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.