Playful yummy bakes for modern home bakers
Mince pie cookies, a playful take on the classics. Mince pies are undoubtedly a Christmas staple; the taste, the aroma and the ritual all make for one of the most traditional seasonal bakes that has truly stood the test of time. There are 12 days …
Sometimes only chocolate will do and when you’re in that mood, more is definitely more, so what you really want is chocolate…on chocolate on more chocolate. Bring on my chocolate nutella muffins. This recipe is a chocolate lover’s dream and something kiddies and adults will …
Sometimes you just want something a little bit different for breakfast or a relaxingly laid back brunch, something that just says treat. These banana and cinnamon baked breakfast doughnuts with orange sugar do all this and more. Light and immensely satisfying, these pillowy vanilla and cinnamon scented doughnuts tick all the boxes, plus baking these make them a much healthier alternative to frying and a heck of a lot simpler to make, so all perfect bonus’ for breakfast. The banana, not only adding to your 5 a day, helps keep these goodies beautifully soft and the orange sugar helps brighten up all the flavours. Great served with fruit, a nice cuppa tea or coffee. Relax and enjoy.
I got the idea for flavoured sugar from Jamie Oliver. Visit his site for more of his recipe inspiration.
250g self rising flour
80g caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
2 very ripe bananas (mashed)
2tsp baking powder
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
150ml milk
Zest of 2 oranges
Approx 100g granulated sugar (for the topping)
Makes 12 baked doughnuts
Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C in fan oven) Gas Mark 7.
Line the 2 doughnut tins with baking spray and leave to one side.
Weigh out the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon) and sift into a large mixing bowl. Then add the caster sugar. Stir to combine then leave to one side.
Mash the bananas with a fork.
Measure the milk into a jug. Crack in the eggs and add the vanilla extract, oil and mashed banana into the liquids. Stir to combine.
Add the wet ingredients into the dry, gradually to avoid lumps. (Don’t worry too much if there are a few lumps, it’s a bit like making muffins, better not to overmix and have a light batter than to have a super smooth consistency and have heavy doughnuts.)
With a teaspoon, fill each mould ½ full (the mixture rises quite a bit).
Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 7-8 minutes. (It honestly doesn’t take long at all – you just want the mixture to be springy to the touch and just coming away from the sides).
Leave to cool for 5/10 minutes and then using a knife gently go around the outside of each doughnut to loosen and take out of the tin. They should come out easily. Leave on a wire rack to cool.
While they are cooling you can make the orange sugar. Zest the oranges into a bowl and pour in the granulated sugar a little at a time. The consistency you are after is a dry sandy texture. You are essentially dehydrating the orange zest by combining it to the sugar, so add the sugar gradually so you can add more if needed until you get to the right consistency.
Serve the breakfast doughnuts with the orange sugar and some fresh fruit. Enjoy.
Best eaten on the day of baking but will keep in an airtight container for a few days after. You can freeze the doughnuts which will keep for a few months in the freezer. The orange sugar can be stored in an airtight container too and will keep for about a month.
Looking for more breakfast inspiration to start the day off right? Why not try my Cardamom and vanilla baked fruit or my Pumpkin spiced pancakes with orange maple syrup and toasted pecans. Love porridge I’ve got a lovely Mango, coconut and lime porridge – a touch of sunshine to start the day – full of sunshine flavours.
Themed bakes for special occasions, much like costume parties, always get my vote. I just love the theatricality and fun you can have with baking like this and halloween cupcakes are a brilliant way to get in the ghoulish party spirit. The Matcha Mash Halloween …
Jammie Dodger cupcakes are such a playful and stylish little bake. A nostalgic throwback to the childhood biscuits we loved to eat growing up. A simple recipe for vanilla cupcakes with sweet tangy raspberry jam is a winning combination and a crowdpleaser of a dessert. …
Quality Street chocolate cupcakes are definitely the sort of cake you could make and eat all year round but there is just something very comfortingly and joyously Christmassy about these with the addition of the Quality Street decorations. Any sweets in jewel bright wrappers have to be worth a bite.
I love adding variations to simple recipes and this is just that; a no fuss chocolate sponge recipe tweaked with the addition of flavours of coffee and cinnamon to really intensify the cocoa with generous spoonfuls of indulgent dulce de leche in the cakes once baked. Such a treat.
Fancy having a go with some other chocolate recipes? Why not try my Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts – perfect party food ideas or for a gorgeous vegan treat Vegan chocolate and peanut butter scones
170g self rising flour (remove 3 tbsp of the flour and replace with 3 tbsp of cocoa powder)
170g caster sugar
170g softened unsalted butter
3 eggs
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee powder
Dulce de leche (approx 1 tbsp of this per cupcake)
400g sifted icing sugar
220g softened unsalted butter
50g sifted cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
Mixture of Quality Street sweets to decorate
Edible gold balls or gold dust to decorate (optional)
Makes 12 cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 170°C, GM3.
Line a muffin tin with 12 cases and leave aside while you make the mixture.
Weigh out all of your ingredients.
In a separate bowl, sift the self rising flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee, ground cinnamon and salt.
