Rum + cupcakes = 30th birthday treats

I love rum and cupcakes so when I seen the recipe for strawberry daiquiri and mojitos cupcakes I had to make them for my friends. I got a lot of compliments so I hope you try them and love them. I've only included the daiquiri recipe but the first photo is the mojito cupcake. I thought the strawberry ones were 10 times nicer than the mojito. 

Ingredients

the sponge

100ml white rum

170g caster sugar

150g strawberries

40g butter

120g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 large egg

120ml milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract 

frosting 

80g butter

250g icing sugar

1/2 tsp lime zest

4 tsp milk 

4 tsp of the rum reserve

method

1.add the rum and 10g of sugar into a pot and bring to the boil. reduce by half. chop the strawberries into small pieces and soak in the rum for 30 mins

2. add all the other sponge ingredients into a bowl and mix (If only I had a kitchen aid). the recipe calls for stages but I found the same results by combining all at once. 

3. drain the strawberries from the rum and safe the liquid. Spoon the strawberries into the mini cupcake cases.  Pour cake mixture into the cases. 

4. Bake at 170•c for 14 mins and test. spoon the rum reduction over the cupcakes (really moistens and adds more flavour)

5. add all the frosting ingredients and mix. ( the original recipe didnt mention the rum reduction in their frosting ingredients and I'd used it all in the sponge first time round. the frosting in enhanced with the rum - lets face it most things in life are).

6. pipe the frosting and eat :-) 

taken from hummingbird bakery 'cake days'. 

hummingbird bakery banana loaf

I have started getting a fruit and veg box delivered on a weekly basis so I had extra eggs and bananas.  not that I need an excuse for banana bread! 

I adapted the recipe from 'hummingbird bakery cookbook' 

250g light brown sugar

20g caster sugar

290g peeled bananas

280g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1tsp nutmeg

140g melted butter

handful of choc chips

poured into 1lb loaf tin and into the oven 170•c for 1hour. 

Sunday cooking

being a mum to an 18 month old and working full time it's hard to find time for trying new recipes. I always try to set some time aside on a Sunday to try different or long recipes.

today I made BBQ beer pulled chicken from fat girl in a skinny body. 

http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2012/05/bbq-beer-chicken-crockpot/

I have made this three or four times and love it.

 for the BBQ marinade I used jack Daniels 

smokey sauce. I used the honey one the time 

before and liked it even more. one thing I did 

find was the sauce is too runny when doing the 

recipe quantities so I reduced the amount of 

marinade by one cup and added extra garlic 

mmmmmmm!! I know it's probably not how it's 

done in the states but I put it in pitta pockets

so I don't loose a scrape.