Chcocolate Peanut Butter Monkey Cake

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the first day of the lunar calendar and it's the year of the Monkey. Wishing all my readers good health, prosperity and happiness. We had a little party at the weekend to celebrate the occasion. As it's a monkey year, I decided to make a monkey cake. Unfortunately I didn't deocrate it in time for the party so J has taken it to work today to share with his colleagues. It's a chocolate cake filled with peanut butter frosting. The decoration is simple yet effective albeit a bit messy to decorate! If you have kids, they will definitely enjoy decorating this cake with you. Chinese New Year goes on for 15 days so you have plenty of time to impress your family and friends with this cake. 

I'm sending this to #FoodYearLinkUp hosted by Charlotte from Charlotte's Lively Kitchen for Chinese New Year. 

It's also going to Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK. The theme this month is The Month Of Cake as it's the anniversary of the challenge. 

Finally to Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen as the theme this month is Anything Goes. There's 2 large free range eggs in this cake.

 The cake batter is very liquid - don't worry it bakes beautifully. 

 spread peanut butter frosting on top of the first layer of cake 

 Add second layer of cake. I used a cocktail stick to roughly draw an outline of a monkey face. I'm terrible at drawing!! 

 Spread the peanut butter frosting where the monkey face will be 

 

 Carefully spread the chocolate ganache over the rest of the cake including the sides

 Press chocolate rice cereal on to the chocolate ganache. I used 2 white candy melts for the eyes and piped some chocolate ganache for the eye balls, nose and mouth (which was a littlewonky!) The ears are tiny as I didn't have any ginger biscuits at home and used golden Oreo cookies instead. 

Recipe from Bird on A Cake 

I reduced the sugar amount, substituted chocolate extract for vanilla extract and used more milk in the frosting 

For the cakes 

1 cup (250mls) boiling water

350g caster sugar

220g plain flour  

85 cocoa powder, sifted

2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 large, free range eggs

1 cup (250mls) buttermilk

1/2 cup (125mls) vegetable oil

1 teaspoon chocolate extract 

Peanut butter frosting

250g smooth peanut butter

113g butter

250g icing sugar

40-50 mls milk

Chocolate Ganache

175g dark chocolate 

80mls double cream

20g butter

To decorate

2 white candy melts

2 large cookies for the ears - I used golden oreos but they are too small, recommend ginger biscuits or digestive biscuit

Choco rice cereal 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in a bowl.
• Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil and chocolate extract.
• Mix well.
• Slowly pour in the water and continue mixing at a low speed until you have a smooth mixture. 
• The batter will be very liquid, this is normal.
• Divide the batter evenly between 2 sandwich tins and bake for approximately 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the peanut butter frosting, beat the peanut butter and butter until smooth.
• Add in the icing sugar and continue beating.
• Slowly add in the milk with the mixer running.
• You  may need to add a little more or a little less of the milk depending on the consistency of your icing. You want a smooth, spreadable paste. 
• To make the chocolate ganache, place the cream in a small saucepan and heat gently until bubbles are just visible. 
• Add in the chocolate and whisk until smooth.
• Remove from the heat.
• Add in the butter and continue whisking until smooth.
• Allow to cool and set a little before using.
• Decorate the cake as shown above. 

Wedding Favour Cupcakes

In case you missed the announcement in my last post, I got married recently and this is my first post as Mrs! It was a really beautiful day and everyone had a good time. The day turned out better than either of us could have imagined and we are still recovering from the celebrations. My AlphaBakes co-host and friend Caroline from Caroline Makes made our wedding cake which turned out beautifully. It was absolutely gorgeous and we had so many compliments about the look and the taste of the cake, I won't be surprised if she gets wedding cake orders from now! She made a chocolate layer and a lemon layer as requested and they were both equally delicious. I've just noticed that she has blogged about it so you can read all about it here. Here's a sneak preview of the cake. Thanks again Caroline for the most amazing wedding cake! 

