Happy New Year!

My New Year's Resolutions 2012

Okay so it's a few hours off yet, here in the UK, but while it's still early I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very happy new year and to thank you for reading my blog over the last twelve months - Thank you - I hope I've been vaguely interesting!

I'll be back in January to continue spreading the Cupcake love, but in the meantime have a fabulous night, wherever you are in the world and enjoy 2012 :)

Happy Baking!

X

Christmassy Creations: Cupcakes

Christmas wouldn't be christmas in my house without some festive cupcakes... so here they are (Usual recipe of course)


Above are my Jolly Holly Cupcakes - Yes I made the tops myself - Gosh I am talented aren't I?!
(incase you want to know, they're made out of sugar paste!)

This is my my Gift Cupcake, again with home made topper :)



And finally my Chocolate Stardust Cupcake - Topper not made by me, but supplied by the lovely people at the Baking shop in York!

So yeah that's my Christmas cookery in a nutshell - let me know what you think!

Happy Baking!

X

Christmassy Creations: Mince Pies

I hope you all had very merry Christmas' filled with lots of good food and wine - I certainly did!

Last week, to get into the festive spirit, I started my seasonal baking. So in the first of this two part post, I will show you how to make Mince Pies!


Mince Pies

For short crust pastry, I always like to use the BBC Food recipe, which I find produces the best pastry (Here's the LINK or if you prefer I've printed it below) but if you can't be bothered, then you can always use frozen!

Ingredients

• 125g/4oz plain flour
  

• pinch of salt
  

• 55g/2oz butter, cubed

• 30-45ml/2-3 tbsp cold water

Method

1. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.

2. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it does not become greasy.

3. Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together.

4. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.

5. Alternatively using a food processor, put the flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour.

6. With the motor running, gradually add the water through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough water to bind it and then stop.

7. Wrap the dough in clingfilm as before and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.

So that's the Pastry...

- After these stages are complete, take the dough from the fridge and roll on a lightly floured surface until about 5mm thick.

- Cut out rolled dough with a circular cutter (these will form the base of each pie) and place each circle into a section of a pre-greased bun tray.

- For the filling you can either make your own, or if you're like me, you can buy it from the supermarket - For these I used Waitrose's own mincemeat and I can highly reccommend it! So whatever filling you have, take it and fill the little pastry cases.

- Next the tops. Take the left over pastry and re roll it and cut using a holly stencil so that each pie has two holly leaves for topping.

- Place the 'leaves' on top and finish with a pastry berry.

- Brush tops with milk or beaten egg and put in the oven at 180C (FAN) for 20 minutes.

- Leave to cool for 15 minutes and enjoy!


So that's how you make mince pies - If you give the recipe a go, let me know how they turn out, in the meantime look out for my follow up blog post on my Christmas Cupcakes!

Happy Holidays and Happy Baking!

X

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Hope you're all have a fabulous day, eating lots of delicious treats and drinking too much wine - Look out next week for my very own festive delights...
But until then - Happy Baking :)

Xxx

Barbie® Adores Katy Perry…and Cupcakes!

Deviating a little off topic, but still in the general cupcake area, I want to introduce to you the brand new Katy Perry Cupcake doll, which has stolen my heart and put itself right at the top of the 'things I want most at the moment' list! (or the TIWMATML, if you want a nifty acronym)

It's so brilliantly girly, it's untrue!

Designed by Amy Lee for Mattel, this doll is a one off limited edition, which is currently being auctioned in aid of Project Angel Food, a charity working to help feed men, women and children, suffering from life threatening illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and Cancer.

Each cupcake has been individually crafted and hand painted (or so I read) to create a perfect scaled replica of the dress worn by Katy, during the first leg of her California Dreams Tour earlier this year.

Ahh it's soo pretty - I want it - it'd look amazing in my Barbie collection!

The perfect purchase for any Katy Perry/Barbie/Cupcake lover!

