Simple Apple cinnamon and Apple raspberry cupcakes

Until lockdown I had never been much of a baker, but homeschool saw us making lots of our own tasty treats, including fairy cakes, which I've gotten quite good at, even if I do say so myself! 

Inspiration for this recipe comes from our current glut of apples from our garden. And they are a huge hit with everyone in our house. 

Recipe is simple enough for my little helpers to do a lot of stages, which of course give the cakes a rustic homemade look!

Basic Ingredients 

50g butter

50g caster sugar

1 egg

100g self raising flour

2 apples finely grated

For Apple Raspberry you will also need a handful of raspberries,  for the apple cinnamon you will also need 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Method

Cream sugar and butter together with and electric whisk, add egg and continue to whisk until all combined, sieve in flour, whisk and then add grated apple. That's the basic apple batter done. 

Line a cupcake tin with cases.

At this stage, I made half the batch into Apple Raspberry by putting 2 raspberries into half the cupcake case and then spooning on enough mixture to cover on top.

With the remaining batter I added the cinnamon, gave it a quick mix and filled the other half of the cases.

Pop in the oven for 10-15mins at 160°c until lightly golden, cooked thro but still moist. 

Top with a blob of buttercream and decorate the apple raspberry with raspberry, and the apple cinnamon with a sliver of apple.

Enjoy as soon as they've cooled enough to handle! 

Let me know what you think!

Yet Another New Beginning

Well hello again!

When I started, and then restarted this blog many many years ago, myself and my husband lived in a 3 bedroom semi. We had Big Big dreams and we had already started to live our life in a slightly alternative way, preferring to spend much of our free time off grid in a caravan in Beautiful Pembrokeshire. We foraged and fished, and then came back to our house to work.

Fast forward 6 years and we have 2 beautiful boys, and it has become so much more important to live in a way that feels natural to us, and show and share this with our boys too. And so we bought this (very) little farm, which has given us more than its fair share of stress... leaking toilets, faulty electrics, bad neighbours etc etc. But its location is one of the biggest upsides to me, on a good day you can even see the sea! 

At present, in the midst of a global pandemic, I am so grateful to have so much space in which we can live and adventure uninterrupted, and it has given us all time to really explore and understand what we want from our little life bubble. I have felt so inspired, which is why it is time to start blogging once again.

Whiskied Blackberry Christmas Cake

Just over six weeks ago I started the process of making blackberry whiskey, yesterday I strained my first bottle, and decided the very boozy blackberries were way too precious to just throw away.

This cake recipe is super easy, and would make a great Christmas cake - if you could stand not to eat it straight away!

You will need:

All your rescued boozy blackberries, retained after you strained your Blackberry Whiskey (around 200g)
Dried Fruit of your choice (chopped small if needed)
100g Brown Sugar
100g Butter
3 Eggs
250ml water
350g plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of Christmas Spice / mixed spice

Weigh your boozy blackberries & make up to 500g with the mixed dried fruit. Put into a saucepan, along with Butter, Water, Sugar & Spices. Heat very gently until butter has completely melted. Leave to cool to a warm room temperature.

 Combine flour & baking powder in a bowl.

Beat eggs and add to the now cooled saucepan, Add contents of pan to the bowl of flour & mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into a lined baking tin (its a pretty runny mixture) & bake in an oven which has been preheated to 150 C for 2-2.5 hours (please check periodically to make sure its not burning).

Squeal!

Introducing Squeal the Baby Welsh Dragon - an Original Crochet Pattern by Me!

The pattern has been tweaked and tested and is now available via Ravelry as a PDF download 

Link to Pattern

''Like' my Facebook Page for more pictures.

Out with the Old...

 ...And in with the new!

A bit late for a spring clean, and a bit early for new years resolutions but...

I've decided to resurrect my Blog!

Possibly not as 'lil' as i was when I started this, but definitely more creative!

I have currently produced one original design crochet pattern, with another one nearly finished and a couple more designs ideas in my head ready to burst out.

I also have plans to start doing some re-purposing.

Watch this space!