Ming Makes Cupcakes

I haven't done this in a while I know, but every now and then I plan to share a great blog that I love looking at. This time I wanted to share a blog called Ming Makes Cupcakes which makes me drool every time I visit there! There are not only 33 fantastic sounding cupcake recipes on the site but also a few savoury and cookie recipes. I love how the recipes are each laid out like a recipe card. There are also some fantastic photos of the amazing looking cupcakes, which I must admit have made me tempted to lick the screen on more than one occasion. A couple of cupcakes that are guilty of this in particular are the Vanilla Almond cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and the Coffee Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting!

I'm really looking forward to trying at least one of these recipes one day. The sooner the better, I think! I definitely recommend you making a visit to Ming's website. 

Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies

I found these cookies on a blog I was ready aaaages ago and have gone to try making them a couple of times but then realized I didn't have all the ingredients. Unfortunately when I printed off the recipe, I think I copied and pasted it into a Word document and so my print out doesn't have the name of the blog on it. So if you know where these came from or who made them first please let me know, because then I'll be able to give proper credit.

These cookies were super easy to make and I'm so glad that I got to try them after such a long time. I really like soft cookies so these were perfect for me. I also really liked the contrast between the bite of the salt and lemon and the sweetness of the sugar.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
250g butter
1 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 egg
1/3 cup coarse sugar (caster sugar or plain sugar works if that's all you have)

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Line baking trays with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together.

3. Cream the butter, 1 cup of sugar and lemon zest until very smooth. Add the egg and continue to beat until fluffy. Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 

 4. Place the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar into a bowl. Form balls out of the cookie dough 2 inches in diameter and roll them through the sugar. Arrange on a cookie sheet 4 inches apart. 

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are just golden. The tops of the cookies should remain pale. Cool completely on the cookie sheets before removing to a plate. 

Recipe Source: 

Unknown - please let me know if you or someone you know is behind the creation of this fabulous recipe! I am more than happy to give you the credit due to you.

Not Quite Nigella blog

I recently came upon a blog that I instantly became addicted to. It's called Not Quite Nigella and is run by Lorraine Elliott, who does an amazing job. She writes about restaurants/cafes she gets to visit, recipes she's tried and also about her experiences with cooking classes. It's so addictive, I've read back through a couple of years worth of posts and I've compiled a huge document with recipes that I want to try out! She has a fondness for Southern American food, like red velvet cake, that I very much understand!

Lorraine's been lucky enough to travel to heaps of locations in Australia and around the world and she writes about restaurants she's visited in various countries, including New Zealand, Canada, Austria etc. It's definitely a blog that I would recommend and is worth reading!