Gourmet Gadgetry: Cupcake and Muffin Maker

The other day, Marcus surprised me by sending me a little present to congratulate me on obtaining a place on a graduate scheme I'd applied to (yay!). I excitedly opened the rather large box to reveal a cupcake maker by Gourmet Gadgetry! 

So, if you're wondering how exactly a cupcake maker works, it's essentially a toasty maker, just for cupcakes. It supposedly creates perfectly formed little cupcakes in a fraction of the time they normally take to bake. I couldn't wait to try it out and so cracked on with some baking!

I baked some very simple lemon cakes. Here's what you'll need if you fancy doing the same:

For the cakes:

100g Butter

120g Self rising flour

120g Caster sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla essence

1 tsp Baking powder

Juice of half a lemon

For the icing:

100g Butter

200g Icing sugar

A few drops of food colouring

Just blend the mixture all together until it's of a smooth consistency. Then, pop your mixture into either your cupcake cases and into the oven (I tend to cook mine at 180C for about 15-20mins) or into your cupcake maker, wait for them to go golden brown and then remove and leave to cool.

While you're waiting for them to cook, you can whip up some icing. Pop your butter into a bowl and whisk until it's smooth. Then gradually start adding your icing sugar and your drops of food colouring. I normally taste it as I go along to see when it's sweet enough. You can then just smear your icing onto your cool cakes or ice them with a piping bag like I did!

I found that the cupcake maker did make the entire process much quicker. The moment I put the batter into each little well, I could see it starting to cook. Once the lid was on, I only had to wait about seven minutes before they were done. Not only that, each cake slid easily out of their well and each was golden brown and identically shaped. Decorating them was very easy as no cake had been able to 'rupture' or had risen oddly. 

I'd definitely recommend Gourmet Gadgetry's cup cake maker (especially to students fighting for oven space!) as it made baking just that bit quicker and easier. There was also no need to buy cupcake cases! I churned out around 28 cupcakes in the end since I just put in more batter once the first round were finished. Luckily, I have three hungry housemates who will be more than happy to eat them all!

The Perfect Syrupy Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe

On days when rain is bucketing down so hard that you'd get drenched walking between your front door and your car, you may feel that the last thing you want to do is leave the house. On days like these I often feel restless, wandering around the house wondering what to do with myself. Then, one particularly wet day I discovered the perfect answer. Baking.

Baking can keep me occupied for hours. The process of deciding what to make, picking out your ingredients, combining them in just the right quantities and then watching them cook in the oven is incredibly therapeutic and perfect for a day when really, you can't do all that much.

Over the many rainy days we have in Britain, I've perfected one recipe: my (if I do say myself) amazing lemon drizzle cake. Today, I thought I'd share it with you.

You will need:
175g of sugar
175g of self raising flour
175g of butter
3 eggs
2 lemons
a teaspoon of baking powder

This recipe is very simple and rather quick to make. Start by preheating your oven to 170 degrees centigrade. Then grate a little of the lemon peel off one of the lemons. (I tend to use a 'lemon zester' as you get lovely thin ribbons of peel.) Be careful only to use the yellow peel- the white pith can be quite bitter. Next, squeeze the juice out of one and a half of the lemons. If you heat them for 30 seconds in the microwave first, you'll get more juice out. Bung your peel and your juice into a large mixing bowl.

After this, simply tip in the rest of your ingredients and mix until you have a smooth creamy mixture. Pour your mixture into your well greased baking tins so they fill about half of the tin. Personally, I tend to use four mini loaf tins, but you can use anything from one big tin to cupcake cases.

Bung them in the oven for around 25 mins. This time will change slightly depending on the size of your tins. (If your cake is larger, it will take slightly longer). To check if your cake is done, see if it is a golden brown on the outside and 'springy' to the touch. If you're not sure, you can poke it with a skewer- if it comes out the cake covered in raw mixture, give your cake a while longer.

Once you've removed your cakes from the oven, let the tin cool and then tip your cakes onto a wire rack to cool further.

If you wish to ice your cake, take the remaining half of the lemon from earlier and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Mix this with either three tablespoons of icing sugar or 3 teaspoons of castor sugar. The type of sugar you use will change the type of icing- you will get a thicker icing with icing sugar, where as you'll get more of a syrup with the castor sugar. If you wish to make a syrupy icing, you should heat your bowl for around 30 seconds in the microwave to help the castor sugar dissolve into the lemon juice. When your cake is cool, drizzle with your chosen icing and leave the icing to set.

I decorated mine with a twist of lemon coated in lemon syrup. To do this, take a thin slice of lemon and make a small cut to its centre. Twist and drizzle with your chosen icing. 

There you have it, the perfect cake to wash away rainy day blues!

Afternoon Tea in the Garden

Since we've been having this spate of glorious weather (who would want to leave the UK right now?!) I decided it was time to hit the garden again, just this time with baked goods. So my friend Harriet and I pulled on our aprons and got to work conjuring up an afternoon tea to be proud of, complete with decretive cake stand!

We prepared breads piled high with caramelised onion, brie and rocket, cream cheese pesto and pepper cups, fruit cups and lavender shortbreads, all topped off with some of my home made lemonade and a glass of bubbly. The best bit was all the food was relatively quick to make! My favourite little dish however had to be the breads, but that's mainly because I feel you can't go wrong with caramelised onion and brie!

Anyway, just before I rush back to the garden, here are two little recipes for you guys to enjoy. Tell me what you think!


