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 White Chocolate Cheesecake

For our friend's birthday we had bought a her gift online, however it hasn't arrived yet and the party is today, (!!) so after a slight panic attack and a mental breakdown or two, we decided to make her a cheesecake to bring instead!  Now, for all you copyright obsessors the cheesecake recipe does not belong to us! We found it online a long time ago and adapted it to be made with chocolate! No stealing of recipes here!

Heres what you'll need:

               

• 500ml of fresh cream
• 600g of Philadelphia or other cream cheese brands
• 250g of butter
• 400g of digestive biscuits
• 1 pack of cookies (without nuts)
• 3 (150g each) bars of white cooking chocolate  
• 1 sachet of gelatin 

You will also need an array of bowls, spoons and a cake tin for the cake to set in.


1. First you need to mash up the biscuits and cookies into a fine dust for the base.

 2. Melt the butter in the microwave until it is all liquid and pour into the biscuits, mix until all biscuits are covered in butter, the mixture should be sticking together. Put this into the cake tin and press hard with the back of a spoon until solid. We used a potato masher and it was soooo much easier!

3. You should start melting all the chocolate now as it needs to cool slightly before its added.

4. dissolve the gelatin as per instruction on the box (follow them VERY carefully because we did not and now everything is sticky, everything...)

5. When the gelatin and chocolate are cooled a little, add them and all the tubs of cream cheese to a mixer and mix that shtuff up! Mix it gooood! 

6. While thats mixing, you should whisk the fresh cream until it is stiff (and try not to eat it all!) 

7. You should now fold the cream and chocolate cheese mixture together and add it on top of the biscuit base! 

8. Put it in the fridge for a good 4 hours and voila, chocolate cheesecake without the use of a hot oven!

Thanks for reading and happy baking! 

Until next time!!