Cheats' Cake Pops (of the Oreo, Nutella and White Chocolate variety): faffy, faddy or fabby?

First it was cupcakes, then it was whoopee pies, then macarons, then cake pops became the next big (well... actually quite little) thing. As far as I can see, cake pops are still enjoying a bit of a "moment". But are they here to stay?

I'd read a lot about cake pops on others' baking blogs and enjoyed looking at pictures of various impressive chocolate-clad-cakes-in-miniature-on-sticks (or CCCIMOS as they might be referred to). Whilst I didn't doubt that they tasted great, and, evidently, they can look stunning, I always thought they sounded a bit faffy to make, and wondered whether I could justify the hours in the kitchen if the outcome was just 12 mini mouthfuls. Going to the trouble of baking a lovely cake only to put it in a food processor and reduce it to crumbs as a preliminary activity seemed a bit long-winded and labour intensive to me. As I've implied, I have a sneaky suspicion that cake pops might be "totes gim" (a total gimmick) as my friend Esther might say. Style over substance. Something and nothing. As such, I was in no rush to give them a go, however, I stumbled upon a cheats' recipe involving pre-bought biscuits so thought I'd give that a go. The following recipe is for 12 x Oreo, Nutella and white chocolate cake pops.

Ingredients:
1 x Packet of Oreo cookies
c. 5 x tablespoons of Nutella
100g of White Chocolate
12 Cake Pop Sticks
nonpareils/hundreds and thousands (or similar) for decoration

Method:
1) Using a food processor, blitz the Oreo cookies until you are left with fine, dark crumbs.
2) Add the Nutella to the crumbs and blend until a dough (of sorts) is formed.
3) Take a small amount of dough, and roll into a cake pop-sized ball (I found this bit really messy as the Nutella is of such a wet, sticky consistency!)
4) Roll 12 x Oreo-Nutella pops.
5) Freeze for 15 minutes. When the pops have less than 5 mins chilling time, carefully melt the white chocolate. Take care not to burn it (remember white chocolate burns more easily than milk/dark chocolate).
6) Dip one end of each stick into the melted chocolate, then push into the pop. Re-freeze for c. 5 minutes.
7) Dip each of the pops in the melted chocolate, and once the chocolate encrusted ball(!) has cooled, dip it into your nonpareils.

My CCCIMOS

 

 Totes gim?

The verdict:
Quite nice. But assuming that you like the constituent ingredients, what's not to like? My other half (who is the extremely professional hand model in the above picture) approved of my chocolately comestibles... but then he might have just been being polite.

I don't think I'll rush to make them again. I can think of plenty of other bakes/confections that I would gladly make again before I bothered with these. This was the low-faff version and yet I still found it quite a bit of faff (and messy!) What do you think of cake pops? Faffy, faddy or fabby?

Maple and Pecan Cake



untouched 2-layer Maple and Pecan Cake
 

On bank holiday Monday, I made this layer cake using the Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" app. For those of you who own this, the recipe can be found under the "birthdays and celebrations" tab. I used two thirds of the prescribed quantities to make two layers rather than three which is plenty big enough if you ask me! I think I'd only do three layers if I was making this for a particular special occasion and planning to serve it to lots of guests, but as I was making it as more of an "every day" cake, two layers was ample. I've made this cake before to share during my final lesson with some Year 13 students and, on that occasion, the recipe turned out perfectly. For some reason, when I made it this time, the cake needed much longer than the suggested time in the oven though (in fact, I removed it, turned it out of the tin, scratched my head, then put it back in its tin, then back in the oven for another 20 minutes). The finished outcome was quite good, if a little too sickly for my taste (thank goodness that I didn't add an extra layer!). Not sure I'll be making this one again in a hurry, not least because the icing sugar goes absolutely everywhere when you make the buttercream. It took me the best part of 2 hours to clean up behind myself. Anyone got a solution to this problem?!

Ingredients (for 2 tiered version):
For the sponge:
80g unsalted butter/stork (I used the latter)
267g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
240ml whole milk
40ml maple syrup
2 large eggs
67g chopped pecans

For the frosting:
160g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar
40ml whole milk
1 tsp maple syrup
10 pecan halves for decorating

Method:
For the sponge:
1) Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, grease and line the two 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.

