'Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

...And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Except that there seemed to be a lot of activity going on in the kitchen...

It feels as though I haven’t been more than 10 feet from the cooker in the past couple of days. I’ve been overcome by the need to bake.

You see the thing is I quite enjoy the making bit (kitchen disasters and mess aside) and the feeling that you’ve produced something but then I’m never that fussed about eating any of the produce.

I’m a savoury girl and my heart lies in a packet of crisps. Cakes and buns and muffins I can take or leave.

However, the rest of my work colleagues are most definitely in the ‘take’ category and I was ordered to produce sweet things for the little Christmas Eve party we’re going to have tomorrow at lunchtime. I had a recipe for Christmas morning muffins that I got from who knows where. On the internet somewhere is all I can tell you. I thought these would be lovely and festive with cinnamon and nutmeg and cranberries and orange zest all thrown in there.

“They sound nice,” said my colleagues. “but also you should make those Marshmallow ones again.”

“But they’re not really festive” I said

“MAKE THEM” came the reply.

So the electric whisk and my crummy scales have never been busier. I have obeyed my orders and made more marshmallow cupcakes. Only 6 though, they are quite frankly the most fiddly buggers I’ve ever made and I don’t enjoy gluing my fingers together with melted marshmallow – they can fight over them between themselves. But I also made the Christmas morning muffins because I wanted to make those.

Then I had to make some more Mincemeat cake. I made this at the beginning of the year with an old jar of leftover mincemeat when I’d just started getting in to baking. It didn’t quite come out like Maria’s seemed to but it was very tasty. I made some at the weekend and it was an unexpected hit with the boyfriend and work people snaffling most of it, leaving me with only 1 slice to savour. This cake is so good with a cup of tea and I’m looking forward to indulging tomorrow afternoon when I finally get to leave work and come home for Christmas.

Then my rooting around in the cupboards unearthed my Christmas tree cookie cutter. How had I forgotten about him?! Clearly I had to use him so out came the books again as I searched for a quick cookie recipe. The Hummingbird Bakery book obliged me and I set about covering the kitchen in a thin film of flour. And then came the fun bit – the decorating!!

And now it’s time for this little baking fairy to put away her muffin trays and her baking trays and her mixing bowls. She can clean the kitchen properly tomorrow afternoon, right now she can’t bear to face the devastation that she has wreaked in there. Or maybe, just maybe, the baking fairy’s boyfriend will clean it all up during the day seeing as he’s not in work. She just has to close her eyes and wish as hard as can be...

Marshmallow Cupcakes

Well it's happened again.

I'm sick.

AGAIN.

The Cough has returned.

This time last year I got a cough. Which was weird because I never get coughs. And it got worse and worse and I ended up with antibiotics for a chest infection.

The thing is. It's never really gone away. It's got better and I've been ok in myself but if I've cleared my throat it sounds as if I'm a 60 a day smoker with less than a month to live. And occasionally, every time I get a little cold it pops its ugly, mucusy, phlegmy head up again.

So he's arrived back again, out of the blue with not a word of warning which is rather rude in my books.

And I'm sick of him. Him and his horrid ways.

And I sound like a man.

I have antibiotics and Mr Doctor Man has got me booked in for chest x-ray next week to see if we can figure out where he's hiding.

It's left me feeling rather miserable with myself. I'm supposed to be going out tomorrow with the girls for our Christmas night out and at the moment my appearance is looking doubtful and there's nothing like the prospect of missing a night out to put me in a FOUL mood.

So.

To make myself feel better I got my kitchen groove on and made some rather hideously girly cupcakes with marshmallows and pink glitter on them. That's right. Pink. Glitter.

These babies are from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and they are marvellous although fiddly to the max. Remember me saying how I hate mess in the kitchen when I'm baking? I probably should have figured it out, I mean I had to melt marshmallows, hollow out the middle of the muffins and spoon it in. What was I thinking?!

There was marshmallow all over the spoon. There was marshmallow on the hob. There was marshmallow on the tea towel. There was marshmallow on my fingers. When the boyfriend came home he pointed out the marshmallow in my hair.

But MAN they taste good!

I would recommend this book to everyone. The recipes are mega easy (marshmallow meltiness aside) and they just take a little bit more effort than your bog standard cupcake and they look amazing. I mean hello? Marshmallows? Pink glitter? Can you go wrong?

NO!

Bring on the muffins!!

After making the apple crumble at the weekend I remembered that I quite liked this baking malarkey and stomped in to the kitchen to see what took my fancy.

I still hadn't tried anything from my Hummingbird Baking cookbook which I got for the rather bargainous price of £4 (it's about £12 in the shops so saved myself plenty of pennies). Everything in it looks so good and I would love to go and visit the bakery down in the London place but until then I decided to content myself with having a go at some muffins.

