Cupcake Corner

Long Time New Blog

2011-02-07T20:44:00.003Z

I know its been ages since I've posted and I apologise for this, the business is going really well so instead of making new flavours of cupcakes etc for me to blog about every week it's pretty much just fulfilling orders week in/week out, not that I'm complaining I'm loving it.
Anyway I've started a new blog in something that I've become interested in, chocolate reviewing! I'd love for you all to follow it and check it out...the link is
www.lot-o-choc.blogspot.com

Enjoy!!

Blondies!

2010-09-06T09:48:00.002+01:00

Sorry its been so long since I've been posting, I've been so busy flying about here and there I just haven't had time to post anything up, I've still been baking away though and made these Blondies not too long ago, I've always really wanted to try making these, I've heard them mentioned so many times and wasn't really too sure what they were, brownies without the chocolate? Or just a delicious treat of their own? I decided to add butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips to the blondies I made and mmm so good! The whole batch of them had gone by the next day, my dad loved them he couldn't stop eating them despite him trying to be "good" haha! Definately a hit in the household hehe!

Blondies

Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter, melted
1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of butterscotch chips
1/3 cup of white chocolate chips

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour an 8X8 pan. Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl.

2 Add the egg and vanilla extract and whisk.

3 Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mix it all together. Add the butterscotch chips or other mix-ins.

4 Pour into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. Cut into squares and serve.

Mmm look at that white choc chip!

Sesame Street Gingerbread Men!

2010-08-16T10:05:00.003+01:00

I've been baking quite a lot recently, I've got a lot to post up on my blog but this is gonna be the first thing I'm going to put up :). My cousins and family were up visiting from Birmingham this week so I decided to make them something, they had already ordered 6 Ferrero Rocher cakes for my cousin's birthday but he told me he really had wanted the cookie monster ones but thought it would be too difficult for me to make 6 of them and didn't really want to create too much work for me aw! I wouldnt have minded doing them! Anyway I decided to make some gingerbread men as well, theyre easy, cute and really fun to decorate, so I decided to create a couple of Sesame Street ones for him :). I made a Cookie Monster gingerbread man, dipped in blue coconut, with fondant white eyes and a white chocolate jazzie with chocolate chips for the cookie! mmmm! Then I made an Elmo gingerbread man dipped in red icing with fondant eyes and a cut up Dolly Mixture for the nose! Finally..to fit in with my cupcake theme of course..I made a cupcake..gingerbread...well you can't really call it a man can you hehe! You'll see what I mean with the picture below hehe :).
Enjoy.

Gingerbread Men
125g butter, at room temperature
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup
1 egg, separated
375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease.
Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a 9cm gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.
Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Cookie Monster & Elmo

Cupcake Biscuit

Chocolate Marshmallow Fluff Cupcakes

2010-08-08T11:42:00.002+01:00

I've been experimenting with quite a few different cupcakes this week as I've had quite a few orders yayyyy and had a few cupcakes left over so I decided to try some different things with them :D. I've had a big jar of Marshmallow Fluff in the cupboard for quite a while now since I bought some in the States..its far too expensive over here..about £3.00 a jar!! Anyway I had some chocolate cupcakes left over and decided to top them with a rich gooey topping of Marshmallow Fluff, after I'd spooned that on and spread it about the top of the cuppie cake, I topped it with melted chocolate and then covered it in multi coloured sprinkles. I think these look a bit like a hot fudge sundae cupcake and I wish I'd had some glace cherries to top them with to give them the ultimate sundae look hehe!

Chocolate Marshmallow Fluff Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170g plain flour
200g milk chocolate, melted
60g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
40ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Marshmallow Fluff
100g milk chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the melted chocolate until well incorporated into the mixture.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.
5. Top with a spoonful of marshmallow fluff and drizzle with the melted chocolate.

Daring Bakers Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

2010-07-27T18:31:00.003+01:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.
Yay I was so excited about this month's challenge, I've never made ice cream before and have been wanting to try for a while, the even more exciting thing was that I had just received a big package full of loads of different flavourings so I could really experiment with what flavour ice creams I wanted to do :D.
I spread this challenge over the space of 2 days, made the ice cream on the first and then the swiss roll, the hot fudge and assembly the next and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I made a vanilla swiss roll instead of chocolate and then a butterscotch and a banana ice cream, which turned out great, although the banana was slightly soft so it was a bit difficult getting it out of the bowl without a puddle of yellow banana cream everywhere hehe!
I hope everyone else had as much fun with this challenge :D.

Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

Swiss Rolls

6 medium sized eggs

1 C / 225 gms caster sugar /8 oz+ extra for rolling

6 tblsp / 45gms/ a pinch over 1.5 oz of all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp/40gm /a pinch under 1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together

2 tblsp /30ml / 1 fl oz of boiling water

a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-

2C / 500 mls/ 16 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

5 tblsp / 70gms/2.5oz of caster sugar

Method-

Pre heat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.
In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.
Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.
Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.
Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.
Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.
Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.
Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.
Repeat the same for the next cake as well.
Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processer till nicely mixed together. If you are using vanilla extract, just grind the sugar on its own and then add the sugar and extract to the cream.
In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.
Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.
Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).
Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Butterscotch Ice Cream

2 and ½ C / 625 ml / 20 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla bean, minced or 1 tsp/ 5 ml/ .15 fl oz vanilla extract

½ C / 115gms/ 4 oz of light brown sugar

1 teaspoon butterscotch extract

Method-

1. Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla –sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.
2. Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

Banana Ice Cream

2 and ½ C / 625 ml / 20 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla bean, minced or 1 tsp/ 5 ml/ .15 fl oz vanilla extract

½ C / 115gms/ 4 oz of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons banana extract

1 teaspoon yellow food colouring

Method-

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 C / 230gms/ 8 oz of caster sugar

3 tblsp / 24gms/1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tblsp /15gms/ 1 oz of cornflour/cornstarch

1 and ½ C /355ml /12 fl oz of water

1 tblsp /14gms/ 1 oz butter

1 tsp/5 ml / .15 fl oz vanilla extract

Method-

In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornflour and water.
Place the pan over heat, and stir constantly, till it begins to thicken and is smooth (for about 2 minutes).
Remove from heat and mix in the butter and vanilla. Keep aside to cool .

Assembly

Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).
Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.
Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).
Soften the butterscotch ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour).
Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour)
Soften the banana ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .
Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.
Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

Yum!

White Chocolate Apricot Crumble Cupcakes!

2010-07-22T08:23:00.004+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted a new cupcake flavour so I'm sorry, I've actually been getting cupcake orders for my business so I've been making cupcake flavours I've already posted up! I'm so happy though I'm actually making a bit money from something I love doing :D. I've had 62 cakes to make this week and I'm doing some for a 13th birthday party tomorrow hehe exciting!!
Anyway I had a bit spare cake mixture left from one of my orders so I thought I would experiment and make these cakes, I've been wanting to make an apricot cake for a while but wasn't sure what to put with it...hm..
I decided on an apricot cake with crushed digestive biscuits in..(these are the equivalent of graham crackers), these gave the cupcakes a nice texture, I then topped the cakes with a creamy white chocolate buttercream! Hopefully I'll have some spare cake mixture everytime so I can continue to make some new flavours hehe!

White Chocolate Apricot Crumble Cakes
Apricot Crumble Cakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g self-raising flour
2 teaspoons apricot extract
150g crushed digestive biscuits
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
3. Add the flour to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat! Fold in the last addition of flour and milk and then fold in the digestive biscuits.
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

White Chocolate Buttercream
250g icing sugar
175g butter
200g white chococolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk

1. Beat the butter until softened, slowly adding the icing sugar bit by bit.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. When the white chocolate has cooled slightly beat this into your buttercream, if its too hot it will melt the butter! If this happens don't worry just put your buttercream in the fridge before use to firm it up so that you are able to pipe with it.

Coconut Ice Cream

2010-07-17T11:25:00.002+01:00

Woo i've wanted to try making ice cream for a while but I always thought I would need an ice cream maker to get the nice creamy consistency; however this is not the case hehe and it actually turned out fine just taking it out of the freezer at regular intervals to whisk to stop ice crystals forming. I've been getting loads of different flavourings recently so it was difficult to try and decide what flavour ice cream to do..hmm decisions decisions..I eventually decided upon coconut as my mam lovvveees coconut ice cream! Just before the ice cream was nearly frozen I whisked in some coconut flakes to make it even more coconutty mmmm! This is really easy to make and barely takes up any time, other than the waiting time for freezing of course hehe. I would definately recommend it hehe!

Coconut Ice Cream
625ml whipping cream (heavy cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coconut extract
115g white sugar
50g coconut flakes

Beat both extracts, sugar and cream in a large bowl lightly until the sugar has dissolved and can no longer be seen within the cream.

Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

YUM!

Peanut Butter Cups

2010-07-04T12:49:00.002+01:00

Peanut Butter Cups won the poll this week hehe, I was so excited to make these since they aren't really widely available in the UK and where they are they are so expensive!! It costs £1.50 for a pack of 2 Reeese's peanut butter cups, thats probably the equivalent of $2.75ish!! It's just ridiculous. These are so fun to make and actually don't take that much work, I loved painting the cases with the chocolate but was worried that I wasn't going to paint them thick enough and that once I tried to peel the case off the chocolate would just split. Luckily this didnt happen hehe. I then filled them with the peanut butter filling yum, I didn't make enough peanut butter filling to fill all of the 12 cups I made however so I decided to fill the last two with Marshmallow Fluff and all I can say is WOW! I'm so glad I didn't have enough peanut butter filling left because the fluff cups :P were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! They had such a soft chewy texture and were just so good. My mam loved both the peanut butter ones and the fluff ones and I would definately make these again, another fun thing ticked off my list hehe.

Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup crushed graham crackers

Directions

In 1-quart saucepan combine chocolate chips and shortening. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth (3 to 5 minutes).
Loosen top paper cup from stack, but leave in stack for greater stability while being coated. With small paint brush, coat inside top cup evenly with about 1 teaspoon melted chocolate to about 1/8-inch thickness, bringing coating almost to top of cup, but not over edge. Repeat until 30 cups are coated; refrigerate cups.
In 2-quart saucepan combine butter or margarine and peanut butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted (4 to 6 minutes). Stir in confectioners' sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Press about 1/2 tablespoon filling into each chocolate cup.
Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate on top of filling; spread to cover. Freeze until firm (about 2 hours) carefully peel off paper cups. Store refrigerated.

Whole Peanut Butter Cup

Yum!

Chewy, goeey, Marshmallow Fluffy cup!

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cupcakes

2010-06-29T08:56:00.003+01:00

I've really been wanting to make something with peanut butter for a while, so firstly I would like to say thank you for everyone who voted for the peanut butter cups..I can't wait to make them!! Buy firstly I made some cuppie cakes with peanut butter, I haven't made a peanut butter cupcake in so long and I was trying to think of a new combo that I could do with it, I didn't want to do your regular banana, jelly or chocolate..I fancied something a bit different so looking through my baking cupboard it hit me. I would use my new flavouring, butterscotch!!
I made a peanut butter cupcake, topped with a swirl of butterscotch buttercream and then sprinkled with mixed nuts yum! This one will definately be getting added to the flavours list of the new Cupcake-Corner business, which seems to be going well so far hehe :) we've had about 5 orders so far, leaflets have been delivered and website is all up and running so exciting hehe!
Peanut butter cups will be coming soon! Yum! Hehe.

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g self-raising flour
120g peanut butter
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
3. Add the flour to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat! Fold in the last addition of flour and milk and then fold in the peanut butter.
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Butterscotch Buttercream
150g buttercream
250g icing sugar
few drops butterscotch extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until incorporated, adding milk as required.
2. Beat in extracts.

Creamy dreamy heaven!

Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Marscapone Mousse

2010-06-27T12:52:00.002+01:00

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.
After the disastor of my Croquembouche attempt last month for the Daring Baker's challenge, I was hoping that this month my baking skills would once again be challenged...but hopefully a better outcome would be achieved hehe.
I was not disappointed with this months challenge!! We had to make a chocolate pavlova with a chocolate marscapone mousse yum!! A chocolate meringue, topped with a delicious chocolate marscapone mousse drizzled with a marscapone cream!
I had so much fun making this challenge, I made the creme anglaise for the marscapone cream the night before to allow it to set in the fridge over night and then made the pavlovas and the mousse the next day. I omitted the Grand Marnier with orange juice and didn't add the Sambuca as none of my family are really big fans of alcohol in desserts.
Anyway these pavlovas went down a treat and its definately something I would like to make again and maybe play around with flavour combinations a bit more.
Another great challenge thank you!

Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Marsacpone Mousse

Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.
Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)
Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)
Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon. (Class made rounds, hearts, diamonds and an attempt at a clover was made!)
Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):
1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.
Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)
Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Directions:

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.
Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.
Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Assembly:
Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

Moussey goodness mm!

Seven Layer Bars

2010-06-20T10:24:00.002+01:00

Well Seven Layer Bars won the poll this week, I only heard about these recently and the thought of making them really interested me, with a digestive biscuit base, two layers of any flavoured chips you want, walnuts and condensed milk topped with coconut and all baked in the oven..hmm definately interesting! I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, would I be able to cut it? Would the condensed milk be an oozing mess? It actually set really really well and was easy to cut, which is a first for me hehe I normally have such problems attempting to get pretty looking slices out of bake bars like these hehe! I just wish that in this country we sold different flavour chips like peanut butter or butterscotch as I had to settle for just milk chocolate chips and white chocolate chips :(, they still turned out delicious though and the smell of the coconut when the bars are baking is absoloutely gorgeous mmmm yum!
Also as you may have seen below my website is all up and running for my business Cupcake-Corner now, the link is
www.cupcake-corner.org.uk
I would really appreciate it if you could visit and let me know what you think please.
Happy Baking hehe :).

7 Layer Bars
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Place butter in 13 x 9 inch pan and melt in oven. Swirl to coat bottom and sides with butter.
Spread crumbs evenly over bottom of pan. Layer chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts over crumbs. Pour condensed milk over nuts. Sprinkle coconut over condensed milk.
Bake until edges are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool.

Yummm!!

Website Complete!!

2010-06-17T09:19:00.001+01:00

Well the business is all set up and running, insurance - check, food hygeine - check, leaflets ordereed- check and finally website - check! I eventually uploaded all of the website onto the internet yesteday and now I just have to wait for the first orders to come through hehe.
I would really apperciate if all my fellow bloggers could visit my website please and tell me what they think :D the link is www.cupcake-corner.org.uk
Thank youuu

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

2010-06-13T21:20:00.002+01:00

I've wanted to try out making toffee apple cupcakes for a while so I was really excited when I got my latest delivery of food flavourings hehe, I got apple, tropical punch & a re-stock of coconut since my levels were running low hehe, I really wish there was somewhere in the UK I could get all these flavourings :( it doesn't seem fair hehe. I decided to do a toffee flavour cake topped with apple buttercream, I then wanted to finish them with spun sugar...now this didn't turn out so well..ahem..imagine hot sugar on top of cool buttercream..yes my buttercream started to melt!! Oh dear, so two poor cuppycakes had to be rushed to the A&E of the fridge!! Luckily I only tried the spun sugar on two cupcakes and had to wrack my brain to think of how to decorate the rest, I wanted some crumble to put on top but I didn't really have the time to make any, I tried a slice of apple but it just looked odd and stodgy. Eventually I decided on drizzling some good old caramel sauce over them, yum! These cupcakes are really different to anything I've ever made before and the apple buttercream is so refreshing yummmyy!

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Toffee Cupcakes
makes 16

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons golden syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk and golden syrup. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Apple Buttercream
175g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 teaspoons apple extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until incorporated, adding milk as required.
2. Beat in extracts and colouring until desired flavour and colour has been achieved.

