Peach Melba Crumbles

In the appropriate amount of ramekins you need place a small handful of fresh or frozen raspberries . 

On top of the raspberries place cubed tin peaches.

On top of the peaches and raspberries Sprinkle some pre-made crumble mix I used McDougall's.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 mins, serve with piping hot custard. :)

Easy Cinnamon Whirls

Love cinnamon whirls so easy to make yet so delicious to eat.  Great with a steaming hot cup of tea or coffee for a tasty treat.  Ready rolled puff pastry makes it even easier and the lighter version reduces the amount of fat without detracting from the taste.  I personally prefer the light puff pastry it doesn't have the same greasiness that normal puff pastry has. 

Ingredients
Ready Rolled Light Puff Pastry
Ground Cinnamon
Unsalted Organic Butter
Light Brown Sugar

Method

1. Unwrap puff pastry and spread a layer of softened butter over the surface (about the same amount you would spread on a piece of bread for a sandwich) leaving a little round the edges uncovered.
2. Sprinkle the light brown sugar over the butter.
3. Dust a generous amount of cinnamon over the butter.
4. Roll up and slice into roughly inch thick pieces.
5. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake in the oven at 180°C for 10-15 mins or until golden brown.
6. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.
7. Eat and Enjoy

Mango Cupcakes with Mango Cream Cheese Frosting

I love mango and I love cupcakes so the two together is pure heaven; whilst shopping I came across a mango coulis (Tesco finest) and thought it might go well in a cupcake. Much easier than making my own fruit puree which is not difficult to make but adds to the cleaning up later and to be honest anything that reduces the washing up is a good thing in my books.  The result was very pleasing, the cupcakes were moist and just the right sweetness and the frosting was perhaps a little too sweet for some but personally I thought it was delicious. For my first attempt at making cream cheese frosting I was pleasantly surprised; I've only made butter cream once which turned out ok a little runny and extremely sweet; sickeningly so actually and was apprehensive about making frosting again.  Never knew there was such a thing as cream cheese frosting until I saw a tub of it in the local supermarket didn't buy it was too expensive for such a small amount; so I did a recipe search and found out how to make it.  The recipe called for 400g of cream cheese but the largest tub of Philadelphia is 300g, yes I could have bought a second tub but already had some mascarpone in the fridge so I thought why not make the rest up with it and the result was a creamy frosting which tasted delicious. 

Ingredients

cupcakes


200g Self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter softened
125ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp  vanilla extract
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder

approx 50ml mango coulis (Tesco finest)

frosting

300g full fat cream cheese (Philadelphia)

100g mascarpone
125g unsalted butter, softened
250g icing sugar sieved approx
2tsp vanilla extract 
mango coulis

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Soften the butter for about 10 - 20 seconds in the microwave, I left it out overnight but it was still rather hard.  Place all the ingredients apart from the mango coulis in a large bowl, mix well with a wooden spoon, whisk or hand mixer whichever you like.
3. Add the mango coulis and stir through.  Add as much or as little as you like depending on how mangoy (not a word I know) you want the end cupcakes to be I always love to taste the batter.
4. Line two 12 hole bun/cupcake trays with paper cases or 12 if you are using bigger cases. From this amount of batter I got 24 smallish cupcakes.  Divide the batter between the cases; bake in the oven for 15-20 mins until springy on top.
5. For the frosting soften the butter for about 10 seconds in the microwave and place in a large bowl along with the Philadelphia and mascarpone blend together a little until softish and start to sieve in the icing sugar; blend until smooth. Add the coulis as required to your own taste and the vanilla extract. You may want to add a little red and yellow food colouring to make the frosting for a more vivid colour 
6. Decorate your cooled cupcakes with the frosting.  I piped it on with a star shaped nozzle.

note: you may need to add a little extra icing sugar if the consistency is too thin 

This is the mango coulis it's supposed to be for drizzling over ice cream or natural yogurt but went great in the cupcake batter and the frosting.

The end result not exactly perfect looking but they pleased those who ate them and that to me is what counts.

Need a lot more practice with the piping.