Bake up a storm with Jubilee cakes

If you’re living in the UK, you’ll know what’s happening this weekend. That’s right, Jubilee time! 60 years on the throne for Queen Liz! Street parties! Union flags everywhere! FOUR days off!

Phew. Exciting times. The proper British thing to do seems to be to mark the event with cake, and lots of it.

We’ll be baking up a storm, starting with a Jubilee sponge cake with blueberries and strawberries. Our favourite recipe comes from Edd Kimber, aka The Boy Who Bakes (is that name ringing any bells? Edd’s the man who had us all attempting macaroons back in series one of The Great British Bake Off).

To take along to our local street party, we’ll be trying out these Jubilee cupcake swirls à la The Magenta Cakes Blog. This looks like a super-easy way to achieve Union Jack style icing, but we’ll let you know how simple it really is once we’ve tried it.

Finally, we’ll be displaying our creations in style on their very own cupcake thrones. Or maybe not…

Do you have any impressive Jubilee cakes you’d like to share with us? Pop them on our facebook page for us all to coo over!

Vegetable of the month... rhubarb

Vegetable of the month? Rhubarb? Yep. We haven’t cheated, rhubarb is technically a vegetable.

We were going to blog about asparagus (also in season, also fabulous), but for some reason we kept finding ourselves swayed back towards those bright pink rhubarb stems.

There are plenty of options for this lovely veggie other than rhubarb and strawberry crumble (although that is a classic for a reason – that’s our favourite recipe we’ve linked up). To prove it we’ve lined up a whole day’s worth of rhubarb recipes.

Kicking off bright and early in the morning, we want toast but oh, we’re bored of marmite or marmalade. Fear not, the aptly named Lovely Morning has come to the rescue with her rhubarb jam recipe. Munch it on toast, pop it on some natural yoghurt or wrap a jar up as a gift for a friend, its as versatile as you like.

Next we have a casual garden lunch with friends, which we’ll conclude with a cheeky rhubarb crumb bar from White on Rice Couple. Stomachs were rumbling all round when this recipe popped up on our screens, is it having the same effect on you?

Finally, to round off our tiring rhubarb-filled day, we’ll be knocking up an ice-cold fresh rhubarb cocktail courtesy of Sugarlaws. Phew, we told you we could do it. And not a crumble in sight!

Vegetable of the month...cauliflower

We admit it. We were not overly excited when we discovered the star of the veggie stall this month is the knobbly bobbly cauliflower. With a reputation for being a little pale, nondescript and perhaps even – dare we say it – bland, half the challenge is deciding how to sneak it on to the menu.

Determined not to be beaten we checked out a few of our favourite foodie haunts and were ready to eat our words. First, we found this purple variety at A Cozy Kitchen. Apparently, it’s exactly the same as white cauliflower (it’s colour is caused by anthocyanin, the same antioxidant group found in red cabbage), but so much more beautiful.

Oh, what's that sound?! Our stomachs were definitely rumbling at Sprouted Kitchen’s caramelised cauliflower soup, which combines creamy cauliflower with crunchy nuts. Tasty.

Nicky from Delicious Days has also roasted hers, but she’s added some punchy spices and a yoghurty herby dip, which looks anything but bland.

Have you got a recipe for making a special cauliflower dish? Let us know we would love to hear.