Mini muffin man

I bought a fabulous new Wilton mini muffin tin with some leftover Christmas vouchers, so this weekend I christened it by making some mini chocolate muffins. It would have been rude not to really.

I used a very simple batter:
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
3oz self-raising sugar
1oz cocoa powder
2 eggs
A little milk

Cream together the butter and sugar until really fluffy.
Add the beaten eggs.
Mix in the sifted flour and cocoa.
Bake at 180C (160C fan) for about 12-14 minutes (keep an eye on them as they're so small).

To make the buttercream, mix 80g butter and 250g icing sugar with a little milk, for at least 5 minutes in a mixer.
Once really light and fluffy, mix in one tablespoon of Nutella by hand.

Amazing. But a warning - they're so small and moreish, you keep having more!

Raspberry, blueberry, and lime cake

For May's gathering of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, the theme was 'Treat yourself tea party'. Part of me just wanted to make a nice Victoria Sponge, but I made one for cake club in January, and I try not to make the same recipe twice. I thought, treat myself....I love raspberries and blueberries, so settled on a raspberry and blueberry cake with lime drizzle.

Ingredients:
225g margarine 
225g golden caster sugar
4 eggs 
2 limes, grated zest and juice
250g self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of salt
25g ground almonds
100g blueberries 
100g raspberries

For the syrup
6 tbsp lime juice
1 lime, grated zest
100g golden caster sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180C (160C fan).
Prepare two 20cm circular cake tins.
Cream the butter and sugar until really fluffy. 
Beat the eggs, and add to the mixture, adding a pinch of flour if it starts to separate.
Sift in the flour and salt.
Add a tablespoon of lime juice at a time, until the mixture is smooth.
Spoon into the two cake tins and level.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and a skewer poked in comes out clean.
While the cakes are baking, make the syrup - put the ingredients in a pan over a low heat until warm and the sugar has dissolved a bit.
Pour the warm syrup over the cakes (still in the tins) as soon as they come out of the oven. 
Allow the cakes to cool in the tin before removing.

Once cool, make lime buttercream:
40g butter
125g icing sugar
About 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice

Beat the butter, then sift in the icing sugar and mix. Gradually add the lime juice. Beat in the mixer for at least 5 minutes to make the buttercream really soft and fluffy.
Spread the buttercream over one layer of the cake, then sandwich the other layer on top.
To finish, dust icing sugar over the top.

This cake was lovely - light and fluffy, moist, and moreish. I was worried there would be too much going on, too many flavours, but they all went well together. It was well received at cake club - when everyone was filling their cake troughs before going home, I turned round and saw just one slice left - I had to barge in and grab it before it was all gone!

For more info about Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.

A couple of quilts

Here are a couple of my latest quilts. One is for beautiful Elizabeth, sister to my godson George; the blue one is for our friend Simon's new nephew, Ollie.

Elizabeth's quilt was from a book called 'Quick and easy quilts'. I think they wrote that title ironically, as it wasn't quick! It was painstaking due to the number of one inch squares that I had to bondaweb iron on to the quilt top, and sew around each one - it was very fiddly. But it looked lovely. It was the first time I quilted with a zigzag line, and it really brought out the squares. The design was fairly simple but looked really special.

I used a similar nine-patch design for Ollie's quilt, all in shades of blue. Personally, I don't like the colour blue much, so this isn't one of my favourites - but Ollie loves it apparently. So that's what matters.

With these two quilts I also enjoyed making more of the backing design, with a strip of stripes from the front.

I have another quilt on the go, a purple one for a friend's baby due in July, which I've done in another new design, a bargello squares design. The colours flow through the quilt - it's lovely. It will have a Hungry Caterpillar back to it (possibly a reversible quilt).

Stamford Clandestine Cake Club - Treat yourself tea party

Following a balmy Bank Holiday Monday, the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club met on Tuesday, May 7th, at the Garden House Hotel in Stamford for a delectable tea party. The hotel is one of the best-kept secrets in the Georgian town of Stamford, and dates back in part to the 17th century. We met in a charming room with a beautiful mural on the wall. The hotel has a beautiful hidden walled garden (which would make an excellent meeting place for a summer CCC get together!). I’m already planning to go back for dinner in the restaurant soon – the conservatory room looked really romantic. For more about the hotel click here.

15 bakers with 3 added guests met with cakes baked to the theme of ‘Treat yourself tea party’. Surprisingly we had no Victoria Sponges and no Battenburgs – but never mind, as those 15 cakes were all absolutely delicious.

The list comprised:
Raspberry and blueberry lime drizzle
Cappuccino cake
Raspberry and lemon sponge
Chocolate Crunchie cake
Sultana cake
Carrot cake
Raspberry and lemon polenta cake
Cream tea cake
Chocolate fudge cake
Deliah’s dark Jamaican gingerbread cake
Ginger and lemon curd cake
Pineapple and sultana cake
Rhubarb and custard cake
Chocolate and coffee meringue cake
Lemon drizzle

A couple of members were worried about certain disaster – Vic’s Cream Tea Cake was her third attempt that day, but was divine, with macerated strawberries and clotted cream. Kelly was panicked her sultana cake, baked a few days prior due to a weekend working in Keswick, was lovely. And Vicky’s chocolate fudge cake was yummy, even though it didn’t rise much.

It was great to see a couple of new members who seemed to enjoy our chatter and banter about all things cake.All the bakers put so much effort into their cakes yet again, thank you all for your hard work – everyone enjoyed them so much that there wasn’t much left to take home in our cake troughs this time. I turned my back for a moment, and when I returned to the table there was only one lonely slice of my cake left – I quickly grabbed it!

Thanks to the venue for entertaining us for the evening and kindly allowing us to play host. The evening was also a Blue Cross tea party and we raised some much-needed funds for this worthy animal charity – thanks to all the members for their kind voluntary donations. The next event is on June 2nd, with the theme 'Perfect for a picnic'. For more info about Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.

Brilliant Nutella buttercream

I made some wonderful cupcakes this week. I have been suffering under peer pressure at work to bake, bake BAKE! I succumbed and decided on a simple chocolate cupcake but jazz it up with Nutella buttercream.

This is the best buttercream in the world. I cannot stress this enough. These were, thanks to the buttercream, the best cupcakes I have ever made.

250g icing sugar
80g butter at room temperature (I warmed mine up in the microwave for a few seconds)
About 50ml milk
2 heaped tbsp Nutella (or other chocolate spread)

Place the butter in a mixer and mix for a couple of minutes. Add the sugar and mix, then add the milk. Mix for at least five minutes until it turns almost white. It should be really fluffy and creamy. Mix the Nutella in by hand until all incorporated.

The best buttercream ever (well, as long as you like Nutella).

I used my new Wilton 1M star icing nozzle - it is truly amazing. No wonder everyone raves about it. You should get one, if you haven't already.