Saturday's Cake - Apple Crumble & Custard Muffins

Most (but not all) Saturdays I make some sort of cake or treat to take into work. The shop is only open for a couple of hours on a Saturday and many customers that come have traveled a long way. It's nice to be able to offer a nice fresh cup of coffee and a cake....

This one was a bit of a last minute brainwave. So last minute that by the time they came out of the oven, I was running about 20mins late. Thankfully, Colin and Martin were already in the office. No one noticed I was late on arriving - they only noticed hot cakes !

We've got some new 12 cell HOT PINK silicone muffin / cup cake pan moulds in. This colour has been extremely popular over the last year in 24 mini muffin size and customers have been requesting the larger size so they can have a matching set.

Didn't I warn you it was bright ? Takes normal, standard muffin papers.

We also now have a large selection of paper cases in mini, standard and American Jumbo muffin papers in our online shop.

As you can see - the crumble topping worked really well and the hidden custard layer in the inside was really yummy. These are best eatem warm, but are perfectly nice cold too.

 The muffins were very moist and this one kept 36 hours whilst waiting on being photographed (before being demolished this evening by the little cake tester....)

Apple Crumble Muffins

(base muffin recipe adapted from MUFFINS, FAST AND FANTASTIC)

250g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

160g caster sugar

1 egg

190g of chopped eating apple

150ml milk

90ml vegetable oil

ready made custard (omit if you don't fancy it)

crumble topping was soft brown sugar, butter and flour (almost equal amounts) - I didn't weigh any of this... just winged it ! Rub together until it starts to bind and form lumpy crumbs.

Preheat oven to 180deg C. Basically, mix wet ingredients into dry and mix just enough to combine.

Spoon 1/2 of the batter into the paper cases. Spoon on a couple of heaped teaspoons of the custard into each case before adding the rest of the batter. Cover with a generous amount of crumble topping - enough to cover the batter and a bit more for luck :-P

These are mine before baking. Bake for approx 20 > 25 mins until the top is taking on a little colour. Due to the custard, using a cake tester would be pointless. These came out the oven at 23mins.....

Enjoy !

Sarah-Jane Nash, a happy baker - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - the silicone bakeware cookshop, Norfolk, UK

Sklandu Rauši - Latvian Carrot Tarts - GUEST POST

One of our regular customers, Inese from Latvia, makes the most scrummy looking things and often sends us photos.

These little carrot tarts are one of her latest and Inese has kindly sent me the recipe and photos which you can find below. These are made in a 12 hole standard silicone bakeware muffin / cupcake mould.

I am sending you the recipe of those carrot filled tarts! I make them without any grams or milligrams, just "on eye and taste", but there are some amounts named just not to be too approximate. but you know - cooking is the art of practice!

Latvian meal: Sklandu rauši - rye crust little tarts with carrot filling.

They’re not very sweet, relying primarily on the natural sweetness of carrots, but can be made as sweet as one likes.

There are a lot of variations, including potato versions and mixed-potato/carrot versions, but this time I went with 100% carrot.

tart base:

250 g rye flour

100 g warm water

sugar

salt
30 g butter or margarine.

Sift flour onto a pastry board, rub through butter or margarine. Melt sugar and salt into water, add and knead into a stiff dough that can be easily rolled.

Carrot Filling:

400 g carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

50 g sugar

salt
25 g sour cream

2 eggs

15 – 25 g flour

vanilla bean

Boil carrots until tender. Drain well and pat dry. Chop in a food processor, food mill or ricer (I like when it is more rough, with small pieces of carrots). Combine sugar, salt, sour cream, eggs, vanilla seeds and flour with the carrots. If your carrot fill comes out overly wet, you may need more flour or to drain off a bit of the carrot juice so that it is somewhat dry.

Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200oC.

Preparing the tarts.

Take muffin silicone mould. Using your fingers, fill each hole with a little ball of dough and roll it as thin as possible making “baskets”.

Bake for a while, some 5-10 minutes, until they become somewhat hard.

