Roasted Rhubarb and Custard Muffins

Until this lovely sunny bank holiday weekend I have never tried rhubarb. As a child I would always be secretly disappointed when my Grandma or Nanna served rhubarb crumble as opposed to a pudding made of one of the yummier fruits such as I don't know, apples or berries. What's wrong with a good apple crumble eh? Well now, thirteen years later, I have realised that rhubarb is the superior crumble fruit. In fact I like it so much that I made sure there was some left over after I divvied it up between the muffins to sit with and scoff with a spoon straight from the roasting tin.

The sun has been in hiding again recently in Liverpool but this weekend it finally reappeared. What better way to spend my Sunday than making these Rhubarb and Custard muffins? They offered a well needed break from revision that's for sure (roll on Friday 2 down 3 to go!!!!). These muffins have a lovely crunch to the top of the sweet, light sponge which means they taste like rhubarb crumble without having to make a streusel topping and thus no more washing up! Bonus!

Tiramisu Brownies

Hello you wonderful people!! I am SO sorry for the lack of posts in the last week, I cannot express how much this distance was completely and utterly against my will! Two exams down, three more to go boooo :( I am SO ready for them to be over. I have been cramming like a mad woman because Donut Week consumed an awful lot of my revision time, but I have given myself time off after a day of procrastinating (no, in all seriousness I made some flash cards on fungi as pathogens haha go me!).
I found a little bit of time on Wednesday evening after my exam to bake these bad boys...

Vanilla Chai Donuts with Browned Butter Chai Frosting - Final Day of Donut Week!

We have come full circle so today is the last day of Donut Week boooooo sad I know, but it's OK it just means I can make something different to share with you! Today's final Donut Week post is Vanilla Chai Donuts with Browned Butter Chai Frosting.

These donuts are moist, fluffy and extremely light with a very delicate flavour, something I find much more appropriate for the summer season when it comes to spice!

Baked Banana and Chocolate Chunk Donuts with Marbled Dark and White Chocolate Ganache

Welcome to day 6 of donut week! I'm really excited to share today's post with you as I have been trying to perfect a good banana recipe for a while, these Baked Banana and Chocolate Chunk donuts are THAT recipe.

I love the idea of baking with bananas as they are naturally so moist, sweet and flavoursome when over ripe and mashed. I am yet to succeed in making a banana bread I am 100% happy with and I do not believe in posting recipes I don't feel fully confident in myself! I may be on the verge of success though so stay tuned! Anyway, I digress, this post is meant to be about donuts!

Sticky Chocolate Orange Donuts

It's day five of donut week and I tell you, I am surprised to find I am not yet sick of donuts (pleasantly surprised of course!)! I had no idea how versatile they could be - we've had vanilla donuts with raspberry icing, chocolate donuts coated in salted caramel, strawberry and custard filled donuts like you get in the bakeries here in the UK, wholewheat super healthy mango streusel breakfast donuts and today we are moving on to my favourite flavour combination, chocolate orange donuts!

These donuts are so sticky and orangey, part of me wondered whether baking them myself was a dream brought on my all these donuts and my intense love of chocolate orange. As it turns out I made them! Hooray! Now we can all have uber sticky donuts fresh out of the oven to share with family and friends or eat all to ourselves under the pretense that you need all that chocolatey goodness to do revision sit and read your favourite baking blogs whilst sipping a much needed cuppa.

Wholewheat Breakfast Donuts with a Mango Streusel Topping

Welcome to day 4 of Donut Week! Today's post is Wholewheat Breakfast Donuts with a Mango Streusel Topping. If you thought my previous donuts were healthy, wait until you hear what is in these - wholewheat flour, yoghurt, orange juice to name the three healthiest ingredients and they contain only 10 g of butter and 45 g of sugar!

These donuts are super easy to whip up - heck if you're a kitchen demon you could even make 'em before work/uni/school/college in 20 minutes from start to finish.

British Bakery Strawberry and Custard Filled Donuts

Welcome to day 3 of donut week! Today's post is British Bakery Strawberry and Custard Donuts! (really that should be doughnuts but for consistency I am continuing with donuts) I may be being presumptive calling them British bakery donuts but I live in Britain and these are exactly like the donuts my mum used to bring home for my brother and me on a Saturday afternoon (and fill with extra jam because there was just never enough!). Again, these donuts are baked but if you served them up to oblivious guests they would not be able to tell the difference!

The fact that these donuts are baked, and like the others contain very little fat, makes it completely acceptable to coat them in monstrous amounts of sugar.

Chocolate Donuts With Gooey Glossy Salted Caramel

Welcome to day 2 of donut week! I present to you... Chocolate Donuts With Gooey Glossy Salted Caramel! I cannot express how much I am enjoying myself, all I've eaten today is donuts donuts donuts! I shall not tell you what sort as that will spoil tomorrow's installment! The fantastic thing about baked donuts is that I can scoff scoff scoff until the cows come home and not feel an ounce of guilt - now THAT is what I like in a baked good.

These donuts are not quite as easy to eat several in a row of like a well tuned robot as yesterday's Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts With Raspberry Icing were as the cocoa powder makes them heavier, but who cares right they're chocolate mmmmmm... and still only contain 10g of butter.

Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts with Raspberry Icing to Kick off DONUT WEEK 2013!!!

OK so I discovered that Donut Week is the 11th - 18th May this year (maybe every year who knows) a while ago and have been obsessing about donuts ever since. I am so excited to share what I think is the best thing I have ever baked with you - so excited that I am writing this post early and queuing it!

The beauty of this pink sparkly tasty treat is that it looks fabulous but is SO simple to make. This Vanilla Bean Baked Donut is so moist and chewy and everything a donut should be, yet it is baked... and therefore... drum roll please... a healthy donut. (I realise I am quite late jumping on the baked donut band wagon but if you've ever tried to buy a donut pan in the UK that doesn't involve mail ordering from the US you'd understand why) Actually, what makes this recipe healthy is the 50g of Greek yoghurt that goes into it and the amount of butter that has NOT gone into it - there is a mere 15g of butter in this recipe!

Cherry and Almond Super Massive Muffins

I often find myself in Costa eying up the gigantic muffins, so big you could share could eat all to yourself and be good to go for the rest of the afternoon mmmmm. Sadly this is followed by me eying up the price. Except it's not sadly at all. I see it as an opportunity a necessity to go home and create my own super massive muffins to rival those of all the coffee shops with the extra advantage of being able to put whatever flavours and ingredients I like into them. I am currently loving cherry and almond EVERYTHING - stay tuned for a cherry and almond scone post - so the tastiest muffins I could think of were... Cherry and Almond Super Massive Muffins! We are on the cusp of summer but the English spring weather (cough winter cough) sticks its gloomy head in our way a little too often and for those days cherry and almond makes the perfect almost-summer-but-still-a-little-chilly mid-morning, afternoon, whenever-you-fancy treat.

These muffins are DOUBLE almondy

Fondant Fancies

With sunshine comes the good mood that sees me buying dungarees, pastel coloured socks, not grunting at the crowds of people in Liverpool on a bank holiday weekend and having the urge to make fondant fancies! I came home one day last week to find someone had 'taken' my piping bag (there is a lot of 'taking' going on here at the moment, I cannot wait to move out into our own apartment where I can keep my stand mixer out and still come home to it!) so the chocolate drizzle on top isn't fab but I tried two different ways did the best job I could without my tools!