Simple Simnel Muffins Recipe

Simnel Muffins Recipe

Are you a dried fruit and spice lover like me? No? Try this muffin recipe and I expect a change of opinion. If you said yes then hooray! You're going to go absolutely head over heels for these super easy full of flavour muffins.
   As Easter is fast approaching, these Easter muffins are a great and flavourful Spring dessert recipe, guaranteed to impress your celebrating friends and family. What I love most about these muffins are how the flavours and spices used are reminiscent of the flavours used throughout fall and winter, but sweeter and not quite as heavy and dense.

Morning Baking at it's finest

Using simple ingredients you most likely already own, these are great for a fiber packed snack, breakfast or dessert.

This recipe uses 3 different spices and 4 different dried fruits, you may add or omit as you desire, this is a great chance to experiment!

Makes 12 - 20.

Ingredients

110g Butter

50g Granulated Sugar

60g Brown Demerara Sugar
2 Eggs
Zest and juice of an Orange

110g Self-Raising Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 and 1/2 Tsp Mixed Spice

1/2 Tsp Nutmeg

1/2 Tsp Ginger (Optional)
1 to 2 Tbsp Milk

Dried Fruit (I used Raisins, Sultanas, Dried apple chunks, Dried Cranberries)
90g Marzipan (Optional)

Optional; 

1 Tsp Glaze Icing (for each muffin)

Driedfruit, Nuts or Mini Chocolate Eggs to decorate

Directions

• Preheat an oven to 180C and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars until fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs and add the zest and juice.
• Fold in the flour, baking powder and spices until well combined, adding milk until the mixture is of dropping consistency.
• Fold in the dried fruit.
• Fill muffin cases to approx. 1/3 full and place a piece of marzipan in the centre before covering with more mixture until 3/4 full. (If omitting the marzipan, then simply fill until 3/4 full).
• Bake for approx. 20 - 25 mins. (Until golden brown and firm to the touch).
• Allow to cool and decorate with a tsp of glaze icing and decorations of choice.
• Best eaten within approx. 2 days of baking.
  
  

Tips & Serving Ideas

• Use the left over orange zest / juice to flavour the icing.
• For more of an Easter theme, make small easter fondant decorations such as mini rabbits, rabbit ears, ducklings or eggs!
• Candied orange peel also makes a great decoration.
  
  

Cara X

Simple Winnie the Pooh Honey Cake Recipe

Winnie the Pooh Honey Cake Recipe

I like cake moulds. In fact, I love them. I have a growing collection that is filling up my baking cupboard faster than I can remember what I even have anymore. Upon such realization, I decided to take a look and remind myself of all the different moulds that had not seen the light of the oven in some time, and discovered many wonders that have now been queued for use. One such mould was my Disney Winnie the Pooh face cake mould that I received from the Disney's Cakes & Sweets magazine collection (a collection, I might add, that has provided me endless hours of entertainment, providing adorable recipes and even more adorable and good quality baking gifts!).

Look how happy he is to see you!

 I used to love Winnie the Pooh when I was growing up, and still own a vast collection of books and soft toys that I have kept in his honour (and could not bring myself to throw away!). I always loved his unfathomable happiness in his oh-so-simple life, and the endless curiosity and kindness he had for the most everyday things. Childish I know, but I believe there is something that adults especially can learn from such a basic lesson. One such thing he loved most of course, was honey!And so in honour of Winnie's love, I decided to make his cake a honey cake!

I may have filled it a little too much.. !

I did a bit of research into honey cake recipes as I had only attempted honey cupcakes before and although I could have easily adapted this for a bigger cake, I preferred to research into simple but delicious looking honey cake recipes that seemed appropriate for the mould. Another lesson I learned too however, was to not be lazy and overfill the mould.. because it will overflow drastically! (This did however provide a delicious little deformed splodge of a cake that served as a taste test!).

If you've never felt the excitment of pulling away a mould.. I highly suggest you change this.

An overflow of cake is normal and is actually better than not rising enough so don't worry if yours seems to be double the cake that you intended. With the additional cake, use a sharp knife to cut across the top of the mould, following the moulds edge, until you're left with a mould which is filled with cake but does not have any overflowing the edges.

And voila!

This recipe was adapted from NetMums' honey cake recipe, using only 8 everyday ingredients this produces a moist but dense cake packed full of sweet honey and cinnamon flavours!



Ingredients



For the Cake:
120g Butter
2 Tbsp Caster Sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp Honey (I used Spanish Forest)
2 Eggs (Beaten)
200g Self-Raising flour
1 to 1 and 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 to 2 Tbsp Water

For the Icing:
 60g Icing Sugar
1/2 Tbsp Honey
Water (as needed, approx. 1 to 2 Tsp)


Directions

•  Preheat an oven to 180C.
• Grease a Winnie the Pooh cake mould or your chosen cake tin. 
• In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar and honey.
• Beat in the eggs.
• Fold in the flour and cinnamon and mix, adding water as necessary until the mixture is smooth but not too liquid.
• Bake for approx. 30 to 40 mins (until golden and springy to the touch).
• To make the icing, place the icing sugar in a mug or small bowl and add water until it is slightly more liquid than a glaze icing.
• Mix in the honey until it is well combined and drizzle over the cake.

Tips & Serving Ideas

• Serve with cream or honeycomb ice cream. 
• Fold in some raisins or sultanas into the sponge, or place decoratively on top.
• Decorate with chopped honeycomb pieces, nuts, flaked almonds or try your hand at making some fondant bees!
• Sprinkle over some gold edible glitter.
• Alternatively, you could cover the cake in marzipan and/or fondant (be sure to add in his eyes and nose!).
  
