Forever Nigella - Street Party

This is my first entry into the Forever Nigella challenge created by Maison Cupcake and I'm just squeezing it in before the April challenge deadline ends. The theme for this challenge was 'Street Party' and is being hosted by Mardi at the lovely Eat Live Travel Write blog. I thought that Nigella's book Feast would be the perfect choice as it covers food for all kind of celebratory events. As we were having a little party for a certain wedding on Friday I decided to make her recipe for 'Love Buns' to celebrate William and Kate's big day. The recipe can be found here on nigella.com. The topping on these cakes is like a pillowy cloud of marshmallow - very indulgent. So the cakes got eaten, the Pimms got drunk and we partied for the new Duke & Duchess of Cambridge!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns

I was in New York a few years ago and must have walked what seemed like miles to visit theButtercup Bake Shop on 2nd Avenue on the East Side. Actually I just looked at the map to check the address and it clearly wasn't miles - maybe I was wearing heels or something - the point being that I felt I had made a real effort to visit this shop! Anyway, apart from buying a couple of amazing cupcakes (it was at the time when the whole cupcake thing hadn't really kicked off properly in the UK) I also picked up their cookbook.

After last week's cupcake semi disaster I decided to steer clear of this type of cake and instead looked in the 'Breakfast Basket Quick Breads, Biscuits, Coffee Cake, Buns, and Muffins' chapter and decided to give these buns a go. I'm not sure you'd be wanting to have them for breakfast (not exactly the most healthy way to start the day!) but they would definitely be nice with a mid morning tea or coffee. The original recipe uses raspberry jam but I changed that to fresh raspberries mixed with a little icing sugar. What surprised me most is how light they are - I would have thought the cream cheese would have made them quite heavy but it doesn't at all.

The Recipe

120g plain flour

1 tspn bicarb of soda

1/2 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn salt

230g cream cheese

120g unsalted butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tspn vanilla extract

60ml milk

90g plain flour

40g raspberries mixed with a little icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175C.

1. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin try (or use silicone so you don't have to do either).

2. Combine 120g flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set side.

3. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture, alternating with the milk. Add in the additional 90g of flour and stir until well combined.

5. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Add a dollop of the raspberry mixture on top of each one and swirl with a knife. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.