Kid friendly cupcakes for birthdays partys

These are really simple to make with a mixer or electric whisk. They are easy to make with very little help from a young age. They don't taste great, there is less butter in them than my usual fairy cakes and I miss the salty butteriness, so I would say that they need a little something added chocolate chips, dried fruit,  jam in the middle, or frosting on top, to add flavour.  Be warned though this does yield about 24 cupcakes but they can be frozen provided they are not iced/frosted.  And lets be honest buns are a staple of any kids birthday party.

Dry ingredients
3 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar

Wet ingredients
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
6 tbsp melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 175 c
2. Add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl.
3. Crack each egg separately into a bowl (like a soup bowl) before adding to a larger bowl (I use a batter bowl or Pyrex jug). This is so you can deal with egg shells, bad eggs and double yolks. Add the cup of milk and vanilla and whisk it with a fork.
4. Pop the butter in the microwave and let it melt it should take less than a minute. Allow to cool before adding to the wet mix and giving it a stir.
5. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and switch on the mixer to get it going until the batter is smooth 3mins or so but don't forget to scrape down the sides with a spatula and give it another quick mix.
6. To help measuring out evenly I use an ice cream scoop.
7. Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins until nice and brown and a cocktail stick or skewer comes out clean.

Post Birthday Party reward for the Mammies:
When you get the kids to bed after the party treat yourself to some Kahlua (or Tia Maria) and Baileys Cupcakes.
If you make chocolate buns hold back some of the batter and add a little Kahlua to the buns.  Make up some buttercream icing but instead of adding cream or milk but the frosting use Baileys lots of Baileys and this time of year you'll get Irish Cream Liquer chocolates in Lidl. Just saying you might be worth it.

A love song to the Chelsea Bun

So, for most things baking related I'm pretty much up for anything.  There are a few things that still give me the heeby-jeebyz and working with yeast is one of them.  This is a little ironic that in my youth I worked in a pizzeria making bin loads of dough from fresh yeast - happy as a clam sitting on a mixer while stretching and kneading dough until they fired my ass and, well, that's another story for another day!

This recipe is loosely based on the one that comes in the Kenwood cookbook; it's the wunderkind of a cinnamon bun and a Chelsea bun. It's simple to make, but takes time, it is worth it though.  I have included suggestions for making the drawn out process as lazy as possible.

There are variations where you use fruit soaked in tea or whiskey overnight and I'll update this after I make my Christmas cakes when I will be soaking the fruit in Jameson anyway. 

Equipment notes;

You will need to use your 8" tin (which I usually use for my Christmas cake) for putting the rolls in. I use a silicone brush for brushing the dough and the glaze.

Be warned this recipe makes twelve and they are that good warm that you may attempt to eat them all so make sure you have enough mouths.

Dry ingredients

500g Strong White Flour

1 tsp Salt

2 sachets of dried fast action yeast

75g sugar

50g butter

Wet ingredients

225g lukewarm milk*

1 egg

Filling

Light muscovado sugar

A fistful of sultanas or two

Mixed spice

Cinnamon

30g Butter melted

Glaze:

40g Sugar

4tbsp water

1. Dry ingredients into a stand mixer with a dough hook. Turn it onto it's lowest setting and let the butter mix in properly. 
2. Mix the wet ingredients together and pour into the dry ingredients and leave the machine to knead for 5 mins.
3. Take the dough off the hook and leave it in the bowl covered with clingfilm (saran wrap) that has been oiled on the inside. Put it in a warm place for an hour or until it has doubled in size. (Note: how I do this is put the bowl near a radiator turn on the heating and watch a couple of half hour shows on netflix when they're over move to step four.
4. Peel off the cling film carefully you'll be using it again shortly.  Knock the air out of the dough by putting the bowl back into the stand mixer with the dough hook and turning it on for 1 min.
5. Grease your 8" tin
6. Roll out the dough till its about a foot square.  Brush it generously with melted butter sprinkle a good fistful of muscovado sugar in an even layer and the sprinkle the spices on top about a level tsp of each for me works for me and then finally the dried fruit evenly over the dough.
7. Roll it up like a big old swiss roll.  Cut it in half, then cut those halves in half to make four even pieces which are finally each divided in three.  Place the rolls cut side up in the prepared tin and cover with the cling film again.  Place them in the warm place again for 30-40mins. (Note: This time you make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and turn on the oven to 200c before you sit down to watch another episode of something and when it's over pop the buns in the oven).
8. Bake for 20-25 mins.  Take them out of the oven but leave them in the tin. 
9. To make the glaze: put sugar and water in the pot and dissolve over a medium. Dont bother with a spoon just swirl it to mix. Once the sugar has been dissolved let the glaze boil for a minute or two until it becomes syrupy. Brush it on the buns and allow to cool.

