Jan
2017

Lactose Free Funfetti Cupcakes

categories: Cakes, Cooking

Happy New Year! Hope 2017 is treating you all well so far! 🙂 Over here in Australia we’ve been having a very hot summer, but I’ve been able to squeeze in some baking in the cooler moments. This week I’ve made some delicious Funfetti Cupcakes!

Over the holidays I was given a gorgeous pink Kenwood Chef Sense! I’ve been after a stand mixer for a while but as they’re a decent investment I’d been holding off on the purchase. This time around I decided to make the most of my birthday and Christmas being so close together and decided to get this lovely machine!

Kenwood Chef Sense | MeaganMade.com

Of course once I had the mixer I had to find some yummy recipes to go with it, and in this process discovered Cupcake Jemma’s YouTube channel. My goodness, she makes so many delicious looking cupcakes, cakes and cookies – I think there’ll be a lot of her recipes cropping up on my blog! While her recipes include dairy, I’m determined to try and make them dairy free! I spent much of my holidays with my mouth watering over her creations, and this week decided to give her Funfetti Cupcakes recipe a shot.

Funfetti Cupcakes | MeaganMade.com

You may notice 2 cupcakes are missing, well these two had a slight icing mishap. Not to worry though, they were snapped up quickly and they were still amazing! They were sweet and moist, and with sprinkles in the cake mix and hundreds and thousands on top, who couldn’t resist these. I’ve actually made them twice this week and they were a hit both times!

Funfetti Cupcakes | MeaganMade.com

To view the ingredients and recipe, just pay her video a visit! I simply substituted butter for Nuttelex, and whole milk for almond milk the first time I made them, lactose free milk the second. I also discovered that icing mixture was much easier to sieve than icing sugar, so made that substitution too. While the nuttelex version of buttercream doesn’t hold its shape as well as the butter based buttercream, it still tastes delicious and wasn’t an issue for this recipe at all. The heat here did mean that the frosting melted a little, so I just stored them in the fridge as much as possible.

I look forward to bringing you some more of Cupcake Jemma’s recipes in the next few weeks as I continue to play with my new stand mixer! If any one has any suggestions for lactose/dairy free frostings that hold their shape in the heat, please let me know in the comments below!

Happy baking,
Meagan x

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Dec
2016

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – 2016

categories: Uncategorized

Sorry that I’ve been rather absent the last few months – life got rather busy as it tends to this time of year and I had to put the blog to one side! Not only are we rapidly approaching Christmas, but I’ve also just recently celebrated my birthday! I’ll be starting the blog back up again in the New Year but in the meantime just wanted to post to wish you all a Merry Christmas and New Year!

Christmas Wreath | MeaganMade.com

The weather here has been rather strange, but with temps up around 38°C some days, it’s been much too warm to do any crochet and I’ve been focusing on staying cool! I’ve decorated the house in the Christmas spirit though, including this wreath that I put together last year following this tutorial from The 36th Avenue!

It was so easy to put together, the trickiest part for me was finding the foam wreath that was the base of this piece. It’s lovely, sparkly and just makes me feel like it’s Christmas!

So once again from my warm spot in the world, I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year in 2017!

Happy Holidays,

Meagan x

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Nov
2016

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

categories: Cakes, Cooking

Sorry for the missing last week’s post, I was off having a ball at my friend’s Lego themed wedding, and simply ran out of time! 🙂 I feel like having fun with old and new friends is a legitimate reason, and this week I have a new recipe for you that I tested! While I was looking for a recipe to both use the last few apples and that would work to take on my road trip away, I stumbled on this pin for apple cinnamon muffins. It looked quick and simple, with just enough apples that I could convince myself that it would be healthy (or at least a little bit healthy)!

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins | MeaganMade.com

With just 10 ingredients and about 10 minutes prep time, these muffins were ready to go in the oven! They certainly hit the spot, and as they were already lactose and dairy free, no adjustments needed to be made. The sugary crust on top made them nice and sweet, but the muffins worked well for breakfast while I was travelling too!

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins | MeaganMade.com

Some of the muffins barely made it out of the muffin tray, and while they were absolutely delicious warm they were just as good cold the next few mornings. I will definitely be making these again soon!

Check out Christy’s recipe for the ingredients and instructions, you simply have to give them a go!

Happy cooking,
Meagan x

 

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Oct
2016

Apple Crumble

categories: Cooking, Slices

Yet another week gone by and still no driving! After my housemate took me to the local shops I came away with 7 granny smith apples and no idea what to make with them. After a quick Pinterest search, I found this pin for Apple Crisp – which from what I can tell, we call Apple Crumble here in Australia!

While the recipe contained some dairy, I was able to convert the ingredients to lactose/dairy free ingredients! I swapped butter for Nuttelex and milk for almond milk. And boy was this recipe delicious!!

Apple Crumble | MeaganMade.com

When cooked, the sauce becomes almost caramelised and bubbly, especially fresh out of the oven. I spread the crumble over the top by hand, but cheated a little using the 2mm slicing attachment on my Magimix food processor to save time. While it made quite a lot of mess, the result was truly worth it!

Apple Crumble | MeaganMade.com

I served it up with some of my lactose free Peter’s ice cream, and while it was warm it melted right over it. Absolutely scrumptious, luckily Lisa was home  – otherwise I may have eaten it all by myself. By some miracle there was still some left today and it tasted delicious cold, almost as good at it did yesterday!

Apple Crumble | MeaganMade.com

You should definitely give this recipe a go!! If you have a recipe that you think I should try please let me know in the comments below!

Happy cooking,
Meagan x

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Oct
2016

Blood Orange Chocolate Cupcakes

categories: Cakes, Cooking

This week my lovely housemate took me to one of my local shops and I got to pick out some fresh produce for myself for the first time in a month! Once the excitement wore off, I stumbled across some blood oranges and couldn’t resist putting them in the trolley. Once I got home, I realised I’d have to find something special to make with them, and stumbled across this recipe for chocolate cupcakes with a blood orange icing.

With all of the extra time I’ve been spending at home with this ankle, I’ve been doing a lot of extra crochet – so much so that I’ve injured my thumb so have to give it a rest for a bit til it’s all better. In the meantime, I’m focusing on my cooking and finding delicious recipes!

I’d never actually had blood oranges fresh, always in drinks, but I knew how much I loved orange and chocolate flavours together and thought this would be a winner. Since I didn’t have enough fruit to use all of her recipe, I decided to focus on the blood orange flavour and the icing of Amanda’s recipe.

Blood oranges | MeaganMade.com

I mean, look at those colours, there is no way that I couldn’t make these the focus of my cooking this weekend. With my ankle still on the mend, reducing the juice into a syrup was a little taxing, but I managed to move a chair into the kitchen to give my ankle a break between stirs. I think I reduced the syrup a little too far in the end as once it cooled it became more like jam in texture. But never fool my work didn’t go to waste and it worked well once I mixed it into the icing. The citrus flavours cut through the sweetness just a little and this combined with the chocolate was perfection. I also brushed a little of the warm syrup onto the warm cupcakes as per Amanda’s suggestion in her recipe.

As for the cupcakes, I totally cheated and used an awesome box mix that I’ve discovered that is both lactose and gluten-free. It’s tried and tested for me, and I just separated it out into 12 cupcake liners.

Blood orange chocolate cupcakes | MeaganMade.com

 

I piped the icing on last night ready for photographs this morning. I noticed a few have gone missing overnight so I’m assuming this means they got the housemate’s seal of approval too! 🙂 These are so tasty, I’m trying to make them last – but you might notice there are not 12 in the photo above, whoops!

If blood oranges are in season in your area you have to give this a try! Let me know if you have any other recipes for me to try with blood oranges!

Happy cooking,
Meagan x

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