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Cocktail Cupcakes – PDSA

Apr14

Since the 12 Ducks of Duckmas we haven’t had a post and so far this year there has been a severe lack of baking going on 🥺.

However this has now been rectified by our first charity bake of the year!! My fabulous flat mate is running the London Marathon for PDSA in a couple of weeks and a cupcake sale is always a fab way to boost donations. You can visit her fundraising page by clicking here. PDSA help lots of animals, because every pet deserves an awesome vet. Just in case my words are not enough here is a photo of my beautiful boy. His face is definitely enough. Yes I am biased.

Last weekend I went to Morrisons. This turned out to be a disaster. Thanks to a very badly maintained carpark and seemingly a lack of care from anyone at Morrison’s these cupcakes actually cost me £179.99 in the shape of a new tyre. Keep thinking of all those little dogs, cats and other pets who need help. That’s what I kept telling myself as my car sank towards the floor.

However during this drama I discovered some rather delightful cocktail flavouring and they actually taste amazing. 4 flavours in a box and I managed to make enough great tasting frosting to ice over 50 cupcakes. You’ll be happy to know that these will not cost you £179.99, but rather £2.30 and are available from Morrisons or by clicking on this link. They are made by Cake Decor which I love. Their website is full of amazing cupcake inspiration, check them out at MyCakeDecor.co.uk.

I chose vanilla cupcakes so that the focus would be on the cocktail flavouring and buttercream icing as this pipes beautifully! I used half the vanilla extract and substituted the rest of it with the cocktail flavouring. After several blind taste tests I can confirm that they actually taste like the cocktails and this may actually be the best frosting I’ve ever made! I used a little bit of gel food colouring to mimic the cocktail and some decorations/glitter to make them sparkle. Finished results are below!

Strawberry DaiquiriPina ColadaMojitoGin Fizz (Pink) Gin Fizz (This was my favourite!!!)

As I honestly wasn’t expecting the flavouring to be as good as it was, I have a box left over! I had to play this one safe due to it being charity cupcakes, but next time round I’d like to try and infuse the sponge with the cocktail and make the ultimate boozy cupcake. Any volunteers?

Christmas Cupcakes!

Dec4

Christmas time, lots of cupcakes and wine.
Who wants mistletoe when you can have cupcakes?

I have neglected the baking side of this blog for far too long so we are back with a little bit of festive flair. These were baked for an early Christmas gathering which was the perfect opportunity to rustle up something nice. Actually I got a little bit carried away and made three cakes. This is because I found some unicorn cupcake cases and could not resist baking something colourful.

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Vanilla Cupcakes (Unicorns and Christmas Trees)

Recipe: (This will bake 12 cupcakes):
*180g Caster sugar – (I am a very loyal Billington’s golden caster sugar fan)
*180g Butter – (Again I am very loyal to Stork, makes the best cakes!)
*3 Large Eggs – (Weigh them, should be approximately 180g
*180g Self raising flour
*1/2 tsb of vanilla extract
*1/2 tsb of baking powder

You will also need cupcake cases. I got the ones below from Morrisons, a nice cupcake case can really make a cupcake and give it an individual look.

For the buttercream icing:
*350g Unsalted butter
*700g Icing sugar
*1tsp Vanilla Extract
*A selection of gel food colourings. I always use gel as it does not water down the icing and gives a much bolder colour.
*3-5 tsp of whole milk (amount will vary on consistency of the icing)
*Some festive and colourful decorations. – I got the Christmas ones and Unicorn sparkles from Morrisons.

Baking the cakes: (Very Easy!):
*Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
*Mix the caster sugar and butter together until it is nice and fluffy. I know some people swear by the all in one cake method but I find that getting all the air into the mixture at the start really makes a cupcake light and airy.
*Mix the eggs into the mixture along with the vanilla extract and baking powder
*Add the flour and you should have a nice smooth cake mixture.
*Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases in a cupcake tray and bake for 20-25 mins. Test with a skewer, if needed bake for a few more mins. Then leave on a wire rack to cool.

Making the Icing:
*Beat the butter until it is smooth and add the vanilla extract
*Slowly add the icing sugar to the butter, make sure the consistency stays smooth. If the mixture gets too thick add some of the milk and keep mixing in the icing sugar.
*Add milk to make the icing a pipe-able consistency.

For both the unicorn and Christmas tree cupcake I added a marshmallow to the middle. This means the cupcakes can have the correct height without having too much icing.

