Orange Poppy Seed Mini Muffins

Random Recipes hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen celebrates it's 1st birthday this month - congratulations! So Dom has challenged us to cook from the same book we used for our first random recipe challenge. If it's your first time, just cook from any random cookbook. 

Since I was late to the game and have only participated once, I have to cook from the same book which is Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking. I am secretly pleased as this is a great book especially for bakers. However I was also slightly anxious that I would get something from the pastry chapter or pies and tarts.  Fortunately, when I let the book fall open to a random page, I got orange-poppy seed mini muffins  :) Dried cherry-chocolate muffins were on the same page but I went with these as I immediately fell in love with the picture in the book. 

It's a fairly basic recipe which was quick and easy to make. No fancy ingredients or equipment required! I did have to go out and buy poppy seeds as the ones I had in my cupboard had expired last year and I wasn't brave enough to use them. 

I love the look and crunch of poppy-seeds. The muffins were moist and full of citrus flavour. I particularly liked the glaze (you can tell I have a sweet tooth!) but you can leave this out if you wish. 

 soak the poppy seeds in milk for 20 minutes before baking - this helps to enhance and deepen their subtle flavour

 not quite enough batter for my mini muffins... 

 .. as I wanted to make some heart shaped ones as well :) 

 delicious!! 

Recipe is taken from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, page 79 

I followed the recipe exactly as no substitutions were required and was very pleased with the final result :) 

Chocolate and Cheese twist

This month's We should Cocoa challenge was a real challenge indeed - to make something savoury with chocolate and it has to be vegetarian! I have to admit I was not completely taken by the challenge initially as I wanted to bake something and not many ideas were forthcoming! However, I do like a good challenge and decided to embrace it. I thought about making potato waffles with chocolate syrup but thought it was too similar to a sweet dessert. I also thought about making chocolate and cheese scones but wasn't sure how they would turn out. So I decided to make these chocolate and cheese twists instead which includes my favourite ingredients - chocolate (nutella), cheese and puff pastry! I firmly believe that you can make anything with puff pastry and it will taste good. The result - I really, truly liked it :) I love the sweet and salty combination and who doesn't like pastry? I also made some traditional tomato and cheese twists just in case the chocolate ones didn't work out. 

So not very original or out of the box but I really struggled with this one and am looking forward to the round up to view everyone's creation and then thinking to myself "now why didn't I think of that?"  Make sure you check out Chocolate Log Blog who is hosting this month at the end of Feb to see the creative entries! If you are interested in joining in, check out Chocolate Teapot on the 1st of March for a new challenge. 

 roll out a sheet of puff pastry (mine is store bought) and brush with a beaten egg. 

 the eagle eyed amongt you will notice that there is only a small corner of chocolate... yes I was very skeptical and I will admit it! Sprinkle generous amounts of grated parmesan on top and fold in half. 

 I "re-opened" the pastry and added tomato paste to make cheese and tomato twists

 slice and twist and bake 

 chocolate and cheese twist 

 cheese twist on far left, tomato and cheese twist on the right

AlphaBakes: Lavender Shortbread

My second entry to this month's AlphaBakes are these lovely, crumbly lavender shortbread.  I wanted to make something from my new book Tea with Bea as I have recently discovered Bea's of Bloomsbury and keep going back for amazing cake! I used to work near a branch but never made it there and now when I work miles away I make a special trip for cake. Ah the irony :)  If you live in London or are visiting London, I would highly recommend having afternoon tea there. My favourites from what I have tried so far are the scones, salted caramel cupcake, peanut butter cheesecake and the homemade marshmallow (coming from someone who does not like marhsmallows). 

AlphaBakes is a new blogging challenge hosted this month by me and on alternate months by Caroline from Caroline Makes.  The idea is to bake with a random letter selected for the month. It can be the name of a bake or the actual ingredient of your bake. This month we are baking with "L" and L is for ... Lavender! I was quite excited as I've never baked with lavender before. I bought a bottle specially for this challenge but I'm sure I'll be using it again. It's quite a subtle flavour in this bake but everyone enjoyed it. I was told by my Scottish colleague that I can sell these shortbread in Scotland so I think they passed the taste test :) 

 I got this from Fortnum & Mason

 adding lavender to the sugar

 beating into the butter 

 perfect with a cup of tea :) 

Recipe from Tea with Bea

70g caster sugar plus extra for sprinkling

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender  (I used 1 teaspoon)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

350g butter, softened

350g flour

• Preheat the oven to 145C. 
• Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the sugars, salt and lavender buds for a few minutes until the sugar smell of lavender. 
• Beat in the butter until light and fluffy as shown in the picture. 
• Finally fold in the flour. 
• Pour the mixture into a square baking pan and level the top.
• Sprinkle liberally with caster sugar on top. 
• Bake for 40-55 minutes until the top is golden brown. 
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. 
• Cut into squares and store in an air tight container. 

