Classic Caggs

Today is my housemate and friend of six years Aimee's birthday. Her favourite food in the whole world is mango, so it felt only right to make her some cupcakes with a very definite mango influence to them. Aimee hates coconut so I went with mango and lime instead.  The recipe will make 24 cupcakes and enough lime buttercream icing to cover them all (lucky as it's her 24th). To make a batch of tropical mango and lime cupcakes you will need: 1 cup of plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup soft salted butter 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1/3 cup milk Grated rind of 1 lime 1/2 cup finely chopped mango (I used tinned mango as unfortunately mangos in January in the UK are few and far between and not very nice if you do buy a fresh one!) 1/2 cup soft salted butter 4 cups icing sugar Juice of 1 lime A little lime zest A little chopped mango  Begin by preheating the oven to 180C (fan, 170C) and lining the baking tray with paper cases.  Cream the butter an

My standard breakfast most of the time involves oats in some way, be it porridge or granola. Recently I've really got into coconut oil and so this granola recipe uses it with ginger to make for a really tasty but quite subtly flavoured granola. I enjoy mine with yogurt and fruit but it would work well with milk too! The quantities are enough to fill a large Kilner jar and tend to last me a fortnight. This granola doesn't hold quite as well as the shop bought type as there is less sugar; it is more like baked oats. The ginger syrup is the substitute for the sugar added to usual granola recipes and I think it is a lot more tasty. To make a large batch of coconut and ginger granola you will need: 3 cups oats  1 cup nuts/seeds (I use a variety of different ones including pine nuts and sunflower seeds) 2 tbsp coconut oil 1 tbsp ginger syrup from a jar of stem ginger (you could even add some finely sliced stem ginger if you wanted!) Preheat your oven to 170C and line

On Wednesday it was my lovely friend Danny's birthday. I was invited to spend a long weekend with him and my favourite person, Emily, in Swansea. Danny's only request for his birthday cake was that it was "new flavours", which led to me and Emily baking Danny a chilli chocolate cake until 1am on Saturday morning.  Little duckling sheltering from the Welsh weather The cake was enjoyed on Saturday evening with everyone and it was super - the chilli isn't spicy at all but just gives a depth to the chocolate flavour that makes the cake taste extra special. The icing doesn't have any chilli in either so it just makes for a lovely celebration cake! It's important to use a good quality chocolate with a high cocoa content as it is so much more delicious than a cheap slab of chocolate; this cake deserves that sort of quality. The recipe is based upon one you bake in a  Le Creuset  but we instead baked it in a cake tin and it turned out perfectly. By al

I have two friends coming over for supper this evening; I haven't seen them properly for a little while so I thought I'd pull out all the stops. For starter we'll be having this sweet potato hummus with some freshly baked, homemade bread that one of the boys is bringing over. I had a practice run with this hummus with my housemates yesterday and it went down well so I've got everything crossed the boys enjoy it as much as them! The hummus will keep for up to a week sealed in the fridge.  To make two medium-sized dishes of sweet potato hummus you will need: 1 tin of chickpeas 450g sweet potato 2 garlic cloves 1 lemon 2 tsp cumin 2-4 tbsp oil (dependent upon how thick you want your hummus) Peel and slice the sweet potato into thumb-sized chunks and add to boiling water for 10-15 minutes until nice and soft before draining. Throw all of the ingredients into a blender and combine.  HOWEVER  if you only have a little blender (like me!) and can't get al