Chocolate, Red Wine and Blackberry Cupcakes

Blackberries are in abundance at this time of year and I always make sure that I head out to scour the hedgerows in order to ensure that my freezer is well stocked for the winter ahead. It was reported in the news that this year was a bumper year for blackberries due to favourable weather conditions.

This is an interesting cupcake recipe as it contains red wine!!! You can't really taste it but it does add a depth of flavour. The method in general is rather unusual and the mixture is quite runny but it did yield success. There are also blackberries baked into the batter which are lovely and soft after baking and they definitely make for a moist cupcake. This batch was second time lucky as the first time I made these cupcakes I got distracted and forgot to add the sugar and also accidentally used cream of tartar rather than bicarb of soda...bit of a disaster...whoops!

The buttercream is made using the normal method but it gets its colour and flavour from the addition of 6 tablespoons of blackberry puree. I've actually made two batches of these cupcakes now and it's interesting the difference in the colour of the icing both times, the first time it was a darker purple which must just be dependant on the batch of blackberries you use. Smooshing fruit into buttercream icing is a great way to add natural colour, I particularly like using raspberries for this.

I followed the recipe as it was but also found the second time I made these that the icing was quite loose, I therefore added quite a lot more icing sugar until a good piping consistency was reached. I then used a star nozzle to decorate the cupcakes.

I'm entering these cupcakes into this month's AlphaBakes challenge where the letter for October is 'C'. The challenge is hosted by Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and on alternate months by Caroline Makes. I'm sure Ros will be receiving a deluge of chocolate recipes!

Ingredients

175g butter
100g dark chocolate (72% or above - Peruvian is recommended)
300g plain flour
375g golden caster sugar
25g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
200ml red wine
200-300g punnet blackberries

Buttercream

200g punnet blackberries (as above)
150g soft butter
300g icing sugar

Makes 12. Start by preheating the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4.

Place the butter and chocolate in a saucepan and melt gently on the hob until entirely melted and smooth. Meanwhile mix the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarb of soda with a pinch of salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl or jug whisk the eggs and wine together. Then add the chocolate and egg mixes to the dry ingredients along with 100ml boiling water and whisk until completely smooth with no lumps.

Divide the mixture between 12 large muffin cases. The mixture is quite runny so I used a ladle! Then place 2-3 blackberries on the top of each one. Bake for 35 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool.

To make the buttercream whizz the remaining blackberries to a pulp and then sieve to give a smooth puree. Beat the butter until it is extremely soft and then add half the icing sugar and mix. Add around 6tbsp of the blackberry puree and the remaining icing sugar and beat together thoroughly. This is then ready to pipe onto the cooled cupcakes. You may also want additional blackberries to top each cupcake.

* Recipe adapted from Olive Magazine - October 2013

Cinnamon and Raisin Marble Loaf Cake

For today's bake it's a simple Cinnamon and Raisin Loaf Cake but sometime it's the simple ones that are the best! If you're looking for a tasty cake that takes next to no time to make and goes well with a cup of tea, then this could be the one for you! And believe it or not as far as I can remember this is the first marble cake I've ever made!

The cinnamon gives it a lovely flavour, the raisins and soured cream make it really moist and light and the marbling adds a bit of fun. This recipe came from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days and it really is simple to make, it's the kind of thing that you could make time and again and also on a whim as most of the ingredients you'll probably have in your cupboards.

The recipe suggested that to marble the cake, the vanilla layer should be spread in the loaf tin first and then the cinnamon layer added on top before being swirled together using a skewer. In my limited knowledge of marbling, I didn't think this would give the greatest effect, so I blobbed spoonful's of each mixture in alternately before swirling and it seemed to work. I also made a bit more of the mixture cinnamon than was suggested as the recipe only called for 200g of cinnamon but this didn't seem like very much. However, I was very pleased with the finished product and I'd make this again! 

I'm entering my cake into this month's Alpha Bakes as the letter this month is 'R'. There are plenty of R's out there and raisins are a simple entry, so if you fancy giving Alpha Bakes a try then check out host Ros's blog - The More Than Occasional Baker. The challenge is hosted on alternate months with Caroline of Caroline Makes.

Ingredients

190g unsalted butter
190g plain flour
190g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
25ml soured cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
70g raisins

This one is easy to make. Start by preheating the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas 3 and grease the loaf tin and dust with flour. The recipe states to use a 8.5 x 17.5cm tin, I think mine was a little larger than this but it still turned out fine...but the cake was slightly shallower.

