Mini cheese, shallot and chilli scones

So here are some little cheese, shallot and chilli scones I
made the other day.

We ate them warm with goats cheese and salsa, so they looked like
classic afternoon tea with clotted cream and jam.

I meant to take a picture of them, but we ate them too quickly.

Lemon squares

You make a shortbread-style base and bake that first, then
mix up a really sharp lemon curd and pour it on top.

After baking it again, let it cool, dust with icing sugar
and top with thin slices of fig. Though I think
strawberry or blackberry could also work well.

I love the way the lemon curd filling almost oozes out of the sides.

Cheryl Baker

So Cheryl bakes.

Of course she does.

www.cherylbaker.net

Pizza cake for Lucy

You might not believe it, but this is a birthday cake.

Yep, a birthday cake.

As savoury and meaty as the toppings look,
I promise they're all sweet.

Big thanks to Pinglewood for hunting them down.

And as if the whole thing wasn't disturbing enough,
we served it up in a pizza box. Cheers Il Bacio!

Here's birthday girl Lucy cutting the cake with a pizza wheel...

Eating a slice...

And there goes the last one.

Carrot cupcakes for Robin

Robin's favourite cake is carrot, so I made these spiced
carrot cupcakes for his birthday.

They also have pecans inside.

And instead of cream cheese icing, I made a zingy
topping with orange zest, juice and icing sugar.

Mulberry Victoria sponge at Claridge's

So I just got back from the Mulberry S/S 11 presentation at Claridge's...
a very nice way to spend a Sunday lunchtime indeed.

They were handing out these super-cute tote bags with
rabbit-in-an-Alexa-bag print, as well as a packet of carrot seeds.

But more importantly, tiny little printed boxes...

And what was inside..?

A perfect little Victoria sponge filled with cream and strawberry jam,

dusted with icing sugar.

Almond cookies with green tea cream

My mum got me an amazing book for my birthday called

1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats,
and these almond cookies with green tea cream were requested by Scott.

You make a basic sweet cookie dough and chill it in the fridge.

One half is rolled and cut out normally, while the other is rolled
with a layer of flaked almonds so they get embedded in the dough.

Meanwhile you make a thick cream by infusing hot milk with green tea,
before adding sugar, custard powder and cream cheese.

Then you sandwich them all together with the almond side on top.

My green tea cream is more apricot-coloured than green,
but it still tastes good.