Carrot cupcakes with orange buttercream

It’s been a busy couple of months with lots of friends and family visiting! I made these carrot cupcakes about a month ago, when some friends were visiting on their way down from Leeds to Cornwall. I fancied making these as I haven’t made them for ages – they are a fairly quick and easy cake to make but they taste delicious.

The recipe comes from my “go to” Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery book. I’ve made them before and they work brilliantly well with the orange cream cheese icing in the book, however, they then need to be kept in the fridge. As my friends were travelling onwards, I wanted to give them some for their holiday and so I stuck with a simple orange buttercream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

The recipe is simple and these are a very reliable bake. The mixture is a lot runnier than most cake mixtures, but don’t be alarmed by this. If you have time before you start baking, soak the raisins in a mixture of boiling water, orange juice and a bit of cinnamon and they will plump up beautifully.  The recipe calls for 130g raisins, but I usually chuck a few more in.

Carrot cupcakes with orange buttercream

Ingredients

1. 225g carrots, peeled and trimmed
2. 130g raisins
3. 2 large eggs
4. 130g caster sugar
5. 120ml corn oil
6. ½ tsp vanilla extract
7. Grated zest of 1 orange
8. 120g plain flour
9. 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
10. Pinch of salt
11. 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Orange buttercream

1. 115g butter, at room temperature
2. 500g icing sugar, sifted
3. 4 tblsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C.
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
3. Finely grate the carrots and drain off any liquid.
4. Combine the grated carrot with the raisins in a large bowl and set to one side.
5. Using a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together for several minutes.
6. Add the oil, vanilla and orange zest and beat well.
7. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon together in another bowl.
8. Gradually add these ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture, folding carefully after each addition.
9. Pour this mixture into the bowl containing the carrots and raisins and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly distributed.
10. Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two-thirds full.
11. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the cakes bounce back when touched.
12. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in the tin for about ten minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.
13. To make the buttercream, beat the butter, juice and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
14. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
15. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag topped with a Wilton 1M piping nozzle.
16. Once the cakes have cooled, pipe a swirl of buttercream onto the cakes and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon. 

Egg-free banana, oat and raisin muffins

Sunday afternoon and I’m waiting to watch the Queen’s Club tennis final but, unsurprisingly, the tennis is suspended due to rain.  Finding a hand of overripe bananas in the fruit bowl, I decided to make use of the time and whip up some banana muffins. I found this recipe on the web and decided to give it a go as it looked fairly simple and we had all of the ingredients in the cupboard.  I added a handful of raisins to the recipe for extra flavour and texture (would probably have used sultanas but we didn’t have any!).

This is a very easy and quick recipe. They are very banana-y and feel very healthy! I put in three bananas and I think that this was slightly too much as the balance of banana to cake wasn’t quite right and this meant that they were slightly sticky in the cases. The texture was generally good though – crisped on top but moist inside.

 
Egg-free banana, oat and raisin muffins

Ingredients

1. 25g/1oz unsalted butter
2. 3 tsp runny honey
3. 2-3 large, ripe bananas
4. 100g/3.5oz plain flour
5. 55g/2oz porridge oats
6. 1 heaped tsp baking powder
7. 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
8. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
9. Handful raisins or sultanas
10. 75ml/2.5fl oz milk            

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5.
2. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
3. Melt the butter and honey in a saucepan.
4. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
5. Mash the banana and mix with the honey and butter.
6. Add this mixture and the milk to the dry ingredients, stirring until mixed lightly.
7. Spoon into the muffin cases, sprinkling a few extra oats on top.
8. Bake for 25mins until golden brown and firm to touch.

Apple Amazing Cake

So next on the list for the baking marathon for EHH’s birthday was my Apple Amazing Cake. This is actually an Apple and Raisin Cake but has been re-named Apple Amazing Cake as lots of people have misheard and assumed that this was the name – it also tastes pretty amazing! It is a huge hunk of a cake and so serves lots of people! 

The recipe originally came from a colleague when I was temping many years ago – it’s actually a good thing to be typing it out as I was given it handwritten and it is now looking rather worse for wear, with many splatters and grease marks obscuring bits of the writing. Typing it out means that I’ll have a spare copy – I’d hate to lose this recipe!

The only problem with this recipe is that it does take forever to cook – and is a bit unpredictable in how long it will take! The recipe I was given says between 1.5 hours and 3 hours! You’re also not meant to open the oven too often to check otherwise it will sink!

The recipe is also in ounces rather than grams as this was how it was given to me!

Apple Amazing Cake

Ingredients

1. 4 large cooking apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
2. 1-2 tblsp soft brown sugar
3. 24oz plain flour
4. 3 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
5. 12oz margarine
6. 12oz castor sugar (I use golden)
7. 1 tblsp cinnamon
8. 12oz seedless raisins
9. 4 large eggs (beaten)

Method

1. Grease and line a 9” (22.5cm) square baking tin with baking parchment.
2. Preheat the oven to 190C.
3. Put chopped apples into a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar. 
4. Cook over a low heat until soft and pureed (a few lumps left is fine), stirring regularly.
5. Once pureed, remove from heat and taste – add extra soft brown sugar if needed, but be careful not to over-sweeten. Leave to cool.
6. Put flour, bicarb and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and rub in margarine until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
7. Stir in sugar, raisins and eggs.
8. Stir in apple puree and mix everything together well.
9. Pour into the prepared baking tin and cook at 190C for 30 minutes.
10. After 30 minutes of cooking turn the oven down to 140C and then cook for another 1 – 2.5 hours.
11. Check occasionally to ensure the top isn’t too brown. Cover with tin foil if needed.
12. To check if cooked, insert a clean knife. If it comes out clean, it is ready.