Mojito Cupcakes on a sunny day

So in my last blog I mentioned how my friends really love cake, they also love cocktails, and for the past couple of months ever since I mentioned I found a recipe for a Mojito cupcake I've been pretty much hounded to make them. My lovely friend Mandie even graffitied my noticeboard telling me to make them.

So last week when It was forecast for a sunny day (a rarity at the moment) I decided to invite my friends round for a BBQ and some cocktails and I didn't want to disappoint so I cracked open the rum and got started on the Mojito cupcakes to accompany our cocktails. And that's exactly how they were enjoyed:

The recipe suggested them as mini cupcakes, but I know my friends and unless there was a ridiculous amount of them mini wouldn't go down to well, so I made them slightly smaller than usual as I had cute green polka dot cases but still ample enough size to please!

 These cakes really turned out great and they tasted just like you would expect a Mojito cake to taste like. A soft moist cakes with kicks of lime, mint and sugar and a hint of rum. This recipe really impressed my friends too with one of them declaring them the best cupcakes yet so I will definitely be trying the other cocktail inspired cupcake recipes I have.

Any way here's how they're made: (Recipe from Hummingbird bakery's Cake Days)

Mojito Cupcakes!

Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes or 20-30 mini cakes

For the sponge:

100ml White rum
170g Caster sugar
40g Unsalted butter, softened
120g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Grated lime zest
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
1 tbsp Finely chopped mint
1 large egg
120ml Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 170deg C and line a muffin tin with cases

In a saucepan bring the white rum and 30g of the sugar to the boil, reduce by half and set aside.
Beat together the butter, flour, salt, baking powder, lime and lemon zest, mint and remaining sugar. Mix until you have a crumb like consistency.
Mix together the egg milk and vanilla in a jug and gradually pour this into the dry mix mixing until you have a smooth batter.

Spoon cake batter into the cases up to 2/3 full. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 min's for mini cupcakes or 15 to 20 for bigger or until the cakes are a light golden brown and springy to the touch.

While the cakes are still warm spoon the rum reduction over them (1/2 tsp for mini cakes 1tsp for bigger approx) Then leave to cool completely!

While the cakes are cooling, make and drink a mojito! ... erm I mean make the frosting!

For the frosting

80g Unsalted butter
250g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp lime zest
4 tsp milk
4 tsp White rum

1tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp chopped mint or lime zest

Using and electric whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar, lemon and lime zest until combined in a sandy consistency. Stir together the milk and rum and pour this into the butter mixture while still beating, whisk until light and fluffy.
Divide the frosting between the cakes. To finish, mix together the caster sugar with either 1 tsp of mint or lime zest and sprinkle over the top.

And that's it, the perfect treat to share with friends on a sunny day and because they have rum in the grown ups have no choice but to eat them all before the kids see.
I definitely recommend making these soon.


I've recently had more orders for cupcakes too , and I used this as an excuse to try 2 colour swirl icing for the first time. Making a vanilla cupcake and topping it with half vanilla butter cream and half pink strawberry butter cream. Here's my first attempt:

Not to bad I think. Its done by filling one side of the piping bag with white icing and the other half with pink. I found it easier to hold a knife down the middle of the bag when filling with the two icings.

Here they all are decorated, boxed up and ready to go along with plain pink and more chocolate orange cakes:

How cute are the little cupcake toppers, they were a bargain!

Any way that's it for today, I'm felling in a cookie dough kinda mood so that's what I'll be baking with this week.

Bye for now

Cupcake Kris

xxx

Linked to foodie-friends-friday-linky-party

Chocolate Caramel Marble Bunt Cake.

Phew I feel like I haven't blogged in so long as I've not been able to spend to much time on blogspot the last week I've been a little busy and like a few others I've had a few issues with logging on.

Any way last week I had my friends round for lots and lots of pizza. And even with copious amounts of pizza I knew my friends would expect 1 thing - cake! In fact I didn't even need to second guess this as I got a text message about 2 hours before my friends were due letting me know that there best be cake on offer!

