Not-Blah-At-All Vanilla Cupcakes

For everyone who thinks vanilla is kinda blah - myself included - prepare to be proved wrong! Yeah, I said it! 

I've never tried to make vanilla cake/cupcakes/anything. Vanilla is just soooo ... vanilla! Or so I thought. But then a friend asked me to make 60 cupcakes for her engagement/fiancé’s birthday party - half of them red velvet and half of them vanilla, and not relishing the thought of having 30 crappy cupcakes on my hand on the day of the party and delivering only half (the red velvet which I've made before) to the party, I realised I'd have to try out a recipe or four (as many as it took to get them right) before my cupcake-athon (great idea by the way, I could raise money for charity by eating erm, I meant baking, cakes for charity - just an insight into how my ingenious mind works! ;p). 

So now that the decision was made, all that was left was to find a few recipes and choose which one to try first. Easy. Right? Ummm, No! I have LOTS of cake books but do you know I could not find a single vanilla cupcake recipe??? And I refuse to turn to the Internet when I currently must have about a gazillion (rough estimate) cake recipes on my bookshelf which I haven't yet tried. So finally (as is always the way, it was where I looked last) I turned to a book I had never used; The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Book by Jennifer Graham. And right there on the very first page was a recipe for vanilla cupcakes. Yay! And what cupcakes they were; fluffy and so tasty that I still find it hard to believe they came from such a simple recipe! This is officially my new favourite cupcake book - sorry Martha Stewart! 

If you live in Victoria, Australia (which must be a fantastic place, judging by the name ;p), then you have to check out the Crabapple Bakery because even if their cakes are only just as good as their recipes, then they must be amazing! 

I was also practising my icing technique which needs so much work; but more on that in a later post.  If you were ever going to try making cupcakes; I suggest you start with these :D

Sorry measurements are all in cups! But to be honest, a lot of the best recipes are American or Australian so if you're a keen baker, I suggest you invest in a set.

Ingredients for the cupcakes                                      

2 and three quarters cups plain flour                               

2 teaspoons baking powder                                           

200g softened unsalted butter                                         

1 and three quarters cups caster sugar (I used golden)     

4 eggs                                                                             

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I used 2)

1 cup milk

Makes: 24                                                                   

Keeps: 2 days                                                               

Freezes: 2 months

Ingredients for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

200g softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I used 2)

8 cups icing sugar (I found I only needed around 6 and a half)

Makes: Enough for 24 cupcakes

Keeps: 1 week

Cupcakes

1 - Preheat oven to 170ºC. Line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers

2 - Mix together the flour and the baking powder

3 - In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1 - 2 minutes. Add the caster sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved

4 - Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined

5 - Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half the milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour and beat thoroughly until combined; do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture

6 - Spoon mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean

7 - Remove cupcakes from trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 - Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes.

2 - Add the milk, vanilla extract and half of the sifted icing sugar, and beat for at least 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3 - Add the remaining icing sugar and beat for a further 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy and of a spreadable consistency. Add extra milk if the mixture is too dry or extra icing sugar if it is too wet.

If you wish to colour/flavour the buttercream, this is the best time to do it. Add a drop at a time and beat in until you reach the required colour and/or flavour.

Good-For-You Granola

Firstly, let's get this out of the way ... Is granola good for you?? Answer: It can be great for you!  Containing slow release carbohydrates (oats) and protein (nut and seeds), the one thing to watch out for is that like most cereals, some brands contain a lot of sugar. Granola is not low fat by any means, but the fats it does have are good fats like nuts. It is a very healthful food that keeps you full for ages. However, if you are on a low-fat diet, please look away now and return to your bowl of Special K.


