Tag: #muffins

Flowerpot Muffins (makes 6)

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Flowerpot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

The other day I was in Lakeland when I spied a box of silicone flowerpot baking pots and a set of leaf-shaped icing cutters and I couldn’t resist buying them to make a summer-themed bake. I’ve written before about the fact that you can use edible flowers to decorate your cakes, so I figured I’d pillage my hanging baskets and cottage garden to find some lovely blooms to adorn these beautiful little cakes.

The chocolate cake itself is made from my chocolate muffin recipe because it’s always a reliable bake, is seriously tasty, and keeps moist for days. In fact, I genuinely think that this is my go-to chocolate muffin recipe from now on because they are soft, light, moist and incredibly fudgy and you certainly can’t tell that they’re gluten-free and contain sweet potato.

I debated about whether I should remove the flowerpot muffins from their moulds before serving them, but I decided that the visual impact comes from the silicone flowerpots, so I just kept them in them. I did however, remove the cakes from the flowerpots after they’d been baked to make sure they weren’t stuck inside them before I put them back in, just so they came out easily and the person who was trying to eat them wasn’t faced with having to try to remove their cake from the pot.

These flowerpot muffins look really impressive and taste fantastic, but they are actually a really simple bake to make because the flowerpots and leaf cutters do most of the work for you. The cake sponge is rich, chocolatey and moist, the cocoa icing is creamy and smooth, and the green icing leaves really enhance the natural beauty of the edible flowers. I think anyone would be thrilled to receive one of these celebrations of summer, don’t you think?

A Pansy Flowerpot Muffin by The Fat Foodie

A Rose Flowerpot Muffin by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

140g peeled raw sweet potatoes (cut into small chunks)

60g brown sugar

35g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

15g cocoa

35g chopped peanuts (optional)

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

50ml vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

50ml rice milk

1/4 tsp salt

 

For the chocolate icing:

200g icing sugar

25g cocoa

Around 1 tbsp of water (but depends on how thick you want the icing to be)

A pack of ready to roll green icing

A selection of edible flowers (click here for a comprehensive list of edible flowers)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5.

Place the silicone flowerpot baking pots in a muffin tray or on a baking tray.

Prepare the sweet potatoes and cook them on a plate in the microwave until they are soft. Put the cooked sweet potato in a large mixing bowl, mash well and leave to cool.

Once the sweet potato is fairly cool, add all of your wet ingredients and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the mixture between the 6 silicone flowerpot baking pots and bake in the oven for 30-35 mins or until a skewer pushed into the middle of one comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To make the icing, slowly stir the water into the icing sugar and cocoa to blend the icing together (you can make it as thick or thin as you like) and once you’re happy with the consistency pour it over the chocolate muffins.

Roll out the block of green icing and use your leaf-shaped icing cutters to cut out leaf shapes. Attach them to the chocolate icing so that they drape over the edge of the muffins.

Add your edible flowers and serve.

Flowerpot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

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Chocolate Orange Carrot Muffins (makes 12)

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Chocolate Orange Carrot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

I like taking cakes into work. I think it’s nice to bring something tasty into the staff room for everyone to be able to enjoy when they’re on their tea breaks and lunch. I always think that there’s something warming and cosy about having some cake available for everyone to partake in, should they choose. Let’s be honest, very few people turn their nose up at a nice bit of cake.

I bought some pretty muffin cases the other day that I wanted to test and after some consideration I settled upon the idea of making carrot cake muffins, but it didn’t sound very exciting to me so I went back to the drawing board and decided to add more flavours to the cakes and so I made chocolate orange carrot muffins instead. I’m so glad I did because they are divine!

If you want a moist cake that’s not going to dry out in a hot environment, such as a very warm staff room, then I’d heartily recommend incorporating two components: a good oil and some sort of fruit or vegetable. You can never go wrong with basing a cake around carrots or courgette because their water content works fantastically to introduce and retain moisture in cake sponge. It’s also a bonus that you can’t even taste the vegetables in the cake once they’ve been baked.

Also, although most cakes tend to add fat to the sponge base by using butter, sadly as it cooks a lot of the water from the butter will evaporate. It will also continue to evaporate the longer the cake sits waiting to be eaten too, whereas using sunflower or vegetable oil (which does not evaporate) will ensure that the fat content (and therefore, moisture) remains present even after it’s been baked in a hot oven. It’s science, innit?

Although these chocolate orange carrot muffins are gluten-free you can easily make them standard muffins by using the same quantity of normal self-raising flour and omitting the xanthan gum and bicarbonate of soda, and only using 1 tsp of baking powder. Although why not give the gluten-free version a go? They’re really tasty and you honestly cannot tell the difference!

These chocolate orange carrot muffins are gorgeous. They’ve got an incredibly soft and bouncy texture, are infused with rich, deep cocoa and have a lovely fresh zing from the orange zest. Their whipped chocolate orange buttercream frosting also does the entire flavour combination justice. Quite frankly I think I’ve outdone myself. Now, I wonder if the boss will like them enough to give me a paid day off…

Chocolate Orange Carrot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

250g of grated carrots

250g brown sugar

250g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp xantham gum

50g cocoa powder

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

250ml vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

The zest and juice of 1 orange (keep 2 tbsps of orange juice aside for the buttercream icing)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

For the buttercream icing:

175g icing sugar

25g cocoa powder

50g butter (use dairy-free, if necessary)

2 tbsps orange juice

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay 12 muffin cases out into a muffin tray.

