Fit for a fairy

We used to call them buns and fairy cakes – but “cupcakes” are all the rage

I AM BAD at baking but good at cussing. So this week’s column is dedicated to helping anyone else who suffers from this kind of flaw (or talent), to bake more, cuss less.

Maybe it’s because I am rotten at following recipes to the letter, or just not that bothered about sweet stuff. Invariably, I make cakes and realise I’ve forgotten a key ingredient, which makes or breaks a dessert, but never matters as much with savoury food. Maybe it’s because you can’t really monitor progress of the cakes or biscuits by regularly tasting them.

At least with stews, sauces, dressings and pies, you get a sense of the flavour as the recipe unfolds. There are rarely surprises. But with desserts, pastry or bread, texture often becomes more important than flavour and the success or failure of texture is all in the technique and exactness of a recipe.

You may have noticed in delis and food shops that cupcakes are very much in vogue at the moment. This is a lot to do with the fact that certain wholesalers are now supplying them in bulk, all cutesily iced, waiting to be gobbled.

We are one of the few companies that actually make our own cupcakes – so labour-intensive and tricky to transport that they probably cost us more to make than we can ever sell them for. But there is something Alice-in-Wonderland about a cupcake that makes all of us go a little gooey inside. I also think that, flavour-wise, they can taste a little juvenile, so I went in search of adults-only cupcakes recipes, which I hope I’ve found.

Muffins, too, are the other Achilles heel for some of us. Muffins sound wholesome, perhaps even good for us. But most of the commercial ones are literally oozing with cheap fats. Put one in a brown paper bag and see how many grease spots appear after an hour. Gross.

But at least you can sit down and enjoy the home-baked goodies on these pages, knowing exactly what’s in them, and enjoy them with a delicious cup of home-brewed, Fairtrade, organic, earth-loving coffee.

Chocolate cupcakes (makes 12)

From the Ottolenghicookbook. Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients.

2 eggs

115ml sour cream

80ml sunflower oil

2 tbsp molasses

Good knob of butter

60g caster sugar

60g light muscavado sugar

120g plain flour

35g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

40g ground almonds

200g dark chocolate, chopped into small bits

Icing

165g dark chocolate, chopped into small bits

135ml cream

35g butter

Good squeeze of golden syrup

Heat the oven to 170 degrees/gas mark three. Line a bun tray with some cases. Whisk all the ingredients from the eggs down to the muscavado sugar (inclusive) until just mixed. You don’t have to work too hard in this recipe. Sift the ingredients from the flour to the salt (inclusive) and fold into the wet mixture. Add the almonds and chocolate pieces and fold until they are evenly distributed. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes. This filled up 12 cases exactly. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Make the icing when cooking the cupcakes, as they need to be iced when the icing has thickened and the cupcakes aren’t too hot. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is just about to boil. Pour this over the chocolate and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until the chocolate melts fully. Add the butter and golden syrup and continue to mix. Add more golden syrup if it’s too bitter. Cover the icing with cling film, and when the cupcakes are cool and the icing is still spreadable, ice generously. Don’t cool the icing in the fridge as it will get hard and lose its shine.

Apricot and orange muffins

I used those super-healthy unsulphured apricots, which can taste a bit bitter in the end result, so I've added a bit of honey to this original recipe from The Cook's Book, by Jill Norman.

250g dried apricots

100ml freshly squeezed orange juice

375g strong plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 large eggs

250ml plain yogurt

2 tbsp honey

zest of one orange

Preheat oven to 200 degrees/gas mark six. Chop up the apricots as much as you can and soak them in the orange juice for 30 minutes. Grease a muffin tin and put it in the freezer while you prep the muffin mix. Sift the flour and baking powder. Beat the soft butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly whisk in the eggs and yogurt. Ignore the curdling, or chuck in a spoon of flour to make it go away. Add the honey, zest, apricots and orange juice. Mix well and then fold in the flour. Once it is combined, spoon into the muffin tray. Fill a small saucepan or roasting tray with two cups of water and put beside the muffin tray. The steam helps keep them extra moist. Bake for 25 minutes. Place the tray on a damp cloth and the muffins should pop out more easily. Cool on a wire rack. dkemp@irishtimes.com. www.itsa.ie