Winter Warner

A roast and a warming apple crumble... a perfect way to spend a cold New Year's day.

I used a basic crumble recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and put my own twist on it. I just can't cook apples without Cinnamon, and my mu always put sultanas in her apple desserts. 

So here it is:

Ingredients

180g plain flour

120g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

80g caster sugar

80g brown sugar

1kg Bramley apples

Zest of ½ lemon

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1-2 tbsp water

Handful of sultanas

Teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

Put the flour and butter in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs (or pulse it in a food processor). Tip in 40g each of caster and brown sugar and mix. Refrigerate while you assemble the rest. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Peel and core the apples, and cut the flesh into large chunks. Toss the apples with the lemon zest and juice, the remaining sugar and the water. Tip into a shallow, ovenproof dish.

Scatter the topping over the apples, squishing some of it into small chunks as you go, then bake for about 40 minutes, until golden. Serve with whipped cream, custard or ice-cream.

Baby shower cupcakes

My oldest and dearest friend is pregnant with her first baby and I was lucky enough to be back in Australia for her baby shower over the Christmas holidays. Obviously I offered to make some baby shower cupcakes, and thankfully this time it wasn't a buttercream melting 39 degree day so things went a bit more to plan. 

Once again I used the fail safe Hummingbird cupcake recipe in Vanilla and chocolate and their vanilla buttercream recipe, colours blue as we know the baby is a boy. 

Once again, due to my lack of excess time, I ordered some cupcake toppers, this time from Sugar and Spice Cupcakes. If you are looking for great quality products and fabulous friendly service, contact Stacy at Sugar and Spice.

So that was it really ... all that was left was to eat the cupcakes.

Merry Christmas - A selection of Christmas treats

As I spent Christmas with my family in Australia this year I didn't have much chance to do a lot of Christmas baking. However, I managed to get a few things in.

The first were some Christmas cupcakes. I used he hummingbird recipe that I have mentioned in previous blogs, both vanilla and chocolate. Simple buttercream on top (although if I'd not known beforehand I certainly proved the point that making buttercream in 39 degree temperatures isn't a great idea).

I ordered some cupcake toppers from Baking Pleasures and that was that.

The second item I made was a Christmas cake. My mum had made the cake already, I just competed the decoration. Normally you would cover the cake in Marzipan and then rolled fondant but on this occasion I just used the fondant. A few simple decorations using mould, cutters and some paste food colouring and the job was done in an hour or so.

Merry Christmas!!!