Recipes - Maria Runs

Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes (recipe)

I have been loving the sour things recently- grapefruits, lemon in iced tea, lime curd, passionfruits- and the other week I bought a bag of lemons, so of course I made some cupcakes with them.

I also bought some poppy seeds, as I keep seeing recipes for lemon and poppy seed muffins/ cakes, so I thought the flavours must go. In the end I could not find a recipe that I liked the look of, so I based it on a lemon cupcake recipe from this Cupcakes book, but changed a few things and added in the poppy seeds.

Ingredients:

125g butter (I used Pure spread)

125g caster sugar

125g self raising flour

1 medium egg

30ml almond milk (but any liquid would work)

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

20g poppy seeds

1 tsp lemon extract (optional. One recipe had vanilla in it so that could be tried too)

Method:

Mine made 10. Preheat the oven to 190C.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it is fluffy.

Add the egg, almond milk and lemon extract, and beat again.

Then add in the lemon juice and zest. It might go lumpy, but don’t worry.

Finally add in the flour and poppy seeds and stir together gently. Mine did not rise that much, so next time I might add in a tsp of baking powder.

Spoon into cases and bake for 12-15 mins until lightly golden and just firm in the centre.

Put on a cooling rack.

Optional- top with a little icing.

I used the juice from 1/2 a lemon, and then added enough icing sugar to make a paste, and then some lemon zest too. Although it would look better if I had reserved the zest and sprinkled that on top instead of mixing it with the icing.

It was a real “drizzle” of an icing, not a thick frosting, but it went perfectly with the zingy lemon cupcakes.

I had one with some tea and it was lovely- very zingy indeed. Having never had poppy seeds in a cake before I was not sure what to expect, but they added some texture to it. But you could leave them out for plain lemon cupcakes and they would be lovely still.

It reminded me of when I tried that lovely seed & bean lemon poppy seed white chocolate (although that tasted like lemon cheesecake too).

Are you a fan of lemon cakes?

Favourite zingy food?

Birthday baking (although no excuse needed)

Yup, of course I have been baking!

We had a lovely few days in and around Bath, but as Andy took the photos I need to wait for him to send them to me before I do a post. So you have to make do with a baking post instead.

It is Andy’s birthday today, and yesterday we went out for a meal with his parents, brothers and their girlfriends. His brothers especially are massive chocoholics, so I decided to make a brownie cake for after. I had seen Lucy make her recipe into a cake before, so I decided to try it out.

Now it was my own fault because I lined the cake pans with foil, but did not grease them. Duh. Anyway, I did manage to get them off, more or less in one piece!

I made some mint filling by creaming a little bit of pure spread, some mint extract and icing sugar.

Then I topped it with the rest of the cheat icing that I bought a few weeks back (I found it in the fridge) and decorated with stars. Those stars are my favourite!

We went to Prezzo, which I love because they do an amazing goats cheese salad with artichokes, roasted peppers, tomatoes, spinach, toasted bread and balsamic. Yum. Although I had to save some space for the cake. It went down very well indeed (although Andy’s Dad thought that the “30” referred to how many slices it should be- to be fair my parents forget how old I am too) but it was sooooooo sweet. I only had a small slice but I could only just manage that. Anyway it satisfied all the chocolate lovers- and there was lots left which we made them keep for another day.

Andy had requested that I make him a fruitcake (his brothers don’t like it and one of the girlfriends hates dried fruits) so I did that today.

I used a recipe for Light fruit cake from an Eric Lanlard book (I was kindly sent the book after writing the blog post about Baking Mad)- this has dried fruit (which I soaked before using as I find otherwise it is too dry) but also lemon zest for a lighter taste. They smell delicious anyway.

The recipe said it would serve 6, and I wanted to use my new mini loaf pans (I think each mini pan would be a good two servings) so as you can see there was a lot more! I think they will freeze well too. I am going to put some marzipan on them in a bit.

I have had a pretty chilled out day today, compared to the last few days. I did manage a lot of walking (more than I have done in months) but I was so exhausted in the evenings. Andy was off at football today so I have been enjoying time to relax.

Including having an Earl Grey tea and a cookie from Tam via the cookie swap.

Also, I did my first ever guest post! Laura from Mommy Run Fast has been doing a series called “Purposeful Running” and mine was posted today. You can check it out here.

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend- anyone get any Easter Eggs? My Dad got us a rake for our allotment (he said he was going to get us an Easter egg, but then saw that and knew we needed one- he wants to start a new tradition!), and we did not get each other anything, but Andy’s Mum gave us one to share yesterday. Although we need to eat the birthday cake first!

Baking for swapping!

I was so excited when Tam posted about her blogger cookie swap. I took part in it when I had first started blogging, and it was fun. I need no excuse to bake, plus you get to receive a surprise in the post too- what could be better?

I could not decide what to make, and in the end made 3 types to send off.

I had my eye on this nutty apple loaf recipe from Hummingbird for ages, and decided to make mini loaves with the recipe.

I also decided to make some cookies (using the Millies Cookies recipe)- I used dried cherries and carob as I love that combo.

The recipe made a lot, but luckily I was seeing some friends on Saturday, and one of them cannot have chocolate, so these were perfect.

An awful lot!

I also made some peanut chocolate squares. These were based on the minty brownies (from Sweet Vegan ) but I made a sort of peanut caramel for the centre by mixing peanut butter with some brown rice syrup, heating it up, and adding a little icing sugar to thicken.

This was poured on the base.

And then left to set.

