Sunday 6 November 2011

Recipe Swap: Sticky Maple Muffins & Maple Syrup Cake


Well it is that time again...Vintage Recipe Swap!  This month marks the first birthday of this excellent adventure in cooking, and although this is only my third month of participating, I feel part of something exciting and am delighted to have met so many lovely and inspirational cooks from all over the world.
So, Happy Birthday to the Vintage Recipe Swap and many thanks to Christianna for coordinating this monthly endeavour!  Please visit Christianna’s Blog here.
I am always nervous about revealing my contribution and curious as to what take everyone else will have on the same original recipe.  This month, as the recipe is for cake, I am even more eager than ever to see what my fellow swappers have created.

So to this months swap – Maple Syrup Cake!
I couldn’t decide what to do with this and actually got a wee bit carried away, and, with the assistance of my eldest daughter, Elsa had a little celebratory tea party to mark the first anniversary of the swap with both cake, and muffins!
The first is a maplely twist on my mums amazing sticky toffee pudding (the recipe for which, I’ll post soon!)


Sticky Maple Muffins (With Maple Buttercream)
Ingredients
240g Chopped Dates
150ml Water
110g Butter or Margarine
110g Caster Sugar
280g Self Raising Flour
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Eggs
260g Maple Syrup
½ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Cinnamon
For the icing (and plenty of it):
700g Icing Sugar
175g butter or margarine
5 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
16 Pecan kernels to top
Method
Preheat your oven to 180 oC (160 oC Fan) and place the muffin cases into your muffin tin (this recipe makes around 16 muffins).
In a small pan, cover the dates with the water and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 5 or so minutes before removing from the heat and stirring in the Bicarbonate of Soda.  Leave to the side.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar and then add the eggs one at a time.   Beat in the maple syrup and once combined, sieve in the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Cinnamon.
Then add the date mixture and stir in well.
Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Allow to cool before icing.
For the Maple Buttercream Icing...  Put the icing sugar in a food processor and pulse, this will remove any lumps. Then simply add the butter and maple syrup and blitz until fully combined and looking smooth and tasty!  I think because of the inclusion of the syrup, this icing is slightly more difficult to work with than regular buttercream and the results may not be as pretty, but this stuff is extremely delicious and works very well with the sticky muffin base.

Maple Syrup Cake (With Fluffy Maple Topping)

I actually decided to make this cake after finding the recipe for the topping, so while I can take credit for the cake, the topping comes courtesy of Jim Fobel’s Old Fashioned Baking Book. 
The cake is very simple and is not dissimilar to the original recipe for this months’ swap and doesn’t require to be iced. In fact, I think it would be nice dotted with some pecans or walnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup, however, I just had to make Mr. Fobel’s “Fluffy Maple Frosting”.
Here goes...
Ingredients:
425g Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
Pinch of Salt
½ Teaspoon of Cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon of freshly grated Nutmeg
4 Tablespoons of Milk
425g Maple Syrup
3 Eggs
Fluffy Maple Frosting:
130g Maple Syrup
110g Granulated Sugar
2 Egg Whites
Pinch of Salt
Handful of walnut halves
Method
Grease a 23 cm cake tin and preheat your oven to 170 oC (150 oC Fan).
Sieve the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.
In a pan, gently melt the butter and maple syrup together and remove from the heat.  Beat the eggs and add them, together with the milk to the syrup mixture.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and beat to remove any lumps.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for approximately one hour.  Leave to cool before icing.
For the Fluffy Maple Frosting -
Sit a glass bowl atop about an inch of boiling water and beat all the ingredients together with an electric hand mixer for around 6  minutes or until stiff peaks are formed.  Remove the bowl from the pan and beat for a further minute.  Use the frosting immediately to decorate your cake.

Anna - pinching muffins!


8 comments:

  1. What a perfect twist on the original recipe Claire! I love the idea of Sticky Toffee Pudding adapted to these seasonal flavors. Bravo! It has been such a joy to have you join the swap. I feel I have a Culinary Kindred Spirit in Scotland! Toni (P.S. Add your post to the Linky; you aren't on there yet for others to click and find your great recipe!)

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  2. Your fluffy maple frosting looks so nice and light! And what an enticing name of sticky maple muffins with dates in them...yum!

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  3. Sticky and fluffy - you covered all my favorite food textures! Looks like you and your daughter had a killer tea party.
    I'm glad you made something similar to the original recipe as one of your desserts - it really sounded good!

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  4. Oh my goodness Anna is ADORABLE! What a special celebration, ringing in the swap birthday with a tea-party and these gorgeous recipes! Yum!! Anything that's described as "sticky" is great in my book!

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  5. I've never made frosting this way, great tip! It looks very good.

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  6. I am loving the idea of a marshmallowy-like maple frosting. Everything looks so yummy! But now I have sticky toffee pudding stuck on the brain. ;)

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  7. Your fluffy maple topping totally has me drooling!!!! YUM!

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  8. I managed to avoid winter in Serbia - it was an unusually mild Autumn while I was there. And now I can enjoy beautiful California weather, even though we are entering our short rainy season. I hope you are keeping warm in wintery Scotland:)
    How can anything not taste wonderful when it's "sticky" and fluffy"? I admire you for tackling cupcakes and cake both! And I am looking forward to your mum's recipe for that toffee pudding! Just give me a few weeks to get rid of these extra 10 lbs I managed to put on while in Europe:)
    Have a great weekend!

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