Birthday cupcakes

I had another perfect excuse to bake, but not just to bake, also decorating, which is always fun. Jasmine turned 19 on the 1st of August, I told her I would do her cake....or cupcakes, she preferred the second option. I used the same versatile recipe I shared with you all in the 2 previous posts, I changed it again and it was fabulous. I made two types of cupcakes:
-Chocolate with pieces of caramel biscuits inside
-Orange-Vanilla

For the toppings I knew exactly what I wanted to do. But first I have to confess something.... I totally dislike buttercream....the name sounds rather yummy but the first time I made it as frosting, my face nearly got green. I love butter, don't get me wrong... but I don't fancy biting a block of butter...yuk! and buttercream is basically that, butter and sugar.
Anyway....lets leave my buttercream issues behind and let me tell you about the great frosting recipe I found.
In one of Sainsbury's magazines (to be exact, October 2009), there was an article that caught my attention: "Cupcake masterclass, 5 easy steps to sweet perfection", I was surprised when I saw that the recipe only needed very little butter, so I gave it a go and it turned out delicious, although I have to say, between you and I....that I can improve this recipe...and I will!.

I made 24 cupcakes, 12 chocolate and 12 orange-vanilla, so I decided to make 2 frosting flavours; strawberry and vanilla and!... marzipan toppers, which I personally love.
I also got myself a cupcake stand that helped to arrange them nicely.

For the chocolate cupcake recipe, please click HERE, omit the caramel and instead of using 50g of cocoa, only use 25g (that's enough) and 325g of flour. I filled the cases half way and then pushed in pieces of caramel biscuits, then filled all the cases with the remaining mix.

For the orange-vanilla cupcake recipe please click HERE, omit the cream cheese and strawberries and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

*For the strawberry and vanilla frosting*
Enough to cover 24 cupcakes.
Note: frosting and frosted cupcakes will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days. Bring frosting back to room temperature before using.

Ingredients:
-200g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature.
-100g soft unsalted butter.
-600g icing sugar, sieved.

1.Put the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. With a big wooden spoon, slowly mix together, until you have blended all in, then use an electric mixer until you have a nice and creamy consistency.
3.Divide the mix in two smaller bowls.
Note: if the mix seems too runny, add a little bit of icing sugar.

For the strawberry flavour one, add 1 tablespoon of strawberry jam, sieved, and a drop of pink food colour. Mix well. You can then use a decorating bag with a big star tip to decorate your cupcakes.

For the vanilla flavour frosting, add the seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well. And as above, you can use a decorating bag.

If you're interested to do the marzipan toppers, let me know and I'll try to put a tutorial, its a lot of fun making them...and eating them as well!.

Don't they look great?...

I didn't have any, they all went to Jasmine's birthday party and I heard later that everybody loved them.... job done! :-)

Chocolate and Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

I felt a bit baking-adventurous today and made a variation of the strawberry cheesecake cupcakes from the last post. I usually follow recipes and never try my own thing, but this time I wanted to do something different...chocolate and dulce de leche, two flavours that were made for each other, such a treat!.
So, when mixing the ingredients, I replaced 80g of flour for cocoa powder....and I have to say, I would probably use less cocoa next time, 50g would be just fine.

Filled the cases halfway, then I added a teaspoon of dulce de leche...


Topped them with the rest of the mix:


Ready to go to the oven...


And...voilá!


They exploded a little bit, but it worked...yay!.
These cupcakes taste fenomenal, really chocolatey....I will definitely bake them again!.

Recipe:

It makes 12 muffins.
Ingredients:
-300g plain flour
-50g cocoa powder
-1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
-140g caster sugar
-Finely grated rind of 2 medium oranges
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 eggs
-250ml milk (I used semi-skimmed and it worked well)
-85g butter, melted

For the filling:
-180g dulce de leche (Carnation sells a tin of Caramel = Dulce de Leche)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6/Fan oven 180°C
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large bowl, then stir in the sugar and salt.
4. Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug or bowl, then stir in the butter and gently mix into the dry ingredients to make a loose, slightly lumpy mixture. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough.
5. Half'-fill the paper cases with the muffin mixture, then push a teaspoon of dulce de leche into each, then spoon over the remaining muffin mixture to cover and fill the muffin cases.
7. Bake for 15 minutes until well risen and golden on top. Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. (I let them cool in the tin).

ENJOY!

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins/Cupcakes

A good friend of mine and her little daughter came to visit us today, the perfect reason to bake something nice!, I didn't want to make anything I have done before so I went to my books and found what seemed like a delicious treat for kids and adults...Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins....what about THAT!...yup...cupcakes with a very yummy filling...

Want to give it a go?....take note then:

It makes 12 muffins.
Ingredients:
-350g plain flour
-1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
-140g caster sugar
-Finely grated rind of 2 medium oranges
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 eggs
-250ml milk (I used semi-skimmed and it worked well)
-85g butter, melted

For the filling:
-175g half-fat soft cheese
-3tbsp caster sugar
-6 small strawberries, halved...and maybe some more to put on top to serve when they're ready.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6/Fan oven 180°C
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, then stir in the sugar, orange rind and salt.
4. Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug or bowl, then stir in the butter and gently mix into the dry ingredients to make a loose, slightly lumpy mixture. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough.
5. Mix together the soft cheese and sugar for the filling.
6. Half'-fill the paper cases with the muffin mixture, then push half a strawberry into each. Top with a teaspoon of sweet cheese, then spoon over the remaining muffin mixture to cover and fill the muffin cases.
7. Bake for 15 minutes until well risen and golden on top. Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. (I let them cool in the tin).

