Apple Crumble Cupcakes

It' has been ages since I made cupcakes. I have mentioned before that Mr Birdie likes to joke that cupcakes are all I make - well hopefully this blog has proved him wrong! I made these once before and Mr Birdie declared them 'the best cupcakes I'd ever made'! I decided to make these as I had a couple of Bramley apples that needed using up.

These cupcakes are a combination of recipes - the cupcake recipe is from Eric Lanlard's Cox, Cookies & Cake book and the cream cheese frosting and crumble topping come from the Cup O' Sugar blog. If I had had lots of time I would have filled them with custard as my Dad gave me a cupcake filler gadget for Christmas that I am still waiting to try out but sadly time flew by today. I made 18 cupcakes from the mixture but this will probably depend on how much apple mixture you make.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
2 cooking apples (peeled, cored and chopped - you may want to use 3 to ensure you have enough)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g butter (softened)
200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
350g self-raising flour

For the cream cheese frosting:
4 tablespoons butter (60g)
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6oz cream cheese (approx. 1 packet)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the crumble topping:
55g plain flour
55g rolled oats
Pinch of cinnamon
55g butter
40g soft light brown sugar

Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with paper cases.
2) Put the apples in a saucepan with the cinnamon and cook over a gentle heat until mushy. (This will take a long time - the first time I made these I added some water but didn't this time. You will need to keep stirring it regularly to make sure the mixture doesn't catch on the bottom of the saucepan. The original recipe says to strain the mixture after it's cooked and to then weigh out 250g but I only had 100g without straining it which is why you might want to try 3 apples instead.)

3) In a bowl, mix the bicarbonate of soda into the apples.

4) In a separate large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Once these are combined add the eggs.

5) Alternately fold the self-raising flour and apple mixture into the butter mixture and mix well (the mixture will be quite thick - although it may be looser if you use the correct amount of apple.) 

6) Divide between the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean (mine took 20 minutes.) Leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

7) Once the cupcakes have cooled make the cream cheese frosting. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric whisk until well-combined. Frost the cupcakes with a knife (you can alternatively use a frosting bag with a nozzle but I think they look better rustic.)

8) To make the crumble topping mix the flour, oats and cinnamon in a bowl. Then add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until all the ingredients come together in a crumble-like consistency. Then add the sugar making sure it is evenly mixed in.

Spread the crumble mix on a paper-lined baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. You will need to gently stir the mixture to ensure it browns evenly (I checked mine every 5 minutes and found it needed about 20 minutes.) Once the crumbs are golden, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 

9) To finish the cupcakes sprinkle the crumble topping onto the cream cheese frosting and enjoy (with cream or custard if you're feeling extra indulgent!)

Blackberry and apple crumble

Autumn has well and truly arrived. The weather on Sunday was horrible and it was decided in the Little Birdie household that it was most definitely crumble weather.

It was a proud day as it was the first time we picked apples from our apple tree to use in the crumble. It has been in the garden for just over a year and was only a cheap tree from Aldi so we have been impressed that anything has grown. The blackberries were also freshly picked from just behind our house so the filling came from less than 20 metres from our kitchen - an impressive feat!  We are disappointed that we will have to leave it when we move house this week.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from his 'The Naked Chef' book. It is my go to crumble recipe that always goes down well. You can use any fruit or combination of fruit that you want. Apples, pears, berries, plums, peaches, rhubarb - the possibilities are endless. 

Ingredients:

Crumble

225g plain flour

115g butter

90g sugar

pinch of salt ( I quite often forget this!)

Fruit

455g fruit (washed and prepared)

3 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Put the crumble ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (You can do this by hand - just rub the mixture between your hands). 

2) Put the fruit into a shallow ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar. 

3) Spread the crumble mixture over the prepared fruit and give the dish a shake. 

4) Bake in the oven for about half an hour or until the top is evenly golden. (If it starts to go darker around the edge, turn the oven down a little.

5) Enjoy! (With cream, custard or ice cream - mmmm!) 

Blackberry and apple crumble muffins

The end of summer is fast approaching and autumn is in sight. The days are getting shorter, the summer holidays are nearly over (to the delight of parents and the despair of teachers) and blackberries are appearing. I spent Sunday afternoon wondering around the local area picking blackberries to use in my latest baking adventure. After trawling the Internet I found many options: blackberry and almond meringue cake, blackberry sourdough scones, blackberry and apple muffins and even bramble marshmallows. In the end I opted for a recipe from the Delicious Magazine website for blackberry and apple crumble muffins which you can find here.

The recipe works well and produces muffins that are moist. I particularly like the bursts of bright purple created by the blackberries. If I was to make these again I would cut the chunks of apple a little smaller and possibly use a dessert apple instead to add a little more sweetness.

The recipe makes 12 muffins and you will need a 12-hole muffin tin lined with paper cases.

Ingredients:

For the muffins 
300g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
190g caster sugar
210ml milk
1 large egg  (beaten)
100g butter (melted)
Zest of 1 large lemon (finely grated)
1 large Bramley apple
150g blackberries

For the crumble topping
15g butter (at room temperature)
25g plain flour
15g demerara sugar

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 and line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
2) First make the crumble topping. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Rub in the butter 

Stir in the sugar and work the mixture with your fingers until it forms nuggets.

Stir in the sugar 

3) For the muffins, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar. In a separate small bowl, beat the milk with egg, melted butter and lemon zest.

Mix together the dry ingredients

Beat together the wet ingredients and lemon zest

4) Peel, quarter and core the apple, and cut into blackberry-size pieces.

5) Stir the wet mixture into the flour and sugar mixture until combined (it's fine if it's still a bit lumpy). Stir in the apple and blackberries.

6) Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper muffin cases and sprinkle over the crumble topping.

7) Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Cool for 5 minutes and preferably serve warm (and maybe with a dollop of custard or cream if you're feeling decadent?)

Happy baking (and blackberry picking!)
Dil :-)

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