Hello!
It has been a very long time, I am afraid that I have neglected my blog for the past few months. The reason being (and it is a very good reason indeed), I have become a student! This means that my blog about cooking has been suffering as I have been mostly living on pasta, bacon and Heinz baked beans and tomato soup, and I am sure that you would not be interested in learning how to heat soup up in a microwave.
I am now however the proud member of a baking club! It is a very good deal, I pay about 2 pounds a week and they provide all the ingredients, utensils, ovens, etc. It is all done in the university kitchen so it is really nice! I have done a few things there all ready like apple pie, cupcakes and gingerbread but unfortunately, did not think to share it with you. I am just on a break now after my exams so I am back in La Belle France making the most of my gas hobs, giant oven and dad’s KitchenAid that he got for Christmas, I REALLY want a KitchenAid! I will only be able to have one though sadly once I have my own flat. It is the first thing I will have in my imaginary future kitchen… One day…
Anyway, I am going to show you a new recipe now that I found in a magazine, it is from The Great British Bake Off (for Comic Relief). Introducing Carrot cake muffins! I may have made a few hiccups along the way, for example instead of using shredded bran cereal I raided my mums cereal cupboard and used her Fruit and Fibre, I think the raisins that came with that add a nice taste but she was not very impressed. Also my ones do not look a lot like the picture they used in the magazine, because of the filling it looks like they have some odd growths on the side of them so for the sake of presentation I have selected only the finest of the batch for my photoshoot.
Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
75g/ 2 1/2oz shredded bran cereal
225ml/8fl oz milk
zest of 1 medium orange
120g/4 1/4oz cream cheese
1 level tbsp caster sugar
3 large carrots
125g/4 1/2oz light brown muscovado sugar
200g/7oz self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1 1/2oz level tsp of ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
4 tbs sunflower oil
Recipe
1 Put the bran cereal and the milk into a big bowl, like a giant bowl of cereal, and stir it around to mix. Leave it for 15 minutes to soak. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.
2. Tip half of the orange zest into the big bowl of cereal, mix it and put to one side. Mix the cream cheese, caster sugar and the remaining orange zest in a smaller bowl, this is the lovely filling.
3. Peel the carrots and, using the coarse-hole side of the grater, grate onto a board. Weigh out 150g of carrot and add it to the large bowl.
4. Add the brown sugar to the big bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger but avoid mixing them in for now.
5. Break the eggs into another bowl and add the oil. Beat with a fork until the egg yolks and egg whites are mixed together. Then tip it into the big bowl and mix everything together with a wooden spoon.
6. Using a medium-sized spoon, drop a dollop of the mixture into each paper muffin case in the tray. Drop a smaller spoonful of the cream cheese filling into the middle then cover the filling with more carrot mixture.
7. Place in the heated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. Check that they are cooked by gently pressing the centre of a muffin with your finger, it should spring back when ready.
8. Remove the tray from the oven and leave for 5 minutes. Then place the muffins on a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container and eat within 24 hours.
Hope you like it!
Meggy x