Emma at work loves lemon, so I hoped these would go down well – they did!
These are from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook; I always find that their recipes come out really well.
I added lemon extraxt to the cake mix and icing to make them extra lemony.
This isn’t actually one of my cakes but it’s an Easter cake that my friend Marie made for when I went to stay with her at Easter; expertly decorated by her daughters Sienna & Erin!
These cakes were pretty deluxe!
My housemate Rekha had some leftover Mascarpone cheese, so I searched for a recipe to use it in.
I made the mascarpone muffins and covered them with the chocolate ganache.
As it was around Easter time I found an idea on a packet of mini eggs where you break up chocolate ‘flake’ bars, place them on top of the cupcakes and add mini eggs, to resemble nests.
I took these cakes to my friend Kate’s to welcome her new baby – beautiful Beatrice.
Her and her husband Ross reckoned they were the best cakes they’ve had from me and her dad was pretty impressed with them too!
This is the cupcake and icing recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-chip-and-mascarpone-cupcakes-recipe.html
I made this banana loaf for a family tea on May Day Bank Holiday.
It has no sugar in it as the sweetness comes from the bananas.
Unfortunately although the cake rose nicely, it developed a dip (more like a crevasse!) after I took it out of the oven.
However this didnt seem to affect the taste, as confirmed by my cousin Marley, who said ‘the taste makes up for the dip’ 🙂
This is one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/banana-bread/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=RecipeOftheDay&utm_term=2014
I found this delicious recipe online whilst searching for a special recipe for my housemate’s birthday.
It’s a rich, moist cake with a layer of apricot on top, coated with chocolate icing – similar to a jaffa cake. Mmm….
It was soon demolished!
Here’s the recipe if you want to make it yourself!
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/a-rich-chocolate-cake-1089
These are my strawberry and white chocolate muffins that I made for work colleagues. I chose to match these with red and white cases to make them fun and playful.
These are pretty intense!
Rekha and I wanted to do some baking so looked for some inspiration online and found these.
The muffins are made with bananas and chocolate chips.
The frosting is extra special and 2-tone. You make a chocolate butter icing and one with peanut butter, then fill the piping bag so you get one side with one flavour and the rest on the other side (you can buy special bags for this) and it creates a swirled effect – worth the effort for the ‘wow’ factor!
Here’s the link to the recipe:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/03/09/banana-cupcakes-chocolate-peanut-butter-frosting/
These Top of the Morning cupcakes are a favourite amongst my friends and family. I have a great recipe book entitled “intoxicated cupcakes” which contains alcoholic cupcake recipes – these ones contain yummy Baileys and a coffee icing.
I also like the cool cupcake cases that were part of a Christmas present that some of my family gave me.
Heart shaped biscuits for Valentine’s Day in the office went down very well! My flatmate helped me to decorate them in crazy patterns with white icing, dried strawberry pieces, chocolate hearts, coloured sprinkles and pink pearls.
I used different sized heart shaped cutters that my friend Breda gave me.
These themed cupcakes were for our Halloween house party; they went down a treat!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1474/spider-web-chocolate-fudge-muffins
Frances Bakes 