1. Flowers for Mother’s Day.
2. Snowy day!
3 & 9. Experimenting with my nails.
4.Chocolate orange cupcakes.
5 & 6. Trip to London (we saw Wicked – it was amazing!)
7. Egg painting for Easter!
8. Best Easter egg ever?
Posts tagged Cupcakes
These mocha cupcakes worked out so much better than the batch of Chocolate & Mint cupcakes I made a few weeks back! I used a cake recipe from my Great British Bake Off book and then experimented with the icing. The coffee flavour is very subtle so next time I make these I will probably add a bit more coffee.
Cake Ingredients
175g butter or marg
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
175g self raising flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
50g dark chocolate, grated
Icing Ingredients
75g butter
190g icing sugar
60g cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in a tablespoon of water
A few tablespoons of milk
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and put your cases in the tin.
2. Beat the butter for a minute or so and then beat in the sugar until it becomes pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs gradually.
3. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder and then the grated chcocolate.
4. Separate into the cake cases and put in the oven for around 20 minutes.
5. To make the icing, beat the butter until it is creamy and then gradually beat in the icing sugar, cocoa powder and coffee. I always use an electric whisk as it makes the icing really fluffy! Add tablespoons of milk until the icing is the right consistency for piping, or just swirl the icing onto the cakes using a knife.
I had some fresh mint leaves left over so decided to make some chocolate and mint cupcakes. I had a look though my books for a recipe but all of them said to use mint extract or chopped up mints (as in sweets not the herb). I went ahead and used the herbs anyway but it didn’t really work so I wouldn’t recommend it! The mint flavour in the cupcakes was a little strange and not very strong. I won’t post the recipe as I don’t think these were the best cupcakes I’ve ever made but there are lots of recipes out there for mint and chocolate cupcakes. Next time I make these I will definitely use mint extract rather than actual mint!!!
I’ve been super busy over Christmas and can’t believe it’s been a week since my last post! I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas! I haven’t had time to write anything new so here is a recipe I have been meaning to post for a while now….
Cake Ingredients
115g caster sugar
85g self raising flour
25g cocoa powder
60g margarine
55g peanut butter
2 eggs, beaten
Vanilla Buttercream Ingredients
250g icing sugar
75g unsalted butter
4tbs milk
1tsp vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 12 cupcake cases in a tray.
2. Cream the margarine, peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until fluffy.
3. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, beating after each addition.
4. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder gently.
5. Share out the mixture evenly into the cases and then bake for around 20 minutes.
6. To make the buttercream cream the butter and then gradually add the icing sugar. I usually use an electric whisk once most of the icing sugar is mixed it to mae the buttercream nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract at the end. For ages I’ve used the Nielsen Massey Vanilla Extract which tastes so much better than other vanilla extracts I’ve tried but here I used the Nielsen Massey Pure Vanilla Bean Paste which I love! It tastes pretty much the same as the vanilla extract but you can see little dots of vanilla in the buttercream which makes it a little different.
I also used my new Vanilla Bean Paste to make some Pecan Tarts from this recipe. They tasted really good even if they didn’t look perfect!
Just a quick post with photos of some vanilla cupcakes I made using the silicon star cases I had for my birthday….
1. Nails of the Week with Indian Ocean.
2, 3 & 4. Some photos from our visit to the beautiful Loch Ness!
5 & 6. Birthday chocolate…
7. Sliced my nail while making dinner!
8. Pretty sunrise.
9. Bright yellow star cupcakes.
1. Gradient nails.
2. Chocolate from Nick after he ate my Maltesers!
3. Sangria at La Tasca.
4. Cupcakes for the charity bake sale in work.
5. Out for a walk up a hill near Aberdeen.
6. Relaxing bath with Aromatherapy Associates Bath Oils.
7. Finally found some frames for the pictures in our bedroom.
8. Sparkly nails!
9. Galaxy hot chocolate with cream on a rainy day.
I made these cupcakes for a charity bake sale in work to help raise money for Childline. I went with just plain vanilla which I think most people like but to make things a bit more interesting half were pink sponge with white icing and half were plain sponge with pink icing.
Last week I made my first batch of cupcakes in forever! I went with coconut and lime with chocolate fudge icing. Here’s the recipe for you….
Cake Ingredients
115g caster sugar
85g self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
85g desiccated coconut
115g margarine
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk
Zest of 1 lime
Icing Ingredients
100g dark chocolate
1 tbsp golden syrup
50g unsalted butter
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 and put 12 cupcake cases in a tray.
2. Cream the margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl until fluffy.
3. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture, beating after each addition.
4. Mix in the coconut, lime zest and milk
5. Fold in the flour gently, with the baking powder.
6. Share out the mixture evenly into the cases and then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
7. To make the icing, melt all of the ingredients together – simple! Wait for it to cool and set slightly before trying to ice the cakes or it will go everywhere.
On Tuesday, I handed in my final year project report and today, the poster and website to go with it! After months of work it feels weird that it’s all done (and scary, it’s worth quite a lot of my degree!). You’d think I’d be out celebrating but no, I’ve got more coursework due in tomorrow! I’ve literally had no time recently to buy/use/review anything exciting but a few weeks ago I was sent a load of products from Rachel’s to try out, so even if I didn’t have time to shop, I did have time to eat!
There was way too much for me to eat on my own so the girls I live with helped me out and we’re all in agreement, we love Rachel’s! I’m not going to review each product separately as there’s only so much you can say about yogurt but we were really surprised by lots of the flavours. I wasn’t at all sure about the coconut yogurts but they actually have a perfect balance of coconut and fruit so are really tasty. The breakfast yogurts are good for mornings when you are in a rush and they are also quite filling because of the granola.
The big tubs are a good size for sharing but seeing as we had so much, and I had a cake craving, I decided to attempt to make yogurt cupcakes. They turned out quite well but I haven’t got any photos because I didn’t ice them (no time!) so they didn’t look like anything special. I used the Apple and Elderflower yogurt which gave the cakes a sweet, delicate flavour. I reckon they are also much better for you than normal cake as there is hardly any butter and the yogurt is low fat. You could use any of the yogurt flavours (I might try some blackcurrant ones with the leftover blackcurrant yogurt next, I love the colour!) and some of them are fat free so would be even healthier! Here’s the recipe in case you want to try them….
Ingredients
- 250g self raising flour
- 200g caster sugar
- 225ml Rachel’s Apple and Elderflower Yoghurt
- 50 g butter
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar to a breadcrumb consistency. Beat in the yogurt. Then fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Split into cupcake cases and bake for around 15 minutes. (I ended up with loads of cakes – 11 normal sized ones and about 12 mini ones).
Out of all the products I was sent, my favourite would have to be the rice puddings. They are the nicest, creamiest, non homemade rice puddings I’ve ever had in the world!
Rachel’s products are all made using locally sourced organic ingredients and are available in supermarkets throughout the country.