The only down-side is that it's expected to go for somewhere in the region of $15,000, (£9,617) which is great for the charity, but not so great if you're me - ah well!
If you want to bid on it for me (or yourself) you can do so here: http://www.charitybuzz.com/auctions/barbie/catalog_items/291300

So as Katy says, bid now to benefit a very worth while cause!

Happy Baking!

X

Exciting Things I've bought

I got insanely excited when I saw these in Tesco the other week and just had to buy them... I mean, come on, it's Strawberry icing sugar who wouldn't get excited?!
I'm gonna make cupcakes using them in the next few days, so I'll let you know the verdict :)
I'm hoping it's gonna be magical!

Happy Baking!

X

PS- Silver Spoon now make lilac food colouring, incase you ever need it!

It's a Baking Disaster Darling...

Well not quite.

A few weeks ago, I made Cupcakes for my Friend's 21st Birthday, which in themselves were delicious, I'm sure... but this page wasn't called 'Cupcakes and Disasters' for nothing and it would seem that fate thought it was high time, that the disaster part be fulfilled.
Oh dear... Life certainly does pick its moments.

So before I start, I want to show you what the cupcakes looked like, because they really were very pretty!


As was the lovely pink box I packed them in...


So before I get to the disaster, I'd firstly like to bullet point a few things that I learnt whilst making these cakes...

As we all know, you can do something perfectly a hundred times or more, but when it comes to the crunch, everything falls to pieces - this is what happened and I can only think that it was the pressure!

So what I learnt...

1. Who knew baking with butter was so difficult? Certainly not me!

Having never baked with actual butter before, I was foolish enough to think that it would be as easy as using margarine. As it turns out, unless the butter is massively soft, it takes ages to combine into the mixture. As proof to this theory, I ended up with little buttery lumps dotted throughout my mixture, which took ages to mix in. (Also butter is extremely difficult to use to make butter cream, go figure!)

2. Don't think that Red and Pink food colouring are the same - They really aren't!

After getting over the butter hurdles I decided to make the icing pink, because after all 'pink's just light red' isn't it? No, apparently in the world of food colouring, it's not - it's orange :(

3. Check and double check your ingredients and allow for mistakes

I didn't and had to rush out to the shop mid morning, for extra icing sugar, so be warned!

So the Disaster...

Well to cut a not-so-long story short: After giving the cakes to my friend, I proceeded to destroy them all one at a time by placing them upside down on a bench. Devastation was not the word, Ahh.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Don't tip cakes upside down, they don't like it!

Halloween Cupcakes

Hello,
It's been a while since I last posted something interesting on here, so in compensation for this, here are my Halloween Cupcakes.
In the interest of keeping things spooky, I got a bit creative and made chocolate and green marble cakes. I must admit that having never tried anything like this before, I was a little worried as to how they'd turn out, but when I took them out of the oven they looked amazing and I was VERY impressed. However upon tasting them, I found that they tasted of...well...nothing. You can imagine my disappointment!
I'm not exactly sure why this was the case, because I put a tonne of cocoa powder in the mixture, but that's what happened. Maybe it was something to do with the food colouring, or maybe I just didn't put enough cocoa in after all... Who knows!


I also made regular cupcakes, using the normal recipe and gave them green iced tops and finished with some cute sugar decorations :) (FYI They tasted wonderful!!)




So what do you think? Suitably spooky?

As ever, if you have any comments, email or leave them below!

Happy Baking!

X

Selling Cakes at Craft Fairs

Hello,
Just wondering if anyone can help me out with a question...
I'm thinking of starting to sell my cakes at craft fairs/boot sales on a casual basis and was wondering if anyone knows what the UK health and safety regulations are (if any) for selling food products on a casual basis at such events?
I've heard that you don't need any if you're only selling on an infrequent basis - Is this true?
Any advice anyone could give me on this matter would be much appreciated!
Thankyouu!

