Muffin pan/cupcake recipes of all kinds

I just had to save these recipes for fun treats you can make in a muffin/cupcake tin:

Some great ideas: use a strip of bacon as a cupcake liner and fill with omelette mixture.  Lightly cook the bacon first, bake for approx 10 minutes at 190 degrees.

Mini Frittata Cups with Mascarpone and Prosciutto Recipe

• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• a pinch of pepper
• 3-4 slices prosciutto, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup grated or shredded cheese (fontina, Parmesan, mozzarella)
• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Heat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease 6 muffin cups (I used my 12-cup muffin tin) with a non-stick spray or olive oil, set aside.

To a bowl, add eggs, mascarpone, salt and pepper. Whisk until mascarpone has no more lumps and mixture is smooth. Mix in cheese, prosciutto and parsley.

Add egg mixture to 6 muffin cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until tops are puffed and golden brown. Serve immediately or cooled. Leftovers can be stored up to a week in the fridge and reheated.

Mini macaroni and cheese; muffin chocolate chip lava cookies

'Smores in muffin tins: 

• 2 cups freshly ground graham cracker crumbs (don’t buy the premade crumbs from the store)
• 3/4 cups butter, melted
• 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 cups mini marshmallows
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
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• Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine crumbs, butter and sugar in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, combine chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. Set aside.
3. Drop a generous amount of the crumb mixture in to the bottom of a prepared and greased muffin tin. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and fill each tin with the marshmallows and chocolate chips. Sprinkle tops with remaining crumb mixture.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 additional minutes. Cool completely before removing from muffin tin.

Mini oreo cheesecakes

INGREDIENTS:

12 Oreo Cookies
1-8oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup store bought caramel sauce {use your favorite brand}

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Place one oreo cookie in the bottom of each tin and set aside.
In a large bowl, whip cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Stir in egg and vanilla. Scrape sides and whip again until there are no lumps. Spoon cheesecake batter over oreos evenly. Depending on how deep your muffin tins are, you should get anywhere from 9-12 individual cheesecakes. Top with pecans and mini chocolate chips. Bake 15 minutes or until completely set. Bring to room temperature. Remove paper liners carefully and refrigerate until cold. To serve, place on serving platter and top with caramel sauce.

Apple Muffins

Cream together 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup margarine/butter
Beat in 2 large eggs and 1 cup flour and 1 large pinch cloves or 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Fold in 1 cup flour, 2 cups diced (small) apple, 1/2 cup milk, alternately.

Spoon into muffin cases, bake at 180 - 170 for 25 minutes.

Drizzle with 1 spoon margarine, 4 spoons or more icing sugar, a little boiling water.

Chocolate custard cake

CHOCOLATE MAGIC CUSTARD CAKE  

Aussie Tucker ~ The Great Australian Bite

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
1 and ¼ cup sugar
110g butter, melted
½ cup plain flour
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups milk, lukewarm
1 tablespoon powdered sugar for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 160C.
Grease a 30cmx17cm baking pan and line it with baking paper.
Separate egg whites and yolks.
Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff and put aside.
Whisk egg yolks, vanilla powder and sugar until creamy.
Add melted butter and mix for half a minute.
Add the flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix with a spatula until incorporated well.
Pour the milk gradually and continue beating.
Add in the egg whites, one third at a time and gently fold in with a spatula.
Pour this liquidy batter into the baking pan and bake for 60 minutes.
Let it cool and when it comes to room temperature chill for an hour.
Slice it in the size you like and dust with powdered sugar right before serving.
Keep it in refrigerator until you finish it all.