Save the Children Name A Day Campaign : Kiwi and Lime Bundt Cake

This is a slightly different post to normal. Yes there is still cake involved but I'd like to take the time to talk about an important issue. Cake and hunger are not two words you would normally put together but this is how I can make a difference by raising awareness and spreading the word through what I can do - baking.

Did you know that in a world with food enough for everybody, 300 children die of malnutrition every hour of every single day? 

This month's Pink Whisk Challenge is dedicated to Save the Children and the Hidden Hunger Campaign. Ruth says "I would love for you to donate a recipe. The theme for the challenge is ‘Family Favourites’, recipes you enjoy making and that you love to share, there’s nothing more to it than that – it doesn’t even have to be baking (I hope you realise how much that hurt me to write!)  All recipes gathered for the challenge will be collated and published in a Save the Children e-book which will be sold to raise awareness and funds for the campaign."

Read about Ruth's firsthand experience in Rwanda here and here.

Save the children asks that you name a day to beat hunger. They want the Prime Minister to host a world hunger summit aimed at making the global food system work for the millions of children going hungry.
All you have to do is name a day and when your day comes round, they’ll ask you to take one of five simple actions – from sending a tweet to cooking a meal – to help spread the word about this devastating crisis. I've named my day. Will you? 

This cake is not strictly a family favourite (but I'm sure it will be!) as I wanted to create my own recipe for this challenge.  My dad used to study in New Zealand which made me think of kiwis.  It's not a fruit I've ever baked with before so I thought it would be a good challenge.  It's very similar to my lemon and raspberry cake which worked well so I decided to modify it for this. I love making smoothies with lime, kiwi and honey so I thought why not make it into a cake? 

I tried to blitz the whole lime but it didn't work out so I used lime juice and lime zest instead.  There's whole kiwi fruit and pureed kiwi fruit in the batter.  It's quite a dense, moist sponge with the freshness of the fruit and the citrus tang from the limes. It was delicious with the glaze but you can have it plain if you prefer.   

 adding kiwi to the batter - I forgot to coat the kiwis in flour first so they sank to the bottom, well top as this was a bundt cake :( 

 I also added some kiwi puree

 thought it was a good time to use my new bundt tin

 love the heart shapes :) 

 add glaze... 

 delicious! you can see the kiwis at the top of the cake! 

An original recipe by me, bakingaddict

Makes 1 small bundt cake as shown

For the cake

150g yoghurt

140g caster sugar

40g honey

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

180g self raising flour

Juice and zest of 2 limes

4 kiwi fruit - peeled and chopped into 1/8

1 kiwi fruit - peeled and pureed

For the glaze

50g icing sugar

1-2 tablespoon lime juice 

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Butter and flour your bundt pan or line normal cake tin with greaseproof paper. 
• In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, sugar, honey, eggs, vanilla extract and oil. 
• Add in the lime juice and zest. 
• Stir in the flour and mix well.
• Coat the chopped kiwi fruit in 1-2 tablespoons of flour then add to the batter. 
• Puree 1 kiwi fruit and stir into the batter. 
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack.
• To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. 
• Add enough lime juice to make a glaze of dripping consistency. 

Banana Skin Cake

If you don't already know, I love baking with bananas. I've made banana breads, cakes, loafs, cookies, pancakes, muffins and even a hot chocolate drink with bananas! You name it, I've probably tried it. So when I came across this recipe for banana skin cake from one of my all time favourite food blogs Not Quite Nigella, I immediately bookmarked it to make. I have baked with citrus peel previously - oranges, clementines and lemons but never with bananas. I was intrigued and excited to try out this recipe. Note the pictures below are not very pretty so look away now if you have an aversion to brown banana skins in water! 

