Oh! And a Happy St. Patrick's Day! Getting to the point though, it's high time I started posting some of the Nigella experiments I've been going on about. I've been aware of Nigella Lawson for some time, mostly from her appearances on the Today Show, but I fell in love with her this past Christmas. I stumbled across a blog called "Rachel Eats" (www.racheleats.wordpress.com) while googling red cabbage recipes. I loved the blog and as I read more and more of her entries, she kept talking about Nigella, featuring her recipes, etc. So I ordered Nigella's first cookbook ("How to Eat") and started watching her videos on youtube.
I was mesmerized. Then, as my obsessions often do, it tapered off a bit. Now it's back with a vengeance thanks mainly to the Cooking Channel and the Food Network, as between them they regularly air 3 different Nigella shows. As I watched the shows, I realized that there were actually a lot of her recipes that could fairly simply be veganized; outside of recipes which center around a large cut of meat at least. But a bunch of her side dishes can actually be meals in themselves, so that's what I started focusing on. Plus desserts. Vegan desserts are really easy and usually turn out pretty close to their non-vegan counterparts (Usually. Blake still can't find a homemade vegan brownie that suits him). So, for my first installment, I thought we'd start with dessert!
These little cakes are meant to be made using a full-size muffin tin, but as I'm still counting my calories, I decided to use a mini version. The cakes came out to almost exactly 100 calories and 3 grams of fat each (including icing, using my version, that is). It's kind of a lot, as they are quite small, but they're perfect for when I just need a tidbit that satisfies my sweet tooth. Plus they are, frankly, the cutest things I have ever seen. I think that they are technically meant for children, but they made me happy just looking at them, and it still makes me happy looking at the pictures (though the cakes themselves have been gone for sometime now). And Blake liked them, so I know they were a success!
My version varies in the ingredients as well as the form of preparation. I also cut the recipe in half (yielding exactly 1 dozen mini cupcakes. The original yields 1 dozen regular sized cupcakes.). In the original recipe (which will follow at the end of this post), she blends the ingredients directly in a food processor. As my version was going to make such a small amount of batter, I went ahead and just blended everything together in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
For my version, I simply blended 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance margarine in the bowl with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until it was smooth. I sifted in 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and the tiniest pinch of salt, and omitted the eggs altogether; didn't even use a substitute. I used about 3 or 4 tablespoons of almond milk which is more than the original recipe, but I had to compensate for the lack of moisture from leaving out the eggs. I blended everything together with a spoon until it was smooth and the consistency you would expect of cake batter. The amount of batter seems like it well never make enough cakes, but it worked out exactly; you just have to be cautious about how much you fill them at first. You can always go back and top off any that look skimpy. Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray (or using muffin liners), fill each about half full, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Different ovens cook at different speeds, so just start checking them around ten minutes. They bake incredibly quickly!
When they were done I let them cool in the pan on a rack for a few minutes before taking them out of the pan to continue cooling on the rack. Then I set about making the icing. Ridiculously simple. I just mixed together 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of the almond milk and a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional of course; you could use vanilla or nothing at all) until it was a good dribbling consistency. I colored it with 2 drops of red food coloring (I love a pink cupcake!). I spooned the icing over each cake when they were cooled but while they were still on the rack. The icing is fairly runny, so I put some paper towels underneath to catch any wayward icing.
Traditionally you top each with a maraschino cherry. As instructed in the original recipe for mini cakes, I cut the maraschinos in half. Blake's not a cherry-on-a-cupcake fan, so I topped four with cherries to satisfy me, and the rest with star-shaped sprinkles for him. I have never seen cuter cupcakes in my life!
They were so cute, so tasty and so easy that I've decided to make a batch of them for Easter. I'll probably make them full sized and I even thought about making some of them jam-filled. I'm going to tint the icing several different pastel colors. I think they'll be a hit!
Here's the original recipe, verbatim, from "How to Eat" by Nigella Lawson:
Fairy Cakes
--I haven't got a heart of stone; I do realize that children sometimes like making children's food. If we're going to have tea with friends who have children the same age as ours, we sometimes make a batch of these British-traditional, simply iced, and cherry-topped cupcakes in the morning to take with us. They go down well with the nostalgia-minded parents; the children just pick off or lick off the icing.
I use a processor, but if you want to make the fairy cakes by hand, cream the butter and sugar, then add the beaten eggs and flour in alternate tablespoons. Use milk to bind, as usual, and you won't need the extra baking powder.--
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1/2 cup superfine sugar or vanilla sugar
2 eggs
1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, if not using vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with paper liners. Put all the cake ingredients except the milk in the processor and pulse furiously. Then pour in the milk and process again till you have a smooth, flowing cake batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden around the edges, and cool on a wire rack.
When properly cool, make the icing. You can make an ordinary glace icing--that's to say 2 cups of confectioners' sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons of milk--or you can make thicker, stiffer royal icing, whipped up from 3 cups confectioners' sugar, 2 egg whites, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Dye as you wish--we run through the full gamut of pink ranging from ballet pink through Pepto-Bismol to all-out Barbie, depending on the intensity of our mood and heavy-handedness with the bottle of coloring.
When the icing is still wet, let your child place a maraschino cherry in the center of each. You can make double the amount in mini-fairy cakes if you prefer (and then, when topping them, remember to slice each cherry in half); just use a mini-muffin pan.
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*sigh* I love her. :)
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