Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

These honies are the cupcakes I made for the Jubilee weekend , and so can of course be made without the out and out British decorations (although I have a bit of a soft spot for them!) . They are so raspberry-y and the raspberry frosting is super sweet but super scrum.

For this recipe you will need:

110g self-raising flour

110g caster sugar

110g butter and (35g for icing)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

200g white chocolate drops

3 packs of raspberries

275g icing sugar

Pre-heat oven to: 180'C

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer if possible, and continue to beat until its light and fluffy and all the sugar has dissolved.

2. Add eggs one by one and thoroughly beat in to the mixture.

3. Next, sift the self raising flour and gently fold in making sure you dont knock the air out of the flour.

4. Roughly chop up 1 pack of raspberries into halves and quarters.


5. Toss the 1 pack of chopped up raspberries and your chocolate drops into some flour just so it coats them (this stops them from sinking to the bottom of the cakes)

6. Now simply chuck in your raspberries and chocolate drops into your mixture and just gently fold.

7. Spoon the mixture evenly into cupcake cases in a cupcake baking tray.

8. Spoon any left over mixture into your mouth.

9. Put the cakes in the oven and leave for 15-20 minutes.

The Icing:

10. Push your remaining two packs of raspberries through a sieve, leaving the seeds separate from the juice (no one wants seedy frosting!)

11. Beat your butter for your icing till its nice and soft and then add the juice from the raspberries and put in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to harden slightly.

12. Give it a good stir and sift in half of your icing sugar and beat well. Sift in the rest, depending on how runny your icing is you may need to add a little more icing sugat. Then... hey presto! stupidly scrumptious pink raspberry buttercream frosting ready to be  devoured on its own  piped on to your cakes.

13. After 15 minutes, check your cakes- they should be ready at about 17 minutes but all ovens vary, your looking for a nice rise, golden on top and when you stick in a skewer/knife it comes out clean. When they're done, remove from the oven and put onto a cooling rack.

14. Making sure the cakes are thoroughly cooled before you ice them, otherwise the icing will melt, you can now use your artistic licence and ice how you like. I opted for piping, but like I say do as you will and experiment!

Enjoy!

Rain Rain Go Away

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, despite the less-than-average weather.

I spent my Saturday in the intermittent sunshine in a beer garden with jugs of fruity pimms, a ploughmans and portion after portion of onion rings whilst catching up with friends. Conversation mostly centred around the bank holiday weekend, bunting and all things British.

After watching some cricket on the green and a walk through the forest, Harriet and I went home to produce a shopping list for Monday's feast.

After a mad dash around Sainsburys, we made some raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting for the following day (will post this scrummy recipe later this week).

Seriously British Decorations-optional.

Monday came, and the Sun teased us all morning long, we persevered and up went the bunting and on came the barbecue. We prepped some couscous, salad, and bits and bobs and couple of jugs of good ol' British pimms, along with red and blue plates and some union jack napkins...OTT? Definitely not...

Friends arrived, burgers were devoured, cakes demolished and we even went for a dip in the pool while the Sun was out. As the night drew in, we sat round, had some drinks and enjoyed one another's company and laughed all night long.

A perfect bank holiday weekend in my eyes... How was yours? What did you get up to?

Happy Royal Jubilee 4 Day Weekend

As beautiful and patriotic London is going to be this weekend, I have unfortunately fleed it for a weekend away in the country with some of my faves. I hope anyone watching the floatilla, attending the mass-street party, or having their own celebrations where they live have a fabulously royal weekend.