Showing posts with label Vanilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vanilla. Show all posts

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, 4 May 2012

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

Thursday, 26 April 2012

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

Friday, 10 February 2012

Buttons Cupcakes


The last few times I've made cupcakes, I've noticed that the cake tends to rise a little too much, which can be impractical when icing. To try and rectify this, last weekend, I decided to have a look around the internet for tips on how to get a flat topped cake. It seems that there are several different avenues which you can pursue when doing this, but the most common suggestion I found was to reduce the oven temperature from 180C to 150C.


This seemed practical enough so I tried it out the other day - and you know what? It actually works and here's the cupcakes to prove it!

TOP TIP: REDUCE THE OVEN TEMPERATURE!

If you have any other suggestions for how to make the perfect cake then let me know!

Until next time,

Happy baking!

X

Thursday, 21 July 2011

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