Mini Hot Jam Doughnuts

4 May


Whilst browsing the weekly good food email in my inbox a while back, the image of these fabulous little doughnuts caught my eye. 

I had attempted to make yeast doughnuts before in the hope of replicating the wonderful jam filled pockets from the American Doughnut Van at the Queen Victoria Market, but alas, my initial attempts left me disappointed with the tough chewy product that I had spent half day making. 

So I was a bit skeptical when I first saw this recipe, but as I kept reading, it sounded all so simple compared to my first attempt! 

So I gave it a go. The result? 

It’s now one of my all time “go to” recipes as it really is quite simple to make!! 

Just make sure you allow yourself time for the dough to rise and then again once you roll them into balls. 



Mini Hot Jam Doughnuts 

Recipe by Caroline Veik

Makes 24

Ingredients

125ml milk

15g unsalted butter

250g strong flour

1½ tsp instant yeast

¼ tsp salt

25g caster sugar

1 egg

2lt rice bran oil for deep-frying

Granulated sugar for rolling the doughnuts

1/2 cup raspberry jam

Method

Warm milk and butter together in a saucepan, then take it off the heat when the butter is melting. Put flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Beat egg into warmed milk and pour into bowl of dry ingredients.

Using a dough hook or your hands, knead the dough until it is smooth and silky – about 10 minutes by hand.

Place in a greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, between one to two hours.

Punch the dough down and knead again to make smooth. Cut in half and roll into two 25cm logs. Cut each log into 12 pieces, roll each into a rough ball and place on a baking paper-lined tray. Cover loosely and allow to rise for a further 15 minutes.

Heat oil in the deep-fryer to 190C. Cook the doughnuts, a few at a time, for five minutes, flipping over halfway so they brown evenly. Remove and drain on a paper towel, then roll in sugar to coat.

Easy Lemon & Passion fruit Melting Moments

27 Apr

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The other day I received my weekly ‘Good Food’ newsletter in my inbox and it reminded that I was yet to try anything from a previous one that featured classic biscuits! I had saved a recipe for melting moments which I was meaning to try. So whilst everyone was busy making ANZAC biscuits this long weekend, I decided to break tradition and try my hand at these Lemon & Passion fruit melting moments.

The original recipe by Neil Perry can be found here. However, I decided to tweak the recipe as I went along as I found that at some steps, I found the mixture too dry for my liking. I also added lemon to the flavouring – but this is my own personal taste so feel free to leave it out!

The first step is to cream the butter and sugar with the lemon rind. You really want the butter to pale in colour and really fluff up. Otherwise you end up with a really grainy and clumpy texture and crumb that will reflect in the final product.

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On a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, you should find that the butter and flour will come together to make a dough.

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When the dough starts coming off the edge of the bowl cleanly, you can turn off the mixer and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Below is an image of the dough just before it came together and beat cleanly off the edge of the mixer bowl.

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On the lightly floured surface, gently knead your dough a few times and then wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

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Once rested, take the dough out of the fridge and divide evenly. For small bite sized moments, divide into 36. For a nice medium sized (not those overly large cafe sized ones that I find too sweet), divide into 24. I found that rolling it out into a long sausage like shape made it easier to divide the dough into even amounts.

Roll into a ball and then flatten the ball in your hand and place on lined baking trays. Use a fork to imprint the top of each moment and also to flatten the bottom of the moment.

Bake for 12 to 16 minutes depending on your oven – I have an electric fan forced oven that bakes hotter in the top so I baked my top tray for 12 minutes and the second tray for 13 minutes.

Let them cool on a wire rack.

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While the biscuits are cooling, you can get started on your lemon/passion fruit butter! This is so easy and so delicious!

Add your butter and icing sugar together in a mixing bowl (again, I tweaked the recipe and used more butter for a smoother consistency). At this stage, if you wanted to add some fresh lemon juice then squeeze a good 20 to 30ml into the bowl. Cream the butter and icing sugar together until the butter pales – this time though, the butter may come together and look more ‘doughy’ then creamy – normally, if you were making this, the ratio of dry to wet ingredients is too high. But as we will be adding more ‘wet’ to the mixture, this ‘doughy’ consistency is fine. Once your butter pales and comes cleanly from the bowl as shown below, you can add the passion fruit pulp.

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As soon as you increase the ratio of dry to wet ingredients you’ll start to see the butter change texture and ‘fluff’ up.

