Raspberry Crumble Cupcakes

I recently found this recipe in one of my oldest and much loved baking books, and the idea of mashing together two of my favourite desserts (cake and crumble), was too much to resist. I made them as soon as I had an excuse to bake some cakes (a visit to Pete's work place to show off our baby) and they turned out really well. The cupcakes themselves are raspberry flavoured with a hint of lemon, but what really makes them special/unusual is the crumble style topping with pecans in. You could also substitute the pecans for walnuts if you wanted. The recipe calls for melted butter which makes mixing easier if you don't have a food mixer (I don't), and I just used a microwave to melt the butter quickly, though you could melt it in a small saucepan on a very low heat if you wished.

Vegetable Tofu Ramen

I was given a combined rice, slow cooker and steamer for Christmas by my boyfriends parents and I have to say it is so handy when you have a baby to look after and less time to cook. So I've decided to revisit some of my soup/casserole/risotto recipes; expect to see them appearing on the blog soon! I cooked this in the slow cooker on the steamer function but I've included instructions for normal cooking since this is a tried and tested recipe which I've cooked a number of times on the hob.

This recipe calls for some unusual ingredients that you probably won't have in your store cupboard (miso paste, mirin, sesame oil) but these are all ingredients you can get from any large supermarket or an Asian supermarket, if you have access to one. If you don't want to or can't buy mirin then you can substitute for sugar, and you can also omit the sesame oil, but the miso paste is absolutely essential for the flavour. You'll end up with quite a bit of miso paste leftover but it is very savoury in taste (read: delicious) and is a great store cupboard ingredient to have as it can be added to any style of soup, stew or casserole to give a lovely depth in flavour.

The vegetables can be substituted for any you like; beansprouts go quite well in ramen but I'm not a fan of them so I don't bother adding them. I peel the carrots and courgette to quicken the cooking time but if you'd rather slice them then you'll need to add them in earlier to allow for the greater cooking time. I used udon noodles here as I love their thickness but you can use any noodles you want.