Creme Egg Cupcakes

Ever since I saw a picture of these re-tweeted by Cadbury's last weekend, I was desperate to re-create them. With no recipe attached, just the picture, my friend Libby and I took on the challenge this Saturday.

First things first, before you even put the kettle on, pop a couple of packets of mini cream eggs in the freezer. If you have a real sweet tooth, you could use regular size, but we thought that might be overkill. These will need a couple of hours to chill - plenty of time for a cup of tea, and catch up with a good friend. This is important as means that the eggs will stay together once heated and not dissolve into the cake batter.

For the 'cakey' bit, out came the Nigella cookbook, and we whipped up a batch of her standard cupcake sponge batter:

• 125g softened, unsalted butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 125f self-raising flour
• 15g cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-3 tbsps milk

Blend all of the ingredients, minus the milk. Once blended, add the milk a spoon at time until the batter is smooth - you might not need all of it.

Line a muffin tray with muffin cases and divide the mixture out evenly. 

Peel the creme eggs and place on top of the batter, pressing them down gently but not so they touch the bottom - you want them to stay in the middle.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes, or til they are springy to the touch.

If, like us, you cannot bear to wait before you eat them, put the kettle on again and crack one open right away (or once they are cool enough to handle). You won't regret this - the fondant oozes out and is very yummy. For the more arty among us, you could always ice the top in a fancy way, but in my opinion the cake and the cream egg make it sweet enough. That being said, I do claim to be able to eat a whole 6 pack of creme eggs without thinking twice. 

E x

Cinnamon & Orange Tea Cake

In yesterday's post, I wrote about how to make the most tasty glazed ham. I also wrote about how this beast took nearly 4 hours to cook in total, with a long waiting period of 3 hours in the middle. Seeing as between us we had the ingredients for something cake like, we thought we would rustle one up. 

I always have a cupboard load of cinnamon, I put it on most things - cereal, porridge, hot chocolate, most hot drinks and I could go on. We also had some leftover oranges from the ham glaze. Voila - cinnamon and orange cake was born. 

This was the most perfect cake to compliment the sweet, juicy ham of dinner time. We all sat down with a big cup of tea, put our feet up and admired our efforts for the day, over a nice slab of cake :)

Unsure as to why there is a lack of marg in this photo (sorry).

For this delicious cake, you will need:

• 6oz margarine or butter, whichever you prefer. We used marg.
• 6oz Self Raising Flour 
• 6oz caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 orange
• 1tsp cinnamon
• Extra sugar and cinnamon for the topping
• Large mixing bowl
• Cake tins or high sided baking tray if you want to make it into a tray bake
• Cup of tea to enjoy it with once cooked :)

N.B. The ingredients for this cake can be substituted for their 'free from' cousins. I know for a fact that it works just as well with wheat/gluten free flour and dairy free margarine. Thought I would let you know so that most people can join in! I'm not sure of an egg substitute but will keep an eye out.

How to:

The beauty of this recipe is how easy it is to make. No more creaming butter and sugar etc. just all of the ingredients in one bowl. You don't even need a blender.

First things first, preheat your oven to 180C and recruit someone to grease your cake tins/baking tray.

Then, in your large mixing bowl, throw in the margarine/butter, flour, sugar, eggs, zest of the orange, juice of half of the orange and the cinnamon into a bowl and then beat well together until smooth and creamy. If, like us, you cannot find an orange zester, you can always use a potato peeler to take off the zest, and then chop this up finely.

Once all evenly blended, divide between baking tins as you wish. This amount of mixture nicely fills your normal sized cake tins.

Bake in the oven for around 20-30 minutes, checking at 20. The age old test is always a winner, pop a clean knife in to the centre, if it comes out clean, then the cake is done. If it does not, then pop in back in for another 5. Repeat until ready.

Once you have taken your tins out of the oven, pop them on a heatproof side, still in the tins. Pour the juice of the rest of the orange over the cake while it is still warm.

Leave in the tins until the cake is cool enough to handle, by which point you can turn them out on to a cooling rack.

Mix together even quantities of caster sugar and cinnamon, depending on how much cinnamon you like to have (I like a lot!). You will most likely need around 2tsps of each. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the cake.

Sadly, seeing as this cake was something of an afterthought, we didn't have anything to hand to use as a filling. I would suggest perhaps a lovely orange buttercream filling or even some plain whipped cream. Instead, we ended up with two round, deliciously light tea cakes which was great. Both in taste terms, and also for our waistlines!

All that was left to do now, was put the kettle on, grab a still warm slice and enjoy.

E x