Pineapple upside down cupcakes with gran luchito buttercream

The other day I overheard a posh lady explaining to her crestfallen toddler why she wasn’t allowed a cupcake. Not because they’re sugary or calorific,  but because they’re “just so very unfashionable now darling” as she towered over her in her Ugg boots. Of course, I immediately bought four and bloody gorgeous they were too.

Gran luchito is one of the finest chilli tapenades I’ve been lucky enough to receive a free jar of and this recipe for cupcakes is well worth a shot. I love the way they’ve gone completely left field with their recipe suggestions and the combination of caramelised pineapples and smoky chilli-laced cream topping is pretty sensational.

I got slightly sidetracked and didn’t manage to make the chilli buttercream pate a bombe topping in their recipe. Instead I combined 300g icing sugar, 50g butter and 125g cream cheese with a generous spoonful of the smoky joy. These were fallen upon and instantaneously devoured by the mums at my local under one’s club. Thank god for fellow sleep deprived sugar-addicts who have more important things to worry about than the format of their cakey fix.

makes 16 cupcakes

ingredients

155g plain flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

150g sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

110g oil (vegetable or extra light olive oil)

110g buttermilk

for the caramelised pineapple

6 tbsp. butter, cubed

200g light brown sugar

15-16 pineapple slices

maraschino cherries to garnish

for the chilli buttercream

400g granulated sugar

150g water

700g butter, room temperature

6 egg yolks

Gran Luchito chilli tapenade to taste

method

• preheat oven to 180C. Mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
• crack the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for about 15 seconds. Add the sugar and continue beating on a medium speed for about half a minute. Add the vanilla and the oil.
• Reduce the speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour. Add half the buttermilk and the rest of the flour. Dribble in the remaining buttermilk and beat until just combined.
• Scrap down the side of the bowl. The batter will be thin.
• To make the caramel, melt the butter over a low heat in a small saucepan and stir in the brown sugar. Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Spoon the caramel equally into 16 cupcake cases, top with a pineapple slice and a cherry.
• Pour in the batter until 2/3 full and bake in a pre heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
• Cool for 3-5 mins and then remove cupcakes from the pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.
• To make the chilli buttercream, mix the sugar and water to the consistency of wet sand in a small saucepan.
• With a wet pastry brush, clean all the sugar crystals from the sides of the pan to prevent the syrup from crystalising, and cook to the soft ball stage without stirring.
• Prepare a pate a bombe by whisking the egg yolks in the mixer. When the sugar reaches the soft ball stage, pour the hot syrup carefully into the bowl of eggs as they whisk. Continue to whisk until the mixing bowl is completely cold.
• Change the whisk attachment from a whisk to a paddle and add the butter. Once this is fully incorporated add the chilli tapenade to taste. Pipe over the cooled cupcakes with a star tip nozzle and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Pea, Spring Onion And Smoked Cheese Quiche

I’ve churned out so many quiches this year I actually started dreaming about the things at one point. The other day (IRL, not my dream) a woman stopped me outside one of the payday loans shops on Stoke Newington High Street and asked if I was “that quiche lady”. She then demanded to know “when would I be making more?” which was nice and also a little bit weird.

I’ve had to slice production down to just one a week, but it’s really not that hard to whip up your own. It’s all about that all-butter and nigella seed crust. Sounds a bit out there I know, but those oniony black seeds compliment the fromage and sage so well, we’re talking borderline sycophancy. There are some gorgeously bulbous, pungent spring onions around at the moment which sop up the herbal vinegar like nobody’s business. I also like to add a shake or two of frozen peas for random bursts of sweetness. Add fragile pastry, juddering, smoky custard and the sharply savoury bite of the herb-roasted onions into the mix and you’ve got the makings of the most relentless quichey-bliss.

Once you’ve sorted your pastry (I’ve got this down to a 15 minute job) and roasted your onions (both of which you can do in advance) it’s just a simple case of whipping up your dairy products, filling up the pastry and sticking it in the oven for 30 minutes while you crack on with more important things.

(Serves  8 with salad or 4 very greedy people)

INGREDIENTS

For the pastry

125g (room temperature) butter diced

250g plain flour

¾ tbsp nigella seeds

1 heaped tsp salt

Cold water to bind

For the onions

1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

½ tbsp finely chopped sage

1-2 cloves garlic

Baking paper

For the custard

3 eggs

150-200ml double cream

100g smoked cheese (I used Applewood)

Black pepper

peas

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 6 – for a good, crispy pastry base you can also stick a baking sheet in there to heat. Measure your flour into a large bowl. Add the nigella seeds and salt.
• Rub in the butter until crumb-like and slowly add the cold water until it all comes together in a nice pliant dough (if you accidentally add too much water, just sprinkle in a bit more flour to absorb).
• Drape a damp tea towel over the bowl and pop in the fridge to chill
• Line a shallow baking tray with some baking paper. Mix the balsamic, garlic and sage in a medium bowl, and stir in the onions until well coated with the mixture. Sprinkle in the sugar and salt and stir well.
• Pour the onion mixture into the tray and wrap the paper into a loose parcel.
• Roll the pastry onto some lightly greased baking paper and place in a quiche dish, pressing the pastry into the corners and up around the edges. Prick lightly all over with a fork. Pour in some lentils or dried chickpeas to stop it from rising.
• Place the quiche dish on the heated baking sheet for 15-20 minutes.
  Place the onions on a separate shelf in the oven.
• Beat the eggs, cream and grated cheese together. Grind in some pepper.
• Line the pastry case with the onions and shake in some frozen peas.
• Pour over the egg mixture and return to the oven for 30 minutes.

Cakes for Japan

Every so often I find myself really missing Japan. The gleaming row of vending machines opposite my tatami lined flat, selling everything from freshly pressed shirts to dodgy burgers. Or bumping into my students whilst perusing the fascinating aisles of assorted fish, tofu and vitamin drinks in our local supermarket. Hanging around with friends in Ueno park, scoffing Makudonurado in Harajuku and cycling around late at night with my front door unlocked and wads of yen in my pockets. After a couple of life-changing years teaching English out there, it’s the people I really miss.  Like Takahiro my deaf student who was mercilessly bullied because, as another teacher explained to me “the nail that sticks out must be hammered down”, or Kasahara sensei, the kindly science teacher that taught me how to make the most delicious yakisoba; and of course Masa and Kei.

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Cider Rye Bread

I’m rubbish at making bread. Cakes, quiches, pies, I can happily churn out these things with varying degrees of confidence, but bread? Forget it.  I can’t even do it using a machine (my crust is inevitably anaemic and the texture all dense and doughy).  As for the “longhand method”, I can’t be done with all that kneading and proving and knocking back – life’s too short. So I was dead chuffed to find this recipe from Dan Lepard. Involving no kneading whatsoever and just a few ingredients I’ve made it about five times now, each time with great success. And I just adore the fact that you bake it in a saucepan.

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