I've loved granola since I was introduced to it in Canada several years ago, and I still eat it like I ate it then; with yoghurt. My current favourite lunch is a bowl of blueberries, topped with Onken wholegrain strawberry yoghurt and a layer of granola on the top ... yum! Before the last couple of years, there weren't many brands of granola available to buy in supermarkets in the UK though that looks to be changing. Dorset Cereals have had Honey Granola for a while and have now introduced three new new granola flavours; Marmalade, Chocolate and Chocolate Granola and Macadamia nuts. I recently tried the Chocolate and Macadamia nuts flavour and I wasn't too impressed. Their honey granola is good though; almost as good as mine ;p I also liked a granola by 'Lizi's Good Carb Company'.
However, after deciding to look up a recipe and try making it about a year ago, I only buy granola when I can't be bothered to make my own which is a silly excuse since it is very easy to make! I've only tried this BBC Good Food recipe and it's so good, I literally have to stop myself just snacking on it. Especially when it has just come out of the oven as it smells heavenly!


The great thing about this recipe - or any granola recipe, I imagine - is that you can pick and choose what goes into it according to your preferences. I, for example, don't put dried berries or any fruit for that matter in my granola (Hey, hey, hey! Don't judge me. Like I said, my granola usually tops a huge bowl of blueberries that is two portions of my 5-a-day thank you very much :D) But I've discovered that pecans taste INCREDIBLE in it so I usually just replace the flaked almonds and dried berries with pecans. And I always throw in a few handfuls of flax seed or linseed (even though they're more or less the same thing) for good measure and it doesn't alter the taste one bit! While I love it with vanilla extract like the BBC recipe, I recently made a batch replacing the vanilla with nutmeg and cinammon and that was fab too. And I intend to plagiarise from Dorset cereals and try making it with marmalade some day :D It's pretty much win win win!


As somewhat of a seasoned making-my-own-granola-from-this-recipe pro, here are a couple of tips to guide you newbies on your way:

Honey/Maple syrup/sunflower oil/vanilla 

 1) You'll need to at least double the cooking time in   the recipe. Stir every 15 minutes and aim for it to be crunchy but not browned.
 2) I recommend making twice the recipe as you'll get through it very quickly ...it's that tasty! Cook in two batches if you do this.
 3) If adding dried fruit, leave it till the last 15 minutes and add it with the coconut or else it goes quite hard and gummy.

Happy granola making and eating!

Anna's Peanut Butter Cupcakes

These are actually called 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes' but I've named them after my friend Anna who first made them, and gave me the recipe and is a whole load of unfulfilled baking talent in one little person. Anna can bake, won't bake. Oh occasionally, a couple of times a year, just enough to leave you wanting more, she'll churn out a spectacular coconut and raspberry cake (that she just 'threw' together from two different recipes) or chocolate filled cookies or these amazing cupcakes but it is only usually after months of begging, pleading and threatening then resorting to throwing a tea party (and asking everyone to bring something) before she'll actually bake. My hope is that she'll read this and be guilted into baking for me once a week. Okay, okay, once a month.


These are really lovely! The recipe is actually by Gizzi Erskine and was featured in a sunday paper as part of a 'We heart SATC' feature (so you know they're going to be good!) The cupcake is chocolate flavoured with bits of Reese's cups in them and the frosting is peanut butter flavoured ... yum! 


Makes: 18 (I found it made 12)
Prep time: 15 mins
Calories per cupcake: 328 (Why you need this info I have no idea! But they've supplied it, so I'm giving it)
Fat per cupcake: 21g (All you need to know is I took out all the calories and fat before I wrote down this recipe so no need to worry about that ;D)


Ingredients
170g softened butter
170g golden caster sugar
3 large free-range eggs
170g self-raising flour
3tbsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
3-4tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla extract (I use flavouring so I used 2 tsps)
6 Reese's peanut butter cups or 1/2 Snickers Bar, chopped into small pieces


For the peanut butter frosting
200g peanut butter
170g icing sugar
150ml full-fat cream cheese


To decorate 
Reese's Peanut Butter cups or peanuts (I used 3 Reese's cups, chopped up)


1 - Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3.
2 - Put 18 Cupcake cases in the holes of 2 Yorkshire pudding or muffin tins
3 - Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk for around 5 minutes, or until pale and creamy.

