Coffee & Pecan Cupcakes

Cupcake!

 So! The Recipe! Well. I packed up all the cupcakes and sent them off... And then I made some more. Because I wanted cupcakes and there were none left. And guess what? This time, I made the coffee chocolate crème before I began with the cupcakes, and it thickened and set beautifully! And these cupcakes were much, much more yummier! For the first batch of cupcakes, I used the step-by-step Butter-and-sugar, then eggs, then flour and flavours method, but for the second batch, I used the all in one method, and I was done so much quicker. Also, For the first batch, because the crème did not set enough (I lack patience), I mixed in extra blitzed nuts. Today, I didn't bother, because there was no need. I did, however, add extra into the cake mixture to balance the coffee, and to make up for the lack of nuts in the crème. I also used a Philadelphia/cream icing for the top today, which is much smoother, and tasted better (I think, anyway), so I'll mention that recipe, however, if you do want to use the mascarpone-cream frosting recipe, head over to my Tiramisu cupcakes post, and you'll find that recipe there.
(Also, the coffee-chocolate crème recipe and idea is shamelessly stolen from the episode of Sweets Made Simple by Kitty Hope and Mark Greenwood) (I have no regrets.)

COFFEE AND PECAN CUPCAKES
Makes approximately 18

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE CAKE:
4oz Baking butter
4oz Caster sugar
4oz Self-Raising Flour
1tsp Baking powder
3oz Pecans, Blitzed
3tsp Instant coffee, dissolved in 2tsp boiling water
2oz Grated dark chocolate
2tsp Vanilla extract

FOR THE COFFEE CREME:
4tbsp Coffee and Chicory essence
3tbsp Cold water
2tbsp Light soft brown sugar
100g Milk chocolate, broken into pieces.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
142ml Double/whipping cream
140g Philadelphia
1tsp Vanilla extract
Icing sugar to sweeten.

METHOD:
FOR THE COFFEE CREME:

1. Place coffee and chicory in a small saucepan. Add in the water and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring. lower the heat and let simmer for 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate, whisking until melted and well combined.
3. Let it cool slightly, and then place into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, until thickened and set slightly.

FOR THE CAKE:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, chocolate and pecans. Add in butter, eggs, vanilla extract and coffee, and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until well combined.
2. Divide into cupcake cases, putting in enough batter so that they're 3/4 full.
3. Bake on Gas Mark 5 (Moderately hot) for 15-18 minutes, until they have risen well and the skewer comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool.
5. Once cooled, carefully cut a circle into the top of each cake. Lift out gently and place a spoonful of crème into each, replacing with the cut out cake. Press in gently. (It may ooze out a little, but that doesn't matter, it'll get covered with the frosting.)

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir gently until combined. Whisk in medium/high speed until thickened. It will still have a slightly soft consistency. Do not over whip, as it may split.
2. Place in a piping bag with a star nozzle, and pipe over each cupcake.
3. Decorate cupcakes with whole pecans, dust with cocoa, or leave plain. It's up to you, really, whatever suits your fancy.

This process may seem slightly lengthy, but its worth it, I swear. The whole process, took me two hours- more or less- from start to finish, including clean up, breakfast, and various other chores. Making the frosting whilst the cakes are cooking saves time, and the best thing is, you don't need to let the cakes cool completely before filling them with the crème, and by the time you're done doing that, they're cooled enough for the frosting, because the crème is chilled enough to cool the cupcake.
I think cupcakes make such wonderful wedding favours, don't you?

They remind me of 99p flake ice-cream cones for some reason.

(My blogger is messing up again. It's not letting me add any pictures. I'll try again later. However, you can find picures on my Instagram page, @emmyjay19 , and on my twitter page, @MyraJay7 if you wish.)
EDIT: Ok, pictures working again.

Cupcakes...

My father requested that I make cupcakes for him to share with his work colleagues. Well, of course I jumped at the opportunity to try out a new recipe... but then I was stumped. What flavours should I go for? What should go in the middle? What should they be topped with? I don't want to do something dull and boring, because, to be honest, baking generic, dull things is tedious and mind-numbingly boring, and extremely off putting. If I want to make something, I want it to be exciting! It has to be original, new, different, wonderful!... otherwise what's the point?
... I think I'm going to go with coffee and pecan.
Yes, yes, that's quite generic and so normal, quite a classic, I know, I know. But I have to take into consideration the recipients of said cupcakes, while they're not old, shrivelled up dried prunes that enjoy nothing more that looking down their noses at all thing experimental and new, they're probably not going to appreciate something crazy such as black pepper and honey, or earl grey and orange. And my father finds the colour of red velvet absolutely repulsive. same goes for blue velvet, purple, or green. He's not a fan of strange, or vibrant coloured food. (He once told me that the brown colour of chocolate ice-cream was off-putting, and therefore made it look unpalatable. I was left bemused and temporarily speechless.) But. Generic though the flavour combinations may be, I guarantee you my cupcakes will be opposite. (Fingers firmly crossed!)
I plan on making them tomorrow. For the cupcakes, I intend to loosely follow the recipe for the tiramisu cupcakes, adding into it ground pecans. After the cakes are done, I shall cut of some of the top and add a filling of coffee and chocolate crème. And as for the topping, well, I've not decided yet. Maybe I'll go for a mascarpone frosting, or a white chocolate frosting with a dash of coffee, topped with the classic pecan half? hmm. I don't want to add so much coffee so as to overbalance the taste of pecan, but then again, if its a coffee cupcake, it should really taste of coffee. I don't know. I'll wing it when the time comes!
So hopes on line for tomorrow! I shall post my results. And pictures...

