More Cakes and Cupcakes From Recent Projects

Since the last post I've had a few more requests for cakes and cupcakes so here are the projects I've been doing in the last couple of weeks.

This was for a friend's 30th birthday (obviously he's a huge Star Wars fan!)

This was for my cousin who is moving to London for a new job in Office shoe store.



Vintage themed cupcakes for a 21st birthday vintage tea party.  Vanilla and red velvet cupcakes with a few different frostings - vanilla, chocolate, mint, raspberry, mango and caramel.  All edible toppers made from a selection of fondant, candy clay and candy melts.

A Manowar cake, co-worker asked me to do this for his friend's 21st birthday.

Don't forget I have a Facebook page so you can stop by and 'Like' the page.

Here are a few more projects I have been getting up to in the last month or so...

Football jersey cake for an 18th birthday

Elmo cake for a 1st birthday

Race car cake for a 3rd birthday



I have a couple more cakes and cupcakes also planned for later this month so I'll post pictures when they are all done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cake Projects Since the Last Post

I'm sorry I haven't posted an entry in so long, I did not abandon you!  I have been a busy lady doing cakes for birthdays and cupcakes and even my very first stall (and boy was that exhausting!!)

I'm just going to post the pictures of the projects I've done over the last month or so to give you an idea of what I've been up to (no pictures of the stall unfortunately, I was so tired on the day that I forgot to get some, so tired I even got the frosting on my testers mixed up, oops!!)

Anyways, first up was a JLS cake as designed by the birthday girl herself:

Then there was a Barcelona Football Club cake and I did themed cupcakes to go along with it:

I volunteer at a small movie theatre in Belfast as well and they recently had an event where the staff "hijacked" the screen and put on a movie of their choice.  The winner was the Joss Whedon film 'Serenity' so I whipped up some Serenity/ Firefly themed cupcakes for the staff who ended up having to work that night:

The most recent project I had was a One Direction birthday cake for a co-worker's granddaughter.  Instead of a fairly normal circle or square cake I was asked to make a One Direction t-shirt cake:

I hope you like the cakes, there are more to come this month like a Manchester United football shirt cake and an Elmo cake!  Next month is a race car and my friend's 30th birthday cake too.  Thanks for stopping by!

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!

Whilst on lunch break at work I often look through Google images for cake decorating ideas, or amazon for new recipe books, or baking blogs for anything and everything.  I stumbled across this recipe yesterday and I did try it last night but wasn't satisfied with how it turned out so I tried it our again tonight and got much better results.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp plain flour

4 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola oil)

3 tbsp chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract

(I would've included flour in the photo if only the bag I had weren't a huge 25lb sack, lol)

First, put all the dry ingredients into your mug (try to find a mug that's slightly larger than normal, I used a normal sized mug the first time I made this and there was a little overspill).  Mix the dry ingredients with a fork until well combined.

Next, beat your egg and add to the mug.  Mix well, it will be very sticky.

Stir in your milk and oil.  The mixture will become much easier to mix.  Make sure you scrape the bottom of the cup with your fork to get any unmixed ingredients.

Add in your chocolate chips and vanilla.  If you don't want to use chocolate chips, get creative!  I used mint chips the first time I made this, for this attempt I used butterscotch chips and toasted pecans.  For a more colourful cake add M&Ms, or use peanut butter chips.  Try toffee pieces or fudge!  Whatever your sweet tooth is craving, throw it in there!

Mix the ingredients again, then move it to the microwave!  Cooking times are around 3 minutes for a 1000W microwave or 4 minutes for a 700W microwave.  To be safe (and to save on clean up time) put a plate under your mug when it's in the microwave.

When your cake is done, remove from the microwave and use a cake tester to see if it is cooked properly, it should come out clean when you insert in into your cake. The cake will also deflate slightly as it cools.