*How to know if your milk is lukewarm (the right temperature)

Pop the milk in the microwave for 20 seconds, stick a washed finger knuckle in and ask yourself this does it feel nice and warm but you wouldn't describe it as warm enough to be hot. If you still feel I'm being a little wishy washy try this pour equal quantities of boiling water and tap water together and stick your finger in the cup. That's how it should feel but you needn't be too exacting.

I'm quite fond of marshmallow fondant icing

Ever thought that fondant tastes like pants - yeah me too! This is fondant icing that is easy to make and tastes good.  The recipe below specifies mini marshmallow but marshmallows chopped up to the same size works fine.  Cups refer to have a standard mug size.  You will need extra icing sugar for dusting and I would get a travel spray bottle with a little water in it to get rid of the dustiness (vodka works better but not always practical, especially with kids cakes)

White Marshmallow Fondant
4 Cups of White Mini Marshmallows
4 cups of Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Water

Coloured Marshmallow Fondant
Gel food colouring (the more gel the stronger the colour
4 Cups of White Mini Marshmallows
4 cups of Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Water

Brown or Black Marshmallow Fondant Icing
2 tubes of gel colour will give you dark brown with this recipe
4 Cups of Mini Marshmallows
1.5 cups of Cocoa
3.5 cups of icing sugar
2 Tbsp Water

Method

1. Measure out the marshmallows into a bowl.  Sprinkle the water on top and into the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until they are melted.
2. If you're adding colour, now's the time squeeze it on in there.
3. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa if you're using it.  It will seem like there's too much but I promise you'll need it all.
4. Start by working the marshmallow away from the edges of the bowl using plenty of the icing sugar to prevent your fingers from sticking.
5. Tip the contents of the bowl onto a surface and then knead for all your worth to encorporate all the icing sugar.  The final result should be smooth and elastic.  As it cools it becomes less malliable (great word) but a few seconds in the microwave will sort that out.

Oreo Brownies

I'm going to shamelessly poach my own blog with this recipe.  The oreos soften and disintegrate and become part of the brownie itself giving depth to the brownie, if such a thing is possible.  Worth a try.
 
 1 packet of regular or Double Stuffed oreos
1 batch of brownie mix

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.  Grease an 8"/20cm square tin (brownie tin).  
2. Spread a thick layer of brownie batter on the bottom of the tin and place the peeled creme eggs at regular intervals until the tin is divided equally into 12/16 pieces
3. Cover with the remaining batter trying to keep everything in its place.
4. Bake for 20mins or until its cooked but still fudgy.  Leave in the tin to cool.
5. Cut them up (pizza cutter comes in handy here)
6. Eat.

Creme Egg Brownies

 The Cadburys Cream egg time of year is short lived (between January and April).  Apparently they make them year round and freeze them to deal with the quantities.  Years ago Eoin brought me home a whole box of 48 of them and I've eaten them in moderation ever since- tasty, but very sweet.  

You could make these as surprise cupcakes too.

 1 bag of mini creme eggs
1 batch of brownie mix

Method 

1. Freeze creme eggs in their little foil wrappers.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C.  Grease an 8"/20cm square tin (brownie tin).  
3. Spread a thick layer of brownie batter on the bottom of the tin and place the peeled creme eggs at regular intervals until the tin is divided equally into 12 pieces (mark the side with the four eggs with a little batter to make it easier when your cutting up the brownies)
4. Cover with the remaining batter trying to keep everything in its place.
5. Bake for 20mins or until its cooked but still fudgy.  Leave in the tin to cool.
6. Cut them up (pizza cutter comes in handy here)
7. Eat.

