Summer Flower Jam Cakes

I made these summery delights for my Nana'a 80th birthday in August. The decoration is quite time consuming but I really think it is worth it, and they look fab in a little vintage style cake stand!

Ingredients;

Makes 6 large cupcakes

For the cakes:

225g butter

225g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon milk

For the filling:

1 teaspoon raspberry jam per cake

For the buttercream:

280g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 drops yellow food colouring

Decorations:

Coloured silver balls

White ready-to-roll fondant icing

Icing sugar for dusting

Yellow writing icing

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 or 150 degrees centigrade

Line a large 6 hole muffin tin with decorative cases

Cream together the softened butter, sugar and vanilla extract until pale, creamy and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time with the electric beaters, then the milk until fully combined.

Sieve in the flour, making sure you get lots of air into it, and gently fold in until just combined. Make sure there are no visible lumps of flour in your mix.

Divide the mixture up into your cases. These are big cakes and need to dome up to achieve the look in the pictures, so make sure you use all of the mixture.

The cakes will take 25-35 mins to cook through, but make sure you check them about 20 mins in to make sure the ones at the back aren't burning.

Allow to cool in the tin for 15 mins then take out to completely cool on a wire rack.

While they are cooling, make the buttercream and decorative flowers;

For the flowers, roll out your fondant icing on a surface dusted with icing sugar so it does not stick. You need to roll this out to about 3mm thick. To achieve the look I created you need to cut out 3 large daisies and 4 mini daisies per cupcake, so 18 large and 24 mini in total.

Once cut out, make a small dimple in the centre of each flower with a chopstick or end of a paintbrush, being careful not to pierce the flower.

Leave to one side to harden.

In a bowl, beat together the softened butter and icing sugar, along with the yellow food colouring to create a lovely smooth, pale lemon coloured frosting.

Once your cakes have cooled it is time to fill and ice them.

Using an apple corer, gauge out the centre of each cake, about 2.5cm deep. Fill the little hole with the raspberry jam.

Use the piece of cake you just removed with the corer to plug the hole back up. You may need to break off some of the softer sponge to get it back in.

It is important to recover the hole to avoid the jam mixing with the icing while you are spreading it.

To ice your cakes, spread generously with buttercream and smooth with a palette knife or non serrated edge of a normal knife.

Place 3 large daisies on your cakes as shown in the image at the bottom of the post. Place 1 small daisy in the centre and put the remaining minis in between the larger ones. Using the yellow writing icing, squeeze a small blob into the centre of each flower, where you made the dimples earlier.

Dot your coloured silver balls in between the flowers, making sure you get a random assortment of colours per cake.

And they are finished! Perfect for an English Summer Tea Party!

Red Raspberry Graduation Cupcakes

So my little sister has her graduation today! So I though I would make her some lovely cupcakes in celebration.

This recipe is an adaption of the popular red velvet cakes. Instead of adding cocoa powder to the mix, there is a small amount of ground almonds and some raspberry jam, giving them a whole new flavour.

Obviously the 'Graduation' text is optional on these.

Ingredients:

Makes 12 med sized cupcakes

For the cakes:

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
2 med-large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g plain flour
25g ground almonds
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tbsp red food colouring

12 teaspoons seedless raspberry jam, stirred so it is slightly runny

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  For the topping:

  
  

  200g tub philadelphia cheese (I use low fat to try and limit the calorie damage)

  2 desertspoons icing sugar

  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1/4 pack of ready made white fondant icing (if doing lettering) plus icing sugar for rolling out

  Red writing icing to highlight your fondant lettering

  
  

  Preheat the oven to gas 4 or 150 degrees centigrade.

  
  

  For these cakes, I double line the muffin tins. This is to help stop the jam making the paper cases go too see-through.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Ensure that your butter is soft enough to cream well. Mix the butter and caster sugar together with electric beaters until light, creamy and fluffy.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract, then beat again. Add the 2nd egg and, again, beat well.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Next add in your food colouring. If using natural food colouring, you may need to add in an extra 1/2 tablespoon to ensure the mixture is a deep enough colour. Have a look at my photo for how vivid this colour should be. Beat this in as well. You may need to get a wooden spoon at this point and scrape any unincluded mixture into the bowl, as otherwise you will end up with uncoloured flecks in your cakes.

  
  

  

  
  

  Once you are satisfied that your mixture is the correct colour, sieve in your flour and baking powder. Add in the ground almonds and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined, making sure there are no uninvited lumps of unmixed flour hiding in there.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Spoon the mixture equally into your 12 cases. I normally put a bit in each and then top them up. Smooth down the tops without pushing all the air out.

  
  

  

  
  

  Now for the jam; put a level teaspoonfull of the jam onto the middle of each cake. Using a cocktail stick or the handle end of a teaspoon, swirl in the jam. Don't go too mad with the swirling, you want to see ripples of jam in the mixture, but bot huge blobs of it.

  At this point it is worth pointing out that your cupcakes will look quite gross. Mine look a bit like a gory accident...

