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

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

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

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

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

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

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'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