Orange Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

My good friend Takeshi bought some Orange Extract for my birthday!  I thought it was about time I used it so what better occasion then for his birthday!
I think Chocolate and Orange is a perfect combination.  I had baked Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream the week before so was a bit chocolated out.  I had read on the Orange Extract bottle that Vanilla goes well with Orange.

The bonus about these cakes is that not only do they taste great but they are dairy-free!  It does contain egg so aren't Vegan.

I looked up fairy cake recipes and used this one as my basic recipe.  I bought some Billington's Natural Golden Icing Sugar but it had no recipe on the back.  It did mention a site called http://www.bakingmad.com so I had a look through the buttercream recipes and settled on this one: Basic Buttercream because it was simple and used the smallest quantity of the fat compared to the other recipes.

Makes 12 Cakes

Ingredients:

125g Pure Sunflower Spread
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp orange extract
125g self raising flour
2 tbsp Alpro Soy Milk (I happened to use the UHT red, any will do)
A pinch of salt

1.  In a bowl, beat the spread and sugar until fluffy.  I used a wooden spoon.

2.  Pour the beaten egg slowly from a measuring jug and beat in.  Add the orange extract and pinch of salt.

3.  Sift in half the flour and fold into the mixture.

4.  Add the soymilk (put in the eggless measuring jug for easy pouring, you might need more or less depending on the consistency).

5.  Put your fan oven on now!  180 - 190.

6.  Line your cake tin with cases.  Spoon mixture into tin and whack the tin downwards so the mix settles into the cases.  (Don't be overzealous, you want the cake mixture IN the cake tin/cases not on the ceiling.)

7.  Bake for 10-15 mins until risen and golden.

8.  Allow to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.  Allow to fully cool before any attempt on icing.

I took this out about 12 mins.  Light and fluffy!

For the icing:

50g Pure Sunflower Spread
200g Billington's Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract (or to your taste)

Decorations:

Always check the ingredients each time.  I chose these because they are Vegetarian.  The slices contain egg.

Soft Gold Pearls for the eyes
Orange Slices for the mouth I just ate the lemon ones, yum yum :D

1.  Put the spread into a bowl.  Beat it until soft.  Slowly sift in the icing sugar and stir.  Repeat until the icing sugar is mixed in.  Add your flavouring.

2.  I put some boiled water into a cup and swirled it around to cool it down.  I'm thinking hot water isn't just boiled.  I didn't want my icing sugar to dissolve into a runny liquid.  Add enough for a good consistency.

3.  Put your face on!

Review:

These made me smile!  They tasted really good.  The icing tasted toffee-like.  Probably the best cakes I've made so far :)
If I never told you they didn't contain dairy, you would never know ;)
Smiles all round!

Cherry and Almond Muffins

I've tried the new Almond Milk by Alpro (check out my review here) and wanted to use it up.  I think cherry and almond go well together, think Bakewell Tarts.  I love cherries so I looked up some Cherry and Almond muffin recipes.  This recipe came about using the muffin recipe I use with some inspiration from bbcgoodfood.com and www.pastryaffair.com .  The latter is in cups but they use flaked almonds on top whereas the bbc recipe uses ground almonds and is metric.  I omitted the vanilla flavouring to keep the flavours clean and simple.  You could add some almond extract but I didn't because I don't bake often so wouldn't use much.

The best thing about using the almond milk is that people who don't eat soya can eat these muffins!

Makes 12 Muffins 

Ingredients:

300g self raising flour
100g golden granulated sugar
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50g ground almonds
200g cherries (leave 6 whole or 12 halves to one side) chopped

175ml almond milk
125 corn oil
1 egg
50g flaked almonds
(6 cherries you left to one side)

Don't forget the muffin cases!

Method:

I just bought 100g flaked almonds and had a mini workout with the pestle and mortar.










1. Sieve the flour into a bowl.  Add baking powder, sugar, salt and 50g ground almonds and stir thoroughly.

2. In a mixing jug, pour in the milk and oil.  In a small bowl, break the egg and whisk.  Add egg to jug mixture.

3. Add the chopped cherries to the flour mixture.

4. Preheat fan oven 170.

Pour the liquid into the flour bowl.

5.

Spoon mixture into cases

6.

Top with flaked almonds and a halved cherry.

7.

Bake for 20-25mins.

8.

Delicious!

Review:

These looked amazing!  The cherry on top had baked to a chewy toffee.  It wasn't unpleasant but I might put the cherry on after the muffins have baked.  The toasted almonds had a lovely taste and texture.  The muffin was very crumbly on the bottom.  I think this may be due to the small egg.  I will put more liquid in next time.  They were very delicately flavoured.  My mother really enjoyed these and said they weren't too sweet.  My favourite bits were the chopped cherries and the toasted almond flakes on top.  These are really simple to make but look ever so special.  They also freeze well.

There isn't much washing up to do either!

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Hello.  I am still cooking but I just haven't been blogging as of late.  I've been a bit Lidl happy lately; have a look here

I've had baked sweet potatoes before.  It's amazing how vibrant the soft sweet flesh is concealed within the unassuming skin.  I looked at a few recipes and then added some extra time.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 Sweet Potatoes!

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 190 C.  I would advise that you have lined the bottom of your oven with some tin foil or use a tray/put a tray underneath. 

2.  Pierce each potato all over with a fork.  Wrap each potato with enough tin foil to cover.

All dressed up!

3.  Place in oven for 1hr-1hr 15 mins.  I have a potato rack so I thought I'd test it out.  This is where the tray comes in.  The potatoes will release a lot of sugars and they will burn and it will be a nightmare to clean up. 

4.  Serve

With butter and plenty of black pepper.

Review:

These were very soft and sweet.  I think freshly ground black pepper is the perfect accompaniment with it.  You can also have it with cheese or butter as well.  They really fill you up and they are far from mundane.