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! :-)

Marzipan Watermelons

I'm so inspired these days that I'm even dreaming of all the things I can make with marzipan, I keep a mini notepad with me at all times so I can sketch and write my ideas down.

It's been incredibly sunny and hot in England, this is what I call a proper summer ...finally! And there's no summer without watermelons, don't you think?.

So here they are, marzipan watermelon slices!.

I'm still trying to find out how to do the glaze for marzipan, I have seen that some people use corn syrup, but it's not very easy to find. If you know any other glaze recipe please send me an email, I'd really appreciate 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!!