Saturdays child...

today turned out to be a pretty busy day for me. I had hoped to go out and get a few things bought, but the youngest was feeling a bit iffy (he has a wee cold) and I wasn't about to drag him through a mall into stores he doesn't enjoy.

So I improvised. I did the ironing that has been waiting for me for more than three weeks, caught up on all my 'web reading', had some insightful conversations with my kids (Mommy when I was a teeny tiny baby I was called Alfred hey??? No baby, your name was always what it is now. Oh, okay) And got some baking done.

The lovely lady on www.likemamusedtobake.com and I did a small pressie swap last week. I sent her proper South African ingredients for the mint crisp tart and she sent me this pretty package.

I decided to get stuck into the recipe book. Paging through it makes your mouth water. Even more so if you are a lover of cupcakes. Little gems like Bee-Hive Cup Cakes, Baklava Cup Cakes and Pistachio and Cardamom Cup Cakes are presented beautifully in this book. The illustrations are simple and elegant. A really nice book for a new baker, food fundie or even just to page through.

The recipes are easy to follow and list ingredients in multiple measurements (imperial & metric). I had my hubby look through the book at one of the more exotic looking recipes and asked him if he tought he would be able to manage something like this on his own. He duly did and said the instructions were easy enough and he reckoned he could "whip them up fairly easily cos the directions are clear. Please just put the utensils on the counter for me though cos I can never find where you put them." 

So this is what I did:

Peanut Butter Mini Cup Cakes

150g unsalted butter, chopped

115g soft brown sugar

2 eggs (I used large ones)

125g crunchy peanut butter (would be even better if you used Extra Crunchy Peanut butter)

125g Self raising flour, sifted

30g plain (all purpose) 

60ml milk

frosting:

120g hazel nut spread (nutella or the like)

90g peanut butter

2 snickers, chopped (I left these out as I don't like snickers for some weird reason)

Method:

ready for action

1 Preheat the oven to 180degC (350degF or Gas 4)

2 Line 18 flat bottomed patty holes with paper cases. (I decided to make really proper mini bite size ones with bun cases my mom had brought me from SA. And a patty tin is like a really shallow muffin tin.) 

the minis in the packet

a comparison so you can
see how big they are

3 Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl with electric beaters until light and creamy (I used a wooden spoon and got my upperbody work out in, it does take a fair amount of work if you don't have electric beaters as you want the sugar almost dissolved in the butter)

4 Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. (this looks really curdled and odd, but its right if it looks this way) 

5 Add the peanut butter  and beat well (this is where it goes all smooth and creamy)

6 Sift the flours together and fold half into the mixture (you want it just mixed together, don't over work it) then add the milk and mix gently, then fold in the rest of the flour (it should look fairly creamy and smooth)

milk added

after being gently mixed

7 Divide the recipe evenly among the cases (this is what the recipe says, but in reality, you want your bun cases to be about 3/4 full, so for my mini mini cases I used about 1/2 a teaspoon of mix per case).

8 Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake (this will vary a bit depending again upon the size of the bun cases, the bigger the bun case the longer you will need to bake them, so if you do big ones, bake for 14 - 16 minutes, then check them. If they need to go a bit longer leave them for another 3 minutes and check them again)

9 Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

10 For the frosting/icing, combine the hazelnut spread and peanut butter well and spread over the top of the cooled buns and decorate with a piece of snickers.

it looks suspect, but its oh so yummy

I ended up with about 30 of these mini bits of tastiness, and after giving away 6 to my niece, there are officially 6 left. 

The kids got stuck in. The husband got stuck in. I got stuck in. They were lovely. The peanut  flavour isn't over powering at all, in fact I would prefer mine to be more peanutty.  Easy peasy recipe, no mess no fuss really. Perfect to whip up on a Saturday arvey. 

So, what are you baking this weekend?