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Put your cakes in the oven to bake. They will take around 25 mins in total to cook. I always check mine after about 15 mins, as my oven has a rather annoying hot-spot at the back right, meaning one cake is normally sacrificed and burnt, even if i turn them round half way through.

  
  

  Time for a tidy up. I am quite a messy cook...

  
  

  

  
  

  Now I promised I would show any problems with my cakes, so here is one I will share. I use the silicon muffin tins for my baking. Unfortunately these cakes are very very fragile when they are only half baked, due to the jam hindering the rising slightly. The silicon cases are quite floppy so while I was turning mine around in the oven in an attempt to stop the back right burning process, I knocked the cakes. See the below pictures, I think they look a little sorry for themselves in their sunken states.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  Photos above are before and after turning them around, they are very sunken in the 2nd image.

  A little advice which I am going to try next time; either put the silicon cases on a baking tray, or use solid metal tins for this recipe - the cakes are too fragile to bash around!

  
  

  The cakes are cooked when they are springy to the touch.

  
  

  Leave to cool in the cases for 20 mins (to help avoid any further sinking incidents) then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once on the wire rack, tease apart the two case layers so that the outer one stand out from the inner one. It is not necessary but makes the cakes look much nicer!

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  For the topping;

  
  

  Mix your 200g tub philadelphia with 2 desert spoons of icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Once mixed it will go a little runny, so return to the fridge for 40 mins or so while your cakes cool off. It is very important not to put the topping on the cakes until they are completely cold, the cream cheese topping will go really runny and ruin your cakes!

  
  

  

  
  

  If doing novelty lettering on you cakes, roll out your fondant icing on a surface you have dusted with icing sugar, so it doesn't stick. I use cookie cutters for my lettering, as i find it creates a neater finish than cutting them out by hand. Cut out your letters and lay them on a flat surface, dusted with icing sugar, for them to harden. Make sure they are not warped before you let them dry, you will break them if you try to bend them later.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Once cold, spoon 1 generous teaspoon or so onto the top of each cake and ease over the surface using the back of the spoon. Then carefully place your lettering on the top, being careful not to push it around to much once it is on there.

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  As these cakes have cream cheese on, it is advisable to keep them in the fridge until you need them, plus it will help to set the topping, which is a little glossy and runny.

  
  

  Outline your fondant lettering in the red writing icing. This needs a steady hand and you need to try and do each one in a continuous line, as if the icing breaks it will look messy. Practise on some paper before if you need to.

  
  

  Any they are finished! Dust with some extra icing sugar if you want to, just before you serve.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

Bitter Chocolate Cupcakes

These bad-boys are not for the feint hearted. They are a rich, dense, chocolate lover's heaven.

But they are intense.

If you like the sound of these, but think that all that dark chocolate may be a bit too much for you, simply use half dark chocolate, and half milk chocolate. You could even add a little more sugar to taste if you wish.

Just as a word of advice, you will need the sweetened mascarpone topping for these otherwise even the greatest chocolate lovers may not cope...

Ingredients:

Makes 12 med sized cupcakes

For the cakes:

100g dark eating chocolate (or 50g dark & 50g milk chocolate if you prefer a less intense experience)

160ml water

90g butter (softened)

220g brown sugar

2 large eggs

100g self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

40g ground almonds

For the Topping:

250g mascarpone cheese

2 generous tablespoons icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 desert spoon cocoa powder and 1 desert spoon icing suger combined - for dusting

Optional raspberries if you have some

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade or gas mark 3

Line 2 x 6 hole muffin tins with decorative cupcake cases

Break up 80g of your 100g of chocolate (reserve the remaining 20g for later). Put the chocolate and water in a saucepan and put over the lowest heat possible on your hob. Heat very slowly, stirring continuously, until completely smooth. Remove from the heat.

Beat the soft butter and sugar together with electric beaters until really pale and fluffy. This will obviously not go as pale as when using caster sugar, but it will turn paler than when you first start. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition, ensuring that all mixture is combined.

Add in your ground almonds and melted chocolate and mix with electric beaters until fully combined. The mixture will now be an amazingly dark chocolately heaven...

Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder. Try to get a reasonable gap between your sieve and bowl to get lots of air through the flour. Before mixing this in, finely chop up your remaining 20g of chocolate (you can grate this if is it easier) and add to the mixture. Stir your mixture until the flour and cocoa powder are just combined - don't over mix!

Divide the mixture between your 12 cupcake cases, trying to distribute as evenly as possible. Smooth the surface of the mixture with the back of a spoon, but try not to push all of the air out of them.

Place your chocolate sensations into the oven. They will take around half an hour to cook but check them after about 20-25 mins to see how they are doing. These are the kind of cakes which are actually nicer if they are only just cooked as the centres will be slightly gooey.....

Turn the tins around in the oven if the ones at the back are cooking faster than the ones at the front.