:)

X

We're on Facebook

As the title suggests, we are now on Facebook - yay!
If you have an account, then come over and say 'hi' - we'd love to meet you!
This is perfect if you want to keep upto date with our posts but don't have blogger or if you just love all things cupcake!
See you over there :)

http://www.facebook.com/cupcakesanddisasters

Happy Baking

X

A Girl Can Dream: The Perfect Birthday Cake - Choccywoccydoodah

Choccywoccydoodah

After writing my last post, I sat down with a cup of tea (okay coffee, but tea sounds so much genteel, don't you think?) and a cupcake (okay a hobnob) to watch the new series of Choccywoccydoodah on the Good Food Channel.

Oh my, how incredible are their cakes?

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching the show yet, it's a fly on the wall documentary, which follows the staff at the marvelous chocolate and cake specialists Choccywoccydoodah in Brighton, as they go about their daily business of creating edible masterpieces! Do watch it if you can - it's addictive viewing.

Anyway, the cake they were making in this particular episode, was probably one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen - it had edible butterflys and everything - and it got me thinking, how AMAZING it would be to have a cake like that for my 21st Birthday!
So I went to their website to have a look at what they do - I am now officially in love with a Cake.
'A Cake?'
'Yes a cake!'
But this isn't just any cake. No. This is a cake and then some. This is a magical cake. This is the stuff of dreams. This is perfection... Have I got my point across?

No words can do this cake justice, so I won't even try.
Just look at this...

It's a Teaparty on a cake - how fabulous is that?
Look at the mini chocolate cupcakes and the teapot with the pouring tea... Ahh I don't think that it could be any cuter if it tried, it's just wonderful!
But alas there's a snag... with prices starting at £400, it seems unlikely that I'll be able to afford anything like this anytime soon - unless I win the Lottery? Or buy it and charge an entrance fee for people to come and have a look!

Anyway that's another one to go on the dream list, alongside winning the Booker Prize and getting into the X Factor Final (okay so that's not one, but it's everyone elses dream, so it may as well be mine too!)


If you're curious to see more, check out the Choccywoccydoodah website at: http://www.choccywoccydoodah.com/index.html

Until next time,

Happy Baking

X

PS- I promise to actually bake something one of these days and as soon as I do, I'll post it on here! :)

Celebrity Birthday Cakes

If you're rich and famous, then you're gonna want a cool birthday cake - and boy do these guys know how to buy cake... Take a look at some of the best celebrity Birthday Cakes of the last twelve months!

1. Fearne Cotton
There's only really one word for this cake and that's 'Wow.'
Made by Fancy Nancy Cakes in Essex, this is probably one of the best cakes I've ever seen!

2. Darren Criss
I love this picture for so many reasons, but mainly because it contains my two favourite things - Darren Criss and Cake! (Yay on both accounts)
But look at the cake... It's a giant pair of Pink Cake Sunglasses - Even if you're not a Starkid that's got to be Totally Awesome? Yes? Yes!


3. Katy Perry
Made for Katy Perry by the incredibly talented Albert Kahiau Ontiveros at Kahiau's Kakes, this Willy Wonka inspired masterpiece is certainly one to take your breath away!
- I think I'm a bit in love with it, it's sooo pretty :)
LOVE LOVE LOVE the oompa Lumpas


Finally...

4. Gary Barlow
Take That legend Gary Barlow is 40 - who knew?! I certainly didn't, but just look at this beautiful cake - I adore it - Especially the little sugar craft figures - very cute!


Feeling inspired? I know I am (and everso slightly jealous...ahem)
I don't know if I'm ready to attempt cake art just yet, but who knows, maybe one day... until then I'm happy enough to wow over these!

If you have any comments drop me a line, but until next time... Happy Baking!

X

Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes with Strawberry Centres

I made these last week... Now I wasn't 100% happy with the presentation because I rushed them a little, but I was extremely happy with the taste!

So the recipe, if you'd like to try them...

Ingredients

55g (2oz) Margarine
28g (1oz) Caster Sugar
55g (2oz) Self Raising Flour
1 egg
1stp Baking Powder
2tsp Vanilla Essence

Recipe

1. Mix the flour, sugar, egg and margarine together in a large mixing bowl for two to three minutes until fully combined.