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Put the contents of your lemon/passion fruit butter into a piping bag or a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the corner ready for piping!

To make the melting moments look their best, I made sure to pair each biscuit to one of similar size and shape. Pipe a good dollop of of the butter into the centre of the biscuit – don’t worry about piping to the edge, once you push the other biscuit on top, you’ll find the pressure will even out the butter and push it to the edge for you.

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And voila!! There you have it, easy lemon and passion fruit melting moments!! Full ingredient list and recipe below with my ‘tweaks’ included. If you give it a go, please let me know how you get along!!

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Melting Moments with Passion fruit butter by Neil Perry – Recipe below includes my ‘tweaks’ and method tips in brackets

Original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients

150g soft butter, diced (I used 200g as my first attempt at these were too dry)
75g caster sugar
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
200g plain flour
50g rice flour
icing sugar, to dust
Passionfruit butter
30g butter, softened (I used 50g for a smoother consistency as you can still feel the ‘grain’ of the icing sugar on your tongue otherwise)
150g icing sugar
20ml passionfruit pulp (about 1 passionfruit)
(Optional: 20 to 30ml lemon juice)
Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
In a mixer, beat the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flours until combined (I continued using my paddle beater in my mixer instead here and found I had a much more smoother dough). Knead mix gently on a floured surface until smooth, and then cover in cling film and allow to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
 
Divide mixture into 36, roll into balls and place on a greased baking tray. Flatten the balls with the back of a fork. Bake for 12-16 minutes, or until crisp and light golden. Stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
(Note: dividing into 36 gave me small bite sized biscuits whilst dividing into 24 gave me a good medium size that was the perfect size for me. Also, rather than using a fork to flatten, I rolled the dough into a ball in my hand and then pressed my palms together to flatten the ball to give me a more consistent shape. I then only used the fork to ‘score’ the top of the biscuits to give that traditional mark)
 
To make filling, beat butter with a wooden spoon until pale and creamy. Add half the icing sugar and beat until well combined.
(I added the icing sugar and the butter together at the same time and instead of using a wooden spoon, let my mixer do all the work! Also, if you wanted to add lemon to your filling, add the lemon juice at the same time!)
Add the passionfruit pulp and the remaining icing sugar and beat until well combined and fluffy. (Side note again, all my icing sugar had already been added – but if you want a thicker consistency, then add more icing sugar. For a softer/thinner consistency, add more butter)
Spread passionfruit butter onto half the biscuits, using a palate knife or piping bag with a 1cm nozzle (You can also use a zip lock bag with a small hole cut into one corner). Top with remaining biscuits, and dust with icing sugar.

 

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Easy Homemade Churros

9 Jan
Homemade churros with chocolate dipping sauce

Homemade churros with chocolate dipping sauce

Who can resist one of these hot and crispy delights coated in cinnamon sugar? Or even better, dipped in a warm chocolate sauce?

No one, that’s who!

These churros are so easy to make and in no time at all! So if you are after a quick, no fuss crowd pleaser for entertaining, or simply for some self indulgence, then these are for you!!

You’ll need a good quality cloth piping bag or heavy duty plastic piping bag and a star piping nozzle for this. If you don’t use a good quality piping bag, you’ll find it difficult to pipe the churros dough as it’s quite thick! Kitchen scissors also came in handy!

The first step is to prepare your cinnamon sugar by combining your 1/2 cup of sugar with your cinnamon in a shallow dish and set aside for coating your churros.

In a medium saucepan/pot, combine all of your wet ingredients (water and 2 tblsp of oil) with your salt and remaining sugar and whisk together over medium heat until boiling. Remove from the heat and add your flour and mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball and all the flour comes away clean from the side of the saucepan as shown below:

Add your flour to the saucepan and begin mixing

Add your flour to the saucepan and begin mixing

As you combine, the flour will come away cleanly from the saucepan

As you combine, the flour will come away cleanly from the saucepan

Your dough is ready once everything has combined and comes away from the saucepan cleanly

Your dough is ready once everything has combined and comes away from the saucepan cleanly

Transfer the dough to your piping bag with nozzle.

TIP: To get the dough to the bottom of the bag, I ended up twirling the piping bag in a circle.

Heat your oil for frying in a deep pan (for shallow frying as I did) or in a medium saucepan for deep frying.

Here comes the tricky part, but not to fear, I came up with an easy solution!

