Cinnamon Rolls

Hello, yet again I feel I have abandoned my blog of late and I haven't updated in a while. I've still been keeping up with all the wonderful blogs I follow and copying lots and lots of recipes down for baking in the future. I haven't had much chance to bake myself though which has made me very sad. But I have been happily busy with lots of exciting things!

One of my best friends is getting married next January and I was delighted that she has asked me to be a bridesmaid! she has also asked me to bake all the cupcakes for the wedding so there has been a lot of planning and looking at pictures of cupcakes and cases that she would like. I have also been a dutiful bridesmaid and we all went along to a wedding fair to look at all the pretty things and organise some of the most important aspects of the wedding (Chocolate fountain!)

I've also had an important cocktail meeting with friends, went to the cinema to see The Artist (Brilliant and I'm just in love with Uggie the little dog) and then this weekend I've been enjoying the Chinese new year festivities watching the dragon dance and then out to dinner at my favourite restaurant. 

I have found a little time to bake though, and on Saturday morning I was craving Cinnamon rolls. I love these as they are so sweet and tasty but somehow, and I'm not quite sure why (Maybe it's the cinnamon) I still feel like it's acceptable to eat them for breakfast (Not that that usually stops me eating cake for breakfast)

Any way here they are: 

And here's how they are made:

Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 8

350g Self raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
3 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
100g Butter, melted
2 egg yolks
200ml Milk

For the filling 

1 heaped tsp Ground Cinnamon
55g Soft light brown Sugar
2 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 tbsp Butter, Melted

Topping

2 tbsp icing sugar
water

Pre heat the oven to 180deg C and grease an 8 inch round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Mix the flour, salt caster sugar and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Beat together the butter, milk and egg yolks and add these to the dry ingredients. Combine until a soft dough is formed. 

Turn out onto a floured surface (or floured baking paper for ease of rolling up) and roll out a rectangle of 10inches by 12 inches, approx.

Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl and spread this mixture evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll to form a log and cut this into 8 slices. Arrange these around the tin and brush with a little milk to glaze.

Bake in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool slight;y and then remove from the tin.

If desired the buns can then be iced with a little icing drizzled over, Just combine 2 tbsp icing sugar with a few drops of water and drizzle this over the buns. 

Then pull apart and eat as desired, nom!

I made these on Saturday and there is only one left and I am ashamed to say that I ate all but one of the eaten rolls, ooops. Oh well I'll start the healthy eating / exercise plan again tomorrow.

Any way that's it for now, hope you all had a lovely weekend.  

Cupcake Kris

Mincemeat Spice Muffins.

Well I hope you all had a lovely holiday, I haven't posted in a couple of weeks as I've just been getting back into the swing of things, taking the decorations down, going back to work and already breaking my resolutions. The holidays are officially over, oh boo :( lets all have some cake to cheer ourselves up hey? 

Any way I hope you all had a great New Year, I spent mine eating yummy food with fabulous friends and then drinking a lot of wine, It was very much enjoyed. 

So after all the copious amounts of cake I made over Christmas were eaten, I somehow still had some surplus ingredients, including most of a big jar of mincemeat left over from making mince pies. So I looked for a new recipe that would use this up as I think I've eaten enough mince pies for a year. I fancied something a bit lighter than a mince pie but that could still be made quickly and with relatively few ingredients.

I came across a recipe for Christmas Snowflake muffins in The Big Book of Baking, However I have changed the name as because I don't have a snowflake cutter to cut out the icing to top the cakes with the name seemed a little silly. Any way here they are :

 I topped some with a disc of fondant and left some plain.

They came out really nice, the smell just after they come out of the oven is wonderful and the muffins themselves are really light with a good hint of spice and warming fruit. I added some chopped cherries to my batch as my mincemeat wasn't as packed with as much of a variety of fruit as I'd like, this recipe is quite flexible so all different fruit / nuts could be added.

On making my second batch of these I decided to use more mincemeat for that extra kick of flavour and filling. But apart from that the cakes were definitely yummy and a perfect use of any leftover mincemeat or a good excuse to take advantage of the half price offers on it in the shops. 

Here's how they are made:

Mincemeat Spice Muffins (Christmas Snowflake Muffins)

Makes 12:

280g Plain Flour 
1 tbsp Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp Mixed Spice
Pinch of Salt
115g Soft dark brown sugar
2 Eggs 
100ml Milk
6 tbsp Sunflower oil
200g Luxury mincemeat (I would use nearer 300g)
about 8-10 Glace cherries, chopped

To top

1 tbsp Apricot jam
Ready to roll white icing.

Pre heat the oven to 200 deg C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, Mixed spice, and salt into a large bowl , stir in the sugar.

Beat the eggs together and then beat in the milk and oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients, mincemeat and cherries and stir until just combined. 

Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for around 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

To top, knead the icing until pliable and roll out, cut out 12 snowflake shapes, however I just cut circles. 
Warm the Apricot jam until runny and brush over the cakes, the top with the icing snowflakes.

And that's it!  The recipe does call to decorate with those little silver edible balls, however I cannot bear these, and why anyone would want to risk cracking their teeth on their rock hard shell I do not know, I did top a few of my cakes with half a cherry though as you can see: 

Any way that's all from me today I hope you are all all having more success with your new years resolutions than I am. Bye for now,

Cupcake Kris xxx