Wedding Baking Part 2!

Vanilla Cake Pops for the kids (and big kids….!)

Along with the cupcakes that I made for my sister’s wedding, I decided that if I had time I would also make some cake pops. The reason I gave myself even more work is that there were almost 30 children attending the celebration (all of which were under the age of 9 years old) and I was worried that cupcakes may be a tad too big for some of them, especially for the tiny tots.

I had never, ever made cake pops in my entire life until one day before the wedding – I know how bonkers that sounds now – but decided to give it a go as I had some time to play with, and if they didn’t work out it wouldn’t be the end of the world as I hadn’t actually told or promised anyone that I was going to make them.

I scoured the internet and found this recipe by Molly Bakes: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/529103/basic-cake-pops. ‘Molly Bakes’ make fantastic cakes and all sorts of other lovely treats over in East London, and they also have a cake pop book out, which I believe this recipe would have come from (see here: http://www.mollybakes.co.uk/).

The recipe was *amazing* – for someone who has never made them before it was pretty idiot proof if you follow all the steps correctly – I never seem to have much luck with internet recipes but I didn’t need to change a thing. The only note that I would make is that I took my cake out of the oven sooner than the 35-45 minutes that was stated on the instructions, but I was using a very hot oven so this timing could be correct – my advice would be to sneak a peek through the oven window after 25 minutes or so.

I decided to tie the cake pop design in with the colour scheme of the cupcakes, so I melted my candy melts and split the mixture into three, using colour pastes to make one batch pale pink, one pale green and leaving one plain white. I also wanted to tie the flower detailing into the design but equally they had to be fun as I wanted the kids to love them, so I freestyled the decoration part with lots of colourful sprinkles and mini icing flowers (I bought mine online from www.cakecraftworld.co.uk/ but you can get similar from most supermarkets). To effectively get the sprinkles on you can either empty them into a little bowl and roll the coated cake pops into them, or you can sprinkle them on from above. Either way work fast as they do dry quickly and once they’re set you can’t add any more decorations. Stand them up until they’re completely dried – you could use florists oasis to stand them in, or even an upturned egg box would do the job!

Once dried pop some mini cellophane bags over each one and individually tie with a ribbon or twist tie – have a look on Ebay for these, I got 50 sticks, bags and ties for a few pounds– and they’re done! We displayed mine on a wire stand (that my sister had also picked up at a car boot sale for 50p) but once they’re dried they’re not too delicate so you can even just lie them on a pretty tray, it doesn’t have to be fancy.

Sorry for the cliché, but the proof is in the pudding and these were absolutely and completely delicious, probably more so than the cupcakes. Most importantly, the kids loved them! One little girl came to ask me if she could have one, and within minutes there were suddenly thirty children running around with cake pops in their hands – to see their excited faces made the extra effort so worthwhile! It is fair to say that a couple of big kids loved them too and the few extra that I’d made kept a few rumbling tummies quiet during speeches ;)

Some tips to make these even easier for yourself:

- If you’re in a real hurry to whip these up you could equally use a ready-made shop bought cake such as a madeira sponge rather than taking the time to make it from scratch.

- If you can’t find ‘Candy melts’ or  ‘Renshaw Simply Melts’ (which seems to be the UK version though you can get both from good cake making suppliers) just melt some chocolate, I would say probably the cheaper stuff (for example Milky Bar or Dairy Milk) would melt best.

- You don’t need to buy fancy decorations to make these look good – some chocolate for covering and hundreds and thousands, or simple penny sweets would look just as effective! If you can’t find cake pop sticks easily just use some lolly sticks instead , use greaseproof paper for covering  and tie them with pretty ribbons – just as lovely and more individual!

An English Countryside Wedding!

Beautiful Crystallised Flowers for West Country style Cupcakes

Wow, where on earth has 2012 gone?

Looking back at my early January posts I was so full of blogging enthusiasm...but seeing as I haven't blogged since January, I think it's fair to say that I definitely have some ground to make up! Excuses excuses but it has been a busy year...firstly moving house, secondly Kenny the K-Mix sadly went to the big mixer heaven in the sky (RIP)...my boyfriend says that I killed him with a slightly too stodgy cake mix but if the truth be told, I think Kenny always was on his last legs. There is a lesson to be learned here: by all means do make as much use of old mixers as you can, especially those such as Kenwoods as they are built to last and they do keep going on for years. But buy a second-hand machine carefully; even if you purchase it from a lovely old granny, it could last another 50 years or 50 days as in my case...and they are so big and heavy to get rid of (unless like me you live in south London where we all know the unwritten rule of leave *anything* on your doorstep and it will be gone in less than 5 minutes).

So the third, and possibly most important event of this year so far was our first family wedding in about 15 years! This wasn't just any old wedding either, it was my sisters wedding where I was to be bridesmaid-in-chief and cake maker to boot!  This wasn't to make the wedding cake which would have been tricky with bridesmaid duties, but just some additional cupcakes and cakepops for the 30 junior members of the congregation.

The wedding itself was to be traditional one with a Somerset countryside feel; held in a local church near to where we grew up, with the reception at a gorgeous organic farm called Huntstile www.huntstileorganicfarm.co.uk. There wasn't a strict theme or colour scheme to the day, the main colours used throughout were various shades of green, with everything being very natural and lots of real fresh flowers decorating everywhere from tables to the pews in the church.

I had a free rein with regards to cupcake flavours, so I just decided to keep it super simple stylistically - lemon and vanilla cupcakes, both with lemon and vanilla frosting respectively. The question was - how to decorate! For an event like this they truly do need to both look and taste good. I wanted to tie the cakes into the wedding so that they looked a part of the day too, so after scouring lots of wedding pictures and sites for ideas, I decided to include edible crystalised flowers into my cupcakes. To be honest, I was never too sure on doing this before as I always thought a) it would be a massive faff, b) where could I get edible flowers from in zone 2 and c) would they taste really weird? Days before the wedding I found a recipe from 'Eat My Flowers' http://eatmyflowers.co.uk/home/recipes/ and went for it.

In answer to point a) they are easy to make and a massive faff all at the same time. It's not hard work but it's fiddly and very time consuming - I now completely understand why they are fairly expensive to buy! Firstly you pick your edible flowers - do be careful on this one as not all flowers are edible - I went for pansies, violas and rose petals. I would not use any shop bought flowers as who knows what they might have had sprayed on them. Get them from someones garden who doesn't cover their flowers in slug killer or any other nasties!

I was unsure as to how to prepare the flowers, so I washed and dried them, then took off as much greenage as possible on the pansies and violas. I found that you have to leave a teeny bit at the back of the flower, as the petals are attached here and if you cut too much off then your petals fall away too - you can still use them individually though. With roses just carefully pick each petal off, you'll be amazed at how many one rose has!

To prepare the flowers, whisk some egg white - I also used a touch of vodka which apparently makes the egg dry faster (and probably kills off any tiny bugs - ha!) and with a small paintbrush paint *both* sides of each petal leaving no part uncovered. Then you need to cover both sides with a good amount of fine caster sugar - my technique was to drop one side of the petal into a small bowl of sugar so that it's all covered and then sprinkle the side facing you. Place all of these petals on a tray covered in greaseproof paper and place in an airing cupboard to dry out (I believe you can do this in a very low heat oven too) overnight is fine but I left mine for 24 hours until they were all crispy and sparkling with the sugar!



So pretty - what do you think?





As the flowers were so pretty I kept the cupcake icing simple, opting for white, pale green and lemon icing with white non pareils sprinkles and a touch of irridescent glitter. I used silver foil and green greaseproof cases and we displayed them on a selection of beautiful and shabby chic cake stands (mostly cheaply picked up from car boot sales).

Even though I was up until the early hours of the morning making these I was so pleased with the end result, it really is worth it. If you've ever thought about giving these a go, this is proof that it can be done, and for the record they don't taste weird whatsoever, just like crispy bits of sugar! Make them ahead of when you need them - on a rainy day when there is nothing else to do other than to be a bit crafty. If kept in an airtight container with greaseproof paper they should keep for a couple of months at least :).

Wedding baking part two with cake pops to follow! x

Happy Chinese New Year!

My Chinese New Year inspired Cupcakes for Tsai Shen 财神 

Today is ‘Zhengyue 2’, which is day 2 of the Chinese New Year. Zhengyue 2 (also characterised by being the birthday of all dogs) is traditionally known as the day that people welcome ‘Tsai Shen’ the God of Wealth into their homes, where they offer him sacrifices. After he receives his goodies, Tsai Shen leaves for heaven. Well wishers then burn a picture that they had welcomed him into their homes with on New Year’s Eve and see the deity off on his way, wishing for a luckier and more prosperous year.

Perhaps I am a little greedy in asking for two New Years in 2012, along with some more resolutions and renewed luck, especially seeing as I don’t normally celebrate Chinese New Year… but maybe Tsai Shen will make exception in return for one of my pretty Jasmine and Green Tea infused cupcakes?

The basic concept of my cupcakes has been borrowed from the book ‘Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery’, using their recipe for earl grey tea cupcakes. I wanted an Asian inspired twist, so I swapped the earl grey tea for the delicately fragranced Jasmine and Green tea, added some raspberry jam and topped the sponge off with a honey buttercream.

