Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes

Tomorrow will be Jack's 2nd birthday and as a special treat, because I'm such a kind and generous Mummy, he will be starting Preschool. He was supposed to be starting next week but then I got offered Thursday mornings as an additional session so rather than start him with a full day I thought it best to break him in gently with a half day session and it just happened to fall on his birthday - that's my excuse anyway, in truth I fancied having 3 hours to myself - I've been paid back for being so mean as my eldest has been sick today & won't be going to school so I don't get my 3 hours just yet!


I thought it would be a nice treat for all his new friends (ok I'm trying to buy him some new friends) if I made them all some cakes to share.


There is one little boy at Preschool who has a dairy, egg and soya allergy, which often proves difficult for his Mum when it comes to baking cakes. After speaking to her she was happy for me to take in some chocolate cakes and she would make some 'free' ones to take in as well. When I was looking through one of my many cookery books earlier I came across a recipe for eggless vanilla cupcakes in 'Best Ever Recipes - CUPCAKES by Phoebe Gibb' (received as a Christmas Present from Brother & Sister In Law) and I noticed that they also didn't include any kind of butter which meant they would be suitable for all of the little ones and the allergy sufferer didn't need to have something different.


I used my mini cupcake maker to bake a batch off & my 10 year old sampled one. They passed the test so I went on to bake the rest.


The recipe made around 36 mini cupcakes so there are plenty to go around and a few left over for my hungry lot, and I was pleasantly surprised how good they tasted.




Ingredients


225g Self Raising Flour
2 tsp baking powder
180g caster sugar
6 tbsp Rapeseed Oil (the recipe calls for Vegetable Oil but I had some Rapeseed so decided to use that)
240ml water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence


I added a couple of handfuls of sultanas to the dry ingredients to make them a bit more interesting.


1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 F / Gas 4, then line mini muffin pans with cases 


2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the caster sugar. Make a well and add the oil, water and vanilla essence and mix well.


3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared paper cases.


4. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until firm to the touch.


5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar.

Cooking With Your Toddler.....Quick & Easy Smiley Face Pizzas

This week I chose something very quick and easy to make as I'm going to be doing a lot of baking soon with Jack's 2nd birthday coming up.


There's not really a recipe for these, they're just a 'suped up' version of cheese on toast! We make pizza toast quite a bit in our house, my older children love it. We often make it with crumpets but have also used English Muffins, Pitta Bread or Naan Breads. These pizza faces have been made from cutting out a circle from a lightly toasted piece of bread - I used the top off my tea bag canister as it was the perfect size with minimum wastage - you could use a large cookie cutter or pint glass too.


You will need :


Sliced Bread  (or crumpets or English Muffins) - lightly toasted
Tomato Ketchup
Grated cheese
Toppings - we used cooked mini sausages, olives & tomato slices
Mixed Herbs or Oregano



Cut a circle out of your toast and arrange onto baking sheet.

Spread the ketchup onto the base.

Cover with grated cheese.

Arrange your toppings into a smiley face.

Sprinkle a few mixed herbs or Oregano over.

Place under a hot grill, or in the oven, until the cheese has melted.

Enjoy