Breads

You will need:
4 red onions
a wedge of brie
rocket
bread (I used a ciabatta style loaf)
olive oil
a teaspoon of sugar
a sprinkle of salt

The only time consuming part of this recipe is caramelising the onions. To do this, coat a large pan with a thin layer of olive oil and heat this on a medium heat. When the oil is just simmering, throw in your onions, finely chopped, and spread them evenly over the base of your pan. Now gently heat your onions. If they look a little dry, add a small dash of water- this will also help prevent them burning. Add your teaspoon of sugar and your sprinkle of salt. These will help the caramelisation process. They should be caramelised after around 40 minutes.
Simply pile your caramelised onions onto lightly toasted bread, pop on a slice of brie, cover with a handful of rocket and serve. Delicious!


Lavender Shortbreads

You will need:
125g of warmed butter (I pop mine in the microwave for 20 seconds)
55g of sugar
175g of plain flour
a couple of heads of lavender (mine come straight from the garden- I just wash them and break them up into individual flowers)

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees and then simply combine all the ingredients in a mixer until they're thoroughly incorporated. Next, roll the mixture out until it's around 5mm thick. Using a cookie cutter (or a knife- it doesn't really matter), cut out your biscuits and lay them on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bung them in the oven and leave them to cook for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Pull them out and sprinkle over a dusting of sugar and leave to cool. That's all there is to it!

Home Made (Ginger and Mint) Lemonade

Yesterday it was beautifully sunny so my family and I hit the garden to soak up some sunshine.

However, I was craving one thing- home made lemonade! Last year I stumbled upon a Delia Smith recipe which was yummy, but personally I prefer something with a little more kick. Therefore this year I whipped up this little variation which I find just as refreshing, but has that bit more of a 'zing'.

You will need:
5 lemons
150g of caster sugar
a knob of ginger
a few sprigs of mint
1.5l of water

Start by grating the lemon and the ginger into a large saucepan. Be careful only to grate the outer yellow part of the lemon, not the white layer underneath as the white layer is quite bitter. Next, rip up the mint leaves and add them to the saucepan, along with the juice of the lemons and the sugar.

Finally, boil the water and pour it over the contents of the saucepan. Stir and leave to infuse over night. The next day, simply pour the mixture through a sieve and then you're done! Serve chilled with a sprig of mint.

Sit back, relax and enjoy!

Owls Everywhere (and a penguin...)

Since my DIY Valentines post a month ago, I've had a couple of requests (/tantrums) from friends asking for a little owl of their own. Well, needing an outlet for all my excess creativity *cough* I took to my sewing machine once more and rustled up a couple of companions for Hoots.

I have to admit, I'm seriously impressed with myself- they just look so cute!

I nearly went as far as making up an entire family tree for them, but then thought that would be a little weird eccentric...

Jossi when I first told her she couldn't keep Hoots

The new editions to the family (and an adopted penguin)

Look how confuddled he looks!?

Family portrait 

These little birds have now all flown the nest and gone to their new, loving homes. But who knows when they might end up with some new cuddly additions to the family!  

Say Cheese!

This little indulgent snack is one I quite often whip up when I'm feeling like a bit of cheap luxury- it's definitely food for the soul and maybe not a favourite if you're watching the scales, but who could resist it, honestly?

There is something about melted cheese that begs to be eaten. I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of person who will pick the stringy mozzarella straight off a pizza and gobble it right down, or eat a tosty burning hot so the liquid cheese will drizzle  into my waiting mouth. 

Well, if those cheesy dreams are not the most appealing to you, this yummy treat will allow you to get the same effect just with the illusion of some sophistication at the same time. Neat, huh? Its pretense at elegance makes it a great little recipe to dig out if you have guests and are in need of some sort of sharing platter- they may say you can't buy friends, but whoever 'they' are obviously never fed their would-be-friends this! It's also so mind numbingly simple it will literally take you 10mins which will buy you a little more time to natter and relax. 

All you need is a wheel of brie (or camembert), some honey (here I used the squeezy sort, but the thicker stuff is much nicer if you have any!) and some rosemary (again here I had to use dried, but if I'm at home I like to use the fresh stuff, straight off the bush).  For dipping I just used some nice crusty bread, but grapes, cranberries, figs, slices of apple, apricots and walnuts go deliciously as well! 

Take your cheese and put it in some kind of heat proof container- I used mini pie dishes. Stab some holes in it and drizzle over your honey. Then, sprinkle on your rosemary and put the whole thing in a warm oven (I normally put it in at around 180 degrees).

When you see your honey starting to bubble and the skin of the cheese 'doming' slightly it's done- don't let the honey burn! 

We caught her...

...then dived in ourselves!

 When you break the skin, you should find all the cheese inside to be deliciously melted. Dive in and dip to your heart's content!

One happy Gracey 

Cooking with Croissants

Jossi has a bit of a Nigella Lawson obsession. Luckily, she wouldn't be so mean as to keep this all to herself, so we got cooking!

Nigella does a fabulous range of express recipes which all look totally delicious and from my experience so far, really are quick and easy.

We chose to make this truly scrummy caramel croissant pudding - it literally took us about 10mins plus cooking time. We (being the poor impoverish students we are), skimped a little and just used 250ml of milk instead of 125ml of milk and 125ml of cream. For the same reason, we also missed out the bourbon, but it still tasted amazing!

Be careful when you're caramlising the sugar- I have to admit Joss and I burnt it the first time. The sugar retains a lot of heat, so as soon as it reaches the temperature where it starts to burn, you can whip it off the hob as fast as you like, but the damage is done- the sugar will carry on cooking. We found we had to watch the pan like hawks and the moment we saw the tiniest bit turn brown, we turned the heat right down. Then, when about 2/3 of it had caramalised, we turned the heat off completely and the sugar finished its self off.

This is where we burnt it first time- obviously not paying attention!

Being a bit more careful second time around...

Custard time

I'd definitely have to agree with Nigella when she says this is a meal in its self, but that didn't stop Jossi and I polishing off the entire dish!