What's New Cupcake?

Well Lovely people! I hope you've had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas?? I've had a wonderful Christmas full of family, fun board games and food! I hope you've all been spoiled by Santa as well! I've been lucky enough to got some great gifts from my generous family and friends :) I shall no doubt be blogging about some of my many Christmas presents over the next few weeks, but to start it all off, I'm going to tell you about a brilliant book my little sister bought me... What's New Cupcake?

There are some gorgeous cupcake recipes, and some incredibly imaginative ideas for frosting and decoration... I love this cupcake Ring Bling! and here are some more of my favourite cupcakes from the book... (excuse the rubbish photos!)

Fur Ball and String Monster Cupcake

Karaoke Cupcakes

Artist's Palette Cupcakes

Jungle Fever Cupcakes

An Apple A Day Cupcakes

Rubber Ducky Cupcakes

Sand Castle Cupcakes

Pantry Pets Cockroach Cupcakes

Festive Stuffed Turkey Cupcakes

I can't wait to get stuck in and start baking! I'm feeling inspired by this wonderful book, and all that remains is for me to get back to Leeds, buy some ingredients and get baking!

The Great British Bake-Off - My New Favourite Programme!

I officially have a new favourite programme... The Great British Bake-Off! I have always really enjoyed food-based programmes, I watched Masterchef religiously with John Turrode and Gregg Wallace and occasionally catch The Great British Menu. But these are overshadowed by the BBC's new series. The basic premise of the programme is a group of 10 enthusiastic home bakers fighting it out for the title of best amateur baker. Each week they go to a different location in the country where they bake the particular area's signature food, with two people eliminated in the first week until only one winner remains. The judges are renowned baking writer Mary Berry, and professional baker Paul Hollywood. The programme is presented by Mel and Sue, and they trace the history of British baking by visiting baking landmarks and discovering why we bake what we do today.

The competition was kicked off with cake in the Cotswolds. The contestants had three challenges, the first being for them to bake their own signature cake to show the judges their tried and tested recipes that they love and are passionate about. Anita, with her caribbean inspired, rum soaked, black cake with strawberries and cream were a real highlight for me, it looked delicious and was a hit with the judges too.

I wouldn't have minded a nice big slice of this gorgeously indulgant looking chocolate brownie, raspberry and meringue layered cake... yum!

For the contestants second challenge they had to each make a victoria sandwich using identical ingredients so that the judges could see their true skills. It amazes me how different the cakes can all look even though they were made from identical ingredients... it just goes to show how baking is not an exact science, especially as the slightest variation at any stage of making a cake can make huge differences in the way that the cake rises, looks, tastes and feels.

Lastly the contestants had to bake a chocolate celebration cake that they were encouraged to decorate in whatever way their saw fit. I loved the look of the rich chocolate fudge cake (above) with the handmade chocolate buttons and flowers.

One contestant used edible glitter and stars along with some scrummy looking handmade truffles to decorate her chocolate cake.

The thing I love about this programme is that it will raise the profile of baking and help people get passionate about it. Baking was always a brilliant treat as a child, where me, my mum and sisters would make a mess in the kitchen, have fun together and make fairy cakes, cornflake cakes, sponge cakes, cheese straws and such like. There is nothing more satisfying than spending time making something yummy from scratch, imperfections and all!

The bbc website that accompanies the series is very good too, with recipes, tips and videos on how to get a firm grasp of the baking basics. So there is no excuse to avoid a spot of baking every now and then! Tune in to next week's episode of The Great British Bake-Off when they will be in Scotland making biscuits! Or catch up on iplayer and enjoy!


(All photos and screenshots are taken from the programme and any rights to the images belong to the BBC)

Carrot, Orange and Walnut cupcakes!

I had the day off work so I decided to bake a few cupcakes! I absolutely adore carrot cake but I have never actually ventured to make it myself, so I thought I's take the plunge and make some carrot, orange and walnut cupcakes... (I also bought ingredients to make strawberries and cream layered cupcakes, but that's for another day and another blog!)

Ingredients

2 large eggs

175g golden caster sugar

150g sunflower oil

200g sifted self-raising flour

3 tsp mixed spice

2 carrots, coarsely grated

1 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 2 oranges

2 handfuls of walnuts

100g soft cheese

icing sugar

Method

1. preheat the oven to 180 degrees, or gas mark 4. Get your cake cases all ready to go: the recipe makes 12 large muffins or 24 small cupcakes.

2. Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil until they are light and fluffy. It's best to use an electric whisk, but to beef up your biceps then beat by hand.

3. Gently fold in the flour, carrot, spices, vanilla extract, walnuts and half the orange zest until it is all thoroughly combined.

4. distribute the cake mix into the cake cases, place in the oven for 20-25 mins until well-risen and golden. Put the cakes on a cooling rack for 10-15 mins before icing...

Icing

1. Place the 100g of soft cheese into a bowl and add icing sugar until it is the desired thickness and sweetness.

2. Use the remaining orange zest to garnish your cupcakes

And finally.... ENJOY! If you make them let me know how they go, you can also change the recipe adding raisins, sultanas, or chopped nuts.

A day of baking with my little sister

I've come back home from uni for Easter and me and my little sister decided to spend a day doing some scrummy baking! My mum bought me some new silicone cupcake cases and I decided to put them to good use by making marbled cupcakes, smarties cookies and layered banoffee cupcakes for my family and my collegues at Smugglers Adventure Caves.

Banoffee Cupcakes

These are delicious layered cupcakes. The cupcakes are banana flavoured, and once cooked are sliced into three tiers with toffee and thinly sliced bananas inside, topped off with chocolate.

Ingredients:

90g softened butter

110g brown sugar

2 eggs

75g plain flour

75g self-raising flour

1-2 overripe mashed bananas

2 tablespoons if milk

1/3 cup of cream

(optional) 1/2 tsp mixed spice

75g dark or milk chocolate

sliced bananas

1/2 tin of condensed milk (for the toffee/caramel)

1. Preheat the oven to 180degrees (160degrees if fan assisted oven)

2. Beat the butter, sugar and eggs together in a medium mixing bowl. You can use an electric whisk, or by hand until the mixture is light an fluffy.

3. Sift the flour into the mixture, and mix together, along with the mashed banana, cream and milk.

4. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes depending on how large the cupcakes are. Then remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

5. Remove the cakes from their cases (very easy with the silicone cases! they just pop right out!)

6. Cut the cakes horizontally into three slices. Reconstruct the cakes layering the toffee and thinly sliced bananas in between the tiers.

7. Top the cupcakes with chocolate and if you like a few chocolate shavings.

Not only did we make the gorgeously indulgent banoffee cupcakes, we also made some marbled cupcakes with a basic cake mix which we split into two bowls, dyed one with a few drops of red food dye and the other half with cocoa powder. We then baked them in the oven for 15-20 minutes and topped half of them with chocolate ganache.

To finish off our baking-fest me and my sister made some cookies with a basic cookie dough but adding chocolate chunks and smarties. YUM! The only thing that remains is to find hordes of people to consume the massive amounts of baking we have done today.

Goats cheese and caramelised onion tarts

I've been at it again! I just can't help but cook up a storm in the kitchen... and on the menu tonight? Goats cheese tart. I recently made some mini bite-size goats cheese and caramelised onion filo pastry tarts for a colleague's birthday party, and they went down so well I thought I would make a great big dinner sized one. Here's how I did it:

First I cut up three red onions and fried them at a medium heat with a drizzle of oil. Just as the onions began to soften and brown I turned down the heat and left them to cook more slowly, stirring occasionally to ensure that all of the onions were evenly cooked. The key to extra tasty onions is the cook them over a long period of time to allow the natural sugars in the onions to caramelise. I usually cook the onions for about 45mins to an hour.

About 10 minutes before the onions are finished cooking, I added a few pinches of sugar to help the caramelising of the onions and also a generous splash of balsamic vinegar to cut through the sweetness. While the onions were just finishing off I greased the ceramic tart dish and prepared the filo pastry (I cheated and bought some pre-made pastry). I used 4 layers of filo pastry with a brushing of water to make sure that the pastry stayed together during cooking. It's important to not have too many layers of pastry otherwise it doesn't cook all the way through and is soggy... it needs to have a nice crispy crunch to serve as a contrast to the soft onions and goats cheese.

I filled the pastry tart with the caramelised onions and layered the goats cheese generously on the top, and popped in all in the oven at 180 degrees for roughly 20 minutes so that the filo wasn't over cooked but so that goats cheese has melted. Then I served the tart with a fresh salad and a drizzle of the balsamic vinegar... et voila! This goats cheese tart easily served four people and was delicious, I thoroughly recommend!

I even had enough filo pastry left over to make some little bite-size cheese and bacon tartlets... I put a dollop of soft cheese in the centre so that they weren't too dry, fried the remaining onions with some chopped up bacon, topped with a little grated cheddar cheese and popped into the oven until the filo pastry is thoroughly cooked... scrumdiddleyumptious!

Rice Crispie cakes, Homemade Hummous and Peanut butter cookies

Well my fellow bloggers and blog-readers! I have been baking again this week, First on the Agenda... peanut butter cookies. There is something I LOVE about the slightly salty sweetness of these crunchy-on-the-edges-and-soft-in-the-middle cookies. They also make a perfect little treat for me to have for my lunch at work this week!

These are my special rice crispie cakes.... they are divine! The rice crispie base is made with a bit of butter mixed with melted Mars Bars... heavenly! Topped with creamy milk chocolate, and left to set in the fridge.

I also made (for the first time) my own hummous from scratch. It all went according to plan, making my own tahini paste, adding, garlic, oil, lemon, chickpeas, until it came to the addition of red peppers. Unfortunately they were quite juicy and it only served to water down the hummous and make it taste a tad bland. I think perhaps next time I might make a spicy hummous, with either chilli or jalapeno's. But loathe to waste food, I teamed it with some mini toasted pitta breads and some olives and it went down a treat!

Ooh! Me and my boyfriend have been putting our green fingers to use as well. We have been growing our own pepper plant... and this is the first of our mini harvest! It's great fun growing your own food and I highly recommend it! This little Pepper certainly isn't as large or perfectly shaped as the peppers from supermarkets but it is extra special as it was grown with my own two hands! :D

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful!

I bought two beautiful new glass cake stands in the sale, only £4 for each tier! So I thought it only right that I bake some new cupcakes to adorn my new cake stand! The first batch I made were Peanut Butter Cupcakes with peanut butter icing:


INGREDIENTS

55g butter
225g soft light brown sugar
115g crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain white flour
2tsp baking powder
100ml milk

(frosting)

100g full-fat soft cream cheese
50g peanut butter
25g butter
225g icing sugar

I have also made some Chocolate Orange Cupcakes:

85g butter, softened
85g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
85g self-raising white flour
50g chocolate chips
grated rind and juice of 1 small orange

(Topping)

1 orange
55g caster sugar
15g toasted flaked almonds

However.... something went profoundly wrong somewhere in the baking process... and they sunk... a lot! I think I was probably daydreaming whilst mixing the ingredients and didnt measure them out properly. The one good thing is that they tasted amazing, zesty and sweet, but they were very tricky to eat as they were about 0.5 millimetres thick. Hehe... I think I might have to try them out again tomorrow.