Malted chocolate cupcakes

Lovely, chocolaty with a hint of malt cupcakes. Truly recommend them.The recipe comes from "Cake days. Recipes to make everyday special. The hummingbird bakery".

Ingredients for 12 - 16 cupcakes:

• 150ml oil
• 75 ml milk
• 75 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 240g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 330g caster sugar
• 150 ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Pour the oil, milk, buttermilk, egg and vanilla into an electric mixer bowl and mix until just combine.

In separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Sift about 1/3 of this mixture into a wet ingredients and whisk them. Then add 1/3 of boiling water and mix again. repeat until use all ingredients.

Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake in preheated oven for 20 -25 minutes. When ready set aside to cool down. Prepare the frosting.

Frosting:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 240 ml double cream
• 115g malted - milk powder
• 50g soft cheese like Philadelphia
• 35g caste sugar
• Malteasers to decorate

 

 Melt the chocolate ether over the boiling water pot or in microwave. Set aside.

Pour the double cream into an electric mixer bowl add the malted - milk powder and whisk until stiffens. In separate bowl whisk the cream cheese and sugar until well combined. Add melted chocolate and mix. Then add whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Frosting is very rich and creamy. Spread the frosting over each cupcake and decorate with Malteasers.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Yeast buns with marzipan

This recipe was created as I wanted to prepare a yeast buns for a dessert. I had only few ingredients in my cupboard and now you may see the result of my experiment. Would you like to give it a try ?

Ingredients for 12 buns:

• 2,5 cups flour
• 1 tsp yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• about 20 g butter
• 2 tbsp sugar

Mix the yeast with water and sugar. Set aside.

Place the flour and salt into an electric mixer bowl. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix with yeast dough hook. Heat up the milk, add butter, sugar and stir well. Pour into electric mixer bowl. Knead until forms a ball (when it is too loose add more flour). Place to dough ball into a bowl, put into warm place and let it rise.

In a meantime prepare the filling.

Filling :

• 200g marzipan
• 1 - 2 tsp all spice

 Place the marzipan and spices into a blender and whizz until combined. Turn into 12 balls. 

Take the dough out of a bowl. Roll it, cut out of it the circles. Grease the muffin tin pan with butter. Place each circle into muffin tin nest. Then place a ball of filling inside. 

Place in a warm place to prove.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake the buns in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes until golden. 

Baked bun set aside to cool down. Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Mini barnbrack

I have nearly forgotten I have this recipe to publish. I have baked those muffins during Halloween time. If you try to make them  I promise you will enjoy them even now. Barnbrack is traditional Irish Halloween cake usually baked with some hidden surprises so people who find coin, ring etc..could foreseen their future. Anyway it's very tasty. Packed with dried fruits and spices served with butter... yum. The recipe comes form this website . 

 Ingredients for 12 barnbracks:

• 225g dried fruits (raisins and cranberries)
• 2 cups strong tea
• 55 ml warm milk
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 350g flour
• 80g sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 35g soft butter
• 1 tsp salt

 Fruits place in a bowl and cover with tea. Leave them to soak overnight or at least one hour.

Pour milk into a cup add yeast and sugar stir well and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a meantime put the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg into an electric mixer bowl and mix them until combined. Then make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture add egg, butter and salt. Knead with hook attachment for about 10 minutes. After that time dough should be smooth. 

Drain the fruits, chop them into smaller chunks. Add to the dough and knead until fruits are well incorporated. 

Transfer the dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and set aside for minimum an hour to rise. 

Grease muffin tin holes or round baking tin.

Transfer the dough on the worktop and knead it for a few minutes. Then divide into 12 pieces and place each dough ball into muffin tin hole. You can easily place whole piece of dough into round cake tin. Set aside to prove for 30 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes for muffins or 35 - 45 minutes for cake.

Serve sliced with butter and hot tea.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Too - easy blueberry muffins

I was craving for some fruit muffins and didn't want to whisk, beat, blend or anything like that. Just mix some ingredients together, preferably in one bowl with wooden spoon to save up on washing dishes. Then I came across Donna Hay recipe . That was it ! I wanted to bake them in beautiful blue XL size muffin cases and... the recipe failed. I don't really know what happened  but my muffins had lovely crunchy crust, big hole in the middle and soggy, wet bottom :( I didn't stop us from eating the edible parts but it wasn't really what I was looking for.

Because I don't give up so easily I tried again. This time had chosen regular size muffin cases and it worked. Muffins were really delicious, moist, packed with bursting in flavor blueberries with crunch crust. I think they are my favorite blueberry muffins for now. 

