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Not a completely broken egg – pretty much all you can do with that is clear it up. But, every now and again, one of our hens lays an egg with a shell that’s just a wee bit softer than it really should be. And, not being the most careful of creatures, she often steps on it or knocks it. If we’re lucky the shell doesn’t break completely to create a sticky, yolky mess in the nesting box. But I’m then left with a delicate egg that I like to use up quickly, because with a cracked shell I reckon it probably won’t keep so well… although I’m happy to be corrected here if anyone knows otherwise.
I’m beginning to suspect that the hen lays these soft eggs on purpose. She knows that when I find one, I’ll worry that her diet is short of calcium, and before long the bowl of kitchen scraps that they get each day will contain some grated cheese or slightly out of date yoghurt – both gourmet foods as far as our hens are concerned. She has access to grit, and the pellets and mash I buy for them say they provide everything a hen could possibly want from her diet (although our hens would definitely argue with that – they like a good helping of fresh greens every day…) So in my view, she has no excuse for producing these substandard eggs, but I’m still new to this hen-keeping business and obviously have a lot to learn.
As well as the odd soft-shelled egg, I’m finding loads of blackberries in the garden at the moment. Every year I say that I’ll cut back the brambles that are growing in far too many places. But then I see the green fruit starting to form, and think I’ll leave it just long enough to ripen. This year there will have to be some sort of bramble control measures taken, the prickly stems have started to take over one of the borders as well as growing along the hedge on one side of the garden… just need to leave them that little bit longer while there are still blackberries to harvest.
So, arriving back in the kitchen with two eggs, one slightly cracked, and a bowlful of freshly picked blackberries I decided to invent blackberry cupcakes. Well, not really invent them… turns out, if you search online they’ve already been invented by lots of people. Still, while a batch of autumnal cupcakes flavoured with a combination of blackberry and almonds might not be entirely new ground, they did taste very good. And that’s one less broken egg to worry about.
While I was writing this post, I was completely oblivious to the fact that this week is National Cupcake Week (to be honest, I didn’t realise there was a National Cupcake Week). I only discovered this fact while I was catching up on Ren Behan’s blog. Even better, I found her three recipes for cupcakes – I’m going to be making the raspberry ripple and basil cakes very soon.
Blackberry cupcakes
(makes 10 cupcakes)
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g light brown soft sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
100g blackberries
Preheat the oven to 190oC, 375oF, gas 5. Line 10 muffin tins with paper muffin cases.
Cream the butter in a large bowl until it’s lovely and soft. Add the sugar and beat this into the butter to get a smooth, creamy mixture. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla essence.
Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, add the ground almonds and fold the dry ingredients into the buttery mixture. When the flour is almost completely combined, add the blackberries and continue to gently fold everything together.
Fill each muffin case about 2/3 full with the cake mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven. The cupcakes will be a nice golden brown colour and have a springy top when they are done.
Cool on a wire rack before topping each cupcake off with your favourite icing – I used a lemon buttercream mixture and added a fresh blackberry… oh, and a cup of coffee to serve.
The Garden Deli 
Ooo! Yet another delicious recipe! I tried your plum ice cream recipe but with blackberries. It was very easy and delicious. Thank you.
Good to hear you liked it – thanks for letting me know. I haven’t tried it yet with blackberries, but it sounds like a good idea… there’s certainly plenty about this year.
These look yummy. I don’t have the what to do with a broken egg problem but I don’t seem to be able to go a walk at the moment without stopping to pick a few blackberries. Don’t seem to be able to help myself, even when dallying on the way to school this afternoon. So glad of a new idea for using them!
I don’t remember there being so many blackberries to pick ever before – it’s either a very good year for them, or the bramble problem in the garden really is getting out of hand!
We have brambles invading the garden too, but on the shady side, so there are hardly any berries! Your cupcake looks so pretty and I like the sound of lemony buttercream… Yum!