Whisk together the butter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy, this can take up to 5 minutes. It is obviously easier if you start with softer butter! Next beat in the eggs one at a time making sure each addition is fully incorporated, you may also wish to scrape down the sides of the bowl at this point.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and then add to the batter in two parts, mixing on a low speed until the mixture just comes together. To finish, add the sour cream and vanilla essence and mix.

In order to create the two contrasting colours with which to marble the cake, put 250g or up to half of the mixture into a separate bowl and then mix in the cinnamon to this half. Add the raisins into the remaining batter. The recipe then suggests to pour the raisin batter into the tin and then spread the cinnamon batter on top before running a skewer through to marble. However, I don't think this method will give the best marble effect, so I just put alternating random blobs of each mix into the tin and then ran my skewer through.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, mine took a little bit longer. It should feel firm and a skewer should come out clean. Leave in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning the cake out of the tin to cool completely.

* Adapted from Cake Days by the Hummingbird Bakery.

Apple & Almond Bear Claw Pastries

When I decided to make these bear claw pastries from the Hummingbird Bakery 'Home Sweet Home' cookbook I didn't really check the recipe that closely and just assumed they would be fairly easy to make. However, when it actually came down to it, they were a little more tricky than first anticipated.

When thinking of pastry, I was thinking of the Danish kind but that turned out to be incorrect. The pastry here is made with milk, sugar, butter, salt, yeast, egg and flour. The mixture also had to be left to prove which was not what I was expecting.

When the dough had proved, the recipe requires it to be rolled out into quite precise rectangles. I did have to wrangle with it a bit as the dough kept springing back when I rolled it which I don't think is quite right. I also found it quite difficult to shape and seal the pastries and as a result they were all slightly different sizes. Given all this I was quite expecting a disaster when they came out of the oven but they actually looked rather better than expected, puffing up nicely and browing on top with the egg wash. 

Inside the pastry is a filling of apples, butter, sultanas, light brown sugar, cinnamon and cornflour. On top is a sprinkling of sugar and some flaked almonds which were added before baking. The finishing touch is a drizzle of icing over the top when cool. And how did they taste?...much better than expected! Kind of a bready/pastry outer with a sweet filling. Apparently these are found in traditional bakeries in America and are often eaten for breakfast with coffee. I think I could quite happily consume these for breakfast on a regular basis...but probably only if they didn't take quite so long to make! However, the bear claw finish is very cute and was achieved by cutting into the pastry along a short edge. I used scissors and cut in about a centimetre.

These pastries are my entry into this month's Alpha Bakes, hosted by Ros over at the More than Occassional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes. Ros is hosting this month and the letter is 'A', so this is a double whammy with apples and almonds!

Stollen Topped Mince Pies & Clementine and Apple Mince Pies

What is Christmas without a mince pie or two? I thought I'd try out a couple of variations on the traditional mince pie this year.

First up are Stollen topped mince pies. The pastry is a lovely sweet shortcrust which you can either make using your favourite recipe or using shop bought pastry. The BBC has a good recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry here.

Each pastry case is filled with a couple of teaspoons of mincemeat...again if time allows you can make your own mincemeat in advance.

Each mince pie is then topped with a stollen mixture which interestingly has madeira cake in it, along with ground almonds, caster sugar, butter, an egg yolk, candied peel and marzipan.

I took a little ball of the stollen mixture and flattened it into a disc before placing on top and pushing it down into place which made it a little easier. Each mince pie was then finished off with some toasted flaked almonds before going into the oven. Once baked they were dusted with icing sugar. These are a great alternative to traditional mince pies and stollen is another festive favourite. They were light and tasty and the stollen stayed soft when baked.

My second mince pies are Clementine and Apple. The recipe is by Paul Hollywood and they were featured on the Great British Bake Off Christmas special earlier in the week.

You can find the recipe here, Paul used tangerines but any Christmassy orange will do. Again I used sweet shortcrust pastry and for the filling, mincemeat was mixed with clementine zest, diced apple and clementine flesh. Orange pastry might also work quite well with this recipe.

These mince pies are slightly larger as they were made in muffin tins and the cutter was 9cm. They have a lovely fruity taste and will fill your home with the aroma of Christmas.

If you fancy some more variations on mince pies which are less traditional check out these mince pie rings and spiced mincemeat fairy cakes that I made last year.

