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

Christmas Cupcake Advent: Days 1 - 7

In celebration of this year's Christmas countdown, I've taken to twitter to publish my favourite festive flavours from the world wide web. Here's a roundup of the this week's offerings...

Day One: Snowflake Cupcakes (Via: http://www.visualpotluck.com/post/winter-snowflake-cupcakes)

Day Two: Snowman Cupcake (Via: http://janscakes.weebly.com/seasonal-cakes-new.html)

Day Three: Christmas Pudding Cupcake (Via: http://vi.sualize.us/christmas_pudding_4goodnesscake_christmas_cupcakes_picture_aBy3.html)

Day Four: Christmas Tree Cupcakes (Via: http://riya-weddingdress.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/christmas-cupcakes-pictures.html?m=1)

Day Five: Wreath Cupcakes (Via: http://www.nadsbakery.com/2009/12/christmas-wreath-and-holly-berries.html?m=1)

Day Six: Penguin Cupcakes (Via: http://buttercreamblondie.com/penguin-cupcakes/)

Day Seven: Mr and Mrs Claus Cupcakes (Via: http://www.magentacakes.co.uk/blog/mr-mrs-claus-christmas-cupcakes/)

Follow me on twitter @CupcakesCakes for all the latest news, updates and Christmas Countdowns.

See you over there :)

Happy Baking!

X

National Cupcake Week 2012

Yes, National Cupcake Week is once more upon us and this time it promises to be bigger and better than ever. All across the country bakers and cupcake enthusiasts alike are dusting of their oven mits and preparing to celebrate all things delicious.

To help mark the occasion, I'm on the look out for your cupcake celebrations to include on a special commemorative blog post at the end of the week. Be they eating or making treats, running coffee mornings or teaching baking classes, I want to know what you're up to. To get involved simply send me a photo or drop me a line on twitter @CupcakesCakes or message me at cupcakesanddisasters@hotmail.co.uk, telling me a bit about your plans.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Looking for ideas?

As last year, http://www.nationalcupcakeweek.co.uk/ has updated their website with lots of new, yummy recipes and fundraising thoughts to help make the week go off with a bang. Check out their site if you're undecided about what to do!

Also if you're running an event then why not download your free poster HERE

Happy Baking!

X

I'm still here...

Recently I've been a terrible, terrible bloogger and I must apologise for this...

So here's a little post to just check in and let you all know that I'm still around and looking forward to blogging some more very soon.

I have some very exciting things in the pipe line, but until then be sure to check out my twitter for all of the latest excitement... I can be found at @CupcakesCakes

Happy Baking!

X

Diamond Jubilee Baking

Jubilee Cupcakes

Yesterday, to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee, we had a royal feast, consisting of a tea party and buffet. Since it was such a special occasion, I couldn't let it pass by without paying homage to the Queen in cake form. Here are my results...


A royal celebration, wouldn't be a celebration without the Queen's face on a cupcake and I was keen not to disappoint, so here she is in all her glory. The recipe was the usual one and I also used gold edible glitter to decorate. The toppers were from a lovely ebayer and the cases from a local baking shop.


To coincide with the cupcakes, I also decided to make a Victoria Sandwich which I'll post about in a separate entry, where I'll add a detailed recipe.

For anyone who just wants a quick idea of how to make it you do this;
Cream 6oz of margarine and 6oz of sugar in a large bowl. Beat three eggs together in a mug and slowly add to the sugar/margarine mix, completely mixing in the eggs inbetween each addition. Once all of the egg is mixed in, slowly add 6oz of self raising flour. Add a pinch of salt. Mix well. Grease and Line 2 cake tins and divide the mixture between both. Put in the oven at 150-160C for 27 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool. Spread Jam/Conserve on one of the cakes and then place the other on top. Dust with icing sugar.


Like I said, that's very basic, so if you want something a little easier to follow then look out for my next post which will be a lot more detailed.(I can confirm that it tastes very nice, even if I do say so myself!)

That's it on the cake front, but if you like buffets, then have a look at the rest of our delicacies...

Strawberries and Cream, Making it a truely British affair!

Pasta Salad

Our fair table!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

More Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

Golly Wow, love these Alice inspired cupcakes, by katieskupcakes.com Via
http://www.disneyeveryday.com/disneys-alice-in-wonderland-cupcake-tower/

Happy Baking!

X

21st Birthday Cupcake Tower

So last week was my twenty-first Birthday (I know, old or what?) and to celebrate, I decided to make my very fist cupcake tower yay!
Originally I'd wanted to order some cakes from Oh Crumbs but unfortunately they've ceased trading for the time being, so into the kitchen I went, and here are the results...






Soo what do you think? To be honest, I'm pretty impressed with the results since they actually turned out okayish - One might even say that they look semi-professional! (or is that taking it a bit too far!)

They were actually a lot easier to make than I'd expected and once I got going I managed to have them all baked and decorated in no time. In total, I made 45 cakes (using the regular recipe, which I'll paste below!) and it cost around £50 (including stand!) - So all in all, I saved around £70, which helps a lot when you're a poor student!

The recipe for four cakes is...
(Just multiply to the quantity you want!)

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.

I'm usually quite ambiguous when it comes to icing repipes and I'm going to remain that way. However, I will say that milk and vanilla extract really help to create the perfect buttercream, so just add a splash of those to your mix and you should be good to go!

What do you think of my first tower? Let me know.

Check back soon for more baking advantures!

Happy Baking,

X

Snowies Cupcakes

I think it's fair to say that in recent months, I've been an appalling blogger. I've neglected this site and perhaps more shamefully, I've neglected my baking responsibilities. For this I can only apologise. However, fear not because the cake-making is about to recommence.

