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Deliciously low-fat banana and white chocolate chip muffins. Tastes as good as they look!

Currently, I’m still enjoying the time off away from the studio and instead have been baking away in the kitchen. Today I ran out of cupcake cases to make a batch of muffins to take down to Birmingham with me as homemade New Year gifts for friends – so what did I do? made good use with what I had already of course!

I’ve seen this technique done for all things cupcake-licious many times before so it’s definitely not a new idea, but a useful idea that’s been around for quite some time.

I think this is really handy and fuss-free idea from Martha Stewart and will be an especially handy trick for those times when we run out of liners/cases in the middle of a batch of muffins (and they keep the baked goods from sticking to the pan – that’s always a good thing!).

Delicious low-fat banana and white chocolate chip muffins. Scrumptiously filling, not too sweet and great with a cuppa.

Instruction for Muffin Wrappers

1. Cut 5-inch square pieces of parchment.

2. Spray a muffin tin with vegetable oil cooking spray, or grease up each muffin cup to hold parchment in place.

3. Place 1 piece of parchment into 1 cup of the tin. Use your fingers to make the crease around the bottom edge, pressing along folds to crease. Repeat with other cups and parchment pieces.

4. Pour the cake mixture into each of the parchment paper squares, filling them until they are about 3/4 full.

See Crisp Muffin Wrappers from Martha Stewart for more details if required.

Heeley City Farm's Blade the Horse - he's massive!

Now who's a good looking cow then? Gok Wan, eat your heart out – meet Our Cow Molly.

Missie Cindz Sheffield Food Album - Good Food lies nearer to home

Open Farm Sunday 2011 takes place on June 12. It’s your chance to hi-five your local Farmer and to thank him for his great work and tasty produce.

What is Open Farm Sunday and what’s it all about? I hear you ask. Well, it has a lot to do with discovering at first hand all about life on Britain’s farms – providing us with an opportunity to visit a real working farm, meet the animals and have fun for all the family. Farmers across the country are currently preparing to open their farm gates on Open Farm Sunday (12 June 2011). This annual event organised by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) is a must for anyone interested in how farmers produce our food, and the ways they care for our countryside too. This year over 450 farms across the country are involved in putting on something eventful for us.

So why not take time to soak up the scenery, experience at first hand what it means to be a farmer, taste their homemade and grown produce – to really get in touch with the land that feeds us.

There will be plenty of fun and exciting events taking place at Sheffield farms. Each event will be unique with its own activities – based around the host farm’s own individual story. Activities during the day may include a farm walk, nature trail, tractor and trailer rides, pond dipping, activities for kids, mini farmers market or picnics. Below is a list of some Sheffield farms taking part in Open Day Sunday, I’m sure there will be others I’ve missed but for information and to find a farm open near you visit: www.farmsunday.org
To keep up to date and share your farm experiences follow: twitter.com/openfarmsunday.

Sheffield’s Heeley City Farm
This farm (@HeeleyFarm) is such a hidden gem and neighbourhood favourite and I think everyone should visit our inner city farm and know how lucky we are to one, with friendly farm animals, relaxing gardens and organic demonstrations on four acres of former derelict land close to the centre of Sheffield. The Farm will be having children’s craft activities in the reception room between 11am – 3pm, including:

• Design your own farm bag
• Shaun the sheep story/colouring books
• Make your own woolly sheep picture!

The rest of the farm is open 9am – 5pm for you see the animals (Blaze being my favourite but I’m also fond of Buttercup the cow too :), or you can browse the plants on sale in the Garden Centre, find out about their excellent recycling facilities, then why not finish the day by treating yourself to a slice of cake in The Farm Kitchen?
FREE admission

Heeley City Farm (@HeeleyFarm)
Richards Road
Sheffield
S2 3DT

Our Cow Molly Farm
Are organising tours of the milking parlour, milk dairy, a walk around the farm, off road train rides, with different ages of cows on display for the public to gawp over. An outdoor BBQ will also be put on serving sausages from Bradfield Meats for their #OpenFarmSunday BBQ – I’ve been told it’s going to be a feast! If I was you, I’d treat myself to a scoop or two of their delicious award-winning ice cream from the farm shop too – because it’d be just plain rude not to! :) All this is free admission.