I knew quite early on that I would not be baking my own wedding cake but I did want to bake something so I decided to bake some mini cupcakes as wedding favours. Our colour theme was red and gold so I decided to bake golden syrup cupakes. It's a really quick and easy bake particularly as I baked them in mini cupcake cases. I found some really pretty gift boxes which I wanted to use but I had trouble sourcing the correct sized cupcake cases. I eventually found some but they only came in white. We had some gorgeous wedding invitations made and I took a picture of the logo with our initials on and got them printed on edible paper to use as cupcake toppers. The easiest part of this process was baking and frosting the cake. The most difficult part was making up the gift boxes, putting the cupcakes inside, tying the ribbons with a custom made tag. However, it was well worth the effort as the cakes looked beautiful in the gift boxes and they tasted good too! 

 mini golden syrup cupcakes

 ready to be boxed 

 This is our table setting and you can see the cupcake boxes on the table

 close up of the cupcake

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. 

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month and co hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is W for Wedding Favour Cupcakes.

Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is anything goes.

Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK. The theme this month is 'in a hurry' and the cakes have to be made and baked in less than 60 minutes. These cupcakes took about 5 minutes to prepare, 10- 15 minutes to bake and another 10 minutes to decorate.

Recipe is from Lyle's website

I doubled the recipe to make 54 mini cupcakes which were approximately 4cm x 3cm x 4cm.

Baking time was approximately 10-15 minutes. 

I added a small bit of icing using a piping bag with a star tip nozzle as shown and an edible cupcake topper.  

Brie, Courgette and Red Pepper Muffins

J took the bacon, blue cheese and polenta muffins to work and it went down well in his office. However, the vegetarians were disappointed as they didn't get a look in. I felt I had to bake a vegetarian muffin to compensate and as I still had a lot of cheese leftover from the cheese box I decided it had to be a cheesy one. I found this recipe on BBC Good Food and decided to give it a go. The recipe says to skin the peppers which I've never done before and it worked! It was a little messy so I might try using the grill next time. The website said to blacken the whole pepper on an open flame or under a grill. Place in a bowl and cover with cling film. The peppers will shrink at this point. When it's cool, the skin comes off easily with the help of a small knife. 

These muffins were really tasty. I loved the mix of courgette, peppers and cheese and even though I am a bacon addict, I have to say that these were better than the bacon ones! It was well worth the effort of preparing the peppers (which I was tempted to skip) and pre cooking the courgettes. 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. 

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is Z for Zucchini also known as courgette. 

Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is anything goes.

Extra Veg challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food this month. The challenge is run by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. These muffins are a great way to incorporate extra veg into your diet.

Simple and in Season hosted by Ren as courgettes are currently in season. 

Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK as the theme this month is 'Pack me a Picnic' These muffins are perfect for picnics as they are easy to bake and easy to transport. 

 pre cooking the courgettes 

 multi tasking! 

 lovely buttery courgettes 

 blackened pepper - cover with cling film and when it's cool, scrape the skin off. If there's a little left, just rinse it under a tap and it comes off easily. 

 look at the colourful ingredients! You will spy that there is a little bit of red leicester cheese with the brie as I didn't have enough brie 

 generous sprinkling of applewood cheddar on top before baking 

Recipe from BBC Good Food

2 small or 1 large courgette, cut into small cubes
approximately 25g butter
250g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs (or just oregano)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
100mls milk
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 red peppers, skinned and cubed
85g cheddar cheese, grated (I used applewood cheddar as that was what I had in the fridge)
100g brie, cubed

• Melt butter in a medium sized saucepan and cook the courgettes for about 5 minutes until soft and lightly brown. Set aside.
• Place 2 red peppers over an open flame or under the grill until the skin is charred. You will need to turn the pepper with heat resistant tongs.
• Once the pepper is completely charred, place in a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
• Use a small knife to scrape away the skin. You may need to rinse the pepper under a tap if the skin does not come off easily.
• Cut the top of the pepper and remove the seeds and inner membrane.
• Slice the pepper into large chunks.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, dried mixed herbs and salt and pepper to taste. 
• Make a well in the centre and add in the eggs, oil and milk.
• Give it a quick stir. 
• Add the courgettes, red peppers, 2/3 of grated cheddar and brie. 
• Stir until just mixed.
• Divide the batter between 12 muffin cases.
• Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top of each muffin and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Bacon, Blue Cheese and Polenta Muffins

We had a BBQ party at home recently and ended up with quite a lot of leftover food. Amongst them was a whole box of cheese as there was too much food and we didn't get round to eating it on the day. We ate some of the cheese but there was so much and I didn't want to waste it so I thought I'd bake with it. I found a pack of bacon in the fridge and immediately decided on bacon and blue cheese muffins. I spied some polenta which has been in my cupboard for a while so I added them in as well. The result was a delicious, crumbly savoury muffin. You can definitely taste the bacon and depending on which bit you get you also get a hit of the blue cheese. The basil was very subtle and almost undetectable but added a lovely fragrance and hint of sweetness to the muffin. The polenta made them quite crumbly but I thought that was the best bit. 

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe is made from leftovers - blue cheese, bacon and polenta. 

It's also perfect for Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK as the theme this month is 'Pack me a Picnic' These muffins are perfect for picnics as they are easy to bake and easy to transport. 

 I added a bit of brie as I didnt have enough blue cheese 

 adding blue cheese, basil and bacon

 top with a small piece of bacon

 I put them under the grill for a minute or two just to brown the tops. 

 You can see the crumbly texture 

Makes 10 large muffins

Recipe adapted from Fold in the Flour



6 rashers of smoked bacon (you need 5 for the recipe and 1 for the decoration)
200g plain flour
150g fine polenta
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
80g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
5 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
175mls milk
20 fresh small basil leaves, finely chopped

90g blue cheese, crumbled (I used about 70g of blue cheese and 20g of brie as that was all I had) 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cook the bacon under a grill or on a frying pan and drain the excess oil. Cut into small bite size pieces.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, polenta, salt and sugar. 
• In another bowl, mix the egg, oil, water and milk.
• Tip the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently.
• Add in the blue cheese, chopped bacon and chopped basil leaves.
• Stir again until just mixed. 
• Divide the batter evenly between 10 muffin cases.
• Place a small strip of bacon on top of each muffin.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Mine were only slightly browned but cooked so I placed them under the grill for a minute or two until the tops were browned. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Would you believe I've never made a pineapple upside down cake before? As this month's AlphaBakes which I am hosting has the letter 'U' I thought it would be a good opportunity to try my hand at this classic retro cake. The last time we had the letter U I made something a little less traditional in the form of Peaches and Cream Upside Down Cake. The cake received rave reviews at work and there wasn't a crumb left at the end of the day. The sponge is really light and moist and the pineapples added a fruity juiciness to the cake. Plus I'm sure it counts as one of your 5 a day! 

I did a little online research to look at the origins of pineapple upside down cake and it's fascinating. It orginated in America in the 1920's. By the mid 1930's, pineapple upside down cake was one o the most widely made cakes in America. It's popularity peaked in the 50's and 60's and started to wane by 1970's as it seemed outdated. Did you know that there is a National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day on April 20th?

I'm sending this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is U for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

I'm also sending it to Love Cake hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK as the theme this month is Cakes from Around the World. As mentioned this is an American creation although I thought it was British!

 basic cake ingredients plus pineapple rings and cherries

 butter and sugar mixture which caramelises on cooking 

 Hurrah I managed to squeeze 7 pineapple rings as stated in the recipe 

 add cake batter on top and bake 

 It looks really pretty and so retro  

 It's quite a thin cake but absolutely delicious

Recipe from BBC Good Food