These pretty little cupcakes were cooked this morning in my Sarah-Jane's Halogen Oven using silicone cup cake / muffin cases. Of course, you could easily use them in an ordinary gas or electric oven. They are safe for use in aga's too.
The thing with halogen ovens is that the body is a round glass bowl. Most traditional muffin moulds don't fit. That's why these little silicone cup cake / muffin cases are ideal for use on top of the baking tray. As you will see from the picture below, paper cases on there own are pretty useless as they cannot support the weight of the cake mix. The silicone cases in comparison hold up well and the cakes come out easily too which is a double bonus !
If you are not familiar with a halogen cooker, it's a table top oven / cooker. It uses halogen technology which basically cooks your food from above using a halogen bulb which shines up like a halo and brings a cheery glow to your kitchen. At the same time, it's also powered by a fan which enables cooknig by convection.
Most conventional fax ovens are 4500W, whereas our halogen ovehttp://www.siliconemoulds.com/1400w-halogen-oven-capacity-incl-accessories-p-181.htmlns use just 1200 > 1400w of power and also cook considerably faster with little or no preheat time. That means you save a whole lot of energy !
The only time I preheat my halogen oven is for baking bread / cakes or things that cook at pretty much warp speed. Even then, 2 > 3 minutes preheat is plenty.
Here's the recipe. They're not overly sweet so aren't over -the- top should you decide to ice them
SMARTIE CAKES
300g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
130g caster sugar
80 > 100g smarties
100ml sunflower or vegetable oil
200ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 beaten egg
sift the flour and mix in the sugar and baking powder into a big bowl
Mix the milk, oil and beaten egg together. I like to warm the milk to blood temperature before using, as I think it makes my cakes rise better
Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overstir. Add the smarties in the last couple of strokes.
Spoon into muffin cases. These will make 12 standard muffins or 16 if using the silicone muffin / cup cake cases.
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE THEM ALL AT ONCE, SPLIT THE WET AND DRY INGREDIENTS INTO TWO LOTS AND KEEP SEPARATE. The mixed wet ingredients will keep in the fridge for 2 > 3 days and the dry ingredients will be fine for weeks. You can then make as two separate batches.
Here's my first batch going in the oven.
Preheat halogen convection oven / halogen cooker (1200 > 1400W) to 160deg C with low rack in - or conventional fan oven to 180deg.
These took 13 minutes to cook and came out looking and smelling great. They'll take about 20 mins for a conventional oven.
Hope you all enjoy these as much as Oliver !
Have a lovely weekend
Sarah-Jane (silicone bakeware and blogging fanatic) & Oliver the little cake tester - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/
Lucky Oliver, can i have one of pink cupcake?
ReplyDeletesure - but it will be more like a rock cake by the time you receive it ! lol
ReplyDeleteUh oh..I think my fist comment didnt go thru.
ReplyDeleteAs I was saying....I have no idea what a halogen oven is but the cupcakes look so good n litte Oliver seems pretty happy with them.
thanks for your comment n the site add. Im sure my readers wld be very grateful In fact I think ill post it on the blog post.
Ive had many people ask me about the moulds n had I known u wanted them I wld have happily sent a couple to you. I have gifted them to a few blogger cos they liked it so much.
I hope you'll make the tarts and blog about it! :)) Its a lovely blog you have here and your little Oliver is sooooooo adorable. I bet he's happy he gets to be on your blog! :)
take care ..and oh how I love that you have ponies. D'yu live on a farm? lucky you!