Spoon the carrot mixture into each little dough “basket” until it almost reaches the top. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until the dough is crumbly and the carrot filling is browned a little.

Then take out of silicone and brush each top with beaten egg, mixed with sugar and sour cream, put into oven without silicone for some another 5-10 minutes to make the dough crispy from the bottom as well.

Bacon and Thyme Savoury Muffins

I made these breakfast muffins last Sunday for a neighbour and they turned out really well.

They're savoury rather than sweet - but lots of flavour and lovely served warm with some herby butter.

60ml olive oil

1 chopped onion

pack streaky bacon rashers

10oz plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

230ml milk

2 tbsp chopped thyme

2 tbsn chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 180deg C Fan

Fry the onion until soft and set aside. Chop 2/3 of the pack of bacon and fry until crispy. Keep 4 rashers of streaky bacon aside and fry whole until crispy.

Combine dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Add the bacon and onion in last few strokes.

Spoon into a 12 standard silicone muffin mould - with or without paper cases. Place 1/3 of a rasher of streaky bacon on top of each muffin. 

 Bake for approx 20mins until skewer comes out clean.

When hot, brush tops with melted butter. Serve warm, with herby or normal butter.

Little Duck Cupcakes (and Bunny Ears)

I made some vanilla cupcakes today from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook for the charity day at Oliver's Tiny Talk toddler's class. I frosted them with a lemon flavoured buttercream.

Given it was for toddlers, I went a bit mad and made little ducks and bunny ears too to dress them up a bit.

I got exactly 12 cupcakes out of the mix, exactly as specified in the book. I used muffin liners in my silicone muffin tray because I planned to ice the cakes. I think I would have been seriously short and probably needed twice as much frosting had I not used sugarpaste to make ponds for the ducks. There certainley was nothing like enough frosting to pile it up like the photos in the book.

I only got a tiny bit of Oliver's cake - but the sponge seemed nice. I'll need to make more another day and actually eat one to report on that !

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've been meaning to have a go at Red Velvet Cupcakes for some time.... and an ongoing thread on the Omlet Forum spurred me on for this weeks bake.

I used the recipe from Martha Stewarts Cupcakes book - with a yeild of 24 standard sized muffins (2 silicone tray loads).

The photos do no justice. The mix was a vampire blood red - far far FAR brighter  and truly shocking to say the least. It certainely put a smile on my face and I couldn't stop laughing as I made them.

Unlike my attempt with macarons, the red velvet cupcakes did keep the colour and all rose well in the oven. I also managed to get exactly 24 cupcakes out of the mixture.

Iced them with a basic cream cheese icing. The white made the red really stand out - but unfortuantely, again - the photos don't do the colour any justice.

Would I make them again ? Most certainley.... but I'd likely go with a different recipe as I wasn't bowled over with this one. It was ok - but nothing special....

Spiced Pineapple Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting & Toasted Coconut

Make them as muffins - or frost them as cupcakes. However you prefer them, you'll find these lightly spiced pineapple cakes ever so moist and tasty.

I make these in my 12 hole silicone muffin / cupcake tray and the mix generally makes the full 12 muffins / cupcakes. As I normally ice them, I've lined the silicone bakeware mould with paper muffin cases. However, if serving as breakfast muffins or uniced in lunchboxes, there is no requirement for liners. I'd suggest buttering / greasing inside the cells of new moulds for at least the first few times making cakes.

Recipe

300g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
120g caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup / 250 > 280ml crushed pineapple (juice squeezed out)
100ml milk
1 egg
140ml pineapple juice (reserved from tin)

I

Preheat oven to 180deg C fan

I start with a measuring jug and measure oil and milk and juice together, then add the egg and mix with a fork.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the pineapple and wet ingredients. Mix with wooden spoon until only just combined.

Put batter into buttered silicone muffin tray - or tray / tin of your choice lined with paper cases.

Bake for 20mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before turning out or frosting

Sarah-Jane, Feb 2010 - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/