I went for the hazelnut & chocolate muffins, which I almost passed by until a quick glance down the list of ingredients revealed just what was in these bad boys. The one and only Nutella!! (Or if you're cheap like me, generic hazelnut and chocolate spread from your local supermarket.)

They came out so well, I was so pleased with myself. They are probably the finest looking muffins I have ever produced. Usually my muffins look like they've been hit by a car or that they've been made with the help of a 3 year old but these were great. Perfect shape and lovely neat icing. I should have got some hazelnuts to decorate the tops with but I was too lazy I'm afraid.
The recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes and a note in the front of the book says that they are based on American cupcake sizes so to use muffin cases. Now I did and I only got 6 muffins. Maybe I have super large cases?! Who knows. Either way it was probably for the best as this way there's only been 6 to scoff instead of 12!

I present to you - Hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1.5 tsps baking powder

pinch of salt

40g butter

120ml whole milk

1 egg

6 tbsps of Nutella

(whole, shelled hazelnuts to decorate)

Frosting

175g icing sugar

40g butter

30ml whole milk

80g Nutella

Method

- Preheat overn to 170c

- Put in flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter and beat until everything is combined

- Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating well until everything is combined. Add the egg and beat well.

- Spoon mixture into cases until two-thirds full and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until sponge bounces back when touched.

- When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with dollop of the Nutella, before placing the top back on (it will stick up a bit but don't worry, it's going to get covered in icing!)

For the frosting:

- Beat icing sugar and butter together (my god be careful, the whole kitchen was covered in icing sugar powder by the time I was finished!). Slowly pour in the milk and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. The longer you beat the lighter and fluffier it becomes.

- Stir in the Nutella by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. Then spoon over the top and finish with the hazelnuts.

Et voila! Eat to your heart's content!!

Sweet & Simple Bakes - Jammy Doughnut Muffins

Aaaaaaand WHIZZ! Another month flies by and it's time for this months Sweet & Simple Bake. This month it was these jammy doughnut mufifns and I was eager to get stuck in after last month's carrot cake success.

Unfortunately this wasn't my best production for S&S. I think I had the shelf a bit too far down I think because I baked them for ages and ages and convinced myself that they were done, only to find that they weren't done.

My bad.

This was also probably why they weren't all lovely and golden brown on the top.

Oh yeah and my other clue was that they weren't cooked all the way through. Bit of a give away that one.

Luckily they weren't all a disaster - there were some that were properly baked and they were rather marvellous. I loved the jam running through the middle, a delightful surprise as you bit through the muffin.

So I didn't do amazingly well this month. But I have high hopes for the next!

Find the recipe here.

Sweet & Simple Bakes

Raspberry and Orange Muffins

When Mum went away at the weekend to my sisters she came back with the biggest punnet of raspberries I've ever seen that she picked herself.

I've never seen so many and had no idea what on earth to do with them so a quick search on Google (what did we do before the internet?!) found these muffins which looked fairly easy to get to grips with.

I decided to cheer myself up on Tuesday night and make them to distract myself from the then missing Fred.

They were really easy to make although didn't rise very much which I think was because I went a little mad with the beaters and over-mixed the batter. They taste wonderful though, the raspberries give them a little tang which makes them great as a breakfast muffin. Or an elevenses muffin. Or an afternoon muffin...

RASPBERRY & ORANGE MUFFINS

Ingredients (makes about 16 small muffins)

200g self-raising flour

2tsp baking powder

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar
4 eggs

3 tbsp milk

Zest of 1 orange

150g lightly crushed raspberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c

Stick everything but the raspberries in a bowl and mix up together.

Fold in the crushed raspberries.

Stick in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

What could be simpler?!

The only downside is that I've made way too many. I could have done with halving the ingredients really so I'm currently trying to palm off muffins on everyone I meet.

Now. Just need to find something to do with the rest of the raspberries...

Sweet and Simple Bakes - Vanilla Cupcakes

Finally! The essay is finished and handed in. What a nightmare. Talk about making things difficult for yourself. All was going very well until Sunday when I got up and looked at what I'd written was rubbish and appalling and not even relevant and decided to start all over again. I'm an idiot. I think I was just over-thinking the whole situation and making things more difficult than they needed to be - not only have I not had to write an essay for about 3 years but the last essays I was writing were for my Masters degree and this is just a Diploma level, there's no need to panic.

Once I sat back a bit and stopped freaking out completely I realised what I needed to do and set about writing my masterpiece. Well. Maybe not masterpiece.

Either way it is now out of my hands and handed in so now it's just a case of waiting.

So what did I do to cheer myself up when I was buried under a mountain of papers and couldn't see an end in sight? Got myself in the kitchen!