Because the dough is quite thick, I needed two hands to pipe it out, but the dough would not ‘drop off’ the nozzle once my pressure on the bag was released. So here I grabbed my kitchen scissors.

TIP: Put the tail end of the piped churros dough in the oil and move your piping bag to allow most of the dough to be in the frying oil, grab the scissors and snip the dough away from the nozzle. Lowering the tail end of the dough into the oil first will avoid oil splashing on yourself when you snip the dough away.

If shallow frying, simply fry until golden on one side and turn.

Fry 01

Fry 02

Allow your churros to drain on paper towel before coating in cinnamon sugar

Allow your churros to drain on paper towel before coating in cinnamon sugar

Coat your churros in the cinnamon sugar and voila!!

For the chocolate dipping sauce, see the full recipe below:

Easy Homemade Churros Recipe: (recipe via justataste.com)

You’ll need:

  • Cloth piping bag or heavy duty plastic piping bag
  • Star tip/nozzle
  • Kitchen scissors

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Sugar:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Churros:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup plain all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • Extra vegetable for deep or shallow frying

Chocolate Dipping Sauce:

  • 300ml thickened cream
  • 200g chopped dark cooking chocolate

Method:

  1. For cinnamon sugar, combine your cinnamon sugar ingredients in a shallow dish and set aside
  2. For the Churros: In a small/medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together water, sugar, salt and vegetable oil until boiling. Remove from heat and add the flour to the wet mixture, using a wooden spoon to combine. Once all ingredients have combined and the mixture has turned into a ball of dough, it should come away cleanly from the saucepan.
  3. Transfer to your piping bag (see tip in blog post on how to get your dough to the bottom of the bag)
  4. Heat your oil for frying
  5. Pipe your churros dough out of the pastry bag and use a pair of scissors to snip it off the nozzle (see tip in blog post to avoid oil splashes!)
  6. If shallow frying, turn once to ensure both sides are golden brown.
  7. Remove from oil once golden brown and allow to drain on paper towel.
  8. Coat in cinnamon sugar and serve.

Chocolate Dipping Sauce:

Method:

On low heat, heat the cream in a pot until the rim of the pot begins to bubble with cream, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and stir through the chopped chocolate until dissolved. This ganache will set at room temperature if not used immediately and can be refridgerated and re-heated when needed.

Chocolate

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One Bowl Chocolate Brownies

7 Aug

One Bowl Chocolate Brownies

I have been going through a bit of a brownie craze recently and thought I would share this easy recipe with you. But the best part is there is hardly any washing up to do!!

Introducing the One Bowl Brownie!!

Serve it up with a warm chocolate ganache sauce and ice cream!! Instead of adding crushed nuts or whole nuts, I prefer to add them ground or a fine meal but it’s all up to you!!

Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

One Bowl Brownie

Ingredients:

  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 200g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 3 eggs, lightly whisked
  • 1/2 cup dark choc chips (optional)
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • Hazelnut or Almond meal – quantity to taste

Metond:

  1. Step 1Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
  2. Step 2In a metal bowl, melt butter and chopped chocolate together over a pot of boiled water on low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in brown sugar and vanilla.
  3. Step 3Add flour and eggs and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined. Stir in choc chips and your choice of nuts.
  4. Step 4Pour into prepared tin and smooth surface. Bake for 40 minutes until set. Remove from oven. Cool in tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.

Chocolate Ganache Sauce:

Ingredients:

  • 200g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 300ml Thickened Cream

Method:

On low heat, heat the cream in a pot until the rim of the pot begins to bubble with cream, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and stir through the chopped chocolate until dissolved. This ganache will set at room temperature if not used immediately and can be refridgerated and re-heated when needed.

Hope you enjoy this easy recipe!!!

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

4 May

Red Velvet_heart beauty

Just about every cupcake shop these days feature a Red Velvet Cupcake flavour!! A lot of people have asked me ‘what exactly IS the red velvet flavour?’

Traditionally , a red velvet cake is a buttermilk cake – I say traditionally because I’m not traditional and didn’t use a buttermilk base for my cupcakes! Buttermilk is a slightly acidic milk, which was the result of using the left over liquid from churning butter from a fermented or cultured cream ….but i digress…what was the question again?

Oh right…so what IS red velvet?

