Nigella’s recipe. Go Nigella!!!! I made them cause I felt like banana muffins and as a sign of solidarity for Nigella, who’s private life has been pissed all over in courts and tabloids recently.

I used 75g of melted butter, 250 g of self raising flour, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp of soda, pinch of salt, a good tsp of cinnamon, 115  of caster sugar, all waiting in the bowl apart from butter, that was awaiting its turn on the hob. I blitzed 2 ripe bananas, added to the dry ingredients, then 2 whole eggs, beaten, 1 tsp of vanilla paste, same amount of honey, that melted butter that was waiting and 125ml of milk. I also threw a handful of chopped walnuts, they were looking at me from the pantry shelf.

All this nicely combined went onto greased muffin tray, made me 12 nice muffins easily. Baked in 190 degrees for about 40 minutes, I kept on checking, as in the recipe Nigella said 20-25 minutes. The stick kept on coming out too moist for my liking.

The smell in the house- awesome. The taste, lovely, or, to quote Florian- pretty fucking good. I would be happy to throw one more banana in next time. And maybe even more cinnamon. Ha. 🙂

I’m in the middle of one, while writing. It’s a bit like a coarse souffle, the bottom- that was top in the oven- is crunchy and rich from the butter, the cake is moist and lovely with chunks of pineapple and lovely and wet right under the pineapple ring. What would make it a great, accomplished dessert would be a scoop of some lovely sorbet on the side, maybe coconut or passion fruit. I’ll remember that when having people over for dinner next time.

For 4 of those I used 25 g of butter creamed with same amount of sugar and a tbsp of rum, generously spread on the bottom of my creme brulee ramekins. Canned pineapple rings were too big, so needed a good trim,but eventually were placed on the bottom with  a cherry in the middle( I used cherries in kirsch leftover from Black Forrest Gateaux). Then the cake mix;

70 g of butter and caster sugar, 1 whole egg, 70 g of self raising flour, 25 g of desiccated coconut, half a tsp of baking powder and about 2 pineapple rings finely chopped. I thought it was a bit too thick, so I added a bit of pineapple juice to loosen it. Also, filling up the ramekins too much is not clever, as they will overflow and will be a mess to get out later. One learns from one’s mistakes( occasionally).

Well pleased with oneself. 🙂

I was asked to bake something with chocolate and I obliged. On a Saturday afternoon with rain and wind outside and a prospect of spicy chorizo pasta in the evening- I produced little mini black forest gateaux slash chocolate muffins slash Schwartzwalder tartlets….:-)))

I baked the bases in my muffin tray, I might have paid more attention while spooning them out into it, as they rose with little peaks on top. Had they been flat, the presentation would have been a lot more professional.

For 9 little muffins I used 110 g of soft butter, same amount of sugar, 80 g of self raising flour, 2 eggs, 30 g of cocoa powder and a touch of baking powder, all for Maurycy Kitchen Aid to work into a lovely, brown mixture, which baked in 190 degrees for about 23 minutes.

When cooled and sliced in half I soaked both parts with kirsch, then spread some morello cherry jam on the bottom parts, followed by some whipped cream, but not too much, as not to make them sickly. On the cream went cherries from the kirsch, then the top of the muffin, more cream, a cherry on top and a sprinkle of dark chocolate. Very pleasant indeed.

One more golden thought for improvement- next time I’ll use my Soplica Polish vodka to soak the cakes, as the kirsch thingy is rather shy on flavour.

On the same note as the previous post, I must just add yesterday’s creation. My new cake tin, tiny and round is a perfect size, nothing gets wasted. And decorating cakes is lots of fun, I’m very pleased with the presentation. Simple sponge made of 2 egg whites, random amount of sugar, 2 egg yolks beaten in, 2 tbsp of plain flour, 1 tbsp of potato flour and a touch of baking powder, all baked for about 25 minutes in 180 degrees. Sponge cut in half and filled with whipped cream with chopped, tinned pineapple, on top toasted flaked almonds, glace cherries and a touch of love. Made us a lovely dessert to finish a very nice 2013. :-)))

I wanted to make a really fancy cake for Christmas, something between yule log and a Swiss roll, stuffed with cream and raspberries. I cocked up the base, which ended up in the bin but I really wanted to make up for it and use up the raspberries, it is after all December and I had 2 packets in the fridge ( they’re Spanish).

So I baked a simple cocoa sponge, whipped 2 whites with sugar, added the yolks, a heaped tbsp of plain flour, same of cocoa and of potato flour, a touch of baking powder and baked in my new small and cute cake tin. After 25 minutes I had a lovely brown sponge, which, when cooled and halved I generously covered with raspberries and whipped cream. To finish, I used my new decorating tips, what a joy to use!

Loving the cake, not to sweet, the base is light and tasty, the berries nice and sharp. Yum!