While doing my weekly shop I spotted bags of Navel and Seville oranges amongst the usual simply named ‘oranges.’ This made me realise that it must be marmalade making season already! Each year in January, when these special marmalade oranges are available, my mother and grandmother make colossal batches of homemade marmalade. I love the smell and process of boiling the oranges, cutting them, stirring in the sugar, boiling and jarring. Nothing beats the flavour of my mum’s homemade marmalade, shop bought just doesn’t compare and is never allowed to enter my parents/my house.

 

Marmalade making is a traditional I would love to continue myself, only I don’t eat a lot of marmalade, and one jar (provided my mum) will last me for several months. Now I’m not living at home, seeing the Navel and Seville oranges in the shops made me nostalgic for home, and the fabulous zesty aroma of a pan of warm simmering marmalade.

  

I bought a bag of Navel oranges and decided to make orange curd rather than marmalade with them. This way I still got the wonderful sweet orange aroma wafting through the kitchen without the need to make jars and jars of jam, as curd can be made in small batches quite easily.

 

Stirring the slowly thickening bowl of orange curd was quite relaxing and made me feel very nostalgic. Once jarred and cooled and I ate my first spoonful on toast, as a nod to marmalade. It was fresh and zesty, with a bitter-sweet intense orange flavour. Noticeably different to marmalade, being creamier and richer, but the lingering flavour was definitely reminiscent of marmalade. I think it would be brilliant paired with a dark chocolate cake.

Do you like marmalade? Do you ever make your own?

Navel Orange ‘Marmalade’ Curd

Ingredients

Zest & juice of 2 large Navel or Seville oranges

170g caster sugar

55g unsalted butter

2 eggs

Method

Place two small clean glass jars and their lids on a baking tray and place into the oven. Heat to 130C and leave while you make the curd.

Finely zest the oranges into a large glass bowl. Squeeze the juice form the oranges and add to the zest in the bowl along with the sugar.

Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has turned from cloudy to clear. (You can sieve the zest out at this stage if you don’t want it in the finished curd, but it adds a lot of extra flavour).

Cut the butter into small cubes and gently stir into the zesty syrup with a spatula until melted and combined.

Lightly beat the eggs and then pour into the orange mixture through a sieve to remove any oogly bits, mixing all the time to prevent the egg curdling into scrambled eggs.

Keep mixing gently for 15-20 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. Do not be melted to walk away or turn the heat up to speed up the process, it will scramble the eggs.

Once the mixture starts to thicken, keep stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula. You should be able to run your finger down the spatula, leaving a mark without the curd flowing back over it.

Remove your jars from the oven and immediately fill to the rim with the hot curd. Screw the lids on the jars tightly, using rubber gloves to prevent burning your hands.

Leave to jars to cool on the side – the lids will suddenly ‘pop’ as the vacuum is created, ensuring a sealed and sterile jar.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Makes 1½ - 2 jars of curd

On Saturday A invited me round to his house for a film night with some of his friends. Everyone was bringing something to share and I decided to bake some mini cupcakes. It’s my birthday today, so I think my brain was already thinking about cake! I love how mini cupcakes are cute and individually sized, the perfect thing to share around when you want just a little something sweet.

I decided to make coconut cupcakes and then decorate them two different ways with two different flavours in the hope there would be something to suit everyone. Plus, I always think a mix of colours and flavours look more appealing than having everything the same.

 

Half of the mini cupcakes were topped with chocolate frosting and some lightly toasted coconut, while the other half I turned into mini butterfly cakes, filled with some of my leftover zingy lime curd. I was happy with how they both turned out but I loved the lime curd butterflies. I’ve not made butterfly cakes for years. They always used to make an appearance at birthday parties, lightly dusted with icing sugar. I felt quite nostalgic making them.

 

I thought most people would go for the chocolate topped ones, but the lime butterflies actually disappeared first. I still love its zesty vibrant flavour. Both varieties had disappeared by the end of the night though. Of course I had to taste one of each beforehand, for photography and quality control purposes you understand.

 

A is taking my out for dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday, and then my family are coming to visit during the May bank holiday, so I’m going to have a special couple of weeks!

