Cupcakes Sweet and Cupcakes Savoury

Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with a Gingerbread Men toppers!

I've been reading an extraordinary blog over the last few days called the Cupcake Project. It's a wonderfully creative exploration of one woman's cupcake adventures. I love the fact that Stef (who writes the blog) freely admits that she embarked on her amazing adventure having never baked a cupcake before but volunteering to make cupcakes for a friend's wedding. Now there's a spirit of get-up-and-go to emulate - I love her gumption!

So having been inspired by her blog, I decided to make some of her Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with some Butter Icing and Gingerbread Men as toppers. I'll admit, it was partly because DS2 has a class party coming up in a couple of weeks for the end of the year and I thought I might make some cupcakes for the occasion. I did make one alteration to her recipe though. I didn't use a vanilla pod, instead I used 1 1/2 tsps of vanilla paste added to the sugar and butter during the creaming stage.

Dapper looking Gingerbread man with bow tie

The butter icing recipe I used was from here, and I used raspberry essence to flavour it. It's a nice alternative to the standard vanilla and gives the final product a really gentle almost floral flavour. Finally, the gingerbread recipe came from here. This is a really easy and quick gingerbread recipe and one I'll use often. It's much simpler than the one I normally use (which includes treacle) and the kids loved it. I ended up with loads of left over little gingerbread men, so they got iced and stored for munching on during the week.

Having spent the morning in a frenzy of sugary baking, I decided there had to be a savoury alternative. After all, if you can make a sweet cupcake, why can't you make a savoury one? With that thought in mind, I trawled a variety of websites in an attempt to find a good recipe for a savoury cupcake - one that wasn't a muffin, but also one that didn't include a cup of sugar. Most of the sites I found had recipes that were really sweet cupcakes with meat and vegetables added. That definitely wasn't what I was looking for. One site had a gorgeous alternative, but no recipe.

The creative process at work

In the end, I made up my own. I love making up recipes. It's a creative process that requires me to work with ratios and think about how ingredients will work with each other. Chemistry, math and food all in one exciting process (with a bit of artistry thrown in) - joy! I jot down possible ingredients, figure out possible amounts and then work on what temperature to set the oven and how long to cook for. I read through the recipe 3 or 4 times and then I jot the steps down in pictorial form. I can't draw more than poor squiggles, but these little scribbles help me during the hectic cooking process when I'm rushing from one step to the next, often without reading the steps properly. The pictures jog my memory. Here's the recipe I came up with (using some tinned Spam I had in the pantry). The results were really pretty good. A bit doughy, but I'll work on that - it might be a little less so if I'd used minced meat instead (Note to Self: that's something worth pursuing for the next batch).

Spammy Cupcakes
Ingredients:

• 223g plain flour
• 80g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda (bicarb soda)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 - 3 tsp mixed herbs
• 230 ml milk
• 100g cheddar cheese, cubed
• 1 tin Spam
• 50g fresh tomato, diced
• 1 medium red onion or 1/2 a large one, chopped
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp non-iodised salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

In food processor, cream together butter and sugar.

Add egg and mix well.

Add Spam, onion and cheese and mix until onion and cheese are well incorporated (indistinguishable).

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and herbs and mix.

Slowly add milk. When milk is incorporated, add tomato and pulse (you want to keep some of the chunky pieces of tomato).

1/2 fill patty pans and bake for 25 - 30 mins.

Potato, Sweet Potato, Garlic and Blue Cheese Icing:

Ingredients:

• 4  medium potatoes
• 1 -2 sweet potatoes (depending on size)
• butter
• milk
• 2 cloves garlic
• 50g Blue cheese
• salt to taste

Method:

Peel and boil potatoes, sweet potatoes and garlic together. Drain and mash well (I used a Bamix), adding butter and milk.

While potato mash is still warm, blend in the blue cheese and salt to taste. Allow to cool a little then fill in piping bag.

Pipe onto savoury cupcakes and garnish with a sliver of cherry tomato.

These can be eaten hot or cold (we had them for breakfast the next day too!).

