Mini gingerbread cupcakes (vegan) and a Prize Draw

As a child I remember going to Woolies at the weekend with my parents and being allowed a treat in the cafe.  My all time favourite was a slice of gingerbread with a layer of smooth white glace icing on the top.  Super spicy and warming and then the icing creating the foil for the taste buds, giving it a sweet and zingy tang at the same time.

My camera was playing up so the photos are not great today, but I'll make some more and post better photos later. (These yummy little tastes of ginger heaven have all been eaten already!)

I've carried that taste with me into adulthood, and never quite found it again.  I came close with Delia's recipe for ginger cake with lemon icing in her How to Cook book (and it is absolutely divine), but this is the recipe that most matches up to the taste sensations I remember.


These gingerbread muffins are made in the Pampered Chef deluxe mini muffin pan, and are based on the gingerbread cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  If you have never come across the wonders that are contained in this book, I'd give it a go NOW and be blown away by how fabulous the recipes are even if you're not a vegan.

I've fiddled with the recipe as usual, because I just can't leave them alone, and I have them just the way I like them.  Unfortunately it means I'm likely to eat about four in a row.  They are just little bites of heaven. 

As usual if you aren't worrying about dairy or keeping this vegan it works fine with cows milk and plain yoghurt.

This makes about 36 mini cupcakes (I haven't managed to perfect it to make the 24 yet!)  Or you could make a few big ones in a separate tray too. The recipe makes 12 perfectly sized big muffins in the stoneware muffin pan too.

If you fancy a prize draw for a piece of the kit used to make this recipe then come along and like my facebook page to be entered into the prize draw on 31st March 2012. If you share your love for the page on Facebook with your friends and they come and like too, and mention your name, then you'll be entered again!  Get referring!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch (1/8tsp) mixed spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soya milk
1/3 cup treacle
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 tablespoons soy yoghurt
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 pieces of crystallized ginger


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the deluxe mini muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Measure the flour in an easy read measuring cup and put in a classic batter bowl.

3.  Measure out the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt with the adjustable measuring spoons, add to the bowl, and mix with a stainless whisk.

4.  Using the easy read measuring cup measure the oil and soya milk and place in a separate bowl.  I use my small batter bowl.

5. To measure the treacle and syrup I use my measureall cup which allows you to get at every last drop of the sticky stuff and not waste any. Put this in the bowl with the oil and soya milk

6.  Add the yoghurt and grate in the zest of the lemon with a microplane zester.

7.  Mix together with the whisk until this forms a lovely silky, gloopy, treacly, smelling liquid.

8. Chop up the crystallized ginger with a food chopper using it with the lid on to contain it all. Add to the mix.

9.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well with the stainless whisk.  The batter will be very runny - that is okay!

10.  Now pour into the waiting paper cases.  You can be much more accurate if you use a Pampered Chef small scoop as it is the perfect size for the mini muffin pan and will give you cupcakes that are all exactly the same size. Very professional looking.

11.  Cook for about 15 mins until a knife comes out clean.  Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before icing.

12. Ice using plain white icing made with water and icing sugar, or add some lemon juice for a zesty alternative.  I like them with an extra little bit of crystallized ginger too.

Cobblers!

I made an apple and bramble (blackberry) cobbler last night for the first time and it was fabulous!  I can't believe a cobbler is something I have never made, let alone eaten, before. We do crumbles in this house all the time - rhubarb, apple, apple and bramble, strawberry (yes but its truly yummy!), mixed fruit, and pies when I can be bothered with the rolling out of pastry.  But why have I never tried this American classic before?  I just don't know.  And having tried it now, it's going to be a fixture.

A gooey fruity bottom crowned with an amazing fluffy, scone-like topping.  What is there not to like?

I used my lovely little Pampered Chef mini baker to do this, and it fitted beautifully!  It looked gorgeous just out of the oven and definitely fabulous to take straight to the table to serve.

The Pampered Chef Mini Baker. Isn't it pretty?

As usual I have veganified the recipe and used non dairy spread and soya yoghurt but it is intended to use the real stuff.  The vegan version is delicious so I'm sure it will be fabulous as an omnivorous version too!

Wondering why I'm on about brambles?  We use the term brambles for blackberries in Scotland.