Once cooked, take the tins out of the oven and leave to cool while the cakes are still in the tins, for 20 mins. Remove the cakes from the tins and put them to cool completely on a wire rack. Your entire house will now smell better than Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

For the Topping:

To calm down these intense chocolate bad-boys, mix 250g mascarpone with 2 generous tablespoons of icing sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla essence. Beat with electric mixers until fully mixed and slightly fluffy. Use a spatula/palette knife/non-serrated edge of a knife to smooth the mixture on top of the cakes. There will be quite a lot of topping for each cake but try to use as much as possible on each one, to use it all up.

Lightly sieve over the combined cocoa powder and icing sugar as a final dusting.

A lovely addition at this point would be s few raspberries on the top of each one, but alas, I did not have any.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Chocolate 'Half and Half' Cupcakes

Ingredients List

Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

250g Self Raising Flour

250g Caster sugar

250g Butter

3 med-large Eggs

3 tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder

For the buttercream frosting:

125g Butter

250g Icing Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

A few drops of food colouring (I used a natural red colouring to achieve the salmon pink colour of mine)

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 (180 degrees centigrade)

Line 2 x 6 hole muffin tins with decorative cupcake cases

If you have one, try to use a see-through bowl so that you can check that all the ingredients are incorporated in the mixture as you go along.

If you are like me and always forget to get your butter out so it is nice and soft in preparation for you baking extravaganza, then fret no more! Place the required amount of butter in a microwave proof bowl. Put in the microwave for 10 seconds on full power. Take it out and turn the piece/pieces over and repeat again for another 10 seconds. This should then be plenty soft enough for your beaters to tackle. Don't put the butter in for a full 20 seconds in one go! You will end up with and unusable pool of gloop.

Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric whisker (life is too short for hand beating...) and beat until really light, creamy and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and 1 egg. Beat with the electric mixers again until fully combined. Add the 2nd egg and 2 tablespoons of milk, mix again until fully combined, and then finally the third egg and mix again.

Once all the eggs are in it is time to banish the electric convenience tools and embrace the bicep. Basically, whenever adding flour, do not use electric means. You will over-mix and/or knock all the lovely air out of the mixture.

Sieve your flour into the mixture. Try and get a good 30-40 cms between your sieve and bowl to get lots of air into the mixture (Do not do this if anyone is watching - they will peer scathingly at you as a fine layer of flour coats everything in your kitchen.).

Fold in the flour with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not over mix at this stage as you will undo all of your hard work. Mix until the ingredients are just combined and no flour is visible (this is a good time to check the underneath of your see-through bowl for hidden flour-ball enemies).

Split the mixture in half into 2 bowls. In one of the half-mixtures, sieve the 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder in and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of milk. Fold the mixture until the newly added ingredients are combined in the mix.

Divide the chocolate half of the mixture amongst the 12 cupcake cases (it will probably be around 1 generous teaspoon per case). If you want to have 'half and half' cupcakes, then smooth this layer down in the case with the back of the teaspoon. If you want to marble the cakes then leave un-smoothed. Add the remaining vanilla half of the mixture to the cases. If making 'half and half' cakes then smooth down again. If making marble cakes then use a cocktail stick and swirl the 2 mixtures together until a nice rippled look is achieved, then smooth the top down.

It is time for baking!

Put your cakes in the middle of your preheated oven. Try to put the cakes on the same shelf if they will fit, to avoid uneven baking. Your cakes will take roughly 20-25mins to cook but keep an eye on them. I normally turn mine around about 15 mins into cooking time to avoid the back ones getting too dark in colour.

The cakes are cooked when they are slightly golden on top, and springy to the touch. If still unsure, put a metal skewer into the centre of one of the cakes. If it comes out clean, it is cooked and cake-eating time is fast approaching.

Take the cakes out and leave them to cool in the cake tins for 15-20 mins before taking out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Do not attempt to put icing/frosting on your cakes while still warm! The result is most unappetising...

Now for the buttercream topping:

Again, you will need your butter to be soft for this so if you have forgotten to take your butter out of the fridge, repeat the steps above for rectifying this. Put half of the icing sugar and all of the butter in a bowl and mix with electric beaters until fully combined. Add the vanilla extract, food colouring and remaining icing sugar and beat again until lovely and fluffy.

Use a small spatula, palette knife or non-serated edge of a knife to smooth the buttercream onto each cake.

Feel free to add any additional decorations to prettify your cupcake beauties!

Here are my finished ones;

Recreational Activities

Some people smoke, some people go running and some people take the dog out for a walk. When I'm feeling stressed, a little bit sad or even just a little bit bored; I bake.

I don't claim to be trained in any way, I am just someone who loves to create, cook and consume!

I mainly work from basic existing recipes (largely to try and minimalise the baking disasters!), adapting and restyling to suit my needs. I also learn from my mistakes, of which there are many but I will post the failures as well as successes, as these can be the most important lessons.

I am hoping to post new recipes, ideas and photos of things I have made in the hope that people might read them and feel inspired. Feedback on any tried recipes would be greatly appreciated!