Quick Snack Fixes

Dinner tonight was marinated chicken wings, stuffed tomatoes, salad and garlic bread. They're quick to make, taste delicious and look pretty impressive. Plus, it's another way to use up some eggs from our Bantam chickens!

Stuffed Tomatoes:
Ingredients

• 4 vine-ripened tomatoes
• 4 Bantam eggs
• Malden sea salt
• freshly cracked black pepper
• sharp Cheddar cheese (tasty is good)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cut the tops off the tomatoes (so you have little lids). You can discard these (our chickens are getting them).

Cut through the segments inside the tomato very carefully, trying not to break through the tomato. Scoop out the flesh, leaving behind a tomato case. Reserve the scoopings for another recipe or blend and make into tomato paste.

Sprinkle salt and cracked pepper on the inside.

Add a paper-thin slice of cheese (or grate cheese).

Crack one Bantam egg into each tomato. These little eggs are just perfect for the tomato cases. Sprinkle with salt and pepper again.

Arrange your tomatoes on the lined baking tray and bake for 15 - 20 minutes till eggs are set. Serve immediately.

Garlic Bread:

You can make this with pretty much any kind of loaf you like. I usually use a ciabatta or other crusty Italian loaf, or a baguette. It also makes a great after school snack.

Ingredients

• 125g butter (salted butter is good)
• 1 tsp Malden sea salt
• 1 sprig basil leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• bread of choice

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

Use chop sticks as a guide when slicing

Now this is a handy trick that will ensure you never cut all the way through your bread again when making garlic bread. Take two wooden chop sticks (use the normal sized ones, not the take-away variety that you have to separate). Place one on either side of your loaf of bread. Cut slices into the bread until your knife hits the chop sticks (this ensures that you don't cut all the way through, but cut enough to allow you to spread the butter onto each slice).

In a food processor, blend the butter, garlic, salt and basil leaves. If the butter is too hard and won't cream, add olive oil to loosen it.

When your garlic butter is ready, spread it liberally in each slice you've cut in your bread.

Finally, spread a good amount on the top of your loaf too. This helps to keep the crust crunchy.

Cover your bread in baking paper and then in baking foil (Alfoil/tinfoil) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Serve hot.

Cheese Soufflé

Soufflé is one of those dishes that seems to strike terror into the heart of home cooks, but I'm not really sure why. It's an extremely easy dish that tastes sublime and looks spectacular. The last time I made soufflé, I was newly married, entertaining like mad and desperate to impress all and sundry. I was thrilled that my first soufflé worked and then proceeded to make them so regularly that my husband and I both grew to dread the sight of them. But after 15 years, it was definitely time to have another go at it. This recipe makes a delightfully light and fluffy soufflé.

This single soufflé alone would have been more than enough for dinner, but I'm not known for doing things by halves, so dinner included soufflé, scotch eggs and salad followed by creme brûlée for dessert.

Cheese souffle

Ingredients:

• 14 slices white bread
• 450g sharp/tasty Cheddar cheese
• 3 cups full fat milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 10 eggs
• salt and pepper to taste (I use freshly ground pepper corns and Malden sea salt)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Trim edges of 14 slices of whet bread (I gave the crusts to my chickens as a "thank you" for their lovely eggs, but you could save yours to make breadcrumbs for another time), then cube/quarter each slice.

Grate the cheese using the large side of the grater or a microplane for soft cheese.

Beat the eggs and milk with salt and pepper until just smooth (don't over beat).

Butter a casserole dish and alternately layer the bread and cheese (two layers of each) evenly along the bottom.

Pour the milk and egg mixture over. Melt the butter and drizzle over the top.

The longer you can allow the bread to soak up the milk mixture, the better the soufflé will be.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The soufflé will rise and brown nicely. Serve as soon as possible or it will deflate and that is such a sad sight.

It didn't take long for the family to get stuck in!

Creme Brulee

Creme Brûlée

We've recently acquired chickens all of whom seem to have decided to lay eggs at once. So we're inundated with eggs and I've been steadily increasing the levels of cholesterol we're consuming. In an attempt to use up the eggs in a timely fashion (seriously, between 2 and 6 eggs a day is more than we can be expected to cope with) I've been trawling recipes for egg-rich foods.

