Lil Ms Squirrel's Raspberry Margarita Polenta Cake

The theme for tonight's Clandestine Cake Club is "Sporty or Naughty" as a celebration of the forthcoming Olympics.  Having singularly failed to come up with a cake idea that is synonymous with Sport, I settled for Naughty, which basically means anything goes.

Ready for cake club

With time not being on my side, and a need to make something that I've never made before, I decided to go for a polenta cake, to further use some up some of the bag of polenta that's still languishing on my storage shelves.

The lovely Jacqueline from the Cake Boule blog recently wrote about a similar cake that was Mojito-inspired.  I loved this idea, but lacked the 7" cake tin to make it in.  I toyed with the idea of scaling it up to fit my eight inch tin but having read some theory on the Ruth from the Pink Whisk's website, I decided I didn't have the time or patience for that either (and her method required me to have a 7" tin to start with which kind of defeated the objective of the exercise for me).

A quick search turned up a similar recipe in Kitchen by Nigella Lawson.  The recipe is also available online which is really helpful.  And it uses a 9" springform tin which I have so there was no faffy adapting.

I then hit on the idea of using up some of the raspberry glut that my garden seems to be producing on a daily basis.  I know this makes my CCC offerings rather typecast - my last effort was an epic Raspberry and Lime Swiss Meringue Cake - but I figured that it would be a pretty twist to an otherwise flat, yellow cake.  Googling around for another recipe, I found this one from Jane Hornby on BBC Good Food.  I was intrigued by the idea of using frozen raspberries rather than fresh so I popped some in the freezer, mixing three quarters in with the batter and adding the rest ten minutes before the end of baking.  Given the often delicate nature of raspberries, it works really well.

The healthy/sporty factor was further increased by the lack of flour in the cake.  It's made with ground almonds and polenta so with the use of gluten free baking powder, it has some virtues.

My biggest baking problem is always time.  I never seem to have the time to savour the process.  It's something that's always squeezed in during Miss A's nap or before work (so at about 5am) or late at night just before bed time.  This often means I make mistakes or get a little stressed by missing ingredients.  The entire kitchen was turned upside down looking for the baking powder.  It's always to the right of the bunny biscuit jar.  But while I was away at the weekend, the husband took it upon himself to "tidy up".  I couldn't find it for love nor money so ended up making my own courtesy of this fabulous substitutes guide from Joy Of Baking.

Fresh from the oven

Everything was going smoothly.  I was thinking about the look and texture of the batter so I could comment on it for this post.  It had a lovely, sunny tinge yet was quite stiff and heavy.  Obviously from the almonds and polenta.  I popped it into the oven.  Started to tidy.  Found egg number three still sitting uncracked next to the bunny biscuit jar.  That serves me right for trying to bake without my egg-cracking assistant.  She would never have allowed such an oversight.

As for other adaptations, I replaced the one of the lemons with two limes and added 25ml of tequila and a pinch of sea salt to the syrup for the Naughty bit.  Just enough tequila to get a taste without putting you over the drink-drive limit.  Essential when driving back from cake club.  The salt to balance the sweetness of the sugar and give it that authentic margarita twist. It does make quite a lot of syrup, but if you spoon slowly, the cake will drink it in.

If I was serving this for dessert, I'd probably use a side of lightly whipped marscapone, thinned with a little creme fraiche, sweetened with some icing sugar and spiked with lime and a pile of fresh raspberries from my garden.

Will update with the verdict and some pics from cake club in the morning.

Raspberry Margarita Polenta Cake - Adapted from "Kitchen" by Nigella Lawson

for the cake:

• 200g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g ground almonds
• 100g fine polenta/cornmeal
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 3 eggs
• zest 1 lemon and 2 limes (save the juice for the syrup, below)
• 200g frozen raspberries

for the syrup:

• juice 1 lemon and 2 limes
• 25 ml tequila
• pinch of Maldon sea salt (other brands are available, but Nigella would approve!)
• 125g icing sugar