Bramley Apple and Bramble Cobbler
  
Ingredients

3 Bramley apples
Big handful of blackberries (I used the ones I had in the freezer and just chucked them in)
100g sugar plus 2tbsp
75g Butter / Vegan Spread
170g self raising flour
125ml plain yoghurt

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C

1.  Peel and core the apples on a cutting board.  If they are small enough use an apple wedger, if not you could use the veggie wedger, like I did. My bramleys were monsters!  Chop into smaller pieces with a utility knife and put into the mini baker.

2.  Add the blackberries and scatter over a tablespoonful of the sugar using the large adjustable measuring spoon.

3. Put 100g sugar, the flour and butter into a classic batter bowl and mix with a mix n masher to create crumbs (or use the old fashioned rubbing in method)

4. Add the yoghurt measured in an easy read measuring cup, and stir until it becomes a messy dough.

5. Spoon onto the top of the apples and blackberries in little mounds leaving gaps if you can.  Sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and bake for 40 mins till golden brown.

Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream and the smile of a domestic goddess happy in the knowledge she whipped that up quickly and with the minimum of fuss.


Tip : No self raising flour?  Use plain flour and add 2 tsp of baking powder to this mix too!

I love Fridays! (Vegan baked doughnuts)

So it's Friday afternoon!  That means I get the children all to myself all afternoon, or at least I don't have to run about with school runs etc, and we can chill out and do some interesting things together.  Or go and visit friends and eat cake!

Fancy me?

My elder daughter had a treat on the way home from school today of an iced jammy doughnut, and I arrived with the little one as she was finishing it off.  "I want one of those" announced the little one.

Yes of course she would, a big fat doughnut, oozing jam and covered in pink sticky icing - who wouldn't?  But she can't have that one!  Too much risk of it being filled with nasties that make her very unwell, such as eggs and milk!  So what to do?

Have a baking session and make our own, of course!  I haven't tried doughnuts before....Mini ones I think... Here goes...

This is what I did, but do feel free to use cows milk or your own choice of milk, and butter in place of the dairy free spread.

Ingredients

1 cup soya milk
1 tablespoon Pure Spread, 
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsps instant dried yeast
1/4 cup sugar

Filling
Strawberry jam and it HAS to be seedless!

Icing
200g icing sugar
few drops pink food colouring

Method 

1. Measure milk in an Easy Read Measuring Cup and add a tablespoon of Pure/butter using the large adjustable measuring spoon.

2. Microwave on medium for about 40 seconds or until heated through and the spread/butter has melted (do not allow to boil). Give it a stir and set it aside for a moment.

3. Using  another easy read measuring cup measure the flour into a Classic batter bowl. Stir in yeast and 1/4 cup sugar with a mix n scraper.

4. Make a well in the centre of the bowl. Add the milk mixture. Mix to form a soft dough.

5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface (I use a flexible cutting mat to help reduce mess). Knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

6. Place dough back in your lightly oiled classic batter bowl. Cover with lid. Set aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

7.  Using your fist, punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth for a minute or two. Press dough out until its about 2.5cm thick. Using a round cutter, cut 30 rounds from the dough and put them onto a flat stone to bake.  We used the flower and other shapes from the creative cutter set, which are about 4cms across. I used my medium round stone and medium bar pan to put them on.

8. Cover with lightly greased clingfilm. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

9. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200°C(180°C fan). Cook doughnuts for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

The baked doughnuts on my very old round stone with no handles.  Can you spot the ones the children made?

10. Remove from the oven and place on a stackable cooling rack.  Once they are cool enough to handle fill a decorator bottle with jam and put on the fine plain nozzle.  Pierce each bun and squirt in some jam.  (This was hilarious as I allowed the kids to do it!  Also DO NOT use jam with bits/seeds in as it gets stuck in the top of the icing nozzle and then jam explodes all over the kitchen when you give it a big squeeze!  We're a bit sticky here now.)

11.  Make up some icing with the icing sugar, a little water and your colouring in a 500 ml prep bowl.  Dip the top of each bun in and leave to dry on the cooling rack.

All lined up and ready to eat. The divine strawberry jam, iced vegan doughnuts make their debut!

Yum yum yum!!!

Tip: If you don't have small cutters just roll small balls with your hands.
No decorator bottle?  Just cut them in half like a bun, add some jam, close and ice.

This is a recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Chocolate Cake (and its vegan, honest!)

I've been baking again!


This has to be one of my great discoveries when making egg free and dairy free cakes for my youngest daughter.  This is so amazing I can't believe it!  I have made literally hundreds of chocolate cakes, and I could not get it right.  This is the one, definitely, and its based on the recipe by aliciak at instructables.

