Fairtrade Chocolate Orange Muffins

Take A Step in 2012 for Fairtrade is raising the awareness of Fairtrade products and promoting their use in everyday recipes. 

As part of Fairtrade Awareness, this week I baked Fairtrade Chocolate Orange Muffins. 

The muffins are not over-sweet and have a great texture, mainly from the yoghut as an ingredient to reduce the amount of fat and sugar.  They are really quick and easy to make and are delicious warm from the oven! My neighbour, who needed a bit of a boost, enjoyed one with an afternoon cup of tea.

At the moment, there's a competition running on the Fairtrade website to win a KitchenAid or Fairtrade goody bag.... just bake one of the published recipes and tell them who you are baking for!  Simple... so have a browse at the recipes and good luck!

Muffins or Cupcakes.... what's the difference?

When is a cake not a cake?  When it's a muffin or course, or a cupcake, or a fairy cake, or a bun, or a ...?!


To me, a fairy cake is a small cupcake - plain sponge with just glace icing and maybe a few sprinkles on top.  A cupcake is a standard sized small cake (the ones you bake in 12's in a deep holed-baking tray) - usually plain sponge but sometimes flavoured, with an assortment of toppings to give them some va-va-voom!  And a muffin is a larger cake again with chunks of things inside... blueberries, raspberries, white chocolate, nuts, etc...

Here is the recipe that I use for my fairy cakes and cupcakes:

140g self raising flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
115g caster sugar - Fairtrade if possible, I use either Co-Op or Tate & Lyle
2 medium free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
115g butter or margarine - at the moment I'm in love with Stork Liquid but I also use  "normal" Stork, I save using the butter for the butter cream(!)

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 4.  Line a 12 hole baking tin with cake cases.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. Add all the other ingredients and mix like mad for 3-5 minutes!  If I'm using Stork Liquid then I just use a wooden spoon but if I'm using solid margarine I use an electric mixer.
4. Divide between the cake cases - for cupcakes I use an old scoop from a Cadbury's Hot Chocolate tub as a measure so they are all the same size... for fairy cakes I use a tablespoon measure.  This recipe will make 12 cupcakes or 18 fairy cakes, depending on the size of your scoop!
5. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for about 15 minutes... I never really time my cakes to the second, I keep peeping through the glass oven door but if you have a solid oven door make sure you keep an eye on the time as if you open the oven door too soon your cakes will sink!
6. Cool on wire rack then decorate when completey cool.

And here's the recipe I use for muffins...

250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
100g caster sugar - again, Fairtrade if possible
1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
120ml semi-skimmed milk
125g plain yoghurt
1 tsp flavouring - vanilla, almond, whatever you think fits in with the "chunks" you have chosen for your muffins!
75g butter or margarine, melted and cooled (or 75g Stork Liquid)
A handful of something for the "chunks"... raspberries, chocolate chips, blueberries, fudge pieces, anything really!

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 6 (200°C, 400°F).  Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
2. In one bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
3. In a second bowl or jug, mix together the egg, milk, yoghurt, flavouring and melted butter/margarine.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir gently until combined - add any "chunks" and stir through gently.  The mixture will be quite lumpy but there should be no dry flour visible.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched lightly.  Cool on a wire rack.
6. Best served warm but they will keep in a airtight container (once cooled) for a couple of days.

From the recipes, you can see that the main difference is the ratio of fats to flour... the replacement of some of the fat and 1 egg with yoghurt and milk in the muffins makes them lower in fat than the cup cake recipe.  Also, the lack of topping on a muffin reduces the additional fat and sugar levels - however, depending on the "chunks" that you add, the fat/sugar content can change considerably!  Although, muffins can be a great way to get a bit of hidden goodness into your diet... muffins bursting with blueberries, cranberries or raspberries can really give you a boost at the "2pm slump" I seem to suffer from every day!

You can also add vegetables to the mix... grated carrot, parsnip and beetroot can all be added to spice up your muffins.  Also add a teaspoon of mixed spice, ginger or nutmeg to experiment with flavours...

So have a go... enjoy experimenting and let me know any fabulous new flavours you have come up with - I'll definitely give you a "shout-out" and credit for your experimental cooking!

Silent Sunday 8th July 2012

Cookie Monster Cupcakes!

These are one of my favourite types of children's cupcake to make... they are really quite simple but look very effective and will be loved by both children and adults (of the Sesame Street era anyway!).

Start by making a basic cupcake mix to make approx. 12 cupcakes - bake for the correct time and leave to cool.  I cool my cakes by placing on a wire cooling rack and cover with a clean, damp tea towel.  Wet the towel and throughly ring out the water so it does not drip at all - I find cooling this way keep the cakes moist and they don't go "crispy" on the top (if they do, don't worry as you are covering with buttercream anyway).

When the cakes are completely cool, spread with a generous amount of buttercream, recipe below...

I use a palette knife to spread with as I find it easier.  Try to shape the buttercream into a rounded-dome if you can but it doesn't need to be perfect as the coconut topping is quite forgiving and finishes off the shape.

Next, top with dyed coconut.  This looks quite technical but, again, is really easy!  Get yourself a good-quality sandwich/food bag and tip in a handful of dessicated coconut.  Add a couple of drops of required food colouring, twist or hold very tightly closed and shake!  You can add more colouring if required, but remember the "Golden Rule".... you can always add more colour or flavour but you can't take it away!

Place the dyed coconut into a wide shallow bowl and carefully dip the buttercream-covered cupcakes into the coconut.  To fill in any gaps, just sprinkle the coconut on top and press lightly.

Then, just add the finishing touches - cut mini choc chip cookies in half and put into place for the mouth and white chocolate buttons with black "writing icing" dots for eyes.  You can also use sugarpaste for the eyes but the chocolate buttons are much easier in my opinion and look just as effective.

And that's it.... a perfect display of cool monster cakes for any party!  Ideal at Hallowe'en but also for any time of the year when there are monsters around!

Buttercream
200g of icing sugar, sifted
100g soft margarine or butter (I generally use Stork for making both cakes & buttercream)
A couple of drops of flavouring (vanilla usually, but whatever flavouring takes your fancy)
1 tsp or so of milk, if required.

1. Mix everything together until light and fluffy - you may need a bit of milk (only a bit!) if the buttercream is quite stiff.  I use a electric hand whisk but this can be done by hand although it will take longer.
2. Cover and store in the fridge until needed.
3. That's it!