Chocolate Cupcakes

I have baked many chocolate cakes over the years in my hunt to find “THE perfect” chocolate cake. I have come close but I always feel that there are improvements that could be made. I have also baked score of different recipes for chocolate cupcakes; and I think that I have finally cracked them and found a recipe that I love. This is the one that I present here.

The batter for these cakes is made in an unconventional way, as the creaming method is eschewed in favour of melting the chocolate and butter together and then adding the eggs and all the other dry ingredients. Initially, I thought that this would create a dense, heavy cupcake, but they are surprisingly light but still rich and with a good chocolate “hit”. The batter is looser than the traditional creamed versions but it creates the most fabulous cakes.

So often, chocolate cakes, cupcakes and biscuits disappoint because they just don’t taste of chocolate; well I promise you these ones won’t disappoint! Once you make them, I am confident that you will make them again and again. They are just fab. But don’t just take my word for it. My children are absolute chocolate addicts, and would eat chocolate laced cakes, brownies and the like very regularly if given half a chance and they have declared these the best chocolate cupcakes EVER!
 

My eldest daughter in particular, loves chocolate flavoured bakes. She has recently started doing a lot of baking herself and likes to experiment, trying out different recipes. It is not surprising that many of these experiments are centred on the inclusion of chocolate as a key ingredient. I am delighted that she has become interested in cooking and baking as I think these are skills that everyone should be encouraged to develop.

She also knows her own mind and is quite insistent on banishing me from the kitchen when she is doing her baking as apparently, “I take over” if allowed to remain!!! There may be a small grain of truth in her assertion.

I post this recipe today in her honour, as it is her birthday and to let her know how much I love her. I am astonished that she is now a teenager as it only seems a short time ago that she was a small baby. Hopefully, as she continues to grow older, her love of baking and cooking will continue to flourish.
 

Ingredients:

85g dark chocolate, melted
200g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract/paste
225g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
175g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
Chocolate icing:
150ml cream
200g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
25g butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper cases and set aside.
2. Place the chocolate and butter into a large saucepan and melt together over a moderate heat, stirring all the time. When the chocolate and butter have meted, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool for about ten minutes.

3. Add the vanilla extract and sugar to the melted chocolate mixture and stir using a wooden spoon until fully incorporated. Then add the eggs mix again. Sift the baking powder and flour together and stir into the mixture – the resulting batter will be quite loose.

4. Divide the batter equally between the paper cases until they are about three-quarters full. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen and a thin skewer inserted into the middle of one comes out clean.

5. Leave to cool in the tin for about ten minutes, before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. When cool decorate with chocolate icing.

Chocolate icing:

6. Put the cream and chocolate into a small saucepan and heat over a gentle heat, stirring all the time until they have melted together. Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring to ensure that everything is well mixed together. Set aside to cool for a couple of hours to allow it to firm up a little.

7. When the icing has firmed up sufficiently it can be spread on the cupcakes, using a small palette knife.

Makes 12. 

Cider Braised Sausages & Apples

The weather in Ireland is unpredictable at the best of times, but never more so than during spring when it can be cold and windy one moment but a few hours later the sun will appear and the temperature creeps upwards. It can be very difficult to know what meals to cook; meals that are warming and comforting but that are also light and not too rich or heavy. I think that this dish is the perfect thing to prepare, because the cider flavoured sauce although warm and comforting, also possesses a freshness on the palate courtesy of some added apple wedges. I love this dish – it’s so tasty, relatively inexpensive to make and is just so well balanced.

 

I love the sweetness that the apples and onions lend to the overall dish and the way that this sweetness is offset by the savoury meatiness of the sausages. I use quality pork sausages with a high meat content (85% - 95%) and these really make all the difference to the finished dish. I always check the meat content of the sausages I’m buying, because the amounts can vary dramatically depending on which you buy. I don’t mind a small amount of rusk or other filler in them, but I honestly believe it’s pushing it to call something a sausage when it only contains 53% - 55% meat. Yes… the higher the meat content, the more you are likely to pay for them, but in my opinion it’s often a false economy buying products that are inferior just because they are cheaper.

In any event, I urge you to buy the best quality sausages that you can afford if you are going to make this recipe; and I also urge you to have a go at making this dish. It is delicious and if you have any leftovers, they reheat easily and still taste wonderful.

I like to serve this dish with some mashed potato and a green vegetable.
       

