Pumpkin Cupcakes

We're back!!!!!!

So we took the 'summer' off, we just had sooo much to do, what with all the sunshine and all...And seeing as Halloween is my favourite festivity (Pancake Tuesday coming a close second) what better time of year to start baking again. Over the last 8 years I have baked something with pumpkin for my (un)lucky housemates. It started off with pumpkin pie which the girls described as "like eating a vegetable pie that kinda tasted desserty". Bottom line they hated it. So the next year, I thought it couldn't have tasted that bad and I made it again...this time they refused to eat it. Back to the drawing board. In the following years, I experimented with cookies decorating them with writing icing(not great) and pumpkin cake (like carrot cake with pumpkin in it, not bad actually), but this year I think I have finally cracked it...Pumpkin Cupcakes...bleedin' delish :-)

The most labourious part of this recipe is preparing the pumpkin. You can buy puréed pumpkin but by the time you have driven around the country to find it, you will have roasted your own pumpkin, peeled it, mashed it, sieved it and left the water to drain off it!

                     

Ingredients(makes 12)
110g unsalted butter, room temperature               
240g soft light brown sugar
120g plain flour                                             
125g self-raising flour
100g puréed pumpkin
2 large eggs                  
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon                      
1/2 tsp ground ginger                                         
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120mls milk mixed with 1tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160degrees celsius

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract, beat well after each addition. Add the pumpkin and beat until just combined. The mixture may curdle if the pumpkin is straight out of the fridge but don't worry it will still make delicious cupcakes. 

Combine the flours, cinnamon and ginger and sieve into a bowl. Add one-third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat until just combined. Add half of the milk/lemon and beat again until just combined. Repeat until all the flour and milk/lemon have been added.

Spoon into the cupcake cases filling them to two-thirds full. Bake for 25mins until slightly raised and golden brown. 

Once they are completely cooled, ice them with cinnamon cream cheese icing. 

Cinnamon cream cheese icing: 175g cream cheese, 450g icing sugar(sieved), 125g unsalted butter(room temperature), 1/4tsp ground cinnamon, pinch of ground cloves

Mix all the ingredients together and beat well until thoroughly combined and the icing is smooth and pale.

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Nappy cake

Ok - this isn't strictly cooking but I do promise that it is calorie free!!


Portlaoise has been crowned baby boom capital of Ireland, I think Dublin must be coming a close second - it is certainly leading the way in wishing new mums well as they prepare for motherhood with BABY SHOWERS.  The baby shower has become the social highlight of many a thirysomethings social calendar and apparently a ‘nappy cake’ is a must.

What you need:

Nappies           I used about 80 to make a 3 tiercake.  I was told to only buy Pampers or Huggies and that size 3 was the most useful as not all new born babes fit into the smaller sizes.

Elastic Bands  You need one small one for each nappy,about 80 and about 10 larger ones for arranging the tiers

Ribbon            Colour of your choice, I chose a neutral-ish purple.  If you know you are celebrating a boy or a girl – it should make the choice fairly obvious ;-)

Other items that the new mum will need can be added as well, I included baby shampoo and lotion, Sudocrem, cotton buds, mits, a hat and a toy.  You could also include bottles, bottle brushes and soothers.

Start by rolling up each nappy and holding it with one of the small elastic bands.


What to do:

Once you have all the nappies rolled you need to start arranging into tiers.

For the top tier, use one rolled nappy as the centre point and then arrange about 6 nappies around this nappy in a circle and secure with an elastic band.  This should be big enough for the top tier. 

As the lower tiers need to be larger than the top tier, follow the instructions for the top tier but add another row or ring of nappies and secure with a large elastic band.  

Depending on how big you want each of the lower tiers to be, continue to add rows or rings of nappies – securing each set with a large elastic band.

Once you have all 3 tiers made you need to stack them on top of one another – now you have the basic structure of the cake.

Decorating the cake:

Cut the ribbon into 3 and tie it around each tier ensuring you cover any visible elastic band.

