Lemon, Rose and Pistachio Mini Bundt Cakes~Recipe Swap

This is the second time I am participating in the recipe swap club. The aim is that you are paired up with a fellow blogger and you have to recreate a recipe from their blog. This month I was paired with Jagruti from Jagruti’s Cooking Odyssey. Jagruti is a very good friend of mine and she has a lovely blog show casing vegan and vegetarian recipes. She is an expert cook and experiments with lots of textures and flavours. I spent hours looking through her blog and there were so many recipes I wanted to make. I short listed a few of my favorites such as her Instant Raiti Gor Keri -sweet mango pickle, her vegan Boussou Tmssou- Algerian cookies and her Rasjasthani Dal Bafla recipe to name a few. But what caught my eye was her recent post where she featured her Middle Eastern semolina Bundt cakes. The rose and lemon combination with the pistachio are my favorite flavours so I decided  to recreate this recipe at the weekend. Wow what a hit, we loved this mini gorgeous spongy cakes that oozed Middle Eastern flavours to the core. This is definitely a keeper recipe that I can see my self making it again and again.

I did make a couple of small changes to suit my taste, the original recipe can be found here.

I have a mini bundt tin so I made mini bundt cakes rather than 4 large as in Jagrutis recipe. I also reduced the amount of sugar syrup in the recipe to a half and it was more than enough to sweeten the little cakes. The cakes turned out delicious served with strong Moroccan coffee.

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Lemon, Rose and Pistachio Mini Bundt Cakes

by Nayna Kanabar March-28-2018

Mini bundt cakes with mouth watering middle Eastern flavours of rose, lemon and pistachio make these cakes delectable and simply delicious.

Ingredients:

• 250 g Coarse Semolina
• 1 tablespoon Corn flour
• 85 g Melted butter
• 85 g Caster Sugar
• 125 g Plain Greek Yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon Lemon zest
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 level teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
• 30 ml Milk
• 2 tablespoons Pistachio slices
For the Syrup
• Sugar 125 g
• 150 ml Water
• 1 Lemon (thinly sliced)
• 1 teaspoon Rose water
• 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
• Few Rose petals for garnishing

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 180 degrees -C 375 degrees F 2.In a bowl add the bicarbonate of soda and yoghurt and mix together. Leave aside for 10 minutes.3. In another bowl add the semolina, sugar, lemon zest, melted butter and mix together.4. Add in the yoghurt mixture and mix together, add the milk a little at a time until the batter is dropping consistency.5. Grease and dust the bundt tin with melted butter and flour.6. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted in them comes out clean.7. In another pan add the sugar, water, lemon juice, lemon slices and bring the mixture to a boil, once the sugar has melted simmer on low heat for 5 minutes .Turn off the heat and add the rose water.8. Leave the cakes in the bundt tin after taking them out of the oven. While they are still warm, spoon on top of each cake a generous spoonful of the syrup. Wait a few minutes and add another spoonful. 9. Once the cakes have soaked up the syrup, gently take them out of the bundt tin and arrange them on a serving platter, spoon another teaspoon full of syrup on the cakes and garnish them with the pistachio slices and rose petals.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 12 cakes

Chai Spiced Banana Muffins and The Vegan Cook book review

My favorite all time fruit is banana but I am rather fussy as to how I like like my bananas. I like to eat them when they are just yellow as soon as they go a darker yellow and brown spots appear I don't like them. That is when they are perfect to add to smoothies and for baking.

My second favorite thing is spices and I love masala chai spice, you can read all about my masala chai spice post here which shows you my love for this awesome fragrant tea spice. So when I was reading The Vegan Cookbook by Adele McConnell, I was really excited to see a recipe for Chai Spiced Banana Muffins. I did not need too much persuasion to recreate the recipe.

The Vegan Cookbook  has 100  recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner together with some love sweet treats and desserts. The book is beautifully illustrated and has inviting food photos.I really like the fact that the author has added symbols to the recipes to annotate if they are soy-free, seed-free, raw, gluten-free, nut-free and sugar free.
The book is perfect for anyone who has newly become vegan as the recipes tips ans ideas are very useful and easy to follow.

