Gorgeous Rose Swirl Cupcakes- Raspberry and White Chocolate. Look good, taste fab!

Hullo!

It's MacMillan Coffee Morning time and so far I have made Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie but nothing says coffee morning like a cupcake so let's get started! I am making two types of cupcake for the coffee morning, here is how to make Raspberry and White Chocolate ones! I take inspiration from the most fantabulous cupcake book which I discovered after a lovely friend sent me a recipe from it ^.^ The book is 'Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery' by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas and I highly recommend you get it- it's all you'll ever need for cupcake inspiration.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes (makes 12):
110g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
180g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour (sifted)
120g plain flour (sifted)
1tsp baking powder
125ml semi-skimmed milk (at room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla EXTRACT (not essence, this does not give as good a flavour as extract does)
4-5 tbsp of seedless raspberry jam

Buttercream (covers 12):
150g unsalted butter
375g icing sugar (sifted)
2 tsp of vanilla EXTRACT (see notes above)
75g white chocolate
Pink food colouring (I use gels)

To Decorate:
Pink buttercream (made with ingredients mentioned above)
8 tbsp of seedless raspberry jam
Fondant leaves (2 for each cupcake)

Method:

Decoration:

• Prior to baking (at least the night before) make your fondant leaves. I make 40 just in case some break or I have additional cupcakes. Any left over leaves you have will keep for a while.
• Roll out a thin layer of green fondant and use a leave cutter to cut them out.
• Place on a sheet of baking paper (sprinkled with a little icing sugar to stop them from sticking) on a tray.
• Leave them for at least one night to harden.

Cupcakes:

• Line a muffin baking tray tin with your cupcake cases- I line two muffin baking tray tins as I find although the recipe is meant to make 12 cupcakes I can usually get somewhere between 16-18 from the mix. You will have enough buttercream from the ingredients listed above to cover any additional cupcakes.
• Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees celsius.
• In a large bowl, measure out your butter and beat it a little with a fork. I find this makes creaming the butter and sugar together easier.
• Add the sugar to the butter and put to one side.
• Crack the eggs in a small bowl and whisk slightly with a fork and put to one side.  
• In a separate, medium sized bowl sift the flours and baking powder together and put to one side.
• In a jug, measure out the milk and add the vanilla extract to it and put to one side
• In a small bowl, measure out the seedless raspberry jam and beat it slightly.
• Now all your ingredients are ready they just need combining. It may seems illogical to use all these bowls, particularly when it comes to washing up, but I find this works well in terms of getting your cupcakes in the oven asap once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed. Once the flours/baking powders are wet the raising agents within them are activated so it's best to transfer the batter into the oven asap.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (I use an electric hand whisk and this takes about 5 minutes).
• Slowly add the egg mixture to the creamed butter and sugar, whisking as you add it.
• Add a third of the flour mixture and whisk. Then add a third of the milk and vanilla extract mixture and whisk. Keep doing this until all of the ingredients are combined.
• Using a large, metal spoon or a spatula fold in the seedless raspberry jam. Do not mix it entirely, the idea is to have swirls of the jam visible in the batter.
• Then pop the batter into your cupcake cases. Some people use spoons, some people use piping bags to get the mixture into the cupcake cases; I use a jug and pour it in! I find this helps me get an even distribution of mix into each cupcake case without to much faffing. Please feel free to fill your cupcake cases whichever way works best for you.
• Bake for 25 minutes. Test with a skewer to ensure they are baked, when removed the skewer should come out clean. If it doesn't bake for a further 5 minutes. Keep doing this until the cupcakes are baked.
• Once baked leave to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes then remove and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling. I find this helps the cupcakes firm slightly as they cool which makes decorating easier.