Mini Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients

60g gluten free flour (I used 40g brown rice flour, 15g buckwheat flour, 5g tapioca starch)

50g butter

35g creamed coconut (from a block, not the liquid)

60g caster sugar

1 egg

¼ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp coconut extract

¾ tsp GF baking powder

Butterfly Curd Filling

2 tbsp lime or lemon curd

Chocolate Icing (makes enough for 24 mini cupcakes)

70g butter

25g dark chocolate

10g cocoa powder

140g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

Decoration

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

Mini Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a mini cupcake tin with 24 paper cases.

Soften the block of coconut cream in the microwave until softened. Make sure the butter is very soft too. Weigh out all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth, light and fluffy.

Divide the batter between the paper cases using a teaspoon.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until risen. They will remain quite pale.

Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Icing

Make sure the butter is soft and beat until soft and fluffy. Melt the chocolate, pour over the butter and mix until combined.

Sift over the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix together carefully using a spatula, until most of the sugar has combined.

Add the milk and beat with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add a little more milk if necessary.

Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe on top of the cooled mini cupcakes.

Decoration

Heat a dry frying pan over a low heat. Add the coconut and mix slowly with a spoon, until lightly toasted and golden. Do not walk away as it can go from white to burnt in seconds.

When toasted, transfer to a plate and leave to cool.

Lime Butterflies

Run a sharp knife in a circle, cone formation around the top of the cooled cupcakes, about 3mm in from the edge. Remove the middle cone of sponge.

Fill the cone void with half a teaspoon of lime curd, or filling of your choice.

Cut the removed sponge cone in half to create two 3D triangle shapes.

Place these at a slight angle back on top of the filled cupcake, to look like the wings of a butterfly.

Dust the top lightly with icing sugar.

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

WOW! This has to be the best jam/curd/preserve I have ever made and ever tasted! It’s so fresh, zingy and zesty that it makes my tongue come alive with a jolt as the flavour sweeps over my taste buds like an electric shock. Almost like biting into a hot chili, a sudden rush of intense flavour, that makes your mouth water.

It’s sweet, sharp and sour all at the same time. I have never had lime curd before, but after buying a big bag of limes from the local market, I knew I had to do something with them besides squeezing a bit over a stir fry. I remembered seeing a post for a ginger lime curd on Chocolate Log blog and adapted her recipe slightly to create this fabulous curd. I didn’t have any ginger and wanted the curd to be really zesty, so used lots of limes and a lemon for extra zing.

 

I love the creamy yellow green tinged colour of the curd. The recipe said to sieve the zest out of the curd before jarring it, but I wanted extra citrus flavour and so left it in. I used a very fine grater to zest my fruit so the zest was fine enough not to be noticeable in the finished curd. It adds a lovely speckled appearance to the curd and I’m sure it adds to the zingy fresh flavour too.

 

If you love zingy, sweet and sharp flavours you must try this curd! I can’t stress enough how amazing it is. I have nearly finished a whole jar and I only made it at the weekend. I’ve been eating it on everything, bread, cakes, pancakes, swirled into yogurt and even my morning porridge! I may have had the odd spoonful straight out the jar too!

 

So quick, so simple and so zingy and fresh. Lemon curd seems bland and boring by comparison. It becomes wonderfully thick as it cools and sets. I’ll be making this again and again for sure. I’ve already promised a jar to my grandmother who shares my love of fresh and zingy flavours.

Zingy Lime Curd

(Recipe adapted from Chocolate Log blog)

Ingredients

Zest & juice of 3 limes

Zest & juice of 1 lemon

160g caster sugar

55g butter

2 eggs

Method

Place two clean glass jars and their lids on a baking tray and place into the oven. Heat to 130C and leave the jars in the oven to sterilise while you make the curd.

Finely zest the limes and lemon and add to a large heatproof bowl. Squeeze the juice form the fruit and add to the zest along with the sugar.

Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has from cloudy to clear. (You can sieve the zest out at this stage if you don’t want it in the finished curd, but it adds a lot of extra flavour).

Cut the butter into small cubes and whisk into the zesty syrup until melted and combined.

Lightly beat the eggs and then pour into the lime mixture through a sieve to remove any oogly bits, whisking all the time to prevent the egg curdling into scrambled eggs.