• extra icing sugar to dust

• 1 x 23cm (9") springform or other round cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C (fan)/gas mark 4.
2. Lightly butter the base and sides of the baking tin then base-line with baking parchment.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder.  Beat a third into the butter mixture followed by one egg.  Repeat until all the dry mixture and eggs are incorporated.
5. Beat in the zest, carefully fold in 3/4 of the raspberries (reserving the rest for decoration) then pour into the baking tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and decorate with the remaining raspberries by gently pushing them into the surface.  Take care not to push too hard!  Return to the oven for another ten minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and check with a cake tester which should come out clean.  The cake should be shrinking away from the sides at this point.  Place the tin on a cooling rack.
8. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon and lime juice, tequila and salt with the icing sugar.  Once the icing sugar has disolved, carefully prick the sponge all over (in between the raspberries) and carefully spoon the warm syrup over the cake.
9. Leave in the tin to go cold before removing to serve.

If you don't need this to be gluten free, but want it to be nut free instead, you could replace the almonds with 200g of plain flour.

Updated: 2nd September 2012 - I've decided to enter this for the September 2012 Alphabakes competition.  The key ingredient this month should begin with 'P' so polenta cake definitely counts!

Lil Ms Squirrel's Pimms No 1 Cupcakes

I'm on a course this week and was a little disappointed that it meant that I wouldn't make it to the second meeting of the Bath Clandestine Cake Club for logistical reasons.  The theme this month was 'Alcoholic Cakes' and I'd been planning on making a Pimm's bundt cake.  After pondering the best way to deliver all of the fruit flavours associated with Pimm's, I found a fabulous idea on the Skin and Blister blog, where the bundt was drizzled with Pimm's and sugar and then had little sticks of fruit, artfully arranged on the outside.

Made the most of a tiny bit of evening sunlight

When I finally realised I wouldn't be able to make it to CCC (last night, when my usual journey of forty minutes, took an hour and forty!), I decided I'd save the bundt for my cousin's rather fabulous Wedding Festival Bake Off and not bake at all this week.

Depending on how you look at things fortunately (or unfortunately), my course colleagues kind of talked me into baking tonight anyway.  You know when you go on a course and they do that really annoying thing at the start where you tell everyone who you are and then one random fact about yourself?  Well for once, I had something interesting to say.  I told them about my blog.

It sparked a discussion over lunch as to whether I was actually cooking 'real food' or was doing 'beans on toast', 'beans under toast', beans with toast on the side', 'cheesy beans on toast'....  Thankfully, because I've blogged every night and for all apart from about two posts, I've managed to get at least one picture of the results (didn't think about doing it for the very first post, and one disaster went straight in the bin as I was so p'd off with it), I was able to direct them to the blog so they could explore for themselves.

This lunchtime, I got asked what was for tea last night.  I was secretly pleased that the ones staying at the local 4* hotel said that my dinner sounded better than what they'd had.  And then talk turned to what today's recipe was.  Because I'd already spoken about my love for baking and how my normal colleagues have been the recipient of many a cake, I kind of felt duty bound to do my usual Tuesday night activity of baking for work.

And so the Pimm's cupcake was born.  I had done a little research on this last night and was disappointed with the lack of inspiring recipes.  There's even one on the Good Food Channel website that has cucumber buttercream.  That's a step to far for me!

Ready for the oven

With this in mind, I set about creating my own recipe which I'll share with you tonight.  I'm not saying it's perfect.  I think they're okay.  There's probably room for improvement.  I think they're lacking something, but I'm not quite sure what.  So if you want to try the recipe and tweak it, let me know what you did and how it turned out!

I used the Hummingbird Vanilla Cupcake as a base as I was looking for a light airy bake.  A while back, I made their Mojito cupcakes for work, but because I was making bigger cakes this time and needed 14 of them, the vanilla recipe worked better with a slight adaptation.

For the filling, I reduced some Pimm's, orange juice and sugar and then added in halved strawberries and left them to cool.  The buttercream was laced with Pimm's, orange, lemon and lime zest.  I did a bit of research on this yesterday and found that the lovely Jacqueline over at Cake Boule had made Pimm's and strawberry buttercream for her gorgeous truffles.  I was pleased with her tip that she tweeted me that it makes a soft buttercream as I wasn't so worried when it came time to pipe it.  No big Wilton 1M swirls on these little beauties!  Again, if that's what you like, tinker with the buttercream recipe until your happy with the consistency.