A few notes on making the cake: the vinegar helps stabilize the egg whites after they've whipped to stiff peaks. If you have a copper bowl to whip them in, you can skip the vinegar.
When adding the milk, we found it easier and less messy to gently hand whip them in instead of using the stand mixer. It is a very liquidy batter, and for us it splattered everywhere even at the slowest speed. You could also wrap the head of the mixer and the top of the bowl with plastic wrap to help contain the splattering.
As with the original magic custard cake, the temperatures of the ingredients are important. If too hot it will cook the eggs, too cold it will harden the butter.
For folding in the whites, it is done with more of a gentle whisk/folding motion with the whisk since the batter is so runny. The whites will look a little curd like after mixing them in, just try to mix/fold them to the point where there is no big chunks.
Because of the custard center, when fully baked, there will be a bit of a jiggle, but not a sloppy jiggle to the cake when gently shook. Same after it has cooled. That's about it. Have fun and every time we've made the magic custard cakes (this one or the original), going into the oven we don't think they will work correctly, and after baking they are magically perfect.

Chocolate cakes

Nigella's:

5 eggs
7 oz butter
7 oz sugar
7 oz plain chocolate
7 oz almond meal

Method
Melt the chocolate and butter together, then mix in the almonds. Set aside to cool a little.
Seperate 4 of the eggs. Mix 1 whole egg and 4 yolks with the sugar. Blend this with the chocolatey mixture.
Beat the 4 remaining egg whites until they are stiff. Using a metal spoon, carefully fold the eggwhites into the chocolatey mixture.
Pour into a non-stick spring-form baking tin and bake at 175-180 for 45 mins.

Good Food

100g butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
flour, for dusting
140g best-quality dark chocolate, with 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
6 large eggs, separated
140g ground almonds
1 tbsp kirsch or Cointreau (optional)
pinch of salt
85g caster sugar
cocoa powder and crème fraîche, to serve
Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3/fan oven 150C. Grease a 23cm/9in springform cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper or baking parchment. Dust the sides with a little flour. Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Heat until melted, then remove the bowl from the pan and stir until smooth. Leave for about 5 minutes to cool slightly.
Stir in the egg yolks, ground almonds, and the liqueur, if using. Put the egg whites into a large bowl, add a pinch of salt and whisk until soft peaks form. Continue whisking, sprinkling in the sugar a little at a time, until stiff peaks form. Stir 2 tablespoons of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then carefully fold in the remainder until no traces of white are left.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until well risen and just firm to the touch. Cool in the tin (don’t worry if the cake sinks and cracks slightly – it will still be fine). You can make the cake up to this stage up to four days ahead and keep it in an airtight container in a cool place. It also freezes well for up to one month.
To serve, remove the cake from the tin and peel away the lining paper. Sift cocoa powder liberally over the top and cut into slices. Serve with crème fraîche.

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Orange curd

This didn't seem too sweet....

6 egg yolks


1/2 cup sugar

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, zest reserved

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, but into pieces

Over a double boiler whisk together the yolks, sugar and orange over low heat. Whisk continuously until the curd thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Stir in the cold butter into the curd a few pieces at a time until the butter has melted and incorporated in to the curd. Gently fold in the zest taking care to not break the curd. Cool completely to room temperature before refrigerating. It will last about a month.

Potentially gluten-free chocolate torte

225 g 70% dark chocolate


175 g unsalted butter , chopped, diced

1 tsp orange zest

100 g toasted almonds

3 T plain flour or gluten free flour

1/2 tsp salt

5 eggs

140 g sugar

Heat oven to 325 F/160 C. Oil and line a 8 inch cake pan and set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter. Stir in the orange zest and let it steep. Meanwhile, grind the almonds as fine as you can without letting it become a paste. Add flour and salt, and transfer to a bowl.

Whisk the eggs until doubled pale and frothy. Slowly add the sugar, whisk for 1 min more. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture until just combined. Sprinkle over half the flour mixture and fold in, then the other half. The mixture will be rather runny.

Pour into the prepare pan and bake for about 20 mins until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool for a few minutes in tin, then turn out onto a wire rack. Wait until completely cooled before you frost with anything.

Gluten free recipe index

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/special-diets/gluten-free/ 

Dessserts:
Key lime pie

chocolate cake with nuts and pears (or raspberries...?)

lemon drizzle cake