Skinny Mini Red Velvet Donuts & Muffin Tops

I discovered something fantastic this weekend.

If you over-fill mini donut pans – if pour enough batter so you have to tiptoe to the oven with your back straight because 1 tilt and the floor will be covered in red liquid donuts – you can make mini donuts and muffin tops at the same time. My laziness and greediness are finally paying off!

When you make your drizzle, make sure you whisk your powdered sugar better than I did!

Not sure what I mean? Instead of filling each mini donut mold half-way like you’re meant to, pour the batter all the way to the top so you can’t fit any more in. Bake a little longer than normal and the mini donuts will puff out over the top. When you take them out of the oven they’ll look like mini cupcakes! After they’ve cooled, slice the domes off with a knife and you’ll be left with mini donuts and mini muffin tops.

Watch out for the freaky shadow monsters on the wall

 I’m not sure how many calories are in each mini donut. The scales I use can tell me exactly how many calories/carbs/protein/etc are in everything – I really should read that manual! But check the ingredients – all the moisture comes from a little bit of yogurt and 1 egg. And besides, they’re mini donuts, and we all know anything mini is practically negative calories.

Skinny Mini Red Velvet Donuts & Muffin Tops

Makes 24 mini donuts or 12 mini donuts and 12 muffin tops

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn starch

pinch salt

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons Greek yogurt

about 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

1/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons white or red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

drizzle of choice

Recipe

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F and sieve the flour and cornstarch at least three times.

2. Mix in the salt, baking powder, brown sugar, and cocoa powder.

3. In another bowl, beat together the egg, milk, yogurt, vanilla and red food coloring. Stir this into the dry ingredients.

4. Sprinkle the baking soda over the vinegar and quickly fold into the donut batter.

5. Pour the batter into a greased mini donut pan. Fill the molds all the way to the top if you want muffin tops or only half way if you want all mini donuts. Bake for around 8 minutes if making donuts or 12 minutes if making muffin tops as well.

5. Remove from the baking tray and leave to cool on a wire rack before dipping in your favorite drizzle. I dipped mine in a simple lemon drizzle made from powdered sugar, a few drops of lemon juice and a few drops of water.

Tip: it's much easier to slice the muffin tops of whilst the donuts are still in the pan

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Berry Cheesecake Muffins

My name is Nicky and I have a problem. A cupcake problem. More specifically – a cupcake liner problem.

See all these cupcake liners? They are the 500+ cupcake liners which I have accumulated over the past 18 months. And you know the strangest thing? I don’t even bake that many cupcakes! The last cupcake recipe I posted was over 3 months ago – which is why these Berry Cheesecake Muffins warranted cupcake liners.

Cute pink cupcake liners with tiny white polka dots. Now I need to buy more cupcake liners to replace the ones I’ve used! Even just thinking about cupcake liners gets me all excited. There are worse additions to have, right?

These muffins – sat in adorable cupcake liners – have become one of my all-time favorites. They’re a fantastic combo of light, fluffy cheesecakes, satisfying breakfast muffins and delicious berries.

Whereas I could happily eat cotton candy for breakfast any day, My Official Treat Taster turns his nose up at muffins for breakfast because they’re “too sweet”. He thinks they’re really cupcakes without their frosting hats. But even he worked his way through three one morning this weekend, proof that hat-less cupcakes are totally suitable for breakfast.

Berry Cheesecake Muffins

Inspired by Light Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins from Jen

Makes 6-8 large muffins

Ingredients

1/4 cup cream cheese

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg white

2 tablespoons yogurt

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup berries (I used frozen strawberries and raspberries)

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C and beat together the cream cheese, butter and sugar until light and fluffy then stir in the vanilla, egg white and yogurt.

2. Separately, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix half of the flour combo into the cream cheese mix, followed by all of the milk and then the rest of the flour mixture. Gently fold in the berries.

3. Fill each liner to the brim and bake for around 35 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked. 

Here are the link parties I take part in.

Come and join the fun!  

Healthy Mini Chocolate Donuts & Muffins

Welcome to the magical Pink Recipe Box bakery where you can eat as many chocolate donuts as you like without putting on a single pound. Okay, that might be a bit exaggerated – I work in marketing so what do you expect? – but it’s not far from the truth. These chocolate donuts really are healthy. You won’t find any oil or butter in the recipe and you won’t have to step anywhere near a deep-fat fryer.

They are a combination of oats, egg, cocoa, apple sauce and yogurt essentially, with a few other ingredients thrown in for good measure. I was skeptical at first when making the batter – it was really thin and the ingredients just didn’t sound appealing together. Then I tried a spoonful of the batter – a very important quality control measure all bakers will know about wink wink – all ready to pull my what-on-earth-have-I-done?! face, only to be pleasantly surprised. The batter tasted great and if the raw batter tastes great, you just know the final creation will be fantastic.

Because there is hardly any fat in these donuts, feel free to add a few handfuls of chocolate chips – I promise I won’t tell. My donuts are covered in a chocolate glaze – 1 part melted butter to 2 parts melted milk chocolate – which isn’t healthy, but as soon as I find a way to make a butter and chocolate combo that’s good for you, I’ll let you know.

I bought this mini donut pan from Amazon a while ago. It’s fantastic – the donuts pop out really easily and don’t stick at all. If you don’t have a mini donut pan, you can always pour the batter into muffin cases and make Healthy Chocolate Muffins that you can eat for breakfast. Don’t forget the chocolate chips!

Healthy Mini Chocolate Donuts or Muffins

Inspired by Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins from Healthy is Always Better

Makes around 36 mini donuts or 12 muffins

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 tablespoons oats

1 egg

1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup hot water

2 tablespoons apple sauce

2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch salt

Optional chocolate chips

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/170°C and grease a mini donut pan or line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.

2. In a blender or food processor, blend together all of the ingredients until the mixture is smooth.

3. Fold in chocolate chips is using and half fill your donut mold or fill your cupcake liners 2/3 full. If you want chocolate chips to sit on top of your muffins like mine, sprinkle a few on top of the muffins before baking.

4. Bake donuts for around 12-15 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. 

Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I haven't experimented much with citrus flavours, so when I came across a lemon muffin recipe, I thought I'd give it a go. The original recipe was for plain lemon muffins and called for much more sugar. I added my own touch by reducing the sugar, including poppy seeds and drizzling over an amazing lemon icing.

Although the icing is really basic - just icing sugar and lemon juice - there is something about it that just makes me want to eat it straight out of the bowl. This recipe makes 12 muffins which are perfect for breakfast, a traditional British tea or just a refreshing, yummy snack.

Ingredients

Muffins

125g sugar

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

260g flour

Pinch of salt

180ml sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

115g melted butter

6tbsp poppy seeds

Icing

150g icing sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line 12 muffin moulds with paper cases.

2. In a bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest with your fingertips until the mixture becomes very fragrant. To this, ass the flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Separately, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter.

4. Gently fold the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Remember – it’s better to under-mix than over-mix, so don’t worry if there are a few lumps in the batter.

5. Stir in the poppy seeds then divide the batter equally between the muffin cases. Bake for around 20 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Transfer the muffin pan to a wire rack and leave for five minutes, before removing each muffin from its mould and returning them to the wire rack until they have cooled completely.

6. Meanwhile, make the lemon glaze. To the icing sugar, add a few drops of lemon juice at a time and mix well. Carry on adding lemon juice and mixing until you have your perfect tangy lemon taste and the ideal medium-thick consistency. If you don’t want the icing to be too tart, you can add a bit of water instead of extra lemon juice.

7. When the muffins have completely cooled, drizzle the tops with lemon glaze and leave to set.