Courgette and sultana cupcakes

I love carrot cake but, other than my never to be repeated attempt at brussel sprout cake (attempt at your peril – you have been warned!), I haven’t dabbled with other vegetables in cakes.  This courgette cake appeared in the Sainsbury’s magazine as a sandwich cake, but I instantly thought of it in terms of cupcakes as I had a very limited window for baking this weekend and knew that cupcakes would cool much faster than a larger cake.

Whereas a carrot cake tends to be spiced with cinnamon, this cake uses vanilla.  Vanilla remains my absolute favourite ingredient in baking so I added some to the frosting too.  It is one of the great joys of baking to open a bottle of vanilla extract and inhale…my name is the Caked Crusader and I am a vanillaholic.

As with carrot cake, the sponge was incredibly light and moist.  It was unusual to bite into a cake and see flecks of green but this was easy to overcome given the deliciousness of the cupcakes (plus, most people would probably just think it was lime zest).  The frosting was particularly popular – much creamier than a buttercream – and felt light and whippy in your mouth; more ice cream than buttercream.  It was very difficult to stop at one cake!

Mr CC really took against the concept of courgette cakes – every time I mentioned I was making this recipe he would produce a repulsed shudder of Oscar worthy proportions.  I asked him why and his objection was that courgette, unlike carrot, was a wetter vegetable and he hated the thought of vegetable juice in a cake.  I’m sure you can predict how the story ends....guess who really liked them?

Ingredients

For the cupcake sponge:

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g golden caster sugar
2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g self raising flour
60g courgette, coarsely grated – this is about half a medium courgette
60g sultanas
20g walnuts, roughly chopped

For the frosting:

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g icing sugar
125g mascarpone
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

NB: if you double all these quantities you can make a 20cm round sandwich cake instead – make sure you increase the baking time to about 30 minutes.

Method

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

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases.

Start by making the sponge: beat the butter until pale and whippy.

Beat in the sugar and beat until it looks fluffy – don’t skimp on this stage; the mix should look almost like whipped cream.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Stir in the flour.

Fold in the courgette, sultanas and walnuts.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.

Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

As soon as you can safely handle them, remove the cupcakes from the cupcake pan – the metal of the tray will retain heat and continue to cook them – get them out the tin and let cool on a wire rack. NB.  Don’t worry as they cool, particularly if you store them overnight, the case will come away from the sponge.  Often it can be a sign that the cake is overcooked, but it isn’t always – these are incredibly moist cakes and will peel away from the paper.

Now make the frosting: beat the butter until it is pale and whippy looking.

Add the icing sugar and beat until you have a smooth mix.

Beat in the mascarpone and vanilla.

Spoon in generous dollops on top of each cupcake – this is not a topping for fancy piping!

The cakes will keep for a couple of days but must be refrigerated because of the mascarpone in the frosting.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat

Tiramisu

 

Regular readers will know that I am not a coffee drinker and do not like coffee flavoured anything, other than perhaps a Revel (but only if there’s another choccy left in the bag to take the taste away!)  However, Mr CC loves coffee as does everyone else in my family.  Therefore, when I was asked if I would like to sample a Puro Coffee goodie bag my altruism shone through and I accepted!

What a goodie bag it was too; three large packs of coffee, hot chocolate, sugar, a cafetiere and two coffee cups and saucers.   I know many other bloggers have already mentioned it, and reviewed the coffee, but look at how gorgeous the cups are (they even have a little coffee bean embossed on the back!)

What is Puro Coffee I hear you ask? Puro is a leading brand of Fairtrade coffee that works in partnership with the World Land Trust to purchase and protect areas of precious rainforest in South America. Enjoy your favourite drink while saving the planet?  It’s never been easier!

While it’s perhaps not a familiar name (yet) many of you will have sampled the coffee without knowing - every National Trust site uses Puro coffee, as do all the Royal Parks in London (the Queen actually had to sign off that snazzy cup design to allow it in the parks), and a number of café/restaurant chains, such as Le Pain Quotidien and Leon.

I asked Mr CC to make me up a batch (he chose the Noble – a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans) ensuring he made enough for my tiramisu, and for him to have a couple of cups.  I tried to get his tasting comments but Mr CC either likes stuff or he doesn’t, he’s not known for his Jilly Goolden-esque flowery reviews.  He did however say that he liked how strong and rich it was without being at all bitter...and he left the cafetiere out so he could make more (a very positive sign!)

