Strawberry, poppyseed and orange cake

This is one of the more delicious cakes I have had recently. The cake itself has a lovely crumb and texture and the flavours are a little different but amazing.

The orange creme fraiche and Greek yoghurt filling is fresh, zingy and a nice summery alternative to cream. The poppy-seeds work really well too, adding a subtle flavour and nice texture contrast.

This is a good food magazine recipe, it can be found here.

I made a couple of tweaks. There are two of us, I sense it is not the best for our health to attempt to eat a four layer cake, so I halved the recipe to make a two layer cake. The recipe also called for full fat greek yoghurt and creme fraiche. I had 0% fat greek yoghurt and 1/2 fat creme fraiche in the fridge. Waste not want not,  I used these and the filling turned out luscious and fine.

If you are a cake fan I urge you to make this beauty while British strawberries are in season.

Maple, raspberry and orange cupcakes

Hmmm I do like chocolate but it has come to my attention that out of my last 5 posts 4 contain chocolate, and the fifth was a savoury bake! I am sure this is just coincidence with various blogging challenges and celebration bakes resulting in more chocolate than usual!

Still it was my aim to make something a little less rich and a bit more fruity. I had a little think and adapted a love bakery recipe I liked the sound of. The book has a 'breakfast' cupcake that is flavoured with honey and topped with greek yoghurt frosting.

I flavoured my cupcake with maple syrup, filled it with cooked raspberries and while I did use a greek yoghurt frosting I spiked it with orange zest.

Maple, raspberry and orange cupcakes


makes 12


For the cakes


125g butter
125g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 eggs, room temperature
125g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsps milk


For the filling


120g raspberries
20g raspberry jam


For the frosting


50g butter
60g greek yoghurt
350g icing sugar
zest of one orange
handful of oats 


Preheat the oven to 180C/160 FAN and line a cupcake pan with 12 cases.


Using a handheld or free-standing electric whisk, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla paste and maple syrup together until very light and fluffy (up to 5 minutes). Add the eggs and beat for a further two minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and beat until fully incorporated, scrape down the bowl again. Add the milk and beat for a further minute.

Fill the cases 2/3 full, I used an ice cream scoop for easy filling. Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Note the maple syrup does result in them colouring a little more than other cupcakes but all is fine. When done cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.


While the cupcakes are in the oven pop the raspberries and jam in a small saucepan with a teaspoon of water. Cook gently until the raspberries have mainly broken down. Leave to cool. As this mix cools it will thicken. 


When the cupcakes are completely cool cut a cone out of each of them. Fill the cavity with the cooled raspberry mixture and place the cone back on top. The cone will have to be trimmed to fit back in, and YOU, the baker, can nibble these off cuts as a bakers treat!

For the frosting beat together the butter, greek yoghurt and orange zest, continue beating and add in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. Do not panic it will get soupy initially, just keep going. 


Now if you want to pipe your frosting you will have to keep it in the fridge for at least an hour, I tried piping mine straight away and my beautiful spirals did not stay. 

Dry toast a handful of oats in a pan, keep an eye on them they can burn quickly, scatter the toasted oats over the frosting and you are done!

Thanks to the raspberry and orange these cupcakes are not overly sweet, and the cake itself has a lovely flavour. Just the cupcake for the sunny days that have finally arrived!