4 - Whisk in the eggs, one by one. you may find the mixture curdles a little when you pop in your last egg but it should come together again when you add the flour.
5 - Sift over the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and stir in. Loosen the mixture with the milk and the vanilla extract. You want the batter to fall off the spoon easily - if you think it's too thick, add another tbsp on milk.

6 - Stir in the chopped Reese's Peanut Butter cups or Snickers. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. You can check this by sliding a skewer into the cake - if it comes out clean, they're done.

7 - Leave the cakes to cook in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer them carefully to a wire rack to cool completely.

8 - To make the peanut butter frosting, beat the peanut butter with the icing sugar and cream cheese for a few minutes, or until smooth

There are no rules when it comes to icing a cupcake except to pile it on thick, so whether you want to use a knife or piping bag, give them some shape or make them smooth, the choice is yours. Decorate with chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or peanuts.

Banana Wholemeal Muffins

I have an embarrassing confession - I can't bake muffins and cookies. And I know you're all thinking what all good muffin bakers say to me; 'Muffins are the easiest thing to make, you just put all the ingredients together and don't over stir!'. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before and I personally think that is all just a ginormous conspiracy to make me realise how inadequate a baker I am! Okay, so in actual fact I've only attempted muffins once before now so perhaps I judged myself to hastily. But I can make three-layer cakes dammit! I can't believe I was stumped by a silly orange muffin! (In case you're wondering what was wrong with it, it tasted good but was hard as a rock cake!). And I've only made cookies once too,  a very long time ago, and I can't even remember how bad they were but I'm going to go with very bad if I blocked it out of my memory - forgetting food is not something I do often!

On a related aside, when I worked at Penguin, there was this thing called a pulp shelf - basically, all Penguin books that weren't sold in book stores are returned to the publisher and it was cheaper to get rid of (pulp) them than it was to take them back to the warehouse and sort them out so our pulp shelves were stocked every day and we were allowed to take 2 books a day. That was probably the best perk of the job for a bookaholic like me! However, all the books usually went within 10 minutes of the shelves being stocked so luck played a part too. My friend Ben saw and took this book 'Muffin Bible' before I did but after some shameless begging, he let me have it on the condition that I bake them all muffins from the book - bet he regretted that when I brought in my chocolate orange rock cakes muffins! It's an amazing book with lots of different recipes that all look great! Now that I've made my first successful batch of muffins, I might give some of the others a go.

Say hello to my 'You're not a failure' muffins! I liked to think they are pretty healthy as they don't have much sugar (and what they do contain is brown) and they use wholemeal flour so I had them for breakfast for a week! They're not too sweet and were soft and fluffy, just like other people's muffins are! Yay me! And perhaps all those bakers are right, they were very easy to make ;p

Ingredients

2 ripe banana
1 egg
75g butter, melted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup hot milk
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
2tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sultanas

1 - Mash bananas and add egg, butter and baking soda dissolved in milk
2 - Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined
3 - Three-quarters fill well-greased muffin pans and bake at 200ºC for 15-20 minutes.

I Miss Blogging. Oh, and ‘Me’ in 52 sentencees.

I was reading through my old blog; I’m not most girls - which I haven’t done for years! – and it made me realise how much I miss blogging! It was probably the most committed relationship I have ever had with a body of writing and reading it back almost felt like reading a diary as it reminded me of significant events in my life, and what was important to me. I read a few of my regrets,  how confused I was about a guy who I really liked then but who I absolutely have no interest in now and remembered my sister's wedding.

I know that my baking blog is also a blog but I think I’m going to try and write more non-baking/cooking related stuff too.

