Banana and mixed spiced cupcakes

As part of my bloggers bake off challenge with Helen and Jenny, I was recently sent some mixed spices from Steenbergs to help create a wonderfully smelling and tasting bake. I am not the hugest fan of mixed spices and I will admit to doing two batches after having a reaction to the spices on my first attempt! I made a plain batch for myself and a mixed spice batch for anyone who wanted them. Both taste very nice indeed and I am actually a bit gutted to not be able to eat the spiced banana cupcakes.

Whether you'll be using just banana or the mixed spice as well, I hope you enjoy this recipe.

You will need:

110g Doves Farm self raising flour

100g Light Brown sugar

110g dairy free butter or vegetable margerine

2 eggs

Tsp Baking powder

Tsp Vanilla essence

1tblsp golden syrup

2 mashed bananas (best when slightly over ripe)

1/2 tsp of Steenbergs mixed spice (less really is more with this wonderfully flavoured mix)

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth

Add both eggs one after the other and mix well

Add the flour, baking powder and mix together until you have a nice smooth batter

Next, add the syrup, spice mix, vanilla essence and the soft mashed banana

Mix all the ingredients together before scooping into cake cases and baking at 180 for 15-20 minutes (my oven is slower than most but this is a standard time for cupcakes)

Once the cakes are cooked, pop onto cooling racks. These cakes taste delicious slightly warm so don't feel the need to wait for them to go cold to enjoy (as if you needed me to tell you that)

I hope you enjoy!

CupcakeMumma

Gluten and Dairy Free Banoffee Cupcakes!

These cupcakes are delicious. I really, really hope you enjoy making them. They are of course dairy, wheat and gluten free but as usual this is incredibly easy to adapt and make with your usual gluten and dairy containing products so do have a go!

My Wonderful Spring Swap

I recently took part in a spring swap hosted by the lovely Joy from Welcome to Daisy Row (it's a lovely blog, do check it out) As most of you will know by now I love a good gift swap so I got my friend Kat to pop my name in the comments whilst I was away from the laptop (so desperate I was to not miss it!)

I was partnered with Margaret  who blogs here and is such a nice lady. We exchanged a few emails, got a general idea of each others tastes and then all went quiet as we made (or bought in my case as I have been so busy studying anything crafty has escaped me- sorry Margaret!) our parcels for each other.

My parcel arrived on Friday in a butter tub (which was a requirement in the swap) wrapped inside a really rather nice pink bag (which Midge and I are already fighting over!)

I had some chocolate Easter bunnies and a couple of cute little fluffy chicks just to add to the whole theme of the swap. The children swooped on the bunnies very quickly, even Husband had a fight on his hands!

I received the most perfect cupcake bag which I have already used today to post my parcels and visit the library (so it works very well!) How perfect is this bag though seriously? I adore it. I only just noticed that Margret has sewn an angel into it too which is so thoughtful, I love angels and fairies.

Margaret had also made me a small bag which will be used for all my essentials in my bedroom (I don't want it to get ruined by putting mascara in it. I might store my nail polishes in there?) I also had 4 fabric coasters made for me which again are pink and cupcake themed. Happy CupcakeMumma.

Thank-you so much Margaret for these truly lovely and thoughtful gifts. Thank-you also to Joy for hosting the Spring Swap. I hadn't participated in one for a while so I'm pleased to have got back into them.

CupcakeMumma

The Olympic Torch Comes to Cornwall

It was the moment I had almost forgotten about until a late night browsing the Internet reminded me, Saturday 19th May was the day the Olympic Torch would start its journey through our country, starting with Cornwall, (Lands End to be precise).

My parents collected myself, Little Miss and Little Man and we headed off to a small but lovely village near Helston called Breage where the torch would be carried through to much jubilation. The bunting was hung including the Cornish colours of yellow and black which a was lovely idea. Everyone waved their flags, grabbed some freebies from the passing sponsors, the atmosphere was wonderful and I'm so proud myself and my children were apart of it.

Here are some photos of the momentous occasion.

People line the streets waiting for the torch to pass through. I think we were all waiting for just over an hour and not one bored, crying child could even be heard, everyone was celebrating!

 Little Miss gets her pride on. Little Man also had a small flag he went nuts with which was too cute.

One of the relay cars.

Here's what you really wanted though right? A truly great photo of the torch, if I may say so myself!

I was due to go home to decorate but being rushed out of the door I ended up locking myself out. It wasn't bad though, we stayed for lunch and dinner, I got to catch up with my Dad chatting about shares and having various debates. I even made some cupcakes in return for a couple of duck eggs on toast.
Finally, some photos of a lovely Saturday afternoon.

CupcakeMumma