I've tried one, purely for the purposes of telling you how it came out.  The rest are piped and now chilling in the fridge in my cake carrier, ready for a trip to the office tomorrow.  There was a small bowl of buttercream left to, so I'll be interested to prod it in the morning and see if it's set or not.

I'll update tomorrow with feedback from my colleagues.  Of course the trouble is that we have a 'Learning Contract' that we wrote on Day #1.  Amongst many things, it states that we are not allowed to criticise others.  Any rule flouting incurs a £1 fine.  So far, we've collected £7 (of which I contributed one for answering the phone to my boss).  So I'm sure they'll say the cakes taste amazing even if they don't really think so.

Recipe - Makes 16 (I use muffin sized cake cases)

For the Sponge (adapted from a recipe by the Hummingbird Bakery)

Got a bit carried away with Instagram effects...

• 240g plain flour
• 280g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 240ml whole milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

For the strawberry filling

• 16 small strawberries, halved (or eight large ones, quartered)
• 3 tbsp Pimm's No 1
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp orange juice

For the frosting and decoration

• 500g icing sugar, sifted
• 160g unsalted butter at room temperature
• pinch of table salt
• 60ml Pimm's No1
• zest of one orange
• zest of one lime
• zest of one lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/325F.  Line two muffin tins with paper muffin cases.  If you only have one muffin tin, you can always bake in two batches.
2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter into a bowl and, using an electric mixer, beat on a slow speed until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Mix the eggs, milk and mint in a jug.  Pour half of the milk mixture into the flour mixture and beat slowly until combined.  Scrape down the sides, add the rest of the milk mixture and then beat until you have a smooth batter.  Beat in the lemon juice.
4. Divide the mixture between the cake cases, filling them half full.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes, then remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
6. Meanwhile make the strawberry filling by placing the Pimm's, sugar and orange juice into a small pan.  Bring to the boil and then simmer until the liquid has reduced by about a half.  Remove from the heat and add in the strawberries.  Toss to coat and then leave to cool.
7. When the cakes are cooled, carefully cut a small cone shape from the top of each cake - keep the cut outs, don't eat them!  Fill the hole in each cake with a couple of pieces of the strawberry and then replace the piece of cake you removed.
8. Make the frosting by beating the icing sugar, butter and salt together using an electric mixer until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the fruit zest, and continue beating.  Slowly pour in the Pimm's.  Beat until light and fluffy then spoon or pipe some onto the top of each cake, ensuring that the cuts in the top of the cake are covered.  
9. Finally top with a whole fresh strawberry.  Or if you're feeling extravagant/arty, use fresh mint leaves and twists of orange, lemon, lime and cucumber skin cut with a cannoli cutter.

Jules' Blueberry and Lime Cake

Instagram, I love you nearly as much as I love this cake!

I woke up this morning to a very exciting email from a colleague this morning.  Thankfully being that it's Easter Sunday, it's nothing to do with  work.  It was just a fellow insomniac sharing a random bit of news.  That Instagram has finally arrived on Android.  It made my day more than all the mini eggs that I got.  And it was the perfect day for it as well because it's made the pictures of the lovely cake I baked today look even more special.

Nearly two hundred days into this challenge, I still don't think my mum quite gets what I'm up to but she's resigned herself to the fact that if I'm coming to stay for the weekend, I'm going to have to take over the kitchen for part of the weekend.  When she first dictated that we had to visit for Easter Sunday - because she had an egg hunt planned for Miss A - I said I would only come if I could make pudding.  She grudgingly agreed.  This then meant days of agonising how to transport a mousse cake (something I really want to try my hand at) from the far north of Wiltshire to the far south of Hampshire.  Not a great distance unless you are transporting a cake that will a) melt in the slightest bit of heat or b) not survive being driven round corners at more than 5mph.

Ready for the oven

During the recent heatwave I realised that I'd have to bake the cake here (I'm in Winchester as I type) for it to stand any chance of survival.  And whilst ruminating how much child free time I'd get (she doesn't sleep well when we're here) vs how much work the cake would take, I happened across a tweet from Jules (a different Jules to the Jules of Chocolate and Ginger Hot Cross Bun fame) about a gorgeous looking blueberry and lime cake.

