When Mummy is away, Daddy will Play...Choc Orange Cupcakes

This is the final part of the fun I had with the kids - cooking up a storm - while Mummy was away. In the first part of this 'series', I posted about Chocolate Roasted Bananas that we had for dessert. In the second part I shared the main meal which was Scotch Eggs.
This is another dessert that we had after lunch as well as throughout the day. Yes, we certainly did have fun while Mummy was away!

The inspiration from this actually comes from one of the readers of this blog - Angela. She had shared her cupcake recipe with me where the cupcake moulds are half filled with batter, topped with coloured sprinkles and then covered up with more batter. I thought that was rather brilliant and so I decided to make my own version of cupcakes, using my tried and tested Butter Cake recipe but flavoured with some Orange Oil. Then, instead of sprinkles, I put in some delicious Belgioan Dark Chocolate Buttons!
This is what I did.

Ingredients:
230g (8oz) Flour
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
230g (8oz) Castor Sugar
250g Butter
4 Eggs – lightly beaten
2 tsp Orange Oil
1 Tbsp Honey
4 Tbsp Milk

Method
Cream butter and sugar till light and ivory coloured
Add eggs a little at a time
Fold in flour (sifted twice with baking powder)
Add Milk, Honey and Orange Oil
Quarter fill cupcake moulds. Add in Chocolate Buttons (or any other filling you would like)
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 25 mins till golden and done





The chocolate melted and stayed kind of soft and gooey even when the cake was cooled. It was really nice biting into the orange cupcake and finding the dark, luscious chocolate inside. The kids certainly loved it and The Lovely Wife was rather thrilled as well to find cupcakes when she returned home that evening.

While Mummy is away, Daddy will Play... Scotch Eggs

This is the second of 3 parts of How I played while the Lovely Wife was away. Played in the kitchen that is - cooking up a storm for my kids!

We had decided earlier in the morning that I would make them Scotch Eggs. Both the kids love eggs, especially hard boiled eggs. They also love their meatballs so it seemed like a perfect idea to combine the two!

Traditionally, a Scotch Egg is a hard-boiled egg that is wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and then deep-fried. They are also usually eaten cold and often with salad and pickles. Contrary to popular belief, Scotch Eggs have nothing to do with the Scottish and was actually created in a London food shop way back in 1738.


The version I made didn't have Sausage meat in it, wasn't coated in breadcrumbs nor was it deep fried. It certainly wasn't eaten cold either!! I had a lot of meat left over after wrapping the hard boiled eggs so I made meatballs.

This is what I did:

Ingredients
4 eggs
500g Mince Beef
2 slices wholemeal bread
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Method
Boil the eggs until hard boiled. Let them cool then shell them and set aside.
Cut crust off break and soak in milk until soft. Mash the bread up till it forms a paste and then mix it together with the mince. Season with salt and pepper and add in the tomato sauce. Mix well.
Flatten some of the mince in your hand and then place the egg on top of the flattened piece. Slowly mould the meat around the egg. Use some water to smoothen out the meat over the egg if needed.
Place the meat covered eggs on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 mins in a 190C preheated oven.


I served these with garlic mushrooms and while the kids had theirs with rice, toghether with mustard and more tomato sauce. I ate mine with some French Bread.



All in all a very tasty and satisfying meal! Stay tuned for the last installment of While Mummy is away...

While Mummy is away, Daddy will Play... Chocolate Roasted Bananas

While Mummy is away, Daddy will Play! Not quite as exciting as it sounds but still a lot of fun! It's nice having the kids to myself and we do a lot of fun stuff together. I take the opportunity to cook extra special stuff for them as well.

The Lovely Wife was away on Friday and was expected back late Saturday evening so early on Saturday morning, we decided what we were going to have for lunch and then headed off to the Supermarket to get the groceries. I went a little overboard with lunch and dessert that day which is why this 'topic' will be covered in three separate posts!

Starting off with the easiest dish that I made that day - Roasted Banana's with Chocolate. I had eaten this many years ago as a student in Australia. What I remember was banana's being halved and then stuffed with chocolate chips before being wrapped in aluminium foil. The foil was then left to 'bake' on the Barbecue while the meat was devoured. Then the foil would be opened up to reveal lovely gooey banana with melted chocolate. It was sinfully delicious.


I did something similar. I peeled two banana's, split then lengthwise and then sandwhiched the two halves with good quality dark chocolate before wrapping them in foil. I put the foil wrapped bananas in a 190C oven for about 20 mins.

I loved the flavours of the melted chocolate and soft banana. I used an almost ripe banana so it wasn't too sweet and didn't get too gooey. The kids loved it and they had great fun opening the foil package to reveal the bananas covered in chocolate.

The only thing I would do differently is maybe not split the banana completely and then stuff the chocolate inside - rather than sandwiching it between two split halves.

A great dessert and so easy to do. Oh, and probably I'd serve it with ice cream and some nuts next time for a baked Banana Split! Now that's an idea worth trying!!



Look out for the next two 'editions' of While Mummy is Away...