Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentines for me is always the perfect excuse to bake something special for my hubby and this year I decided to bake these delectable Red Velvet Cupcakes. These rich and sweet cupcakes are topped with dreamy, creamy cream cheese frosting and will not fail to enchant. Happy Valentines Day everyone, hope you are all being showered with lots of love!


Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 24

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
250g plain flour
2 x 15ml tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
1 x heaped 15ml tbsp red paste food colouring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
175ml buttermilk
1 tsp cider vinegar or other vinegar

Buttery Cream-cheese frosting
500g icing sugar, no need to sift if using a processor)
125g cream cheese
125g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice (I used vanilla extract)
red velvet cake crumbs or chocolate sprinkles or red sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 170oC/fan oven 150oC/gas mark 3 and line the muffin tins with paper cases.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb in a bowl.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating well, and when you have a soft pale mixture beat in the food colouring - yes, all of it - and the vanilla.

Into this vividly coloured mixture, still beating, add 1 spoonful of the dried ingredients, then 1 egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients.

Finally, beat in the buttermilk and vinegar and divide this extraordinary batter between the 24 cases. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes by which time the redcurrant-sorbet-coloured batter will have morphed into a more sombre, but still juicily tinted, sponge - more maroon acrylic than red velvet, to be honest.

Leave them to cool on a wire rack and do not ice with the frosting till absolutely cold.

Put the icing sugar into a processor and whizz to remove lumps.

Add the cream cheese and butter and process to mix. Pour in the cider vinegar (or lemon juice or vanilla extract) and process again to make a smooth icing.

Ice each cupcake, using a teaspoon or small spatula.

Decorate with red velvet cake crumbs or chocolate sprinkles or red sugar.

Spring Chicken in Wintertime

This evening for dinner I decided to make Nigella's Spring Chicken from her cookbook Kitchen. Although this is titled "spring" chicken, it is perfect for this time of the year, a warming casserole is just what you crave at the end of a cold winters day. This casserole has an amazing depth of flavour and would work equally well served with new potatoes, rice, barley or other grains. Alternatively it could be served with a baquette or other crusty bread to mop up the juices. We thoroughly enjoyed this comforting dish and I plan to make it again soon.


Spring Chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
140g pancetta cubes
12 chicken thighs (bone in with or without skin)
1 leek, cleaned, quartered lengthwise then finely sliced
1 stick celery, quartered lengthwise then finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tsp freeze-dried tarragon
1 tsp sea salt flakes or 1/2 tsp pouring salt
good grinding white pepper
1 x 500ml bottle dry cider
300g frozen petit pois
1 x 15ml tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Little Gem lettuces, suct into strips or roughly shredded
2 x 15ml tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

Heat the oil in a large, wide casserole that comes with a lid and add the pancetta cubes, cooking them until they begin to give off their juices and start to colour.

Add the chicken thighs (skin-side down if yours have skin), tossing the pancetta cubes on top of the meat (to stop the pancetta burning and to make space) as you put the poultry in the pan, and cook for about 5 minutes over a medium heat.

Turn the thighs over and tip in the prepared leek, celery and garlic. Season with the dried tarragon, salt and pepper, then stir everything around a bit, letting it cook for another 5 minutes.

Pour in the cider, then sprinkle in the frozen peas. Bring the pan to the boil then cover, turn down to a very gentle heat and cook for 40 minutes. Do check after 30, though, to see if the chicken is cooked through, and if you are using boneless thighs, then 20 minutes should do it.

Remove the lid, stir in the mustard, and then toss the shredded lettuce over the chicken, letting it wilt in the hot sauce for a couple of minutes.

Scatter the chopped tarragon over the casserole. Serve with new potatoes or rice.

Butterscotch Cookies

I can't believe we are in June already, the weeks seem to be flying by and no sign of the heat wave predicted. However Saturday was a gorgeous hot day when we drove down to the New Forest to celebrate my niece's 3rd birthday. I was up early making the Eton Mess Cake to bring along as my contribution to the BBQ and it was loved by all. Sunday was the complete opposite with it being a cold, dull and wet day. We were looking forward to going out for a nice walk but it rained non stop. On rainy days I like to make the most of my time in the kitchen, as I find it more pleasant than during the hotter summer days. So I got busy in my kitchen and made Lemon Curd for the first time. The consistency was not as thick as it could have been but hubby is enjoying it on his toast. I then got the urge to bake some cookies seeing as the Lemon Biscuits didn't last long! This cookie recipe is one of my favourites which I use as a base to add different flavoured chips each time. I needed to use a bag of Butterscotch chips and what better way than to incorporate them into these cookies. Although the butterscotch does make them quite sweet they are gorgeous all the same.

