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

Victoria Sandwich

If you read my last post, you'll probably remember me saying that I was going to post a recipe for Victoria Sandwich Cake. Well, as promised, here is said recipe...

Ingredients

175g (6oz) Margarine
175g (6oz) Caster Sugar
175g (6oz) Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs (Beaten)
Pinch of Salt

Strawberry Jam
Whipped Cream (optional)

1. Beat margarine in a large bowl until soft/fluffy.

2. Add the sugar to the margarine, mix both together with a wooden spoon.

3. Beat three large eggs in a bowl, before adding them a little at a time to the margarine/sugar mixture, beating well inbetween each addition.

4. Sift the flower into the mix and gently stir in. (If the mix becomes too thick, add a drop of milk until it reaches a dropping consistency)

5. Add a pinch of salt and stir in.

6. Grease and line two sponge tins and divide the mixture between both.

7. Put in the oven for 27 minutes at 180C (160C FAN)

8. Take the sponges out of the oven, removing them from their tins (using a sharp bladed knide around the edges if necessary) Leave to cool on a wire rack for half an hour.

9. Spread Jam (I like to use almost a whole jar of Bon Maman Conserve) over one of the sponges and place the other on top, creating a sandwich. (you can add cream as well if you like!)

10. Dust with icing sugar and serve!


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

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

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!

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

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

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

99 Flake Cakes

Enjoy!

On a hot sunny afternoon, what's better than an ice cream themed Cupcake to lift your day?
These are made using the usual recipe with the addition of a flake bar and chocolate sprinkles for decoration.

Happy Summer!

X

I got a new Piping Set... Again

So over the weekend I thought... 'You know what? I just don't have enough Piping Bags and Nozzles' so while I was in Liverpool I headed to the Lakeland shop to buy some new equipment. Here's what I got...

My New Piping Set :)

It was a little expensive at £11.99, but being metal, the quality of the nozzles is far superior to anything that I've used before.
The set includes a large piping bag which is perfect if you want to ice lots of cakes. The only slight problem is that oil tends to leak from the icing mixture through the bag, making your hands a bit messy, but otherwise it's perfect!

Happy Baking!

X

Chocolate Cupcakes

This week's offerings are Chocolate Cupcakes, technically not on the list, but hey here they are - I couldn't resist!
The recipe is the same as the Chocolate Bites from a few weeks ago, minus the chocolate centres and the topping is made by mixing margarine, cocoa powder and icing sucar together until the mixture reaches a firm consistency.

Topped off with pretty multi coloured sprinkles, these would make the perfect accompaniment to any afternoon tea!

Happy Baking!

X

Things I Love: Glee Cake

After my last post I decided to see if I could find myself on google images, you know, as you do... and while I was looking, I came across this master piece:


I mean, seriously wow... this is possibly one of the coolest cakes I've ever seen.

You want to know who made it?
Well so did I... and after having a little look around the internet I discovered that it was made by Piece of Cake Desserts in Arizona. As it turns out all of their cakes are pretty amazing, and if anyone has a spare $650 and fancies treating me for my 21st then I'd love one of these... it's just a shame I don't live in America!

If you want to read about this cake, check out their blog Here

Happy Baking!

X

Glee Cupcakes

Ahh the Beautiful Cupcakes

This week was the Glee Season 2 Finale in the UK, and being the MASSIVE Gleek that I am, I decided that I couldn't let this occasion pass by without some form of celebration... so drum roll please... I present to you my Glee Cupcakes!
I must say that I was pretty impressed with my efforts and very much enjoyed nibbling my way through one or two of these whilst watching the New Directions competing in the nationals and Klaine saying 'I love you.' (aww)

Gleek

So you're gonna want to know how to make these, coz who doesn't love Glee, right? (and even if you don't love Glee, you must love cake, so you're winning either way!)
This is the easiest recipe in the world, but it's also probably the best sponge I've ever made.
The main body of the recipe comes from one which I was taught at school in home economics, but as usual I've adjusted it a little to make it even better!

Stars

Soo the recipe for four cakes 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.

