New Make/Bake 38 - Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I have never made a carrot cake. I feel better now I have I have confessed this fact as it appears to be something which should be in every keen home bakers repertoire. I love carrot cake so it does seem odd that I have never attempted one.

I had been showing my boss some pictures of my cakes in the office and he asked if I was bringing cakes to the next team meeting. I guessed that he was hinting and asked if he had any requests. After some though he requested carrot cake, specifically with cream cheese frosting!

After much thought I decided to go for cupcakes, I wasn't sure if a cake would be enough for all of us and I found a lovely looking recipe on BBC Good Food for Carrot and Cream Cheese Cupcakes.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 175g brown muscovado sugar
• 100g wholemeal self-raising flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• zest 1 orange
• 2 eggs
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 200g carrots , grated
• orange coloured sprinkles , to decorate - I used Little Jelly Orange Slices

For the Icing

• 100g butter , softened
• 300g soft cheese
• 100g icing sugar , sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flours, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice and orange zest. Whisk together the eggs and oil, then stir into the dry ingredients with the grated carrot. Divide the mixture between cases and bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing.
2. For the icing, beat the butter until really soft, then beat in the soft cheese, icing sugar and vanilla. Use a palette or cutlery knife to swirl the icing on top of the cakes, then sprinkle with decorations. I piped my icing on using a large open nozzle which looked quite effective!

 Taken from BBC Good Food

I thought that for my very first attempt at Carrot cake, they were yummy - M wasn't impressed, apparently he thinks that carrot shouldn't go in cake - hmmm!

My work colleagues however felt otherwise thankfully and all 12 cupcakes went that morning, with some of them being taken home for partners to sample. I have even had a repeat order from my manager for a cake for his wedding anniversary - blog post coming soon :)

New Make/Bake 37 - Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes, Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies and Black and White Brownies

A few weekends ago it was M's birthday. It's traditional that you bring cakes into the office for your birthday and apparently the supermarket cakes just wouldn't cut it. Initially he just requested cupcakes, then he decided cookies as well would be nice, and then finally a few brownies, just for good measure! This along with his request for a Victoria Sponge cake meant I would be spending a good few hours in the kitchen to fulfil this order!

After I'd finished the sponge cake I started with the cupcakes. I had Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (from the amazing Hummingbird Bakery)  made these before so not a true new make bake but for the first time I piped the cream cheese frosting, rather just scooping it on top. They taste amazing, so simple and effective, I think this is why the request came in for a repeat make/bake!

The next recipe I attempted was from Nigella's "How to be a Domestic Goddess". As I had purchased quite a bit of cream cheese (it was on offer, it would be rude to say no) I thought I'd try her "Black and White" brownies. It's basically a normal brownie mix (melted chocolate and butter) with flour and sugar,but you dollop in bits of cream cheese, it must be the full fat version, with brownies there is no point holding back!

These were my favourite - I'm a sucker for brownies and these were divine. So tasty and cream and very indulgent. One to be saved for special occasions!

The last thing I made was the Cookies. The was a recipe from "Cox, Cookies & Cakes" by Eric Lanlard and Patrick Cox. It was a basic cookie dough mix with cocoa and dark chocolate chunks. It was supposed to include toffee, however I had some fudge pieces which needed using so I swapped those instead. I look making cookies as they are so flexible and you can mix and match different ingredients according to what you have in the cupboard.

These were quite tasty! The fudge did melt a bit so they were crunchy in places but the added texture was quite nice.


 Feedback was very positive, I'm glad the workers enjoyed them so it was a very successful, if not slightly exhausting, day spent baking!

New Make/Bake 36 - Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

M loves comfort food, anything stodgy is always a winner for him. However he has been reluctant to try one of my personal favourite comfort foods, eggy bread, otherwise known as french toast. One of the best foods when served piping hot, and covered with cinnamon sugar and jam - yummy! Apparently he thinks it's weird and that egg shouldn't go with sweet things. To try and tempt him into trying it I decided to try and make a savoury eggy bread!

I found this recipe in one of the BBC Good Food mag and it looked very tasty - as always I had to give it a tweak!

Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 x 400g cans haricot bean , drained and rinsed- I only had 2 so I added a tin of Cannellin beans
• 500g passata
• ½ tbsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 200g bacon lardons
• 5 eggs
• 125ml milk
• 10 slices white bread , crusts removed and halved to make triangles 
• 100g grated cheddar cheese ( comfort food is always better with cheese!)

 Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the beans into a large baking dish with the passata, paprika, vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Season and mix well. Scatter the lardons over the top, cover with foil and bake for 30 mins.
2. Remove the beans from the oven, take off the foil and stir well. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 10 mins to crisp up the bacon. You can now cool and chill the beans for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Just defrost and warm through before continuing.
3. Whisk the eggs and milk with some seasoning. Dip the bread triangles into the egg mix, then layer them over the surface of the beans. Pour the rest of the egg over the bread, sprinkle with cheese and cook for 20 mins, or until the bread is puffed and the cheese is golden. 

M thought it was lovely, the beans perhaps needed a bit longer to soften as they had quite a bite to them. I also might play a bit more with the flavours as it wasn't a strong enough BBQ flavour which I think would have been lovely. I think eggy bread with jam is the next step :)

New Make/Bake 35 - Full English frittata

Apologies for a long delay of posts. I have been new make/baking but haven't had the time to blog - it's been a busy few weeks! Hopefully I'll catch up!

As part of a health kick I've been trying to eat tasty but lower calorie things - it's not going terribly well but now the sun appears to be here, I'm hoping salads and BBQ will be more common - hooray!

Here is one of the new recipes I tried - adapted from by favourite site

Full English frittata

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 low-fat sausages , sliced
• 4 rashers smoked bacon medallions, chopped
• 150g pack button mushrooms , halved, or larger ones quartered
• 8 egg whites - I'm not a fan of whites so I used whole 6 eggs instead
• 3 tbsp milk
• 140g cherry tomatoes , halved
• small bunch chives , snipped 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a roasting tin about the size of A4 paper with enough baking parchment to cover the base and sides. Fry the sausages and bacon in a non-stick pan until golden, stirring them often to stop them sticking. Scoop into the tin.
2. Place the pan back on the heat and fry the mushrooms for about 5 mins until golden, then add these to the tray, too. Whisk the egg with the milk and lots of seasoning. Pour into the tin, then dot the tomatoes on top.
3. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, until set. Scatter the frittata with the chives and serve with salad (or the recipe suggested smoky beans which is a tin of baked beans and 1.5 tsp smoked paprika)

Make/Bake 34 - Beef Chow Mein and Sweet and Sticky Stir Fry Chicken

M won't eat Chinese food. It's not that he doesn't like it but apparently after every time he's tried it, he's felt really ill, which is quite off putting I can imagine. We have no idea what causes it and unsurprisingly he's not willing to try it much to test it out!

This problem  does cause a few grumbles as Chinese is probably one of my favourite foods so I only ever get to eat it on very rare occasions - booo. To compensate for this Ma greed to let me try a few home-made versions of dishes to see if they had the same effect and I'm very pleased to say that they don't - hooray!!!

I started off with simple stir-fries and found he liked Hoisin and Chow Mein sauce and also noodles and stir-fried veggies. I think made my own stir-fry sauces which were a big success. No pictures at the moment but my favourite is as follows:

Sweet and Sticky Stir Fry Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts cut into chunks
4 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp oil - I use rapeseed but any flavourless oil would do
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 packet of stir fry vegetables
 noodles or rice to serve

Method
1. Coat the chicken with the cornflour. Mix the Soy Sauce, Vinegar and Honey and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wok and then fry the chicken until it's golden brown.
3. Add the vegetables and cook for 3-4 minutes
4. Add the Soy mixture and cook for another 2-3 minutes until thickened and sticky.

 
To follow on from this success I decided to try another recipe from one of my favourite books - The Takeaway Secret. I've blogged about this book a few times, it's brilliant! The recipes are so spot on to some the the popular foods but better as they can be much healthier.

I decided to give the Beef Chow Mein a go as M likes beef and noodles. Personally I tend to prefer Chicken but after this I could be converted! Very tasty indeed and very simple and quick.

You marinade the beef in soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger powder and vegetable oil for five minutes then mix in cornflour and leave for 10 minutes. Whilst the meat rests you make the chow mein sauce by combining oyster sauce, soy sauce, chicken stock and cornflour.

Meanwhile cook egg noodles according to the packet (usually boil in water for 3-5 minutes) and then drain, rinse and toss with toasted sesame oil.

The meat is then lightly fried, until just brown and then set aside whilst you fry some garlic, ginger, sliced onion and bean sprouts for 2-3 minutes. You then add the noodles and beef and prepared sauce for another 2-3 minutes and then season with pepper and serve.

Yummy. M liked it so much he's requested it another night - success!

New Make/Bake 33 - Sausage Roll Ups

In an effort to cut down on my pointless spending at lunch times I've decided to try and make more lunches during the week. Some days I work from home which means I have full access to a kitchen when making lunch. However if I'm in the office then I only have access to a kettle, fridge and microwave and if I'm out and about at meetings then I just have my car which isn't much help beyond driving me to a supermarket for a sandwich! This means that I am in need of a few quick, easy and tasty lunches which need little to no preparation.