2) To make the sponge, mix the butter/stork with the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until the batter reaches a sandy, crumb-like consistency.

3) In a jug, mix together the eggs, maple syrup and whole milk. With the mixer/whisk on a low speed setting, pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and beat until everything is incorporated. Stir in the chopped pecans by hand. Hint - don't worry that the batter seems quite liquid - it is supposed to be like this).

4) Divide the batter between the two lined tins, place in the centre of the oven and bake until the sponges are golden and springy. A skewer inserted in the middle of the sponges should come out clean. Hint - this may take longer than 30 mins. Leave in the tins for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

For the frosting:
1) Mix the butter and icing together until fully combined and sandy in texture. In a jug, combine the milk and syrup, then pour this into the butter and icing sugar mixture. Beat until light and fluffy.

2) Assemble the cake using a palette knife to smooth the frosting over the first layer of the cake and to cover the layer cake.

A tantalising glimpse of my behind...

...the scenes cake.
Perhaps that's a rather odd title for a cake, but, to some at least, it may sound a bit more appealing than plain old "lemon cake with lemon cheesecake icing".

 

Behind-the-scenes cake

 

Allow me to explain why I'm calling it "behind-the-scenes cake"....

A good quote that I came across recently reads as follows:

"The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel"

It is certainly true that, in the world of social media, we like to put our best foot forward, to project success, and to share our "highlight reel" with the world. When we blog, tweet or update our status, on some level, we're really engaging in a form of self-promotion, from the "#humble brag" to out-and-out, unashamed gloating. Am I wrong? For my part, I've censored any perceived "#baking fails", and generally only blogged about "successful" items I've baked (i.e. things that I think look pretty, professional and inviting), but times they are a-changin'. In the past, I might have omitted the above cake on the basis that it's quite ugly, but now, here I am exposing it to you. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that it does taste delicious - really moist and tangy, and the mascarpone, cheesecake filling with lemon pulp is lovely. I used a Mary Berry recipe which was featured in a BBC masterclass. You can find it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/whole_lemon_cake_with_40866

The recipe says to use four free-range eggs, but it doesn't specify whether to use small, medium or large eggs. With my new-found confidence in tweaking recipes and making bold, big-girl baking decisions for myself (see blog below), I decided to throw in an extra egg (I used five medium eggs). This seemed to work well. I also substituted butter for margarine. Is there no stopping me now? 

To make the cake look more pretty, professional and inviting, I would recommend sifting the fondant icing sugar before adding the lemon juice. This will result in a smoother, glossy finish without unsightly lumps. 

 

 As you can see from this cross-section, my sponge layers aren't very even, as a I made a bit of a hash of slicing each sponge in half. I think I'll use a serrated knife next time.

Anyway, I hope you haven't objected to me exposing my lumpy, behind-the-scenes bits with you. Let's hope it doesn't count as over-sharing.

White chocolate fudge with red berries - *my own* oh-so-easy recipe

Two years ago, I'd never have had the courage to freestyle in the kitchen. Not even a little bit. I followed every recipe absolutely to the letter in an almost OCD-like fashion. So imagine my pride in devising and creating something all of my own in the kitchen this Easter (albeit only modestly adventurous in its scope... and... alright, quite similar Nigella's rich, dark chocolate recipe for "Chocolate Pistachio Fudge").

White chocolate and red berry fudge

Nevertheless, having made some substitutions and altered quantities to make these fruity beauties, I can happily share the ingredients and method with you knowing that I cannot be accused of plagiarism...

Ingredients:
400g of white chocolate (I used milkybars)
1 x 387g can of condensed milk
30g butter
60g* freeze dried berries - I used strawberries and raspberries that were left over from my white choc Valentine's day heart.

* Ideally, increase the volume for berries. I reckon you could take it up to 120g to get the optimum sweet, white choc:tart berry ratio. I only used this small quantity of fruit as that's all I had left over.

Method:
1) break the chocolate into squares and put it in a heavy-based saucepan with the condensed milk and butter over a low heat, stirring constantly (white chocolate has a lower boiling point than milk/dark chocolate so it burns easily).

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the berries, mixing well.

3) Pour the mixture into a small foil tray and smooth over the top so that it looks level.

4) Let the fudge cool, then refrigerate it until it's set.

5) Once it's set, cut it into large cubes.

6) Give it to someone you love (could be yourself), and they'll love you right back provided they have a very sweet tooth...

This is a very "full-on", sweet fudge, and not for the faint-hearted! One cube is usually sufficient to take the edge off any sugary craving, I find. Whilst I'm pleased with the outcome, especially given the moderate free-styling, I'll certainly look to increase the amount of fruit in any future batches in order to balance the flavours more effectively.

# "Two hearts for eatin' together...

...I'm in love, a-whooo...!" Soz, I couldn't resist a cheeky Kylie reference! Sorry I've not posted in a while - this Valetine's post is loooong overdue! I can scarcely believe that I've not baked anything since February (although, strictly speaking, the items below aren't baked).

So... above on the left (or should I say "in the brown corner"), you have my classic, milk chocolate Rocky Road with, Maltesers, mini marshmallows, mars bar slices, cornflakes, raisins and dried apricots. It occurred to me after making this heart-shaped creation that I ought to have have put the marshmallows on last to make this love token a little more aesthetically pleasing (in fact, that's what I did when I recreated it a week later as a gift for my parents). There's a whole lotta brown going on there and it ain't pretty (but it's mighty tasty, and my other half needed no persuasion to tuck right in). On the right, you have a variation on my snowy road/Rudolph's rocky runway: white chocolate replete with freeze-dried strawberries, raspberries and rose petals giving it a festive Valentine's appearance. Much prettier than it's milk chocolate counterpart.

Both love hearts were decorated within an inch of their lives...

Snowy Road

Last Saturday, I made another batch of white chocolate rocky road to give to two friends I was meeting up with for a belated "Christmas" get-together. With the inclusion of red cranberries, and green pistachios this really is a winning, seasonal recipe. You'll see from my "bakin' with berries" blog entry of 30/12/13 that I'd made lots of this to give as gifts over the holidays. I love the appearance of it, and it tastes lovely too! 

Black and White Chocolate Cheescake bars

So, last weekend, I undertook another baking project using the Hummingbird "Cake Days" app on my phone. The recipe was for Black and White Chocolate Cheesecake Bars.

Chocolate Cheesecake fresh from the oven

The recipe is rated as "easy". I would agree that it is fairly straight-forward, but it is quite time-consuming as you have to allow time to chill the dough before baking the base, time to let the cooked base to cool and a couple of hours to let the finished cheesecake chill in the fridge so, whilst it is indeed quite easy to throw together, it's not something you can whip up in an hour. You may have read my thoughts about the frustrations of baking with an app, as opposed to a good, old-fashioned book, in my last blog. Should you choose to make this (using either the Cake Days app, or the book), here are a few observations, tips etc.peculiar to this recipe. I hope they are of some use to you:

• Tip #1: when you come to press the dough into the baking tray, use the heels of your palms to press down if your hands are warm! The dough doesn't stick to your fingers this way.
• Observation/panic #1: When I took the base out of the oven, I was concerned to note that it had risen quite high on the baking sheet, leaving little room for the white chocolate top layer. Also a concern was that it felt undercooked. I was worried that the voluminous, molten mound before me wouldn't set properly and that it would be too liquid in the centre to form a distinct layer. However, I but my trust in the recipe (which I'd followed to the letter), left it to cool and was relieved to note that the centre of the base had deflated (leaving room for the next layer), held its form when lightly prodded, and, happily, appeared firm enough to paste the white chocolate layer on top without disturbing. In the end, I wondered whether this was all intentional as the sunken middle left a helpful lip around the edge of the baking sheet (as if by design).
• Fail #1: I deviated from the recipe in my method (only once!) and attempted to melt some Belgian chocolate chips in the microwave rather than making a bain marie. This backfired horribly - the chocolate seized/curdled and I had to throw it away. Such a waste! Fortunately, the night before I executed this project, I had bulk bough four 100g "milkybars" in Tesco as the had 20% off, and I knew they'd be useful for baking projects of some description.
• Observation/panic #2: When making the white chocolate layer, I feared that I had added the melted chocolate to the Philadelphia, icing sugar and egg mixture when it was still too warm causing the egg to react to the heat and form a grainy texture. I think it should have been a smooth batter. Once the cheesecake had been baked and set, this didn't seem to affect the flavour or texture though.

 

 

All in all, this is a really good recipe. I would say that the bake tastes better and better with age (to a point, obviously!) I also advise letting it stand for a good 20 minutes before eating as you taste the flavours more when it's closer to room temperature. I will definitely be making this again!

 

Bakin' with berries (cont.) and an aside

White Chocolate & Cranberry cookies:
So today is the 11th day of Christmas. I can scarcely believe how quickly the season has passed this year. Or that it's nearly time to take down all the decorations (apparently it is bad luck to have Christmas decorations up beyond 12th night...)

In attempt to squeeze as much Christmas as possible out of the remaining days of my holiday, I decided to do a final bit of festive baking this weekend. Below are a selection of the white chocolate and cranberry cookies that I made using the Hummingbird Bakery recipe that can be found in the Christmas section of the "Cake Days" iPhone app.

They taste really good (even if I do say so myself) with a squidgy, chewy consistency - just as cookies should be. You can detect just a hint of cinnamon when you taste them which, together with the cranberries, gives them they're Christmass-y flavour. I think that, if you packaged them up nicely in a kilner jar with some nice red and white gingham ribbon (or similar), these cookies would make great Christmas gifts. I'll have to bear that in mind for next year. They were very easy to throw together, so you get a lot of reward for not too much effort. That's always good in my book.

Speaking of books, I'm not wholly convinced about using baking apps. Call me old-fashioned, but I definitely prefer to follow a recipe from a book. The problem with using an iPhone/tablet is that it goes into snooze mode between each step, so you end up having to unlock the keypad every few minutes with increasingly buttery/sugary/dough-y fingers. You're also guaranteed to get your device covered in a film of flour/sugar as you weigh out your dry ingredients. Oh well. As you've gathered, I was still pleased with the final outcome, so I'll not grumble too much.

I'd learnt from last week's cranberry biscuit baking experience to always ensure that each unit of batter is as similar in shape and size to its neighbour, and to allow each unit of dough plenty of room to spread. This was useful knowledge, and I reaped the rewards (and felt quite smug) when the cookies came out as uniformly as they did. From yesterday's cookie baking, I also learnt that, if you roll the cookie dough in your hands to create a glossy, smooth ball of dough before baking, you get a better outcome than heaping an untidy mound of rough-edged batter onto your baking sheet.

11 Pipers Piping (on golden flutes):
Ok. Quite a tenuous link with my opening about it being the 11th day of Christmas, but go with it... Although this isn't a berry bake, a fairy cake or, indeed, any kind of foodie confection, I wanted to share it with you as it was a wonderful Christmas discovery for me and, if, like me you're a bit of a sweet-toothed magpie,  it might be something that you'd enjoy too. The discovery in question is Smirnoff Gold - a vodka infused with cinnamon, with 23 carat gold leaf flakes in suspension - how very Christmassy (and how very beautiful), eh?

