Blueberry Cake Mini Doughnuts!! {cooking with kids}

Before Mini Baker started school I never felt I had a problem finding stuff for us to do. Since she’s started school now when she’s off I find myself struggling to keep her entertained.

I enjoy baking and I’m glad she does too. I am not completely naïve to assume we will always have the same interests. But for now I’m glad we have something to share in hopes that she remembers them fondly.

Mini baker is always asking me for doughnuts, she’d have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! A while back I picked up a copy of Mini Donuts by Jessica Segarra and a silicone mini doughnut mould from Lakeland’s so I could make her doughnuts!

Not for every meal of course, but for the times we were at a loss of what to do with ourselves! The recipes in this book are super simple. Piping the batter into the mould is more suited for adults, but everything else kids can easily do!

A quick update as well, everyone at the moment is feeling better! The littlest Mini Baker was napping during the doughnut making, but she sure enjoyed helping us gobble them up! 

Blueberry Cake Mini Doughnuts

adapted from Mini Donuts by Jessica Segarra

1 ¾ plain flour, sifted

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 large egg

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp vegetable oil (plus a little extra for greasing pan)

¼ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup whole milk

½ cup blueberries, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 180C

Using a pastry brush and a little vegetable oil to grease the doughnut pan/mould, then tip the pan over onto a kitchen towel to drain excess oil.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside. Whisk the egg and sugar together before adding the oil, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix well until combined.

Fold in half the flour, then half the milk, and the rest of the flour, followed by the rest of the milk. Make sure there are no lumps before folding in the chopped blueberries!

Fill a piping bag or plastic bag and cut the tip off, it can be a bit tricky as the batter just runs out. Fill each doughnut mould about ¾ full, sometimes it goes over, but that is okay! Then bake for 7-10 minutes they should spring back when touched or use the skewer test if you’re unsure. They might slightly brown around the edges, but are still a bit pale. Carefully un-mould the doughnuts and cool on a cooling rack. 

While they are cooling make the icing:
1-2 tbsp whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups icing sugar

2-4 drops each of pink/blue food dye

sprinkles

Mix the icing sugar with 1 tbsp milk and the vanilla. Add additional tablespoons of milk one at a time until you get a pourable consistency.

Place a piece of greaseproof paper under the cooling rack and drizzle the icing over the tops and add sprinkles for extra sparkle! Then eat!! Best eaten on the day.

notes: Mini Donuts by Jessica Segaarra: blog, Amazon UK & USA; Lakeland’s Silicone Mini Doughnut Mould. This post is my entry for the competition to win a lovely range cooker from Range Cookers! There is a day and a half yet to enter! Check out the details here!!

Chocolate Cherry Hot Cross Buns!

I thought it would be fun to try a new hot cross bun recipe this year! Seeing that chocolate and cherry are one of my favorite ‘chocolate &’ combinations ever, it didn't take long for me to decide to make these! I pick up magazines randomly never buying the same one every month, but one that I tend to buy most often is the Jamie magazine: I like the recipes, stories, and layout. I have always been a fan of Jamie Oliver, well I can't say always I should say since I moved to the UK. 

Anyhow… I am still a novice when it comes to bread/roll/bun baking. Think these took a while to rise for either or both of 2 reasons: 1. Cold kitchen it is always cold so moved next to pre-heating oven to get a better rise. 2. I didn't let the milk/butter mixture cool long enough before adding it to the dry ingredients which can kill the yeast. My bun rolling also needs serious work. I think I am worried about over kneading (also need to know if I’m kneading the “right” way) that I under knead. Oh and I probably could probably work on my piping skills too!

Overall these tasted delicious!! At the end of the day that is all that really matters!! Fresh out of the oven or put in the microwave for a several seconds with a light coat of butter! Like I already said I love the combination of chocolate & cherry so unless I messed them up completely or the recipe was off I was probably going to like them.

Apparently Sainsbury’s doesn't carry kirsch? I didn't feel like running around after one ingredient and Mr Knightley is allergic to orange juice so I used what was in kitchen: cherry juice (from cherry cola bundt cake) and Bacardi (love the stuff) to soak the cherries in. Enjoy!!

