'Mind the Gap' with white chocolate and cranberry cupcakery

This is not the post that should be here. This is more of a stopgap, a little waystation, if you will, before I go off on one about 'my summer so far'. 

Summer, whichever way you look at it, is blooming amazing. We get sunshine, then just when the average Englishman is running out of weather based gripes, we have the sort of rain that not only soaks all the washing you optimistically put out to dry, but throws it around your garden too, such is the force of its fury. The weather, in Britain, in summer, isn't just unreliable, it's positively malevolent!

But I don't want to talk about the weather. I want to talk about food. And there lies my problem. 

I've been around lately. Not in a crude way (I know how your mind works), but to Italy and London, as well as back to the good old Midlands to visit my family. I want to make the sort of food I ate in these places, as much as an evocative travel memento for me as a way to challenge myself to something more exotic than blackberry and apple crumble. 

(Which I made last week, incidentally and it was lush. But I digress).

It hasn't happened yet, and in some ways that's a good thing. Writing about my take on wartime London grub seems a little off beat with all the troubles lately, and at my parents house is so definitely not the place to tackle my first Italian pud, which will almost certainly be tiramisu- all over my face, the worktops, the walls and my face again. So, eventually, I reach the point. This is a quick stop, so please mind the gap between the train and the platform when alighting. 

If you've stuck with me this far, thank you, you shall be rewarded with cupcakes. 

This is a cupcake with inner beauty. Not  ugly of course, but if she was a girl at school, probably not a looker. Never mind though, because this is one tasty lady. 
I'd also like the record to show that, for once, I got my food in focus.
White chocolate and cranberry cupcakes could not be simpler. Make cupcake batter, add cranberries and white chocolate chunks (remember, chunks>chips) and bake. Melt white chocolate, add a little milk and drizzle on cold cakes. And I mean only 'a little milk', and I mean 'cold cakes'. I will not be held responsible for sloppy drizzles.


Creamy, dreamy 'I'm not really chocolate' white chocolate and sharp dried cranberries.These two ingredients love each other, so please, be nice and keep them together. Sour cherries would work too though. We'll call it an illicit affair. I still believe cranberry is the white stuff's first love. You need something a little sharp anyway, so don't you dare try and use raisins or anything. Your white chocolate deserves better.

If you need a little help with the part where I said 'make cupcake batter', Google can always help. But here's a quick and easy fix for anyone who owns a set of scales. 
1. Weigh two eggs. Or three, for more batter, or one for not very much batter.
2. Remember how much the eggs weighed. We'll call this the magic weight.
3. Add that magic weight of butter + magic weight of sugar to a bowl and cream together until pale
4. Add eggs, mix a little after each one. Add a little vanilla extract.
5. Add the magic weight of flour. Mix until combined.
6. Chunk up some chocolate.  I like about the same ratio of chunks:cranberries but for actual quantities, go nuts until you're happy. 
7. Bake at 180 celsius for about 20-25 mins, or until done. 

To this day, this is the only recipe I have actually managed to commit to memory. Don't worry, I am ashamed.