Our Cow Molly Farm (@OurCowMolly)
Cliffe House Cottage
Hill Top, Stannington
S6 6GW
Sheffield
Tel: 0114 233 2683
Website: www.ourcowmolly.co.uk

I’ve been told other Sheffield Farms such as Whirlow Hall Farm and Green Top Farm are also planning events.

So get out into the countryside (afterall green is definitely this summer’s must have colour!), it’s nice to reconnect with nature, learn new fun things so make sure you pay your nearest farm a visit and hi-five your local farmer – I know where me and the fork will be! Why not Twitpic, tweet and share your day out with me? I’d like to know what your local farm is doing (Follow me: @missiecindz).

Missie’s Food Adventures
I’m having a very tasty time on my Food Adventures – gallivanting up and down Sheffield on my smiley fork. It’s proving a delicious experience, just take a look at my photos (as seen on FlickR, Facebook ‘Missie Cindz Food Adventures‘ and TwitPic) – you can clearly see that I’m eating my way through Sheffield!

If you happen to see Missie (my alter-ego companion) in your local eating joint (as seen in the pics above), remember to tweet me or @toastmag a photo of where you’ve found her (Toast Magazine will print your picture in their mag if you’re chosen), I’m always keen to find out where Missie hangs out myself (I easily loose track on where we are most days with all this fooding around!), also add with your tweet the conversation hash tag #missiesfoodadventures so that we can all follow her food/road trips.

Finally, don’t miss Open Farm Sunday on June 12. The opportunity to visit a real working farm, meet the animals (not all are smelly! :) and have fun with all the family.

Look who we bumped into...Missie Cindz meets Jarvis Cocker

Introducing the Missie to Jarvis - he was quite fond of her too. I think his fave colour is purple now!

Look who interrupted my salad…

Guess who joined me and the Missie for lunch @PJtaste in Sheffield? Jarvis Cocker and he was quite fond of the Missie too – he tried to nick her put then I would’ve beaten him to a pulp. #JarvisCocker

It was all very random actually and I didn’t even recognise him at first (he didn’t look like the mad, crazy, skinny jeans kinda guy who sung ‘Common People’ – but then this was over 15 years ago!). He’s currently in Sheffield on business and as I’m a regular to all these lovely foody joints of Sheffield (on my Missie Cindz Food Adventures #missiesfoodadventures), I’m bound to be on a colourful lunch hour!

Find more of my food tweets @missiecindz or if you’re in and around Sheffield, please do keep an eye out for your Missie in a restaurant near you. If you see her ‘hanging’ in your local cafe/restaurant/farm/pub, quickly tweet/or email a picture of the Missie and let me know where she’s at – Missie’s getting really good at playing ‘Foody Hide and Seek’ in Sheffield nowadays.

I decided to take a break from my usual food snapping – yes, I never thought I’d get to say that either, and met up with Mark Howe for a fantastic photo shoot. Forget purple, today was when I got peachy!

Say hello to Mark. Mark is a Photographer and Creative Designer who always has simple and smart ideas. His work makes me smile and say “Of course!”. He likes to play with light and shadows, and to experiment with interesting ways of telling ‘tasteful’ stories.

Modelling: Definitely harder than it looks
I’d never done anything like this before, it was definitely an experience! Modelling is often unfairly considered as barely a proper occupation, judged by the low difficulty factor in sitting still for hair and makeup or to change in and out of clothes. I’ve never had to spend a couple of hours standing in front of a camera (or sitting inside a posh vintage car) and displaying a wide variety of natural yet glamorous (angry ;) expressions and poses for photos – plus attempting to fulfill Mark’s “vision” and trying not to mess up a 2 hour make-up job in between changes. I’m worn out from just thinking about it. Trying on clothes and sitting still in make-up (I’m usually the one behind the camera and taking pictures of beautiful foods, not the other way!), is by no means easy as it looks!

I happily enjoyed cups of tea and food talks with Mark in between shots. Who doesn’t love a photographer that makes a good cup Yorkshire tea?

