Tag Archives: cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

This Friday just gone I finished work. Our little loaf is due in just over two weeks and I’m finally ready to admit that my forty five minute commute on the tube twice a day is getting a little tiring. Although it’s weird handing over your working life for a year – holiday time! I can hear mothers all around me chuckling – I’m ready to start nesting, preparing our home for this little life to be. The next two weeks will be spent tidying cupboards and sorting last minute decorations, maybe a pedicure for those feet I can no longer reach, long walks with my mum and lunches with friends. People keep saying I should take some quiet time before this little man drops in and changes our lives forever, and I will, but busy is my default setting and just what I enjoy. Which I guess stands me in good stead for the months and years to come. Continue reading →

Afternoon Tea + a Homemade Memories Blog Tour!

Afternoon tea menu

This Saturday just gone I hosted my first ever afternoon tea at Sonny’s Kitchen in Barnes. Having not catered a proper event before – the Homemade Memories launch party doesn’t count in my mind because people weren’t paying – there were a few stray butterflies in my stomach, but as soon as I got into my kitchen comfort zone, rolling biscuit dough and cutting out scones, I had a feeling it was going to be good. Continue reading →

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crumb Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Sauce

I’m not normally what you’d call a cupcake person. Rugged muffins, buttery financiers and slabs of brownie I can get behind, but American-style cupcakes weighed down with buttercream and covered in sprinkles? Not so much. Yet try as I may, there’s something so birthday-appropriate about a cupcake and with two to celebrate this weekend just gone, I’m going against my better nature and sharing these peanut butter beauties. Continue reading →

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes + a Fourth Blog Birthday

Chocolate coconut cupcake toasted coconut
The last time I celebrated a fourth birthday, I was about 3 feet tall. My party took place at the brilliantly named Roly Poly Club, a room made up of what I remember as wall-to-wall bouncy castles where my friends and I careered around, fuelled by the heady mix of excitement and mint choc-chip ice cream (there are rosy-cheeked, chocolate-covered photographs to prove this). My mum reminded me recently that I wrote her a shopping list beforehand ‘in case you get it wrong’, consisting simply of ‘mus bus’ (Mars Bars) and ‘sossighes’ (sausages). All the essentials then. Continue reading →

Caramelized pineapple, ginger + sour cream cupcakes

Caramelized pineapple + ginger cupcakes

On Wednesday, I turn thirty. Being a summer baby is wonderful in many ways, but with weddings and holidays it’s always been tricky to get everyone in one place at one time to celebrate. This year – the one so many of my friends have been hitting their third decade, deciding to get married or embarking on exciting adventures abroad – is no exception and my thirtieth celebrations seem to have extended to about six weeks worth of dinners, parties and weekends away. I’m definitely not complaining. Continue reading →

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

peanut butter cupcakes

Edible engagement rings made from modelling chocolate

This weekend just gone, we celebrated our engagement for the second time in as many months (with a big group of people, that is, I can’t even begin to count the number of times we’ve raised a glass in smaller circles), inviting just over sixty of our favourite friends to drink, dance and generally make merry whilst using our upcoming wedding as the perfect excuse to do so. Continue reading →

Sticky Cider Pecan Cakes with Cinnamon Ice Cream & Salted Caramel

ginger cupcakes

How to turn a cupcake into something just that little bit more special.

  1. Bake it straight into a non-stick muffin pan for contrast between the outer edge and fluffy middle
  2. Cram it full of crunchy pecans, fiery ginger, a pinch of cinnamon and a splash of cider
  3. Smother it in sticky caramel sauce, lifted with a generous sprinkle of sea salt
  4. Give it the dignity of calling it a little cake, not a cupcake

Continue reading →

Afternoon Tea Cupcakes {Cucumber + Champagne}

champagne cupcakes

A simple cupcake with a hidden core of refreshing cucumber jam

There are few things more British than a cucumber sandwich. Simple and delicate (and delicious when made properly – think paper-thin cucumber, salty butter, soft white bread), this recipe of aristocratic origin is made all the better for being absolutely unnecessary. Traditionally served at tea-time (our way of justifying the indulgence of an additional mid-afternoon meal involving a lot of cake) they have next to no nutritional value, being probably the only sandwich in the world over which I wouldn’t shed a tear to see the crusts removed. But they are a delicious nonetheless, especially when accompanied by freshly-baked scones a glass of cold champagne. Continue reading →

Raspberry Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache

raspberry cupcakes

Raspberry cupcakes topped with a chocolate ganache swirl

Aga toast is probably the best toast in the world.

Other than that, and the occasional slow-cooked one-pot wonder, I’m not an enormous fan of agas. Aside from the fact that I’d boil to death were we to install one in our tiny London kitchen (that is, if it’s great weight didn’t cause it to fall through the floorboards to the foundations below), they can guzzle enormous amounts of gas and slightly scare the obsessive baker in me with their lack of precision dials and just four basic oven temperatures.

But they do make seriously good toast. Continue reading →