Easter Cupcakes

Tomorrow is Good Friday and Lloyd has the day off. Hopefully we are going out boating with R&V, but if this falls through we'll probably go to Matauri Bay for a bit of surfing. I tried boogie boarding last weekend and adored it. Lloyd bought me a board and I'm desperate to try it out. Regardless of what we end up doing, I wanted to make some easter cupcakes to share. 

I went for rich chocolate with vanilla buttercream icing. 

I used this recipe - which you can halve if you don't want to make as many. I tend to make a full batch and freeze half. 

INGREDIENTS

This makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)

1 cup boiling water

Directions-

Line  tin with paper liners.  Heat oven to 180C

Into the Kitchen Aid (or mixer!)  bung together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix a bit.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute.

Stir in boiling water.

Fill papers 2/3 full with batter.  ( use one of those old fashioned ice cream scoops)

Bake cupcakes for about 18-22 minutes. ( mine took 16)

Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

I used my tried and tested vanilla buttercream recipe 

• 
  
• 220g salted butter, softened
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 to 5 teaspoons of cream or milk - for this recipe I didn't use any milk, it took that much green food colouring!
• Again, you can scale this down. Or just make a huge batch - I bake so often I just make lots and freeze any leftover.

I used the wilton tip with all the holes in it to make the grass. The wee eggs are bought ones. I thought about making some tiny white fondant flowers as well, but thought that might be overkill so left them as they were.

Scrummy Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache

I've made these a few times now and they really are delicious if you like chocolate. I'm not a huge fan, but Lloyd likes it.
I have to say, though, I think these are pretty nice.

This recipe  makes 24. I half it and make 12. Also recipe states 3/4 fill cases. I only half fill them as they really expand.

Ingredients
65 g unsweetened cocoa powder
190 g flour
 300 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
180 ml warm water
 180 ml buttermilk  (If you don't have buttermilk, get the amount you need in ordinary milk and add lemon juice. Leave for about 10 minutes)
3 Tbls sunflower oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Preheat oven to 175C. Line 2 cupcake tins with liners and set aside. 

Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to ensure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen. 

Simple Chocolate Ganache
170 g Good quality chocolate, shaved or chopped into small pieces
160 ml cream
1 tsp corn syrup ( I used golden syrup)

Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat the cream and corn syrup on the stove until simmering, then pour over the chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes and stir gently to combine. 

Assembly

Spoon warm ganache over cooled cupcakes and top with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios and royal icing roses, if desired. And yes, I made the roses!

Vanilla cupcakes with coffee buttercream.

These are perhaps the scrummiest cupcakes I have ever made. I found a new recipe for the vanilla base. It's from the Hummingbird Bakery and it uses less sugar and less butter than usual and you also mix it a different way.

For the cupcakes:

• 120 g plain flour
• 140 g caster sugar
• 11⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120 ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make

Preheat the oven to 170°C. I put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter into the kitchen aid and beat on slow speed until I got a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.

A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

The recipe states that this makes 12. I was using normal sized cups - the bog standard ones you can buy in any supermarket and it only made 8. So be warned!

But man, do they taste good!

So, the cakes are done. Next, the coffee buttercream. I've not made coffee buttercream before so after a wide search I though this sounded good - and it's amazing!

Icing ingredients

1 1/2 Tablespoons instant coffee granules
1 1/2 Tablespoons water
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
320g unsalted butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar

Combine water, coffee granules, and vanilla extract in a small bowl; stir to dissolve coffee.  Set aside.

 Beat butter in bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute.  Reduce mixer speed to low.  Add icing sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating for a few seconds between each addition.  Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

 Add the coffee mixture; beat on low speed to combine.  Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl.  Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Frosts 18 cupcakes.


This really is amazing buttercream. The secret is in the amount of time it's whipped - it really makes all the difference.

OOOooo a job...baking!

A friend of mine asked me if I could do some cupcakes for her wee girls birthday. Only ask was that there be some pinkness!

A few days ago I set to work making all the fondant flowers for the decoration.
I then tasted one of each colour and thank goodness I did as something odd was going on with the darker orangey pink ones, so they all went in the bin. I didn't like the colour much anyway!

This is just a fraction of them!

I love making fondant decorations - it's my idea of bliss.

Yesterday I got to work making the cupcakes. I made 3 dozen. 12 vanilla, 12 red velvet and 12 chocolate. And for once I got my measurements spot on!

