Elmo And Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Elmo And Cookie Monster Cupcakes:

So today I'm off to deliver Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes for Blake's 3rd Birthday. Raechelle, Blake's mum asked me the other week if i could make 40 cupcakes she wasn't fussed on what i made or what flavour witch is great creative freedom for me! Id been wanting to make Elmo and Cookie for a while now so whala!
I just chose a vanilla cupcake recipe as i thought id just keep in simple for the kids and i did a mixture of mini and large sized cupcakes as i know my four year old struggles to get through the larger cupcake size

To decorate I just used my regular frosting recipe ( butter icing sugar and milk) and tinted it to the colour i wanted i used a Wilton tip 234  to get the fur look the eyes are made out of fondant i use ( Bakels Pettnice you can buy this from the supermarket in the baking section) then i dotted the eyes and created the mouth using Wilton black ready to use icing that you can buy in a tube and simply just attach a coupler to the end of the tube and off ya go!

Making these guys was a bit time consuming and a little hard on the wrists but they were very fun to make and i ended up dreaming of Elmo and Cookie last night i even have that song C is for cookie playing over in my head haha!

Cupcake Brights

So tomorrow is the last day my almost four year old daughter is to finish daycare so i thought id make the staff and kids some cuppys to say thanks, i just wanted to do something simple as Ive got some birthday cupcakes to make this weekend and my parents are down for the long weekend to visit too and oh yeah and Ive only got 6 weeks to go before baby number two arrives!

So i made some Vanilla cupcakes this recipe came from "Divine Cupcakes" by Tamara Jane ( Tempt cupcakes) its quite a big recipe i got 48 mini cuppys and 12 Texas cuppys out of this batch .

Then i frosted with my usual butter icing then sprinkled with these cute rainbow choc chips that i got from Countdown the result was a big happy sweet rainbow - hope the kids like em!

Vanilla Cupcakes:

415g plain flour

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

230g unsalted butter softened

330g sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

4 eggs

1 cup of milk

preheat the oven to 180 degrees

and line muffin tins with cupcake papers

whisk the flour , baking powder and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine

in a electric mixer best the butter till creamy then add sugar gradually beating until light and fluffy

beat in the vanilla and add the eggs in beating after each addition

add the flour mixture alternately with the milk

mix until smooth

bake for about 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clear

cool cupcakes the frost

Frosting:

300g butter softened
4 1/2 cups of icing sugar
few drops of vanilla essence
5-6 tablespoons of milk

beat butter till pale and fluffy
sift in the icing sugar and start beating add in the vanilla and slowly add in the milk ass needed till you get the consistency you need
split up the icing into separate bowls and go wild with the food colour!

Carrot Cupcakes

Carrot Cake mmmmmm i had a yummy slice at EG Cafe (Mitre 10)  yesterday and the slice i had was truly massive and i thought to myself that it would have been even nicer if it was a cupcake size not too big and not too small. so today being an extremely yuck day outside i thought id do some baking i found this recipe online from Jo Seagar i love the fact that its very simple to follow and only makes twelve cakes - most of my cupcake recipe books i have are for 20+ and there is no way that myself and hubby could get through that amount on our own!

I topped the cupcake with just a simple cream cheese frosting and some carrots that i made out of fondant they came out super cute ... oh and super yum!

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting :

Makes 12x Cupcakes

125g butter melted

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs ( free range)

1& 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup sultanas

1/2 chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers

Beat the butter, sugars and eggs together then add in the other ingredients and give it a good mix

divide the mixture into the cupcake papers and bake for 18-20 minutes

let cool

Cream Cheese Frosting:

50g butter

125g cream cheese

2 cups of icing sugar

Using an electric mixer beat all the ingredients until smooth



STM Cupcakes

Once upon a time many Starry Moons ago my hubby and i were quite involved in the Import car show scene we traveled all over New Zealand showing my car and met many awesome people along the way some of those people were the lovely boys from STM (Speedtech Motorsport) these days I'm not so involved with cars as much as i used to be but i still keep in touch with the many people i had met over that time, so after a random phone call from one of the STM boys asking about my cupcakes i promised him that i would whip a batch of cakes for them
I made them my pineapple lump cupcakes and simply added blue food colouring to the frosting and topped with a little STM flag i made, they looked pretty cool , maybe not so great on the icing work as i made these as i was making dinner but still pretty cool!
hope you all went for a run or a trip to the gym that night boys mahahaha!

http://www.speedtechnz.com/

Picture 2 is of Andre (STM owner)  taking a bite of cupcake
Picture 3 is of my old show car

Cupcake Cookies

Well i thought this week id have a rest from cupcakes and make some cookies .... cupcake cookies haha!
I bought myself a cute cookie cutter the other day along with a few other things, i buy all my cake gear online from http://www.cakestuff.co.nz/ check it out as they have heaps of cool stuff
The recipe i used for the cookies and Royal icing came out of "Bake" by Alison Gofton both where real easy and fun to make these cookies would be real good to make with the kids

Basic Biscuit's:

Makes 24

125g butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon of golden syrup or honey
1 tablespoon of desiccated coconut
1 1/2 cups of flour

preheat the oven to 180 degrees
in a medium bowl beat butter, sugar, egg and golden syrup or honey together until creamy and light in colour
stir in the coconut if you are using then add sifted flour mix only until combined
roll to a 3mm thickness and cut out cookie shapes
bake for 10 - 15 Min's


Royal Icing:

1 egg white
about 2 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

place egg white in a bowl and break up with a fork until it just begins to form bubbles of foam
using a wooden spoon slowly add icing sugar and lemon stirring gently so you don't let too much air in it
continue to add icing sugar until the mixture is stiff and soft peaks form if  the icing isn't firm enough just keep adding icing sugar until you get the right consistency

* when piping icing onto your cookies do an out line first in a firm icing then water down you icing to flood in the outlines - this takes a bit of practice but you get the hang on if it pretty fast

Coconut Butter Cupcakes

Another massive recipe i got this one from "Devine Cupcakes" by Tamara Jane it makes 36 and as i have said before i don't actually like cake that much! so once i ate one then my hubby ate one we were down to 34 yikes! who am i going to donate these too today i wonder? luckily i had a hair appointment and was visiting a few friends so i managed to give away a few there ( i really am turning into a cupcake fairy)  i also chucked a few in the freezer. My poor friends I'm going to kill them all of heat disease!

this was a reasonably easy cake recipe but the white choc ganache was a bit of a mission however it did come out in the end, all you need is a bit of patience and once you have sussed the recipe out you will be all set and ready for next time

Happy Baking :)

Coconut Butter Cupcakes:

Makes 36

400g butter, softened

280g caster sugar

2 teaspoons of coconut essence

4 eggs ( free range)

450g self raising flour

100g desiccated coconut

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line three 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake papers

Beat butter,caster sugar,and coconut essence in a electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition.

Combine flour and coconut in a large bowl ( i used the biggest bowl in my kitchen!) add the butter mixture in with the milk and mix until just combined

divide the mixture among the cupcake papers and bake for 12-15 Min's

cool cupcakes

White Chocolate Ganache:

600g white chocolate ( i use Nestle melts)

250 mls cream

Melt the chocolate and cream together over a saucepan of simmering water, set aside to cool, once its cooled a bit pop it into the fridge or even the freezer just make sure you keep an eye on it, while its cooling  give it a good beat with you electric mixer if its still not at piping consistency pop it back in the fridge and cool it a bit longer and then give it a beat again keep doing this till its thick and creamy it took me a few hours to get it looking how i wanted ,I know this sounds all a bit crazy but this is how i did it!

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

Well i must admit Chocolate is what is keeping me going at the moment through this pregnancy all the things i love a just cant have! so im looking forward to a glass of wine or a cocktail with a delish antipasto platter but as for now chocolate is my friend so when i read fellow blogger Apparently Jessy's Cadbury Bubbly Cupcake recipe i had to make it!

I thought id be a bit flash too and buy some fancy cupcake papers as i happened to be in the neighbourhood of my cake shop this week however i wasn't too impressed with them they seemed to give off a plastic like smell when baking and they were quite difficult to remove from the cake when cool so from now on ill think ill just stick to my good old cupcake papers i buy from Countdown.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes:

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups of self raising powder

1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 a king size block of Cabury Bubbly - chopped fine

Place water, butter, sugar, cocoa, into a electric mixer and beat until the sugar has dissolved

Add egg, sour cream, Vanilla and flour and beat, then add in the mint chocolate and beat again

place into cupcake papers - i got 18x out of this mix

bake for 15- 20 mins on 180 degrees

Frosting:

100g butter

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar sifted

a drop of pepermint essence

a drop of green food colouring

1-2 tablespoons of milk

Beat butter till light and fluffy then add the icing sugar add the milk a tablespoon at a time till you get a thick yummy looking frosting

- i also had a go at making a frosting using the left over Cadbury Bubbly chocolate i had, i put two lines of chocolate ( i ate the third line haha) through the magic bullet and blitzed it to death then added it to the frosting recipie excluding the pepermint essence i thought it tasted quite nice and complimented the cupcakes well but it was harder to pipe and the colour wasnt as nice but still yum!