Yumm!

Sweetie Galore Cupcakes

2010-06-09T14:54:00.004+01:00

I'm so excited at the moment, I'm actually in the middle of setting up my own cupcake business!!!! I can't wait, me and my friend have decided to start our own online website to sell my cupcakes, I've designed all the website, the leaflets and I'm just waiting to get the go ahead from the health authorities and get the insurance sorted but I'll be sure to post up the link when I get the website hosted up on the web!! I'm going to cater for all sorts of occasions + sell cupcakes singly if required and hopefully supply local cafés with my stock!! I've never been so excited for something in my life, hopefully if it all works out well I would like to open a proper cupcake shop. Anyway enough of my blabbings hehe, my friend has never baked cupcakes properly before and I needed to teach her the tricks of the trade so me and her got together yesterday to make these cupcakes I've been wanting to try out for a while. A kids idea of heaven, sweetie cupcakes! We made a vanilla cake topped with creamy raspberry buttercream and covered them with kids pick 'n' mix sweets, they sure looked colourful hehe. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Vanilla & Raspberry Sweetie Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Raspberry Buttercream
150g buttercream
250g icing sugar
2 teaspoons raspberry extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pink food colouring
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until incorporated, adding milk as required.
2. Beat in extracts and colouring until desired flavour and colour has been achieved.
3. Decorate with your choice of sweets, I used Dolly Mixtures, White Chocolate Jazzies, Mini Marshmallows and White Chocolate Stars.

Sweets Galore!!

New York Vanilla Cheesecake

2010-06-06T13:15:00.002+01:00

I was quite pleased that the New York Vanilla Cheesecake won the poll this week, I've had some bad experiences making baked cheesecakes and I really want to overcome my phobia I've got of them, the only successful cheesecake I've ever made was a baked banana one that I made for a Daring Baker's challenge, the rest have either tasted disgusting, not been cooked in the middle or became soggy because the water bath leaked into the base of my cheesecake, not good!! However after many...and I mean many.. trial and errors I think I may eventually have cracked the cheesecake! Not literally of course hehe :P. I found that using full fat Philadelphia cream cheese gives a way better flavour and I prefer not to use a water bath for fear of leakages...and my New York Vanilla Cheesecake turned out great! Yay! There was nearly a disastor when I think I took it out of the oven too early and if I hadn't have decided to put it back in to cook for a bit longer I think it would have been a bit sloppy in the middle, but fear not it all set perfectly and was apparently delicious, I even had some mixture left over to make little tiny cheesecakes hehe!
Cheesecake Phobia Overcome!

New York Vanilla Cheesecake

Crust
200g crushed digestive biscuits (graham crackers)
6 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Cheesecake
32 ounces cream cheese
10.5 ounces granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
5 large eggs

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325F (165C). Process the graham cracker pieces in a food processor to fine, even crumbs, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle the melted butter and sugar over the crumbs and pulse to incorporate. Sprinkle the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan. Press the crumbs firmly into an even layer using the bottom of a measuring cup. Bake the crust until fragrant and beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let the crust cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, increase the oven temperature to 500F (260C). Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until smooth, 1 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beaters as needed.

3. Beat in half of the sugar and salt until incorporated, 1 to 3 minutes. Beat in the remaining sugar until incorporated, 1 to 3 minutes. Beat in the sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until incorporated, 1 to 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks and eggs, two at a time, until combined, 1 to 3 minutes.

4. Being careful not to disturb the baked crust, brush the inside of the prepared springform pan with melted butter. Set the pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Carefully pour the filling into the pan. Bake the cheesecake for 10 minutes.

5. Without opening the oven door, reduce the oven temperature to 200F (93C) and continue to bake the cheesecake until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the cake registers 150F, about 1 1/2 hours, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

6. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and run a knife around the edge of the cake. Let the cheesecake cool until just barely warm, 2 1/2 to 3 hours, running a knife around the edge of the cake every hour or so. Wrap the pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.

7. To unmold the cheesecake, wrap a wet, hot kitchen towel around the cake pan and let sit for 1 minute. Remove the sides of the pan and carefully slide the cake onto a cake platter. Let the cheesecake sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. The cooled, tightly wrapped cake can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Yumm!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-06-01T09:03:00.004+01:00

It seems that very rarely do I make an extremely chocolatey cupcake, so it seemed inevitable that it just had to be done at some point. Enter the Triple Chocolate cupcake! I made these whilst my family from Bulgaria were over visiting and they adored them, a nice chocolate home baked treat for them hehe! The sponge is a delicious milk chocolate dipped in a dark chocolate glaze, I love doing glazes at the minute hehe I love seeing them go all shiny as they harden, and then topped with a white chocolate buttercream and sprinkled with caramel chocolate curls. I had so much fun making these cakes even though they do take a bit more time than usual with having to wait for the glaze to dry before you can do the buttercream or else HELLO smudge hehe! If you like chocolate I would say that you would definately love these!! Yum!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Milk Chocolate Cupcake
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170g plain flour
200g milk chocolate, melted
60g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
40ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the melted chocolate until well incorporated into the mixture.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Dark Chocolate Glaze
150g dark chocolate
80g butter

1. Either in a double boiler or in a microwave melt the dark chocolate with the butter, until you have achieved a smooth, shiny, runny mixture in which you can dip the top of your cakes in.

White Chocolate Buttercream
250g icing sugar
175g butter
200g white chococolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk

1. Beat the butter until softened, slowly adding the icing sugar bit by bit.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. When the white chocolate has cooled slightly beat this into your buttercream, if its too hot it will melt the butter! If this happens don't worry just put your buttercream in the fridge before use to firm it up so that you are able to pipe with it.

Yumm!

Chocolate Heaven

Daring Bakers May : Croquembouche

2010-05-27T13:09:00.003+01:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.
I was really excited for this month's challenge, I love anything like this and all of my family adore things such as profiteroles that are filled with a delicious pastry cream! However I actually found this Daring Baker's challenge quite the challenge hehe! Me & choux pastry have never really gotten along, I can never really get it to puff up and fill out properly, it always seems like it has in the oven but as soon as I take it out it always seems to deflate :(. This month's challenge pretty much the same happened, some of my choux buns were puffy but others were just flat and deflated making them really difficult to fill with the caramel pastry creme I made. After filling them with the caramel pastry creme I made I topped them with a chocolate glaze and attempted to stack them...I have to say this was one of the messiest challenges I have ever had hehe there was pastry creme and chocolate everywhere...all over the floor, the benches, my hands...my mams mouth hehe!! When stacked because my buns weren't perfectly round it wasn't really the conocical croquembouche that you would see at a French wedding so me and my mam joked on and decided to rename ours the Crooked Bush hehehe! I then finished my "crooked bush" with spun sugar. Hope everyone else enjoyed the challenge. :)

Croquembouche

Caramel Pastry Creme
6 ounces sugar
¼ cup water
2 cups milk
1 ¼ ounce cornstarch
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
½ ounce unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine 5 ounces of the sugar and the water in a small, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, brush down the sides of the pan with water, and boil for 8 to 10 minutes, or until caramelized. The sugar will be fragrant and a deep amber color when it is caramelized. Remove the pan from the heat and dip the bottom into an ice water bath for a second or two.
2. Slowly stir in the milk. Return the pan to low heat and stir until smooth. Increase the heat to medium and heat to a simmer.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and remaining 1 ounce of sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk in the egg and yolks. Continue whisking while adding the hot caramel mixture in a thin stream.
4. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it thickens and just comes to a boil. Immediately strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl and stir in the butter and vanilla. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and refrigerate.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
1. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

2. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

3. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

4. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

5. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
1. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

2. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

3. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
1. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

2. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Chocolate Glaze
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate

1. Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Assembly

1. When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

2. You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern.

3. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best. Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.

Spongebob Packet Cake Mix

2010-05-19T11:10:00.003+01:00

Ok so I never ever buy packet cake mixes..but I absoloutely LOVE Spongebob, I will literally by anything with the cute character on haha so when I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients for this month's Daring Baker's Challenge and I saw this Spongebob Packet Cake Mix just sitting there staring at me from the shelf I literally couldn't resist haha. You got a little square baking tray to bake the extremely yellow sponge cake mix in and then some yellow buttercream mix to fill and slightly top the cakes with and then extremely cute Spongebob paper waferettes to decorate!! This is such a cute cake mix and although it's nothing special, you just need to add one egg and some water to the cake mix and 45g of butter to the buttercream mix, its Spongebob so what the hey hehe! Apparently it was pretty good for a cake mix and my mam rated it
7/10 Moistness
7/10 Flavour
8/10 Overall

Maybe good old Spongebob isn't so bad overall hehe.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

2010-05-15T12:00:00.002+01:00

Cinnamon Swirl Bread won the poll this month, I was a bit worried this was going to be similar to cinnamon rolls but its not really at all, its much more savoury yet sweet and baked into a loaf which you can actually slice and toast. It has a delicious swirl of cinnamon through it and is perfect for breakfast..welll that seemed to be the case in my mams eyes anyway hehe. I actually really enjoyed making this and the smell of it when its baking in the oven is AMAZING, you get the sweet warm bready smell but then also the amazing smell of cinnamon, I actually really enjoy making bread now and have eventually got over the yeast phobia that hauted my poor brick of a brioche on my first attempt of making bread. I'm really excited about next week's poll as well hehe, I can't wait to see what wins hehe :D. Anyway here's the recipe for you all to enjoy so your kitchen too can smell warm and cinnamony hehe :P.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1 package active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups flour
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Method

In small saucepan, warm milk and 1 tbsp butter until butter is melted. Set aside until lukewarm.
In small bowl, mix water and yeast until yeast is dissolved.
In large bowl, add 2 tbsp sugar, salt, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Pour in lukewarm milk and butter. Mix until sugar and salt is dissolved. Stir in yeast and water.
Mix in 2-1/2 cups flour. Turn out onto floured board and knead in the remaining half cup of flour or until the dough is soft and smooth.
Put dough in greased bowl and turn dough so that the top is greased. Cover and let rise in warm place for about 60 minutes, or until double in size.
Punch down dough with your fist. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead for about 1 minute.
Roll dough out into a basic rectangular shape. Use a butter knife or fingers to spread 2 tbsp softened butter on the top of rectangular dough. Evenly spread about 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon on top of butter.
Roll up dough and form into 1 loaf. Put into buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise until double in size, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven 375 degrees F (190C).
Score dough by cutting three slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Turn out bread and let cool on a rack or dishtowel.

Swirly bread :)

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2010-05-11T10:24:00.003+01:00

Yayyy I had my first ever paid order, I was so pleased :), there was a woman at my mam's work who was throwing a baby shower for one of her friends and wanted to order some of my cakes for the party, she ordered 10 pink cakes and 10 blue cakes as the girl didn't know whether she was having a boy or girl and left the flavour choices up to me, as long as it wasn't strawberry as she is allergic hehe. I was so excited to make these and I actually haven't been very well at the moment and was worried I wasn't going to be able to get them done :( but I struggled through and managed to make them for her for last weekend :).
For the pink ones I did a raspberry ripple cupcake, a vanilla buttercake topped with a nice ripple of raspberry buttercream, topped with some sprinkley pink glimmer to make them look extra pretty and pink.
For the blue ones I did a recipe that I posted up recently, tropical banana coconut cupcakes, a coconut cupcake topped with baby blue banana buttercream topped with white sprinkles to contrast with the baby blue.
I'll post up the recipe for the Raspberry Ripple cuppies but obviously not the Tropical ones as I have already posted it up recently. Enjoyy :).

Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
220g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Raspberry Buttercream
190g butter
150g icing sugar
dash of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons raspberry extract
drop of red food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened, add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until creamy.
2. Beat in extracts and food colouring. Add milk as desired to achieve correct consistency.

Cuppies

Froot Loop Cupcakes

2010-04-30T10:22:00.003+01:00

Ok so I've had a big box of Froot Loops just sitting in the cupboard for a while, I bought a huge box of them when I went over to visit America, I wish they sold half the stuff over here its all so amazing, but I was never going to get through this big box of Froot Loops so I decided to make cuppiecakes out of them :). For the cake I did a normal vanilla buttercake, and then added 1 cup of ground froot loops, the milk that was then added to the vanilla butterccake recipe had had Froot Loops soaked in it so that it was flavoured with them, I then added whole Froot Loops to the batter and various fruit flavourings, which can be seen in the recipe to add ultimate fruitiness! Once baked I cored out the centre and added some dream topping whipped up..I think this is the equivalent of dream topping to represent the milky bit if you were to have a bowl of Froot Loops, I then topped them with Froot Loop buttercream, I made some normal buttercream, added some more crushed Froot Loops and some fruit flavourings and finished them with some more Froot Loops. These are most definately the ultimate fruity cakes and taste just like Froot Loops mmmmm!

Froot Loop Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 cup ground Froot Loops
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk, soaked in Froot Loops
50g Froot Loops
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon raspberry extract
1 teaspoon grape extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon cherry extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, crushed Froot Loops baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat! Fold in the extra Froot Loops and the various extracts.
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Centre
1 sachet dream topping
50ml milk

1.Make up dream topping according to packet instructions.

Froot Loop Buttercream
190g butter
150g icing sugar
1/2 cup ground Froot Loops
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grape extract
1 teaspoon raspberry extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon cherry extract
red food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened, add icing sugar a bit at a time beating until creamy.
2. Beat in crushed Froot Loops and the extracts.
3. Beat in red food colouring to achieve that red Frooty Loop colour hehe.

Innards of the Froot Loop cupcake

Froot Loops Cupcake

Chocolate Lava Cake

2010-04-25T20:05:00.003+01:00

The chocolate lava cake was the thing to make this week, now this dessert goes by quite a few names..chocolate lava cake, chocolate fondant, melt in the middle chocolate pudding..whatever you want to call it pretty much what it is is an extremely moist chocolate cake with an oozing chocolate liquid centre..almost like cubes of chocolate have been placed into the centre of the cake! I had great fun making these, I was really worried that they were going to turn out disastorous..but disastorous they did not..well apart from the first one but thats a different story hehe. The recipe stated to bake them for 10 minutes, I would strongy suggest giving them 15 or else when you come to turn out your delicious smelling cakes it turns into a mound of mess on your plate..definately not elegant and sophisticated! My mam and boyfriend absolutely loved these and said it was the perfect warming comforting food...so if you are in need of a warm comforting dessert here's your guys hehe!

Chocolate Lava Cake
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate (or use your favorite 70% dark chocolate bar)
6 oz. Butter (diced, room temperature)
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup Flour
Butter for Ramekins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175C. Melt chocolate on low flame in a bain-marie (double boiler). When melted, take of flame, and…
2. Stir in diced butter, until it melts.
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar, until it starts to whiten.
4. Stir in melted chocolate and then the flour.
5. Butter 4 individual ramekins, and pour in chocolate batter.
6. Cook for about 15 minutes.
7. Tip ramekins upside down onto dessert plates and serve.

Before the oozing begins hehe

Chocolate River!

Chunky Monkey Cupcakes

2010-04-19T21:38:00.002+01:00

I wasn't sure what cupcake flavour to make this week, I was looking at my two other new flavourings : grape and apricot. I was thinking about maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cake, I was going to make a vanilla cake fill it with grape buttercream and top it with peanut butter buttercream but nobody in my family is really that big of a fan of peanut butter so that one wasn't really perfect and I haven't had any strong ideas for the apricot flavouring yet. It wasn't until I went out food shopping and my mam bought a new flavour of ice cream..cheeky chimp that our local supermarket is selling that it struck me that I would love to make a cupcake flavour based on the Ben 'n' Jerry's flavour : Chunky Monkey. A banana ice cream with dark chocolate bananas and walnuts swirled through it & this is what I based my good ol' cuppiecake on :). I made a banana sponge with dark chocolate chips and walnuts in it and topped it with a light banana buttercream sprinkled with dark chocolate flakes. My buttercream turned out the best it ever has it was so light and creamy and everyone loved them..especially my mam who LOVESSS anything bananery!

