Now this is a long over due blog post and I've been meaning to post this for some time. For Christmas my hubby bought me the The Great British Bake Off How to Bake book! I loved watching the series and even enjoyed the Sports Relief special they showed earlier this year. My son decided we should bake something from the book so we both decided on the yummy Cherry Bakewell Cup cakes.

The lovely Nicoletta has asked me for the recipe and I thought a blog post with some yummy photos would be perfect. Sorry it's taken so long hun!

Here's the recipe-

Cherry Bakewell Cup Cakes

Makes 12

For the cup cakes:
150g unsalted butter, very soft
150g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
3 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
60g ground almonds
1tbsp milk at room temp
4 tbsps raspberry jam

For icing:
250g icing sugar
Roughly 3 tbsps strained fresh lemon juice
12 glacé cherries ( non-dyed) rinsed and dried.

1 x 12- hole muffin tray, lined with paper muffin or cup cake cases.

Preheat the oven to 190c/375f/gas5. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add all the other ingredients for the cup cakes, except the jam, and beat until light and creamy.

Spoon the mixture into the cup-cake cases, diving it evenly. Level the mixture in each case using your fingertip. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre of a cup cake comes out clean. Remove each cup cake from the tray and place on a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

To make the icing, soft the icing sugar into a mixing bowl and work in enough of the strained lemon juice to make a thick, but spoonable and running icing. Set aside.

Using an apple corer, remove the centre from each cup cake, cutting only two-thirds of the way down. Store the jam with a teaspoon until it is a little runny, then carefully spoon into the holes in the cup cakes until the jam just reaches the top ( don't over-fill ).

Beat the icing using a teaspoon, then spoon it over the top of each cup cake to flood the surface until the icing reaches the sides of the paper case. Take care that the jam doesn't become mixed into the icing. Add a cherry to the middle immediately and leave to set.