To make the cakes as pretty as possible I used a red and gold decorating colour scheme in keeping with Chinese New Year, with red symbolising good luck and gold symbolising wealth and happiness. I didn’t quite get the strength of red that I’d hoped for despite using a lot of good quality food colouring, but I was still really pleased with the end result and how festive they looked. For those who are wary about making such a non-traditional flavour cupcake, the taste was extremely unusual and fragrant but not overwhelming at all. The jasmine and green tea flavouring comes as a pleasant after taste, so don’t be afraid! The one thing that I would change (and have reflected in the recipe) is to use vanilla essence in the butter cream, rather than honey, as the honey just didn’t come through in the end result.

The recipe and how to is below…. Happy baking and Happy Chinese New Year!

Ingredients:

Cakes:

• 125 ml Semi-skimmed milk
• 4 Green Tea and Jasmine Tea bags
• 110g Unsalted butter
• 225g Granulated sugar – I actually used caster sugar which worked fine
• 2 Large eggs
• 125g Self-rising flour
• 120g Plain flour
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of Raspberry jam warmed (so that it’s runny)

Vanilla Butter Cream:

• Food colouring – I used a few drops of a colour paste called ‘Ruby’, but add yours until you have the desired shade
• 115g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 60 ml semi skimmed milk
• 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 500g icing sugar

Method:

Cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.
2. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake size cases.
3. Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the teabags. Cover with clingfilm and let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes, and then remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess milk into the pan.
4. In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. An electric mixer of some description will work best for this!
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition.
6. Sift the flours into a separate bowl and stir well. Add one-third of the flour mix to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk/tea mixture and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.
7. Carefully spoon the mixture evenly into the cases; they should be about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for approx. 20 - 25 minutes, until raised and golden brown. The cakes will have a greyish tinge to them so don’t panic!
8. Leave the cupcakes in their tin for 10 minutes or so before turning out onto a wire rack. Whilst warm, brush on a glaze of raspberry jam to the top of each cupcake

Buttercream:

1. Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar until it has a creamy and smooth consistency with no lumps.

Blue Monday? Stop moaning and make some Che(e)rry Cupcakes!

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

So according to Exeter University, today is 'Blue Monday' which is the most depressing day of the year.

This is apparently due to us having no money left after Christmas, bad weather and lack of sunlight. This one day results in workplace malaise and £93 billion in lost productivity in the workplace. What a load of old codswallop! Life is what you make it and if you ask me, today was no more miserable than any other day, unless you too chose to be a misery guts! 

To put a stop to this depressing nonsense and just in case you do have the January blues, I have decided to post possibly the cheeriest recipe ever - the Cherry Bakewell Cupcake. Based on the famous British tart it features an almond sponge, gooey raspberry jam, lemony fondant icing all topped off with a kitsch glace cherry - if this doesn't make you happy then nothing will!

I can't claim the recipe as my own unfortunately - it was featured on the last BBC 2 series of the Great British Bake off. I've taken it from the shows most recent book 'The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake' and have followed the recipe pretty much entirely to the word.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

150g/5½oz Margarine such as stork, or butter – I used stork but I think butter may give a better result
150g/5½oz Golden caster sugar
100g/3½oz Self-raising flour
3 free-range eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp Baking powder
60g/2¼oz Ground almonds
1 tbsp Milk
90g/3¼oz Raspberry jam


Icing:
250g/9oz Fondant icing sugar
3 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
12 Glacé cherries


Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. For the cupcakes, cream the margarine in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients, except the raspberry jam, and mix until well combined.
3. Spoon or pipe the mixture into the cases (they should be two-thirds filled) and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
4. For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until smooth. Don’t be tempted to add more liquid! It may seem thick but go with it – it will become surprisingly runny if you keep working it and it will be more than enough for 12 cupcakes.
5. Using an apple corer or a small sharp paring knife, carefully remove the middle of the cupcakes - not the entire middle, just go about two thirds of the way down. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam,being careful not to over fill each hole otherwise it will mix in with the fondant icing. Don’t despair if it does, pink and white does look quite pretty!
6. Carefully spoon the icing onto the top of each cake until the icing floods to the sides of the cake case and top with a cherry.

Am I using the oldest cake mixer in the world?

Spot the date - Kenny was born in 1961 and cost £24!

Kenny the mixer lives on to make cakes another day...

I started my blog in the autumn of 2010 with the best of intentions, but never really got properly going. Two posts in 15 months was a pretty feeble attempt at blogging by anyone's standards! So, new year, new start! 2012 is going to be the year that I start on my road to becoming a cupcake maker extraordinaire.