2. To this mixture add the Vanilla essence and Baking powder and stir again until completely mixed.

3. Fill the muffin cases to just over half way.

4. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 190C (180C Fan) Gas 5 until springy and a light golden colour.

5. Take cakes out and leave to cool on a wire rack for half an hour.

6. Carefully use a knife to cut a cylindrical shape in the middle of the cake and scoop out a well for the jam to go in.

7. Fill the well with your favourite Strawberry Jam - I like Bon Maman but any will do - and then place your cutout shape back on top.

8. Ice in the usual manner (Buttercream - you could even add some cream cheese for taste) and then drizzle with Strawberry sauce and decorate to taste.

For the Strawberry Sauce

Mix 2 tablespoons of icing sugar with a few drops of water/milk to form a watery paste, stir in one teaspoon of jam and continue to mix until runny enough to pour.

I can guarantee that these are the nicest things I've ever made - so try them :)

Happy Baking!

X

And the Winner is...

And the Winner is...

Everso slightly late, but congratulations to Jo Wheatley on her Great British Bake Off win last week.

Although I was notsosecretly rooting for Holly, I have to say that I absolutely adored Jo's petit fours and thought that her display case was absolutely divine - like really pretty - which in my opinion made her a really deserving winner!

Congratulations Jo - I'll have a slice of Cake in your honour!

X

PS - Am I the only one who feels sorry for that poor little squirrel? The poor mite's lost all his dignity! Was a bit funny though :)

The Great British Bake Off Final

Go Holly!

So next Tuesday is the final of The Great British Bake Off, and oh what a season it's been; we've laughed, we've cried, and I think it's fair to say that we've all learnt something (Rob - not to shove his cake off the table while decorating it!)... I myself have been inspired to attempt a profiterole tower, so watch this space because it'll probably appear at some point in the next twelve months! :)


So who am I rooting for?

Well I have been supporting Janet and Holly since week one (because they're both Amazing), but since Janet was eliminated in last night's Semi's, I am now backing Holly all the way.
(I mean come on, how AMAZING were her pastries and iced buns last night!)

I can't believe it's almost over...

I'm totally gonna miss this show when it finishes, coz it's the highlight of my week - equally I can't wait to see who wins...

So to find out, watch the Great British Bake Off Next Tuesday on BBC2 at 8pm.

Happy Baking!

X

UPDATE: Paul Hollywood's just Tweeted saying 'Next week is NOT the end!!'
ooo intriguing, well I guess that we'll just have to wait and see what happens - watch this space!

The Fruits of my Labour: Summer Fruits and Cream Cupcakes

Here is the latest offering from my little baking project - I hope you like them - I'm really pleased with the results :)

To make them I used the usual recipe, which incase you've forgotton is:

Ingredients

55g (2oz) Margarine
28g (1oz) Caster Sugar
55g (2oz) Self Raising Flour
1 egg
1stp Baking Powder
2tsp Vanilla Essence

Recipe

1. Mix the flour, sugar, egg and margarine together in a large mixing bowl for two to three minutes until fully combined.

2. To this mixture add the Vanilla essence and Baking powder and stir again until completely mixed.

3. Fill the muffin cases to just over half way.

4. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 190C (180C Fan) Gas 5 until springy and a light golden colour.

Now the topping this time, was different than usual, because I used whipping cream - Oh My Delia, how difficult is it to whip cream? I swear I sprained my wrist!!
But I must admit that I felt oddly satisfied after I'd done it (even if I did over whip it a bit - which I didn't find out until I watched Celebrity Masterchef - apparently if it's got water coming out of it then you've whipped it too much - Thank you Mr. John Torode)

To the cream, I then folded in about 200g of Icing sugar to sweeten, then simply piped it over the cupcakes and decorated with Summer Fruits.

The final effect is slightly more rough and ready than usual, because of the nature of the cream, but I think that this adds a certain je nais se quoi to the look of the cupcakes, don't you?

