Hummingbird Bakery: Strawberry Cupcakes

The coming together of two great institutions - Hummingbird Bakery and Park Side Farm in Enfield has meant that we were able to produce this fab creation. Granny & Grandpa are visiting so we went to do some PYO at our local, Parkside. We picked punnets and punnets of strawbs (honestly, you can't believe how much we came home with!) and I'd got the Hummingbird recipe off Charlotte. It took a day or two to get all the ingredients prepped and little people at the ready, but we now have a plate of 15 cupcakes with strawberries at the bottom, vanilla sponge on top of that, and then a cream cheese icing topping, finished with crumbled digestive biscuits. The combination of which is quite sublime.

ouma rusk recipe

I've been faithfully buying Ouma Rusks from one or another South African Shop for the past 12 years. They are terribly pricey for what you get, and I have a few recipes so could make them myself. On the off-chance I thought I'd hunt online and see what I could find under 'Ouma Rusk Recipe'. I have made a batch using a recipe by a South African blogger - they are buttermilk based without any extras. They're not quite as dry and crisp as my mum's (or Ouma's for that matter), but will suffice. It may be my fan-assisted oven, but after two "dryings" they still aren't bone dry, so I've decided to eat them as is.
Mum's recipe has All Bran flakes in it and sunflower seeds. I think this will be my next port of call.

logo for little cupcake home business

My friend, Keira, has her own baking business which makes cupcakes and birthday/occasional cakes. I've designed a logo for her, stickers and a flyer. It's been great fun:)

apple streusel cake

Hummingbird Bakery are fabulous.
The hype is entirely justified.

sponge base, covered in granny smith slices and topped with streusel