Mark has updated his photosite with some great new work, check it out here: http://www.markhowephoto.co.uk or check out his creative portfolio here.

Snaps worth remembering
Mark is a great photographer, very talented designer and illustrator, with a really friendly and funny charm! If you ever get the opportunity to work with him you won’t be disappointed…Hopefully there’ll be more opportunities to work with Mark and I’m already deciding what to wear and how to ‘Strike a Pose!’ :)

“Did you say something? I didn’t hear you. We are both busy being Awesome Eaters!” :) …What am I munching on? I hear you ask – it’s called Churros (sometimes referred to as a Spanish doughnut these are fried-dough pastry-based snacks) and is accompanied with a cup of hot chocolate (100 per cent melted thick chocolate!).

If you fancy trying Churros in the UK (I’ve not seen these fellas being sold in Sheffield?) but there’s a little stand every Saturday in Portobello Road Market (London – outside the Electric Cinema W11 2ED) – 9am – 6pm http://www.churrosgarcia.co.uk or if you’re ever in the Kings Cross/St Pancras area, just a couple of minutes down the road is the British Library is Peyton & Byrne Café http://www.oliverpeyton.co.uk – you’ll find these calorie-laden treats in there too!

Eat your Churros instantly, whilst still scorching hot – (they don’t taste the same once cooled), dipping them into the pot of hot chocolate provided. Let me know what you think! :)

Today is the last day to enter this competition as part of the Farmhouse Breakfast Week, which I’ve been supporting and endlessly tweeting about for most of this month (well, brekkie is the most important meal for me :). I hope you’ve been following my Missie Breakfast Challenge and are enjoying the foody pics too. Anyway, the basis of the competition was to come up with a new breakfast gizmo, so finally, here is my entry:

The ‘Missie Cindz’ Wake-up Light with Oven Alarm

Product Features

• The ‘Missie Cindz’ Wake-up Light with Oven Alarm gradually wakes you up to the smell of a freshly cooked cupcake
• The Wake-Up Light starts gradually brightening from 30 minutes before your set wake-up time
• The Wake-Up Light starts baking your cake mixture from 10 minutes before your set wake-up time
• At your set wake-up time – you smell freshly baked cake and will hear a bird singing, soft chimes or a friendly beep
• Choose your preferred light intensity
• Durable non-stick baking tray. Easy to clean and comes with a concise and illustrated Missie Cindz instructions book

Delicious Cupcakes Every Morning
The problem with breakfast is that people struggle to find the time for it, with this neat gadget you’ll have your cupcake baked in ‘perfect’ time for your morning get-up and go routine. All you need to do is the following; just before you sleep at night, insert a ‘Cupcake Pod Mixture’ into the Missie Cindz Wake-up Light with Oven Alarm; set your wake-up time (mine’s usually 7am) and Hey Presto!! – shut your eyes, fall asleep and just wait for that morning light and sweet aroma. I know what you”™re thinking, why aren”™t I an Inventor. Well it”™s a very innovative breakfast solution, that I’m sure, would get most of us out of bed for! What’s more than better than waking up to the fresh smell of a freshly baked cupcake? – forget the greasy bacon (I’m kind to the pigs – most of the time) – it’s all about sweet delights with me.

The lovely smell of fresh bread/cakes make people feel secure and well. The sweet aroma of freshly baked bread is irresistible. I know most of us buy bread from the supermarket, but we all still associate the smell of fresh bread with well-being and home-made. It’s an inherited association.

Start your day full of energy with the light and smell that wakes you naturally
This Wake-up Light with Oven Alarm wakes you up in a natural way, with light that increases gradually. From half an hour before your required wake-up time, the Missie Wake-Up Light emits light that gradually increases to the intensity you have selected, simulating the rising sun in your bedroom, thus gently preparing your body to wake up. Research proves that dawn simulation improves subjective measures of energy, mood, productivity, quality of sleep and quality of awakening (for the source, ask me :) From now on, waking up will be a pleasant and delicious experience. It makes use of a energy-saving lamp to wake you gently.

So, make the change today and choose the Missie Wake-Up Light with Oven Alarm to wake up naturally and as your Best Breakfast Gizmo Idea :)