Easter Egg Cupcakes - Recipe

Easter Egg Cupcakes with Smashed Eggs

The blogosphere is on overload with Cadbury Creme Eggs recipes, but alas I'm not a fan of the Creme Egg.  The photographs and recipes I've seen though are enough to make me wish I was a Creme Egg fan.

I've used my favourite chocolate filled eggs because I'm happy that I can decorate my cakes and eat the eggs at the same time.

I made some of the cupcakes in muffin cases and others in a friand tin.

Makes: 12 chocolate cakes
You will need: 150g softened unsalted butter, 150g caster sugar, 150g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 25g cocoa powder, 3 eggs

1. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cake cases. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat for 2 minutes. Divide the mixture among the cases.
2. Bake in a preheated oven, 180°C for 20 minutes until they are risen and just firm to the touch. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Fudge Icing

You will need: 25g unsalted butter, 15g cocoa powder, 175g icing sugar, 2/3 tablespoons of milk.

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the cocoa powder and cook, stirring for about 30 seconds until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually stir in the icing sugar and milk, mixing until smooth.
2. Return to the heat for 1 minute, stirring until it has a glossy pouring consistency, if it is too thick add a teaspoon of milk. Quickly spread the icing over the cakes whilst it is still warm. Top with mini eggs.

Nigel Slater's Hot Cross Bread and Butter Pudding

Nigel Slater may not be too thrilled about my little Easter chick but I think he's cute.

I had the last two packs of cinnamon and raisin Hot Cross Buns, a purchase one Sunday from Waitrose on the M6, and just a few miles away from where Nigel was brought up.

Making hot cross buns and then cutting them up for bread and butter pudding, that's just one step too far......they very conveniently come in a pack of four.

A generous handful of sultanas were sprinkled over the buns, the recipe says to sprinkle over peel too - not for us though.  The custard base uses egg yolks instead of whole eggs, a pot of double cream and the equivalent in milk, which makes a glorious custard. I always freeze my left over egg whites for a meringue making session.

The two of us couldn't polish off all this pud by ourselves, it heats up perfectly in the microwave and my husband said it tasted even better the second day, and he should know, because he's a bread and butter pudding expert.

Taken from Nigel Slater - The Kitchen Diaries II - sadly I can't find a link out to the recipe.

I am entering this into Dish of the Month - March 2013. Hosts are Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen and Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.

Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes

I've made this recipe so many times now, there are always over-ripe bananas in my fruit bowl. The blacker the banana, the lighter the sponge will be. My favourite cupcakes are always going to be the ones topped with chocolate flake, even though some of them were decorated with chocolate eggs. The puddle of chocolate on top of the cupcakes is a mixture of dark chocolate and unsalted butter gently melted together.

The recipe is from one of my favourite food writers Annie Bell who is the principal cookery writer for YOU Magazine. I always tear out the recipe section from the magazine and tuck them away in my Annie Bell cookery books for future use.

Hot Cross Buns: Easter Baking

Hot Cross Buns are a favourite of mine. Unfortunately, the ones we buy aren't very big and I love a Hot Cross Bun with a bit of attitude!

I made my dough in the bread machine, it never lets me down. The recipe is from one of my favourite books - The Bread Book by Sara Lewis. There are instructions for making by hand or using a bread machine. Also, comprehensive step by step instructions to guide you, if you have never made a loaf with a bread machine. Shaping techniques and baking know-how are also included in the book.


The crosses are easy to pipe, but the flour and water paste is pretty unpleasant. My husband had to try his best to get the stuff into a disposable piping bag for me, it's a two man job, one holding the piping bag and the other trying to get the paste from the bowl into the bag. Don't even be tempted to use a reusable bag because you will regret it! I think it's best if I draw a veil over what the paste looks like, it tastes good though.

My buns were light and spicy, the glaze was lovely and sticky. They don't contain the dreaded peel, but I think I would grind some peel with granulated sugar next time, they could have done with a hint of citrus and a few more raisins would have been good too.

They are perfect fresh, freeze well and are fabulous toasted. Now I have a freezer of very sticky Hot Cross Buns.