Chunky Monkey Cupcakes

Banana, Dark Choc Chip Walnut Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk
75g dark chocolate chips
75g chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons banana extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract & banana extract.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk.. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Banana Buttercream
200g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
3 teaspoons banana extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
yellow food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened in a bowl on medium speed.
2. Add icing sugar alternating with milk, beat in extracts and food colouring.
3. Pipe onto cakes as desired.

Stripping Cuppie!

With liners still on

Oh dear the liners have come off

Cuppie bares all :O

Raspberry Chiffon Pie!!

2010-04-11T19:56:00.003+01:00

It was a draw this week on my polly thing to see what I should make next from my big list between a Raspberry Chiffon Pie and a Tunnel of Fudge Cake..now initially I wanted to make the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, I'd just made a Banana Cream Pie and the thought of making another pie just didn't really excite me, the thought of making a delicious fudgey cake was just too much hehe. Anyway you need a Bundt tin for the Tunnel of Fudge cake and I didn't have one of these so I set out to buy one..only to find they were about £15..yeh it's not really expensive but I just don't have the spare cash to justify a cake tin that I might only use once..so the Raspberry Chiffon Pie it was!! And I am sooooo pleased that I made it!! It wasn't a pie in any means like the Banana Cream Pie, a rich pie crust, a gooey jammy raspberry layer, a light creamy raspberry layer and topped with sweetened cream and raspberries, perfect for summer now the weather is starting to get better yayyy :). Everyone loved this pie and said it was one of the nicest pies theyve ever had and I've even had requests to make it again from my family who are up visiting from Birmingham!! I had mixture leftover as well so I decided to make two cute mini pies :), which you can see below tee hee. Minature always looks so cute!!

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

Pie Crust
50g butter
50g vegetable fat/lard
200g all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons water

1. Rub the butter and fat into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, do this lightly with your fingers or in a food processor.
2. Beat in the water a little at a time with a knife or fork until the dough can be formed into a ball.
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate for 30 mins and then roll out into your desired pie dish.
4. Blind bake in the oven for 20mins at 220C, then remove the baking beans and bake for another 5 minutes to brown the pastry up. Cool.

*Fruit Layer*
12	ounces frozen raspberries (2 cups)
3	tablespoons powdered pectin
1 1/2	cups sugar
	Pinch salt
1	cup fresh raspberries

1. Cook frozen berries in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until berries begin to give up their juice, about 3 minutes. Stir in pectin and bring to full boil, stirring constantly.
2. Stir in sugar and salt and return to full boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour through fine-mesh strainer into medium bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much puree as possible. Scrape puree off underside of strainer into bowl.
3. Transfer 1/3 cup raspberry puree to small bowl and cool to room temperature. Gently fold fresh raspberries into remaining puree. Spread fruit mixture evenly over bottom of pie shell and set aside.

Chiffon Layer
3 tablespoons raspberry jelly powder
3 tablespoons boiling water
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup heavy cream, chilled

1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water in large bowl. Add cream cheese and reserved 1/3 cup raspberry puree and beat with electric mixer on high speed, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice, until smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Add 1 cup cream and beat on medium-low until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. Beat on high speed until cream holds stiff peaks, 1 to 2 minutes. Spread evenly over fruit in pie shell. Cover pie with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.

Whipped Cream Topping
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 tablespoons sugar

1. When ready to serve, beat 1 1/4 cups cream and sugar to stiff peaks. Spread or pipe over chilled filling. Serve.

Phish Food Cookies!!

2010-04-08T10:45:00.003+01:00

I'm sure you're all familiar with the Ben 'n' Jerry's flavour Phish Food, a chocolate ice cream, with chocolate fish and a marshmallow and caramel swirl running through it yummm!! Well as you may have seen on my blog before I've made Phish Food cupcakes before and I really fancied making Phish Food cookies. It started with me just deciding to make some ordinary choc chip cookies, they're one of those things I just never seem to make..but then as I was making them I was looking in the cupboards and started to think..hmm maybe Phish Food Cookies would be a bit more exciting. So I added some cocoa powder to my cookie mix and threw in loadssss of chocolate chunks, some mini marshmallows and loads of yummy Starbucks caramel sauce I had left over and into the oven they went..I was quite worried how they would turn out, whether the marshmallows and caramel in the oven would just turn into a sticky mess..but wowwww!! These turned out great, people were saying they were the best cookies they have ever tasted, the sticky caramel and marshmallows with the chewy cookie and the big chocolate chunks was apparently amazing..hmm maybe more Ben 'n' Jerry's flavours should be made into cookies hehe. Anyway heres my recipe that I created :).

Phish Food Cookies

250g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
170g butter,melted
220g brown sugar
100g white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
200g chocolate chunks, milk or dark
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup caramel sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 165C.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and pinch of salt into a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl beat together the melted butter and the sugars. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.
4. Mix in the flour slowly and then fold in the chocolate chunks, mini marshmallows and caramel sauce.
5. Refridgerate mix for about 30 mins to firm it up before baking if you want thicker cookies, spoon mixture onto baking tray and bake for 15-17 mins. Cool.

Easter Cupcakes

2010-04-02T20:31:00.002+01:00

Firstly Happy Easter everyone :), hope you're all having a good time Easter Baking and enjoying all the chocolate eggs! I made two batches of different cupcakes this Easter, I was only only planning to make one batch but I had some things left over so I thought hey why not!! The first batch I made was Easter Nests, these were praline cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream filled with chocolate eggs! I had some of the super cute mini mini eggs left over, so I decided I would make some Easter basket cakes as well, which I just finished off today, these were a chocolate cake with a mint buttercream to look like grass with a basket handle filled with mini mini chocolate eggs..and some mini chocolate eggs hehe!! The handles on the Easter baskets look a bit more like rainbows...but oh well never mind.. hehe!
Enjoy all your Easter Baking :D.

Chocolate Praline Easter Nest Cupcakes

Praline Cupcakes

1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Cream softened butter in mixing bowl. Sift in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add about half of the milk and the egg; mix until flour is thoroughly moistened. Beat for 2 minutes. Add remaining milk and the vanilla; beat 1 minute longer.
3. Stir in chopped pecans. Place paper baking cups in muffin cups and fill about 1/2 full with the batter. Bake at 375°F (170C) for 25 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched with finger.

Chocolate Buttercream
150g butter, softened
225g icing sugar
100g milk chocolate, melted
25g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat butter until light, add icing sugar bit by bit, adding milk if necessary to stop it going dry.
2. Beat in milk chocolate and vanilla extract.
3. Sift in cocoa powder and beat in until incorporated and pipe onto cakes and top with chocolate eggs!

Chocolate Mint Easter Nests

Chocolate Cupcakes
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g plain flour
35g cocoa powder
3 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk and the Hershey's chocolate syrup. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat!
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Mint Buttercream
90g butter
150g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
green food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened in a bowl on medium speed.
2. Add icing sugar alternating with milk, beat in extracts and food colouring.
3. Spread onto cakes in a "grass-like" style and place eggs and an appropriate sweet handle on the cake!

Bubblegum Cupcakes!

2010-03-29T20:39:00.002+01:00

I've really been wanting to get some new food flavourings recently since the ones in this country aren't that good, they're all pretty plain and the norm..things like orange, lemon and stuff that you can make just by squeezing fruit anyway so I decided to go to the world of Ebay and find a business that sold food flavourings :D. I bought a bubblegum one, a grape one and an apricot one, I was so pleased when they came theyre great, I'm thinking about buying some more acutally cause theres so many different cake ideas I wanna try :). This week it was either peanut butter cakes with grape buttercream or bubblegum..I decided on the bubblegum since I've made peanut butter cupcakes before. These cakes are so bright and would be perfect for a kids party, I just made a normal vanilla buttercake but stirred in some big multi-coloured sprinkles to make a rainbow cake and then topped them with pink bubblegum buttercream and a bubblegum on top :). I can't wait to start doing some different flavours..so excited hehe :).

Bubblegum Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk

Bubblegum Frosting
150g butter
200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons bubblegum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pink food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened and white, slowly add icing sugar, alternating with milk if necessary (I didn't need this).
2. Beat in extracts and pink food colouring and pipe onto cakes.

The multicoloured cupcakes

Daring Bakers March : Lemon & Raspberry Tian

2010-03-27T16:37:00.004Z

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.
Ok so this month's Daring Baker's Challenge was to make an Orange Tian, a French dessert, made up of a pate sablee...which I had no idea what it was at first!! Hehe, your own made marmalade, a whipped cream filling, a caramel sauce and citrus segments. Despite thinking an orange tian would be delicious I really wanted to play around with some different flavours since last month I just decided to stick to a plain normal tiramisu, we still had to make it citrus but we could add any additional flavour we wanted to the whipped cream filling, so I decided that lemon would be my citrus flavour and then I would add a swirl of raspberry flavouring and red food colouring through my whipped cream centre...god that red food colouring was annoying, its just managed to come out of my skin now!! A week later!! I decided to make one big tian, which I topped with orange and lemon segments..this unfortunately fell over when it went into the freezer but luckily was salvaged hehe, and two miniature tians that I made in ramekins filled with cling film to be lifted easily out! I was so pleased with how these turned out, the only problem I can think is that maybe the lemon segments on top were a bit too bitter and I did have to upscale the amount of sugar I used in the recipe to compensate for this, anyway I loved this challenge and can't wait to see what concoction we'll have to make next month :D.

Lemon & Raspberry Tian

For the Pate Sablee:

Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients
2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams
vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed
Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams
baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams

Directions:
Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:

Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients
Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams
2 large lemons used to make lemon slices
cold water to cook the slices
pectin 5 grams
granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Finely slice the lemon. Place the lemon slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the lemon for another 10 minutes.

Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the lemon peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.

Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.

Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).

Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar . If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar.

In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the lemon juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).

Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Lemon Segments:

For this step you will need 10 lemons.

Cut the lemon into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.

[See YouTube video in the References section below for additional information on segmenting oranges.]

For the Caramel:

Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients
granulated sugar 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
lemon juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons; 14 oz; 400 grams

Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.

Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the lemon juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the lemon segments.

Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the lemon tians.

[Tip: Be very careful when making the caramel — if you have never made caramel before, I would suggest making this step while you don’t have to worry about anything else. Bubbling sugar is extremely, extremely hot, so make sure you have a bowl of ice cold water in the kitchen in case anyone gets burnt!]

For the Whipped Cream:

Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients
heavy whipping cream 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
2 teaspoons raspberry extract
dash of red food colouring
3 tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp Gelatine
1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar
lemon marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon

In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the lemon marmalade, raspberry extract and red food colouring.
[Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.]

Assembling the Dessert:

Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Drain the lemon segments on a kitchen towel.

Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Arrange the lemon segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.

Once you have neatly arranged one layer of lemon segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.

Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.

Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

Banana Cream Pie

2010-03-24T20:15:00.004Z

Ok so Banana Cream Pie won the latest poll vote :) I was sort of hoping it would be grasshopper pie, I remember having it as a young child in a pub I always used to go to and have never seen anywhere serve it since so I was really excited at the thought of making it..but everything will get made at some point and it was just Banana Cream Pies turn now :). I was looking at the recipe for Banana Cream Pies and was actually surprised to see no cream was involved hehe but a creamy delicious pudding like filling made with milk and egg yolks, wow it sounded good! I wasn't sure whether to top mine with meringue or not..with the left over egg whites, as some recipes suggested, but I ended up deciding not to and just drizzling it with some caramel sauce and topping with some extra yummy banana. This pie has nearly all gone now and it was only made yesterday, everyone loved it! It's slightly sloppy but I'm not sure whether this is what it's meant to be like, but surprisingly my pastry turned out perfectly and flaky yayyy :).

Banana Cream Pie

Pie Crust
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Crisco vegetable shortening, plain or butter-flavored
1/2 teaspoon kosher or coarse salt
3 tablespoons ice water

Method

Mix flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter, until mixture resembles the texture of tiny split peas. Do not use your hands to try and mix it, the heat from you hands will melt the shortening, causing the pastry to be "heavy", not light and flaky.
Once mixture is the right texture, add the ice water and combine with a fork. It may appear as if it needs more water, it does not. Quickly gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a 4-inch-wide disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
Remove dough disk from refrigerator. If stiff and very cold, let stand until dough is cool but malleable.
Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough disk on a lightly floured surface from the center out in each direction, forming a 12-inch circle. To transfer dough, carefully roll it around the rolling pin, lift and unroll dough, centering it in an ungreased 9-inch regular or deep-dish pie plate. (Or you can fold dough in quarters, then place dough point in center of pie pan and unfold dough, whatever is easiest for you.)

Banana Cream Pie Filling
1 9-inch pie shell, baked
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas

Method

Have baked 9-inch pie shell ready.
In a large saucepan, scald the milk.
In another saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and salt; gradually stir in the scalded milk.
Over medium heat, stirring constantly, cook until thickened.
Cover and, stirring occasionally, cook for two minutes longer.
In a small bowl, have the 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten, ready; stir a small amount of the hot mixture into beaten yolks; when thoroughly combined, stir yolks into hot mixture.
Cook for one minute longer, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and blend in the butter and vanilla.
Let sit until lukewarm.
When ready to pour, slice bananas and scatter in pie shell; pour warm mixture over bananas.

Tropical Pineapple Banana Coconut Cupcakes

2010-03-12T08:12:00.003Z

I fancied making something a bit more tropical, these were meant to just be pineapple and coconut cupcakes but unfortunately my poor pineapple extract ran out just as I was adding it to the buttercream so I had to add some banana as well so the buttercream didn't end up tasting just of vanilla. I decided to make these really nice and brightly coloured so I added some blue food colouring to the buttercream to make them look bright and tropical :). I had great fun making these and after my mam taking them into her work I got my first paid order for some cupcakes yayyy!! :). I'm so pleased, it's one of my mam's workmate's birthdays soon and she's having people over to her house and wants me to make 48 cupcakes in 4 different flavours according to a colour theme shes having, I'm so excited, I've already started making a list of possible flavours I could do even though its not for a couple of months..oh well..gotta start somewhere hehe!

Tropical Pineapple Banana Coconut Cupcakes

Coconut Cupcakes

220g white sugar
180 butter
4 eggs
300g self raising flour
4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coconut extract

1. Beat together the butter and the sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the eggs one by one beating for a minute after each addition.
2. Alternate the dry ingredients, flour, with the milk, beating in additions. Beat in vanilla extract and coconut extract.
3. Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 25 minutes in a 175C oven or until a skewer is inserted into the centre and comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in pan and then turn out onto wire rack.

Pineapple Banana Buttercream
175g butter
225g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pineapple extract
1 teaspoon banana extract
blue food colouring
1 tablespoon milk

1. Beat the butter until softened and light, beat in the icing sugar bit by bit, adding vanilla extract and milk when needed.
2. Beat in other extracts and finish with milk and beat until desired consistency has been achieved.

Tres Leches Cake

2010-03-08T20:08:00.004Z

Ok so you all voted on the little poll thing on the right and the next thing I should make off my list came out as Tres Leches Cake, a Mexican cake made with vanilla sponge soaked in three milks and then topped with a creamy frosting! I was really excited to make this because it's not really anything like I've made before and I wanted to see how it would turn out, would soaking a cake in that much milk not make it soggy?! So I set about to making my Tres Leches Cake, the texture of the cake when it comes out of the oven it's quite strange, it was sort of like a brioche and really light, I thought "Oh dear" this cake is going to go soggy, but after soaking it in the milk mixture for a couple of hours it turns into a really dense rich cake :D, perfect. You then top it with a sweetened whipped cream and serve! I didn't have a slice but I tried a bit of my mams and mmm it seemed good, pretty sweet but not too sweet, just right. Hope you all have as much fun making it as I did..I think the next thing off my list is going to be a pie of some sort..hmm decisions decisions..vote away hehe :).

Tres Leches Cake

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
4-1/2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
4-1/2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup white sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well after each addition. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until whites form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter using a rubber spatula. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
In a small bowl, stir together the 1 cup heavy cream, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. Pour the mixture over the cake until it wont absorb any more. You may have 1/3 to 1/4 left over. That's okay. *I would recommend pouring a little over at a time until it has absorbed it all so you don't end up with a big pool underneath your cake!*
Combine the whipped cream and sugar, spread over soaked cake. Refrigerate cake until serving, Pour leftover milk mixture onto plates and swirl in jam if desired, before setting cake on the plates.

Banana Split Cupcakes

2010-03-03T09:27:00.002Z

Well...to start with these cakes turned out disastorous, when I went to America I bought loads of Jellos to try but I never really eat desserts so they were all just sitting in the cupboard so I thought..hmm why not try to put one in a cake mixture to create a Banana Cream cupcake..enter disastor..the mixture was fine and went into the cuppycases just for them to come out of the oven with a really weird texture..quite gooey not really cakey..not good!! Straight in the bin they went :(. So the next day I decided to abandon the Banana Cream and go for a Banana Split Cupcake, something I've never made before. Yum. I made a basic vanilla sponge recipe and then split the mixture in two and flavoured half with strawberry and half with banana, I then layered the cupcakes with these mixtures and then baked and topped with vanilla buttercream, a drizzle of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup and nice bright sprinkles :).

Banana Split Cupcakes
makes 7

110g white sugar
90 butter
2 eggs
150g self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons strawberry extract
2 teaspoons banana extract
red food colouring
yellow food colouring

1. Beat together the butter and the sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the eggs one by one beating for a minute after each addition.
2. Alternate the dry ingredients, flour, with the milk, beating in additions. Beat in vanilla extract.
3. Divide mixture into 2 and flavour and colour half with strawberry/red food colouring and half with banana/yellow food colouring.
4. Pour into cupcake liners, the bottom filled with banana mixture and the top filled with strawberry to create a layered effect. and bake for 25 minutes in a 175C oven or until a skewer is inserted into the centre and comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in pan and then turn out onto wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream
90g butter
150g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon milk

1.Beat butter for as long as possible until really white and creamy, this will help to make the buttercream really white.
2.Beat in the icing sugar little by little, adding milk or vanilla essence as necessary to create the right texture. Pipe onto cakes and decorate as you please.

Daring Bakers February : Tiramisu

2010-02-27T17:14:00.003Z

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
Well this is the first Daring Bakers challenge I've competed in for a while, none of the past challenges I've really had time for or have interested me in making them, but this month ooh it was different. This month was the chance to make a tiramisu, with the chance to make every single element that went into it even the marscapone!! This was perfect, my family were coming up from Birmingham who all absoloutely adore tiramisu so I could make it for them and then give them it as a dessert for them to have one night. Surprisingly everything turned out ok, the marscapone cheese managed to come out ok as did the ladyfingers yayy. The only thing that had a slight blip was the making of the zabagloine where I didn't beat the eggs and stuff enough before boiling it, but that was soon managed to be altered and it all turned out alright. I didn't use any alcohol in my tiramisu, just coffee/espresso as the dessert was mainly for my cousin who's only 14 and doesn't really enjoy the alcoholic taste it desserts. I decided to make my tiramisu pretty much just classicly with no really different additions or anything since I'd never made one before I just wanted to try the basics. Hope everyone elses challenges turned out well, I for one definately enjoyed this challenge and hope next month's is just as good :D.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

White Out Cake

2010-02-21T19:54:00.003Z

This was one of the other things on my list, I've never really mastered layer cakes...and still really haven't after this but it still turned out ok, it was either this or black out cake and since I think everyone has had lots of my baked stuff recently I thought the rich dense chocolate fudgeyness of black out might be a bit too much so white out cake it was. It was meant to be 3 layers tall but one of my layers looked very fragile and I didn't want to risk trying to slice it in half and end up with hardly anything so 2 layers it was. The only annoying thing I can say is I filled my cake with the delicious white fluffy frosting, thought there was more than enough there and then threw tons and literally I mean tonsss of this gorgeous frosting in the bin just to find that when I came to take a picture of my white out cake the frosting in the middle was barely noticeable snif :(. Still everyone said they enjoyed it and hopefully I should have a bit more luck with my next layer cake :(.

White Out Cake

Cake

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup boiling water
4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

1. Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, 170C. Butter two 8-x-2-inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugars and continue to beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
3. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate. When it is fully incorporated, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter.
4. Still working on low speed, mix in the boiling water, which will thin the batter considerably. Switch to a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl and stir in the chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with the rubber spatula.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Don’t worry if the tops have a few small cracks. Transfer the cake pans to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
6. When you are ready to fill and frost the cake, inspect the layers. If the cakes have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. With the same knife, slice each layer horizontally in half. Set 3 layers aside and crumble the fourth layer; set the crumbs aside.

Marshmallowy Frosting

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large)
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1. Put the egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl or in another large bowl. Have a candy thermometer at hand.
2. Put the sugar, cream of tartar and water in a small saucepan and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, cover the pan and boil for 3 minutes. Uncover and allow the syrup to boil until it reaches 242 degrees F on the candy thermometer. While the syrup is cooking, start beating the egg whites.
3. When the syrup is at about 235 degrees F, begin beating the egg whites on medium speed with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer. If the whites form firm, shiny peaks before the syrup reaches temperature, reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing the whites until the syrup catches up. With the mixer at medium speed, and standing back slightly, carefully pour in the hot syrup, pouring it between the beater(s) and the side of the bowl. Splatters are inevitable — don’t try to scrape them into the whites, just carry on.
4. Add the vanilla extract and keep beating the whites at medium speed until they reach room temperature, about 5 minutes. You should have a smooth, shiny, marshmallowy frosting. Although you could keep it in the fridge in a pinch, it’s really better to use it right now.

Assembly

1. Put a bottom layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or on a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a long metal icing spatula, cover the layer generously with frosting. Top with a second layer, cut side up, and frost it.
2. Finish with the third layer, cut side down, and frost the sides and top of the cake. Don’t worry about smoothing the frosting — it should be swirly. Now, cover the entire cake with the chocolate cake crumbs, gently pressing the crumbs into the filling with your fingers.
3. Refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour before serving. (If it’s more convenient, you can chill the cake for 8 hours or more; cover it loosely and keep it away from foods with strong odours.)

Roses are Red Cupcakes are too!

2010-02-15T20:12:00.002Z

Well Valentine's Day rolled around again and I actually wasn't planning on doing any cupcakes for Valentine's Day I was going to make heart sugar cookies to go with a cuddly Cookie Monster I'd bought for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, he loves the Cookie Monster hehe, but I decided instead to make him a cupcake in the form on the Cookie Monster, which youll see below hehe...so i thought well if I'm making batter for one cupcake that seems a bit silly...so out came Valentine's Day baking!! I made the cookie monster just vanilla choc chunk cake but then with the rest of the batter I added cocoa powder, melted chocolate and Hershey's chocolate syrup to make a rich chocolate chunk cake and then topped that batch with cherry buttercream and a Loveheart yum! Now..that didn't make all that many cakes..only about 12 and my mam has just started a new job and there's quite a lot of members of staff who last time I baked didn't really get a cake....so of course I needed to bake some more..ahem ahem..what happened to not doing any Valentine's Day cupcakes?! The next batch I made just some good old red velvet cakes and topped them with either red or white vanilla buttercream piped to make the cakes look like roses, very romantic for Valentine's day hehe!

Dark Chocolate Cherry Chunk Cupcake
makes 12

Dark Chocolate Chunk Cupcake

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g plain flour
35g cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate, melted
50g dark chocolate, chopped into bitesize chunks
3 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, this should take about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Stir in the melted dark chocolate.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, alternating with the milk and the Hershey's chocolate syrup. Beat in slowly until just combined, be careful not to overbeat! Fold in the dark chocolate chunks.
4. Fill the muffin liners and bake for 18-20minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack until completley cool.

Cherry Buttercream
125g butter,softened
150g icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons cherry extract
red food colouring

1. Beat butter until softened in a bowl, add the icing sugar bit by bit adding milk as needed. Add the cherry extract and red food colouring, pipe onto cakes.

Vanillery Red Velvet Cupcakes
makes 20

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon red food colouring
1/4 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160C). Line a muffin pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside to cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture.Sift the flour and salt together into another medium bowl.
5. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, to the egg mixture in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until incorporated.In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir until the baking soda dissolves; the mixture will fizz. Add to the batter and stir until just combined.
6. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes for cupcakes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack 5 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream
175g butter
225g icing sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
red food colouring
1 tablespoon milk

1. Beat butter until light and nearly white, beat in icing sugar bit by bit adding milk as needed. Beat in vanilla extract and divide mixture into two, add red food colouring to one batch. Pipe onto cakes.

COOKIE MONSTER!
Finally this is how I made the cookie monster cupcake, its a vanilla dark chocolate chunk cake (as above without addition of cocoa, hersheys syrup and melted dark chocolate) frosted with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream and dipped in desicacated coconut dyed blue. I then cut a slit in the top of the cupcake and prised it open as the mouth to put the cookie in and made the eyes out of fondant with the pupils made out of mini smarties.

Strawberry and Orange Creme Cupcakes

2010-02-09T10:11:00.003Z

Well it was time to use all those chocolates that nobody wanted to eat at Christmas!! Poor strawberry and orange cremes, personally I liked them, they're not my favourite but I'll eat them, but it's my mam and her friends who seem to eat the majority of chocolates over Christmas and sicne none of them like them there was a huugeee pile left of them..and of course they just couldn't go to waste! Cupcakes had to be made!! So I set about making strawberry creme cupcakes and orange creme cupcakes..hmm now what to do..
I melted down the strawberry cremes and orange cremes and stirred them into two separate batches of chocolate cupcake batter to make a strawberry and an orange creme cupcake cupcake batter, I then baked these and let them cool, I then piped strawberry buttercream into the strawberry ones and orange buttercream into the orange ones for the creamy centre! I then topped them with a delicious shiny chocolate glaze for finishing and decorated them. :) Hope you enjoy, my mam even ate one and she normally has a vendetta about the creamy chocolates hehe!!

Strawberry and Orange Creme Cupcakes
Makes 10 of each (use recipe twice)

90g butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
120g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
11 strawberry cremes, melted OR 11 orange cremes, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat together the butter and the sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, add the eggs one by one beating for a minute after each addition.
2. Melt the cremes until just a nice paste and quickly beat into the mixture.
3. Alternate the dry ingredients, flour & cocoa powder, with the milk, beating in additions. Beat in vanilla extract.
4. Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 25 minutes in a 175C oven or until a skewer is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, they may look like they are not done because of the chocolates in them when in actual fact they are. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in pan and then turn out onto wire rack.

Strawberry or Orange Buttercream
75g butter
200g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon milk
strawberry or orange flavouring
pink or orange food colouring

1. Beat butter and icing sugar in a bowl until combined, adding milk when needed to achieve desired consistency.
2. Beat in milk, flavouring and food colouring as desired until you have the flavour and colour you want.
3. Using a piping bag with a large round tip, poke into the middle of the cakes and fill the centre with the correct buttercream.
4. Smooth off tops so the buttercream is smooth and the cakes are able to be easily dipped into chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Glaze
160g dark chocolate
70g butter
1 & 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt all ingredients over a double boiler until melted and a nice smooth shiny glaze has been formed.
2. Dip cakes in and swirl to achieve a smooth finish, allow to cool & harden slightly before decorating.

Orange Creme Cupcake

Inside of Orange Creme Cupcake

Strawberry Creme Cupcake

Inside of Strawberry Creme Cupcake

Chocolate Croissants

2010-02-02T20:23:00.003Z

The battle with yeast continues hehe! I've got a big long list of different things that I want to make, along with my normal different cupcake flavours and Chocolate Croissants was one of them, so it was these that I decided to make this week. Another one of the things on my list was Outrageous Chocolate Brownies, brownies with coffee, walnuts and heaps of chocolate which I made last week and was going to post up the other day just to find that the photos I had taken of them had been deleted off my camera so no posty for them :( but I've gotta say the richness and the smell of them was so good, silly camera, its so annoying when stuff like that happens! Anyway back to the croissants! It's a pretty long process, the dough has to be kneaded and rested so many times but it is definately worth it, I'm so pleased that I've managed to master yeast :). I made the dough the night before and the next day I cooked and baked them and then walked round to my Grandma's with a fresh batch, she loved them and has been having them for breakfast every morning! :D. I'm not really a fan of croissants myself but she loved them and that's all that matters :).

Chocolate Croissants
makes about 24

1 cup butter, softened
2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 cup warm water 105º to 115º
2/3 cup milk
4 cups to 4 1/2 all-purpose flour, divided
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
200g dark chocolate, broken into small triangles

Method

1. Press butter into a 10- x 8-inch rectangle on wax paper; chill.

2. Combine yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, and water in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes.

3. Heat milk to 105° to 115°. Combine yeast mixture, warm milk, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 cups flour, vegetable oil, salt and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat mixture at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.

4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in bulk, once doubled in bulk punch dough down. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill dough 1 hour.

5. Punch dough down again and turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll into a 24- x 10-inch rectangle. Place chilled butter rectangle in center of dough rectangle, and carefully fold dough over butter. Pinch edges to seal.

6. Roll dough into an 18- x 10-inch rectangle; fold into thirds, beginning with short side. Cover and chill 1 hour.Repeat rolling and folding procedure twice, chilling dough 30 minutes each time. Wrap dough in aluminum foil, and chill 8 hours.

7. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Roll 1 portion into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface, and cut into 6 wedges (keep remaining dough chilled). Place 2 to 3 tiny rectangles of the chocolate, beginning on the wide end of each croissant dough wedge, and roll up each wedge, tightly. Place, point side down, on greased baking sheets, gently curving rolls into crescent shapes. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

8. Bake at 425°F (220C) for 8 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool croissants slightly on baking sheets, and transfer to wire racks to cool. Repeat procedure with remaining dough portions.

Bailey's Caramel Coffee Cupcakes

2010-01-24T20:17:00.002Z

I'm trying this new thing with my baking where as well as baking new different things I am still of course going to experiment with different cupcake flavours yumm. I couldn't decide what to make this week, I had loads of strawberry and orange cremes left from the Cadbury's Roses and Quality Street, that nobody wanted to eat!! So I thought of melting them down into a cake...which is probably what I'll do in one post soon but there was other things in my baking cupboard that were calling to me hehe! I had a miniature bottle of Bailey's with a hint of coffee that I got as a free sample and some unused Starbuck's caramel sauce that had been in there for a while...hmmm decisions decisions...So I decided to make caramel cupcakes with lottssss of caramel sauce mmm and topped them with Bailey's with a hint of coffee buttercream, woww yum!! Apparently they were amazing, I am yet to try one, but the Bailey's wasn't too over powering but just creamy with a hint of the liquor and the caramel cupcakes were light and delicious. There were a couple of cupcakes that didn't manage to get iced with the buttercream..due to my mam's request to leave them so she could warm them with toffee and vanilla ice cream so it would be like sticky toffee pudding hehe!! Mother's these days hehe!!