Measure all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

Quickly mix all of the ingredients together using an electric whisk and spoon the mixture equally into the muffin cases.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Freshly Baked Chocolate Orange Carrot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

Leave to cool and make the buttercream by placing all of the icing ingredients into a jug and whisking until light and whipped.

Once the cakes are completely cold decorate with the buttercream icing and enjoy.

Chocolate Orange Carrot Muffins by The Fat Foodie

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Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins (Makes 10)

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Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

One of the best ways I find inspiration for my website is by looking at what ingredients need used up in my kitchen and developing a recipe around them, so when I was given a pack of marzipan by my mother-in-law recently I figured it might be nice to use up in some baking. Marzipan is made by mixing icing sugar and ground almonds into a paste, so I treated marzipan in the same way I would almonds and made sure that the quantity of marzipan in the muffins was a low FODMAP portion.

Ripe bananas (i.e bananas which are very yellow and have brown spots on them) are high FODMAP, so don’t use them for these chocolate banana marzipan muffins. However, firm bananas (yellow and firm with no spots) are low FODMAP, so use this type. This recipe makes at least 10 muffins, with one muffin being a low FODMAP portion.

In the bookshop that I work in we sell a book called The Flavour Thesaurus, a fantastic book which tells you what flavours work well with others. Sadly I don’t own a copy of this book, but I’m quite good at imagining what flavours marry well, so when I thought of banana and marzipan together, in my mind the natural ingredient to add to the mix to complete the triad was chocolate. Thankfully, as these muffins demonstrated, I can trust my instincts!

This recipe for chocolate banana marzipan muffins is a winner in my book because as the marzipan cooks it melts through the chocolate banana muffins to create little pockets of sweetness that infuse the surrounding cake with the delicate flavour of almond. As a result, you’ve got a deliciously moist muffin that’s the perfect blend of cocoa and banana flavoured cake base with the added surprise of almond marzipan chunks throughout it. That’s pretty damn tasty in my book.

Ingredients:

175g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

100g dark brown sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

80g marzipan (rolled into small balls)

3 firm bananas (mine weighed 330g in total)

125ml sunflower oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay out your muffin cases in a muffin tray. (I’m particularly enamoured with the Jamie Oliver muffin tray my Mum got for me recently.)

Measure your bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl measure all of your dry ingredients.

Break the marzipan up into small pieces and add them to the dry ingredients, mixing them through so they become coated.

Add the wet mixture into the dry and mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 25 to 30 mins or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool.

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

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Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core (makes 12)

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Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core by The Fat Foodie

A few days ago I fancied baking something to fill the kitchen cake tin because it was looking decidedly bare. After giving it some thought and having a good rifle through the kitchen cupboards I decided to make muffins. I had some bananas which needed used up soon, there was a peanut butter jar which had only a little bit left in it and I had half a pack of walnuts at hand, so I decided to bake some banana walnut muffins with a peanut butter core.

Ripe bananas (i.e bananas which are very yellow and have brown spots on them) are high  FODMAP, so don’t use them for these muffins. However, firm bananas (yellow and firm with no spots) are low FODMAP, so use this type. This recipe for banana walnut muffins makes at least 12 portions, with one serving being low FODMAP.

Muffins are incredibly easy to make because, to a large extent, they simply involve measuring out all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisking until it’s combined. There’s no creaming of separate ingredients involved or anything like that. I’ve never made muffins with an interior surprise, but the peanut butter worked really well. I’m not sure if smooth peanut butter would have been quite as successful because I think the crunchy peanut butter definitely helps keep the core together and the crunch of the peanuts goes well with the crunchy walnuts too.

A while ago my Mum treated me to a Jamie Oliver muffin tin and although I wouldn’t ordinarily buy something purely because it’s got celebrity endorsement, I have to admit that this muffin tin is fantastic due to the depth of the muffin sections which helps to keep the shape of the muffins as they rise. Well done, Mr Oliver.

This recipe makes a lovely soft, moist banana flavoured muffin with an inner core of crunchy peanut butter that’s complemented by the flavour of the walnuts. They’re ideal for accompanying a mid-morning cuppa or as a tasty after dinner treat. Actually, they’re pretty good at any time of the day!

Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core by The Fat Foodie

Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

200g gluten-free plain flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

150g dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

150ml vegetable oil

3 large firm bananas (my bananas weighed in at 320g)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp xanthan gum

150g chopped walnuts

1 tsp vanilla extract

120g crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay out your 12 muffin cases in a muffin tin.

Measure all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk until it’s all combined.

Divide the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases and (if you like) top with a walnut half.

Bake for 30 to 35 mins and leave to cool before munching.

Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core by The Fat Foodie

Banana Walnut Muffins with a Peanut Butter Core by The Fat Foodie

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