Trusty creme brûlée is one of the easiest desserts you can make but it always looks stunning at the table. This recipe is a really simple one and pretty much fool proof. I've added a few tips along the way which make all the difference. You can make this in individual ramekins (if you have them) or in a single casserole dish. I doubled the quantities for my casserole dish and it worked well.

Creme Brulee
Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks, chilled
• 6 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups thickened (or whipping) cream, chilled
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar for topping

Method:

Butter and sugar the casserole dish

Preheat oven to 170C/275F and adjust oven rack to centre position.

Butter and sugar ramekins or casserole dish (tip out excess sugar).

Place ramekins/casserole dish in a baking pan (you will need the baking pan to be deeper than the dish containing your creme brûlée - remember you're cooking the custard in a bain-marie).

Boil water in a kettle for the bain-marie/water bath. Take it off the boil and allow it to cool a little until required.

In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until they are slightly thickened.

Add sugar and mix until dissolved.

Mix in cream, then pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins/casserole dish.

Baking pan bain marie

Carefully pour the hot water from the kettle into the baking pan so that it comes (at least) halfway up the sides of the ramekins/casserole dish. One of the biggest mistakes in baking creme brûlée is not using enough water in the water bath. The water should be at the same level as the custard inside the ramekins/casserole dish. It is meant to protect the custard from getting too hot and over-cooking.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes (up to 50 minutes in casserole dish) or until set around the edges but still loose in the centre. The cooking time will vary according to the size of the dish you are using. Check after 30 minutes and then in 10 minute increments until the desired consistency is reached. It should jiggle a little when shaken gently.

Allow to cool in the water bath, then remove the ramekins/casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap (glad wrap, cling film etc) and refrigerate until required.

When ready to serve, uncover and sprinkle with sugar. Use a blow-torch to caramelise the sugar - stop just before the desired result because the sugar will keep cooking in its own heat.

This dish can be served cold from the fridge or slightly warm (especially if you're pressed for time).

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

So here's the story behind these cookies.... my youngest son is doing a project at school where they have to work in groups to make and sell cookies. He and his group have been working hard on market research, planning, budgeting and advertising.

For weeks now, he and I have been in deep discussions about chocolate chip cookies; whether he should crush up left over Easter eggs (which is what I've been doing) or use packaged chocolate chips, what kind of chocolate chips he should use (milk, white or dark), whether he should use cocoa or real chocolate in the dough. Tonight, at the last minute, he tells me that his group has decided that the cookies should be mint chocolate chip now. Oh, and he needs the recipe by tomorrow. He bats his eyes at me, smiles and then skips off to bed, leaving me with my laptop on my lap desperately scouring every foodie site I can find for a good recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, it occurs to me I could just modify my chocolate chip recipe fairly simply (I'm tired... it was a late night last night and an early morning this morning... and now my brain's not working so well). So here's the (rather delicious) result. This recipe makes around 28 cookies (depending on how big you make them).

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 180g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp peppermint essence
• 150g plain flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• pinch salt (not iodised salt)
• 150g chocolate chips (dark, milk or white)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes until pale and creamy (I do the whole of this step in the food processor). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the peppermint essence, then sift in the flours, cocoa, bicarb. soda and salt. Mix on low speed until combined. Transfer dough to bowl, add chocolate chips and stir well.

Wash your hands, but don't dry them, then roll the mixture into 50g balls (about the size of a golf ball or a teaspoon full of the dough) and place on the prepared trays. Press the dough balls down gently to flatten a little.

Bake the cookies for 15 - 18 minutes, until lightly golden and slightly firm to the touch.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then cool thoroughly on wire rack. Store in airtight container (will last up to a week).

Tips:

1. Keeping your hands wet when you're rolling the cookie dough stops the dough from sticking to your hands and keeps it in a nice round ball.
2. You can store this dough in the freezer by rolling it into a cylinder shape and covering with plastic wrap (Glad wrap/Cling wrap). The cookies can be cut off the roll and baked straight from the freezer. Just add 3 - 5 minutes to the cooking time.
3. Cookie dough can be frozen for up to 1 month before needed.