Bailey's Caramel Coffee Cupcakes

Caramel Cupcakes
90g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
110g white sugar
150g self raising flour
1 tablespoons milk
Half a bottle of Starbuck's Caramel Drizzle Sauce

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour/Caramel Drizzle Sauce, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated.
5. Bake cakes for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.

Bailey's with a hint of Coffee Buttercream
125g butter
400g icing sugar
1 bottle of Bailey's miniatures with a hint of coffee

1.Beat butter until light in colour, then slowly add the icing sugar bit by bit alternating with the Bailey's until you have reached the desired consistency. Pipe onto cakes.

Cinnamon Rolls

2010-01-18T09:29:00.003Z

Ok so I fancied making something really different, I never really bake bread or anything that uses yeasr or anything like that, firstly I tried to make brioche...which turned out terrible, the yeast didnt react properly and it just ended up hard and dry..not good.. So trying not to be put off by my yeasty brioche disastor I tried to bake some cinnamon rolls the next day, I've never actually had a cinnamon roll before, the only experience I've had is my dad eating one in a Cinnabon when we went on holiday and mmm boy did they smell good! This time the yeast actually activated and my cinnamon rolls puffed up like they were meant to, I rolled them with lots of brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins and then baked them in the oven, wow they smelt so so good! I then drizzled them with some vanilla icing and voila :) mr cinnamon rolls were done.

Cinnamon Rolls

1-1/2 packages (about 3-1/4 teaspoons) dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
4 to 5 cups sifted flour
melted butter
brown sugar
cinnamon
raisins (optional)

1.Add the warm water to the yeast and soak 10 minutes.

2.Scald milk; pour over the shortening. Add sugar and salt and cool to tepid. Add the dissolved yeast and beaten egg. Add 4 cups flour adding one at a time beating after each addition.

3.Dough should be soft yet firm enough to handle. Knead on floured board until elastic and smooth. Avoid too much flour. Turn dough into well oiled bowl. Let rise for 1-1/2 hours.

4.Press dough down and divide into workable size. Roll dough out into a rectangle. Cover with melted butter. Layer with a generous thick layer* of brown sugar. Sprinkle on cinnamon* as desired. If you like raisins, layer on a layer of raisins. Roll up jellyroll fashion.

5.Using a scissors or a piece of string, cut off slices about 1 to 1-1/2 inches thick. Place slices in an 8 or 9 inch round greased cake pan. Place one slice in the middle and other slices around it. Press rolls down to even out and fill pan. Let rise until rolls fill the pan generously...about another hour.

6.Bake in a 350F (175C) oven about 15 - 20 minutes. If rolls get too brown, cover with a piece of tine foil until the end of baking. Do not over bake rolls.

7.Remove immediately from pan by inverting onto a plate and then tip over onto another plate to right the rolls.

Vanilla Icing
200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 tablespoons water

1.Beat all ingredients together together in a bowl until a fairly thin consistency perfect to drizzle over the cinnamon rolls.

Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Cupcakes

2010-01-11T20:16:00.004Z

Ok so I made these on Christmas Eve but I haven't had the chance to post them up yet, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and had lots of fun baking delicious Christmas recipes. :)
There were 4 main things I wanted to bake this Christmas, my cake pops and cookies to give out to friends, eggnog cupcakes (to tackle my new found obsession hehe) and finally chocolate peppermint candy cane cupcakes. Even though I don't really like candy canes to eat, I think they're so pretty to look and and use as a decoration for cakes. I've always gotta bake something on Christmas Eve, ever since I've been little, for 'Santa' etc, this year I gave them to my Grandma...but whilst I was delivering them I slipped on the snow and ice, ouch! Not good! Andmy neighbours children who had bought us a present for Christmas.
I made the buttercream a swirl of red and white to look like candy canes and topped with about half a candy cane for decoration. Enjoy :)

Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes
180g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
220g white sugar
250g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour/Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated.
5. Bake cakes for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.

Peppermint Buttercream
450g Icing sugar
200g butter
5 tablespoons milk
peppermint extract
red food colouring

1. Beat icing sugar and butter together in a bowl, adding milk until the desired consistency has been achieved.
2. Then beat in the peppermint extract, and swirl in the red food colouring to create a mixture of red and white buttercream. Pipe onto cakes and top with a candy cane. :)

Christmas Patrick likes this one :D

Christmas Spongebob too :)

Christmas Cake Pops

2009-12-23T21:09:00.003Z

Now you probably all know Bakerella's great cake pops but I thought I would try my own again this year cause I love bagging them up and giving them out to friends as a little present. Last year's weren't so great, the chocolate was a bit lumpy and it just didn't go all that good. This year I managed to find "White Chocolate Cake Covering" instead, which is sort of like candy melts...which is another thing we can't buy over here!! It gave a way smoother finish though and set much quicker which stopped the chocolate from dripping all over the place! However when any food colouring was added to it it seemed to have a weird effect and went all lumpy so unfortunately everything had to be white :( so I did Snowmen, which had an Oreo hat and a rolo, polar bears which had white chocolate buttons and a mini chocolate smartie for a nose, presents which used strawberry liquorice laces for a tie and baubles which used the little round silver balls that hurt your teeth hehe, a jelly tot, a strawberry lace and some edible glitter yum! I was way more pleased this year with how they turned out..but I still think I could do with some improvement on the old cake pop front!! There's not much of a recipe to go with this, its any flavour cake you want, crumbed, mixed with buttercream, rolled into balls, frozen and allowed to chill to form a good shape and then dipped!

Bauble Cake Pop

Polar Bear Cake Pop

Present Cake Pop

Snowman Cake Pop

Christmas Cuppies and Cookies

2009-12-16T11:10:00.002Z

Wooo Christmas baking has eventually begun...well it started a while ago actually but I need to start posting stuff up or else it's all just gonna come in one big chunk! I love baking around Christmas, I just love making seasonal stuff! This year I have a fascination with eggnog, I'd never actually tried it before until this year, until I tasted the wonderful Starbucks Eggnog Latte, mm mm mm its so so good! So I decided to try and make eggnog cupcakes with a mixed spice buttercream, I had a hunt in all the supermarkets all over the place for eggnog, but no where seems to do the fresh stuff? I'm not sure what you have in America but the closest thing that I could find was Dutch Advocaat? Which is made with eggs etc and that tasted pretty much like eggnog (not as good as the latte of course) hehe, so I used that to make my cakes with and then topped them with mixed spice buttercream and a cute festive topper.
I then also decided to bake some sugar cookies, which I hardly ever make, with some Christmas Cookie Cutters I bought last year and still haven't used yet, this is the first time I've ever decorated sugar cookies so they weren't the best but I bagged them up and gave them out with peoples Christmas cards for a little present for everyone. Here's both the recipes and some nice pictures :).

Eggnog Cupcakes
180g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
220g white sugar
300g self raising flour
3 tablespoons eggnog (used as substitute for milk)

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add eggnog/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated.
5. Bake cakes for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.

Mixed Spice Buttercream
125g butter
500g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons milk
2/3 teaspoons mixed spice

1.Beat butter until it goes as white as possible, to ensure buttercream is nice and white for the creamy effect!
2. Add icing sugar in parts, alternating with milk, vanilla extract and mixed spice and beat until you achieve the desired texture and then pipe onto cakes.

I also had tree toppers and wreaths but they weren't as cute :(

Now for the sugar cookies recipe!! Nom!

Sugar Cookies
makes about 40
345 g all-purpose flour
5 g baking soda
2 g baking powder
225 g butter, softened
300 g white sugar
1 egg
5 ml vanilla extract

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside
2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Royal Icing
500g royal icing
water
food colouring
squeeze of lemon

1.Beat royal icing with water for however long needed to reach desired consistency. Beat in a squeeze of lemon to give the royal icing a nice flavour and beat in whatever desired food colourings you need.

Holly

Reindeer

Christmas Tree

Snowman

Banoffee Pie Cupcakes

2009-12-09T13:25:00.002Z

I've been wanting to make these for a while and made them back in Novemeber but haven't had time to post them up yet, been doing lots of Christmas Baking, which will be posted up within the next few days I think :D Christmas cupcakes and cookies :) and I think I might be making chocolate tree decorations tonight hehe.
Anyway making these banoffee cupcakes I meant to be put crushed digestive biscuits on the bottom to make them truely banoffee pieish but I forgot until they were about half way thruogh baking :( but they still turned out pretty good.
I made a banana flavoured cupcake by mashing banana and adding banana flavouring to a vanilla cake recipe and then spread thick dulce de leche sauce over the top and topped with vanilla buttercream and chocolate sprinkles. :D Banoffee Pie in a cupcake...minus the digestive biscuits..ahem..

Banana Cupcakes
180g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
220g white sugar
300g self raising flour
3 mashed bananas
2 teaspoons banana flavouring
3 tablespoons milk
Dulce de Leche Sauce

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Add the mashed bananas and banana flavouring and fold in or beat slowly, and divide mixture between baking cases.
5. Bake cakes for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.
6. Top cakes with a layer of rich dulce de leche sauce.

Vanilla Buttercream
125g butter
500g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons milk

1.Beat butter until it goes as white as possible, to ensure buttercream is nice and white for the creamy effect!
2. Add icing sugar in parts, alternating with milk and vanilla extract and beat until you achieve the desired texture and then pipe onto cakes.

Rich Gingerbread Cake

2009-12-03T21:21:00.005Z

Well I've been baking loads recently and I have loads of things to post up so I'll start with this one first!! It's getting much much colder over here, I swear it's like arctic temperatures...or maybe it's just my weak resistance to the cold hehe, so winter baking is definately needed and now that it's into December Christmas baking is all that's going to be getting done!! Christmas cakes, cakepops and cookies galore, especially as soon as I break up from 6th form I plan to live in the kitchen.
Anyway back to the gingerbread cake, its extremely warming, dense and gingery, perfect for a winter's night in with a bowl of custard, my dad got one half and my grandma got the other, since they are both big ginger fans, once again I didn't get a try but according to my dad it was the best cake he's ever tasted!! And that says a lot coming from him. If you're into ginger cakes then I think you'll love this :)

Gingerbread Cake

125g butter
100g soft brown sugar
125g golden syrup
100g black treacle
50g Ginger Preserve
125g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
1 level tsp ground ginger
1 level tsp mixed spice
½ level tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 large eggs
125ml milk

1.Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper. Put the butter, sugar, syrup, treacle and ginger preserve in a pan and heat gently, stirring, until the butter melts. Pour into a bowl and leave until just warm.

2 In another bowl, sift together the plain and self-raising flour, ground ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Put the eggs and milk into a separate bowl and whisk with a fork.

3 Mix all ingredients together and pour into the loaf tin. Ask an adult to put it in the oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Yum! With Custard!

Tarte Tatin

2009-11-17T22:09:00.003Z

I've been fancying making something a bit different for a while, something a bit more challenging that I haven't tried before, I decided that Tarte Tatin was just the thing. The well known upside down apple pie I suppose! The apples get added to the pie dish first before being topped by pastry, it then gets cooked in the oven and has to be turned out onto a plate immediately...now I was worried about this bit, I'm a clutz at best times in the kitchen so I had visions of me missing the plate and apples going all over the floor, or the apples not having stuck together and just ended up with a big mound on top of the pastry..pretty much I thought it was going to go drastically wrong!! I was so surprised when it actually worked out and it managed to turn out on the plate without disastor!! I'm not a big fan of apple desserts to be honest, but my dad and Grandma loved this!! I think if I was going to make it again I would make it using different apples as for me the Bramley Apples I used were a bit too sour for my liking...but then again I don't even like apple desserts so who am I to say hehe!! Enjoy :D

Tarte Tatin
Pastry
110g/4oz butter cut into small pieces
175g/6.5oz plain flour
2 tbsp castor sugar
1 egg
2-3 tbsp water or milk

1.Work the butter very well into the flour and sugar then add the egg and enough water or milk to bind the soft dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Apple Filling
60g/2oz unsalted butter
A squeeze of lemon
5 heaped tbsp sugar
8 large Bramley apples

1.Melt the butter in a 25cm (10 inch) round metal mould over a low flame. Add the lemon juice and sugar and stir until it turns brown, be sure to cook the caramel until it has a good smell and is dark brown.
2. Peel, core and slice the apples. Arrange a layer of concentric circles over the caramelised butter and sugar and fill with layers of the rest of the sliced apples.

Assembly
1.Roll the dough out on a floured board with a floured rolling pin and cut a circle to fit inside the tin (mould). Lift it gently and lay it over the apples, pressing down on them gently. Bake at 230 Deg C/450 Deg F/Gas Mk 8 for 30 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Remove from the oven, cut round the edges and invert it quickly onto a flat serving dish.

A slice!!

Yummm!

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes

2009-11-08T20:24:00.005Z

Ooh it's getting cold now, starting to feel really wintery so I thought something like this would be really warming. I've been wanting to do these for a while and I've had a tin of morrello cherries just sitting waiting to be used in the cupboard, nom nom nom. The chocolate cakes were so moist and springy when coming out of the oven, probably thanks to the Hershey's Chocolate Syrup I bought when I was in America, ahhh I wish they did some of that stuff over here :(. I then cored out the centre of each cupcake and filled it with the morrello cherry pie filling, which was so good by the way!! You just wanted to eat it out of the tin!! I then topped them with vanilla buttercream and chocolate flakes to give a wintery gateau feel :). Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes
makes 18

Chocolate Cupcake

180g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
220g white sugar
250g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
4 tablespoons Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
3 tablespoons milk
Morrello Cherry Pie Filling

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour and cocoa, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Add the Hershey's Syrup,mmmm and fold in with a spatula, and divide mixture between baking cases.
5. Bake cakes for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.
6. Core out the centres and fill with morrello cherry pie filling.

Vanilla Buttercream
150g butter
500g icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.Beat the butter for as long as possible, to ensure the buttercream goes as white as it can be, to provide the best contrast for the cakes.
2. Add the icing sugar a bit at a time, alternating with the milk when needed.
3. Finally add the vanilla extract and pipe onto cakes.

Cuppie Cake mmm

Cross section of the cake, apart from it started to cave in a bit :(

It's Been A While!! Ginger and Lemon Cupcakes!

2009-10-26T10:20:00.003Z

My blog sort of got left behind for a few months, I've been so busy with exams, summer, getting back to doing work etc that when I've been baking I just haven't had the time to post up my stuff. I've still been making loads, experimenting with different things, pies, tarts, cookies etc, but I definately think I want to start getting back to blogging again with these ginger and lemon buttercream cupcakes. My boyfriend's mam bought me these really cool chocolate lemon drops that could be used to make fondue but for me, they had to be put into cupcakes! I was racking my brain trying to think of what would go with lemon, I didn't want to go down the citrus road again and then it hit me, I'd never made a ginger cupcake before. Ginger and lemon cupcakes it was, I melted the lemon chocolate drops down into some buttercream to make a really thick rich creamy texture and topped the ginger cupcakes with it...which by the way smell to die for!! It's like gingerbread men in a cupcake!! Yumm!! Anyway I don't have step by step pictures for this recipe but I do have the end result and I am most definately going to get back to blogging!
Gingerbread and Lemon Cupcakes
Gingerbread Cupcakes
Makes 9
1 cup self-raising flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger (I like mine extra gingery)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
90g butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup, golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 330F (170C) and line a cupcake tin with liners.
2. Beat the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the egg into the butter, sugar mixture, add a tablespoon of flour if it shows any signs of curdling.
4. Sift the flour, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon into a separate bowl and add, alternating with the milk and golden syrup until combined. Fold in the last addition of flour with vanilla extract.
5. Add mixture to cases and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Lemon Buttercream
100g butter
400g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
100g lemon chocolate drops, melted
yellow food colouring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat the butter until softened and sift in the icing sugar a bit at a time, alternating with the milk until the correct texture has been achieved.
2. Beat in the melted chocolate, yellow food colouring and vanilla extract. Pipe onto cakes.

Yum!

Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies

2009-05-24T10:35:00.002+01:00

Ok I've been having a real craving for making cookies recently, they're quick and pretty easy to make and there's no need to wait for cooling before frosting etc etc..well not these type of cookies anyway. I love Terry's Chocolate Orange chocolate and I thought to put chunks of it in chocolate cookies would be sooo goood. Ok so now comes the big question..cookies..hard and crunchy or soft and chewy? To me it's all about the soft and chewy, there's nothing worse than a hard crunchy cookie that breaks your teeth, even when I get the shop bought ones I'll open the packet and leave them out in the air for a bit to allow them to soften!! Anyway these cookies were pretty good, apart from a warning in advance they spread out loadssss during baking..which gave me more a slab of cookie rather than individual cookies, so just broke bits off that..although on one I did actually manage to get a couple of round cookies!! Woo.

Ingredients Needed

Beating all the ingredients together

Think I made the cookies a bit too big...

Mmm look at the chunk of chocolate numm

Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies
makes 15 cookies

12 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
120g Terry's Chocolate Orange, cut into chunks

1.Preheat the oven to 350F (165C).
2.Beat butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and egg yolk. Beat in vanilla.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Slowly beat into the butter and sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in chunks of Terry's Chocolate Orange.
Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, or until firm.
4.Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop mounds of dough onto a silicone-lined or greased baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 to 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until set.
Cool on baking sheet on a rack, then remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2009-05-18T21:20:00.003+01:00

Ok so every blog post seems to be me moaning about exams..but I really am drowning in them!! This week is a killer so can't wait to get past it..on the plus side I'm on study leave..which means when I'm not studying I'm spending lots of time...BAKING....ahem ahem..I'm sure my teachers would love to hear that one. Anyway this week it was one of my mam's friends birthdays and they LOVE peanut butter..as do I..I don't get how people can't like it, I think its one of those love/hate things, you either love it..or hate it. Well personally I LOVE it. So I decided to make chocolate and peanut butter cakes, a great combo num num num. I made a moist chocolate cake...buttermilk is the way forward and filled them with crunchy peanut butter, I then topped them with smooth peanut butter buttercream and sprinkled them with chocolate flakes..I didn't even get to try one of these cakes, my mam took them all into work for her friend and they were all gobbled up :(:(.

Ingredients Needed...mm buttermilk!

Cuppie liners

Stirring the melted chocolate in..wow this looks good

Finished cuppy

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake
makes 24
170g unsweetened chocolate, melted
225g butter
385g dark brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
185g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
235ml buttermilk
50g cocoa powder *I added this*
25ml milk *I added this*
150g crunchy peanut butter

1. Preheat the oven to 175C(350F) and fill a muffin tin with liners, set aside.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy, this should take about 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in the eggs one at time, beating well after each addition, if any signs of curdling occur add a tablespoon of flour.
3. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate and beat well.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder/soda and salt in separate bowl.
5. Alternate the dry ingredients (flour etc) with the buttermilk, im about 3 additions, into the cake batter.
6. After alternating the flour and the butter milk, in separate additions alternate the cocoa powder with the milk into the cake batter.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
8. Core out the centre and fill each cupcake with crunchy peanut butter and replace lid.

Peanut Butter Buttecream
200g smooth peanut butter
125g butter
450g icing sugar
2 tbsp whipping cream

1.Beat together the peanut butter and the butter until smooth and creamed, slowly add the icing sugar until combined.
2. Beat in whipping cream until the desired consistency has been achieved. Pipe onto cakes.

Tropical Citrus Cucpakes

2009-05-06T14:04:00.003+01:00

Hadn't baked any cupcakes for a while, still really busy with exams and stuff but decided something needed to be done. So I decided to do these tropical citrus cupcakes, its a lemon cupcake filled with zesty lime marmalade and topped with a coconut buttercream, made with coconut extract, and some really bright multi coloured polka dot sprinkles both got from when I was over in America. Manged to get some really good stuff over there, can't believe how great your supermarkets are compared to England, the baking isle is like WOW!! And all the food and stuff..was the highlight of my holiday hehe!! I've fallen in love with Apple Jacks cereal and Froot Loops and just generally everything, I wish I could get some of the stuff over here!! Now just need some more ideas for stuff to bake with them..hmm decisions decisions. Anyhow enough of my mad American food rant, these cakes were so so good and the zesty lime provides a nice balance to the creamy coconut buttercream, even though disastor struck whilst piping and the piping bag burst all over my hands!! So a homemade piping bag had to be made with a wrapper from some gift wrap!! Luckily it still managed to do the job!

Ingredients Needed

Spongebob Baking Cases I picked up in Walmart..in America..Oh yeah!

Cakes out of the oven

Filled wih lime marmalade

Tray of cakes

Finished cake

Tropical Citrus Cupcakes
makes 18

Lemon Cupcakes
180g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
220g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
4 eggs
300 g (1cup) self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons lemon extract
lime marmalade for filling

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon extract and divide mixture between baking cases.
5. Bake cakes for 25 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.
6. Core out the centres and fill with lime marmalade.

Coconut Buttercream

250g butter, softened
450g icing sugar
2 teaspoons coconut extract
2 tablespoons whipping cream

1. Beat butter until softened and white, add icing sugar a little bit at a time until fully incorporated.
2. Beat in coconut extract and whipping cream until desired conisistency has been achieved.

Daring Bakers Challenge : Banana Cheesecake

2009-04-28T20:28:00.003+01:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
Oops I accidently missed posting day yesterday, so putting it up today, I've just been so busy recently its unreal, I've got exams starting in 2 weeks, I'm performing in a worldwide breakdancing show in a month and just generally have had so much to do, that's why there hasn't been as much up recently, but I really wanna get back to baking. However I really wasn't gonna miss this Daring Baker's challenge, to be honest, baked cheesecakes have never got right for me, I've tried to make a few in my time : a chocolate one that turned out tasting sour and the consistency of sausage, a mint one that didnt cook all the way through, a mango one that had lumps of gelatine in it..it just wasn't going right for me.
It was quite ironic that the challenge was cheesecake..I've just got back from Florida where I spent many a night at the Cheesecake Factory...a place I believe to be the best restaurant ever!! Anyway my plan for this challenge was to make a cherry cheesecake with a cherry filling on top..however it didn't really turn out like that..as the first cheesecake was also disastorous..it didn't cook properly and ended up tasting a bit funny. I wasn't going to let this get me down though and was determined to get it right so within the next few days I made my banana cheesecake..wow is all I can say..it eventually turned out right..it was creamy and the right texture..cooked perfectly and I topped it with a tasty Starbucks Caramel Sauce.

Cheesecake

Biscuit Base mm

Cheesecake Mixture

Cheesecake in fridge overnight

Finished Cheesecake..MMM

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs *I used digestive biscuits*
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake *I didn't add this*
*2 Mashed Bananas*

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Daring Bakers Challenge : Lasagne

2009-03-27T09:25:00.002Z

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

This month we had to make lasagne, to be honest I was pretty excited by this as we never really make meals much in my house its normally the baking side of things cakes, sweets, desserts etc, so was looking forward to trying something really different out. We had to make a lasagne verdi al forno, this was spinach pasta with a bechamel sauce with a delicious meat ragu. I was really worried about how the pasta would turn out..since I'd never made pasta before and didn't have a pasta machine, but luckily everything seemed to turn out well. Even though I halfed the recipe I still had tons of pasta left lying all over the place so I decided to make another lasagne this time with just mince in a chilli and tomato sauce, it was also delicious and my family/friends said it was the best lasagne they've ever tried :). I feel very accomplished after this challenge and can't wait to see what the next one is!! However I probably won't be posting for a bit as I'm off jet setting to Orlando, FL wooo America...foood...hoping to get some good stuff for baking out there :D.

Spinach Pasta

Ingredients Needed

Kneading away..sticky!!

Pasta resting...aw

Once rested rolling out

Pasta in water after cooking slightly

Kitchen covered in pasta!

Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients needed for Bechamel

The cooked bechamel

Meaty Ragu

Mmmm all the different meats

Frying the various vegetables & some meat

Cooking away

Finished Lasagne

Yummm

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)
(Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish)
Preparation Time: 15 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes cooking time
10 quarts (9 litres) salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows)
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)
1 recipe Country Style Ragu (recipe follows)
1 cup (4 ounces/125g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method
Working Ahead:The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

Assembling the Ingredients:
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Oil or butter a 3 quart (approx 3 litre) shallow baking dish.

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)
Preparation: 45 minutes
Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

2 jumbo eggs (2 ounces/60g or more)
10 ounces (300g) fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped; or 6 ounces (170g) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3&1/2 cups (14 ounces/400g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour (organic stone ground preferred)

Working by Hand:
Equipment
A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches (60cm to 77cm deep by 60cm to 92cm). Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired.
A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough.
A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick (89cm long and 5cm thick). The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta.Note: although it is not traditional, Enza has successfully made pasta with a marble rolling pin, and this can be substituted for the wooden pin, if you have one.
Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly.
A sharp chef’s knife for cutting pasta sheets.
Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.

Mixing the dough:
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Stretching and Thinning:
If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.
Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.
Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Note: Enza says that transparency is a crucial element of lasagne pasta and the dough should be rolled as thinly as possible. She says this is why her housekeeper has such strong arms!
Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

Bechamel
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) unsalted butter
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour, organic stone ground preferred
2&2/3 cups (approx 570ml) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

Country Style Ragu’ (Ragu alla Contadina)
Preparation Time: Ingredient Preparation Time 30 minutes and Cooking time 2 hours
Makes enough sauce for 1 recipe fresh pasta or 1 pound/450g dried pasta)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (45 mL)
2 ounces/60g pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced
1 small carrot, minced
4 ounces/125g boneless veal shoulder or round
4 ounces/125g pork loin, trimmed of fat, or 4 ounces/125g mild Italian sausage (made without fennel)
8 ounces/250g beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut (in order of preference)
1 ounce/30g thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma
2/3 cup (5 ounces/160ml) dry red wine
1 &1/2 cups (12 ounces/375ml) chicken or beef stock (homemade if possible)
2 cups (16 ounces/500ml) milk
3 canned plum tomatoes, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Working Ahead:
The ragu can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. It also freezes well for up to 1 month. Skim the fat from the ragu’ before using it.

Browning the Ragu Base:
Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch (30cm) skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.

Reducing and Simmering:
Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.
Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.
Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

2009-03-11T15:08:00.004Z

I've seen quite a few people try out Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes and it's been something I've really wanted to try out!! I absolutely love Ferrero Rocher, they're so good..chocolatey and nutty..and just..wow! So why not mix chocolate with cake? I think this might be a new thing of mine actually..I think I'm gonna start trying to make different things into cakes..like the caramel coffee frappuccinos, ferrero rocher, I was trying to think of other chocolate/candy bars that I could do so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! I was thinking maybe a Milky Way, I think American's call it 3 Musketeers? With the light creamy whipped filling :). Mmm. Anyway back to the Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes, I did a normal vanilla buttercake mix and stirred a big ol' tub of Nutella into it, mmmm. Once the cuppies had baked I cored out the centre and filled each with a spoonful of Nutella and a wafer biscuit to give that Ferrero Rocher 'crunch' mm. I'm not that big of a fan of chocolate ganache and all the Ferrero Rocher cupcakes I've seen have used that so I thought I would do chocolate buttercream, I then topped them with sprinkled chopped hazelnuts. Loved these cakes!!
Just decided I would enter these cakes for Iron Cupcake..it didn't dawn on me at first, but it seems stupid not to! Prizes this month are :
A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.
A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.
as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!
&& not to forget the usual:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ . And DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270

Mmm ingredients..jar of Nutella..mmm

Yummy Mixture

Cooling Cuppies

Mmm so good!

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes
makes 9

90g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs
150 g (1cup) self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
200g Nutella
Nutella for filling
Biscuit Wafers

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Add 200g of Nutella and beat well. Divide mixture between cases and smooth the surface.
5. Bake cakes for 25 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.
6. Core out the centres and fill with Nutella and a biscuit wafer and replace lid.

Chocolate Buttercream
125g of butter, unsalted, softened
350g icing sugar
200g milk chocolate, melted
3-5 tablespoons whipping cream

1. Beat butter in a bowl until softened, slowly add icing sugar bit by bit until incorporated.
2. Beat in melted, cooled chocolate and add whipping cream until you have reached the desired consistency.
3. Pipe onto cakes and top with whatever you wish.

Caramel Coffee Cakeaccinos

2009-02-23T21:13:00.002Z

I haven't entered Iron Cupcake the past few months, been busy and just not really had chance to enter but this month was Coffee..and despite actually not liking normal coffee I love it in every other form, coffee cake, coffee ice cream and most definately coffee frappuccinos from Starbucks!! Especially the caramel ones, mm they are so good! So I thought right..why not make a cake version! I made a coffee cupcake filled with caramel sauce topped with mock whipped cream topping..because normal whipped cream never tastes the same as the good ol' Starbucks stuff...then drizzled it with caramel sauce. All I can say is WOW! WOW WOW! These were so good, took them to a breakdancing event that I was at on Saturday/Sunday and everyone loved them, definately a hit :). Will definately be doing something like this again. Would appreciate it if you could vote for me at www.mkecupcakequeen.blogspot.com
Prizes this month include A pair of cupcake earrings and items from CAKESPY, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY FIESTA PRODUCTS HELLO CUPCAKE UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM

Cuppie liners

Cake mix..so good!

Off into the oven they go

Filling with caramel sauce

Whipping the mock cream

Caramel Cakeaccino!

Inards of the cake!

Caramel Coffee Cakeaccinos
makes 18

Coffee Cake
180g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons granulated coffee, dissolved in 4 tbsp water
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
4 eggs
300 g (2cups) self-raising flour
4 tablespoons milk
Starbuck's Caramel Sauce

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases
.2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.
4. Add milk/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Add coffee and beat well. Divide mixture between cases and smooth the surface.
5. Bake cakes for 25 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.
6. Core out the centres and fill with Starbuck's Caramel Sauce and replace lid.

Mock Whipped Cream Frosting

250g butter
70ml milk
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tsp gelatine dissolved in hot water
225g caster sugar

1. Heat milk, water and sugar on a low heat until sugar has dissolved.
2. Add gelatine mixture, heating until all of the gelatine has dissolved and the mixture is not grainy, this could take up to 10 minutes.
3. Beat butter until as white as possible and then add sugar syrup, once cooled or else it will melt the butter, in a stream, the mixture will probably look runny, but continue beating and it will come together.
4. Pipe onto cakes.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Cakes

2009-02-19T15:43:00.002Z

Ok so I'd never tried Red Velvet Cakes before and there was a lot of hype about them, I really wanted to know what they tasted like..I'd heard it was meant to be like a light chocolate cake..but red obviously..They seem to be pretty much the perfect cake for Valentine's Day..due to the colour and all that, incase I didn't like the cake I decided to top them with white chocolate buttercream, it was so goood!! Couldn't help but eat it out of the bowl!! The final verdict was that yes red velvet cakes definately do live up to the hype, the mixture tasted a bit bitter..but once baked the cake was so moist and tasty. Will definately be making them again, hope you all had a good Valentines Day :).

Ingredients Needed for Mr.R.Velvet

Very Valentine's Day Themed..Heart Measuring Cupcs

Blooming the Cocoa Powder

Finished Mixture

Cuppies Cooling

Finished Cuppies

Red Velvet White Chocolate Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon red food colouring
1/4 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160C). Line a muffin pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside to cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture.Sift the flour and salt together into another medium bowl.
5. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, to the egg mixture in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until incorporated.In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir until the baking soda dissolves; the mixture will fizz. Add to the batter and stir until just combined.
6. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes for cupcakes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack 5 minutes.

White Chocolate Buttercream
1 cup of butter, unsalted, softened
2 cups icing sugar
6 ounces white chocolate
3-5 tablespoons whipping cream

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners sugar at low speed until fluffy.
2. Add in melted and cooled white chocolate and whipping cream (start with 3 tablespoons and add in more to achieve desired consistancy).
3. Beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes, scraping the bowl with a spatula.

Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes

2009-02-13T18:51:00.004Z

Mmm lemon meringue pie is such a delicious dessert..well I like it anyway..I think it's just the sweetness of meringue with the sort of tartness of the lemon :). Anyway I'd been wanting to make cupcake versions of these for a while, I added coconut to the cake and the meringue to give them a bit of texture, I didnt actually get to try one of these cakes :( they all went too fast, but from what I heard they were delicious :). I broke up for half term yesterday, so hopefully lots more baking should be being done, I made Valentines Day Cupcakes today for tomorrow! So they should be going up sooon...Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream :), I also have the Daring Bakers Challenge to work on and Iron Cupcake..which I have an idea for! Woo.
Anyway heres the step by step pictures back again!

Ingredients Needeed for Lemonies!

Making the Lemon Curd

Beating mixture

Filling cupcake liners

Filling with curd

Finished lemon meringue...cupcake!

Lemon Curd
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
2 teaspons finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
40g butter

1. Combine ingredients in a small heatproof ball over a small saucepan of simmering water, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
2. Remove from heat. Cover tightly; refrigerate lemon curd until cold.

Coconut Lemon Curd Cake
125g butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
3/4 cup (60g) desiccated coconut
1 1/4 cups (185g) self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to (180C/160C fan assisted). Line muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, rind, sugar and eggs in a small mixing bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Stir in milk and coconut, then sifted flour. Divide mixture among cases; smooth surface.
4. Bake large cakes about 25 minutes, small cakes 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool. Increase oven to (220C/200C fan assisted).
5. Cut a 2cm deep hole in the centre of each cake, fill with curd; discard cake tops.
6. Make coconut mierngue; spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto top of cakes. Bake in hot oven for 5 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned.

Coconut Meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 1/3 cups (95g) shredded coconut, chopped finely

1. Beat egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; gradually add sugar, beating until sugar dissolves. Fold in coconut.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

2009-02-01T15:30:00.003Z

Ahh its been a while!! Im sorry, ive been really busy recently, had mock exams and stuff but definately gonna get back to baking! I was out shopping the other day and saw this really cute Pink Glimmer decorations so wanted to make something pretty and pink :)
I decided on Strawberry Lemonade...aka a moist lemon cupcake topped with strawberry buttercream and then sprinkled Pink Glimmer on it...its making me hungry just thinking about it!! These cakes were so good and I would definately recommend them to anyone who loves cakes..actually saying that my Mam doesnt like cake and she still loved them..so I would recommend them to anyone haha! Oh I lost the step by step pictures as well :(:( Im sorry, theyll definately be going up again next baking session!!

Mmm! Finished cupcakes!

Lemon Buttercake

makes 16

180g buttter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons lemon extract

220g (1 cup) caster sugar

4 eggs

300 g (2cups) self-raising flour

4 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan assisted) and line muffin tin with paper cases.

2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, this should take from 3-5 minutes.

3. Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.

4. Add milk/flour, alterating, beat in on a low speed until just incorporated. Divide mixture between cases and smooth the surface.

5. Bake cakes for 25 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, cool on a wire rack.

Strawberry Buttercream

250g butter, softened

480g (3 cups) icing sugar

4 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons strawberry extract

pink food colouring

1. Beat butter in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in sifted icing sugar and milk, in two batches.

2. Beat in strawberry extract and food colouring until desired consistency and colour has been achieved.

Daring Bakers : French Yule Log

2008-12-27T11:09:00.003Z

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

I couldnt wait for Decembers challenge, something Chrismassy to do in the baking department, when I saw that it was a French Yule Log and looked at the recipe I was like wow :O, it looked so complex and I thought I would never be able to do it, never mind getting it to actually look good. There were so many different combos that you could do to create your perfect log, different flavour mousses, different flavour icing, creme brulees etc etc! I did mine at the very start of December, I normally find that I get more and more busy as it gets nearer to Christmas and since it was only gonna be a small Christmas this year it wouldnt have made a difference as to who got some whether I made it at the start of December or the end. I loved how my French Yule Log turned out and it tasted delicious!!! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Chocolate Almond Dacquoise Biscuit

Starting to prepare the Dacquoise

Chocolate Almond Dacquoise cooling out of the oven

White Chocolate Mousse

Heating the cream with the chocolate

The set mousse

Dark-Milk Ganace Insert

Making a caramel..mmmmm

Set Ganache

Praline Feuilette Insert

Making the lace crepes

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Infusing the cream with the vanilla

Milk Chocolate Icing

Waiting for it to gellify (if thats even a word...)

Assembly and Finished Artical

Ready for Icing

Finished!!!

Ok so there were so many different combos..Im just gonna post up the recipe for what I did :)

Chocolate Almond Dacquoise

3/4cup + 1Tbsp / 80g almond meal
1/2 cup / 50g confectioner’s sugar
2Tbsp (15g) all-purpose flour
3Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
100g / ~100ml about 3 medium egg whites
4 Tbsp / 50g granulated sugar

1. Finely mix the almond meal, cocoa powder and the confectioner's sugar. (If you have a mixer, you can use it by pulsing the ingredients together for no longer than 30 seconds).
2. Sift the flour into the mix.
3. Beat the eggs whites, gradually adding the granulated sugar until stiff.
4. Pour the almond meal mixture into the egg whites and blend delicately with a spatula.
5. Grease a piece of parchment paper and line your baking pan with it.
6. Spread the batter on a piece of parchment paper to an area slightly larger than your desired shape (circle, long strip etc...) and to a height of 1/3 inches (8mm).
7. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for approximately 15 minutes (depends on your oven), until golden. 8. Let cool and cut to the desired shape.

White Chocolate Mousse

2.5 sheets gelatin or 5g / 1 + 1/4 tsp powdered gelatin
1.5 oz (3 Tbsp / 40g) granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp (10g) glucose or thick corn syrup
0.5 oz (15g) water
50g egg yolks (about 3 medium)
6.2 oz (175g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1.5 cups (350g) heavy cream (35% fat content)

1. Soften the gelatin in cold water. (If using powdered gelatin, follow the directions on the package.)
2. Make a Pate a Bombe: Beat the egg yolks until very light in colour (approximately 5 minutes until almost white).
2a. Cook the sugar, glucose syrup and water on medium heat for approximately 3 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, the mixture should reach 244°F (118°C). If you do not have a candy thermometer, test the sugar temperature by dipping the tip of a knife into the syrup then into a bowl of ice water, if it forms a soft ball in the water then you have reached the correct temperature.
2b. Add the sugar syrup to the beaten yolks carefully by pouring it into the mixture in a thin stream while continuing to beat the yolks. You can do this by hand but it’s easier to do this with an electric mixer.
2c. Continue beating until cool (approximately 5 minutes). The batter should become thick and foamy.
3. In a double boiler or equivalent, heat 2 tablespoons (30g) of cream to boiling. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.
4. Whip the remainder of the cream until stiff.
5. Pour the melted chocolate over the softened gelatin, mixing well. Let the gelatin and chocolate cool slightly and then stir in ½ cup (100g) of WHIPPED cream to temper. Add the Pate a Bombe.
6. Add in the rest of the WHIPPED cream (220g) mixing gently with a spatula.

Dark-Milk Ganache Insert

.75 oz (4 Tbsp / 50g) granulated sugar
4.5oz (2/3 cup – 1 Tbsp / 135g) heavy cream (35% fat content)
2.7 oz (75g) milk chocolate
3.2 oz (90g) dark chocolate
3Tbsp + 1/2tsp (45g) unsalted butter softened
1. Make a caramel: Using the dry method, melt the sugar by spreading it in an even layer in a small saucepan with high sides. Heat over medium-high heat, watching it carefully as the sugar begins to melt. Never stir the mixture. As the sugar starts to melt, swirl the pan occasionally to allow the sugar to melt evenly. Cook to dark amber color (for most of you that means darker than last month’s challenge).
2. While the sugar is melting, heat the cream until boiling. Pour cream into the caramel and stir thoroughly. Be very careful as it may splatter and boil.
3. Pour the hot caramel-milk mixture over the dark chocolate. Wait 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
4. Add the softened butter and whip hard and fast (if you have a plunging mixer use it). The chocolate should be smooth and shiny.

Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert

Lace Crepes
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk
2/3 Tbsp (8g) unsalted butter
1/3 cup – 2tsp (35g) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp / 0.5 oz (15g) beaten egg
1 tsp (3.5g) granulated sugar
½ tsp vegetable oil
1. Heat the milk and butter together until butter is completely melted. Remove from the heat.
2. Sift flour into milk-butter mixture while beating, add egg and granulated sugar. Make sure there are no lumps.
3. Grease a baking sheet and spread batter thinly over it. 4. Bake at 430°F (220°C) for a few minutes until the crepe is golden and crispy. Let cool.

Praline Feuillete

3.5 oz (100g) milk chocolate
1 2/3 Tbsp (25g) butter
2 Tbsp (1 oz / 30g) praline
2.1oz (60g) lace crepes(gavottes) or rice krispies or corn flakes or Special K
1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
2. Add the praline and the coarsely crushed lace crepes. Mix quickly to thoroughly coat with the chocolate.
3. Spread between two sheets of wax paper to a size slightly larger than your desired shape. Refrigerate until hard.

Vanilla Creme Brulee

1/2 cup (115g) heavy cream (35% fat content)
½ cup (115g) whole milk
4 medium-sized (72g) egg yolks
0.75 oz (2 Tbsp / 25g) granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
1. Heat the milk, cream, and scraped vanilla bean to just boiling. Remove from the stove and let the vanilla infuse for about 1 hour.
2. Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks (but do not beat until white).
3. Pour the vanilla-infused milk over the sugar/yolk mixture. Mix well.
4. Wipe with a very wet cloth and then cover your baking mold (whatever shape is going to fit on the inside of your Yule log/cake) with parchment paper. Pour the cream into the mold and bake at 210°F (100°C) for about 1 hour or until firm on the edges and slightly wobbly in the center.

Milk Chocolate Icing

1.5 gelatin sheets or 3g / 1/2Tbsp powdered gelatin
4.2 oz (120g) milk chocolate
2 Tbsp (30g) butter
¼ cup (60g) heavy cream (35 % fat content)
1 2/3 Tbsp (30g) glucose or thick corn syrup

1. Soften the gelatin in cold water for 15 minutes.
2. Coarsely chop the chocolate and butter together.
3. Bring the cream and glucose syrup to a boil.
4. Add the gelatin.
5. Pour the mixture over the chocolate and butter. Whisk until smooth.
6. Let cool while checking the texture regularly. As soon as the mixture is smooth and coats a spoon well (it is starting to gelify), use immediately.

Assembly

2B) Pipe one third of the Mousse component into the mold.
3B) Take the Creme Brulee Insert out of the freezer at the last minute and set on top of the mousse. Press down gently to slightly ensconce it in the mousse.
4B) Pipe second third of the Mousse component around and on top of the Creme Brulee Insert.
5B) Cut the Praline/Crisp Insert to a size slightly smaller than your mold so that it can be surrounded by mousse. Lay it on top of the mousse you just piped into the mold.
6B) Pipe the last third of the Mousse component on top of the Praline Insert.
7B) Freeze for a few hours to set. Take out of the freezer.
8B) Pipe the Ganache Insert onto the frozen mousse leaving a slight edge so that ganache doesn’t seep out when you set the Dacquoise on top.
9B) Close with the Dacquoise.

Christmas Cake Pops

2008-12-16T14:35:00.002Z

To give to my friends for Christmas I decided to make some version of Bakerella's cake pops but I decided to make my own version. I made Snowmen, Christmas Puddings and Rudolphs yayyy :). They look so sweet and Im so pleased with how they turned out they are so cute and I really dont want to give them away to anyone!! I hope my friends appreciate how much I did and still while Im ill hehe :). I had to drive for miles to go and get the cake pops...and what a hassle for the snowmen's hats!! I thought that I would use mini oreos and mini rolos...to find that the mini oreos were very...very...mini.. they looked ridiculous and nothing like a hat and nobody did any mini rolos near us so I had to to settle for mini munchies as I had given a tube of mini rolos to my friend for Christmas, if only I could have got them back...! So off it was to get normal size Oreos to find that the mini Munchies were too small...so I had to buy a pack of ordinary Rolos again!! Such hassle all for a Snowmans hat!! Anyway Im pleased how they worked out :).

How to make :

1.Bake a cake, I used chocolate cake, and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes, once cooled crumble into a bowl and mix with buttercream.
2. Make small balls from the cake mixture and set onto baking paper on a baking tray and allow to firm up in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
3. Melt milk and white chocolate, dip 2/3 of the cake balls into milk chocolate and 1/3 into white. Dip the sticks into the corresponding chocolate and insert into cake balls. Chill until chocolate has set.
4. Decorate as you wish.

For Mr Reindeer I used :
Chocolate cake
Milk Chocolate
White Fondant
Food colouring pen
Mini Red Smartie
Twiglets

Mr Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!!

For Frosty I used:
Half an Oreo
A rolo
Food colouring pen
White chocolate
Chocolate cake
Orange mini Smartie

Frosty the Snowman!!

For Clarence the Christmas Pudding I used :
Chocolate Cake
Milk Chocolate
White chocolate
Red Mini Smarties
Green Fondant

Clarence...the Christmas Pudding :) I think Spongebob the tree decoration liked this one

Daring Bakers : Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

2008-11-29T11:13:00.002Z

This month's recipe courtesy of : http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/
Author : Shuna Fish Lydon
Hosts and co-hosts : http://eggbeater.typepad.com/,http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com, http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/,http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/ and finally http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/

Ok so I'm still not great and now I'm loaded with cold, when will the illness end! But this Daring Bakers challenge sounded too good to miss!! A rich thick dense caramel cake topped with gorgeous caramel buttercream, what cake lover could say no to this!! I decided just to leave the flavours as they were I didn't want to add any extra flavourings incase I messed with the consistency and after spending hours of baking my cake was ruined! However I don't think it needed any extra flavourings it was so delicious and the cake was gone within a couple of days!! I'd never melted butter and "burnt" it as such to make frosting before so that was a whole new experience for me and making the caramel sauce for the cake was fun to say the least...even though I needed a second attempt after cooking my first batch for too long and turning it into fudge....dooo doo doo...never mind heheh! All I can say is that whoever didn't do this challenge sure missed out on some gooood cake!! I didn't get the chance to make the caramels (which were optional) as I am still pretty much bed ridden and don't get much time to bake in between sneezing etc!
If you want to see what other Daring Bakers did click here.

Caramel Cake

Ingredients Needed

Caramel Syrup Boiling Away, EEK!

Cooling in the pan

Creaming Ingredients together

Ready to go into the oven!

Cooked and ready to frost! Yum

Caramel Buttercream

Melting the Butter

Finished buttercream mmmm!