I already had to make some Chocolate Orange cupcakes for an order I had (They seem to be a very popular flavour at the mo) so there was some of them left over but I also needed something else (I have lovely but greedy friends)

I decided on something caramel themed as I had some left over dulce de leche that needed to be used. I also had wanted to make a marbled cake as it was something I'd never made before so I went with a caramel and chocolate marble cake. I used my bunt tin but this recipe could be made in any tin.

The cake turned out really nice soft and just the right mix of caramel and chocolate which gave the outside a deep golden colour. And it didn't last long at all before it was all snatched up! Here it is:

I don't know why I love the shape of Bunt cakes so much. Here's the swirly inside,

I even managed to steal myself a piece before it was all whisked away:

And here's how it's made:

I made more caramel mixture than chocolate as I didn't want the caramel overpowered by to much chocolate. Also depending on the size of your tin you may have a little left over. I had enough to make 6 caramel cupcakes as well.

For the Caramel sponge: (from hummingbirds caramel cupcake recipe)

80g Unsalted Butter
280g Caster sugar (I had almost run out so used 1/2 caster sugar 1/2 soft brown sugar  - worked perfectly)
240g Plain flour
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml Whole milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
2 large eggs
150g Dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 190degC

Whisk or rub together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until you have a sandy consistency.
Place the milk and vanilla in a jug with the eggs and whisk together. Pour 3/4 of this into the dry ingredients and whisk together firstly on a slow speed and then increase the speed and whisk till you have a smooth thick batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining milk mixture and caramel and mix until all the ingredients are combined.

Put to one side while you make the chocolate mix.

For the chocolate sponge:

100g Plain flour
20g Cocoa Powder
140g Caster Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter
120ml Milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

Put the flour, cocoa, baking powder, sugar and butter in a bowl and rub together until you have a sandy consistency.

Whisk the milk, eggs and vanilla together and add slowly to the mixture beating out any lumps. Mix for a couple of minutes till everything is well combined but don't over mix.


Then get your desired cake tin and grease then either line with greaseproof paper or grease and dust with a fine layer of flour to prevent any sticking. I went for about 2/3 caramel mix and 1/3 chocolate and filled the tin approx 2/3 full.

First pour in the desired amount of caramel mixture then on top pour the chocolate mixture. Then take a teaspoon or knife and gently swirl the mixtures together to create a marble effect all the way through.

Then bake in the oven for 40  - 50 minutes (depending on size of cake/tin) or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Then serve (Very yummy served warm with custard or cream)

and that's it!

As I said I had a little left over to make 6 caramel cupcakes, I didn't have any icing sugar left so I pricked the top of them and drizzled with toffee sauce to give a really sticky sweet cake:

One thing I love about my friends is that they don't hold back when it comes to cake. After finishing the pizza and easting cupcakes and cake, just before leaving they all ventured into my kitchen got the tin foil out and started cutting and wrapping slices of cake to take home. hehehe. They did leave me a couple of slices though.

I've had to make a lot of cupcakes for orders over the last few weeks but I have a free weekend this weekend so I'm hoping to bake something new. Not that I haven't enjoyed making all the cakes to order and as I said Chocolate Orange is definitely proving to be the favourite, I mean just look at this lot:

And this was just half of the amount of them I made last weekend.

Any way that's it for now!

Until next time, keep baking

Cupcake Kris
xxx

Special Toffee Cupcakes and obsessive baking

I've been meaning to put this recipe up for a week now but it's been a bit of a crazy week so again I'm blogging later than expected.

Anyways a few weeks ago I was asked by my friend Alex to make some cupcakes for her Grandma's Birthday and they had to include Thornton's special toffee as that was her Grandmas favorite. I did play with the idea of somehow melting the toffee into the cake but the toffee is so hard it just wouldn't make for good texture. So I decided to make a toffee flavoured sponge with caramel icing and then I smashed up toffee into tiny pieces to sprinkle over the top and topped with one large chunk before drizzling the icing in toffee sauce. They went down very well! The cake was very soft and light and the icing sweet and topped with plenty of toffee to add a hit of toffee flavour.

