Cakes & Bakes: Carrot muffins

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Home-made carrot muffins | H is for Home

Earlier this week, Justin bought a big bag of special offer carrots… and then, couple of days later, his mum gave us half a bag of her bulk buy special offer carrots. We had a sudden glut!

grated carrot, sultanas and chopped walnuts

So this week’s cake baking had to utilise some!

Adding pineapple to egg white, milk and vegetable oil mixture

Fortunately, we do love a good carrot cake, but decided on a little twist by making some carrot muffins with spiced Quark topping.

Spooning carrot muffin batter into cases

Cinnamon and pineapple are the dominant flavours – there’s a hint of ginger in there too.

Carrot muffins cooling on a wire rack

Quark a fairly unusual ingredient with a taste and consistency somewhere between crème fraîche and cream cheese. We think it worked really well.

Quark, sugar and cinnamon for muffin topping

The resulting carrot muffins are moist and full of flavour – and just a little bit different.

Adding Quark topping to the carrot muffins

It’s an easy recipe, so a batch can be knocked up quickly.

Home-made carrot muffins | H is for Home

They’re a great partner for that afternoon cup of tea we talked about recently.

Carrot muffins

Gemma Reece
Cook Time 25 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert

Ingredients
  

For the muffins

  • 2 tbs vegetable oil
  • 100 g/3½oz plain flour
  • 100 g/3½oz wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 5 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
  • 225 g/8oz canned pineapple chunks in juice drained & chopped
  • 250 g/9oz carrots grated
  • 40 g/1½oz sultanas
  • 40 g/1½oz walnuts chopped

For the topping

  • 250 g/9oz Quark or any low-fat soft cream cheese
  • ½ tbsp caster sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5. Oil a 12-cup muffin tin with vegetable or line it with muffin paper cases
  • Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger into a mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar and mix together
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites then pour the milk and the oil and mix together
  • Mash the pineapple chunks, then add to the egg mixture
  • Add the carrots, sultanas and walnuts and stir together gently
  • Add the fruit mixture to the flour mixture and gently stir together until just combined. Do not over-stir the mixture - it is fine for it to be a little lumpy
  • Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 cups in the muffin tin or paper cases (they should be about ⅔s full)
  • Transfer to the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until risen and golden
  • While the muffins are in the oven, make the topping. Put the Quark into a mixing bowl with the caster sugar, vanilla essence and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon. Mix together well, then cover with cling film and transfer to the fridge until ready to use
  • When the muffins are cooked, remove them from the oven, put them on a wire rack and leave to cool. When they have cooled to room temperature, remove the topping from the fridge and spread some evenly over the top of each muffin
  • Lightly sprinkle over the remaining cinnamon and serve
Keyword cake, carrot, muffins

Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato muffins

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Home-made sweet potato muffins with crunchy top | H is for Home

Often when we visit Justin’s parents, we’re waved off with a food parcel. It usually consists of chocolate, biscuits and fruit & veg. Sometimes they’re items that were part of multi-buy offers which would be too much for them to consume before going off.

Cooked sweet potatoes

Last week, said goody bag included half a dozen sweet potatoes. Strange, we know. We didn’t have them down as sweet potato fans; we don’t buy them too often ourselves either.

Toasted flaked almonds

I’ve used some of them this week to make a batch of sweet potato muffins. I’d never tried making them before and I didn’t know what to expect.

Sweet potato muffins wet ingredients

I thought they’d be  quite heavy and filling, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Sweet potato muffins dry ingredients

The addition of both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda meant they were light and airy.

Sweet potato muffin batter in cases

A little sprinkling of demerara sugar just before they went into the oven gave them a nice, crunchy top.

Sugar sprinkled sweet potato muffin batter

These sweet potato muffins are just the right size for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up with a brew!

Sugar sprinkled sweet potato muffins

Now, what to do with the rest of the bag of sweet potatoes… any suggestions?

If you’d like to save this recipe for later, you can pin it from here.

