Blueberry and White Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients

4oz Butter or Margarine

4oz Self Raising Flour

4oz Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

50g White Chocolate Chips

50g Blueberries

Icing

500g Icing Sugar

100g Blueberries

Pre heat the oven to 180oC. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and into this whisk one egg at a time. Sift in the flour and mix thoroughly. Now add the blueberries, chocolate chips and vanilla extract, again mixing it all together. Spoon about a dessert spoonful into cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes until the cakes are springy to touch. (Bear in mind the fruit burst when cooked and can make the cakes feel a little softer than a normal cake.)

Leave the cakes to cool. Place the blueberries in a food processor and blend so that they are smooth don't worry too much about a few bits of the skin being a bit bigger. To this add the icing sugar and spoon on to your cake. Feel free to sprinkle it with whatever you feel like, these ones have edible diamonds for the Jubilee.

Because of the fresh fruit in the icing these should be consumed fairly quickly :-) 

Coffee Cupcake

Ingredients

4oz Caster Sugar

4oz Butter or margarine

4oz Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

4tsp Strong coffee (I prefer to use decaf)

Icing

50g Butter

250g Icing Sugar

2tsp Strong coffee

Some cocoa powder to sprinkle

Jubilee Chocolate (optional)

Heat the oven to 180oc. Whisk the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat one egg in at a time. Sift the flour and mix it all together. Add the coffee and then spoon into cupcake cases. Bake for 18-20 minutes until springy to touch. Allow to cool.

Whisk butter, icing sugar and coffee together and then top the cakes with this mix and dust with cocoa and a bit of dark chocolate (optional).

Jubilee Marble Cake

Ingredients

6oz Self Raising Flour

6oz Caster Sugar

6oz Butter or margarine

3 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Strawberry Flavouring

Red and Blue Food Colouring

Icing

75g Butter

350 Icing Sugar

Sprinkles

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Heat the oven to 180oC, then cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk. To this add one egg at a time and continue whisking. Sift in the flour and mix until all combined. Separate the mix into three equal measures.

To the first bowl add one teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix thoroughly. To the second bowl add one teaspoon of Vanilla extract and some blue food colouring. To the third bowl add one teaspoon of strawberry and the red food colouring.

Once you have your three mixtures put spoon fulls of the mix dotted about in a loaf tin. Use a fork to blend the gaps but do so gently, you want to see the colours individually not end up with a big purple cake!

Bake for 45-55 minutes depending on your oven then remove from the oven and allow to cool.

When your cake is cool mix the icing sugar and butter together and spread over your cake adding sprinkles to finish. And there you have it, one jubilee cake!

Jubilee Cake Decorations

Everywhere seems to be going Jubilee mad at the moment so here are my top 5 cake decorations and where you can find them.
 

1. Sugar Diamonds from Chocolate Trading Co 

What diamond Jubilee would be complete without a few diamonds adorning your cakes?

2. Terribly British cupcake kit from Party Ark

3. Red, white and blue sugar strands from the Cake Decorating Company 

4. Sugarflair food colouring from cakes, cookies and crafts

I find you get a really good strong colour from sugarflair some red and blue will be perfect for Jubilee goodies.

5. Queens Jubilee crown dark chocolate cake toppers from the Cake Decorating Company 

Come back soon to see how I put these items to use.

Scones

Inspired by the beach cafe by Lucy Diamond and using the recipe from the book.

Ingredients

350g Self-raising Flour

1/4 tsp Salt

1tsp Baking Powder

85g Butter

3tbsp Caster Sugar

175ml Milk

1 Beaten Egg (to glaze)

Heat the oven to 220oC. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub them into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the mixture and add the milk. Mix until combined.

Sprinkle the work top with flour and roll out your mixture between 2-4cm thick depending how many scones you want. Cut them out and place them on a baking tray. Brush the tops with beaten egg and bake for 10 minutes.

Serve hot, cold, plain or with jam however you like them.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

225g Margarine

225g Caster Sugar

Zest of 3 Lemons

Juice of 2 Lemons

4 Eggs

200g Self-Raising Flour

1tsp Baking Powder

50g Ground Almonds

Icing Sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180oC. Whisk the sugar and butter together and then add the zest of 2 and a half lemons. Whisk the eggs in one at a time then sift the baking powder and flour into the mix and mix well. Fold the ground almonds in and 3/4 of the lemon juice, setting the rest aside for later. Pour the mix into a greased tin and bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on the size of your tin and variations in ovens)

When the cake is springy to touch and golden in colour remove from the oven. (or insert a skewer that should come out clean if the cake is baked). Put the cake on a cooling rack and leave.

Add icing sugar and lemon zest to the remaining lemon juice so that you get a thin icing, drizzle this onto the cake.

Lovely eaten cold or warmed up with some cream.