Lemon and poppy seed muffins!

If you're after something light and fluffy with a little lemony zing, then these little cakes are just the thing! I found the recipe on the BBC Good food website and got straight to cooking. They should turn out similar to the picture below, or even better- as I'm still fairly new to baking myself.
They take about forty minutes to make and once baked, leave to stand for ten minutes before icing. Then pop in the fridge to chill for another ten minutes before devouring!
The recipe is below - so what are you waiting for.

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour

175g golden caster sugar

Zest 2 lemons

1 tbsp poppy seeds, toasted

3 eggs

100g natural yogurt

175g butter, melted and cooled

For the icing

225g butter, softened

400g icing sugar, sifted

Juice 1 lemon

Few drops yellow food colouring

Elliott's deli, Chorlton. Scrumptious cakes for sale...

My cakes went on sale today at Elliott's deli in Chorlton on Manchester road, just opposite Chorlton swimming baths. This is the perfect cafe to just sit and watch the world go by with a steaming hot cup of coffee and a cake of course! Recently I saw Simon Rimmer, the celebrity chef from Something for the Weekend in there - if he likes the food, then it must be good!
This week's recipe was inspired by Nigella, her delicious rocky roads are really something to get your teeth into. You'll find the recipe here: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rockyroadcrunchbars_87104.


Later this week I'll be selling more of my cakes at Finders Keepers Craft & Vintage Fair at The Moor Suite, Heaton Moor, Sunday 14 November, 10-4. I love Christmas markets and this is a brand spanking new one in the heart of Heaton Moor. A great place to start your Christmas shopping and pick up original handmade gifts and treats.
The crafty girls will be out in full force selling their unique handmade items and vintage clothes too. Oh I'm really looking forward to it. I can almost smell the mulled wine already.....

Bring out the apron! It's time for banana, raisin and walnut cake...

This recipe was passed on to me by a friend of mine, Alex- so I really can't take the credit for it!
I've been wanting this recipe for a very long time because the first time I ate this cake I was blown away, literally, it's amazing! So soft, fruity and healthy for you too, well maybe not so healthy but despite all that cheese, butter and sugar, it has a lot of fruit packed in there too.  I'm probably kidding myself and you but it's definitely worth baking and putting the extra effort in for this one. So if you have about an hour to spare....you know what to do. Bake yourself happy!


Banana, raisin and walnut cake with cream cheese frosting

If you need help converting the ozs into grams - use this as a guide.

3 ounces = 85.0485694 gram

Ingredients:
10 ozs plain flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp bicarb
2 tsp baking powder
6ozs soft light brown sugar
2 ozs chopped walnuts
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas
6ozs grated carrots
6 fluid ozs corn oil

How to make the cake

Sift flour, salt, bicarb and baking powder. Add sugar and walnuts. Crack in eggs. Peel and mash bananas and add with the carrots. Add corn oil. Beat 1 min. Cook 40 mins on 180 deg c (less with a fan oven) in 2 8 inch sponge tins (lined).

Icing:
3 ozs soft butter
3 ozs cream cheese
6 oz icing sugar
half tsp vanilla
Use chopped walnuts to decorate

How to make the icing
Just watch this simple video, it's so easy!
http://www.howcast.com/videos/183834-How-To-Make-Cream-Cheese-Frosting


And finally, once you've iced the cake just pop it in the fridge to chill for about half an hour.

Easy peasy spiced ginger cake with dark chocolate icing and walnuts

This is a simple recipe with a twist. I took an easy ginger cake recipe, added a teaspoon of cinnamon, ginger and all spice, then melted dark chocolate and milk chocolate together and added cocoa and icing sugar and butter to thicken the chocolate topping and decorated it with walnuts for that finishing touch. It takes about one hour to make, most of my recipes do as I don't want to spend much longer than that because I usually want to eat them soon after they're ready and I'm quite impatient with food!

It's a rich and a satisfying treat, perfectly delicious accompanied by a cup of coffee. Enjoy. See recipe details below, it's from group recipes:

Ingredients for ginger cake:

• 20 g butter
• 2/3 Cups dark brown sugar
• 1/3 C dark muscavado sugar
• 1 1 /2 C plain flour , 1 tsp baking soda , 1 tbspcornflour , 3 tsp ginger powder - sifted
• 1 egg , lightly beaten
• 2/3 C warm full cream milk
1 tsp Cinnamon powder

1 tsp All spice powder

How to make:

• Grease and line a 9 inch square pan 
• Melt the butter and sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves ( I used microwave )
• Transfer to a large mixing bowl .
• Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C
• • Transfer to a large mixing bowl .
  • Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C .
  • Pour the sifted icing.
  • Make a well at the center and pour the milk and egg .
  • Use a wooden spoon and mix well .
  • Pour in the greased pan and bake for 30 mins .
  For the frosting: 
  125g butter - melted
  250g icing sugar
  2 eggs
  175g cocoa powder
  1 tsp vanilla essence
  Blend butter, sugar and vanilla essence. Add two eggs and beat, gradually add cocoa powder and icing powder and blend until you have a smooth paste. Leave to rest for five minutes and then spread on the cake.
  
  
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Make mine a cake!

My new found single life was having a surprisingly strange effect on me- rather than going out and drinking myself silly, I began looking for something to make. I wanted to create and fashion pretty little things to make myself feel better. And so, after a few days I took out the recipe books and I began to bake.

It all began with a carrot cake so light, juicy, fluffy and nice that I made it not once, but twice! I found this recipe online and chose another recipe for the extra special cream cheese frosting! It really is delicious and if you don't believe me, just make it yourself. It only takes about an hour and once you've had a mouthful, you'll be diving right back in for more. So go on, bake yourself happy!

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Ingredients

• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 175ml sunflower oil
• 3 large eggs , lightly beaten
• 140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)
• 100g raisins
• grated zest of 1 large orange
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

How to make the frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.