MERINGUES

Violas from my garden were used to decorate the meringues. The flowers can be crystallised, but on this occasion I thought they looked lovely just as nature intended them to be.

In past blog postings I have used flowers to decorate cupcakes and cakes and I always think just how pretty they look.

These filled meringues need to be eaten as soon as possible after assembling but the meringue shells can be kept for a week in an airtight tin.

Makes: 12 to 15 Sandwiches

You will need: a large, or two small baking trays, lined with baking paper.

2 egg whites, 100g caster sugar, food colouring, 300ml whipping cream.

1. Preheat the oven to 110°C, 100°C fan, gas ¼. Put the egg whites and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk for 10 minutes until the mixture is smooth, glossy and stands in firm peaks.
2. Whisk in the food colouring. Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe rounds about the size of a walnut onto baking trays. Or alternatively, spoon walnut size blobs of meringue onto the lined baking tray.
3. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the meringues are dry and firm. For drier meringues, switch off the oven and leave the meringues to cool inside.
4. Sandwich the meringues together with whipped cream and decorate with flowers.
5. The filled meringues will need to be served within two hours.

EASTER LEMON CAKE

A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting her annual Easter Cake Bake Challenge and this is my entry.

The cake is flavoured with lemon zest and lemon juice and then topped with lemon flavoured and tinted icing. The inspiration for the all lemon cake came from the pretty miniature spring flowers in my garden.

I decided not to crystallize the flowers but to just brush and wash them under a running tap. Shake off any excess water and leave to dry on kitchen towel. Cut the stems to the required length and wire the stems of the flowers.

Here are my cakes from the previous Easter Cake Bake challenges.

Happy Easter.

JAMIE OLIVER'S BUN AND BUTTER PUDDING

This is another of Jamie Oliver's Easter hot cross bun recipes and without any doubt his best to date.

I love Easter puddings where you make use of hot cross buns. This pudding is simply another variation of bread and butter pudding but with a Jamie twist. There are a couple of plus points about this recipe, both brandy and grated orange zest are added to the custard!

My ultimate bread and butter pudding is one with an eggy sauce layer in the bottom and so I removed the pudding from the oven after 30 minutes, checked that there wasn't too much sauce and then I put the pudding under a very hot grill to tinge the buns a slight golden brown. If you don't want the sauce layer then cook for about 45 minutes.

Slightly adapted recipe.

Serves: 6 people

600ml semi-skimmed milk, 600ml double cream, 1 vanilla pod, 4 medium eggs, 100g caster sugar, 6 hot cross buns, 3 tablespoons brandy, zest of 1 orange, icing sugar.

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas 3.
2. In a pan put the milk and cream and bring just to a boil.
3. Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds, add to the saucepan.
4. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until light, now whisk in the milk and cream, remove the vanilla pod.
5. Halve the buns and spread with butter. Dip the buns in the mixture and place in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cognac and the grated zest of the orange.
6. Pour the custard into a sieve held over the buns and now leave them to soak for approximately 15 minutes.
7. Put the dish into a roasting tin and half fill with hot water. Bake for approximately 40 - 45 minutes. When it is cooked the top will be slightly tinged and if you part some of the buns with a knife there should be a thick custard underneath. Check the pudding after 30 minutes cooking to ensure it doesn't overcook.
8. Dust with icing sugar.

Delicious!

EASTER CUPCAKES

Julia over at A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting her annual Easter Cake Bake challenge and this is my entry.

If you click here you can see my two previous entries for this challenge.

Cupcake heaven - I made vanilla scented cupcakes, topped with chocolate fudge icing, on to which I placed the mini-eggs. Curls of white Belgium chocolate and Green & Blacks Organic Dark Chocolate, were then scattered over the cupcakes.

To make 12 vanilla cupcakes you will need: 150g softened unsalted butter, 150g caster sugar, 175g self-raising flour, 3 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

1. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cake cases. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat for 2 minutes. Divide the mixture among the cases.
2. Bake in a preheated oven, 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 for 18-20 minutes until they are risen and just firm to the touch. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Fudge Icing

You will need: 25g unsalted butter, 15g cocoa powder, 175g icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk.