And there you have it!  A perfectly sized individual dessert ready in about 10 minutes!  It's great if you want a quick sweet treat and don't have a lot of ingredients on hand.  The cake is really hot so even though it might smell super yummy be careful when you tuck in.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Meringue Roulade

Every year I go back to my parents' house for Christmas and the last couple I have started baking something to bring with me for us to indulge in after our Christmas Eve dinner.  Last year it was cheesecake brownies with raspberry whipped cream, this year it was chocolate meringue roulade.  I just happened to be watching morning television while I was spending the weekend with a friend of mine in Birmingham and in between our geek out sessions this was on a cooking show.  It looked so good I just had to try it!

Ingredients:

5 eggs whites

150g caster sugar

2 tsp cornflour, sifted

1 tbsp cocoa powder

400ml double cream, whipped into soft peaks

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 vanilla pod, split with seeds scraped out

Preheat oven to 150°C

Line a 33x28cm swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in the caster sugar and continue whisking until nearly stiff peaks form.  Use a spatula to fold in the cocoa powder and cornflour until everything is well combined.  Spoon the meringue into the swiss roll tin and spread evenly.  Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and is still pliable.  Keep the meringue in the tin to cool.  In another bowl, mix the whipped cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds together.  Spread another piece of greaseproof paper onto your counter and sieve icing sugar over it.  Turn the meringue out onto the new piece of greaseproof paper and then spread the cream over the top.  Use the greaseproof paper to help you lift the meringue and roll into the roulade. 

Don't worry if the meringue cracks, it is meringue after all and I have a suspicion that if you can indeed roll meringue without cracking it you are in possession of some strange and mystical power of kitchen prowess!

Using your greaseproof paper, lift the roulade onto a serving plate and dust with more icing sugar and cocoa powder to serve.

Brownies!

Who doesn't love brownies?  They are little chocolaty pieces of heaven and they are so easy to make!

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

175g unsalted butter

325g caster sugar

130g plain flour

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas Mark 3.

Line a 33 x 23 x 5cm baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (ensure the base of the bowl does not touch the water in the pan).  Stir until the butter and chocolate has completely melted.  Remove from the heat and if the bowl is big enough, add the sugar and flour.  If the bowl isn't big enough, add the melted mixture to a larger bowl containing the flour and sugar and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated (remember to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula) then add the eggs.  When all the ingredients have been combined, pour or spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray.  Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until flaky on top but still soft in the centre.  Leave the brownies in the tray to cool completely.  Once cooled you can slice the brownies into squares or bars.  To finish you can dust with icing sugar or just leave them plain.

To make your brownies super chocolaty you can always stir in some chocolate chips before you pour the mixture into the baking tray.  Yum!!

Cakes By James: Cupcake Masterclass

I have been hearing a lot about this place in Belfast, Cakes By James.  I follow the twitter feed and last week I saw that they did masterclasses in cupcakes and that there was one taking place in the next few days, so of course I immediately bought a place for the class.  The classes take place on Saturdays before they open and have limited places available.  All of the masterclass details (dates, times etc) are available on the Cakes By James website.

So I set my alarm for that Saturday morning to get up and hop on the bus into Belfast.  Now, when I say I set my alarm what I actually did was change the time, but forgot to actually turn it on...  Luckily I did wake up in time to find an outfit to throw on and make my bus.  The universe was definitely conspiring against me that day, the bus hit every red light and stopped at every single stop on the way into town.  When I finally arrived on Royal Avenue I realised I still wasn't 100% sure of where this place actually was.  Fast forward to me wandering aimlessly up and down Queen Street (which was the only part about the address I could actually remember).  By 10:15am I managed to find it (making me a good 15 minutes late, meaning I had apparently missed tea and coffee, boo!!!)

James and the others were very obliging to my tardiness and carried on after I had joined them at the kitchen table where James had just begun to go through the Italian Buttercream tutorial.  This was the first lesson of the day.  Next up was writing with chocolate.  Now, for me writing with frosting is an issue, I am never happy with how the writing looks on my cakes so this presented a good chance to be shown new techniques, practise the skill and ask some questions.

As you can see, I still have a lot of practising to do.  My writing is still a little shaky, but I do like writing with chocolate instead of frosting (if only because I was very messy and HAD TO lick all the chocolate off my hand, gosh darnit!)

