Red Velvet Cupcakes

Adapted from Nigella Lawson Kitchen

Let’s face it, the reason we love Red Velvet Cake is because it’s red.

I also think we just love the word “velvet”.

When you put them together, we don’t stand a chance.

Red Velvet? Yes please.

It’s even better in cupcake form. Coz cupcakes are easier to eat.

Also, cupcakes are cute. They’re so cute they survived food trend burnout.

And everybody loves Cream Cheese Frosting.

Or any frosting, really.

(“Frosting” is also a great word. If I were a pet person, I’d totally have a pet named Mrs. Frosting.)

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup (100 gm) all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg, room temp

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk, room temp

1/2 teaspoon cider (or white) vinegar

For the Cream Cheese Icing:

8 oz confectioner’s sugar

2 oz cream cheese, soft

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, soft

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar (or vanilla extract)

Cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Method

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the food coloring and vanilla.

Add a spoonful of the flour mixture, beat, then add the egg and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the rest of the flour mixture, being careful not to over mix.

Pour in the buttermilk and vinegar and beat again until you have a cohesive batter.

Divide into a cupcake tin, filling each cup about 1/3 of the way full.

Bake 15-20 minutes are until the tops spring back when you touch them (or when a tester comes out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

Icing:

In a small bowl, whisk the icing sugar, butter and cream cheese together until the mixture is creamy. Add the vinegar or vanilla and incorporate well.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, ice the cupcakes however you please. I used a piping bag though the results are far from professional! Dust with cocoa powder if desired.

Makes 12 really red cupcakes.

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

Don’t be fooled by appearances – because while this cake looks like a heavy, dense block of chocolate (never a bad thing, but still) it is surprisingly light and fresh. If you love the chocolate orange combination, this is made for you.

The crumb is not as fine as that of a pound cake, but it is also nowhere near the heavier crumb of a quickbread. It’s somewhere in the middle and pretty near perfect for tea time.

 And if you don’t drink afternoon tea, what are you waiting for? It’s total permission to add one more meal to your day! Brit-style too.

Two interesting notes about the taste – one is that there is no salt in this recipe, which is something I’ve noticed in many of Nigella’s baking recipes. I suppose a bit of testing is in order – I would love to know if salt really does make a difference to baked goods.

My other baking idol, Joanne Chang, insists that it does, so I wouldn’t commit either way. But I do love that Nigella is pretty great at stripping a recipe down to its basics.

 The other thing is that this cake is not overly sweet. In fact, by American standards it’s probably not sweet enough.

I like the subtlety of the sweetness here – it feels like you’re having a treat but not something that screams Dessert with a capital D.

So there you have it – a dense-looking block of cake that’s anything but dense both in terms of texture and flavor.

Ingredients

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp

2 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden syrup (or dark corn syrup)

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons cocoa powder (the good stuff)

2 eggs, room temperature

zest of 2 oranges

juice of 1 orange

Method

Preheat oven to 325.

Grease a non-stick 2 pound (9 x 5) loaf tin liberally with butter. If you don’t have non-stick, I would line the pan with parchment, and then butter. Liberally.

In a medium bowl, measure out your flour, sift in the cocoa powder and add the baking soda. Mix everything well.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter together with the golden syrup just until incorporated, then add the brown sugar. Beat until light brown and fluffy.

With the mixer on medium-low, add a tablespoon of the flour mixture, wait until it’s mixed in and then crack in the egg. Beat.

Repeating this process, add a couple more spoonfuls of flour, then crack in the second egg.

Continue adding the flour in spoonfuls with the mixer on medium until all the flour is mixed in.

Add the orange zest and juice. Beat again. The mixture may look slightly curdled once the juice is in, but do not worry. All is well.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.

Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out with a few sticky crumbs clinging to it.

Makes 12 non-dense slices.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Adapted from Nigella Kitchen

I mean, seriously, with all the different blueberry muffin recipes floating around, how are you going to know which one to choose?

Well, the differentiating factor with this recipe is the cornmeal.

 You have the grainy crunch of a lovely sweet corn muffin studded with blueberries that burst in the golden corny interior.

Whew, what a corny description.

But really, that is what sets this blueberry muffin apart and it’s a nice change up from the usual flour based batter.  Nigella’s recipe is really simple, uses the most basic ingredients and takes practically no time to make.

I think these would also be really nice with raspberries, as they are more tart and the tartness against the sweet corn backdrop would be perfection.

Anyway, give these a go. There are only 29,687 more blueberry muffin recipes on the web for you to try. Get crackin’!

Ingredients

1 cup flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

3/4 cup blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 400. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.

In a measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk, top off with the oil, crack in the egg and whisk everything together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk till the batter just comes together. Fold in half of the blueberries.

Dollop the batter into the muffin cups. They should each be about two-thirds full.

Adorn the top of each muffin with the remaining blueberries, about 3-4 each.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are a crunchy golden brown.

Makes 12 easy choices for breakfast.

S’mores Cookies

Adapted from Eleanor Klivans’ Big Fat Cookies

These cookies are out of control. They are not very pretty to look at. But they are out of control in the taste department.

 We know marshmallows get soft and gooey in a regular fireside S’more.

And we know marshmallows get caramelly and sticky from making Rice Krispies.

These cookies are the best of both those Utopian worlds.

Gooey, melty, sticky, chewy, chocolately, graham-crackery goodness.

The original recipe calls for using graham cracker crumbs, but I went with buying the sheets then crumbling them up myself. I like the texture of having a few bigger pieces of graham crackers dotted throughout the cookie. Because there is so little flour used here, you really get full on graham cracker flavor.

If you under-bake them a little, you get maximum gooeyness, but they are going to tend to fall apart. I found them to be most delicious this way.

 If you’re more into having them look cohesive (these are not pretty suckers), then make sure to bake them longer so that they hold together. They will be a little crispier, and the marshmallows will have melted into that clear, sticky caramelly thing around the edges.

Either way, they are phenomenally delicious.

Ingredients

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

18 sheets (2 packets) graham crackers

¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows

Method

Preheat oven to 325.

Place the graham crackers in a food storage bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have mostly crumbs with a few larger pieces. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Crack in the egg and pour in the vanilla extract. Beat until well incorporated.

Gradually pour in the graham cracker crumbs, flour and salt. Mix until combined.

Add the chocolate chips and marshmallows and mix well.

Using an ice cream scoop or ¼ cup measure, drop rounded balls of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, 4 inches apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies slightly so that they are about ¾ of an inch thick.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. The edges of the cookies will look clear and caramelly, while the centers may still have bits of white marshmallow peeking out.

Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack using a big spatula.

Makes 15 ooey gooey cookies.