Cashew Butter and Honey Breakfast Muffins

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I love peanut butter. I know that there are other nut butters available such as almond butter or cashew butter but I've never tried them until now. 

Meridian Foods make nut and seed butters in their factory in North Wales. They are an excellent source of protein and energy as they are 100% nuts and they don't contain any palm oil. They have a wide range of nut and seed butters as well as other products which you can read about here. 

I had a look at their website for recipe inspiration and decided to give these breakfast muffins a go. They were quick and simple to put together and made for a substantial breakfast. You can actually taste the cashew butter which I was honestly surprised by as I thought it would be lost in the muffin. I think adding some real cashew nuts will add to the flavour and provide a different texture to the muffin. 

 mixing the dry ingredients 

 mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients 

 ready to go in the oven

 yum! 

Recipe from Meridian website

Disclaimer: I was sent a selection of nut butters from Meridian for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post.  

Cinnamon, Fruit & Nut Mix Cookies

These cookies are inspired by a pack of fruit and nut mix with cinnamon dusted milk chocolate almonds that I found in the shops. I decided to add in more cinnamon, some chopped chocolate as I had a bit leftover and leftover berry mix (raisins, sultanas and dried cranberries). I also used wholemeal flour and oats to make it seem healthier! They were absolutely delicious. I love the cinnamon which was strong but not overpowering and it was the perfect balance of fruit, nut and chocolate. 

I'm sending this to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... who has chosen the theme "Spices" The recipe contains quite a bit of cinnamon which is perfect for this time of the year. 

I'm also sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up my leftover chocolate and berry mix. 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

225g butter
220g dark brown sugar
180g wholemeal flour
250g oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
2.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 eggs
150g fruit & nut mix with cinnamon dusted milk chocolate almonds
70g chocolate, chopped
100g berry mix (raisins, sultanas, dried cranberries)

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 baking trays.
• Cream the butter and sugar for a few minutes.
• Add in egss one at at time a mix well.
• Mix in flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and oats.
• Finally stir in the fruit, nuts, chocolate and berry mix. 
• Using a small ice cream scoop, place round balls of dough spaced apart on a baking tray.
• Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
• Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• The cookies will harden as they cool. 

Apple and Sultana Crumble Bars

This is my second entry for Tea Time Treats hosted on alternate months by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. The theme for November is Ginger and Bonfire Treats, hosted by Karen.  I was leafing through my Hummingbird bakery cake days book and came across this recipe which is in the 'Halloween and Bonfire Night' section. It's a lovely recipe which is relatively simple to prepare. I love the spices mixed with the apples and sultanas. I'm sure I've mentioned previously that I'm not a fan of ginger but you can barely taste it in this recipe which is perfect for me. The crumble is buttery and soft with the chewiness of the oats, plus it makes it seem slightly healthier! 

 making the base 

 add the spiced apples

 sprinkle sultanas on top 

 finish with more crumble - I didnt have enough to cover the whole top so some of the sultanas were burnt!

 fresh from the oven 

Recipe from the hummingbird bakery cake days

200g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

200g unsalted butter, softened

250g light brown sugar

120g rolled oats

300g granny smith apples (approximately 2.5-3 apples peeled, cored and chopped)

4 tablespoons cornflour

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

175g sultanas

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. 
• Add the butter and rub together until they resemble breadcrumbs. 
• Stir in the sugar and rolled oats.
• Press half of this oat mixture into a greased and lined tray (approx 22cm x 31cm). 
• Peel and core the apples, then cut into small chunks. 
• Mix the apples with the cornflour and ground spices. 
• Place the spice-coated apples on top of the oat mixture then sprinkle over the sultanas. 
• Spoon the remaining oat mixture on top and press down gently. 
• Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the mixture is golden brown.
• Allow to cool completely in the baking tray before slicing and serving. 

Courgette Cake

My colleague brought in these beautiful courgettes (zucchini) from his garden. It's not unsurprising then that I decided to make a cake with it. I've always wanted to try making a courgette cake and I'm really glad I did as it was really delicious. It's very similar to a carrot cake. The courgettes made the cake moist and the orange icing in this recipe went very well with it. I'd like to try it with lemon or other fruit or chocolate. Have you baked anything with courgettes? How did it turn out? 

Look at the size of them! 

adding grated courgette to the cake batter 

ready to go in the oven

fresh from the oven

with icing on top 

I added some crushed walnuts as it looked a little plain

For the cake 

250g butter

250g caster sugar or brown sugar

4 eggs

350g self raising flour

juice and zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

350g courgette, grated  (I used 1 large one as shown in the picture above)

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

80g sultanas

Orange Cream Cheese Icing 

125g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter

300g icing sugar

juice and zest of 1/4 orange 

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Grease and line a 25cm deep cake tin. 
• Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. 
• Add the eggs one at a time while mixing until the eggs are well incorporated. 
• Sieve the flour with the cinnamon and mixed spice. 
• Fold in 1/3 of the flour, followed by 1/2 of the orange juice and zest, repeat this using the remaining flour and orange so that all the ingredients are well combined. 
• Stir in the courgette, walnuts and sultanas and mix well. 
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and place on the centre shelf in the preheated oven.
• Bake for approximately 1 hour or until the cake is firm to touch. 
• Turn the cake out on a rack and allow to cool completely.

To make the icing: 

• Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. 
• Gradually beat in the icing sugar and orange juice and zest until you have a smooth creamy icing.
• Spread over the cooled cake. 

Banana bread with sultanas and pecans

Final one in my banana series for now. I initially wanted to make a wholemeal banana loaf but realised too late I'd run out of wholemeal flour. I also did not have any walnuts to hand. However I had pecan nuts and sultanas so decided to make up my own recipe. The final result was surprisingly good. The bread was moist and tasted quite strongly of bananas  (I used extremely ripe bananas) I love the added crunch of the nuts and the sultanas complemented the banana flavour well. 

115g butter
115g sugar
225g self raising flour
2 eggs
3 medium bananas
1 cup sultanas
1 cup pecans (or walnuts)

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Mash the bananas in a bowl.
• Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer. 
• Add the eggs and continue mixing. 
• Add the mashed bananas and mix together. 
• Add in the flour, sultanas and nuts. 
• Transfer the mix to a loaf tin. 
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.