Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Muffins

Can you believe that it's Spring already? It felt like a long, cold winter so I'm really looking forward to the lighter days and warmer weather. I've decided to have a little spring clean of my blog and give it a makeover - do let me know what you think. It's not quite what I want but it's a start for now particularly as I'm not very tech savvy!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know how much I love peanut butter. I wanted to bake something for breakfast and decided on my favourite combination of peanut butter and jam but in a muffin form. I added peanut butter chips for extra flavour which worked really well. You can clearly taste the peanut butter and the jam added a lovely sweetness to the saltiness of the peanut butter. These are quite filling and make for a good breakfast. 

 adding the crunchy peanut butter

 adding the peanut butter chips 

 a generous teaspoon of strawberry jam in the middle of each muffin

 ready to go in the oven 

 I love how you can see the jam peeking through 

 You can still see the peanut butter chips

Makes 12 muffins

315g plain flour

100g caster sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

200g crunchy peanut butter

1 egg

250mls milk

100g peanut butter chips (optional - you can add chocolate chips if you prefer or omit completely)

strawberry jam

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder. 
• In a jug, whisk the egg lightly and add the milk.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk-egg mixture.
• Stir briefly then stir in the crunchy peanut butter until just combined - don't over mix or your muffins will be tough! 
• Finally stir through the peanut butter chips.
• Half fill each muffin case with the batter.
• Add a generous teaspoon or two of strawberry jam then top with the remaining batter.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Eton Mess

How was your bank holiday weekend? We had a lovely weekend away celebrating J's birthday. The day before we left I cooked a 3 course pre-birthday dinner but as it was a working day, I chose a quick and easy menu including this really simple dessert. I layered fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, cream swirled with strawberry jam and crushed meringue nests to create this British classic. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a really nice and refreshing dessert. 

I'm sending this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is E for Eton Mess. 

I'm also sending this to Dead Easy Desserts hosted by Tina from The Spicy Pear and co hosted by Sarah from Maison Cupcake. This was ready in under 10 minutes and is ideal when you have unexpected guests especially when strawberries are in season.

 strawberry jam, meringue nests, double cream, fresh strawberries 

 I added some strawberry jam to the whipped cream instead of sugar and to get some extra strawberry flavour

 I layered the dessert with some cream, strawberry jam, fresh strawberries, crushed meringues

 

Minecraft Birthday Cake

I've had a few cake orders from work this month mainly for children's birthdays. The first is this Minecraft Cake for Josh who turned 8 yesterday so Happy Belated Birthday! I had no idea what Minecraft was so I had to learn quickly! Essentially it's a game about making and placing blocks. You then build structures and there are different 'characters' in the game like Creeper, pig and chicken all of which I made from fondant icing. I wanted to make Steve as well but I ran out of time!  I did some research online and came up with this cake which I am pleased to announce was a huge success. Josh was really impressed with the cake and to be honest so am I! I really wasn't sure I could pull it off but I think it's not too bad for a first attempt. Just don't look too closely at the imperfections!! 

He wanted a vanilla sponge with strawberry jam so I baked 2 large square cakes (6 egg sponge x 2) and made 4 layers using strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream to sandwich the layers together. I then made some chocolate frosting by adding melted chocolate to the buttercream and used that to cover the outside of the cake. The 'crumbs' is made from crushed oreo and rich tea biscuits which actually gives it a slight pixelated effect which I was hoping for. The top is covered with a piece of green fondant covered with green buttercream and green coconut which resembles the grass. The figures are made from ready rolled icing and I shaped them by hand using pictures from the internet as a guide. 

The entire cake took 2 evenings to make. I baked the cakes and made the fondant figures on day 1 and assembled the cake on day 2. Top tips - either use a large roasting pan or place a large piece of parchment paper over your worktop before pressing the crumbs on the cake. This makes it much easier to clean up the mess after! Place the dessicated coconut in a ziplock bag, add the food colouring and seal the bag then give it a good shake to get green 'grass' - no mess and no washing up! Remember to save some vanilla buttercream to make green buttercream before adding the melted chocolate as it's quite difficult to make brown green afterwards! 

As this contains strawberry jam in the middle of the cake layers I'm sending it to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co hosted by Jane from The Hedgecombers. The theme this month is jams, curds and preserves. 

 weigh eggs in their shell and use the same amount of flour, butter and caster sugar for the sponge.

 I baked 2 cakes in my square tin 

 making the layers with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream 

 This is going to be a tall cake! 

 cover with chocolate frosting on the outside but not the top 

 I drew this pattern freestyle on a piece of parchment paper - the square is the size of my cake tin and I made random blocks around the edges 

 cut out the pattern and place it on top of rolled green fondant and cut out the pattern with a sharp knife 

 ready to go on top of the cake 

 slightly wonky but it's starting to look like a minecraft block! 

 cover the fondant with green icing then cover with dessicated coconut which has been dyed green to resemble grass. 

 Place the figures on top using a toothpick to support them. I used cutters to cut out the name and age - his favourite colour is green but you can of course using contrasting colours to make it stand out more. 

Bin Weevils Birthday Cake

Recently I was asked by a colleague to make a birthday cake for her son. I was hoping that it would be an angry birds cake as I really want to make one but haven't found a suitable occasion yet. Instead, he asked for a Bin Weevils cake. My initial response was "What is that?" If you don't already know, it's a kids online game where you can grow your own garden or create a virtual pet. The characters are weevils from the bin hence the name. I still don't understand it but I did my best to replicate the characters for the cake. Thankfully, the birthday boy was pleased! The cake itself is a vanilla sponge filled with strawberry jam and iced with vanilla buttercream. I created a fence with chocolate fingers and used fondant to re-create the slide, trees, mushroom and weevils.

 strawberry jam in between the sponge 

 green vanilla buttercream icing

chocolate finger fence 

 I bought different coloured icing and some strawberry pencils for the slide but I used fondant in the end 

 I got these candy eyeballs from America - absolutely love them! 

 This is supposed to be Clott, one of the weevils 

 The slide and trees 

 The second weevil - not quite sure what it looks like but I think I'm allowed some artistic license ;)