Keep whisking gently for 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. Do not be melted to walk away or turn the heat up to speed up the process, it will scramble the eggs.

Once the mixture starts to thicken, swap to a flexible spatula and keep stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula. You should be able to run your finger down the spatula, leaving a mark without the curd flowing back over it.

Remove your jars from the oven and immediately fill to the rim with the hot curd. Screw the lids on the jars tightly, using rubber gloves to prevent burning your hands.

Leave to jars to cool on the side – the lids will suddenly ‘pop’ as the vacuum is created, ensuring a sealed and sterile jar.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Makes 1½ - 2 jars of zesty lime curd

I was recently contacted by gourmet food company, Atkins and Potts, to see if I’d like to review any of their new pasta sauces. I wrote back saying thank you for the offer, but that I was more of a sweet and baking blog, so I would pass this time. They then offered to send me a little selected of their other products, more in keeping with my blog. I had a quick look at their website and was delighted to find that all their products are vegetarian and gluten free, with many being vegan too! This was such a lovely surprise, and I was excited by the variety of products they made and so eagerly accepted.

A few days later I received the following exciting products: Chili Chocolate Spread, Basil Jam, Cranberry Relish and Pomegranate Syrup.

Chilli Chocolate Spread

Unscrewing the lid I instantly smelt the aroma of rich dark chocolate. Dipping a spoon in, I found the consistency to be more like a giant ganache truffle than the gooey sticky spread I was expecting. It was very thick and smooth. The first taste is of rich dark chocolate, not overly sweet, which being a dark chocolate lover I really enjoyed. A few seconds later a slight warmth began to develop at the back of my throat which built up into quite a spicy kick. This took me a little by surprise but was wonderfully addictive. The thick texture made it quite hard to spread on softer foods like bread or cake, but delicious spread over toast, where it slowly melts into a glossy pool, giving off wafts of dark chocolate aroma. I image it would be wonderful melted over ice cream too. Very indulgent, but defiantly one for the grown ups.

Purple Basil Jam

This idea really intrigued me and I wondered what to expect. It sounded wonderfully exotic. I was imaging a smooth sticky jam, sort of like a mint jelly only made with basil. However, on opening I found it to be quite chunky, containing little squares of onion set it a sweet and sticky syrup. To me this made it more of a sweet pickle or relish than a jam, but naming aside, it was delicious. It reminded me of onion marmalade. Very sweet, with a slight twang. The basil was flecked throughout the jam in thin shreds which added an intriguing flavour. It was delicious with some cheese, although I would have liked the basil flavour to be more pronounced.

Spicy Cranberry Relish

Again I wasn’t sure what to expect and imagined a sort of cranberry jam/sauce. It turned out to be far more superior than that. There were whole, lightly crushed cranberries mixed with a few other bits and pieces to make a chunky relish. It was not that sweet, with the whole pieces of cranberry giving it a wonderful mix of sweet, sharp and tangy flavours. There was also a slight kick of vinegar lingering in the background. It’s probably intended to be eaten with roasted meats, but I found it delicious with both a sharp cheddar cheese and peanut butter (not all together!) I loved the freshness of the cranberries and again how it wasn’t that sweet. This would be perfect for Christmas.

Pomegranate Syrup

I was excited by this. I love pomegranates and think they are a very underused fruit. This sweet glossy syrup had a fabulous pomegranate aftertaste. It somehow managed to keep that tart, slightly astringent and mysterious flavour of pomegranate while still being sweet and sticky. I’ve been drizzling it over my porridge this week and it makes a lovely change to honey or sugar. I’m longing to make a cheesecake and drizzle it over that with some berries or figs. Really unique.

Thank you to Atkins and Potts for the samples. I was genuinely impressed with the quality of all the products I tried. Nothing was overly sweet, which allowed the ingredients natural flavours, or tartness to shine through. I loved how I could really see the main ingredients, like the whole cranberries and the shreds of basil in the products. Do have a look at their website, everything they make is a little unique and different to the usual run of the mill products. It’s great to see a company being to create with flavours and ingredient combinations. When was the last time you saw quince syrup or wasabi mayonnaise stocked in your local supermarket?