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

PS - Follow me on twitter @CupcakesCakes :)

National Cupcake Week

Incase you didn't already know, next week is National Cupcake week, and I'm very excited...

Already in it's third year, this annual celebration marking 'bakers' creativity and passion' is going from strength to strength, and promises, this year, to be as exciting as ever.
Set up in association with British Baker Magazine, National Cupcakes week is designed not only to encourage and promote baking bussinesses, but also to raise money for worthwhile causes, with this years chosen charity being CLIC Sargent, the UK's leading cancer charity for children and young people.

The National Cupcake website gives a little more information on this charity:

"Every day 10 children and young people in the UK are told they have cancer, and diagnosis usually comes as a shock. CLIC Sargent is the UK's leading cancer charity for children and young people up to the age of 24. It provides clinical, practical, and emotional support to help the whole family cope with the impact of cancer and its treatment, life after treatment and, in some cases, bereavement. For more information about CLIC Sargent's work please visit www.clicsargent.org.uk or call 0300 330 0803"

There are lots of ways you can get involved with this week...

Suggestions on the organizations website:

http://www.nationalcupcakeweek.co.uk/page/clic_sargent.html

• If you're a baking business, why not bake some cupcakes in aid of CLIC Sargent and make a percentage donation from sales of a dedicated cupcake during National Cupcake Week

• Cupcake pin badges: Stock 100 of the National Cupcake Week's scrummy cupcake pin badges for a suggested donation of £1 each and help raise vital funds for children with cancer.

Other Ideas for individuals:

• If you're just an individual with a passion for baking, then you can take part too... Why not host a tea party for friends and family and ask each guest to make a donation to the CLIC, in honour of National Cupcake week.

• Had along to your local bakery and show your support by buying National Cupcake week badges or cakes.

CLIC does some amazing work for very poorly Children and it would be wonderful if as many people as possible could take part and spread the word during this coming week, to help raise lots of money for this very worthy charity.

For more information and recipes check out the National Cupcake Week's website at - http://www.nationalcupcakeweek.co.uk/

or Follow them on Twitter at - @CupcakeWeek and show them your support!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

It's Official: We're on Twitter!

As the title says... we are now on Twitter! (Yay)

You can find us at @Cupcakescakes or by pressing the button on the right :) >>>>>>>
So drop by and say 'Hi', or follow us to keep upto date with everything that's good and sweet!

See you there...

Happy Baking!

X

X Factor Cupcakes

X Factor

Since the X Factor started again a couple of weeks ago, I've created a cupcake celebration in homage to the new judges (and Louis Walsh) - I wanted to call them Barlow Buns, but thought it would be a little biased towards my favourite, so X Factor cupcakes it is!!

I used the usual recipe, along with black and red icing, and some cute rice paper toppers to finish :)


If you have any comments or recipes, please feel free to post them below or contact me on the baking disasters email which you'll find under the tab above... I always love to hear from people! :)

Happy Baking!

X

The Great British Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off is, in short, AMAZING, and I wish I was taking part myself!

What I LOVE...

I love the cuteness and civility of the competition, but moreover I love the fact that the first week's challenge was to make Cupcakes... some were good, some were bad, some were fantastic and some not so fantastic... and although everyone made a really good effort, my particular favourites were the raspberry and cream cupcakes by Janet Basu, which were adorable and I really want to try to make myself!

My Favourite Bit...

It's mean, but my favourite part of the episode was when poor Rob spun his cake off the table... but luckily he survived to bake again this week (his cake did look pretty delicious though, so it was always going to be safe, even if he did have two tiers missing!)

So those are my brief thoughts on last weeks wpisode - if you don't watch it already, you're going to want to... It's on at 8pm on BBC2 until 20.09.11, so give it a sneaky look!

Happy Baking!

X

Flutterby Butterfly Cakes

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - I've been away on holiday to Belgium... but more on that later!
To whet your appitite until my next post, I present to you my Flutterby Butterfly Cakes :)

Happy Baking

X

So I eat a lot of Cake...

