Fold in the Flour ...

It's late in the day for an Easter post perhaps, but this week's recipe for the Weekly Bake Off , as chosen by the lovely Amy, was Easter Simnel Cake. The Weekly Bake Off is Amy's masterplan to bake her way through Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes , a beautiful little baking book which is so reasonably priced (under £4 at the moment) and with so many varied recipes that I really encourage you to buy it! Although I knew what it was, I've never even tasted Simnel Cake before (a little bit put off by the amount of marzipan - especially without the Christmassy covering of royal icing - I mean I like marzipan, but this has always seemed too much). The recipe can be found online at My Kitchen Table, so I won't repeat it here. It's actually quite a simple recipe, chock full of sultanas, currants and glace cherries. The trickiest part is fitting the dividing layer of marzipan into the cake tin. I ended up using the loose bottom from a cake tin of

I don't know about you, but with two teens and a chocoholic husband in the house, Easter is normally a chocolate-fest on a massive scale. Erm, hang on, who am I kidding? There is always chocolate in the house, and I have been one of the primary candidates for chocolate over-consumption during the last few months while I have been at home with Sam. Not a terribly good example to set, but (hopefully) once I am back at work, a more normal diet will resume once temptation is removed. Anyway, with Easter fast approaching this weekend, I wanted to do some Easter themed cupcakes. If you're looking for a quick and easy recipe which delivers on flavour, then these fit the bill fantastically. They are made using one of my favourite chocolate sponge recipes, also used for my Poppin' Chocolate Orange Cupcakes , and just used in cupcake form rather than a layer cake. It's adapted from Usborne's Children's Cookbook . Ingredients (makes 16 cupcakes) 200g