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Rachel’s

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On Tuesday, I handed in my final year project report and today, the poster and website to go with it! After months of work it feels weird that it’s all done (and scary, it’s worth quite a lot of my degree!). You’d think I’d be out celebrating but no, I’ve got more coursework due in tomorrow!  I’ve literally had no time recently to buy/use/review anything exciting but a few weeks ago I was sent a load of products from Rachel’s to try out, so even if I didn’t have time to shop, I did have time to eat!
There was way too much for me to eat on my own so the girls I live with helped me out and we’re all in agreement, we love Rachel’s! I’m not going to review each product separately as there’s only so much you can say about yogurt but we were really surprised by lots of the flavours. I wasn’t at all sure about the coconut yogurts but they actually have a perfect balance of coconut and fruit so are really tasty. The breakfast yogurts are good for mornings when you are in a rush and they are also quite filling because of the granola.

The big tubs are a good size for sharing but seeing as we had so much, and I had a cake craving, I decided to attempt to make yogurt cupcakes. They turned out quite well but I haven’t got any photos because I didn’t ice them (no time!) so they didn’t look like anything special. I used the Apple and Elderflower yogurt which gave the cakes a sweet, delicate flavour. I reckon they are also much better for you than normal cake as there is hardly any butter and the yogurt is low fat. You could use any of the yogurt flavours (I might try some blackcurrant ones with the leftover blackcurrant yogurt next, I love the colour!) and some of them are fat free so would be even healthier! Here’s the recipe in case you want to try them….
Ingredients

  • 250g self raising flour
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 225ml Rachel’s Apple and Elderflower Yoghurt
  • 50 g butter
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar to a breadcrumb consistency. Beat in the yogurt. Then fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Split into cupcake cases and bake for around 15 minutes. (I ended up with loads of cakes – 11 normal sized ones and about 12 mini ones).


Out of all the products I was sent, my favourite would have to be the rice puddings. They are the nicest, creamiest, non homemade rice puddings I’ve ever had in the world!

Rachel’s products are all made using locally sourced organic ingredients and are available in supermarkets throughout the country.

Banana & Nutella Cupcakes

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Here is the recipe for some cupcakes I made this weekend – banana cupcakes with Nutella icing.  I wouldn’t normally have chosen to make banana cake but I had some left which had too many brown spots to eat so thought this would be a good way to use them up!  I decided to use Nutella in the icing because I love Nutella and banana on toast so thought that it could taste even better in cake form!

Ingredients

For the cakes…..

115g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

115g margarine

60g golden caster sugar

60g caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 large banana, mashed

1tsp mixed spice

For the icing…..

100g butter

200g icing sugar

1 tbsp Nutella

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 6 muffin cases in a muffin tray.

2. Cream the margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl until fluffy.

3. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, beating after each addition.

4. Mix in the mashed banana and spice.

5. Fold in the flour gently, with the baking powder.

6. Share out the mixture evenly into the cases and then bake for 20 to 25minutes.

7. To make the icing, cream the butter and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  Lastly add the Nutella.

8.  Once the cakes are cool, pipe or dollop the icing on top.

Cranberry & Orange Cupcakes

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I made these cupcakes over the weekend. They were a bit of an experiment because I wanted to try out some food colouring paste my housemate had leant me. I didn’t really have many of the ingredients for the actual Orange & Cranberry Cupcakes recipe I found so I made my own version…… They worked well though and Nick said they were the best I’ve made in a while!  I’m definitely going to get some food colouring pastes – they are so much better than the liquid stuff!

Ingredients

For the cakes…..

115g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

115g margarine

115g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

Zest of one orange

100g dried cranberries

1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the icing…..

100g butter

200g icing sugar

Zest of ½ orange

Purple food colouring

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 6 muffin cases in a mufffin tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a mug using a fork and then add gradually to the mixing bowl, beating after each addition.

5. Mix in the orange zest, cinnamon and cranberries.

6. Fold in the flour gently.

7. Share out the mixture evenly into the cases and then bake for 20 to 25minutes.

8. To make the icing, cream the butter and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  Finally mix in the orange zest.

9.  Once the cakes are cool, pipe or dollop the icing on top.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Icing

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Here is the recipe I used for my Father’s Day cupcakes.  The Nutella icing was an experiment but worked nicely and went down well with everyone here!

Ingredients

For the cakes…..

85g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

½ tsp baking powder

115g margarine

115g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

2tbsp milk

For the icing…..

100g butter

200g icing sugar

1 or 2 tbsp Nutella

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a mug using a fork and then add gradually to the mixing bowl.  Beat each time you add more egg.

5. Sift the flour and cocoa powder if needed and then fold gently into the mixture with the baking powder.

6. Share out the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases and then bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

7. To make the icing, cream the butter and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  Then mix in a couple of dollops of Nutella.

8.  Top the cakes with the icing and decorate however you like!

Orange, Cardamom & Vanilla Cupcakes

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For my latest batch of cupcakes I thought I’d be a bit more inventive so went for a slightly out there flavour combination.  It sounds weird but does taste good, I promise!

