Lizzie’s Lavender Dream Cupcakes
Makes at least 24 cupcakes
For the cakes:
250g butter
180g Muscovado sugar (this gives the recipe a lovely soft caramel taste, you can use less sugar than normal recipes call for caster sugar as it has a stronger taste)
350g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 / 6 eggs (depending on their size)
6 drops natural vanilla extract
4 tablespoons dried lavender suitable for consumption.
7 tablespoons of milk (soy, coconut, rice, or almond milk also suitable)
For the frosting:
250g butter at room temperature
200g mascarpone cream cheese (or you can substitute any other cream cheese)
500 g icing sugar, sifted
4 drops of vanilla extract
4 tablespoons dried lavender (for taste and to make the frosting look pretty)
8 drops of lavender extract in liquid form if you have it
Dried lavender buds for decoration are optional.
Author’s note: I love this recipe because, unlike making say a Victoria sponge or a yoghurt cake, you don’t have to beat anything separately. You can put everything into a mixer and whizz it together.
If you do want a lighter batter, then whip the eggs up separately and add them in later. You can either chuck everything into the mixer and turn it on for a good 10-15 minutes until it’s a smooth creamy mix. Or you can cream the butter and sugar together first, then add the vanilla extract, eggs, and milk and finally the sieved flour and baking powder and lavender pods.
You can put more or less lavender in to your taste. If you like a really flowery taste, then add some lavender extract for consumption too.
Once the mixture is creamed and fluffy, spoon it into cupcake cases. Buy the big muffin size ones and spoon to about a centimetre under the top of the case, as the cakes will rise.
Put the finished trays into the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade (for a fan oven).
Bring the trays out when the cupcakes are nicely risen and golden in colour with the tops starting to split.
Cool them on wire trays, and whilst they are cooling prepare the frosting:
In a big glass bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together until light and ‘whipped’ into peaks. Add in the extracts of vanilla and lavender essence and whip some more, adding in the icing sugar. If you want it really fine then sieve it, but I often don’t bother. Get the hand whisk going in the bowl until you have really combined everything and then add in the lavender flowers / pods to pepper the frosting with the flavour and sight of what these cupcakes are all about.
When the cupcakes are completely cooled, you can either use a spatula to put a thick topping of frosting on the top of the cakes, or you can pipe it through a piping bag to create that swirly topping beloved of cake shops. Either way, they taste the same.
If you really want to make them look like Lizzie’s, you can add dried lavender buds to the top of the frosting. Or if you like harking back to the seventies then you can throw silver balls all over the frosting to make them dance in the light and help pep up your lavender dreams.
Mia’s Rye Bread Sandwiches with Goats Cheese, Red Onion and Pesto Filling
Rye bread
Goats cheese
Red onion, thinly sliced
Pesto
Mayonnaise
Author’s note: I love tangy and tasty combinations. This is one of my favourites for a quick lunch at home when there are left over jars of pesto or mayo.
Slice the bread, four slices at least — go on, be naughty. Spread one slice of the sandwich with pesto and the other with mayo. Slice your red onion thinly, slice the goats cheese if it’s hard or spread it if it’s soft over the bread. Lay the red onion on top of that and sandwich together. Bite into it. Yummy! Lizzie and Mia love these kinds of treats after their meetings.
Aunt Agatha’s Cornish Fish Pie
For the pastry crust
300g floury potatoes
250g butter
250g flour
A generous teaspoon of nutmeg
A good pinch of salt
Lots of ground black pepper
A dollop of clotted or double cream (can use Greek or Turkish yoghurt.)
For the filling
A kilogram of mixed fresh fish in season.
(I like Haddock, Pollock, Salmon, Bream, and Mackerel.)
Chopped squid, seafood, mussels, cockles, and crab are tasty, too — just see what your fishmonger has fresh.
3-4 red onions (depending on size)
4 cloves garlic, chopped small or crushed
100 g fresh tarragon, or a good bunch to your taste if you’re picking it from your garden or balcony.
3 grated carrots
A teaspoon of turmeric
A good shake of cumin seeds
A good shake of sweet paprika
A good squeeze of tomato puree — from a tube, about half the tube.
2 teaspoons of nutmeg
250 g peas, frozen or fresh
1 fennel bulb including the fronds
2 large leeks, finely chopped
A good shake of seaweed — chopped nori works well
Rock salt / sea salt
Pepper
Fish stock
Clotted Cream or double cream (10% Greek or Turkish yoghurt work, too, depending on how sour you like the taste to be.)
1 lemon, squeezed.
Flat leafed parsley, if you want it
Thyme or Lemon thyme, if you have it
Author’s note: My mum taught me this potato pastry. I just make up the base depending on what fish and vegetables I have. You can alter all the ingredients depending on how many you’re making this for, I just chop and add as I feel. What you’re aiming for is a lovely creamy sauce with lots of fresh fish cooked down and then topped with a golden potato pastry crust.
First you need to get the potatoes boiling for the pastry topping. Scrub and chop the potatoes. If you don’t want to weight them I take about 5 or 6 potatoes. Boil them in a pan of salted water.
Then, chop and fry the onions and garlic, add in the grated carrot, leeks, and fennel and soften in butter or coconut oil, sprinkling in the salt and pepper.
Add the Nori or seaweed to taste, the turmeric sweet paprika, the nutmeg, and the tomato puree. When that has cooked down, add in the cumin seeds and then add the fish, cooking it gently on medium heat. Squeeze over the lemon juice and then add the fish stock gradually to make sure nothing dries out. Whilst you leave that gently simmering, preheat the oven to about 200 degrees or medium hot on a fan or top baking setting if you have one.
Prepare the pastry by cutting in the butter with the flour, salt, and nutmeg until you have made fine breadcrumbs. Keep checking that the fish base is cooking gently and not drying out.
By the time you have made the pastry, the potatoes should be done. Drain them then add a pinch of salt, the dollop of clotted or double cream (or thick yoghurt, the nutmeg and pepper. Mash the mixture or pass it through a potato ricer so it is really smooth.
Add that mixture to the flour and butter that is in crumbs and combine until the whole is a fluffy pastry. If you have the quantities right, you should be able to roll out a thick crust — although it will be harder to handle than normal pastry. If it’s falling apart, add in a little more flour and keep mixing until it binds together. Leave to rest in the fridge or on the side.
Meanwhile add into the fish mixture the chopped tarragon and clotted or double cream mixture and stir until it looks thick and creamy. Pour the lot into a big pie dish, around 30 cm long by about 20 cm wide.
Roll out the pastry, and then place it on top. Make a couple of cuts in the top of the pastry and if you want, fashion a little shape like a star or little fishes for the centre of the pie. If you can’t roll out the pastry, then dollop it on top as though it is normal mashed potato and make sure it completely covers the fish mixture underneath. It will still crisp up in the oven.
Put the pie in the now hot oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is nicely golden brown and crisp.
This is a messy dish, so serve with a deep serving spoon to make sure you get all the creamy filling, as well as a good helping of potato pastry topping.
You can serve with green beans, broccoli, or just on its own.