Book Details :The Vegan Cookbook By Adele McConnell
ISBN 978-1-84899-338-9
Retails  £9.99

My score for the book: 12/15

Content -4/5
Illustrations-4/5
Recipe Instructions-4/5

** I was sent a copy of the book to review as always all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.







Coming back to the Chai Spiced Muffins, sadly the first batch I made were really dry and not sweet enough as the original recipe does not have any sugar added to it and relies on the natural sweetness of the banana. I recreated the recipe for the second time but this time I added half a cup of brown sugar to the recipe and also sprinkled some sugar on top of the muffins. I also added a touch more liquid and the muffins turned out much better. Vegan muffins do not have the same texture as normal muffins and these were a little more dense, more like banana bread than muffins. Despite this we did enjoy them.

I took inspiration from the original recipe from the book and below you can see my version that I recreated with minor changes.

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Chai Spiced Banana Muffins

by Nayna Kanabar November-26-2017

Delicious Chai flavoured Muffins, that are vegan and healthy too.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Plain Flour
• 1/2 cup (plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling) Brown Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Chai Spice
• 2 Ripe Bananas
• 3/4 cup roughly chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup Sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/ 375 degrees F2. In a jug add the coconut milk and the vinegar and keep aside.3. In a large bowl, add the bananas and mash them up with a fork. Add the oil and vanilla and the milk mixture from the jug and whisk together.
4.Sieve the flour, spices, baking powder straight into the bowl. Add the sugar and gently fold the mixture till combined. Fold in the chopped pecans.5. Divide the mixture into the cake cases and sprinkle a little brown sugar on the top ,bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until golden brown. 6. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 12

** NB If you want to make your own chai spice mixture mix together 1/2 teaspoon cardamon powder, 1/2 teaspoon clove powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon all spice and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder.

Do you enjoy muffins, what is your favorite combination? Do tell me in the comments below.

I also  have a copy of the Vegan Cook Book to giveaway to one simplyfood reader so you too can create your own mouth watering Vegan recipes.

How to enter:

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Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies ~A tribute to Isabella -Coriander Queen

I have been blogging for almost 8 years and over this time I have read many blogs and made numerous friends in the blogging world. Luckily, I have had the opportunity to meet some of these blogger friends in person and others I know them virtually through their blogs. One such person was Isabella who wrote the blog Coriander Queen. Her blog has a varied collection of recipes, all captured beautifully on camera too. I have followed Isabellas' blog for a long time, although I had never met her in person, I felt I knew her from her work. Sadly in March she passed away after a long illness. The blogging community are saddened by such devastating news and will miss her tremendously in the blogosphere. We all wanted to do something special to remember her by, so an idea emerged to take inspiration from her recipes and recreate them as a tribute.

I have chosen her Eggless Chocolate Cocoa Cookies recipe and have remade it with minor changes. You can find the original recipe here. Please do check the linky at the bottom of this post for all the other recipes.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Nayna Kanabar April  23-2017

Delicious Chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks and pecans.




Ingredients:

• 115 g Self raising flour
• 85 g granulated sugar
• 115 g butter
• Pinch of salt
• 30 g birds custard powder
• 1 tablespoon Milk
• 30 g Cocoa Powder
• 1 bar 100 g White chocolate cut into chunks
• 12 Pecans roughly chopped (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. 2. Grease two baking trays with butter and keep aside. 3.In  a bowl sieve together the flour, cocoa powder and the custard powder and keep aside. 4.Cream together the sugar and butter and then add the flour and make a dough, only add the milk if the mixture will not come together. Add the chopped white chocolate chunks and pecans.5.Roll out walnut sized balls from the cookie dough and place them on the greased baking tray, making sure you keep plenty of space between them as they will spread whilst baking.6.There is no need to flatten the balls they will spread during baking.7. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes and remove from the oven, leave them to cool on the trays. Do not over bake the cookies, as they will firm up when they cool.

Details:

Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 15 mins Total time:30 mins   Yield: 22 cookies

To see what recipes the other bloggers have made see below:

• Easy 5 ingredient pesto tomato tart on Amuse Your Bouche (vegetarian)
• Globe artichoke with balsamic dip on Natural Kitchen Adventures (vegan)
• Cider, apple and sausage casserole on Farmersgirl Kitchen
• Chocolate orange oat bars on Veggie Desserts (vegan)
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies on Tin and Thyme (vegetarian)
• Arancini (risotto balls) on Coffee & Vanilla (vegetarian)
• Rich coffee cupcakes on BakingQueen74 (vegetarian)
• Gingerbread cupcakes with orange buttercream on The Veg Space (vegan)
• Marmalade and ginger loaf cake on The Crafty Larder (vegetarian)
• Ginger and oat cookies on Kavey Eats (vegetarian)
• Amatriciana pasta on Kitchen Sanctuary Treacle tart on Patisserie Makes Perfect (vegetarian)
• Crispy fried halloumi on Supper In The Suburbs (vegetarian)
• Chocolate fridge cake on Jo's Kitchen (vegetarian)
• Chocolate almond butter cookies on Rough Measures (vegetarian)
• Eggless chocolate chip cookies on Simply Sensational Food (vegetarian)
• Boozy decadent hot chocolate on Fab Food 4 All (vegetarian)
• Easy no bake blackberry cheesecakes on Casa Costello (vegetarian)
• Best coriander / cilantro recipes on Fuss Free Flavours (some vegetarian)
• Easy gingerbread popcorn snack on Celery & Cupcakes (vegetarian)
• Elderflower and vodka cocktail slush on The Hedgecombers (vegetarian)
• Fruit flapjacks on The Petite Cook (vegan)
• Tomato, garlic and prawn spaghetti on Hungry Healthy Happy (pesceaterian)
• Lemon drizzle loaf cake on Penne For Your Thoughts (vegetarian)
• Chicken ramen on It's Not Easy Being Greedy
• Stuffed Nutella cookies on Munchies And Munchkins (vegetarian)
• Easy Berry Compote on Eats Amazing (vegetarian)
• Caipirinha on Lovely Appetite (vegetarian)
• Garlic and Lime Coriander Prawns on Travels for Tatse (pesceaterian)

You can also click on this linky to add your posts and also take you to the relevant posts.

Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes

I do like a cake every now and then with my cup of coffee, however I am not too fond of buttercream and fondant icing on the cake. I am a plain cake person with just good flavour and no topping. I love chocolate cakes and this vegan recipe with no eggs or butter is so delicious that it is one of my most favourite recipes. It is also very easy to adapt the recipe if you want to add other flavours in cake.

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Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes

by Nayna Kanabar Jan-22-2016

Moist and deliciously chocolatey cupcakes, that are egg and dairy free.


Ingredients:

     Dry Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups Plain Flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white caster sugar
• 1/2 cup Milk chocolate chips 

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup Water
• 1/3 cup Sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C 2. Line a muffin pan with cake cases.3.  In a large bowl sieve the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda three times to get lots of air in the mixture.4. Stir in the sugar.5. In a jug add the water ,oil, vinegar and vanilla essence and whisk together.6. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry and do not over mix, you want to keep the mixture as light as possible. Stir in the chocolate chips. 7.  Spoon the mixture into the cake cases and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cakes comes out clean. Once baked remove tray from oven and wait for the cakes to cool. At this stage you can swirl butter cream on the top if desired.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Baking time: 25 mins Total time: 35 mins   Yield: 16 cupcakes depending on size of cake cases.

For other eggless recipes do check out the posts for more cake ideas here.

Eggless Black Forest Cake

Since the Great British Bake off series was on I have been baking more than I usually do. I joined in a bloggers baking group on face book where a group of amateur bakers took inspiration from the shows weekly challenges and recreated the  many bakes that the contestants made. I really had fun participating and making new friends. It was a big learning curve for me, where I attempted things like homemade phyllo pastry, churros and mousse cake. All these bakes were really out of my comfort zone but the show really inspired me to rise to the challenges.
This week I was well and truly surprised when I heard that Tesco who were sponsoring the Bloggers bake had selected three winners, I am most excited to have come second place which is totally unexpected.

In  celebration of this win I have made an eggless black forest cake, Black forest gateau is one of my favourite flavours so this is a variation of it.

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Black Forest Cake

by December-02-2016

Delicious and moist chocolate cake flavoured with morello cherries and decorated with whipped cream and morello cherries and chocolate shavings.

