Em and I love having a theme for our baking, so when my manager at work dropped a hint that I should make some Grand National themed cupcakes, I couldn’t refuse! Click here to find out how to make these fun cupcakes.
Archive for the ‘Nuts’ Category
Grand National Pistachio and White Chocolate Cupcakes
Posted in Chocolate, Cupcakes, Nuts, tagged cupcakes, Grand National, Horse Racing, horses, pistachio, White chocolate on April 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Easter Chick Chocolate Orange Simnel Cake
Posted in Celebration Cakes, Chocolate, Easter, Iced Cakes, Nuts, Spices, tagged chick, chocolate, Easter, Marzipan, orange, Simnel Cake on April 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Last year for Easter Emma and I were back at our parents for a few days, so we thought it was about time we made a mess of Mum’s kitchen and did some baking! We wanted to do a slightly different take on a traditional Simnel cake, and came across this yummy chocolate orange Simnel cake recipe. The decoration was another idea taken from Pinterest. So if you haven’t made a cake yet, this one is lovely and the decoration is fairly simple too. Click here to keep reading…
Family Tree Cake
Posted in Celebration Cakes, Fruit/Veg, Nuts, Spices, Spring, Summer, tagged blossom, Delia Smith, Family Tree Cake, fruit cake, leaves, spring on March 19, 2015| 4 Comments »
Over the last few weeks it really has started to feel like spring has arrived. We now have lots of daffodils out in our garden and the sun has been shining! So I thought that this cake was perfect to blog about as it has a real spring feel to it. For our favourite fruit cake recipe and how to build your own family tree cake click here
Mince Pies
Posted in Fruit/Veg, Nuts, Pastry, Spices, tagged Christmas, Mince pies, orange, pastry on December 13, 2014| 1 Comment »

It’s about time we put some mince pies on the blog! If you only bake one thing this Christmas, have a go at these, they really are super, especially when they are warm straight out of the oven with a cup of tea. This recipe is from Josceline Dimbleby. This year I can’t make enough mince pies, I think I have already baked over 60, some are in the freezer ready for Christmas and the rest have been taking into the office as well as having a a few left over for an afternoon snack. Click here to try our favourite recipe.
Snowman Cupcakes
Posted in Christmas, Cupcakes, Fruit/Veg, Nuts, Spices, tagged Christmas, cupcakes, fruit cake, snowman on December 4, 2014| 1 Comment »
I love a bit of Christmas baking, last year I worked my way through the cupcake recipes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book. I love the fruit cake cupcakes, the recipe is light and delicious and still has that lovely boozy fruit cake flavour. I thought these snowmen were pretty cool and as my hubby is a massive marshmallow fan I knew these would be a winner! Click here to find out how to build a snowman cupcake.
Autumn Leaf (Maple and Pecan) Cupcakes
Posted in autumn, Cupcakes, Nuts, Sugarpaste flowers, tagged autumn leaves, cupcakes, maple and pecan on September 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Last week the weather suddenly changed and it started to feel like autumn. It was also National Cupcake Week. So you can probably guess what I did at the weekend…. I made some autumn-themed cupcakes!
White Ruffle Flowers and Nutella Cupcakes
Posted in Chocolate, Cupcakes, Nuts, tagged cupcakes, flowers, Nutella, ruffles, vintage on August 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The advantage of doing a blog with somebody else is that you can remind/encourage each other to keep it up. Over the last 6 months my blogging has been very irregular (and infrequent at times) but Becky and I have said that we’re going to remind each other to write a post each week. So here’s my post for the week – look out for Becky’s later this week.
Cashew Nut Macarons with an Orange and Cardamom filling
Posted in Fruit/Veg, Macarons, Nuts, tagged cardamom, cashew nuts, macarons, orange on February 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »
After my successful attempt using hazelnuts to make macarons rather than ground almonds the other week, I decided I would try another nut. Next on the list were cashew nuts – mainly because I had a couple of bags in the cupboard. As well as experimenting with the recipe I was also experimenting with my new camera – for my birthday I treated myself to an SLR camera. I was playing around with all the settings to work out how to use it, so I ended up with loads of photos which are all only very slightly different! So over the next weeks some of the photos might be slightly experimental… But hopefully better than the ones which I’ve been taking on my phone until now! Right, back to the macarons….
Hazelnut Macarons with a Nutella Cream Cheese Filling
Posted in Chocolate, Macarons, Nuts, tagged hazelnut, macarons, Nutella on January 27, 2014| 4 Comments »
I remember looking around my house before I bought it and thinking that the oven was probably rubbish – it looked as old as me. However, after four and half years of baking in it, I can honestly say I wouldn’t change it… even if somebody offered me a brand new top of the range oven. After all the hard work it’s done for me over the last four and half years, I decided it was time to give it a really good clean. And by that, I mean going as far as taking the glass out the door and leaving it to soak so I could get every last little mark off it. After about 2 and a half hours it looked almost as good as new – or as close as I could get – so I decided that I would test out the “new” oven and bake some macarons. Click here to keep reading.



