Blackberries - Are they cupcakes or muffins?

Firstly, referring to the title - I started to make cupcakes but since there is no icing, do they become muffins? Am sure there is a technical difference between both (other than icing) but honestly, I have not done a 'Google' search on it yet..I should :)!

Secondly, I wanted to use blackberries in my next recipe and since I don't eat the fruit much, I emailed my friends asking them how they liked to eat the berries....plain, with ice cream, yogurt etc... I received a variety of responses and one friend replied saying with yogurt. Fair enough. Sometime later she tells me her friend likes them in muffins. Makes sense. We exchange a couple of emails, I finally send her my idea for a new recipe... and that's when she emails me back from her BLACKBERRY telling me she thought all this time it was a joke and that I was asking how people would like to 'eat' their Blackberrys i.e. those technical gadgets that most of us can't seem to live without once we get them. Gosh, maybe not so funny now but it cracked us up that day, so had to share :)

Now lastly, am usually slow to post but reading Kate of Aaplemint's recent post inspired me to get a move on posting, as I too have been trying to avoid sweets (healthy recipe to follow in next post..this one is more abt the story). Anyway, what the abstinence from sweets leads to is a hubby who complains that he no longer gets dessert! So, I thought ..why not...let's bake but not eat...can't be that bad. Oh it was baaad....

I made blackberry cupcakes (let's just call them cupcakes for now) and they smelt like all baking does, heavenly and then - I had no clue how they tasted or turned out!! Well, okay. I had a tiny bite. And this time, let's call it a muffin so I don't feel too guilty abt the tiny bite. Besides, what's a tiny bite out of a mini cupcake..oops muffin?! Anyway, no self-tasting and a sweet hubby who had been denied homemade desserts - I needed additional opinions! Thus, a poll was taken at work and looks like the recipe was just fine! Obviously, there were a lot of suggestions that there be a weekly sample tasting session and that I should not stop baking since there are willing testers available Monday through Friday!!! Seriously !!! :)

Okay, enough stories!! Here is the recipe..not earth shattering and definitely not the 'new' one I had suggested to my friend, just a simple, comfortable one...

Ingredients

150g butter, softened with extra for greasing

50g caster sugar

200g self-raising flour

4 eggs beaten

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp almond extract

6-7 blackberries, roughly chopped

Makes about 15 cupcakes

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree Celsius. Generously grease the non-stick muffin pan. Cut the butter and place in a large mixing bowl with the caster sugar. Beat with an electric whisk until pale, fluffy and combined. Sieve the flour into the mixture and add the eggs and beat together. Stir in the milk, almond extract and the chopped blackberries. Spoon the mixture evenly into the holes in the muffin tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25minutes or until cakes are light golden. If you want to make a large cake, cooking time increases to about hour and half. If the top starts to look dark but the skewer does not come out clean when inserted in the centre, lightly cover the top with foil.

Cupcakes - A new discovery in London

One Fine Saturday Morning......

I was going to buy some strawberries from Partridges in Chelsea (a last minute request from a friend to bring two boxes over for lunch) and I walked right into their 'farmer's market'. I had forgotten about the farmer's market (since farmer's markets to me mean the one on Portobello road or Borough market).

Anyway, though I was in a rush, I could not help looking at all the stalls and guess what I find - some lovely cupcakes! The stall was run by Crumbs and Doilies. They sold only mini-cupcakes in about a zillion flavours and toppings...chocolate, lemon, carrot cake, gummy bear, sprinkles...you name it. Gotta try these........mmmmm..lip smacking and cute..quick pop into the mouth!

Cloud Cakes

With my nieces in the house this weekend, baking cupcakes was the activity of the day. Never mind that we had visited Hummingbird Bakery, eaten a cupcake each and also packed some for home. Well, you know me... I probably had something to do with the cupcake suggestion (baking and eating)! We decided to make 'cloud' cupcakes' i.e. strawberry cupcakes with 'fluffy' icing. It was quick and easy. The cupcakes turned out well and while the basic icing also tasted nice, we probably should have beaten it a bit more to make it stiffer. The kids had a blast with the process and with the result :)
The recipe is taken from the Australian Women's Weekly - Cupcakes & Fairycakes recipe book. The book has fantastic pictures and simple, yet creative ideas for cupcake decoration!

Ingredients:

Strawberry Swirl Buttercake

• 90G Butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (10g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons strawberry jam

Fluffy Frosting

• 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
• 40ml water
• 1 egg white

Decoration

• Pink coloured sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to moderate (180 Celsius/160 Celsius fan-forced). Line 6-hole texas or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, extract, sugar, eggs, flour and milk in a small bowl with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium, beat until mixture is changed to a paler colour.
3. Divide mixture among cases; smooth surface. Divide jam over tops of cakes; using a skewer swirl jam into cakes.
4. Bake large cakes about 30 minutes, small cakes about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.
5. Make fluffy frosting.
6. Spread cakes with fluffy frosting; sprinkle with coloured sugar.

My personal deviation from the above recipe - I skipped the strawberry jam for some cupcakes and added in chocolate pieces instead. Also, since I currently own only a mini-muffin pan - we made mini-cupcakes!

Fluffy Frosting
Combine sugar and the water in small saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Boil, uncovered, without stirring about 5 minutes or until syrup reaches 116C on a candy thermometer. Syrup should be thick but not coloured. Remove from heat, allow bubbles to subside. Beat egg white in a small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. While mixer is operating, add hot syrup in thin stream; beat on high speed about 10 minutes or until mixture is thick and cool.

Pink sugar
Use granulated or caster sugar, depending on the texture you prefer. Place required amount of sugar in a plastic bag, add a tiny amount of colouring through sugar by 'massaging' plastic bag. Sugar will keep in a jar at room temperature indefinitely.
Sprinkle over icing.

The Real Cupcakes

Why cupcakes...they are cute to look at, you can eat a whole one and not feel like you've had way too much cake (or so I tell myself) and well, they are just fantastic. This love for cupcakes began in New York at the one and only, Magnolia. Magnolia is good but NY is 'cupcake capital' and there is a whole world beyond Magnolia. My favourite cupcake place is Sugar Sweet Sunshine in the Lower East Side. Anyway, that's NY.
Coming to London. Cupcakes - what are those? More often than not, they are referred to as Fairy cakes..yes, cute but where are they?? After some misses (terrible dry cupcakes with fondant!), I have finally found a place that makes cupcakes as good as the ones you get in NY! It was an accidental discovery made while walking by South Ken. station. It's a cute little place called The Hummingbird Bakery. I've tried Chocolate on chocolate, chocolate on vanilla, vanilla on vanilla, cappuccino...and I've only been twice! They make red velvet, peanut butter and keep trying out new flavours like baked cheesecake... The cupcakes I've had are moist, light and plain old scrumptious! The bakery has a small seating area and they serve Illy coffee and a few other bakery items such as carrot cake, strawberry loaf etc. These items keep rotating so you may or may not find them on a particular day. The South Ken location is actually the second location - the first is on Portobello Road. Each bakery makes the cupcakes on the premises so it's all fresh! They even do mini-cupcakes for special orders. If ever looking for cupcakes in London, this is the place!

I found this on another blog ... the British view of American cupcakes..oops..fairy cakes.. :)

http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/06/magnolia-bakery-bleecker-street-new.html