Egg Box Mini Cupcakes

I've been thinking for the last couple of weeks about alternatives to giving Easter eggs this year and then I remembered this idea that I had seen in a cake shop window a few years ago. The mini cupcakes look so cute and are a refreshing change from the mass produced Easter eggs.

I've never made mini cupcakes before and had to have a good search around online to find appropriate recipes. In the end I settled on vanilla cupcakes from The Daily Home and chocolate cupcakes from BBC Food. I did however half each recipe, otherwise I would have ended up with about 100 mini cupcakes...not a bad thing I hear you say!!

The chocolate cupcakes looked particularly tempting as there is buttermilk in the recipe and also double cream in the icing! To finish them off I used some chocolate sprinkles, as well as some mini Easter eggs and chicks. Mini eggs would also work really well. You can't see them in the picture but the cakes are baked in these Hop n' Tweet cupcake cases...they're so adorable and also have tulips around the sides.

These egg box mini cupcakes make a super cute treat...and because they're a homemade gift it shows you care!

These are also my first entry into the April Teatime Treats challenge with the theme being Easter...obviously!! Teatime treats is hosted by Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked, why not check out the bumper scone entries submitted in March.

Simnel Muffins

When I started blogging it was with the intention of trying new recipes and being a little more adventurous with my baking. I certainly think it has helped me to achieve this...however, with regard to these simnel muffins, I've made them for the last 4 years in a row and they really are delicious and a firm favourite...so I thought that I'd share them with you!

As the recipe says traditional simnel cake can be a bit too rich - instead, try these light little muffins with a gooey nugget of marzipan baked in the centre. Now I'm not the biggest fan of marzipan but these muffins just taste like they have a soft almond paste inside. They're also beautifully spiced and the fruit is infused in orange juice and the icing has orange juice in too. It all marries together perfectly to give a muffin that will surprise your friends and it will be sure to bring you compliments...have I sold them to you yet? ;-) Why not give them a try...there's still a week until Easter!

Ingredients

250g mixed dried fruit
Zest and juice of one medium orange
175g butter
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
300g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
5 tbsp milk
175g marzipan

Icing

200g icing sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
Mini eggs

Put the mixed fruit and orange juice and zest into a bowl, you can then either leave it to soak for an hour or pop it into the microwave for 2 minutes on medium. Heat your oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4.

Mix the sugar, flour, butter, eggs, milk and spices together in a separate bowl, the mixture should be nice and light and fluffy. This could take around 3-4 minutes. Once you reach this stage stir in the fruit.

Half fill each muffin case with a little mixture and then place a disc of marzipan on top of each. If you want to be really accurate/pedantic each ball of marzipan will be about 14g... but I think 10g could also be sufficient if marzipan is not your favourite. You should roll the marzipan into a ball and then flatten into a disc with your thumb. Make sure your marzipan isn't too close to the top, otherwise you'll end up with a marzipan volcano flowing out as they split asunder! Finally, spoon the remaining cake mixture over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes...your muffins should be golden in colour.

Once cool you can then add the finishing touch. Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together, it should be a fairly thick consistency. Drizzle over each muffin and then top with a cluster of mini eggs.

* Adapted from 101 Cakes & Bakes (Tried & Tested Recipes) from BBC Books and GoodFood Magazine

Butterscotch Cake with Caramel Hazelnut Wisps

This cake is somewhat weird and wonderful and looks a little like something out of the Alien movies...however, it certainly has the wow factor and is just a little bit different. The addition of light muscovado to the sponge mixture gives it the butterscotch flavour and the mascarpone frosting is a nice alternative to buttercream...although it's probably not for everyone!

This is the second outing from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns, following on from Alice's Teapot Cake last week. It was fun to make and tasted good...although I'd say for my taste the sponge was a little bit dry...or maybe it was just my baking!! :-)

I wanted to give this one a go as I was keen to try making caramel again, following the Weekly Bake-Off Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake...wow that's a mouthful to say. I think I was a bit too keen when making my caramel for the hokey pokey cake as I didn't wait for it to turn a really deep amber, so this time I didn't make the same mistake and the caramel wisps are a lovely deep colour.

So if you have a friend who likes butterscotch and something a bit wacky, this could be the cake for them!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter

175g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

3 eggs

100g golden caster sugar

75g light muscovado sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

 

Frosting

500g mascarpone

1 tbsp black treacle

1 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp light muscovado

 

Caramel Whisps

30 blanched hazelnuts

Wooden skewers

110g caster sugar

 

Heat your oven to 180c/170c fan/gas 4 and prepare two 20cm sandwich tins by buttering the sides and lining the bottom. The cake is then easy to make, just sift the flour and baking powder together before adding the remaining ingredients. Mix well but don't over-mix and then divide between the sandwich tins and cook for 20-25 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.

 

To make the frosting you just literally just need to beat all the ingredients together. This frosting might not be for everyone, so you could also use toffee buttercream.

 

For the wisps, put the sugar and water into a heavy based saucepan and then put over a low heat, stir with a metal spoon until all the sugar crystals have dissolved and then turn up the heat so the sugar mixture is boiling, at this stage who should not stir it at all. Leave to boil until the caramel turns a deep amber colour. During this process just pop your hazelnuts onto a baking tray and put them in the oven for 5 minutes on 170c.

When cooled, insert a skewer into each hazelnut. When the caramel is ready you can then dip each one in and ensure it is liberally covered. Place the end of the skewer under a heavy board and a long whisp should form which will take about 5 minutes to harden. One tip though...make sure you place some newspaper on the floor!

* Adapted from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns

Crunchy Citrus Ricotta Scones

This month's theme for Teatime treats is Scones which is quite fortunate as scones are one of my all time favourite things...give me an afternoon tea with jam, clotted cream and a cuppa and I'm happy...incidentally the scones have to be fruit but that's another story! However, it would be a fairly boring challenge if everybody made run of the mill scones...we were encouraged by the teatime treats hosts, Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked, to think about slightly more unusual offerings.

I didn't go as far as savoury scones as I'm all about the sweet things in life but I did make a slightly unusual crunchy citrus scone with the main ingredient being ricotta cheese. Sounds like a very strange combination but I can confirm that they were indeed crunchy and citrusy...with no hint of the ricotta! The recipe also produced a scone round as opposed to individual scones. The crunchy part comes from a liberal sprinkling of demerara sugar on top before baking.

Although, these scones won't be winning any beauty contests they tasted pretty darn good, especially whilst still warm and with a little lemon curd....so who cares! :-)

Ingredients



175g ricotta

Zest of 1 orange - finely grated

100g golden caster sugar

200g self-raising flour

50g  butter
1-2 tbsp milk
1tbsp demerara sugar

Heat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6. Mix the ricotta, orange zest and half the caster sugar in a bowl until well combined. In another bowl, sift the flour and add the other half of the caster sugar, finally add the butter which should be cut into small cubes. You should then rub this flour mixture together until it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add the ricotta mixture to your flour mix and bring it together to form a dough, you can add the milk at this stage if necessary but be careful not to make the dough too sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times, so it is not so craggy but don't over knead. The dough should then be pressed out to a depth of 4cm and form it into a neat round.

Then using a knife mark 6 wedges across the top. Finally, brush the scone with milk and if necessary sprinkle a little flour on top before sprinkling over demerara sugar to give the crunchy top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until brown on top.

These scones taste delicious warm and served with a little lemon curd. Enjoy!

* Adapted from BBC GoodFood