I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first and not really sure if anyone would eat it. So I offered the cake without telling people what it was made from. Most responses were positive but when I said it was made from banana skin there were a few faces pulled!! I honestly really liked the taste of this cake. I ate a whole mini loaf myself as it was so delicious!! The best way I can describe it is that it tastes like bread pudding. There is no banana taste at all. It also tastes "healthy" if that makes sense and it's full of fibre! Take a chance, give it a try as I have and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. To quote Edna Toledo , originator of the recipe -  "it is luxury made from rubbish" 

I am submitting this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior from Cookin w/ Luv, where the idea is to make something completely from scratch. I don't think you can get more basic than banana skin!! 

I am also sending this to No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Turquoise Lemons as the theme for this month is bananas. 

Finally, I am submitting this to Bookmarked recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 soak banana skins in water

 day 1 

 day 2 

 day 3 - it's ready as the water is clear! yes it works!! 

 strain the puree but keep the fluid!

 ready to go in the oven

For the cake
4 banana skins
3/4 cup water
1 egg
170g caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
125g plain flour
7g yeast

For the glaze
sugar
cinnamon
salt

• Prepare the banana skins but cutting off the ends and soaking them in water. 
• Change the water daily until the water is clear and the banana skins are soft (Mine took 3 days).
• Blitz the softened banana skins in a food processor with 3/4 cup of water.
• Strain through a fine sieve and keep the fluid for the glaze. 
• Measure the amount of banana skin puree into a cup - I got 1 cup for mine.
• With every cup of puree, add 1 egg, 170g caster sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix well. 
• Add 125g flour and 7g yeast (per cupful of banana puree).
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Pour the batter into cake tins and bake for approximately 35-45 minutes (depends on size of cake tin used). Check after 30 minutes by inserting a skewer into the middle - it should come out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack.
• To make the glaze, measure the strained liquid from the banana puree (I got 1/2 cup from mine).
• For every cup, add 1 cup of sugar to the liquid in a medium sized saucepan.
• Add some cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
• Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Continue stirring as the glaze gets quite sticky. Mine took about 20 minutes to become a thick glaze.

Lemon and Raspberry Heart Cakes

This is my second Valentine Bake and it's a pretty special one as I decided to make up my own recipe and it turned out better than expected!! If you don't already know, this month I am hosting AlphaBakes along with my lovely co-host Caroline from Caroline Makes.  AlphaBakes is a new blogging challenge where the idea is to bake with an ingredient that starts with the random letter chosen for the month. This month, the letter is "L" and the first thing to pop into my head is lemons. I know it's not very original but I love lemons and it was Valentine's so I came up with this recipe. I also have another "L" bake in the oven as I type so check back next week to see my second entry. 

Back to this recipe. I decided to be economical and used the whole fruit - skin, rind and all! I wanted to make it healthier so I used fat free yoghurt, less sugar and lots of fruit (lemon and raspberries).  The cake was really moist and smelled of lemons. It was quite tart what with the lemons and raspberries but everyone loved it! If you prefer a sweeter bake, I would advise adding more sugar.

Have you made your #AlphaBakes entry yet? If not, there's still time as the closing date is 25th February so go on.... you know you want to!

I am also sending these to Tea Time Treats hosted this month by Kate from whatkatebaked and co-hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.  The theme for this month is Romance and these little hearts fit the bill perfectly :) 

 cut up 1 lemon and blitz in a food processor... 

... until you get this 

 adding raspberries (which have been coated in flour) to the batter 

 cute little hearts

 I'm glad all the raspberries didnt sink to the bottom 

An original recipe by me, bakingaddict 

180g self raising flour plus 1 tablespoon
pinch of salt
150g plain fat free yoghurt
2 eggs
1 whole lemon
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
150g raspberries
135g caster sugar (add 150g-175g for a sweeter cake)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cut 1 lemon into small pieces, remove any seeds and blitz (skin, rind, fruit) in a food processor until fine as shown in picture above.
• In a large bowl, mix the yoghurt, eggs and oil. 
• Add the lemon pieces and stir.
• Add the zest and juice of another lemon (omit if you don't want it to be too lemony)
• Stir in the flour and salt. 
• Coat the raspberries with 1 tablespoon of flour.
• Fold in the raspberries.
• Pour the cake into desired moulds and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (small cakes) or 20-25 minutes (larger cakes).
• The cake should spring back from the edges and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack.