Honey and matcha muffins

Did you watch the first episode of the GBBO yesterday? In the past I used to watch it on the iplayer, but since earlier this year Channel 4 dropped off the iplayer on our TV (or the other way around), I can only watch it on the laptop or ipad which is not ideal.
Since my dear husband is enjoying himself at the Venice film festival, the TV was available in the evening (otherwise he'd be glued to Netflix or Amazon, watching one thousandth episode of some American series).
A few days ago I was looking at the list of contestants on my ipad, and commented to my men - though more talking to myself - that most likely the first person to leave would be a pensioner, and all the young cuties would be kept until the victorious end, whether they are good bakers or not.
As it happened, I was wrong, the pensioner stayed, saved by a whisker (or should that be a moustache?!) after creating a very arty self-portrait in a brandy snap shaped as a postmortem mask. It was utterly bonkers and brilliant at the same time.
The young ladies were pouting and whingeing, but stayed put. So far I decided to root for Terry, Rahul and Antony.

One of the contestants, a super-confident French girl named Manon, used matcha in one of her creations. Which made me think that I do have a couple of tins of matcha tea in the kitchen.
I bought them with the best of intentions of staying healthy. The problem with matcha tea for me is that I don't like the flavour, it is like drinking powdered green algae off the stagnating water. Well, maybe marginally better.

I have tried in the past to make pancakes with matcha tea, but they were not met enthusiastically by my family.

Shall I try again to bake something with matcha? I wanted something simple and easy, no decorations or frosting, just something sweet for tea.
I also have several jars of honey in different degrees of crystallization. Would mixing honey and matcha work?

And here it is  - a recipe for honey and matcha muffins.

Honey and matcha muffins
Ingredients:
2 medium eggs
100g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
260g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
225ml milk
65g butter, melted
90g honey
2tsp matcha

In a deep mixing bowl beat two eggs with caster sugar. Add a pinch of salt, sift in flour and baking powder. Pour in milk, stir in together. Melt the butter and honey (if crystallised) and mix in the cake batter.
Pour one third of the cake batter in a smaller mixing bowl and add the matcha. Mix together until well combined.

Place cupcake cases into a muffin tin and fill in with the cake batter, in whatever patterns you desire. I made some plain honey ones, plain matcha ones and a mix of both.
Put the muffin tin into an oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the toothpick comes clean.
Remove from the tin to a wire rack. Eat warm, with tea or without.

The boys looked suspiciously at the muffins, but Sasha, strangely enough, ate two of them. Eddie opted for the plain honey one, as I thought he would.
They might look a tad scary (I'm not a GBBO material, and my bakes would give vapors to Prue and Paul), but actually taste pretty good.

I still have plenty of matcha left. Any suggestions on what to do with it, apart from the obvious drinking as tea?

Since I used some old-ish honey (and cleared one of the jars) and some of the nearly-forgotten matcha (there's still plenty left), I'm adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky at Madhouse Family Reviews, hosted by lovely Cheryl.

Banana yogurt cupcakes with chocolate chunks

Honestly, sometimes I'm exasperated with my family's eating habits. My boys, all three of them, are fussy eaters. Both kids refused to even try the boiled fruit cake I baked the other day.
I knew that Sash would not eat bakes with visible fruit inside, though he would eat a carrot cake with sultanas. Eddie is another fusspot. Thankfully, I had a couple of friends over yesterday, and they enjoyed my cake with a cup of coffee.
Sasha was looking quite forlong, venturing in the kitchen and opening the cake tins, hoping that something would materialise to his taste. I couldn't have my boy feeling sad, so decided to bake a batch of cupcakes to cheer him up.

I had a rummage around the kitchen, what did I have at hand? One over-ripe banana, remains of ground almonds, sugar, flour, a sample bag of oats, yogurt, margarine and chocolate chunks. Perfect.

I'm not sure if technically what I cooked are called cupcakes. They are more of sweet muffins, as there is nothing on the top, but then for me personally the line between the two is blurred.

