Ice cream buns

I seen these in a magazine and had to give them a try. They were so easy, barely more tricky than standard buns with a buttercream swirl and look great! I took them to a barbecue which seemed the perfect venue.

I used my usual bun recipe with a slight twist. It made 10 cones.

4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
4oz margarine
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
also
10 flat based ice cream cones
1 quantity buttercream
hundreds and thousands
4 flakes each cut into 3

1) Take each of the cones and set in a cupcake/muffin tin. Use strips of foil and scrunch around the base of the cone to help keep the cones upright.
2) Cream the sugar, vanilla and margarine until light and fluffy
3) Mix in the eggs one at a time
4) Mix in the flour
5) Fill each of the cones with batter until they are about one inch from the top

6) Bake at 180 C for around 20 minutes until well risen and springy to the touch


7) Allow to cool and decorate with swirls of buttercream, sprinkles and of course a flake.






Transporting them was a bit difficult as they're top heavy but I settled for wedging them into the tin and hoping for the best. A bit of cardboard with holes cut in it would be perfect but not sure if they exist...

I had been a bit worried that these would be more style than substance, as the base would only be cake and cone, but they got good reviews. They did confuse people a bit though :) Next time I'd maybe put a little batter, some jam and then the rest. I think if I but it right at the bottom it would burn.


I do fancy trying a few variations, maybe mint choc chip, with peppermint flavouring and chocolate chips. Also some honeycomb in the cake mix would give a crunchy texture. Any suggestions?

Fifteens

Sometimes the easiest things are just what you need. Fifteens aren't even baking, simply mixing and chilling but everyone seems to love them. I suppose it's the nostalgia from school dinners!


The recipe is quite simple:

15 Mashmallows cut into quarters
or 30g mini mashamllows
15 glace cherries halved
15 digestive biscuits
175g tube condensed milk
75g dessicated coconut


1) Crush the biscuits in the food processor or with a rolling pin
2) Add the mashmallows and glace cherries along with the biscuits to a large mixing bowl
3) Stir in the condensed milk, mixing well and adding a little milk if it's too dry
4) Form the dough into a log shape and roll in the cocunut. Your hands will get messy!
5) Wrap in cling film and chill for a few hours before slicing

Jammy coconut buns

I made these recently as they are family favourites. Very easy and they look great. They're simply normal buns with jam spread on the bottom and dipped in dessicated coconut.

I made a dozen buns in silicone moulds, as you end up removing the wrapper anyway. Warming up some jam in the microwave for around 20 seconds makes it easier to spread. I have tried dipping these into jam, but it's much easier to use a knife. You will get jam on your fingers by the way! Turn the bun upside down and cover the sides and base, then dip into a bowl of coconut. I used about 20g of coconut, but if you have more it makes it easier to get on the bun. Mine are strawberry and lemon curd but you could use anything: blueberry, marmalade or blackcurrent for example.

Looking at these I couldn't work out what was missing, before I realised that if I can be bothered I pipe a small swirl of buttercream on the top and add a small sweetie. It enhances the pyramid shape and is sweeter to.

Mateser traybake

I made these as a special request, but it was torture as I'm off biscuits and chocolate for Lent. No licking the bowl or eating the crumbs. I'll maybe make them again for Easter though...

The recipe is from my friend Ruths page over on Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. It made around 24 traybakes.

400g milk chocolate

250g unsalted butter

5 tbsp golden syrup

250g digestive biscuits

250g maltesers

250g white chocolate

1) Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor or put them in a plastic food bag and crush with a rolling pin.

2) Melt the milk chocolate in a bain marie. I started it off in the microwave and then put the bowl over another bowl of boiling water. It's a lot of chocolate so break up into small pieces and be patient,

3) Melt 200g of butter and 4 tbsp of golden syrup into the chocloate.

4) Stir in the biscuits and 175g of the maltesers mixing well.

5) Spread into a swiss roll tin lined with baking paper (it'll look like it's too small but it's not) and squash down into the corners. Pop in the fridge while doing the topping.

6) Melt the white chocolate, 50g of butter and 1tbsp of golden syrup, stir well and spread onto the base. It'll be a bit tricky to spread, so is better to put on in small spoonfuls and join them up.