 

I'm entering my Stollen mince pies into this month's Alpha Bakes as the letter of the month is 'S'. Alpha Bakes is hosted by Ros at the More Than Occasional Baker and she is hosting for December. Her partner in crime and co-host is Caroline of Caroline Makes.

Ingredients

375g sweet shortcrust pastry or follow the recipe from BBC GoodFood
375g mincemeat
50g madeira cake
50g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
50g butter, softened
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp candied peel
100g marzipan, finely diced
25g toasted flaked almonds
Icing sugar for dusting.

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board and then cut out 12 8cm rounds using a circle cutter. Re-roll the trimmings if necessary. Press the 8cm circles into the holes of a bun tin. I greased my bun tin beforehand to ensure the mince pies came out.

Put a couple of teaspoons of mincemeat to each pastry case. To create the stollen topping, you can use a food processor or I used a hand mixer which worked just as well. Blitz the madeira cake, ground almonds, caster sugar, egg yolk and butter until it is smooth. Tip into a bowl and then mix in the candied peel and diced marzipan. Divide this mix into 12 roughly even balls, then flatten each one into a disc which is roughly the size of the pastry case top. Place a disc on top of each mince pie and gently press down. Finish by sprinkling toasted flaked almonds over each one.

The mince pies should be baked for 20-25 minutes and should be lightly golden when down. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar, when they have cooled a little remove from the tin and place on a cooling wrack. You may want to dust again with icing when they're cold as I find if you do it when hot the icing sugar seems to disappear.

* Adapted from BBC GoodFood magazine

Jammy Doughnut Muffins for AlphaBakes

The recipe for these Jammy Doughnut Muffins promises a tasty doughnut treat but without the deep frying! These certainly had all the classic elements of a doughnut with a lovely jammy centre and the sugary top, I even tried to eat one without licking my lips...I didn't manage it! ;-)

 The mixture has sunflower oil instead of butter and it comes together almost like a dough.

To get the jammy centre there's no need to inject the jam a la the Great British Bake Off. You just need to half fill the muffin case with batter and then add a teaspoon of jam before covering over with the remaining mixture.

The recipe stated that it would make 6 muffins but I actually ended up with 10, so I filled half with Wild Strawberry jam and half with blackcurrant jam.

To finish the muffins were dipped in melted butter and then rolled in granulated sugar. This gave a lovely sugary, crunchy top which was definitely the best part of eating these muffins!

These jammy doughnut muffins definitely tasted doughnut like but they didn't quite hit the spot as a doughnut would. I would make these again but a real doughnut would win out every time.

The letter of the month for November's Alpha Bakes is J, so I'm entering these Jammy Doughnut Muffins. AlphaBakes is hosted alternately by Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline over at Caroline Makes.

Ingredients

75g sunflower oil
150g plain yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
275g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicar of soda
Pinch of salt
100g granulated sugar
75g jam ( I used blackcurrant and strawberry - but not together ;-)

Topping

25g unsalted butter, melted
50g granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5.

Measure out the wet ingredients into a bowl - oil, yogurt, vanilla extract and eggs and beat together.

In a seperate bowl sift in the flour, bicarb of soda, salt and sugar and mix. Carefullly pour the wet ingredients into this dry mix and quickly stir until just combined. It will come together into a slightly doughy texture.

Put a tablespoon or so of the batter into each muffin case and make a little bit of a well in each. Spoon a teaspoon of jam into each one before covering with the rest of the mixture. The recipe suggested that it would make 6 muffins, however I seemed to have enough mixture for 10!

Bake the muffins in the oven for 18-20 minutes until well risen and golden. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before finishing with the topping.

To give it that final jammy doughnut touch, melt the butter in a saucepan and then either brush the top of each muffin or dip each one in before rolling in the 25g of granulated sugar. I put my sugar on a plate for rolling. Leave to cool and then enjoy!

* Adapted from Easy Cakes & Cookies

Nanaimo Bars for Alpha Bakes

This month's randomly generated letter for Alpha Bakes is 'N' and coincidentally I've wanted to make these Nanaimo bars for a while now...so this was the perfect opportunity. This is also a no bake recipe which was ideal for me as I've just moved home and haven't quite fathomed out how to work the oven yet!