UPDATE:
I decided to get an early start today; make the cakes, then pop to Asda while they cool for mascarpone and cream... so I prepped my ingredients, and put the butter and sugar in the Kenwood to cream... and then discovered I had no cupcake cases left, except garish pink ones with hearts and heels that are truly an eyesore. So a trip to Asda for five ingredients turned into an hour long trip that resulted in us coming back with half the week's shopping, and many other things besides.
Anyway, the cakes are done and cool, (and taste yummy according to my mother) and I'm just waiting for the crème to chill and set slightly, so I can finish filling and decorating the cupcakes. I'm sorely tempted to put the damn thing in the quick freeze, it's taking that long. I knew I should have done that first!
Aw hell, I'm putting it in the quick freeze. Fingers crossed it doesn't form ice crystals and turn into a gelato-sorbette hybrid.


UPDATE (LATER STILL..)
Whooooo they taste great! And they look pretty darn good too. I made 20 for my father's colleagues, as requested, and there were a few extra besides, which are all gone now. (Majority were scoffed by my younger siblings as soon as they returned from school.) All that's left to do is pack them up into individual cupcake boxes to be sent off tomorrow, but I've left that bit for morning, because I find that the cupcakes tend to absorb the smell of cardboard if left in the boxes too long.
Overall, they're a pretty darn good take on the classic coffee and walnut cake, if the reactions (and empty plates) are anything to go by. My momma has already requested that I make more so she can 'enjoy them with her cuppa.' I shall post the recipe tomorrow. Or whenever I can. Which will hopefully be soon...

"Pass The Scones, Please!"

Absolutely delicious.

Yep, you guessed it. It's a scone recipe. The perfect British cliché, scones slathered with strawberry jam and lashings
of cream, perfect with a hot cuppa for afternoon tea. This scone recipe produces the unhealthiest, yummiest, lightest and most delicious scones I've tasted. And I've tasted a LOT of scones.
To achieve light, soft scones, avoid handling the scone dough too much. You can add whatever you wish into the mixture at step 3, be it chocolate chips, candied peel or dried fruit. The recipe says three cups of flour, but more or less may be needed, depending on the consistency of the dough.

INGREDIENTS:
2tbsp Clarified or unsalted butter
3tbsp Caster sugar
1 Egg
1 Cup double cream
1tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Salt
2tsp Baking powder
3 Cups plain flour

METHOD:

1. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
2. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat well.
3. Stir in double cream. do not beat.
4. Mix together the dry ingredients, then sift into the cream mixture and fold in until it forms a soft dough.
5. Roll out dough and cut into rounds.
6. Place on a baking sheet and brush with milk. Bake at gas mark 7 until the scones crack slightly, then lower the temperature to 5, and bake until golden.
7. Remove from oven, sandwich with generous amounts of cream and jam, and enjoy.

Impatiently waiting for scones to cool!

Spiced Vanilla Apple Jam & A Chocolate Vanilla Traybake

In terms of creativity in the kitchen, today was definitely a successful day. There were wonderful smells seeping from the cracks under the kitchen door, through the gaps of the passing window, circling out through the back door and in through the front windows: cooking apples heavy with cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon, sweet spicy flavours of almonds and carrots from an Afghani pilau, the rich smells of flavourful lamb and peppers, and then, for a special, simple, and tasty tea time treat, the heavenly smells of chocolate melting and sugar cooking... yep, it was quite a day.
Upon entering the kitchen today, I saw a packet of lamb mince defrosting in a bowl on the worktop. I gave it a passing glance and headed straight out of the back door to collect a small box of garden apples, intending to make a warming, deliciously comforting apple crumble. It really was the day for it, frightfully nippy, with a bitingly cold wind that seeped through the cracks and through the walls, under your skin and through your bones, as though by osmosis. Unfortunately, I was to be deprived of my small bit of comfort; almost all the apples were rotten through! Crawling with those tiny worms, or completely and terribly bruised, one even had a layer of fungi. After salvaging what I could, I ended up with a woefully small amount of apples. I decided to turn them into a jam, and so the vanilla apple jam was born. It's quite delicious too.