  Ingredients for 20 muffins: 

• 400g* self- rising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200g* caster sugar
• 125 ml oil
• 1 egg
• 125 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g frozen or fresh blueberries ( I used frozen)
• granulated sugar for sprinkle

* when the original recipe is in cups I always weigh the ingredients and that is the result

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Sift the flour and baking powder into a big bowl, add the caster sugar and mix all ingredients. Make a well in the middle and pour in the oil, milk, vanilla and break the egg. Stir all wet ingredients together, when well mixed stir all the ingredients. Mix them until just combined. The batter is very thick. Then fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into paper cases up to top, sprinkle with granulated sugar. bake in preheated oven 30 -  35 minutes.

When ready transfer to the wire rack to let them cool down and enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Lemon muffins with lemon curd

I have recently made lemon curd. Whole jar of this yellow, creamy, sweet and sour mixture. We could have eaten that, I believe it wouldn't last long, but I wanted to bake some muffins with the curd. While looking for some inspiration on line I came across this recipe. It was perfect. Light cake, rich, sweet and sour lemon curd and very sweet icing. Yummmyyy... And because it close to Easter I baked the muffins is Easter style liners and make the icing and curd look like and fried egg :)

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 350g flour
• 105g sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon zest (I didn't have lemon so used lemon extract instead)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 60 ml oil (used canola oil)
• 250 ml milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tbsp lemon extract (if not using lemon zest)

 Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, salt into a bowl and whisk them together.

In a jug mix the oil and milk, add the lemon extract if not using lemon zest.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

Pour the wet ingredients into a bowl with dry ones. Mix until just combined. Then gently fold in the egg whites. Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes until skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Transfer to the wire rack to cool down. 

Prepare the icing.

Ingredients for icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp double cream
• some milk

 Put the sugar into a small bowl add the cream and mix with spoon until turn into thick white paste. If it's too thick add few drops of milk and stir again.

Take the cooled muffin, cut the hole in the top. If you have use the muffin corer if not try with knife. Try to make clean, round shape. 

Fill the hole with lemon curd.

Talking about lemon curd. You can use one form a shop or make you own one. 

I prefer home made. It is not difficult to make one, you can store it in fridge for about a week. Here is a recipe I usually use.

Ingredients for 250 - 300ml of lemon curd:

• 160ml sugar
• 125 ml fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 125 ml unsalted butter

 Whisk the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolks and egg together in a metal or glass heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and gently whisk the mixture form time to time. Within 15 minutes the mixture should thickened . Remove the curd from the heat and strain into a bowl. Stir in the butter until it melts completely. Pour the mixture into a jar and chill it. The curd will set in the jar. You can use it later in many ways, spread on toast, as crepe filling ... or just eat straight from the jar :) The recipe comes form Anna Olson 'Back to baking' cookbook. 

Coming back to muffins. When they filled with lemon curd then take a spoon and spread the icing around the yellow circle to make it look like the egg. Or if you not happy with it just drizzle the icing over a top. 

 Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

Yummy chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

I used to bake those cupcakes before but never decorated them with frosting. Most of the time we ate them plain or with fondant. To remind you please have a look here. This time I have decided to try them with frosting. I used this particular frosting before for beetroot muffins . This frosting is very tasty, chocolaty and really fuss free to make. Honestly it takes only a few minutes to make this one. Also you don't have to remember to take our your ingredients from a fridge good few hours before. 

Anyway I took this two recipes and turned them into delicious, yummy, fluffy, chocolaty cupcakes. They are perfect for any children parties and believe me  adults will love them too. 

 Ingredients for 12 - 18 cupcakes:

• 250g margarine
• 4 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp baking cocoa
• 1 and 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 and 1/2 cup of self rising flour
• 16g vanilla sugar

Put the margarine, milk, cocoa powder, and sugar into a big pot. Heat the ingredients up until start boiling, stirring occasionally. When ready, set aside to cool the mixture down. 

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin with with paper cases.

Separate the egg whites. Put the yolks in a small bowl as you will add them to the batter later.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, set aside. 

When the mixture in a pot is close to room temperature add the flour and yolks and mix in well. Then gently fold in whisked egg whites.

Spoon the batter into paper cases half full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes. Check with skewer, when clean after inserted in the middle of the cake it is time to remove cupcakes form the oven. Transfer the cupcakes to wire rack to cool them down completely before frosting.

 While cupcakes are cooling down prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 60g margarine
• 60g baking cocoa
• 90 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract*
• 460g icing sugar

* most of the flavour comes form vanilla extract, please use a good quality one

Melt the margarine and pour it into an electric mixer bowl. Add the cocoa and mix them until form thick paste. Then pour in the milk and vanilla. Mix for a while then add the sugar. Mix the mixture until turn into smooth, creamy frosting. Set the frosting aside for a few minutes it will stiffen a little. 

Transfer the frosting into piping bag with your favourite nozzle  and decorate the cupcakes. Mine were for children so I have sprinkled them with mini Smarties.

 Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish