Muffins, cupcakes, cookies... 5 recipes for little sweets

I guess each of us loves small, sweet snacks, which are perfect for birthday parties, summer garden parties or meetings with friends. Muffins, cupcakes, tartelettes are also the main element of the candy bar, the sweet party buffet. Decorated with delicious creams and decorations, not only do they taste great, but they also delight the eye and are an interesting table decoration.

For baking small and unique sweets, you need special muffin and cookie moulds, thanks to which the sweet snacks obtain a decorative shape and present themselves beautifully. Discover 5 recipes for sweet snacks that will sweeten every party.

Madeleines...

are small cakes originating from France, with their shape resembling a shell. The characteristic, shell-like shape of the madeleines is achieved by baking them in special moulds with cavities. Discover a simple recipe for delicate, sponge madeleine cake.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 0.5 glass of sugar
• 1 glass of flour
• Peel rubbed from 1 orange
• 100 g of butter

Preparation:

• Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
• Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff. At the end of beating, add sugar in batches, whisking all the time. Add the egg yolks and mix briefly, only until the ingredients combine.
• Gently mix sifted flour, orange peel and melted and cooled butter into the egg mixture.
• Fill the dough to ¾ of the height of the Madeleine form.
• Place the mould in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius and bake it for 10 minutes.

Moist, soft, quick-to-prepare yoghurt muffins, the taste of which will surely appeal not only to the youngest.

The ingredients:

• 1.5 glasses of flour
• 1 glass of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 180 g of natural yoghurt
• 100 g of butter
• peel from 1 lemon

Preparation:

• In one bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar and soda.
• In the second bowl, whisk the eggs, add yoghurt, melted and cooled butter and lemon peel.
• Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix it with a spoon.
• Pour the prepared mixture into the silicone muffin moulds, and fill it up to ¾ of their height.
• Place the silicone baking trays for baking muffins in the oven preheated to 170 degrees Celsius and bake them for about 25 minutes (until the stick is dry).
• Finally, you can pour lemon icing or white chocolate topping over the muffins.

Fragrant carrot cupcakes with dried fruits and nuts, finished with cream and mascarpone, will surely win over everyone's palate.

The ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 2 glasses of grated carrot
• 0.5 glass of oil
• 2 eggs
• 0.5 glass of sugar
• 0.5 glass of nuts, e.g. walnuts, raisins, cranberries
• 1 glass of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 0.5 teaspoon of cardamom
• A pinch of ginger

Ingredients for mascarpone cream:

• 100 ml of 30 % cream
• 125 g of mascarpone cheese
• 2 tablespoons of icing sugar

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix grated carrots with oil, eggs, sugar and nuts.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour with baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger.
• Put the dough into cupcake tins, fill them to ¾ of their height.
• Place the baking moulds for cupcakes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 40 minutes.
• Prepare the cream. Whip the cream together with icing sugar, until it is stiff. At the end of whipping, gradually add mascarpone cream, spoon by spoon, stirring all the time.
• Decorate cooled cupcakes with the mascarpone cream. For that, accessories for baking and decorating sweets come to an aid, among which you will find confectionery sleeves, necessary to make various, decorative patterns on delicious baked goods.

The wonderfully fragrant tartelettes consisting of the shortcrust pastry, delicious vanilla pudding and fresh strawberries are a pastry that no one can resist.

Ingredients for the shortcake:

• 1.5 glasses of wheat flour
• 125 g of butter
• 1 egg
• ¼ glass of icing sugar
• pinch of salt

Ingredients for cream cream:

• 330 ml of cream 30%
• 250 g of mascarpone cheese
• 4 tablespoons of icing sugar
• Vanilla beans hollowed from 1 vanilla stick
• additionally: 400 g of strawberries

• Sieve the flour, add the butter and quickly chop it with a knife until the dough starts to look like a crumble.
• Add an egg, sugar, salt and quickly knead the dough. Form a ball, wrap it in a food wrap and put it into the fridge for 1 hour.
• Grease the tartallete mould with butter and sprinkle it with wheat flour. If you're using silicone tartalette moulds, skip this step because they don't need to be specially prepared for baking.
• Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it  with a rolling pin to make them about 3 mm thick. Put it in the moulds and put it back in the fridge, this time for 30 minutes.
• Take the moulds out of the fridge. Sprinkle the dough with wheat flour, put baking paper on it, and place the ceramic balls onto the paper, so it adds some weight on the dough.
• Place the dough tins in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius and bake it for 12 minutes. After this time, take the moulds out of the oven, remove the paper with the balls, put the moulds back into the oven and bake for about 8 minutes more, until browned. Allow the dough to cool.
• Whip the cream rigidly with icing sugar and vanilla beans. Gradually add the mascarpone cheese, stirring all the time.
• Cut the strawberries into smaller pieces.
• Fill the tartalettes with the prepared cream. Arrange the sliced strawberries on top. Set aside for a few hours in the fridge to cool down.

Delicate, semi-brittle tubes, that smell great when baked, with butter and cream, filled with vanilla cream, will make every party table more attractive.

Tube ingredients:

• 500 g of wheat flour
• 250 g of butter
• 250 g of sour cream 18%.
• pinch of salt

Ingredients for vanilla cream:

• 1 litre of milk
• vanilla beans hollowed from 2 vanilla sticks
• 50 g of butter
• 4 yolks
• 2 eggs
• 1 glass of icing sugar
• 0.5 glass of wheat flour
• 0.5 glass of potato flour

Preparation:

• Prepare the dough first. Cut the cold butter. Combine flour, butter, sour cream and salt and quickly knead the semi-shortcake dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in a food wrap and put it into the fridge for 1 hour.
• Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out very thinly - preferably with a rolling pin with adjustable thickness. Cut into thick strips, approximately 1.5 cm wide and 8 cm long. Grease the tube moulds with butter. Put the strips of dough on each tin, starting from the narrower part, towards the wider part.
• Arrange the dough forms on a baking tray lined with baking paper, place in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for 15 minutes.
  
• Prepare the vanilla cream. Boil the milk with vanilla beans and butter.
• Grind the eggs and yolks with powdered sugar into a light and fluffy mass. Add wheat flour and potato flour. Mix it. Add 0.5 glass of boiling milk with butter, mix again.
• Pour the egg mixture into the remaining milk in a pot and mix it. Place the pot on a burner on an low power and cook until a thick pudding is obtained, stirring continuously. Allow it to cool down.
• Mix the cooled cream briefly. Pour it into a syringe or a confectioner's sleeve and fill the cream tube.
• Sprinkle the tube with powdered sugar before serving.

Prepare sweet snacks for a birthday party or a meeting with friends, which will look great on the table and delight your guests not only with their taste but also with an interesting, eye-catching look.