If you are adding other items – you can remove some of the nappies from the edge of the tiers and replace with some suitably shaped items –bottles of shampoo or baby lotion, feeding bottles or Sudocrem.

You could also replace the centre nappy with some of the other items – bottles either empty or containing baby products are probably the best shape.

You can tuck things like the hat and mits around the edges and place the toy on top!

Bruschetta on a Summer's Day

Now I know we haven't had much sunshine yet but on one of the few sunny days we had in May I was inspired to make bruschetta. I am not much of a salad person but I love this dish and I always feel healthy after eating it! My Dad was the first person in our family to make this dish. My mother subsequently stole the recipe from Dad and claimed it as her own. Now I'm stealing it and claiming it as my recipe. It's an easy one to make and you can add other ingredients to it such as chilli or cucumber or whatever you fancy. Equally you can add more or less of the garlic and onions to suit your taste. Dad reckons the secret is in the bread so choose carefully! 

Maybe if everyone makes bruschetta the sun will come out for us, here's hoping!!

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

12 medium sized ripe tomatoes(plum, cherry, any sweet tomato works well)

1/2 red onion

1/2 yellow pepper

2 cloves of garlic

2 stalks of basil

2 thickly cut rounds of tiger bread(or any fresh crusty white loaf)

Good olive oil

I served this with rocket leaves and balsamic dressing.

Collect all your ingredients

                                                     

Chop tomatoes roughly into half, then quarters and then chop once more across the middle. If using cherry tomatoes you can just chop them in half.

 Place in a bowl.

 Chop the pepper and onion finely and add to the tomatoes.

 Crush the garlic into the mixture and mix well.

Shred the leaves of basil and add into the mix. Add enough olive oil to coat the mixture.

Place the mixture in the fridge to chill.

  The bread can now be toasted in the oven

 To assemble drizzle a small amount of oil onto the oven-toasted bread. Spoon the tomato mixture onto the bread. 

 

 Serve with salad and sunshine!

Dr. Rita Hand's Carrot Cake

Ok Strawberry, I am super impressed by the blog so here is my first contribution under my alias, Dr. Rita Hand.  I made this cake for a cake sale in work and made the mistake of mentioning it to the girls and of course, I was volunteered for dessert duty the following Tuesday.

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 eggs

150ml vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)

200g white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

125g plain flour

1 teaspoon bread soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 large carrots grated

65g pecans (chopped, or pulverised in the liquidiser; whichever your preference)

For the icing:

65g butter

110g cream cheese (I used low fat and it worked perfectly)

240g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius. 



 Into a large bowl, place the eggs, white sugar and vanilla essence.

Beat this mixture together with a fork.

Sieve the flour into the mixture.

Add the ground cinnamon.

Using a fork, mix until you achieve a smooth consistency.

Add the grated carrots.

Pop the pecans into the liquidiser and turn on for a few seconds.

Stir the grated carrots and ground pecans through the mixture.

Grease a loaf tin with a little butter and dust with a little flour.  Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. 

Bake in the oven for approximately 45-50 minutes (for a fan-assisted oven).  Stick a skewer into cake and if it is clean when removed then the cake is ready!  Leave to cool before trying to remove from the cake tin. 

For the icing, use soft butter and chop into small pieces.  Add to liquidiser or bowl if you have a hand mixer (my kitchen equipment is limited).  The liquidiser is from Aldi- thanks Mum!  Sieve in the icing sugar and add the cream cheese and vanilla essence.  Pop the lid on and turn the liquidiser on full blast until you achieve a nice, smooth consistency.  You may need to stop for a few seconds and mix with a spoon to ensure no pockets of icing sugar are forming.  You may find it necessary to taste it at this point.  You may also find that plenty of willing volunteers will suddenly materialise to "help".

Pour the icing over the cake.  Even with a generous layer, there will be plenty left over.  This icing is also really good for cupcakes.

Top with a pecan or two to make it look pretty.