Home-made sweet potato muffins with crunchy top | H is for Home

Sweet potato muffins

Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Tea
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
  • 200 g/7oz flaked almonds
  • 200 g/7oz caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 ml/4 fl oz vegetable oil
  • 80 ml/3 fl oz water
  • 200 g/7oz plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF/Gas mark 4
  • Grease a 12-hole muffin tray or two 6-hole muffin tins or line with paper muffin cases
  • Bake the sweet potatoes, skin on, for about 20 minutes until soft and cooked. Allow to cool before scraping the flesh out of the skins and mashing until all the lumps are removed
  • Toast the flaked almonds, shaking a couple of times to get a uniform colour. This takes 5-8 minutes
  • In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, oil and water until the sugar has dissolved
  • Add the cooled, puréed sweet potato
  • In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the centre
  • Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry and combine well
  • Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top of each and put in the oven
  • Bake for 20 minutes before allowing to cool on a wire rack
  • They can be eaten warm or cold and can be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 5 days
Sweet potato muffins ingredients
Keyword muffins, sweet potato

Cakes & Bakes: Redcurrant muffins

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Redcurrant muffin with a cup of tea | H is for Home

So far on our allotment, the only things that have come to fruition are the currant bushes that we inherited. The last time we were there we did a little bit of weeding but we spent the vast majority of our time picking shiny, jewel-like blackcurrants and redcurrants.

Home-made redcurrant muffins | H is for Home #recipe #redcurrants #muffins

We harvested almost a kilo of the latter – that’s over £10-worth from a supermarket! 125 grams of it was put towards making a batch of redcurrant muffins.

Glass bowl of fresh redcurrants and silicon muffin mould

We acquired a silicon muffin tray in a boxed lot at an auction many moons ago that we surprisingly, have never used. Fished out, dusted down and washed; it turned out 6 big, beautiful muffin specimens!

Wet & dry muffin ingredients

Silicon is a revelation – baked goods ease out of it with no cajoling whatsoever. If you’ve not tried it before, Lakeland does a good range of affordable silicon baking tins, pans and trays.

Muffin batter in a mixing bowl

The redcurrant muffin recipe used here was found on the Abel & Cole website.

Putting muffin mixture into muffin tray

The rest of the redcurrants have been put into the freezer temporarily, waiting to be turned into jam, jelly and relish; so keep a watch out for some more redcurrant recipes to follow!

Cooked reducurrant muffins in a muffin tray

Home-made redcurrant muffins | H is for Home #recipe #redcurrants #muffins

Redcurrant muffins

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine British
Servings 12 small or 6 large muffins

Ingredients
  

  • 60 g Stork or butter
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 120 g caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 120 ml milk
  • 125 g fresh redcurrants

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 180°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  • Grease a 12-hole muffin pan (We have a 6-hole silicone muffin pan that makes lovely large, tall muffins!) or insert paper muffin cases
  • Put the Stork/butter into a microwave-proof bowl or measuring jug and heat on a low setting for 20 seconds. Set aside to cool
  • Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl
  • Add all but 2 tbsp of the caster sugar - this is being reserved to sprinkle over the muffin tops prior to going into the oven
  • In a small measuring jug, beat the egg a few times until the yolk & white is just combined
  • Whisk in the milk and melted Stork/butter
  • Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring quickly and gently until flour is just dampened
  • Gently fold in the redcurrants, being careful not to burst too many of them
  • Spoon the batter into prepared muffin , filling each slightly more than half full
  • Sprinkle the 2tbsp of reserved sugar over each muffin
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes away clean
  • Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes prior to serving
  • Keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 3 days
redcurrant muffins ingredients
Keyword muffins, redcurrants

Tuesday Huesday: National Cupcake Week

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selection of colourful cupcakes
Image credit: NYAnything

It’s National Cupcake Week this week so I may just have to oblige and make a batch.

Justin’s very particular about his ‘buns’ (as he refers to them). He likes his cupcakes without the tooth-aching icing on top. To me, that makes it just a muffin! What do you think? What’s the difference between a cupcake, bun and a muffin? Are you a fan of the current cupcake fad sweeping the world?