To put it simply, it’s a slightly cocoa flavoured buttermilk cake base with red colouring. There are a few theories floating around out there on how the cake got it’s vibrant red colour. Some state that the use of betroot juice in the batter caused this whilst another theory is the reaction between the natural cocoa power and an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk – oh right…that’s why I mentioned buttermilk earlier!

So last month I was asked to make 250 red velvet cupcakes for the launch of Australia’s newest beauty magazine – Heart Beauty Magazine.

Heart Beauty Magazine, the first issue!

Heart Beauty Magazine, the first issue!

After much research into many existing recipes I stumbled accross a product that had rave reviews – LorAnn Oils’ Red Velvet Emulsion. It’s a water based, gluten free and sugar free concentrated emulsion used in any cake batter recipe to turn it into a vibrant red velvet cake! I must say, the results were AMAZING!! You can buy the emulsion through Australian distributor Cakes Around Town.

My first task was to simply make my traditional vanilla cupcake recipe…hmm…I say simple but it took quite a while to perfect it!

The first step is to cream your butter and sugar together – normally I would also add my vanilla extract at this stage, but seeing as I was using an emulsion, I left this step out.

Baking Tip: When creaming your butter and sugar together, pay attention to the texture of your butter! You want your butter to be light and fluffy and become pale in colour. If it isn’t…keep your mixer on high and leave it on until your butter and sugar look like the picture below. This creaming method will give your cake a finer crumb resulting in a lighter and fluffier cake.

Make sure your butter fluffs up and becomes pale in colour

Make sure your butter fluffs up and becomes pale in colour

Baking Tip: It’s always best to have all your ingredients at room temperature too – eggs, butter and milk. This will ensure all your ingredients will bond and fold together perfectly.

Once your butter and sugar have creamed together and is fluffy and pale, add the eggs one at a time ensuring the last egg is completely beaten into the mixture before adding the next one.

Your batter should look something like this once the eggs are added.

Your batter should look something like this once the eggs are added.

The next step is to add the last of your wet and dry ingredients by alternating them.

Baking Tip: When alternating your wet and dry ingredients, usually flour and milk, always start and end with the dry ingredient! Because of the high ratio of fat in most cake recipes, adding flour first gives the proteins a coating – making it harder for the proteins to form strong bonds with other proteins, you are effectively ‘shortening’ gluten strands which results in a more tender cake that feels less buttery and dense. So when you add your milk (protein), the flour is protecting the exisitng protein (butter) from bonding too heavily with the milk – who knew there was so much science involved in baking!!

Always alternate when adding your dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with dry!

Always alternate when adding your dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with dry!

In the image above, I sifted my cocoa and flour together before adding to the batter. Now for the last step using this newly discovered product – LorAnn Oils’ Red Velvet Emulsion!

The instructions say to add 1 tablepoon to for every 12 cupcakes. This recipe makes between 24 and 30 cupcakes depending on how generous you are with your batter scoops, so I added two and a half table spoons.

The LorAnn Red Velvet Emulsion instantly gave the batter a vibrant red colour.

The LorAnn Red Velvet Emulsion instantly gave the batter a vibrant red colour.

Voila!! A beautiful red velvet batter! Pour into your cupcake trays lined with cupcake liners and bake away!!

Here are some images of my big production line for the Heart Beauty Magazine order!!

Fresh out of the oven! It smelled devine!!

Fresh out of the oven! It smelled devine!!


The icing process...it kept going...and going...and going...

The icing process…it kept going…and going…and going…


...getting there!!

…getting there!!


The final result...over 250 Red Velvet Cupcakes!!

The final result…over 250 Red Velvet Cupcakes!!

Cupcake Recipe:

Ingredients:

200g Room temperature/Softened butter

370g (1 3/4 cup) Caster sugar

4 eggs (at room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla extract (optional for red velvet recipe if using an emulsion)

405g (2 3/4 cup) Self raising flour

1/3 to 1/2 cup cocoa powder (up to the baker on how strong they want a cocoa flavor to come through)

1 cup (250ml) milk

2 or 2.5 tablespoons of LorAnn Oils’ Red Velvet Emulsion

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line your cupcake trays with 24 cupcake liners

2. Cream the butter, sugar and optional vanilla extract together using an electric mixer. The butter should be fluffy and pale in colour.