  
   

Cara X 

Easy Homemade Triple Chocolate Fudge Nut Bark Recipe

Easy Homemade Triple Chocolate Fudge Nut Bark

You love chocolate don't you? You love Fudge right? And aren't nuts just the best thing..like, ever?? Well feast your hungry eyes and try this simple, easy to do recipe that will not only stun your fellow friends and family but will only take you 10 minutes at the most to do! (depending on your nut crushing and throwing-everything-in-a-tin-and-mixing skills). 

You won't believe you made it yourself..go you!

  I've made this bark a thousand times in a countless variety of ways for an easy and quick homemade gift, giving notice to whatever the recipient is especially fond of (do they prefer white or dark chocolate? peppermint or orange? walnuts or hazelnuts?). And I have to say that it has always gone down a treat! What makes this recipe great is that you can literally substitute any of the ingredients for other versions, and add as many things into it as you like! For example, a few I've made in the past are White chocolate and Candy Cane Peppermint bark, Milk Chocolate Toffee and Hazelnut bark and Dark Chocolate Orange bark with candied orange peel and Walnuts... heaven! Why not try different alterations using whatever you may have in the cupboard? You may find a new favourite combination of flavours..

A melted pot of heaven.

Ingredients

(The amounts needed will entirely depend on how much bark you need, for me this filled two jam jars of bark bars)

Cooking Spray or Butter

250g Milk Chocolate Chopped

275g White Chocolate Chopped

200g Dark Chocolate Chopped

40g Raisins

20g Sultanas

8 Individually Wrapped Fudge Sweets

60g of Mixed Nuts (I used a mixture of cashew, peanut, almonds and walnuts)

Directions

• In a glass bowl, place the chopped milk chocolate. 
• Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering hot water on a medium heated hob and wait for the chocolate to melt (keep stirring to ensure all of the chocolate melts evenly).
• Pour approximately 3/4 of the chocolate into a greased baking tin (preferably use a square tin), and spread evenly using a knife or spatula.
• Place the mixed nuts onto one half of a clean tea towel and cover them with the other half. Firmly crush the nuts using a rolling pin. (Check on them to see if they're evenly broken!)
• Unwrap and slice the fudge into three small pieces each.
• Sprinkle approximately half of the crushed nuts, dried fruit and fudge pieces on top of the melted milk chocolate.
• Melt the dark chocolate in the same way, and pour over the nuts, fudge and dried fruits, coating as many of them as you can but don't worry about covering them all, barks are meant to be messy!
• Sprinkle over the remaining nuts, dried fruit and fudge and melt the white chocolate.
• Pour the white chocolate over the whole mixture and allow to cool.
• Place the tin into a refrigerator to chill and set (approximately 20 - 30 min).
• When chilled and set, place onto a chopping board and cut into pieces (the chocolate will likely be more shard-like than bars, this makes them look more authentic!)

Tips & Serving ideas

• The amount of different sweets and flavours you can add are endless! Try these; mini marshmallows, crushed biscuits, chocolate chips, chocolate bar pieces, crushed or chopped sweets, candied peel, toffee and cereal!
• You could also add extracts and flavourings, such as orange, vanilla, mint and coffee!
• Before chilling, add some smarties, sprinkles, small edible cake decorations or edible glitters to decorate!
• To present as gifts, try putting the chocolate into a jam or mason jar, with a homemade decorative lid and tied with a ribbon. Alternatively, place in small plastic bags tied with a ribbon or tag.

A little ribbon and voila!

Cara X

Welsh Cakes Recipe

Authentic Welsh Cakes Recipe

Being Welsh, the family have always loved these native cakes as a treat, especially on cold wintery nights! Although a little like scones, they are lighter, and smaller, and have a more fruity and baked flavour. While scones seem (to me anyway!) more of a Spring dessert, I have always associated Welsh Cakes with Winter and the very beginning of Spring (due to March 1st being the patron St.David's national day!). Speaking to those from other countries, I've been surprised to find not only that they were not familiar with the dessert (of course every country have their takes on different desserts) but that they were not very aware of the country of Wales in itself. In these cases, that's when I get my spatula out and start cooking up some of these babies! For March 1st this year, why not have a go yourself at making these delicious fruit cakes and see for yourself? You might just find yourself eating 2 or 3...or 6.

Ingredients

230g Self-Raising Flour

120g Butter 

85g Granulated Sugar

1 Medium Egg

A Handful each of Raisins/Sultanas

A few splashes of Milk (as needed)

Optional;

Mixed Spice

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Directions

• In a large bowl, rub the flour into the butter using your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
• With a spoon, combine the sugar.
• Whisk in the egg and add the dried fruit.
• Combine the mixture, firstly with a spoon, until it begins to collect together. Use your hands to form a dough ball. (If the mixture is too dry, add a little milk. If it is too wet, add more flour).
• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin onto a floured surface to about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch in thickness.
• Using a cookie cutter, cut out rounds until all the dough is used up.
• Grease a griddle or frying pan with butter and heat on a medium heat (a too high temperature will cause the cakes to burn on the outside without cooking on the inside).
• Place 4 to 5 cakes on the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side (until brown) before flipping. (It is helpful here to flip alternatively to evenly cook the cakes without burning the outside).
• Cook until the outside is brown or slightly black in colour (Many people like these best when slightly burnt.. as do I!).
• Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Tips & Serving ideas

• These are delicious warm or cold, but are best when warm!
• Serve with butter and/or jam.
• For an autumn and comforting feel, you can add some cinnamon, nutmeg or mixed spice to the mix to give it a little something extra! (In this case, I prefer them with some sliced banana and honey!)

Cara X