Category: Recipes

You will find quick and easy, made-from-scratch recipes made from seasonal ingredients.  There are some healthy recipes and quite a few treat recipes too. I cook the food that I love so this is not a comprehensive guide to cookery.

My focus is on Baking (particularly Cakes, Muffins and Biscuits and Cookies), Desserts (particularly Ice Cream, Meringue, Roulades and Sweet Tarts), Soups, Salads,  Simple Suppers (particularly Pasta and Savoury Tarts) plus a few Snacks, Sauces and Preserves.  I also have a few Drink recipes with a particular focus on home-made Gin.    These are the kind of goodies that you might get a great local independent cafe or coffee shop – perhaps minus the gin!

All of these dishes are aimed at those who either have basic cooking skills or, like me, just don’t have the time to spend hours in the kitchen but want to produce something tasty and delicious.

Blackberry Muffins

  • Blackberry Muffins
  • Blackberry Muffins
  • Blackberry Muffins

Home-made Blackberry Muffin recipe

These Blackberry Muffins are an English seasonal take on a traditional Blueberry Muffin. I love blackberries and thought that they might be a good alternative to blueberries in a muffin. They have a dark, sweet juiciness which is perfect in a light, sweet vanilla-flavoured muffin.

Muffins are very easy to make. It really is a question of mixing all the ingredients together, cooking for 20 minutes, and then enjoying your freshly baked muffins. The key to a good muffin, as well as having a good flavour combination, is to eat it when it is fresh. A warm muffin, just out of the oven, is truly sublime. A two-day old muffin, not so much!

I like to try and keep things seasonal, as much as I can, so I tend to make these Blackberry Muffins in late August and September when I can pick fresh blackberries. However, if I am organised enough, I pick lots of blackberries during the season as they freeze very well and can be used throughout the year. Also, nowadays, you can buy blackberries in most supermarkets.

I tend to serve muffins as a treat with morning coffee. I will sometimes take them into work or, if I’m working from home, will enjoy a solitary muffin and coffee break. Muffins are also great additions to lunchboxes for children or adults as they are fairly robust and don’t disintegrate into crumbs too easily!

Lovely cakes!

If you like these muffins, you may like some of the other cake recipes that I cook regularly. They are so quick and easy to make and you can get really creative with the flavours! On other pages of this blog you can find recipes for Rosemary Cake,  Thyme Cake, Earl Grey and Orange Cake,Lemon Drizzle, Blood Orange, Lime and Coconut, Rum and Banana and Ginger and Pear.

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Blackberry Muffins

Blackberry Muffins

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 7 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 12 large muffins 1x
  • Category: Muffins
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: British
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Description

Blackberry Muffins are quick and easy to make and are a great way of using this dark, juicy berry!  Eat them fresh out of the oven when they are still warm.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 100 g butter
  • 140 g golden caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 200 ml Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 125 g blackberries (washed)

Blackberries

Instructions

  1.  Set your oven to 200 C/180F/Gas Mark 6.
  2. Line a 12-hole muffin tin.   
  3. Cream the butter and sugar together using a food-processor or hand-held beater.
  4. Add the eggs, yogurt, vanilla essence and milk and stir to combine.
  5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture.
  6. Gently stir in the blackberries.   Some will get a bit crushed when they are stirred in but this is fine as it spreads the flavour!
  7. Put around two tablespoons of the mixture into each of the lined holes in your muffin tray.
  8. Put the muffin tray into the oven and bake the muffins for 20 minutes.  They will be ready when they are risen and golden on top.
  9. Remove the tins for the oven and allow the muffins to cool for five minutes before removing from the tin.

Blackberry Muffins

Notes

If you don’t have shop-bought liners, you can easily make your own by cutting baking parchment into squares and using a small jar or tin to mould each square into the hole in the tin before adding the mixture.

