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.

King Prawn, Asparagus and Lemon Risotto

One of my favourite things in Spring time is asparagus. I absolutely adore it on its own topped with hollandaise, to use as soldiers to dip in runny boiled eggs, or just resting by the side of my meat slathered in butter.

Rich in antioxidants and a fighter against many types of cancer and packed full of vitamins, this tasty veg is grown in the UK generally from May onwards, meaning that really there should be no reason not to eat it.

Using asparagus in a spring risotto is a fab and scrummy way to incorporate it in your diet, and despite the myths- it's not all that hard.

So to feed a modest amount to four people you will need the following:

300g Arborio Rice
200g king prawns
1 pack/bundle of asparagus
1 large glass of dry white wine/ 1 small bottle
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
2 vegetable stock cubes
100g grated parmesan
1 knob of butter
Handful of chopped parsley


First off you will need to make up your stock in a pan either using fresh stock or a stock cube and boiling water to make up about a litre. Bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, chop the gnarley woody bits off the bottom of your asparagus, and then chop into three equal-sized pieces (I also leave two stalks whole per person of fancy shmansy decoration). Pop the asparagus into your boiling stock, and when tender (after about 4/5 mins) remove from the stock and place into a bowl of icey cold water to blanch it. Set to one side.


Next, chop your onion, nice and small as it's not a main ingredient in this risotto. You then need to pop this into a heavy-bottomed pan with 2 tablespoons of oil and soften over a medium/low heat. After five minutes, crush 2 garlic cloves into your softening onions. Now add your risotto rice. Pour it all in at once and continuously stir, making sure all the grains are coated by the oil, which will start to turn transluscent. At this stage you need to add your vino. Bung it all in, maybe have a cheeky swig...you are the chef after all.

Whilst stirring, let the wine reduce until it has almost completely disappeared. Now it's time to add a ladel of your stock...just a ladel.

You then need stir, and wait, and stir and wait,until the rice has soaked up almost all of the liquid, and then add another ladel and repeat for about 25 minutes.



After 15 minutes or so, your rice should puff up
as it soaks up more and more moisture.

After 25 minutes, add your asparagus and prawns and then proceed to taste the rice, it should have a bit of bite (al dente) but not too much, you will have to be the judge but be sure to not overcook as you will get stodge - and no one likes stodge!!

Once you are happy with the rice, you need to add one large ladel of stock, take it off the heat and then transform this rice into a creamy, oozey delight. To do this you will need to add your parmesan, big knob of butter, parsely, and the juice of a lemon and season with pepper and give it a big ol' stir.

See? Didn't I tell you...oozey and creamy!

Cover with a lid and let it stand for a minute before serving.

Yum.

There are plenty of scrumptious combinations to use for risottos, my other favourites include porcini mushroom & gorgonzola, and pea & mint.

At around 500 calories per portion, offering you vitamins and protein it's a fab way to wow your guests, partner or family.



It Is Said That One Fifth Of The World's Cranes are in Dubai

Whether this is a rumour or not, there are many a crane in Dubai.

But despite this, the City boasts some beautiful sites, some of which I thought I would share with you...

 From Top to Bottom - Camel Rides, Burj Al Arab, Footprints on Jumeriah Beach, Moi, Bloomingdales, The Aquarium in Dubai Mall, and the Burj Khalifa.

I'm flying home tomorrow night and although I will be happy to get back to London Town, I will as ever, miss this place and its unique charm...

Far East in the Middle East

It would not be a lie to say that during my first few days of being here in Dubai I have done much else other than soak up the sun, swim some lengths and read my book.

With temperatures reaching about 39 degrees, I feel a million miles away from the cold and rainy London that I left last week.

I did however, go for a scrummy dinner on Saturday night.

Now, the food here I believe, is beautiful. Of course everyone can have a bad restaurant experience and there are plenty of international chains here that will always serve an average-at-best meal, but many of the restaurants in some of the most decadent hotels around, serve simply sublime food.

Needless to say I have never had a bad meal here. Ever.

Saturday night was no different. We headed down to the creek and ate at The Thai Kitchen at the Park Hyatt Hotel. I have eaten in another restaurant here before, but this time we were searching for something Eastern...something with a kick. We sat outside by the boats on the water sipping cold Thai beers and a variety of exotic cocktails. After an amuse bouche of chili beef in sesame seeds, I opted for one of the taster menus, which offered a total of 12 individual dishes, and let me tell you- each one was so delicious. Not to bore you with each course but some of my favourites were the crab meat vermicelli noodles, green papaya salad, chicken galangal coconut soup and black bean ice cream with coconut sago. It was pretty darn scrumptious.

Unfortunately I didn't get any snaps of the food as it was pitch black outside, but I did venture into the restaurant to get a couple of the ingredients the chefs had out on display in their open plan kitchens.

For more information about The Thai Kitchen and menus click here.  

For the next few days I plan to immerse myself in my book and work on my tan, but will endeavour to take some pictures of some sites for you guys to give you a feel for the place.

x

#1

This week I packed my bags and flew out to Dubai to visit my family. They've lived here for few years now and I absolutely love the place. For those who haven't been before, it's a weird and wonderful place, quite unlike any I have been to before. It's not to everyone's taste and I appreciate that, but for me, I see it as a sky scraper-filled cosmopolitan city that boasts fantastic food, white sandy beaches, and of course, year-round sunshine. And those are without a doubt, 3 of my favourite things in life!

Our apartment is in the marina, which means I can spend the warm evenings sipping cocktails and nibbling olives on the balcony with a shtonking view...

Pretty huh?

I will keep you posted on what I'm up to there, although don't expect much more than lazing, swimming and reading, but I'll keep you updated all the same...