Coconut and Blueberry Cake

This is the first birthday cake of the year at work; a light sponge topped with a generous amount of fresh cream and a mountain of blueberries. Although it might not be the prettiest cake, it's quick and easy to make, and went down a storm with my colleagues! 

Orange, Maple and Grape Traybake

This week a colleague brought a bag full of home-grown grapes into work that were free for the taking. Naturally, the first thing that came into my head was cake. I’d never made a cake with grapes before, and wasn’t entirely sure if it would work so I perused the internet for inspiration. After looking at a handful of recipes that included dessert wines, I found this New Zealand recipe for a simpler, lighter cake. I’ve adapted it slightly, and the end result is actually much better than I had expected! The recipe has no butter, oil or lard, but it makes such a light, moist sponge, that’s a little sticky on top. Go on, try it! You’ll be surprised!

Coconut and Cherry Cake

 

I made this cake for my Nan’s birthday. She loves coconut and glacier cherries, so I figured I’ll fill a cake with both of them! It’s simple, but delicious. The recipe makes a small two tiered cake (about 15cms in diameter) so if you want to make a full sized sandwich cake, double the recipe.

Fruit Scones - Two Ways

 

As I mentioned before, it was my Grandad’s birthday recently, and he is seriously the hardest person to buy presents for! I mean, what do you buy someone who already has everything they need?! After a lot of thinking and fruitless shopping trips, I finally decided to make him up a hamper of fancy tea, posh jams, clotted cream and some homemade scones - an ‘Afternoon Tea’ Hamper if you will. I knew he loves fruit scones, but I couldn’t decide whether to make them with raisins or glacier cherries, so I ended up doing both. These are super easy to make, and the end result is very light scones, studded with lots of fruity goodness! I soaked the raisins in whiskey for an hour before adding them to the dough, for an added kick.

Mini Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

This weekend, my parents hosted afternoon tea for the rest of our family. There was SO much food; from sandwiches and quiches, to scones with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I made these mini cupcakes as my contribution to the spread, and they went down a treat! This recipe made about 30 mini cupcakes, which would probably equate to a dozen regular cupcakes.

Berry Streusel Bars

 

 My lovely sister and her boyfriend have finally got their first house up together, and were able to host their house warming party a couple of weekends ago. My contribution was a dessert buffet for their party, and this is the first of three recipes I'll be sharing from the buffet. As there were going to be a lot of people there, I opted for a couple of tray-bakes and some muffins, things that are easy to eat with your fingers whist standing around chatting. I first made these about 5 years ago, and they've been a firm favourite with my family ever since so I re-invented them slightly for the party.

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!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 

This is a bit of a 'retro' cake - I remember pineapple upside down cake from when I was really little, and I  haven't really seen it around much since. I don't know why - it's light and fruity, perfect for pudding after a heavy meal, and it makes a fun centre piece on a dessert table at parties. Plus it's fun to make!

Fruity Oat Squares



Another recipe created with a handful of ingredients pulled from the cupboard that needed using up, these fruity chewy oat squares are a bit like flapjacks, but with less than half of the sugar. They're also dairy-free, making them perfect for anyone who is lactose intolerant! They'd be great with a handful of chopped nuts in too, and you can substitute the cranberries for any dried fruit you have in the cupboard.

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 :)

Boozy Mince Pies

These speak for themselves - the Christmas table would not be complete without mince pies, and the addition of whiskey to these makes them that extra special. Sorry I almost forgot to take a photo of these!

Ingredients:
One batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
1 jar of mincemeat
3 tbsp whiskey
1 egg, beaten
Demerara sugar to sprinkle

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and dust a muffin tray with a little flour.

In a mixing bowl, combine the mincemeat with the whiskey and mix well. Leave to rest while you make the cases.

Roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Use two round cookie cutters, one slightly larger in circumference than the holes in your muffin tray and one the same size as the holes, to cut out an equal number of cases and lids.

Line your muffin tray with the larger of the circles, so the pastry comes up the edges, and leave the smaller circles to one side for now.

Place a generous teaspoon of the boozy mincemeat in each case.

Brush the edges of the case with egg and place a lid on each pie, using a fork to crimp the edges together. 
Brush the lids with egg and sprinkling over a little demerara sugar before poking a small hole in the center of each lid.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden and the filling is a little oozy.