Blackberry Muffins

Recipe shared on “Cook, Blog, Share” by Easy Peasy Foodie and on #Baking Crumbs by Apply to Face Blog and Jo’s Kitchen Larder

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Blackberry Gin

Blackberry Gin

Easy Red Velvet Cake recipe

  • Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries
  • Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries
  • Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries
  • Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries

Easy Red Velvet Cake recipe

This easy Red Velvet Cake recipe is an English version of a very popular American cake. My daughter asked for a Red Velvet Cake for her birthday and, as I had never made one before, I had to do a bit of research! I have to say that I was a bit sceptical – it is a chocolate cake but with relatively small amount of chocolate and a large amount of vanilla – but the end result was delicious. It seemed to be a strange mixture of chocolate and vanilla but the tastes work brilliantly with each other and the vanilla flavour is picked up in the cream cheese icing. So, it is really a vanilla cake with a bit of chocolate rather than a chocolate cake!

My go-to recipe for cakes is generally a basic Victoria Sponge. However, this recipe has encouraged me to be a bit more adventurous in my cake making. Using a combination of butter and oil makes the cake both flavoursome and moist and the buttermilk adds a tangy richness that works well with the cream cheese icing.

A cake and a dessert…

When I served this Red Velvet Cake for my daughter’s birthday, I decided to use it as dessert. It is the kind of versatile cake that works well as either a dessert or as a stand-alone, afternoon tea type cake. I served it with lots of juicy fresh strawberries which complemented the vanilla and chocolate flavour of the sponge and the tangy cream cheese icing. It was a large cake, and we had already had a substantial main course, but it disappeared extremely quickly!

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Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries

Easy Red Velvet Cake recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: Serves 8
  • Category: Cakee
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This Easy Red Velvet Cake recipe has a strong vanilla flavour combined with a delicate taste of chocolate and is coated with tangy cream cheese icing.

Ingredients

Scale

For the cake:

  • 115 g slightly salted butter
  • 400 g soft brown sugar
  • 250 g vegetable oil 
  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 250 ml buttermilk
  • red food colouring (gel gives the best colour)
  • 300 g plain flour
  • 50 g corn flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

For the icing:

  • 450 g cream cheese
  • 110 g unsalted butter
  • 550 g icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 180 C, 400 F or Gas Mark 4.
  2. Grease two 9 inch cake tins and line the base of each with a circle of baking parchment,
  3. Using a food processor, mix the butter and soft brown sugar.  Then add the vegetable oil, egg yolks, vanilla extract, vinegar, buttermilk and red food colouring to the mixture.
  4. Using a sieve, sift in the plain and corn flours, baking soda and cocoa powders.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  Then fold them into the cake mixture.
  6. Put half of the mixture into each greased baking tin and put them in the oven for 30 minutes.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  8. Make the icing by beating together the cream cheese, unsalted butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract.
  9. Use the icing to sandwich together the two cakes and then spread it on the top and sides of the assembled cake.

Red Velvet Cake with Strawberries

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Lilac mascarpone and honey

Lilac and Vanilla Cake

Rose and Strawberry Cream Cake

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Easy Lemon Curd Ice Cream recipe

Quick and easy, three ingredient recipe

This is probably the quickest and easiest ice cream recipe. It only has three ingredients – cream, Greek yogurt and Lemon Curd – and takes a matter of minutes to combine them. I think the ice cream tastes better if you use home-made Lemon Curd. It has a citrus zestiness that you just don’t get with the shop-bought version. I have a foolproof, quick recipe for making Lemon Curd and you can use it for lots of other things as well as ice-cream. It is great just spread on bread or as a filling for cakes or you could try making my Lemon Pavlova. However, if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own Lemon Curd, you can use shop-bought.

You can use an ice cream maker to make this ice cream but it is not essential. If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

Other lemon flavoured recipes

I love lemon in both sweet and savoury recipes. One of my favourite preserve recipes is my easy Lemon Curd. It brings a hit of zesty fresh lemon to lots of other dishes such as my Lemon Curd Ice Cream or my Lemon Pavlova. I also use the lovely citrus-flavoured herb lemon verbena to make Lemon Verbena Ice Cream.

