(July The 4th) Lemon Cupcakes

If you're a Brit or American you'll have noticed there's a lot of red, white & blue around. So I thought these cupcakes were appropriate: 

Wimbledon excitement is building as we enter the second week - what an extraordinary first week for tennis fans!  
And across the pond July the 4th is just around the corner. C is half American so I half heartily said these were to celebrate his heritage. Of course, for me, it was just an excuse to bake & eat cupcakes!  

You'll need: 
250g butter
250g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
250g self-raising flour
Zest & juice of 2 lemons    

And for the buttercream:
140g butter
280g icing sugar   

Heat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan & line a muffin tin with 12 cases. 
Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, zest of 2 lemons and juice from 1 lemon into a bowl and whisk with an electric whisk. 

Whisk until your cake mixture is just combined - don't over whisk. Divide between the muffin cases then bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

Transfer to a cooling rack. See? Easaay! 

Cream the butter & icing sugar together, add about a tablespoon of lemon juice to loosen it & add flavour. Leave the cupcakes to cool completely and pipe the buttercream on. 

Sprinkle red, white & blue things on top!

Eat them watching Wimbledon, with a Pimm's in hand, punnet of strawberries to your side. 

American friends: eat them watching fireworks, after a BBQ worthy of your British friends envy, with a Pabst in hand. 

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is the cult home of the hip & the hungry. It has caused waves in the London brunch world since its opening in 2005. And I think it's pretty clear why... 

    
C opted for a Mexican breakie of fried eggs, refried beans, chorizo, salsa, sour cream guacamole & tortilla with melty cheddar on top. 
And I went for french toast, bacon, banana & maple syrup. Can we just take a moment to relish in my mountain of bacon and drippings of maple syrup. 
It was so. good. 

If you haven't already, check out their snazzy retro menu here. 

You can go to The Breakfast Club in Soho (where we went),  Battersea Rise, Hoxton & Spitalfields. 
But remember...  

Tomate-o Tomato

Grabbing lunch at Caracoli.  
Eating their pesto & mozerella heritage tomato salad, and then washing it down with cold fresh OJ. Whilst reading the weekend papers (okay...magazines). In the sun.
Thats what weekends are (sometimes) all about. 

Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Krispies

These are good. Seriously good. Salty, sticky, crispy.

It took a little time to perfect this recipe, but I think I've got them down to a 'T' *looks towards the line of empty peanut butter jars*.

They got gobbled up nearly as quickly as they were made; too easy not to try. 

To make 9 large squares you'll need:

• 100g white sugar
• 100g brown sugar
• 300g peanut butter
• 160g Rice Krispies 
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 

Over a low heat place the golden syrup and sugars together in a saucepan and stir constantly to combine. Remove from the heat. 

Tip into a bowl and stir in the peanut butter. Lick the spoon (this is a crucial step). 

Next mix in the vanilla, Rice Krispies and marshmallows. Crunch everything up.  

Spread the mixture into a lined baking tin and bung them into the fridge for half an hour or so.  

I always use pegs to hold down the lining paper, it's a lot less fussy & quicker than messing about with butter and snipping bits of paper.    

Slice. Eat. Make another batch.

Cheese Toast & Tomato Soup

C seems to excel in frying things. He makes one heck of a cheese toastie, it's sooo good! 
Breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, it's always my first choice if he's cooking. Is there anything more comforting and dreamy than cheese on toast? 

You can have it grated, sliced, half melted, dripping melted, overlapped, thin slices, thick slices... You can have it with mayonnaise, stilton, red onion chutney, chilli, worcester sauce, garlic, tomato sauce (lazy kids pizza) or simply with black pepper. 
But when it comes to the cheese, lets be honest, no cheese can really knock a good cheddar off his cheese toast thrown. 

This Week

Brighton's Best Ice Cream

The British seaside and sweet treats go hand-in-hand. Brighton Rock? Maybe. But Italian ice cream at Marrocco's? Always.
Now, I do consider myself a bit of an ice cream connoisseur and let me inform you after tasting the majority of the ice cream on offer in Brighton, Marrocco's Italian Geltato comes out top. 

On this spring morning my wonderful mum and I caught some rays but stayed wrapped up from the cold sea wind. After my obligatory mint chocolate chip scoop I tossed back and forth between the 23 others. Choices, choices...

Ice cream is just so loveable; in the same way cake plays a role in celebrations (okay, a major role in celebrations) ice cream makes things feel like a special occasion. 
You know, it might be drizzly but we're on the beach, hey! Lets have ice cream. Or Britain is finally hot, hey! Lets cool down and have ice cream! Wow, my lips are blue and I'm bloody freezing! You know what would cheer us up? Ice cream!

If it is a sunny day (especially in the school holidays) then be prepared for a wee queue out the door. Its worth the wait though,  you can find Marrocco's here. 

PS my sunglasses are from Topshop and my mum's are a few years old from Chanel; these ones are pretty similar.