I purchased my first Nigella Lawson book a good few months ago after warming to her in her last TV series - Kitchen: Recipes from the heart of the home (and falling in love with the very popular Chocolate and Guiness cake), the book is of the same name and I have been drooling over the gorgeous photography and mouthwatering recipes every time I want to make something different.
The perfect excuse came up as I have just moved into a new place with the boyfriend and wanted to introduce us to the neighbours and we had friends coming round to be nosey. I wanted to try the Red Velvet Cupcake recipe as it is one of my favourite flavours but I had been unsuccessful when I tried the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book before. The Nigella one was perfect though, it still uses a ridiculous amount of red food paste (rather than just the liquid dye as the colour is more vibrant) and the slightly sour cream cheese topping.
I also went for the chocolate chip cookies as it has been so long since I made some, I can not even remember ever baking any - surely a crime against baking! These were amazing and went down really well at our morning team meeting at work. Slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, I also think the posh vanilla extract I bought made a big difference to the flavour.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 24
Ingredients:
• 250g plain flour
• 2x 15ml tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 100g soft unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 1x heaped 15ml tablespoon Christmas-red paste food colouring
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 175ml buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 170°C and line the muffin tin with paper cases
• Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb in a bowl
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating well, and when you have a soft, pale mixture beat in the food colouring and vanilla.
• Still beating, add 1 spoonful of the dried ngredients then 1 egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients.
• Finally, beat in the buttermilk and vinegar and divide the batter between 24 cases. • Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and when done leave to cool on a rack before adding the all important frosting.
Buttery cream-cheese frosting
ingredients:
• 500g icing sugar, sifted
• 125g cream cheese
• 125g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or lemon juice
• chocolate sprinkles and/or red sugar to decorate.
Method:
• Whizz together the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar.
• Pour in the cider vinegar (or lemon) and whizz angina to make a smooth icing.
• Ice each cupcake and decorate with chocolate sprinkles and red sugar.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes approx 14
Ingredients:
• 150g soft unsalted butter
• 125g soft light brown sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg, fridge-cold
• 1 egg yolk, fridge-cold
• 300g flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1 x 326g packet of chocolate chips
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas mark 3. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
• Melt the butter and let it cool a bit. Put the brown and white sugars into a bowl, pour the slightly cooled, melted butter over them and beat together.
• Beat in the vanilla, the cold egg and cold egg toll until the mixture is light and creamy.
• Slowly mix in the flour and bicarb until just blended, then fold in the chocolate chips.
• Take a large tablespoon of the cookie dough and drop onto the baking sheet, put them about 8cm apart. You will have to do two batches so keep the cookie dough in the fridge between batches.
• Bake for 15-17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.
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