Sweet Treats No 2!

Hello again!

Two blog posts in one weekend! Crikey! I am spoiling you! The annoying thing is that this is the second time that I have had to write this post as "Blogger" went crazy on me last night and the post turned into a page of techno speak and I couldn't right it.... never mind!

Anyway, after a lovely weekend spent at home with Mr P, who had his head in the TV watching several rugby matches, I decided to spend Sunday baking in the kitchen as well.

I wanted to have a play around with a old family recipe, Granny Warren's Yoghurt Cake. Now, I love this cake as it is so easy to make, and it is plain and simple.

The original recipe is:
150g pot of plain yoghurt (keep the pot as it will be your measuring tool)
One pot of Corn Oil
2 eggs
2 pots of caster sugar
3 pots of self raising flour

Pre heat oven to 160C, and grease and line a 8" cake tin.

Ingredients all lined up and ready to go!

In a large bowl, add the yoghurt and oil. Stir
Add the eggs. Stir.
Add the sugar. Stir.
Add the flour..... you guessed it! Stir!

It makes a cake batter which you pour into your cake tin. Pop it in the oven for 40-50 minutes. You may need to cover the top of the cake with tin foil after 30minutes if it browns too quickly. Leave to cool for 10minutes before removing from the tin. Leave to cool completely before cutting.

Now, I wanted to see if I could adapt this recipe into cup cakes with a twist with the addition of poppy seeds and lemon..... here goes! When I added the flour, I also added 2 tbsp of poppy seeds, the zest and juice of one lemon. The recipe makes 16 cupcakes. Cook at 160C for 20-25 minutes. When you spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, make sure that you fill them half way (not 3/4). I'll show you why...

You get a muffin top if you fill the case 3/4 full!

This is how they are supposed to look like - fill your cases halfway only!

I also brought some new cupcake tins from Steamer Trading on Saturday.... they are fluted cupcake tins and fit the job perfectly! I found that my old bun tins were too shallow, and my muffin tins were too big. Masterclass now make a fluted muffin tin which are perfect for cupcakes.

Whilst the cakes were in the oven, I made some lemon curd. I wanted to spoon out a hole in the top of the cakes when cooled. The recipe I use for this is from Ruth over at the Pink Whisk! It's a great recipe. Thanks Ruth!




Sunshine on the window cill!



The little holes of curd.... ready to be hidden by some lemon butter cream!

Whilst all this was going on, I made some lemon butter cream: 500g sifted icing sugar, 110g unsalted soft butter, zest and juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp of milk.

My top tip when making butter cream, and to stop your kitchen turning into a sticky cloudy mess, sift the icing sugar in a large bowl in the sink. Cover the bowl and sieve with a clean tea towel whilst you sieve. Any mess will go into the sink and you won't be buried under clouds of icing sugar. Once the icing sugar has been sifted, I add the milk and lemon juice and give it a stir... it starts to bring the icing together, then I add the butter and place under the mixer. This also stops a cloud of icing sugar forming in the kitchen and making everything sticky!

Believe me, it works!

Here are the lovely buns. Mr P and I sampled one each on Sunday afternoon (followed by another sampling after tea!)...

Displayed on my lovely "bargain" John Lewis Cake Stand! £9.00!

The cupcake cases came from Homesense which is the Home Division of TKMaxx. They sell an amazing selection of cases and they are really good quality. You can also buy them from TKMaxx in their smaller home departments.

I also had time to whip up some Peanut Butter and Honey Seeded Bars.... but it appears that as they were cooling, a large mouse had a nibble....

And I have to share with you my new metal sign in the kitchen... brought from Ebay!

And I made some Lavender Sugar... ready for some Lavender Shortbread in two weeks!

Phew, that was a busy weekend!

See you soon!

Nic xoxoxo

SO, what was in those Pengelly Hampers?

It's become a bit of a tradition of mine since I've been married that every year I make up hampers for my family and close friends and I make 100% of all the goodies that go in them! I didn't want to tell you before Christmas about what went in them as it would have spoilt the surprise!

I try to add something new or different every year. I make jams and chutneys all year round, so I save some special ones aside for the hampers, but I start to make the Christmassy ones from September onwards. I also like to make Sloe Gin and Vodka and they are lucky to make the hampers each year! And of course, there are the bits and pieces which have to be made the week up to Christmas as it won't last... I normally spend the week up to Christmas frantically running around the kitchen, making, baking, preparing... and then the sewing... goodness, it never ends! But I wouldn't have it any other way!

This year the hampers contained:
- Roasted Shallot and Cranberry Relish
- Christmas Chutney
- Nigella's Chilli Jam
- Pengelly Piccalilli
- Lemon Curd (recipe from the Pink Whisk) which is uber zingy!
- Double Chocolate Biscotti
- Candied Orange Sticks dipped in dark Chocolate from the River Cottage

A selection of goodies about to go into their Christmas Bags!

Lovely glistening candied orange peel covered in dark chocolate! Mmmm!

 With making the candied orange, my only tip would be that when you go to peel the oranges, cut the top and bottom off the orange, and them score 4-5 lines down the orange and then peel as it gives you lovely straight lines and good size pieces that you can then cut into slices. I juiced the remaining orange flesh for fresh juice on Christmas Morning. This recipe is really cheap - 5 large oranges cost me 99p at our local grocers, plus £1.00 for a bag of sugar, and a bar of dark chocolate for £1.50... in return it make enough slices for 5 sweetie bags with 15-18 sticks in each! Thanks River Cottage!

I made my mum and my mother in law napkins this year.... do you like them?

Festive napkins!

And the lovely patchwork ones for my mum....

Patchwork napkins with assorted central panels

As you can imagine, I never have any complaints and the edible contents never last that long! Oh well, better start thinking about what I can put in them for next Christmas.... fudge maybe?

I'm happy to share any recipes if anything takes your fancy!

Cheerio,

Nic xoxox