I first glimpsed this novelty liqueur in the alcohol aisle of my local supermarket whilst buying boozy presents for family this holiday, and I was immediately intrigued and captivated. The perceived decadence of sipping an alcoholic drink containing flecks of pure gold was immediately appealing to me, so I eagerly researched cocktail recipes which feature this product. As the product is, I believe, relatively new on the market, there aren't a great deal of recipes out there yet. The "Apple Bite Gold" (a long drink containing Smirnoff Gold, apple juice and lemonade, and advertised in this rather gruesome advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p33UdhSVqs) is the most common one you'll come across. I've not yet tried this, but I can whole-heartedly recommend an alternative, called the "Golden flute" to you. I first sampled it on New Year's eve. It's as easy as pie to put together: one part Smirnoff gold to two parts sparkling apple juice (Appletiser) served chilled in a champagne flute. You must, I think, take a moment to watch the gold sparkles dance in the fizz - a mesmerising effect,  before quaffing. It's a multi-sensory experience. In terms of taste, this simple little cocktail slips down *very* easily with the cinnamon flavour slightly off-setting the potentially cloying sweetness of the apple juice. On a different note, the pretty design of the Appletiser bottle (by Eliza Doolittle, of all people) caught my eye - I'm always a sucker for pretty packaging so my new year Golden Flute really was a visual feast.

Bakin' with Berries - just call me Mary (geddit?)

Hi y'all!

Long time, no blog. I have been doing the occasional bit of baking since I last wrote, in October, but I've neglected to upload the results. Sorry about that!

So, recently, I've been baking with berries - cranberries to be specific. After all, "'tis the season", and all that. As well as the two baking projects below, I made some white chocolate Rocky Road, re-branded it as Rudolph's Rocky Runway, and gifted it to loved ones. If you want to find out more about this easy-to-make but delicious confection, see my February 2013 blog entry.

Cranberry biscuits:
Baking-wise, I have been trying a few different things recently, all of which have been a bit of a departure from the "fairy cakes" with which I first began this blog. The results have been mixed, but I'm learning lots from my experiments in the kitchen. Yesterday, I attempted to make some cranberry biscuits following a Good Housekeeping Baking Book recipe which calls for "ground rice" (an ingredient that I have never used before) along with butter, sugar, flour and cranberries. Now, biscuits are seldom as pretty as cupcakes, but mine were particularly mis-shapen! This was, in part, because I positioned some of them too close together on the baking sheet, so they spread, then merged in the oven, and had to be broken to separate. I had also been inconsistent with the width, length and height of each one so some were rather more well done than others. They taste good though, and fortunately none were actually burnt(!)

These fragile little biscuits taste nice and are especially good with a cuppa. They're quite buttery, and they melt in the mouth. The ground rice gives them quite a grainy texture, which is interesting.

I wanted to send some of these to a friend in the post, so I packaged them up in one of the snowflake cellophane bags that I've been using to present to baked goods in this season. I tried to choose biscuits that were fairly uniform in shape and size to send. Fingers cross they get there in one piece!

I'm keeping the remaining "misfits" to be shared over the new year.



Nigella's breakfast bars:
Of these breakfast bars, Nigella writes "I'm addicted to these, and so is everyone I give them to", and it's true - they are addictive. I make them quite regularly now as they are super-easy to throw together, they keep really well, and people go nuts for them (sorry, I can never resist a pun). I made them for my Year 11 class who, with the exception of the girl with a sesame seed allergy(!), loved them. Indeed one of the students requested the recipe and made a batch to take on her D of E expedition. A colleague of mine also requested the recipe. I referred both individuals to the following web-page: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/breakfast-bars-55

If I'm totally honest, when I initially tasted my first ever batch of these, I was momentarily disappointed. I think I was expecting them to taste like flapjacks, but, whilst they contain rolled oats, they don't contain any honey or syrup so they're quite a different outcome. My dad and I always joke that the legendary milk chocolate Rocky Road that I make (see my February 2013 blog entry) is, in fact, a fruit bar (as it contains a small amount of dried fruit), but these breakfast bars really are, I think, more akin to those "health bars" that you can buy than (though much nicer) than a really naughty indulgence (which is how I justify having one, sometimes two in a day). As well as porridge oats, these bars contain cranberries, mixed seeds, shredded coconut, and peanuts. Condensed milk (a favourite of Nigella's and a complete revelation to me) is used as the sweetening and binding agent. Now that I've made these half a dozen times, I'm thinking that, in future, I might experiment with creating some variations on the original recipe. I like the idea of using dried cherries and maybe some different varieties of nuts in there. These bars are a great breakfast-on-the-go and they really do keep hunger at bay until lunchtime.

Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes with two-tone orange 'n' white frosting... (AKA Unwittingly pretty peach cupcakes)

With All Souls Day looming, I thought I'd put my Libby's canned pumpkin to good use and make some spiced, autumnal cupcakes. These turned out well - really moist with a subtle chai flavour resulting from the mixture of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (yes, I made the same sponge batter a year ago in November).

In terms of decorating, I planned to use Betty Crocker's cream cheese frosting (rather than making my own) to create a two-tone orange and white piped effect (to give the desired Halloween-y feel). I mixed my own shade of "orange" by combining using a red and yellow food dye but the result was a delicate peach hue. Gorgeous but not very Halloween-y - note the contrasts in shades of orange below!

I must say, Betty Crocker's frosting isn't a patch on home-made cream-cheese frosting. It's overly-sweet, somewhat artificial tasting and rather looser in consistency than I am used to. I have another couple of tubs to get through, as they were on offer (3 for 2) which incentivised me to bulk buy, but going forward, I will definitely be making my own frosting. That said, I appreciated the ease of being able to simply spoon the product straight into the piping bag without first dispersing icing sugar all over my kitchen and living space as is customary with making one's own from scratch (it literally goes everywhere, doesn't it?!)

So... over all, even though these cakes didn't come out quite as intended, I did like the two-tone effect, and I plan to try this piping technique to create roses on top of some future cupcakes. Watch this space...

Classic Victoria Sponge

I've been baking a lot of Victoria sponges recently using a brilliant, all-in-one recipe by Fiona Cairns. It's a fuss-free, seemingly fool-proof recipe that calls for golden caster sugar plus the standard self-raising flour, eggs, soft butter, baking powder and vanilla extract, and it produces a lovely, moist, light-as-air sponge. Aesthetically, the humble sponge sandwich isn't much to look at so I've generally not bothered snapping my efforts these last few weeks, but this cake was a gift for a friend so I went to a bit more trouble and cut out the letters of her name for a stencil effect. Good job I took this photo actually - I dropped the cake tin with Vicky inside as I left the house on the morning I was due to deliver the surprise. She wasn't too badly damaged although the letters had lost a bit of their definition. The cake was, nevertheless, well-received :-)

Rocky Road to Romance

White chocolate rocky road - a new favourite!

"The course of true love never did run smooth", "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach..." - there are many proverbs which make rocky road the perfect valentine's day treat IMHO ;-) For this valentine's day, I made classic rocky road (using the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook) which has been a real hit with every man whose been lucky enough to have ne make it for him. I also made something a bit different - a variation on this classic - white chocolate rocky road made from melted white choc, cranberries, pistachio nuts, ginger nut biscuits, coconut and mini marshmallows. It tastes divine! Really quite different from the milk chocolate version, but no less delicious. I will definitely be making it again. It would make a nice Christmas gift, particularly if you packaged it up nicely in snowflake-patterned cellophane food bags. I packaged up my bite-size rocky road pieces in these cute bags with pink and red hearts on which made them look very festive. The recipients, loved ones who have been very kind to me in the last couple of months, were very grateful indeed. And check out my vintage china! I got a full set of cups, saucers, sandwich plates and a cake plate from a charity shop in the centre of Cambridge for £19.95. Bargain, eh? The delicate green colour of the crockery doesn't show up brilliantly in all my pictures - I think the flash has bleached out the subtle colours, as it so often does, but hopefully you get the idea. A belated Happy St Valentine's day to you all!

Wizard of Oz cupcakes

 

   

 

I made these cupcakes for the colleagues who were closely involved in the putting on the production of "The Wizard of Oz" with me in the school where I work. They made good little thank you pressies - people do always seem to appreciate it when you go to a bit of trouble and personalise your thanks, I find! I made the toppers myself. Very easy in fact! I found some iconic images from the film, printed them on card and cut each one into a disk shape using a brilliant little gadget from "hobbycraft". Using cellotape, I then attached the image to a cocktail stick and, to conceal the unsightly and slightly amateurish appearance of the taped stick, I attached another identically-sized image on the reverse using mini double-sided sticky pads. The cakes were quite plain - vanilla sponge with regular, buttercream frosting (tinted Oz green, of course!) A few silver dragees were added for a bit of Glinda-esque sparkle. Sorry that the quality of the photos isn't brilliant - taken on my phone.....

