Red velvet cupcakes...with a twist

One positive about my dodgy leg is that I've been able to dedicate more time to some of the things that I love, but find it hard to get round to doing while working full time. This includes, of course, baking. During my final year at uni baking was a very regular occurrence in our house, with sweet treats being cooked up most evenings. I miss our late-night trips to Sainsburys in our PJ's and the midnight baking that we used to do. Even if we weren't hungry, there was always someone around to finish off the last morsel. 

Even though I'm trying to be extra careful about what I eat, it doesn't stop me from baking a few times a week. There's always someone to give it away to, so I don't have to feel too guilty! Today I made red velvet cupcakes using master baker Eric Lanlard's recipe. I actually interview Eric every month for his regular column in Homemaker, so I've been poring over his book while I've been off and testing out his ideas. 

This recipe was taken from his book Home Bake, which features a great range of gorgeous homemade recipes for simple classics and interesting adaptations. I'm very smug about my signed copy, which was my prize for winning a charity bake-off at work.

The recipe is fairly simple to follow, and uses an intriguing mix of white wine vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to create the famous rich red shade, rather than food colouring. It's all thrown into a food mixture and then topped with delicious chocolatey icing. I decorated mine with some homemade royal icing flowers and sprinkles. 

Thankfully I've got company this weekend, so I can direct some cupcakes their way, otherwise I'd find it hard to resist finishing them all off...

RECIPE: Tropical fruit smoothie

Since breaking my leg (and after the initial wallowing in mounds of gifted chocolates and sweets) I've been trying really hard to eat well and maintain a healthy weight. As I'm unable to exercise I was really concerned about piling on the pounds while my leg is out of action, so I've been pretty careful about what I'm consuming on a daily basis.

Another factor that contributed towards this new health kick was my doctor's advise to ensure a speedy recovery - eat plenty of fruit and veg. Obviously this is something we should all be doing anyway, but it's something that I've really struggled with for the last couple of years.

After coming home from V Festival in 2011, I suffered a major allergic reaction which made my entire face swell up to about three times its normal size. Not a good look. After having a blood test, I discovered that I was actually allergic to most fruit, including apples, bananas, cherries and plums. While I'm able to eat citrus fruits, anything else is pretty much off the menu, which makes healthy snacking all the more hard. 

Not eating a lot of fruit really impacted me in a big way, and it was immediately noticeable to me that I was suffering without it. I was sluggish and tired all the time, and my energy levels went through the floor. I've supplemented my diet with multivitamins since, which helped to boost my immune system and keep coughs and colds at bay.

I was really keen to follow the doctor's advice and try and chuck down as much fruit as I could, so my mum came up with the bright idea of making smoothies, so that I could quickly and easily up my intake of fruit. As a result I've become really interested in the whole idea of 'juicing' and juice detoxes, so did some research to find out how I could pack as much goodness into a smoothie as possible.

Recently, a whole plethora of famous faces have been papped with the new 'it drink' for celebrities, coconut water. Idols like Rianna, Madonna and Rachel Bilson have all been snapped sipping this new beverage, which contains natural sugars and important minerals and vitamins. It also contains more potassium than the equivalent amount of banana, which enhances the bodies ability to hydrate, making it the perfect exercise companion and hangover cure. It's also handy for me, as bananas are a big no if I want an average sized face for summer.

I picked up one of the most popular brands of coconut water from my local Holland & Barrett store, Vita Coco. It's pretty expensive, at £4.75 for a litre carton, but as I'm not spending any dollar on boozy weekends I had the cash to spare.

I then added it to a blend of my favourite fruits, for a healthy and refreshing summer drink that will get you well on the way to having your five a day. Here's the recipe, which is a very loose list of ingredients and quantities, feel free to adapt it or search on google for some of the hundreds of ideas out there!

Tropical fruit smoothie

• 2 cups of chopped mango (about 1 medium mango)
• 5 cups of chopped pineapple (about 1 small pineapple)
• 1 cup coconut water
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• A handful of ice cubes

Whizz in a blender for a couple of minutes, and be transported to a tropical paradise in your own back garden, at least while the weather stays sunny!