One of the things that was huge in Blogville back in the day was Memes. I have no idea whether ‘Meme’ is an acronym or if it is an actual word and what it means but you don’t need to know any of that stuff to enjoy it! It was basically like a chain blog. So you blog about something and challenge everybody that reads your blog to write about the same thing on their blog. Now there were a lot of Memes going round so I tried to be rather discerning about which ones I did. This was one of the only ones I did and I even did a follow up. Clearly, I love talking about myself! So here I am, doing it again … apologies to anyone who read the first two as there might be some overlap. Oh and apologies to anyone who doesn’t give a damn about me and just came here to look at pictures of cakes!


Here goes …


I don’t keep a diary. I have attempted to about 4 times but each time, I lose interest after a few days. I think diaries are amazing because they capture how you felt on a particular day, or in a moment. I am currently reading ‘Oliver Twist’. I finished reading Oliver Twist since I wrote that last sentence. I have two tattoos. If I go to Vegas this summer, I’m getting a third one. On my wrist. I don’t have any qualms about turning 30 whatsoever. If I got married tomorrow, I’d have 7 bridesmaids. I’m extremely into the world cup at the moment. I am supporting Greece, Nigeria, England and Slovenia (sweepstake not by choice). Ultimately, I want England to win. I started writing this before England lost woefully to Germany. I’m wondering if my heart can take the constant disappointment. I love nicely scented body lotions and butters. I genuinely believe Ben & Jerry’s (yes, the ice cream company!) hate me. They discontinued my three favourite flavours; Dublin Mudslide, Chocolate Therapy and Fossil Fuel. And finally after a few years of so-so flavours, they’ve come up with Cheesecake Brownie but it is hardly sold anywhere! I am openly jealous of other mixed race people with lovely, soft, curly hair. As a child I wanted to be an architect. After University, I decided that journalism was where it was at. Then I was convinced that book publishing was the perfect career for me. Perhaps it still is, though maybe not in the same way that I thought. I have an Amazon wish list. I add more books to it than I buy from it. I’ve spent New Years Eve in Lagos every year for the last five years. I think the best smell in the world is the smell of frying onions. I also love the smell of petrol. My favourite film is ‘The Notebook’. I’ve seen it at least thirty times! Close favourites are ‘American History X’, ‘My Name is Sam’ and ’10 Things I hate about You’. I have never been in love. With a person I mean; I have been in love with food, and films, and songs and all sorts of other things! I have a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I’ve only done about 12 of them and my 1001 days is up in January 2011. I go to the gym or for boot camp on average 5 times a week. I ran a half marathon in 2009. I’m doing another one this October. I want to run a marathon one day. Preferably the New York marathon. I speak Greek. I want to learn Spanish. I would like to learn how to play the guitar. My favourite city in the world is New York. I think Greece is the most beautiful country in the world. I’m committed to my celebrity crushes; Joshua Jackson and Josh Hartnett – I’ve loved them for years! I have the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know. I am strangely proud of that fact. I love theme parks but when I’m on a ride, all I can do is imagine the headlines if anything goes wrong. I make sure I read at least four classics a year. I have no idea if this is exactly 52 sentences :D

Sesame Peanut Noodles

I have bad news and good news. The bad news; I'm back at work :( I no longer spend my days doing all the things I really love to do. The good news however, is that having a job pays better than spending my days doing all the things I really love to do!

The one thing I do like about working is that because my work day is much more structured, my eating habits automatically follow suit. I have three meals a day and snack on fruit and cherry tomatoes in between. Because I try not to eat a huge dinner, my biggest meal when I'm working is usually my lunch and though I love to cook, I can't be bothered to cook every day so I tend to cook up a big batch of something on Sundays and eat that three or four days in a row - I really don't have a problem eating the same food day after day; so long as it is something I love. I don't always cook something healthy for lunch but I do try to make sure it is not too carb laden (huge bowl of pasta = 2 hour struggle post-carb fest to keep my eyes from closing!) and that it contains vegetables and protein. I tend to try out most of my new recipes for lunch too! 