7) Crush the maltesers with a rolling pin, or pulse in a food processor and spread over the top, squashing slightly into the white chocolate topping.

8) Pop in the fridge for a few hours to set.

9) When cutting lift out of the tin and use a sharp knife to cut long straight lines. Make sure you get right through to the base or they'll stick together. I tried to cut mine in the tin but the bits at the corner stuck toegether and I had enough left over to make another bun!

***Edit, if you take them out of the fridge about an hour before you cut them they are softer and easier to cut. Any trimmings can be pressed onto the bases again***

I love the cross-section of the Malteser!

Lemon Meringue Pielets

Making a proper sized lemon meringue pie recently I wondered what to do with the offcuts of the pastry (I never seem to roll in the right shape!) Remembering my contemplations on using my mini muffin pan I decided to combine the two. I made mini lemon meringue pies in a muffin tin and a mini muffin tin and named them pielets. I'm sure these exist somewhere, but I'm keeping it for now. The tiny ones are perfectly bite sized!

As these were an extra I'm not sure how the pastry/custard/meringue quantites would work out, and from what I can see you get a bit more pastry and a bit less lemon but the overall combo is still there.

A few notes on adjusting the recipe:

- The pastry was cooked for 10 minutes, not 20

- The meringue stayed in for the full time of the normal sized pie.

- I used a fluted cutter to givea nice curly edge

- Make sure the meringue touches the edge of the pastry the whole way round otherwise the top comes off. Still tastes good though.

I might try making a full set of either size to sort out the recipe and numbers. Someone suggested these would be good for a dinner party, having a trio of desserts like in a restaurant but they're a bit fiddly and time consuming only to make 4 odd of plus 2 other desserts!

Bread and butter pudding

Feeling in the mood for baking but not wanting to have to spend the next week eating a whole cake I looked for some individual recipes. On Delia Smith's website I found an individual bread and butter pudding which looked lovely. Below is my slightly ammended recipe.

1 slice bread
½ oz (10 g)) maragrine
1 level teaspoon chopped candied peel
¾ oz (20 g) currants
2½ fl oz (60 ml) milk
2 tablespoons fat free fromage frais
¾ oz (20 g) caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

1 small egg
ground cinnamon

1) Grease the inside of the tin

2) Butter the bread and cut to fit the dish, kitchen scissors are handy. If presentation is important, you can cut the centres from 2 slices of bread, but the crusts give it a nice texture.

3) Put one layer of bread, then half the currants/peel, the second layer of bread and the rest of the fruit

4) Combine the milk, cream, sugar and lemon juice and mix in a whisked egg before pouring over the bread. Sprinkle over the cinnamon

5) Bake for about 35 minutes at 180C

I don't have any ramekin dishes but had some mini heart shaped springform cake tins which were about the right size. Note to self, don't use these again as they leak! The milk mixture seeped out the bottom but I just poured a little milk over occasionally. It might not have been as moist as it should have been but serving it with custard helped I'm sure. I fancy trying it with brown sugar to give a more caramelised taste too. Definatley one to make again though.

Banana and chocolate chip muffins

After my experiment beyond my usual banana bread recipe I fancied trying some muffins, that way I could make smaller amounts rather than have to eat a whole loaf in a few days.

On a search of the internet I found a lot of recipes that used vegetable oil, but the idea of putting this in cake seemed a bit odd to me, though I know it can be a good ingredient. The BBC food website came up with one that sounded promising, so I gave it a go. It's a very useful website, where you can search by ingredient, and there are reviews etc... but personally I find the options and links a bit overwhelming. Worth a look though.

Anyway, you will need

1 large ripe banana mashed
240ml milk
1 egg
60g melted margarine*
180g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
125g chocolate chips

* Make sure the margarine is fully melted without being burnt, mine had lumps which I had to smooth out later

1) Mix the banana, milk, egg and margarine and mix well.

2) Stir in the dry ingredients mixing as little as possible, sieving the dry ingredients helps as there are less lumps. The mixture will be quite runny.

3) Bake in a muffin tin for 20 min at 190 C

The result was a dense moist muffin with a chocolate kick. I only made half a dozen to try out the recipe and while they were tasty I might keep trying for a less stodgy recipe.