Here they are:

If i was making these to have with little or no icing I would use dark rather than light brown sugar to give the cake a darker, richer taste however with a big swirl of icing the cake is sweet enough.

Here's how they're made:

80g Unsalted Butter, softened
150g Soft light brown sugar
180g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp Vanilla essence
2 large eggs
100ml Milk

Makes 12 - 16

Preheat the oven to 190deg C and line a muffin tin with cases.
Beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Mix in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Beat together the eggs, vanilla essence and  milk and add this to the dry mix. Mixing until you have a smooth batter.

Fill each paper case 2/3 full and bake for 18- 20 mins until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool before icing.

(For an alternative to make sticky toffee cupcakes add 180g pitted and chopped dates and replace the milk with 180ml boiling water. Soak the dates in the water for 20 minutes and add these to the dry ingredients after adding the egg and vanilla.)

For the Icing

160g Unsalted butter
500g Icing sugar
50ml Milk
100g Dulce de leche
Toffee to decorate

Mix together the butter and icing sugar gradually add the milk and mix well add the tinned caramel and beat until light and fluffy.

Spoon or pipe the icing onto the cakes and top with crushed toffee and drizzle with toffee sauce or dulce de leche.

and all packed up and ready to go

And that's it!

Ok well that's nearly all for today but before I go I'd like to confess that I think my baking addiction has gone to far! I've been trying to not eat as much naughty foods recently but I am still itching to bake so last week I found a silly, bargain of a cook book and before I knew it I actually found myself baking. Not for me or boyfriend but I was baking healthy, tasty treats for my dog! Yep my baking addiction has officially gone to far!

The book was a bargain (99p) and as well as loving to bake I do like my doggy to eat well so I suppose that doesn't make me too crazy (does it?) but here they are, the banana and carrot oaty dog biscuits I made:

They actually smell damn good! although there's no sugar in them so they taste pretty bland (yes I tried a nibble!)
Clyro on the other hand loves them and starts wagging his tail whenever I bring him one. I also wrapped a few up for my friends dogs who also approved. (Although my friends might think I'm a bit mad)

Any way that's it for today

off to decide what to bake next

bye for now

Cupcake Kris xxx

Linked up to sweets for a saturday

Cake poppin for a worthy cause : Chocolate cake pops.

I have a confession: I was meant to write this blog about 3 hours ago but I got distracted by pretty dresses online (To Nickie, if your reading this it's all your fault) and I even ended up buying dresses that I don't know if they will even suit me. But they are pretty so forgive my lateness.

Last week in work there was another Charity bake sale, (They just can't get enough of the cake in my office!)
and I was asked to make some sweet treats to contribute to it. I was also very flattered as the girl who asked me also mentioned how she had been passed my blog address and really likes my blog. (blushes) So as flattery gets you everywhere I went home and shut myself in the kitchen ready to make some cakes. I made 6 chocolate cupcakes as well as 12 chocolate cake pops as I had a bar of chocolate cake covering spare.
Lots of people at the sale commented on how great they looked and tasted (cue more blushing).

But the most important part was that we raised lots of pennies for a very worthy charity: the Samantha Dickinson Brain Tumour Trust . Lots of people made cakes to sell and as usual it was a great success as people just cant resist home baked goodies!

Any way as I've previously posted how to make cake pops, here's the link to how to make them. The only difference being this time I used Milk chocolate cake covering (a much easier to source in the UK and cheaper option than candy melts). Here they are:

As you can see I decorated them with pink and lavender sugar crystals. I found it a lot easier when decorating to wait until the chocolate had dried then re dip or coat the part of the pop I wanted to decorate and sprinkle on the crystals. This made for much neater decorating when just decorating the top or sides. And it also made the pops look like they were wearing little hats hehehe.

Any way since there is no recipe I'm just going to fill the rest of this post with more pics of the pops! (hehe)

I definitely need to get better at fixing little cosmetic mistakes on my cakes before taking pictures.

Right that's enough poppin for today

Till next time

Cupcake Kris xxx

Cherry Coconut Cupcakes, Easter Cupcakes and Cake Pops.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter break and bank holiday weekend. I have absolutely loved the weather we have had during the break and I've filled my time with a camping trip in the beautiful lakes with walking and kayaking, indoor rock climbing, my little brothers birthday and lots and lots of cocktails with friends. I think I need another week off!

