Phishful Thinking...

I had an idea recently while devouring a tub of Ben & Jerry's Vermonster ice cream that the flavour combination of the ice cream would be amazing in the form of a cupcake.  This got me thinking about other flavour of ice cream that could be easily translated into cupcakes.  One popular suggestion was Phish Food: chocolate ice cream, marshmallow and caramel swirls with chocolate shaped fishes.

After I got a chocolate mould on eBay in the shape of fishes and researched a recipe for marshmallow frosting I was off!

The cupcake would be made up of a chocolate cupcake, marshmallow frosting, drizzled with caramel sauce and topped with a chocolate fish.  Cute, right?

So I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes and made some of the marshmallow frosting.

Marshmallow Frosting (Recipe from Martha Stewart )

Ingredients:

8 large egg whites

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Place egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar into a glass bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water.  Whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are warm to the touch (approximately 3-4 minutes).  Transfer to a larger bowl and whisk with electric mixer.  Start on a low speed and gradually increase to high until stiff and glossy peaks are formed (approximately 5-7 minutes).  Add the vanilla extract and mix until it is combined.  Use immediately.

The recipe says for 2 dozen, but I easily had enough to do 4 dozen.

To pipe it onto my cupcakes I used a large round tip, then drizzled some caramel sauce over the top.  I just bought mine in the supermarket, but if you have a recipe homemade is always better.  This was topped with one of my little chocolate fishies.

After tasting the cupcake I decided that the next time I make them I think I'm going to do a caramel filling rather than drizzled on top, the caramel flavour a bit lost in the mix.  They were still pretty darn good!  The marshmallow frosting is so light and sticky (I ended up with it all over my face!) and I imagine it would only be better toasted with a kitchen blowtorch.  Oh how I would love one of those to play with!  Anyways, here are a couple of close ups of the cupcake.

From the side

From the top

Hope you enjoy making these!  They're pretty fun little cupcakes.

Bake A Cake In A Mug In Your Microwave: Cinnamon Roll Edition

I loved the recipe I found a while back for the microwave chocolate cake in a mug, I have had it numerous times and some of my friends have tried it and enjoyed it too.  Since becoming addicted to Pinterest I have found a few more recipes I wanted to try out and wouldn't you know it?  I found a new mug cake recipe!  Cinnamon Roll Mug Cake!!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp applesauce (if there are apple pieces you'll want to blend it smooth)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp buttermilk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup PLUS 1 tbsp plain flour

2 1/2 tbsp soft brown sugar

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Put all your ingredients into a mug (this one is smaller than the last recipe, so a normal sized mug is perfect) and mix with a fork.  Make sure you get your fork right into the bottom to mix thoroughly.  As you can see from my ingredients picture I substituted a couple of ingredients, instead of buttermilk I used normal skimmed and instead of vegetable oil I used corn oil and it worked great.  Previously I had used buttermilk (which I only really have in my fridge when I'm making red velvet) and instead of brown sugar I used golden caster sugar.  Again, it was still yummy, so there is a little flexibility for you if you don't have everything at your disposal.

Once you have mixed all the ingredients together, get that mug into the microwave!  Mine took around 2 and a half minutes to cook properly, but it depends on your microwave, so have a tooth pick or cake tester ready to check it!

This recipe also included frosting for the mug cake!  Yummy cream cheese frosting!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp cream cheese

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp milk

I just put all the ingredients into a sandwich bag and mixed them together by hand.  This is great because when you're done you can just snip off a wee corner and pipe the frosting onto your cake!  Easy!!

And might I add..... YUMMY!