Over Indulgence

I don't know about you but this Christmas I have definitely over indulged in all sorts of yummy foods and snacks. I think I may have eaten my weight in mince pies or mincemeat tarts, all of which have mostly been homemade! We had two jars of homemade mincemeat left and I don't think I could face yet more mince pies and wanted something a little different. 

Through my Christmas recipe browsing I came across a recipe for Mincemeat Cupcakes. Originally I thought it would be a little, well gross! But by the time it came to use these two jars of mincemeat I decided to give it a go. 



I used my basic cupcake recipe you can find on this blog, but with a teaspoon of mixed spice added to the mixture. Once the cupcakes have been baked and cooled you use a melon baller or teaspoon or knife to scoop out the middle of the cupcake so that about a teaspoon or two of mincemeat will fill the hole. 


Now, you can either leave the cupcakes undecorated like that.... Or you can push the boat out and make a crazily alcoholic butter icing like I did. I mixed up a usual batch of butter cream but instead of adding a bit of cream i added about a tablespoon of brandy sauce (found in most supermarkets during the festive period) and added a tablespoon of Gran Marnier. To make up for the extra liquid i added a couple of extra tablespoons of icing sugar to get the right consistency. Then voila I piped on some little rosette things and added some little silver balls. My mother who is usually the chief taster in these matters said that these were possibly the best cupcakes I had ever made. So there we go! Why don't you give it a try and use up that mincemeat! 

BIRTHDAY CAKES!!!!!

A little post today as I feel like I've been neglecting this for a little while.  With the festive season in full swing I've been a bit rushed off my feet! But haven't we all? Anyway I've had two birthday cakes to contend with since my last post and thought they were worth a share.

This snowbird one took a lot of patience and planning. It was one large cake and then two smaller ones cut in half. The carving took a lot of thought as I could not get my head around all the tutorials and advice online. So, instead I just took a leap of faith and cut a little bit at a time. The icing was the standard Royal Icing.

Feeling Stormy, this cake was just your standard yogurt cake recipe with a few pretty decorations. The chocolate ribbon around the outside and the cream waves on top. Both were pretty simple to make but I did have to decipher it all from a french recipe book. Either way, a lovely simple cake that looks great.

Muffin Tops... The Good Kind!

We're always worrying about those few extra pounds and trying to shake ones muffin top. I am the same, but I still have to take something sweet to work with me. Instead of going for the processed choccy biscuits or cakes or sweets. This cinnamon and orange muffin recipe I have adapted from one of my recipe books is yummy warming and I know where all the ingredients come from.





Ingredients

125g Butter
5tbsp Golden Syrup
125g Dark Muscovado Sugar
225g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 Grated Orange2 Eggs
125ml Milk


Put the butter, syrup and sugar in a large saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the butter has melted. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. beat the eggs and milk in a separate bowl.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, then beat in the flour mixture. Then gradually beat in the egg mixture and finally the grated orange.

I used an ice cream scoop to evenly divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases. Bake in a pre-heated oven, 160℃ for a fan oven and 180℃ for 10-15 minutes until well risen and cracked. Leave to cool in the tin for 10minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Christmas Is Coming!

I know it's early but is it really? Halloween is long gone behind us and Christmas is looming. Preserves always need a bit of time to mature I think. So I've made my mincemeat in plenty of time so all the flavours can infuse and enhance.

My recipe is from Good Housekeeping this year. On making it I have decided a few changes are needed. The following recipe is my updated version.

Ingredients

450g Bramley Apples, peeled cored and cut into 0.5cm chunks
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 an orange
200ml medium cider
150g soft brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
150g raisins
150g currants
75g glace cherries chopped into 1/4
2 tbspns Gran Marnier

Method

1) Prepare 4 jars. Boil water in a kettle and fill each jar with about a cm of water. Put in the microwave for 1min. Pour out the water and dry. 

2) Put the apples, zest and juice, cider and Gran Marnier in a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10mins.

3) Take pan off the heat. Add the sugar, raisins, spice and currants. Stir and let cool slightly.

4) Spoon mixture into the jars and tap on the side to make sure there are no air bubbles. Place a round of greaseproof paper on top of each jar. 

Mini Fancies

I love miniature things. They seem a tad more quaint and have much more appeal. So I have put together a small compilation of mini treats. These are great party pieces or can be wrapped and given as token gifts.

• Marshmallow Petits Fours
• White Chocolate Cups with a Chocolate Hazelnut Filling
• Homemade Marshmallows 
• Mini Biscuit Lodge

Chocolate Marshmallow Petits Fours 

Marshmallow Petits Fours - These are so easy to make and with a little imagination an really look great. They turned out so well they were all eaten before I had a chance to take a picture of them.... So here is the picture that inspired me, click on the link below to have a peek!

White Chocolate and Nutella Cups 

These White Chocolate Nutella Cups are amazing - one of the Good Housekeeping Christmas gift ideas - click on the link below to check out the recipe. It's so simple and so cheap to do. 