Sweet Potato Beignet

I originally posted pics of these beignets back in October 2012 but I was too lazy to post the recipe.  They are teeny tiny little morsels of doughnutty yumminess rolled in cinnamon sugar with the semi-redeeming quality of being filled with beta carotene.  To those of us on the eastern side of the Atlantic the whole sweet potato thing can seem like too much of a gastronomic oxymoron but since I first discovered them making baked sweet potato fries, I have become a huge fan in either savoury or sweet dishes. I believe that these are from the Louisiana part of the world by way of the french colonists.

The recipe calls for vegtable oil but avoid the olive oils and other strong flavoured oils because it will ruin the flavour.  Suggestions would be Rapeseed oil or sunflower oil.

 Serve with custard, syrup, maple sweetened marscapone, ice-cream.  The recipe says it serves 6 but its hard to count them if their eaten just as they come out of the pan.

3 small sweet potatoes
300g sugar
3 eggs
190g Plain Flour
2tbsp baking powder
2.5tbsp Cinnamon
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
vegtable oil for frying

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.  Peel and chop the sweet potatoes then pop them in the microwave for 5 minutes with a little water at the bottom of the dish to help them steam.  Then into the oven they go until they are soft and mashable.  Then mash away to your hearts content and let them cool.
2. Beat the eggs sugar and sweet potatoes together in a big bowl (you'll need this because this is the bowl that you will add the dry ingredients to).
3. Heat the cooking oil to 180C 
4. Sift together the dry ingredients - Flour, baking powder, .5 tbsp cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.  Fold them in bit by bit using a silicone spatula.
5. Using two tablespoons spoon drop generous tablepoons of the mix into the hot oil.  Flip them to ensure an even tone.  Cook in batches and don't overfill the the fryer (or the pot with the oil in it) or it will reduce the temperature of the oil too much and you will have soggy beignets.
6. Rescue them when they are cooked evenly and drain on some kitchen paper.
7. Roll in cinnamon sugar and eat, and eat and eat and......

Recipe pilfered and adapted from Food & Wine Magazine it's one of Donal Skehans

Sweet Potato Muffins

 I had a load of sweet potatoes in the fridge peeled, chopped and bobbing in a bowl of water, leftovers from a red onion parmentier thingy and I figured I would use them up. 

These are more breakfast type muffins, healthier than those that you get at service stations etc and super moist.   I am on a bit of a breakfast muffin kick at the moment and I stockpile them in the freezer and have them in work for breakfast.  At the moment I have these, banana muffins, and apple muffins which taste lovely but there are a few tweaks needed in the recipe before I post it.

The measurements are in cups and I've left them that way because it's a very straightforward recipe using cups.  The recipe I originially used didn't include either nuts or sultanas but I like bits in my muffins.  I found these a little bitter to be honest and I would be inclined to up the soft brown sugar to a cupful of packed soft brown sugar.  The other thing I did was to perforate them and pour over a little maple syrup while they were still warm so that they would soak it up.  The original recipe also said that it was for 12 muffins which I filled but then I also filled 10 bun cases too because I ran out of muffin tins.

Two things I mentioned before with regards to muffins but they are quite useful so I'll say 'em again.
First up: in order to measure out even quantities use an ice-cream scoop it's one of those things that's so easy but makes life so much easier when you're making muffins.  Secondly preheat the oven as hot as you can get it and when you put your muffins in reduce down to 170-180c; it will give you well risen muffins.

The dry ingredients:
2 cups of Self Raising Flour
1/2tsp ground cinnamon (or more if you like)
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup of soft brown sugar
a handful of pecans and sultanas
The wet ingredients
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup vegtable oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup sweet potato cooked and mashed.

1. Preheat the oven as per instructions above and slip the muffins cases into their tins.
2. In the first bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and make a little hole in the middle.
3. Mix the wet ingredients together (you can probably use the whisk again for this just make sure the ingredients are well mixed)
4. Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix well.
5. Scoop into the cases, pop into the oven and reduce the temp.  15-20mins later they should spring back to the touch and if you stick a skewer in them they should be done.