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the cocoa powder and cook, stirring for about 30 seconds until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually stir in the icing sugar and milk, mixing until smooth.
2. Return to the heat for 1 minute, stirring until it has a glossy pouring consistency. Quickly spread the icing over the cakes whilst it is still warm.

Note: Very quickly, the fudge icing cannot be spread, as it cools down. I popped the mixture into a basin and warmed it through in the microwave until it became a pouring consistency again, you may need to thin it down a little with some more milk.

Spread the chocolate fudge icing on top of the cupcakes, and top with mini eggs. Decorate with the chocolate curls.

EASTER CAKE

I know that Easter is now in the distant past but I haven't been at home much recently, and therefore, this posting is a 'little late'.
Julia, over at the delicious A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting her Easter Cake Bake, Round 2! challenge.
I entered the Easter Cake Bake last year, and there were lots of really good entries. I'm really looking forward to this year's roundup.
My choice of cake was based purely on design, also the cake had a favourite of mine on the ingredients list, Amaretto liqueur.
The cake benefits from being left for a couple of days to 'mature' before it's decorated with marzipan.
A taster of recipes from this book are Burnt-Sugar Cake, Choco-malt Cake (I think we all know this one - it's decorated with Maltezers), Red Velvet Cake, Caramel Pecan Loaf and Gooey Chocolate Cake. This is a book to suit every occasion and now I've made a wonderful cake from it, I'm sure I will turn to it again.
The author Valerie Barrett is a food writer and stylist. She has worked for Good Housekeeping Magazine, BBC Good Food and Delicious, as well as writing her own books.

CAKES GALORE - by Valerie Barrett

ISBN 9781846011108 - Page 96

Makes: 12-14 slices

You will need: a deep 18cm round cake tin, greased and lined.

500g luxury mixed dried fruit, 2 tablespoons Amaretto, 175g softened unsalted butter, 175g soft light brown sugar, 3 beaten eggs, finely grated zest of ½ lemon, 200g self-raising flour, 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice, 50g ground almonds, 500g ready-made natural almond paste or marzipan, 225g ready-made yellow almond paste or marzipan, 1-2 tablespoons warmed apricot jam,, coloured ribbon and small chocolate or sugar-coated eggs to decorate.

1. Put the mixed fruit in a bowl and sprinkle over the Amaretto. Leave to soak for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat in the eggs and lemon zest. Fold in the flour, mixed spice and ground almonds, then add the dried fruit mixture and mix well. Set aside.
3. Roll out half of the natural almond paste or marzipan on a sheet of non-stick baking paper to form an 18cm circle. Spoon half of the cake mixture into the base of the prepared tin, spreading it evenly. Place the almond paste circle on top. Spoon over the remaining cake mixture, then level the surface. Bake in the oven for 2-2½ hours, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
4. Roll out the remaining natural almond paste and all but 50g of the yellow paste to form two 18cm circles and place the yellow one on top of the natural one. Shape 8 balls from the remaining yellow paste.
5. Lightly brush the top of the cake with warm jam, leaving a small circle in the centre uncoated. Place the almond circle, yellow-side up, on top of the cake and trim the edges. Using a glass, lightly mark a circle in the centre of the cake. Using a sharp knife, cut through both almond-paste layers up to the edges of the circle to make 8 segments. Lift up the pointed end of each segment and peel it back to reveal the natural almond paste underside. Press it gently into the edge of the cake. Place a yellow almond paste ball on top.
6. Tie a ribbon around the cake and fill the centre with sugar-coated chocolate eggs.

N.B. After the cake came out of the oven I brushed the top with more Amaretto to soften the top. I then wrapped the tin which is still housing the cake in a large sheet of foil and enclosed this at the top to form a parcel. The steam then softens the top of the cake. The next day when the cake is cold turn out of the tin leave for a couple of days in an airtight tin, then decorate.
For the decoration: I dealt with the cutting of the marzipan on a board and then placed it carefully on top of the cake, this was to prevent any crumbs on top of the cake getting onto the marzipan.