Blueberry & Raspberry Lime Drizzle Cake!

We went over to the parents-in-law for Sunday lunch to celebrate the Husband's birthday belatedly with the McNab family including the children. The ugly cake made its regular appearance and was happily eaten by the family. I had planned to bake this fruity drizzle cake for the office so decided to bring a few pieces along for the family lunch. My brother-in-law happened to be quite fond of limes so had 2 pieces of this cake which he seemed to enjoy.

I had put off baking this cake as it called for 6 limes that required much zesting and juicing for the cake and the drizzle syrup. It helped that raspberries and blueberries are currently on sale so it seemed quite a shame not to bake this when the fruits are in season. Baking this cake did take longer than I expected as the limes did take some time to zest and juice and to cream the golden caster sugar, butter and eggs mixture together before folding in the flour, lime zest, juice and berries. To enjoy this bake, it definitely helps if you like limes as the cake is further drenched in lime syrup after coming out of the oven.

Comments from a taster: Should never have tried the lime drizzle, couldn’t stop myself from eating the whole piece. Very tasty and moist and I loved the combination of the fruit. :)

Campfire Cupcakes!

I was browsing through my new baking book when I saw this adorable cupcake recipe. Seeing that it has been quite sunny for these few days, campfire cupcakes seem to be a good item to bake.

Why these cupcakes are called campfire cupcakes is because the topping is made of melted marshmellows like how one would grill marshmellows over a fire at summer camp. The cupcakes are a simple chocolate cupcake recipe with chocolate chips and the topping is made by spreading mini marshmellows on top of the cooked cupcakes and then grilling them for 30 secs until they brown and melt slightly. Using a mix of orange, pink and white marshmellows is also a good constrast with the chocolate, making the cupcakes look rather sweet.

Feedback has been pretty good from my other tasters but the Husband found them a bit bland and would prefer them with proper icing. Oh well, you can't please everyone! :)

Frosted Lemon Poppyseed Cookies!

This weekend, I found a lemon lurking in the fridge and decided to use it before it gets soft and mushy. This recipe is ideal as I baked the lemon zest into the cookies and the lemon juice is used to make the frosting.

I am not the biggest fan of poppyseeds at times but it does seem to work in cookies and cakes, giving them an interesting texture. The downside, of course, is you could end up with poppyseeds stuck between your teeth! These cookies turned out crumbly and crunchy due to the poppyseeds.

The Husband has also pronounced these cookies as 'quite good' and that I have baked two very good types of cookies this weekend. :)

Orange Cranberry Brownie Cookies!

I have not baked anything chocolatey for quite some time so thought with the weather getting rainy and dark these days, I might want to bake something chocolatey and comforting this weekend. The Husband is a massive fan of chewy cookies and brownie cookies should be chewy with a soft brownie-like texture.

This receipe seems ideal with chocolate chips, orange zest and dried cranberries. The dough itself is made of flour, brown and white sugar, butter, cocoa powder and eggs. I thought the amount of cocoa powder might make the cookie dough a bit dry but it was thoroughly absorbed by the wet mixture of sugar, butter and eggs to form a lovely chocolately fruity dough.

These cookies were really easy and quick to make and I got 72 cookies out of a batch of dough. They turned out really well and the Husband has eaten 4 already, pronouncing them 'quite good'.

Mini Egg & Macadamia Nut Cookies!

The Husband was going through the kitchen cupboards when he unearthed 3 packets of mini eggs that we bought on sale. Knowing that they will get eaten by the Husband if I do not bake with them, I checked my caramel egg slice recipe which required 500g of mini eggs. As I only had 300g, I went online to find an alternative recipe and found this cookie recipe instead which called for 285g of mini eggs but what is 15g more of chocolate in a cookie?

Although they do not look that great, these cookies turned out really tasty which is lucky as I ended up with about 60 cookies in the end that filled up an entire tin and more. As I was packing some for the parents-in-law, the Husband remarked that it was lucky that our niece and nephew visit the grandparents every week which means they get cookies too! They are definitely quite moreish as my colleagues happily told me they were on their 5th or 6th cookie at the end of the day.

Cookies were all finished on the second day!

Raisin Oatmeal Coffee Cake!

As I was already planning to bake the mini egg and macadamia nut cookies, I decided to bake a healthier choice as an alternative. I found this lovely raisin (my favourite!) oatmeal coffe cake recipe in my collection.

Just for information, coffee cakes do not necessarily contain coffee but is more like a category of cakes intended to be served with coffee. According to Wikipedia, "coffee cakes are typically flavored with cinnamon, nuts and fruits. These cakes sometimes have a crumbly or crumb topping called streusel and/or a light glaze drizzle."

My raisin oatmeal coffee cake has a sweet streusel topping and filling which is made out of cinnamon, brown sugar, flour and butter. I think a mistake I made was to sprinkle the filling too thinly to end up with a topping that was too sweet but the office seems to like it well enough. I have also given a quarter of the cake to the parents-in-law so will be interested to see what they think as they really like the cookies!

The cake was also finished on the second day!

Blueberry Banana Loaf!

Due to the availability of blueberries on sale and bananas from the office fruit basket, I decided to bake something with both ingredients. Surprisingly, there are not a lot recipes that combine both blueberries and bananas and this was a recipe that got good reviews.

I thought it tasted quite nice but have to admit it was not as tasty as the blueberry lemon loaf that gets rave reviews everytime. It took 2 days to finish in the office.

Comment from a taster: Preferred your cake today with the lemon. Very nice. :)