Lavender cupcakes

I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a while; I've spent a week working on the Isle of Man! Such a beautiful island. The recipe for these beauties are once again from the hummingbird bakery. However, I imagined that lavender cupcakes and lavender icing might be a bit much so I just made simple vanilla cupcakes with lavender icing. It's such a subtle flavour but so natural it's great!

You'll need to dry out some lavender for at least a couple of days before you want to use it, so pick some from your back yard, (or ask a friend who has some to cut some for you!)

The vanilla cupcake recipe can be found here http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/475442/The-Hummingbird-Bakery-vanilla-cupcakes

Or you can use your own!

The lavender icing is as follows:

Leave 1 tbsp of dried lavender flowers in 2tbsp whole milk for a few hours in the fridge. Beat 250g of icing sugar and 80g of butter until well mixed. Use purple food colouring (sadly I lacked it) and fresh lavender to decorate!

Yay summer snack!

Enjoy,

Let me know how they work out.

Marina

Raspberry Sweethearts

These treats are adorable. They're perfect for tea and cakes, or for a sweet present. I think they're originally an Australian cake, but have found their way here. Ive altered the original recipe to work with more accessible ingredients and make the cakes slightly lighter! I have a dream job interview in less than two days so am baking away the nerves. If only I could bake my way into it...

What you will need!

100g butter (melted)
40g flour (sifted)
130g icing sugar (sifted) plus extra for dusting
100g ground almonds
3 egg whites
1 or 1&1/2 lemons for zest. Depending on how lemony you like them
100g raspberries

Preheat oven to 180oC fan oven.

Sift flour & icing sugar into a bowl, add ground almonds and stir. Whip egg whites to soft peak consistency and then fold into flour mixture. Add lemon zest and melted butter. When thoroughly mixed, spoon mixture into either butter greased muffin tin, or cupcake cases in the tin. I have used heart shaped muffin tins for these before and they look so cute; especially the way the raspberries make a heart shape too!

Once you have spooned some mixture in, place 1-3 raspberries on top of each muffin-to-be and push down slightly.

Bake for 20-25 mins.
Leave to cool for 20 mins, take out of tray and place on cooling rack. Dust with icing sugar for delicate-factor!

Hope you enjoy these! Happy baking

Marina

Marina's Chocolate cake. The not-so-secret-anymore recipe

This cake is the ultimate indulgence; it's rich, thick and mapped off the scale for fattening.

Don't let that deter you though, it's phenomenally tasty and not your average cake. It is somewhere between a cake and a torte I suppose. The original recipe came from my great aunt and has been modified by me over the years to perfection!

You will need:
175g butter
175g dark chocolate
100ml flour
200ml caster sugar
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites

(Dash of coffee granules or vanilla extract if you fancy it)

Oven to 180oc

Separate eggs. I like to fry the extra yolk and feed it to my dog. She certainly enjoys cooking with me...

Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. Then add chocolate. Once cooled, add to yolks and add caster sugar. When thoroughly stirred, sift in flour (add vanilla/coffee/ maybe even nuts if you fancy at this point). Stir.

Whip egg whites to "soft peak" consistency. Challenging without an electric gizmo but certainly achievable should you not have one!

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. When evenly combined, pour into pre greased (with butter) cake tin!
Cook for 25-35 mins depending on how cooked you like it. Essentially this is a type of brownie-cake so if you like gooey brownies don't cook it for as long!

Interesting side note, if you wash the egg shells and crush them up, you can sprinkle a circle around growing vegetable/fruit plants to deter slugs and snails.

Happy eating, Please feel free to comment any feedback!
Rainbows & butterflies,

Marina

Home made iced tea

So I woke up this morning to the surprise of yet another blue skied, sunny day in London. My mum and I used to make iced tea by the bucketload in summer when I was little; it's the perfect summer refreshment when you're out in the sun!

                         

It's simple to make, the only thing you need is patience when waiting for the tea to cool down. I definitely drank hot iced tea this morning. Had a cold shower afterwards so all is fine!

You will need

Water. Obviously.
Tea bags
Lemons,
Fresh mint (your local should have it unless you are blessed with a garden growing it!)
Sugar

It may help to have a bunch of ice cubes at the ready if your patience is wearing thin...

In terms of quantity, it varies every time I make it and is worth playing around with until you perfect it to your tastes!

