Geometric Cupcakes

Adding some colouring

4oz, sugar, margarine and flour, 2 eggs, teaspoon of baking powder, tsp of strawberry essence, splash of milk and a drop or red colouring. First I weighed the margarine and sugar and creamed them together. Next I added the beaten eggs, 1 at a time to make the mixture smooth. Then I added a drop of food colouring and the strawberry essence. I sieved the flour and baking powder and folded the mixture together before adding the milk to give the mixture a smooth consistency. Finally I spooned them into bun cases and cooked for 20 minutes at 180^oC. Once the cakes had cooled, I combined light cream cheese with icing sugar and some red food colouring. Once it was a thick frosting I covered the cakes with it before finishing with dark chocolate drops in geometric patterns.

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Pink icing and dark chocolate drops

Caramel, Fudge and Chocolate Surprises

Spooning in the chocolate spread

   I thought I would use some more of my caramel essence to make light and fluffy muffins. I combined butter, sugar, eggs, milk, essence, flour and baking powder together in a bowl. I now add a tablespoon of milk to give my cakes a lighter texture and to make them less oily. I spooned some of the mixture into the bottom of each case and then added a teaspoon of chocolate spread to the middle of each one. Then I covered the chocolate with some more batter. After cooking for 20 minutes on 170^oC they had small peaks and sprung back when touched.



The chocolate surprise

   When I cut the cakes open the chocolate spread was not in the middle but had sunk to form a thin layer on the bottom of the cake with very little cake underneath. It was still gooey and provided a unique aesthetic. 

  To decorate these cupcakes, I made a thick caramel buttercream and covered the top of the cakes in a thick layer before finally adding a sprinkle of chopped fudge pieces.

Thick caramel icing and real fudge pieces

Clementine and Pumpkin Cupcakes



Giving texure to the pumpkins

   I used a basic cupcake mix and added the rind of 1 clementine and a spoonful of orange curd before combining thoroughly and evenly. I spooned the mixture into the cupcake cases and baked for 20 minutes until they were golden brown. I left the cakes on a wire rack to cool and set about making the icing pumpkins for the top of the cakes. I softened orange sugarpaste and made 6 medium sizes balls. To achieve the ribbed effect I pressed spaghetti into the pumpkins. For the stems I combined green food paste with white fondant until it was malleable. Then I made 6 small cones with a curved point and put on each of the cupcakes. For a few I thinly rolled the green icing and made a small coil to act as a vine, and also a couple of leaves to make the pumpkins more realistic. To ice the cakes I beat margarine, icing sugar and concentrated orange juice together until it formed a smooth icing which I then coated the cakes with before decoratively placing the pumpkins on top.

The finished cupcakes

Chocolate Pillows

The little pillows

   I made a chocolate chip traybake and today I wanted to try and cover squares in fondant. I put the cake in the fridge to cool whilst I rolled out 6 squares of pale blue fondant 0.5cm thick and around 15cm square. I then made a quick chocolate buttercream. I then removed the cake from the fridge and quickly sliced it in half lengthways and then into six squares. I filled and covered the cakes with the buttercream before putting the fondant on top. I smoothed it down the sides and slit the icing to try and get a smoother finish in the corners and trimmed the icing and folded any excess underneath. The corners were ripped but I covered these up with rolled blue stars. When they were finished they looked like little pillows!

Blackberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

I topped the cakes with fresh fruit

   It is blackberry season and down our drive there plenty of berry bushes. I picked a large handful and washed them. I left 15 large blackberries aside and lightly crushed ½ of the remaining blackberries. I gently folded the whole blackberries in the vanilla cake mixture and then added the crushed fruit.  I spooned 2 teaspoons of the mixture into each cake before baking. When the cakes were golden brown and had a nice rise I took them out of the oven. Whilst they were cooling I creamed margarine and icing sugar together with a dash of vanilla essence to make buttercream. I filled a piping bag with a star nozzle and piped small swirls on the cold cakes. I pushed a ripe blackberry into the top of the cake and sprinkled pink glitter over the cakes. I made more cakes than I needed so I froze half of them and I also open froze the blackberries so I could use them to decorate. 

Three of the cakes

Cake Pops

The tray with the mixture

They cakes overflowed the holes

   Everybody has been going crazy over cake pops and I decided that it’s my turn to have a go. So I brought myself a silicone tray and made a simple vanilla sponge mix. I filled the tray half full of mixture and put the lid on before cooking for 20 minutes at 180^oC. When I took the lid off the cake pops weren’t spherical and I think this is because I didn’t put enough mixture in the tray. They also didn’t come out of the very cleanly but I did forget to grease it with butter – I must get some of that quick release spray! If you are thinking of making cake pops then buy a stand or a piece of polystyrene first! An ice-cream tub with holes poked in doesn’t work!!! I then dipped the cakes in chocolate and attempted to roll them in sprinkles. This didn’t turn out great but I came up with other ideas on how to decorate them!

The decorated cake pops

 

Tea Infused Cupcakes

Infusing the milk

   I got some teacup-cupcake cases for my birthday and I’ve been meaning to use them. I followed a recipe from “Cupcake Heaven” and began by adding 3 teabags to 200ml of milk and simmering in a pan. Whilst the tea mixture cooled I creamed butter and sugar, added eggs flour and baking powder. When the tea/milk was cool I added it to the mixture. I then filled my teacups ¾ full and I had some spare so I made some ordinary cupcakes as well. I finished the cupcakes with a swirl of plain buttercream and a dusting of cocoa powder. Upon tasting, they did have a hint of tea – but maybe I should have used Earl Grey instead of Tesco everyday value!!!

Icing the Tea-cakes

Me with the finished cupcakes