Cherry Choc Chip Cupcakes

What do you think about when driving? Strange question you might ask for a baking blog, but I thought of these cupcakes when I was driving home from work the other night.

It had been a stressful day in the office (they all seem to be at the moment!) and I was driving home listening to Simon Mayo on Radio 2. I think I just listen subconsciously even though I do enjoy the show, as by the time I’d pulled up outside my home, I had cherry choc chip cupcakes in my head.

I thought the flavours, akin to a black forest gateau would be lovely and be a perfect way to use up some dried cherries I had in the cupboard. And I used up some cream cheese for my chocolate cream cheese frosting on top. Finished off with a whole cherry.

When I made them, I realised they would be a perfect bake for a Comic Relief bake sale. Perhaps a glace cherry would stand out a bit more like a red nose, but I loved my stem on cherries on top.

The recipe is underneath, but I’m now wondering if any of you will be having a bake sale for Comic Relief this year? It is such a good cause and we always have a bake sale in our office. Below are a couple of other recipes to get you inspired for ‘Red Nose Day’.

Amuse Your Bouche - Edible Mr Potato Head (SO cute!)
Fab Food 4 All - Red Nose Day Cookies
Jo's Kitchen - Hidden Red Nose Cake
Cakeyboi - Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Cherry Choc Chip Cupcakes

Cherry and Choc Chip Infused Cupcakes

Cuisine:	Dessert	Category:	Cupcake	Yields:	12 cupcakes
Prep Time:	15 Mins	Cook Time:	10 Mins	Total Time:	25 Mins

 

Ingredients

1. 110 grams unsalted butter softened
2. 110 grams granulated sugar
3. 2 medium eggs, room temperature
4. 100 grams plain flour
5. 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. ½ teaspoon almond extract
8. 50 grams dried cherries, chopped
9. 50 grams chocolate chips (milk or plain)
10. 115 grams full fat cream cheese
11. 60 grams unsalted butter softened
12. 100 grams icing sugar
13. 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
14. 12 cherries for garnish

 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and place 12 cupcake liners in a cupcake tray. Sieve together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring in between each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extract and combine. Add the flour and baking powder and stir through.
3. Stir in the chopped cherries and chocolate chips.
4. Divide the batter between the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre.
5. Allow the cupcakes to cool fully.
6. Make the frosting by beating together the cream cheese, 60 grams of butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
7. Pipe onto the top of each cooled cupcake and place a cherry on top.

The Cake and Bake Show Celeb Line-up Revealed!

courtesy of The Cake and Bake Show

Last week I brought you a special discount code for this year's Cake and Bake Show's taking place in Harrogate, London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

That's right - the fantastic foodie show which celebrates all things baking and cakes will even be north of the border this year and I am so excited!

I mentioned there will be famous foodie faces popping up at the shows. Now I can reveal who those celebrities will be!

courtesy of the Guardian

Gregg Wallace of Masterchef fame (and latterly Strictly!) will be heading the line-up alongside Celebrity Masterchef winner, actress and now TV cook Lisa Faulkner as well as Celebrity Masterchef finalist actress Wendi Peters best known as Cilla from Corrie.

courtesy of The Express

Stars from the Great British Bake-Off will be there including winners John Whaite who won in 2012 and Jo Wheatley 2011's winner.

courtesy of Cake-Boy

Also for your delectation the original Cake-Boy, French master patissier Eric Lanlard will be present as will TV chefs Phil Vickery and the effervescent Rosemary Shrager.

And that's not all! Pop over to The Cake and Bake Show official website to see the full line-up, who I have confirmed will be at ALL 4 shows. More speakers and experts are to be announced soon and I will bring you the news as soon as I hear!

Don't forget your exclusive ticket discount too - get £3 off a full-price adult ticket!

Disclosure Statement: I have not been remunerated for this post

Homemade Butteries

I wonder how many of you have actually heard of butteries? These are a very Scottish bake and go by various names – Aberdeen Butteries, Rowies, Aberdeen Rolls – but I have grown up knowing them simply as butteries and that’s what I’m sticking with.

And what are butteries? Well they originated in Aberdeen unsurprisingly and are common place on the north east of Scotland. They are a laminated yeast dough – which means there are layers upon layers of dough all sandwiched with butter in between, just like a croissant is. Except, butteries also contain lard and are quite salty. And they are much firmer than a croissant. Okay, these are not a healthy option at all – I just wanted to try making them.

I followed the Hairy Bikers recipe which seemed straight-forward enough. Make a basic dough, let it prove, then start layering the dough with the mix of butter and lard. Break up the layered dough into buns and bake until golden and crisp.