Tiramisu is a hugely popular dessert, and because of that many food writers and critics have turned against it, much in the same way that the glorious black forest gateau was derided as naff a few years back.  But things become hugely popular for a reason – normally that they taste good.

This dessert couldn’t be simpler to make but my one tip is don’t let the biscuits sit too long in the coffee because they will absorb it all.  I learned this lesson the hard way and had to make up more coffee!

If you are envious of my lovely goodie bag and would like to win one, simply visit Puro Coffee’s Facebook page, where there is a monthly competition to win a gift box just like mine.  Good luck!

Ingredients

These quantities will provide four generous portions – scale up if you need more portions!

4 tablespoons kahlua liqueur – if you don’t have this masala, rum or brandy work too
200ml dark, strong coffee – make it strong to counter the richness of the cream
2 egg yolks
4 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170g mascarpone
300ml double cream
170g sponge finger biscuits – they are usually called Savoiardi or Boudoir sponge fingers in the UK
cocoa powder or crumbled Flake for decoration

Method

Start by making the coffee and pouring into a bowl along with the kahlua.

Put to one side to cool a little.

Place the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together until thick and fluffy.

Add the mascarpone and cream and beat until well combined and thick.

Take four dessert bowls – any glass dish that you might make individual trifles in will be fine.

Dip sponge fingers, two at a time, into the cooled coffee mixture.  Don’t leave them in for more than a couple of seconds or they will absorb too much liquid and make the dessert wet.

Place the sponge fingers in the bottom of a dish – you only need enough to cover the bottom of the bowl.

Cover the biscuits with a thick layer of the mascarpone mix and level.

Dip the remaining sponge fingers and place over the mascarpone.

Use the remaining mascarpone mixture to cover the biscuits.

Either dust the top with cocoa powder or a crumbled flake.

Refrigerate until you wish to serve.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Chocolate and stout cupcakes

  

I don’t like drinking beer of any kind, but I am rather partial to baking with beer, particularly with chocolate.  This recipe uses stout and adds a rich depth to the chocolate – you wouldn’t know it was stout but you’d know something extra was there.  I say this to ease the minds of fellow beer-haters!

Like many women, I am an emotional shopper and rather than go for the obvious choice of Guinness, my eye was drawn to the beautiful bottle of March of the Penguins stout, made by a microbrewer (Williams Bros BrewingCo) in Alloa, Scotland.  What can I say?  Who could resist the penguins?

The frosting for these cupcakes is incredibly simple – just two ingredients – but works perfectly in flavour and texture.  The dark, rich, moist cupcakes carry the light whippy frosting perfectly.  The frosting needs nothing else, not even vanilla...and how often do I say that?  (Answer: never!  Except for today!)

I know I’m banging on about frosting a lot lately, but I’ve been trying different things; I wouldn’t exactly say I am bored with buttercream but it’s nice to discover all the alternatives out there.  This one is heavenly – like a softer, creamier ice cream.

The dark, rich cupcake topped with the creamy white frosting resembles a glass of stout...but with lots of chocolaty sugary goodness thus better!

On an unrelated note, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Lakeland Christmas preview this week.  Wow!  And if I can just repeat: wow!  I am saving up my pennies already as I saw so many things I will be buying.  In the style of the Generation Game conveyor belt memory test bit, here are some of the things I want: speech bubble cookie cutters, topsy turvy cake pans, Christmas pudding plate, bowl and jug, slender rolling pins with Christmas designs on them so that when you roll out the icing it embosses it, cute little ice cream bowls and matching spoons, cheese making equipment, giant biscuit cutters in the shape of Christmas baubles with little cut out panels, Russian doll salt and pepper set...and did I mention the awesome, yet affordable, copper pans?  I am going to have to be a very good little girl right up until Christmas for Father Christmas to deem me worthy of all those goodies!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

250g soft brown sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
205ml stout – I used March of the Penguins, but Guinness or Mackeson would also be perfect
50g cocoa powder

For the frosting:

500g mascarpone cheese
100g icing sugar

To decorate: chocolate sprinkles or a dusting of cocoa powder

Method

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

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases – use deep cupcake or muffin cases rather than shallow fairy cake cases.