Ingredients:

2-3 tblsp vegetable oil
A large knob of butter
8-10 large sausages
2 large onions, peeled, halved and sliced
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunky wedges

1 heaped tblsp plain flour

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

2tblsp white wine vinegar

500ml dry cider

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

Method:

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over a moderate to high heat. Add half the knob of butter and when melted, add the sausages and brown them until they are a rich even golden colour. Remove and set aside on a plate whilst you get on with browning the onions and apples.
2. Add the onions to the pan in which you browned the sausages. Keep cooking for 4-5 minutes, stirring regularly and allow to colour until golden brown (keep an eye on them and don’t let them burn). Add the rest of the butter and when melted add the apple wedges. Let the apples colour slightly.
3. Next, return the sausages to the pan, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and reduce the heat slightly. Sprinkle over the flour and stir in. It will look a bit claggy, but don’t worry. Allow to cook out for a minute or two. Add in the vinegar, followed by the cider. Stir well, reduce the heat so that everything is gently blipping away. Cover the sauté pan and cook on the hob for 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the sauce is a bit thick you can add a little bit water to thin it down. Remove the bay leaves and thyme and discard. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving. Serve with creamy mashed potato.

Serves 4.

Easter Cupcakes

There's nothing about these cupcakes which is historically authentic in terms of traditional Easter baking, but sometimes it’s far too easy to be excessively rigid about such matters. The only thing that makes these ‘Easter’ cupcakes is the fact that I have plonked a few mini, sugar-coated chocolate eggs on top. The cupcakes don’t even include any chocolate which appears to be a mandatory ingredient in foods for modern Easter celebrations. However, these are really simple cakes to bake and children and adults alike just love them; they can be rustled up in no time at all and use basic store-cupboard ingredients, so as far as I am concerned they are a winner!

So many commercially produced cupcakes don’t use butter in the buttercream icing. I realise why this is; margarines and vegetable based fats are a cheaper ingredient. However, I firmly believe that this is a false economy as nothing beats butter for flavour. I also hate the almost greasy film that margarines leave in the mouth, especially when used in icings and buttercreams. Despite having experimented extensively with many alternatives, I always come back to butter because it just tastes the best. I have said it before and I am proud to say it again… I think that we have the best butter in the world, available to us here in Ireland!
 

These cupcakes can be varied to suit the particular occasion.  I have labelled these Easter Cupcakes by virtue of the fact that I have topped them with mini Easter eggs, but they could also be topped with sugar flowers, or other sweets and edible decorations and served at birthdays and other celebrations.

 

Cupcakes are hugely popular and are so much more over-the-top than the traditional queen cakes and fairy cakes that I was brought up on. Both these are also individual sponge cakes or buns but they are far smaller in scale than their American cupcake cousins. Both queen cakes and fairy cakes can be unadorned but they are also often topped with a thin layer of chocolate or glacé icing. I am really fond of them and they hold a certain nostalgia for me, reminding me of school cake-sales and birthday parties when I was a child.

Cupcakes on the other hand are larger and tend to be covered in thick swirls of buttercream icing, which some people find a little too much, but I do love them despite these characteristics. There’s something very kitsch and a little vulgar about a cupcake compared to the restrained simplicity of fairy and queen cakes. Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla paste/extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour, sifted

Buttercream:

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

1tsp vanilla extract/paste

1 drop of pink food colouring

Mini candy-covered Easter eggs to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place 9 paper cupcake cases in a cupcake/muffin tin and set aside.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla paste/extract and beat again to fully incorporate.
3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and fold into the creamed mixture. Once all the flour has been added and incorporated, spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, distributing it equally. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, cooked through and well risen.
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. The cakes can then be decorated with buttercream icing.

Buttercream:

5. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy using a hand-held electric mixer. Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe generous swirls of buttercream on top of each cupcake. Press two or three mini eggs on top of the icing on each cupcake.
 

Makes 9 cupcakes.

     

Easter Biscuits

We have been very fortunate this Easter as the weather has been absolutely gorgeous, with lovely sunny days and very few rain showers. Easter was relatively late this year, so that definitely helped in allowing the weather to warm up and deliver such lovely weather to us. It is great to see many of the hedgerows coming into flower and the baby lambs skipping happily through the fields. With the sun shining in the sky I am reminded of how fortunate I am to live in such a beautiful part of the country.

