Chocolate or Toffee Muffins

This is a great Muffin recipe because with most muffin recipes you have to be very careful not to overmix the ingredients but this one is very forgiving.

Ingredients
2 Eggs
200g caster sugar
130g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
160ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
160g melted unsalted butter
120g of dark chocolate roughly chopped or same weight of dr Oetker fudge pieces


Preheat oven to 170C/gas 3

Beat together eggs and sugar until well combined.

 In a separate bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a jug combine the milk and vanilla.

When egg mix is smooth slowly add the dry ingredients mix and milk mix to it a little at a time beating slowly as you do. Beat until all ingredients well incorporated.

Stir in the melted butter with a wooden spoon then add half of the chopped chocolate or fudge chunks and mix.

Use an ice cream scoop to ladle into the muffin cases - I find i use 1 and a half scoops to each case. when all  batter is used sprinkle some of the remaining chocolate or fudge chunks on top before putting in the oven to bake, this ensures you have the choc/fudge all through the cake as if you just put in the mix they tend to sink to the bottom.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until sponge bounces back when touched or a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

You can add additional toppings if you wish, today I made a toffee frosting and then topped with chopped up chocolate bars :)

Then enjoy!

Mississippi Mud Cake

I made this "Thank You" cake today using a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Home sweet Home book. This Cake would be great if you need an absolutely MASSIVE cake!! I have to say that the picture of theirs in the book must have been taken from a long, long, way away because it definitely was not as big as mine! If you were looking for a smaller cake I would suggest halving the ingredients and having two layers rather than the three I did.

Ingredients (serves 10-12): For the sponge: 250g unsalted butter, softened ♦ 600g caster sugar ♦ 3 large eggs ♦ 470g plain flour ♦ 140g cocoa powder ♦ 2tsp bicarbonate of soda ♦ ½tsp salt ♦ 375ml buttermilk ♦ 1tsp vanilla extract ♦ 375ml boiling water For the frosting: 800g icing sugar, sifted ♦ 120g cocoa powder, sifted ♦ 150g unsalted butter, cubed ♦ 600g full-fat cream cheese For the decoration: 40g dark chocolate, shaved with a vegetable peeler

Method: Step 1: Preheat the oven to 170C. Line three 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins with baking parchment. Using a hand-held electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix the buttermilk and vanilla extract in a jug. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture. Mix well on a medium speed. Slowly add the boiling water, mixing until combined. Divide the batter evenly among the three prepared cake tins. Bake for 35-45min. Remove from the tins and let cool before frosting.

Step 2: Whisk the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter together on a low speed until there are no large lumps. Add a little cream cheese to loosen the mixture and beat until smooth, then add the remainder and mix on a slow speed. Turn the speed to high and beat the frosting until light and fluffy.

Step 3: Once the sponge layers feel cool, assemble the cake. Place the first layer on a plate and top with 3-4tbsp of frosting. Smooth out the frosting using a palette knife. Sandwich the second layer on top, then add more frosting, followed by the third cake layer. Next, frost the sides and top. I have also used chocolate transfer sheets to make the lettering for the top of the cake and sprinkled chocolate shavings around the base.

Recipe from Home Sweet Home by Tarek Malouf and The Hummingbird Bakers (Collins, £20).

Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting

I needed to make a birthday cake for a friend today and asked another friend Mandy for a suggestion. She came up with Carrot cake which was great because I have never made one before so it was a great challenge!

I read quite a few recipes first and found that although they had many of the same ingredients they varied greatly in quantities and cooking times, so I decided to base my recipe on what I thought would go well after my research :)

Ingredients

Cake

3 Eggs
200g soft light brown Sugar
100g Light brown muscavado sugar
250ml Sunflower oil
300g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
250g grated Carrots
100g shelled walnuts chopped plus extra to decorate

For frosting & decoration

600g icing sugar (sifted)
100g unsalted butter at room temperature
250g full fat cream cheese
1/2 bag of orange chocolate button melts here http://www.silverspoon.co.uk/home/products/cakecraft/silver-spoon-create-flavoured-chocolate-
1 tube green writing icing


Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 4 and grease and base line the bottom of 3 20cm sandwich tins.

The first thing I did was to make the carrots by melting the orange buttons and using a piping bag fitted with a very small nozzle, piping the carrots on to a piece of cling film on a plastic tray. I then put these in the fridge to set.

To make the cake I Put the eggs, both sugars and the oil and beat until I had a smooth batter. In a separate bowl I had the flour, Baking powder, Bicarbonate of soda, Cinnamon, Ginger, Salt and vanilla extract, I slowly added this to the batter mixture a spoonful at a time beat slowly until all added and well mixed.

I then added the grated carrots and walnuts and stirred in with a wooden spoon.

I then split the mixture between the three tins. I always weigh my mixture to try and ensure the cakes are as even as possible but you could just do this by eye. I levelled the tops and baked for 20 minutes untill the sponge bounced back when pressed and a skewer inserted into centre of cakes came out clean.

When cakes are done, leave to cool slightly in tins before turning out on to a cooling rack and leaving to cool completely.

When cakes have cooled make the frosting by beating together the icing sugar and butter, then adding the cream cheese and beating until glossy and smooth. I then layered up the cake with a layer of frosting between each layer, I then spread the whole cake with a thin layer of the frosting, making sure I still had about a third of the frosting remaining. after spreading the thin layer of frosting I put the cake in the fridge for 30 mins. This layer then works as an undercoat for the next layer and stops you getting crumbs in the top layer.