Using a food mixer, or free standing whisk, combine the sugar and butter together until it forms a light, creamy consistency. This will only take a few minutes with a food mixer. Then gradually add one egg at a time, leaving plenty of time for the egg to incorporate into the mixture before adding the next and keep the mixer running at a fairly high speed while doing this; this will help the mixture from curdling. You can also add a tablespoon of flour after each egg at this stage to help prevent curdling too.
Once the eggs have all been added, add in the dry ingredients and on a slow speed mix until they have only just combined. Then add the vanilla extract and fold into the cake mixture.
Using a medium ice cream scoop or two spoons, portion the mixture out amongst the cake cases. Take care not to overfill the cases as the mixture will rise more as it bakes. Half fill each case with batter.
Bake in the middle shelf of the oven, turning the pan ¾ way through cooking time to help the cakes cook evenly. This should take between 18-20 minutes.
To test if the cakes are cooked, use a cake skewer and insert into the middle of one of the cakes and if it comes away clean then they are cooked. The cakes should also spring back when touched.
Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely before icing. Cupcakes cool down really quickly so this will take less than 30 minutes.
While you wait, you can prepare the icing.
To make the icing add the butter to a food mixer and cream it for a few minutes to make sure everything is very smooth before gradually starting to add the icing sugar and cocoa powder (and coffee) mixture. Once the mixture is combined and everything is light and fluffy (the longer you mix, the fluffier the mixture will get) then add the vanilla extract and salt and mix for a final time. Add milk to the icing if you think it needs to have a looser, more spreadable consistency.
Before icing, take a teaspoon or apple corer to make a round hole in the centre of each cupcake and then fill each centre with up to 1 tbsp of dulce de leche for a cheeky surprise when you bite into them later.
Then, using a small palette knife, swirl the chocolate buttercream onto each cupcake and then decorate as you like with the sweets. Add edible gold sprinkles or gold dust for an extra touch of sparkle if you like.
The cakes should keep well in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
For baking, make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, including the eggs, it will help all of the ingredients combine together well.
An ice cream scoop is a great tool to help ensure that your cupcakes are the same size when they are baked.
Weigh out all of your ingredients in advance; yes this means more bowls and more washing up, but the positive is that you have everything ready before you start, so you only have to think about the process of making the cake, instead of rushing to find the next ingredient and weigh it out while the mixer is running.
These vegan chocolate peanut butter scones are so decadent, loud and over the top they’d make the classic afternoon tea scone blush and run for cover. Richly filled and topped with chocolate and peanut butter, these scones are the perfect party food and great for sharing. …
Banana bread is such a classic and comforting recipe and something that definitely became a lockdown staple recently. My version is a Chai Banana Bread, filled with chai tea to enhance the subtle warmth of the spices in the cake and also adds in lots …
Apple pie muffins. A playful respect for the classics has resulted in one of the most luscious mashups I’ve made, so far. I love fruity desserts and I always find a crumble, pie or cobbler hard to resist; really anything with custard makes the best pud.
Simple to make, no mixer required, and gorgeous to eat, these custard flavoured vanilla muffins, rolled in cinnamon sugar and topped with stewed apples are everything you’ll want as the seasons transition into Autumn. This is a bake I’m confident that you’ll enjoy and come back for more.
Looking for other autumnal bakes? Why not try my Cinnamon, oat and banana pancakes with spiced plums – an amazing breakfast or brunch idea.
250g self-rising flour
30g custard powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter
¼ tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
225ml milk
For the topping – granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, 80g melted butter and approx. 1 tbsp of stewed apples on each muffin.
4 eating apples – finely chopped
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp apple sauce (optional)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
15g butter
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Makes 12 muffins
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C/Gas Mark 6.
To make the stewed apples, combine all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes until soft. Add splashes of water to the apples as needed to loosen the mix as needed. Leave to cool in the fridge until needed. This can also be made a few days ahead if you like.
Either line a muffin pan with cake cases or using additional butter listed in the recipe, brush melted butter and dust with flour to ensure that your muffins come out easily.
Weigh out all of the muffin ingredients (apart from the additional sugar, butter and cinnamon for the coating once they are cooked).
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Using a medium ice cream scoop, portion out the muffin batter and bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. The muffins will be lightly browned, springy to the touch and coming away from the edges when they are done.
Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before taking the muffins out.
Dip each of the muffins into the melted butter and roll them in the granulated sugar and cinnamon and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Once cooled, top each muffin with approx. tablespoon of the stewed apples.
Do not over mix your muffin batter, once the ingredients are combined, you’re done. Don’t worry about lumps either, a lumpy batter often makes the lightest muffins; what a baking paradox.
Make sure to dip your muffins into the butter and sugar when they are still warm, the sugar will stick better that way.
An ice cream scoop ensures that the muffins are an even size but of course you can scoop out the batter with spoons.
Looking for some more inspiration? Why not try BBC’s apple recipes.
Carrot cake is such a comforting classic. When you think how simple it is to make, no fancy mixers required, the happy delusions it inspires in us, getting our veggies and eating cake too, and the gorgeous contrast between the spiced cake and sweet cream …