Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

As seen in my previous post Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting this recipe makes amazingly dark chocolaty cupcakes. This time I followed the recipe all the way and used the raspberry buttercream frosting. A perfect combination, the raspberry nicely balances the richness of the chocolate. Mi xo

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

It's no secret that I love to bake. People often say to me that they don't know how I find the time or else they find baking too difficult and would prefer to use a packet mix because it's easier. Perhaps it's just the scientist in me, but I find as long as you follow a recipe and measure out all quantities precisely you can't really fail. In fact it's more satisfying than a science experiment as more often than not it will result in success, in science I find 9 times out of 10 things will most likely fail or else end up with unexpected results! My point is, baking should be simple and a good book for such recipes is 1 Mix 100 Cakes. Admittedly, I haven't tried all the recipes but this one is definitely one of my favourites! The original recipe is for a loaf, but I made cupcakes instead. Mi xo

Lemon Drizzle Cupcake Recipe

• 1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 180 g unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Syrup

• 3/4 cup pure icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Sift flour and baking powder.
3. Add butter, sugar, eggs and beat well until mixture is smooth.
4. Stir in lemon rind and juice.
5. Spoon mixture into 2 x 12 muffin size tins lined with paper.
6. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
7. For the syrup, place the icing sugar and lemon juice on the stove and heat gently until sugar has melted.
8. Prick the cupcakes with a skewer and drizzle the syrup on top.

Freckle Biscuits

I cannot take credit for these colourful beauties. My sister made them after seeing something similar in a  cafe. The classic chocolate treat "Freckles" have always been a favourite but they're so much better in biscuit form. My sister decided to make a shortbread for the base and used Lorraine Pascale's "Dreamlike Shortbread" recipe. The full recipe can be found here. Once the biscuits have cooled completely, dip the tops into some melted chocolate and then into a bowl of hundreds and thousands. Easy as you like! Na xo

Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread

I love shortbread! The soft, buttery goodness that just melts in your mouth. Last Christmas, my sister gave me David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert cook book. As I flicked through the pages salivating at all the recipes before me, I came across one for brown sugar-pecan shortbread. YUM! I had to make this. What I love about David's recipes is that they are always very simple such as the one for Coconut Macaroons and the result is pure deliciousness! Be sure to check out his website for many more amazing recipes. Mi xo

Nigella's Pecan-Plus Pie

My friend Miss T had a craving for pecan pie and so sent this recipe my way Nigella's Pecan-Plus Pie. Now, I have never made pecan pie before although do love eating it so figured that must count for something. This was really easy to make and tasted absolutely delicious, especially teamed up with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Be warned, it is super-filling so go easy on the portion sizes! Mi xo

Wholemeal Banana Pancakes

During the holiday season I liked watching "Jamie's Family Christmas". I especially loved his no fuss pancake recipe that he made with the help of his adorable little daughters. The basic recipe is so easy to commit to memory and it goes like this...1 mug self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, mix it all together and you're a few minutes away from delicious fluffy pancakes. Make sure that you use the same mug to measure the flour and the milk. So that's the basic recipe, which is great as is but if you want to turn them into something a little bit more special then just add some fruit to the mix. Jamie grated some pear into his mixture but I opted for banana. My wholemeal banana version goes like this...

Add 1 mug wholemeal self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt and 1 large mashed banana. Mix it all together. Melt a little butter in a pan and fry on a medium heat until golden brown. Squeeze a bit of honey on them if you like. Perfect start to a lazy Sunday! Na xo