Lemon and Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

This is a great alternative to a lemon drizzle cake - not that there's anything wrong with a lemon drizzle cake, of course! And if lemon isn't your thing, try using the juice and zest of oranges instead.

Wholegrain Lemon Curd Cookies

There seems to be an abundance of lemon based recipes popping up all over the place at the moment. After seeing a recipe for lemon cookies, it got me thinking - I should try making cookies with a lemon curd filling. These cookies are amazingly soft and chewy; I only had wholemeal flour, and I think that adds to their taste.
If you're not keen on lemon, try using raspberry jam or Nutella instead - this recipe is so easily adaptable!

Coconut Lime Gateaux

The first birthday cake of the year! This coconut lime gateaux is light and refreshing, and it has the BEST marshmallowy frosting! It does take a little more time and effort than your standard buttercream frosting, but it's totally worth it. I promise.

White Chocolate, Orange and Cranberry Muffins

I made these fruity muffins to help fuel a friends house move at the weekend... if you've read the recipe below, you will see that these muffins have no sugar. Yup. That's not a mistake. All of the sweetness in these tasty muffins comes from the honey, so make sure to use a good quality honey rather than supermarket value ones! Although I did find that they stuck to the cases a little bit, it's fun to nibble it off the paper :)

Lemon Meringue Trifle

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas! It's been great to relax and have some time to myself, but now I've got a few recipes to catch up on this month, starting with this lemon meringue trifle. We had this for dessert after our Christmas dinner, and it went down a treat. It's light, tangy and refreshing - perfect for after a big meal. Plus you get to play with a kitchen blowtorch!

Christmas Tarts

These are basically jam tarts but with a Christmas twist - spiced orange is a classic festive fragrance, and these are quick to make if you have unexpected visitors in the run up to Christmas Day. Maybe you could even leave a couple out for Santa... ;)

Ingredients:
One batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
12 tbsp orange marmalade
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ginger
2 tbsp port
Nutmeg to dust

Pre-heat your oven to 180c.

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin, and use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut our your cases. Use a cutter that's a little bigger than the circumference of the holes in your cupcake tray so they come up the sides. Re-roll any left over pastry until it's all used up.

Lightly dust a cupcake tray with flour and line the holes with your pastry cases.

In a mixing bowl, combine the marmalade, mixed spice, ginger and port and mix well. Place a spoonful of the mixture into the pastry cases - make sure you don't overfill them, you don't want hot marmalade oozing everywhere when you take them out of the oven!

Bake for 15 minutes until the marmalade is bubbling and the pastry is lightly browned.
Leave to cool in the tin slightly before removing and placing on a wire rack. Once cool, dust with a little nutmeg.

Orange and Pecan Parsnip Cakes

This recipe is a little spin on the parsnip cake I made a couple of months ago, and they're SO good. The treacle gives a much richer flavour than the maple syrup, and compliments the orange well. Feel free to leave the pecans out if you have nut allergies!

Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter

2 tbsp treacle

240g demerara sugar

3 eggs

250g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder

1tsp mixed spice

250g parsnips, peeled and grated
Zest and juice of 1 orange
50g chopped pecans

For the frosting:

75g unsalted butter

200g icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
Pecans to decorate
 

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line a muffin tray with cases.

In a large saucepan, melt together the butter, treacle and sugar over a low heat until smooth.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Next, whisk in the eggs before adding the flour, baking powder and mixed spice and mix well.

Add the grated parsnips, and stir until thoroughly combined. Lastly, add the orange zest and juice, along with the chopped pecans, and mix well.

Divide the batter equally between your muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the sponges are springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

To make the frosting, put the butter and icing sugar in a microwavable bowl and heat in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, until the butter is just starting to melt. Gently mix together until it’s lightly and creamy. Add the orange juice and stir until well combined.

Once the cakes have cooled, use an icing bag to pipe spirals of frosting on top of each cake, and top with a pecan.

Luscious Lemon and Lime Squares

Things have been busy the last couple of weeks, so I've not found much time to get any baking in... Until last night that is! My sister asked me to make something for her to take to a party, and after much deliberation, I settled on this citrus traybake, as well as some chocolate biscuits I'll share with you in another post. Feel free to substitute the lemon or lime for the zest and juice of half an orange instead - go with whatever citrus fruits you fancy!

Ingredients:
For the base:
150g plain flour
90g unsalted butter, cubed
50g icing sugar

For the topping:
2 eggs
175g caster sugar
Zest and juice of a lemon
Zest and juice of a lime
1tbsp plain flour
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and grease/line a deep baking tray or square oven proof dish.

Put the flour, butter and icing sugar for the base in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Tip the mix into your tray/dish and press down firmly with the back of a spoon, making sure to push it right up to the edges and in the corners.
Bake for 15 minutes then remove from the oven, but leave the oven on.

While the base is cooking, make the topping. In a bowl, whisk the eggs until they turn frothy. Tip in the caster sugar a little at a time whilst still whisking, then add the lemon and lime zest and juice. Whisk this until well combined before adding the flour and bicarbonate of soda and giving one last mix.
When the base comes out of the oven, pour the topping over the base and spread into the corners with the back of a spoon. Return the dish to the oven and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until golden and just firm to the touch.
Leave to cool in the dish before turning out, dusting with a little icing sugar, trimming the edges and cutting into squares.