Blueberry Compote Cupcakes

 

While I was in the middle of Sugar-Free September I wanted to make a cake to take into the design agency I work with as I was spending a day working with them. I always take cake and didn't want them to miss out just because I wasn't eating sweet treats, so I had a good idea: to make a cake I didn't like and wouldn't eat!

I had some blueberries in the freezer that I'd been given and I don't really like blueberries (even in muffins). I've got a gorgeous-looking recipe book I've hardly used, called Cox Cookies & Cake - it was a pop-up (or in any case relatively short-lived) bakery in London's Soho that was a collaboration between baker Eric Lanlard and fashion designer Patrick Cox, that had very glamorous, decadent - and sometimes slightly naughty (cupcake toppers of topless men or showgirl legs) treats. I remember fondly going there with a friend while we were shopping in Soho for Halloween party costumes a few years ago.

Reminiscing aside, the book had a recipe for blueberry compote cupcakes, which looked perfect. I made the blueberry compote from scratch and used it to fill the middle of the cakes before they were baked - which was a bit unusual as normally I'd add a jam filling after the cakes were baked, but this seemed to work really well - not that I actually tried one, but I had very good feedback from the team!

To make 12 cupcakes, you need:
2 eggs
200g caster sugar
125ml sunflower oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
250ml soured cream

for the blueberry frosting;
150g blueberries
50g caster sugar

for the buttercream:
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
and I added a few drops of blue food colouring as well

 

Make the blueberry compote first; I actually did this the day before. Heat the blueberries and sugar in a saucepan, over a low heat and stirring well, until the sugar has dissolved and the blueberries softened. I let mine cool and put in a container with a lid in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 200C/ 180C fan. Beat the eggs and the sugar and gradually pour in the oil, mixing well. Add the vanilla extract, then fold in the flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the soured cream.

Put paper cake cases into a muffin tin and put one large tablespoon of the cake mixture into each cake case then put 1 tsp of the compote on top.

Fill the rest of the paper case until 2/3 full with the rest of the cake mixture.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes and allow to cool.

Beat the butter with the icing sugar and add the other ingredients; using a piping bag with a small star nozzle, pipe the buttercream onto the top of the cupcakes.

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat the Baking Explorer.

Fruity Yogurt Brulee Two Ways

The letter for this month's Alphabakes is Y, never an easy one - I've already managed to enter my Yule Log I made after Christmas that I hadn't blogged about until now. I also wanted to make something else, but with wedding planning (four months to go and counting!) I've been far too busy to bake.

So instead I decided to go for an easy dessert involving yogurt. I found a recipe in The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook for a yogurt fruit brûlée - passion fruit on the bottom topped with Greek yogurt, which you mix with a little pomegranate juice, then top with brown sugar which you caramelise with a cook's blowtorch or under the grill.

I had some pomegranate to use up so didn't want to buy passion fruit as well - I'm terrible at buying fruit and not using it before it goes off. I did have the pomegranate juice as I had just been sent vouchers to buy some POM Wonderful pomegranate juice to review. It's made from 100% pomegranate (made from concentrate) - did you know that pomegranates are a good source of all of these?:

Vitamin C

Vitamin K

Fiber

Potassium

Folate

Copper

I mixed a dash of pomegranate juice with fat free Greek style yogurt and spooned it into a ramekin on top of some pomegranate seeds.

I sprinkled a generous coating of brown sugar on the top but using my blowtorch didn't make the sugar caramelise, just burn in places- as you can see it was literally on fire at one point!

Once I'd stopped and scraped off the burnt bits, and added some more pomegranate seeds on top, it did taste quite good, but I decided I needed to make this again using caster sugar, which I know does caramelise properly with a blowtorch.

This time I cut up a ripe pear and placed pieces of it in the bottom of a ramekin and topped it with some flavoured yogurt - Onken's mango, papaya and passion fruit flavour.



I sprinkled caster sugar on top and caramelised it - properly this time - with my cook's blowtorch. It tasted delicious and would be great as a dessert or even breakfast!

I'm sharing my yogurt brûlée with Alphabakes, the challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter this month is Y.

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

 

 

I’ve already described how I used up some soft bananas from a fruit box we were sent at work in this banoffee pie with a chocolate cornflake base. There were actually more bananas left over and I’ve always wanted to make banana bread but never got round to it (the fact that I don’t like banana also puts me off!). As I have mentioned before, once a month I spend a day in the office of a design agency that we work with to produce a particular internal project and it’s usually a very long day.