I mentioned my passion for citrus cakes the other day and the whole idea of lime just suckered me in.  I've been wanting to make Lorraine Pascale's Mojitos Genoese for ages but it's one that needs to be made and eaten on the same day and I can't remember the last time (aside from Christmas) that I had house guests to cater for so it's another one that's still firmly parked on the 'to-do' list and is unlikely to be ticked off before this year's out.

Golden sponges

The bit that drew me to Jules' cake was the middle being sandwiched with lime curd.  Of course it had to be home made curd because I doubt that you could buy lime curd from regular shops in deepest, darkest Wiltshire - especially when the local Waitrose doesn't even stock cocoa powder!  People in Chippenham obviously don't make chocolate cake.  So last Sunday, I devoted that day's recipe to trying Sophie Grigson's lime curd.  And then I had to resist eating it all before the week was out.

I find blueberries can be a bit hit or miss on the flavour but we scored big time with the ones my mum bought from Tesco.  They were enormous and the flavour beautifully complemented the lime.  I was lucky with my limes too - sometimes they can be pretty hard dry (as the ones I had for my curd were), but the two I had today were beautifully scented and brimming with juice.

There's blueberries loose aboot this hoose!

My cake was a little dry which was my fault because my cooker is generally a bit rubbish when it comes to cake and I've gotten into the habit of having to exceed the stated baking time.  With my mum's cooker, I probably should've checked it at 25 mins as the cake was a little dry around the edge.  This could've been rectified with a little lime drizzle but I had no spare limes.  It tasted beautiful without and I actually enjoyed the crispy edges myself.  It's high up on the bake again list once this year is over.  Although I have a feeling that if I'm deluged with raspberries from my garden in the summer that I'll be making it again as a raspberry and lime cake.

It got rave reviews from the family.  With compliments being paid to the beautiful balance of different flavours and the fact that the amount of buttercream was just right and didn't make the cake too tooth-rottingly sweet.  I'm sure there won't be as much left when I get up in the morning as there is at the moment (if in fact, there's any know my stepdad's sweet-tooth!)

Thank you so much for sharing Jules!  You can find the recipe here.

My only gripe was when I served the cake, the blueberries all rolled off the top!  If I made it again, I'd probably spread a thin layer of butter cream or curd across the blueberry area to try and keep them in check :o)

Updated: Four Fruit Marmalade

What with the snow, I fully wasn't expecting Mr Ocado to turn up with my food delivery this evening so after a sleepless night (thanks to endometriosis pain - not at all pleasant), I was up at 4am, baking fresh bread like the good wife that I am.

On the subject of being a Good Wife, I've recently started following @GoodWifesGuide on Twitter.  I swear the husband secretly authors this.  Recent advice has included "When going to the chip shop a Good Wife will always pick the cheapest meal on the menu. To stay slim she will give him some of her chips", "A Good Wife will be looking for new lingerie for Valentines Day, most husbands would like this " and "A Good Wife will get together with other wives in the street to dig husbands cars out of the snow, it makes sense to team up."  Quite clearly, despite everything I do, I am not a Good Wife.

Anyway, Mr Ocado duly turned up with my shopping and a huge pile of citrus fruit that I'd ordered to have a go at Dan Lepard's Three Fruit Marmalade.  Except the couple of oranges that I had in my fruit bowl were quite small so I ended up adding in a couple of limes to make up the kilo of fruit that was required.

Chopped fruit, ready for cooking

Apparently, making marmalade Dan's way is far easier.  I understand that normally it involves a lot of faffy peeling of fruit, slicing the rind into thin strips and then putting the pips into a muslin square to go into the mix as the pectin helps the marmalade to set.  Instead, using Lepard's recipe, you just quarter the fruit, sling it into a pan with some water and leave it to boil for a couple of hours.



Once the fruit skins are soft, you scoop out the innards, slice or dice the skins and then boil with the liquid and sugar.  The recipe also has a lower sugar content because it apparently gives it the 'punchiest flavour and best set'.  I'm still waiting for mine to set having just bottled it.  The idea is to road test it on some of the leftover toasted bread in the morning.