I have also done allot of baking over the break I had to make 30 Easter themed cupcakes for a friends work, 12 cake pops for a friends mother in law as well as hot cross buns (previous blog)  and mini Creme egg cupcakes.

Here are the cupcakes I made for my friends work, I went with 12 chocolate (Recipe on a earlier blog) decorated with micro eggs:

Forgot to take the pics until after I'd packed the cakes away. I also made 12 Lemon cupcakes with sugar paste flowers (recipe on earlier blog)

And then I made 6 Cherry Coconut cupcakes with bright cherry coloured icing and dipped in dessicated coconut:

And here's the recipe for the Cherry Coconut cakes: Recipe via Next: Cupcakes


Cherry Coconut Cupcakes

115g Butter, softened
115g Caster Sugar
2 tbsp Milk
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
85g Self raising flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
85g Desiccated Coconut
115g Glace Cherries, quartered
Handful of Desiccated coconut to decorate.

For the Icing I used vanilla butter cream dyed with red food colouring. recipe here.

Preheat oven to 180degC and line a bun tray with 12 cases.

Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Stir in the milk. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold them in with the coconut. Toss the quartered cherries in flour and then stir them into the mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 20- 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Once cool spread over a spoonful of icing and roll the top of the cake in desiccated coconut.

enjoy!

As i said earlier I also made some mini Creme egg cupcakes and cake pops but just before I went camping I accidentally deleted all the pics of these from my camera and I was gutted.

The Creme egg cupcakes were a chocolate cupcake with a min creme egg baked inside and then iced with vanilla icing and drizzled with orange coloured icing to look like egg yolk and topped with a mini creme egg cut in half. It was definitely a calorie fest! But as there are no pic here's a cute one from my camping trip instead:

I do have a couple of pics of the cake pops, one a  very bad camera pic and the other taken by a friend after handing them over you cant see them very well but here they are:

They were chocolate inside dipped in white chocolate cake covering and decorated with pink sugar crystals.
Here's how to make cake pops. Link!

These ones turned out much better than the last I think too (which is why I was so gutted about the loss of pictures) Cake pops are definitely something that take practice.

Any way that's it for today. Tomorrow is my first day back at work after the break and I also have to fit in a zumba class as well as lots of baking for a charity bake sale so it's an early night for me tonight!

Till next time,

Cupcake Kris

xxx

Easter Baking: Cranberry and Orange Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone! Phew I'm nearly falling asleep writing this blog. I don't know what it is about sitting in the sun all day that makes you feel so tired. Maybe It's something to do with the copious amount of tasty food I've eaten today.

Today we had Boyfriends family over for a barbeque and discovered that his nan has never been to a BBQ before so it was a first! there was plenty of burgers, sausages, chicken and prawns, and then barbequed bananas with toffee sauce for after mmmmm nom!

as If that wasn't enough food I also made hot cross buns for everyone to take home and enjoy later for supper. I've just finished eating one toasted with butter and I enjoyed every last bite of it. I'm usually all about the cake but I'd been craving hot cross buns for a few days so I thought I'd make my own, and this is a really good recipe. I think It's definitely worth the effort over buying the shop bought ones and this way you can add the fruit you prefer. I'd been craving Cranberry and orange buns and it worked perfectly and made them a little different from the plain raisin.

Here's one:

And here's how they're made. (I got the original basic recipe from belleau kitchen and then adjusted it slightly to fit the flavours I wanted.)

Cranberry and Orange Hot Cross Buns.  

Makes 12

625g Strong white flour
1tsp Salt
2tsp Mixed Spice
45g Butter
85g Caster Sugar
Zest of 1 large Orange
2 tsp easy blend yeast
1 large egg
10floz Tepid milk (heat for a few seconds in the microwave)
100g Dried Cranberries
50g Raisins

For the cross & Glaze

2 Tbsp Flour
2 Tbsp Water
1 tbsp Golden syrup - heated.

Mix the flour, salt and mixed spice in a large bowl then rub in the butter until you have a sandy consistency and add the sugar, orange zest and yeast. Beat the egg into the milk and add to the flour mixture, bring the mixture together to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead whilst sprinkling in the dried fruit in batches. Knead for about 5 minutes.

