Summer Berry Cupcakes

Apparently this year has seen a bumper crop of British berries, which is all the excuse I need to make these delicious cupcakes. The tartness of the lemon curd centre and berries contrasts beautifully with the sweet, moist vanilla sponge, and the colours are gorgeous.

Ingredients (Makes 12)

175g butter
175g caster sugar
225g s.r flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp soured cream
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
12 tsp lemon curd

For the icing:
200g icing sugar
3 tbsp mascarpone

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with 12 large cupcake cases.
• Beat together the butter, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in the soured cream.
• Place 1 spoonful of mixture into each case (reserve half of the mixture)
• Top each with 1 tsp lemon curd, 1 raspberry and 1 blueberry before covering with the remaining mixture
• Bake for 15 minutes or until well risen and golden. 
• To make the icing, beat together the icing sugar and mascarpone. When the cupcakes are cooled, pipe on the icing and decorate with fresh berries. 

Lovely Lemon and Almond Cake

This cake looks really cheerful and bright, it's perfect for spring. Using ground Almonds gives it a delicious dense, almost chewy texture. The mascarpone icing adds a light, sweet flavour that works well with the tangy lemon. If you wanted to make it gluten free, using entirely ground almonds in place of flour would be fine too.


Ingredients:

225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 medium eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
150g ground almonds
75g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
zest 1 lemon

For the icing and filling:

3 tbsp mascarpone cheese
150g icing sugar
juice 1 lemon

handful flaked almonds

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 
• Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, vanilla and almond extract. 
• Fold in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder. 
• Spoon the mixture into a 9 inch cake tin and bake for 25 minutes or until risen and golden.
• To make the icing, beat together the cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice until it's a 'spreadable' consistency. 
• Place the flaked almonds in a frying pan and dry cook until golden brown. set aside. 
• When the cake is cooled, spread the icing over the top and sprinkle over the toasted almonds and grate over some extra lemon zest, if you like. 

Blueberry and Lemon Bakewell Tart

This is a twist on the conventional bakewell tart using lemon curd and a home made blueberry jam, a lovely combination which is perfect for spring. The blueberry jam is surprisingly quick and easy to make, and adds a vibrant deep purple colour to the tart.

Ingredients:

For the shortcrust pastry:
100g butter, cubed
200g plain flour
40g icing sugar
1 beaten egg

For the Frangipane:
55g butter
55g caster sugar
1 beaten egg
40g ground almonds
1 tbsp plain flour

For the Blueberry Jam:
100g blueberries
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp Lemon Curd (Shop bought is fine but if you fancy making your own there's a recipe here)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• To make the pastry base, rub together the butter, icing sugar and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, Then use a knife to mix in the egg and bring the dough together into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill. 
• For the blueberry jam, place the ingredients in a pan and heat until the blueberries start to pop. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens, then set aside to cool completely. 
• Roll out the pastry and place into a round tart tin before covering with grease proof paper and baking beans. Blind Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes or until it has turned golden brown. When it's done, turn your oven down to 180 degrees.
• For the frangipane, beat together all the ingredients until light and fluffy. 
• When the pastry base is ready, place a few blobs of the blueberry jam and lemon curd onto the bottom before topping with the frangipane. Evenly spoon the remaining jam and curd onto the top of the tart. 
• Bake for 20 minutes until the tart is just set. Dust with icing sugar to serve. 

Blagdon Farm, Northumberland

Last weekend I was back in Newcastle for a flying visit. Catching up with friends always means three too many gin and tonics, especially in Geordieland, and so after a night on the tiles I woke up feeling a little groggy and asked my Mum if we could go and seek out a nice cheese scone. She suggested Blagdon farm, a working farm with a café and shop that’s the perfect antidote to a sore head. It’s a granny’s haven – complete with bizarrely stocked clothes shop selling Teflon trousers and decorative walking sticks – but this doesn’t detract from the comfortingly delicious fare on offer.

At the café I had a warming bowl of thick, wholesome carrot and lentil soup with a cheese scone, which was just how it should be; crumbly, buttery and very cheesy. The homemade cakes are really authentic, and I shared a piece of summer berry pie with my sister. It tasted like something from a bygone era, with the lovely sharp taste of the summer fruit contrasting beautifully with the crunchy, sugary pastry.

For someone who gets a slightly ridiculous sense of enjoyment from a trip to Tesco’s, the farm shop at Blagdon was a totally up my street. There’s an amazing array of seasonal fruit and veg, herbs, preserves, homemade cakes and all manner of other foodie goods. The meat counter, selling an extensive range of meat from Blagdon and other farms around Northumbria, is stocked with wild roe venison from the Blagdon estate, rare breed fillet steak from Northumberland and Blagdon’s ‘special sausages’, which are apparently a bestseller!

