Apple and Blueberry Muffins

I’m sorry for my lack of blog posts lately but life has a habit of sometimes getting in the way and I lost my baking mojo somewhere along that path. I decided that using the blueberries I bought last week would be a good start in getting back into the goddess’s kitchen and finding my mojo again. After flicking through a few of my many cookbooks I opted for this easy muffin recipe and adapted it by adding chopped apples. These muffins are juicy and moist and packed with a delicious combination of flavours. What better way to start the day then a gorgeous fruity healthy muffin!

Apple and Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients
2 medium eggs
250ml/9fl oz semi-skimmed milk
250g/9oz golden caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
350g/12oz plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
250g/9oz blueberries, fresh or frozen
2 apples, cored, peeled and chopped into small pieces
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 200oC/180oC fan oven, mark 6. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper muffins cases.

Put the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl and mix well.

In another bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together, then add the blueberries, chopped apple and lemon zest. Toss together and then make a well in the centre.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour, blueberries, apples and mix in gently – overbeating will make the muffins tough.

Divide the mixture among the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

I'll be visiting all my favourite blogs and promise to try and not stay away so long next time!

Chocolate Fudge Easter Cakes

Easter wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate and over the coming weekend most of us will over-dose to the point of never wanting to eat chocolate again! I’m starting my chocolate marathon with these Chocolate Fudge Easter Cakes. These cakes have a light, fluffy chocolate sponge, topped with luscious chocolate buttercream frosting and completed with a colourfully wrapped chocolate egg. An “egg-cellent” Easter treat that kids and adults will devour!

Chocolate Fudge Easter Cakes

Makes 16

Ingredients
140g soft butter
140g golden caster sugar
3 medium eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g cocoa, sifted

For the frosting:
85g milk chocolate, broken
85g soft butter
140g icing sugar, sifted
Foil-wrapped chocolate eggs

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and put 16 gold cases into a fairy-cake tin. Tip all the ingredients for the cake into a mixing bowl and beat for 2 mins with an electric hand-whisk until smooth. Divide between the cases so they are two-thirds filled, then bake for 12-15 mins until risen. Cool on a wire rack.
For the frosting, microwave the chocolate on high for 1 min. Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the melted chocolate. Spread on the cakes and decorate with the foil-wrapped chocolate eggs.

Mini Simnel Muffins

I started my Easter baking today with these Mini Simnel Muffins, which are a twist on the traditional Simnel Cake that I bake every year for Easter. These muffins are light, moist, packed with gorgeous vine fruits and gooey nuggets of marzipan baked within which melt deliciously into the fruit. The top of each muffin is then decorated with a blanket of marzipan and adorned with lovely spring sugar flowers!

Mini Simnel Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients
175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
225g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
350g luxury mixed dried fruit
100g chopped walnuts or almonds
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
50g natural almond paste, cubed

For the decoration
Icing sugar, to dust
250g natural almond paste
Small sugar flowers

Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3 and lightly grease a 12 x 125ml muffin tin or mould. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs and flour in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add the baking powder, spice, fruit and nuts, orange zest and juice, and mix well. Divide between the muffin holes and push in the almond paste pieces. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and firm. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove from the tin and set aside on a wire rack.

To decorate, dust a work top with icing sugar. Thinly roll out 250g almond paste. Press out 12 rounds with a 7cm fluted cutter (re-roll the trimmings). Press on each cake and decorate with sugar flowers.

Apple Cinnamon and Walnut Muffins

I came across this delicious recipe for Apple Cinnamon and Walnut Muffins over at AK Mom’s blog, At Home in Alaska and couldn’t resist the urge to try her delightful muffins! These muffins are a breeze to make, full of flavour and texture and loaded with chunks of apple and walnuts, which keeps them nice and moist. They’re good on the go or at home with that early cup of coffee/tea and they stay moist for days...if you have any left!! Thanks AK Mom, this is definitely a keeper!

Apple Cinnamon and Walnut Muffins

Makes 12 muffins (I ended up with 18)

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¾ cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

⅓ cup butter, melted

1 cup chopped apples

½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with paper baking liners. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In a small bowl, beat milk, eggs and butter until well blended. Stir into flour mixture just until blended. Fold in apples and walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups or liners, filling three-fourths full. Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centres comes out clean. Cool in pan for 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack.