Ingredients:

• 300 g plain flour
• 240 g sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 75 ml sunflower oil
• 220 ml water
• 410 g black cherry pie filling
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 240 ml whipping cream
• 60 g icing Sugar
• Dark chocolate shavings 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 350 Degrees F.2. Grease a loose bottom cake tin and line it with grease proof paper.3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa in a large mixing bowl.Stir in the sugar.4. In a jug add the oil, water,vanilla essence and vinegar and mix together 5. Fold the wet ingredients from the jug into the sifted flour mixture.6. Open the can of cherries and remove half the cherries and keep them a side for garnish. The remaining juice and cherries add to the cake batter and fold gently. Transfer the batter to the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.7.While the cake is baking, add the cream to a bowl and whisk it with the icing sugar to form stiff peaks. Spoon the cream into an icing bag fitted with a star nozzle. and keep the cream in the fridge to chill.8. Once the cake is baked, remove it from oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove it from the tin and leave to fully cool on a wire rack.9. Transfer the cooled cake onto a serving dish and pipe circles of rosettes on the the top of the cake with the cream. In the centre add the remaining cherries.Garnish with some dark chocolate shavings to finish off.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cooking time: 45 mins Total time: 65 minutes Yield: 1 cake /8 slices

I baked my cake in my new non stick 100% leak proof and watertight PushPan. The PushPan is easy to use, it 's base is sealed by a silicon gasket which prevents any leaks whilst baking. The pan ensures an even bake. it is dishwasher safe, ovenproof and freezer safe too. The PushPan range comes in various sizes and are perfect for all types of baking.

I was sent a press sample of the PushPan to test out, all views and opinions are my own. The PushPan  photos are used with permission.

As always simplyfood likes to give readers a chance to try the products we use in our kitchen. I am excited that I have 1 PushPan  to giveaway to one lucky winner.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents OVER 18 YRS  only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 18th Dec 2016 12.00 am
• Prize 1 8 inch PushPan

How Rafflecopter works:

·        You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.

·        Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.

·        Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 

·        Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.

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Eggless Raspberry and Blueberry Muffins for Comic Relief

I have been watching the Great British Comic relief bake off and am totally in admiration with the celebrities that participate in the show for charity, especially those that are really out of their comfort zone in the baking world. I feel that if everyone did something, however small, to help raise money for people who are less fortunate than us at least we could make a combined effort to ease their hardship. As they say every drop of water in the bucket is as precious as the next to reach the fill line.

I baked these muffins for a charity sale to raise some money for comic relief. The sale did not raise thousands of pounds but I feel every little effort helps. I sincerely hope that some of my readers will take inspiration from this post and start baking for comic relief to raise funds. Do share your stories in the comments section of anything you have baked.

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Eggless Raspberry and Blueberry Breakfast Muffins

by Nayna Kanabar February-20-2016

Fruity and delicious eggless muffins perfect for breakfast or snacks.

Ingredients:

• 1.25 cups Plain Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup Butter (room temperature)
• 395 g (1 can) Condensed Milk
• 2 tablespoons Milk (warm)
• 1 cup Raspberries and Blueberries
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C 2. In a mixing bowl sieve together the flour and the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and keep aside.2.In another bowl whisk together the condensed milk, softened butter, milk and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.3. Fold the flour into the butter mixture lightly until all the flour is incorporated.4. Fold in the berries gently.5. Spray the pan with a little sunflower oil and spoon the mixture into the pan to fill about two thirds full. Smooth the top of the batter with a spoon.6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C/ 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and skewer inserted in centre of muffins comes out clean.7. Remove muffins from oven and transfer them to wire rack for cooling. Once cooled drizzle with a flurry of icing sugar before serving.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 25 mins Yield: 16 muffins

I baked my muffins in the Sweetheart Rose Baking Pan made by Nordic bakeware which was gifted to me by House of Fraser. The pan is robustly made from heavy cast aluminum. It has a special reflective exterior and a premium non stick coating. This pan would make the perfect Mother's Day present also for any mum, you can purchase it from House of Fraser online where together with this pan there is a vast selection of beautiful bakeware.

Lemon Drizzle Cake ~Eggless

Moist and citrussy lemon drizzle cake that is delicate and delectable.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

300 g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

250 g sugar

1 heaped spoon lemon zest

Wet  Ingredients:

100 ml water

140 ml Rachels lemon yoghurt

75 ml sunflower oil

1 tablespoon  apple cider vinegar 

1 teaspoon vanilla

For lemon drizzle:

juice of I lemon

1 tablespoon sugar

Method:

1.Line 2 loaf tins with parchment paper.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

3. In a large bowl sieve together the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

4. Stir in the sugar gently.

5. In a jug whisk together the yoghurt, oil, water, vanilla and apple cider vinegar and lemon zest

6. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with very light folding action(You want to keep the cake airy over mixing will cause it to go dense)

7. Divide the batter into the two prepared loaf tins so that they are half filled.

8. Tap the tins gently on the work top to distribute the batter evenly in them.

9. Bake in middle shelf in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cakes are golden brown.(Do not open the oven door during this time the cakes will sink) After 25 minutes open the door and insert a skewer into the centre of the cake if it comes out clean cakes are cooked if skewer is wet cook for another 5 minutes.