Then I made a topping by melting some dark chocolate with some dark chocolate peanut butter (it makes the best topping ever) and then sprinkling with white chocolate stars.

So pretty 🙂

Then I packed them all up and sent them off. As I made 3 recipes I had a lot of spare, so my freezer has quite a few baked goods in it now!

Today I received my parcel in exchange 🙂

It was packaged up so prettily- with strawberries on the box. Tam has made me some lovely peanut butter buttons (which I was so tempted to try before breakfast, but I did wait until just before lunch to sample (but I did not take a photo- too busy munching!) and they are amazing) and also some carnival cookies. She also included the recipes-(and a recipe card) thanks so much!

I love taking part in this, so thanks Tamzin for organising it 🙂

If you like baking, why do you think you enjoy it so much? To coin an Early Years Teaching phrase, “it’s the process not the product” and I think that is why I enjoy it so much. Of course I do enjoy eating the baked goods too, but actually it is reading the recipe books, weighing out ingredients, mixing it all up, and of course the lovely smell it creates too, that I most enjoy.

Baking Mad for Easter!

Yes, it is another baking post today (and there is another one to come!).

As I have been home alone a lot, I have been trying to stay away from daytime TV, but I came across a baking show that is shown over lunchtimes (called Baking Mad), so I started watching it. They have a website (bakingmad.com) which is jam packed with recipes, competitions (exciting), kids baking tips, offers and even a forum.

They have lovely seasonal sections too, so if you were looking for an Easter cake to make, there are loads to choose from. How about an Easter carrot cake? Sounds yummy.

Anyway, I decided to make some Easter simnel brownies. These are brownies with dried fruit, and topped with marzipan- my favourite!

It was a super easy recipe- a tray bake (which I love anyway) plus like my best brownie recipe, it was made in a pan. You did have to soak the dried fruits first, but that is easy too- you just need to allow a little time. I love it when the chocolate melts. I used some Fair-trade 70% dark chocolate from Aldi.

It is 99p for 100g, which is not too bad for Fair-trade I don’t think, but as the recipe needed 300g it meant the recipe was a bit expensive to make (totally worth it though).

Yum- the chocolate smells amazing!

Then (once the eggs, flour and dried fruits have been added) it gets topped with marzipan. The recipe said grated marzipan, but I just chopped it into chunks. I think I would have had to freeze the marzipan before grating it. Anyway, as I love marzipan so much, big chunks can only be a good thing!

They are then baked, left to cool,and then refridgerated overnight. Yes, this recipe needs patience!

It was hard to resist picking the marzipan off the top!

Ooops, a bit of a blurry photo. Anyway, they sliced very well and were still gooey in the middle- nice and chewy like a brownie should be. I was not sure how the dried fruit would go, but they were lovely- a bit like Christmas cake crossed with a brownie. Marzipan and chocolate are fab together anyway, so it was a great combo. Plus much easier than making an actual simnel cake. I had marzipan and dried fruits left over from making Christmas cakes and stollen and things, so it was good to use some of them up as I don’t think they will last until next year.

I have saved the recipe into the “my recipe book” tab of the site, as they were very popular at Sunday tea and I am sure I will make the recipe again.

Also when you look at a recipe, there are more suggestions at the bottom showing other recipes you might like, so I have spent hours clicking from recipe to recipe 🙂

Do you ever make anything special for Easter? I used to love making those little chocolate nests with shredded wheat and mini eggs at school, and I sometimes make hot cross buns, but it has never been traditional to really do anything for Easter, unlike making a Christmas cake which is a must-do for me.

WIAW- trying to be green

Is it just me that goes off green things after being ill? When I am unwell I revert to the plain carbs- plain toast with some spread (or maybe jam), plain crumpets, maybe some cereal. Anyway, as the theme of WIAW is being green, I did try!

Breakfast:

Smoothie with pear, almond milk, peanut flour and frozen fruits (I think raspberry and cherry) topped with a little crunchy cereal. This was so filling but also gave me some brain freeze!

Lunch:

Caramelised onion hummus on sunflower ryvita, with peppers and cucumber for dipping, plus grapes and a graze dip- dried apple with caramel (which I saved for a bit later).

Afternoon snack:

Peppermint tea (that is green- does it count?) and a peanut butter brownie from the freezer. The tea was the best peppermint tea I have ever had, from the Naked Tea and Coffee company in Brighton. So minty. 🙂

Dinner:

Some green- roasted asparagus and fennel (which is more white I suppose), plus butter beans cooked with red onion, peppers, passata, herbs and spinach. I made some kind of tahini dressing with lemon juice- I only used a tsp tahini but I had to add loads of lemon and it ended up being very rich.

Red onion, pepper, basil and oregano.

Add a small drained tin of butter beans and a small carton of passata, plus a little water.

Then add spinach.

This ended up being very rich (maybe from the passata) and I put half in the freezer- it would be like very posh beans on toast I think. Anyway, there was some green from the spinach but it cooks so fast.

Dessert:

A peach yoghurt, which was super creamy.

I had some green (cucumber, spinach, asparagus, peppermint tea and the green herbs) as well as other colours of fruit and veg (important to get a range of nutrients after all) so pretty good I think. I had not had asparagus in ages and after seeing Lucy have it I decided to try some again. It was OK, but I prefer broccoli so I think I would buy that next time instead. Ah well, it is good to have some variety.

Thanks Jenn for organising the link up.

I fancy something with pesto now, after seeing all the other green posts today. So, fave way to enjoy pesto?