Butterscotch Cookies

Makes over 30

Ingredients
150g soft unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, fridge cold
1 large egg yolk, fridge cold
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 x 326g packet of Butterscotch chips

1 x large baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas mark 3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and let it cool a bit. Put the brown and white sugars into a bowl, pour the slightly cooled, melted butter over them and beat together.

Beat in the vanilla, the cold egg and cold egg yolk until your mixture is light and creamy.

Slowly mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until just blended, then fold in the butterscotch chips.

Roll into balls. Use your fingers to flatten onto the prepared baking sheet 8cm apart. You will need to make these in 2 batches, keeping the bowl of the cookie dough in the fridge between batches.

Bake for 15-17 minutes in the prepared oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

The cookies can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container. Will keep for a total of 5 days.

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

It’s National Chocolate Week from the 11th to 17th October and the perfect time to bake and eat lots of chocolate! I decided to keep it simple as I'm watching my waistline, (ha who am I kidding but seriously I am) and bake this Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake from Nigella Kitchen. I adore the choc/orange combination and find it totally irresistible. This loaf cake may look plain but it was very moreish and didn’t last longer than a day! The sponge was fluffy, light and very moist, with the chocolate and orange blending together delightfully!

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

Ingredients
150g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
2 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup
175g dark muscovado sugar
150g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
2 eggs
zest 2 oranges and juice of 1

1 x 900g (2lb) loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 170oC/150oC fan oven/gas mark 3 and line your loaf tin with baking parchment or a paper loaf-tin liner.

Beat the already soft butter with the syrup and the sugar until you have a fairly smooth caffé Americano cream, though the sugar will always have a bit of grit about it.

Mix the flour, bicarb and cocoa powder together, and beat into the syrup mixture 1 tbsp of these dry ingredients before beating in 1 egg. Then add another couple of spoonfuls of the dry ingredients before beating in the second egg. Carry on beating in the remaining dry ingredients and then add, still beating, the orange zest and finally, gradually, the juice.

Pour and scrape into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes, though check 5 minutes before and be prepared to keep it in the oven 5 minutes longer if need be. Leave to cool a little in the tin on a wire rack, then turn out with care and leave on the rack to cool.

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

Did you all have a lovely weekend? My weekend was nice but busy around the house. Dare I mention it but with Christmas around the corner I like to give the house a good de-cluttering and sort out before the madness begins. Then I have free time to bake, cook and enjoy the festive season; of course the daily housework will always be there! So our weekend kicked off the start of our autumn clean up project. I did however manage to find some time to get into my kitchen for a spot of baking and baked these wonderful Apple and Cinnamon Muffins from Nigella Kitchen. The smell of these muffins while baking was divine and they reminded me of all the wonderful xmas scents to come. As I expected these muffins were beautifully moist from the apple chunks and had so much flavour and texture. Hubby and I both agreed these muffins are definitely a must bake but you should seriously try them served as a pudding with lashings of custard, we did!

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

Makes 12 (I ended up with 18)

Ingredients
2 eating apples
250g plain flour (or spelt flour)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g light brown sugar, plus 4 tsp for sprinkling
125ml honey
60ml runny natural yoghurt
125ml flavourless vegetable oil
2 eggs
75g natural (unblanched) almonds

Preheat the oven to 200oC/180oC fan oven/gas mark 6 and line your muffin tin with papers.

Peel and core the apples, then chop into small dice (about 1cm) and put them to one side.

Measure the flour, baking powder and 1 tsp of the ground cinnamon into a bowl.

Whisk together the 125g brown sugar, the honey, yoghurt, vegetable oil and eggs in another bowl or jug.

Chop the almonds roughly and add half of them to the flour mixture, and put the other half into a small bowl with the second tsp of ground cinnamon and the 4 extra tsp brown sugar. This will make the topping for the muffins.

Now fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Add the chopped apple, and stir to combine but don’t over mix.

Spoon this bumpy batter into the muffin papers, then sprinkle the rubbly topping mixture over them.

Pop the tin into the prepared oven, and bake for about 20 minutes, by which time they will have risen and become golden.

Take the tin out of the oven and let it stand for about 5 minutes before gingerly taking out the muffins and placing them on a wire cooling rack.

Coconut and Cherry Banana Bread

I’m going to keep this post short and sweet as I’m not feeling too great today but I felt the need to blog my latest creation from Nigella Kitchen. We had a lovely weekend at the lodge and bought back lots of handpicked produce. Blackberries from the clearing in the woods, apples and damsons from the garden.

Hubby left for Madrid on Monday and was back last night so I kept myself busy in his absence making blackberry and apple jam, damson jam and this Coconut and Cherry Banana Bread. This has been another roaring success from the book, even with the unusual combination of coconut, cherry and banana, which I would never have thought to put together. It actually works beautifully and hubby was more than happy to arrive back to a slice of this home-baked goodness!

Coconut and Cherry Banana Bread

Ingredients
125g soft unsalted butter
4 small-medium bananas
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g dried cherries
100g desiccated coconut

1 x 900g (2lb) loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 170oC/fan oven 150oC/gas mark 3. Put a loaf liner into your tin, or line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment and grease the sides.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and take it off the heat. Peel and mash the bananas in another bowl.

Beat the sugar into the cooled, melted butter, then beat in the mashed bananas and the eggs. Fold in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Finally, add the dried cherries and coconut.

Fold well so that everything is incorporated, then pour and scrape into the lined loaf tin and smooth the top.

Bake for about 50 minutes, but start checking after 45. When ready, the bread will be coming away from the sides of the tin and feel quite heartily bouncy on top.

Once of the oven, leave it in the tin for 10 minutes. Then carefully slip the cake out of the tin (still in the liner) onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

As promised here is another instalment from Nigella Kitchen. Over the weekend my son and his girlfriend came to stay, as predicted the cookies were a big hit and didn’t last long. On Sunday morning I woke up early to bake these quick Chocolate Banana Muffins for the greedy cookie monsters, the perfect excuse to bake something else from my lovely new cookbook. These dark and moist muffins are at their best straight out of the oven while they are still warm for a perfect weekend breakfast indulgence!

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients
3 ripe or overripe bananas
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
100g soft light brown sugar
225g plain flour
3 x 15ml tablespoons best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 200oC/fan 180oC/gas mark 6 and line a muffin tin with muffin cases. Mash the bananas by hand or with a freestanding mixer.

Still beating and mashing, add the oil followed by the eggs and sugar.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda together and add this mixture, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared muffin cases.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark, rounded and peeking proudly out of their cases. Allow to cool slightly in their tin before removing to a wire rack.

Pic of my son Jake and his girlfriend Sophie aka the cookie monsters!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday I received the last of my birthday presents from hubby, Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook; Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home. I have been so excited about the release of this long awaited cookbook and all the new wonderful recipes to sample and enjoy. I spent most of yesterday reading and browsing through this whopper cookbook and all I can say is I’m in love! Nigella has delivered another fabulous cookbook that’s packed with mouth-watering recipes that make you want to get right in the kitchen and start cooking/baking. I couldn’t wait to begin my love affair and decided to start with the Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies were easy and quick and my kitchen smelt divine while they were baking. Not good when you’re watching your calorie intake! I’ve baked various cookies in the past and liked them all; however this recipe certainly delivers everything I expect in a cookie. These moreish cookies are tender, fudgy, chewy but with a crisp bite and seriously yummy! I have a feeling they won’t last long once my son and his girlfriend come to stay tomorrow night.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes approx 14

Ingredients
150g soft unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, fridge-cold
1 large egg yolk, fridge cold
300g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 x 326g packet milk chocolate chips

1 x large baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 170oC/fan 140oC/gas mark 3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and let it cool a bit. Put the brown and white sugars into a bowl, pour the slightly cooled, melted butter over them and beat together.

Beat in the vanilla, the cold egg and cold egg yolk until your mixture is light and creamy.

Slowly mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until just blended, then fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookie dough into an American quarter-cup measure or a 60ml round ice-cream scoop and drop onto the prepared baking sheet, plopping the cookies down about 8cm apart. You will need to make these in 2 batches, keeping the bowl of cookie dough in the fridge between batches.

Bake for 15-17 minutes in the prepared oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

The cookies can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container. Will keep for a total of 5 days.

Watch this space for more yummy recipes from Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home.