Peanut Butter Blondies

Wow I can’t believe its Friday; this week has just flown by! I’m hoping the lovely spring weather we have been having will continue through-out the weekend, as hubby and I plan on doing some gardening. I’m also hoping to get some baking done at some stage during the weekend but just in case I’m too tired after my gardening and shopping activities I decided to bake these Peanut Butter Blondies today. These blondies are moist, really chewy and loaded with double peanut butter flavour!! These nutty treats will be devoured in no time. Have a great weekend everyone!

Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup/8 tablespoons/1 stick/113g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1½ cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup crunchy peanut butter (NOT natural-style)
½ cup peanut butter chips
¼ cup chopped dry roasted salted peanut

Place an oven rack in the middle of your oven and preheat the oven to 350oF/180oC/160oC fan oven. Grease and line a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with baking parchment. You should have a few inches left on each short end with which to lift the brownies out when they are done.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted, cooled butter, and the brown sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the peanut butter until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the large bowl and stir just until combined. Stir in the peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 30-35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan, set on a wire rack, about 1 hour. Remove the blondies from the pan, cut into squares.

Apple Flapjacks

What better way than to start a glorious spring day in the kitchen with some light baking and trying out a new recipe. These Apple Flapjacks are so easy to make and not many ingredients, which most of us will have readily available in our kitchens. They are like ordinary flapjacks, except they have chopped apples which produce a really moist, delicious, sweet and buttery experience that resembles what I can only describe as toffee apple heaven! I have a feeling these won’t last long once my boys hit the cake tin. I couldn’t resist and had to add this pic of my cat Coco in one of her favourite spots, by the kitchen window watching me whilst I bake!

"What's that your baking? it smells delish!!"

Apple Flapjacks

Ingredients
250g (8oz) butter
250g (8oz) caster sugar
175g (6oz) golden syrup
425g (14oz) porridge oats
2 apples, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to Gas 4, 180°C, 350°F. Grease and line base a 20x30cm (8x12in) cake tin with baking parchment.
Melt butter, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a pan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in oats and apples.
Spread mixture in tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cut into 12-14 bars; allow to cool before turning out of the tin.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Sweet and Simple Bake!

This month over at Sweet and Simple Bakes I presented this tried and tested delicious recipe for Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are a favourite in my home and usually fly out of the cookie tin. I am looking forward to seeing another great round up and reading everyone's entries. Please pop over to Sweet and Simple Bakes to view more cookie entries!

If you would like to re-create these scrumptious cookies, you can find the recipe here!

Be back soon!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm away from today for a long weekend in the cotswolds with my hubby to celebrate our wedding anniversary. After a stressful and upsetting time we both really need and deserve this break! Sorry for my lack of blogging lately but with recent events I've not been in the mood but now with Easter around the corner I will be baking lots of lovely treats, so watch this space! I know most of you will want to know how Ollie is doing, despite him having this merciless disease he is doing quite well, still eating and playful at times, just sleeping more than usual. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for all the beautiful and kind supportive words, they have been a great comfort. Below are some pics I took of him this week. See you all very soon and have a great weekend.



Love and hugs

Maria

xx

A very sad day

I'm very sad to report that the tests came back positive. This is a very sad day for my family and me, and everyone that Ollie has touched. His long term prognosis is bleak, the vet can't say how long but could be as short as weeks. Our job now is to make his time left with us a happy time before we send him to heaven. One small mercy is he doesn't know his unwell. I'm totally devastated and not sure how I will get through this but it's such a comfort to know I have the support of so many friends. Thanks.

Love and hugs
Maria
xx

Thick and Chewy Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last Friday I took my kitten Ollie to the vets for his castration and when the vet was examining him she found a lump in his lower tummy which she didn’t like the feel of and said she wanted to investigate and run blood tests, so as you can imagine I was shocked and upset to say the least! Hubby and me waited anxiously all day and then we went to collect him in the afternoon, I knew it was bad news the minute she asked us to sit down for a chat. So to cut a long story short, my Ollie is unwell and his blood tests came back showing severe abnormalities, and she couldn’t tell what the lump was from the ultra-sound and x-rays as he has fluid around his tummy. She would have opened him up to investigate the lump further but due to his low blood count and anaemia that was a big no no. And then came the news that every cat owner doesn't want to hear, she told us that she had sent tests off for Feline Infectious Peritonitis, which I had never heard of but wasn’t sounding good at all. Basically if the test comes back positive the prognosis is bad. There is no treatment or cure and it’s a death sentence and I will have to eventually euthanize. I’ve been trying to stay positive and hope the test comes back negative but at the same time preparing myself for the worse. We find out tomorrow and I’m starting to feel anxious now, however at least we don’t have to wait all day and our appointment is at 8am, thank god! I decided to take my mind off things and bake a batch of these melt-in-the-mouth cookies that are definitely for those with a sweet tooth. I have never tried the Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip combo in cookies and I can certainly say that this won’t be the last time, they are so yummy!