The cake is gooey and light and slightly like a brownie, with a truly amazing glaze which is shiny and sweet and moreish.  You have to lick the spoon from scraping the pan.  Yum!

The other great thing is you can throw it together in a matter of minutes.  I made this one tonight as I heated the beans and made toast for the kids for tea!

Can you see where my priorities lie? 

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp vegan margarine
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract

sprinkles to decorate

Note: if you don't care to make it vegan, or don't have soy milk or margarine, you can use butter in place of the margarine, and whatever milk you prefer in place of the soy.

Preheat the oven to 180°C .

1. In a classic batter bowl, put the flour, sugar, and cocoa, measured out with an easy read measuring cup.

2. Add the bicarbonate of soda, and salt using an adjustable measuring spoon and mix together with a stainless whisk, making sure it is really blended together. 

3. Add the water, vanilla, oil, and vinegar, and again, mix well with the whisk so that it's really blended together. At this point it looks really watery - its okay because its supposed to!

4. Pour into a square baker, and scrape it all out with a mix n scraper, place in the oven and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Leave it in the baker to cool.

 

5. For the glaze, in a small non-stick saucepan, bring sugar, margarine, milk, and cocoa to a boil. Stir frequently so it doesn't burn, then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes. I use my silicone coated whisk to stir this.

6. Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake. The glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now. Let this cool for about half an hour, if you can wait that long!

I have to admit I eat it warm and gooey and generally it sticks to the baker, but comes out nicely with the mini serving spatula!  You could use baking parchment but that rather negates the loveliness of the baker!

Wondering what the vinegar is about?  It's for the chemical reaction which takes place between it and the bicarbonate of soda.  This makes the bubbles that make the cake rise. Science and baking in one.

Chicken, Tomato and Basil Flatbread

Chicken, Tomato and Basil Flatbread in the Medium Bar Pan, direct from the Pampered Chef Test Kitchens!

A recipe straight from The Pampered Chef test kitchens!  This is a fabulous dinner or lunch recipe and is quick and easy.  It uses a ready prepared pizza base mix but if you want to make your own then have a look here.

The mix of the chicken with fresh tomato and basil is lovely and fragrant and very tasty!

Ingredients

2 small vine-ripened tomatoes (about 100 g total weight)
2 tablespoons plus 1⁄2 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1 packet (145 g) pizza base mix
100–125 ml warm (hand hot) water
20 g pecan halves
50 g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, divided
75 g Provolone Piccante cheese  (if you can't find this use cheddar!)
100 g skinless, boneless cooked chicken breast
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, pressed
Preheat oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/Gas 7.

Method

1. Slice the tomatoes finely on a cutting board with the santoku knife. Line a plate with kitchen paper, place sliced tomatoes on lined plate and blot tops with kitchen paper; set aside.
2. Brush a Medium Bar Pan with 1⁄2 teaspoon olive oil using Chef’s Silicone Basting Brush and set aside.
3. Place pizza base mix in Stainless 4-Litre Mixing Bowl; add enough warm water to form a soft dough. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes or until smooth.
4. Place pizza dough onto centre of prepared bar pan and roll the dough out to cover the base of the pan using a Baker’s Roller®. Set aside in warm place for 15 minutes.
5. Bake for 12–14 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Meanwhile, finely chop the pecans on a Cutting Board using the Food Chopper. 7. Grate Parmigiano Reggiano cheese using Microplane® Adjustable Fine Grater, and the Provolone or Cheddar with the Microplane® Adjustable Coarse Grater.
8. Dice the chicken using the santoku knife and chop the basil in the food chopper.
9. Combine pecans, half of the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, 50 g of the Provolone cheese, the diced chicken, basil, garlic pressed with Garlic Press and remaining oil in Classic Batter Bowl; mix well using Small Mix ‘N Scraper®.
10. Remove the bar pan from the oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Sprinkle baked base with remaining Parmigiano Reggiano cheese; top evenly with sliced tomatoes, chicken mixture and remaining Provolone cheese to within 5 mm of edge of base.
11. Bake for 6–8 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven. Cut flatbread into portions using Pizza Cutter; let it stand 2 minutes. Transfer to serving plates or napkins using Mini-Serving Spatula; serve warm.

Serves 12 as an appetizer

Nutrients per serving: Energy 769kJ/183kcal; Protein 8.7g; Carbohydrate 19.7g; Sugars 1.5g; Fat 8.3g; Saturated Fat 2.5g; Fibre 0.9g; Salt 0.5g