Nostalgic tastes

Today I made cupcakes to take for morning tea at the Inner-City branch meeting of the NSW Knitters' Guild.



I made chocolate, lemon poppy seed and plain cupcakes with caramel icing.

I don't bake very often, but when I do I almost always use my mother's or grand-mother's recipes. They have few ingredients, very sketchy instructions, and are absolutely unsuited to anyone watching their waistline or cholesterol levels. The cupcakes gave me an excuse to resurrect my mother's caramel icing recipe I'd not made for years. It's sweet, rich, fudge-like and very simple.

My mother's caramel icing
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup milk
Put all ingredients in a saucepan and gently bring the mixture to the boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer for around 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove the saucepan from the stove and place it in a sink or bowl of cold water to cool it quickly, meanwhile beating it till it thickens. I found a hand-held electric beater is ideal, as it takes longer for it to thicken than you think it should.

Yum