I made these for a friend’s birthday as a celebration of summer. With the biscuit ‘sand’ and the mini umbrellas, these recall long summer days spent at the beach. The blueberry cupcakes and lemon cream cheese icing pair beautifully together to make a delicious summer treat.
Tag: butter
Death by Chocolate Cake from Mary Berry
This cake was one I had my eye on for a while, simply because of the name. But, as the old adage goes, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover and the name turned out to be a little more than the cake could deliver. It’s a good cake and the icing is actually …
Blueberry Pie
When I think of pie, I think of America. A few years ago I read ‘American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America’s Back Roads.’ The book chronicles the authors journey for the perfect pie. While I don’t have the luxury of travelling across America, I think this pie is pretty delicious. The pastry is…
Instant Fruitcake (Fast Mincemeat Christmas Cake by Mary Berry)
In an ideal world, I would have got the recipe for Christmas fruit cake from my Grandmother, who has been making (and thus perfecting) them for years. But as I am running late on getting a fruit cake together and also low on time to devote to such pursuits, I chose this quick fruit cake…
Orange Cake by Stephanie Alexander
Ever practical, The Cook’s Companion has always been a reliable source of last-minute solutions, both sweet and savoury. In this instance, I needed a simple cake to whip up to form a part of a more elaborate affair for a baby shower cake. This cake fitted the brief perfectly, used only what I had to…
Apple Bread
I love Tessa Kiros, her cookbooks are wonderful. I own Falling Cloudberries and Apples for Jam. This recipe comes from Apples for Jam. I’ve made it a few times, and I love it. As someone who doesn’t eat bananas, I love the concept of apple bread instead. It’s perfect for either breakfast or an…
Chocolate Eclair
I have always thought choux pastry would be more difficult to make than it actually turned out to be. While the method is a little more involved in that the mixture is essentially cooked on the stove and then again in the oven, anyone who has ever made a bechamel sauce need not fear this delicious pastry….
Chocolate Squash Cake (or Chocolate Pumpkin Cake)
For reasons I cannot fathom, the North Americans and the British call butternut pumpkin ‘squash’. In fact, all pumpkin we have in Australia is considered ‘winter squash’ by North Americans and only the big orange ‘Halloween’ pumpkins are ‘proper’ pumpkin. No doubt we are considered the strange ones for labelling so many ‘squash’ as pumpkin…
Lebkuchen Hearts from Marian Keyes
Having recently celebrated an Oktoberfest dinner at home with friends, I needed something traditionally German to end our meals, but nothing as hugely filling as the Black Forest Cake, which is the German cake to end all cakes. Although these are traditionally Christmas cookies (and Marian Keyes tells a charming tale of receiving a 20cm…
Chocolate-Banana Bread from Nigella Lawson
This chocolate-banana bread recipe is simply a chocolate version of Nigella’s banana bread; one of the first recipes I ever posted, or baked for that matter. As promised, I have indeed made it time and time again. Whenever there are ripening bananas in my house, there is bound to be banana bread. Not that you…
Chocolate Chip and Vanilla Marble Cake by Mary Berry
I know most people remember marble cakes from their childhood. And this recipe was in the ‘Baking for Children’ chapter of Mary Berry’s Baking Bible but I made this cake for an office full of adults and I can promise you it disappeared rapidly. For me, it’s really about having the best of both worlds;…
Lime Buttermilk Cake
When you’re given only a few hours notice to whip up a cake for morning tea the following day, it pays to have a few essential ingredients to hand. Or to be creative. I have gotten in the habit, since my move to Brisbane, of scouring fridge and pantry for potential cake ingredients and then…
