Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes

Having attended a Tasty Tart cooking demonstration in An Grianán and to satisfy my sweet tooth I often make the banana and chocolate cupcake recipe at home.

Here’s how I got on with the latest batch…

This is a fairly run of the mill cupcake recipe with the added bonus of chocolate and banana. It is very quick to prepare and cook, so perfect for last minute celebrations or even for something a little extra at tea time. Depending on your chocaholic preference, different chocolate varieties can be used. I used dark chocolate as the recipe recommended and I love the taste.

The recipe calls for butter icing but I decided to try something a little different this time. I made 12 cupcakes in total - I topped 4 with melted toffee and banana, 4 with dark chocolate and banana and left 4 plain for the more health conscious.

Suffice to say the twelve cupcakes didn’t last past the family tea time! Cupcakes are a tasty and versatile treat, here’s some I made for a birthday with the same recipe and rainbow butter cream icing.

For more information on cooking demonstration magazine contact with the ICA at admin@ica.ie, 01 668000 or An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie, 041 982 2119

Tomato & Bean Soup

Ireland has been having some very cold weather of late and I have been craving warm comfort food. For a quick and easy winter meal, soup is always the best choice. My personal favourite is tomato and luckily the ICA Cookbook had just what I needed, Fresh Tomato and Bean soup. Yummy!

The recipe calls for plum tomatoes however as we were “plum” out of tomatoes in the house I had to use tinned plum tomatoes instead and these worked just as well, halving the preparation time.

This soup was just what I needed. I will probably never go back to just plain tomato soup again and not just because of the flavour. The added ingredient of the beans brings this soup’s nutritional value through the roof. This soup makes a perfect pair with Bettys brown bread (mentioned in a previous post) and is a must eat winter snack.

For more information contact An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie or 041 9822119. ICA at admin@ica.ie or 01 6680002

Christmas Stuffing Cake

Christmas Day can be a hectic day of cooking. I like to take some of the pressure off by doing some of the prep work the day before.  This year I asked ICA president Liz Wall for some tips on how she prepares her stuffing. Liz introduced me to the stuffing cake, a recipe she picked up at a cookery demonstration in An Grianán in 2006.

Ingredients

• 200g fresh breadcrumbs
• 200g sausage meat
• 1 small chopped onion
• 2 stalks chopped celery
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
• 1 tsp  chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1 apple cored and chopped
• 75g cranberries
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 180g turkey stock. (I used homemade chicken stock here)
• 50g unsalted butter

Method

• Melt the butter and fry off the onions until soft
• Pour the onions into a bowl and add all the other ingredients
• Knead well to thoroughly mix
• Press mixture into a 8-9 inch dish and cover with tinfoil.
• Bake at 180° for 15 mins, then remove the tinfoil and bake for a further 15 min until cooked through and golden on top.
• Serve in slices to accompany turkey or other cooked meat.

This mixture can also be used to stuff the bird if you don’t want to serve it separately.  The flavour combination of the cranberries, apple and, celery make this a beautiful flavoured stuffing and a wonderful addition to your Christmas feast 

For more information contact An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie or 041 9822119. ICA at admin@ica.ie or 01 6680002