A Nanaimo bar consists of three layers - the bottom layer is made from crushed biscuits, butter, cocoa powder and eggs, these also have walnuts and desiccated coconut. The middle layer is a combination of icing sugar, butter, custard powder and cream, then the whole thing is topped off with a layer of chocolate ganache.

You may be wondering where the name Nanaimo comes from, it is in fact a town on Vancouver Island, Canada. You can just about see on the map below that is across a stretch of water from the city of Vancouver...and I have in fact actually visited Nanaimo...but I don't remember trying a Nanaimo bar!

The recipe first came about in the 1950s when a Canadian housewife submitted her recipe for inclusion in a WI cookbook. When published the recipe became extremely popular and the coffee shops in Nanaimo started to sell the bars...as a result they then became known as Nanaimo bars and since then their popularity has spread all over Canada and beyond!

These Nanaimo bars were well received by the taste testers, although they're very rich and you only need a little square. Making all the layers coupled with the chilling also takes a little time but they were worth the effort.

Alpha Bakes is a monthly challenge hosted by Ros at the More than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes.


Ingredients

Bottom

300g digestive or rich tea biscuits
170g butter
75g caster sugar
45g cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g desiccated coconut
75g roughly chopped walnuts

Middle

85g butter
345g icing sugar
3 tbsp custard powder
100 ml double cream

Top

225g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa) chopped
200ml double cream
40g unsalted butter

Use a 23 x 33 cm baking tray and then line the base and sides with foil.

Firstly, crush the biscuits (either digestive or rich tea), you can do this in a food processor or alternatively in a bag with a rolling pin. Put this to one side and begin melting the butter in a medium to large saucepan. Once fully melted remove from the heat and mix in the sugar and cocoa powder and then gradually beat in the eggs. It is maybe advisable to have all the ingredients weighed out beforehand. At this stage I also used a balloon whisk to blend the ingredients. Return the the saucepan to the heat and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat again and stir in the vanilla, biscuit and coconut. This mixture is then ready to press into the bottom of the baking tray. It should be firmly pressed in and the top should be even. Chill for at least 1 hour.

For the next layer make sure the butter is nice and soft. This can then be beaten until really light and fluffy. Once at this stage the icing sugar can be beaten in until smooth. To prevent the icing sugar flying everywhere cover the bowl with a damp tea towel. Finally, add the custard powder and cream and beat again on a high speed until the mixture is lovely and fluffy. Spread this layer over the first again making sure it's even. Chill for 30 minutes.

To make the third and final layer, chop the chocolate into small pieces and place it in a bowl. Then gently head the cream in a saucepan until it is just boiling, when it reaches this stage pour it over the top of the chocolate and leave for around 2 minutes. You can then gently stir the mixture until it is smooth. Add the butter and stir again, this should give you a smooth ganache. Pour over the custard layer and spread evenly. Chill again until it appears set.

Once the whole thing has set you can cut it into squares with a sharp knife. This recipe can make up to 40 squares depending on how small you cut them! A top tip is to dip the knife in hot water for a few seconds (and then wiping it dry) before cutting as this will give a nice clean cut.

* Adapted from the Boy Who Bakes by Edd Kimber

Plum & Almond Crumble Slices

The September letter of the month for Alpha Bakes is 'P' and what better 'P' than plums. Plums are decliciously juicy and perfectly in season. I love nothing better than stewing plums and eating them as they are or adding them on top of porridge. It's a plum crumble slice too which has a really autumnal feel; as the nights draw in thoughts turn to warm puddings and espcially crumbles...or maybe that's just me always thinking of puddings! :-)

This is quite an interesting bake it's got an almondy, buttery, sugary, floury base which is baked on it's own for 20 minutes. Once golden an almond, sugar and butter paste is spread over the top to give a soft layer which the plums sit on top off. The paste also has eggs, cinnamon, baking powder and a small amount of flour. This is then baked again for 20 minutes.

The final step is to sprinkle over a crumble topping and flaked almonds. Then it's a final 20 minutes in the oven. The bake cools in the tin before slicing. If you decide to make this one, I found I pretty much had to make my own crumble topping from scratch. The recipe suggests reserving a few tablespoons of the almond, sugar and buter mix before making the paste layer. However, I was quite literal and did 3 tablespoons (a few) and found that this wasn't nearly enough, it was also quite soft and unlike crumble due to the amount of butter. I did put it in the fridge but it wasn't quite how I wanted it, so I made a small amount of regular crumble topping and sprinkled that on top instead.