I have to be honest, I have eaten butteries since I was wee, and knew they contained lard, but I had no idea they contained so much fat. Probably why they taste so damned good.

The baked result wasn’t quite as I had expected. As you cans see from the photos, the layers of dough are quite visible on top and underneath the butteries, not something you see on shop bought ones. But they did taste authentic enough.

Butteries are lovely toasted spread with a little jam, even though they are salty. Or some cold meat on top is nice too. People tend to spread more butter on them as well, but I may refrain from doing that in future, it would be just like butter on butter! Just don’t open them like you would a roll, butteries are meant to be enjoyed upside down with your desired accompaniment atop.

If you haven’t heard of them before, or even if you have, I do hope you give them a try, if the bucket load of saturated fats doesn’t put you off! Still, we are allowed to treat ourselves once in a while aren’t we?

Butteries

Butteries, Aberdeen Butteries, Aberdeen Rolls or Rowies! 
Adapted from Hairy Bikers

Cuisine:	bread	Category:	roll	Yields:	16
Prep Time:	2 Hrs 30 Mins	Cook Time:	15 Mins	Total Time:	2 Hrs 45 Mins

 

Ingredients

1. 500 grams strong white flour
2. 7 grams dry active yeast
3. 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
4. 1 tablespoon sea salt 
5. 350 ml warm tap water
6. 275 grams unsalted butter, very soft
7. 100 grams lard, very soft

 

Instructions

1. In a bowl place the flour, yeast, sugar and salt, ensuring the yeast and salt don’t come into contact at this stage. Pour in the water to make a firm dough – you may not need to use all of the water.
2. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 10 minutes or for 5 minutes in a mixer with the dough hook attached. Place into a lightly greased bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place and allow to prove for one hour, or until doubled in size.
3. In the meantime cream together the butter and lard and separate into 4 equal portions.
4. After the hour, remove the dough from the bowl and knead for 2 more minutes then roll and stretch the dough out into a rectangle about 20cm by 40cm.  Spread one quarter of the butter mix on two thirds of the dough. Fold the part of the dough without butter over onto half of the buttered part. Fold the remaining exposed buttered dough over the top. You should now have three layers of dough! (it’s quite tricky to explain!).
5. Repeat the entire process three more times with the remaining portions of butter mix. This actually builds up hundreds of layers of dough, ready to puff up in the oven.
6. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces and form into balls and place them on to lightly greased baking trays. Flatten them into discs.
7. Let prove for another 45 minutes and preheat the oven to 200C in the meantime.
8. After the 45 minutes, bake the butteries into the oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the butteries around halfway through baking to ensure even browning.
9. Allow them to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack to cool fully.
10. You are ready to spread your butteries and enjoy!

Cinnamon Monkey Buns

Not everything goes quite according to plan in the Cakeyboi kitchen you know. Take last weekend for example.

I wanted to make some cinnamon buns for our breakfast the following day. Disneyboi loves cinnamon swirls from Starbucks, so I thought I would rustle some up. No bother.

I looked for a pretty easy recipe online and set about making them. The dough for the buns called for pretty much the normal ingredients you would expect. Flour, yeast, an egg, sugar and milk. I brought the ingredients together in a bowl, initially by hand and found the mixture to be quite loose.

I thought I’d pop it into the mixer to knead, as there was no way I could do it by hand. It would have been like a scene from the 1950’s ‘B’ move ‘The Blob’. So I popped on the mixer, dough hook attached and left it for 10 minutes, hoping the sloppy mix would get firmer as the glutens developed.

Wishful thinking! I added more flour as a last resort and it did firm up the mix a bit. I left it to prove whilst I went to the gym and upon my return it had doubled in size, which I hoped it would.

I then rolled it out on to a bit of greaseproof paper, then spread my filling of butter, sugar and cinnamon onto the dough. Then my troubles really began!

I tried rolling it up, but the dough had stuck to the paper. I used a bench scraper to try and peel it off the paper as much as I could. The final result was a mish-mash of dough, sugary cinnamon and butter. I decided to roll it into a ball, then slowly cut it into 6 large bun shapes ( I would recommend 12 more sensible sized buns next time).

I placed them onto a greased pan and let them prove again. At this point they weren’t looking too bad at all. But after the allotted proving time, they had sunk again into a pool!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained and I popped them into the oven to bake. And to my surprise they rose. Not quite as tall or as picturesquely as I would have liked but they did become edible buns.