Nothing else needs to be said other than...

I love the pretty spotty cases

This Yummy Cupcake was bought from Leaf on Bold Street in Liverpool, if you're in the area give it a look :)

Happy Eating!

X

More Glee Cake

So as you can see from a couple of my other posts, I love Glee, so was thrilled when I saw this in Morrisons today.


It's not as good as the three tier cake, I posted a few weeks ago, but really what can compare to that?!
I still love it :)

Happy Baking!

X

Things I Love: Hello Kitty Cupcakes

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love Hello Kitty, and boy do I love these...




Found at House of Kitty Blog check it out!

Might just try and make some myself one day...

Happy Baking :)

X

Come Dine With Me

So last week I hosted a Dinner Party and in my eagerness to be the perfect hostess, forgot to take pictures of almost all of the food, so I don't have too much to show you...
However I do have pictures of my table setting, and Cupcake selection, complete with red sparkles and Cath Kidston Strawberry napkins :)

So here are the cupcakes, which were Vanilla with Pink Sugar Sprinkle Icing, Chocolate and 99 Flake varieties... What do you think? I'm kinda proud of my efforts, even if the icing on the bottom pink cake went a bit dodgy!



And here are bits and pieces from the place settings...

Sparkles and Polka Dot Plates

Sweets and Cath Kidston Napkins

In the absence of my starters and mains, here are some pictures of the food from my dinner party last year, which was very similar to what I made this year (only this year's was even better!)

Chicken in a white wine sauce...


Greek Salad...


So until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

All the Pretty Things

I just saw these on the Cupcakes take the Cake blog and felt inspired, I cannot believe how pretty they are, and I love the photography - Perfect... Check out the original source here!

On other notes... sorry for the lack of posts recently - I've been super busy and then came down with a bug, so have been out of action for a week or so. I'm well again now though and look forward to blogging again soon.

But until then...

Happy Baking :)

X

The Perfect Pizza (Well sort of)

Soo this week it was time for me to tackle bread again, as I attempted to make Pizza. I'm not gonna lie to you, it didn't turn out exactly how I expected it to, but what ever does?!
It was a little larger than expected and bordered more on the side of deep pan than traditional Italian, but nonetheless I gave it my best effort.


As you can see (above), this is what it looked like just before putting it in the oven - fairly flat and even... If I'm honest I think that my main problem came as a result of leaving the dough to rise a bit before putting all of the toppings on, which was my fatal error, because it meant that I had to punch all of the air out of the base before putting it onto the baking tray... I mustn't have been thorough enough and the Pizza ended up raising...


As you can see it went a little puffy, but not bad enough to ruin the whole meal.

Here's the recipe for those who want it!

Ingredients

225g (8oz) Plain Flour
Half a Packet of Dried Yeast
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
1/2 Teaspoon of Sugar
150ml (1/4 Pint) Warm Water

Method

1. Sprinkle sugar, yeast and salt onto the flour.

2. Add warm water gradually and mix

3. Kneed for three minutes

4. Roll or flatten dough into desired shape.

5. Cover with toppings of your choice

6. Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 200C/ Gas 6 until base is firm.

Okay so that's all. If you give it a go, let me know how it turns out!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

Things I Love: Oh Crumbs Cupcakes

Another one of my favourite things is 'Oh Crumbs Cupcakes' in Manchester...

Okay, so I've never actually had a cupcake from here, but I live in hope that with my 21st Birthday around the corner, the possibility of finally tasting one of their beautiful cupcakes may just become a reality!
I love the way they decorate their cakes, especially their perfect icing which makes me very envious :)
Just have a look at their pics...

They're so good I steal their ideas, Ahem!

Love this!

Fabulous Sugar Craft Horses!

Check out their pretty website here for more information about the company, and if anyone's ever tried their cakes let me know what they're like.
I can't wait to try them for myself some day!

Happy Baking :)

X