Blueberry and Mango Muffins & Introducing Noel....

Poor little prototype. Noel was a proud, 6 foot tall snowman until I bought him inside in the warm and put him on top of a Blueberry, Mango and Pecan cupcake (Recipe below...)

Seeing as he's a little Christmassy fellow, I've thrown him into English Mum's Big Christmas Bake Off for a larf :)

Here you go Noel, some classic '80s for you :) Modern English - I Melt With You

Which then reminded me of this awesome tune from The Wedding Present - Brassneck

And to chill Noel out a bit, some Christmassy Darude - Sandstorm :)

Blueberry, Mango & Pecan cupcakes: 

These really are quite darn tasty and I'll definitely be making them again. Very quick and very tasty :)

• 300g Plain flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 125g Caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50g Dried Mango pieces
• 100g Dried Blueberries
• 80g Broken up Pecans
• 225ml Milk
• 125ml Vegetable oil
• 1 Free range egg.

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/Gas 5. 
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, fruit and nuts.
3. In a bowl or jug beat the egg, add oil and milk and mix together.
4. Add the wet mixture to the bowl of dry mixture. 
5. Mix together until combined evenly.
6. Divide the batter between 12 muffin cups
7. Bake for 20-23mins until risen and golden, test cooked through with a cocktail stick/skewer.
8. Allow to cool in the tray for 10 mins then move from the tray to a cooling rack to cool.
9. Decorate (Optional)
10. Eat (Mandatory)

Here's the rest of Noel's friends (Apart from the one who sacrificed himself in my mouth) Noel was my first play with Icing so I thought I'd see what else was possible with these learning hands for the other 10. Varying results but I learned things along the way, so that's good then :)

Pineapple Halo Cupcakes.

My Monday afternoon was spent knocking up these little cups of sweet joy!
As with all Cupcake recipes you can tweek away! I baked these fairly small as i knew i was going to go more OT than usual with the topping and the Cupcakes are usually eaten by my drama group at about 9pm, so not the best time for a massive Cupcake chomp-a-thon. So you could increase ingredient amounts for the 12 cakes, or lower the number made.

Dry ingredients:

• 250g Plain flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 125g Pineapple Halo
• 2 Medium eggs
• 80ml Milk
• 100ml Vegetable oil
• 227g tin Pineapple chunks

Topping: 

• 400g Icing sugar
• 150g Unsalted butter
• 30ml double cream
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

1. Whack the oven on to 200 degrees/180 fan/Gas 6.
2. Sieve and mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, cream the pineapple halo and mix in the eggs.
4. Drain the the pineapple chunks and either crush or briefly liquidise, then mix in.
5. Mix in the milk.
6. Mix in the oil.
7. Add the liquid bowl to the dry bowl and mix together
8. Place 12 cupcake cases in a Cupcake tray
9. Spoon the mixture evenly into 12 cases (You can use an icecream scoop but I haven't tried this personally.)
10. Cook for approx 25 mins. Until going golden or skewer/cocktail stick comes out clean.
11. Leave in Cupcake tray for 10 mins then place onto a cooling rack.
12. Top with whatever takes your fancy :) I used a outer ring of the buttercream above, with a dollop of whipped cream in the centre, then added a sprinkling of crushed pecans (Fruit and nuts! Must be good for you!)

I LOVE Toni Collette!!! So she is very welcome to a place on my blog, and if you don't like her then you're wrong, and will be locked in a big shed and forced to watch all her films and listen to all her music until you either love her, or go mad. Probably the latter lol Toni Collette and the Finish - Beautiful Awkward Pictures.

Followed by another Antipodean Aural Awesomeness from INXS - Suicide Blonde.