My Great British Bake Off!

Last week, the day after BBC's Great British Bake Off 2011 Final, our work "Town Hall" meeting took place. As a bit of fun we were all asked to choose a recipe from the cook book that accompanies the series. I'm not the best baker, but I love cupcakes and I love their simplicity and how much fun you can have with a little bit of sponge and icing!

Just like the tarts, the recipe requires you fill the centre with a splodge of jam. So having a few little jars of my Nanna's left over Strawberry jam from my Wedding favours, I decided to give them a go.

Sadly, I didn't win, but I didn't expect to either! I had fun though and they tasted yum. Here's some pics of my bash at them and the recipe courtesy of BBC Food website!

 

THE RECIPE

Ingredients 

For the cupcakes:

150g margarine

150g caster sugar

100g self-raising flour

3 free-range eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp milk

60g ground almonds

90g raspberry jam

For the icing:

250g icing sugar

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

12 un-dyed glacé cherries

Preparation method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

2) For the cupcakes, cream the margarine in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients, except the raspberry jam, and mix until well combined.3) Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

4) For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until smooth.

5) Using an apple corer, carefully remove the middle of the cupcakes. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam.

6) Carefully spoon the icing onto the top of each cake until the icing reaches the sides of the cake case and top with a cherry.

Enjoy! xx