Engagement cupcakes....

Over Christmas some very dear friends got engaged. So, what better way to mark the occasion that some pretty cupcakes?

Here are a few pictures of the cakes which were a mixture of raspberry bakewell cake topped with almond cream cheese frosting and chocolate orange topped with white chocolate & orange cream cheese frosting.

A finished them with a mixture of designs including roses, hearts and stencil flowers.

Engagement Cupcakes

V x

Cupcakes....

I think cupcakes are one of the most versatile cakes about - you can add any type of flavour and create something really pretty armed with gel dye, sprinkles, fondant and a few cutters. However, I'm a big believer that they have got to taste even better than they look (even though decorating them, for me is half the fun!). My personal favourite is a lemon cupcake filled with homemade lemon curd and topped with a lemon cream cheese frosting. Yum! Others that I tend to create include:

• Chunky double chocolate cake with dark and milk chocolate chunk & either chocolate or vanilla frosting
• Sticky ginger cake with stem ginger and ginger syrup frosting
• Banana and toffee cake with toffee frosting
• Chocolate orange cake with choc orange frosting
• Almond and fresh blackberry cake with almond frosting
• Vanilla and fresh strawberry cake with vanilla frosting
• Carrot cake with lemon frosting

Here are a few of my recent cupcake creations...

 



 

  
V x

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes...

As Halloween descends, I thought it was a perfect excuse to carve a pumpkin and use the leftovers to make some delicious baked treats. 

After trying many pumpkin pie recipes previously, I decided this year to bake something different and settled on a cupcake. So armed with my favourite carrot cake recipe as the basis - thinking that the pumpkin would work in much the same way that carrot does in baking - I modified the ingredients to suit the pumpkin. Here is the recipe.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Makes 12-14

Cakes:

• 145g golden caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 120 m sunflower oil
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• grated zest 1 orange
• 200g pumpkin (grated) or butternut squash
• 175g sultanas or raisins

Syrup Glaze:

• 2 tbsp orange juice (roughly 1 small orange)
• 40g golden caster sugar 

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 450g icing sugar
• 110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 150g full fat cream cheese
• 1 tsp of orange essence
• Orange food colouring (if desired) - I used Wilton "Tangerine"

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 160c and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases
• Whisk the sugar, eggs and oil together in a bowl using an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes until it thickens and looks a golden colour
• Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into the bowl. Stir together, then fold in the orange zest, pumpkin and sultanas.

The base mixture



• Spoon the mixture into the cases (roughly 2 level dessert spoons per case)





Filled cases ready to bake


• Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until springy when lightly pressed in the centre.
• While the cakes are baking make the syrup by heating all the ingredients in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves
• When the cakes are baked, take out of the oven and make small holes in them with a skewer, making sure that you don’t pierce the bottom of the case. Brush over the syrup and leave to cool on a wire rack.

The cakes ready for frosting

• To make the frosting beat the butter until soft. Then add the icing sugar a spoon full at a time. Finally add the orange essence (or juice), cream cheese and colouring (if using) and combine. Don't over mix as the cream cheese can loosen too much. This can be refrigerated until you need it.
• When the cakes are cooled fill a piping bag fitted with a 1M nozzle with the topping and pipe onto the cupcakes. Decorate with sprinkles or pumpkin faces!
• Et voila - enjoy with a nice cup of tea!



The finished cupcakes decorated with a few sprinkles



What is your favourite Halloween recipe?

V x

Hello Kitty and other characters...

I love making cakes for children. It's something about the bright colours and playful shapes that never fail to make me smile. Recently I have been asked to bake a wide array of designs, from Triceratops cakes, to themed cupcakes and lots of character cakes. Here are a selection of a few of my favourites...




Hello Kitty cake - dark chocolate brownie cake with chocolate ganache filling

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - vanilla and fresh strawberry cakes with vanilla buttercream

Birthday cupcakes

Triceratops cake carved from vanilla syrup sponge

Next up on my to do list are Peppa Pig, a football themed cake and Special Agent OSO. Wish me luck!

V x