Lepard also says to not use Sevilles in the recipe.  As I struggled for the kilo of fruit, I did have to throw in a couple of them.  They do add a slight bitter taste to the marmalade even now it's had 400g of sugar added to the mix.  Definitely wouldn't work with any more in there.

Boiled fruit skins

As for chopping up the peel, I went for chunky strips.  I didn't use it all - probably only about half.  If you look at the picture with the recipe, it looks to be almost entirely composed of peel.  That doesn't quite work for me so I discarded a selection of the skins.  The regular orange skins just disintegrated and it was really hard to scrape the inner fibres off so they got binned.  The I used one lime skin - one was nice and soft, the other quite firm.  But the most buttery of them all was the grapefruit skin.  I was surprised because before cooking, it seemed to have the most pith and I was a bit worried it wouldn't be of any use.

Getting the mixture up to final temperature took far longer than expected.  At one point, I began to think all the reviews about my Heston thermometer were right as it just seemed to stick at 102.8c.  But eventually, after deciding to catch up on few work emails while I waited, it hit the magic 104c allowing me to bottle it.

And now I'm waiting.  Roll on breakfast!

The original recipe can be found here.  To make my recipe, I used one pink grapefruit, two limes, two lemons, three oranges and one Seville orange.

And one top tip - the sugar goes in at the second stage.  I misread the recipe and put the sugar in the pan first with water and fruit.  What a waste of 400g of sugar.  No cake making for me this weekend.

Update 13th Feb 2012 - Sadly the marmalade didn't set overnight so nothing for my fresh toast on Saturday morning.  This was rectified, however, by reboiling the marmalade to 105c the following day with 1.5 tbsp of Certo pectin thrown in.  Tis very tasty (although it tastes better on something than straight from the jar).  Will try and post a picture of it soon!

Seville Orange Sorbet

Inspired by the Weekly Bake Off challenge of Farmhouse Victoria Sponge, replete with marmalade butter cream, when I was doing my weekly shop, I stuck a bag of Seville oranges in my virtual shopping basket.  My intention was to make marmalade, but having done some recipe research, I've now decided to freeze them for another day and give Dan Lepard's 'Dalemain's Three Fruit Marmalade' a go.  This specifically uses regular oranges - one of which is languishing in my fruit bowl - lemons and grapefruit.  All of which I have to hand.

I checked with some of the lovely Tweeple (that's Twitter People to the uninitiated) that I know how best to freeze them.  Apparently, you can either juice, them and chop and store the peel separately or just freeze them whole.  The time-constrained part of my brain has selected that option for the first trial freeze.

Check out all the pips!

But I did feel a bit guilty buying fresh fruit, only to sling it straight into the freezer so on the advice of the packaging 'Use them to make marmalade or sorbet' I duly Googled recipes for Seville Orange Sorbet.

Recipe of choice is currently freezing and being beaten every thirty minutes as I'm not lucky enough to have an ice cream machine.  This is tedious.  It's starting to set and I'm hoping it will be frozen enough to eat before bed, but the fruity syrup tastes beautiful and tart.  Just how I like it.  None of this namby pamby, over-sweetened nonsense.  There is definitely a little cheek tingling going on.  Was hard to resist just popping some in a glass and drinking it instead.

You can find the recipe here along with an amazing picture of the sorbet being served.  I'm so jealous as I have a tea set like that which I bought in Turkey about fifteen years ago (showing my age!).  Except when I left home, I was so afraid of breaking it in transit that nearly fifteen years later, it's still gracing my Grandad's sideboard.  Every time I visit, he reminds me to take it home and every time I leave, I always make an excuse not to do so.  It's like a little game now.  I'm sure he loves to hear what random reason I'm going to come up with this time.  I think he knows it will stay there until I have absolutely no other choice but to take it.  Or I have some amazing sorbet I want to show off.

As a side note to the recipe, with my trusty citrus reamer (which is still one of my favourite 'gadgets') I managed to get away with only needing four and a half oranges to get the required juice.  And I still can't get over how many pips they have.  No wonder people choose not to eat them in Spain.

Will post an update once it's fully frozen!

Mike's Clementine and Basil Mojito Loaf

When I started this blog, my intention was to make use of all the recipe books that adorn my bookshelves and whose spines have barely been cracked.  I've stuck to this in part, although I've also acquired several new ones which I've also been using.  But during these past few months, I've also happened across an amazing number of food blogs which have given me even more recipes to lust after.

