Zucchini and Apple Cake

Yes, I am Irish and zucchinis are really called courgettes in my brain but courgettes do seem to be chiefly used in cakes in North America and so zucchini cake, it is.

We were given a very large zucchini by our neighbour so baking had to be the way to go.
I made chocolate zucchini muffins (from some recipe on Pinterest that I did not save...well, the recipe was for cake/bread but I didn't have a suitable cake tin so made muffins and Z1 enjoyed them for her first week of school at lunch) with one half of the courgette and Z1 wanted to bake on the following rainy Saturday. She wanted to put apple in it and so we did. She had strong ideas about the apple  -  it was to be peeled and chopped but NOT grated and not sliced and put on the top a la upside down cake or as decoration.

Here is the recipe we used:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups of flour
2 cups of light brown sugar
2 tsp of baking soda
1tsp of baking powder
1/2tsp of salt (recipe said 1tsp but I found the muffins of earlier in the week too salty so cut it down)
1tsp of cinnamon (I might use 2 next time)
1 cup of oil
3 eggs, beaten
2tsp of vanilla
2 cups of grated zucchini (I left the peel on, you can do either - taking it off will mean it's easier to pass  off as not containing vegetables if that's what you want to do!)
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped into pieces, kind of dice-sized, probably a bit bigger.      Roughly cubed, I guess one could say.

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Grease your loaf tin/cake tin (we used a cake tin)
3. Mix dry ingredients together 
4. Add vanilla essence, egg and oil to the dry ingredients and mix well
5. Add in the grated zucchini and mix well
6. Mix in the chopped apple and try to distribute it evenly throghout the mix 
7. Pour into cake tin and check again to distribute the apples evenly
8. Bake for about 1h10minutes...not sure if I should have made it 375C for shorter or what but tis took a LONG time to bake.
9. Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack

Microwave baked apples...with chocolate.

Some evenings, I just want to munch and munch and munch and there aren't enough biscuits (I mean cookies to you North Americans) in the house world.

I found this "baked apples in a bag" on Pinterest and added a little stroke of genius- a 1/2 tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips. It makes a chocolates sauce that I scraped and licked the bowl for. 

Ingredients

1 apple, chopped

1 tsp of brown sugar

1/4 tsp of corn starch

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips UPDATE - a 1/2tsp of cocoa works if no chocolate chips in the house

1 tbsp of water

Method

1. Put all ingredients in microwaveable ziploc bag

2. Seal the bag and shake to mix well

3. Open a couple of cm and microwave for about 2 minutes 

4. Be careful opening the bag- probably should use oven gloves

5. Empty into a bowl and eat. (You may also want to lick the bag but be careful as it is hot)

Apple Coffee Cake Mission - first attempt

I like to celebrate Friday with cake for breakfast. For the past few months, it has been the same choice each week - an apple coffee cake from Second Cup. Having made an apple zucchini cake, have been inspired try to adapt this a bit to approximate my Friday apple coffee cake. A Friday to be spent working from home and far from Second Cup motivated me to try this one Thursday evening. This here is the initial recipe and my first time making them.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 cakes/muffins)

1 cup flour

1 cup of demerera sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2tsp of cinnamon 
4oz butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1tsp of vanilla
1 cup of grated apple (Peeled. This was about 1 and a half large apples- I used Macintosh apples. Grating apple was way easier than grating zucchini for the other recipe)
12 slices of peeled apple to top the cakes off, as in the picture.

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Put your paper cupcake cases in the muffin tin
3. Mix dry ingredients together 
4. Add vanilla essence, egg and melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix 
5. Add in the grated apple and mix
6. Distribute evenly among the muffin tin holes 
7. Bake for about 20 minutes- I think my oven bakes slowly somehow so maybe 15 in a more efficient oven!
8. Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate muffins

Adapted from this Nigella Lawson recipe here

Ingredients: (makes 12)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt (optional)
• 1/4 cup (at least) best quality cocoa powder - EDITED  - the next time I made these I used 1/2 cup of cocoa but same amount of flour - success!
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling - I left these out, this was ill-advised, the muffins had a nice texture but not enough chocolatiness without these. - EDITED - with these included, as I did the next time, these were pretty tasty.
• 1 cup milk (or a little more)
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Prepare your muffin tray by putting the paper cases into it (this is a good activity for small children while you get the ingredients together)
3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, chocolate chips) in a bowl- use a sieve for the cocoa and flour to make it nice and fine and even*
4. Mix the wet ingredients in a jug or other receptacle- beat well with a fork*
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until all incorporated but not much more. According to the original recipe, a lumpy muffin mix makes the best muffins so we (my daughter and me) just used a fork to mix it in.
6. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases
7. Bake for 20 minutes (although you know your own oven best).

The original recipe only suggested 2 tablespoons of cocoa. I used 4 and it still wasn't chocolatey enough for me, though I was very pleased with the texture. My daughter ate it up with glee and she is not alway a cake fiend so maybe I usually make things too chocolatey for her...hmm. I have suggested a half cup here and reduced the amount of flour by a quarter cup - it seems to work.

* I did these two things on my third attempt (the ones in the photo) and they were the best looking muffins I have made so far. Sadly, I didn't get to taste them but they sold out at the school cake sale so I am hoping they were good!

Citrus Cheesecake

I found this recipe by googling. It fulfilled my cheesecake recipe requirements of the day:
1. to involve lemon
2. not to involve mascarpone

I didn't use the breadcrumb base it suggested, opting instead for a tried and tested crushed digestive biscuit and melted butter combination.
I am recording it here as the recipe only listed 250g of cream cheese for the 7 inch tin. Now, maybe my tin was bigger than 7 inches but I don't think it was (I shall measure, perhaps) and this level of cheesecake topping is simpy stingy so next time, I will need to use more. And yes, I am inconsistent in my use of cups/ounces/grammes.

Ingredients:
for the base:
150g of crushed digestives
2.5 oz of butter

1. Melt the butter, mix it into the crushed digestives, press it into the bottom of your removable-base cake tin so that it forms a base.

for the cheesecake topping:
500g of cream cheese (yes, I am fully doubling it, this thickness was pathetic)
1 lemon - juice and zest
1 orange - juice and zest
100g icing sugar

1. Let the cream cheese soften a bit to make things easier
2. Mix up all the ingredients in a bowl - I used a whisk attachment on my hand held electric mixer
3. Spoon and pour mixture on top of the biscuit base you made
4. Put in the fridge for a few hours to set. I put it in the freezer for a bit too as it seemed to be taking too long in the fridge. Or maybe I am just greedy.
5. Decorate as you fancy or don't bother decorating at all. I used raspberries as I also made raspberry coulis.

Raspberry coulis
6oz raspberries (this was a half pint container, a bit more than a cup)
1/4 cup of sugar
approx 1/4 cup of water

1. Put the water, sugar and raspberries into a saucepan
2. Heat until boiling on medium high and then reduce to medium low
3. Keep it on the heat, stirring occasionally until you're happy with the consistency - it will set a bit when cooled.
4. Blend it with a hand blender.
5. Lots of recipes called for sieving at this stage - I started sieving but couldn't be bothered. My coulis was perhaps more of a runny jam but it was very tasty. This made about a small cream/milk jug of coulis.