This recipe makes 6 large muffin size cupcakes.

Ingredients

For the cakes…..

115g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

115g margarine

115g caster sugar

2 eggs

grated rind of 1 orange

6 cardamom pods

For the icing…..

85g butter

175g icing sugar

few drops of vanilla extract

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 6 muffin cases in a muffin tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a mug using a fork and then add gradually to the mixing bowl.  Beat each time you add more egg.

4. Add the orange rind.  Squash the cardamom pods with the flat of a knife to get all of the seeds out and then add these to the mixture.

5. Sift the flour if needed and then fold gently into the mixture along with the baking powder.

6. Share out the mixture evenly into the muffin cases and then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

7. To make the icing, cream the butter with the vanilla extract and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  It’s best to add the icing sugar gradually, otherwise it takes forever to mix!

8.  I used an icing bag for applying the icing but you don’t need to do that.  I also topped them with Shimmer Sugar from Dr Oetker and, of course, some edible glitter!

Orange Cupcakes

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I made these for my friends 21st a couple of weeks ago and they tasted pretty good!

This recipe makes six muffin size cupcakes.

Ingredients

For the cakes…..

115g self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

115g margarine

115g caster sugar

2 eggs

grated rind of 1 orange

2tbsp milk

For the icing…..

85g butter

175g icing sugar

grated rind of ½ orange

red food colouring

yellow food colouring

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 6 muffin cases in a muffin tray.  I used some lovely ones from Splat Cooking, but you should know that even though they look fantastic, they make the cakes a lot harder to ice!

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a mug using a fork and then add gradually to the mixing bowl.  Beat each time you add more egg.

4. Add the orange rind.

5. Sift the flour if needed and then fold gently into the mixture.

6. Share out the mixture evenly into the muffin cases and then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

7. To make the icing, cream the butter and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  Separate the icing into two bowls and then add the red food colouring to one bowl and the yellow to the other.

8.  Put the icing into an icing bag – one spoon of red then one spoon of yellow etc to give the icing a marbled effect.  Decorate the cakes however you like.  I did some swirly patterns and then topped the cakes with glitter.  Remember to wait for the cakes to cool before you try to ice them.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes Recipe

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Here is the recipe for the chocolate chip cupcakes I made today.  They are really easy to make and you can get the icing to look really good if you use a piping bag.  The recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Cake ingredients

100g margarine

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

100g self raising flour

75g chocolate chips

a few drops of vanilla extract

Buttercream ingredients

100g butter

200g icing sugar

a few drops of vanilla extract

bright blue food colouring

green food colouring

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk the eggs together in a mug using a fork and then add gradually to the mixing bowl.  Beat each time you add more egg.

4. Mix in the vanilla extract.

5. Sift the flour if needed and then fold gently into the mixture along with the chocolate chips.

6. Share out the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases and then bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

7. To make the icing, cream the butter and then gradually mix in the icing sugar.  Separate the icing into two bowls and then add the blue food colouring to one bowl and the green to the other.

8.  Put the icing into an icing bag – one spoon of blue then one spoon of green etc.  This gives the icing a marbled effect (it’s not very clear in the photos but it is there really!).  Decorate the cakes however you like.  I did some swirly patterns and then topped the cakes with yellow glitter.

9. Enjoy!

Malteser Recipe Competition

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Maltesers have joined up with model turned chef Lorraine Pascale to give people the chance to have their own recipe sold in Ella’s Bakehouse (in Covent Garden) for a day.  The profits made will go to a charity of the winner’s choice.  Also, the winner will receive a limited edition KitchenAid Artisan mixer as well as some Maltesers.  The only rule is that the recipe must contain Maltesers.  You can enter the competition here.

Yesterday I had a go at coming up with my own recipe.  I love baking cupcakes so went for vanilla cupcakes with crushed Maltesers and mini marshmallows, topped with chocolate buttercream icing and a single Malteser.  I have to say that they are very tasty!

Recipe for Malteser and Mini Marshmallow Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

For the cakes

85g butter or margarine

85g caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

70g plain white flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 x 37g bag of Maltesers

For the topping

80g butter

170g icing sugar

40g dark chocolate

1 x 37g bag of Maltesers

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put the cupcake cases in the cupcake tray.

Step 2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl until fluffy.  Gradually add eggs and beat well after each addition.  Crush the Maltesers and mix them in along with the marshmallows.

Step 3. Sift the flour and baking powder and then fold into the mixture using a metal spoon.  Spoon the mixture into the 12 cases.

Step 4. Bake for 20 minutes or until they look golden brown.

Step 5. To make the icing beat the butter in a bowl until it is soft and then sift in the icing sugar and mix until smooth.  Melt the chocolate and then add to the icing mixture.

Step 6. Make sure the cakes are cold before you apply the icing.  I used an icing piper but you can just apply the icing normally if you don’t have one.  Finish off each cake with a Malteser on the top.

Step 7. Enjoy!