The Sweet and Simple Bakes blog is something I've been following for a while but haven't plucked up the courage to try out. So this is my first go - I couldn't resist these babies!!They were absolutely brilliant and did exactly what they said on the tin - they are sweet and oh so simple!! Simply chuck all the ingredients in the bowl, give it a whisk, put in the cases and you're off! Which meant that I didn't need to feel guilty about taking time out from essay writing to make them - you are supposed to give your brain a rest after all!!

The other fantastic thing about this recipe is that I got to take a trip back to my childhood and play with food colouring and sprinkles - nothing wrong with that.

These cupcakes are soft, fluffy and light and I could happily eat a million of them. But I'm trying not to!

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients

175g (6 oz) self-raising flour

1½ level tsp baking powder

175g (6 oz) butter, softened

175g (6 oz) caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream Icing

150g (5oz) butter, softened

300g (11 oz) icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Edible food colouring(s) of choice, optional

Sprinkle(s) for decoration of choice

You will also require 12 holed muffin tin lined with 12 paper muffin cases

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Sift the self-raising flour and baking powder into a large bowl, and then add the butter, caster sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Beat together until well mixed, trying not to over mix the mixture.

Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar and stir until it’s just mixed in, then add the milk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Divide into as many bowls as you want different colour(s) and add edible food colouring (you only require a few drops). This is purely optional should you wish to leave out the edible food colouring(s) and keep the buttercream natural. Spread the icing on thickly with a palette knife on top of each cupcake or put the icing into a piping back and make a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate each cupcake with your chosen sprinkle(s).

I'm really looking forward to trying out more bakes at Sweet and Simple and at least I will now have an excuse to get in the kitchen and make things - I'm constantly having to find good reasons for going and baking things and now I'll have a perfect one - for at least once a month...

http://sweetandsimplebakes.blogspot.com/

My Birthday & Red Velvet Muffins

It was my birthday this weekend which meant we had our first party in the flat which was very exciting. I've been really looking forward to getting people round to the flat since we moved in and I haven't really had a chance to so my birthday was a great excuse to get everyone round and for those who hadn't seen the place yet to have a good nosy round.

Entertaining can only mean one thing - food and drinks. However I guessed that since I was going out the night before my birthday I probably wasn't going to be in that good a shape to be providing lots of finger food the next day so I cheated and just got a load of crisps, dips and those frozen party pack things in. Next time I'll be brave and try and actually make some stuff.

I did get my baking hat on though - no birthday is complete without birthday muffins/cupcakes and I knew exactly what I wanted to bake. I'm fairly new to the baking game and I'm still finding my feet a little bit, there have been a few disasters along the way - I still can't talk about the orange shortbread (although I still insist that the recipe for that was wrong and it wasn't my general incompetence). Muffins I'm not too bad at though and these bad boys are my favourite and perfect for adding a little wow factor. Everyone just loves the look of them (it's amazing what a little bit of food colouring can do for you) and once they have a bit of the cream cheese frosting on top they're hooked forever.

So I present to you.......

Red Velvet Muffins

These bad boys are not for the faint hearted - they definitely wouldn't make a list of healthy muffins but they were for my birthday! They're also a little fiddly to make - one spoon of this, one spoon of that and a hell of a lot of folding but I've been told you've got to fold to keep the air in and keep the muffins light so who am I to argue! Pain to make they might be but one bite and it'll all seem worth it...

Ingredients - makes approx 12 muffins

150g butter, softened

350g castor sugar

2 eggs

450g self raising flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

250ml buttermilk

2tbsp red food colouring

1tsp vanilla essence

1tsp white wine vinegar

For the frosting:

1 vanilla pod (or if you're poor like me some more vanilla essence!)

100g softened butter

125g cream cheese

200g sieved icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 170c and take a 12 hole muffin tray and full with muffin cases

Cream the butter and sugar together until it looks fluffy and then add in the eggs one by one, beating well in between.

Take 2 separate bowls and sieve the dry ingredients in to one and the mix the wet ingredients into the other. Then mix alternate spoonfuls from each into the egg mixture, folding thoroughly after each addition.

Fill cases with a spoonful of the mixture - be careful not to overfill the cases as these babies rise! Then bake for 10-15 minutes or until they have risen and feel springy. Remove from the oven to cool completely and then transfer onto a wire rack.

To make the frosting scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod and then add the butter and cream cheese (for those of you that can't afford the pods stick in a little bit of vanilla essence - you can always add more to taste). Beat well and then gradually add the icing sugar a little at a time until mixed in and smooth.

Once the muffins are cool, pile a splodge of the icing on top and you're good to go! How can you say no?!