I've been away, but now I'm back and ready to perfect my baking technique. I probably won't be writing another list because, lets face it, the last one didn't exactly reach completion, but I will be posting a lot more often, starting with my very first Cupcake tower next week.

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes :)

And just to whet your appitite before my next post, here are my snowies Cupcakes from last week (Ususal Recipe)

Happy Baking!

X

Broadway Cake

I'm always musical obsessed and when I came across this wonderful little masterpiece by pinkcakebox.com I had to share it with you, Amazing don't you think?

Happy Baking!

X

Disney Land Paris Cupcakes

Last week I went to the most magical place on earth - Disney Land Paris (yay) - and when I saw that they were selling Cupcakes, I just had to try one!

The verdict?

Although they could've tied into the Disney theme a little better (and been a bit cheaper) they were really delicious - I particularly loved the idea of having a meringue top so that they kept their shape in the hot weather!

Take me back to Disney for one of these any day :)

Happy Baking

X

The Afternoon Tea Club: Airyfairy Cupcake Boutique, School Lane, Didsbury

The Afternoon Tea Club: Airyfairy Cupcake Boutique, School Lane, Didsbury: Environment Laura : Airyfairy aims to create a cupcake-topia (That works right?) and it definitely succeeds. Sitting at one of their cu...

Muppet Cupcakes

The new muppet movie is released in the uk next week, and what better way to celebrate than with a muppet themed cupcake? (you'd have to go to Suffolk to get one, but I definitely think it's worth it!)

They're AMAZING, don't you agree?

Made by: Caroline Deasy and Mandy Rawlins Cupcake Occasions http://www.cupcakeoccasions.co.uk

Happy Baking!

X

Carnation and Shooting Star Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to try out sugar craft decorations and thought that flowers would be a good place to start. So after watching LOTS video's on YouTube, I decided to invest in a flower nail, which arrived last week. (for those of you who don't know, a flower nail is like a really really big drawing pin!)

I have to admit that I entered into this experiment with a bit of trepidation, as from experience, these sort of things are rarely as simple as they first appear - and this looked pretty difficult.

However, I gave it a go anyway and on Sunday I produced my very first sugar craft flowers. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. They actually turned out alright. Don't you think?
(If you want to learn how to do it yourself, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRv5sQnr43k)

Since they turned out so well, I decided to make some cupcakes to put them on top of. Here they are...




I'm quite pleased with the overall effect of the cakes, although my icing could've perhaps been a little smoother, although this can easily be altered!

For the cakes, I used the normal recipe...

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.



Let me know what you think!

And until next time...

Happy Baking :)

X

Baking Disasters Continued...

It's that time again. Yes, the time when I talk about my baking disasters and oh how numerous they've been!

If you follow me on twitter or have sat with me for at least 30 seconds, then you'll know that I got a K-Mixer for Christmas... Isn't it pretty?

I love my K-Mixer, I really do, but I must admit that it's been something of a bad omen... perhaps I got too cocky, but ever since receiving it, everything I've made has gone wrong!

Let me explain...
On New Year's Eve I decided to make bread. Now I'm no dough expert, but I generally like to think, that I have skills enough to weigh my ingredients correctly. So this I did and everything was fine - so into the mixer it went to blend and kneed. So far, so good. As everything was going so marvelously well, I decided to carry on to the next stage, leaving it under a tea towel to rise for an hour.
Sixty minutes later, I came back and was faced with disaster one - The dough hadn't risen. Now I'm not exactly sure what the science behind bread making is, but I'm pretty certain that that's not meant to happen.

Upon discovering this, I was a little concerned, but nevertheless undetered, so continued to put it in the oven to bake. And you know what? it baked. It actually baked and for one brief moment, I allowed myself to believe that it would all be okay.

It wasn't...

I took the bread out, sliced a piece and spread it with butter... 'mmm warm bread, yum'.

However not all was well and as I bit into my wonderful slice of home made bread, I discovered it's fatal flaw. It tasted of nothing but salt.

I honestly don't have a clue how this happened, because like I said, I'm very good at measuring things correctly, all I know is that it went wrong. And so began the curse of the K-Mixer

Disaster two. Lemon Drizzle Cake, which tasted of nothing but egg (See above)

Okay this was my own fault, I shouldn't have missed out the ground almonds... or maybe it's the curse of the mixer? You think?

Disaster three - Not strictly a disaster because the cake was fine, but the icing was terribly runny and wouldn't solidify no matter how much icing sugar I put into the mixture. Coincidence? I think not!

Okay so maybe it's not the mixer, maybe it's just me, perhaps I'm just losing my touch. Whatever it is, I really hope it ends soon and things start turning out right again - Wish me luck!

Happy Baking!

X

New Domain

To continue the professionalization of this little blog, I've invested in a brand new domain name.

Welcome to...


Okay, so it's not as snazzy as carolinescupcakes.co.uk or .com, but I think it works quite nicely. Don't you agree? :)

So remember...

www.carolinescupcakes.info

Happy Baking!

X

We Have a New Image!

As I'm coming up to my one year anniversary online, I've decided to try and make the site, a little more professional... so without further ado, I present to you the brand new image of Caroline's Cupcakes... You like?


Everything's still in the same place - just a little more refined!

So what to you think? Do you like it or love it? let me know :)

Happy Baking!

X

For those of you who would like to reminisce over the different images I've adopted over the last twelve months, here's a mini montage of the blogs history to date - Enjoy!

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

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

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!