Wednesday 15 May 2013

Blueberry Crumb Cake in Pop Cake Maker

I found this recipe while looking for a new experiment for our cooking. I ummed and arrhhed about doing this 'traditionally' in the oven or using the pop cake maker. As usual I turned to other half and little one for help on the decision! Funnily enough they pumped for the cake pop maker! I am liking the different stages of this as can get little one to help with mixing wet ingredients while I mix the dry (which seems to get messier with lo as he likes to pour the flour over his hands!). He is also very good (as I discovered using the pancake recipe) in adding the dry ingredients to the wet mix (which is the wrong way according to original recipe but again works better for us).

This made loads of cakes, thank goodness, the first lot I did I over filled the wells, the second lot sank, the third I forgot to turn the maker back on after cleaning it (muppet) (see photo below for these attempts).

Anyway, the next time I made them was more successful, so that is what I've recreated below. They did deflate after coming out - very light cakes indeed, and very more-ish. They got eaten over two days. For more consistent ones that stayed round please read the notes for the ones I made out of strawberries, I think one of the problems with this is that the blueberries deflate when cooked so collapse the cakes.

Ingredients
    Dry Ingredients
    • 190g sifted plain flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 150g caster sugar
    Wet Ingredients
    • 2 eggs worth of egg replacer, I used 2 tbl spoon flax seed, 6 tbl spoon water
    • 250ml yoghurt
    • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    Optional Flavours (and/or)
    • 125g fresh blueberries
    • 60g tablespoons chopped walnuts
     Topping/ Crumb Ingredients
    • 5 tablespoons caster sugar
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    Method
    • In a medium mixing bowl sift flour with the rest of the dry ingredients
    • In a large mixing bowl separate bowl combine the wet ingredients
    • Pour the flour mixture into the wet mix and beat until smooth. 
    • Add the mixture into the pop cake mixer, so the bottom well is half full.
    • to each pop cake set in one of the blueberries into the centre of the mix (although the recipe says about walnuts my lo isn't a fan so didn't add them this time around), add a small amount of mix to the top to help cover the blueberry.
    • I didn't bother with doing the crumble as couldn't work how to do it in the pop cake maker. In a small bowl, combine the crumb mix with a fork until it resembles breadcrumbs
    • Put in the pop cake maker for 5/6 mins. 
     Notes
    • When using a normal cake tin/ oven combination the recipe recommends setting the oven to 180 C / Gas 4, and using a greased 23cm square cake tin. Spread the mixture in the tin after mixing the wet and dry ingredients and then sprinkling the blueberries  and/or walnuts  over the mixture, stirring slightly so that they stay in the top layer. Then add the crumb mixture on top.
    • Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool slightly before serving
    • Additionally, I've made these a second time, this time with self raising flour, slightly less sugar (140g) and 200ml of yogurt with 50ml of milk. I also used chopped up strawberries instead of blueberries. These came out dead yummy & sweet thanks to the strawberries, I seem to be getting there making them perfectly round, I think they fail as soon as you get one overflowing. 
    The first try using blueberries, not so round as half round half flat!

    Tuesday 7 May 2013

    Pancakes


    I found this recipe on the blog  ArtofDessert  I have made these for Pancake day both this year and last. This years were more successful. Experience I guess, as I had a trial run the week before. I made these for Andrews birthday tea (which nicely fit with Ewans baking day!)

    Ingredients  
    • 2 cups plain flour  
    • 1/4 cup sugar  
    • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder  
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt  
    • 2 cups milk 
    • 1/4 cup vegetable oil 
    •  1/4 cup orange juice  
    • 1/4 cup melted Trex (or other butter substitute)
    Method
    • Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  
    • In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, oil and orange juice. 
    • Slowly add in the melted Trex.  
    • Add the dry ingredients while whisking the wet ingredients (I whisked while lo added them cup by cup)
    • Heat the pan very hot with some oil in the pan, once the pancakes have started cooking I set the temp to 6 on the hob (ours goes up to 9)
    • Pour about 1/2 cup of batter into pan, (the recipe says make sure they are quite thick but I found it was ok to make them thin)
    • Cook until you see bubbles rise to the surface & have popped all over, it should be dry around the edges, then flip over to cook the other side until lightly browned.
    Notes
    This batter tends to bubble up and thicken due to the baking powder, so ideally use straight away. I left mine in the fridge for around 30mins to go on a bike ride and although the recipe says you can gently stir it to break down some of the bubbles to bring it back to a pourable consistency I ended up having to add more milk.

    The first time I did this I didn't use orange juice but 1 tsp vinegar & water.


    Straight after adding the ingredients together