Mint Aero Cupcakes

I just had to share these with you.  I made them with my Nephew the other week and they are just amazing.  The flavour is incredible.  I took my Nephew for a walk round to the local shop one morning in search of your normal-nothing-special mint chocolate bars to put into some cupcakes.  Yet I couldn't find any anywhere and just as we were about to head back I spotted the Aero's hiding on one of the shelves.  I grabbed a couple, not sure if they'd work or not and headed home.

Turns out that chopped up mint Aero's in a cupcake are one of the most amazing things ever.  It's rather strange how they cooked and I wish I'd taken a photo of the inside of one but the delicious bubbly inside of the Aero's completely disappeared.  All that was left was a tiny hole and a pale green colouring to the sponge where it had once been.  However the mint chocolate flavour had somehow infused through the whole cupcake.

A recipe really isn't needed here, just add a few chopped up mint Aero bars to your favourite vanilla cupcake mix and once cooked top with vanilla buttercream and a chunk of mint Aero.

Enjoy!

Lime and Coconut Cupcakes

Apologies for the slowness of posts lately, I don't always get the chance to take photo's when I'm baking.  Just lately I'm baking a lot with my little Nephew which is incredibly fun as he sings along when he's helping me but I don't get much chance to take photo's and when I do it's usually of him!

A few weeks ago I made these lime and coconut cupcakes, I had the idea because my Mum came home from work one day atfer discussing my baking with a friend and the friend told her how her boyfriend made the most amazing lime and coconut cake.  Lime and coconut is not a flavour that I've experimented with before, so I was up for giving it a go.

The cake mix is slightly adapted from my Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies book whilst the buttercream is of my own making.  At first bite I wasn't too impressed by them, I thought the cake a little on the dry side but after the next mouthfull and the next I couldn't get enough.  The more I ate the more I wanted, I think I definately ate more of them than anyone else in the house!

Lime and Coconut Cupcakes - Slightly adapted from The Complete Book of Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies

125g margarine

1 tsp vanilla extract

Finely grated zest of 1 lime

145g caster sugar

2 eggs

80ml milk

60g desiccated coconut

188g self raising flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and line your pan with cupcake cases.
2. Beat margarine, vanilla, zest, sugar and eggs until combined.
3. Stir in the milk and coconut. - I'm not going to lie, at this stage the mixture looked pretty gross so I was very surprised when it all came out ok!
4. Then stir in the sifted flour until combined.
5. Divide mixture amongst cases and cook for about 25 minutes.

Lime buttercream - my own recipe

75g margarine
150 - 200g sifted icing sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
Juice of half to 1 lime
Green food colouring - I just added a little for a nice pastel green shade

1. Beat margarine until soft.

2. Add in a few tablespoons of icing sugar at a time and beat until combined, leaving about 50g icing sugar left.

3. Beat in zest and half of lime juice.

4. At this stage its completely upto you what you do next, try the buttercream and see if you like the lime taste.  Add more if you need to.  Also tip the bowl on its side, if the buttercream drops quickly then add more icing sugar and beat again until the consistency gets a bit thicker.  If you plan on just spreading the buttercream on top of the cupcakes with a knife like I have then it doesn't need to be as thick as it would if you were piping.

Lastly add the buttercream to the tops of your cupcakes and cover with more desiccated coconut.  To make this easier you can pour the coconut into a cup and just dunk each cupcake upside down into it and tap off any excess.

As it's Red Nose Day on Friday I have a few idea's which I'm rather excited about.  So pop back Friday and as long as I don't have any major disasters I should have something fun to share!

Mint Choc Chip Cupcakes

My favorite flavour combination is and always has been Mint Choc Chip, I can't get enough of it.  I love mints and I love chocolate, so the two together is just heaven to me.  I'm not a big ice cream eater but I could eat Mint Choc Chip ice cream by the bucket full.  I found a little ice cream parlour near the edge of Lake Windermere (Lake District, Cumbria) one holiday a few years back which did the most amazing Mint Choc Chip ice cream, I've never found anywhere thats come close.

Anyway, enough rambling about ice cream and onto the cupcakes.  I've been meaning to make these for a while but kept forgetting or not having the time when I did remember.  Then someone else made some and it reminded me. 

I had the recipe in mind, I was going to use my favourite victoria sandwich recipe but with cocoa powder and chocolate chunks and then my favorite buttercream but adapted to be mint chocolate.  Pretty simple I thought.  I made the cakes no problem but then came the time to make the buttercream, I had the butter and half the icing sugar mixed nicley when my whisk suddenly stopped.

Thinking it may have just got a little hot I turned it off and unplugged it for a few minutes.  Then I plugged it back in and tried again, this time it made a painful whirring sound and tried its best to work.  No such luck.  There was no way it was about to work.  So my only option was to finish it by hand, I know, I know, nothing wrong with that, unless you have problems with your muscles like I do.  To cut a long story short I eventually finished the buttercream, it took me probably 30 minutes longer than it does with the whisk.  As for the taste?  Its without a doubt the nicest buttercream I've ever made.  So creamy, soft and fluffy, I had to add milk to make it a little easier to beat, which I never usually do and the taste was so much better for it. 

