cake for breakfast?

26th January 2012

It’s common knowledge that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and yet so many people skip it; personally I wouldn’t make it past the front door without some porridge and toast and I always make time for it, but not everyone has that luxury and as a nation we have become used to not breaking the fast until mid-morning or later.

Well,
What if I told you that you can have breakfast on the go…and it involves cake? Or rather, muffins? Would that change your mind? I made these at the weekend for my Dad who decided he wanted to give breakfast a go but needed something he could take to work and eat at his desk…

Apple and Date Breakfast Muffins:
You’ll need:

50g Butter
100g Wholemeal Flour
40g Muscovado Sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
120g dried, chopped dates (un-sweeted is preferable)
1tsp mixed spice
1 eating apple
1 egg, beaten
100ml skimmed milk
Zest of half an orange

The steps:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4.

Line 8 holes of a muffin tin with muffin cases or greaseproof paper. In a bowl, gently rub the butter into the flour to make fine crumbs. Add the sugar. Stir in the baking powder, chopped dates and spice.

In a separate bowl, grate the apple, including the peel, down to the core and combine it with the beaten egg, milk and orange zest.

Tip the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, but don’t over mix.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 25 to 30 mins until golden on top and cooked through. Test they’re cooked by inserting a skewer and checking it comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold.

Each Muffin contains 135 calories and 6.5g Fat.

Recipe from here

A batch was also made for my Grandad who loves dates and he declared them “the best muffins”. Don’t be put off by the dates though, when baked they take on a toffee like flavour!

Are you a breakfast skipper, or are you like me and need it for the most basic of functioning?

Do you have any portable breakfast recipes to share? I’m in the mood for experimentation!

xxx

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Recipe: Lemon + Lime drizzle cake

13th January 2012

A couple of weeks post Christmas and we found ourselves with a glut of rather sorry looking lemons and limes in the fridge. A few were sliced in to wedges and frozen (so perfect for plopping in to a gin and tonic!) but I also reserved one of each to make an adaptation of a recipe I found in my favourite foodie magazine…

My Mum and I have bought every issue of this magazine over the last two years…the recipes are always simple, and the sort of food we’d want to eat on a daily basis; not so much the fancy ambitious fare you can often find in culinary publications.
The recipe we were drawn to this time came under the “have your cake and eat it” section, a typical lemon drizzle cake (a firm favourite in this house) adapted by me to become a lemon and lime drizzle cake.

You’ll need:
180g low fat spread (or real butter, up to you!)
180g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten

180g plain flour
1 Lemon and 1 Lime
1tbsp demerara sugar (this is for the topping and regular granulated sugar works fine)

How to:
Pre-heat your oven to 150*c/Gas 2 and line a loaf tin (we have handy loaf tin liners for this, but greaseproof paper also works fine!)

Beat together the spread and the sugar until fluffy then slowly add in the eggs (if it curdles, add in a tbsp or so of the flour)
Sieve in the plain flour and baking powder followed by the finely grated zest of the lemon and the lime. Stir until well combined.

Pour the mixture in to the lined tin and bake for 1hr or until a skewer inserted in comes out clean.(I found the cake was perfectly brown on top after 40 minutes but needed longer to cook through…to avoid the top burning just pop some tin foil over it).
Whilst the cake is cooking, juice the lemon and the lime.

While the cake is still warm, pour over the lemon and lime juice and sprinkle on the demerara sugar. Leave to cool then serve with a massive cup of tea.

SIMPLE! must work on food photography though!

What have you baked lately? I was hoping to do more on my time off but we have SO MUCH FOOD left in the house from Christmas.

Share your favourite recipes in the comments, as well as your favourite foodie magazines/cookbooks etc.

xxx

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and then I sinned

14th December 2011

In my world, leggings do not ever equal trousers; that is, until the cold weather comes and I realise I own no trousers that fit me, and it’s just too cold (and in the case of yesterday, hail-stoney) outside for tights.

TK Maxx Jumper, Mint Velvet leggings and ASOS boots.

Sometimes you just need to give up on morals; at least my bum was covered, right?

As redemption, I bring you a recipe…although depending on where you live, it might not be redemption as the key ingredient isn’t readily available in the UK.

This was a bit of an experiment really, as I was at a loss of what to do with a jar of this that a darling blog reader sent over.
In the end, I opted for the same principle as my nutella fudge brownie bites and kept it simple.

