Easter is here, and it is a great time to catch up with family, friends and eat chocolate. However it is important to balance all this Easter chocolate with other things... such as coffee and cake.
One of my absolute favourite cakes is carrot cake, and seeing as the Easter Bunny likes carrots, these carrot & walnut cupcakes are delicious, easy to make and the perfect Easter treat.
My carrot and walnut cupcakes were made in my new Tefal Cuisine Companion. Last month, I was one of the lucky bloggers to be invited to be a founding member of the Tefal Cuisine Companion Club and to try out this brand new machine. In return, I get play with it and participate in food challenges with the other bloggers in the group.
Seeing as I enjoy cooking and like to try out kitchen gadgets, this really was the perfect opportunity (and challenge) for me.
This month, our challenge was to create an Easter dish. Initially I'd thought that I'd create a fishy recipe for Good Friday. I was shopping for the ingredients when I saw the M&M's Crispy Speckled Eggs and had a brain diversion. Do you get those too? Head to the store for one thing and come away with something COMPLETELY different?
Here is the recipe for my Carrot & Walnut Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting made with the Tefal Cuisine Companion.
Ingredients
350g Carrots
120g Walnuts
3 eggs
180g Brown Sugar
260g Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
250ml Sunflower Oil
One of my absolute favourite cakes is carrot cake, and seeing as the Easter Bunny likes carrots, these carrot & walnut cupcakes are delicious, easy to make and the perfect Easter treat.
My carrot and walnut cupcakes were made in my new Tefal Cuisine Companion. Last month, I was one of the lucky bloggers to be invited to be a founding member of the Tefal Cuisine Companion Club and to try out this brand new machine. In return, I get play with it and participate in food challenges with the other bloggers in the group.
Seeing as I enjoy cooking and like to try out kitchen gadgets, this really was the perfect opportunity (and challenge) for me.
This month, our challenge was to create an Easter dish. Initially I'd thought that I'd create a fishy recipe for Good Friday. I was shopping for the ingredients when I saw the M&M's Crispy Speckled Eggs and had a brain diversion. Do you get those too? Head to the store for one thing and come away with something COMPLETELY different?
Here is the recipe for my Carrot & Walnut Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting made with the Tefal Cuisine Companion.
Ingredients
350g Carrots
120g Walnuts
3 eggs
180g Brown Sugar
260g Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
250ml Sunflower Oil
Frosting
1 cup icing sugar
250g cream cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
Peel and cut the carrots into 3cm chunks and place into the bowl fitted with the Ultrablade and mix at speed 12 for 20 seconds. Set aside in a separate bowl.
Place walnuts in the bowl with the Ultrablade and mix at speed 12 for 10 seconds and set aside with the carrots.
Place all other ingredients in the bowl fitted with the kneading/crushing blade and launch the P3 program for 3 minutes.
Add the carrot and walnuts and mix at speed 8 for 20 seconds.
Spoon the mixture into patties and cook at 180 degrees for 12-15 minutes (check after 10 to see how they're going). They're cooked through once an inserted skewer comes away clean.
Once cooked place the cupcakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, let's make the frosting. It's best to wait until the cupcakes are almost completely cool, otherwise you'll be tempted to eat it all out of the bowl.
Int a bowl fitted with the mixing blade, add the icing sugar, the cream cheese chopped up into 3cm pieces and the lemon juice.
Blitz for 15seconds at speed 8 until combined and smooth. Be a little bit fancy and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, or just spoon it on. It tastes delicious either way.
Add a few little chocolate speckled eggs to give it these a lovely Easter twist.
Peel and cut the carrots into 3cm chunks and place into the bowl fitted with the Ultrablade and mix at speed 12 for 20 seconds. Set aside in a separate bowl.
Place walnuts in the bowl with the Ultrablade and mix at speed 12 for 10 seconds and set aside with the carrots.
Place all other ingredients in the bowl fitted with the kneading/crushing blade and launch the P3 program for 3 minutes.
Add the carrot and walnuts and mix at speed 8 for 20 seconds.
Spoon the mixture into patties and cook at 180 degrees for 12-15 minutes (check after 10 to see how they're going). They're cooked through once an inserted skewer comes away clean.
Once cooked place the cupcakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, let's make the frosting. It's best to wait until the cupcakes are almost completely cool, otherwise you'll be tempted to eat it all out of the bowl.
Int a bowl fitted with the mixing blade, add the icing sugar, the cream cheese chopped up into 3cm pieces and the lemon juice.
Blitz for 15seconds at speed 8 until combined and smooth. Be a little bit fancy and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, or just spoon it on. It tastes delicious either way.
Add a few little chocolate speckled eggs to give it these a lovely Easter twist.
More about the Tefal Cuisine Companion
Made in France, the Tefal Cuisine Companion is an all-in-one, kitchen wonder machine that creates amazing dishes at the touch of a button. A cooking-capable food processor and more, Cuisine Companion replaces up to ten appliances in the kitchen and is perfect for chopping, whipping, mixing, kneading, cooking, steaming, blending, stirring, emulsifying, whisking, searing, crushing, milling and precise heating.
To make cooking even simpler,
Cuisine Companion comes fully equipped with an intuitive and easy-to-use
interface with six automatic functions. Simply put the ingredients into the
bowl and select from the touch pad display to launch the program. Prepare and
cook sauces; steam ingredients; make soups and broths; slow cook meals; prepare
pastries & dough (breads, brioche, cakes); and prepare desserts. Or - use
the manual mode for full control of speed, heat and time settings to create
your own recipes.
You will never run
out of ideas – the 1 Million Menus cookbook included is a genuine source of
daily inspiration for successful cooking! With 300 recipes: 100 starters, 100
main dishes and 100 desserts, the possibilities are endless!
The Tefal Cuisine Companion is available from Harvey Norman stores nationally.
If you're interested in seeing what we've been creating, check the #CuisineCompanion hashtag on Instagram. So much delicious inspiration.
Any way to get the measurements for those of us who are challenged in all things decimal? My husband would love these if I could only figure out the recipe in cups and teaspoons.
ReplyDelete