Completed Cake

Yummy!

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed.
3. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.Sift flour and baking powder.Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.
4. Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

CARAMEL SYRUP
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
2. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

1. Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
2. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup.
3. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Getting Well Cakes

2008-11-09T15:25:00.002Z

A post at last I hear you say!! It seems I have been ill fated from the day I made the phish food cupcakes, that was the first day I was unwell, I blame the blowing up of my whisk! Turns out I've had glandular fever, but apparently have just had different symptoms so they couldn't recognise it until my body started to produce tons of antibodies. Even though its annoying being tired all the time I'm just glad its something I can get better from and I am slowly so thought what better to make myself some getting better cakes...since nobody make me any get well soon cakes boo hoo :(
They're white chocolate mud cake, the mixture was really weird, but the cakes turned out so yummy mmm, with raspberry buttercream, I then put some pink fondant smiley faces on the top to signify my happiness in getting better hehe, although there is a shocked face in there somewhere haha..wondering why I'm not fully better yet!! After making the cakes I had to flop on the sofa for a bit, who knew that baking could be such a tiring experience!
Anyway its been a while so here we go with the pictures and the recipe :)

Ingredients Needed

Melting ingredients in a saucepan :S..Never done this before for cakes!

Mixture melting in the saucepan

Mixture after flour and egg..still looks watery

Cakes out of the oven..so moist and have a crispy top!

Cutting fondant circles

Finished smiley faces

Finished faces!!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
makes 21

White Chocolate Mud Cake
250g butter, chopped coarsely
160g white chocolate, chopped coarsely
2 cups (440g) white sugar
1 cup (250ml) milk
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
2 eggs

1. Preheat over to moderately low (170C/150C fan assisted) and line a muffin tray with cases.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in a small saucepan; stir over a low heat until smooth and everything has melted and dissolved. Transfter to a medium bowl; cool for 15 minutes.
3. Whisk in sifted flours and the eggs. Divide mixture among the cases; smooth surface.
4. Bake cakes for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean, allow to cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Buttercream
400g icing sugar
125g butter
25ml milk
1 teaspoon raspberry extract
few drops of pink food colouring

1. Beat all ingredients in a medium sized bowl until combine, add icing sugar/milk as necessary depending on the consistency you wish to achieve. Pipe onto cakes and top with a smiley fondant face hehe :)

Sorry for the lack of posts

2008-10-16T15:07:00.001+01:00

Hey fellow bloggers and readers just writing this to tell you sorry for not posting a lot recently, I havent given up on my blog, I've just been really unwell recently for about a month now, even on my birthday!! I've been in hospital and had loads of tests and what not done and they can't find anything wrong with me, just waiting for one final result and if that comes back clear then all they can say is that I've got a really bad virus :(
So anyway all I'm trying to say is sorry I haven't baked in a while, I'm hoping I'll be better before the end of the month because I really want to do the Daring Bakers challenger and I have a really good idea for Iron Cupcake + its halloween!! I wanna do Halloween baking!!
Oh well hopefully I should be better soon.

Natalie

Phish Food Cupcakes

2008-09-15T11:31:00.003+01:00

This weeks poll was Ben 'n' Jerry's flavours made into cupcakes and the winner was Phish Food...which was quite ironic really since that is actually my favourite Ben 'n' Jerry's flavour...mm! It was the winner with 59% of the vote and I was pretty pleased and excited to try out making them...even if disastor did strike..! I set about to making the cupcakes and everything went perfectly...apart from nearly forgetting the fudge and the chocolate chips..but they went into the oven happily and started baking away. In which I started to prepare the marshmallow frosting, I'd never made marshmallow frosting before and was really excited to try it as I love all things marshmallowy. I started whisking it on the stove but didnt hold onto the container properly...and since my whisk was on such a high speed it sent the container whizzing round and round spraying me with boiling egg whites mixed with sugar...ouch. Disastor number 1! Them to top things off once my frosting was nearly done I caught the wire of the whisk in the flame of the stove and set it alight..I didn't really want to risk using it anymore so I finished making my frosting and then into the bin it went and hello new whisk! Disastor number 2! Thankfully everything else ran pretty smoothly and the cakes were super delicious..if only I had had some Phish Food ice cream in they would be really nice to try with it..hmmm maybe next time!

Ingredients needed, not for your usual 'Phish Food'

Beating muscovado sugar and butter

Stirring in melted dark chocolate

Stirring in fudge and chocolate chips

Filling cuppy liners

Baked cupcakes

Filling the cupcakes with thick caramel sauce

Whisking the marshmallow frosting

Served in an ice cream glass!

Phish Food Cupcakes
makes 14

Chocolate Chip Caramel Fudge Cupcakes
115g plain chocolate
45ml milk
150g butter, softened
150g light muscovado augar
3 eggs, at room temperature
200g self raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
40g chopped fudge
50g plain chocolate chips
200g thick caramel sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a muffin tin with liners.
2. Melt chocolate with the milk in a double boiler until smooth and melted, set aside.
3. In a large bowl cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, if any signs of curdling occur beat in a tablespoon of flour. Stir in melted chocolate.
4. Sift in flour + cocoa powder and fold in a bit at a time. Once all incorporated fold in the chocolate chips and pieces of fudge.
5. Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean.
6. Once baked allow to cool completely and then core out the centre, keeping the top and fill with thick caramel sauce before topping.

Marshmallow Frosting
2 egg whites
6 tablespoons cold water
pinch of salt
300g white granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
50g white mini marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Combine everything apart from the mini marshmallows, blend in a double boiler over briskly boiling water. Beat until frosting stands in stiff peaks, approximately 7 minutes.
2. Slowly beat in mini marshmallows until melted and then remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and frost cakes, drizzle with caramel sauce.

Mocha Cupcakes

2008-09-07T14:56:00.003+01:00

Ahhh, went back to school on Wednesday so finding time to bake has been pretty hard especially since I have a LOT of work to do this year with exams and what not :(, but of course Friday baking night could not be postponed!! By the way, thank you to everyone who voted in the Ben 'n' Jerrys voting cupcake and the winner Phish Food will be being made soon for you all to enjoy...I can hardly wait :D. Anyway this post is about the cupcakes that I made this Friday...which was Mocha Cupcakes...a moist chocolate buttermilk cupcake with a rich coffee buttercream frosting..I loved them and I dont even like coffee!! Its quite weird really.. I like everything coffee flavoured apart from coffee itself: iced coffee, coffee frappuccinos (gotta love them), coffee ice cream and now apparently coffee cakes..but not a warm cup of coffee! Oh well haha..guess its just not really my thing! I'm sure all the coffee lovers out there will love these cakes and even if you're not I think they are worth having a try just for the sheer moistness of the cake! I decided to try a new chocolate sponge recipe..this one using buttermilk, as I remember it made cakes super moist! After preparing the batter..and sampling of course..it tasted slightly odd and not very chocolatey so I decided to add about 50g of cocoa powder as well..which made it just perfect :). When I took the cakes out of the oven I thought they mightn't have cooked properly as the bottoms were slightly damp, but they were fine and it was obviously just because the cake was so moist! Well worth a try!! Enjoy!

The makings of a cake

Beating the brown sugar and the butter, it looks yummy already!

Pouring in the melted chocolate...a bit for the batter...a bit for me

Whisking in the flour

Filling the cupcake liners

All baked up!

Frosted, sprinkled and complete

Mocha Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake
makes 20

170g unsweetened chocolate, melted
225g butter
385g dark brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
185g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
235ml buttermilk
50g cocoa powder *I added this*
25ml milk *I added this*

1. Preheat the oven to 175C(350F) and fill a muffin tin with liners, set aside.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy, this should take about 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat in the eggs one at time, beating well after each addition, if any signs of curdling occur add a tablespoon of flour.
3. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate and beat well.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder/soda and salt in separate bowl.
5. Alternate the dry ingredients (flour etc) with the buttermilk, im about 3 additions, into the cake batter.
6. After alternating the flour and the butter milk, in separate additions alternate the cocoa powder with the milk into the cake batter.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Coffee Buttercream

600g icing sugar
225g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream
5 teaspoons coffee granules
2 tablespoons milk, warmed

1. In a medium sized bowl beat together the butter and the icing sugar, making sure no lumps of butter remain.
2. In a small microwavable bowl heat 2 tablespoons of milk and quickly stir in the coffee granules, beat into the buttercream.
3. Stir in the vanilla essence and beat in the heavy cream. Add more cream/icing sugar to achieve desired consistency. Frost onto cakes

Daring Bakers : Chocolate Éclairs

2008-08-31T09:54:00.003+01:00

Ok so firstly I would just like to say that today is the opening voting day for Iron Cupcake is today and I would really appreciate it if you could all vote for my cupcakes at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner!
But anyway back to the real reason for this post, none other but the Daring Bakers challenge of the month! This month it was delicious chocolate éclairs, I actually only made them a couple of days ago, as I have been so busy this month, so actually we are still all enjoying them..mm!
I used choux pastry and instead of filling the éclairs with a chocolate pasty cream, I altered the recipe and produced a mint pastry cream...which was DELICIOUS! I then topped the éclairs with a chocolate glaze which was so rich and creamy!
Despite reading countless posts on how to stop your éclairs deflating a few of mine still did :(; however I still did get a couple of puffy ones! I put a jug of water in the bottom of the oven and baked for 7minutes, I then used the wooden spoon turninbg technique and then continued to bake, after baking I left them in the oven with the door cracked open to let them cool in a still warm environment...but some still deflated! Oh well! I'll most likely be trying this recipe again so hopefully all should be big puffy éclairs next time hehe!
I only got 13 out of this recipe (wooo a "Daring" Bakers dozen hehe) but thats because we're all so greedy we like our éclairs bigger hehe!
I really enjoyed making this recipe although disastor nearly struck when I was making the pastry cream and had it in the ice bath! The ice bath was overflowing into the pastry cream, I had butter in one hand and the wooden spoon in the other with stuff all over the floor and all over me, my phone was ringing and the doorbell was going! It was really a time where you just feel like screaming hehe!! Can't wait until next month! :D
If you want to see what other Daring Bakers did click here.

Chocolate Éclairs

Choux Pastry

Ingredients Needed for everything

Bringing the milk, water, sugar, butter and salt to a rolling boil

Beating the eggs into the dough

Beating with a wooden spoon to achieve the correct consistency

Piping the dough (caterpillars)ready to be baked!

A puffy éclair out of the oven

Mint Pastry Cream

Bringing the milk to a rolling boil

After whisking the eggs in, stirring in the peppermint and green food colouring

After stirring in the butter, allowing the pastry cream to cool

Chocolate Sauce/Chocolate Glaze

Attempting to thicken the chocolate sauce

The finished chocolate glaze

Assembly

Halving the éclairs

Spreading the tops with chocolate glaze

Piping the mint pastry cream onto the bottoms

Finished éclairs

Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
*makes 13 biiiiig éclairs*

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar• ¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to theboil.
2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to mediumand start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together veryquickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. Youneed to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the doughwill be very soft and smooth.
3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using yourhandmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again donot worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time youhave added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted itshould fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.
4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used.
5) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds bypositioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets withwaxed or parchment paper.
6) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.
7) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip thehandle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in theoven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continuebaking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Chocolate Pastry Cream Recipe
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted *I omitted this*
*3 teaspoons peppermint extract* - I added this
*3 teaspoons green food colouring* - I added this
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan
.2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat. * I stirred in the peppermint extract and green food colouring here*
4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Chocolate Sauce

4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 g) water
½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar
*I also added 3tablespoons corsnstarch mixed with 15ml cream to form a paste as I couldn't get mine to thicken*

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Chocolate Glaze

1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce, warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Assembling the éclairs

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside thebottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops ofthe éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill thebottoms with the pastry cream.
3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottomswith enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry creamand wriggle gently to settle them.

Ben 'n' Jerrys Voting Cupcakes!

2008-08-26T23:38:00.003+01:00

A chance to vote for what cupcake I should make next yet again, I decided for a completely random theme and since I really love Ben 'n' Jerry's ice cream I thought hmmm...what about making cupcakes out of Ben 'n' Jerry's flavours! So you can vote out of the following three flavours and whichever one wins I'll make and post up the recipe and pictures as usual, here is what you can vote from :

Phish Food - A creamy chocolate cupcake mixed with chocolate chips and fudge pieces, filled with delicious caramel sauce and topped with a soft and sweet marshmallow frosting.
Neapolitan Dynamite - Half cherry cupcake, half chocolate dipped in a chocolate ganache and finished with a yummy cherry buttercream.
Everything but the.. - A classic vanilla cupcake mixed with white chocolate chunks and chocolate covered toffee topped with peanut butter and chocolate buttercream, finished with chopped almonds and peanut butter cups.

Iron Cupcake Earth: Tropical Chilli Citrus Cupcakes

2008-08-19T19:51:00.007+01:00

Well I'd been putting off and putting off making these Iron Cupcakes..I knew the special ingredient was chilli pepper and I just wasn't sure whether I thought I would like it or not; however I knew I was going to have to do it at some point so on a lovely rainy summer..yes summer..English day I decided that it was the perfect chance. So I went out and bought my red chillis, it didnt say what type so I just presume fresh red chillis? They were of medium heat, I didn't want them to be too spicy and began to think what I would do with them.
I decided that a Lemon and Lime cupcake infused with chilli and topped with a lime buttercream frosting sprinkled with coconut..I really wanted to get the buttercream a really bright green like the colour of jalapenos, but after making too much buttercream I had to use a whole bottle of green food colouring to even get it the colour it is on the pictures...yes lets just not think of the E numbers..ahem..ahem. I thought they tasted pretty good and maybe just maybe there is room for such extravagent flavours in the sweet section of our kitchen :).
So anyway the great prizes you can win for this challenge are as follows.. merchandise from Cakespy, Jessie Steele, Cupcake Courier, Taste of Home, plus an extremely cool set of kitchen utensils of Head Chefs from Fiesta Products, you have to check them out they are soooo cute!!

Voting for the favourite recipe/cupcake starts on August 31st, 12 noon at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner and I would really appreciate it if you could all vote for me :D:D.

If you want a go of next months Iron Cupcake challenge or to view other Iron Cupcakers visit the blog here.

Ingredients Needed to make the spicy cupcakes

Lining a Cupcake Tin with liners

Chopping the chilli up! Beware do not rub eyes after hehe!

The lime, the lemon and the chilli (It sounds like some film title! The good, the bad and the ugly!) haha

Beating the cake batter

Ready to be baked in the oven

Eek spicy!!

Lemon Lime Chilli Infused Cupcakes
makes 10

115g butter, unsalted
200g white granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
190g plain flour (all-purpose)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
120ml milk
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 finely chopped fresh red chillis
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 165C and line a muffin tin with liners, set aside.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, this should take around 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, beating for 1 minute after each, if they show signs of curdling add a tablespoon of flour.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk in several additions. Mix on a low speed until just integrated, be careful not to overbeat.
5. Add the zests, juices, chillis and vanilla extract and mix for 30 seconds.
6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the centre and comes out clean. Cool.

Lime Coconut Buttercream

360g icing sugar
150g butter,unsalted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons heavy cream
juice of one lime *do not worry the lime did not curdle my buttercream*
green food colouring
25g desiccated coconut

1. In a medium sized bowl whip together the butter and the sugar until creamed. Add the vanilla and the whipping cream and beat until you achieve the desired consistency. If you feel like you need to add more cream, add it by the teaspoon, testing the frostings consistency every few seconds.
2. Whip in lime juice and green food colouring, pipe onto cakes.
3. Sprinkle coconut onto the top of cakes.