Butternut squash coffee cupcakes

We had quarter of a butternut squash left over from cooking dinner yesterday, so I turned to one of my favourite cookbooks, Harry Eastwood’s 'Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache', to see if I could find something to bake with it.  This recipe is adapted from her 'cappuccino cupcakes' recipe which uses sweet potato, but butternut squash worked brilliantly.  The book is full of amazing recipes for baking with vegetables – and these were no exception, like all the recipes I've tried from the book they always turn out perfectly.  Whenever I make any of these vegetable cakes though, I’ve discovered the trick is to not tell people what the secret ingredient is until after they’ve eaten at least a good mouthful of cake – people are often very hesitant about the idea but surprised and amazed when they find out what makes it so moist and unusual. I took these to work to try to liven up a Monday morning team meeting!

Clotted cream tiramisu

Lu loves tiramisu and always orders it when we go to Italian restaurants, but I realised recently that for some reason I’ve never made it!  For her birthday, I decided to give it a try, but unfortunately couldn’t find any mascarpone at the shops.  Instead, I made it with clotted cream – and Lu says this was the best tiramisu she’s ever tasted, so for now on this will be how I always make it!

Vegan chocolate macadamia cake with blackberries

This evening we cooked dinner for six, including a friend who is vegan.  I decided to turn my chocolate courgette brownies recipe into something a bit more sophisticated - made with macadamia nuts instead of walnuts, a little coffee essence and baked it in a round cake tin.  I topped it with a mound of fresh blackberries, dusted with cocoa. Telling people once they've eaten the cake that it contains courgettes is great fun to watch - especially our friend Jon who refuses to eat vegetables. No-one would be able to guess, but their inclusion means this is really moist and magic!

Coffee-glazed Chantilly choux buns

I've never made choux pastry before and have always been a bit scared of it. But Lu loves coffee choux buns and I've been promising for ages to try making them for her. I finally took the plunge today, fully expecting the whole thing to go horribly wrong... but it turns out there is nothing to fear!  It's actually incredibly quick and easy, uses a tiny amount of store-cupboard ingredients, and according to Delia (who I trust on all baking matters), it is best NOT to use a piping bag but spoon the dough onto a baking sheet for a crisper choux.  She also recommends using strong white bread flour rather than plain flour (as it has a higher gluten content and makes them even crisper), something I'll try next time. Because I'm definitely making these again! Delicious, light, airy, crispy, creamy, sweet delights. I want to try them with caramel on top, or an Earl Grey pastry cream, or fresh raspberries folded into whipped cream. I've fallen in love with Choux!

Espresso choc chip muffins

My friend Lucy has had her baby boy, Jacob, and I'm going round to meet him for the first time today!  I'm so excited and proud of her. This morning I made a basket of two flavours of muffins to take as a present: this is the first, espresso and dark choc chips.

Pistachio mocha marble cake

We're off for a girls weekend, six of us staying with our friends Liz and Dilly in Plymouth.  I'm looking forward to long walks on the moors, gin cocktails and a good catch up. This is my contribution to our Friday night feast - a marble cake made with one half espresso and cocoa flavoured, the other made with toasted, ground pistachios. I topped it with a coffee buttercream icing and decorated it with the bigger chunks of ground pistachios too big to sift into the cake batter.  A marble cake is a good cake to make when you can't decide which flavour to go with - make both!

Coffee, maple and ginger cake with maple-caramelised pecans

Today I went to visit my very pregnant friend Lucy for a cuppa and a catch up.  Her favourite cake is coffee cake, so I made this coffee cake with a twist - the flavour is intensified with fresh ginger and maple syrup, so it tastes like a gingerbread latte!  I iced it with a coffee and maple buttercream and decorated it with pecan nuts caramelised in a pan of bubbling maple syrup.

The sponge cake base is loosely based on Dan Lepard's recipe for coffee and ginger cake, but I forgot to add oil - it turned out fine though, I think because I added maple syrup and didn't include ground pistachios.  I also made it more moist by making a coffee syrup which I poured over the hot cake skewered with holes and left it to cool in the tin (inspired by Delia Smith's Austrian coffee and walnut cake, but I also added maple syrup and a little ground ginger).  Rather than Dan Lepard's lemon-cream cheese frosting or Delia's coffee mascarpone frosting, I opted for a simple buttercream flavoured with maple syrup and espresso.

White chocolate coffee cookies

These cookies are made with instant coffee powder, straight into the dough without diluting with hot water.  It melts a little in the baking, and the smaller the granules the better - although you still get a little pop of coffee hit when they're baked!  

Coffee liqueur fudge

For Christmas presents this year we're making fudge.  It's a really easy basic recipe that just uses melted chocolate and condensed milk - we've made three flavours, adding liqueurs and different toppings and a different type of chocolate for each.

Coffee and walnut mini-muffins

Walnut mocha mini muffins

After discovering the joys of my new silicon mini-muffin pan when I made Christmassy mini-muffins, I couldn't wait to make some more!  This time I made double chocolate muffins with walnuts, chunks of dark chocolate and coffee.  I'm taking them to work tomorrow to help us all through an all-day meeting!

Coffee and walnut cake (10 inch square)

I like my coffee cake to have a bit of cocoa in – more of a mocha cake – but also can’t resist walnuts if I can find them.  Using real espresso if you are passing a coffee shop would probably make this even better, but I find that instant coffee mixed with the smallest amount of boiling water you can get away with to create a smooth syrupy mixture works just as well.  There’s also Camp coffee essence (I found it in Asda but nowhere else) which works really well – it’s especially good for the icing and creates a fantastically rich, golden colour when mixed with mascarpone and icing sugar.