Happy baking everyone!

SPCA Cupcake Day 2010

So today was SPCA Cupcake Day and i did my bit and made 42 Cupcakes for family and friends and sold them for $2 each, a total of $84 not a huge amount but every little bit helps.

The SPCA only gets 2% of its funding from the government so they rely alot on donations, fundraising and bequests , i read somewhere that they need something like 2.5 million to keep them going each year wow!

This is the second year Ive done cupcake day and i intend to do it again i really hope they made a great amount this year and many animals will be helped and cared for with the fundraising from cupcake day

Red Velvet Cupcakes

So Ive been making red velvet cupcakes for a while now, these cakes were among the first of my cupcake baking addiction, i just love the colour and they are so bright and exciting looking i love the cream cheese frosting too mmmm cheese.

this is a recipe from Paula Deen from the food network i have slightly changed it though as the recipe had originally one and a half cups of oil which was waaaay to much and changed all the measurements so us kiwis can understand as we don't have "sticks of butter" here in NZ

this is quite a large recipe too it make 24x cupcakes and you will still have a little batter left over.

FYI - Tararua have a Buttermilk that you can find in the dairy deli area of your supermarket next to the fresh custards etc

Red Velvet Cupcakes :

2 1/2 cups of plain flour

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cocoa powder

1 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of buttermilk at room temperature

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of red food colouring

1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

preheat oven to 180 degrees and line muffin tins with cupcake papers

in a medium bowl sift flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder

in a large mixing bowl beat oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar,and vanilla then add the sifted ingredients, beat well until smooth and thoroughly combined

divide batter among the 24 cupcake cases and bake for about 15 minutes

let cool

Cream Cheese Frosting :

250g of cream cheese softened

125g of butter softened

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

500g of icing sugar

beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth

and the icing sugar slowly then increase the speed until icing is thick and at a great consistency to pipe on top of your cupcakes

Pineapple Lump Cupcakes

Ahh the humble pineapple lump an NZ icon, this recipe is very similar to my Perky Narna cupcakes they are real sweet n sticky gooey and chewy so yeah they are pretty good.
This was my first attempt at making these cuppys everything went well but i think i may have needed to not be so crazy on adding in the amount of pineapple lumps as i did as i had pineapple lump goo all over the bottom of my oven so yeah I'm not looking forward to cleaning the darn thing now, Ive cut down the measurement to 120g but just see how you go if you think you need more just chuck em in!

Pineapple Lump Cupcakes:

makes 12-13 Texas cupcakes

125g butter at room temp
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 free range eggs
1 & 1/3 cups standard flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup milk
120g (give or take) Pineapple Lumps

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

line muffin tins with cupcake papers

beat the butter, vanilla and sugar till light and fluffy
add the eggs one at a time beat well after each addition
sift in the flour and baking powder and gradually add the milk beating along the way
once you have a nice smooth mixture add in chopped up Pineapple lumps
spoon into cupcakes cases and bake for 15 Min's
let cool

Frosting:

200g room temp butter
3 cups of icing sugar
a few drops of vanilla essence
a few drops of yellow food colouring
2-4 tablespoons of milk

beat the butter till pale and fluffy
sift the icing sugar into the creamed butter add the food colouring and essence
add the milk a tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Oreo Cookies, not my most favourite biscuits out there but everyone seems to love them! i must admit though i do love cookies n cream ice cream and the frosting on these cupcakes is pretty good too!

my Husband loves them and was quick to pick this flavour when i said i would bake some cupcakes for his staff meeting, hope the boys like em!

