The Funky Kitchen

A diet cupcake seems like a bit of an oxymoron, right?

Still, if a cupcake has a quarter of the carbohydrates, a quarter of the fat, that a regular cupcake would, you can’t not call it a diet cupcake. They even have fruit in them (thanks to the addition of cranberry orange relish), and so could be related, very loosely if at all, with muffins.

Cupcakes that are a quarter of the size, so long as you don’t go eating a stack of them, totally could work with a diet plan. You’re getting all of the calories in a diminished amount, but don’t need to deprive yourself from their goodness. Deprivation is definitely one of those things that I have trouble believing in.

I baked almost 200 of these for a birthday party, and there were none left the next morning, so they apparently need not be viewed as a diet cupcake. But if you’re teetering on decisions, just remember that this indulgence is a small one, take that bite.

Cranberry Orange Fairy Cakes

(adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Fairy Cakes)

125 g butter

125 g sugar

2 medium eggs

125 g flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

splash of cream

cranberry orange relish

cream cheese icing

• Preheat the oven to 400° F.
• Mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda and vanilla extract.
• Splash in cream a little bit at a time, until the batter gets kind of droopy, so that it slouches when you stop stirring it.
• Spoon into a mini cupcake pan, or a regular cupcake pan.
• Spoon a little bit of cranberry orange relish onto the batter in each cupcake well.
• Bake for 8 minutes or until the cupcakes test clean and begin to brown (18-20 minutes for regular sized).
• Allow to cool completely, and then ice with cream cheese icing.
• Enjoy responsibly

There is a veneer of polish that comes with writing a food blog, as well as reading them. Meals get served on pretty plates. Only the recipes that make the cut get posted up. Photos are taken carefully, and can be edited if found lacking. And everything, everything comes out perfectly.

Except when things don’t turn out, because I’m in a rush and didn’t give the puff pastry time to get cold again before popping it into the oven. Attempt to channel my inner June Cleaver as I may, I make mistakes. Sometimes baked brie will comes out like it should: perfectly puffed, golden, filled with gooey brie goodness and a layer of cranberry orange relish too boot, topped with cute little turkey cut out for Thanksgiving. And sometimes baked brie turns into a brie volcano, doesn’t make for a pretty presentation on a pretty plate, but ends up in a casserole dish to prevent further eruption.

Needless to say, it wasn’t perfect, but my dear flies on the wall, it was tasty. Next time I will be patient. Next time, the pastry will be given time to chill again.

Baked Brie with Cranberry and Orange

2 sheets of puff pastry (Remember your promise? All butter or home made. No mystery fats!)

1-450 gram wheel of brie

1/3 Cup cranberry orange relish

• Roll out a sheet of puff pastry (I tried a new brand that came in blocks) to about 1/4 inch thickness. It doesn’t need to be a perfect circle or square.
• Take out your wheel of brie and score it with a sharp knife along all surfaces. This is so that the baked brie is easier to scoop/spread, there won’t be any big pieces of rind.

• Place the brie in the middle of the rolled out puff pastry. Fold up the edges over the brie; try to keep the folds evenly spaced.

• Spoon the relish evenly over the brie. Try not to get it on the pastry, because it will interfere with the seal and you don’t want to have a brie explosion like I did.
• Roll out the second sheet of pastry, and cut a circle out that is similar in size to the brie wheel.
• Take some egg wash and brush the edges of the circle, so that it will seal to the other piece of puff pastry, and put it on top, pressing the edges.

• Place everything in the fridge, so that the butter in the puff pastry firms up again.
• Brush the surface of the baked brie with egg wash as well, as it will give it a nice color and sheen once baked.
• Pop it into a 375° oven until the pastry is golden brown (~20-25 minutes). Serve with crackers and baguette.

And there you have it, the baked brie that could have been. Not everything will come out perfect every time, but hopefully it comes out delectable. The next one will be more carefully sealed, and the pastry will be given time to firm back up in the fridge. You have to learn from your mistakes, right?

… So I know that I’m really late on this (or, for you Americans, super early). Thanksgiving was earlier this week. I spent the holiday with some of my nearest and dearest, and ate entirely too many mashed potatoes. Entirely too many, but how can one say no to mashed potatoes?

One of my family’s holiday traditions, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or otherwise, is my Grandma’s cranberry orange relish. We aren’t much for cooked cranberry sauce, or the stuff that comes out of the can, our cranberry component to the big holiday meal comes in relish form.

It sounds weird, I know.  You hear the word relish and cucumber relish is probably what comes to mind. But it isn’t that at all.  It is, really simply, just cranberries and an orange run through the food processor with some sugar. At the same time though, it is so much more. It’s a gorgeous smell, refreshing and clean. It’s palpable texture, a little bit of bite, rather than the squish of a cooked sauce. It’s sweet from the orange, a hint of bitter from the peel, sour from the cranberry. It’s just so good.

My addiction to cranberry orange relish rivals my addiction to mashed potatoes. My mum is known to make double batches before a holiday so that we can keep half at home for ourselves. I’ll eat this on toast, on ice cream, in applesauce and on it’s own by the bowlful. (In a few days, there’ll be a really special yummy thing I made that included some of the relish. But you’ll have to come back to see what it is!)

So this year, in addition to being thankful for cranberry orange relish, I am thankful for: my loving and supportive family and friends, the beautiful wondrous country I call home, the bountiful freedoms and safety I live with, my somewhat-broken-but-still-splendid house, you people out there who come and read all of the random things I make and write about, and Mister for loving me and being exactly who he is. There are days, like today, when I look around me and wonder what kind of karma I had to have all this.

Thank you all.

xoxoxo

Cranberry Orange Relish

12 oz cranberries, fresh or frozen(thaw first)

1 navel orange

3/4 Cup sugar

• Wash all of the fruit thoroughly.
• Quarter the orange.
• Place all of the orange pieces in the food processor. Yes, the whole orange goes in, peel and all.  Pulse until they are all cut up into small pieces, kind of like this:

• Then, add the cranberries to the food processor. Continue to pulse until everything is cut up into teeny tiny pieces. Think of the relish you put on hot dogs, pieces that big, just cranberrier and tastier.
• Move everything from the food processor into a bowl that you can put a lid on. Add the sugar to the bowl and stir to mix.
• The relish will be at its best if you put the lid on the bowl and stick it in the fridge overnight, giving it time to marry makes a big difference. Or you can be like me and steal just a little right away, and then put it in the fridge for the next day.

Happy belated, or very early, Thanksgiving everyone! What are you thankful for this year?