1. Heat oven to 180*c and line a tray with cake cases (I made 21 fairy cake sized, muffin liners would be less)

2. Empty 400g of spread in to a large mixing bowl, resisting temptation to eat the lot straight up because it smells so incredible.

3. Beat in two eggs and blend until you have a smooth paste.

4. Fold in 10tbsp self raising flour and mix until well combined. The mixture is slightly oily due to the spread, this is fine.

5. Dollop teaspoonfuls (or more if you wish) in to the cake cases and pop in the oven for approx 10 minutes; this is based on my super hot oven, a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle will tell you if they are cooked (it should be clean when removed)

6. Allow to cool. Slightly. Enjoy. Prepare to be taunted by the scent of these for hours as it lingers in the house…long after you’ve run out of biscuit bites (they have a slightly crunch, biscuit like exterior, and cake like middle)

Happy Mid-Week folks. Almost there!

Have you done any baking experiments lately?

Stance on leggings as trousers?

xxx

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finale

03rd December 2011

Somehow I’m now at the end of my week off, which seems unfair…time has gone so fast! Yesterday was a designated chill-out day, in preparation for what will surely be a manic trip to Birmingham, and the Bullring today; I can cope with crowds though…I’m excited for shops, for seeing my friend and her little boy, and for seeing my Aunt and Cousin.

Yesterday’s outfit consisted of another £5 Primark jumper, Primark velvet skirt and a pair of my new shoes!

I’m not going to be around today to catch up with blogs at all; despite having more time, I seem to be more behind than ever! As a consolation prize I leave you with a recipe for mini gingerbread loaf cakes, with lemony icing.

Adapted from a Tesco real food recipe.

175g (6oz) light butter
175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
250g (8oz) self-raising flour
2tsp ground ginger
75g (3oz) preserved ginger, finely chopped
2tbsp ginger syrup, from jar

To decorate I simply mixed up some Lemon flavoured icing sugar (from Silver Spoon), but normal glace icing flavoured with lemon would work just fine!

Preheat oven to Gas 4, 180°C, 350°F, and grease 6 individual mini-loaf shaped cake tins (I got mine from lidl)

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs then fold in the flour, spices, chopped ginger and ginger syrup. Mix until smooth and divide between prepared tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until just firm and golden. Cool for 10 minutes then turn out of the tins to finish cooling (Mine took 20 on the dot)

To decorate, make up the icing to a thick but drizzling consistency and scatter over the cakes. You could probably use some ginger syrup in the icing too, although I didn’t so can’t attest for that! If you don’t fancy lemon, melted dark chocolate would be wonderful with the rich, spicy ginger.

These cakes make a lovely little gift, and also survive, well wrapped in the post (yes, I went there!). They’ll keep for several days in an airtight container, and improve a day or so after baking.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Saturday!

xxx

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Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Muffins

30th October 2011

Friday afternoon provided me with an afternoon off work and a chance to do some baking, it was requested that I make some cakes for a social gathering I went to last night, and in the spirit of Halloween I finally got around to baking with pumpkin…finally finding a use for a tin of the stuff I purchased quite a long time ago!

Pumpkin, especially the canned type seems big in the USA but I’ve found very few recipes calling for it over here.
In the end I adapted a recipe I found on a food blog, substituting the faff of preparing and pureeing a real, live pumpkin for the same amount of the canned stuff.

The result? An absolute hit! The canned pumpkin is elusive, I found mine in my local Waitrose, and I know some American sweet shops and posh department stores sell it at great expense. It is, after extensive research, a highly versatile ingredient…so if you see any at a reasonable price I’d stock up!

The Recipe, adapted from here

– 200g plain flour
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 250g caster sugar
– 110ml vegetable oil
– 2 lightly beaten eggs
– 110ml milk
– 150g pumpkin flesh, blended to a puree (I used the same amount from the can)
– I also added a bag of chocolate chips.

1. Flour mixture: In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar together, and mix well.
2. Pumpkin mixture: In a large bowl, beat the oil, eggs and milk. Stir in the pumpkin puree.
3. Combine the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Stir until just blended (and lumpy). Be careful not to over mix as it will result in a tough texture.
4. Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases (each slightly more than 2/3 filled).
4. Bake for about 20 minutes in preheated oven of 175C (350F). Remove the muffins and cool on a rack for several minutes before serving.

The recipe stated it yielded 16 muffins, but I ended up with 24 cupcake sized ones, which were plenty big enough.
They took about 12-15 minutes to cook in my fan oven. A skewer that comes out clean when poked in the middle will tell you that they are done.