I sit and pine for wasted time

Over Easter weekend I took a trip back to The Wirral to catch up with my friends and family. We had some looovely weather (some of the time at least!) which made a bit of a crazy contrast to Easter weekend last year where I had a day trip out in the snow with my Mum and Dad. English weather, you're full of surprises.

We spent a lot of Good Friday travelling around about a zillion car show rooms as I've decided that after passing my driving test six years ago its probably about time I actually invested in a pair of wheels. After a few hours, my Dad decided we needed a stop off for lunch which I'm fairly certain was really to stop him from having a minor heart attack every time a salesman uttered the words "fancy a test drive?" to me. Having not driven properly since passing my test all those years ago, my Dad was clearly having vivid nightmares about me being trusted behind the wheel of a shiny test car (can't say I blame him... I can barely remember which pedal is which!). 

Anyway, we ended up in New Brighton for our little pit stop. Back when my Mum and Dad were young, New Brighton was a thriving seaside resort complete with an outdoor pool, but for most of my life I've known it as being a bit of a depressing, run down place that had lost all of its appeal and visitors. Over the last few years, they've really put a lot of effort into redeveloping the Prom and there were just people EVERYWHERE. Normally, I get a bit fed up if somewhere is absolutely chock a block with people, but actually this was a pretty lovely sight and it was great to see that the town is regaining some of the glory and atmosphere it had lost over the years.

 (Oh look, that Primark playsuit I keep rambling on about is making another appearance on here already!)

Did you manage to make the most of the sunshine over Easter weekend?

Overdone- Bombay Bicycle Club

You could be my ice age sugar

After jumping on the creme egg brownie bandwagon earlier this week, I decided that it was entirely necessary for me to test out creme egg cupcakes too in preparation for Easter. I'd already planned to bake some treats to bring into work for our last staff meeting before the holidays, but after having a chat with one of my colleagues realised that she was planning on bringing cakes in too. I still wanted to make something but being the extremely ever so slightly competitive person that I am, I needed to do something that little bit extra special because I know she has a reputation as the best baker in the office after we'd had a jokey chat about how we should turn it into a bake off. So, after letting her enjoy her glory on Wednesday with her cakes (which were pretty yummy, I'll give her that), I turned up to work the following day with my offerings. I'd been a little concerned about whether my plan would backfire on me as a few people had casually mentioned that they didn't like creme eggs the day before, but even they wolfed them down and got very over-excited by the secret creme egg in the middle of the buns (see, EVERYBODY likes creme eggs really) I think my mission to be crowned champion Easter baker in our unofficial bake off was a resounding success. So, if you want to impress people this Easter, you know what you need to do.

Creme Egg Cupcakes

100g butter

100g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

100g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

12 mini creme eggs (plus more to decorate the cakes with)

100g icing sugar

100g butter

75g melted chocolate

*freeze the 12 creme eggs the night before you make your cakes)*

Preheat your oven to 180C 

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Once combined, gradually add the eggs to the mixture, stirring as you go. 

Sift  the flour and the cocoa powder into the mixture and beat until smooth.

Line a 12 hole cake tin with cake cases, drop a teaspoon of mixture into each case initially and then rest the mini creme eggs on top of this before covering with the rest of the mixture (this should help to stop the creme eggs sinking right to the bottom of the cakes when they bake!)

Pop your cakes into the oven for about 15 minutes, then when they're ready remove from the oven to cool. 

Meanwhile, cream together your the butter, melted chocolate and icing sugar until you have a smooth icing. 

Once the cakes have cooled, pipe or spread the buttercream on top of the cakes (I decided I was too lazy to pipe mine, plus the flatter surface helped my mini creme eggs to sit nicely on top of the cakes and not slide off!). 

Get a sharp knife and halve your mini creme eggs down the existing line around the edge of the eggs and place on top of your cakes.

So there you have it, an easy way to impress your friends and family this Easter whilst making the most of the limited time that creme eggs grace our supermarket shelves. I'm planning on stocking up after Easter when everything gets reduced (malteaser bunnies for 10p each were my bargain of choice last year... here's hoping that happens again this year!) so I can carry on making these beauties for a little while after the Easter bunny has been and gone. 

Wraith- Peace