This year we had our family summer holiday in sunny, hot, crazy, pizza, pasta and ice cream filled Naples in Italy! We stayed in the Royal Continental Hotel right on the seafront with amazing views. Above is my favourite holiday snaps as I got a bit carried away and took quite a few.

Mamma Mia!

MindBodyGreen Image

Yoga is one of those things that I've been wanting to try for a while. I love keeping fit, attending upbeat dance aerobic and weights classes as I've become a little bit addicted to exercise. It makes me feel good and gives me an instant energy boost. I've only ever tried pilates a few times as high energy workouts are my thing, but it's best to do a variety of exercise to work and tone different muscles. I usually don't feel like I've had a good workout unless I break a sweat, until my first yoga class... It was harder than I expected but I really enjoyed it, lots of deep breathing, focusing on balance and even doing routines with our eyes closed (which felt very weird). However yoga won't send you to sleep, it involves various stretches, movements and holds working your entire body and muscles you don't usually use. These holds aren't easy and my legs were actually aching during the class. Whilst doing these moves you increase flexibility and strength, and boost your mental wellbeing.

And breathe... 

Strawberries and cream are a traditional British summertime dessert and these cupcakes with a delicious jam centre are a perfect picnic food. This recipe was adapted from BBC Food.

To make 12 cupcakes you will need:

100g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

100g self-raising flour

4 tablespoons of strawberry jam

Icing sugar for dusting

Whipped cream (you can either buy or make it yourself)

A few strawberries 

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/Gas 6 and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray. Mix the butter and sugar together and beat in the eggs one at a time before adding the flour.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full, add half a teaspoon of jam and cover with the remaining mixture.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cupcakes are looking golden and slightly brown.

Carefully move the cupcakes onto a cooling rack and once they have cooled, dust them with icing sugar. I would definitely add the whipped cream and strawberries right before you want to eat them, otherwise you'll end up with a soggy cupcake.

When that sweet strawberry jam oozes out... Amazing!

Jam tarts are a sweet and a simple British treat to bake yourselves and pop in your picnic basket. Buttery shortbread biscuits are also easy to bake with practically the same ingredients used to make the pastry for jam tarts, even if they do seem like a winter afternoon tea snack. 

For both the jam tarts and shortbread you will need:

255g plain flour

28g caster sugar

140g unsalted butter

6 tablespoons of cold water

12 teaspoons of jam for the tarts (whichever flavour you like)

Icing sugar for dusting the shortbread

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/Gas 6 and grease a muffin tray before rubbing the butter into the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl until crumbly.

Then add the water tablespoon by tablespoon until it is a moist dough. Roll out the dough onto a floured work surface (very floured) and use a cutter to stamp out circles to place in your cupcake tray.

After adding a teaspoon of jam into each tart, bake for around 12-15 minutes. 

Leave the jam tarts to cool properly before removing from the tray with a bit of help from a knife or the end of a spoon. These little delights taste so much better when you bake them from scratch with a buttery and crumbly pastry that tastes just like shortbread. If you don't want to make extra jam tarts you can use the remaining dough for shortbread. Roll the dough out again and cut into whatever shape you fancy.

Bake for roughly 12-15 minutes or until your biscuits are looking lovely and golden.

Wait until the shortbread is cool before dusting icing sugar on top of them.

Two quick and yummy recipes in one!