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Friday, 4 November 2011

Some Halloween flavour

Pumpkin cupcakes

Foreword

From: The Simpsons, Homer vs Patty and Selma
At Moe's Tavern, Lenny, Carl, Barney, and a couple of other regulars all puff on cigars being handed out by Homer.
Moe: [sniffing a cigar] Ah, this place is going to smell classy all week.
Barney: To Homer, the Wall Street genius!
[everyone claps as Homer bows]
[Homer lights a cigar with a $1, then puts out the flame and puts it back in his wallet
Lenny: Hey, Homer! How come you've got money to burn? Or singe, anyway?
Carl: Yeah, Homer, what's your secret investment?
Homer: Take a guess.
Barney: Uh, pumpkins?
Homer: [pause] Yeah, that's right, Barney. This year, I invested in pumpkins. They've been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they're going to peak right around January. Then, bang! That's when I'll cash in.
Ingredients
266.7 g Pumpkin puree
266.7 g Sugar
187.5 g Flour
85 g Butter
83 g Milk
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup of walnuts
1/3 Cup of raisins
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon Vanilla
¼ teaspoon Ground cloves
Preheat oven to 180°C

In one bowel, mix together dry ingredients in one bowel:
Flour, ginger, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
Mix milk and vanilla together in a cup or jug

In a large bowel:
1. beat butter until creamy.
2. Gradually add and mix sugar
3. Beat in eggs one at a time
4. Gradually add pumpkin puree until well mixed
5. Add a third of the dry mixture
6. Add half of the milk and vanilla
7. Add 2nd third of the dry mixture
8. Add 2nd half of the milk and vanilla
9. Add 3rd third of the dry mixture
10. Mix until the batter is smooth
11. Fold in 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
12. Fold in 1/3 cup raisins or chopped dates.
Pour mix into a cupcake die and put in the oven.

A cupcake is ready when you put a knife into its centres and it comes out bloody1 clean (I think about 15-20 mins, but your ultimate measure is the aforementioned condition because let's face it: no two ovens are quite alike.)

Let them cool for about 5 minutes and take out of the cupcake die.2
*****
1Happy belated Halloween one and all.
2I am divided over the naming convention for a cupcake thing. It's not flat, so tray doesn't make sense to me, but it doesn't make sense to call it a tin - since that it is reserved for cakes/breads.

---- Thanks to Becky for the recipe!

4 comments:

  1. I feel like eating pumpkins, yep! I'll definitely give a try to this.
    I'd even have a linguistic question for you, but I'll pass, this time, I think...

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  2. opsss, I forgot to sign!
    Anna

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  3. linguistic questions and baking - it wasn't a stretch to figure it was you :P

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  4. Ahi ahi ahi! Am I so boringly predictable?
    It's all meant for the moment, in 10 years time, when you'll publish a book of memories from your blog. And you'll find these silly comments and think "oh, that must have been that annoying girl I saw at work from time to time. Not sure I remember what she was doing there, actually... she used to bring food and argue about spelling all the time. What was her name? Sara, Lara, Chiara..."

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