One of my favourites is Mikes Baking.  And today I've tried his Clementine and Basil Mojito Loaf which he created as part of January's citrus blog hop.  I still don't quite get what a blog hop is all about.  But there are lots of citrus-based recipes popping up all over Blogsville so I'm guessing that it's all about sharing favourite citrus recipes.

Anyhoo, this recipe appealed to me because back last year I furnished my work colleagues with some Mojito cupcakes.  Although they were a little reticent when I mentioned they contained fresh mint, whenever anyone brings up the subject of baking, these cupcakes always get rave reviews.

I've promised my chief cheerleader that I'd make the aforementioned clementine and basil loaf this weekend.  As soon as I said basil, he eyeballed me nervously so the cake has a lot to live up to.

Having baked it this afternoon, it smells absolutely amazing.  Every time I open my fridge now, I'm immediately transported off into memories of summer from the open packet of Waitrose basil.

The cake itself was pretty easy to make, however I did encounter problems with zesting my clementines.  I'm not sure if it's a problem with all clementines (I had the same problem when I was trying out Jamie Oliver's Clementine Curd), but the skins are so thin and just break.  First I tried my zester on my cannoli cutter.  Then I tried zester on my box grater.  This was a bit better but the zest just got trapped around the grater holes (which is why I never use it for any citrus).  In the end, I just chopped up a few bits of peel really finely, but I'm a little worried that the pith will affect the flavour.

The rise of my cake was a little uneven with a huge peak in the middle and it being a little flatter than I would've liked at the ends.  This is probably just my new oven.  Normally I'd try to create a dip in the middle before cooking to balance it out, but the batter was a little too loose for this.

And with a slopey cake, there was a bit too much syrup as a lot of it ran from the peak and pooled in the corners.  I have yet to see how moist it made the middle but I'm not cutting it right up until tomorrow.  It was good to not have to boil the syrup to infinity but personally I found it a little to sweet for my taste.  I'll definitely make this again but I would probably add some lime to the juice - or maybe my clementines were a bit too sweet.

As for the rum.  Wow.  Wouldn't want to eat too much of this before driving just in case I bumped (figuratively) into the Fuzz.  I don't hold my alcohol too well :)

The final verdict and pictures will be in tomorrow when the gannets I work with, but I urge you to try this summery cake in the depths of winter.  Different is good.  Chocolate cake is so last year!

In the meantime, check out the recipe and gorgeous photography here.

Clementine Curd

Jamie, Jamie, Jamie.  Your cheeky-chappie persona grates more than my easy-peel clementines did.  But you seduced me with your free Christmas recipe booklet from my mother's Daily Fail at the weekend.  Your Get Ahead Gravy came highly recommended by one of the few friends whose taste and culinary skills I implicitly trusted.  So despite my initial reticence, I was swayed by the glorious orangeyness of the clementine curd.

The ingredients

It started so well.  Aside from the battle to zest easy-peel clementines.  Now I understand why there are difficult-to-peel ones.  You use them for making curd.  Clementines juiced.  One lemon, two limes juiced and zested.  Lots of sugar added.  Butter cubed.  Eggs, cracked and lightly whisked.

Heated gently until it coated the back of my spoon.   It looked a little dodgy at the start.  I won't say what I think it looked, like - take a look and decide for yourself from the pic. In the end, no scrambled citrus-flavoured eggs for me.  But It's-Not-Setting.  I keep nipping downstairs to take a look.  But it seems to be getting runnier rather than thicker.

Early cooking...it's not scrambled, honest!

I made Nigel Slater's lemon curd a few weeks ago and this worked perfectly.  The difference here being that he cooked it in a bain marie rather than straight into the pan.  Taste-wise, Jamie's is very sweet.  Too sweet for me in fact.  But it would work well on toast or with cream in pancakes.

But Sir Nigel's set.  Beautifully.  And despite him saying it only keeps for a couple of weeks (I missed that bit until last night when I re-read the whole article I posted a link to previously) mine has been in the fridge for six weeks and when I cracked it open, instead of finding a slimy mess, it was still the same gorgeous, canary-yellow, unctuous, wobbly curd that I remembered from when I made it.