Lemon is a great baking ingredient and I use it in lots of my cake and biscuit (cookie) recipes. My Lemon Biscuits (Cookies) are quick, easy and delicious. I combine lemon with elderflower in my Lemon Sponge Cake with Edible Flowers and in my Elderflower and Lemon cupcakes. My St Clement’s Cake has a double hit of citrus as it includes both oranges and lemons!

In savoury dishes, lemon is a great flavour partner to chicken. I make a classic Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Thyme and also a Morroccan-inspired stew of Lemon Chicken with Olives.

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Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6-8 1x
  • Category: Ice Cream
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This creamy, tangy  three-ingredient Lemon Curd Ice Cream is probably the easiest ice cream recipe that you will find.  

Ingredients

Scale
  • 400 ml double cream
  • 400 ml Greek yogurt
  • 400 ml Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Instructions

  1. Whisk the double cream until it forms soft peaks.
  2. Stir the Greek yogurt and 300 ml of the Lemon Curd into the whisked cream.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the fridge in a covered bowl to become thoroughly chilled.
  4. When you are ready to make the ice-cream, transfer the mixture to your ice-cream maker and use according to your machine’s instructions.  If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.
  5. Once the mixture has thickened, stir inn the remaining 100 ml of Lemon Curd so that it forms a “ripple” through the ice cream.    Transfer to a container and keep in the freezer until you wish to eat it.

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Notes

This recipe is much better if you use home-made Lemon Curd and you can find a fool-proof recipe on this blog.  However, if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own, you can use good quality shop-bought Lemon Curd.

Lemon Pavlova

  • Lemon Pavlova
  • Lemon Pavlova
  • Lemon Pavlova
  • Lemon Pavlova

Lemon Pavlova

Lemon Pavlova, what’s not to like? I love lemon and I love meringue, so for me this is pretty much the perfect dessert. Even better, it is really easy to make! One of the great things about pavlovas is that while they have that show-stopping, celebratory vibe, they are actually extremely simple to produce even for inexperienced cooks. Another of my favourites is Rose and Raspberry Pavlova which is a twist on a more traditional pavlova recipe.

This recipe for Lemon Pavlova first came into my family through my Aunt Pat who led a rather glamorous life as a literary agent in the 1950s and 1960s. Part of her not-terribly-onerous job involved taking trips from London to New York in order to meet authors and publishers. Needless to say, food and copious amounts of alcohol figured prominently during these visits. This Lemon Pavlova was made for Aunt Pat by an admirer who lived in New York. Despite the Pavlova, the relationship didn’t last but the recipe became a firm family favourite. I always think of it as a kind of deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie but without the pie! I think it is brilliant as just having the lemon and the meringue makes it a much lighter dessert.

Lovely Lemon Curd…

The lemon flavour in this Pavlova is provided by Lemon Curd. If you are pushed for time, you can, if you must, use shop-bought Lemon Curd. However, the Lemon Pavlova will truly be so much better if you use home-made Lemon Curd. It only takes ten minutes to make and my Easy Lemon Curd Recipe is fool-proof. Once you’ve made it, it keeps in the fridge for three weeks and can be used in lots of different ways – as a spread, as a cake filling and, of course, as a dessert ingredient. My recipe for easy Lemon Curd Ice Cream is also a great way to use Lemon Curd – home-made or shop bought!

And lovely lemon recipes..

I love the flavour of lemon in both sweet and savoury recipes. If you also love its citrus zing, you might like my sweet recipes for Lemon Drizzle Cake and Lemon Shortbread or my savoury recipe for Spiced Carrots with Honey and Lemon.

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Lemon Pavlova

Lemon Pavlova

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 60
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6 people 1x
  • Category: Meringue
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This easy Lemon Pavlova recipe is the perfect combination of whipped cream, zesty Lemon Curd and crisp meringue. 