*Recipe taken from the book "GoodFood 101 cakes & bakes"*

My son's 2nd birthday and a starry cake :o)

I was thinking about the cake I wanted to make for my son's birthday for quite a while.
It was very difficult to cover my first cake with fondant, but I can say I learnt a lot while doing it on my own and I hoped to improve the next time...and I definitely did!. I managed to get the right consistency for the buttercream that goes under the fondant. I used ready rolled fondant this time. It wasn't perfect coming out of the roll, it was cracked...but I fixed it.
I also made some cupcakes to go with it.
My son loved it!.

Banana cupcakes & marzipan

As I had some nicely ripen bananas in the kitchen, I decided to make some banana cupcakes....yum!.
My son got chickenpox (I know...this word doesn't really sound good in a baking blog! LOL)...he's been a bit poorly these last days so a cupcake likes this would be a good treat, he loves bananas!.

I found this recipe here, it's the second time I use a recipe from Wilton's, they're very good!!. It would be nice though, if along with the recipe using cup measurements, they added between brackets, the measures in grams.
I have to admit, I was a bit insecure with the ingredient measurements....as I tried the raspberry recipe before and they didn't work very well.

This time I added another teaspoon of baking soda and self raising flour instead of the plain one and it worked very well. Don't know whether the baking soda is more powerful in the US or what...honestly!.
This recipe uses sour cream....what for? I don't know.... do you?...I'd love to know!!!.

I was right next to the oven watching the cupcakes raising beautifully, my heart was shaking just by the thought of seeing them sinking like the Titanic....but they didn't!...well done me!!! :o)
The whole house was smelling like heaven....hmmm!

After the cupcakes were cold I prepared the marzipan to do the garnish:


First, I grabbed a chunk of marzipan and gave it a pale yellow tint using food coloring, then I rolled it in between 2 sheets of baking paper and using a cookie cutter I made a sort of marzipan doilly, placed them on top of the cupcakes and then I made the little wholes with a toothpick.
After this, I grabbed another chunk of marzipan and kneaded it using yellow food coloring. I divided the coloured marzipan into little balls and then started giving shape to the bananas.

This was my first attempt to make marzipan fruits!!.

I placed the bananas on top of the doillies and tried to give them more life colouring the extremes with green and brown food coloring....lots of fun!!!.

These banana cupcakes plus the marzipan taste incredible, give it a try, you won't regret it!!

Marzipan cupcakes

Months ago, and after seeing a marzipan block at the grocery stores I convinced myself to get it (as if it was too hard! LOL) to do some modelling (and chewing!).
I kept the block in a drawer for ages waiting for the real inspiration to come and it came after I saw a tutorial on how to make cupcake earrings with clay! (I'll try to find the link)..... I thought it would be nice to make cupcakes with marzipan.....and this was the result:

I'm very please with them!! they look very cute and taste fenomenal!, they also make a perfect present and would be an absolute success at a birthday party.

Today I went to visit my friend Fernanda, and I gave her the little marzipan cupcakes I made, she and her daughters loved them, great!.

If you have some good links to marzipan related websites please let me know, I'll appreciate it!.

Raspberry cupcakes

After the cupcakes I made for my mother in law, I baked others, also using a ready mix but to be honest, they were not special at all, they didn't have that "yummy" factor... so I had to try making my own from scratch...yes!.
I was looking for easy recipes to start with and I found this one , Raspberry cupcakes....hmm!!

I don't know why, they sank in the middle, could have been too much moisture from the raspberries? if you have an idea of what went wrong here please let me know, I'll really appreciate it :o)

The taste was great, but that hole in the middle didn't look good....I had to save them!...so I melted some chocolate and poured on top, then I garnished with some rainbow white chocolate buttons:

My first cupcakes

After looking at so many cute cupcakes I decided to give it a go, although I preferred no risks and used a ready mix...not very exciting, I know!.
My mother in law's birthday was coming so I thought it would be nice to bring her something special.
The little cupcakes came out perfect

Using a ready mix might be boring, but I think it's great for beginners like me! and also..... I think it's a very good way to start baking with your children :o)

Okkie....let's go to the next part.....the decoration!....I was soooooo excited about this!....I got all the ingredients for the glaze, writing icing (a bit difficult to write with though), sugar flowers and strands.
It was also my first time preparing icing....which is very easy indeed, but you'll need a couple of attempts to get the desired consistency.

I had a lot of fun decorating the cupcakes and I'm ready to learn more! My mother in law was very pleased, she really enjoyed them :o)

I'll share the recipe I know for the icing:

Ingredients:
* 250 grams icing sugar
* Food coloring
* 2 tbsp of hot water

Method:
In a bowl, put the sugar and add one tablespoon of hot water, stir until you have a creamy consistency, if you need a bit more water, add a teaspoon first and if you still need more, then add another teaspoon.

If you want to use 2 colors of icing, then pour the mix into a couple of bowls only.
Take one bowl (cover the other one) and add a few drops of food coloring, stir well.
For pastel colors only add a few drops of food coloring. The more drops you add, the more intense the color you'll get.

You can use a spoon or a spatula to cover your cupcake with the icing. If you're adding some decorations, like strands, pearls, or others, do it before the icing sets....let's say then, as soon as you've iced your cupcake :o)

This is the basic recipe, you can also add flavour to your icing :o)

Have fun!!!!