Buttercream:

• Whilst the cupcakes are cooling make the buttercream.
• Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over gently simmering water. Keep an eye on this whilst you get on with the next step.
• In a large bowl combine the butter, vanilla extract and HALF of the icing sugar (remember to sift this in, it gives the buttercream a smoother texture). Once this is combined well, add the other half of the icing sugar. Adding the icing sugar in stages helps the ingredients combine easier and saves your kitchen from being dusted in a icing sugar! If there is too much icing sugar in a bowl, when you begin mixing, it likes to escape the bowl!
• Once the white chocolate is melted add it to the buttercream mixture and combine well. 
• Add a few drops of pink food colouring. I use gels as I find they give a better colour and are easier to work with.
• Mix well for at least 5 minutes with an electric hand whisk to ensure the buttercream is light and fluffy and the colour is even.

Decorating:

• Line the cupcakes up on a clean surface.
• Use a small knife to cut away a small hole out of the top of each cupcake.
• Fill these holes with a teaspoon of seedless raspberry jam- just to ensure you get the raspberry taste!

• Then fill your piping bag (I find plastic disposable ones are best) using a Wilton 1M nozzle.

• Then crack on piping those roses. Start in the middle, build it up a little then swirl outwards. Below are some pictures that may help you with this. It took me a good few tries to get the hang of it.

1.2.

3.4.

5.6.

7.8.

9.

• Finally, grab your fondant leaves and decorate the cupcakes with them.

TA-DA!

These are on the way to OB's work tomorrow.

Fingers crossed they go down well and raise lots of money.

I am also making chocolate orange cupcakes which I will ensure I add to my blog, possibly next time I post.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie! Nom Nom!

Hullo all!

It is time for some charity baking this weekend and I started off with this delicious hybrid of brownie and chocolate chip cookies. Two baked goods all in one! What more could you want?

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)- to melt with the butter
100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)- chopped
265g soft light brown sugar (muscovado if you have it gives a better taste)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla EXTRACT (not essence- extract has a more intense flavour)
85g plain flour
1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder

150g unsalted butter
80g soft light brown sugar (again muscovado if you have it gives a better taste)
80g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
100-200g chocolate chips (how much depends on how chocolatey you want it and you could use white, milk, or dark chocolate chips, whichever takes your fancy!)

• I Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (if you have a powerful oven you may wish to preheat to 160 degrees celsius).
• Then I line a rectangular baking tin (mine is 22cm by 28cm).
• I start by semi-preparing the Brownie:
• Melt the butter and 100g of the dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, once melted allow the mixture to cool slightly.
• In a large bowl beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract together. I use my electric hand whisk ( which was very kindly donated to me by my Mamma) for this.
• In a separate bowl sift the plain flour and baking powder together, if you like you could some spice such as cinnamon or nutmeg to this, this is a good addition at Christmas time.
• Chop the remaining 100g of dark chocolate.
• Put the chopped chocolate and these bowls to one side (you should have three bowls, one containing the butter and chocolate, one containing the sugar and eggs and the final one containing the flour, baking powder and any spices you are adding).

• Now I make my chocolate chip cookie mixture:
• Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
• Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the mixture then mix with a wooden spoon.
• Add the chocolate chips and mix well (I used white chocolate chips today).
• Dollop teaspoons of the chocolate chip cookie dough into the lined baking tin at regular intervals.

• Then I complete the mixing of my brownie ingredients:
• I add the flour, baking powder and chopped chocolate mixture into the beaten sugar, eggs and vanilla extract mixture and mix well (again, I use my electric hand whisk).
• Then I add the melted chocolate mixture and mix well (again, using the electric hand whisk).
• Next I pour the brownie batter over the dollops of chocolate chip cookie dough, ensuring an even distribution in the tin and over the cookie dough.

• Then I dollop further teaspoons of the chocolate chip cookie dough onto the top of the brownie mixture- just to make sure there's plenty of cookie dough action going off!