Banana yogurt cupcakes with chocolate chunks (makes 9)
Ingredients:
1 banana, very ripe
100g caster sugar
100g margarine
2 medium eggs
25g ground almonds
40g porridge oats
120g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
100g plain yogurt (Greek style)
50g chocolate chunks

In a medium sized mixing bowl mas up a banana with a fork. Add the sugar and margarine and cream them together. Beat in the eggs. Add the almonds and oats, sift in the flour and baking powder, add the yogurt and mix well. Finally add the chocolate chunks and mix again.
Spoon the cake batter into 9 paper muffin cases inserted into a muffin tray.
Place the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Check if they are ready with a wooden toothpick, if it comes clean, the cupcakes are ready.
Cool them on a wire rack. Eat warm or cold.

Sasha could hardly wait, and started "working" on the cupcakes, while they were still pretty hot.

I had a little bite, and these cupcakes are lovely, fluffy and flavourful.

As I used some of the ends of packets in this recipe, adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

And as there are chocolate chunks used in this recipe, I'm joining in #WeShouldCocoa linky run by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

5 tips for a happier morning

Back to school today. Deep sigh. Where did the summer go?! I know many parents couldn't wait for their children to go back to school, but I am sooo not looking forward to early mornings and the hectic school run.
My younger son was quite pleased to go to school, I wonder how long his enthusiasm will last?!

Are you all geared up for the new academic year? I passed by the Clarks yesterday, and saw through the open doors that there was a big commotion inside, I could have never guessed so many people could fit in in such a small space. I'm not being critical that they left it so late to buy new shoes. I bought Eddie's plimsolls for PE just today.
Does the start of the new school term feel like doom to you or quite the opposite - a fresh start for new plans and ideas?

Rachel's Organic - the leading brand of premium quality yogurts - has teamed up with Nutribullet, which took the world of foodies by storm, asking bloggers to share their tips for a perfect morning. When they asked me to take part in the challenge, I confess my first thought was: are they sure they got in touch with the right person?
Perfect mornings? Do they even exist? Our mornings, especially during the school term, are a very hectic affair.
Yet there are some tips and hacks we all might use for a less stressful morning routine.
They are carved in stone of course, but they work for us. And please keep in mind, I'm not the most organised person.
So, what do I do to make our mornings a little bit less stressful?
I imagine most parents prepare their children's uniforms and sports' kits on the eve. I also prepare the lunchbox in the evening and keep it in the fridge overnight.

My five top tips for a happier morning:
1. Set up your alarm clock for 10 minutes earlier, so that you don't have to jump out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off. You will have some time to yourself to stretch in bed a bit and postpone the inevitable just for a little bit.

2. I feel rather sorry for my kids, when it's time to wake them up. I remember how much I hated getting up for school when I was a child. When it's time to wake up my younger one, I gently scoop him out of bed and kiss him, he sits on my lap for a few minutes with his eyes still closed, and I hug and gently rock him. Then he's ready to open his eyes and face the world. These are our moments of togetherness.
That's my second tip - don't forget the cuddles.

3. Music. Get an energy vibe from music. When I'm preparing our quick breakfast in the morning, I switch on the radio. Classic FM is my favourite radio channel. A beautiful piece of music gives me so much pleasure and joy. Sometimes I even dance to the music, especially if noone's around to see me.

4. Don't skip your breakfast. If there is no time to cook, grab a couple of cereal biscuits or a small pot of yogurt. I make the biggest cup of tea for myself, as I always wake up feeling thirsty.
Recently Rachel's Organic has launched a new Limited Edition Organic Low Fat Caramel Latte yogurt as well as a range of Rachel's Greek Style Breakfast Pots.

Breakfast pots are convenient to us: they are a combination of creamy smooth yogurt with a crunchy granola. These new flavours are an optimum breakfast meal in a hurry and a great way to start your day.

