Gem and Jo Take on Lemon Cupcakes!

So the other day we decided to bake some lemon cupcakes! Jo's brother was coming to visit and they are his absolute favourite so Jo thought that it would be a nice treat for him as she doesn't get to see him that often. Aww!
So here's how you make these lemony pieces of heaven!

Here's what you'll need:

For the Cupcakes:

• 8 oz of butter
• 8 oz of caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 11 oz of self raising flour
• the zest of one lemon 
• 4 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of milk

For the lemon icing:

• 6 oz of butter
• 12 oz of icing sugar
• 3 table spoons of lemon juice 
• 2 table spoons of hot water
• a few drops of yellow food colouring (if wanted)

So here's what we did:

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar together with a mixer, until it is a creamy consistency. 

2. Add the lemon zest to the mixture

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. 

4. Add the sifted flour to the mixture and mix well 

5. Add the lemon juice and milk and again mix well (that's super important, if you hadn't guess from how many times we've mentioned it!)

6. Put the mixture into a cupcake tray lined with cupcake cases (gotta love some alliteration) and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes.

Now onto the icing! 

7. While those bad boys are cooling combine the sifted icing sugar and butter into a bowl and mix well (yep there we go again!)

8. Add the lemon and water to the mixture bit by bit so as not to make the mixture too wet (for want of a better word).

9. Next add as much food colouring as you desire and the put the icing into a piping bag.

10. When the cupcakes are fully cooled (and we mean fully, or else the icing is just going to melt right off and you'll end up with a lemony mess rather than a perfectly formed cupcake), pipe the icing onto the cupcakes et voilá! you have yourself a lemon cupcake with lemon butter cream icing 

 This recipe makes about  24 cupcakes (boys eat a lot!!).

Thanks for reading and happy baking!
Until Next Time!

Gem and Jo Take on Brownies

To go along with the cheesecake that we made on Friday, we decided to make brownies too! Now this recipe belongs to Jo, it is her creation and so we ask that you do not claim it as your own, that would be mean.

Here's what you'll need:

3 oz. of dark chocolate, the brand of your choice.
4 oz. of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
6 oz. of caster sugar
2 large eggs
4 oz. of plain flour
half a teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt.

These are some of the brands we used!

 So to create these little squares of deliciousness, this is what you'll have to do:

1: melt the butter and chocolate together, now you can do this either in the microwave or on the hob. We used the hob because chocolate can burn really easily in the microwave!
Plus you can eat it while it melts on the cooker!!

2: Add the sugar into the chocolate-butter stuff with a wooden spoon.

3: beat 2 eggs together and add to the mixture!

4: sift in the flour, salt and baking powder.

5: mix it all in really well and mix in the spoon of vanilla essence too!

6: pour the mixture into a baking tin, which is lined with baking parchment. (The parchment stops it sticking to the tin!)

7: Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius, (or for those using the imperial system:  356 degrees Fahrenheit!) for 20 minutes!

We recommend checking them after 15 minutes so you don't burn those beauts!!

8: After they've cooled, sprinkle some icing sugar on top and chop into squares!

Voila, you've created awesomeness!

Here's what ours looked like:

om nom nom!!

Don't forget to follow us by email and on twitter, @gemandjo. Thanks for reading! Until next time!!