Have just now filled one large jar with my clementine curd and have left the rest to cool in the pan.  Not looking hopeful, however just stirred a spoonful into a pot of greek yogurt and it tastes pretty darn good.

No longer lumpy, but it won't thicken...

Looking at the two recipes, they are pretty equivalent (Jamie's is roughly double that of Nigel's).  The only difference being that they use the same amount of butter.  Would double have made Jamie's thicken more?  This is where I find myself again desperate for someone (please Heston!) to publish a book on the science of normal cookery that isn't in French.  Why isn't there one on the market?  Or if there is, someone please tell me where I can get a copy.  Surely we all could do with some help along the lines of 'if you use more eggs in recipe X then Y will happen'.

Jamie's Clementine Curd recipe is here.  But I would still recommend Nigel's recipe for Lemon Curd every time.

Picture of the finished jar as me and the camera are two flights of stairs away from the jar.  #toolazy #thisiswhyI'mfat

Hummingbird Bakery Mojito Cupcakes

It's National Baking Week this week so on Sunday I decided to make some Mojito Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery's (@hummingbbakery's) Cake Days book.  I've had mixed success with recipes from their original book - the vanilla cupcakes and raspberry chocolate brownie bar are to die for; other recipes such as the cheese and spinach muffins just didn't work for me.

Nevertheless, I intend to have a go at more recipes from Cake Days as so far, everything I've made from it has been more than passable.  I picked these in particular because mojitos are my cocktail of choice.  Not that I drink many as according to my mother, one sniff of a barmaid's apron and I'm anybodys...

Mojito cupcakes - replete with mint leaves

So why am I posting on Tuesday about something I baked Sunday?  Surely that's cheating??  Well I baked the cakes on Sunday, popped to the shops, came home, started stocking the fridge and my little assistant took it upon herself to tip a newly opened box of icing sugar all over my kitchen floor.  At the time, I was less than amused.

No icing sugar, no frosting.  I finished them off tonight (decorating them, not eating them!) hence why I'm using this as a sneaky Tuesday recipe.

These are mini cupcakes and now they're frosted, I totally understand why.  They are VERY sweet and I can feel my teeth rotting just looking at them.  The sponge on its own is beautifully fragrant with a hint of lime and mint and a crunchy sugar-rum topping.  But the frosting just doesn't work for me.  It is too sweet and I feel it should be sharper.  Even adding lime juice didn't seem to cut through the sweetness.  I'd welcome suggestions on how to make really sharp lemon or lime frosting as it's something I've never found a successful recipe for.  Answers on a tweet to @lilmssquirrel.

Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes or 20-30 mini cakes

For the sponge:

100ml White rum 
170g Caster sugar
40g Unsalted butter, softened
120g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Grated lime zest
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
1 tbsp Finely chopped mint
1 large egg
120ml Milk 
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence 

Preheat oven to 170deg C and line a muffin tin with cases 

In a saucepan bring the white rum and 30g of the sugar to the boil, reduce by half and set aside. 
Beat together the butter, flour, salt, baking powder, lime and lemon zest, mint and remaining sugar. Mix until you have a crumb like consistency. 
Mix together the egg milk and vanilla in a jug and gradually pour this into the dry mix mixing until you have a smooth batter. 

Spoon cake batter into the cases up to 2/3 full. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 min's for mini cupcakes or 15 to 20 for bigger or until the cakes are a light golden brown and springy to the touch. 

While the cakes are still warm spoon the rum reduction over them (1/2 tsp for mini cakes 1tsp for bigger approx) Then leave to cool completely! 

While the cakes are cooling, make and drink a mojito! ... erm I mean make the frosting! 

For the frosting

80g Unsalted butter
250g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp lime zest
4 tsp milk
4 tsp White rum

1tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp chopped mint or lime zest 

Using and electric whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar, lemon and lime zest until combined in a sandy consistency. Stir together the milk and rum and pour this into the butter mixture while still beating, whisk until light and fluffy. 
Divide the frosting between the cakes. To finish, mix together the caster sugar with either 1 tsp of mint or lime zest and sprinkle over the top.