5. While you're eating your breakfast, read the latest post or two from your favourite blog(s).

Limited Edition Organic Low Fat Caramel Latte yogurt has been inspired by the culture of coffehouses. This is a smooth lush yogurt made with the real coffee. All you coffee lovers will find it utterly irresistible.

It is lovely on its own, but also works beautifully in recipes. Just the other day I baked a batch of yogurt cupcakes with the new yogurt, and they were delicious.

If you fancy trying these cupcakes, here is the recipe:

Yogurt cupcakes (makes 10)
Ingredients:
3 medium eggs
150g caster sugar
150g yogurt (e.g. Rachel's Caramel Latte yogurt)
175g self-raising flour
2tbsp ground almonds, heaped
115g butter, melted and cooled a bit
for the frosting:
butter and icing sugar in equal proportions (about 300g each) with a drop of vanilla

In a deep mixing bowl beat the eggs with the sugar, add yogurt, flour, ground almonds and melted and slightly cooled butter. Mix well. Pour the cake batter into paper muffin cases inserted into a muffin baking tray. Cook at 180C for about 20 minutes until golden.
Let them cool completely before decorating with the buttercream frosting. I used a mix of icing sugar and softened butter, beaten with a little bit of vanilla essence for flavour.

These are tasty cupcakes, with a hint of caramel latte. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea, any time of the day, even breakfast, if you fancy a sweet treat for breakfast.

Disclosure: I received several vouchers to buy new flavours of yogurt for the purposes of testing and reviewing.

Marshmallow muffins

My guys love marshmallows. Any size, any flavour... I have to hide the bags of marshmallows or they will be emptied faster than I can say marshmallows. I mostly use them for decorating the bakes or pancakes. Yesterday Eddie asked if we could put marshmallows inside the cupcakes.
I baked a batch, thinking I would also decorate them with a bit of icing and more marshmallows, but they look so pretty as they are, with popped up marshmallows. Muffins then, not cupcakes.

Marshmallow muffins
Ingredients:
120g butter
120g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
150g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
60g cornflour
4tbsp milk
a handful of mini marhsmallows

Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beat in the eggs, add vanilla essence, self-raising flour, baking powder, cornflour and milk, mix well. Then scoop a big handful of mini marshmallows and add to the cake batter, mix together.
Spoon the cake batter in 8 paper muffin cases inserted into the muffin tray. Place the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 20+ minutes.
Marshmallows closer to the top will pop and melt over the surface.
Lovely muffins for those who have a sweet tooth.

Coconut, banana and white chocolate cupcakes

"What can I say? I've never met a cupcake I didn't want to get to know better",
Jasinda Wilder, Big Girls Do It Better

And while I met my share of both delightful and horrid cupcakes - school fetes and fayres come to mind - I do enjoy baking them for my guys. Talking of fairs, recently Eddie's school ran a competition between three classes on which class will bake the most cupcakes for their fundraising project, so for three Fridays there were cupcake sales hosted by each class. Some "creative" cook decided that multi-coloured cupcakes are all the rage, but rather than adding a few drops of food colouring to the dough, she clearly added the whole bottle.
Thankfully, Eddie fancied an innocent-looking doughnut, but I did buy a jazzy-looking little horror to take home for Sasha. Don't know why but I thought he might enjoy it (I obviously haven't seen the inside, or I would have never bought it). Sasha peeled off the paper case, took one look at the alien cupcake and put it back into my hand: You eat that. I didn't. It ended up in the bin.
My friend's son though wasn't so lucky, Mummy bought it for him, and he ended up with the cramps and green runny poo. Now, whenever there is a mention of cupcakes, Eddie likes to remind me "Do you remember when J had a green poo?". Apologies if my post has put you off your cuppa, but as a Mum of boys, these days I don't bat a lid when the talk turns gross.

And on this jolly note let's proceed to the nicer aspects of baking.

