Caramel Cupcakes (with Caramel Icing)

Friday Baking on a Thursday afternoon has become something of an tea drinking, diet coke sipping, magazine flipping institution here with the venerable 太太 Haynes for company and taste testing, and I enjoy the chance flex my baking skills and dust off the mixer. This recipe is a version of Caramel Cake by Eggbeater

I've used cups below, as the conversion was a real pain - I'm not a fan as I can never work out if my rather battered plastic Ikea one (have lost the rest and am down to a forlorn 1/2 cup) is a US cup size or not. Anyway, half a cup (in my kitchen) is 125ml if that helps at all.

I had some golden caster sugar than I used for the sponge - it's adds a nice tone I think, but bog-standard white is fine. Please note that the cases are cup cake cases and not muffin cases - these are more of a dainty cake. Don't expect a mountainous rise either, these are quite subtle, and you'll get a nice flat top for your squeeze of icing.

Makes 24 (as per the picture)

Caramel Sponge:
140g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon good quality salt (I grind up a bit of Maldon)
1/3 cup of Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of milk at room temperature

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.
Slowly add the caramel syrup and beat until incorporated.
Add eggs and vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest speed and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. As there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter - watch carefully to see that the mixture doesn't curdle - Make sure you mix each addition well, before you add the next.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Spoon the mix into paper cakes case in a cupcake tin, making them about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 mins until golden and springy to the touch.

Caramel Syrup:
1 cup caster sugar and 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelizing process)

Put the caster sugar and water into a small stainless steal pan (the high the sides the better). Turn on heat to highest flame. Allow to cook until dark amber.
When this colour is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. The caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers - Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it, sugar burns are not good.

Caraml Butter Icing:
85g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into your mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment and allow to cool a bit before adding the sifted icing sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all icing sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: I'm sure that in France you can buy jars of caramel syrup in the supermarche - might be worth an experiment to cut down on the time, 3rd degree sugar burns and oodles of left over syrup.

Edit: Keep the left over syrup - I popped mine in a jar in the freezer - but the fridge is fine, as if won't go off (like honey) and use it to make caramel icing or sauce as found here.

Madeleines

These were a first for me, I got to go out and buy a new cake tin - just to add to the piles of baking equipment I already have, including several sandwich cake tins, none of which seem to match.

These are surprisingly light - best straight out of the oven I think, a crisp outside with a light as a feather middle - the lemon is only a fleeting hint. These are Madeleines in their purest form - I know you can make every flavour under the sun but why gild the lily, non?

200g unsalted butter with about 2 tablespoons extra for greasing the tin
100g plain flour
4 large eggs
a pinch of salt
140g caster sugar
zest of one large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 180C

Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat until it's brown, roughly 15 minutes. Strain (using a paper towel over a fine sieve) leaving a clear liquid. Set the butter to one side to cool, whilst you carry on as below.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave and use a brush to coat the tin - make sure you get in all the ridges.

Put the eggs and salt in the bowl of your mixer and whisk on high speed until thick - they should double or triple in volume (about 3 mins). Continue to mix on high speed, slowly add the sugar until mixture is thick and ribbony.

Take the bowl off the mixer and fold in the lemon zest and vanilla briefly. Add the flour, and gently fold in, then fold in the butter, only stirring enough to bring everything together.

Pour the batter into the molds, filling each mold 3/4 full. I used a jug filled with batter, as it's too runny for a spoon.

Bake the madeleines for 12 minutes ish or until the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Cool on racks and dust with a little sugar.

Makes 2 -3 dozen.

Christmas - Rudolph Pie

Well, it's been all quiet on the Eastern front since the being of December as I have been back West, to London, for most of December.

I missed a tonnes of gorgeous Christmas cooking to be done - cooking in someones elses kitchen is never the same and you are always ferreting around in the back of cupboards/drawers praying there's a grater/scales/rolling pin that is the crux of the recipe you've already started making. However I did manage to bang out a fabulous Christmas Cake, a Christmas Eve dinner of Rudolph Pie with red cabbage and a Christmas Lunch with all the trimmings - sausages in bacon, roast potatoes crisped to perfection in goose fat etc etc.

The Rudolph Pie suggestion came courtesy of a friend who is always great with ideas as I struggled to come up with something Christmassy, that didn't resemble a roast dinner, was easy to put together for what was our main family meal of the season. It is a Nigella recipe, slightly altered.

Minced venison can be a really hard to find - online or from a game butcher is your best bet, and I got mine from Borough market - well worth the visit, even if it is just to check out my friend and all round goddess's fabulous Mushroom pâté stall. Also, don't get too bogged down in the exact measurements - the packet of porcini I got had 40g in it, so that's all I used, and the onions and carrots are easily whizzed up briefly in a magimix as it took me hours and a lot of running mascara to make it through them by hand.

You're going to need a big dish - 30cm/30cm at least - and this left over enough of the meat sauce to stir into fresh tagliatelle for E, who hates potatoes and freeze a small bit for future pasta dinners. Serve with some festive red cabbage and some greens if you must.

• 50g dried porcini
• 3 - 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 white onions chopped
• 3 large carrots chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
• 500g button mushrooms, quartered
• 1kg minced venison
• 1kg minced pork
• 2 tbsp flour
• 6 tbsp Marsala
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
  
• Worcestershire sauce to taste

To Top:

• 3.5 kg potatoes, peeled and cut up into large chunks (no more than thirds)
  
• 100ml full-fat milk
• 100g butter
  
• nutmeg
• sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce

Pour 500ml of near-boiling water over the porcini mushrooms and leave to steep.Warm oil into very large thick bottomed pan and add the chopped onions, carrots and minced garlic. Cook stirring for about 10 minutes, sprinkling with the salt if the vegetables look as if they may burn.

Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking liquid, chop coarsely and add with the button mushrooms to the vegetable mixture. After about 5 minutes tip the whole lot out to brown the meat.

Add a little more oil to the pan then tip in the minced meats, breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Stir for about five minutes until the rawness has left them a bit, add salt - unstintingly - and then return the vegetable mixture to the pan.

Stir in the flour and add the mushroom-soaking liquid, tinned tomatoes, diluted puree, Marsala, 125ml water, and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Stir well, cover partly with a lid and reduce heat so that the mince bubbles gently, for about an hour.

Meanwhile boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water until they are nearly ready. Boil until they are cooked to easily mashable tenderness, then drain and allow to dry slightly.

Warm the milk and melt the butter in the heat of the potato-pan. Mash the potatoes straight into this, grate in some fresh nutmeg and add salt to taste.

Put the mince into your large dish, then dollop the potato mash on top, spreading with a spatula, taking care to seal the edges to prevent the meat below from bubbling up in the oven. Fork lines over the top and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce.

If you're cooking this straight away, about 10 minutes in a 225C oven should be enough to make it piping hot and crispily golden on top. If cooking from cold, about an hour in a 190C should do it.

I topped it with half a cherry tomato for a Rudolph nose effect. Rather annoyingly, there's no pictures as my camera has chosen to crash every time I attempt to take any photos - hopefully it will be up and running for the Friday baking.