Brambles without the berries isn’t so good – the berries are really their only positive feature!
I have loved the blackberries this year and have not made any cupcakes for ages so I hope there are still some left at the allotment so i can try these lovely little cakes out. I think adding ground almonds to the sponge mix gives a far better texture to the cakes and I always have some in the cup board. Have also enjoyed Tayberries for the first time this year too!
I’ve never tried tayberries – would you recommend them?
Mmm, raspberry ripple and basil sounds wonderful. And your blackberry cakes look delicious. Lucky you having blackberries, but I do know what you mean, they do spread terribly.
It does sound like a great combination – I’m planning to try it soon, before the last of the summer’s basil is gone.
Such pretty cupcakes and a fine-looking hen too! Now I have another lovely recipe for using up the blackberries on the brambles in our garden – yes, we share the same problem 🙂
Good to hear I’m not the only one with a bramble thicket developing in the garden! Another job to get on with this autumn…
What a cracking picture of the hen – beautiful colours! The combination of blackberries and almonds sounds good to me!
She’s quite a photogenic hen, we have a newer one who looks like she’s a chicken/dinosaur hybrid… not very attractive but I’m told her eggs will be good once she starts laying!
If we had a soft-shell problem, then we used to save the clean shells of a couple of hard-boiled eggs, roughly crush and scatter them on a baking tray and then leave it in the warming drawer of the rayburn. A few hours later, it crumbled really easily, then got mixed into their feed, just for two or three feeds. Some say it encourages the chickens to peck the eggs but we never had any problems. A bit like goats, I used to wonder “Well, you eat EVERYTHING so what haven’t you eaten to produce an egg like that?!?”
Thanks for the tip – I’ll try baking some eggshells and mixing them in with the mash. It will be a much cheaper option than the cheese!
Cupcakes are all very well, but what happened to good old English fairy cakes??!
Fairy cakes always make me think of baking sessions with the children, usually involving lots of mess and more cake mixture on the table and floor than in the oven. Saying that, even now that I’m all grown up, my baking effort usually look like something a creatively challenged 5 year old might have produced…
Your hens are smart creatures indeed! More yoghurt and cheese for them if they have an ‘accident’!! 😉
I can see why you wouldn’t cut back your blackberry shrub, they produce such beautiful fruit!
The blackberry bushes also have mean thorns and a habit of climbing through anything that gets in their way – the berries really are the only good things about them!
Your cup cakes look the perfect answer!
By the way, I don’t want to be a killjoy, but you do know that it’s illegal to feed kitchen scraps to hens, don’t you? http://www.ahsmallholder.com/pdf/AH-Keepingchickens.pdf
No, I didn’t realise it was illegal or I’d have kept that bit of information to myself! I thought that was the traditional way to keep hens, and the hen-keeping books I’ve read all say that it’s ok – thanks for the link, I’ll have to update my reading on this… Next thing they’ll be telling us we can’t compost our kitchen waste… oh wait, they already tried that!
My hens produced soft shelled eggs every now and again too. I usually turn them into scrambled eggs which seems a lot less exciting than your blackberry cupcakes. YUUUMMMM.
Scrambled eggs would be another good option, especially if they lay them ready for breakfast.
My hens are going through a phase of laying soft shelled eggs too. Doubly annoying as they’ve been off the lay all winter!! Will add some cheese to their mash….. Afore your chook photo!!
When I added the hen photo to this post, I knew I’d seen a similar one recently… it was your blog! Hope your hens get back to laying ‘proper’ eggs soon.
This sound so good with some coffee or tea. I absolutely adore blackberries. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us Sarah.
Thanks for the mention! Hope you enjoyed the cupcakes you made. What a sweet story – love the chicken pic! I think we could start a new quote – “When life gives you broken eggs, make cupcakes!”
I like your idea for a new quote Ren – we could get t-shirts and posters along the lines of ‘Keep calm and…’!