Afterwards we were ushered to the large wooden table in the studio for a quick lesson in piping frosting onto cupcakes.  We each got to take 12 cupcakes (I went for an even split of 6 vanilla, 6 chocolate) and then piping nozzles (Wilton 1M) and piping bags were passed out.

James showed us two different ways to pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes and then provided us with 3 different flavours of Italian Buttercream to play about with (vanilla, chocolate and raspberry).

Once we had all frosted our 12 cupcakes we were then presented with a vast array of sprinkles, glitters, lustre dusts, dragees, fondants, fondant cutters and flower paste.  After quick demonstrations on how to roll out fondant and flower paste, how to apply glitter and the best way to apply lustre dust we were once again given free reign on exactly how we wanted to finish off our cupcakes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the masterclass and am seriously considering the cake masterclass in which you decorate an 8 inch cake, with more on how to apply fondant to a cake and creating sugar flowers to decorate them.

Chocolate Truffles

One more chocolaty recipe before the end of Chocolate Week!  These truffles are very versatile, you can add different elements to suit your own tastes, or tailor them for somebody else if you make them as a present.

Ingredients:

300ml double cream

A knob of unsalted butter

Zest from 1 clementine orange

300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or above)

A pinch of sea salt

A few drops of brandy (optional)

Put the double cream in a saucepan over a medium heat and heat until bubbles start to appear.  At this stage add your butter and clementine zest, when the butter has melted slowly pour the mixture over the chocolate, whisking as you go so that the chocolate melts slowly.  If the mixture splits you can add a dash of boiling water to bring it back together.  Add the pinch of sea salt and brandy (if you're using it) then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours so the chocolate mixture sets. 

Once the truffle mixture is ready take it out of the fridge and use a teaspoon to scoop out small amounts and roll them into balls.  You can then roll the truffles in whatever ind of coating you can think of; chopped nuts, cocoa powder, coconut, or if you're feeling really ambitious you could coat them in melted chocolate!

I have made this recipe with milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate before and those truffles turned out really tasty too.  If you don't want to use brandy why not try a flavoured liqueur, or substitute the orange zest for lemon?  The only limitation is your imagination!!

Chocolate Meringues

In honour of UK Chocolate Week 2011 I wanted to post this recipe. 

Ingredients:

1 cup egg whites

2 cups caster sugar

5 tbsp cocoa powder

4 oz (125g) dark chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas Mark 4.

Line some baking sheets with greaseproof paper.  In a heatproof bowl whisk together the egg whites and sugar over a simmering pot (ensure the bowl is not touching the water).  Whisk continually until the sugar has completely dissolved then remove the bowl from the heat.  Beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until the mixture is stiff and glossy.  Sift the cocoa powder over the meringue and sprinkle the chopped chocolate.  Using a spatula fold into the meringue until all ingredients are well combined.  Use a scoop to drop mounds of meringue onto the prepared baking trays leaving two inches between each to allow them to spread.  Bake for 8-9 minutes and then rotate the baking trays 180 degrees and bake for a further 8-9 minutes or until the meringues are fluffy and the surfaces have cracks in them.  Transfer the meringues to wire cooling trays, leaving them on the greaseproof paper.  Recipe makes 20-24 meringues.

Banana And Chocolate Cupcakes

I really love baked goods with bananas in them.  I have previously posted recipes for whoopie pies and breads so now, in honour of National Cupcake Week I'll post the recipe for these cupcakes!

Ingredients:

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of salt

80g unsalted butter (room temperature)

120ml whole milk

2 eggs

120g bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas Mark 3

In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and butter with an electric mixer on a slow speed until you get a sandy consistency.  Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating until all the ingredients are well mixed, then add the eggs and mix well.  Scrape any unmixed ingredients off the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Stir the bananas into the batter by hand until they are evenly incorporated.  Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases so that the cases are two thirds full and then bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the sponge bounces back and a cake tester or tooth pick comes out clean when inserted.  Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tins before moving them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.  Frost the cupcakes with chocolate buttercream (recipe on the Basic Recipes page) and to finish them off, grate some chocolate onto the top.  One batch makes 12 cupcakes.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

Continuing with the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, this time in the form of a whoopie pie!