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes:

makes 12 Texas cupcakes

125g Butter softened

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

3/4 of caster sugar

2 free range eggs

1& 1/2 cups of standard flour

1& 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 a cup of milk

1/2 a packet of Oreo cookies crushed

preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers

Beat the butter, vanilla essence and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time beat well , sift flour and baking powder into the creamed mixture and then slowly add the milk, once combined add your crushed Oreo Cookies and give it another mix

spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake papers

then pop into the oven for about 12 - 15 minutes

let cool

Oreo Cookie Frosting:

200g of room temp butter

3 cups of icing sugar

about 2 - 4 tablespoons of milk

1/2 a packet of Oreo Cookies blitzed to death - i used my magic bullet to reduce the cookies down to a very fine dust - you will need the cookies as fine as possible so it will fit through your piping bag

beat the butter till pale and fluffy

sift in the icing sugar then add Oreo cookie dust, start to beat slowly add milk a tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency

pipe on to your cupcake then decorate i used a whole Oreo cookie pressed into the icing to decorate

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Saturday afternoon and nothing to do hmmm....... i know ill bake some cupcakes! tonight we have some friends coming over for pizza night and they are both mad keen on my cupcakes. I know that coconut is a bit of a fave with them and i also have a heap of lemons that my mother in law had given to me fresh from the tree the other day, so Lemon Meringue it is. I must admit Lemon Meringue pie is one of my most favourite deserts my mother in law Myra can make a mean lemon meringue pie she always seems to get the meringue so high and fluffy i myself haven't made a heck of alot of meringue in my time and the thought of making it is kinda scary however i managed to conker my fear and these cupcakes managed to come out problem free and tasted great.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes:

First start by making your lemon curd - or you could cheat and just buy some from the store

4 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind
1/4 cup of lemon juice
40g of butter

combine all ingredients into a small heatproof bowl
then place bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water and constantly stir until butter has melted and you have a smooth consistency kinda like a gravy
remove from heat then cover tightly, refrigerate curd until cold

preheat oven to 180 degrees

Coconut Lemon Curd Cake

125 g butter softened
2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind
2/3 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 1/4 cups self raising flour

Beat butter, rind, sugar and eggs in electric mixer till light and fluffy
beat in milk and coconut then sift in the flour
divide into cupcake cases ( i got 11 out of this mixture )
bake for 15 minutes
let cool on wire rack
turn up the oven to 200 degrees ready for the meringue
cut a 2cm deep hole into the centre of each cupcake then fill with the lemon curd
discard the cake tops - or eat them
make the coconut meringue

Coconut meringue

4 egg whites
1 cup of caster sugar
1 1/3 cups of shredded coconut chopped finely ( i just used desiccated coconut and it came out alright )

beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form
gradually add sugar, beating until sugar dissolves
fold in coconut

spoon into a piping bag with 1cm plain tube
pipe meringue on the top of each cupcake
place cupcakes on oven tray and place in oven for 5 minutes or so just until meringue has browned slightly

Caramel Mud Cupcakes

So its been a while since I've blogged. I've been baking but just not as much lately, as I'm 23 weeks pregnant and my energy and motivation levels aren't that high hopefully this is just a passing phase and ill be back into the swing of things once baby is baked ;)

Caramel Mud Cupcakes

Makes 24+

185g butter chopped
150g white chocolate chopped ( i use nestle white choc melts)
220g dark brown sugar
80ml golden syrup
1 cup milk
150g standard flour
2 eggs - free range

preheat oven to 180 degrees line muffin tins with large cupcake papers

Combine butter, chocolate,sugar,golden syrup and milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat without boiling, until smooth . transfer mixture to a large bowl and let cool for 15 minutes

Mix in the sifted flours, then eggs. do not over mix once the eggs are added

divide mixture evenly between cupcake cases bake for about 20 minutes - make sure you keep an eye on your cuppys while cooking its real easy to over cook these lil fellas

cool cupcakes then frost


Caramel Mud Frosting:

100g butter
125g brown sugar
75g golden syrup
1/2 a cup cream
1kg icing sugar

Combine butter, sugar, golden syrup and cream into a saucepan stir over a medium heat with a wooden spoon until sugar has dissolved then turn up the heat and boil for five minutes at least then cool to room temperature

when it comes to adding the icing sugar measure out you kg of icing sugar and just keep gradually adding it to the caramel until its light and fluffy ( you may not need the whole kg) add a little cream if it becomes too thick

Strawberry Swirl Butter Cake

This is another simple yummy butter cake that the kids will love, its also a smaller mixture so its the perfect size for a treat at home, i got eight Texas sized cupcakes out of this batch.