First things first: I needed a mixer! A wooden spoon just wasn't cutting it anymore, not to mention killing my hand. After a local search and a limited budget, I found 'Kenny' - a Kenwood A701 mixer, originally bought in 1961 by a local lady's granny. I can't believe that I'm using a 50 year old mixer either, but   so far he's working like a dream and I feel quite pleased that I'm putting someone's beloved mixer into use again after it's been sat covered in dust, in a retro box decorated with antique wallpaper. Lets hope that Kenny lives until the day that I can afford to buy a shiny new version!

With a mixer bought, I decided to focus my new year's resolutions towards cake making and I have set myself the following goals:

1. Study: Do more cake making courses and become better at decorating
2. Have better and more professional blog photography
3. Blog once a week
4. Undertake one cake commission before the end of the year
5. Enter a cake making competition

Now that this is in print I have to make it happen! :) Watch this space for my baking trials and tribulations of 2012!

Bonfire Night Cupcakes!

Smiley Pumpkin - Happy Halloween!

I love this time of year...The clocks go back and it gets all wintry, then there's Halloween and Bonfire Night...not to mention all the food that goes with it!!

Feeling inspired after spending a week apple picking in Somerset, I really wanted to put some of the seasonal produce to good use and make a cupcake version of Toffee Apples(Caramel/Candied Apples in the US), which are my favourite Bonfire Night Treat.

I set out to make an apple sponge, with a toffee/caramel buttercream, however I couldn't find any recipes for apple cupcakes that I was convinced by. I decided to take my favorite cupcake book, 'Cupcakes from The Primrose bakery', and I adapted their vanilla cupcake recipe..it was a bit of a freestyle but it worked! I have made a few tweaks to the recipe below which I think will improve it for you - I originally only added half the amount of apple stated, which still tasted great but I think a whole cooking apple will be much better. I also think you could add more maple syrup to the buttercream, so add this you like depending on how sweet your tooth is!

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

110g Unsalted butter at room temperature

225g Caster sugar

2 Large eggs

150g Self-raising flour, sifted

125g Plain flour

120ml Semi-skimmed milk at room temperature

1 Cooking apple (approximately 225g) peeled, cored and grated

1 tsp Cinnamon

Icing:

110g Unsalted butter, at room temperature

60ml Semi-skimmed milk

500g Icing Sugar

Maple syrup to taste - I used about a tablespoon but make it to taste by adding a teaspoon at a time

Caramel:

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup water

Method:

1. Preaheat your oven to 160c(fan)/180c/350F and line a 12 hole muffin tin
2. In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition
4. Combine the flours in a separate bowl along with the cinnamon.
5. Grate the apple directly into the bowl - If you do it beforehand it will just go brown
6. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Do the same with the milk and continue these steps until all of the flour and milk have been added.
7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for around 25 minutes - they should be raised and golden brown 
8. Remove cakes from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they're completely cooled, ice them following the steps below!

Icing:

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk and half the icing sugar until smooth
2. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar, and beat again until smooth
3. Add maple syrup gradually to taste and beat once again to ensure the mixture is combined

Caramel:

1. Mix sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Bubble furiously until the mixture is dark brown - if you have a jam thermometer the temperature should read 'Hard Crack'
2. Dribble the caramel over a piece of greaseproof paper - flick it if you want thinner shards.
3. Leave to cool and use hardened caramel to decorate iced cupcakes!

Banana and Sultana Muffins - My first post!

My very first blog post, how exciting!



Banana Muffins straight out of the oven!



Having a quiet Sunday at home alone I decided to get creative and make some cakes to keep myself busy.. but it also had to be using ingredients that I already had so that I could be super lazy without a need to leave the house!

With a bunch of use over-ripe bananas that I had in the fruit bowl my decision was made! Having never made a good banana cake before, I went to my Australian Women's Weekly bible 'Cupcakes & Baking' for inspiration..and came across a banana muffin recipe which I've tinkered with to come up with my version below:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 Cups (335g) Self Raising Flour

3/4 Cup (165g) Caster Sugar

1/2 Cup (65g) Chopped Sultanas

1/2 Cup (70g) Coarsley chopped Pecans

1 Tsp Mixed Spice

1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

2/3 Cup (135g) Mashed Banana

2 Eggs, beaten lightly

1 Cup (250ml) Milk

1/2 Cup (125ml) Vegetable Oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C /180°C if fan assisted.
2. Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl; stir in sultanas and pecans with mixed spice and cinnamon.
3. Combine the rest of the ingredients together and then add to the flour mixture. Just mix until well combined but dont overmix as it is supposed to be lumpy.
4. Transfer the mixture into 18 cake cases or silicone moulds and bake for 20 - 25 mins. They should be golden brown and springy to the touch when ready. If they're paler on top they're likely to be a bit more gooey on the inside too - so play it by ear depending on your oven and your cake preference!