World of Cupcakes

The Holiday Season brought much time to reflect, unwind, be thankful and focus on the future. Not to mention to try some new recipes. This time round it was an opportunity to make some cupcakes with the ingredients below:

Ingredients

For the Sponge:

225 grams of Self-Raising Flour

Half a teaspoon of Baking Soda

Four Beaten Eggs.

225 grams of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature.

200 grams of Sugar, 100 of Brown Sugar and 100 of Caster Sugar.

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. 

If you want a coffee sponge, add three tablespoons of instant Coffee of your choice. 

For the Icing

50 grams of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature

5 tablespoons of icing sugar

Food Colouring of your choice

Dolly Mixture, ensure it is made with Beef Gelatine, rather than pork, to keep it healthy and Halal. 

The Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar for the sponge until fluffy. 

2. Add the eggs and stir thoroughly into the mixture.

3. Add the flour and baking soda, plus the vanilla essence and, if desired, instant coffee granules. Stir into a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture between bun cases, the mixture should make about sixteen or more cupcakes depending on how liberal you are in distributing the sponge mixture.

5. Cook in the oven for around 35 -40 minutes on gas mark 2.5. That way the sponge is moist and not excessively dry.

6. At the end of the cooking period, you will know the buns are ready because the sponge comes out clean when a fork is stuck into them and the sponge will spring back slightly when pressed. 

7. Place the buns on a wire rack to cool. 

8. Make the topping by creaming together the remaining butter and icing sugar. Add food colouring of your choice and decorate the cupcakes, once cooled, with the icing and the Dolly Mixtures. 

This recipe was one that was a hit all over the local region as we distributed cupcakes to loved ones for them to savour as 2026 approached us. 

King Kenny's Muffins

 It seemed almost like a dream, two weeks in a tropical paradise with the family sandwiched between two life-affirming stops in the Arabian Desert. In between, there was a break at the seaside at a resort featuring the bluest and clearest of seas and sand that was whiter than white. On the seafront was one of a chain of restaurants founded by the late country star Kenny Rogers. While there we sampled healthy fast food, if that is not an oxymoron, that included corn muffins. These were the muffins that inspired today's dish.

Having absorbed more Taylor Swift by osmosis, I found her 2019 album "Midnights", featuring the undeniably defiant "Karma" was on the player as I prepared this recipe.

These were the ingredients:

2 eggs Beaten

140g Cream Cheese

Half a tin of Sweetcorn.

Pinch of Mustard

Pinch of Tarragon.

Pinch of Pepper.

Pinch of Nutmeg

4 tablespoons full cream milk.

400g Self-Raising Flour.

Method

1. Stir the wet ingredients, eggs, cheese, milk and sweetcorn, together to form a paste.

2. Add the dry ingredients, being the flour herbs and spices, and stir them into the mixture.

3. Divide the mixture into balls around the size of a golf ball. 

4. Cook for 20 minutes on Gas Mark 6 on a greased and flat baking tray. 

5. Remove from the oven and put the muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Savoury met sweet on this dish while the pastry had a light and fluffy vibe to it that made it very textured and flavoursome.