Peanut Butter Cupcakes

There’s something really nice about how peanut butter cupcakes sounds as it rolls off the tongue. I think it might be the combination of Nuh-Buh-Cuh, if you get what I mean? No…well, I don’t blame you.

I made these a while ago and unfortunately, as tends to happen, life got in the way of me uploading the recipe. They were for my housemate’s birthday and I had to make them, wash up and tidy away in under an hour to keep them a surprise! I ended up icing them in my bedroom just in case she came into the kitchen…

They are relatively “mild” on the peanut butter front. Or at least I think so. Feel free to use substitute more of the butter for peanut butter. God knows I would, but not everyone likes peanut butter as much as I do…

Makes approx 12-14

Ingredients

75g butter
110g peanut butter
200g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
260g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
180ml milk

Icing

75g butter
165g icing sugar
3 tsp water
1 tsp cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/gas mark 4 and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar. It helps if your butter is soft to begin with, so either take it out the fridge and stick it in your warming oven for a few minutes. Careful not to let it melt though. Once “fluffy and light” or once your arms get too achey to cream anymore, beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarb and spices. Add about a quarter to the butter/sugar/egg mix, stir in, add a quarter of the milk, stir in and then repeat until you have no flour or milk left. Fill the cupcake cases ¾ full and stick in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.

While they’re baking, cream all the icing ingredients together in a bowl. Again, soft butter helps here (though I wouldn’t put it in the oven this time). Try not to “over” cream it as it will start to separate, for reasons unbeknownst to me!

Check the cakes in the usual manner by inserting a knife or skewer into the middle of one of the cakes to see if it comes out clean – if not put back in for a couple of minutes and check again/repeat until done.

Leave to cool before icing, otherwise the butter will melt and you’ll have some fairly disgusting looking cupcakes. I topped mine with a dollop of peanut butter and various nuts to make them as birthday-tastic as I could.

Orange & Raisin Sticky Toffee Pudding

There are times in life when you happen to find yourself with a big bag of dates lacking a little purpose. Or is that just me? Assuming I’m not alone in experiencing this situation I shall continue…

The answer? Give your dates a purpose. And what better purpose than filling up your grumbly tummy with some sweet, indulgent Sticky Toffee Pudding?

Basic recipe courtesy of Be-Ro. But we have snazzed it up a little and reduced the sugar slightly. To be honest I might even reduce the sugar further in future…

Serves 8 FATTIES or 16 skinnies

Ingredients

Pudding

250g stoned dates, chopped
50g raisins
220ml boiling water
150g self-raising flour
110g butter
150 soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
zest and juice of 2 oranges
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Sauce

110g butter
125g soft dark brown sugar
150ml double cream
zest of two oranges
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Method

First, find a tin and casserole dish combination so that your tin will sit easily in the dish as you will need to steam this pudding in a “bain-marie” stylie. DON’T make the mistake we did and pour your mixture into a tin first before realising you don’t have a casserole dish/other receptacle large enough to accommodate the tin! Grease your tin well and/or line with baking parchment. One 20cm square pan will do it, we did ours in 2 loaf tins which lead to “taller” puddings. It makes no difference really, other than they took a little longer to cook through.

Add chopped dates and raisins to a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Squeeze in the juice of one of your oranges, add the bicarb and leave to stand until the raisins are plump and the dates get…mushy…for lack of a better word. Approximately 10 minutes, anyway.

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/Gas Mark 4. Cream together all remaining pudding ingredients in a large bowl until “light and fluffy”. Use an electric whisk, or shear brute strength, the choice is yours! Add the dates/raisins to the cake mixture and pour into your tin. Cover with a layer of parchment paper and a double layer of foil – folding the edges under and ensuring it’s well sealed. Try to avoid having the parchment dip into the mix if possible.

Place tin in casserole dish (or roasting tin) and pour poiling water into the dish until half-way up the pudding tin. Stick in the oven for an hour. Take out, check the middle and cook for more time if necessary – make sure to replace the foil lid. Meanwhile, make the sauce! This is so easy it hurts. Add everything to a small pan. Warm gently until sugar has dissolved, stirring constantly to ensure everything disperses evenly. See – EASY.

Serve pudding while hot, slathered in sauce. And, if you’re being particularly greedy, cream.

Or custard.

Or ice-cream.

Or all the above.

Fatty.