After the 30 mins I spread the remaining frosting on to the cake and created swirls on the top. I then added Walnut halves and my carrots and used the green writing icing to add the carrot tops.

Sticky toffee pudding and toffee sauce

I made this today for Mother's Day because it is my favourite pudding :) and the toffee sauce is amazing, and would be great made just on its own to go with ice cream.

Pudding Ingredients
50g soft butter plus a little for greasing
175g Dark brown demerara sugar (or just normal demerara if you can't get the dark one)
200g self raising flour plus a little for dusting
1tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp black treacle
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
200g pitted dried dates
1 Tbsp Bicarbonate of soda

Sauce Ingredients
100g Demerara sugar
100g butter
100ml Double cream

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5
Grease a 23 cm Tin (I use a rectangular one) and dust with the flour to make it non stick.

Using a mixer, blend the butter and sugar  together. Slowly add the syrup, treacle, eggs and Vanilla extract.
***Top tip - grease the spoon you are going to use for the syrup & treacle with olive oil first and that will help them to just slide off the spoon ***
Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and add the flour, mixing just until all ingredients are combined then switch off the mixer.

Place the dates in a saucepan with 300ml of water and bring to the boil. pour dates and water into a food processor and puree. add the Bicarbonate of soda, then whilst this is still hot add quickly to the rest of the pudding mixture stirring well to combine. Pour into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is firm to the touch. It can look quite dark but that is ok.

Remove pudding from the oven, allow to cool and then turn out of the tin. You can then set aside to be reheated a piece at a time when ready to serve.

Sorry picture is sideways!

For the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together, add the cream and bring to the boil. turn down to a simmer     until the sauce is the consistency you would like (it also gets thicker as it cools when you take it off the heat.) Reheat a piece of pudding (I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds) then add the sauce. Yum! It is great with cream or vanilla Ice cream, or both : )

Dessert Cupcakes - Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

First of a series of dessert themed cupcakes I am planning to make. This first one is a Lemon Meringue Cupcake. I had a little help from my little girl Niamh today too : )

We started by making the cupcakes, we followed the same recipe for the Vanilla cupcakes in an earlier post, although we left out the vanilla as the lemon curd added later gives enough flavour - https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=899605640553638927#editor/target=post;postID=113073759303182014

This recipe will make approximately 16 cupcakes. bake as directed.

Meringue Ingredients
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
a pinch of salt

whisk the egg whites (preferably in an electric mixer) for 5-6 minutes until they form peaks and the mixture stays in the bowl when it is turned upside down : )

Whilst still Beat add the sugar and salt mix a little at a time. beat for 7 -8 mins until you have glossy smooth stiff peaks. When you rub a little of this mixture between two of your fingertips it should not feel at all grainy, if it does continue beating. Line a baking tray with baking parchment with little blobs of meringue under the corners of the paper to hold on the tray. Set up a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle and fill with the meringue mix.

When the cupcakes are baked turn the oven down to 110C

Pipe the meringue tops, I had one of the muffin cases to hand so that I knew the size I was going for. Once piped you can decorate with sprinkles or decorations like my little butterflies as these sugar decorations do not seem to be affected by further baking. Put the meringues into the oven for one hour and then turn the oven off and leave for a further hour.

When meringues have cooled, Make a hollow in each cupcake so that the top would sit neatly on top. Fill this hollow with Lemon curd and level off. Then simply top with a meringue.

Lovely Lemon drizzle cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake one of my favourites!

Ingredients

125g caster sugar

75g butter

150g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

3 tbsp full fat milk

zest and juice of 1 lemon

for the drizzle

zest and juice of 1 large lemon

2 tbsp of Granulated sugar

Heat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin with baking paper

Beat the sugar and butter together with a hand held mixer for 5-6 mins until very light and fluffy add the rest of the ingredients, mixing all the time until well combined

Pour into loaf tin and bake for 35-40 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Whilst the cake is baking make the drizzle by mixing the ingredients together. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, make some small holes all over the surface using the skewer, then pour over the drizzle and leave to cool slightly before removing from tin. Then just try not to eat it all at once!

Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ian wanted a blue themed cake to celebrate coming first in something at work so I decided to go for a Blueberry cake with a cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

• 175g softened butter
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4tbsp soured cream
• 300g  blueberries

For the frosting

• 200g tub Philadelphia cheese
• 115g icing sugar
• 4 tbsp soured cream

Preheat the oven to fan160/gas 4/Conventional 180

Grease a 22cm Cake tin and line the bottom with Baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla into a bowl and beat for 2  -3 mins until well mixed and light in colour. Add the soured cream and beat again, then gently fold in half of the blueberries.

I found this mix worked very well as often with fruit cakes the fruit can sink to the bottom, a tip to avoid this is to dust the fruit with a little flour before you add it as it helps to prevent it from sinking to the bottom.  But I don't think that would be necessary here.

Gently spoon this mixture into the prepared tin and smooth out the top. Bake for 50 minutes until it is risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Rest for a couple of minutes in the tin then turn out, remove lining paper and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack

Whilst it is cooling make the frosting. Simply whisk together all the ingredients. It will seem quite lumpy at first, but will eventually become glossy and smooth.

When the Cake  is completely cooled top with the frosting, smooth out and decorate as you choose with the remaining Blueberries. You can store this cake in the fridge for a couple of days, but remove from fridge an hour or two before you want to eat it