 

As I spend so much time with them, and a couple of them end up having to work late due to this project, I’ve gotten into the habit of taking cake. It seemed a good idea because I have a small team at work and people don’t want to eat cake all the time, so this way I had a new audience – one who wasn’t bored of cake. They were very appreciative so I’ve now made cake every time I’ve been to their office. This time was great fun – not long after I had arrived, I overheard a conversation between two of the team that they were hungry and didn’t have any food in the office. I turned around and innocently remarked “well I did bring cake” – the look on their faces was priceless!

 

I knew there would be enough hungry people in the office to eat the cake that I could make banana bread and it didn’t matter if I didn’t like it. As it was, it tasted really good – I didn’t want a whole slice as the banana flavour was quite strong but it was lovely and moist and the addition of chocolate was lovely. I took inspiration from this recipe but did make it differently.

 

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread – an original recipe by Caroline Makes

 

Makes one 1-litre loaf cake

  

 

You need:

¾ cup caster sugar

2 ripe bananas

½ cup crème fraiche

2 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

4 tbsp cocoa powder

 

Preheat oven to 180C.

Mash the bananas and cream with the sugar, then add the crème fraiche and eggs. Fold in the flour.

Separate the mixture into two bowls and add the cocoa powder to one bowl.

 

 

Grease a loaf tin and spoon in the chocolate banana cake mixture, then spoon the plain mixture on top. Use the spoon to swirl the two around – take a spoonful of the bottom layer and bring it up to the top, twisting as you do so. Repeat this along the length of the tin.

 

 

 

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 50-60 minutes, testing with a skewer to see if it is cooked through. Allow to cool in the tin and then turn out.

 

 

This cake slices really well and because there is no frosting, it’s something you can wrap up and take on a picnic or in your lunchbox for work. It was really moist and the chocolate flavour went perfectly with the banana and considering that I don’t even like banana, I would say this was a success!

 

As I used up old bananas I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge, hosted this month by Foodie Quine on behalf of Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

 

Physalis Cake

 Have you ever eaten physalis before? You've probably seen it as a garnish on a dessert - I once had a heated debate with a work colleague who was more than ten years my junior, who had never seen one before and insisted I was making up the name until I googled it on my phone. However, I'd never actually tried the fruit - I'm pretty fussy and mistrustful of food I haven't had before so when I have had it as a garnish on a dessert in a restaurant, I've picked it off!

When I saw a whole bag of physalis in the supermarket for only £1 I decided to try it, but rather than use the fruit as a garnish I decided I wanted it to take centre stage - and that I would incorporate it into a cake.

The fruit resembles mini orange tomatoes and they come encased in tall, papery leaves. It has a sweet yet slightly tart taste; it's also known as a cape gooseberry, but doesn't taste like a gooseberry; in the US it is sold under the name Pichuberry (which sounds like something out of Pokemon to me), due to the origins of one variety in Machu Pichu.

I was going to use a recipe I found online, but hit a few stumbling blocks. As regular readers will know, my boyfriend and I are staying with his mum for a few weeks until the purchase of our new houes goes through (we completed on the sale of my house already due to pressure from the buyer). As I started to get out my baking ingredients, I asked if I could borrow her loaf tin and found she didn't have one. I also looked for brown sugar and could only find golden caster sugar; the recipe I found online used grapes as well as physalis and I don't like grapes. So in the end I pretty much invented my own recipe - but if you want to halve the quantity and use a loaf tin, be my guest.

Physalis Yogurt Cake - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

You need
250g butter
250g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
250g self-raising flour plus a sprinkling for the fruit
3 tbsp low fat Greek-style yogurt or fromage frais
a large handful of physalis, chopped (leaves removed). Reserve a few whole ones (with leaves) for decoration.

For the frosting
100g cream cheese
200g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line either a loaf tin or, for my method, a square cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs. Fold in the flour then mix in the yogurt. Toss the physalis in a little flour (this prevents it from sinking in the cake) and gently stir in to the cake mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting - carefully mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar. If you've made the cake in a loaf tin, slice it through the middle; if you've made it in a square tin as I had to, slice the cake in half and place one half on top of the other. This means one side of the cake will be the 'cut' side but I actually think this looks quite nice. Spread 2/3 of the cream cheese frosting inside the cake and the other 1/3 on top and decorate with a few physalis.

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker. The letter I have chosen this month is P so physalis is my Alphabakes ingredient.

I'm also sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary on behalf of Ren Behan.

I'm also sending this to the Vegetable Palette, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment2Kitchen. This challenge chooses a different colour for fruit or vegetables each month and this time it's yellow and orange.

Queen Cakes / Blueberry Muffins

I have a lot of cookery books. I realised that again when Dom at Belleau Kitchen published this month's random recipe challenge, and asked us to turn to the 40th page of our 40th book and make whatever was on that page. My recipe books are in alphabetical order - thanks to my boyfriend when he was bored on evening - and I counted along; when I got to 40 I was still only as far as the letter E!