3. Add eggs one at a time

4. Add flour and milk in small amounts alternating between the two, starting and ending with the flour.

5. Add the LorAnn Oils’ Red Velvet Emulsion

6. Divide the batter using an ice scream scoop to keep your cupcakes even in size.

7. Bake for 20 mins or until skewer comes out clean

Baking Tip: For a ‘whiter’ cupcake without the golden brown top, reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees celcius and bake for approximately 4 to 5 minutes longer or until skewer comes out clean.

Frost with your favourite cream cheese frosting recipe!

St. Patricks Day Cupcakes

21 Mar

Eariler in the month I received a cupcake order from a work colleaugue – the theme???

St. Patricks Day!!!

Iced cupcake - 3 tray

I decided to use a moist chocolate cake recipe I had used for a birthday by Barefoot Contessa.

This cake recipe is extremely moist and will stay so for weeks!!

I followed the recipe and sifted all the dry ingredients together before adding the wet ingredients (except the cup of coffee).

Once brewed, let the coffee cool down and then slowly add to the mixture. The final cake batter will be quite runny but not to fret!!

the batter will be quite runny - but don't worry!

the batter will be quite runny – but don’t worry!

As usual, I used an ice cream scoop to measure out my cupcake batter to keep each cupcake consistent and level. Cake supply stores are now beginning to stock them but I found mine for just a few dollars in a bargain/two dollar shop 🙂

Use an ice cream scoop to keep your cupcakes consistent!

Use an ice cream scoop to keep your cupcakes consistent!

As I was using a cake recipe for small cupcakes, I reduced the baking time to 18-20 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven!

Fresh out of the oven!

For icing, I always prefer Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Whilst it sounds scary (dissolving sugar and egg whites in a double boiler first) it’s not that hard and is so much lighter than standard buttercream. Swiss Meringue Buttercream is also much glossier and will hold its shape a lot better in higher room temperatures!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream in the making!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream in the making!

Once the butter is added to the whipped sugar and egg whites, the buttercream will deflate quite a bit and will look like it’s curdled before coming together and fluffing up again. For the colouring, I used an Americolor gel – forest green – color. Food gels will give you a much nicer colour than liquid gels.

I used Americolor Gel food colouring - Forest Green

I used Americolor Gel food colouring – Forest Green

You can keep Swiss Meringue Buttercream in an airtight container in the fridge for one week and in the freezer for a couple of months! Simply re-whip once at room temperature or place over a double boiler before whipping.

And finally… the finished product with my signature rosette swirl, a smiley shamrock and shamrock confetti purchased from Cakes Around Town.

Final credits go to my little helper ‘Boss’ the English Staffy!!

Boss - my little English Staffy helper

Boss – my little English Staffy helper

Beatty’s Chocolate Cake (Serves 8)

Copyright 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten, Clarkson/Potter Publishers, All Rights Reserved

Butter for greasing the pans
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
¾ cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
½ cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream – via Sweetapolita

Yield: ~ 10 cups of buttercream

 Ingredients
  • 10 large, fresh egg whites (300 g)
  • 2-1/2 cups (500 g) sugar
  • 3 cups (680 g) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and cool, but not cold
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon (20 ml) pure vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer with paper towel and lemon juice, to remove any trace of grease. Add egg whites and sugar, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F, or if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.
  2. With whisk attachment of mixer, begin to whip until the meringue is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl feels neutral to the touch (this can take up to 10 minutes or so). *Don’t begin adding butter until the bottom of the bowl feels neutral, and not warm.
  3. Switch over to paddle attachment and, with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth). *If mixture is too runny, refrigerate for about 15 minutes and continue mixing with paddle attachment until it comes together. Add vanilla and salt, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.
  4. Add additional flavours, purees, as desired.

Notes

*Keep in airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week, leaving out at room temperature when needed, rewhipping in mixer for 5 minutes.

**Can freeze for up to 6-8 weeks. To thaw, place on counter overnight, and rewhip for 5 minutes with paddle attachment in an electric mixer.

***If buttercream still doesn’t have its satiny finish after rewhipping, microwave 1/3 of the buttercream for approximately 10 seconds and add to remaining buttercream in mixer bowl, beating for a few moments to incorporate.

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Jam Doughnut Muffins!

17 Feb

Thought I would share with you one of the easiest but delicious recipes I have come accross – Jam Doughnut Muffins. What’s not to like? Jam, Doughnut, Muffin. Win-win-win.

This is a simple recipe that I found a few years back on http://www.taste.com.au – a great recipe source!

No more nonsense… let’s get straight to the ‘How To’ pictures and recipe!!

