Black Butt Cupcakes

Saved from the brink of disaster! First the chocolate mix looked WAY too thick. Then the cream cheese separated as I was mixing it (don’t over mix, I barely touched the damn thing and it split!), so I had to do it again, only for the same thing to happen. Hmmmm. Anyway, Mister Emmet reckons they’re not bad, for a first try that is! The problem is I’m buggered if I know what I did wrong as I followed the recipe precisely! They also ended up a bit squishy in the middle, but given there’s no raw egg in there I figure the consumers can deal with that. Interestingly, someone over here had similar issues to me. Although I was okay with the mixing of the dry ingredients (thank you deep bowled KitchenAid).

So anyway, if you’d like to attempt these, they come from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and they’re actually called black bottom cupcakes, but given there’s a suburb called Blackbutt just down the road I’ve named these in its honour. I didn’t add the chocolate buttons cos I thought that was just a little bit ott on this occasion. Similarly I left out the cream cheese frosting (but mostly because I had to double back and do the cream cheese mix again)!

Marshmallow Heaven

Ever wondered what you could possibly do with a cup and a half of caster sugar? Why not make some marshmallows? I did!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup caster sugar.

2 tablespoons gelatine.

2/3 cup hot water.

2/3 cup cold water.

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

1 tsp food colouring (add more if you’d like a brighter colour).

A sprinkling of icing sugar.

Grease and line a slab pan and set aside. Combine the sugar and hot water over a medium heat  and stir until combined and the syrup is clear. Combine gelatine in cold water until dissolved. Add gelatine solution to syrup and continue to stir on the hob for another 2-3 mins until combined and clear. Pour into mixer bowl and leave to cool to room temperature (takes about 30 mins). When cooled, use an electric mixer and beat for approximately 7-10 minutes, until the mix is thick and fluffy. Add in vanilla and colouring and combine for another minute or so. Pour into the pan and smooth with a spatula. Leave to set for around an hour. Carefully remove from the pan and slice using a warmed and moistened knife. Roll lightly in some icing sugar to seal the exposed edges. Enjoy!!

Scratch that part about the icing sugar!

Banana Cake

Whatever to do with a bunch of overripe bananas? Bake, of course!

Initially I set out to bake a full banana cake, but, to my dismay, we don’t have a loaf tin in the house. No bother, back to the old faithful cupcake/muffin tin!

You will need:

• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• 2 cups sifted self-raising flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 60g softened butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 ripe and mashed bananas

First things first, preheat the oven to about 180 degrees and line the baking tray with cupcake cases. Add the lemon juice to the milk and give it a stir. Leave the milk mixture to the side while you mash the bananas with a fork in a separate mixing bowl. In the mashed banana bowl add all of the remaining ingredients, then finally add the milk mixture. Mix gently until combined – I like to use a wooden spoon but you may prefer to use an electric mixer on low speed. When combined beat the mixture for a couple of minutes or until the colour of the batter lightens slightly. Spoon into cupcake cases and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Cakes are ready when a toothpick comes out clean. This recipe should make around 18 medium cupcakes.

Here I’ve sprinkled with icing sugar in place of any icing, but these cakes are great with a lemon cream cheese frosting, for which you will need:

• 125g pack of cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Beat all ingredients together until combined, smooth and spreadable. Easy!

Dinner Menu

So, I’ve been cooking again…and this time not your run of the mill cupcakes either. I had been having a craving for shepherd’s pie, I love my Mum’s version with a nice helping of tomato sauce! Yum! That would make a great main, but what about dessert?! Well, I have two baking dishes, so why not make the most of the oven and go an apple crumble. The results, while they may not look like they came from Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen they definitely hit the spot! Although, one suggestion, I would vary the crumble recipe a little as I felt there was WAY too much sugar in it, a little too sweet, now there’s an achievement, for my taste buds.

SHEPHERD’S PIE

For the shepherds pie I took inspiration from Gordon Ramsay’s the F Word. I made a few modifications to the recipe, the most significant of which was that I used beef rather than lamb. I find that some of the ‘lamb’ available here is actually closer to being mutton. This probably makes it less of a shepherd’s pie and more of a farmer’s pie, but anyway. I do know that I’m probably risking mad cow by opting for the beef, but on this occasion it was the better option. I also, unfortunately, couldn’t locate a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and had to replace the Parmesan cheese with a mature cheddar…what can I say, sometimes the local corner super market doesn’t have everything you need. So, for my recipe you will need:

• olive oil
• 500g minced lean lamb
• 1 large onion, finely grated
• 2 carrots, finely grated
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 250ml red wine
• 200ml chicken stock
• 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 egg yolks
• aged cheddar, for grating
• salt and pepper

Firstly, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Season and brown the mince in a little oil for a couple of minutes. Throw in the grated onions and carrots and grate in the garlic. Stir through. Add in the tomato puree and continue to fry for a couple more minutes, stirring as you go. Pour over the red wine and allow it to burn off. Once it has evaporated add the chicken stock. I added it a bit at a time as it looked way too liquidy. Allow the stock to boil and as it evaporates it will thicken into a nice gravy.