The book in question was Easy Cupcakes from Marks & Spencer and on page 40 were Queen Cupcakes. I'd never heard of them before and there was no explanation for the name; they seem to be simple cupcakes baked with currants. However, I had some blueberries in the fridge that needed using up - and I don't like blueberries on their own - so I thought Dom wouldn't mind if I adapted the recipe a bit!

Makes 12

You need:

115g butter, softened

115g caster sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp lemon juice

175g self-raising flour

100g blueberries, halved

3 tbsp milk

This is a very simple recipe. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl them mix in the eggs. Add the lemon juice, mix in the flour, with a dash of milk to loosen the batter, then fold in the blueberries.

Spoon into muffin cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

The recipe for the Queen Cakes does not involve any icing or decoration and as I decided to take these to a volunteering day I was doing with colleagues, I thought that would work well- I needed something that I could transport in a box in my rucksack that wouldn't be too messy. The cakes had a muffin-like texture and went down very well when we had a break in a hard day's work - we were building a cob oven and an irrigation system in a community garden. It was great fun!

I'm sending these to Random Recipes, hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen.

Family Foodies, hosted by Louisa at Eat Your Veg and Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, has as a theme this month barbecues, picnics and outdoor eating. These cakes or muffins are so easy to eat outdoors with no mess; they travel well and taste great too!

Ness at Jibber Jabber UK is looking for vintage cake recipes this month. Queen cakes are - from what I can find out - a very traditional old-fashioned kind of cake so I think that counts!

Blueberries are in season so I'm sending this to Simple and in Season, hosted by Ren Behan.

I am also sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World - he has an exciting blog challenge relating to the world cup. England are playing today and my Queen Cakes are quintessentially British.

Umbongo Cake

Umbongo, Umbongo, they drink it in the Congo.... How many of you remember the (rather politically incorrect) television advert for the fruit juice drink from the 80s? Did you know Umbongo is still around?

The letter that we have chosen for Alphabakes this month is U and as soon as I remembered Umbongo, I knew I wanted to recreate the flavours in cake form - so that's exactly what I've done! I bought a carton of the juice drink - it didn't taste quite like I thought I remembered, but it was a long time ago! Reading the back of the carton I discovered that the main ingredients are apple, lemon, orange, pineapple, passion fruit and mandarin. So I stocked up on fruit and went to work creating my own recipe - it tasted amazing (even though I say so myself!).

Umbongo Cake

An original recipe by Caroline Makes

You need:

3 cups self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 cups caster sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

zest and juice of 1 lemon

zest and juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 mandarin

2 apples, peeled and chopped

300g tinned or fresh pineapple, chopped

2 passion fruit, scooped out

Preheat oven to 180C. I have to confess that I forgot to add the sugar in this recipe until later so the picture isn't particularly representative... you should start by creaming the butter and the sugar.

 
 Then beat in the eggs, and fold in the flour and baking powder. Finally mix in the oil.

Zest the orange and lemon and juice both fruits along with the mandarin. Add the zest and juice to the cake mixture and stir in gently.

 Chop the apple and pineapple and scoop out the middle of the passion fruit and mix in.

You can still see the passion fruit seeds in the mixture. They retain a little of their crunch when the cake is cooked, so you may prefer to leave the passion fruit out, but I didn't mind the seeds.I asked a friend for his opinion and he thought the seeds were fine in the cake and said he could definitely taste the passion fruit amid all the other flavours.

Grease and/or line two 9 inch cake tins - I sprayed mine with Cake Release. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Allow to cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.The cakes are pretty soft as the mixture is so runny, due to the juice, so if you remove the cakes from the tin too early they will crack - as the one on the left did here! I left the one on the right in the tin to cool and it came out perfectly.

 I wanted to add some Umbongo into the icing, and made a cream cheese icing with cream cheese, icing sugar and a dash of Umbongo. The icing tasted mainly of icing sugar though - the Umbongo would work better in a glaze I think, but I wanted a thick creamy frosting for this cake.

 I spread the icing in the middle and on top of the cake. For some reason I can never get cream cheese icing to be particularly stuff, I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

I also spread the icing around the side of the cake.

The cake was very moist and the icing quite squidgy, so you definitely need to eat this cake with a fork - but what a cake! I'm really pleased with my recipe - this is probably one of the nicest cakes I have made. It doesn't exactly taste like Umbongo so I would say the cake is inspired by Umbongo rather than tastes like it, but the flavour combination is wonderful and the amount of fruit makes the cake very moist and light.

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I host along with Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker, as our letter this month is U.