Easter Sunday is a ‘movable feast’ which means that it does not fall on a fixed date each year but is determined by establishing the date of the first Sunday that falls after the full moon following the March equinox. As such the earliest that Easter can occur is the 21^st or 22^nd of March and the latest is the 25^th April.

 

There are many food traditions and rituals involving food relating to Easter, many of which are fascinating. I have often thought that I would love to do some intensive research about various Easter traditions around the world and write a book about them – including plenty of recipes of course! In the Catholic religion, Easter Sunday follows a forty day period of fasting, prayer and penance called Lent.

 

Many people still ‘give something up’ for Lent, with chocolate being one of the most commonly chosen. It is therefore little wonder that there is such an insatiable lust for chocolate come Easter Sunday.

 

I think that it is rather a shame that most Irish children are raised thinking that Easter is all about chocolate eggs. I love chocolate, but there are so many historic and traditional recipes that are being forgotten and I think that this is such a pity. For me Easter has always been about baking; simnel cake, hot cross buns, rich yeasted breads, chocolate cakes and the recipe that I am going to give here which is for Easter Biscuits.
 

Easter biscuits are a lightly spiced, shortbread-like biscuits which contain currants and are sprinkled with a dusting of caster sugar when they emerge from the oven after baking. They are a simple biscuit, but one that I have always loved. My grandmother also loved them and would make them from time to time. Other than the inclusion of the currants and the sprinkling of the caster sugar, these are relatively simple, unfussy biscuits –there are no icings, no glazes, no buttercream fillings and no chocolate coverings; but this is what I find so appealing about them – the taste of all the individual ingredients really comes through and for me, they are delicious to nibble on when having a cup of tea!

 

Having carried out some research on Easter Biscuits, I found that they appear to be English in origin, hailing from the West Country, but like so many recipe that hail from across the Irish Sea, they were also popular here in Ireland. They were historically served after Mass on Easter Sunday, in bundles of three to represent the Holy Trinity. Whatever their roots, I think that Easter Biscuits are absolutely delicious.

 

Ingredients:

100g butter, softened

75g caster sugar

1 large egg yolk

Grated zest of 1 lemon

½ tsp mixed spice

¼ tsp cinnamon

2tblsp milk

100g currants

Extra caster sugar for sprinkling
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with baking parchment.
2. Place the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and lemon zest and beat again until they are fully incorporated.

3. Sieve the flour and spices together and work into the egg and butter mixture along with the milk using a wooden spoon to make a fairly soft dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured work surface and gently knead in the currants.

4. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the currant dough out until it is about 5mm thick. Using a fluted, circular cutter, stamp out rounds from the dough. Place these on the prepared baking trays, leaving space between each biscuit. Sprinkle lightly with a little caster sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 13-16 minutes until a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and sprinkle again with a little more caster sugar. Allow to cool for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. The biscuits can be stored for up to three days in an air-tight container.

Makes 24-28 biscuits.
 

  

 

Strawberry Pavlova

This is the dessert that I make most often, varying the filling to use whatever fruits are in season. Pavlovas look so much more complicated to make than they are in reality. There is only one rule to remember when making meringues, which is that all utensils, including the mixing bowl must be scrupulously clean or you will not be able to whisk the egg whites to the correct consistency. Any trace of water or grease will spell disaster and you will have to start again. But other than this, pavlovas are extremely easy to make and are an incredibly popular dessert.

 

Pavlovas have a crisp meringue exterior but should have a soft billowy, marshmallow-like consistence on the inside. They are usually served with a filling of cream and fresh fruit – some people favour using a crème Chantilly, but to be honest – the meringue contains enough sugar already so I don’t believe the cream needs added sweetening.

The version that I have made here uses strawberries, but I also like to make an autumnal version using sliced poached pears, some roasted hazelnuts and a generous drizzle of melted dark chocolate. After you have made the meringue you can add a little spice, a couple of tablespoons of toasted, desiccated coconut or some finely chopped toasted nuts before piling onto the parchment and baking in the oven. The recipe is fairly adaptable once you have made the basic meringue.
 

I love this dessert! It’s a wonderful way to finish a meal, being light but sweet and rich at the same time and simply delicious.

 

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites

225g caster sugar

4tsp cornflour

2tsp lemon juice

½tsp vanilla paste/extract

Filling:

300g fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered

350ml single cream
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140C/Fan oven 120C/Gas Mark 2. Line a large square baking tray with baking parchment and set aside.
2. Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer beat until the egg whites are standing in soft peaks. Add in the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, mixing well between each addition.
3. When all the sugar has been added, sieve in the cornflour and mix well to fully incorporate. Add the lemon juice and vanilla paste and mix in to the meringue.