Coconut, banana and white chocolate cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 banana, mashed
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
80g coconut oil, melted and cooled
100g self-raising flour
50g cornflour
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp shredded coconut
2tbsp ground almonds
juice of 1/2 orange
frosting:
1 white chocolate bar (I used Green & Black's)
2tbsp coconut oil
Mash a banana with a fork, and beat together 2 eggs with caster sugar and coconut oil. Add the flour and baking powder, shredded coconut, ground almonds and juice of half an orange, and mix well.
Spoon the cake batter into paper cases inserted into a cupcake tin. Place the tray in the oven, preheated to 180C, and bake for about 15 minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Take the tray out and let the cupcake cool a little before decorating.
Melt a white chocolate bar with 2tbsp of coconut oil over a boiling water bath. Pour the chocolate mix over the cupcakes and decorate with whichever toppings you fancy: cherries, coconut chunks, marshmallows or jelly beans.

Since I used the remains of the coconut and ground almonds in this recipe, I'm adding my recipe to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl on Madhouse Family Reviews.

Orange flavoured cupcakes with lemon curd frosting

My boys and I stayed at home all day on Monday, only venturing in the garden. To cheer them up, we decided to bake cupcakes. I recently received a few jars of preserves from Hawkshead Relish's new Couture range, including a delicious lemon curd.
I love lemon curd, but none of my men are too keen on it. I knew that the best way to use it would be to add it as an ingredient to baking. In this recipe I used this delicately flavoured preserve to make a lemon curd cream cheese frosting. And I was right, the cupcakes disappeared faster than you can say "orange cupcakes with lemon curd cream cheese frosting".

Orange flavoured cupcakes with lemon curd frosting
Ingredients:
1 pack of Betty Crocker vanilla cupcake mix
2 medium eggs
45ml olive oil
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of 1 orange

for frosting:
115g icing sugar
60g softened butter
65g cream cheese
2tbsp lemon curd
chocolate sprinkles

Beat two eggs with the oil, orange zest and juice, add a pack of vanilla cupcake mix, mix well together. Divide the mix into 9 cupcake cases, inserted into a cupcake baking tray. Bake for about 15 minutes or less, just check with a wooden toothpick if they're ready.
Take the tray out of the oven, and let the cupcakes cool before decorating with the frosting and sprinkles.

Make frosting by beating together the icing sugar, butter, cream cheese and lemon curd. Pipe onto the cupcakes and add some chocolate sprinkles (they were included in the kit).

These are light citrussy cupcakes, delicate and flavourful.

We used a cake mix from Betty Crocker as a base, but any basic vanilla cake mix will do, including supermarket own. In fact, sometimes supermarket own beats the brand cake mixes, for example, a carrot cake mix from M&S is much better than many other carrot cake mixes we have tried, but I digress.

Cake mixes are frowned upon by purist foodies, but if you are baking with kids, it's a great kitchen staple.
Cake mix could always be improved by added extras like lemon or orange zest, milk instead of water, added spices, grated apple etc etc, the possibilities are endless.

Rainbow fish cupcakes

We took a whole lot of activity books based on Julia Donaldson's stories with us to Italy. One of them - The Tiddler Activity Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler- included a lovely recipe for colourful Rainbow fish cupcakes.
The recipe is very basic, and you can bake any cupcakes you fancy, then decorate them as a shoal of colourful fish.

Eddie's been pestering begging me for days to bake a batch with him, he was very enthusiastic about decorating them with Skittles.

I made the icing in three colours, using different food colourings. And then Eddie had a blast, creating fish with Skittles and fruit strings, cut into small pieces to use as smiles.

After he finished the job, he proudly declared that I should give all of them to Sasha. "Why? Don't you want to eat them? Why did you keep asking me to bake them if you don't want to eat them?" - to which he replied that he only wanted to have fun, decorating them.

He later relented and ate one. Sasha indeed was happy to eat the cupcakes. He had them for several days, and really enjoyed these sweet treats.

