The Hungry Dad loves bircher muesli for breakfast but doesn’t love paying the $18 or so that fancy Sydney cafes charge for it. For years we’ve been making it at home and it is so cheap to make that I am shocked at how much it goes for at cafes. Continue reading
Look at the pretty blueberries in these cupcakes. They really are nature’s work of art. I have found a frozen brand of Australian-grown blueberries that I am happy with and always ensure I have a bag in the freezer. I bake with them, the Hungry Dad makes Bircher muesli with them, Miss-now-8 adds them to Greek yogurt and Miss9 is happy to eat a bowl of them for a snack #winning
At the moment in Sydney fresh blueberries are plentiful so you can take your pick when making them delectable blueberry cupcakes with blueberry cream cheese frosting (or cream cheese icing, for my fellow Aussies).
Fresh or frozen works fine and if you opt for frozen there is no need to defrost first.
These blueberry cupcakes are really moist and the Greek yoghurt adds a lovely tang. Try not to eat all the frosting / icing before you ice the cakes – a real danger #OrIsThatJustMe
GATHER:
120g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup caster sugar
1 2/3 cups self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup Greek yogurt cream
1 cup blueberries (frozen is fine)
Icing:
180g unsalted butter, softened
250g cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
¼ cup blueberries, extra
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 190°C and line a cupcake pan with wrappers.
In bowl of electric mixer beat butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until fluffy and pale – about three minutes.
Scrape down bowl with a spatula then add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
Beat in half the flour, then half the yogurt, then rest of flour then rest of yogurt. Using a silver spoon gently stir in the blueberries.
Fill the wrappers two-thirds full and bake for 15-ish minutes or until a skewer inserted into a cake has only a few crumbs clinging to it.
Remove to wire rack too cool completely.
Meanwhile, make icing: In bowl of electric mixer beat cream cheese, vanilla and butter together until pale and creamy – about two minutes. With beater on low beat in icing sugar then increase speed to medium and beat until thoroughly combined. Use a silver spoon to stir through and break up most of the berries, leaving enough for decoration. Scrape icing into ziplock bag, snip off the corner and pipe icing onto cake, then top each one with a single blueberry.
This blueberry pudding cake is such a moist, easy-to-bake, delicious cake that you’ll throw away all your other blueberry baking recipes.
The fact that it is an egg-free cake recipe is a bonus, especially if you buy 36 eggs at a time but plough through them so quickly you often are left with just one solitary egg in the carton. Or is that just me?
Before our chooks went to hen heaven – RIP Kaitlyn and Jakeson – we always had a stash of perfect, huge, delicious eggs at our disposal. Now, I only buy free range eggs but what with all the scandal and court cases RE certain egg producers lying about their free range status it is really hard. I often leave smaller supermarkets empty-handed if I can’t find my brands. Farmers markets are the best but that doesn’t help if it is Tuesday night and the market isn’t until Saturday!
This cake is perfect when it is just under baked so it retains a pudding-like consistency. I think lashings of custard would make a wonderful friend for this cake – try my easy recipe here: the best custard recipe from scratch
GATHER:
2 cups self-raising flour
250 grams unsalted butter, diced, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup blueberries – frozen is fine, don’t defrost
1 tsp vanilla extract
LET’S GET TO IT:
Grease a 20cm by 20cm square baking pan and line with non-stick baking paper and preheat oven to 180C.
In bowl of electric mixer beat the sugar and butter until pale and creamy.
Scrape down sides with a spatula then beat in vanilla and yogurt.
Add half the milk, then half the flour, then repeat. Beat until mixed – do not overbeat.
Use a silver spoon to stir in the berries carefully – you don’t want to stain the batter blue.
Scrape into tin, level the top with offset spatula and bake in oven for around 45 minutes – insert skewer to check, you want it moist but not raw.
Leave in tin to cool, then slice into squares to serve. Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.
This post is a mash-up of two recipes from books currently sitting on my bench. Like many people reading cookbooks – specifically, baking books that consist mostly of sweet bakes, rather than bread – is my Thing. Continue reading
Lemon is lovely, don’t you agree? I adore baking with citrus – the aroma of a zested lime or lemon coupled with the scent of general baking is amazing.
I recently found myself with a glut of lemons after my mum-in-law gave us a basket full from her tree. This recipe only used one of countless lemons but the freshness of these lemons really lifted the taste. Continue reading
Like most people I love a lazy Sunday morning – the type of day when you can sleep-in then stay in your jammies for hours. Like most people we are always go go GO so a lazy Sunday is a rare event. Last weekend we managed to sneak in a slow start. The cherry on top of a relaxed morning at home is a delicious breakfast that you would never usually have time for. Continue reading
I am the sort of person who gets so excited when they see a new or unusual baking recipe that I will rush out to buy any ingredient that I don’t have in the cupboard. Usually by the time said ingredient is stored in the pantry I have a new ‘must bake’ recipe and that item that I simply had to have ends up languishing, unloved, in the back of the pantry.
Sometimes fate intervenes and the same ingredient pops up again and I dust off said item, preheat the oven and get cracking. Continue reading
Oh Donna, let me the count the ways in which your baking recipes make my heart flutter… Actually, that would take far too long because Ms Hay’s cakes, tarts and muffin recipes always work. Devotees would note that I am Donna hay’s biggest cheerleader and this super simple recipe is yet another winner. Continue reading
I want to be Donna Hay when I grow up. I love her recipes, her style, her gorgeous boutique in Sydney – everything. If the woman made Donna Hay label toilet paper I would buy it. Her ‘Modern Classics Book 2’ is on high rotation in my kitchen and like all of her recipes they never let you down. Continue reading
the hungry mum 