Icing the Christmas Trees:
*Add the green gel food colouring to the buttercream and mix in well. It should become the lovely shade of green below
*I used a large open star icing tip and piping bag to pipe the icing in swirls around the marshmallow in the middle.
*Add round candy sprinkles to the tree for Christmas decorations and a star on top.
Easy right!

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Icing the Unicorn cupcakes:
*This is super easy as you do not need to colour the buttercream!
*Use the same open star icing tip but this time you need to paint stripes up the inside of the piping bag before you put the buttercream into the bag. I did one stripe of pink, purple and blue to get the squirly effect below.
*Decorate with sprinkles and unicorn confetti. I added a touch of edible glitter just to give it a bit of unicorn sparkle.

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So both very easy to achieve and they got a lot of compliments on how unique and quirky they were, and they tasted fabulous too.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Recipe (This will bake 12 cupcakes):
*180g Unsalted butter
*170g Caster sugar
*120g Self raising flour
*1tsb of Baking Powder
*40g of Cocoa Powder
*3 Large Eggs
*1tsb of Baking Powder

For the Icing:
*60g of Unsalted butter
*250g Icing Sugar
*30g Cocoa Powder
*3tbsp of Whole Milk
*Decorations – The Holly is from Morissons

Baking the cakes:
*Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
*Mix the butter and caster sugar together until fluffy (Again, I am not a fan of the all in one method, with chocolate cakes you need to get as much air into them as possible)
*Add the cocoa powder and eggs to the mixture then fold in the flour and baking powder to keep the air in the mixture.
*Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases in a cupcake tray and bake for 12-15 mins, check if the are cooked with a skewer. Cakes should be risen and spongey to touch. If not cooked check again after 2 mins.
*Cool on a wire rack.

Making the chocolate icing:
*Melt the butter (I did this in the microwave)
*Add the cocoa powder to the melted butter and then slowly add the icing sugar and beat well to make sure it does not go lumpy.
*If the icing gets too thick then add the milk a little at a time to make sure it is the correct consistency for piping.
*This icing comes out really glossy and shiny, I think it may be a new favourite!

Icing the cupcakes:
*I used a slightly smaller open star tip for these cupcakes and did not put a marshmallow in these ones as I wanted a gelatin free option.
*Put the icing into a piping bag and pipe in swirls to cover the cake.
*I decorated these with some edible holly decorations and a bit of gold edible glitter.

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I was super chuffed with these! They were so easy to make, no mucking around with colours or any of that. The glitter just gives them a little bit of flair but they are simple and cute.

I got so much positive feedback on these which was lovely after not baking anything for so long. I think I may have been bitten by the baking bug all over again 🙂

Cupcakes of Bakings Past

Aug20

I seem to have been getting a lot more traffic to my blog lately! Majority of this seems to be cake and baking related so I thought it would be a good time to look back at past cupcakes which never made it to the blog as I was not blogging then! I do miss baking for cupcake sales!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes:

I loved making these, easy to make and they were so popular!

Marble Iced Cupcakes:

Such an easy technique and the one I normally use for flowers. This example are very girly butterfly cupcakes and a mix of both vanilla and chocolate icing

Pirate Cupcakes:

I found that it was relatively easy to make kids cupcakes for girls but it was sightly more difficult to design cupcakes for boys. But different choices of colours and accessories can easily make a normal cupcake perfect for a little Prince, Princess or Pirate!

Fancy Fondant Flowers:

I haven’t done much fondant work, prefer piping and icing, fondant makes me angry! But these were not too dreadful for a first attempt!

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Never underestimate the power of a giant chocolate button decoration!

Definitely need to get back into cupcakes again!

Happy Baking 🙂

~Sam

Kinder Happy Hippo Cake

Jul22

Hello!

So this week I made one of the most important cakes I’ve made to date! My brother and his girlfriend (Chloe)’s joint 22nd birthday cake! I love making cakes as birthday presents as I know there is no way that anyone else will ever have the same thing. My brother said when he came to collect it that it is always nice to have things that are homemade and I’m so happy that they both loved the cake!

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I am so very proud of this! It is three layers of fluffy chocolatey cake, kinder bueno flavoured filling, chocolate icing (with real chocolate!) and an assortment of chocolatey decorations! Estimated calories per slice: God Knows. It’s cake, enjoy it, salad is always there tomorrow ;)!  For anyone who does not know, a Happy Hippo is a cute little wafery hippo shaped piece of deliciousness made by Kinder filled with either milk and hazelnut filling or coco and hazelnut filling. If you’re a fan of kinder chocolate, kinder buenos or any other kinder related chocolate you will love these. Actually I think most people will love these,such an underrated chocolate! They also made a special appearance on last year’s Kinder Cake. Click here to check out that one if you’ve not seen it yet!

