Pumpkin, cheese and chive muffins



Page 198 - Pumpkin, cheese and chive muffins

I was scared about making these because the last savoury muffins I made from this book (feta, pea and ham) were a disaster. However, I tried one of these while they were warm as recommended in the book and they seem to be quite tasty. I bought fresh chives which is unusual for me as I usually use dried herbs simply because I'm lazy and tight, and I could really smell them when the muffins came out of the oven. I used a mature cheese as I love it and again this seemed to add to the flavour. I don't think I need to put pumpkin in them as you definitely cannot taste it, although perhaps it adds to the texture...?

So not a disaster, although I much prefer the sweet baked goods as opposed to the savoury!!

Eggnog cupcakes

Page 212 - Eggnog cupcakes

I have been putting off making these as I didn't have any rum essence and couldn't find any in the supermarkets. But I found it online for £2-something in the end. To be honest, they were fine but quite dull - just a vanilla sponge with rum essence and nutmeg in the buttercream. I put some raisins in the sponge and on top to make them in the rum and raisin cupcakes instead. They were tasty but I doubt I'd make them again.

On the plus side - the cases didn't come away from the sponge this time so it must have been the last two recipes that made this happen and not my technique!!

Gingerbread cupcakes

Page 228 - Gingerbread cupcakes

I thought these might be a bit dry as they have different ingredients to the usual Hummingbird cupcakes... but they were AMAZING!

The sponge was more dense than usual, but so light at the same time... And the zesty cream cheese icing made them doubly yummy. The taste of the icing perhaps slightly overshadowed the sponge, but I'd 100% make these again :-)

S'moreanne cupcakes

Page 197 - S'moreanne cupcakes

This is one weird cupcake recipe! A chocolate cupcake, sprinkled with grated chocolate and crumbled digestive biscuits... baked... and then topped with meringue?!

I thought this was the strangest combination I'd ever heard of before baking these, but I was hoping that perhaps it'd be the most amazing and surprising cupcake in the end. Whilst they weren't horrible, they were still a bit strange! The digestive didn't add anything especially, but I was pleased as the meringue turned out much better than when I made lemon meringue cupcakes back when I first started this project (thanks dad for your help!)

Blood orange cheesecake

At last I've made it...!
 
I've had to wait a year for blood oranges to come back in to season to make this cheesecake. I've never tasted blood oranges before and I have to say they're not that different to normal oranges, perhaps a bit more juicy and slightly less "orangey" - I'd say they taste a bit like a grapefruit in some ways.


Page 80 - Blood orange cheesecake

 
This cheesecake is lovely, it surprised me as it had a bit of ricotta cheese in the recipe which the other Hummingbird cheesecakes don't have. The orange zest in the base and the body of the cheesecake gave it a lovely taste and the jelly on top has a real zing, although the layer on my attempt is a lot thinner than in the book picture! My fridge must also be wonky as the jelly only set on half of the cheesecake :-)

Worth the wait though!!

Red velvet whoopie pies

Hummingbird Cake Days - Page 220 - Red velvet cupcakes

The last whoopie pie recipe... and I think I've cracked it!!!

I made these half the size that I normally would, and made sure I baked them in the middle of the oven rather than the top and they came out a treat. I also used real butter in the filling (rather than Stork which is a lot cheaper!) and it set much better than usual.

I don't love whoopie pies, but I've eaten a couple of these as they're so small... oops!

Cardamom loaf

Page 194 - Cardamom loaf

The description in the cookbook says "a simple but exotically spiced loaf" and I'd say that's a very good description indeed...

This wasn't a recipe I was particularly looking forward to or dreading, it just sounded a tad boring! But it's lovely. As I split the cardamom seeds and started to make the cake batter, the smell was exciting and I couldn't wait to taste it once it came out of the oven.

It's not a fancy recipe, but has a lovely flavour - yummy! And it only took a few minutes to whisk up too.