I whipped up a cream cheese frosting for them and poured that over the buns and then let them cool fully. And you know what - they tasted lovely.

I would describe them as a mix between cinnamon buns and monkey bread. Their haphazard shape meant bits could be torn off to enjoy.

All in all a disaster which turned out not too bad. Here’s how I made what I have now christened Cinnamon Monkey Buns…

Cinnamon Monkey Buns

A cross between cinnamon rolls and monkey bread!
Adapted from Food.Com

Cuisine:	Breakfast	Category:	Breads	Yields:	12  buns
Prep Time:	2 Hrs 30 Mins	Cook Time:	15 Mins	Total Time:	2 Hrs 45 Mins

 

Ingredients

Buns:

7 grams, dry active yeast

250 ml warmed milk (I used almond)

115 grams granulated sugar

75 grams unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

450 grams plain flour

Filling:

150 grams dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

75 grams unsalted butter, softened

Icing:

150 grams icing sugar

50 grams cream cheese

100 grams unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

 

Instructions

1. Place the milk, in a mug, in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds until warm. Stir in the yeast and leave aside for 5 minutes.
2. In a bowl of a mixer, mix together the butter, sugar, salt, eggs and flour. Add the yeasty milk and combine until a dough forms. Attach a dough hook to the mixer and turn it on medium high for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, the dough will become elastic but still quite wet. Transfer it to a lightly greased bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to prove in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
4. Make the filling by mixing the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.
5. After the dough has proved place onto a long piece of floured greaseproof paper. With your hands, spread the dough to a long rectangle about 24 inches by the width of the paper. Spread the filling on to the dough evenly then attempt to roll the dough from one of the short ends to the other.
6. Use a bench scraper to pull the dough from the paper as you go along. If you are lucky your dough will come away easily from the paper and you can cut the resultant log into 12 buns.
7. If not, like me, you will have a sticky mass of dough and cinnamon sugar. Don’t worry, just divide the mix into 12 balls.
8. Whatever you have, place the buns onto a 13”x9” greased baking tin. Set aside to prove for another hour. Preheat the oven to 200C.
9. Make the icing by mixing the butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and salt together until smooth.
10. After the hour, pop the buns into the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. They will turn golden brown and sugar may be bubbling around them. Remove from the oven before they start to burn.
11. Allow to cool before pouring the icing mix over the buns.
12. When fully cool and the icing has mostly set, remove from the pan with a spatula and serve with a piping hot cup of coffee.

Treat Petite March 2015

Thank you to all who sent in bakes for Treat Petite in February. Kat and I were ‘heart’-warmed (geddit?) by all the ‘love’ly entries, and they made us feel very romantic (not together obviously!!).

So what for March’s Treat Petite you might be wondering?

Do I choose a theme of St. Patrick’s Day perhaps, Comic Relief, or maybe something to do with British ‘Summer’ Time starting in a few weeks (I bet you can’t believe that!)?

Nope, I have gone for Mother’s Day! Mothering Sunday is on 15 March this year in the UK. I say that as Mother’s Day varies around the world. In the US it happens in May for example (all to do with religion apparently).

So I would like to see your petite treats baked for your mothers, grandmothers or someone who has been like a mum to you. And why wait for Mother’s Day? If she has a birthday in March, or you are spoiling her anyway, send in an entry!

 ‘Here’s the rules…’

Treat Petite is for all of those delicious bites, which can be individually portioned. Tray bakes are fine, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, macarons and so on. No cakes, puddings, whole loaves – you get the idea…here are those all-important rules.

1.       Add your petite treat to the Linky at the bottom of this post by the 25th of the month, midnight at the latest.

2.       Post your bake onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, stating who is hosting this month.

3.       Follow Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer blogs on Google + (see sidebar links), if you haven’t already.

4.       If you tweet use  #treatpetite and mention @MrCakeyboi and @BakingExplorer – we will retweet.

5.       Add the challenge logo to the post and ‘Treat Petite’ as a label to the post

6.       Use any recipe as long as the source is noted.

7.       If you like, add your photo to the ‘Treat Petite’ Pinterest board (request access from me – Cakeyboi).

8.       Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!

Above all else – have fun!!

Cake Club goes to the Oscars (almost!)

It had been a wee while since we last had a Clandestine Cake Club get-together. So our next meet was definitely overdue. It was held on the evening of Sunday 22 February, which just so happened to be the same night as the annual Academy Awards, AKA the Oscars.

 And as you might have guessed from the tile of this post, the theme was ‘The Oscars’. Which stumped a few, certainly Jac my co-host, who backed up the Oscars theme with ‘or just indulgent!’.