Continue reading →

Skittles Pinata Cake

Mar27

Remember the Pinata Cake? If not Click Here.

I could never bake properly in my old flat due to not having a dishwasher. No matter how much I hand washed icing bowls they were always left sticky. However now I have a dishwasher and baking can commence!

I ended up making a skittles Pinata Cake. I needed to make a cake that was both Halal and Vegetarian so found myself looking for a gelatin free alternative to my usual pinata cake. Not too sure how I ended up with skittles, I think it was the fact that I was surprised that they were suitable for vegetarians without any traces of gelatin.

My friends Ellie and Nikki helped me make a lovely fluffy buttercream to fill between the layers of the cake and around the outsides. We then filled the centre of the doughnut with skittles. We used the rest of the buttercream to “dirty ice” the cake. I do not know if that is the correct term for the first layer of buttercream that goes on the outside of the cake but that is what I learnt from my time watching Cake Boss so that is the term I am going to go with.

After the weeks I endured with dust all over the kitchen I actually didn’t mind the thin dusting of icing sugar which coated every possible surface of the kitchen. When it comes to cake decoration I always end up making far too much buttercream through fear of running out!

I iced the cake with different coloured flowers, leaves and some little butterflies before attacking it with even more skittles. This was quite a relaxing cake to make actually.

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I took this photo on my phone and it turned out that I have created a very photogenic looking cake!

The Last Binge

Mar7

So for anyone who is not aware me and my lovely friend Jenna have undertaken a year long challenge for Children In Need. If you are interested you can visit our fundraising website at www.CINChallenge.com. Unfortunately this means it is time to get fit. Even more unfortunately this means saying goodbye to most of the stuff that I actually enjoy eating. Therefore I thought it was acceptable to partake in one last unhealthy night with a friend of mine. This unhealthy binge consisted of a bottle of wine and a rather interesting snack which I had stumbled upon at the local shop across the road. Up until then I had no idea that pizza could actually come in a dessert form. So with no further ado I present to you the Goodfella’s Sweet Fella’s Delicious Dessert Pizza. In fact there is a little bit of ado as I have now had to partake in a rather lengthy conversation with my flat mate about the difference between “ado” and “adieu”. Turns out “ado” is a lovely little English word meaning without fuss or unnecessary hustle and bustle (think Shakesphere, Much Ado About Nothing”. “Adieu” is a dramatic French farewell, think of it as a last goodbye. So here I am with now a little bit of ado but that is okay because it is not a French goodbye. Easy mistake to make, don’t judge me too harshly and trust me I am a lot more intelligent in Spanish than French! Muchas Gracias.

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So this was my choice of a final unhealthy snack. I have to say that I disagree with their slogan that “the best things in life are worth sharing” because that pizza was amazing and I would happily not share. But I am a sharing caring individual and shared. After looking at the calorie content I am very happy that I did.

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Outside of the box it looked a little bit like a pizza which had gone mouldy. I fought the urge to cover it in magic stars and maltesers and put it in the oven for 14 minutes.

14 minutes later and this calorific and chocorific (if that is not a word it is now) specimen emerged from the oven. Was it an acceptable last binge? Definitely so! Could I have eaten it on my own? 100% definitely not! Goodfella’s I am sorry and I agree with your slogan. Now I know that these are hanging out in the freezer at the Tesco across the road I don’t know how I am going to be able to leave them alone. However I think that the fear of not actually being able to complete this Children In Need challenge slightly outweighs the unhealthy pizza chilling in the freezer! Can’t even remember the last time I ran!

Today’s Crappy Product Award & Birthday Biscuits 

Nov21

I decided to bake some cookies today.

Unfortunately I also decided to try ProCook’s Christmas 3D Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters. 


Big Mistake. 

400g Butter – 400g Caster Sugar – 2 Eggs – 800g Plain Flour – 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 

Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and add the Vanilla Extract. Beat in the eggs and then stir in the flour until you get a dough. Kneed the dough and put into the fridge wrapped in clingfilm and leave for an hour. Roll out the dough and cut out the shapes needed, put on the baking tray and leave to chill for 30 mins in the fridge. Cook for 10 mins at 180 degrees. 