A few weeks ago whilst reading through one of my BBC Good Food Magazines I spotted a recipe for Sausage Roll-ups which I though looked rather tasty. Sausage rolls are one of my favourite lunch time snacks, I know they aren't very healthy but there is something about a lovely meaty sausage encased in hot, flaky pastry that I just can't resist!

Sausage Roll-Ups

Ingredients

• 6 chipolata sausages
• 1 pack of croissant dough- found in the chiller section (usually near the butter)
• 2 tbsp Caramelised Onion Chutney
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
•  1/2tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 egg , beaten
•  Sprinkle of sesame seeds 

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Sit the chipolata's in a roasting tin and cook for 15 mins until lightly golden brown and then allow to cool until they are handleable. 
2. Open the croissant packs and unroll the dough and separate into triangles. Mix the onion chutney, tomato purée and mustard, and spread a few spoonfuls over each  triangle. Line a baking sheet with parchment or grease-proof paper. To make the Roll-Ups, lay a sausage along the wide end of the dough and roll it up around the sausage. Repeat until the sausages are all encased with the croissant dough. Arrange them on the baking tray, brush lightly with beaten egg and scatter with sesame seeds. Bake for 10-15 mins until golden.  

 Recipe from BBC Good Food
 

I had two for my lunch straight from the oven - wow they were scrummy. The pastry was great and the chutney made them really sweet but with a slight mustard bite. It took lots of strength to only have two. When M came home he had to test them - to make sure they weren't poisonous or so he said! Apparently  one wasn't sufficient enough for him to fully test them so he of course had to have a second. He then proclaimed that he would take the last two left for his lunch the next day - so much for saving me time and money making my lunch!!

New Make Bake 31 - Mr Happy Birthday Cake

Ages ago I was asked my make mine and M's nephew's 2nd Birthday cake and last week the text came asking if I still was ok to make something. The request came in as Mr Happy themed so after a quick Google looking for inspiration, I send them a choice of possible cakes which I thought were within my limits.

The choice they picked was this one. Possibly the most ambitious of the selection but also the most forgiving if anything went wrong!

I started by making a 9" Madeira Sponge cake. I wrapped the cake in parchment paper and a carrier bag to keep the cake lovely moist and left to cool. I then sliced it into three and filled it with strawberry jam in one layer and buttercream in next . I then crumb coated the cake - this is when you cover a cake with a thin layer of buttercream to provide sugarpaste a base to stick too. For my buttercream I decided to try slightly salted butter as I had read online that it meant the buttercream was less sickly. M LOVES buttercream and I'll admit that I am rather partial to it but I do find it quite sweet and it can give me a headache if I eat too much. I didn't tell M that I had made a change and allowed him to sample some of the left overs which he pronounced as "yummy". Personally I preferred it with the salted butter, it wasn't quite so overpoweringly sweet and I couldn't taste the salt at all.

Whilst the crumb coat dried, I covered my cake board. It's something which I've only started doing recently but I think it makes such a difference and makes cakes look so much more professional. The cake was then covered with chocolate brown (and chocolate flavoured!) sugarpaste and left to dry for 24 hrs to ensure it was a bit more sturdy when I came to adding the details.

To make the Mr Happy model I couldn't use sugarpaste for modelling as it just isn't sturdy or strong enough to hold it's shape on it's on and Mr Happy would not have been very happy for long! You can add powders to sugarpaste (like CMC or gum tragacanth) but as I was on a short time scale I cheated and mixed my yellow sugar paste with Mexican modelling paste as that would enable it to dry hard and quickly. He took me three attempts (the black sugapaste I used left black marks on the yellow - grrr) so I had to learn to handle it quickly and carefully!

The rest of the cake was covered with various sized circles of sugarpaste in green, blue and yellow. This was great as it enabled me to hide any cracks (still haven't perfected that part yet) and made it look lovely and colourful.

The final part was a star-burst of sugarpaste balloons. Typically I didn't plan this bit properly and I bought the wrong thickness of florist wire (I wrongly assumed that the higher the number, the thicker the wire - it's not!) so I had to change my plan quickly. I made small circles and thin 2's in green, blue and yellow sugarpaste (also mixed with Mexican paste so they were keep their shape) to match the cake. I then carefully threaded the wire through the middle and then left them to dry for 24hrs. I wish I'd started them before as the weren't quite set when I picked them up, so quite a few broke which meant I didn't have as many as I planned.

Even with my lesson's learnt, I was actually very pleased with the result and even better was the fact that the birthday boy was just as happy as his cake!