Wine and Dine

If you enjoy wine, why not include it in your cooking too – it makes a great addition to a spaghetti bolognese! Or, if you prefer to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and a sweet treat, Ellie Stanton, one of Blue Stream Academy’s expert bakers, has created this delicious recipe for salted caramel cupcakes – enjoy!

Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese

Prep: 10min

Cook: 1 hour

Ready in: 1 hour 10min

Serves: 4

A tasty vegan alternative to the classic Italian dish!

1. In a large saucepan, heat 1tsp olive oil over a medium heat and then add 1 finely chopped onion, 1 large diced carrot and 2 finely chopped celery sticks – stir regularly and cook for 10 minutes until they have softened. Add 160ml vegan red wine and allow it to reduce for around 2–3 mins. 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 2tsp dried oregano, 1tbsp tomato purée and 1tbsp balsamic vinegar can then be added.

2. After cooking for 1 min, add 1 diced aubergine, 100g diced closed cup mushrooms, 75g lentilles vertes, 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes, 1 vegetarian (vegan) stock cube and 200ml of water.

3. After bringing the sauce to the boil, reduce the heat so that it is simmering gently. Place the lid of the saucepan loosely on the pan and cook for around 40–50 mins until the sauce has become thicker (you can cook it until it reaches the consistency you prefer for your pasta sauce). Keep checking the sauce and stir regularly, if necessary add a little more water.

4. Cook 300g spaghetti as per the pack instructions. Stir 1tbsp soy sauce and 3tbsp almond milk into the sauce and then serve it with the cooked spaghetti. Fresh basil leaves make a great garnish for this dish.

Gluten-Free Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Prep: 25min

Cook: 20min

Ready in: 45min

Makes: 12

*Please note, if you prefer, you can replace the gluten-free self-raising flour with standard self-raising flour.

1. Preheat your oven to 180 ◦ C (fan). Put 12 muffin cases in the cupcake tin (Top tip: using muffin cases can make more impressive cupcakes as they are larger).

2. Mix 200g butter and 200g caster sugar together in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Sieve in half of 200g gluten-free* self-raising flour and mix in 2 out of 4 eggs. Once combined, sieve in the remaining 100g flour and mix in the other 2 more eggs.

3. Fold in 50g fudge (cut into small chunks), half a 397g tin of caramel (sweetened condensed milk caramel) and a pinch of salt, until equally distributed throughout the mixture. If the mixture is quite thick, add a splash of milk to loosen it.

4. Place the mixture into the cases and pop into the oven for 20 mins or until slightly golden. Whilst the cupcakes are baking, you can prepare the icing. Place 150g butter in a large bowl and mix until soft and pale in colour. Mix in 400g icing sugar in stages until the butter and icing sugar are combined.

5. Add a pinch of salt and almost all of the remaining half a tin of caramel – leave a little bit to one side for later. If the butter cream is too thick, you can add a little milk to make the icing easier to pipe. Mix a little bit of icing sugar into the leftover caramel. This will then become runny and you can drizzle it over the cupcakes after icing them.

6. Take the cupcakes out of the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, put the icing into an icing bag with a star nozzle and pipe onto the cupcakes. Thendrizzle the caramel sauce over the cupcakes to finish.