Verdict?  Having very painful, dead arms for over 4 days afterwards was totally worth it.

Mint Choc Chip Cupcakes - My own recipe

For the chocolate chip cupcakes:

100g caster sugar

100g margarine

75g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

2 eggs

100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

1 or 2 tbsp milk (its upto you how much, but generally if the mix is quite thick then add a spoonful or two)

For the mint chocolate buttercream:

75g margarine

150g icing sugar

40g cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp peppermint essence (roughly)

1.  Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffly.

2.  Add one egg and a spoonful of flour, beat until just combined.  Repeat with the second egg.

3.  Fold in the rest of the flour and cocoa powder, one spoonful at a time until you have a little bit of flour left.

4.  Fold in the milk and finally the last of the flour until it has just combined.

5.  Add in the chocolate chucks and stir as little as possible to mix them in.

6.  Spoon the mixture into muffin cases until 3/4 full.

7.  Cook on 180c for about 15 to 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted comes out clean (bar any melted chocolate).  Put on wire rack to cool.

8.  Now to make the buttercream.  Beat the butter until it is nice and soft and fluffy, then slowly add the icing sugar.

9.  Add about half the cocoa powder and beat, then put in a spoonful of milk and mix.  Repeat with the remaining cocoa powder and milk.

10.  Add the peppermint essence a few drops at a time.  Keep tasting until you are happy with the flavour.

11.  Pipe the buttercream onto your cupcakes or spread with a knife.
Next time I need some After Eight mints to decorate them with!

Coconut Cherry Cupcakes

Mmm cherries and chocolate, my 2 favorite things to find in a cake!

I'm such a bad blogger at the moment, sorry!  I had a busy week or so sorting out an exciting new work/business thing (sadly not food related), and then I was ill yet again.  I know, I know, thats all I've said lately and I promise it won't be said at all in my next post! 

So, moving on to the food.  I've made a few new recipes lately, all of which I promise to upload over the next week or two.  The first of which was these coconut cherry cupcakes with added chocolate chunks, complete with milk chocolate ganache and white chocolate decorations.  Why I've never made chocolate ganache before I have no idea but it is amazing, I am converted.  Then I made iced marshmallow coconut cookies, which were a bit of a disaster looks wise but tasted great.  Then a few days ago I finally got round to making brownies, from a recipe I found on the BBCs website which had great reviews, and it definatly lived up to its hype. 

Finally today I've made more lemon cupcakes, I had to make sure my finished recipe was still good and not just a first time fluke.  I scooped out the middle and added a dollop of lemon curd and then topped with lemon buttercream and decorated with lemon zest.  Well if you're going to go lemon then you might as well use as much as possible!

As well as it being my first time making a ganache, it was also the first time I've ever piped chocolate.  I've kind of avoided it before, thinking it would be too fiddly and messy, that the chocolate would cool and harden before I'd even done anything.  My hands can also go quite shakey when I'm trying to do anything that requires a steady hand!  But it was surprisingly easy and the chocolate stayed melted in the bag.  I'll be the first to admit that the decorations aren't anything special but I'm pretty pleased for my first try.

Coconut Cherry Cupcakes from The Complete Book of Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies

For the cake:

125g butter, softened

1/2 tsp coconut essence

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

80ml milk

40g desiccated coconut

70g glace cherries, roughly chopped

50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
150g self raising flour
35g plain flour

For the ganache:
60ml cream
100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

For the decorations:
150g white chocolate buttons
Desiccated coconut to sprinkle

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan forced) and line a muffin pan with paper cases.  I got 12 cupcakes out of this recipe using muffin size cases.
2.  Beat butter, essence, sugar and eggs in a small bowl until combined.
3.  Stir in the milk, coconut, cherries and chocolate.  Then stir in the sifted flours.
4.  Divide amongst cases, smoothing the surface of each.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out clean (bar any melted chocolate).
5.  Make the ganache.  Bring the cream to the boil in a small pan, then pour oven the chopped chocolate in a small bowl.  Stir until smooth.  Cover the bowl and allow to stand at room temperature until it is of a spreadable consistency.
6.  Melt the white chocolate (either in the microwave at 10 second bursts, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water) and spoon into a piping bag.
7.  Pipe different sized hearts (or any other shape you want) onto a tray covered with a sheet of baking paper.  Pop the tray into the fridge until the chocolate has set.
8.  Spread each cupcake with ganache and decorate with your chocolate hearts, sprinkle with a little coconut.

Coconut Cherry Cupcakes



Heavenly cupcakes

Cupcakes for Bookworms, Photo courtesy of Heaven is a Cupcake

I often am in awe of anyone who can make truely amazing looking cakes, its something I can only aspire to do. Decoration has always been my weak point, so I love seeing other people's creations. One such person is Lucy of Heaven is a Cupcake, her cupcakes always look impeccable and the themes are so fun. Unfortunately I live too far away from her to sample them in person but I have been told they taste just as good as they look.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cupcake, photo courtesy of Heaven is a Cupcake

So when Lucy shared her recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes I just had to have a go and bake them. The first thing I have to say is that it's the easiest recipe I've ever followed for cake mix. Everything just goes in the bowl and you mix. Simple. They are incredibly tasty too. I made a mix of large and smaller cupcakes, and I think I need to be more generous with the buttercream!

If you want to have a go you can find Lucy's recipe here. It's very easy to follow, so don't worry if you haven't really made any cakes before.

This is how my cakes turned out, they don't look nearly as good as Lucy's but practice makes perfect! My arms nearly dropped off mixing the food colouring into the buttercream, I added over half a bottle and they still weren't as pink as I wanted. I'm going to have to find some gel food colours.


The lovely Lucy is also holding a giveaway on her blog at the moment. Courtesy of CSN stores, you can win £40 worth of vouchers to spend on their online stores. So if you want to stock up on more baking equipment head on over to Lucy's blog and enter!

Rocky Road cupcakes

So I'm just going to admit to it straight away, I'm not a neat baker...and by that I mean I'm messy, I take up most of the work tops in the kitchen and I have been known to use every spoon in the house (like this recipe for example, we have a lot of teaspoons, and I mean a lot. But I ran out about half way through!). Just the other week when I was making buttercream I managed to cover most of the kitchen in icing sugar dust. I had to clean inside cups, around the kettle and the fronts of the cupboard doors. I know icing sugar can just erupt with dust, but never have I had to clean most of the kitchen before, everything was covered in what looked like a very fine layer of snow.

I guess the reason why I'm saying this is just to let you know, my photo's are not perfect, there will be lumps of dropped cake mix dotted around. You have been warned!
And so, back to the baking. For my birthday this year my great friend, F, bought me an amazing recipe book, its got some fantastic looking cupcakes in it and I couldn't wait to test them out. I can't actually find a link to it, but its called The Complete Book of Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies.

I must have spent hours flicking through it admiring all the photographs, reading the recipes, seeing what ingredients I have and getting hungrier and hungrier as I flicked through each page. I decided to start with the Rocky Road cupcakes (as seen in my header), firstly because they looked so incredibly delicious and secondly, well I can't really refuse anything that involves chocolate.
The cupcake itself is a marble cake of 3 layers, vanilla, chocolate and pink vanilla. When I make them again I'm going to miss out the pink layer as it didn't really show through as much as the others, and it didn't really bring another flavour.

When beating together the cake mix, it looked as if it was about to separate and curdle, but don't worry as long as it doesn't actually curdle then once it's cooked it'll be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if this only happened with me though, it wouldn't be the first time!

I must say, despite a few worries along the way, was quite scrumptious. The cake was very tasty and I was impressed at how well the marble effect showed through. The topping was by far the best bit, generally I can't eat much rocky road mix as it can be incredibly sickly but this was just the perfect amount.

They will definately be made again.

And so to the recipe, as that is what you must be waiting for.

For the marble cake

125g butter, softened

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

185g self raising flour

80ml milk

Pink food colouring

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 teaspoons milk, extra

For the topping (you can double this if you want extra!)

35g unsalted roasted peanuts (these can be left out, as I did)

100g halved red glacé cherries

50g pink and white marshmallows, roughly chopped

25g flaked or dessicated coconut, toasted

100g milk chocolate, melted

Decoration

50g Cadbury dairy milk buttons, melted

1. Preheat your oven to 180°c and line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases (I used smaller 'fairy' cases as I didn't have any muffin cases)

2. Beat butter, extract, sugar and eggs in a small bowl until light and fluffy

3. Stir in sifted flour and milk in two batches

4. Divide the mixture equally into 3 bowls. Tint one bowl pink. Blend the sifted cocoa with the extra milk in a cup and then add to another bowl. Leave the third bowl plain.

5. Drop alternate spoonfuls of each mixture into the cases. Then pull a skewer or toothpick back and forth through the mixtures to create the marble effect. Smooth the surface.

6. Bake for about 20 minutes, or 30 if using large cases. To check if they are ready, insert a toothpick into the cake, if it comes out clean then its ready.

7. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

8. Put all the topping ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. For decoration purposes you may want to hold back a small amount of each of the topping ingredients so that they can be added on top, as once they go in the bowl they will get covered in chocolate!

At this point you might want to cut the tops off some of your cupcakes to create a flatter surface for the rocky road mix. Feel free to eat the cut offs as you go along, you deserve it!

9. Place spoonfuls of the topping onto each cupcake. You may need to slightly pile it on to stop if from falling off, and add some of your held back topping so that you can actually tell what's in it!

10. Lastly drizzle each cupcake with the melted chocolate buttons.

Enjoy!