Mr Shue Cake

For the topping it's the same school of thought as the Carrot Cake I made a few weeks ago, it's a case of trial and error and using a LOT of icing sugar!
The stars were bought from a lovely little online company called Top My Party Cake, who sell the best cake accessories ever and sold them to me for the bargain price of £3.79 - A bargain? I think so...Have a look at their site if you get a minute!
And for the final finishing touches I've used multi coloured sugar sprinkles and pink edible glitter, to give it that extra Rachel Berry sparkle :)

Rachel Berry Sparkle

Like I said before, I loved these and had great fun making them, so watch this space for more Glee Cakes next season!

Until Next time,

Happy Baking!

X

Soft Centred Chocolate Bites

So what do you think?

This week was the turn of the Soft Centred Chocolate Bites, which were taken from a lovely little recipe book called Everyday Baking, given to me by my friend Laura for my last Birthday.

It's a fantastic book and contains pretty much everything you could ever wish to bake, so you won't be surprised to hear that I'll be using it several more times, as I make my way through the Challenge list!

(Incidentally here's a photo of the book's cover, if you want to look for it - It's very good and very easy to understand!)

Go on, go look for it!

The recipe itself was very straight forward and oh so delicious (I've adapted it everso slightly, but not so much as you'd tell!)

So what you'll need...

* TO MAKE 7/8 CHOCOLATE BITES*

• 4 Tablespoons of Soft Margarine
  
• 55g/2oz Caster Sugar
  
• 1 Large Egg
• 85g/ 3oz Self raising Flour
  
• 1.5 Tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
  
• 1 Bar of Plain Chocolate (Segmented is best)
• Icing Sugar for Dusting
• Strawberry Garnish
  

Recipe

1. Put 8 paper cases in a muffin tin.

2. Put the margarine, sugar, egg, flour, baking powder and cocoa into a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth.

3. Spoon half the mixture into the paper cases. Using a teaspoon make an indentation in the centre of each cake. Break the chocolate into eight segments and place a piece in each indentation (although I would recommend you use two, because one isn't quite enough!)

4. Spoon the remaining cake mix on the top of each cake until the cases are almost full.


5. Bake the cakes in a pre heated over at 190C/ 375F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and leave to stand for two minutes, before lightly dusting with icing sugar for presentation.

Fresh out of the Oven

The Verdict?

These mini chocolate bites were incredibly delicious - even if I do say so myself - and I would certainly recommend them to anyone who wants make them - really, go on make them, you won't regret it!
The only thing I would say is that the chocolate quantities in the centre should be doubled (I've noted this in the recipe) but this can be easily adjusted to make them the perfect cakes.

Next week I'm jumping over to the savoury side of the wall to make Black Olive Focaccia so check back soon to see how that goes!

Until then,

Happy Baking!

X

2010's Baking

Since I'm going to start my Baking Challenge in just over a month I thought it might be cool to post up some of my previous attempts, so that you can get a sense of what sort of level I'm at at the moment and also so that, I, myself can look back in coming weeks to compare and contrast, and see if any real improvement has been made!
So yeah, here's something I made earlier...

Buns

My first attempt at icing - shocking I know! I had visions of Humming Bird Bakery - esque iced cupcakes but instead I ended up with... well... as you can see it probably wasn't the best idea to use a tube of shop bought icing on fresh out of the oven cupcakes!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These actually turned out really well, some merged a little in the oven, but otherwise they were pretty good - even if I do say so myself! haha :)

Lemon Drizzle Cake

My last baking attempt. Again, at the risk of appearing big headded, this was also fairly good. It was however in dire need of some icing on top to give it an added crunch!

Iced Sponge Cake

I made this last year. After a friend told be that she was going to be making an iced cake, I thought that I'd have a go at making one myself - It was a lot more difficult than I expected, and needless to say, mine was no where near as good as hers! But for a first attempt I suppose it could have been a lot worse. I think the worst thing about it was that the icing started to split as I was placing it on the cake, so I had to desparately try and salvage the situation by hiding the cracks with the polka dots, but shhh I don't think anyone really noticed!

Carrot Cake

This was pretty yummy - a little burnt around the edges but not too noticeable. Yeah on the whole it was A-OK :) and if you want to know the icing on top is orange flavoured!

So that's pretty much everything I made last year... I'd say that on the whole, I was fairly successful (If you ignore some of the horrible icing and eversoslightly charred carrot/cupcakes!)
So my aim this year? - to become Gizzi Erskine or you know, someone who can cook with perfection! Watch this space...

Happy Baking! :)

X