Week ending April 27th April

Another busy week in my teeny kitchen as this week I have made a granary loaf (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of this), a lemon drizzle cake, oat and raisin cookies, malteser topped vanilla cupcakes, and cherry bakewell cupcakes. I also have the photo of the almond macaroons and some white and dark chocolate chip cookies made earlier in the week - busy busy time.

I have also been asked for the recipe for the lemon meringue cupcakes so am going to type it out here for those who have asked for it

Lemon Meringue cupcake recipe

Ingredients:

200 gr margarine or butter, softened
200 gr caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 gr self raising flour
2/3 tbsp milk

to decorate:

lemon curd
4 egg whites             (I did find this was too much meringue and 3 egg whites would be sufficient in my view)
110 gr caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan) 325F or Gas mark 3

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases

Mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (I use my free standing mixer - saves on elbow grease))
Gradually add the beaten eggs mixing well between each addition
Add the vanilla extract. Sieve the flour into the bowl and mix again until smooth, adding as much milk as needed to make it smooth.
Divide the mixture between the 12 cases and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until a wooden cocktail stick comes out clean when inserted into cakes

Leave to cool for a few minutes, then using a teaspoon, make a small hollow in the top of the cakes and fill with lemon curd

To make the meringue topping whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk 1/2 of the sugar until the mixture is very shiny, fold in the remaining sugar then spoon the mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.

Pipe a swirl of meringue on top of each cake and pop back into the oven for about 10 minutes until the topping is golden brown

hey presto you then have this

Okay, now back to last weeks baking photos - if anyone would like recipes posted please let me know

Choc chip cupcakes

Almond Macaroons

Lemon Drizzle Cake

 Vanilla cupcakes decorated with buttercream and tooped with maltesers

Oat and Raisin cookies

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

A lot of my recipes and inspiration come from Jo Wheatley and her two wonderful Cook Books - A Passion for Baking and her latest one Home Baking - please look at her blog - link below.

Jo's Blue Aga

I also have a book called 1000 cupcake recipes so this could be a very long ongoing blog!!!!