While all of this is going on, you probably want to have your peeled potatoes on the boil. When they’re ready, drain them and return to the hot plate for a moment to dry them out. Mash. Beat in two egg yolks and add in some of the cheddar.

Carefully pour the mince into an oven proof dish. Layer the mash potato over the top. It’s easiest to start at the corners and go around the edges before moving into the middle. I used a large spoon and a knife to help even the potato out. Sprinkle some more cheese on top of the potato and place it into the oven. It should only take around 20-25 minutes for the mash to take on a nice golden colour.

APPLE CRUMBLE

The apple crumble recipe comes from the BBC, however, as I said earlier, I’d probably use less of the sugar next time, but here’s the original recipe should you want to try it anyway. You will need:

For the crumble:

• 300g plain flour, sifted
• 175g  brown sugar
• 200g unsalted butter cubed and at room temperature
• butter for greasing

For the filling:

• 450g apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

This recipe is pretty easy. First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. For the crumble, mix the sugar and flour in a bowl until combined. You’re probably better off doing with with a wooden spoon than with an electric mixer as it takes about a minute this way anyway. Using your hands take a cube of butter at a time and rub it into the sugar/flour mixture. Keep doing this until all the butter is mixed in and the mixture resembles a wet sand. I like my crumble with a few lumpy bits in it. If you don’t like this too much, keep rubbing until the mix is more like course breadcrumbs.

For the filling, place the cored and sliced apples into a large bowl. Add the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir through being careful not to break up the fruit. Easy!

Grease the ovenproof tray with some butter. Pour the fruit mix into the bottom of the tray. Cover the fruit mix with the crumble mix. Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes or until the crumble looks nice and brown and the fruit layer is bubbling away. Let it cool slightly before serving as a mouthful of molten sugar can be quite painful! Enjoy with cream, ice cream or custard (I chose cream)!

Somebody’s Baking….Cupcakes

So even moving to Ireland can’t get me away from my cupcake baking fetish. Today I’ve baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes making slight alterations to my basic cupcake recipe, which I have outlined for you below. Using this recipe as a base you can pretty much add anything to liven them up – berries, chocolate bits, other fruit, whatever – you just have to pay attention to the way your oven heats. I’ve found that no two ovens are the same and so the timing for the cupcakes can vary up to about 5 minutes either side of 20 mins. It’s kind of written in a baking for dummies way, but that’s pretty much how I learned to make them.

Basic Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 120g butter
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First, preheat your oven to about 200 degrees celsius, if you know you have a hot oven, try 180 degrees. Line a muffin tray with patty pans – this recipe should make around 12 cupcakes. And, make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature and don’t come straight from the fridge.

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream until combined. I like to use a wooden spoon and some good old elbow grease but you can use the low setting on an electric mixer if you prefer.

When the butter and sugar have been creamed put in the eggs, milk, vanilla and SR flour. Stir carefully until the ingredients are combined, then switch the shoulder into top gear, or use a higher beater speed and mix the batter until it turns pale in colour. It should also be nicely fluffy.

It’s at this stage that I like to add any additional ingredients such as blueberries or chocolate chips. Stir these in gently, especially if you’re using a fruit that can be easily broken up, like raspberries.

When all ingredients are combined place about one heaped tablespoon worth of batter into each of the patties. Place the tray in the oven on the middle shelf and leave to bake for 20 mins. I always like to check in around the 15 min mark to make sure all is coming along well. Poke a couple of the cupcakes with a skewer, this will give you a good sense of how much longer the cupcakes will need: if the skewer comes out dry you’re probably done, if a little bit of batter comes out give them about 5 minutes more, if they’re quite wet in the middle maybe they need the full 25 mins in the oven.

When they’re done, take them out and give them a few minutes to cool in the tray before turning them out onto the cooling tray. When they’re cool you can add whatever topping you like – icing, frosting, sprinkles, cream…whatever takes your fancy.

For today’s batch I added about 1/4 cup of pure cocoa powder, which makes the batter a little drier and means an adjustment of the baking time to about 13-15 mins, again depending on the way your oven distributes its heat.

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These ones were made with grated apple folded in, which made the batter a little more wet meaning an extra 5 mins in the oven. They were a little more muffin like, but lovely none the less.

These ones were made with little marshmallows folded in…it didn’t quite work out, but the icing made them look pretty.