Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

So Ive had a bit of a break from baking mainly because i now have a new baby girl, Alyssa was born on the 3rd of December and ever since then Ive been just a tad bit busy!
Ive had many requests to make cakes and cupcakes lately but Ive sadly had to turn people down as i just don't have the time! hopefully as Alyssa gets older and more settled ill be able to get back into the swing of things as I'm gonna need the practice if I'm going to make cupcakes for my friends wedding next year!

So today I'm blogging about my Chocolate Rasberry Cupcake's i made in the weekend for a BBQ ,
I was real worried that they wernt going to be any good as i used standard flour rather than self raising but
they must have been ok cuz half of them were gobbled up in the first 5 minutes i was there! Few! i was worried that i had lost my cupcake mojo, turns out Ive still got it but maybe i should read the recipe better.
 
This recipe is from "Devine Cupcakes" by Tamara Jane
 
Chocolate Rasberry Cupcakes:
 
Makes 24
 
120g dark chocolate - i used milk as i don't like dark choc
250mls water
180g butter
220g caster sugar
4 free range eggs
200g self raising flour
4 tablespoons cocoa
80g ground almonds
200g fresh or frozen raspberries
 
Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake papers
combine the chocolate and water in a bowl and on a low heat melt in the microwave
cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater until just combined then add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
beat in flour, cocoa and ground almonds then the melted chocolate mixture - the recipe says to fold it in but ahh i love my mixer too much!
gently stir in raspberries
divide up mixture evenly into the cupcake papers then pop into the oven for 30 minutes
let cool before frosting
 
Chocolate Ganache:
 
400g dark chocolate - again i used milk choc instead
375mls cream
 
Melt the chocolate and cream together over a saucepan of gently simmering water or microwave on low power. stir to combine and set aside to cool. to get a thicker piping consistency i put my ganache in the fridge then beat with my electric mixer you may have to repeat this several times before you get the consistency you want
 
 
 

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!