Velvet Snowflakes

As the holidays are here, I decided to make some festive cupcakes: red velvet with cream cheese frosting, decorated with silver ball dragees, edible pearls and home-made snowflakes (which seem to have melted!) They taste good though ;-) Happy holidays, everyone!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple frosting

I stole the idea for these cupcakes from make bakeswap buddy Susie, who has a fantastic baking blog called 'fold in the flour': http://foldintheflour.blogspot.co.uk

They taste very autumnal with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in the sponge mix (they do taste like gingerbread, don't they Susie?!) The use of pureed pumpkin in the sponge mix and maple syrup in the frosting made me think of America, as these ingredients were being used in abundance during my recent visit to New York (yes! I am a Hurricane Sandy survivor!!) With that in mind, I suppose you could call them thanksgiving cupcakes...

Pink Piped roses at the Patisserie in my Kitchen

I wanted to have another go at piping buttercream roses on top of my cupcakes and, as it is a frolleague (friend-and-colleague, geddit?)'s birthday, I thought I'd make a batch to gift to her. I also wanted to put one of these super-cute patisserie boxes to good use. I reckon that if someone gave me this as a gift, I'd be pretty chuffed :-) My piping-work still needs practice - I piped a few dudds. Guess I'll just have to eat those myself... ;-)

It's too damn hot! Magic Stars Cupcakes

I'm seeing my gang - a group of schoolfriends who've stayed close since we left college (in 1999!) - this weekend for a picnic. I said I'd bake a batch of cupcakes for the occasion and had it in my head that I'd do vanilla sponge with my new favourite icing (white chocolate buttercream) and dainty chocolate roses and chocolate bows handmade by yours truly. So... I got up today, got all my kit out and began to attempt making the bows and roses. Problem was, with it being so muggy, the icing was too warm and sticky/melty to work with with - I reckon my palms were too clammy! So instead, I decided instead to buy some chocolates to put on top of the cakes. Not quite as impressive as handmade decorations but quite tasty nonetheless (I obviously had to sample a load of the chocolates - Magic Stars - to make sure that they were ok ;-) They've got rainbow glitter on too, but it hasn't really shown up in the photo. Hope everyone enjoys them!

Green Roses 'n' Purple Butterflies

Getting a bit closer to nailing the rose piping effect now. I also thought I'd try out a mint-coloured colouring. Do you get green roses in nature? I'm not so sure... But then again, purple sparkly butterflies don't occur in nature either (to my knowledge)... 'Fraid you can't see the sparkly-ness of the butterflies from this shot. Hey ho.

Assorted Chocolate Cupcakes

I spent an enjoyable day making chocolate cupcakes today, and I plan to gift them to my sister and brother-in-law as a belated 1st wedding anniversary present/house-warming gift.

I made several different types of icing (white chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache and chocolate fondant. Of the three types of icing, the white chocolate buttercream was the easiest to work with. The ganache was initially a bit too firm to pipe effectively, then when in warmed up to room temperature it became a bit runny. Tricky to get right :-s The chocolate fondant icing came out ok although it set really quickly which meant that it wrinkled a bit when I moved the cupcake into the box which you can see in the bottom two photos.

Above: chocolate cupcakes iced with white chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache

Above: more chocolate ganache iced cupcakes and wrinkly chocolate fondant! I made the chocolate roses by hand and am really pleased with the way that they turned out :-)

Peony Cupcakes

I made these as a bit of an experiment. I wanted to try piping my rose-flavoured buttercream in the shape of a rose on top of each cake. It worked ok. I think that they do look a bit like a peonies with their tightly compacted petals. I put crystallised violet petals on top of each cake to add to the flower theme. They have a lovely delicate flavour which reminds me a bit of those parma violet sweets I used to have as a kid!