Overall, this was a really tasty bake. The plums were lovely and sweet and gave you a real hit of flavour when you bit into it. The biscuity base, the soft almond paste and the crumbly top also provide a real contrast in textures and the plum and almond combination married together really well. I know that some people when they make crumble at home add ground or flaked almonds to their crumble mixture which I think would work really well in a plum crumble. The cinnamon in this bake also adds a little somthing extra.

The randomly selected letter from AlphaBakes for September was 'P' so these Plum and Almond Crumble slices are my entry. This month's host of AlphaBakes is Caroline from Caroline Makes. Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker hosts on alternate months.

Finally, this is the perfect recipe for 'Simple and in Season'. This month it's hosted by Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter The home of Simple and in Season is Fabulicious Food. Plums are at their peak right now and really make me think of late summer/autumn.

Ingredients

250g cold butter
225g caster sugar
300g almonds
140g plain flour, plus 25g
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
6 plums cut into sixths
50g flaked almonds

Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 and then prepare you're tin which should be 20 x 30cm, although mine wasn't quite this size. Butter and line it with baking paper.

Use a food processor to whizz together the butter, sugar and ground almonds, you should end up with rough breadcrumbs. Place half of this mixture into another bowl and then add 140g flour to the half that is still in the processor, if you whizz it, it should form a dough. This dough forms the base of the back, so tip it into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon until level. Then pop this base in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. The set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

A filling then goes on top of the base. To make this take the remaining butter, sugar and almond mixture and tip it back into the processor but reserve a few tablespoons for the topping. Add 25g flour, eggs, cinnamon and baking powder and then whizz. This should form a soft batter which you can then spread over the base.

Finally, top this mixture with the plum slices and then sprinkle with a little caster sugar and cinnamon. Bake this for about 20 minutes before sprinkling with the reserved crumble mix and flaked almonds. Then there's a final bake for another 20 minutes until the whole bake is golden. Cool in the tin and then slice.

If you wish to make your own crumble topping for the last step there are plenty of recipes online.

* Recipe adapted from BBC GoodFood

Yorkshire Gold Tea Loaf

Today is Yorkshire Day, celebrated every August 1st since 1975. Yorkshire Day was created to raise the profile of the county's heritage.

This recipe for a Yorkshire Gold Tea Loaf came from one of those cards you pick up in the entrance way to supermarkets. This particular recipe came from Waitrose and I have to confess I'd never even heard of Yorkshire Day until I picked up the card!! Maybe not surprising as I grew up about as far south as you can get.

As I made this I was slightly dubious as the weight of each ingredient seemed so minimal. The volume of the cake mixture once complete was very slight and the tin seemed quite empty. The recipe did call for a 17x10cm loaf tin and I only had a 20x10cm. It did make for a quite shallow cake and I might be tempted in future to double the ingredients to make a full size loaf!!

HOWEVER, I wasn't at all disappointed with the way this cake tasted. It's flavoursome and light, a spongy fruit cake which I will definitely be making again! It's perfect with a cup of tea...I had a cup of Yorkshire Gold but you could make this with your usual brew. This cake would also be great to take with you on a day out with a flask of tea. I enjoyed a slice by the seaside!

This month's AlphaBakes letter of the month has just been announced too and it's 'T', so I'm going to enter my Tea Loaf. AlphaBakes is hosted by Ros at the More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes.

Ingredients

3 tea bags

30g sultanas

15g raisins

15g currants

10g dark glace cherries, chopped (I only had red glace cherries and they work just as well!)

60g butter

85g light brown sugar

1 medium egg, beaten

100g plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarb of soda

1/4 tsp mixed spice

Measure out 250ml boiling water and then add 3 tea bags, leave to brew for 10 minutes. Measure out all the fruit and place in a bowl, once the tea has brewed pour it over the top and leave to soak for 1 hour. After an hour drain the fruit but keep the liquid to one side.

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas . Grease and line a 17x10cm loaf tin. Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy, then add in the egg until well mixed.

Sift the flour, bicarb, mixed spice and a pinch of salt over the top of the butter, sugar and egg mix and fold them together. Next fold in the dried fruit and 60ml (4tbsp) of the reserved tea. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes. In my 20x10cm tin this only took about 38-40 minutes. Once a skewer comes out clean, remove from the oven and remove from the tin and leave to cool on a tin.

* Adapted from a Waitrose Recipe Card