Place the sugar and butter in a bowl and beat together until fluffy and light.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Measure out the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

In a jug, measure out the stout and stir in the cocoa powder.  NB. Let the head on the stout settle before you take your final reading of the measurement - you will need to top it up in the jug as it settles.

Pour some of the stout mixture into the batter and beat.

Add a couple of tablespoons of the flour mix and beat.

Continue until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the paper cases and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the batter comes out clean.  Sadly, I can’t tell you how long mine took as I forgot to set an oven timer....doh!

Leave to cool on a wire rack, and remove from the cupcake pan as soon as you can safely handle the cakes.

When the cakes are cool you can make the frosting (you can also make the cakes a day before frosting if you wish): Place the mascarpone in a bowl and beat to soften.

Gradually beat in the icing sugar.

Spoon onto the cupcakes and spread, or pipe if you prefer (I piped).

Decorate with either chocolate sprinkles or cocoa powder.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Rhubarb and mascarpone tart

 

The rainy April and early May has been excellent for garden rhubarb but, now the hot weather has arrived it will rapidly dry out and become straw-like.  Before that happens, I’ve just managed to sneak in one more rhubarb recipe!

This tart has a shortbread base which is very buttery, very short and very crumbly.  It tastes just like the lightest shortbread biscuit you’ve ever eaten but is soft and tricky to work with, although it does patch well.  The original recipe I adapted said you should bake it blind, as you would pastry i.e. baking paper and beans.  I did this and, after baking, when I lifted the paper out, most of the shortbread went with it!  After laughing at how amusing this was (yeah, right) I found myself scraping soft shortbread off the paper and spreading it back into the tin – just about saving it.  What I’m trying to say is – don’t line the baking paper with beans.  Unless you want heartbreak!

The creamy mascarpone filling is light and creamy.  I will definitely use it for other fruits, such as peach, plum, raspberry or apricot.  It has a hint of cheesecake tang but is lighter and firmer in texture.

For all my rantings about the shortbread tart case it is sooooo worth it!  The buttery crumbly texture is divine and it has that almost granular shortbread texture that gives it more bite and substance than pastry.

Occasionally, I muse on how fun or difficult certain words are to type.   If you’ve missed this fear not, for here’s a summary:

Nice words to type: Demerara (flows like music across the keyboard)

Nasty words to type: Desiccated (is it two S’s or C’s?)

I would like to add “mascarpone” to the nasty words list – after the initial “ma” I always hesitate thinking, “does the ‘r’ come now or after the second ‘a’”.  Just me then.....

Ingredients

For the rhubarb:

500g rhubarb, cut into 2cm chunks
60g caster sugar

For the shortbread base:

135g unsalted butter, at room temperature
65g caster sugar
160g plain flour
15g cornflour
25g brown rice flour

For the filling:

115g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g mascarpone
30g plain flour
2 eggs – separated
100ml double cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Place the rhubarb on an oven tray and sprinkle over the sugar.

Roast for approximately 15 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft, but still holding its shape.

Tip into a sieve and leave to cool.

Now make the shortbread base: Place all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse until you have squidgy crumbs that look like they will squeeze together to make a dough.  If you don’t have a processor, make by the rubbing in method.

Tip the dough out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, with as little handling as possible, bring into a ball.

If your dough is very soft refrigerate it briefly.  I didn’t as I feared it would make the shortbread tricky to roll out.  It rolls well soft and patches easily.

Roll out between two sheets of clingfilm until it will line a 25cm loose bottomed flan tin.  No need to grease the tin.

Don’t panic – the pastry will be very thin.

Gently place a sheet of baking paper down onto the pastry but don’t use baking beans – I found the pastry too soft for them.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is just turning golden and biscuity.

Leave to cool, then wrap a foil collar around the outside of the tin – this is to protect the filling from spilling out when it soufflés during baking.  Not sure it’s really necessary so make your own judgement – all I’ll say it, next time, I won’t bother.

Now make the filling: place the butter, sugar and mascarpone in a large bowl and beat together.

Beat in the egg yolks and cream.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks.

Fold into the mascarpone mixture and ensure all ingredients are well combined.

Spoon into the cooled pastry case and level the surface.

Place the cooled rhubarb chunks on top.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Another clue it’s ready is that the filling should be firm but with a bit of a wobble when you shake the tin.

Leave to cool – don’t panic that the filling will sink a little.

Serve, at room temperature on its own or – if you must – with cream!

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.