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 egg whites
  • Pinch of salt
  • 225 caster sugar
  •  teaspoon cornflour
  •  teaspoon lemon juice
  • 300 ml Lemon Curd (you can use ready-made Curd but home-made is better)
  • 300 ml double cream

Lemon Pavlova

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 140 C/275 F/Gas Mark 1.
  2. Whisk the egg whites with salt until they form stiff peaks.
  3. Add two tablespoons of sugar and continue to whisk until combined and the mixture is thick and glossy.
  4. Fold the rest of the sugar, the cornflour and the lemon juice into the whisked egg whites.
  5. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment or silicon paper.
  6. Spoon the egg white mixture onto the baking sheet to form a large circle or oval.
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour until the exterior of the meringue is hard to the touch.
  8. Allow to cool.
  9. When ready to serve, spoon the Lemon Curd over the top of the meringue base.
  10. Then whisk the double cream until it forms soft peaks and then spread it on top of the Lemon Curd

Lemon Pavlova

Notes

I have a foolproof recipe for Lemon Curd, which is very quick and easy to make and tastes so much better than the shop-bought version.

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon shortbread

Lemon Shortbread

Easy Lemon Curd Recipe

  • Lemon Curd
  • Lemon Curd
  • Lemon Curd
  • Lemon Curd

Easy, home-made Lemon Curd

This Easy Lemon Curd Recipe will enable you to make fresh, zesty lemon curd in a matter of minutes. It is so easy to make and is totally different from over-sweetened shop-bought lemon curd which just does not have anything like the same level of sharp lemony flavour. This is one of those recipes where the minimal effort really pays off with a product that is so much better than the ready-made version.

Many people think it is hard to make Lemon Curd and worry about ending up with lemon-flavoured scrambled eggs rather than smooth curd. Do not worry! The acid in the lemon juice prevents the eggs scrambling when they are heated. All you need to do is cook over a low heat and make sure you stir the mixture while it is thickening. The whole recipe only takes around 10 minutes – quicker than going down to the shops to buy a jar of ready-made Lemon Curd.

You can make Curd from a number of other tropical fruit such as lime, orange, mango and passion fruit. I think it works best with strongly flavoured fruit – if you are a fan of rhubarb, have a look at my recipe for Rhubarb Curd.

There are so many uses for Easy Lemon Curd..

So what can you do with Lemon Curd? Well, lots and lots of things, actually! First off, it is great as a spread on bread as an alternative to jam or honey. It is also great stirred into plain yogurt or spooned over vanilla ice cream. However, in my opinion, it really comes into its own as a cooking ingredient. Its punch of lemony flavour is fantastic in all kinds of sweet dishes. It is particularly useful as a filling for cakes and in all kinds of puddings.

Other lemon-flavoured recipes

Lemon is one of my favourite flavours. I will always go for the lemon cake rather than the chocolate cake! If you like lemon too, you might like my Lemon Pavlova or easy Lemon Curd Ice Cream, both of which use my home-made Lemon Curd. Or you could check out some of my other lemon-flavoured recipes such as my Lemon Drizzle Cake, Lemon Biscuits and Lemon Verbena Ice Cream.

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Lemon Curd

Easy Lemon Curd Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 300 ml lemon curd 1x
  • Category: Curd
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This Easy Lemon Curd Recipe is fool-proof and only takes ten minutes.  In less time than it takes to go to the shop to buy ready-made Lemon Curd, you can have the far superior zesty, lemony home-made version.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 unwaxed lemons
  • 85 g butter
  • 225 g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs

Lemon Curd

Instructions

  1. Finely grate the zest of the lemons into a small, heavy-based saucepan.
  2. Squeeze the lemons and add their juice to the saucepan together with the butter and sugar.
  3. Beat the eggs and add these to the saucepan.
  4. Put the saucepan over a very low heat and stir until the butter has melted and the ingredients have combined.
  5. Continue stirring over the low heat until the mixture has thickened.  This should take around five minutes.
  6. Pour the mixture into sterilised jam jars and allow to cool.

Lemon Curd

Notes

Make sure you use unwaxed lemons which are available in most supermarkets.  You want lemon zest rather than wax in your curd!

Don’t worry about ending up with scrambled eggs!  The acid in the lemon juice will prevent this.

You can sterilise your jam jars by washing them in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

The lemon curd will keep for three weeks in the refridgerator.

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

Lemon Pavlova

Lemon Pavlova

Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon shortbread

Lemon Shortbread