Mine is quite dark because I added a lot of cinnamon.

 Spiced with star anise, cloves, and cinnamon, flavoured with lemon and orange and vanilla, it'll go wonderfully with a number of desserts and sweet treats, and also, as I've mentioned before, taste wonderful with battered, ovened prawns...
I've put rather a lot of cinnamon in mine, because I absolutely love cinnamon, so mine is quite dark in colour. I also used dark sugar because I was too lazy to dig the caster sugar out of the pantry. (I had to anyway, because it ran out...)
 Anyway, here's the recipe: (I'll put the savoury recipes in a separate post, and add the sweet ones here.)

SPICED VANILLA APPLE JAM
INGREDIENTS
5-6 cooking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2tsp ground cinnamon (or alternately, you could use 2 cinnamon sticks)
1 Star anise
5-6 Cloves
Seeds from one vanilla pod (or alternately, 1tsp vanilla essence)
Juice and rind of one orange
Juice and rind of one lemon
Caster sugar

METHOD

1. Place apples in a heavy based pot with the cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and juice and rind of orange and lemon.
2. Add in enough water to cover the apples, bring to boil until the apples are completely soft, cooked through, and mushy.
3. Sieve (strain) through a meshed sieve. Discard the pulp. Weigh the amount of sieved mixture, and for every pound, add 300g of caster sugar.
4. Place in pot with the caster sugar and vanilla, and cook on low heat until it reaches setting point. You can test this by putting a thin layer on a chilled plate/saucer, and pulling your finger through it. If the jam runs, its not ready. If it stays, its ready. Alternately, put a spoonful on a chilled plate, and leave for a minute or so to set. Lightly poke the jam, If the top wrinkles, its ready.
5. Place in a sterilised jar, Clingfilm, and cover with lid. Leave in a cool place to set completely before serving. Refrigerate once the jam has cooled.

I'll also add the other sweet recipe over here. This was courtesy of my mother, who was craving 'plain and simple' cake. So plain and simple cake it was. I was lingering in the kitchen whilst she was making this, complaining about boring flavours, and offering outrageous suggestions. She did, simply put, swat me and tell me to get lost. Tasting it, I had to admit, she had the right idea. Sometimes simple treats are the best. So here it is, chocolate vanilla tray bake.

CHOCOLATE VANILLA TRAYBAKE
INGREDIENTS
4oz butter, softened
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
4oz plain flour
1tsp vanilla essence/extract
2oz dark chocolate chips
1tsp baking powder

METHOD

1. Beat butter, vanilla and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of flour.
3. Fold in flour and baking powder. do not over beat.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Spoon into a lined baking tray. Bake at Gas Mark 4 for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden, and pulling away at the sides.
6. Cut into slices, and enjoy warm with a cuppa.

I've been making this cake ever since I can remember. The amounts of ingredients are easy to remember, and you can substitute the chocolate drops for whatever you wish. Maybe almonds, or chopped dates? What about walnuts, or candied peel? Maybe glace cherries? You can also experiments with adding cocoa powder, or stirring in melted chocolate, or substituting sugar with honey, and chocolate for pine nuts, and add a bit of orange zest for a lovely tasting, healthier alternative? It's up to you really, don't stop at the simple flavours!

Blackberry & Chocolate Pudding

The blackberry bushes in the alleyways around our home grow blackberries in abundance, fresh and ripe and free for picking. Having been blackberry picking a few days ago, a bowl was languishing in our kitchen, in need of consuming. After eating a fair share fresh off the bushes, staining fingers mouths and clothes in the process, I wanted something different with these, so I decided to stick these into some yummy chocolatey goodness. so here it is, Blackberry and chocolate pudding!
This recipe is from Super Cookery's Chocolate & Baking recipe book, which is absolutely fantastic. You can omit the cocoa powder in step 3 if you want a non-chocolatey version of this dessert. I was being lazy (and I was also a bit short of time) so I served it with Ambrosia custard, instead of making my own. After all, it tastes delicious, and shortcuts sometimes are perfectly acceptable!

BLACKBERRY & CHOCOLATE PUDDING


Toss blackberries and sugar gently.

INGREDIENTS:
450g Blackberries
75g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
75g Soft Brown Sugar
75g Butter, melted
125g Self-raising Flour

METHOD:

1. Grease an 850ml ovenproof dish
2. In a large bowl, toss the blackberries and caster sugar together gently, then transfer to the ovenproof dish.
3. Beat together egg and brown sugar, then stir in the melted butter and milk.
4. Fold in flour and cocoa powder lightly to form a smooth batter.
5. Spread batter carefully over the blackberries, then bake in a preheated oven at Gas Mark 4 (180C/350F) for 25-30 minutes until the topping is firm.
6. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, or dust with icing powder and serve warm with custard, cream or plain.

Afternoon tea treat: Blackberry Pudding with Custard.