10. Remove cakes from oven and keep aside to cool.

11. Mix together the lemon juice and sugar and using the skewer poke holes in the cakes you have baked.

12. Pour over the warm cakes the lemon syrup and it will sink into the cakes.

I was recently sent some Rachels Organic Lemon Yoghurt to try. I used the Rachels Lemon yoghurt to make this Lemon drizzle cake. The Greek Style Bio live organic yoghurt gave the cake the added moistness and a delicious citrus flavouring.

I would like to Thank Rachels  for sending me the yoghurt to samples.

Submitting to:

Lets cook Sweet Treats for Easter event by simplyfood

Strawberry Marble Cake (eggless)

Luscious strawberry in a moist sponge makes this cake delicious.

Ingredients:

225g (8 oz) self-raising flour
225g (8 oz) butter, at room temperature
225g (8 oz) caster sugar plus 2 teaspoons
4 eggs or (4 tablespoons egg replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons water )
1 teaspoon baking powder
10 strawberries
1 teaspoon  natural red food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / gas mark 4.
2. Mix the egg replacer with 4 tablespoons water whisk and keep aside.
3.Mix together the butter and 225 g sugar until light and fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl sieve together the flour and baking powder
5. Add spoonful of flour and egg replacer alternately into the butter and sugar and fold it in until all the flour is mixed in.
6. Chop the strawberries into small pieces and add 3/4 of them  to the batter and fold them in
7. The remaining 1/4 of the strawberries place in a food blender with 2 teaspoons sugar and whizz blend them to form a smooth puree.
8. Sieve the puree to remove pips. Add 1 teaspoon red food colour to this puree and mix it in. Pour the puree into a plastic piping bag and keep aside.
9. Grease and line a rectangular cake tin .
10. Pour the cake batter in the tin and tap the tin gently to spread the batter out evenly.
11. Cut a tiny hole in the piping bag and pipe red swirls all over the top of the cake batter.
12. Using a cocktail stick swirl the red strawberry puree into the batter.
13. Place the cake in the oven to bake for 35-40 mins at 180 degrees c /350 degrees F . Check the cake is done by inserting a skewer in the cake if it comes out clean cake is baked.
14 Remove from oven and cool  on a wire rack before serving.

You may like:
Strawberry Kisses mini muffins

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Flavours of the world ~Grand Finale

Orange Chocolate Mousse Vegetarian friendly and Shaken Udder Milkshakes giveaway.

I recently wrote about some yummy milkshakes that I was sent by Shaken Udder, we really enjoyed them and we not only drank them but created some awesome desserts with them too such as Banana caramel Ice cream and Orange chocolate mousse.

Here is the recipe:

Creamy rich and chocolicious with a hint of orange chocolate mousse.

Ingredients:

240 ml Shaken Udder Choc Orange Milkshake
120 ml Milk
1 tablespoon agar agar flakes
1 tablespoon sugar
60 g milk chocolate grated or finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon orange essence
Orange slices for garnish
6 Orange chocolate match sticks for garnish

Method:

1. Add the milk to a pan and add the agar agar flakes and sugar bring to boil, keep stirring  until agar agar and sugar are fully dissolved.  Turn off heat and add in the chocolate and keep stirring until its all melted.
2.Whisk the milk shake until thick and creamy. I used my milk frother for this.Add the orange essence and mix it in.
3. Fold the agar agar mixture to the whisked chocolate milk shake to combine it.
4. Spoon the mixture into small shot glasses.
5. Place the mousse in the fridge for 4 hours to semi set.
6. Before serving garnish with orange slices and a chocolate match stick

NB- Due to this mousse being gelatine free it does not set fully and will have a creamy smooth texture.

I was sent the Shaken Udder milkshakes to try and they have been very kind and have agreed to provide two simply.food readers 16 bottles of their milkshakes each  for a giveaway prize.

How To Enter

Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
Please read the rules they form the terms and conditions of this Giveaway
Closing date – 12th February 2014 12.00 am

Open to over 18 years old and UK residents only.
2 prizes of 16 bottles of Shaken Udder Milkshake (One prize per winner only)

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box. Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
• Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
• Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.
• For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 
• For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 
• If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cinnamon and Apple upside down muffins.