Strawberry Swirl Butter cake:

90g Butter softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of jam - warm it in the microwave it will be easier to swirl around

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases - i got eight Texas sized cupcakes with this batch

beat butter till light and fluffy

add sugar, eggs, flour and milk, beat until the mixture is paler in colour

divide mixture among cupcake cases and smooth the tops then divide the jam over the tops of the cakes and swirl around with a skewer

bake cakes for 15 Min's

Butter Cream Frosting :

100g Butter @ room temp
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons of milk
A drop of strawberry essence
A drop of red food colouring

Beat the butter till pale and fluffy

Sift the icing sugar into the creamed butter then add the strawberry essence
add sufficient milk till you get a nice fluffy consistency
when your happy with your icing drop in a spot of red food colouring then gently stir in till you get a pink and white swirl effect

No Bake Bubble Cakes

I was having some people over for dinner the other night and i just couldn't be bothered going hard out after the bad day i was having so we just had a easy BBQ and i made these simple Bubble cakes for a sweet treat after, they were yum and stress free!

No Bake Bubble Cakes:

5x Mars Bars (53g size)

50g Butter

3 1/2 cups of rice bubbles

200g Milk choc melts ( i used dark choc melts as thats all i had in the cupboard, milk choc would be nicer)

Line a 12x hole muffin tin with Texas cupcake paper cases

chop 4x Mars bars coarsely then pop into a medium saucepan with the butter, stir over a low heat until smooth

add rice bubbles to mars bar mixture and stir in

press mixture into cupcake cases

melt chocolate then spread on top of the cakes

slice the left over mars bar into 12 slices and pop on top of the cakes

pop in the fridge for 30 Min's to set

Coca Cola Cupcakes

Coca Cola Cupcakes:

This was a fun recipe to make but OMG! this recipe is MASSIVE! 24 Texas muffin tin sized cupcakes so if you have a heap of people coming over or have an extra hungry husband this is the recipe for you. As most of you know i don't actually like cake that much, i just like to make cupcakes for fun as they are just so cute and i love to give them away however I'm gonna have to get creative as to how I'm gonna get rid of this batch of cakes as there is just a few too many for my husband to take to the office!

Husband verdict: "nice, good takes like coke"


2 cups of sugar
2 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 cups of marshmallows ( i use the ones you get in the baking section)
125g Butter
1/2 cup of vege oil
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup of Coca Cola
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

preheat oven to 180 degrees and line your muffin tins with 24x patty cases (this is a large recipe)
In an electric mixer bowl sift sugar and flour then add the marshmallows
In a saucepan mix butter, oil , cocoa and Coca Cola bring to the boil then pour over dry ingredients mix well
Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk just before adding to the mixture along with eggs and vanilla
mix well
place batter in cupcake cases then pop in the oven - they should take about 15Min's or so to cook


Coca Cola Butter cream Frosting:

250g butter
500g icing sugar
4 tablespoons of coke

Beat butter till light and fluffy
add in icing sugar, beat some more
then slowly add the coke and give it another good beat

pipe to your hearts content - caution this is a yummy frosting
As you can see in the picture my frosting has a bit of pink in it - i was just having a bit of a play, i striped some food colouring down the inside of my piping bag ... it kinda worked ;)

Rocky Road Cupcakes

When i came across this recipe i thought back to when i was kid and we would always stop at this fruit and vege shop in Pukekohe on our way home from Auckland and buy rocky road funny how you always remember the little things as a kid :)

This Recipe came out the book 'Cupcakes" by the Aussie woman's weekly the cupcake was quite yummy however getting the topping ( the best part) to stick to the cake was a bit of a mish, i think if i made these cakes again i would have heaps more chocolate on standby to help it stick

Marble Cake:



125g butter at room temp

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

2/3 cup of caster sugar

2 eggs - free range ( happy chickens lay happy eggs)

1 1/4 cups self raising flour

1/3 cup milk

pink food colouring

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 teaspoons milk , extra



Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Line a 12x hole muffin tin with Texas cupcake cases

Beat butter, vanilla essence, sugar and eggs with an electric mixer till light and fluffy

stir in sifted flour and milk in two batches

divide mixture into into three bowls

tint the first mixture pink

blend sifted cocoa with the extra milk in a cup then stir into the second mixture

leave the third mixture plain

drop alternate spoonfuls of mixtures into cupcake cases pull a skewer back and forward to create a marbled effect, smooth top

bake for about 15 Min's


Rocky road topping:

1/2 cup unsalted peanuts

1 cup red glace cherries halved

1 cup of marshmallows chopped coarsely

1/2 cup toasted coconut

200g chocolate melts melted

- decoration
50g choc melts melted

combine ingredients for rocky road all together then place on top of the cakes then drizzle with chocolate

As i said i had a bit of trouble getting my mixture to stay on so make sure you have plenty of chocolate on hand as you may need more than what the recipie has stated

happy baking

Malibu White Chocolate Cupcakes

I love Malibu and I love white chocolate together mmmmmm yummy!