Boil a kettle or two of water, and pour into a big pirex bowl (or saucepan, or bucket, whatever you wish!) add some tea bags, I used 5. If you then chop up a couple lemons relatively thickly (about 3/4cm thick) and add them too. Once the water isn't steaming, add a generous handful of mint sprigs. If you add these to boiling water they will boil; not ideal. Then mix in sugar to your taste (for me, about 4-5 tbsp).

                      

                     

        

After 5 mins max take the tea bags out, and then around 20 mins lemon & mint. If it tastes too lemony earlier on take them out sooner and vice versa. It's all about tasting it the whole way through. Most of my cooking is. Which explains why my cakes aren't always as big as I thought they'd be. My mums rule has always been "eating food standing up doesn't count". Good rule to go by!

If the tea tastes a bit strong, put a bunch of ice cubes in when it's warm and it'll dilute it slightly. If its perfect then leave to cool to room temp in a jug then put in the fridge when it's ready to go! I put ice cubes in anyways because I'm impatient and get thirsty making it anyways. Enjoy!


Happy summer,
Rainbows & butterflies

Marina

Red velvet cupcakes

These little darling cupcakes have made their way into my top 5 treats since I first gave them a try a year ago. I have used the hummingbird bakery's recipe, (Found here) and have stuck to it as they are delicious. My dad always says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"... Hence I haven't really touched the recipe! I use about 50g less icing sugar for the icing, and whole milk with a tsp of cider vinegar as a buttermilk substitute (mix briefly and leave for 15 mins before using).

I've made them so many times this past year and they are such a perfect treat for afternoon tea (or naughty breakfast in my case). My little puppy is a huge fan of the icing, I caught her licking at one! They're also now my boyfriend's favourite of my culinary repertoire, and I'm happy to have such willing tasters to lick the bowl! (For those of you thinking I let my dog lick the bowl and are verging on getting the RSPCA, I'm joking!! DON'T FEED THIS TO YOUR DOG!)

Happy baking all :)
rainbows & butterflies,

Marina 

Lemon and poppyseed muffins

Poppyseed is brilliant. It adds a texture and a flavour to sweet OR savoury that just lifts a recipe. Poppyseed bagels from a young age firmly planted a love of the seeds.

I've been using a hummingbird bakery recipe book to make most of my cupcakes to date. I found their recipe for lemon and poppy seed cupcakes a bit sweet though. By the end I found myself scraping off most of the icing so i could actually enjoy the subtle flavour of the muffin itself. Today, I found myself looking at Lorraine pascale's tweeted recipe (Found here) in a search for muffins rather than cupcakes. They've turned out AMAZINGLY. They've formed a perfect crust and are soft and airy inside. It's been such a warm day in London, and I've just been imagining eating these with creme fraiche, maybe a minty side fruit salad, maybe even some home made iced tea!
Yes it's decided. I'm making my home made iced tea tomorrow and working my way through 20 muffins.

Lorraine's recipe:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (I did 190 in a fan oven)

350g self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g caster sugar
350ml skimmed milk (I used whole with a dash of cider vinegar- alternative to buttermilk, I like it more creamy)
2 eggs
140g melted butter,
1 lemons worth of zest
50g poppy seeds ( I used 70. Only because I'm a poppyseed fiend.)

Mix it all together thoroughly!

Then spoon the mixture into muffin case lined muffin trays so cases are roughly 2/3 full. Mine made 24 this morning, but I'm under the impression I use small muffin cases!

Lorraine says to leave it in for 30 mins, but I found 20-25 max did the trick! Depends on the size of your muffins/trays and all that jazz!

Happy feeding,
Rainbows & butterflies,
Marina

My very first entry...

Hallo there,
It only recently occurred to me to start a blog. When I say recently I mean 5 minutes ago when a friend suggested it. So please, bear with me on this as it may take some time to find my blogging feet! I'm interested in: f a s h i o n, p h o t o g r a p h y,  f o o d,  m u s i c,  f i l m. All of which I will probably be posting about at some point.

A little about me... I graduated last year as a film and theatre student and worked in retail until I took the plunge and road tripped it across the big USA from California to Massachusetts. It was truly phenomenal. We had some adventures, met some great people and saw some epic sights. I'm now in the job market looking to branch into the creative industry. I've tried my hand in almost everything, dance, painting, photography, djing, design, xylophone... Im a bit of a nut really. I just need a squirrel to come find me and bury me and forget I was there so I can grow into a big tree.


Well, in a nutshell, happy readings

Rainbows & butterflies,
Marina