What is a pinch of salt? How much is a pinch of salt?

Literally it refers to the amount of salt that you can pick up between your index finger and thumb.

Raspberry Friands

So here's the story.  I got my grubby little paws on some amazing eggs from my mates Bren and Hazel's chuckens.  But the question was what to bake that was worthy of such lovely eggs?  The answer is contained in this recipe.  Sweet and moist with the juicy contrast of the berries, they are simply divine.  There are a lot of egg whites in this and I made a deliciously rich custard from the leftover yolks.  - Happy Eating

75g Plain Flour

240g Icing Sugar

125g Ground Almonds

6 egg whites lightly whipped

150g melted butter cooled

150g Raspberries frozen or fresh

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease muffin tin.
2. Sieve together flour and icing sugar.  Stir in the ground almonds.
3. Add melted butter and egg whites and mix well.
4. Using an ice-cream scoop measure out 12 portions.  Place 4-5 berries in each friand.
5. Bake for 25 mins until golden brown.

Tiramisu

Not my first choice on the menu when I'm out, not because I don't like it, in fact I'm quite the fan but I know what it tastes like and more often than not it's the disappointing pre-pack version that's served up to me in restaurants.

Below is the Paolo Tullio version and I need to make some exchanges because I don't have the ingredients here and I'm not going shopping especially for it.  You can use stale cake instead of ladyfingers providing you avoid brownies they're too gooey to soak the liquids.  I don't always have brandy so rum or coffee liqueur is good.

Like any trifle a nice glass dish to show the layers is pretty cool.

Please note that this is not suitable for children or those with a bun in the oven because of the raw eggs.

250g Mascarpone Cheese
200g Caster Sugar
Ladyfingers/savoiardi biscuits
3 eggs
Marsala
a room temp espresso
Cocoa for sprinkling

1. Separate the eggs and whisk yolks with sugar.  Add half an espresso and a splash of brandy and mix well.  Next add the mascarpone cheese a bit at a time until is thoroughly mixed.
2. In a clean bowl whisk egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mascarpone mix.
3. Lay down a layer of ladyfingers into the bottom of the glass dish dipping each biscuit into the remaining espresso on one side first (or you could just layer them down first and sprinkle them with coffee liqueur)
4. Place a layer of the mascarpone mix on top and repeat finishing with a layer of the mascarpone mix. Sieve a layer of cocoa powder on top.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love those recipe books that lack glamour but are just packed with really good tried and tested recipes.  You quite often find real peaches of recipes in fund raising cookbooks for schools or hospitals and the ingredients tend to be a lot more accessible too.

 The other place that you will find good recipes tends to be with manufactures of baking suppliers Dr Oekter in Germany, McDougalls in Lancashire in the UK, Odlums and Shamrock here in Ireland and one I got as a present from New Zealand which is the Edmonds Cookery book from a friend of mine called Gillian who has since moved back home to NZ.

I made this recipe base on the Edmonds version except I used up a little brioche I had in the house, used vanilla extract instead of lemon rind to lift the flavour and used sultanas instead of currents.  It looked gorgeous when it was done and it tasted better than any Bread and Butter Pudding I've ever had, but I still don't like it.  I didn't as a child and it would appear that my opinions of it haven't changed and yet I love french toast - go figure.

This is an all in one recipe that is really easy to make and if you prepare it you can pop it in the oven while you have dinner and it should be ready for dessert.  Stale bread works well on this because it's so thirsty it absorbs more of the liquid.


6 Slices of Brioche or 4 slices of sliced pan
2 tbsp sultanas
3 eggs
2 cups/ 500ml milk
1/4 cup /50g Sugar

1. Layer slices of brioche or quoter triangles of bread, sultanas and sugar in a Pyrex dish.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together with 1 tsp of vanilla extract and pour over bread. Allow to stand for 15 mins meanwhile preheat the oven to 180c.
3. Bake for 30mins until set and if you're feelin' swanky sieve a bit of icing sugar over the whole thing to make it look pretty.