My official cupcakes tester (one of many) Leigh, likes these cupcakes the most!
I love them too, however I'm not so enthusiastic about the frosting don't get me wrong it matches the cake perfectly and it tastes great however it doesn't have the wow look, i think food should look just as amazing as it tastes so I'm still working on a butter cream that would compliment the cake perfectly ill let you know when I've found a frosting that will work

White chocolate mud cake:

125g butter chopped coarsely

80g eating chocolate - i use cadbury dream as its usually on special

1 cup of caster sugar

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup standard flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1 tablespoon of Malibu

1 egg ( use free range happy chickens lay happy eggs)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees line a 12 hole texas muffin tin

combine butter, chocolate,sugar and milk into a saucepan stir over a low heat until smooth then transfer the mixture over to another bowl and let cool for about 15Min's

beat in the sifted flours, Malibu and egg

divide into patty cases - i usually get 12 cupcakes out of this mixture, its kinda good not to let them rise up too high as you need a bit of space for the ganache to settle in

pop your wee baby's in the oven and cook them for about 15Min's - keep watch they do brown very easily while they are cooking you can get started on you white choc ganache

White chocolate Malibu ganache:

1/4 cup of cream

185g white eating chocolate chopped coarsely

1 tablespoon of Malibu

bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan then pour over the chocolate and Malibu in a electric mixer bowl , mix until smooth then pop in the fridge for 30 Min's

Happy baking :)

Sweet Jams

I love the Edmond's cookbook, just about everything i make out of that book comes out awesome and to be honest when i know of a recipe that works i usually stick to it .

I use it quite often as a base cake for example my Perky Narna cupcakes . this time Ive used jam and simply piped it into the cupcake, it would be great for the kids just a plain and simple treat.

125g butter softened

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 eggs FREE RANGE - happy chickens lay happy eggs!

1 cup of plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 cup of milk

cream the butter, vanilla and sugar till light and fluffy. add your free range eggs one at a time beating them well into the mixture, sift in the flour and baking powder together and fold into the mixture, stir in the milk then give it a good beat with your electric mixer - i LOVE my electric mixer its only a wee thing but it does the trick! spoon into 12 large cupcake cases in a Texas muffin tin , bake for 15 Min's

once the cupcakes have cooled grab your trusty piping bag and use that long weird piping tip that you never seem to use and fill with you favourite jam i use good ol Craig's jam, push the tip slowly into the middle of you cupcake till you get about halfway in the cake and squeeze as you pull the tip out.

i used fondant to decorate, i simply added pink food colouring to my fondant then cut out 12x circles then 12x hearts in a red fondant to get your hearts to stick i just used a bit of water but you could use a little butter icing if you want

Welcome to my new blog :)

Hi Everyone

This is my very first blog ... yay go me!

as you know i love to bake and at the moment cupcakes are just my most favourite thing to bake. Its quite funny cuz i don't actually like eating cake so i end up giving all away to family and friends ha ha.

So my whole reason for starting a blog is i thought it would be cool for you to all see what I'm baking then have a go at it yourself, alot of my friends are always asking for recipes so i thought what the hell lets stick em up where everyone can see them!



so here goes ....



I love to make weird and wacky cupcakes so when i came across this recipe i had to give it a go!



Perky Nana Cupcakes



125g butter at room temp

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 eggs - i use free range happy chickens lay happy eggs!

1 cup of standard flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 a cup of milk

3x Perky Nana bars (the bigger ones)


cream butter vanilla in sugar till its light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time and beat well, sift the flour and baking powder into the wet mixture and fold it in , put in the milk and give it a good mix, chop up 2 & half Perky Nana bars and put them in the mix eat the left over Perky Nana yum! pop into 12 cupcake cases (big ones) i use a Texas muffin tin for my cupcakes. make sure you get some candy in all of the cases - we wouldn't want anyone to miss out wouldn't we!
pop in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 Min's watch them closely they brown over quite easily


Banana Butter Cream Frosting


I actually made this icing in two parts as i didnt quite have enough to decorate my cakes so ive just doubled the recipe for you to follow hopefully it will work out

200 grams of butter at room temp
3 cups of icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of banana essence
1 teaspoon of yellow food colouring

beat the butter until its pale and fluffy sift in the icing sugar then give it a bit of a mix then add in your essence and food colouring and just enough milk to get the right consistency

I then piped the icing onto my cupcakes and sprikled with choc hail