Last week, I decided to try out another recipe from Nigella Express; Sesame Peanut Noodles. I was considering stir frying some seasoned chicken breast to add some more protein to this recipe but decided that it wasn't necessary as I eat protein at breakfast and dinner. So Ms Afropolitan, this is a completely vegetarian recipe. Don't say I never gave you anything! :D

Don't be daunted by the list of ingredients; you will have a lot of them already and some can be substituted, for example, I used stir fry oil instead of garlic oil though I'm sure garlic oil would have given it that lovely garlicky  hint which I love. And a lot of the ingredients are pretty cheaply bought, e.g. beansprouts, a lime... give it a go, it's simple, healthy and pretty tasty!

Ingredients

For the Dressing

1 x 15ml tablespoon sesame oil

1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil

1 x 15ml tablespoon soy sauce

2 x 15ml tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

100g smooth peanut butter

2 x 15ml tablespoons lime juice (about the juice of 1 lime)

For the Salad

125g mangetout

150g beansprouts, rinsed

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into small strips

2 x spring onions, finely sliced (I love onions so I used 3)

2 x 275g packets or 550g ready-prepared egg noodles

20g sesame seeds

4 x 15ml tablespoons chopped fresh coriander

1 - Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl or jug.

2 - Put the mangetout, beansprouts, red pepper strips, sliced spring onions and the noodles into a bowl

3 - Pour the dressing over them and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.

4 - Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and chopped coriander and pack up as needed

Serves 8

Happy Birthday Mum!

My mum is always on a diet and she absolutely loves chocolate, and specifically chocolate brownies. You don't have to be a math whizz to figure out that diets and brownies don't go together and so she usually (very admirably) abstains. So when I told her I was going to make her a cake for her birthday, she instantly requested 'those chocolatey things'. 'Brownies?' I asked. She nodded vehemently.


One of the main reasons I decided to blog about baking was so that it would motivate me to try out new recipes. So instead of making our (mine, my sister and my cousin's) tried and tested brownie recipe which I love, I decided to try out these 'Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with Heath Bars and Pecans' (but without the pecans) from the 'At Home with Magnolia' cook book.


I think Heath bars are like Daim bars but I forgot to buy some so I just used white chocolate instead. My verdict? Hmmm - they were nice and very fudgy but way too sweet, and this is after I reduced the sugar and used brown sugar instead. The whole point is that the brownie bit is sweet but the cream cheese topping not so much and they balance each other out but I still think the brownie bit is way too sweet, and this coming from me; someone whom the term 'sweet tooth' defines better than any other! Also, they took forever to bake, at least twice what the instructions said!
Actually, I think I'll just try my regular recipe with this cream cheese topping next time.  Saying that though, everybody else really liked them so they're not terrible, I just personally think there must be a better recipe for these out there. I'll try and perfect it myself and let you all have my amended recipe.


Cream cheese swirl brownies with heath bars 


Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling
227g cream cheese, not softened
28g sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


Brownies
106g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter
113g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
200g sugar (I prefer brown sugar in brownies, I think they give it a better rounded flavour rather than just sugary sweetness)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
85g chopped Daim bars


Preheat oven to 170ºC / Gas Mark 3. Grease and lightly flour a 13 x 9-inch baking pan
1 - To make the cream cheese filling: In a medium size bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth.
Add the egg and flour and beat well. Set aside.

2 - To make the brownies: In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium size saucepan over low heat, melt the butter with the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl, and allow to cool to lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

.

Stir in the Sugar
Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.


3 - Stir in half of the chopped Daim bars. (white chocolate in my case)
Reserve 1/2 cup of the brownie batter.
Spread the rest of the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
Drop the cream cheese mixture by tablespoons over the batter.
Next, drop the reserved brownie batter by teaspoonfuls in between the cream cheese filling.
Using a small knife, swirl the two batters together, forming a decorative pattern.
Sprinkle the remaining Daim pieces (white chocolate) over the top, and using a spatula, gently press into the batter.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the pan comes out with moist crumbs attached.
Do not overbake.
Allow to cool overnight before serving.