More cooking and baking

Sweet Rosie's http://j.mp/cP62JL Egg, Nut, and Dairy Free Vanilla Cupcakes http://twitpic.com/5seowa 

We tried these but to no avail. Many sank in the middle, and those that looked OK wouldn't be prised from their cups. The next attempt will probably involve a little more flour, if we try to make them again. 

• Rating - 15/35 ... the same as the number that turned out. 

All Recipes.com http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/crazy-cake/detail.aspx Crazy Cake
Substitutions: No cocoa was harmed in the making of these cakes: We used the same measure of plain flour instead, with an extra cup thrown in after the shambles that was the cupcake failure.

When the cupcakes failed, we came back to Google and found this recipe. We actually had all the ingredients on hand, as well, except the cocoa, which was just as well because we don't want kids getting all anaphalactic on our first cooking experiment for our boy! 

Tips for beginners: leave the cakes in the pan for a few minutes before you try turning them out. These two perfect specimens actually each ended up breaking in half :( Didn't affect their taste, though: apparently one of them (uniced) went down a treat at mrs_g's work! 

• Rating 8/10

Sweet Rosie's http://j.mp/r6vPQi Dairy Free Frosting for Allergy Free Cupcakes*
Self-explanatory, really. We'll be making some blue and some uncoloured icing for those with colouring issues. More when it's actually done (looks and tastes like proper frosting - will be up to do some more after lunch / the floor dries). 

• Rating 9/10

* Used on other cakes instead

Carrot, Rosemary & Zucchini Muffins

Baked by me from a recipe at http://sueradd.com/resources/recipe_carrotmuffins.html

Substitutions

1. As I didn't have a muffin tray, I put the mixture in a cake / slice tray and cooked it for an extra 10min
2. As I didn't have wholemeal flour, I just used plain flour
3. I didn't actually grate the carrots and zucchini; I shredded them using a potato peeler
4. I took the opening-paragraph suggestion of using chives instead of rosemary, because I'm not a big fan of the lest-we-forget herb. 

But it turned out pretty OK - http://twitpic.com/5l1pbu/full. It wasn't what I expected: I don't really know what I expected to be honest, but it tastes like quiche. I cut it into small slice-sized pieces and it's packed nicely into a 1.3l Systema box.

Was considering taking it to work but there's only a couple of people I would want to share it with; also considered giving it to mrs_g to take to her gathering tomorrow. 

Or maybe I'll just keep it in the fridge and we can have it for morning / afternoon tea for the week. 

My rating - 6/10: not bad for a first effort