Bread Maker

Ok, so I've given in to temptation and bought a bread maker and am strangely excited by it. I have to wait until the weekend to try it because its at my mums, but be sure I'll post some recipes on here as I try them out.
Here's hoping it doesn't end up in the back of the cupboard with the toasted sandwich maker !

The (toy) story so far...

So what cake would a three year old boy want?
Well it bl***y better be this one is all I can say!

So at first glance you could be forgiven for thinking I'd spent hours carefully moulding icing into intricate figures but this is a bit of a cheats cake this year, in that I bought the Toy Story mini figures ,

So i decided to take a break from force feeding my kids various vegetables in their cakes and went with an old faithful recipe from Nigella Lawson, Buttermilk Birthday Cake.

This cake is ideal for any birthday cake you want to make in a special mould as it holds its shape brilliantly, or if you need a firm cake which will hold its shaped.
But you don't have to wait for someone's birthday - it's a great recipe to cook with the kids at any time …
Recipe

Serves 10
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt

200ml buttermilk (or 75g yogurt mixed with 125ml semi-skinned milk)

125g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
200g caster sugar
3 large free-range eggs
icing sugar and ready-to-roll icing to decorate

(I used double this quantity as I wanted to be sure there was plenty of cake.)
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm square cake tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt together. Mix the buttermilk (or yogurt mixture).
Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little of the flour with the last one. Gradually add the rest of the flour with the buttermilk, one after the other, until thoroughly mixed.

Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 minutes or until well risen and pale golden brown. Loosen the sides of the cake with a round-bladed knife and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

When cold, drizzle with icing sugar mixed with lemon juice – get the kids to help - and decorate with ready to roll icing.

I bought pre-colour icing too to make the toy blocks.

For the floor I made a fairly thick fondant icing and added food colouring to make a light brown floor colour. I spread it thinly on the cake board and when almost set, scored the lined to make floor boards. After some drying time I painted in-between the floor boards with black food colouring and added some nails.
It was then just a case of assembling the pieces of cake and covering with icing sheets and a duvet.

The head board was made of ginger bread (see below) and cut out using a handmade cardboard template.
Ingredients
350g plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter
175g soft brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp Golden Syrup

Method: How to make gingerbread

1. Mix together the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda.
2. Rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Add the sugar.
4. In a separate bowl mix together the egg and golden syrup then add to the dry ingredients.
5. Mix together until it forms a dough. Tip out onto a clean, floured work surface and knead for a minute or two until it is smooth.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
7. Roll out the dough to the depth of a pencil (approx 5mm) and cut out around the cardboard template.
8. Lay the biscuits on a greased baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
If the holes in your cut out have joined together during baking, you can cut them out again using a sharp knife before the gingerbread cools completely.
Store the gingerbread in an airtight container to avoid softening and add to the cake just prior to serving.

Chocolate beetroot muffins

Discovered this recipe a few years back, as I'm not a huge fan of beetroot and was looking for palatable ways of using it up when we got it our veg box. The muffins are surprisingly light and using the beetroot makes such sense as, like carrots, they're a high-sugar root vegetable. It's from Jill Dupleix originally, but I've made a few minor adjustments but I'll give the more standard recipe here.

Preheat the over 180C (or 160C fan). Put 12 paper cases in a muffin tin.

Sift together:
75g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
2 t baking powder
Stir in:
200g caster sugar

With a food processor, blend 250g cooked beetroot until as smooth as possible.
Add:
3 eggs, one at a time
1 t vanilla essence
200ml corn oil

Pour the wet beetroot mix into the dry mix. Mix until smooth and combined.

Divide between the muffin cases and bake for 30 mins.

Cool on a rack, then dust with icing sugar for serving.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/default.aspx?page=11876&sc_cid=00077&utm_source=Frontpage&utm_medium=Promobox+3&utm_campaign=Beetroot+benefits+40358

American Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
2 medium eggs
160g caster sugar
300g topped, tailed, peeled and finely grated courgette
180g white rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1) Pre-heat oven to 180 C / 350F/ gas mark 4. Arrange paper cases in muffin tray
2) Whisk eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and light – this should take about 5 mins and beaters should leave a trail across the mixture add the courgette
3) Sprinkle over half the flour, along with the baking powder and salt and whisk for 30 seconds. Add remaining flour and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
4) Ladle the mixture into the cases so it comes 4/5 of the way up the cases. Place in the middle of the oven for approx. 30mins.