Chocolate Cherry Hot Cross Buns

from Jaime Magazine issue 37 March 2013

100g dried sour cherries

3 tbsp kirsch/orange juice or 2 tbsp cherry juice + 1 tbsp Barcardi

250ml milk

50g unsalted butter + extra for greasing

1 egg

2 tbsp cherry compote or jam

500g strong bread flour + extra for dusting

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

2 x 7g sachets dry yeast

75g milk chocolate chips

75g caster sugar + extra for glaze

1 tsp fine sea salt

50g plain flour

3 tbsp runny honey

1. Soak cherries in your chosen “juice” over night. The following day, place the milk and butter into a sauce pan and heat until the butter is just melted. Cool slightly before whisking in the egg and compote. Set aside.
2. Drain the cherries and mix well in a bowl with flour, cinnamon, cocoa powder, yeast, chocolate chips, caster sugar, and salt. Make a well in the mixture and pour in the milk mixture, use a fork to stir it all together until it forms soft dough! Turn out on to a lightly dusted work surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl and cover with cling film, keep it in a warm place for about an hour to rise or until it doubles in size. 
3. Once it's raised, grease and line a baking tray or two, depends on your baking tray sizes. Knock back the dough, on a lightly dusted work surface, by kneading for about 2 minutes. Cut the dough in half and roll each half into sausages then cut each “sausage” into 6 pieces. Roll them into balls and place on baking sheets cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place for further 45 minutes. Mine took longer then that. Its really cold in the kitchen like I said above. 
4. Once they have doubled in size preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Mix the plain flour and about 5tbsp of water until it makes a thick paste. Then pipe unto buns. Use a sandwich bag if you don’t have any piping bags and nozzles. I have them and I still used a sandwich bag. Pipe a cross on each one and then pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden. When the timer goes off check to see if they are golden-ish -hard to tell on a chocolate roll. Once they are out of the oven cool on a rack and make the glaze by gently heating the honey and 1tbsp sugar over a low heat for about 5 minutes. Generously cover each bun/roll with the sugar glaze. Cool before eating… or not!

notes: Jamie Magazine, last years buns

introducing My Mixtape! Usually when I'm baking I have music on so I thought I would start sharing my playlist. Since I grew up in the 80-90's and I used to record songs off the radio (music pirating at it's finest) to make mix tapes I thought that's what I would call this addition to my posts! Even though now I just download music off iTunes and I pay for it.....

Joss Stone: While You're Out Looking for Sugar
Bush: Glycerine
Bruno Mars: The Lazy Song
Foo Fighters: All My Life
Savage Garden: I Want You
   

Penguin Birthday Cake!!! {weekend baking with Janet}

My littlest one turned 5 this past week and she loves, I mean really loves penguins! So, I made her a penguin cake and cupcakes! This took ages and I'll be telling the truth when I say I don't want to see frosting and cakes for a while! Thank goodness the next birthday is mine in July!

I used a box mix for the cake/cupcakes and a jarred whipped cream frosting. Some of which I dyed black/orange/pink to frost 1 large cake for the family on the day and to frost 18 cupcakes for her classmates! She loved them! ~ Janet

My week: Froot Loop Cereal Bars & Brownie Fail

My Mini Baker has had a bit of a rough time of it lately. Less then a week ago she had an ear infection. As soon as she stopped the antibiotics she broke out in a spotty rash commonly known as chicken pox. Here in England they don’t vaccinate for chicken pox, believing that the body sets up a better immunity to it after having the actual disease. However as a mother who wants nothing more then to keep her child from any sort of suffering, no matter how impossible that is in reality, I think I would have much preferred her to have the vaccination.

As I have been busy giving out lots of cuddles and every 4 hours topping up on ibuprofen/paracetamol and taking care of a demanding 3 year old its no wonder I have not found time to visit my blog. I am putting essential 2 posts in one because I am short of sleep and lazy. 

Anyway I made these Froot Loop Cereal Bars for Mini-Baker’s lunch box, but they never made it. I found these Froot Loops at a local family discount store and I was a little to ecstatic for a cereal that isn’t all that. It was just because they are ‘American’ and I’m feeling a little homesick lately.

When I opened the box I was a little surprised to see such subdued colors! These are made with natural colors and flavors apparently. Maybe why they were for sale outside of an American grocery store? Who knows and really who cares?

Since there was no way I was going to eat them for breakfast I made them into bars. I can see now why most online recipes add a cup or so of Rice Krispies as well because the marshmallow just goes straight through all the holes and settles at the bottom! Nothing major, they still tasted delicious! There is a link in the notes at the bottom if you would like to make these for yourself! 

Then I was trying to make ‘Easter Brownies’ and I don’t even think I need words to describe this:

I used the wrong sized tin. I have never used self-rising flour in brownies so was not expecting it to overflow the way it did. If I had actually thought of it ahead of time, it makes sense, but I didn't think of it. Over confident baking that is. ;0] Here’s how to make them just use a different size tin! They were still tasty!

Brownies:

225g caster sugar

100g margarine

2 m eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

40g cocoa powder

50g self-rising flour

50g chocolate chips or smashed Cadbury Mini Eggs (which you can’t see in any of the pictures as they sunk to the bottom)

Pre-heat oven to 180C; Beat sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy, beat eggs and vanilla together before slowly adding to butter/sugar mixture; sift flour and cocoa powder together into the bowl and gently fold in until just combined. Then fold in chocolate chips or chosen add in, be creative, but be aware that different add ins will change the consistency and will alter the end result. Pour into prepared pan Make sure you use an 8in square pan! Not a 7 in circle….oops! Bake for 25-30 minutes and let cool for 1hr!