When making the batter, your batter consistency should be thicker than a normal muffin batter, slightly doughy and very sticky:

Batter should be thick, slightly doughy and very sticky. Whatever you do, don't scrape down the bowl cleanly - you'll use this later!

Batter should be thick, slightly doughy and very sticky. Whatever you do, don’t scrape down the bowl cleanly – you’ll use this later!

One of the greatest tips that I can give you is to get yourself an old school ice-cream scoop with a spring action swiper!! This simple device has saved me so much time and ensures that each muffin or cupcake I make will be consistent and equally measured!

Use an ice-cream scoop to keep each muffin even

Use an ice-cream scoop to keep each muffin even

The recipe states to create a little hole/indent in the batter and then scoop a your chosen jam into the batter and then cover it – which I have done in the past. But instead, I chose to get out my piping bag and a very fine tip and used the piping bag to pipe the jam into the muffin. WARNING: don’t push your piping tip too far into the muffin as the jam will sink to the bottom of the tin and you’ll end up with holes at the bottom of your muffin and a tin full of jam!! Just push the tip just below the surface of the batter and pipe a small amount. If you do this, your jam will end up in the centre of the muffin.

Don't push the piping bag too far in or your jam will sink to the bottom creating a hole at the bottom. Stay very close to the top.

Don’t push the piping bag too far in or your jam will sink to the bottom creating a hole at the bottom. Stay very close to the top.

You may end up with little jam holes in the top of your muffins, not to worry – remember when I said to keep some batter in the bowl and not scrape it clean? This is why, just scoop a teaspon of batter on top of the jam holes to seal your jam in. It’s very important to do this. If you don’t, you’ll end up with jam volanoes!

Don't worry about the jam holes from the piping - use the batter still in the bowl to top up the muffins and cover the holes.

Don’t worry about the jam holes from the piping – use the batter still in the bowl to top up the muffins and cover the holes.

Your sealed muffins should not have any jam exposed - otherwise you'll end up with jam volcanoes

Your sealed muffins should not have any jam exposed – otherwise you’ll end up with jam volcanoes

Golden brown - fresh out of the oven

Golden brown – fresh out of the oven

The last step is to melt your butter and coat your muffins before dipping them into a sugar bowl!! I used a pastry brush to spread a very thin layer of melted butter on the muffins.

And the final product……

The final result!

The final result!

Sugar coated and ready to eat!

Sugar coated and ready to eat!

Here’s the recipe for you below – I hope you enjoy it! It’s so simple!!

Jam Doughnut Muffins – source: http://www.taste.com.au

Ingredients:

  • 300g (2 cups) self raising flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2/3 cups caster sugar, extra 1/2 cup extra to coat
  • 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 175ml
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • Good quality jam
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease a 6 hole muffin pan or a 12 hole cupcake pan (I used a 12 hole cupcake pan which yielded exactly 12)

Sift the flour into a medium bowl, add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to only just combine. Place an even amount of mixture into each muffin/cupcake hole and make an indent in the centre. Fill each indent with a generous 1/2 tsp of jam. Cover the jam with the surrounding mixture.

OR – as pictured above, you can use my piping method.

Bake for 20 minutes. remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Melt the butter. Combine the extra sugar and ground cinnamon in a large bowl. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, use a pastry brush to brush each muffin with melted butter and then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Serve while still warm.

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High Tea Party

9 Jan

First of all, I’d like to thank you for visiting my blog and for taking the time to read my first post!!

As a new years resolution I will be posting and updating this site regulary with photos, inspiration and RECIPES!!

As a follower and fan of many blogs – I am aware that too much text can be annoying when all you want to see are delicious and pretty photos!! So I will cut to the chase!

I wanted to share with you one of my recent projects – a red themed High Tea Party that I helped style with my sister business ‘The Pretty Trading Company’.

After 14 hours of solid baking, kilos of butter and flour, plenty of eggs, sacks of sugar and a sneaky cupcake stealing staffy, I managed to produce two vanilla sponge ruffle cakes with fresh strawberries and over 80 cupcakes for the styled shoot!!

I hope you enjoy the photos! I will post more photos of this shoot soon!! Click on the thumbnails to view the gallery!!!

Photography: JPower Photography

Make Up Artist: Temistry by Temi Ceviren

Styling: The Pretty Trading Company

Cakes: Made It. Ate It. (click here to become a fan on facebook!)

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