The month of October brings with it chilly weather and an abundance of apples.My friend has an apple tree in her back garden and she gave me a bag full of cooking apples.Sour and tart they are perfect for baking with. I am sure most people will agree that Cinnamon goes hand in hand with apples and they are a marriage made in heaven.On my recent trip to the USA I bought a patterned muffin tray so it was the perfect choice to bake these cinnamon and apple upside down muffins.

Beautifully moist and fragrant cinnamon and apple upside down muffins that will melt in your mouth wanting a second bite, one will not be enough.

Ingredients:

Apple filling:

3 medium cooking apples peeled and finely diced
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon

Muffin Batter:

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground Cinnamon
360g  / 12 oz plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 tablespoons Rachels strawberry yoghurt
1/3 cup sunflower oil
3/4 cup water
240g / 8oz sugar

Icing:

2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees/ 180 degrees C
2. Toss the diced apples in 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and place in a saucepan.
3. Cook the apples on a low heat for 2-3 minutes until all the sugar has melted and the apples are just softened.(Do not overcook the apple pieces need to hold shape) Remove from heat and leave to cool.
4.Sieve together the flour, baking powder,bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon together in a large bowl.Stir in the sugar.
5. In a jug mix together the yoghurt, water, oil and whisk together.
6. Add the wet ingredients from the jug to the dry ingredients in the bowl and fold together with light hands.Do not over mix.
7. Oil the muffin pan using a pastry brush dipped in oil, this is important as we will need to make sure after baking muffins come out of pan without sticking.
8. Spoon a tablespoon of batter in each hole of the muffin pan.
9. Add on top of this a spoonful of apple mixture.
10. Add a second spoon of batter on top of the apple mixture. Muffin pan should only be 2/3 full.Do not over fill.
11. Place the pan in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes.Once muffins are golden brown remove them from the oven and leave to cool.
12. To de mould the muffins, run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn the muffin pan over a wire tray and tap gently..
13. Add the icing sugar to a small bowl , add the cinnamon and the water and make the icing.
14. Make a paper cone with some parchment paper and fill it with the icing.
15. Place the cooled muffins onto a serving platter upside down and pipe some lines of icing over the muffins.
16.Before serving sieve some icing sugar over the muffins.

The cinnamon used in this recipe was sent to me by Cinnamon Hill and the yogurt used was sent to me by Rachels Organic.

You may like:
Banana muffins

Submitting to:
Lets cook with Apples

Eggless carrot cake baked in I heart cake silicon mould and a giveaway

Delicious aromatic, spicy rich and moist carrot cake.

Ingredients:

150 ml sunflower or vegetable oil

200 g soft light brown sugar

300 g peeled and grated carrots

75 g walnuts, chopped

175 g plain flour

2 eggs or egg replacer

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

A pinch of salt
1/2 tablespoon icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 35O°F /180° C.

2. Brush some oil all around the silicon mould making sure bottom and all sides are well oiled

3. In a bowl whisk the oil and sugar, next add the grated carrots and chopped nuts and mix well.

4. Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt in to a bowl. Stir in the egg replacer. Gently fold the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients together. Do not over mix.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared silicon mould smoothing the surface with a palette knife. Bake in the oven for 60 – 75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6. Allow the cake to cool in the mould for about 30 minutes, once cooled carefully pull away the mould. (Do not be tempted to un mould the cake whilst its hot as it will break)

7. Once cake is fully cooled place it on a plate and sieve some icing sugar over it.

Serve with cream or ice cream.

You can make a slimming world carrot cake, check the recipe out its equally delicious.

I was sent this I heart cake silicon mould by Mustard .The mould is made from silicone and incorporates a unique petal design which enables you to divide your cake into 6 equal heart-shaped slices as you can see in the photo above.

The mould is fairly large and will make a generous sized cake, I also used it to make jelly and a large flower shaped icecream so that when I de moulded the ice cream  I could serve slices that were heart shaped.The mould retails at £ 15.00 and you can purchase it from Mustard on line.

I would like to thank Mustard for sending me this mould, all the views and opinions in this post are my own.

Mustard have been very generous and they have agreed to bring some romance in to simply. food readers lives They have provided two I heart cake moulds for prizes for two lucky winners.

This competition is open to UK residents over the age of 18 only.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
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• Closing date – 5th October  2013 6.00pm .

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• Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
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