Place the dough ball in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove for 1 hour.

After an hour knock back the dough and knead for 1 minute. Place back in the bowl, cover again and put back in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Once the dough has doubled in size divide into 12 balls, flatten slightly and place on greased baking trays. Pre-heat the oven to 240deg C. Place the trays in large plastic bags and tie the bags at the end. leave to rise for a further 40 minutes.

For the cross combine the flour and water to form a thick paste and pipe crosses onto the buns:

Bake the buns in the oven for 8 - 12 minutes until a dark golden colour then brush with warm syrup straight from the oven.

Once cooled enjoy the buns toasted and buttered with a nice cup of tea. Mmmm a tasty Easter treat. Why not make some this bank holiday.

Cupcake Kris
 xxx

This post has been linked up to sweet as sugar cookies

Portuguese Tarts

A couple of weeks ago now Boyfriend asked his brother over for dinner so I decided to make a recipe from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals book. I got this book at Christmas and me and Boyfriend take turns in picking a recipe for the other to cook. Most of the recipes in the book include a main, 1 or 2 side dishes and usually either a dessert of a drink / smoothie.

This time Boyfriend had chosen the Piri Piri Chicken with roasted peppers for me to make. And it turned out great, nice and spicy but so rich in flavour. I didn't make the potatoes suggested and just served it with rice and dressed salad. The dessert that was suggested with the recipe were Portuguese tarts. These were really easy to make, not the prettiest neatest of dessert but a really refreshing tasty little treat after dinner, and could be easily whipped up whilst dinner is cooking away. (Being a little treat meant I could eat 4 hehehe) The tarts comprise of a Cinnamon puff pasty case with a baked orange cream centre and an orange syrupy glaze. I love how easy they are to make an how once they're on the table they don't last very long before they're all scoffed.

And here are the tarts:

 Sorry about the terrible picture but have you ever tried taking a picture of a dessert when there's 2 hungry boys hovering around the table waiting to dig into their dinner (I couldn't get a picture of the chicken for that very reason) And here's how they're made.

I've doubled the recipe as there's no way you could just have 6 -  they would get eaten to fast hehe. Although I think you could get more than 12 out of this recipe ( if you have more pastry) as the mixture for the filling gives a generous amount.

Portuguese Tarts

Makes 12

Plain flour (for dusting)
1 x 375g pack of pre rolled puff pastry
Ground Cinnamon
250g Creme Fraiche
2 eggs 
2 tsp vanilla extract
10 tbsps Golden caster sugar
2 oranges

Preheat the oven to 200degC

Dust a clean surface with flour. Unroll the sheet of pastry and cut into two 20 x 20cm squares of pastry. Sprinkle the pastry with a few good pinches of cinnamon, then roll the pastry squares into sis roll shapes and cut each square into 6 rounds. Put these into 12 holes of a muffin / bun tin and use your thumbs to stretch and mould the pastry into the holes so the bottom is flat and the pasty comes up to the top to make a casing for the filling. Put on the top shelf of the oven and bake for 8 - 10 mins until lightly golden.

Spoon the creme fraiche into a bowl, add the eggs, 2 tbsp Golden caster sugar and the zest of the oranges. Mix well.

When the cases are baked, take them out of the oven and use a teaspoon to press the puffed up pastry back to the sides and make room for the filling. Spoon the filling mixture into the tart cases and return to the top shelf of the oven for about 8 mins.

Put a small saucepan on a high heat. Squeeze in the juice from the zested oranges and add 8 tbsps of golden caster sugar. Stir until it thickens and forms a syrupy caramel.

Pour some caramel over each tart (They'll still be wobbly but that's fine) Put aside to set and cool. Enjoy

And that's it.

Being Easter weekend I have a busy weekend of cupcake orders and baking ahead so I best get planning.

Till next time.

Cupcake Kris
xxxx