Lemon Raspberry Mothers day cupcakes and Creme egg Easter chick.

As last week was Mothers day I was hoping to bake a treat for my mum, although I had too many cup cake orders and too little time that I wasn't able to bake her anything, oops, maybe next week!
I did however complete some orders for my friends mums and grandma's. I made 2 flavours cherry coconut, and lemon raspberry with lemon icing. And here they are:

The Cherry Coconut :

And the Lemon Raspberry:

 

The recipe for the cherry coconut can be found here. 

And for the Lemon Raspberry:

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes:

115g Butter, softened

115g Caster Sugar  

2 Eggs 

115g Plain flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
80 - 100g Raspberry's
Zest of 1 Lemon

2 - 3tbsp Lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180degC and line a bun tray with 12 cases.

Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the lemon zest and juice.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold them into the mixture. Toss the raspberry's in a little flour and then fold into the mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for about 18-20 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

For the frosting:

250g Icing sugar
80g Butter
Few drops of lemon flavouring (or alternatively a squeeze of lemon juice and a little lemon zest)
25ml whole milk
Couple of drops of Yellow food colouring (optional)

 Beat together the icing sugar, butter, flavouring and food colouring, then slowly beat in the milk until you have the correct consistency and the icing is light and fluffy. Pipe or spread over cooled cakes. 

And that's it! 

also this week I have been practising some little Easter gifts for friends using a creme egg. Here's one: 

Oh hai! 

Any way that was my first try and I'll be making some more this week for friends, I got the idea from The Pink Whisk where you will find a handy tutorial video. 

Any way that's all for now. 

Cupcake Kris xxx

 

On a different note.

And now on to a more serious note, I know it doesn't exactly fit in with the theme of my blog but I want to urge you all to take a look at one of my friends blogs. Jen is a lovely girl  of just 24 with a great family and two beautiful children. However she has recently found out she has Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She is one of the bravest people I know and she is documenting her journey here.

dont worry about jen

It's a wonderful blog that not only raises awareness of the subject but also helps herself and others who are going through the same thing. She is doing a wonderful thing in writing it and through it she is documenting her ups, downs, feelings and all the little worries that she thinks about, as well as the bigger picture. It is an emotional read but Jen's positive attitude shines though in her writing and you can truly get a picture of the loving wonderful person she is, through writing this I think she is not only going to have an outlet for everything that's in her head but she is going to help so many other people whether they be people going through the same thing or friends and family of people that are. She writes with honesty and detail which will put other sufferers at ease knowing that they are not alone which is just like Jen as she is very selfless and always thinking of others.

I hope you all follow her story and progress and wish her well as I'm very proud of what she is doing here, despite all that is happening to her. She is as I said a very brave person with strong determination so I know she is going to come through this on top. Please send out your love to my friend and like her help raise awareness because as she says "I’m a very open person but maybe they aren’t and it’s very comforting to know when somebody has gone through something similar to you and your not alone."

A Very Princess Birthday

Phew, I think March is definitely my busiest Month for cakes as well as having a couple of cupcake orders last week I have 66 cupcakes to make this week alone for birthdays, bake sales, St Patrick's day and Mothers day. I love it though and I'm hopefully also going to have time to try a few new flavours out too and prepare for making batches of hot cross buns for Easter.

However my most important baking adventure last week was definitely a surprise birthday cake for one of my best friends Alex, or as I call her, Princess! We were going for a meal for Alex's birthday and I'd decided I definitely wanted to drop a cake off at the restaurant for them to bring out, knowing full well she would relish in the fuss over her! haha. Any way all I had to do was decide on the design of the cake. I went with a plain Vanilla sponge with buttercream as Alex and a few other friends have given up chocolate for lent (Madness) and for the design there was really only one option, over the top bling! Alex loves anything sparkly and over the top, so I knew straight away a girly over the top cake was were I was headed. I decided on pink icing with princess Alex written in white, I then had to find something for the middle! And then I found the giant pink feathers and sparkly stars! So they blocked the word princess from view at the front but it really didn't matter as they were so very Alex. Any way here's the cake:

And the back:

Any way the cake was very well received and her face when they brought it out in the restaurant was priceless and well worth the effort of making it! Here's a little closer picture of the bling!

And that's the princess cake.

I've linked up to sweets for saturday

Mmmmmm warm and tasty Cherry Pie

Cherry pie is one of the boyfriends favourite desserts (he has a lot of favourites) and it's something I've been meaning to bake for a while.

I actually made this a week or so ago but I've been quite busy and have just come back from a lovely weekend away in the lakes that involved lots of walking, hiking, relaxing and a lot of good food including some amazing homemade cakes.

Any way back to the cherry pie, it's such a simple but tasty desert and is one of those desserts I see as homely proper baking perfect for curling up on the couch with on a cold night. I'm not a massive fan of pies but the pastry was lovely and soft with a crisp top and not to dry and the filling was super tasty, the almond extract and added brandy (optional) give it a lovely taste. Here it is:

Ok so boyfriend couldn't wait till I'd taken a picture to have a warm slice so it's a rushed very bad picture of most of the pie, the filling also was more than it looks on this picture.

Next time I will try to be more uniform and neat with my lattice top but I wasn't very patient this time.

Any way here's how it's made:

Cherry lattice pie:  (via the big book of baking)



For the pastry:

140g Plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Mixed spice
pinch Salt
50g Caster sugar
55g Unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
1 egg Beaten plus extra for glazing.


For the filling:

900g Stoned fresh cherries or canned cherries, drained (and stoned if not already)
150g Caster sugar
1/2 tsp Almond extract
2 tsp Cherry brandy (optional)  - regular brandy can also be used.
1/4 tsp Mixed spice
2 tbsp Cornflour
2tbsp Water
25g Butter

 To make the pastry, sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the mixed spice salt and sugar then rub in the butter until the mixture has a breadcrumb like consistency. Add the beaten egg and mix into a firm dough, adding a few drops of water if needed. roll into a ball and wrap in clingfilm, Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220degC and grease a 9 inch round tart tin. Cut the pastry in half and roll out into two rounds, using one to line the tin.

To make the filling, put half the cherries with the sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has melted. stir in the almond extract, brandy and mixed spice. In a separate bowl mix together the cornflour and water. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cornflour paste, then return to the heat and stir until the mixture boils and thickens. Leave to cool a little before stirring in the remaining cherries. Pour this into the pastry case and dot with butter.

Cut the remaining pastry round into strips and lay some across the pie and then the remainder running the other way, folding under every other strip to form a lattice, I found that you need to lift the strips right up to do this without getting covered in filling so make sure you don't stick any ends down until your done. Trim off the edges and seal with water. Crimp around the rim with your fingers or a fork the brush the top with beaten egg.

Cover with foil then bake in the oven for 30 mins then remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden.


And that's all. I have loads of cupcake orders for March, it's a busy month for birthday's and holidays so I'm off to get planning the next batch.

Cupcake Kris
xxx