The shop only stocks goods from local farms that are organic or have used traditional farming methods, an old-fashioned ethos which is relevant today more than ever, when it’s so important to support local producers. This isn’t exactly a hard concept to get on board with, however, when you taste the quality of the food on offer – I picked up some smoked garlic that really transforms any dish with its earthy, smoky flavour and some rosemary and thyme salt that will be fantastic on roast chicken. The homemade sausage rolls also looked delicious; let’s hope they survive the pasty tax!

Brilliant Summer Berry Cake

It finally feels like we're coming to the end of winter, which in Edinburgh is no mean feat. We've switched the heating off, we've drank some cider on the meadows, we've worn sunglasses. Whilst it is probably wildly optimistic to believe the hot water bottle nights are over (I write this in my slightly chilly bedroom and have heard snow is forecast later) this cake seems perfect to bake and eat in the sunshine. Its colourful, summery appearance always impresses, it tastes amazing and it seems perfect to bake now that lots of lovely berries are coming back into season. The soured cream that's used in the mixture is the key to its moist texture, but I also love the contrasting colours used in the topping - and the pink and purple splodges that the fresh berries inside the cake create! Best of all, it's just an all in one method, so you can whip it up really quickly and enjoy another glass of Pimms. Before the snow comes, that is.

Ingredients:

175g butter

175g s.r flour

175g caster sugar

225g s.r flour

3 large eggs

1 tsp baking powder

142ml soured cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

zest 2 lemons (use the juice in your gin!)

1 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blueberries

For the icing:

approx. 250g icing sugar

25g butter

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 9 inch round cake tin
• In a bowl, combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla essence. Beat for 2 minutes or until well combined.
• Stir in 4 tbsp soured cream (reserve the rest) and the zest of one lemon, along with half the blueberries. Stir and spoon into the cake tin.
• Sprinkle half the raspberries over the mixture, spacing evenly (this will stop all the berries sinking to the bottom of the mixture).
• Bake for around 35 minutes or until cooked through, then leave to cool.
• To make the icing, beat together the butter, icing sugar and the remaining soured cream. It can go watery quite easily, so add the butter and soured cream a little at a time to the icing sugar to ensure you get a thick texture.
• When the cake is cooled, top with the icing and the remaining raspberries, blueberries and lemon zest.

Plum, Almond and Honey Tart

All the sunshine we've been having has been making me regard the stodgy comfort food of winter as a distant memory, and perhaps this is why tarts and cheesecakes have overtaken the usual sponge cake in my baking daydreams. This is light, makes the most of seasonal plums (though you could try it with apples, pears or blueberries) and tastes very summery indeed.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

375g plain flour

225g butter, cubed

15g caster sugar

4 tbsp cold water

For the frangipane filling:

200g butter

200g sugar

200g ground almonds

2 eggs, beaten

6 ripe plums

1 tbsp runny honey

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
• To make the pastry, rub together the butter, flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water and use a knife to bring the mixture together into a dough.
• Gently knead onto a floured surface before wrapping in clingfilm and leaving in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
• Roll out the pastry and use it to line a ten inch tart tin. Push the pastry to the edges and cut off any excess.
• Prick the base of the pastry with a fork before covering with greaseproof paper and baking beans.
• Blind bake the pastry for around 20 minutes, turning around halfway through, until golden brown. When it's ready, turn your oven down to 180 degrees.
• Meanwhile, to make the frangipane, combine all the ingredients and beat until smooth.
• Spread the frangipane over the pastry base before topping with the sliced plums.
• Spoon over the honey and bake for a further 25 minutes or until the mixture is cooked.

Super Salsa

We ate this zingy salsa with our fajitas last night, but it's a really fresh, versatile recipe that you'll find goes with lots of dishes. Try spooning it over pan-fried fillet of salmon for an impressive light lunch, adding to cooked bulgar wheat for a tasty salad, or using to make a quick bruschetta. It has a really summery, fresh taste that's perfect for this time of year.

Ingredients:

1 punnet sunblush cherry tomatoes, diced

1/2 cucumber, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

handful fresh chives, finely chopped

handful fresh mint, finely chopped

handful fresh basil, finely chopped

1 tbsp chilli oil

1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

juice 1 lime

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper

Method:

• When everything is chopped, combine in a bowl and give it a good stir
• Season to taste
• If possible, leave covered in the fridge for 1 hour to let the flavours infuse.