4. Pile half of the meringue on to the parchment lined baking tray. Using a metal spoon, spread the meringue into a rough circle, about 20cms in diameter. Place blobs of the remaining meringue on top of the meringue circle around the edge.

5. Place into the preheated oven for 1 hour. After the baking time is up, switch off the oven but leave the meringue to fully cool before removing (I tend to make my pavlovas before I go to bed and let them cool in the oven overnight).

Filling:

6. Carefully remove the baking parchment from the bottom of the cooled pavlova. Place on a serving plate. Softly whip the cream. Scatter half of the quartered strawberries over the top of the pavlova and then dollop on the cream. Finish by scattering over the remaining strawberries.
 

Serves 6-8.
 

     

Hot Cross Buns

Today is Good Friday which is a day observed mainly by Christians and is said to represent the day of the Crucifixion and the death of Christ at Calvary. Hot cross buns are sweet and spicy yeasted buns, traditionally eaten on Good Friday. They contain dried fruits, most often raisins or currants but I have come across quite a few versions which actually use up some of the store of mincemeat left over after Christmas.

Given that I made quite a large amount last Christmas and still had a couple of jars remaining at the back of the kitchen cupboard, I decided to make these hot cross buns using mincemeat. I was delighted with the results which I think made for a far juicier bun. The dough was a little softer than the results I usually get for other bread buns that I make, but if I’m being completely honest, I have sometimes found that they can be a little heavier than I might wish. This was not the case with these hot cross buns. They were surprisingly light and not at all doughy. I really loved them.

I kneaded and worked the dough by hand on a lightly floured work-surface, but I could as easily have used the dough attachment on my mixer. I have always preferred to make yeast risen breads by hand as I like to feel more connected to the dough and find it easier to gauge when it has been sufficiently kneaded; when using the mixer, there is more of a risk that the bread dough will be over-worked. I also find that if the dough contains other ingredients such as nuts or dried fruit, these can get broken down slightly – these are all issues that I don’t have to worry about if I work the dough by hand. Persevere with this dough, even if it seems a bit soft initially, and you will be rewarded with the lightest, softest, most delicious buns.

 

Traditional recipes make the cross on top of the bun using strips of shortcrust pastry, but I made a paste out of flour, milk and icing sugar which I piped on to the buns after the second proving and just prior to baking in the oven.

The buns were delicious served fresh, still slightly warm from the oven liberally spread with some butter. We also ate them the following day, lightly toasted - be careful to keep an eye on them when they are toasting as due to the sugar in the glaze and in the buns themselves, they can quickly burn.

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour
½tsp mixed spice

1tsp salt

75g butter, slightly softened

1 x 7g sachet of fast action yeast

50g caster sugar

250ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

150g mincemeat

A little extra beaten egg to brush on the buns

Paste for the crosses:

75g flour

25g icing sugar

60ml milk

Glaze:

100g sugar

100ml water
 

Method:

1. Place the flour, mixed spice and salt into a large mixing bowl and using your fingertips, rub in the softened butter. Once the butter has been rubbed in, sprinkle in the yeast and make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Pour in the milk and the lightly beaten egg. Bring everything together to make a fairly soft but not sticky dough.
2. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work-surface and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be elastic and spring back when prodded. Start working in the mincemeat. The dough will become sticky, but persevere and everything will come together again. Knead for a couple of further minutes. Place into a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to prove in a warm place (a warm kitchen is perfect) for about an hour and a half until doubled in size.

3. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work-surface and knock back. Cur the dough into 10 equal pieces and form into round buns. Place the buns on a large baking tray lined with baking parchment. Leave to prove again for about an hour, covered with cling film until they have doubled in size. Brush the buns with a little beaten egg using a pastry brush.

4. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5.

Make the paste for the crosses:

5. Mix all the ingredients together and place the resulting paste into a disposable piping bag. Snip off the tip of the bag and pipe crosses on top of each of the buns. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-20 minutes until well they are a rich golden colour. Remove from the oven.

Glaze:

6. Whilst the buns are baking bring the sugar and water to the boil in a small saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and set aside. Bush each of the buns, when removed from the oven (but still warm) with a little of the sugar glaze.

Makes 10.