The Snowy Biscuit Lodge cup topper is a real cute idea. It's a bit fiddly but really very sweet and can be decorated in so many ways. Click Here - to find a gingerbread recipe and templates.

 

Marshmallow Clouds - There are a lot of Marshmallow recipes floating around at the moment. It seems to be the latest fad in baking. Once again, I followed the Good Housekeeping recipe found here. My advice with making marshmallows: definitely use a sugar thermometer, they can be bought very cheaply, also this recipe calls for a standing mixer. One needs to be careful when working with sugar, it gets super hot and can give really bad burns if you catch it on your skin. One of the tricks with handling the marshmallow once it is in the dish and set is to make sure your hands have plenty of icing sugar on them otherwise it will stick to you! One last ingredient I would use for the outside icing sugar coating is Snow Sugar. It is basically a type of icing sugar that does not melt/go sticky. Just type in Snow Sugar to Amazon or Google and it will come up. 

Mini Marshmallow Clouds

Sometimes Life Calls for Simplicity

Sometimes it's best just to stick to something simple. It can be just as rewarding and satisfying. I have found a great recipe in a very old cookery book (older than me, probably almost twice my age). It is for cupcakes. Now I know there are millions of recipes out there, all sorts of ingredient combinations. Now this recipe is definitely the simplest one I have ever seen and it works perfectly!

Ingredients

85g Butter, room temp
85g Castor Sugar
2 Medium Eggs
115g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Vanilla Extract or 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste


Method

1) Preheat oven to 170℃. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - I never used to do it for long enough but it's about 2-3 mins with an electric whisk.

2) Add one egg and whisk thoroughly for about a minute or so until fully incorporated and then add the second egg. Whisk again until fully incorporated. If the mixture looks like it's curdling (looks like a very runny scrambled eggs) you can add a few tablespoons of your flour.

3) Sift in flour and fold with a large metal spoon in a circle of 8 motion to keep the air in the batter.

4) Line cupcake tin with cases. Half fill each case and cook for about 12-15 mins until a light golden brown. Cool on an airing rack.

This recipe will make 12 small cupcakes or 6 regular size cupcakes. These days cupcake cases are a bit bigger than back in the day.

What I did with this recipe was 6 Vanilla and tested out the Vanilla bean paste which is pretty potent, I then did 6 cinnamon and orange. To do this I simply added half a teaspoon of cinnamon to the flour and the grated rind of 1 medium orange and 2tbsp of orange juice.

I decided to turn these ones into Hallowe'en Treats for the upcoming holiday. 

Feeling Autumnal

The nights are drawing in, the air is noticeably cooler and one can justify wearing welly boots and cosy coats. I can safely announce that it is definitely comfort food weather! So, today as a welcome to Autumn I'm going to post a recipe for raspberry and apple crumble. It's a classic, a Sunday dinner staple and so easy!

When making a crumble I do not measure out how much fruit I need, I go by dish size. The one I used for this was roughly 12"x6". I just put the blackberries in to about halfway up the dish and use roughly 1 large cooking apple cored and sliced. 

Ingredients for the Topping:                         Ingredients for Filling:
240g plain flour                                                        fruit of your choice, enough to fill half way up              
120g castor sugar                                                     the dish (roughly 500g berries)
120g butter, cut into cubes                                     2tbsp+ castor sugar
                                                                                     1 large cooking apple

Method

1) Sift flour into a good size bowl and add the butter. Then you need to rub in the butter to the flour. Use the tips of your fingers and rub the butter through your fingers with the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Click Here for a video on how to do this! 

2) Stir in the sugar to the mixture with a metal spoon. 

And voila that's the topping ready

Tip #1 Make the topping before you prep the apples to save them discolouring.
Tip #2 Have sink of hot soapy water ready for washing your hands! 


Put your fruit in the dish, blackberries/raspberries and apple, or just apples. But you need to sprinkle about 2tbsp of sugar if not a little bit more over the fruit. It's all down to your personal taste. I only used 2tbsp for the raspberries and it was a bit too tart. Once done, sprinkle your topping on. Make sure that all the fruit is covered and press down lightly with the back of a spoon. 
Cook on 180℃ for about 40mins until the top is golden. 

When making just an apple crumble I like to add a handful or two of sultanas and a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of mixed spice. It gives that extra flavour. You can also put a little bit of the spices in with the flour to make the topping more flavoursome. 

Being in Cornwall, my first choice of accompaniment for a crumble is Cornish Clotted Cream, but ice cream, double cream, even crème fraîche.  

So enjoy! I hope this makes sense and I'd love to see pictures of your crumbles :) 

Greetings

I have decided to create a new blog, to do with my baking obsession. Yes I know there are millions of baking blogs out there. But what I have found is that the majority are not British and this can cause issues when it comes to measurements and ingredients.

So, I love baking. Cakes, cupcakes, biscuits, desserts, basically anything sweet! When I hear the word birthday or cake stall my heart skips a beat as I know it'll be an excuse to try out making something new.

On this blog I want to share recipes and tips on what I make. I welcome any ideas or comments, so don't hold back.