Easy right? Yes, Biscuits taste fabulous, but don’t slot together as the edges arnt long enough 😦 

So that design was scrapped luckily before all the dough was used!

Plan Number 2 

You can’t beat classic round glace iced biscuits. I’m still at my parents and had none of my Cookie Cutters here so had to make do with a yorkshire pudding tin, pallet knife and a (clean) ruler.

Still worked out better than ProCook! 

Why send a birthday card when you can send an edible one? 

Happy Birthday Noodles

Hidden Surprise Piñata Cake

Nov17

Hellloo, I finally got to make that cake! So we made a piñata cake! This consists of layers of cake with sweets hidden in the middle which fall out when you cut into it.


I used a basic vanilla cake recipe which involves weighing the eggs and using the same weight of flour, caster sugar (I love using golden caster sugar as it gives a lovely taste and a golden darker colour) and butter, along with a tsp of vanilla extract. I know a lot of people  prefer the all in one method but I definitely think you end up with a fluffier cake in the end if you cream the butter and sugar together until it’s really fluffy and airy.


Then beat in the eggs, fold in the flour and divide into 3 cake tins and into the oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 mins. Towards the end of the cooking time test that it is cooked using a skewer, if it comes out clean with no cake mix on it then you’re done!

Place on a wire rack to cool, the sponge should be springy and fluffy to create a light and airy sponge.


While this is cooling you can make the buttercream icing. I use 150g of unsalted butter to every 280g of icing sugar and add a tsp of vanilla extract. Beat the butter with the vanilla extract until it is soft and fluffy. The fluffier it is the lighter the buttercream will be. I like using buttercream icing as you can use so many different nozzles to create different effects.

Once the butter and vanilla extract is fluffy slowly sieve the icing sugar in a little bit at a time and ensure it mixes into the butter completely to avoid any lumps. The more air you can get into it each time lighter it will be. When you’ve got all the icing sugar combined with the butter you can add milk a table spoon at a time and beat in to achieve the correct consistency. If you are planning on piping the buttercream you need it to be a bit firmer to ensure it keeps its shape. To make this much bettercream I used 1400g of icing sugar and 750g of unsalted butter.


Now the cake has cooled you should have 3 layers of cake. You need to cut the middle out of one to create a doughnut shape. Keep the centre piece to one side, it always comes in handy and I hate wasting anything!

I used seedless raspberry jam to create a classic Victoria sponge style cake and some of the buttercream icing we made earlier to fill the inside of cake.

You then flip this over and place it onto the bottom layer of cake on a board and repeat on the other side of the doughnut. It helps to put a bit of buttercream on the board to help stick the cake to it. It would be horrible if it fell off!

You can now fill the middle of the doughnut with any sweets of your choosing. For an ever so slightly healthier alternative you could fill it with fruit, but only if it is going to be served straight away.

You need to make sure that you have packed the sweets in quite tightly as they need to be able to support the top layer of cake which now goes on top.

I then stuck the middle bit which we cut out earlier on the top with buttercream to give me something to ice later.

Then ice all over the cake with a thin layer of buttercream. This does not need to be perfect as we are going to ice over it again.


We now need to colour the buttercream icing. I prefer to use gel food colouring as it keeps the consistency of the icing and a darker, stronger colour.


Put the icing into a piping bag (I like to use disposable ones, no washing up!). You can use whatever nozzle you want to use but I like the star nozzle as it creates a nice swirl when piped. As I used three different colours of icing I put it into the bag 1 spoonful at a time in order to create a mixed colour when I piped.

This star nozzle is good for piping swirls. You then need to pipe all around the side of the cake. To do these ones I started in the middle of each swirl and iced outwards. I then iced the extra piece of cake we put on top with different swirls and flowers in darker food colouring


But you can ice this however you want 🙂

And that is pretty much it! I was lucky enough to get a photo of it after it was cut which is always nice to see how it looks inside!


You will need a very sharp knife to get through all those sweets!!!

Got Another Cake Order!!!

Nov6

So I received my second celebration cake order today!! I am a self taught baker specializing in celebration and cupcakes. This particular cake is a 2 tiered, surprise filled, buttercream iced floral display. Good thing I love a challenge as this seems like a lot to do in just two evenings! However I haven’t had a chance to make anything since the Kinder Bueno cake so I’m looking forward to this one, even if the delivery date is not until the 17th of November!! Not too sure if I can beat the chocolate monstrosity seen below though, or if I’ll ever be able to surprise a client as much as this one!!

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