Cherry filled Donut Cupcakes

Cherry Filled Donut Cupcakes

½ cup vegetable oil (4fl oz rapeseed)
¾ cups sugar (6 oz dry cup measure)
½ cup 4oz Apple Sauce (2 egg replacement)
5ml vinegar or lemon juice (I used sherry vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour (12 oz dry cup measure)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup oat milk (8fl oz or whatever milk you'd like)

For the filling 3tbsp morello cherry jam
¾ cups cherry pie filling

For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 180degrees C.

Whisk together vegetable oil, sugar, apple, vinegar and vanilla extract until foamy looking.
Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder and fold in the milk.

Beating this flour mixture well won't hurt as there is no egg so the gluten is all that is holding it together. If you use Gluten Free flour this goes double and use plenty of Xanthan Gum!

Pour batter into 12 lined cupcake moulds, it's a reasonably wet batter.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 18-20minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it in the middle.

Remove from oven and let cool, after 1-2 minutes move to cool on a wire rack.

Mix cherry jam and pie filling together until smooth and well combined. Microwave for a few minutes to make it stickier and allow to cool.

When the cupcakes have cooled, carefully cut down into the top of a cupcake to remove a ‘plug’ of cake (as if you are cutting to make ‘wings’ as in a fairy cake but deep enough to form a well.)

Move the tops upside down next to the cake they came from, then place a generous spoonful of jam into the hole and press the top piece you just removed, back into the hole.

You could dust the tops with icing sugar (or if you can't be bothered to cut the tops off to make “donuts” either syringe it in, pipe it in or even just dump it on top.

You can use any fruity jam type filling for these cupcakes, or caramel, dulce du leche or frosting or anything else you fancy.

ORIGINAL ADAPTED FROM thevietvegan.com/fluffy-vegan-vanilla-cupcakes Lisa Le

NaPoWriMo Day #2 Playing with "voice"

My life
Of half finished
Poetry
Whine
Wine
Days
Nights
And luscious fantasies

Who is it that you blame?
And who excuse?
Who will make you?
No-one
But yourself

She can't complain, you're right,
She cannot just hide
These things undone
Are life untried

Her life of dreams
Growth
A life
Alive
Love
Freedom
An expansive passionate embrace

No blame
No excuses
You take a step...
Yourself, myself, herself

This is right
I will not hide
Things undone for now
Will soon be next steps tried

Mike Askew

Paired calculations

When children are working on the same calculation, and have each arrived at the answer, then they may be eager to share their method but, since they each have an answer and a method, the benefits of listening to someone-­‐else’s strategy are not immediately clear. Putting up two different but similar calculations and asking the children in pairs to each do one of the calculations and explain their solution can promote more authentic and active listening as their partner does not have a vested interest in the same calculation.

Solver-­‐recorder

Provide one piece of paper and pen between two. Children take it in turns to be the solver – they have to do the figuring out –while their partner has to do the recording. The solver has to explain what to write down and their partner has to record what they are asked to record – they cannot take over the solving of the problem even if their partner gets stuck. (Children I’ve worked with like to callthis solver-­‐robot. The robot can only record.) What I’ve found actually happens is that the child acting as recorder, once their partner has finished, spontaneously starts to record what they would have done, but having acted as recorder they are more likely to relate their solution method to what their partner did, either building on this or providing an alternative.

Clue problem

Take a classic ‘word problem’ (National Tests are a good source of these) and split the information in the problem into two parts. Put these on two separate pieces of paper together with the question. Working in pairs, they get one ‘clue’ each and jointly solve the problem. They can read out what is on their ‘clue’ card but must not show it to their partner. The reading out encourages listening and the ‘not showing’ rule stops one child simply handing everything over to their partner to do the work

Eggless Mississippi Mud Pie

Pastry BaseFor the pastry:
260g plain flour
½ tsp salt
110g unsalted butter/Margerine

OR 

100g of chocolate biscuits - oreos, bourbons etc and 40g Butter

Filling

100g dark chocolate roughly chopped
50g unsalted butter/marge
30ml golden syrup
6 eggs (6 x 50g = 300g Silken Tofu)
300g soft light brown sugar
1/4cup Cornflour 1 tbsp Flour/GF Flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Set Base - bake /blind bake 10-20 minutes

Bake Filling in (cooled) base for 20 minutes at 200 degrees C then down to 110-150 degrees for 30-40 mins then cool slowly in oven for an hour or so

Gluten Free Tarte au Chocolat

Gluten Free Tarte au Chocolat

150 ml cream
100g Butter
200g of chocolate
2 eggs

Boil the cream.
Break the chocolate into pieces and melt them in the cream, let cool slightly and add the egg
Preheat the oven gas mark 6 (180 ° C).
Blind bake the crust then add the filling and bake for 12 minutes.

Gluten Free Pastry Recipes below.

http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/all-purpose-gluten-free-flour-recipes/
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/16737/gluten-free-sweet-shortcrust-pastry.asp
http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/the-myth-of-a-cup-for-cup-gluten-free-flour/
http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/gluten-free-pastry/

Brownie in a Mug

Brownie In a Mug

Tried a Mug Brownie recipe yesterday. It didn't really work. It was 2 Tbs oil, 2Tbs Chocolate powder, 4 Tbs Sugar, 4 Tbs Flour, splash of water/milk, Vanilla, dash of salt. 

Not at all convinced.

Tried my own today and its roughly as follows.....
2 Tbs of butter/stork/marge/coconut fat (a "hard" fat, not liquid, slightly softened)
2 Tbs of light brown unrefined soft caster sugar
- Cream these two together in the mug with a big spoon
1 tsp Vanilla
Pinch of Salt
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder 
- Mix everything so far into a paste
Add and alternate ....
2-4 Tbs of Soya Milk (or milk) + 1 Tbs liquid fat (coconut oil, vegetable oil etc)
With 3-4 Heaped Tbs of Self-raising flour and half a tsp of Baking Powder

The mug should be half full and it should be the consistency of a good cake batter/brownie batter.

Microwave for 60+ seconds (mine took 60 + a further 25 after looking) and it rose to the top of the mug. This will depend on the size/proportion of your mug.

Hmm, not exactly scientific.

Not Carrot Cake with Chocolate and Raspberry

• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 140g grated carrots Sweet Potato (about 3 medium)
• 50g choc chips
• 50g melted chocolate
• 175g self-raising flour (wholemeal/plain mix)
• 15g of Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 
  

For the frosting

150ml Cream

100g Chocolate melted

150g raspberry preserves/jam

2 tablespoons butter/oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an loaf tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut two long strips the width of the tin and put each strip crossways, covering the base and sides of the tin, with a double layer in the base.
2. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa  the grated  carrots  sweet potato and choc chips.
3. Stir oil, egg yolks and melted chocolate into the whipped egg whites. 
4. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)
6. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl  – heat cream and stir together. Set the cake on a serving plate and spread ganache all over.
7. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl,  add the egg whites. Whip until light.