Wake Up To Muff!!

So recently I was asked to guest bake for a dope blog called Wake Up To Muff. 

The basic premise of the blog is this...

"One boy, one bike and a dozen muffins."

Tibbs or Count Spatula as he is also known, set up this blog about 4 years ago. Once a month he has a lottery, and 12 lucky winners across London will have a muffin hand delivered to their door, by a man (Tibbs) & his bike. 

The best way to get a feel for how cool this is is to check out his flickr with pictures of the drops. 

Picture courtesy of WUTM flickr

So enter stage left, me. We managed, via the wonders of social media to connect, and he asked me to guest bake for the 40th post. His original plan was to brew some beer, so I wanted to make something alcoholic in order to toast this milestone in the proper fashion. 

In the end I settled for Nigella's trusty Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe and used it to make cupcakes. The recipe will make about 18 muffin sized cupcakes but I doubled the frosting as you use more on cupcakes than you do with cake. 

Click here for the recipe link.

I'm also super, duper into homemade caramel... Given that there are very few ingredients, it's surprisingly fiddly. I had to make two batches as if you leave the sugar for a moment too long, it burns and tastes bitter. But persevere you must, it is worth it.

Click here for a post I did many moons ago with the recipe

Now that you know all about it, I encourage you to get involved! Maybe one day, you too, could wake up to muff...

Peace & Love

xx

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Apple and Cinnamon Cupcakes with Caramel Sauce

Recently I've been lucky enough to get involved in some cool projects, one of which involves providing some cakies for the opening night of Pick Me Up, a contemporary graphic art fair, in conjunction with Puck Studios at Somerset House. 

They asked me to design apple style goodies for their visitors and I had fun coming up with this cupcake. It has stewed apple at the bottom, a cinnamon cupcake base and is topped with a drizzle of homemade caramel sauce. 

I've included the recipes for the cupcake and the apple filling below. You can get the recipe for the caramel sauce over at Off The Deep End click here for the link...

Apple and Cinnamon Cupcakes - Makes approximately 16 


Apple filing


450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 pinch of ground cinnamon


Cinnamon Cupcake (adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Vanilla Cupcake Recipe)


240g plain flour

180g caster sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp of salt

80g unsalted butter at room temperature

2 eggs

240ml whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

1. First prepare the apple filling. Mix all of the ingredients together carefully, making sure that the apple is completely covered with the sugar but does not get damaged in the process. Put all of the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over a low to medium heat until the fruit has softened. Leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3 and line 2 muffin trays with cupcake cases. Once the apple mixture has cooled slightly place between 1-2 teaspoons of the softened apple mixture into the bottom of the cupcake case according to how much apple you'd like at the bottom

3. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and butter together in a large bowl or food processor and mix until everything is combined and you get a sandy consistency. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

4. Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any stray ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

5. Top up the cupcake cases with the cake mixture until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.

A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean but remember that bits of apple will be at the bottom and may stick to the skewer. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

These cupcakes are actually delicious just as they are but a little caramel never hurt anyone! 

Let me know how you get on :)

Peace & Love

xx

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