Cupcakes and Cava!

Hellooo sorry it’s been a while but I’ve been a bit busy destroying my liver/having a nervous breakdown about my dissertation. Last Monday was my 21^st and I had a ridiculously good time and I love all of my friends so much! Let’s just say lots of Cava was drank, lots of cake was eaten and then we danced it all off until we were forced to leave.

Now for the important bits…CAKE. My friend Olivia made a lovely orange marble cake which I stupidly didn’t take a photo of so I can’t show you. However, my beautiful lovely housemate made me this AMAZING owl cake!

If you’ve read this blog before then you’ll know that birthday cakes are a big deal to us. Although since we’re usually the ones that make it I sort of assumed I wouldn’t get one. Jenna sneakily slaved away in our friend’s kitchen however, so I got my very own cake :’) Baking wise it’s a sponge with jam in the middle and chocolate spread on top. BEST PRESENT EVER.

I made two types of cupcakes for my party (why make life easy , right?) I am back to my sad, broken camera so I apologise for the lack of shiny bright photos!

Lemon Cupcakes

I got to use my new scales for the very first time to do these which was a treat! Also, yay for my new uni oven being electric because my old gas one used to burn everythinggggg.

Ingredients

4 eggs

8 oz self-raising flour

8 oz butter

8oz caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

Splash of milk

Zest of 2 lemons

For Icing

Cream cheese

Butter

Icing sugar

Juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180⁰C. In a large mixing bowl add all the ingredients except for the lemon zest and combine using an electric mixer.

Grate the zest of the lemons over the batter and carefully fold it in using a spatula.

Line a 12 hole tin with cupcakes cases and plop a large spoonful in each.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch.

To make the icing cream a big blob of cream cheese with a big blob of butter. Sift in a large amount of icing sugar and add the lemon juice. The consistency should be thick enough to hold its shape but not too thick that it’s impossible to pipe. If you’re wondering how much icing you’re going to need to make, basically A LOT. Also sorry there are no photos of this stage but it all got a bit hectic as I frantically tried to get everything piped so I could have a birthday cocktail. (Strawberry Mojito in case you were wondering.)

Raspberry Cupcakes

I’d never actually made these before, or actually looked at a recipe but I thought I’d throw some raspberries into a cake mix and see what happens. What happens is the mixture goes a lovely pinkish colour and is quite tasty! As one of my housemates remarked however, they were VERY raspberry so I think next time I’d add some white chocolate too.

Ingredients

4 eggs

8oz self-raising flour

8oz butter

8oz caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

A good handful of raspberries

For Icing

Cream cheese

Butter

Icing sugar

More raspberries

Preheat the oven to 180⁰C. In a large mixing bowl combine all the ingredients except for the raspberries using an electric whisk.

Wash the raspberries then pat them down with kitchen paper. Add them to the mixture and whizz your mixer a couple of times to break them up and distribute the fruit.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 minutes or until brown and springy to the touch. Leave to cool.

To make the icing cream together some cream cheese and butter. Sift in a large amount of icing sugar. The raspberries will make the icing mixture wet so add these quite early on so that you can compensate with the right amount of icing sugar. When the mixture is the right consistency pipe a massive swirl on every cupcake! One thing I forgot to mention in the lemon ones, after I finished piping I then very liberally sprinkled edible glitter all over them. I might be 21 now but I still love a bit of glitter.

Speaking of glitter here’s a quick snap of my presents from my family which include my amazing sparkly handbag and new cake stand. And also a picture of me in my sparkly top I wore for my party (see a theme here?) because it was a bit of a mad Topshop-overpriced-impulse buy but I laaaaave it.

My 21st Cake

This is just a quick post to say sorry I haven’t posted in a while; I’ve been really busy working at Bestival and packing for my third year at Uni! And to show you the beaut of a cake my mum and sister made for me as an early 21^st present.

They made it using a giant cupcake mould from Lakeland. It was already gorgeous on the outside but when I cut into it this happened…

Amazing! It’s basically a Piñata cake. Cutting a slice was a bit of an issue though.

Now, here’s a picture of my present. It’s really nerdy in a baking way but I reeeeeallly wanted old fashioned weighing scales. They have a guarantee of a HUNDRED years. I can’t wait to christen them in our new kitchen.

I’m moving back to Uni in 2 days so I probably won’t be able to post for a while. Also my camera broke (booo) and I won’t have my dad’s fancy one to use so sorry if the pictures from now on look a bit crap, because I’ll have to take them with my phone.

I’m having a Cupcakes and Cava party on Monday for my birthday so I’ll try and get a few snaps to post on here : )

Banana Bread

Everyone needs a good banana bread recipe. It’s so simple to make but delectable nonetheless. It’s for times when you’ve neglected your bananas for a bit and they’ve gone completely black and you think shit. Now you can look at those black beauties and think yesssssssss banana bread.

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, mashed

250g caster sugar

125g butter

2 eggs

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

100g walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 190⁰C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl first mash your bananas.

Cream the bananas with the sugar using an electric whisk.

Beat in the butter.

Add the eggs, one at a time with a little bit of flour, mixing as you go.

Pour in the remaining flour and baking powder, folding everything together with a spatula.

Stir in the walnut pieces.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. This depends a lot on how big your bananas are. Mine were pretty monstrous so it took almost an hour and a half to cook properly. 45 mins to an hour is a good estimate but everyone’s ovens, and bananas, are different so keep an eye on it. When it’s baked, remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

A slice of this is amazing with a spread of nutella.