Better luck next time right? We all have days like this…. mamma said.

So, that is my week so far. As it’s Good Friday tomorrow I have all my ingredients ready for hot-cross buns… If they are made on Good Friday they will never mold, apparently. It will all depend on how my little ones are feeling. 

notes: chicken pox info; Froot Loops & Froot Loop cereal bar recipes here, here, and here; Mamma Said by The Shirelles; Easter Nests; last year’s hot-cross buns 

Apploffi Pie!! & book review {Food Glorious Food}

Food Glorious Food…what an aptly named book and series that shows us the food of Great Britain! After catching the program on TV I was very excited when asked to review the book. I read it cover to cover the day it arrived and I loved seeing the recipes from the episodes I've watched. I am equally happy that some of the recipes that didn't make it did you see those sausages in milk, belch!

The book is nicely organized by area: southwest, southeast, northeast, northwest, London, and the Midlands. I love the mix of what I've come to know as traditional British classics and recipes from other parts of Europe. Here is a very shortened list of what I want to make from the book.

Somerset Chicken

Devon Apple Cider Cake (picture)

Spiced Lentil Vegetable Cakes

Apploffi Pie (picture & recipe below)

Mummy Pie

Chinese Style Yorkshire Puddings

Baked Trifle (picture)

Brussel Sprout, Chestnut, & Coconut Soup

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Lemon Crunch Cake (picture)

Baked Greek Macaroni

Double Chocolate Ganache Brownies (picture)

Ellie’s Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble Cheesecake

Wobbly Worcester Rarebit

Terry’s Staffordshire Oatcakes (picture)

Star Pimm's Fruit Jelly

Growing up I always enjoyed having dinner at friend’s houses because they all cooked different family favorites. So, thank you to everyone involved with Food Glorious Food for inviting me for dinner in kitchens across Great Britain!

Apploffi Pie (slightly adapted) was the one recipe that I kept thinking of after the book closed. Apploffi Pie is a twist on Banoffi Pie that was handed down to Kate McCully from her father. I love apples in baked goods!! Oh and I love the cinnamon in the whipped topping!! Gorgeous! I love cinnamon too! I love apples and cinnamon together! It makes sense!

There was a subtle change made and that was the orange juice. I have said before that my husband is allergic to all citrus so to make sure he could enjoy this dessert too I used apple juice instead. I also just used a 395g can of caramel instead of using 400-600g of condensed milk heated to caramel. You will need the caramel to make the pie, but just note it's not listed below.

for the pastry:

250g (8oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

25g (1oz) icing sugar

125g (4oz) cold butter, cubed

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

To make the pastry: Mix flour and sugar together and then rub the butter in the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Work in the egg and yolk to form a dough, then wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry to about the size of a 1 pound coin and line a 23cm (9in) loose-bottomed flan tin. I put my lined tin in the fridge for 15 minutes to help avoid shrinkage. Prick the base with a fork, and then line the pastry with crumbled grease-proof paper. Fill with baking beans or dried pulses/rice and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove the grease-proof paper and whatever you used to blind bake with. Then return to the oven for another 5 minutes, until golden. Set aside to cool. Then while the pie crust is chilling and baking and cooling get on with...

...the apple filling and whipped cream topping

1 large Bramley apple, peeled, cored, and sliced

2 Cox’s apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

50ml (2fl oz) orange juice or apple juice

50g (2oz) light muscovado sugar

300-425ml (14 ½ fl oz) double (heavy) cream

25g (1oz) caster (superfine) sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

freshly grated nutmeg to top

Place the apples, juice, and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until fruit is pulpy and quiet dry. Set aside until completely cold. Whip the cream with the caster sugar and cinnamon until it forms soft peaks. Now it’s time to assemble! Open the can(s) of condensed milk, which is now caramel, or open your cans of caramel and spread evenly over the cooled pastry case. Next spread the apples evenly on top and then spread over the whipped cream. Sprinkle the nutmeg over the cream and serve!

note: Food Glorious Food ITV and twitter; buy Amazon UK, for a free kindle sample check it out here & The Book People; check out this video if you want to make your own caramel.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake!! {weekend baking with Janet}

When I saw everyone on Facebook making cakes I didn't want to be left out so I made The Chocolate Chip Cake from The United Cakes of America by Warren Brown. The cake is listed under the state Massachusetts; where the Nestlé Toll House Cookie was created!

