Blueberry & Lemon Cake.

By now you may have guessed that I love lemon. I never used to, it is a relatively new phenomenon so I guess you could say I'm making up for lost time. Whilst you're here, feel free to browse a couple of my other lemon recipes - Cheesecakes, Cupcakes and Drizzle Cake are just a few of my favourites. This one is even NICER as it's packed full with fresh blueberries which go all gooey when it's cooked. So, without further ado....

Blueberry & Lemon Drizzle Cake

Equipment Needed:

- Mixing Bowl
- Wooden Spoon
- Weighing Scales
- 2lb Loaf Tin
- Small Bowl

Ingredients:

- 125g Butter/Margarine
- 125g Caster Sugar
- 3 Medium free range eggs
- 175g Self-Raising/Rising Flour + 1tbsp extra
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- 100g Blueberries

For the syrup:

- 50g Caster sugar
- 4tbsp Lemon juice

For the icing:

- 125g Icing/Confectioners sugar
- 1tsp Blueberry conserve/syrup - I used natural blueberry sauce bought from a health food store

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to GM3/170C. Grease/Line (I use loaf tin liners) your 2lb loaf tin. In a large bowl/mixer - whisk together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, flour and zest a bit at a time and mix for 3-4 minutes. Toss in the blueberries with the extra 1tbsp flour and FOLD in. Spoon into the tin and cook for around 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

2) Whilst baking, gently heat the sugar and lemon juice & bring to a boil. Leave to boil for about 2 minutes and set aside.

3) Spoon the syrup over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven and leave to cool for 30 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to cool completely.

4) If you are using conserve, press it through a sieve & scrape off the underside. Mix this with the icing and a little water or lemon juice until it is just runny. I used water, but will try lemon juice next time! Drizzle it over the cake and leave to set.

5) Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

I edited this with the 'Beautiful Mess' app - it's cute, check it out!

The cake is really soft, moist and fruity and is perfect for summer's day. I enjoyed a slice of mine in the garden with a glass of Pimm's and a book about The Wild West (that is supposed to be for children but I am loving it.) 

Hope you enjoy it!


Much Love xxx

Read More

Sarah's Sauce.

The other night I fancied a bit of vanilla ice-cream, but after deciding not to buy the Hershey's Strawberry Sauce I saw in my beloved TKMAXX I was kicking myself because I had nothing exciting to go with it. So after a bit of research I found enough inspiration to make my own dessert sauce that would fit the bill. I'm really glad I did because it took about 5 minutes and was rather tasty!

Sarah's Strawberry & Raspberry Dessert Sauce

Equipment:

- Small Saucepan
- Wooden Spoon
- Handheld Blender
- Small Jug

Ingredients:

- About half a pack of fresh strawberries
- About half a pack of fresh raspberries
- 1/3 Cup of Granulated Sugar (about 230g)
- 1 tsp of Vanilla Essence

Method:

- Chop the strawberries quite finely and put into the saucepan. Add in the raspberries and the sugar and reduce for about ten minutes.
- Leave to cool and then put the mixture into the jug. With the handheld blender, blend the sauce until it is smooth.
- Pour the desired amount onto your dessert (it also makes a good dipping sauce) and then put the rest into a jar in your fridge for future use :)

The yummy sauce ready for the fridge!

Satisfied my sweet tooth!

Much love xxx

Read More

Crumble O'Clock...

As the hunt for a job continues...so do my culinary adventures. After a nice swim this morning and some time to relax this afternoon, we took a trip to our local farm shop to get some mince for me to make chilli. They also have this great freezer section in which they keep mixed fruit, so that seemed like the perfect idea for dessert! This is so easy I don't need to share a recipe, i'll use my own experience for this one! P.s. you can easily adapt this for every season - I love adding cinnamon to it at Christmas :)


Mixed Berrylicious Crumble


Equipment:


- Medium sized pan
- Wooden Spoon
- Weighing Scales
- Mixing Bowl
- Ovenproof Dish


Ingredients:


- (approx) 250g of Mixed Fruit (any of your choice, I used berries!)
- 2 tbsps of sugar


For the Crumble topping:


- 175g of Plain Flour
- 75g of Sugar
- 75g of Butter


Method:


1. As my fruit was frozen, I stuck it in a pan for about ten minutes to stew, and added the 2 tbsps of sugar. 


2. Pour your fruit into your oven proof dish.


3. To make your crumble topping; mix the flour and the butter together into a fine crumble so that it resembles bread crumbs, before pouring on top of your fruit, mix in the sugar.


4. Pour the crumble topping on top of your fruit.


5. Bake for about 30-35 minutes at 180oC

The end result - it went down well!

We had it with Vanilla Ice-Cream :)

Much Love xxx

Read More