Chocolate were first. Here they are cooling nicely. It was a bit of a faff, we're sweltering in 99% humidity right now and its drizzling so all in all it's terribly muggy.

This morning I decorated them all. I went the simple route of doing all of them in a vanilla buttercream, but in 2 batches so I could make one pink.

I'm pleased with them. I hope they look girly enough!! Theres an awful lot of glitter on them too!!

All packed up and ready to go!

I LOVE doing stuff like this.

this was Lloyds special one 

now for the recipes. These are the ones I used.
Vanilla
voila!

Red Velvet
Here, on our wee farm!

Chocolate
Ta'da!  ( but I didn't put the chips in cos I forgot to get them!)

Classic Buttercream Frosting
Here!

A little bit of Christmas yumminess!

 I haven't made any cupcakes for a while and I keep seeing pictures of cupcakes that look like Christmas trees so I decided to try my hand at some.
And I'm really pleased with them.

I decided on some gingerbread cupcakes.

Here's what I did

Recipe

• 150 g butter room temperature
• 150 g soft brown sugar
• 3 eggs ( I used 4 as mine are pretty small)
• 150 g self-raising flour
•  3 tsp ground ginger - I like them gingery and you could definitely add even more) 
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tbsp milk
  

  Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4.
  
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  
  3. Sift the flour together with the spices.
  
  3. Gradually mix the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar alternating with the flour to stop the mix from curdling. Finally, stir through the milk. DO NOT BREAK AN EGG SHELL INTO THE MIX like I did!
  
  4. Place 12 paper cupcake cases into a muffin tin and divide the mixture between them.
  
  5. Bake for 30 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.  
•  
• For the frosting
• 200 g butter, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp milk
• 250 g icing sugar
• green good colouring 
• I used a 1M tip for the icing and mounded it up like a tree then put some silver balls on and bits of glittery stuff.

 

They're lovely and moist and do taste of Christmas! I'll definitely make more.

More cupcakes ~ Chocolate this time

We have guests arriving at The Acorn today and I always give guests fresh eggs from the girls, but I thought I might make some cupcakes too. Chocolate this time.
Here's what I did

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Method

1 Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with cupcake thingies. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2 In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3 Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Makes 18 cupcakes (using Wilton cupcake papers) with flat tops

The recipe is from here

Then I used the same frosting recipe that I did for the red velvet cupcakes as it was so lovely!

 These are the ones for The Acorn - hope they like them!

They are pretty nice even if I do say so!

The proof is in the eating...

Birthdays and friends

It was actually my brother's birthday yesterday, but I had to raise my glass in an 'absent friends' toast as he's on the other side of the world. ( did you get the pressie, joff?)

This dinner was our weekly winter 'soup and sandwiches' night that we've been doing with Nick and Sara for 5 years. But tonight a few others were there too, Simon and Alison and Chelsea and Dustin, and it was Simon's birthday so Lloyd made Scotch Broth and steak sandwiches and I made a cupcake birthday cake.

We had to take the big outside table in as we wouldn't have fitted round our small one!

Birthday cupcakes

I have a confession, I didn't make the icing flowers, I bought them. 

C is for Cupcakes

(notice a theme!)

It's Wednesday again, the morning I make cupcakes for the Dental Practice. This week it was even better as my 'cupcake courier' had arrived all the way from Australia!
No more kamakazi cupcakes on the winding road up to Kaitaia.



With thanks to http://just-this-side-of-chaos.blogspot.com/
and www.thecupcakecourier.com.au

Pretty...and pretty tasty.

Did more baking this afternoon, they look better this time, funny that, maybe something to do with putting the oven on and not the grill? And having non stick cases? Yes these things help!
Orange this time.


Now I am well aware that these are nothing special to anyone who bakes, but I have a hatred of cooking and my efforts at baking have been beyond rubbish so to have actually made something thats edible is quite amazing really!

I had some visitors this morning , well the chickens did! Don't know if they were invited for breakfast or just a chat, but the ladies flew off when I arrived, the man was a bit slower so I managed to get a pic of him.


Last night Lloyd and I went to Cafe Jerusalem then off to the cinema to see Mama Mia, it was packed!! But since we're regulars and the lovely lady knows us she let us in for concessions! We both absolutely loved the film. Ok Pierce Brosnan isn't the greatest singer in the world, but that was all part of the charm for us! The greek island it was filmed on looked absolutely stunning and it looked like they all had a right laugh making it. It's a real feel good make you smile film. So I've been listening to Abba today and dancing round the kitchen!