American Adventure, Part 1 - Pumpkin Pie

To celebrate Halloween I decided to make some classic American recipes, first up - Pumpkin Pie.

I couldn't get any canned pumpkin so had to make my pumpkin purée from scratch, which took HOURS! I bought a large pumpkin from the supermarket, scooped out middle and then chopped it into small pieces

That was really hard work, I was shattered afterwards! Then I boiled the pumpkin pieces for 20 minutes until they were soft. Then I drained them and left them to cool.

After that I moved on to the hardest part, sieving the pumpkin to make a purée. It took ages and my arm was killing me by the time I'd finished!

Then I mixed the pumpkin purée with eggs, sugar, butter, evaporated milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice to make the pie filling. I lined a pie dish with sweet shortcrust pastry and added the filling.

Then I baked it for 50 minutes. I served it with cream, and it was YUMMY!

Saturday Afternoon Adventures

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and my parents had come over to visit, so while my dad walked the dog me and my mum made a couple of batches of cupcakes (what else is there to do on a Saturday afternoon?!)

First up, a new recipe - Earl Grey cupcakes, from the Primrose Bakery book (which, by the way, I LOVE!!!!). We decorated them with a vanilla buttercream, tinted lilac.

They tasted amazing - a gorgeous almond flavour, with a really subtle hint of the bergamot from the Earl Grey tea. I recommend buying the book and trying them out!

Next up, a treat for my dad - Cherry bakewell cupcakes, from my favourite recipe book of all time, Cupcake Magic by Kate Shirazi. We decorated them with lemon icing and sugar paste hearts before piping onto them. Most said 'love' but we also piped some family members names onto some of them as well :)

Things I Cannot Bake

Added to the list today.... fudge and cookies

I HATE when I can't get something right *cries* Clearly I should just stick to cupcakes!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

What's better than mint and chocolate? Nothing, that's what!!!!!

Chocolate cupcakes + mint frosting + crushed glacier mints = heaven!

Fruity Adventures

Mmm, fresh raspberries and strawberries, you can't beat them! So I've used them as inspiration for two cupcakes - white chocolate & raspberry and strawberries & cream. Delicious!

For the strawberry cupcake I added a load of mashed up strawberries into a normal cupcake mix and upped the flour content. When they had cooled I whipped up some double cream and piped it on top of the cupcake and topped it off with half a fresh strawberry. Yummy!

For the raspberries ones I made normal vanilla cupcake mix, then swirled in some raspberry jam. After baking I made a white chocolate butter cream (normal vanilla butter cream, half a large bar of melted white chocolate and a couple of tablespoons of double cream) and spread that on top, and finished them off with two fresh raspberries on top.

Mothers Day Adventures

For Mothers Day I made two batches of cupcakes, one for my mum and one for my mother in law :)

The first batch were lemon cupcakes, with lemon icing and sugar paste flowers and the second batch were chocolate cupcakes with butter cream swirls (some chocolate, some vanilla) and a chocolate on top!

You can't see the cases in this photo, but they were pastel colours with while polka dots - super cute! I matched the colour of the icing to the colour of the cupcake case. 

Christmas Baking Adventures - Mini Bakewell Tarts

Bakewell Tarts


Make the pastry as for the Lemon Curd Tarts

For the filling:

• 1 jar raspberry jam
• 3oz ground almonds
• 3oz caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 3oz butter
• 2 eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to gas mark 6
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Stir in the ground almonds
• Roll out the pastry and cut into rounds. Grease a 12 hold cupcake tine with butter or spray
• Place a round into each hole and add half a teaspoon to jam to the bottom of each one
• Cover the jam with a teaspoon of the almond mixture
• Bake for 15-20 minutes then cool on a wire rack