• Then I bake for 30 minutes and check with a skewer. If the skewer doesn't come out clean I give it another 5-10 minutes and check again with a skewer. If you use a lower oven temperature it may take 40-50 minutes overall to bake but check regularly at the end of baking to avoid burning.
• Once baked I remove the chocolate chip cookie brownie from the oven and leave to cool almost completely in the tin. If I remove it from the tin to soon it is too soft and the brownie is likely to break and crack.
• Once it is cool I remove it and leave it for a further 30 minutes to cool with the baking paper still stuck to it. I do this because the chocolate chip cookie brownie firms up further making it easier to cut. It's hard to resist cutting it and having a slice but it's worth the wait!
• Once it's cool and firm enough I cut it into squares and serve. 
• It will keep for quite a while as, unlike most other cakes, brownie tastes better after a few days after baking. I once made this brownie for OB's Aunty and Uncle and they froze it in the freezer and ate it for months!
• It can be served hot or cold. OB's Aunt and Uncle assure me it's very nice with vanilla ice cream when served hot.

So there you go! It's a bit of a faff and it's a tad expensive with all the ingredients required but definitely worth it if you fancy a brownie with a different twist!

I am about to destroy the edges of my chocolate chip cookie brownie as when I cut mine I slice the edges of to make the pieces a bit neater. Good job I did a 10k run this morning!

Enjoy- I know I will!

xoxo

Christmas is coming...get your Christmas Cake Baked!

Hullo!

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat...please put your Christmas cake in the oven!

So I did mine last weekend so I can seep it in alcohol on a weekly basis for 3 months. I love the taste of Christmas Cake. Not many people may age seem to like it but my Mamma made loads each year so I was exposed to it from a very young age and I learned to like it and now I love it.

I use a recipe I got from the BBC Food website but I add a few extra steps in based on words of cookery wisdom from my Mamma.

These are my additional steps:

I use 200g of glace cherries rather than 150g as I like the taste of them.

My Mamma recommended that I soak my fruits (the 800g of mixed dried fruit, 100g mixed peel and 150g of glace cherries, although I tend to use 200g of cherries) in red wine. I soak them for one-three days, whatever is most convenient at the time of baking, but my Mamma is adamant you should leave them for three days. I cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in a cupboard. I use a sweet, Greek, red wine called Mavrodaphne. It is glorious; another thing my Mamma introduced me to. If you like a sweet wine I highly recommend it. At the end of the soaking period I strain the red wine off but my Mamma says she incorporates it into the cake mix, her Christmas Cake should come with a warning not to drive after consumption!

When mixing the dry ingredients I like to add nutmeg along with the Cinnamon and Mixed Spice as I like my fruit cake to be unmistakably Christmas-sy!

Another trick my Mamma taught me is to wrap the outside of my baking tin up in brown parcel paper. As the cake is on the oven for 3, maybe more, hours she says this helps to stop the cake from burning. You can secure the paper with string and I recommend using at least two layers of paper.

So far in my baking life I have made three fruit cakes, one I seeped in normal brandy but the other two I seeped in Cherry Brandy and the results were amazing. If you like a sweet and moist cake I would suggest you use Cherry Brandy or similar liqueur that you like. If you like a drier cake then stick with the normal brandy. This year I am seeping mine in Jack Daniels as my partner likes this, fingers crossed it works well! 

I seep my cake every Sunday with 2 tablespoons of whatever alcohol I am using. I will do this right up until a week before decorating. The BBC recipe suggest icing you cake with royal icing, this is something I have not tried yet. I like working with ready to roll icing (fondant) so I use this. I'll be posting some photos with advice and suggestions on how to do this in December when I ice my cake.

One final step you should most definitely add to the end of baking your cake is one I learnt, not from my Mamma, but from my Grandpa. He would always appear at the end of baking to 'test' the mixture! So don't forget to eat the leftover mix from your mixing bowl- it tastes delicious and is a nice little prequel to all the Christmas-sy goodness that waits! It'll soon be December!

Enjoy! xoxo

Gorgeous Rose Cake with a Fab Buttercream Recipe

Hullo!

So it was my Mamma's (that's what I call my Grandma) birthday last Sunday and I was tasked with the usual job of making the birthday cake. I made a vanilla birthday cake with vanilla buttercream and a strawberry jam filling. Since she likes white chocolate I decorated the sides of the cake with Cadbury White Chocolate Fingers- only 4 didn't make it onto the cake and ended up in my belly! Then on the top I piped pink roses as she loves her garden. Here's an explanation of how I did it:

I made the buttercream with 300g of unsalted butter, 420g of icing sugar and 3 tsp of vanilla ESSENCE. I make it in stages by creaming 100g of butter, I take the butter out of the fridge at least an hour before hand so it's soft as this makes mixing it a lot easier. Once I have softened the butter further (by beating it) I add 140g of icing sugar, 1tsp of vanilla essence and cream them together. I repeat this 2 more times so all the ingredients are combined. I find that this recipe and method gives you a lovely creamy and sweet buttercream which holds it's shape well but isn't to powdery.

I sliced the cake in half length ways and filled it with the buttercream and a layer of strawberry jam. I put the strawberry jam (about 4 tbsp) into a bowl and give it a good mix so it spreads onto the buttercream easier. I place the top of the cake back onto the bottom ofthe cake (so the buttercream and jam are sandwiched in the middle) then cover the whole cake in a layer of buttercream. Next, I stick the white chocolate fingers around the outside of the cake then I use a small circular cutter to 'draw out' where my roses will be in the buttercream layer on the top of the cake. Then I pipe the roses onto the top of the cake starting with the one in the middle and work my way outwards. To pipe the roses I use a Wilton 1M swirl nozzle and I find disposable piping bags a great help, particularly when it comes to washing up! As a final finishing touch I used a leave cutter to cut out leaves and placed them at random intervals into the piped roses.

As you can see from the picture I cover my cake drums with a layer of fondant icing. I find this gives the cakes a more professional look and I like to utilise the extra space/fondant as an area for decoration. On this cake I used cutters to imprint flowers into the board and used letter stencils to imprint a a personalised message. This was the final product:

I was very happy with it. On the day half of it was consumed so for the rest of the week my Mamma and Grandpa are eating cake for breakfast, dinner and tea, which they say they are very happy about!

xoxo

Beautiful Paper Flower Decoration

Hullo,

So I got creative at the weekend after searching the internet for paper flowers. I would love to make the flowers for my wedding so I am getting lots of practice in! This is my first attempt and I just used bits and bobs that I already had around in the house:

1. I started by soaking an empty, large honey jar in hot soapy water to remove the label.
2. Whilst this soaked I created my paper flowers (I will be publishing how to make this over the next week).
3. Once the label was removed I used glue to secure string that I wrapped all the way around the main body of the jar.
4. On it's own the string doesn't look great so I then tied a piece of red ribbon around the middle of the jar. If I were to make more I would probably use coloured string to give a better effect.
5. I then took a piece of oasis floral foam and carved a piece that would sit on top of the jam jar lid. 
6. I used glue to secure the oasis floral foam in place on top of the lid.
7. I covered the oasis floral foam in a piece of tissue paper- I used red as it was all I had but green would be ideal.
8. I then arranged my flowers using cocktail sticks, pins and glue to secure them into place. 

Voila!

xoxo

Stuff Matters: amazing book by Mark Miodownik

Hullo,

Just a quick one tonight.

So it was the first day back at work (school) today, a day of teacher training. I felt like a sponge swimming in information and I am not sure how much I have soaked up yet. During the day I found myself really taking noticing of stuff that normally I wouldn't, such as the cutlery we ate our dinner with and the glass windows in the exams hall and the plastic chairs we sat on. It was a peculiar felling to be realising we are surrounded and aided, in so may ways, by these materials that we utilise in such a passive manner. This is the basic premise if one of my favourite books I have read so far in 2014. I really do highly recommend it. Mark Miodownik (read his website here) is a scientist who presents every day materials in an amazing new light. Each chapter is dedicated to an important material that has become a vital part of modern day life. From concrete to glass he covers an array of 'stuff'. My favourite chapter is that about plastics. The book is full of facts but is told in a fascinating style, a real must read for people who are curious about the world around them!

You can buy Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik from Amazon by clicking here.