Sift the icing sugar and add gradually to the butter with the milk 3. beat until the icing is smooth and of a soft consistency Looking forward to sharing a cuppa and a cupcake (and another and an another....ooooooh one more) with you! x

National CUPCAKE Week! in September...

Heads up - it's CUPCAKE WEEK 14th - 19th September!
You have plenty of time to blog share with everyone... think up your design/s, then blog the finished articles and share them any day 14th - 19th Sept. I have found links to some that just inspire me to tears... MrsB, you know you can't resist!? x
... Roll on September...

Nurture with Nourishment!

Food: Nourishment eaten in solid form

Isn't the word nourish moreish! Nourishment, for the body primarily. But I eat for the nourishment of my soul, my imagination and (not always advisedly) my emotions. It is so vital for a life lived well! Making us whole, calm, energised, loved that I would like to start my first post with dispelling a dangerous myth...

There is no one food that makes a person fat!

Food should be enjoyed, savoured, eaten till we are content and calmed.

So then, there will be plenty of cupcakes, peanut millionaires shortbread, greek yoghurt, cherry biscotti, jam, jelly and all things sweet to come!

However equally and indeed more so, there will be warm, fresh from the garden cherry tomatoes (a veg sweetie!!), cinnamon scented roast autumn squash,
couscous bejewelled with pomegranate seeds, fat Tuscan Bean soups
with a thick slice of warm, wholemeal soda bread slathered with good, yellow butter....X
Good whole food,
cooked by your own hands (not glove-covered ones in a factory somewhere!)
followed by a wee "sweetie" hurts no man (woman or child)!
Indeed, I promise, you will smile more from a daily sweetness after a meal, look gorgeous and be no fatter in a years time!

Nourish yourself....put good things into you and yours! (homemade popcorn sprinkled with icing sugar....one of my Australian sister in laws childhood treats!)

Nourish.....so moreish!

Love MrsB x