Ruth Wakefield is the creator of the Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie. The recipe is still printed on the back of the Toll House Morsels package today!Her and her husband owned The Toll House Inn, which was once located in Whitman, Massachusetts. It has sadly since burnt down, but there is a landmark. The land is now unfortunately home to a Wendy’s and a Walgreens.

The story goes that Ruth was trying to make chocolate cookies and thought the chips would melt in the batter and make the cookies chocolate. The story has been disputed saying that Ruth was an accomplished cook/chef and would have known that the chocolate wouldn't have melted. Either way she has become infamous with the discovery of America’s most iconic cookie: The Chocolate Chip!

The cake is surprisingly decadent and so amazing!! It tastes just like a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven. The Chocolate frosting in the middle is rich and so incredibly yummy!! I would highly recommend it!

So far, the two cakes I have made from this book has not disappointed! ~ Janet

Check out my Coca Cola Cake!

Information is a mix from the book and wikipedia. 

Recipe can be found in: The United Cakes of America by Warren Brown

I want you Cherry Cola Bundt Cake [Clandestine Cake Club recap]

Since the Clandestine Cake Club book has been published in February I have heard lots and lots about this secret cake club on all the social media sites and other blogs. So, finally I got around to finding one in my area! Just as I joined up a new event was posted and I emailed my host right away! This month’s theme, for the Reading CCC, was Bake Me a … Song.

This was a very good theme and I had a hard time deciding on a song/rhyme. I thought of a cookies and cream cake for the rhyme/song “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?” Or a coconut and lime cake for that song that goes “…put the lime in the coconut and mix it all together…”

 I settled on “I Want You” by Savage Garden and made a Cherry Cola Bundt Cake. I maybe should have used "Lola" by the Kinks. Doesn't matter I'd have made the same cake! 

I had a really good night eating cake and meeting some lovely new ladies who also made some wonderful cakes! I was stuffed! Every cake was absolutely gorgeous! I know because I tried each one! Don't judge! 

Here is a list of the cakes that were made:

Louise - 'Milkshake' by Kelis. Cake: Strawberry Milkshake Cake

Rebecca G - Sweet & Salty' by Covenant. Cake: Sweet & Salty Cake

Lisa - I want you 'Cherry Cola' by Savage Garden. Cake: Cherry Cola Cake

Jen P - Peaches by Presidents of the United States Cake: Peach Cake

Fiona & Rebecca - Running up that Hill by Kate Bush. Cake: Chocolate Sponge

Jenny - Enter Sandman by Metallica Cake: Honey Cake with Honey icing & honeycomb topping

Marilena - Lemon Tree by Oasis. Cake: Lemon Cake

Katy - Lady Marmalade by Labelle. Cake: Chocolate Orange Cake

Bethan - Oranges and Lemons Nursery Rhyme. Cake: Orange and Lemon Cake

All the lovely cakes!!

And if you’d like to have a go at my bundt cake that will make you want to sing “oh I want you I don’t know if I need you, but ooo I’m dying to find out…” (sorry it had too...)! Enjoy!!

I Want You Cherry Cola Bundt Cake

adapted from Rootbeer Bundt Cake in Baked New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito

2 cups cherry coke

1 cup cocoa powder

114g butter, (I used salted as it was in my fridge if you use unsalted add a full tsp of salt)

1 ¼ granulated sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

2 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)

1 ¼ baking powder (soda)

½ tsp salt

2 large eggs

Pre-heat oven 170C/325F grease your bundt tin in you’re preferred way. I always spray with a non-stick spray and then lightly dust with flour then tap out all the loose flour. I have never had a problem getting my cakes out.

Melt the butter over a medium heat with the cherry cola and cocoa powder. Once melted add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Take off the heat and while cooling dry whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Lightly beat the eggs together before whisking them into the cooled butter mixture. Lastly gently fold the flour into the mixture - it will be slightly lumpy. Don’t over mix otherwise it could be tough. Pour batter into your prepared bundt tin, if you don’t prepare it will stick no if’s and’s or but’s. Bake for 35-40 minutes, mine needed the full 40! Rotate half way through. Use a skewer or toothpick or sharp knife and insert in the cake to test that it is done. Once it’s done let it cool completely before attempting to loosen it from the tin. I left mine for at least an hour before turning it out.

Cherry Cola Icing

2 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp Cherry Cola

1-3 tbsp cherry juice

1-4 drops pink coloring (optional)

Whisk the icing sugar and the 3 tbsp until it’s a paste then add a tbsp at a time of the cherry juice until you get a pouring constancy. If you want it pinker add a couple drops of pink food coloring at a time until it’s the shade of pink you want!

notes: Clandestine Cake Club official site find a group near you!; CCC book Amazon UK & USA (kindle) and The Book People; Baked official site; Baked New Frontiers in Baking Amazon UK & USA; I want you by Savage Garden: Sweet like a chica cherry cola...