Thursday 13 February 2014

Chocolate Making with Something Sweet


I love baking magazines, I really do. So much so in fact, that you’ll often find me leafing through entire racks in WHSmith, looking for my next sweet inspiration. Last year, one of my faves was the Cake Decorating Magazine, which proved to be an absolute godsend, helping me to master my piping and get to grips with royal icing.

I really loved this magazine, so you can imagine my delight when I heard about the launch of a sister publication... Something Sweet!


Focussing on sugary treats, Something Sweet is great for chocolate fiends like myself, offering helpful insights into cake, sugar and chocolate crafting in a pretty and comprehensive format. 

As an intro to the new mag, the good folks over at SS HQ gave me the opportunity to try out one of their fun how-to guides, focussing on chocolate hearts - and so with Valentines day just around the corner, I jumped at the chance to get involved.


Now, I often melt chocolate for my baking experiments, but have never had the opportunity to use moulds before, so when I unwrapped the lovely pink one that SS had kindly provided, I got a little bit giddy. Technique-wise everything was fairly straight forward - melt the chocolate, pour it into the mould, scrape the back with a palate knife to remove excess yumminess (licking the knife along the way, of course) leaving it in the fridge to set, before giving it a good old whack to help pop those chocolates out.


The main challenge for me, came in the form of wrapping the treats into the lovely gold foils which SS had included in the kit, and whilst I'm proud to say that I gave it my best shot, I fear my efforts weren't quite up to scratch. However, putting this minor set back aside, I must say I'm rather pleased with how they've turned out.

Now all I need to do is give them to that special someone for Valentines day... Who am I kidding? I ate them within seconds of these photos being taken!

Have you ever tried making chocolate before? Let me know about your experiences!

Love Caroline
X

Saturday 8 February 2014

Strawberry Cupcakes


Strawberry Cupcakes

After my slight culinary detour last week, I'm back on track with my latest strawberry swirl offering. Recipe as usual...

What do you think?

Happy Baking

X

Saturday 1 February 2014

Pastry-less Quiche

Quiche

A few weeks ago, I decided to turn my hand to savouries and made a pastry-less quiche. Yes, I know, it was a shock for me too, but once you try it you'll understand why I had to make it!

The recipe was adapted from one in a vegetarian weight watchers cook book (only with all half fat ingredients substituted for full - because you only live once) and was really easy to follow. Although it took me slightly longer to complete than the 1 hour estimate, I still think it's worth a try - especially if, like me, you have a love/hate relationship with pastry.

Recipe


Happy Baking!

X

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Baking Mad Challenge: Eric Lanlard Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I was challenged by the lovely people at BakingMad.com to try out one of their Cupcake Recipes - and given the scope of what's available on their website, I think it's fair to say that I had quite a task in choosing what to make. However, after a lot of thought I decided to go for Eric Lanlard's delicious Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

Being a massive Lanlard fan, I was very excited to give them a go, so yesterday headed off into the kitchen to try my luck. Here's how I got on...

Raspberry Surprise

The recipe itself was very quick and easy to make, taking just half an hour to complete and 25 mins to bake. The only thing I would say is that the method instructs you to fill the cases 'almost to the top' - which I took to mean a couple of millimeters from the edge. However, this understanding caused me a few problems and resulted in most of my bakes over-flowing onto the tray. If you make these I would definitely recommend only filling your cases to 2/3 - 3/4 full.

Yum!

Nevertheless, this is a great recipe for anyone looking for a quirky twist on the regular chocolate cupcake - the baked raspberries inside are delicious!

What do you think? Do you like them? Will you be giving the recipe a go yourself?

- Let me know your thoughts!

Chocolate Dream

Happy Baking!

X

Monday 4 February 2013

The British Hen Welfare Trust: Free Range Friday, Pancake Party

Calling all bakers and cake enthusiasts, the British Hen Welfare Trust needs you!

A Flipping Good Idea

Pancake Day falls on 12th February this year and those good eggs at the British Hen Welfare Trust are encouraging the nation to dig out their pancake recipes and take part in their Free Range Friday fundraiser.

Free Range Friday asks people to use free range eggs in all their cooking and to think about how their shopping choices can make a difference to the welfare of the humble laying hen. Even though the old style battery cages are no longer used in the UK, about 20 million hens are still kept in colony cages , and imported battery eggs are prevalent in processed food.

So why not host a free-range Pancake Party? The fact that you will be enabling more hens to enjoy life free-ranging outdoors, whilst raising funds for a very worthy charity, will enable you to enjoy some yummy scrummy pancakes – guilt-free!

To receive a Free Range Friday fundraising pack which includes everything you need to make your pancake party an egg-cracking success, please email Naomi on freerangefriday@bhwt.co.uk or go to www.bhwt.org.uk

Pancake photo courtesy of Guy Harrop Photography.


Sunday 27 January 2013

Carrot Cake Cupcakes - Take 2 - Flower Power

Pretty Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Back in 2011 I tried my tried my hand at making carrot cake cupcakes. As a first attempt they wern't half bad, but two years later, I felt ready to give them another go - only this time with a twist. Traditionally Carrot Cakes are quite chunky individuals, but I don't believe that this always has to be the case. I wanted to show that this rough and ready classic can be transformed into something a little more elegant.
Do you think I've succeeded?
 
Carrot Cake Delight

As last time, the recipe for the sponge is as follows:

Ingredients for Cake

  • 175g light muscovado sugar
  • 175ml sunflower oil
  • 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)
  • grated zest of 1 large orange
  • 175g self-raising flour
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder

To make twelve Cakes

*Pre-heat oven to
180C/Gas 4/fan 160C *

1. Pour the Sugar, Oil and eggs into a large bowl and mix together until fully combined.

2. To this mixture add the grated carrots and orange zest, and stir until the carrot is evenly spread throughout the mixture.

3. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir again until completely integrated.

4. Pour the mixture into cupcake cases until about 80% full, because these cakes don't rise too much, and put into the oven for 30-35 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for several hours until completely cool. (You can use a fridge if you want to speed this process up)

The topping was the usual Vanilla Buttercream which can be made mixing around 1/5 margarine to 4/5 icing sugar, with a splash of vanilla essance and milk for good measure!

If you have any questions or recipes you'd like me to have a go at please get in touch!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

Friday 18 January 2013

Happy New Year from Caroline's Cupcakes

Okay, so even though new year was around three weeks ago, I thought I'd just take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for 2013!


Happy New Year!

Last year was an excellent one for me and this website, and I cannot thank you all enough for your continued encouragement and support. When I started this blog back in 2011, I never imagined that anyone would read it, let alone connect with it - so thank you. I always love to hear your thoughts, ideas and recipe suggestions, so please keep in touch at cupcakesanddisasters@hotmail.co.uk or follow me on twitter at @CupcakesCakes

Twenty-Thirteen has gotten off to a wonderful start and I can't wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Keep checking back for all of the latest from the world of cupcakes, but until next time!

Happy Baking

X