Annabel Karmel Mini Cupcake Set with Spoon and 20-piece Baking Set with Accessories

Baking with kids could be a fun activity, if you don't mind the noise and the mess. Eddie is always happy to join in with the mixing and decorating. And even my teen enjoys an occasional foray into the baking activity. He loves cooking classes in school, and recently proudly presented us with his own bakes - Shrewsbury biscuits and rock buns, and they were lovely.
Annabel Karmel has been titled a Queen of Cooking. Her books have been flying off the shelves for decades, and her cooking range for kids is as popular.
Recently my boys and I have tested two of the Annabel Karmel's range of baking products for children - a Mini Cupcale Set with Spoon and a 20-piece Baking Set with Accessories.
These sets have a huge appeal to both little people and grown-ups.

Annabel Karmel Mini Cupcake Set With Spoon from Casdon is great for mini-bakers who will have lots of fun baking real cakes.The set contains 1 Mini Cupcake tray, 6 mini silicone cups and 1 silicone spoon.
Cupcake cases and the spoon are very colourful and easy to use for little hands.
The recommended age group is for 5+ year olds. At £5 it is a very good value set, and will make a lovely gift for any budding Masterchef.

We tested this set, baking a batch of vanilla cupcakes. Eddie helped me by mixing the ingredients and pouring into the little silicone cups. The cupcake cases worked perfectly well.

As my guys are not too keen on huge amount of frosting, we decided to add a little bit of lemon juice icing and marshmallows. We made a big batch of cake batter, so there was enough to make these 6 mini cakes and 12 bigger muffin-sized cupcakes.

Annabel Karmel's Baking set with accessories (20 pieces) has won us over. It includes a lot of useful kitchen tools like a round baking tin, 10 cute cookie cutters, 1 measuring jug, 1 mixing bowl with anti slip base, 1 silicone spatula and 6 measuring spoons - all the basis which you can use again and again.

Eddie and I baked a batch of lemon shortbread cookies. He was mixing the dough with great enthusiasm, and had fun choosing which cookies cutters to use. Some are easier to use than the others. Basically, those with thin limbs or bits like a man or a house were tricky to cut out without bits staying inside a cutter, but overall he did a splendid job.

We rolled, re-rolled, cut out and baked. And then it was the most enjoyable part - decorating with abandon. As you can see from the photo below, someone has spilled half a mini jar of sprinkles over the cookies. No names revealed, but that was not me.

They might not look like they would win any competition regarding their looks, but they tasted lovely, and Eddie was very proud of himself. We'll be definitely baking cookies again soon.

This set is simply super: for a tenner you get so many bits and bobs. An excellent set for any child or even a grandparent who enjoys cooking with their grandkids.

Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews has also enjoyed using both of these sets with her son Pierre, have a look at what treats they have baked in her post Baking with kids.

Disclosure: I received both baking kits for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Turtletastic Cake Kit

Among numerous Christmas gifts that Eddie received was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle-tastic Cake Kit. It was a gift from our friend Jen, who knows how much Eddie loves Ninja Turtles. For the last week he kept asking me if we could bake some cupcakes, and finally today I agreed.
The cake mix kit is a product of Green's. The kit is basically like any other cupcake kit for kids. There are 12 paper cake cases as well as a few dry ingredients, to which you need to add just an egg and some water.

Ninja Turtles cupcakes are vanilla cakes with green colour strawberry flavoured iding and rice paper Ninja turtles-themed cut outs of bandanas with eyes and mouths.

Simple and easy, this kit has oodles of appeal for little people who are fond of the ninja turtles.
Eddie's favourite part - apart from eating, of course - is decorating. He loved pouring the icing over the baked cupcakes and making the green faces.

The icing is a strange pale green colour, so not exactly like the animation characters' colour, but that didn't bother my ninja fan.

Eddie pronounced the icing delicious. It is very sweet and has a pleasant smell, not exactly a real strawberry, more like strawberry confectionery.

As you can see, Eddie was very proud of his work. This is not exactly Masterchef, but we'll get there one day.

The kit promises no artificial colours or flavours, though looking at the list of ingredients now I do notice quite a few E-numbers (in emulsifiers and stabilisers), and to be honest, I'd have been happier if they didn't use them at all.
What are your thoughts on the matter?