Halloween Cupcakes

Using a simple cupcake recipe, the decorations can be added on top for the real spooky effect. For these cupcakes I used a chocolate cupcake recipe.

Cupcake #1 - Ghosts
Ingredients:
 Chocolate Cupcakes
 White fondant icing
 Large marshmallows
 Black writing icing

Method:
1. On top of the cupcake, place a it of black writing icing in the centre and attach one marshmallow.
2. Roll out the white fondant icing and cut into a circle shape (big enough to cover the marhmallow).
3. Place on top of the marshmallow and manipulate so it falls as desired. 4. Decorate the icing with a scary ghost face!


Cupcake #2 - Pumpkin 
Ingredients:
Cupcake
Icing sugar
Orange food colouring (or red and yellow and combine)
Black writing icing

Method:
1. Create the icing with icing sugar and a small amount of water. Dye the icing sugar orange with food colouring.
2. Place on the cake and when dry (or in the process of drying) add a scary pumpkin face.


Cupcake #3 - Cobweb complete with Spider
Ingredients:
Cupcake
White writing icing
Black writing icing

Method:
1. With the white writing icing, create a cobweb across the entire cake.
2. Add a spider with the black icing for extra decoration.


Have a great Halloween!

Autumn Apple Brownies

The perfect, healthy cake for autumn time!

Ingredients:
110g butter, melted
200g white sugar
1 egg
3 medium apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced/chopped
60g cup chopped walnuts
120g all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4, and grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, sugar, and egg until fluffy.

3. Fold in the apples and walnuts.

4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until just blended.

5. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking dish.

6. Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until an inserted knife in the center comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.piarecipes.com/2012/11/apple-brownies.html

Pacman Cookies

These are great fun! My sister gave me some Pacman cookie cutters a couple of years ago for Christmas and they are so easy to use. I made them with leftover dough from my Raspberry Jam Almond Tartlets.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
90g ground almonds
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
Icing Sugar to decorate

**Please note other cookie recipes can of course be used!**


Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees farenheight, 180 degrees celsius or gas mark 4. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar and ground almonds.
2. Mix together the butter and caster sugar. Mix in egg, then blend in vanilla and almond extract.
3. Mix in the almond mixture, then with mixer set on low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until it is all fully combined.
4. Dust the work surface with flour, and get the combined mixture (should be a dough) and roll out with a rolling pin, into 1/8 to 1/6-inch thickness.
5. Cut into the pacman shapes using the cookie cutters.
6. Carefully transfer to parchment paper lined baking sheets (you can run a sharp knife or pastry scaper under cookies to help lift them if needed!), spacing cookies 1-inch apart.
7. Bake in preheated oven 10 - 12 minutes until edges are lightly golden.
8. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Prepare the icing sugar, it needs to be quite thick. Use various dies to achieve the right colours and use piping icing for finer details such as the eyes. 

10. Store in an airtight container.

Raspberry and Almond Weight Watcher Muffins

This is a spin-off to the Weight Watcher Blueberry muffin recipe. Instead, it is raspberries with almond essence!

Ingredients:
200 g Plain White Flour
1/2 teaspoons (level) Bicarbonate of Soda
2 teaspoons (level) Baking Powder
75 g Caster Sugar
1 pinch Salt
75 g Margarine, Soft, Polyunsaturated, melted
100 g Low Fat Natural Yogurt
100 ml Skimmed Milk
1 medium (raw) Egg, whole
80g Raspberries, fresh and cut into quarters

1 Tablespoon Almond Extract


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F. Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin or cup cake cases.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix the melted margarine, yogurt, milk, almond essence and egg together.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine very gently so you don't over-work the mixture.
4. Gently stir in the raspberries, again keeping the mixing to a minimum, then quickly spoon into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and golden on top.
5. Transfer to a wire rack and cool or eat warm.

Raspberry Jam Almond Tartlets

These biscuit tartlets are worth making and they look nice and smart too.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
90g ground almonds
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
Rasperry Jam

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees farenheight, 180 degrees celsius or gas mark 4. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar and ground almonds.  

2. Mix together the butter and caster sugar. Mix in egg, then blend in vanilla and almond extract.

3. Mix in the almond mixture, then with mixer set on low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until it is all fully combined.

4. Dust the work surface with flour, and get the combined mixture (should be a dough) and roll out with a rolling pin, into 1/8 to 1/6-inch thickness.

5. Cut into heart shapes using a cookie cutter, then using a smaller heart shape cookie cutter, cut smaller hearts into the centers of half of the hearts.

6. Carefully transfer to parchment paper lined baking sheets (you can run a sharp knife or pastry scaper under cookies to help lift them if needed!), spacing cookies 1-inch apart.

7. Bake in preheated oven 10 - 12 minutes until edges are lightly golden.

8. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

9. Spread strawberry jam over whole hearts, and place the cookies with the centres cut out over the tops. 10. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe altered from: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/01/linzer-cookies/

Weight Watcher Blueberry Muffins

These are only worth four pro-points per muffin. I made these this morning and they came out fantastic, I would highly recommend this recipe. I actually used a 0% fat yoghurt instead of the low-fat they mention in the recipe and they still turned out fine.

Ingredients:

200 g Plain White Flour  

1/2 teaspoons (level) Bicarbonate of Soda  

2 teaspoons (level) Baking Powder  

75 g Caster Sugar  

1 pinch Salt  

75 g Margarine, Soft, Polyunsaturated, melted  

 100 g Low Fat Natural Yogurt  

100 ml Skimmed Milk  

1 medium (raw) Egg, whole  

200 g Blueberries, fresh or dried  

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F. Line a Yorkshire pudding tin or muffin tray with 12 muffin or cup cake cases.

2.       Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix the melted margarine, yogurt, milk and egg together.

3.       Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine very gently so you don't over-work the mixture.

4.       Gently stir in the blueberries, again keeping the mixing to a minimum, then quickly spoon into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and golden on top.

5.       Transfer to a wire rack and cool or eat warm.

Recipe from http://www.weightwatchers.co.uk/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeId=7007752

Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes

Who doesn't love oreos?!

Ingredients:
110g Butter
110g Caster Sugar
60g Self raising flour
50g Cocoa powder
2 Eggs
Chocolate Buttercream
Oreo Minis

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 4 and line a cupcake baking tray with cases.
2. Mix the caster sugar and butter in a bowl, then add the flour and cocoa powder and eggs and blend until fully mixed.
3. Fill the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
4. Take out of the oven and wait to cool.
5. Decorate the cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and a mini oreo on top. The buttercream could also have crushed oreo in it.