Cupcake week - Roasted peaches and cream boutiques

Recently I have been working together with decidedlydelicious to experiment with different recipes and learn from one another. It has really been very enjoyable and educational too. This week was Cupcake Week UK and food network are celebrating it with lots of episodes of cupcake wars and .... a competition for..... a food processor? =/ Well it's ok they are promoting this amazing celebration/competition with the amazing and inspiration YOLO.......erm........? Sorry, sorry rant over, regardless I want to join in this celebration and therefore we offer these tiny celebratory cakes that would be very appropriate as little boutique wedding tokens or just tiny treats for any time.

Roasted Peaches and Creme Boutiques

(inspired by peaches and cream cupcakes from the Hummingbird Cafe)

6 Peaches chopped into cubes
2 table spoons vanilla caster sugar (or just ordinary caster sugar)
30g Butter
1 Cup/125g Sugar
1 cup/125g Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
20ml Cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
100ml Milk

Preheat your oven to 200' F/400' C/ Gas Mark 6.  Sprinkle your vanilla caster sugar over your peaches and toss them before roasting for 30 minutes or until soft inside and caramelized outside. Reduce the oven to 180'F/350' C/Gas Mark 4

Line your cupcake tins and insert peaches into each case.

Beat together the flour, baking and soda powders, sugar and butter  until you have bread-crumb consistency. Slowly pour in the cream and then start beating. As you beat this add another 40ml of the milk until the mixture is creamy and smooth. 




Whisk together the rest of the milk with the egg and vanilla and then slowly (watch for splashes at this point) beat this into the dough. Once everything is incorporated scoop the mixture over the peaches and bake for 15-20 minutes on a middle shelf.

Once the cupcakes have cooled ice them with a fluffy vanilla buttercream in tiny rosettes patterns

 

This recipe as mentioned was inspired and adapted from the Hummingbird Peaches and Cream Cupcake. Their style of cupcake baking is very different and having attempted it I was surprised to see how light and fluffy my cake came out, even with our alterations.

For future attempts I would possibly put the peaches in half way through the cupcake as we found that the fruit sometimes detached from the cake and with these particular cupcakes, where we used the IKEA muffin tin to achieve the slender height of a boutique there was possibly too much cake between the fruit and the icing. That said however, these are delicious and were very well received in this house so please enjoy =)

Baking for Gout

This year I was introduced to an amazing and wonderful baker, decidedlydelicious who adapts recipes for her lactose intolerance. Through various discussions with her, I discovered how we are all slightly lactose intolerant and the benefits of going lactose free. At the time when we first started talking about this I was trying lactose free while recovering from a cold but since then both myself and the bf have switched to lactose free and find that it has had a very positive effect on our health. We are not 100% lactose free but we try. Dietary restrictions are a pain sometimes and therefore I think that it's important to attempt to provide some solutions for different dietary needs.

This week I will be addressing Gout. There are a number of different dietary suggestions for gout but from what I have read sufferers need to increase protein, whole grains and fibre and reduce sugars and fats. There's no way you can eat cake then right? Wrong! This cake is both delicious, low in fat, high in protein and contains lemon which breaks down uric acid. There will be more than one post on this subject and for reference sake this cake is higher on the fat/sugar than others that will follow so gout suffers can enjoy in moderation!

Lemon and Raisin Cake

100g Plain Flour
200g Kamut Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125g Butter
15g Stevia
10g Granulated Sugar
1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks
50g apple sauce
2-3 tbsp lemon juice (taste preference)
75g raisins
25g Ground almonds

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Sieve together your flours, baking powder and salt. In a stand-mixer or with an electric whisk beat together your butter, granulated sugar and stevia until the mixture is very light and fluffy. In separate bowls mix your apple sauce and lemon juice and beat together your eggs.

Slowly, alternating between the flour mixture, eggs and applesauce mixture combine the ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Once a smooth batter has been achieved then add the raisins. Pour into a baking paper lined cake tin and scattered the ground almond onto the top before baking. Bake for 45minutes on a middle shelf or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn out and let cool fully before eating (this is harder than it seems.

The cake can appear doughy when first cut but you will find that it is soft and delicate and it melts in the mouth. Hopefully you enjoy this whether or not you have gout =)

I did!