Thick and Chewy Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups (10⅔oz) plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

12 tbsp/1½ sticks/170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup packed (7 oz) light brown sugar

½ cup (3½ oz) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1½ cup (9 oz) white chocolate chips

1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 165oC/145oC fan oven/ 325 degrees/ Gas Mark 3. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, 1 or 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beater as needed.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chips and nuts until incorporated.

Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 20 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

I'll let you all know the outcome of the test and visit to the vets tomorrow. Please keep everything crossed for us!

Hummingbird Cake

There’s no better way to start a glorious sunny day than in the kitchen baking a cake to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of spring! I had come cross this wonderful recipe for Hummingbird Cake on my recent travels around blogs I regularly love to visit. Happy Cook from My Kitchen Treasures and Rosie from Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake (but has now moved to Baking Cakes Galore) have both baked this cake with beautiful results, making me want to bake it too. Check out their beautiful blogs and their Hummingbird Cakes! This cake gets its dense richness from mashed bananas, pecans and crushed pineapple, and cream-cheese icing that's smeared top to bottom. Definitely a taste of heaven ready to tantalise your taste buds.

Hummingbird Cake

Ingredients

1½ cups of self-raising flour

1 cup of caster sugar

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp cinnamon

¾ cup of flavourless oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Few drops of vanilla extract

¾ cup pecan nuts, chopped

2 large ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

½ cup of pineapple from a tin, drained and chopped finely

Cream cheese frosting (adapted to cover the whole cake)
1 x 250g cream cheese, at room temperature
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
450g (3 cups) icing sugar mixture
2 tsp milk
A few sprinkles (optional) I used sugarcraft daffodils

You will need a 20cm (8 in) round springform tin, lightly greased with a little butter and based lined with non-stick baking paper or greaseproof paper.

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan oven 150°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, vanilla extract, oil, nuts, banana and pineapple and stir until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until firm to the touch in the centre of the cake or a skewer inserted into the centre come out clean.

Leave the cake to stand in its tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove the paper from the base of the cake and place onto a cake stand or plate to serve.

To make the cream cheese frosting, use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl. Add the icing sugar and beat until well combined. Add milk and beat to combine.

Spread the cream cheese filling over the top of the cake and sides. Decorate with sprinkles etc if you wish.

Thanks Happy Cook for this lovely recipe!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Since I first stumbled across the recipe back in 2004 when Nigella Lawson launched her cookbook “Feast”, I have made this Chocolate Guinness Cake each year to celebrate St Patricks Day. It is one of my top 10 favourite cakes that I make and one my boys and I love eating! I guess it is the Irish in my boys that draw them to it.
This cake is a dark moist sponge that oozes the flavour of the chocolate and subtle undertones resonating from the Guinness. The frothy topped pint of Guinness is replicated here with the creamy exuberance of cream cheese frosting. Sprinkled with a touch of Irish charm in these shamrocks.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Makes 12 slices

Ingredients
For the cake
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
142ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the topping
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180˚C, butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
Start by pouring the Guinness into a large, wide saucepan and add the butter; heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then pour in the pan of brown, buttery, beer and finally whisk in the four and bicarb.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it's quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency.

Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint. Sprinkle with shamrock sprinkles or green glitter or sugar (optional).

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

What type of cookie lover are you – a muncher, a dunker, a nibbler, a splitter, or frosting licker? Whatever type, you won’t be able to resist these amazing cookies!! Keeping to my promise of baking more cookies or biscuits I decided to bake these Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Book Baking Book. These cookies certainly live up to their name; they are big, thick and melt-in-your mouth chewy and sure to satisfy every cookie lover. I have a feeling they will be flying out of the cookie tin at record speed!

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients
2 cups (10⅔oz) plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
12 tbsp/1½ sticks/170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed (7 oz) light brown sugar
½ cup (3½ oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cup (9 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 165oC/145oC fan oven/ 325 degrees/ Gas Mark 3. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, 1 or 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beater as needed.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chips until incorporated.

Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 20 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.