Its a bake-off!

Oh its been a while. But I have been busy-busy baking (instead of taking photos!)
First, I accepted the challenge to make Vegan cupcakes that were delicious. Enter Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World’s sexy low-fat vanilla cupcakes. I added sprinkles for look and crunch (and checked – the red isn't from crushed bugs as per normal, so they were ok to add)

I ended up topping these with a tofu-icing that REALLY DIDN’T WORK. The recipe just yielded liquid slush. I had to add cocoa, custard powder (dairy free of course – it was basically sugar and cornflour) all my cornflour, egg-replacer, anything powdery to dry it out. In the end I added all my coconut oil (about $5 worth, ugh, baking is costly) and froze. FINALLY, it became useable, and I also put on sprinkles. So imagine these with browny orange topping.

Odd thing was I made about 27, two trays of 12 and then some singlies, all from the same batter, but I could only put the trays in first lot around. The second lot seemed to be a lot more bouncy (below right). Perhaps letting the dough rest was ok. Also not burning them probably helped.

These ended up being a hit at work. I waited until people told me they were delicious before breaking the news that the topping was made out of tofu and there was no butter or milk in them. Oh, and they were low-fat. So a winner!
Next up were some ricotta cornmeal muffins I kinda made up/mixed up.

The recipe was an edit from Creative Gourmet, something like
Ingredients
1 cup shy self-raising flour (I used half wholemeal)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup polenta (yellow cornmeal)
1/4 + 2 tbsp cup caster sugar (I did half with splenda)
125g low fat ricotta cheese
1/4 c applesauce
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup water or as needed to make soft
1 1/4 cups berries, frozen or fresh
Instructions

1. Preheat oven at 160ºC (fan forced at 150ºC). Lightly grease a 1/2 cup-capacity 12 hole muffin pan.
   
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, except blueberries. Using a large metal spoon, stir to combine. Spoon 2 tablespoons of mixture into each muffin cup. Dividing blueberries, top each with some frozen blueberries. Cover with remaining ricotta mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out from pans and serve warm.

They were very tender, and not too sweet – great for lunch BUT the ones I left fresh in the baking box ended up going disgusting and tart and rotten. Lucky I froze a few for lunches!

Lastly I made this recipe from taste (minus the fruit)–  honing my fruitless hot cross bun recipe for easter. I actually halved the recipe but not the yeast and it worked perfectly – the boy prefers these to woolies (and to my previous attempts which turned out like bread rather than buns) Thank goodness for the Kenwood Chef!!