But most folk came up with great ideas for the event. We held it in Laing’s bar in Dundee, on Roseangle (which boasts the best beer garden in Dundee). I hadn’t been there for a good while, nor had a lot of the others attending the Cake Club and we were all pleasantly surprised.

courtesy of Laings

 It had been done up and the ambience was perfect for the Cake Club in the little conservatory bit behind the bar, where we were. Had it been daylight we would have had cracking views along the River Tay, but sadly it was February night time, so the sky was dark.

 But our mood wasn’t darkened after munching on all the cake on offer. We had a Rocky ‘Balboa’ Road Cake, a honey and camomile cake decorated with a gold Oscar painted on top of the frosting. I made a bag of over-spilling popcorn cake, and we had a chocolate and raspberry cake decorated like a clapperboard. One of the highlights was a marmalade cake, decorated like a fancy bustier, with two rather large mounds protruding!

 After we had an initial chow down on the cake, we then started our CCC quiz. That’s right, quiz. Jac decided that we should have a quiz to get folk mingling and thinking, whilst digesting!

We had 4 categories – Oscars, which Disneyboi helped with. I came up with a bread/pasty section and a dessert/cake section too. And Jac came up with a section on Dundee. 40 questions in total.

Folks teamed up and Jac kindly read out the questions ( my voice is way too quiet and doesn’t carry well!). I think we made the questions a bit too hard, but everyone seemed to have fun coming up with their answers.

And before long, the quiz was over (cook-books for the winning team) and the evening was over.

 I love the cake club and hope it runs for a long time. Its great to meet like minded bakers and try loads of new cakes.

A big thanks goes to our venue, Laings, who provided us with plates, forks and napkins. The event went with a swing and we are already thinking about the next one!

Chorizo and Spinach Quick Bread

What is a quick bread? Well, it’s not really a bread that we normally think of!

No more than banana bread is actually bread. No yeast involved. I know you don’t need to have yeast for bread, but that’s pretty much how we eat it these days.

Quick breads, I think are more like a cake, sweet or savoury. This chorizo and spinach quick bread is a simple throw together affair, with lots of things you probably have in the fridge or cupboard and could cobble together in no time.

Flavours come from caramelized onions, done slowly to bring out all the flavour, chorizo sausage, the oil drained from that is used as part of the fat in the recipe. Spinach, wilted down and stirred through gives a nice fresh kick to the bread. That, plus parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and some lemon zest – there are tons of flavours to get your taste buds having a party!!

I baked the batter in a loaf pan and it came out all lovely and golden brown on top. You have to allow it cool fully, as it is a very moist bake and needs time to set up. Even then, a good sharp serrated knife is needed to slice through it without too much crumbling.

All my tasters loved the bread. The flavours go so well together and is perfect for those who like a strong savoury punch.

Here’s how I made it…

Chorizo and Spinach Quick Bread

A flavour packed loaf of spicy spanish sausage and spinach
Adapted from Food Network

Cuisine:	Savoury	Category:	Bread	Yields:	1 small loaf
Prep Time:	35 Mins	Cook Time:	50 Mins	Total Time:	1 Hr 25 Mins

 

Ingredients

• 2 medium red onions, sliced finely
• 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
• 180 ml sour cream
• 125 ml veg oil/chorizo oil combo
• 2 medium eggs
• 175 grams plain flour
• 125 grams grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 120 grams spinach
• 100 grams diced chorizo sausage

Instructions

1. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper, grease that and pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. In a large frying pan, slowly fry the onions in the olive oil over a medium heat for half an hour making sure they don’t burn but get nice and dark and caramelized. Remove from the pan and wilt the spinach, in the same pan, until reduced in size and drain on a paper towel.
3. In a dry small frying pan, fry the diced chorizo until the fat has rendered from it. Drain off the fat into a small measuring jug and add vegetable oil up to the 125 ml mark. Let it cool.
4. Keep the onions, spinach and chorizo aside for now.
5. In a bowl whisk together the sour cream, the cooled oil and the eggs.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, parmesan, sugar, Italian seasoning, baking powder, lemon zest, salt, pepper and bicarb. Pour in the wet mix and stir until combined.
7. Add the onions, spinach and chorizo and stir through.
8. Transfer to the prepared loaf tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre.
9. Allow to cool fully in the pan. Remove and cut into slices to enjoy.

I am entering my quick bread in August's Treat Petite as the theme is The Great British Bake Off and they made quick breads this year. Kat at The Baking Explorer is hosting this month.