Ingredients:

1 egg

150g caster sugar

125g plain yoghurt

25ml milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

75g unsalted butter (melted)

275g plain flour

75g cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

60g crunchy peanut butter

Cream the sugar and egg together until light and fluffy.  In a separate jug or bowl, pour the yoghurt, milk and vanilla and stir.  Gradually add this to the sugar and egg mixture.  Mix on a low speed until everything is well combined, then mix in the melted butter.  In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder.  Add half to the batter and mix well on a low speed and then add the remainder of the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture is smooth.  Add the peanut butter and mix it in.  Chill the batter in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.  Preheat oven 170°C (325°F) Gas Mark 3.  Line some baking trays with greaseproof paper, or grease your whoopie pie tins.  One the batter has cooled, spoon the mixture onto the trays/ whoopie pie tins.  If you are using a baking tray the mounds of dough should be 3-5cm in diameter, with enough space around each to allow them to expand (2-3cm) the mixture should make between 16 and 20 mounds.  (When I made them I used my whoopie pie tin and it made a lot more).  Bake in the oven for 10-13 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when pressed.  Allow them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Filling:
170g unsalted butter (room temperature)
280g icing sugar
220g marshmallow fluff

While the sponges are baking, get a new bowl and mix the icing sugar and butter together until smooth.  Add the marshmallow fluff (available from sellers on eBay, or if you live in Northern Ireland I know that it is available from the Rinkha in Islandmagee) increase the speed and mix until the filling is light and fluffy.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

To finish, layer your whoopie pies, one piece of sponge, spread 1 tbsp of filling on top of it then top with another piece of sponge.

The sponge mixture for these whoopie pies was a much more firm than the mixture for the sponge of the Banana Cream Whoopie Pies I had made before and didn't spread at all in the whoopie pie tin so I pressed the batter into the tin.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I have always thought that candy company Reese's had the right idea by combining chocolate and peanut butter.  I love their products whether it be the peanut butter cups, Reese's pieces, and don't even get me started on the Nutrageous bars (heaven)!  So I have had a bag of their peanut butter chips in my cupboard for a while now and took a notion to make cookies after work yesterday.  The chips are not that easy to come by and UK sellers who stock them usually charge a bit for delivery (especially to Northern Ireland) but they are a nice little treat for every now and again.  One seller I found online who had them in stock was American Sweets, but sellers on Amazon and eBay sometimes stock them (P&P is usually quite expensive there too).

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

11/4 cups of butter (room temperature)

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)

In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda then set aside.  In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue beating.  Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until all ingredients are incorporated.  Stir in the peanut butter chips.  Line a few baking trays with greaseproof paper and using a teaspoon, drop cookie dough onto the baking trays allowing room for them to expand.  Bake for 8 or 9 minutes then remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on the baking trays before moving the cookies to your cooling rack to cool completely.  The cookies will flatten slightly during the cooling process.  One batch makes 40+ cookies.

Basic Recipes Section

I have finally gotten around to posting a few items on the Basic Recipes page.  On it you will find ingredients lists and instructions for Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Buttercream frostings and Vanilla Cupcakes and Chocolate Cupcakes.

Cupcakes For The Office

My office is one of those places that when it's your birthday you have to bring in buns/ cakes/ traybakes for everybody.  The guy who sits beside me drives a motorbike, making the task of bringing in treats for 20 people a little tricky, so he paid me to make cupcakes for him.  I planned to make 12 chocolate and 12 vanilla and per his request made the vanilla buttercream green.  To make them look a little more interesting I split the vanilla frosting in two and coloured one half electric green and the other leaf green and piped them on together, this gives the frosting a really good look. I also used lime green cupcake cases I had purchased on eBay to tie it all in and since he is an avid death metal fan I made the chocolate cupcakes in black cases (also bought from the same seller).  The vanilla cupcakes were topped with rainbow sprinkles and the chocolate with chocolate flakes.